{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_20450/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_20450","id":"gutenberg_20450","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/20450","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Biographies","Category: History - Religious","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Christian patron saints -- Biography","Christian saints -- Biography"],"text":"Produced by Geoff Horton\n\n\n\n\n{000}\n{Transcriber's notes:\n\n1) Page numbers in the main text have been retained in {braces}. Page\nbreaks within long footnotes are not marked.\n\n2) The original of this work is printed very badly. In most cases, the\noriginal text is obvious and has been restored without any special\nnotations in the transcription. In those cases where it was not possible\nto determine the original text with much certainty (usually numbers and\nrare proper nouns which cannot be deduced from context) a pair of braces\n{} indicates where the illegible text was. Sometimes the braces contains\ntext {like this}, indicating a possible but not certain reconstruction.\n\n3) The original had both numbered footnotes, used for references, and\nfootnotes with symbols, used for extended comments. This transcription\ndoes not preserve that distinction; all the notes have been numbered or\nrenumbered as needed.\n\n4) In a few cases, footnotes appear on the bottom of the page that do\nnot appear in the text (presumably because of the poor printing noted\nabove). In this case, the footnote is marked in the text at a likely\nlocation, and the footnote begins {Footnote not in text} to indicate\nthat this was done.}\n\n{006}\nARCHBISHOP'S HOUSE,\n452 MADISON AVENUE.\nImprimatur\n{Michael Augustinus\nArcheispo Neo}\nJune 28th, 1895.\n\nADVERTISEMENT.\n\nNOTWITHSTANDING that several editions of Butler's Lives of the Saints\nhave been issued from the American press, and circulated extensively\nthroughout the United States, yet the publishers of the present one are\nled to believe that there are vast numbers of persons still unsupplied,\nand desirous of possessing a work so replete with instruction and\nedification for Christian families. This edition is reprinted from the\nbest London edition, without the omission of a single line or citation\nfrom the original. To render the work as complete as possible, we have\nadded the Lives of St. Alphonsus Liguori, and other Saints canonized\nsince the death of the venerable author, and not included in any former\nedition. This edition also contains the complete notes of the author,\nwhich have been shamefully omitted in an edition published by a\nProtestant firm of this city.\n\nThe present edition is illustrated with fine steel engravings of many of\nthe Saints, and when bound will form four very handsome volumes, uniform\nwith the Life of Christ, and the Life of the Blessed Virgin.\n\nTHE PUBLISHER\n\nNEW YORK, _Sept._, 1895.\n\n\n{007}\n\nPREFACE\n\n\"THE LIVES OF THE SAINTS\" is republished. This work--this inestimable\nwork, is at length given to the public. Hitherto the circulation of it\nwas confined to those who could afford to purchase it in TWELVE volumes,\nand at a proportionate price. It is now stereotyped, printed in good\ncharacter, on fine paper, and published at a price not only below its\nvalue, but below the hopes of the publisher. It is therefore now, and\nfor the first time, that \"THE LIVES OF THE SAINTS\" are, properly\nspeaking, given to the public.\n\nAnd what is the nature and character of this work, which is thus placed\nwithin the reach of almost every family in Ireland? We presume to say,\nthat \"The Lives of the Saints\" is an historical supplement to the Old\nand New Testaments; an illustration of all that God has revealed, and of\nall the sanctity which his divine grace has produced among the children\nof men. It is a history, not so much of men, as of all ages and nations;\nof their manners, customs, laws, usages, and creeds. It is a succinct,\nbut most accurate and satisfactory account of all that the Church of God\nhas done or suffered in this world from the creation to almost our own\ndays: an account not extracted from authentic records only, but one\nwhich exhibits at every page the living examples, the speaking proofs,\nof whatever it sets forth or asserts. As drawings taken by an artist,\nand afterwards carved on plates of steel or copper, present to us views\nof a country, or of the productions of the earth and sea, so \"The Lives\nof the Saints\" exhibit to the reader images the most perfect of whatever\nthe human race, in times past, has yielded to God in return for his\ncountless mercies.\n\nBut \"The Lives of the Saints\" are not confined to history, though they\nembrace whatever is most valuable in history, whether sacred,\necclesiastical, or profane. No! This work extends farther; it presents\nto the reader a mass of general information, digested and arranged with\nan ability and a candor never surpassed. Here, no art, no science, is\nleft unnoticed. Chronology, criticism, eloquence, painting, sculpture,\narchitecture--in a word, whatever has occupied or distinguished man in\n{008} times of barbarism or of civilization; in peace or in war; in the\ncountries which surround us, or in those which are far remote; in these\nlater ages, or in times over which centuries upon centuries have\nrevolved; all, all of these are treated of, not flippantly nor\nostentatiously, but with a sobriety and solidity peculiar to the writer\nof this work.\n\nBut there is one quality which may be said to characterize \"The Lives of\nthe Saints.\" It is this: that here the doctrines of the Catholic Church\nare presented to us passing through the ordeal of time unchanged and\nunchangeable, while her discipline is seen to vary from age to age; like\nas a city fixed and immoveable, but whose walls, ramparts, and outworks,\nundergo, from one period to another, the necessary changes, alterations,\nor repairs. Here are pointed out the persecutions which the Saints\nendured,--persecutions which patience overcame, which the power of God\nsubdued. Here are traced the causes of dissension in the Church; the\nschisms and heresies which arose; the errors which the pride and\npassions of bad men gave birth to; the obstinacy of the wicked,--the\nseduction of the innocent,--the labors and sufferings of the just; the\nconflicts which took place between light and darkness,--between truth\nand error; the triumph, at one time of the city of God, at another, the\ntemporary exaltation of the empire of Satan. In this work, we see the\ngreat and powerful leaders of God's people, the pastors and doctors of\nthe Church, displaying lights gives them from heaven, and exercising a\ncourage all-divine; while crowds of the elect are presented to us in\nevery age retiring from the world, hiding their lives with Christ in\nGod, and deserving, by their innocence and sanctity, to be received into\nheaven until Christ, who was their life, will again appear, when they\nalso will appear along with him in glory. Here we behold the Apostles,\nand their successors in the several ages, calling out to the nations who\nsat in darkness and in the shadow of death, \"Arise, thou who sleep eat,\nand Christ will enlighten thee!\"--men of God, and gifted with his power,\nwho, by preaching peace, enduring wrongs, and pardoning injuries,\nsubdued the power of tyrants, stopped the mouths of lions, upturned\npaganism, demolished idols, planted everywhere the standard of the\ncross, and left to us the whole world illuminated by the rays of divine\ntruth. Here is seen the meek martyr who possessed his soul in\npatience,--who, having suffered the two of goods, the loss of kindred,\nthe lose of fame, bowed down his head beneath the axe, and sealed, by\nthe plentiful effusion of his blood, the testimony which he bore to\nvirtue and to truth. Here the youthful virgin, robed in innocence and\nsanctity, clothed with the visible protection of God, is seen at one\ntime to yield up her frame, unfit, as yet, for torments, to the power of\nthe executioner; while her spirit, ascending {009} like the smoke of\nincense, passed from earth to heaven. At another time we behold her\nconducted, as it were, into the wilderness by the Spirit; where, having\nleft the house of her father, the allurements of the world, and the\nendearments of life, she dedicates her whole being to the service of\nGod, and to the contemplation of those invisible goods which he has\nreserved for those who love him.\n\nIn \"The Lives of the Saints\" we behold the prince and the peasant, the\nwarrior and the sage, the rich and the poor, the old and the young, the\npeasant and the mechanic, the shepherd and the statesman, the wife and\nthe widow, the prelate, the priest, and the recluse,--men and women of\nevery class, and age, and degree, and condition, and country, sanctified\nby the grace of God, exhibiting to the faithful reader models for his\nimitation, and saying to him, in a voice which he cannot fail to\nunderstand, \"Go thou and do likewise.\"\n\nIt is on this account we have ventured to designate \"The Lives of the\nSaints\" an historical supplement to the Old and New Testaments. We think\nthis work deserves to be so considered, on account of the close\nresemblance it bears to the historical portions of holy writ. Let the\ndivine economy, in this respect, be for a moment the subject of the\nreader's consideration.\n\nWhen God was pleased to instruct men unto righteousness, he did so, as\nthe whole series of revelation proves, by raising up from among the\nfallen children of Adam men and women of superior virtue,--men and women\nwhose lives, like shining lights, could direct in the ways of peace and\njustice the footsteps of those who looked towards them. He did more: he\ncaused the lives of those his servants whom he sanctified and almost\nglorified in this world, to be recorded by their followers; and his own\nSpirit did not disdain to inspire the men who executed a work so\nsalutary to mankind. From Adam to Noe, from Noe to Abraham, from Abraham\nto the days of Christ, what period is not marked by the life of some\neminent saint; and what portion of the Old Testament has always been and\nstill is most interesting to true believers? Is it not that which\ninstructs us as to the life and manners of those patriarchs, prophets,\nand other holy persons of whom we ourselves are, according to the\npromise, the seed and the descendants? The innocence of Abel, the cruel\ndeed of Cain, the piety of Seth, the fidelity and industry of Noe,\nfurnish to us the finest moral instruction derived from the primeval\ntimes. The life of Abraham is perhaps the most precious record in the\nOld Testament! Who even now can read it, and not repose with more\ndevotion on the providence of God? Who can contrast his life and conduct\nwith that of all the sages of paganism, and not confess there is a God;\nyea! a God who not only upholds this {010} world, and fills every\ncreature in it with his benediction, but who also conducts by a special\nprovidence all those who put their trust in him,--a God who teaches his\nelect, by the unction of his Spirit, truths inaccessible to the wise of\nthis world; and who makes them, by his grace, to practise a degree of\nvirtue to which human nature unassisted is totally unable to attain? The\nGod of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, is exceedingly glorified by the\nvirtues of those great men; and that glory is exalted, and we are led to\nadore it, because the lives of those men have been written for our\ninstruction. Is not Moses the keystone, as it were, of the Jewish\ncovenant? Are they not his trials, his meekness, his attachment to God\nand to God's people, his incessant toils, and patience, and\nlong-suffering, even more than the miracles wrought by his\ninterposition, which render the law published by him, and the ministry\nestablished by him, worthy of all acceptation in our eyes? Who can\ncontemplate the rejection of Saul, and the election of David,--the\nwisdom of Solomon in early life, and his utter abandonment in his latter\ndays,--and not be stricken with a salutary dread of the inscrutable\njudgments of a just God? Who can read the life of Judith, and not\nwonder?--of Susanna, and not love chastity and confide in God? Who has\nread the prophecies of Isaiah, and not believed the gospel which he\nforetold? And what example of a suffering Saviour so full, so perfect,\nand expressive, as that exhibited in the life of Jeremiah? If thus,\nthen, from the beginning to the day of Christ, the Spirit of God\ninstructed mankind in truth and virtue, by writing for their instruction\n\"the Lives of the Saints,\" what can better agree with the ways of that\nGod, than to continue the record--to prolong the narrative? If this mode\nof instruction has been adopted by the master, should it not be\ncontinued by the servant?--if employed when the people of God were only\none family, should it not be resorted to when all nations were enrolled\nwith that people? if this mode of instruction was found useful when the\nknowledge of the Lord was confined to one province, should it not be\npreserved when that knowledge covered the whole earth even as the waters\ncover the sea? And is it not therefore with justice we have said that\n\"The Lives of the Saints\" might not improperly be designated \"an\nhistorical supplement to the Old and New Testaments?\"\n\nAnd in good truth, who can peruse the life of Peter, and not be animated\nwith a more lively faith? Who can read of the conversion of Paul, of his\nzeal and labor, and unbounded love,--who can enter with him into the\ndepths of those mysterious truths which he has revealed, and contemplate\nalong with him the riches of the glory of the grace of God, and not\nesteem this world as dung; or experience some throes of those heavenly\ndesires, which urged him so pathetically to exclaim, \"I {011} wish to be\ndissolved, and to be with Christ?\" Who can read the life of the\nevangelist John, and not feel the impulse of that subdued spirit, of\nthat meek and humble charity, which so eminently distinguished him as\nthe \"beloved disciple of the Lord?\" And if we advance through the\nseveral ages that have elapsed since our Saviour ascended into heaven,\nwe shall find each and all of them instructing us by examples of the\nmost heroic virtue. The age of the martyrs ended, only to make room for\nthat of the doctors and ascetics; so that each succeeding generation of\nthe children of God presents to us the active and contemplative life\nequally fruitful in works of sanctification. An Athanasius, a Jerom, a\nChrysostom, or an Augustin, are scarcely more precious as models in the\nhouse of God, than an Anthony, a Benedict, an Arseneus, or a Paul. Nor\nhas the Almighty limited his gifts, or confined the mode of instruction\nto those primitive times when the blood of the Mediator was as yet warm\nupon the earth, and the believers in him filled more abundantly with the\nfirst-fruits of the Spirit. No; he has extended his grace to every age!\nOnly take up the history of those holy persons, men and women, whose\nlives shed a lustre upon the Church within these last few centuries, and\nyou will acknowledge that the arm of the Lord is not shortened, and, to\nuse the words of the Psalmist, that \"_Sanctity becometh the house of the\nLord unto length of days,_\" or to the end of time.\n\nAs therefore it hath pleased God to raise up for our help and\nedification so many and so perfect models of Christian perfection, and\ndisposed by his all wise providence that their lives should have been\nwritten for our instruction, we should not be faithful co-operators with\nthe grace given to us, if we did not use our best efforts to learn and\nto imitate what our Father in heaven has designed for our use.\n\nBut \"The Lives of the Saints\" are a history, not so much of men, as of\nall ages and nations,--of their manners, customs, laws, usages, and\ncreeds. And in this licentious age, an age of corrupted literature, when\nthat worldly wisdom or vain philosophy which God has declared to be\nfolly, is again revived; in this age, when history has failed to\nrepresent the truth, and is only written for base lucre's sake, or to\nserve a sect or party, what can be so desirable to a Christian\ncommunity, as to have placed in their hands a sincere and dispassionate\naccount of the nations which surround us, and of the laws and manners\nand usages, whether civil or religious, which have passed, or are\npassing into the abyss of time? If the wisdom of God warns us \"to train\nup youth in the way in which they should walk,\" and promises that \"even\nwhen old they will not depart from it,\" there is no duty more sacred, or\nmore imperative or parents and pastors, than to remove from their reach\nsuch {012} books as are irreligious, immoral, or untrue, and to place in\ntheir hands such works only as may serve to train their minds and\naffections to the knowledge of truth and to the love of virtue.\n\nHistory is, of its nature, pleasing and instructive; it leaves after it\nthe most lasting impressions; and when youth, as at present, is almost\nuniversally taught to read, and works of fiction or lying histories\nplaced constantly in their way, is it not obvious that every parent and\nevery pastor should be careful not only to exclude from their flocks and\nfamilies such impious productions, but also to provide the youth\ncommitted to their care with works of an opposite description? But we\nmake bold to say, that in no work now extant can there be found\ncondensed so vast a quantity of historical information as is contained\nin \"THE LIVES OF THE SAINTS:\" nor is it the store of knowledge here\namassed which renders the work, as a history, of so much value; but it\nis the judicious arrangement, the undoubted candor, the dispassionate\njudgment of men, manners, and things, which the venerable historian\neverywhere displays.\n\nHe has been able to trace events to their true causes; to point out the\ninfluence of religion upon human policy, and of that policy on the\nChurch of God; to exhibit the rise and fall of states and empires,--the\nadvancement or declension of knowledge,--the state of barbarism or\ncivilization which prevailed in the several countries of the world,--the\nlaws, the manners, the institutions, which arose, were changed,\nimproved, or deteriorated, in the kingdoms and empires which brought\nforth the elect of God in every age: but in his narration there is\nalways found to prevail a spirit, wanted in almost every history written\nin our times--a spirit which assigns to the power and providence of God\nthe first place in the conduct of human events, and which makes manifest\nto the unbiased reader the great and fundamental truth of the Christian\nReligion, that \"all things work together to the good of those who,\naccording to the purpose or design of God, are called to be Saints.\"\n\nThe great characteristic, however, of this work, and that which,\nperhaps, in these times and in this country, constitutes its chief\nexcellence, is, that it exhibits to the reader the doctrine and\ndiscipline of the Catholic Church,--the former always the same,\n\"yesterday, to-day, and forever\"--the latter receiving impressions from\nabroad, and moulding itself to the places, times, and circumstances, in\nwhich the Church herself was placed. In other works may be found\narguments and proofs in support of the dogmas of faith and the doctrines\nof the Catholic Church, set forth in due order and becoming force; but\nsuch works are of a controversial nature, and not always suited to the\ntaste or capacity of every class of readers: not so \"The Lives of the\nSaints.\" This work presents to us the religion of Christ as it was first\nplanted, as it grew {013} up, and flourished, and covered with its shade\nall tribes, and tongues, and peoples, and nations. The trunk of this\nmighty tree is placed before our eyes, standing in the midst of time,\nwith ages and empires revolving about it, its roots binding and\nembracing the earth, its top touching the heavens, its branches strong\nand healthful--bearing foliage and fruits in abundance. But to drop this\nallegory. \"The Lives of the Saints\" demonstrate the doctrines of the\nChurch, by laying before us the history of the most precious portion of\nher children: of her martyrs, her doctors, her bishops; of holy and\ndevout persons of all ranks and conditions; of what they believed, and\ntaught, and practised, in each and every age: so that if no Gospel had\nbeen written, or liturgy preserved, or decree recorded, we should find\nin \"The Lives of the Saints\" sufficient proofs of what has always, and\nin every place, and by all true believers, been held and practised to\nthe Church of God.\n\nIn this work there is no cavilling about texts, no disputes about\njurisdiction, no sophisms to delude, no imputations to irritate, no\ncontradictions to confound the reader; but in place of all these there\nis found in it a simple detail of the truths professed, and of the\nvirtues practised by men and women, who were not only the hearers of the\nlaw but the doers thereof. Whosoever seeks for wisdom as men seek for\ngold, will find it in the perusal of \"The Lives of the Saints:\" for here\nnot theory or speculation, but living examples, make truth manifest, and\nexhibit at once and together all the marks of the Church of God in the\nlife and conduct of her children. These children will all be found to\nhave denied themselves, to have taken up the cross, to have followed\nChrist, and to have convinced the world by their sanctity that they were\nthe children of God--that they were perfect even as their heavenly\nFather was perfect. These children of the Church will be found a\nCatholic or universal people, collected from all ages and nations,\noffering the same sacrifice, administering or receiving the same\nsacraments, and yielding to the same authority a reasonable obedience.\nFinally, there will be found included in this great family the Apostles\nand their disciples, and the descendants of those disciples,--faithful\nmen keeping the deposit of the faith, or transmitting it to others\nthrough all the vicissitudes to which this world is a prey, even to that\nhour when the dead will arise and come to judgment. Thus it is that \"The\nLives of the Saints\" put to silence the gainsayers, and convince, not by\nargument, but by historical and incontrovertible details of facts and of\nthe lives of men, that the Church of God is _one_, that she is _holy_,\nthat she, though universal, is not divided, that she is built upon the\nApostles, as upon an immoveable {014} foundation, Jesus Christ himself\nbeing the chief corner-stone. This work strips schism of her mask, and\nstops the mouth of heresy. It points out, with an evidence not to be\nimpeached, the day of separation,--when schism commenced, and the hour\nof revolt and rebellion, when the heretic said, like Lucifer, in the\npride of his heart, \"I WILL NOT SERVE.\" If ever there was a work which\nrendered almost visible and tangible to the sight and touch of men that\npromise of the Redeemer to his Church, \"_And the gates of hell shall not\nprevail against her,_\" surely this work is \"THE LIVES OF THE SAINTS.\"\n\nWho, therefore, is a Catholic, and would not possess such a treasure?\nHow great is the benefit derived to the public from the low price and\nconvenient form in which this work is given to them! If infidelity, and\nimmorality, and heresy have opened wide their mouths, and are everywhere\ndevouring their victims, is it not a blessing from God that the children\nof the Church should be preserved from them, and fed with the wholesome\nfood of pious reading? If the spirit of error or of that worldly wisdom\nwhich is folly with God, has filled our shops and streets with\ncirculating poison in the shape of books, is not the Spirit of truth,\nand of Him who has overcome the world, to have also such means of\ninstruction as may save and strengthen those whom God, by his grace, has\ntranslated into the kingdom of his beloved Son? Accept, therefore gentle\nreader, of \"The Lives of the Saints;\" Which, for their own worth's sake,\nand for your good, we have endeavored to recommend. And with it permit\nus also to recommend to your pious prayers the spiritual wants of him\nwho has thus addressed you.\n\n+JAMES DOYLE\n\n{015}\n\nAN ACCOUNT\nOF\nTHE LIFE AND WRITINGS\nOF THE\nREV. ALBAN BUTLER;\nINTERSPERSED WITH\nOBSERVATIONS ON SOME SUBJECTS OF SACRED AND PROFANE LITERATURE\nMENTIONED IN HIS WRITINGS.\nBY CHARLES BUTLER, ESQ.\nBARRISTER AT LAW.\n\nQuare quis tandem me reprehendat, si quantum ad caeteris festos dies\nludorum celebrandos, quantum ad alias voluptates, et ad ipsam requiem\nanimi et corporis conceditur temporis: Quantum alii tempestivis\nconviviis, quantum aleae, quantum pilae, tantum mihi egomet ad haec studia\nrecolenda, sumpsero.\n\nCIC. PRO ARCHIA\n\n1.\n\nTHE Reverend Alban Butler was the second son of Simon Butler, Esq., of\nAppletree, in the county of Northampton, by Miss Ann Birch, daughter of\nThomas Birch, Esq., of Gorscot, in the county of Stafford. His family,\nfor amplitude of possessions, and splendor of descent and alliances, had\nvied with the noblest and wealthiest of this kingdom, but was reduced to\nslender circumstances at the time of his birth. A tradition in his\nfamily mentions, that Mr. Simon Butler (our author's grandfather) was\nthe person confidently employed by the duke of Devonshire and the earl\nof Warrington, in inviting the prince of Orange over to England; that he\nprofessed the protestant religion, and that his great zeal for it was\nhis motive for embarking so warmly in that measure; but that he never\nthought it would be attended with the political consequences which\nfollowed from it; that, when they happened, they preyed greatly on his\nmind; that to fly from his remorse, he gave himself up to pleasure: and\nthat in a few years he dissipated a considerable proportion of the\nremaining part of the family estate, and left what he did not sell of it\nheavily encumbered.\n\nAt a very early age our author was sent to a school in Lancashire, and\nthere applied himself to his studies with that unremitted application\nwhich, in every part of his life, he gave to literature. Sacred\nbiography was even then his favorite pursuit. A gentleman, lately\ndeceased, mentioned to the editor that he remembered him at this school,\nand frequently heard him repeat, with a surprising minuteness of fact,\nand precision of chronology, to a numerous and wondering audience of\nlittle boys, the history of the chiefs and saints of the Saxon aera of\nour history. He then also was distinguished for his piety, and a\npunctual discharge of his religious duties. About the age of eight years\nhe was sent to the English college at Douay. It appears, from the diary\nof that college, that Mr. Holman, of Warkworth, (whose memory, for his\nextensive charities, is still in benediction in Oxfordshire and\nNorthamptonshire,) became security for the expenses of his education.\nAbout this time he lost his father and mother. The latter, just before\nshe died, wrote to him and his two brothers the following beautiful\nletter:\n\n\"MY DEAR CHILDREN.\n\n\"Since it pleases Almighty God to take me out of this world, as no doubt\nwisely foreseeing I am no longer a useful parent to you, (for no person\nought to be thought necessary in this world when God thinks proper to\ntake them out;) so I hope you will offer the loss of me with a\nresignation suitable to the religion you are of, and offer {016}\nyourselves. He who makes you orphans so young, without a parent to take\ncare of you, will take you into his protection and fatherly care, if you\ndo love and serve him who is the author of all goodness. Above all\nthings, prepare yourselves while you are young to offer patiently what\nafflictions he shall think proper to lay upon you, for it is by this he\ntrieth his best servants. In the first place, give him thanks for your\neducation in the true faith, (which many thousands want;) and then I beg\nof you earnestly to petition his direction what state of life you shall\nundertake, whether be for religion, or to get your livings in the world.\nNo doubt but you may be saved either way, if you do your duty to God,\nyour neighbor, and yourselves. And I beg of you to make constant\nresolutions rather to die a thousand times, if possible, than quit your\nfaith; and always have in your thoughts what you would think of were you\nas nigh death as I now think myself. There is no preparation for a good\ndeath but a good life. Do not omit your prayers, and to make an act of\ncontrition and examen of conscience every night, and frequent the\nblessed sacraments of the church. I am so weak I can say no more to you,\nbut I pray God bless and direct you, and your friends to take care of\nyou. Lastly, I beg of you never to forget to pray for your poor father\nand mother when they are not capable of helping themselves: so I take\nleave of you, hoping to meet you in heaven, to be happy for all\neternity.\n\n\"Your affectionate mother,\n\"ANN BUTLER.\"\n\nThough our author's memory for the recollection of dates was, in his\nvery earliest years, remarkable, he found, when he first came to the\ncollege, great difficulty in learning his lessons by heart; so that, to\nenable him to repeat them in the school as well as the other boys, he\nwas obliged to rise long before the college hour. By perseverance,\nhowever, he overcame this disheartening difficulty. Even while he was in\nthe lowest schools, he was respected for his virtue and learning. One of\nhis school-fellows writes thus of him: \"The year after Mr. Alban\nButler's arrival at Douay, I was placed in the same school, under the\nsame master, he being in the first class of rudiments, as it is there\ncalled, and I in the lowest. My youth and sickly constitution moved his\ninnate goodness to pay me every attention in his power; and we soon\ncontracted an intimacy that gave me every opportunity of observing his\nconduct, and of being fully acquainted with his sentiments. No one\nstudent in the college was more humble, more devout, more exact in every\nduty, more obedient or mortified. He was never reproved or punished but\nonce; and then for a fault of which he was not guilty. This undeserved\ntreatment he received with silence, patience, and humility. In the hours\nalloted to play he rejoiced in the meanest employments assigned to him\nby his companions, as to fetch their balls, run on their errands, &c.\n&c. Though often treated with many indignities by his thoughtless\ncompanions, on purpose to try his patience, he never was observed to\nshow the lest resentment, but bore all with meekness and patience. By\nthe frequent practice of these virtues he had attained so perfect\nevenness of temper, that his mind seemed never ruffled with the least\nemotion of anger. He restricted himself in every thing to the strictest\nbounds of necessity. Great part of his monthly allowance of\npocket-money, and frequently of his daily food, went to the poor. So\nperfectly had he subjected the flesh to the spirit, that he seemed to\nfeel no resistance from his senses in the service of God and his\nneighbor.\"\n\nAs he advanced in age his learning and virtue became more and more\nconspicuous. Monsieur Pellison,[1] in his life of the famous Huet,\nbishop of Avranches, observes, that \"from his tenderest youth he gave\nhimself to study; that at his rising, his going to bed, and during his\nmeal, he was reading, or had others to read to him; that neither the\nfire of youth, the interruption of business, the variety of his\nemployments, the society of his friends, nor the bustle of the world,\ncould ever moderate his ardor of study.\" The same may be said of our\nauthor. He generally allowed himself no more than four hours sleep, and\noften passed whole nights in study and prayer. All his day was spent in\nreading. When he was alone, he read; when he was in company, he read; at\nhis meals, he read; in his walks, he read; when he was in a carriage, he\nread; when he was on horseback, he read; whatever he did, he read. It\nwas his custom to make abridgments of the principal works he perused,\nand to copy large extracts from them; several bulky volumes {017} of\nthem have fallen into the hands of the editor. Many were surprised to\nsee the rapidity with which he read, or rather ran through books, and at\nthe same time acquired a full and accurate knowledge of their contents.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  Histoire de l'Academie, 1 vol. 102.\n\nII\n\nAfter our author had completed the usual course of study, he was\nadmitted as alumnus of Douay college, and appointed _professor of\nphilosophy_. The Newtonian system of philosophy was about that time\ngaining ground in the foreign universities. He adopted it, in part, into\nthe course of philosophy which he dictated to the students. He read and\nconsidered with great attention the metaphysical works of Woolfe and\nLeibnitz. He did not admire them, and thought the system of\npre-established harmony laid down in them irreconcilable with the\nreceived belief or opinions of the Roman Catholic church on the soul;\nand that much of their language, though susceptible of a fair\ninterpretation, conveyed improper notions, or, at least, sounded\noffensively to Catholic ears. The late Mr. John Dunn, his contemporary\nat the college, frequently mentioned to the editor the extreme caution\nwhich our author used in inserting any thing new in his dictates,\nparticularly on any subject connected with any tenet of religion. After\nteaching a course of philosophy, he was appointed _professor of\ndivinity_. On this part of his life the editor has been favored by a\ngentleman deservedly damed for his erudition and piety, the reverend\nRobert Bannister, with a long letter, of which the reader is presented\nwith an extract.\n\n\"I was contemporary with Mr. Alban Butler in Douay college eight years;\nviz. from October, 1741 to October, 1749. But as I was but a boy the\ngreater part of that time, I had not any intimacy with him, nor was I\ncapable of knowing any thing concerning his interior, the manner of his\nprayer, or the degrees to which he ascended in it, or any extraordinary\ncommunications or elevations to which the Holy Ghost, the great master\nand teacher of contemplation, might raise him. All that I can say is,\nthat he opened Douay college great door to me and a gentleman whom I\nknew not, but who was so good as to bring me from Lisle in his coach, on\nSunday between ten and eleven, the 15th of October, 1741; and the first\nsight of him appeared to me then so meek and so amiable, that I thought\nI would choose him for my ghostly father; but another, I suppose in\nrotation, adopted me. Mr. Alban was my sole master in my first year of\ndivinity in 1749, and dictated the two treatises _De Decalogo et De\nIncarnatione_; he also presided over my defensions upon those two\ntreatises, and over Mr. James Talbot's (the late bishop of London) upon\nuniversal divinity. As to heroic acts of virtue, which strike with\nadmiration all that see or hear of them, I cannot recollect more than a\nuniform, constant observance of all the duties of a priest, professor,\nand confessarius. He was always at morning meditations, seldom omitted\nthe celebration of the holy sacrifice of the mass, which he said with a\nheavenly composure, sweetness, and recollection; studying and teaching\nassiduously, dictating with an unwearied patience so equally and\nleisurely, that every one could, if he wished to do it, write his\ndictates in a clear and legible hand; nor do I remember that he ever\nsent a substitute to dictate for him; so exact and punctual he was in\nhis duty as a professor. I never knew one more ready to go to the\nconfession-seat, at the first intimation of any, even the least or\nyoungest boy. He heard his penitents with wonderful meekness; and his\npenetration, learning, judgment, and piety, were such as to move them to\nplace in him a singular confidence. He frequently visited the military\nhospital, to instruct, exhort, and hear the confessions of Irish\nsoldiers. He sometimes assembled a number of them (when they happened to\nbe quartered in Douay) in the college-church of St. Thomas of\nCanterbury, and preached to them. In one of his sermons I remember he\ntold them, for their example and encouragement, that there are more\nsoldiers saints than of any other vocation, or state, or condition. As\npoor, and often distressed, Irish men and women frequently came to\nDouay, he was always ready to relieve them, and administer both corporal\nand spiritual succors. It can never be forgotten what attention,\nsolicitude, and care he had, in the year 1745, of our English soldiers,\nwounded and maimed, who were brought prisoners to Douay, and quartered\nin the barracks, in great numbers, after the battle of Fontenoy. He\nanimated both by words and example all the young priests, and all in\nholy orders at the college, to visit them, to instruct and instil into\nthem serious thoughts of saving their souls by embracing the only saving\nfaith, and by true repentance.{018} He also procured for them temporal\nsuccor and relief so beneficently, that the duke of Cumberland, then\ngeneralissimo of the British and allied armies, being informed of it,\npromised him a special protection whensoever he came over into England.\nScarce any thing affords one a better proof of Mr. Alban's eminent\nspirit of piety and great understanding, discretion, and light in\nspiritual matters, than his familiarity and friendship with M. Jean\nBaptiste de Villers, president of the seminary des Eveques in the\nuniversity of Douay, who died October the 7th, 1746, the death of a\nsaint, after having lived the life of one for seventy-eight years. This\nM. de Villers was eminent in all supernatural and moral virtues, but he\nconcealed them under an amiable simplicity, and a plain unaffected\nbehavior or exterior, unless charity and zeal for the glory of God and\nsalvation of souls required their open and full exertion; and,\nnotwithstanding his great learning, (which he had acquired by an\nexcellent genius and diligent application to sacred studies,) and his\ngreat and solid fund of piety, he was as docile as an infant; so\ntimorous and diffident of his own judgment, that he would neither do nor\ndecide any thing without counsel. With this sentiment of diffidence and\nhumility, he often visited (says M. Leroy, the faithful imitator and\nwriter of the history of his life) a young professor, a foreigner, (that\nis, Alban Butler,) and passed an hour or two in his company in the\nafternoon, once every week, and sometimes twice, several years, until\nhis edifying death. Their conversation together was solely about various\npoints of morality; about the direction of souls, and the method of\narriving at perfection in every action and intention; how to teach\ndevout persons a habit of making continual aspirations to God, by acts\nof love, oblation, entire sacrifice of their hearts, of humility, &c. M.\nde Villers would not suffer more than half a small fagot to be kindled\nfor him in the severest weather, saying to Mr. Alban, 'the other part\nmay serve some poor person.' As to wine, or any other liquor, he never\ndrank any but at meal-time. I remember to have heard an instance of Mr.\nAlban's meekness, for I am not a witness of it. When he was presiding\nover one of his students in divinity in the public hall of Douay\ncollege, a disputant, who was probably much offended at some proposition\nin the thesis, as being opposite to some favorite opinion of his school\nor religious family, said to him with intolerable rudeness, _habes mel\nin ore, sed fel in corde_: to which he made no reply, nor showed the\nleast resentment. Mr. Alban Butler was totally averse to the system of\nprobabilism, and to all assertions that favor laxity in morale. This is\nevident from the dictates which he delivered to us, from his treatise\n_De Decalogo, de actibus humanis_, in his _Epitome moralis\nsacramentorum_, &c. It is still more evident from his _Epitome de sex\nprioribus conciliis [oe]cumenicis in calce tractanus de Incarnatione_, that\nhe had the highest veneration for the holy see, and for him who sits in\nthe chair of St. Peter; that he constantly held and maintained the\nrights and singular prerogatives of St. Peter and his successors, in\ncalling, presiding over, and confirming general or [oe]cumenical councils;\nthe pope's superiority over the whole church, and over the whole college\nof bishops, and over a general council; the irreformability of his\ndoctrinal decisions in points of faith and morale; his supreme power to\ndispense (when there is cause) in the canons of general councils; in\nshort, the plenitude of his authority over the whole chorus, without\nexception or limitation, _Nihil excipitur ubi distinguitur nihil_.\"\n\nIII.\n\nFrom the letter of which we have presented the reader with an extract,\nit appears what our author's sentiments were on the nature and extent of\nthe spiritual power of the see of Rome. It has frequently been said that\nhe was the editor of doctor Hulden's _Analysis Fidei_: had this been the\nfact, it would have been a strong proof of an alteration of his\nsentiments on those points; but, after particular inquiry, the editor\nfinds the assertion to be wholly unfounded.\n\nOn the celebrated questions, _Of the infallibility of the Pope, and his\nright to the deposing power_, our author thus expresses himself in one\nof his letters on Mr. Bower's History of the Popes; \"Mr. Bower having\nbeen educated in the Catholic schools, could not but know that, though\nsome private divine think that the pope, by the assistance of some\nspecial providence, cannot err in the decisions of faith solemnly\npublished by him, with the mature advice of his council, or of the\nclergy or divines of his church, yet that this is denied by others; and\nthat the learned Bossuet, and many others, especially of the school of\nSorbon, have written warmly {019} against that opinion; and that no\nCatholic looks upon it as an article or term of communion. It is the\ninfallibility of the whole church, whether assembled in a general\ncouncil, or dispersed over the world, of which they speak in their\ncontroversial disputations. Yet this writer, at every turn, confounds\nthese two things together only to calumniate and impose on the public.\nIf he had proved that some popes had erred in faith, he would have no\nmore defeated the article of supremacy, than he would disinherit a king\nby arraigning him of bad policy. The Catholic faith teaches the pope to\nbe the supreme pastor of the church established by Christ, and that this\nchurch, founded by Christ on a rock, shall never be overcome by hell, or\ncease to be his true spouse. For he has promised that his true Spirit\nshall direct it in all truth to the end of the world. But Mr. Bower\nnever found the infallibility of the pope in our creed; and knows very\nwell that no such article is proposed by the church, or required of any\none. Therefore the whole chain of his boastings which is conducted\nthrough the work falls to the ground.\n\n\"What he writes against the deposing power in popes, certainly cannot be\nmade a reproach against the Catholics of England, France, Spain, &c. It\nis a doctrine neither taught nor tolerated in any Catholic kingdom that\nI know of, and which many Catholics write as warmly against as Mr. Bower\ncould wish.\"\n\nIV.\n\nWhile our author continued at the college of Douay, his first\npublication made its appearance: this was his _Letters on the History of\nthe Popes, published by Mr. Archibald Bower_. That gentleman had entered\ninto the society of Jesus, and acquired a reputation for learning and\ntalents. He came into England, embraced the religion of the established\nchurch, and endeavored to recommend himself to the favor of his new\nfriends by his History of the Lives of the Popes. He also published an\naccount of his escape from Italy, and of his motives for quitting it.\nThe truth of the account became a subject of controversy. It was\ndisbelieved, not only by Catholics but by Protestants. Dr. Douglas, the\npresent bishop of Salisbury, wrote an excellent pamphlet to expose its\nfalsehood and absurdity. It carried great improbability on the face of\nit. Mr. Bower was a lively writer, and defended himself with adroitness;\nbut he was not equal to the composition of the history which he\nundertook to write. He was of the numerous list of authors who, when\nthey sit down to write, have to learn what they shall write, rather than\nto write what they have already learned. The errors which our author\nexposes in his letters are sometimes the errors of a very young writer.\nThe letters are written with ease and good-humor; they show various and\nextensive learning, a vigorous and candid mind. They met with universal\napplause.\n\nV.\n\nIn the year 1745, our author accompanied the late earl of Shrewsbury and\nthe honorable James Talbot and Thomas Talbot on their travels through\nFrance and Italy. He wrote a full, entertaining, and interesting account\nof them. As it will be published, the editor makes no extracts from it\nin this place. He was always solicitous that the noble personages\ncommitted to his care should see whatever deserved attention, and be\nintroduced to persons distinguished by their rank, talents, or virtue.\nHe drew out for them a comparative view of the Greek, Roman, and Gothic\narchitecture; an account of the different schools of painting; and an\nabridgment of the lives, and remarks on the different characters, of the\nmost eminent painters. These will be found in his travels. He kept them\nfrom all stage entertainments: \"The stage entertainments,\" he says, in\none of his letters, \"I can give no account of, as we never would see\nany; they being certainly very dangerous, and the school of the passions\nand sin, most justly abhorred by the church and the fathers. Among us,\nCollier, Law, &c.; among the French, the late prince of Condi, Doctor\nVoisin, Nicole, &c., have said enough to satisfy any Christian; though\nTertullian, St. Cyprian, St. Chrysostom, are still more implacable\nenemies of the stage. However, we saw the stages for their architecture,\nwhere this was curious.\" His opinion of the evil tendency of stage\nentertainments continued with him through life.\n\nVI.\n\nOn his return from his travels _our author was sent on the English\nmission._ He {020} had long been engaged in his great work of the _Lives\nof the Saints_, and was then bringing it to a conclusion. He naturally,\ntherefore, wished to be settled in London, for the convenience of its\npublic libraries, and the opportunities it affords of intercourse with\nmen of letters. But the vicar-apostolic of the middle district claimed\nhim as belonging to that district, and appointed him to a mission in\nStaffordshire. This was a severe mortification to our author; he\nrespectfully remonstrated; but the vicar-apostolic was inexorable, and\nrequired his immediate obedience. A gentleman who lived in the same\nhouse with him at the time, has mentioned to the editor, that he was\nwith him when the summons came; and that on receiving it, he appeared\nmuch hurt, retired for half an hour to his oratory, and soon after set\noff for his country mission.\n\nFrom Staffordshire he removed to Warkworth, the seat of Francis Eyre,\nesquire, to whom these sheets are dedicated. He had the highest opinion\nof a good missioner, and frequently declared that he knew of no\nsituation so much to be envied, while the missioner had a love of his\nduties, and confined himself to them: none so miserable, when the\nmissioner had lost the love of them, and was fond of the pleasures of\nlife. \"Such a one,\" he used to say, \"would seldom have the means of\ngratifying his taste for pleasure; he would frequently find that, in\ncompany, if he met with outward civility, he was the object of silent\nblame; and that if he gave pleasure as a companion, no one would resort\nto him as a priest.\" He had a manuscript written by a Mr. Cox, an\nEnglish missioner, who lived in the beginning of the present century, in\nwhich these sentiments were expressed forcibly and with great feeling:\nhe often mentioned it. But no person was less critical on the conduct of\nothers, none exacted less from them, than our author. He was always at\nthe command of a fellow-clergyman, and ready to do him every kind of\ngood office. To the poor, his door was always open. When he resided in\nLondon, in quality of chaplain to the duke of Norfolk, he was under no\nobligation, strictly speaking, of attending to any person except the\nduke himself and his family; but he was at the call of every one who\nwanted any spiritual or temporal assistance which it was in his power to\nafford. The poor, at length, flocked to him in such numbers that, much\nin opposition to his wishes, his brother, with whom he then lived, was\nobliged to give general orders that none of them should be admitted to\nhim. He was ever ready to oblige. Moss. Olivet relates of Huet, the\nbishop of Avranches, that he was so absorbed in his studies as sometimes\nto neglect his pastoral duties; that once a poor peasant waited on him\nrespecting some matter of importance, and was refused admittance, \"his\nlordship being at his studies:\" upon which the peasant retired,\nmuttering, with great indignation, \"that he hoped they should ever have\nanother bishop who had not finished his studies before he came among\nthem;\" but our author's \"being at his studies,\" was never a reason with\nhim for refusing to see any one. It was often unpleasant to observe how\nmuch his good-humor, in this respect, was abused.\n\nVII.\n\nOur author did not remain long in Staffordshire. Edward, duke of\nNorfolk, (to whom the present duke is second in succession,) applied to\nthe late Mr. Challoner for a person to be his chaplain, and to\n_superintend the education of Mr. Edward Howard_, his nephew and\npresumptive heir. Mr. Challoner fixed upon our author to fill that\nsituation. His first residence, after he was appointed to it, was at\nNorwich in a house generally called the duke's palace. Thither some\nlarge boxes of books belonging to him were directed, but by mistake were\nsent to the bishop's palace. The bishop opened them, and finding them\nfall of Roman Catholic books, refused to deliver them. It has been\nmentioned, that after the battle of Fontenoy, our author was very active\nin serving the English prisoners, and that the duke of Cumberland\nreturned him thanks for his conduct, and made him an offer of his\nservices, if he should have occasion for them after his return to\nEngland. On this seizure of his books, our author applied to the duke;\nhis highness immediately wrote to the bishop, and soon after the books\nwere sent to their owner.\n\nMr. Edward Howard, by our author's advice, was first sent to the School\nof the English clergy, at a small village near Douay, called Esquerchin,\nof which the most pious and respectable Mr. Tichborne Blunt was\npresident. After some years he was sent to complete his education at\nParis; and thither our author accompanied him. Mr. Edward Howard was the\nMarcellus of the English Catholics; {021} never did a noble youth raise\ngreater expectations; but he was suddenly taken ill and died after an\nillness of a few days. On that melancholy occasion the family expressed\ngreat pleasure in the recollection of the religious education he had\nreceived from our author.\n\nVIII.\n\nDuring our author's stay at Paris he finally completed and sent to the\npress his great work on the _Lives of the Saints_. We have seen that,\nfrom his tenderest years, he had discovered his turn for sacred\nbiography. At a very early period of his life he conceived the plan of\nhis work; and from that time pursued it with undeviating attention. He\nqualified himself for an able execution of it, by unremitted application\nto every branch of profane or sacred literature connected with it. He\nwas, a perfect master of the Italian, Spanish, and French languages. The\nlast he spoke and wrote with fluency and purity. He was also perfect\nmaster of the Latin and Greek languages. At an advanced period of his\nlife he mentioned to the editor that he could then understand the works\nof St. John Chrysostom as easily in the original as in the Latin\ninterpretation; but that the Greek of Saint Gregory Nazianzen was too\ndifficult for him. A few years before he died he amused himself with an\ninquiry into the true pronunciation of tee Greek language, and in\npreparing for the press some sheets of an intended Greek grammar. To\nattain that degree of knowledge of the Greek language is given to few:\nMenage mentions that he was acquainted with three persons only who could\nread a Greek writer without an interpreter. Our author had also some\nskill in the oriental languages. In biblical reading, in positive\ndivinity, in canon law, in the writings of the fathers, in\necclesiastical antiquities, and in modern controversy, the depth and\nextent of his erudition are unquestionable. He was also skilled in\nheraldry: every part of ancient and modern geography was familiar to\nhim. He had advanced tar beyond the common learning of the schools in\nthe different branches of philosophy; and even in botany and medicine he\nwas deeply read. In this manner he had qualified himself to execute the\nwork he undertook.\n\nIX.\n\nThe present section is intended to give _An account of some of the\nprincipal works he consulted in the composition of it_. It will contain,\n1st, some remarks on the attention of the church, during the early ages\nof Christianity, to preserve the memory of the martyrs and saints: 2dly,\nsome account of the acts of the martyrs; 3dly, some account of the\nsacred calendars: 4thly, some account of the Martyrologies: 5thly, some\naccount of the Menaeon and Menologies of the Greek church; 6thly, some\naccount of the early Agiographists: 7thly, some account of the\nBollandists: and, 8thly, some account of the process of the\nbeatification and canonization of saints.\n\nIX. 1. The Roman Catholic church has ever been solicitous _that the\nlives and miracles of those who have been eminent for their sanctify\nshould be recorded for the edification of the faithful_. St. Clement the\nSecond, successor of St. Peter in the see of Rome, is said to have\ndivided the fourteen districts of that city among seven notaries,\nassigning two districts to each of them, with directions to form a\nminute and accurate account of the martyrs who suffered within them.\nAbout one hundred and fifty years from that time, pope Fabian put the\nnotaries under the care of deacons and subdeacons. The same attention to\nthe actions and sufferings of the martyrs was shown in the provinces. Of\nthis, the letter of the church of Smyrna, giving an account of the\nmartyrdom of St. Polycarp, the letter of the churches of Lyons and\nVienne, giving an account of the martyrs who suffered in those cities;\nand the letter of St. Dionysius, the bishop of Alexandra, to Fabius, the\nbishop of Antioch, on the martyrs who suffered under the emperor Decius,\nare remarkable instances. \"Our ancestors,\" says Pontius, in the\nbeginning of the acts of St. Cyprian, \"held those who suffered\nmartyrdom, though only catechumens, or of the lowest rank, in such\nveneration, as to commit to writing almost every thing that related to\nthem.\" Nor was this attention confined to those who obtained the crown\nof martyrdom. Care was taken that the lives of all should be written who\nwere distinguished by their virtues, particularly if they had been\nfavored with the gift of miracles.\n\nIX. 2. The lives of the martyrs and saints, written in this manner, were\ncalled _their acts_. They were often collected into volumes. One of the\nearliest of these {022} collections was made by Eusebius, the father of\nchurch history. Some of the lives he inserted in the body of his great\nhistorical work: he also published a separate collection of them; it was\ngreatly esteemed, but has not reached our time: many others were\npublished. These accounts of the virtues and sufferings of the martyrs\nwere received by the faithful with the highest respect. They considered\nthem to afford a glorious proof of the truth of the Christian faith, and\nof the holiness and sublimity of its doctrines. They felt themselves\nstimulated by them to imitate the heroic acts of virtue and constancy\nwhich they placed before their eyes, and to rely on the assistance of\nheaven when their own hour of trial should arrive. Thus the vocal blood\nof the martyrs was a powerful exhortation, both to induce the infidel to\nembrace the faith of Christ, and to incite the faithful to the practice\nof its precepts. The church, therefore, always recommended the frequent\nreading of the acts of the martyrs, and inserted the mention of them in\nher liturgy. This Ruinart proves by many examples: he also shows that\nthe greatest care was taken to procure the genuine acts of the martyrs;\nor, when they could not be had, to procure exact accounts of their\ntrials and sufferings. By this means the church was in possession of\nauthentic histories of the persecutions she had suffered, and through\nwhich she had finally triumphed over paganism, and of particular\naccounts of the principal sufferers. The greatest part of them was lost\nin the general wreck which sacred and profane literature suffered from\nthe barbarians who overturned the Roman empire. In every age, however,\nsome were found who carefully preserved whatever they could save of\nthose sacred treasures. Copies were frequently made of them; and this in\nthis, as in every other important branch of Christian learning, the\nchain of tradition has been left unbroken. Much, however, of these\nsacred documents of church history has been irretrievably lost; and,\nspeaking generally, the remaining part came down to us in an imperfect\nstate. Hence Vives, at the end of the fifteenth century, exclaimed,\n\"What a shame it is to the Christian world, that the acts of our martyrs\nhave not been published with greater truth and accuracy!\" The important\ntask of publishing them in that manner was at length undertaken by Dom\nRuinart, a Maurist monk, in his _Acta primorum martyrum sincera et\nselecta_. He executed it in a manner that gained him universal applause.\nHis prefatory discourse, respecting the number of martyrs, has been\ngenerally admired. An invaluable accession to this branch of sacred\nliterature was published by Stephen Evodius Assemani, in two volumes\nfolio, at Rome in 1748. The title of the work expresses its contents:\n\"_Acta Sanctorum Martyrum orientalium et occidentalium editore Stephano\nEvodio Assemano, que textum Chaldaicum recensuit, notis vocalibus\nanimavit, Latine vertit, et annotationibus illustravit_.\" It is to be\nobserved, that the eastern and western martyrs mentioned in this place,\nare not the martyrs of the eastern of Greek church, and the martyrs of\nthe Latin or western church, in which sense the words eastern and\nwestern are generally used by ecclesiastical writers. By the eastern\nmartyrs, Assemani denotes the martyrs who suffered in the countries\nwhich extend from the eastern bank of the Euphrates, over Mesopotamia\nand Chaldea to the Tigris and the parts beyond it; by the western, he\ndenotes the martyrs who suffered in Syria, Palestine, and Egypt. Stephen\nAssemani was the nephew of Joseph Assemani, whose Kalendaria will be\nmentioned in another place. Joseph was first praefect of the Vatican\nlibrary; Stephen was archbishop of Apamea; both of them were Maronite\nmonks, and sent into the east by pope Clement XII. to purchase\nmanuscripts.\n\nIX. 3. It was the pious custom of the early Christians to celebrate\nyearly the memory of the martyrs, on the days on which they suffered. On\nthat day the martyr was considered to be born to a life of glory and\nimmortality, and, with respect to that second life, it was called the\nday of his birth. The different churches, therefore, were careful to\npreserve an exact account of the particular days on which the martyrs\nobtained the crown of martyrdom. The book which contained this account\nwas called a _Calendar_. At first the calendar contained the mention of\nthe martyrs only; but, in the course of time, the confessors, or those\nwho, without arriving at the glory of martyrdom, had confessed their\nfaith in Christ by their heroic virtues, were admitted to the same\nhonor. The calendars were preserved in the churches; a calendar of the\nChurch of Rome was published by Boucher; another by Leo Alatius; a third\nby Joannes Fronto, chancellor of Paris, and canon regular of the church\nof St. Genevieve at Paris. A most ancient calendar of the church of\nCarthage was published by Mabillon. But under this head no publication\nis more respectable than Joseph Assemani's _Kalendaria Ecclesiae universae\nnotis illustrata._\n\n{023}\n\nIX. 4. The calendars gave rise to the _Martyrologies_; the object of\nthem was to collect, in one volume, from the calendars of the different\nchurches, the names of the martyrs and confessors throughout the world,\nwith a brief mention of the day of their decease, and the place in which\nthey suffered, or which they had illustrated by their birth, their\nresidence, their rank, or their virtues. The Roman Martyrology is\nmentioned in the following terms by St. Gregory, (Lib. 8. Epist. Indict.\n1.) in a letter to Eulogius, the bishop of Alexandria: \"We,\" says his\nholiness, \"have the names of almost all the martyrs collected into one\nvolume, and referred to the days on which they suffered; and we\ncelebrate the solemn sacrifice of the mass daily in their honor. But our\ncalendar does not contain the particulars of their sufferings; it only\nmentions their names, and the place and time of their martyrdom.\" The\nRoman calendar seems to have been adopted generally through the western\nchurch. It certainly was received in England. At the council held at\nShovesham in 747, by Cuthbert, the archbishop of Canterbury, it was\nordered, \"That throughout the year, the feasts of the saints should be\ncelebrated on the days appointed by the Martyrology of the church of\nRome, with the proper psalms.\" It was once generally believed to have\nbeen composed by St. Jerom; but this opinion is now universally\nrejected. It suffered much in the middle ages. Pope Gregory XIII.,\nimmediately after he had completed the great work of reforming the\ncalendar, used the most earnest endeavors to procure a correct edition\nof the Roman Martyrology. He committed the care of it to some of the\nmost distinguished writers of his time on ecclesiastical subjects. Among\nthem, Bellarmin, Baronius, and Gavant deserve particular mention. With\nthis edition Baronius himself was not satisfied. He published another\nedition in 1586: and afterwards, at the instigation of cardinal Sirlet,\npublished a still more correct edition, with notes, in 1598. He prefixed\nto his edition a dissertation, in which he appears to have exhausted the\nsubject. A further correction of the Roman Martyrology was made by pope\nUrban VIII. They were all surpassed by that published by pope Benedict\nXIV., at Cologne, in 1751. But the most useful edition is that published\nat Paris, in 1661, by father Lubin, an Augustinian friar. It is\naccompanied with excellent notes and geographical tables. Politus, an\nItalian divine, published, in 1751, the first volume of a new edition of\nthe Roman Martyrology. It comprises the month of January, but the plan\nof annotation is so extended, that it fills five hundred folio pages of\nthe smallest print; from the time of Drackenborch's edition of Livy, so\nprolix a commentary had not been seen. Among other principal\nMartyrologies, is that of the _Venerable Bede_. After several faulty\neditions of it had appeared, it was correctly published by Henschenius\nand Papebroke, and afterwards by Smith, at the end of his edition of\nBede's Ecclesiastical History. Notwithstanding Bede's great and deserved\ncelebrity, the Martyrology of _Usuard_, a Benedictine monk, was in more\ngeneral use; he dedicated it to Charles the Bald, and died about 875. It\nwas published by Solerius at Antwerp, in 1714, and by Dom Bouillard, in\n1718; but the curious still seek for the earlier edition by Molanus, in\n1568, as, in the subsequent editions, some parts of it were omitted.\nAnother Martyrology of renown is that of _Ado_; he was archbishop of\nVienne, in Dauphine, and died in 875. The best edition of it is that by\nRoswede, in 1613, published at Rome in 1745.--Such have been the\nexertions of the church of Rome, to perpetuate the memory of those who\nhave illustrated her by their virtues. During the most severe\npersecutions, in the general wreck of the arts and sciences, in the\nmidst of the public and private calamities which attended the\ndestruction of the Roman empire, the providence of God always raised\nsome pious and enlightened men, who preserved the deposit of faith, sod\ntransmitted to future times the memory of whatever had been most\nvirtuous in former ages or their own.\n\nIX. 5. The Greek church has also shown great attention to preserve the\nmemory of the holy martyrs and saints. This appears from her Menaeon and\nMonologue. The Menaeon is divided into twelve months, and each month is\ncontained in a volume. All the saints, whose festivals occur in that\nmonth, have their proper day assigned to them in it: the rubric of the\ndivine office, to be performed on that day, is mentioned; the\nparticulars of the office follow; an account of the life and actions of\nthe saint is inserted; and sometimes an engraving of him is added. If it\nhappen that the saint has not his peculiar office, a prose or hymn in\nhis praise in generally introduced. The greater solemnities have an\nappropriate office. From this the intelligent reader will observe that\nthe Menaeon of the Greeks is {024} nearly the same as a work would be,\nwhich should unite in itself the Missal and Breviary of the Roman\nCatholic church. It was printed in twelve volumes in folio at Venice.\nBollandus mentions that Raderus, a Tyrolese Jesuit, had translated the\nwhole of the Menaeon, and pronounced it to be free from schism or heresy.\n\n_The Menologium_ answers to the Latin Martyrology. There are several\nMenologia, as, at different times, great alterations have been made in\nthem. But the ground-word of them all is the same, so that they are\nneither wholly alike nor wholly different. A translation of a Menologium\ninto Latin by cardinal Sirlet, was published by Henry Canisius, in the\nthird volume of his _Lectiones Antiquae_. The Greek original, with a new\nversion, was published by Annibal Albani, at Urbino, in 1727. From these\nworks it is most clear that the Greek church invokes the saints, and\nimplores their intercession with God: \"_Haud obscure ostendit_,\" says\nWalchius, \"_Graecos eo cultu prosequi homines in sanctorum ordinem\nascriptos, ut ilios incocent_.\" Bib. Theologica, vol. iii. 668. From the\nMenaeon, and the Menologium, Raderus published a collection of pious and\nentertaining narratives, under the title of _Viridarum Sanctorum_. It is\nto be wished that some gentleman would employ his leisure in a\ntranslation of it. We should then be furnished, from the works of the\nAgiographists of the eastern church, with a collection of pious and\ninstructing narratives, similar to those in the well-known _Histoires\nChoisies_. One of the most curious articles inserted in the _Acta\nSanctorum_ of the Bollandists, is the _Muscovite or Russian Calendar_,\nwith the engravings of the saints. It was first published by father\nPossevin. He praises the Russians for the great attention to decency\nwhich they observe in their pictures and engravings of holy subjects. He\nmentions that the Russians, who accompanies him in his return to Rome,\nobserved with surprise in the Italian paintings of saints, a want of the\nlike attention. Father Papebroke, when he cites this passage, adopts the\nremark, and loudly calls on Innocent XII. to attend to the general\ndecency of all public paintings and statues. _A Greek Calendar of the\nSaints_ in hexameter verse accompanies the Russian Calendar, in the\n_Acta Sanctorum_; both are illustrated with notes by father Pane broke.\n\nIX. 6. We proceed to the _Lives of the Saints_, written by individuals.\nFor these our attention must be first directed to the Agiographists of\nthe Greek church. The eighth century may be considered as the period\nwhen Grecian literature had reached its lowest state of depression; in\nthe ninth, Bardas Caesar, the brother of the empress Theodora, protected\nletters; from that time they were constantly cultivated by the Greeks;\nso that Constantinople, utile it was taken by Mahomet, was never without\nits historians, poets, or philosophers. Compared with the writings of\nthe ancients, their compositions seem lifeless and unnatural; we look\namong them in vain either for original genius or successful imitation.\nStill they are entitled to our gratitude; many of the precious remains\nof antiquity have come down to us only in their extracts and\nabridgments; and their voluminous compilations have transmitted to us\nmuch useful information which has no other existence. Sacred biography,\nin particular, has great obligations to them. The earliest work on that\nsubject we owe to the care which the emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus\nbestowed on the literary education of his son; an example which, at the\ndistance of about six hundred years, was successfully rivalled by the\nelegant edition of the Delphin Classics, published under the aspics of\nLewis XIV. But the Greek emperor had this advantage over the French\nmonarch, that he himself was the author of some of the works published\nfor the use of his son. In the first (published by Lerch and Reisch at\nLeipsic, in 1751) he described the ceremonial of the Byzantine court;\nthe second (published by Banduri, in his _Imperium Orientale_) is a\ngeographical survey of the provinces, or, as he calls them, the\n_Themata_ of the empire; the third, which some ascribe to the emperor\nLeo, his father, describes the prevailing system of military tactics;\nthe forth delineates the political relations and intercourse of the\ncourt of Byzantium with the other states. His Geoponics (published by\nNicholas Niclas at Leipsic, in 1731, in two volumes, 8vo.) were written\nwith a view of instructing his subjects in agriculture. By his\ndirection, a collection of historical examples of vice and virtue was\ncompiled in fifty-three books, and _Simeon Metaphrastes_, the great\nlogothete, or chancellor of the empire, composed his Lives of the\nSaints. Several of them were published, with a Latin translation, by the\ncare of Lipoman, the bishop of Verona. Cardinal Bellarmin accuses\nMetaphrastes of giving too much loose to his imagination. \"He inserts,\"\n{025} says the cardinal, \"such accounts of conversations of the martyrs\nwith their persecutors, and such accounts of conversions of bystanders,\nas exceed belief. He mentions many and most wonderful miracles on the\ndestruction of the temples and idols, and on the death of the\npersecutors, of which nothing is said by the ancient historians.\" We\nnext come to _Jacobus de Voragine_, a Dominican friar and archbishop of\nGenoa, in 1292. His _Golden Legend_ was the delight of our ancestors\nduring the ages which preceded the revival of letters. The library of no\nmonastery was without it. Like the essays of Montaigne, it was to be\nfound on the shelf of every private person; and, for a long time after\nthe invention of printing, no work more often issued from the press.\nAfter enjoying the highest degree of reputation, it lost much of its\ncelebrity, in consequence of the Lives of Saints published by\n_Mombritius_ in two immense volumes, in folio, about the year 1480, from\nmanuscripts in the library of the church of St. John of Lateran and in\nconsequence of the Lives of Saints published by _Surius_, a Carthusian\nmonk. The first edition of Surius's work was published in 1570-75, in\nsix volumes; the second appeared in 1578, the third and most complete\nwas published, in twelve volumes, in 1615. That he frequently shows too\nmuch credulity, and betrays a want of taste, must be admitted; but his\nworks are allowed to breathe a spirit of piety; his candor, and desire\nto be accurate, are discernible in every part of his writings; and his\nlearning, for the age in which he lived, was considerable. In\n_Ribadeneira_ the line of ancient Agiographists respectably finishes.\n\nWhile candor and good taste must allow that, even in the Lest of the\ncompilations we have mentioned, there is a great want of critical\ndiscernment, and that they are wholly deficient in elegance, and the\nartificial beauties of composition, justice requires that their defects\nshould not be exaggerated. Still less should an intention to deceive,\neven on the pretence of edification, be imputed to them. Whatever may\nhave been either the error or the criminality of some of her members,\nthe church herself, in this, as in every other instance, has always\ninculcated the duty of sincerity and truth, and reprobated a deviation\nfrom them, even on the specious pretence of producing good. On this\nsubject our author thus forcibly expresses himself, in one of his\nletters on Mr. Bower's History of the Lives of the Popes: \"It is very\nunjust to charge the popes or the Catholic church with countenancing\nknowingly false legends; seeing all the divines of that communion\nunanimously condemn all such forgeries as lies in things of great\nmoment, and grievous sins; and all the councils, popes, and other\nbishops, have always expressed the greatest horror of such villanies;\nwhich no cause or circumstances whatever can authorize, and which, in\nall things relating to religion, are always of the most heinous nature.\nHence the authors, when detected, have been always punished with the\nutmost severity. Dr. Burnet himself says, that those who feigned a\nrevelation at Basil, of which he gives a long detail, with false\ncircumstances, in his letters on his travels, were all burnt at stakes\nfor it, which we read more exactly related by Surius in his Commentary\non his own times. The truth is, that many false legends of true martyrs\nwere forged by heretics, as were those of St. George, condemned by pope\nGelasius, as many false gospels were soon after the birth of\nChristianity, of which we have the names of near fifty extant. Other\nwicked or mistaken persons have sometimes been guilty of a like\nimposture. A priest at Ephesus forged acts of St. Paul's voyages, out of\nveneration for that apostle, and was deposed for it by St. John the\nevangelist, as we learn from Tertullian. To instance examples of this\nnature would form a complete history; for the church has always most\nseverely condemned all manner of forgeries. Sometimes the more virtuous\nand remote from fraud a person is, the more unwilling he is to suspect\nan imposture in others. Some great and good men have been imposed upon\nby lies, and have given credit to false histories, but without being\nprivy to the forgery; and nothing erroneous, dangerous, or prejudicial\nwas contained in what they unwarily admitted. However, if credulity in\nprivate histories was too easy in any former age, certainly skepticism\nand infidelity are the characters of this in which we live. No\nhistories, except those of holy scripture, are proposed as parts of\ndivine revelation or articles of faith; all others rest upon their bare\nhistorical authority. They who do not think this good and sufficient in\nany narrations, do well to suggest modestly their reasons; yet may look\nupon them at least as parables, and leave others the liberty of judging\nfor themselves without offence. But Mr. Bower says, p. 177, 'The Roman\nBreviary is the most authentic book the {026} church of Rome has, after\nthe scripture; it would be less dangerous, at least in Italy, to deny\nany truth revealed in the scripture, than to question any fable related\nin the Breviary.' Catholic divines teach that every tittle in the holy\nscriptures is sacred, divinely inspired, and the word of God dictated by\nthe Holy Ghost. Even the definitions of general councils do not enjoy an\nequal privilege; they are indeed the oracles of an unerring guide in the\ndoctrine of faith; which guide received, together with the scriptures,\nthe true sense and meaning of the articles of faith contained in them;\nand, by the special protection of the Holy Ghost, invariably preserves\nthe same by tradition from father to son, according to the promises of\nChrist. But the church receives no new revelation of faith, and adds\nnothing to that which was taught by the apostles: 2dly, Its decisions\nare not supernaturally infallible in matters of fact, as scripture\nhistories are, but only in matters of faith. Nor do Catholics say that\nits expressions, even in decisions of faith, are strictly dictated by\nthe Holy Ghost, or suggested from him, by any immediate revelation or\ninspiration; but only that the church is directed by his particular\nguidance, according to his divine truths, revealed and delivered to his\nchurch by his apostles. As to the Roman Breviary, the prayers consist,\nfor the greatest part, of the psalms, and other parts of the holy\nscriptures, to which the same respect is due which we pay to the divine\nbooks. The short lessons from the Homilies, or other works of approved\nfathers, especially those fathers who are mentioned by Gelasius I. in\nhis decree, carry with them the authority of their venerable authors. As\nit was the custom in the primitive ages to read, in the churches or\nassemblies, the acts of the most illustrious martyrs, of which frequent\nmention is made in those of St. Polycarp, &c., some short histories of\nthe martyrs and other saints have been always inserted in the Breviary,\nto which only an historical assent is due, whence they have been\nsometimes altered and amended. These are chiefly such as are judged\nauthentic and probable by the cardinals Baronius and Bellarmin, who\nrevised those lessons, in the last correction under Clement VIII.\nGavant, who was himself one of the revisers of the Breviary, and\nsecretary to the congregation, writes thus, (in Breviar. sect. 5, c. 12,\nn. 15, p. 18:) 'The second lessons from the histories of the saints were\nrevised by Bellarmin and Baronius, who rejected what could be justly\ncalled in question: in which difficult task they thought it best to\nrestore the truth of history with the least change possible, and to\nretain those things which had a certain degree of probability, and had\nthe authority of some grave voucher, though the contrary sentiment had\nperhaps more patrons.' In computing the years of the popes, the\nchronology of Baronius was judged the most exact, and retained.\nHistorical facts, nowise revealed or contained in scripture, cannot be\nmade an object of divine faith. If edifying histories are inserted in\nthe church-office, they stand upon their own credit. Such only ought to\nbe chosen which are esteemed authentic. This rule has been always\nfollowed when any were compiled. If the compilers are found afterwards\nto have been mistaken, it is nowhere forbid to correct them.[1] This has\nbeen often done by the order of several popes.\"\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  Nimia profecto almplicitate peccant qui scandalizantur quoties\n    audiunt aliquid ex jam olim creditia et juxta breviarii prescriptum\n    hodiedum recitandis, in disputationem adduci.--_Diss. Ballandic{e}._\n    vol. 2, p. 140.\n\nIX. 7. Among the _modern collections of the Lives of Saints_, of which\nour authors availed himself, in the work we are speaking of, the\nhistories which different religious have written of their own orders,\nhold a distinguished place. But he was indebted to no work so much as\nthe _Acta sanctorum of the Bollandists_. That noble collection was first\nprojected by Father Roswede of the society of Jesus. He died before he\nhad completely digested his plan. Fortunately for the lovers either of\nsacred history or sacred literature, it mm taken up by father Bollandus\nof the same society, and has been carried down to the eleventh day of\nOctober inclusive. Those who, after Bollandus's decease, succeeded him\nin his undertaking, were from him called Bollandists.\n\nAs far as the editor has been able to learn, the work was composed by\nthe following authors, and published in the number of volumes and years\nfollowing:\n\n          No. of Vols.    Years of their\nMonths.   all in folio.   appearance.            Authors.\nJanuary     Two,           1643 ........... Bollandus and Henschenius\nFebruary    Three,         1658 ........... Bollandus and Henschenius\nMarch       Three,         1668 ........... Henschenius and\n                                              Papebrochius\nApril       Three,         1675 ........... Henschenius and\n                                              Papebrochius\nMay         Seven,         1680-1688....... Henschenius, Papebrochius,\n                                              Baertius, and Janningus\n\n{027}\n\nJune        Six,           1695--1715...... Henschenius, Papebrochius,\n                                              Baertius, Janningus,\n                                              and Sollerius\nJuly        Seven,         1719--1731...... Janningus, Sollerius,\n                                              Pinius, Cuperius, and\n                                              Boschinus.\nAugust      Six,           1733--1743...... Sollerius, Pinius,\n                                              Cuperius, Boschius, and\n                                              Stiltingus\nSeptember   Eight,         1746--1762...... Pinius, Stiltingus,\n                                              Limpenus, Veldius,\n                                              Suyskenius, Pericrius,\n                                              and Cleus.\nOctober     Five           1765--1786...... Stiltingus, Suyskenius,\n                                              Perierius, Byeus, Boaeus,\n                                              Gnesquierus, Hubenus,\n                                              and Fronsonus.\n\nAntwerp was the scene of the labors of the Bollandists. They were\nengaged on them, when the enemies of every thing sacred arrived there\nunder Pichegru. The most eminent of the Bollandists was Father\nPapebroke, a rival of the Petaviuses, the Sirmonds, and Mabillons: one\nof those men who exalt the character of the society to which they\nbelong, and the age in which they live. The Spanish Inquisition\ncondemned some of the volumes in which he was concerned, but afterwards\nretracted the censure. Several dissertations, replete with various and\nprofound erudition, are interspersed in the body of the work; they are\nequally distinguished by the learning, and the soundness and sobriety of\ncriticism which appear in them. It would be an irreparable loss to the\nChristian world that the work should not be completed. The principal\ndissertations have been printed, in three volumes folio, at Venice, in\n1749-59. Those who wish to see an account of the controversy which\nproduced or was occasioned by the sentence of the Inquisition, may\nconsult the _Acta Eruditorum_, 1696, p. 132-500.\n\nIX. 8. Another source of information, of which our author availed\nhimself in the composition of his work, was the _Acts of the\nBeatification and Canonization of the Saints_.\n\nThe name of _Martyr_ was given by the ancient church to those who had\nsuffered death for the faith of Christ; the name of _Confessor_ was\napplied to those who had made a public profession of their faith before\nthe persecutors. It was afterwards extended to those who had edified the\nchurch by their heroic virtues. St. Martin of Tours is generally\nsupposed to have been the first saint to whom the title of confessor was\napplied in the last sense.\n\nOriginally, every bishop had the privilege of canonizing saints, or\ndeclaring them entitled to the honors which the Catholic church bestows\non her saints. The council of Cologne, cited by Ivo of Chartres, forbids\nthe faithful to show any public mark of veneration to any modern saint,\nwithout the permission of the diocesan. A capitulary of Charlemagne in\n801 is to the same effect.\n\nPope Alexander III. is supposed to have been the first pope who reserved\nthe exclusive privilege of canonizing saints to the holy see. It was\nrecognised by the church of France at a council at Vienne, in which the\nbishops, addressing themselves to pope Gregory IX., expressly say, \"that\nno sanctity, however eminent, authorizes the faithful to honor the\nmemory of a saint, without the permission of the holy see.\"\n\nThe present mode of proceeding in the canonization of saints,\nprincipally takes its rise from the decree of pope Urban VIII., dated\nthe 13th of March, 1625. By that he forbade the public veneration of\nevery new saint, not beatified or baptized; and particularly ordered\nthat no one, even in private, should paint the image of any person,\nwhatever might be his reputation for sanctity, with a crown or {}e of\nlight round his head; or expose his picture in any sacred place, or\npublish a history of his life, or a relation of his virtues and\nmiracles, without the approbation of his diocesan: that if, in a work so\napproved of, the person were called saint, or blessed, those words\nshould only be used to denote the general holiness of his life, but not\nto anticipate the general judgment of the church. His holiness adds a\nform of protestation to that effect, which he requires the authors to\nsign, at the beginning and end of their works. This regulation of pope\nUrban is so strictly attended to, that a single proof of the infraction\nof it, and even the omission of a definite sentence that there has been\nno infraction of it, makes the canonization of the saint impossible, and\ninvalidates the whole of the proceedings. The only exception is, in\nfavor of those saints who are proved to have been immemorially venerated\nfor a hundred years and upwards, before 1634, the year in which pope\nUrban's bull was confirmed.\n\nThe beatification of a saint is generally considered as a preliminary to\nhis canonization. It is a kind of provisional permission, authorizing\nthe faithful to honor {028} the memory of the person beatified; but\nqualified as to the place or manner. A decree of pope Alexander VIII. in\n1659, prohibits the faithful from carrying those honors farther than the\nbull of beatification expressly permits.\n\nThe proceedings of beatification or canonization are long, rigorous, and\nexpensive. 1st, The bishop of the diocese institutes a process, in the\nnature of an information, to inquire into the public belief of the\nvirtues and miracles of the proposed, and to ascertain that the decree\nwe have mentioned of pope Urban VIII. has been complied with: this\nproceeding begins and ends with the bishop, his sentence being\nconclusive. 2dly, The acts of this proceeding, with the bishop's\nsentence, are sealed up, then taken to the congregation of rites: and\ndeposited with the notary. 3dly, The solicitors for the congregation\npetition for publication of the proceedings. 4thly, This is granted; and\nthe proceedings, being first legally verified, are opened before the\ncardinal-president of the congregation, 5thly, The pope is then\nrequested to refer the business to a particular cardinal to report upon\nit. 6thly, This being granted, the writings of the proposed, if he be\nthe author of any, are laid before the cardinal-reporter. 7thly, He\nappoints a commission to assist him, and, with their assistance, makes\nhis report. If one formal error against faith, one direct opinion\ncontrary to morals, be round in them, it puts a total end to the\nproceedings, unless the author, in his life, expressly retracted it. \"A\ngeneral protestation;\" says Benedict XIV., \"the most sincere submission\nof all opinions to the authority of the Catholic church, saves the\nauthor from criminality, but does not prevent the effect of this\nrigorous escalation.\" 8thly, Hitherto the proceedings are not in\nstrictness before the pope; but, from this sage of the business, the\naffair wholly devolves on his holiness. He signs a commission to the\ncongregation of rites to institute and prosecute the process of\nbeatification; but, before this commission is granted, ten years must\nhave expired, from the time when the acts of the diocesan were first\nlodged with the congregation of rites. 9thly; The congregation of rites\nappoints commissaries, whom the pope delegates, to inform themselves of\nthe virtues and miracles are the proposed. The commissaries usually are\nbishops, and the bishop of the diocese where the proposed is buried is\nusually one of them; but laymen are never employed. The proceedings of\nthe commissaries are secret, and carried on and subscribed with the\nstrictest order and regularity, and in great form; the last step in\ntheir proceedings is to visit the tomb of the deceased, and to draw out\na verbal process of the state in which his remains are found. The\noriginal of the proceedings is left with the bishops; a legalized copy\nis taken of them, and returned by a sworn courier to the congregation of\nrites. 10thly, The solicitors for the congregation then pray for what is\ncalled a decree of attribution, or that an inquiry may be made into each\nparticular virtue and miracle attributed to the proposed: 11thly, Upon\nthis, they proceed to make the inquiry, beginning with the virtues and\nending with the miracles; but of the former they can take on notice in\nthis stage of the business, till fifty years from the time of the\nproposed's decease: in the case of a martyr, his martyrdom alone, with\nproof both of the heroism with which it was suffered, and of its having\nbeen suffered purely and absolutely in the cause of Christ, is supposed\nto make an inquiry into his virtues unnecessary. 12thly, The final\ndetermination of the cause is settled in three extraordinary\ncongregations, called the antepreparatory, the preparatory, and the\ngeneral. The virtues to be approved of must be of the most heroic kind:\nthe number of miracles is, in strictness, limited to two. The pope\ncollects the vows of the assembly; and two-thirds of it, at least, must\nagree in opinion, before they come to a resolution. He then pronounces\nwhat is called a private sentence, before the promoter and the secretary\nof the congregation of St. Peter. 13thly, A general congregation is then\nheld, to determine whether it be advisable to proceed to the\nbeatification of the proposed. 14thly, Three consistories are afterwards\nheld. l5thly, The pope then signs the brief of beatification. The\npublication of it is performed in the church of the Vatican. The\nsolicitor for the beatification presents the brief to the\ncardinal-prefect; he remits it to the cardinal-archpriest of the church\nwhere the ceremony is held. The cardinal-archpriest reads it aloud; the\nTe Deum is sung, a collect in honor of the beatified is read, and mass\nis solemnized in his honor. 16thly, When the proceedings for the\nbeatification are completed, the proceedings for the canonization begin.\nBut it is necessary that, before any thing be done in them, new miracles\nshould be wrought. When the solicitor for the canonization is satisfied\nthat he can prove by judicial evidence the existence of these miracles,\nhe presents a petition for resuming the {029} cause. 17thly, Three\ncongregations extraordinary, a general assembly, and three consistories,\nare held for the purpose of pronouncing on the new miracles, and\ndetermining whether it be prudent to proceed to canonization. 18thly,\nThis being determined upon, the pope issues the brief of canonization,\nand, soon after, the ceremonial follows. It begins by a solemn\nprocession: an image of the saint is painted on several banners. When\nthe procession arrives at the church where the ceremony is performed,\nthe pope seats himself on his throne, and receives the usual homage of\nthe court. The solicitor for the cause and the consistorial advocate\nplace themselves at the feet of his holiness, and request the\ncanonization; the litanies are sung; the request is made a second time;\nthe _Veni Creator_ is sung; the request is made a third time; the\nsecretary announces that it is the will of the pope to proceed\nimmediately upon the canonization; the solicitor requests that the\nletters of canonization may be delivered in due form; his holiness\ndelivers them, and the first prothonotary calls on all the assembly to\nwitness the delivery. The _Te Deum_ is sung, and high mass is\nsolemnized.\n\nThe decree of canonization is usually worded in these terms: \"To the\nglory of the Holy Trinity, for the exaltation of the Catholic faith, and\nthe increase of the Christian religion: In virtue of the authority of\nJesus Christ, of the holy apostles St. Peter and St. Paul, and our own,\nafter due deliberation and frequent invocations of the heavenly light,\nwith consent of our venerable brethren, the cardinals, patriarchs,\narchbishops, and bishops, present at Rome, we declare the blessed N. to\nbe a saint, and we inscribe him as such in the catalogue of the saints.\nIn the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen.\"\n\nSuch is the outline of the process of canonization. It must be added,\nthat the strictest evidence is required of every thing offered in proof.\nIt is laid down as a universal rule, which admits of no exception, that\nthe same evidence shall be required, through the whole of the process,\nas in criminal cases is required to convict an offender of a capital\ncrime; and that no evidence of any fact shall be received, if a higher\ndegree of evidence of the same fact can possibly be obtained. Hence, a\ncopy of no instrument is admitted, if the original be in existence; no\nhearsay witness is received, if ocular testimony can be produced. The\nrigorous examination of every circumstance offered to be proved has\nexcited the surprise of intelligent Protestants. Miracles, which to them\nseemed proved to the utmost degree of demonstration, have, to their\nsurprise, been rejected. Whatever there is most awful in religion, most\nsacred in an oath, or most tremendous in the censures of the church, is\nemployed in the process of canonization to elicit truth and detect\nfalsehood. Every check and countercheck is used, which slowness of\nproceeding, or a repetition of it in other stages and under different\nforms, can effect. The persons employed in it are the members of the\nRoman Catholic church, the most exalted by their rank, and the most\nrenowned for their virtues and talents. When the proceedings are\nconcluded, they are printed and exposed to the examination of the whole\nworld. The sixth volume of the celebrated treatise of Benedict XIV. on\nthe beatification and canonization of saints, contains the acts of the\nsaints canonized by himself.\n\nX.\n\nWith these helps our author sat down to his work. We may suppose him\naddressing to the saints, whose lives he was about to write, a prayer\nsimilar to the beautiful prayer addressed to them by Bollandus at the\nend of his general preface, and which may be thus abridged: \"Hail, ye\ncitizens of heaven! courageous warriors! triumphant over the world! from\nthe blessed scenes of your everlasting glory, look on a low mortal, who\nsearches everywhere for the memorials of your virtues and triumphs. Show\nyour favor to him; give him to discover the valuable monuments of former\ntimes; to distinguish the spurious from the legitimate; to digest his\nwork in proper order and method; to explain and illustrate whatever is\nobscure. Take under your protection all who have patronized or assisted\nhim in his undertakings: obtain for all who read his work, that they\nimitate the examples of virtue which it places before their eyes; and\nthat they experience how sweet, how useful, and how glorious it is to\nwalk in your steps.\"\n\nIn the preface to the French translation, the work is said to have cost\nour author the labor of thirty years. It was his practice, when he began\nto write the life of any saint, to read over and digest the whole of his\nmaterials, before he committed any thing to paper. His work evidently\nshows, that his mind was full of its subject, {030} and that what he\nwrote was the result of much previous information and reflection. On\nmany occasions he must have written on subjects which were new to him;\nbut, such is the mutual connection and dependence of every branch of\nliterature, that a mind stored like his was already in possession of\nthat kind of knowledge, which would make him apprehend, with great ease,\nwhatever he had to learn; and would instruct him, though the subject\nwere new to him, where he might express himself decisively, and where he\nshould doubt. How extensive and profound his general knowledge was,\nappears from this, that a person who happens to have made any subject,\ntreated of by him, his particular study, will seldom read what our\nauthor has written upon it without finding in it something original, or,\nat least, so happily expressed or illustrated as to have the merit of\noriginality. In some instances, as in his account of the Manichaens, in\nthe life of St. Augustine, and of the crusades, in the life of St.\nLewis, he shows such extent and minuteness of investigation, as could\nonly be required from works confined to those subjects. In other\ninstances, where his materials are scanty, so that he writes chiefly\nfrom his own mind, as in the lives of St. Zita or St. Isidore of\nPelusium, he pours an unpremeditated stream of piety, which nothing but\nan intimate acquaintance with the best spiritual writers could produce.\n\nThe sameness of a great number of the most edifying actions which our\nauthor had to relate, made it difficult for him to avoid a tiresome\nuniformity of narrative: but he has happily surmounted this difficulty.\nAnother difficulty he met with, was the flat and inanimate style of the\ngenerality of the writers from whom his work was composed. Happy he must\nhave been, when the authors he had to consult were St. Jerome, Scipio,\nMaffei, Bouhours, or Marsollier. But most commonly they were such as\nmight edify but could not delight. He had then to trust to his own\nresources for that style, that arrangement, those reflections, which\nwere to engage his reader's attention. In this he has certainly\nsucceeded. Few authors on holy subject have possessed, in a higher\ndegree, that indescribable charm of style which rivets the reader's\nattention to the book, which never places the writer between the book\nand the reader, but insensibly leads him to the conclusion, sometimes\ndelighted, but always attentive and always pleased.\n\nHis style is peculiar to himself; it partakes more of the style of the\nwriters of the last century than of the style of the present age. It\npossesses great merit, but sometimes is negligent and loose. Mr. Gibbon\nmentioned it to the editor in warm terms of commendation; and was\nastonished when he heard how much of our author's life had been spent\nabroad. Speaking of our author's Lives of the Saints, (vol. iv. 457,) he\ncalls it \"a work of merit,--the sense and learning belong to the\nauthor--his prejudices are those of his profession.\" As it is known what\nprejudice means in Mr. Gibbon's vocabulary, our author's relatives\naccept the character.\n\nHaving lived so long in the schools, he must have had a strong\npredilection for some of the opinions agitated in them; and frequent\nopportunities of expressing it occurred in his work. He seems to have\ncautiously avoided them: a single instance, perhaps, is not to be found,\nwhere any thing of the kind is discoverable in any of his writings. He\nhas carefully brought before the reader every circumstance arising from\nhis subject, that could be offered in proof or illustration of the\nparticular tenets of the Roman Catholic church; but he does it without\naffectation, and rather leaves the reader to draw his own conclusions,\nthan suggests them to him. Those expressions which good manners and good\ntaste reject, are never to be found in his works.\n\nBut the chief merit of his works is, that they make virtue and devotion\namiable: he preaches penance, but he shows its rewards; he exhorts to\ncompunction, but he shows the sweetness of pious sorrow; he enforces\nhumility, but he shows the blessedness of a humble heart; he recommends\nsolitude, but he shows that God _is_ where the world is not. No one\nreads his work who does not perceive the happiness, even in this world,\nof a holy life, or who does not wish to die the death of a saint. Most\nreaders of it will acknowledge that, sometimes at least, when they have\nread it, every worldly emotion has died within them, and they have felt\nthemselves in a disposition of mind suited to receive the finest\nimpressions of religion.\n\nAt the finishing of his work he gave a very edifying instance of\nhumility. The manuscript of the first volume having been submitted to\nMr. Challoner, the vicar-apostolic of the London district, he\nrecommended the omission of all the notes, not {031} excepting that\nbeautiful note which gave an account of the writings of St. John\nChrysostom. His motive was, that, by being made less bulky, the work\nmight be made less expensive, and, consequently, more generally useful.\nIt is easy to suppose what it must have cost our author to consign to\noblivion the fruit of so much labor and so many vigils. He obeyed,\nhowever, and to this circumstance it is owing that, in the first\nedition, the notes in question were omitted.\n\nXI.\n\nXI. 1. It has been objected to our author's work on the Lives of the\nSaints, _that the system of devotion which is recommended by it, is, at\nbest, suited to the cloister_. But no work has ever appeared, in which\nthe difference between the duties of a man of the world and the duties\nof a religious is more strongly pointed out. Whenever the author has\noccasion to mention any action of any saint, which is extraordinary or\nsingular in its nature he always observes, that it is of a kind rather\nto be admired than imitated.\n\nXI. 2. It has been objected, _that the piety which it inculcates is of\nthe ascetic kind_, and that the spirit of penance, voluntary\nmortification, and contempt of the world, which it breathes everywhere,\nis neither required nor recommended by the gospel. But no difference can\nbe found between the spirit of piety inculcated by our author, and that\ninculcated by the most approved authors of the Roman Catholic church.\nLess of penance, of voluntary mortification, or of contempt of the\nworld, is not recommended by Rodriguez, by Thomas of Kempis, by St.\nFrancis of Sales, by Bourdaloue, or Massillon, than is recommended by\nour author. Speaking of those \"who confound nature with grace, and who\nlook on the cross of Jesus Christ as an object foreign to faith and\npiety;--It was not thus,\" says Massillon, in his sermon on the\nIncarnation, \"it was not thus that the apostles announced the gospel to\nour ancestors. _The spirit of the gospel is a holy eagerness of\nsuffering, an incessant attention to mortify self-love, to do violence\nto the will, to restrain the desires, to deprive the senses of useless\ngratifications; this is the essence of Christianity, the soul of piety_.\nIf you have not this spirit, you belong not, says the apostle, to Jesus\nChrist; it is of no consequence that you are not of the number of the\nimpure or sacrilegious of whom the apostle speaks, and who will not be\nadmitted into the kingdom of Christ. You are equally strangers to him;\nyour sentiments are not his; you still live according to nature; you\nbelong not to the grace of our Saviour; you will therefore perish, for\nit is on him alone, says the apostle, that the Father has placed our\nsalvation. A complaint is sometimes made that we render piety disgusting\nand impracticable, by prohibiting many pleasures which the world\nauthorizes. But, my brethren, what is it we tell you? allow yourselves\nall the pleasures which Christ would have allowed himself; faith allows\nyou no other; mix with your piety all the gratifications which Jesus\nChrist would have mixed in his; the gospel allows no greater\nindulgence--O my God, how the decisions of the world will one day be\nstrangely reversed! when worldly probity and worldly regularity, which,\nby a false appearance of virtue, give a deceitful confidence to so many\nsouls, will be placed by the side of the crucified Jesus, and will be\njudged by that model! To be always renouncing yourselves, rejecting what\npleases, regulating the most innocent wishes of the heart by the\nrigorous rules of the spirit of the gospel, is difficult, is a state of\nviolence. But if the pleasures of the senses leave the soul sorrowful,\nempty, and uneasy, the rigors of the cross make her happy. Penance heals\nthe wounds made by herself; like the mysterious bush in the scripture,\nwhile man sees only its thorns and briers, the glory of the Lord is\nwithin it, and the soul that possesses him possesses all. Sweet tears\nof penance! divine secret of grace! O that you were better known to the\nsinner!\" \"The pretended esprits forts,\" says Bourdaloue, in his sermon\non the scandal of the cross, and the humiliations of Jesus Christ, the\nnoblest of all his sermons, in the opinion of the cardinal de Maury, \"do\nnot relish the rigorous doctrines announced by the Son of God in his\ngospel; self-hatred, self-denial, severity to one's self. But when\nChrist established a religion for men, who were to acknowledge\nthemselves sinners and criminals, ought he, as St. Jerome asks, to have\npublished other laws? What is so proper for sin as penance? what is more\nof the nature of penance, than the sinner's harshness and severity to\nhimself? Is there any thing in this contrary to reason? They are\nastonished at his ranking poverty among the beatitudes; that he held up\nthe cross as an attraction to his disciples to follow him; that he\ndeclared a love of {032} contempt was preferable to the honors of the\nworld. In all this I see the depth of his divine counsels.\" Such is the\nlanguage of Bourdaloue and Massillon, preaching before a luxurious\ncourt, to the best-informed and most polished audience in the Christian\nworld. It is apprehended that no other language is found in our author's\nLives of the Saints.\n\nXI. 3. Some (but their number is small) have imputed to our author _too\nmuch credulity respecting miracles_. A chain of agiographists might be\nsupposed: on the first link of it we might place Surius, as possessing\nthe utmost degree of the belief of miracles, consistent with any degree\nof judgment; on the last we might place Baillet and Launoy, as\npossessing the utmost degree of the belief of miracles, consistent with\nany degree of deference to the general opinions of pious Catholics.\nBetween them we might place in succession, according to their respective\ndegrees of supposed belief, Ribadeneira, Baronius, the Bollandists,\nTillemont, and Fleury. With which of these writers shall we class our\nauthor? certainly neither with Surius, nor with Baillet or Launoy. The\nmiddle links represent those to whom the most liberal Roman Catholic\nwill not impute too much credulity, or the most credulous too much\nfreedom. Perhaps our author should rank with the Bollandists, the first\nof this middle class; and generally he who thinks with father Papebroke\non any subject of ecclesiastical literature, may be sure of thinking\nright. To those who wholly deny the existence of miracles these sheets\nare not addressed; but the Roman Catholic may be asked on what principle\nhe admits the evidence for the miracles of the three first centuries,\nand rejects the evidence for the miracles of the middle age; why he\ndenies to St. Austin, St. Gregory, the venerable Bede, or St. Bernard,\nthe confidence he places in St. Justin, St. Irenaeus, or Eusebius.\n\nXII.\n\nSome years after our author had published the Lives of the Saints, he\npublished the _Life of Mary of the Cross_; a nun in the English convent\nof the Poor Clares at Rouen. It is rather a vehicle to convey\ninstruction on various important duties of a religious life, and on\nsublime prayer, than a minute account of the life and actions of the\nnun. It was objected to this work, as it had been to the Saints' Lives,\nthat it inculcated a spirit of mystic prayer, the excesses of which had\nbeen formally condemned, and the propriety of which, even in a very\nqualified view of it, was doubtful.\n\nIt must be admitted by those who urge this objection, that, both in the\nSaints Lives and in the work of which we are speaking, our author uses\nvery guarded expressions. He always takes care to mention that, in the\npractices of devotion, as in every other practice, the common is the\nsafest road: that many of the greatest saints have, through the whole of\ntheir lives, confined themselves to the usual modes of prayer and\nmeditation; that the gift of contemplation is given to few; that, like\nevery other practice of devotion, contemplation has its dangers; and\nthat, without a perfect spirit of humility, it is much exposed to\nillusion; but he delivers, at the same time, an explicit opinion, that\ncontemplation is a gift of heaven; that the happiness of a soul on whom\nGod bestows it, is above description; and that every joy which this life\naffords is contemptible in comparison of it. This certainly is catholic\ndoctrine.\n\nIt is natural to suppose that, at a time when every art and science was\ndeluged in a quantity of barbarous words, and metaphysics were carried\ninto every subject, the doctrine of prayer would often be involved in\nsimilar intricacies and refinements. The fact certainly is, that many\nwriters of the middle age, on the subject of prayer, introduced into\ntheir writings a wonderful degree of metaphysical subtilty. But, if\ntheir doctrine be divested of those subtilties, and expressed in plain\nlanguage, it will be found that nothing in what our author, with other\nspiritualists, calls mystical theology, contradicts common sense. With\nthem he divides the progress of a Christian, in his advances towards\nperfection, into three stages, the purgative, the contemplative, and the\nunitive. In the first stage he places sinners on their first entrance,\nafter their conversion into a spiritual life; who bewail their sins, are\ncareful to avoid relapsing into them, endeavor to destroy their had\nhabits, to extinguish their passions; who fast, watch, prey, chastise\nthe flesh, mourn, and are blessed with a contrite and humble heart. In\nthe second stage he places those who divest themselves of earthly\naffections, study to acquire purity of heart, and a constant habit of\nvirtue, the true light of the soul; who {033} meditate incessantly on\nthe virtues and doctrines of Christ, and thereby inflame themselves to\nthe imitation of him. Those he supposes to be arrived at the third stage\nwhose souls, being thus illuminated, are united to God, and enjoy his\npeace which passeth understanding. According to our author, the prayer\nof a person who is arrived at the last stage, is very different from\nthat of a beginner in spiritual life. To present a pious subject to his\nmind, to place it in the various points of view in which it should be\nconsidered, to raise the devout sentiments which the consideration of it\nshould produce, and to form the resolutions which those sentiments\nshould inspire, must, our author observes, be a work of exertion to a\nbeginner. But when once he has arrived at that state of perfection as to\nhave detached himself from those objects which are the usual incitements\nto sin, and to which, from the natural propensity of the human heart,\nthe imaginations of man forcibly lead, and when an ardent love of\nvirtue, piety, and whatever relates to them, is habitual in her; then,\nour author supposes, that what before was exertion becomes the usual\nstate of the soul; a thousand causes of distraction cease to exist, and\nall the powers of the mind and affections of the heart rest with ease\nand pleasure on the subject of her meditation; God communicates to her\nhis perfections; he enlightens her in the mysteries of religion, and\nraises in her admirable sentiments of wonder and love. This our author\ncalls the prayer of contemplation. In process of time, he supposes that\nthe habit of devotion increases: that the soul acquires a stronger\naversion from every thing that withholds her from God, and a more ardent\ndesire of being united to him; and that, by continually meditating on\nthe sublime truths and mysteries of Christianity, she is disengaged from\nearthly affections, is always turned to God, and obtains a clearer view\nof his perfections, of her obligations to him, and of the motives which\nentitle him to her love. Then, according to our author, every thing\nwhich is not God becomes irksome to her, and she is united to him in\nevery action and every thought. At first, the soul, by our author's\ndescription, calls to her mind the presence of God; afterwards she\nhabitually recollects it; at length every thing else disappears, and she\nlives in him. Even in the first stage, when the sinner first turns from\nvice, and determinately engages in the practice of a virtuous life, our\nauthor pronounces that the comforts which she experiences in reflecting\non the happiness of the change, exceed the joys of this world: he\nsupposes her to say, in the words of Bourdaloue, (_Sur la Choix mutuel\nde Dieu et de l'Ame Religieuse_,) \"I have chosen God, and God has chosen\nme; this reflection is my support and my strength, it will enable me to\nsurmount every difficulty, to resist every temptation, to rise above\nevery chagrin and every disgust.\" From the moment this choice is made,\nhe supposes, with the same eloquent preacher, in his sermon for the\nfeast of St. Mary Magdalen, \"that the soul, exposed till then to all the\nvexations which the love of the world inevitably occasions, begins to\nenjoy a sweet tranquillity; conscience begins to experience the interior\njoy of pious hope and confidence in the mercies of God, and to feel the\nholy unction of grace; in the midst of her penitential austerities she\ncomforts and strengthens herself by the thought, that she is making some\nsatisfaction and atonement to God for her sins, that she is purifying\nher heart, and disposing it to receive the communications of heaven.\"\nThis comfort and sensation of happiness, he observes, must necessarily\nincrease as the charms of virtue are unveiled to the soul, and she\nacquires a continual habit of thinking on God. \"Who can express,\" he\nmakes the soul exclaim with the same author, \"the secret delights which\nGod bestows on a heart thus purified and prepared? how he enlightens\nher! how he inflames her with divine love! with what visitations he\nfavors her! what holy sentiments and transports he excites in her!\" but,\nwhen she lives for God alone, then, in our author's language, God\ncommunicates himself with her, and her happiness, as far as happiness is\nattainable in this life, is complete. Here, according to Thomas of\nKempis, (and what Catholic recuses his authority?) begins the\n_familiaritas stupenda nimis_. \"What is the hundred-fold of reward,\"\ncries Bourdaloue, (_Sermon sur le Renoncement Religieuse_,) \"that thou,\nO God, hast promised to the soul which has left every thing for thee? It\nis something more than I have said upon it: it is something that I\ncannot express; but it is something with which, sinful and weak as I am,\nGod has more than once favored me.\"--\"Thou promisedst me a\nhundred-fold,\" says St. Bernard: \"I feel it; thou hast more than\nperformed thy promise.\" _Necessitas good cogit, defendit_. In defence of\nour author, this short exposition of his doctrine seemed necessary: and\nit may be confidently asked {034} in what it differs from the doctrine\nof Rodriguez, of St. Francis de Sales, of Bourdaloue, or of many other\nauthors, in whom the universal opinion of the Catholic world recognises,\nnot only true devotion and piety, but extreme good sense and moderation.\nNor should it be forgotten that, if the prelates assembled at Issy, in\n1695, declared, (Art. 22,) \"that, without any extraordinary degrees of\nprayer, a person may become a very great saint,\" they had previously\ndeclared, (Art. 21,) \"that even those which are passive, and approved of\nby St. Francis of Sales and other spiritualists, cannot be rejected.\"\nThe authors on these subjects, whom our author particularly recommended,\nwere Balthazar, Alvarez de Paz, and St. Jure. The latter was one of the\nJesuits who came into England during the reign of Charles the First. His\nmost celebrated work is, a Treatise on the Knowledge and Love of God, in\nfive volumes,--a noble effusion of the sublimest piety. The only work by\nwhich he is known in this country is, his Life of the Baron de Renty:\nour author esteemed it much, but thought it censurable for mentioning,\nin terms of commendation, the mode in which the baron, to save his\nhonor, indirectly put himself in the way of fighting a duel.\n\nAnother spiritualist, whom our author greatly admired, was the\ncelebrated Henry Marie de Boudon. He frequently mentioned, in terms of\nthe highest admiration, the humility and resignation with which Boudon\nbore the calumnies of his prelate and fellow-clergy. He often related\nthat part of his life, when, being abandoned by the whole world, a poor\nconvent of religious received him into their house, and he knelt down to\nthank God that one human being still existed who was kindly disposed to\nhim. His writings are numerous: the style of them is not elegant, and\nthey abound with low expressions; but they contain many passages of\noriginal and sublime eloquence. Our author was also a great admirer of\nthe works of Father Surin, particularly his _Fondemens de la Vie\nSpirituelle_, edited by Father Bignon. In this species of writing, few\nworks, perhaps, will give the reader so much pleasure as the _Morale de\nl'Evangile_, in 4 vols. 8vo., by Father Neuvile, brother to the\ncelebrated preacher of that name. It is to be hoped that it will be\ntranslated into English.[1] Our author greatly lamented the consequences\nof the altercation between Fenelon and Bossuet. He thought the\ncondemnation which had been passed {035} on it on the abuses of\ndevotion, had brought devotion itself into discredit, and thrown a\nridicule on the holiness of an interior life. Of Fenelon he always spoke\nwith the highest respect. One of the editors of the last edition of his\nworks is now in England: he has declared that it appeared from Fenelon's\npapers, that his exertions, to the very last, to ward off the sentence\nof the condemnation of his works, were most active. This enhanced the\nvalue of his sacrifice. Our author thought that Valart had abundantly\nproved that Thomas of Kempis was not the author of the Imitation of\nChrist; but that he had not proved it to be written by Gersen, the abbot\nof Vercelli: he also differed from Valart in his opinion of the general\nmerit of the works of Thomas of Kempis; his treatises _De Tribus\nTabernaculis_ and _De Vera Compunctione_ (the latter particularly) he\nthought excellent.[2]\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  For this and many other valuable works we naturally look to\n    Stonyhurst. If the Musae Exulantes,[The title assumed by them, in the\n    preface to the Latin translation of Cato.] in the swamps of Bruges,\n    could produce an elegant and nervous translation of Cato, will their\n    notes be less strong or less sweet in their native land? May we not\n    expect from Stonyhurst other Petaviuses, other Sirmonds, other\n    Porees, future Strachans, future Stanleys, future Heskeys, future\n    Stricklands. If any of them would favor us with a translation of\n    Father Montreuil's _Vie de Jesus Christ_, he would supply the\n    English Catholic with the present desideratum of his library, an\n    interesting and accurate life of Christ. A literary history of the\n    gospels, showing the state of the text, and the grammatical\n    peculiarities of their idiom, and containing a short account of the\n    early versions, would be an invaluable work. The excellent\n    translation by Mr. Combes, the professor of divinity in St. Edmund's\n    College, of selected parts of St. Basil and St. John Chrysostom,\n    shows his ability to execute such a work, and leads us to hope it\n    for him. The mention of these gentlemen naturally makes us reflect\n    on the singular kindness shown by this country to the foreign\n    exiles. The editor begs leave to copy what has been said by him on\n    this subject in a small work entitled _Hors Biblicae_. After\n    mentioning some of the most splendid of the biblical exertions of\n    the English, the compiler of that work says, \"Yet, useful and\n    magnificent as these exertions have been, an edition of the New\n    Testament has lately appeared in this country, which, in one point\n    of view, eclipses them all. It has been our lot to be witnesses of\n    the most tremendous revolution that Christian Europe has known: a\n    new race of enemies to the Christian religion has arisen, and, from\n    Rome to Hungary, has struck at every altar and shaken every throne.\n    One of their first enormities was, the murder of a large proportion\n    of their clergy, and the banishment of almost the whole of the\n    remaining part. Some thousands of those respectable exiles found\n    refuge in England. A private subscription of 33,775_l_, 15_s_.\n    9-1/2_d_. was immediately made for them. When it was exhausted, a\n    second was collected, under the auspices of his majesty, and\n    produced 41,304_l_. 12_s_. 6-1/4_d_. Nor is it too much to say, that\n    the beneficence of individuals, whose charities on this occasion are\n    known to God alone, raised for the sufferers a sum much exceeding\n    the amount of the larger of the two subscriptions. When at length\n    the wants of the sufferers exceeded the measure of private charity,\n    government took them under its protection, and, though engaged to a\n    war exceeding all former wars in expense, appropriated, with the\n    approbation of the whole kingdom, a monthly allowance of about\n    8000_l_. for their support; an instance of splendid munificence and\n    systematic liberality, of which the annals of the world do not\n    furnish another example. The management of the contributions was\n    intrusted to a committee, of whom Mr. Wilmot, then one of the\n    members of parliament for the city of Coventry, was president: on\n    him the burden of the trust almost wholly fell, and his humanity,\n    judgment, and perseverance, in discharge of it, did honor to himself\n    and his country.\n\n    \"It should be observed, that the contributions we have mentioned are\n    exclusive of those which were granted for the relief of the lay\n    emigrants.\n\n    \"So suddenly had the unhappy sufferers been driven from their\n    country, that few of them had brought with them any of those books\n    of religion or devotion which their clerical character and habits of\n    prayer had made the companions of their past life, and which were to\n    become almost the chief comfort of their future years. To relieve\n    them from this misfortune, the University of Oxford, at her sole\n    expense, printed for them, at the Clarendon Press, two thousand\n    copies of the Latin Vulgate of the New Testament, from an edition of\n    Barbou, but this number not being deemed sufficient to satisfy the\n    demand, two thousand more copies were added, at the expense of the\n    marquess of Buckingham. Few will forget the piety, the blameless\n    demeanor, the long, patient suffering of these respectable men.\n    Thrown on a sudden into a foreign country, differing from theirs in\n    religion, language, manners, and habits, the uniform tenor of their\n    pious and unoffending lives procured them universal respect and\n    good-will. The country that received them has been favored. In the\n    midst of the public and private calamity which almost every nation\n    has experienced, Providence has crowned her with glory and honor;\n    peace has dwelt in her palaces, plenty within her wells; every\n    climate has been tributary to her commerce, every sea has been\n    witness of her victories.\"\n2.  Our author was a great admirer of the writings of Abraham Woodhead:\n    he purchased his manuscripts, and, by his will, bequeathed them to\n    the English College at Douay. Mr. Woodhead is one of the writers to\n    whom the celebrated _Whole Duty of Man_ has been attributed. On that\n    subject the editor is in possession of the following note in our\n    author's handwriting: \"Mr. Simon Berrington, who died in 1758,\n    endeavored to give Mr. Woodhead the honor of being the author of the\n    Whole Duty of Man, and other works of the same kind; but there is a\n    difference of style between them,--there occurring in the Whole Duty\n    of Man, and the other works of that author, scarce any parentheses,\n    with which all Mr. Woodhead's works abound. Nevertheless, certain it\n    is that Dr. John Pell, dean of Christ Church, (afterwards bishop of\n    Oxford,) who published the other works of the author of the Whole\n    Duty of Man, namely, the Ladies' Calling, the Art of Contentment,\n    the Government of the Tongue, the Lively Oracles given unto us, &c.,\n    in folio, at Oxford, in 1675-78, and wrote the preface which he\n    prefixed to this edition, and who was the only person then living\n    who knew the author of the Whole Duty of Man, gave this book of the\n    Whole Duty of Man to his bookbinder, and Hawkins, his bookseller in\n    London, with other pieces of Mr. Woodhead's, and ordered Mr.\n    Woodhead's name to be added to the title of this, as well as of the\n    other works which he gave to be bound. If Mr. Woodhead wrote that\n    celebrated work, it was before he travelled abroad, or had any\n    thoughts of embracing the Catholic faith.\" The same anecdote has\n    been mentioned to the editor by the late Mr. Challoner.\n\nXIII.\n\nSome time after our author's return to England, from his travels with\nMr. Edward Howard, he was chosen president of the English College at St.\nOmer's. That college was originally founded by the English Jesuits. On\nthe expulsion of the society from France, the English Jesuits shared the\nfate of their brethren.\n\nOn his being named to the presidency of the English college at St.\nOmer's, doubts were suggested to him on the justice or propriety of his\naccepting the presidency of a college which, in fact, belonged to\nothers. He advised with the bishop of Amiens and the bishop of Boulogne\nupon this point, and they both agreed in opinion that he might safely\naccept it.\n\nHe continued president of the college of St. Omer's till his decease. It\nwas expected by his friends, that his office of president would leave\nhim much time for his studies; but these expectations wholly failed. He\nwas immediately appointed vicar-general to the bishops of Arras, St.\nOmer's, Ipres, and Boulogne. This involved him in an immensity of\nbusiness; and, his reputation continually increasing, he was consulted\nfrom every part of France on affairs of the highest moment. The\nconsequence was, that, contrary to the wishes and expectations of his\nfriends, he never was so little master of his time as he was during his\nresidence at St. Omer's. The editor has been favored with the following\nletter, which will show the esteem in which our author was held by those\nwho, at the time we speak of, lived in habits of intimacy with him.\n\n\"You have occasioned me, sir, to experience a heartfelt satisfaction in\nallowing me an intercourse with you on the subject of the late Mr.\nButler, your uncle; and to communicate to you the particulars within my\nknowledge, concerning the life, the eminent virtues, and uncommon\nabilities of that celebrated gentleman. Never was I acquainted with any\nof my contemporaries who was at once so learned, so pious, so gentle, so\nmodest; and, whatever high opinion might be conceived of him from a\nperusal of his immortal work on the Lives of the Saints,--that\nmasterpiece of the most extensive erudition, of the most enlightened\ncriticism, and of that unction which commands the affections,--such an\nopinion is greatly inferior to the admiration which he inspired in those\npersons who, like myself, had the happiness to live in intimate\nconnection with him. The paternal kindness, and, I am bold {036} say it,\nthe tender friendship with which he honored my youth, have indelibly\nengraved on my heart the facts I am about to relate to you with the most\nscrupulous exactness. Monsieur de Conzie, now bishop of Arras, having\nbeen raised to the see of St. Omer's in 1766, caused me to be elected a\ncanon in his cathedral church: he nominated me one of his\nvicars-general, and I repaired thither on the 5th of October, 1767.\n\n\"That prelate, whose high reputation dispenses with my encomiums,\nmentioned your uncle to me on the very day of my arrival. 'I am here\npossessed,' said he; 'of a hidden treasure; and that is Mr. Butler, the\npresident of the English college. I for the first time saw him,' added\nhe, 'during the ceremony of my installation. He was kneeling on the\npavement in the midst of the crowd; his countenance and deportment had\nsomething heavenly in them: I inquired who he was, and upon his being\nnamed to me, I caused him, though reluctant, to be conducted to one of\nthe first stalls in the choir. I will entreat him,' said moreover the\nprelate, 'to favor you with his friendship: he shall be your counsel;\nyou cannot have a better.' I made answer, that Monsieur de Beaumont, the\nillustrious archbishop of Paris, in whose palace I had enjoyed the\ninvaluable benefit of passing two years, had often spoken of him to me\nin the most honorable terms; that he had commissioned me, at my\ndeparture, to renew to him the assurance of his particular esteem; and\nthat I would neglect nothing to be thought worthy of his benevolence.\n\n\"I was so happy as to succeed in it within a short time. His lordship,\nthe bishop, condescended to wish the joy of it, and intrusted me with\nthe design he had formed of honoring the assembly of his vicars-general,\nby making him our colleague. I was present when he delivered to him his\ncredentials; which moment will never forsake my remembrance. I beheld\nyour dear uncle suddenly casting himself at the prelate's knees, and\nbeseeching him, with tears in his eyes, not to lay that burden upon him.\n_Ah! my lord_, said he to him, _I am unable to fill so important a\nplace_; nor did he yield but upon an express command: _Since you require\nit shall be so_, said he, _I will obey; that is the first of my duties_.\nWhat an abundant source of reflections was this for me, who was then but\ntwenty-six years of age. It was then especially that I resolved to make\nup for my inexperience, by taking him for my guide who had been giving\nme that great example of Christian humility.\n\n\"The bishop had already showed him his confidence, by placing his own\nnephew in the English college, as also that of the bishop of Senlis, his\nfriend, and the son of one of his countrymen. I had the charge of\nvisiting them frequently. I used to send for them to dine with me on\nevery school holiday. If one of them had been guilty of a fault, the\npunishment I inflicted was, that he should desire Mr. Butler to keep him\nat home. But it almost always proved useless; he would himself bring me\nthe delinquent, and earnestly solicit his pardon; _Depend upon it_, said\nhe to me one day, _he will behave better for the future_. I asked him\nwhat proof he had of it. _Sir_, answered he, in the presence of the lad,\n_he has told me so_. I could not forbear smiling at such confidence in\nthe promises of a school-boy of ten years old; but was not long before I\nrepented. In a private conversation he observed to me, that one of the\nmost important rules in education is to impress children with a\npersuasion that the vices we would keep them from, such as lying and\nbreaking one's word, are too shocking to be thought possible. A maxim\nthis worthy of the great Fenelon, his beloved model, and which common\ntutors do not so much as surmise.\n\n\"Those three youths, our common functions of vicars-general, the\ndelightful company of your uncle, and the frequent need I had of drawing\nfrom that source of light, carried me almost every day to the English\ncollege. I could delineate to you, sir, his ordinary course of life in\nthe inward administration of that house; I could tell you of his\nassiduousness at all the exercises; of his constant watchfulness; of the\npublic and private exhortations he made to his pupils, with that\npersuasive eloquence we meet with in his writings; of his pious\nsolicitude for all their wants; and of their tender attachment to him.\nHis room was continually filled with them. He never put on the harsh end\nthreatening magisterial look: he was like a fond mother surrounded by\nher children; or he was rather, according to the expression, the eagle\nnot disdaining to teach her young ones to soar, and carrying {037} them\non her expanded wings, to save them from a fatal fall. But I leave to\nhis worthy co-operators the satisfaction of detailing to you those\nparticulars, which I only transiently beheld, and which I never saw\nwithout being affected. How many interesting anecdotes will they have to\nacquaint you with!\n\n\"Every instant that Mr. Butler did not dedicate to the government of his\ncollege he employed in study; and, when obliged to go abroad, he would\nread as he walked along the streets. I have met him with a book under\neach arm, and a third in his hands, and have been told that, travelling\none day on horseback, he fell a reading, giving the horse his full\nliberty. The creature used it to eat a few ears of corn that grew on the\nroad-side. The owner came in haste, swearing he would be indemnified.\nMr. Butler, who knew nothing of the damage done, no sooner perceived it,\nthan, blushing, he said to the countryman, with his usual mildness, that\nhis demand was just; he then draws out a louis d'or, and gives it to the\nfellow, who would have been very well satisfied with a few pence, makes\nrepeated apologies to him, easily obtains forgiveness, and goes on his\nway.\n\n\"Notwithstanding such constant application, the extensiveness of his\nknowledge was next to a prodigy. Whenever I happened to consult him on\nany extraordinary question, upon which the authors most familiar to us\nwere silent, he would take me to the library of the abbey of St. Bertin,\nwould ask for old writers, whose names I was scarce acquainted with, and\npoint out to me, even before I had opened them, the section and chapter\nin which I should find my difficulty solved.\n\n\"Nor would I have you think, sir, that the ecclesiastical sciences were\nthe only that he had applied to. A couple of anecdotes I am going to\nrelate, and which I could hardly have believed had I not been witness to\nthem, will prove to you that every kind of information was reunited in\nhis intellect, without the smallest confusion.\n\n\"Monsieur de Conzie, after his translation from the bishopric of St.\nOmer's to that of Arras, invited him to come and see him there. My\nbrother vicars and myself sought one day for a question which he should\nnot be able to answer, and thought we had found one. Accordingly, we\nasked him what was the name of a pear called, in French, _bon Chretien_,\nbefore the coming of Christ, and Christianity. _There are_, answered he,\n_two systems on that point_; and then quotes as two modern naturalists,\nsets forth their opinions, and unfolds to us the authorities with which\nthey backed them. I had the curiosity to ascertain one of those\nquotations, and found it accurate to a tittle.\n\n\"A few days after, the bishop of Arras, having his drawing-room filled\nwith company, Mr. President was announced. The bystanders thinking it to\nbe the first president of the council d'Artois, opened him a gangway to\ncome at the prelate; they behold a priest enter, whom, by his bashful\nand modest looks, they take for some country curate, and, by a\nsimultaneous motion, they close up the passage which they had made. The\nbishop, who had already descried his dear president of the English\ncollege, perceived also the motion and resolved to put the authors of it\nto the blush. He observed in one corner of the room a group of military\nmen; he goes up to them, and, finding they were conversing upon the\nquestion keenly debated at that time, whether in battle the _thin\norder_, observed in our days, be preferable to the _deep_ order of the\nancients; he called to Mr. Butler, and asked him what he thought of it.\nI then heard that amazing man talk on the art of war with the modest\ntone of a school-boy, and the depth of the most consummate military man.\nI observed admiration in the countenance of all those officers; and saw\nseveral of them, who, being too far off, stood up upon chairs to hear\nand see him. They altogether put to him questions upon questions, and\neach of his answers caused fresh applause.\n\n\"His lordship left us to go and join another group, consisting of\nmagistrates, who were discussing a point of common law; and, in like\nmanner, called upon his oracle, who, by the sagacity of his reflections,\nbore away all suffrages, and united their several opinions.\n\n\"The prelate, next, taking him by the hand, presented him to the ladies,\nseated round the fireplace, and asked him, whether the women in ancient\ntimes wore their head-dresses as high as ours then did. _Fashions_,\nanswered he, _like the spokes of a wheel turning on its axis, are always\nreplaced by those very ones which they have set aside_. He then\ndescribed to us the dresses, both of the men and women, in the various\nages of our monarchy: _and, to go still further back_, added he, _the\n{038} statue of a female Druid has been found, whose head-dress measured\nhalf a yard to height; I have been myself to see it, and have measured\nit._\n\n\"What astonished me most was, that studies so foreign to the\nsupernatural objects of piety, shed over his soul neither aridity nor\nlukewarmness. He referred all things to God, and his discourse always\nconcluded by some Christian reflections, which he skilfully drew from\nthe topic of the conversation. His virtue was neither minute nor\npusillanimous: religion had, in his discourse as well as in his conduct,\nthat solemn gravity which can alone make it worthy of the Supreme Being.\nEver composed, he feared neither contradictions nor adversities: he\ndreaded nothing but praises. He never allowed himself a word that could\ninjure any one's reputation; his noble generosity was such, that, as\noften as I happened to prize in his presence any one of his books, or of\nthe things belonging to him, I the same day found them in my possession.\nIn short, I will confess it, to my confusion, that for a long time I\nsought to discover a failing in him; and I protest, by all that is most\nsacred, that I never knew one in him. These are the facts, sir, you were\ndesirous of knowing; in the relation of which I have used no\nexaggeration, nor have had anything to dissemble. I have often related\nthese facts to my wondering friends, as a relief to my heart; and\nindeed, notwithstanding the distance of time, they recur as fresh to my\nremembrance as if just transacted before my eyes.\n\n\"I was at a distance from St. Omer's when death robbed me of my\nrespectable friend. Time has not alleviated the sorrow which the loss of\nhim fixed deeply in my breast. I have preciously preserved some of his\npresents, and carefully concealed them at my leaving France. May I one\nday find again those dear pledges of a friendship, the recollection of\nwhich is, in our calamities, the sweetest of my consolations. I have the\nhonor to be, with the highest regard, sir, your most obedient, &c.\n\n\"L'Abbe de la SEPOUZE.\n\n\"_At the Hague, December_ 30, 1794.\"\n\nDuring our author's stay at St. Omer's, a thesis was printed and\npublicly defended, in a neighboring university, which excited his\nattention. Mr. Joseph Berington presided at the defensions of it. It\ncertainly contained many propositions which were offensive to pious\nears; but respectable persons are said to have declared, that it\ncontained nothing materially contrary to the faith of the Roman Catholic\nchurch; and the editor feels it a duty incumbent on him to add, that one\nof the bishops, to whom our author was grand-vicar, mentioned to the\neditor, that he thought his vicar had shown too much vivacity on that\noccasion.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  Sieni aquila provocans ad volandam pullos suos et super eos\n    volians expandit alas suas--_Deuteron_. cap. 22.\n\nXIV.\n\nBoth from our author's letters, and from what is recollected of his\nconversations, it appears that he often explicitly declared that, if\npowerful measures were not adopted to prevent it, a _revolution in\nFrance_ would take place, both in church and state. He thought\nirreligion, and a general corruption of manners, gained ground\neverywhere. On the decay of piety in France, he once mentioned in\nconfidence to the editor a circumstance so shocking, that even after\nwhat has publicly happened, the editor does not think himself\njustifiable in mentioning it in this place. He seems to have augured\nwell on the change of ministry which took place on the expulsion of the\nChoiseuls. He was particularly acquainted with the cardinal de Bernis,\nand the mareschal de Muy. Of the latter he writes thus in one of his\nletters. \"Mr. de Muy, who has sometimes called upon me, and often writes\nto me, as the most affectionate of friends, is unanimously called the\nmost virtuous and upright nobleman in the kingdom. The late dauphin's\nprojects in favor of religion he will endeavor to execute. He is\nminister of war. The most heroic piety will be promoted by him by every\nmethod: if I gave you an account of his life, you would be charmed by so\nbright a virtue.\"\n\nXV.\n\nOur author had _projected many works_ besides those which we have\nmentioned. Among them his Treatise on the _Moveable Feasts_ may be\nreckoned. He very much lamented that he had not time to complete: what\nhe had prepared of it, he thought too prolix, and, if he had lived to\nrevise it, he would have made great alterations in it. Some time after\nhis decease, it was published under the inspection of Mr. Challoner. He\nproposed writing the lives of bishop Fisher and sir Thomas {039} More,\nand had made great collections, with a view to such a work: some of them\nare in the hands of the editor, and are at the command of any person to\nwhom they can be of use. He had begun a treatise to explain and\nestablish the truths of _natural and revealed religion_; he was\ndissatisfied with what Bergier had published on those subjects. He\ncomposed many _sermons_, and an immense number of _pious discourses_.\nFrom what remained of the three last articles, _the three volumes of his\ndiscourses_, which have appeared since his decease, were collected. The\neditor is happy in this opportunity of mentioning his obligations to the\nRev. Mr. Jones, for revising and superintending the publication of them.\nThey are acknowledged to possess great merit; the morality of them is\nentitled to great praise; the discourse on conversation shows a\nconsiderable knowledge of life and manners. Having mentioned his\nsermons, it is proper to add, that as a preacher he almost wholly\nfailed. His sermons were sometimes interesting and pathetic; but they\nwere always desultory, and almost always immeasurably long. The editor\nhas lately published his _Short Life of Sir Toby Matthews_.\n\nHe was very communicative of his manuscripts, and consequently many of\nthem were lost; so that, on an attentive examination of them, after his\ndecease, none but those we have mentioned were thought fit for the\npress.\n\nXVI.\n\nThe number of _letters_ written by our author exceeds belief; if they\ncould be collected, they would be found to contain an immense mass of\ninteresting matter on many important topics of religion and literature.\nHe corresponded with many persons of distinction, both among the\ncommunicants with the see of Rome, and the separatists from her. Among\nthe former may be reckoned the learned and elegant Lambertini, who\nafterwards, under the name of Benedict XIV., was honored with the papal\ncrown: among the latter may be reckoned Dr. Louth, the bishop first of\nOxford, afterwards of London, the celebrated translator of Isaiah. In a\nLatin note on Michaelis, our author speaks of that prelate as his\nintimate acquaintance, \"_necessitate conjunctissimus_.\"\n\nHe had the happiness to enjoy the friendship and esteem of many persons\ndistinguished by rank, talents, or virtue. The holy bishop of Amiens\nspoke of him in the highest terms of admiration and regard. In the life\nwritten in French of that excellent prelate, he is mentioned \"as the\nmost learned man in Europe.\" He is styled by father Brotier, in his\npreface to his edition of Tacitus, \"sacra eruditione perceleber.\" The\nlate Mr. Philips, in the preface to his life of cardinal Pole,\nmentioning the edition of his letters by cardinal Quirini, expresses\nhimself thus: \"They were procured for the author by Mr. Alban Butler, to\nwhom the public is indebted for the most useful and valuable work which\nhas appeared in the English language on the Lives of the Saints, and\nwhich has been so much esteemed in France, that it is now translating\ninto the language of a country celebrated for biography, with large\nadditions by the author. This gentleman's readiness on all occasions to\nassist the author in his undertaking, was answerable to his extensive\nknowledge and general acquaintance with whatever has any relation to\nerudition.\" Our author was not satisfied with the French translation of\nhis work: the writers professed to translate it freely; but he thought\nthat they abused the privilege of free translation, that they\nmisrepresented his meaning, that their style was affected, and that the\ndevotional cast which he had labored to give the original, was wholly\nlost in their translation. The editor has heard that a translation of it\nwas begun in the Spanish and Italian languages, but he has seen no such\ntranslation. Dr. Kennicot spoke loudly of our author's readiness and\ndisinterested zeal to oblige. Even the stern Mr. Hollis mentions him in\nhis memoirs with some degree of kindness. No person was more warmly\nattached to his friends. With his affectionate and generous disposition,\nno one was more sensible of unkindness than he was; but none forgave it\nmore readily. It was his rule to cultivate those who were inimical to\nhim by every mark of attention and act of kindness; and rather to seek\nthan avoid an intercourse with them. His incessant attention to his\nstudies frequently made him absent in society: this sometimes produced\nwhimsical incidents.\n\nWhatever delight he found in his literary pursuits, he never sacrificed\nhis religious duties to them, or permitted them to trespass on _his\nexercises of devotion_. Huet, whom, from his resemblance to our author\nin unremitted application to study, the editor has often had occasion to\nmention, laments his own contrary conduct in {040} very feeling terms:\n\"I was entirely carried,\" says he, (_De Rebus ad eum Pertinentibus_,\n174,) \"by the pleasure found in learning: the endless variety which it\naffords had taken up my thoughts, and seized all the avenues of my mind,\nthat I was altogether incapable of any sweet and intimate communication\nwith God. When I withdrew into religious retirement, in order to\nrecollect my scattered thoughts, and fix them on heavenly things, I\nexperienced a dryness and insensibility of soul by which the Holy Spirit\nseemed to punish this excessive bent to learning.\" This misfortune our\nauthor never experienced. A considerable portion of his time was devoted\nto prayer. When it was in his power, he said mass every day; when he\ntravelled, he rose at a very early hour, that he might hear it: he never\nneglected the prayer of the _Angelus_, and, when he was not in the\ncompany of strangers, he said it on his knees. He recommended a frequent\napproach to the sacrament of the altar: some, under his spiritual\ndirection, communicated almost every day. The _morale severe_ of the\nJansenists he strongly reprobated in discourse, and no person receded\nfurther from it in practice: but he was an admirer of the style of the\ngentlemen of Port Royal, and spoke with praise of their general practice\nof avoiding the insertion of the pronoun _I_ in their writings. He\nthought the Bible should not be read by very young persons, or by those\nwho were wholly uninformed: even the translation of the whole divine\noffice of the church he thought should not be given to the faithful\npromiscuously. In the printed correspondence of Fenelon, a long letter\nby him on frequent communion, and one on reading the Bible, (they\ndeserve to be translated and generally read,) express exactly our\nauthor's sentiments on those subjects. All singularity in devotion was\noffensive to him. He exhorted every one to a perfect discharge of the\nordinary duties of his situation, to a conformity to the divine will,\nboth in great and little occasions, to good temper and mildness in his\nintercourse with his neighbor, to an habitual recollection of the divine\npresence, to a scrupulous attachment to truth, to retirement, to extreme\nsobriety. These, he used to say, were the virtues of the primitive\nChristians, and among them, he said, we should always look for perfect\nmodels of Christian virtue. Fleury's account of them, in his _Manners of\nthe Christians_, he thought excellent, and frequently recommended the\nperusal of it. He exhorted all to devotion to the Mother of God; many,\nunder his care, said her office every day. The advantage of mental\nprayer he warmly inculcated. In the conduct of souls he was all mildness\nand patience: motives of love were oftener in his mouth than motives of\nfear: \"for to him that loves, nothing,\" he used to say, with the author\nof the Imitation of Christ, \"is difficult.\" He often sacrificed his\nstudies and private devotions to the wants of his neighbor. When it was\nin his power he attended the ceremony of the _salut_ at the parish\nchurch; and on festivals particularly solemnized by any community of the\ntowns in which he resided, he usually assisted at the divine service in\ntheir churches. He was very abstemious in his diet; and considered\nsystematic sensuality as the ultimate degradation of human nature. He\nnever was heard to express so much disgust, as at conversations where,\nfor a great length of time, the pleasures of the table, or the\ncomparative excellence of dishes, had been the sole topic of\nconversation; yet he was very far from being an enemy to rational mirth,\nand he always exerted himself to entertain and promote the pleasures of\nhis friends. In all his proceedings he was most open and unreserved:\nfrom selfishness none could be more free. Dr. Kennicot often said that,\nof the many he had employed in his great biblical undertaking, none had\nshown more activity or more disinterestedness than our author. He was\nzealous in the cause of religion, but his zeal was without bitterness or\nanimosity: polemic acrimony was unknown to him. He never forgot that in\nevery heretic he saw a brother Christian; in every infidel he saw a\nbrother man. He greatly admired _Drouen de Sacramentis_, and _Boranga's\nTheology_. _Tournely_ he preferred much to his antagonist _Billouart_.\nHe thought _Houbigant_ too bold a critic, and objected some novelties to\nthe _Hebraizing friars of the Rue St. Honore_. He believed the letters\nof Ganganelli, with the exception of two or three at most, to be\nspurious. Their spuriousness has been since placed beyond controversy by\nthe _Diatribe Clementine_, polished in 1777. _Caraccioli_, the editor of\nthem, in his _Remerciement a l'Auteur de l'Annee Litteraire de la part\nde l'Editeur des Lettres du Pape Ganganelli_, acknowledges that he filled\nsixty pages at least of them with thoughts and insertions of his own\ncompositions. In the handwriting of a gentleman, remarkable for his\ngreat accuracy, the editor has before him the following {041} account of\nour author's sentiments on usury: \"Mr. Alban Butler's opinion of\nreceiving interest for money, in a letter dated the 20th of June, 1735,\nbut copied anno 1738.--In England, and in some other countries, the laws\nallow of five per cent., and even an action at law for the payment of\nit. This is often allowable in a trading country; and, as it is the\ncommon practice in England, I shall not blame any one for taking or even\nexacting interest-money; therefore will say nothing against it in\ngeneral: but, in my own regard, I am persuaded it is not warrantable in\nconscience, but in three cases; viz. either for a gain ceasing, as\nmerchants lend money which they would otherwise employ in trade, _lucrum\ncessans_: or, secondly, some detriment the lender suffers by it, _damnum\nemergens_: or, thirdly, some hazard in the principal money, by its being\nexposed to some more than ordinary danger in being recovered safely.\nSome time afterwards the said Alban Butler was convinced there was no\noccasion of scruple in receiving interest for money, so that it was at a\nmoderate or low rate of interest; and that there was reason to believe\nthe borrower made full the advantage of the money that he paid for it by\nthe interest.\"\n\nOur author's love of learning continued with him to the last. Literary\ntopics were frequently the subject of his familiar conversation. He was\na great admirer of what is called the simple style of writing; and once\nmentioned that, if he could acquire a style by wishing for it, he should\nwish for that of Herodotus. He thought the orator appeared too much in\nCicero's philosophical works, except his Offices; that work he\nconsidered to be one of the most perfect models of writing which have\ncome down to us from antiquity. He professed to discover the man of high\nbreeding and elegant society in the commentaries of Caesar; and to find\nexpressions in the writings of Cicero which showed a person accustomed\nto address a mob, the _foex Romani populi_. He believed the works of\nPlato had been much interpolated; and once mentioned, without blame,\nfather Hardouin's opinion that they were wholly a fabrication of the\nmiddle age. Of the modern Latin poets, he most admired Wallius, and in\nan illness desired his poems to be read to him. He himself sometimes\ncomposed Latin poetry. He preferred the _Paradisus Animae_ to its rival\nprayer-book, the _Coeleste Palmetum_. Of the last he spoke with great\ncontempt. The little rhyming offices, which fill a great part of it, are\nnot very interesting; but the explanation in it of the psalms in our\nLady's office, of the psalms in the office for the dead, of the gradual\nand seven penitential psalms, and of the psalms sung at vespers and\ncomplin, is excellent. A person would deserve well of the English\nCatholics who should translate it into English. The Coeleste Palmetum\nwas the favorite prayer-book of the Low Countries. By Foppen's\n_Bibliotheca Belgica_, it appears that the first edition of it was\nprinted at Cologne, in 1660, and that, during the first eight years\nafter its publication, more than 14,000 copies of it were sold. Most\nreaders will be surprised, when they are informed that our author\npreferred the sermons of Bossuet to those of Bourdaloue but in this he\nhas not been absolutely singular; the celebrated cardinal de Maury has\navowed the same opinion; and, what is still more extraordinary, it has\nalso been avowed by father Neuville. Bossuet's Discourse upon Universal\nHistory may be ranked among the noblest efforts of human genius that\never issued from the press. In the chronological part of it, the scenes\npass rapidly but distinctly; almost every word is a sentence, and every\nsentence presents an idea, or excites a sentiment of the sublimest kind.\nThe third part of it, containing his reflections on the events which\nproduced the rise and fall of the ancient empires of the earth, is not\ninferior to the celebrated work of Montesquieu on the greatness and fall\nof the Roman empire; but, in the second part, the genius of Bossuet\nappears in its full strength. He does not lead his reader through a maze\nof argumentation; he never appears in a stretch of exertion; but, with a\ncontinued splendor of imagery, magnificence of language, and vehemence\nof argument, which nothing can withstand, he announces the sublime\ntruths of the Christian religion, and the sublime evidence that supports\nthem, with a grandeur and force that overpower and disarm resistance.\nSomething of this is to be found in many passages of his sermons; but,\nin general, both the language and the arguments of them are forced and\nunnatural. His letters to the nuns are very interesting. Let those who\naffect to talk slightingly of the devotions of the religious, recollect\nthat the sublime Bossuet bestowed a considerable portion of his time\nupon them. The same pen that wrote the discourse on universal history,\nthe funeral oration of the prince of Conde, and the History of the\nVariations, was at the command of every religious who requested {042}\nfrom Bossuet a letter of advice or consolation. \"Was he at Versailles,\nwas he engaged on any literary work of importance, was he employed on a\npastoral visit of his diocese, still,\" say the Benedictine editors of\nhis works, \"he always found time to write to his correspondents on\nspiritual concerns.\" In this he had a faithful imitator in our author.\nNo religious community addressed themselves to him who did not find in\nhim a zealous director, an affectionate and steady friend. For several\namong the religious he had the highest personal esteem. Those who\nremember him during his residence at St. Omer's, will recollect his\nsingular respect for Mrs. More, the superior of the English convent of\nAustins at Bruges. He was, in general, an enemy to the private pensions\nof nuns; (see Boudon's Letter _Sur le Relachement qui s'est introduit\ndans l'Observation du Voeu de Pauvrete_, Lettres de Boudon, vol. 1, p.\n500;) but in this, as in every other instance, he wished the reform,\nwhen determined upon, to proceed gently and gradually.\n\nAll who leave had an opportunity of observing the English communities\nsince their arrival in this country, have been edified by their amiable\nand heroic virtues. Their resignation to the persecution which they have\nso undeservedly suffered, their patience, their cheerfulness, their\nregular discharge of their religious observances, and, above all, their\nnoble confidence in Divine Providence, have gained them the esteem of\nall who know them. At a village near London, a small community of\nCarmelites lived for several months, almost without the elements of\nfire, water, or air. The two first (for water, unfortunately, was there\na vendible commodity) they could little afford to buy; and from the last\n(their dress confining them to their shed) they were excluded. In the\nmidst of this severe distress, which no spectator could behold unmoved,\nthey were happy. Submission to the will of God, fortitude, and\ncheerfulness, never deserted them. A few human tears would fall from\nthem when they thought of their convent; and with gratitude, the finest\nof human feelings, they abounded; in other respects they seemed of\nanother world. \"Whatever,\" says Dr. Johnson, \"withdraws us from the\npower of our senses; whatever makes the past, the distant, or the\nfuture, predominate over the present, advances us in the dignity of\nhuman beings.\" It would be difficult to point out persons to whom this\ncan be better applied than these venerable ladies, whose lives are more\ninfluenced by the past, the distant, or the future, or so little\ninfluenced by the present.\n\nOur author was not so warm on any subject as the calumnies against the\nreligious of the middle age: he considered the civilization of Europe to\nbe owing to them. When they were charged with idleness, he used to\nremark the immense tracts of land, which, from the rudest state of\nnature, they converted to a high state of husbandry in the Hercynian\nwood, the forests of Champagne and Burgundy, the morasses of Holland,\nand the fens of Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire. When ignorance was\nimputed to them, he used to ask, what author of antiquity had reached\nus, for whose works we were not indebted to the monks. He could less\nendure that they should be considered as instruments of absolute power\nto enslave the people: when this was intimated, he observed that, during\nthe period which immediately followed the extinction of the Carlovingian\ndynasty, when the feudal law absolutely triumphed over monarchy, the\npeople were wholly left to themselves, and must have sunk into an\nabsolute state of barbarism, if it had not been for the religious\nestablishments. Those, he said, softened the manners of the conquerors,\nafforded refuge to the vanquished, preserved an intercourse between\nnations: and, when the feudal chiefs rose to the rank of monarchs, stood\nas a rampart between them and the people. He thought St. Thomas of\nCanterbury a much injured character. He often pointed out that rich\ntract of country, which extends from St. Omer's to Liege, as a standing\nrefutation of those who asserted that convents and monasteries were\ninimical to the populousness of a country: he observed, that the whole\nincome of the smaller houses, and two-thirds of the revenues of the\ngreater houses, were constantly spent within twenty miles round their\nprecincts; that their lands were universally let at low rents; that\nevery abbey had a school for the instruction of its tenants, and that no\nhuman institution was so well calculated to promote the arts of\npainting, architecture, and sculpture, works in iron and bronze, and\nevery other species of workmanship, as abbeys or monasteries, and their\nappendages. \"Thus,\" he used to say, \"though the country in view was\noriginally a marsh, and has for more than a century wholly survived its\ncommerce, it is the most populous country in Europe; and presents on the\nface of it as great a display {043} of public and private strength,\nwealth, and affluence, as can be found in any other part of the world.\"\nFortunately for him, he did not live to be witness to the domiciliary\nvisit which, in our times, it has received from France. What would he\nhave thought, if any person had told him, that, before the expiration of\nthe century in which he lived, the French themselves would, in perfect\nhatred of Christ, destroy the finest churches of France? At their\nprofanation of his favorite church of St. Bertin, in the town of St.\nOmer's, that is said to have happened which Victor Vitensis relates to\nhave happened in the persecution of the Vandals, (Hist. Pers. Van. 31:)\n\"Introeuntes maximo cum furore, corpus Christi et sanguinem pavimento\nsparserunt, et illud pollutis pedibus calcaverunt.\"\n\nXVII.\n\nOur author enjoyed through life a good state of health, but somewhat\nimpaired it by intense application to study. Some years before his\ndecease he had a slight stroke of the palsy, which affected his speech.\nHe died on the 15th of May, 1773, in the sixty-third year of his age. A\ndecent monument of marble was raised to his memory in the chapel of the\nEnglish college at St. Omer's, with the following inscription upon it,\ncomposed by Mr. Bannister:\n\nHic jacet\nR. D. Albanus Butler (Bouteillier) Praenobilis Angius.\nSacerdos et Alumnus Collegii Anglorum Duaci.\nIbidem S. T. Professor, Postmodum Missionarius in Patria.\nPraeses II. Collegii Regii Anglorum Audomari.\nVicarius Generalis\nIllustrissimorum Philomelien. Deboren. Atrebaten. Audomarea\nEx vetusta Ortus prosapia\nIn utrisque Angliae et Galliae Regnis\nAmpla et Florente.\nSuavissimis Moribus,\nSummis acceptissimus, Infimis benignus,\nOmnium necessitatibus inserviens,\nPro Deo.\n\nPropter Doctrinam et Ingenium, Doctissimis,\nPropter Pietatem, Bonis omnibus,\nPercharus.\n\nNobilissimaee Juventutis Institutionem,\nSacrarum Virginum curam,\nReverendissimorum Antistitum negotia,\nSuscepit, promovit, expedivit,\nOpera, Scriptis, Hortatubus.\nSanctorum rebus gestis a Puentia inhaerens,\nActa omnia pernoscens,\nMentem et Sapientiam alte imbibens.\nMulta scripsit de Sanctorum vitis,\nPlena Sanctorum Spiritu, librata judicio, polita stylo,\nSummae ubertatis et omnigenae eruditiouis.\nApastolicae sedis et omnis officii semper observantissimus.\nPie obiit 15 Mensis Maii 1773.\nNatus annis 63.\nSacerdos 39.\nPraeses 7\nHoc m[oe]rens posuit Carolus Butler\nMonumentum Pietatis sum in Patruum Amantissimum.\n\n{044 blank}\n{045}\n\nPREFACE\n\nAs in corporal distempers a total loss of appetite, which no medicines\ncan restore, forebodes certain decay and death; so in the spiritual life\nof the soul, a neglect or disrelish of pious reading and instruction is\na most fatal symptom. What hopes can we entertain of a person to whom\nthe science of virtue and of eternal salvation doth not seem\ninteresting, or worth his application? \"It is impossible,\" says St.\nChrysostom,[1] \"that a man should be saved, who neglects assiduous pious\nreading or consideration. Handicraftsmen will rather suffer hunger and\nall other hardships than lose the instruments of their trade, knowing\nthem to be the means of their subsistence.\" No less criminal and\ndangerous is the disposition of those who misspend their precious\nmoments in reading romances and play-books, which fill the mind with a\nworldly spirit, with a love of vanity, pleasure, idleness, and trifling;\nwhich destroy and lay waste all the generous sentiments of virtue in the\nheart, and sow there the seeds of every vice, which extend their baneful\nroots over the whole soil. Who seeks nourishment from poisons? What food\nis to the body, that our thoughts and reflections are to the mind: by\nthem the affections of the soul are nourished. The chameleon changes its\ncolor as it is affected by sadness, anger, or joy; or by the color upon\nwhich it sits: and we see an insect borrow its lustre and hue from the\nplant or leaf upon which it feeds. In like manner, what our meditations\nand affections are, such will our souls become, either holy and\nspiritual or earthly and carnal. By pious reading the mind is instructed\nand enlightened, and the affections of the heart are purified and\ninflamed. It is recommended by St. Paul as the summary of spiritual\nadvice.[2] Devout persons never want a spur to assiduous reading or\nmeditation. They are insatiable in this exercise, and, according to the\ngolden motto of Thomas a Kempis, they find their chief delight _in a\ncloset, with a good book_.[3] Worldly and tepid Christians stand\ncertainly in the utmost need of this help to virtue. The world is a\nwhirlpool of business, pleasure, and sin. Its torrent is always beating\nupon their hearts, ready to break in and bury them under its flood,\nunless frequent pious reading and consideration oppose a strong fence to\nits waves. The more deeply a person is immersed in its tumultuous cares,\nso much the greater ought to be his solicitude to find leisure to\nbreathe, after the fatigues and dissipation of business and company; to\nplunge his heart, by secret prayer, in the ocean of the divine\nimmensity, and, by pious reading, to afford his soul some spiritual\nrefection; as the wearied husbandman, returning from his labor, recruits\nhis spent vigor and exhausted strength, by allowing his body necessary\nrefreshment and repose.\n\nThe lives of the saints furnish the Christian with a daily spiritual\nentertainment, {046} which is not less agreeable than affecting and\ninstructive. For in sacred biography the advantages of devotion and\npiety are joined with the most attractive charms of history. The method\nof forming men to virtue by example, is, of all others, the shortest,\nthe most easy, and the best adapted to all circumstances and\ndispositions. Pride recoils at precepts, but example instructs without\nusurping the authoritative air of a master; for, by example, a man seems\nto advise and teach himself. It does its work unperceived, and therefore\nwith less opposition from the passions, which take not the alarm. Its\ninfluence is communicated with pleasure. Nor does virtue here appear\nbarren and dry as in discourses, but animated and living, arrayed with\nall her charms, exerting all her powers, and secretly obviating the\npretences, and removing the difficulties which self-love never fails to\nraise. In the lives of the saints we see the most perfect maxims of the\ngospel reduced to practice, and the most heroic virtue made the object\nof our senses, clothed as it were with a body, and exhibited to view in\nits most attractive dress. Here, moreover, we are taught the means by\nwhich virtue is obtained, and learn the precipices and snares which we\nare to shun, and the blinds and by-ways in which many are bewildered and\nmisled in its pursuit. The example of the servants of God points out to\nus the true path, and leads us as it were by the hand into it, sweetly\ninviting and encouraging us to walk cheerfully in the steps of those\nthat are gone before us.\n\nNeither is it a small advantage that, by reading the history of the\nsaints, we are introduced into the acquaintance of the greatest\npersonages who have ever adorned the world, the brightest ornaments of\nthe church militant, and the shining stars and suns of the triumphant,\nour future companions in eternal glory. While we admire the wonders of\ngrace and mercy, which God hath displayed in their favor, we are\nstrongly moved to praise his adorable goodness. And, in their\npenitential lives and holy maxims, we learn the sublime lessons of\npractical virtue, which their assiduous meditation on the divine word,\nthe most consummate experience in their deserts, watchings, and commerce\nwith heaven, and the lights of the Holy Ghost, their interior Master,\ndiscovered to them. But it is superfluous to show from reason the\neminent usefulness of the example, and the history of the saints, which\nthe most sacred authority recommends to us as one of the most powerful\nhelps to virtue. It is the admonition of St. Paul, that we remember our\nholy teachers, and that, having the end of their conversation before our\neyes, we imitate their faith.[4]\n\nFor our instruction the Holy Ghost himself inspired the prophets to\nrecord the lives and actions of many illustrious saints in the holy\nscriptures. The church could not, in a more solemn manner, recommend to\nus to have these great models often before our eyes, than by inserting\nin her daily office an abstract of the lives of the martyrs and other\nsaints; which constant sacred custom is derived from the primitive ages,\nin which the histories of the martyrs were publicly read at the divine\noffice, in the assemblies of the faithful, on their annual festivals.\nThis is testified of the acts of St. Polycarp in the life of St.\nPionius, and, by St. Austin,[5] of those of SS. Perpetua and Felicitas,\n&c. The council of Africa, under Aurelius, archbishop of Carthage, in\n397, mentions the acts of the martyrs being allowed to be read in the\nchurch on their anniversary days.[6] St. Caesarius permitted persons that\nwere sick and weak, to hear the histories of the martyrs sitting, when\nthey were of an uncommon length; but complained that some who were\nhealthful unreasonably took the same liberty.[7]\n\n{047}\n\nAll great masters of a spiritual life exceedingly extol the advantages\nwhich accrue to souls from the devout reading of the lives of eminent\nsaints; witness St. Nilus,[8] St. Chrysostom, and others. Many fathers\nhave employed their pens in transmitting down to posterity the actions\nof holy men. And the histories of saints were the frequent entertainment\nand delight of all pious persons, who ever found in them a most powerful\nmeans of their encouragement and advancement in virtue, as St.\nBonaventure writes of St. Francis of Assisium. \"By the remembrance of\nthe saints, as by the touch of glowing stones of fire, he was himself\nenkindled, and converted into a divine flame.\" St. Stephen of Grandmont\nread their lives every day, and often on his knees. The abbot St.\nJunian, St. Antoninus, St. Thomas, and other holy men are recorded to\nhave read assiduously the lives of the saints, and by their example to\nhave daily inflamed themselves with fervor in all virtues. St. Boniface\nof Mentz sent over to England for books of the lives of saints,[9] and,\nby reading the acts of the martyrs, animated himself with the spirit of\nmartyrdom. This great apostle of Germany, St. Sigiran and others, always\ncarried with them in their journeys the acts of the martyrs, that they\nmight read them wherever they travelled. It is related of St. Anastasius\nthe martyr, that \"while he read the conflicts and victories of the\nmartyrs, he watered the book with his tears, and prayed that he might\nsuffer the like for Christ. And so much was he delighted with this\nexercise that he employed in it all his leisure hours.\" St. Teresa\ndeclares how much the love of virtue was kindled in her breast by this\nreading, even when she was a child. Joseph Scaliger, a rigid Calvinist\ncritic, writes as follows on the acts of certain primitive martyrs:[10]\n\"The souls of pious persons are so strongly affected in reading them,\nthat they always lay down the book with regret. This every one may\nexperience in himself. I with truth aver, that there is nothing in the\nwhole history of the church with which I am so much moved: when I read\nthem I seem no longer to possess myself.\"\n\nIt would be very easy to compile a volume of the remarkable testimonies\nof eminent and holy men concerning this most powerful help to virtue,\nand to produce many examples of sinners, who have been converted by it\nto an heroic practice of piety. St. Austin mentions two courtiers who\nwere moved on the spot to forsake the world, and became fervent monks,\nby accidentally reading the life of St. Antony.[11] St. John Columbin,\nfrom a rich, covetous, and passionate nobleman, was changed into a\nsaint, by casually reading the life of St. Mary of Egypt.[12] The duke\nof Joyeuse, marshal of France, owed his perfect conversion to the\nreading of the life of St. Francis Borgia, which his servant had one\nevening laid on the table. To these the example of St. Ignatius of\nLoyola, and innumerable others might be added. Dr. Palafox, the pious\nBinni of Osma, in his preface to the fourth tome of the letters of St.\nTeresa, relates, that an eminent Lutheran minister at Bremen, famous for\nseveral works which he had printed against the Catholic church,\npurchased the life of St. Teresa, written by herself, with a view of\nattempting to confute it; but, by attentively reading it over, was\nconverted to the Catholic faith, and from that time led a most edifying\nlife. The examples of Mr. Abraham Woodhead and others were not less\nillustrious.\n\nBut, to appeal to our own experience--who is not awakened from his\nspiritual lethargy, and confounded at his own cowardice, when he\nconsiders the fervor and courage of the saints? All our pretences and\nfoolish objections are silenced, when we see the most perfect maxims of\nthe gospel {048} demonstrated to be easy by example. When we read how\nmany young noblemen and tender virgins have despised the world, and\njoyfully embraced the cross and the labors of penance, we feel a glowing\nflame kindled in our own breasts, and are encouraged to suffer\nafflictions with patience, and cheerfully to undertake suitable\npractices of penance. While we see many sanctifying themselves in all\nstates, and making the very circumstances of their condition, whether on\nthe throne, in the army, in the state of marriage, or in the deserts,\nthe means of their virtue and penance, we are persuaded that the\npractice of perfection is possible also to us, in every lawful\nprofession, and that we need only sanctify our employments by a perfect\nspirit, and the fervent exercises of religion, to become saints\nourselves, without quitting our state in the world. When we behold\nothers, framed of the same frail mould with ourselves, many in age or\nother circumstances weaker than ourselves, and struggling with greater\ndifficulties, yet courageously surmounting, and trampling upon all the\nobstacles by which the world endeavored to obstruct their virtuous\nchoice, we are secretly stung within our breasts, feel the reproaches of\nour sloth, are roused from our state of insensibility, and are forced to\ncry out, \"Cannot you do what such and such have done?\" But to wind up\nthis discourse, and draw to a conclusion; whether we consult reason,\nauthority, or experience, we may boldly affirm that, except the sacred\nwritings, no book has reclaimed so many sinners, or formed so many holy\nmen to perfect virtue, as that of _The Lives of Saints_.\n\nIf we would read to the spiritual profit of our souls, our motive must\nbe a sincere desire of improving ourselves in divine love, in humility,\nmeekness, and other virtues. Curiosity or vanity shuts the door of the\nheart to the Holy Ghost, and stifles in it all affections of piety. A\nshort and humble petition of the divine light ought to be our\npreparation; for which we may say with the prophet, \"Open thou mine\neyes, and I will consider the wonderful things of thy law.\"[13] We must\nmake the application of what we read to ourselves, entertain pious\naffections, and form particular resolutions for the practice of virtue.\nIt is the admonition of a great servant of God,[14] \"Whatever good\ninstructions you read, unless you resolve and effectually endeavor to\npractise them with your whole heart, you have not read to the benefit of\nyour soul. For knowledge without works only accuseth and condemneth.\"\nThough we cannot imitate all the actions of the saints, we can learn\nfrom them to practise humility, patience, and other virtues in a manner\nsuiting our circumstances and state of life; and can pray that we may\nreceive a share in the benedictions and glory of the saints. As they who\nhave seen a beautiful flower-garden, gather a nosegay to smell at the\nwhole day; so ought we, in reading, to cull out some flowers, by\nselecting certain pious reflections and sentiments with which we are\nmost affected; and these we should often renew during the day; lest we\nresemble a man who, having looked at him self in the glass, goeth away,\nand forgetteth what he had seen of himself.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  St. Chrys. Conc. 3, de Lazaro. t. 1, p. 738, ed. Montfauc.\n2.  1 Tim. iv. 13.\n3.  In angelo cum libello.\n4.  Heb. xii.\n5.  St. Aug. Serm. 280, t. 5, p. 1134.\n6.  Can. 47, Conc. t. 2, p. 1072.\n7.  St. Caesar. Serm. 95, vel apud St. Aug. t. 5, Append. Serm. 300.\n8.  St. Nilius, l. 4, ep. 1, Discipulo suo, p. 458. Item, Tr. e\n    Monastica Exercitatione, c. 34 et c. 43, p. 40 et Peristeria, sect. 4,\n    p. 99.\n9.  St. Bonif. ep. 35, Bibl. Patr.\n10. Animadv. in Chronic. Eus. ad ann 2187.\n11. Conf. l. 8, c. 6.\n12. Fleury, l. 97, n. 2, t. 20.\n13. Ps. cviii. 18.\n14. Lansperg. Enchir. c. 11.\n\n{049}\n\nAN INTRODUCTORY DISCOURSE.\n\nTHE lives of the principal martyrs, fathers, and other more illustrious\nsaints, whose memory is revered in the Catholic church, are here\npresented to the public. An undertaking of this kind seems not to stand\nin need of an apology. For such are the advantages and so great the\ncharms of history, that, on every subject, and whatever dress it wears,\nit always pleases and finds readers. So instructive it is, that it is\nstyled by Cicero, \"The mistress of life,\"[1] and is called by others,\n\"Moral philosophy exemplified in the lives and actions of mankind.\"[2]\nBut, of all the parts of history, biography, which describes the lives\nof great men, seems both the most entertaining, and the most instructive\nand improving. By a judicious choice and detail of their particular\nactions, it sets before our eyes a living image of those heroes who have\nbeen the object of the admiration of past ages; it exhibits to us a\nportraiture of their interior virtues and spirit, and gives the most\nuseful and enlarged view of human nature. From the wise maxims,\nexperience, and even mistakes of great men, we learn the most refined\nlessons of prudence, and are furnished with models for our imitation.\nNeither is the narration here interrupted, nor the attention of the\nreader hurried from one object to another, as frequently happens in\ngeneral history. On these and other accounts are the lives of eminent\npersonages the most agreeable and valuable part of history. But, in the\nlives of the saints, other great advantages occur. Here are incidentally\nrelated the triumphs of the church, the trophies of the most exalted\nvirtue, and the conversion of nations. What are profane histories better\nthan records of scandals? What are the boasted triumphs of an Alexander\nor a Caesar but a series of successful plunders, murders, and other\ncrimes? It was the remark of the historian Socrates, that if princes\nwere all lovers of peace and fathers of their people, and if the lives\nof men were a uniform and steady practice of piety, civil history would\nbe almost reduced to empty dates. This reflection extorted from the pen\nof a famous wit of our age, in his history of the empire of the West\nsince Charlemagne, the following confession: \"This history is scarcely\nany more than a vast scene of weaknesses, faults, crimes, and\nmisfortunes; among which we find some virtues, and some successful\nexploits, as fertile valleys are often seen among chains of rocks and\nprecipices. This is likewise the case with other histories.\"[3] But the\nlives of the saints are the history of the most exemplary and perfect\nvirtue and prowess. While therefore all other branches of history employ\ndaily so many pens, shall this, which above all others deserves our\nattention, be alone forgotten? While every other part of the soil is\ndaily raked up, shall the finest spot be left uncultivated? Our\nantiquaries must think themselves obliged by this essay, as the greatest\npart of these saints have been the objects of the veneration of the\nwhole Christian world during several ages. Their names stand recorded in\nthe titles of our churches, in our towns, estates, writings, and {050}\nalmost every other monument of our Christian ancestors. If the late\nlearned bishop Tanner, by his _Notitia Monastica_, deserved the thanks\nof all lovers of antiquity, will they not receive favorably the history\nof those eminent persons of whom we meet so frequent memorials?\n\nBesides the principal saint for each day, in this collection is added a\nshort account of some others who were very remarkable in history, or\nfamous among our ancestors. The English and Scottish churches had, by\nthe mutual intercourse and neighborhood of the nations, a particular\ndevotion to several French saints, as appears from all their ancient\nbreviaries, from a complete English manuscript calendar, written in the\nreign of Edward IV., now in my hands, and from the titular saints of\nmany monasteries and parishes. Our Norman kings and bishops honored\nseveral saints of Aquitain and Normandy by pious foundations which bear\ntheir names among us: and portions of the relics of some French saints,\nas of St. Salvius, kept in the cathedral of Canterbury, have rendered\ntheir names illustrious in this kingdom. The mention of such, were it\nbut for the satisfaction of our antiquaries, &c., will, it is to be\nhoped, be pardoned. Though the limits of this work would not allow long\nabstracts of these secondary lives, yet some characteristical\ncircumstances are inserted, that these memoirs might not sink into a\nbare _necrology_, or barren list of dates and names. For, unless a\nnarration be supported with some degree of dignity and spirit, and\ndiversified by the intermixture of various events, it deserves not the\nname of history; no more than a plot of ground can be called a garden,\nwhich is neither variegated with parterres of flowers, nor checkered\nwith walks and beds of useful herbs or shrubs. To answer the title and\ndesign of this work, a short account is given of those fathers whose\nnames are famous in the history of the church, and in the schools, but\nwho have never been honored among the saints. But such fathers or other\neminent persons are spoken of only in notes upon the lives of certain\nsaints, with which they seem to have some connection. It was the\ncompiler's intention to insert among the lives of the saints an account\nof none to whom public veneration has not been decreed by the authority\nof the Holy See, or at least of some particular churches, before this,\non many just accounts, was reserved to the chief pastor of the church.\nThe compiler declares that the epithets of Saint and Blessed are never\nemployed in this work, but with entire submission to the decrees of\nUrban VIII. on this subject; and that if they are anywhere given to\npersons to whom the supreme pastors of the church have never juridically\ngranted this privilege, no more is meant by them, than such persons are\nesteemed holy and venerable for the reputation of their virtue; not that\nthey are publicly honored among the saints. The same is to be understood\nof miracles here related, which have not been judicially examined and\napproved, the part of an historian differing entirely from an authentic\ndecision of the supreme judge.\n\nThe actions of several apostles and other illustrious saints were never\ncommitted to writing: and, with regard to some others, the records of\ntheir transactions, by falling a prey to the moths or flames, have\nperished in the general wreck: yet their names could not be omitted. If\ntheir history affords little to gratify vain curiosity, at least a heart\nwhich seeks and loves God will find, even in these scanty memoirs, every\nthing interesting and entertaining. If the names of some saints have\nbeen transmitted down to us without particular accounts of their\nlives,[4] their virtues shine with no {051} less lustre in heaven; and\nthis very circumstance is pleasing and favorable to humility, which\nstudies and loves to lie concealed and unknown; and it was pointed out\nby the hidden life of Christ. It is also objected, that certain actions\nof some saints, which were performed by a special instinct of the Holy\nGhost, are to us rather objects of admiration than imitation; but even\nin these we read lessons of perfect virtue, and a reproach of our own\nsloth, who dare undertake nothing for God. But some may say, What\nedification can persons in the world reap from the lives of apostles,\nbishops, or recluses? To this it may be answered, that though the\nfunctions of their state differ from ours, yet patience, humility,\npenance, zeal, and charity, which all their actions breathe, are\nnecessary virtues in all persons. Christian perfection is in its spirit\nand essence everywhere the same, how much soever the means or exercises\nmay vary. Though edification be the primary view in works of this\nnature, the other ends of history are not neglected, as it becomes more\nentertaining and useful in proportion as it is more clear, complete, and\nimportant. This, it is hoped, will excuse certain short digressions\nwhich are sometimes inserted, and which the laws of correct writing\nallow when not too long, frequent, or foreign, when they have a natural\nconnection with the subject, and when the want of regularity is\ncompensated by greater perspicuity and utility. This liberty is more\nfreely taken in parts which would have otherwise seemed barren. Notes\nare added, which seemed useful to the bulk of those for whom this work\nwas designed, or likely to attract the curiosity of some to whom these\nlives would otherwise have seemed obscure, or not sufficiently\ninteresting. This method renders sacred biography a more universal\nimprovement in useful knowledge, and by enlarging the view, becomes more\nsatisfactory and engaging.\n\nCertain critics of this age, as they style themselves, are displeased\nwith all histories of miracles, not considering that these wonders are,\nin a particular manner, the works of God, intended to raise our\nattention to his holy providence, and to awake our souls to praise his\ngoodness and power, often also to bear testimony to his truth. Entirely\nto omit the mention of them would be an infidelity in history, and would\ntend, in some measure, to obstruct the great and holy purposes for which\nthey were effected. Yet a detail of all miracles, though authentically\nattested, is not the design of this work. Wherefore, in such facts, it\nseemed often sufficient to refer the reader to the original records. But\nmiracles may be the subject of a particular disquisition.\n\nA tedious sameness in the narration hath been carefully avoided, and in\nrelating general virtues, it is hoped that the manner, diction, and\nthoughts will be found new. Where memoirs allowed it, such a collection\nof remarkable actions and sayings of the saints hath been selected as\nseems neither trifling nor redundant; and may serve to express their\ncharacter and spirit. In this consists the chief advantage of biography,\nas in painting, a portraiture draws its life from the strength of the\nfeatures. By thus singular excellency doth Plutarch charm his readers,\ncover, or at least compensate for, his neglect of style and method, and\nother essential blemishes, and make even the most elegant writers who\nhave attempted a supplement to his {052} lives,[5] to appear tedious and\ndull to one who hath first read his work. What eloquence could furnish\nso fine a description, or convey so strong a idea of the pride of\nAlexander, as the short answers of that prince to the Cynic philosopher,\nor to Darius? or of the modesty of Phocion, as the well-chosen\ncircumstances of his disinterestedness and private life?[6]\n\nIn these lives of the saints pious reflections are sometimes\ninterspersed, though in general sparingly, not to swell the volume, or\nseem to suspect the judgment of the reader, or to forestall the pleasure\nof his own reflections. The study and exercise of virtue being the\nprincipal end which every good Christian ought to propose to himself in\nall his actions and undertakings, and which religious persons have\nparticularly in view in reading the lives of saints, in favor of those\nwho are slow in forming suitable reflections in the reading, a short\ninstruction, consisting of maxims drawn from the writing or example of\neach saint, is subjoined to the principal life for each day, which may\nbe omitted at discretion. A succinct account of the writings of the\nfathers is given in marginal notes, as a key to young theologians in\nstudying their works: their ascetical lucubrations are principally\npointed out, in which their spirit is often discovered, even to better\nadvantage than in the best histories which are left us of their actions.\n\nThe compiler's first care in this work, hath been a most scrupulous\nattachment to truth, the foundation, or rather the soul of all history,\nespecially of that which tends to the advancement of piety and religion.\nThe indagation is often a task both nice and laborious. If we weigh the\nmerit of original authors, some we shall find careless and injudicious,\nand many write under the bias of party prejudice, which strangely\nperverts the judgment. By this, James Basnage could, in his History of\nthe Jews, (b. 6,) notoriously mistake and misrepresent, by wholesale,\nthe clearest authorities, to gratify his prepossession against an\nincontestable miracle, as the most learned Mr. Warburton hath\ndemonstrated in his Julian, (b. 2, ch. 4.) Some write history as they\nwould a tragedy or a romance; and, seeking at any rate to please the\nreader, or display their art, often sacrifice the truth for the sake of\na fine conceit, of a glittering thought, or a point of wit.[7] Another\ndifficulty is, that ancient writings have sometimes suffered much by the\nbold rashness of modern critics, or in the manuscripts, by the slips of\ncareless copiers.[8] Again, authors who polish the style, or abridge the\nhistories of others, are seldom to be trusted; and experience will show\nus the same of translations. Even Henry Valois, the most learned and\ncelebrated Greek interpreter, is accused of having sometimes so far\nmistaken the sense of Eusebius, as to have given in his translation the\ncontradictory of the meaning of his author.\n\nA greater mischief than all these have been the forgeries of impostors,\nespecially heretics. Indeed, if the father of lies, by the like\ninstruments, {053} found means to counterfeit forty-eight or fifty false\ngospels, of which a list is given by Calmet,[9] is it surprising that,\nfrom the same forge, he should have attempted to adulterate the\nhistories of certain saints? But the vigilance of zealous pastors, and\nthe repeated canons of the church, show, through every age, how much all\nforgeries and imposture were always the object of their abhorrence. Pope\nAdrian I., in an epistle to Charlemagne, mentions this constant severe\nlaw of the church, and says, that no acts of martyrs are suffered to be\nread which are not supported by good vouchers.[10] The council in\nTrullo,[11] and many others down to the present age, have framed canons\nfor this purpose, as F. Honoratus of St. Mary shows.[12] Pope Gelasius\nI., in his famous Roman council in 494, condemns the false acts of St.\nGeorge, which the Arians had forged,[13] &c. Tertullian[14] and St.\nJerom[15] inform us, that, in the time of the apostles, a certain priest\nof Asia, out of veneration for St. Paul and St. Thecla, forged false\nacts of their peregrinations and sufferings; but for this crime he was\ndeposed from the priesthood by St. John the Evangelist. No good end can,\non any account, excuse the least lie; and to advance that pious frauds,\nas some improperly call them, can ever be lawfully used, is no better\nthan blasphemy. All wilful lying is essentially a sin, as Catholic\ndivines unanimously teach, with St. Austin, against the\nPrisciallianists. It is contrary and most hateful to the God of truth,\nand a heinous affront and injury offered to our neighbor: it destroys\nthe very end and use of speech, and the sacred bond of society, and all\ncommerce among men; for it would be better to live among dumb persons,\nthan to converse with liars. To tell any lie whatsoever in the least\npoint relating to religion, is always to lie in a matter of moment, and\ncan never be excused from a mortal sin, as Catholic divines teach.[16]\nGrotius, the Protestant critic, takes notice that forgeries cannot be\ncharged upon the popes, who, by the most severe canons, forbid them,\npunish the authors if detected, and give all possible encouragement to\njudicious critics.[17] This also appears from the works of innumerable\nlearned men among the Catholics, and from the unwearied labors with\nwhich they have given to the public the most correct editions of the\nancient fathers and historians. Good men may sometimes be too credulous\nin things in which there appears no harm. Nay, Gerson observes,[18] that\nsometimes the more averse a person is from fraud himself, the more\nunwilling he is to suspect imposture in others. But no good man can\ncountenance and abet a known fraud for any purpose whatever. The\npretence of religion would exceedingly aggravate the crime.\n\nIf any particular persons among the monks could be convicted of having\nattempted to palm any false writing or lie on the world, the obligations\nof their profession would render their crime the more odious and\nenormous. But to make this a charge upon that venerable order of men in\nany age, is a most unjust and a notorious slander. Melchior Cano, who\ncomplains of interpolations which have crept into some parts of sacred\nbiography, justifies the monks from the infamous imputation which some,\nthrough ignorance or malice, affect to cast upon them;[19] and Mabillon\nhas vindicated them more at large.[20] On their diligence and\nscrupulosity in general, in correctly copying the manuscripts, see Dom.\nCoutant,[21] and the authors of the new {054} French Diplomatique.[22]\nIn the Penitentia of St. Theodore the Studite, a penance is prescribed\nfor a monk who had made any mistake in copying a manuscript. In 1196, in\nthe general chapter of the Cistercians, it was ordered that the church\nof Lyons and the monastery of Cluni should be consulted about the true\nreading of a passage in a book to be copied. Anciently, books were\nchiefly copied and preserved in monasteries, which for several ages were\nthe depositories of learning. Mr. Gurdon[23] and Bishop Tanner[24] take\nnotice, that in England the great abbeys were even the repositories of\nthe laws, edicts of kings, and acts of parliament. The history of Wales\nwas compiled and kept through every age, by public authority, in the\nmonastery of Ystratflur for South Wales, where the princes and noblemen\nof that country were interred; and in the abbey of Conwey for North\nWales, which was the burying-place of the princes of that part.\nConringius,[25] a German Protestant, writes, \"In the sixth, seventh, and\neighth centuries there is scarce to be found, in the whole Western\nchurch, the name of a person who had written a book, but what dwelt, or\nat least was educated in a monastery.\" Before universities were erected,\nmonasteries, and often the palaces of bishops, were the seminaries of\nthe clergy, the nurseries for the education of young noblemen, and the\ngreat schools of all the sciences. To the libraries and industry of the\nmonks we are principally indebted for the works of the ancients which we\npossess. Grateful for this benefit, we ought not to condemn them\nbecause, by a fatality incident to human things, some works are come\ndown to us interpolated or imperfect.[26]\n\nAccidental causes have given frequent occasions to mistakes, which, when\nwe consider, we cannot be surprised if sometimes good men have been\ndeceived by false memoirs. As to authors of wilful forgeries, we have no\nname harsh enough to express, nor punishment equal to their crime. But\nthe integrity even of Geoffry of Monmouth is no longer impeached, since\nit hath been proved that in his British history he was not the author of\nthe fables which he published upon the credit of other vouchers.\n\nNevertheless, upon these, and the like accounts, history calls aloud for\nthe discernment of criticism. And many learned men, especially of the\nmonastic order, have, for our assistance, with no less industry than\nsuccess, separated in ancient writings the sterling from the\ncounterfeit, and by collating manuscripts, and by clearing difficult\npoints, have rendered the path in this kind of literature smooth and\nsecure. The merit of original authors hath been weighed; we have the\nadvantage of most correct editions of their works; rash and groundless\nalterations of some modern critics, and the blunders of careless copiers\nor editors are redressed; interpolations foisted into the original\nwritings are retrenched; and a mark hath been set on memoirs of inferior\nauthority. Moreover, the value of ancient manuscripts, being known,\nample repositories of such monuments have been made, curious lists of\nwhich are communicated to the public, that any persons may know and have\nrecourse to them. It must also be added, that the laborious task of\nmaking the researches necessary for this complicated work, hath been\nrendered lighter by the care with which several judicious and learned\nmen have compiled the lives of many particular saints. Thus have\nMabillon and {055} Bulteau writ the lives of the saints of the order of\nSt. Benedict; the elegant Touron of that of St. Dominick; Le Nain, of\nthe Cistercian order; Tillemont, the Maurist Benedictin monks, and Orsi,\nthese of the principal fathers of the church, &c.[27] The genuine acts\nof the primitive martyrs, the most valuable monument of ecclesiastical\nhistory, have been carefully published by Ruinart. Some of them are\npresidial acts, _i.e._ extracted from the court registers; others were\nwritten from the relations of eye-witnesses of undoubted veracity. To\nthis treasure an accession, which the learned Orsi and others doubt not\nto call of equal value, hath been lately made by the publication of the\ngenuine acts of the martyrs of the East, or of Persia, and of the West,\nor Palestine, in two volumes, folio, at Rome. Those of the East were\nwritten chiefly by St. Maruthus, a neighboring bishop of Mesopotamia:\nthe others seem to contain the entire work of Eusebius on the martyrs of\nPalestine, which he abridged in the eighth book of his history. Both\nparts were found in a Chaldaic manuscript, in a monastery of Upper\nEgypt, and purchased by Stephen Evodius Assemani, archbishop of Apamea,\nand his uncle Joseph Simonius Assemani, first prefect of the Vatican\nlibrary, at the charges of pope Clement XII., who had sent the former\ninto the East on that errand. The manuscripts are deposited in the\nVatican library. Joseph Assemani is known in the republic of letters by\nhis invaluable Oriental library, his _Italicae Historiae Scriptores_, his\n_Kalendaria Ecclesiae Universae notis Ilustrata_, &c., and Stephen, by his\nshare in the publication of the works of St. Ephrem, and by the _Acta\nMartyrum Orientalium et Occidentalium_. The learned Jesuits at Antwerp,\nBollandus and his continuators, have given us the _Acta Sanctorum_,\nenriched with curious remarks and dissertations, in forty-one large\nvolumes in folio, to the 5th day of September. To mention other\nmonuments and writers here made use of, would be tedious and\nsuperfluous. The authorities produced throughout the work speak for\nthemselves: the veracity of writers who cannot pretend to pass for\ninspired, ought to be supported by competent vouchers.\n\nThe original authors are chiefly our guides. The stream runs clear and\npure from the source, which in a long course often contracts a foreign\nmixture; but the lucubrations of many judicious modern critics have cast\na great light upon ancient historians: these, therefore, have been also\nconsulted and compared, and their labors freely made use of.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  Cicero, l. 2, de Orat. c. 9.\n2.  Voss. Ars Hist. cap. 5.\n3.  Voltaire's Annals of the Empire of Germany.\n4.  Some call in question the existence of certain saints, as SS.\n    Bacchus, Quirinus, Mercurius, Nilammon, Hippolytus, &c., because\n    these names are of pagan original. But that Christians often\n    retained those names is evident, not only from the oldest\n    Martyrologies, but from Eusebius, Theodoret, and other ancient\n    writers, who often mention Christians named Apollonius and\n    Apollinerius, from Apollo &c., and St. Paul speaks of a disciple\n    called Hermes, or Mercurius; and had another named Dionysius, or\n    Bacchus. Dr. Geddes and others object to the existence of St.\n    Almnachius, St. George, St. Wenefred, &c., but we shall find their\n    honor supported in this work by irrefregable authorities. Longinus\n    not only signifies a spear, but was a Roman name, and that of a\n    soldier and martyr, on the 15th of March: whether he be the person\n    who opened the side of Christ with a spear or no, is a point of less\n    importance. Mr. Addison and Dr. Middleton thought they had hit on a\n    great discovery when they transformed Mount Soracte into St.\n    Orestes. But that mountain is commonly called, not St. Orestes, but\n    San Sylvestro, together with the monastery on its summit. Moreover,\n    we find both in the Roman Martyrology and Greek Menaea two saints of\n    the name of Orestes recorded, the one on the 9th of November, the\n    other on the 19th of December, who both suffered under Dioclesian,\n    one in Armenia, the other in Cappadocia. The latter is also named by\n    St. Gregory Nazianzen, in his oration on St. Basil. If, by slips of\n    copiers, mistakes have happened to some names, of accidental\n    circumstances; or if certain private persons should be convicted of\n    having been any time deceived in some saint, this would not affect\n    the credit of authentic general Martyrologies.\n5.  Mrs. Dacier, Mr. Rowe.\n6.  This made Theodorus Gaza say, that if learning must suffer a general\n    shipwreck, and he had only his choice left him of preserving one\n    author, Plutarch should be the man.\n7.  With this fault the famous king of Prussia, who is perfectly\n    acquainted with the affairs of the North, charged the florid author\n    of the history of Charles XII. of Sweden. Nor could this historian,\n    as it is said, give any other answer to the complaint of the\n    Hamburghers, that he had notoriously slandered them with regard to\n    their conduct towards the citizens of Altena, than that his fiction\n    was plausible and ingenious, founded in their mutual jealousy,\n    according to the maxim of dramatic writers, _Feign with\n    probability_. Of this cast, indeed, though we have many modern\n    examples, we know, perhaps, none among the authors of antiquity.\n8.  Thirty thousand various readings were found by Mr. Mills in the\n    Greek New Testament; Dr. Bentley reckoned twenty thousand in\n    Terence, and twice as many as there are verses in the poet Manilius.\n    Even the most valuable Vatican and Alexandrian manuscripts of the\n    Bible abound in faults of the copiers; and editions of works made\n    from single manuscripts are always very defective.--witness those of\n    Cornelius Nepos, and the Greek Hesychius. Patrick Young, (called in\n    Latin, Patricius Junius,) when keeper of the king's library at\n    London, scrupled not to erase and alter several words in the most\n    valuable Alexandrian Greek manuscript copy of the Bible, as is\n    visible to this day. What wonder, then, (how intolerable such\n    liberties are,) if the like has been sometimes done by others in\n    books of less note, with a presumption like that of Dr. Bentley in\n    his amendments of Horace.\n9.  Prelim Dissert. on St. Matthew.\n10. Sine probabilibus autoribus, Conc. t. 7, 954.\n11. Can. 62.\n12. Regies de la Critique, t. 2, p. 12, 20, et Diss. 3, p. 134.\n13. See Mabillon, Disquis. de Cursu Gallic. Sec.1.\n14. Tert. l. de Bapt. c. 17.\n15. Catal. Vir Illustr. c. 7.\n16. See Nat. Alexander, Collet, Henno, &c., in Decalogum de Mendacio.\n17. Grot. l. de Antichr. t. 3, Op. Theolog.\n18. Gerson, ep. ad Morel.\n19. De Loc. Theol. l. 11, c. 5.\n20. Diplomat. l. 3, c. 3.\n21. Coutant, Vindic. veter. Cod. Confirm. p. 32, 550, &c.\n22. Diplom. t. 4, p. 452, &c.\n23. Gurdon, Hist. of Parliament, t. 1.\n24. Pref. to Notitia Monastica, in folio.\n25. Dissert. 3, de Antiq. Acad.\n26. How easy was the mistake of a copyist or bookseller, who ascribed\n    the works of some modern Austin to the great doctor of that name? or\n    who, finding several sermons of St. Caesarius annexed in the same copy\n    to those of St. Austin, imagined them all to belong to one title?\n    Several disciples published, under the names of St. Austin, St.\n    Gregory, or St. Zeno, sermons or comments which they had heard from\n    their mouths: by the same means we have three different editions of\n    the confession of St. Ephrem. We have already seen many works\n    falsely published under the name of Boerhaave, which never came from\n    his pen; as, The Method of Studying Physic, Materia Medica, Praxis\n    Medica, and a spurious edition of his Chemistry, which seem all to\n    come from the pens of his scholars.\n27. Among the compilers of the lives of saints, some wanted the\n    discernment of criticism. Simeon Metaphrastes, patrician, first\n    secretary and chancellor to the emperors Leo the Wise, and\n    Constantine Porphyrogenitus, in 912, (of whose collection one\n    hundred and twenty-two lives are still extant,) sometimes altered\n    the style of his authors where it appeared flat or barbarous, and\n    sometimes inserted later additions and interpolations, often not\n    sufficiently warranted, though not by him forged; for Psellus, in\n    his panegyric, furnishes us with many proofs of his piety. See Cave,\n    (Hist. Liter. t. 2, p. 88,) who, with other judicious critics,\n    entertains a much more favorable opinion of Metaphrastes than\n    Baillet. See Metaphrastes vindicated by Leo Allatius. (Diatr. de\n    Nilis, p. 24.) James de Voragine, of the order of St. Dominick, and\n    archbishop of Genoa, author of the _Golden Legend_, in 1290, wrote\n    still with less judgment, and, in imitation of Livy, often made the\n    martyrs speak his own language. Lippoman, bishop of Verona in 1550,\n    and Laurence Surius, a Carthusian monk of Cologne in 1570, sometimes\n    wanted the necessary helps for discernment in the choice of\n    materials. The same is to be said of Ribadeneira, except in the\n    lives of saints who lived near his own time, though a person\n    otherwise well qualified for a writer of sacred biography. Several\n    who have augmented his works in France, Spain, or Italy, labored\n    under the same misfortune and often gathered together whatever the\n    drag-net of time had amassed. John Capgrave, an Austin friar, some\n    time confessor to the duke of Gloucester, who died at Lynn in\n    Norfolk, in 1484, compiled the legend of the saints of England, from\n    a more ancient collection, the Sanctilogium of John of Tinmouth, a\n    monk of St. Alban's, in 1366, of which a very fair manuscript copy\n    was, before the last fire, extant in the Cottonian library. By the\n    melting of the glue and warping of the leaves, this book is no\n    longer legible unless some such method be used as that which is\n    employed in unfolding the parched and mouldering manuscripts found\n    in the ruins of Herculaneum.\n\n    On the other hand, some French critics in sacred biography have\n    tinctured their works with a false and pernicious leaven, and, under\n    the name of criticism, established skepticism.\n\n{056 blank page}\n{057}\n\nCONTENTS.\n\nJANUARY.\n\n\n1.\nTHE Circumcision of our Lord.....................  59\nSt. Fulgentius, Bishop and Confessor.............  63\nSt. Odilo, or Olon, Sixth Abbot of Cluni.........  69\nSt. Almachus, or Telemachus, Martyr..............  71\nSt. Eugendus, Abbot..............................  71\nSt. Fanchea, or Faine, Virgin, of Ireland........  72\nSt. Mochua, or Moncain, alias Claunus, Abbot\n  in Ireland.....................................  72\nSt. Mochua, alias Cronan, of Bella, Abbot in\n  Ireland........................................  72\n\n2.\nSt. Macarius, of Alexandria, Anchoret............  73\nSS. Martyrs for the Holy Scriptures..............  76\nSt. Concordius, Martyr...........................  77\nSt. Adalard, or Alard, Abbot and Confessor.......  77\n\n3.\nSt. Peter Balsam, Martyr.........................  80\nSt. Anterus, Pope................................  81\nSt. Gordius, Martyr..............................  81\nSt. Genevieve, or Genovefa, Virgin, Patroness of\n  Paris..........................................  82\n\n4.\nSt. Titus, Disciple of St. Paul, Bishop..........  86\nSt. Gregory, Bishop of Langres...................  88\nSt. Rigobert, or Robert, Bishop..................  88\nSt. Rumon, Bishop in England.....................  88\n\n5.\nSt. Simon Stylites, Confessor....................  89\nSt. Telesphorus, Pope and Martyr ................  93\nSt. Syncletica, Virgin ..........................  93\n\n6.\nThe Epiphany of our Lord.........................  95\nSt. Melanius, Bishop and Confessor............... 100\nSt. Nilammon, Hermit............................. 100\nSt. Peter, Abbot in England...................... 100\n\n7.\nSt. Lucian, Priest and Martyr.................... 101\nSt. Cedd, Bishop of London....................... 103\nSt. Kentigerna, Widow, of Ireland................ 105\nSt. Aldric, Bishop of Mans, Confessor............ 105\nSt. Thillo, Recluse.............................. 106\nSt. Canut........................................ 107\n\n8.\nSt. Apollinaris, the Apologist, Bishop........... 108\nSt. Severinus, Abbot, and Apostle of Noricum,\n  or Austria .................................... 110\nSt. Lucian, Apostle of Beauvais, in France,\n  Martyr......................................... 112\nSt. Pega, Virgin, of England..................... 112\nSt. Vulsin, Bishop in England.................... 112\nSt. Gudula, Virgin, Patroness of Brussels........ 113\nSt. Nathalan, Bishop of Aberdeen, Confessor...... 113\n\n9.\nSt. Peter of Sebaste, Bishop and Confessor....... 114\nSt. Julian and St. Basilissa, Martyrs............ 114\nSt. Marciana, Virgin and Martyr.................. 116\nSt. Brithwald, Archbishop of Canterbury.......... 117\nSt. Felan, or Foelan, Abbot in Ireland .......... 117\nSt. Adrian, Abbot at Canterbury.................. 118\nSt. Vaneng, Confessor............................ 118\nSt. William, Confessor, Archbishop of Bourges.... 120\nSt. Agatho, Pope................................. 122\nSt. Marcian, Priest.............................. 123\n\n11.\nSt. Theodosius the Cenobiarch, Abbot............. 124\nSt. Hyginus, Pope and Martyr..................... 127\nSt. Egwin, Bishop in England, Confessor.......... 128\nSt. Salvius, or Sauve, Bishop of Amiens.......... 128\n\n12.\nSt. Arcadius, Martyr............................. 129\nSt. Benedict Bishop, Abbot....................... 131\nSt. Tygrius and St. Eutropius, Martyrs........... 133\nSt. Aelred, Abbot in England..................... 133\n\n13.\nSt. Veronica, Virgin, of Milan................... 135\nSt. Kentigern, Bishop of Glasco, Confessor....... 137\nThe Octave of the Epiphany....................... 139\n\n14.\nSt. Hilary, Bishop............................... 140\nSt. Felix, Priest and Confessor.................. 147\nSt. Isaias, St. Sabbas, &c. Martyrs of Sinai..... 149\nSt. Barbasceminus, &c. Martyrs .................. 150\n\n15.\nSt. Paul, the First Hermit....................... 151\nSt. Maurus, Abbot................................ 154\nSt. Main, Abbot, Native of England............... 155\nSt. John Calybite, Recluse....................... 155\nSt. Isidore of Alexandria, Priest and Hospitaller 156\nSt. Isidore of Scete, Priest and Hermit.......... 157\nSt. Bonitus, Bishop of Auvergne, Confessor....... 157\nSt. Ita, or Mida, Virgin of Ireland, Abbess...... 158\n\n16.\nSt. Marcellus, Pope and Martyr................... 158\nSt. Macarius the Elder, of Egypt................. 159\nSt. Honoratus, Archbishop of Arles, Abbot........ 162\nSt. Fursey, Abbot In Ireland..................... 163\nSS. Five Friars, Minors, Martyrs................. 164\nSt. Henry, Hermit................................ 164\n\n17.\nSt. Antony, Abbot, Patriarch of Monks............ 165\nSS. Speusippus, Eleusippus, and Meleusippus,\n  Martyrs........................................ 172\n\n{058}\n\nSt. Sulpicius the Pious, Archbishop of Bourges... 173\nSt. Sulpicius de Debonnaire, Archbishop\n  of Bourges..................................... 173\nSt. Milgithe, Virgin, of England................. 174\nSt. Nennius, or Nennidhius, Abbot In Ireland..... 174\n\n18.\nSt. Peter's Chair at Rome........................ 175\nSt. Paul and Thirty-six Companions in Egypt,\n  Martyrs........................................ 176\nSt. Prisca, Virgin and Martyr.................... 176\nSt. Deicolus, Abbot, Native of Ireland .......... 177\nSt. Ulfrid, or Wolfred, Bishop and Martyr........ 177\n\n19.\nSt. Maris, St. Martha, St. Audifax, and St\n  Abachum, Martyrs............................... 178\nSt. Canutus, King of Denmark, Martyr............. 179\nSt. Henry, Archbishop of Upsal, Martyr........... 180\nSt. Wulstan, Bishop of Worcester, Confessor...... 181\nSt. Blaithmaic, Native of Ireland, Abbot of Hij in\n  Scotland....................................... 182\nSt. Lomer, or Laudomarus, Abbot.................. 182\n\n20.\nSt. Fabian, Pope and Martyr...................... 183\nSt. Sebastian, Martyr............................ 183\nSt. Euthymius, Abbot............................. 185\nSt. Fechin, Abbot in Ireland..................... 187\n\n21.\nSt. Agnes, Virgin and Martyr..................... 188\nSt. Fructuosus, Bishop of Tarragon, and his\n  Companions, Martyrs............................ 190\nSt. Vimin, or Vivian, Bishop and Confessor, in\n  Scotland....................................... 192\nSt. Publius, Bishop and Martyr................... 192\nSt. Epiphanius, Bishop of Pavia.................. 192\n\n22.\nSt. Vincent, Martyr.............................. 193\nSt. Anastasius, Martyr........................... 196\n\n23.\nSt. Raymund of Pennafort, Confessor.............. 200\nSt. John the Almoner, Confessor, Patriarch of\n  Alexandria..................................... 203\nSt. Emerentia, Virgin and Martyr................. 206\nSt. Clement of Ancyra, Bishop and Martyr......... 207\nSt. Agathangelus, Martyr......................... 207\nSt. Ildelfonsus, Archbishop...................... 207\nSt. Eusebius, Abbot.............................. 208\n\n24.\nSt. Timothy, Bishop and Martyr................... 208\nSt. Babylas, Bishop of Antioch, Martyr .......... 211\nSt. Suranus, Abbot in Umbria..................... 213\nSt. Macedonius, Anchoret In Syria................ 213\nOn the life and Writings of Theodoret, Bishop of\n  Cyrus.......................................... 213\n\n25.\nThe Conversion of St. Paul....................... 216\nSt. Juventius and St. Maximinus, Martyrs......... 219\nOn the Life and Writings of Julian the Apostate.. 219\nSt. Projectus, Bishop of Clermont, Martyr........ 220\nSt. Poppo, Abbot of Stavello..................... 221\nSt. Apollo, Abbot in Thebais..................... 222\nSt. Publius, Abbot near Zeugma, upon the\n  Euphrates...................................... 222\n\n26.\nSt. Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna, Martyr........... 223\nSt. Paula, Widow................................. 229\nSt. Conon, Bishop of the Isle of Man............. 232\n\n27.\nSt. John Chrysostom, Archbishop of\n Constantinople.................................. 233\nOn the Writings of that Father................... 252\nSt. Julian, First Bishop of Mans, Confessor...... 275\nSt. Marius, Abbot................................ 275\n\n28.\nCommemoration of St. Agnes....................... 276\nSt. Cyril, Patriarch of Alexandria............... 276\nOn the Writings of that Father................... 279\nSt. Thyrsus, St. Leucius, and St. Callinicus,\n  Martyrs........................................ 283\nSt. John of Reomay, Abbot........................ 283\nB. Margaret, Princess of Hungary, Virgin......... 284\nSt. Paulinus, Patriarch of Aquileia, Confessor... 284\nB. Charlemagne, Emperor.......................... 287\nSt. Glastian, Bishop and Confessor in Scotland... 289\n\n29.\n\nSt. Francis of Sales, Bishop and Confessor....... 289\nSt. Sulpicius Severus............................ 303\nOn the Writings of that Saint.................... 305\nSt. Gildas the Wise, or Badonicus, Abbot,\n   Native of England ............................ 306\nSt. Gildas the Albanian, or the Scot, Confessor.. 310\n\n30.\nSt. Bathildes, Queen of France................... 310\nSt. Martina, Virgin and Martyr................... 312\nSt. Aldegondes, Virgin and Abbess................ 313\nSt. Barsimaeus, Bishop and Martyr................. 313\n\n31.\nSt. Peter Nolasco, Confessor..................... 314\nSt. Serapion, Martyr in England.................. 317\nSt. Cyrus and St. John, Martyrs.................. 317\nSt. Marcella, Widow.............................. 318\nSt. Maidoc, or Maodhog, Bishop of Ferns in\n  Ireland........................................ 318\n\n\n{059}\n\nJANUARY I.\n\nTHE CIRCUMCISION OF OUR LORD[1]\n\nCIRCUMCISION was a sacrament of the Old Law, and the first legal\nobservance required by Almighty God of that people, which he had chosen\npreferably to all the nations of the earth to be the depositary of his\nrevealed truths.--These were the descendants of Abraham, whom he had\nenjoined it, under the strictest penalties,[2] several hundred years\nbefore the giving of the law to Moses on Mount Sinai; and this on two\nseveral accounts: First, as a distinguishing mark between them and the\nrest of mankind. Secondly, as a seal to a covenant between God and that\npatriarch: whereby it was stipulated on God's part to bless Abraham and\nhis posterity; while on their part it implied a holy engagement to be\nhis people, by a strict conformity to his laws. It was, therefore, a\nsacrament of initiation in the service of God, and a promise and\nengagement to believe and act as he had revealed and directed.\nCircumcision is also looked upon by St. Austin, and by several eminent\nmodern divines,[3] to have been the expedient, in the male posterity of\nAbraham, for removing the guilt of original sin, which in those who did\nnot belong to the covenant of Abraham, nor fall under this law was\nremitted by other means, probably by some external act of faith.\n\nThis law of circumcision continued in force till the death of Christ:\nhence our Saviour being born under the law, it _became him_, who came to\nteach mankind obedience to the laws of God; to _fulfil all justice_, and\nto submit to it. Therefore, he was _made under the law_, that is, was\ncircumcised, that he might redeem them that were under the law, by\nfreeing them from the servitude of it; and that those, who were in the\ncondition of servants before, might be set at liberty, and _receive the\nadoption of sons_ in baptism; which by Christ's institution, succeeded\nto circumcision. On the {060} day he was circumcised he received the\nname of JESUS, the same which had been appointed him by the angel before\nhe was conceived.[4] The reason of his being called JESUS is mentioned\nin the gospel:[5] _For he shall save his people from their sins_. This\nhe effected by the greatest sufferings and humiliations; _having humbled\nhimself_, as St. Paul says,[6] not only unto death, but even _to the\ndeath of the cross; for which cause God hath exalted him, and hath given\nhim a name which is above all names; that at the name of JESUS every\nknee should bow_: agreeably to what Christ says of himself,[7] _All\npower is given unto me in heaven and in earth_.[8]\n\nChrist being not only innocent, but incapable of sin, could stand in no\nneed of circumcision, as an expedient then in use for the remission of\nsin. He was pleased, however, to subject himself to this humbling and\npainful rite of the Mosaic dispensation for several reasons: as, First,\nto put an end in an honorable manner to a divine, but temporary,\ninstitution, by taking it upon his own person. Secondly, to prove the\nreality of his human body; which, however evident from this and so many\nother actions and sufferings of his life, was denied by several ancient\nheretics. Thirdly, to prove himself not only the son of man, but of that\nman in particular of whose seed the Messiah was promised to come: thus\nprecluding any future objection that might be raised by the Jews against\nhis divine mission in quality of Messiah, under the pretence of his\nbeing an alien; and hereby qualifying himself for free conversation with\nthem for their own spiritual advantage: setting us all a pattern of\nundergoing voluntarily several hardships and restraints, which, though\nnot necessary on our own account, may be of great use to promote the\ngood of others. Christ not being like other Jewish children, who could\nnot know or fear the pain of circumcision, when they were going to\nsuffer the operation, was perfectly sensible of it beforehand, and with\ncalmness and intrepidity offered himself willingly to suffer the knife,\nand shed the first-fruits of his sacred blood in this painful manner.\nUnder the smart this divine infant shed tears, but not as other\nchildren; for by them, with the most tender love and compassion, he\nbewailed chiefly our spiritual miseries, and at the same time presented\nwith joy his blood as the price of our redemption to his Father.\nFourthly, by thus humbling himself under this painful operation, he\nwould give us an early pledge and earnest of his love for us, of his\ncompassion for our miseries, and of his utter detestation of sin. The\ncharity and zeal which glowed in his divine breast, impatient, as it\nwere, of delay, delighted themselves in these first-fruits of\nhumiliation and suffering for our sakes, till they could fully satiate\ntheir thirst by that superabundance of both, in his passion and death.\nWith infinite zeal for his Father's honor, and charity for us sinners,\nwith invincible patience, and the most profound humility, he now offered\nhimself most cheerfully to his Father to undergo whatever he was pleased\nto enjoin him. Fifthly, he teaches us by the example of voluntary\nobedience to a law that could not oblige him, to submit with great\npunctuality and exactness to laws of divine appointment; and how very\nfar we ought to be from sheltering our {061} disobedience under lame\nexcuses and frivolous pretexts. Sixthly, by this ceremony, he humbled\nhimself to satisfy for our pride, and to teach us the sincere spirit of\nhumility. What greater humiliation can be imagined than for Him who is\nthe eternal Son of God, in all things equal to his Father, to conceal\nthese glorious titles under the appearance of a sinner? What a subject\nof confusion to us, who, being abominable criminals, are ashamed to pass\nfor what we are, and desire to appear and be esteemed what we are not!\nShall we not learn from this example of Christ to love humiliations,\nespecially as we cannot but acknowledge that we deserve every reproach\nand all manner of contempt from all creatures? Seventhly, by beginning\nthe great work of our salvation in the manner he was one day to finish\nit; suffering in his own person the punishment of sin, to deliver us\nfrom both sin and its punishment, he confounds the impenitence of\nsinners who will suffer nothing for their own sins; and inculcates the\nnecessity of a spiritual circumcision, whereof the external was but the\ntype and figure, as the apostle puts us in mind.[9]\n\nIt is manifest, beyond all contradiction, from several texts of the Old\nTestament,[10] that men under that dispensation ought not to have rested\nin the external act alone, but should have aspired from the letter to\nthe spirit, from the carnal to a spiritual circumcision. These texts, at\nthe same time that they set forth its necessity, describe it as\nconsisting in a readiness and willing disposition to conform to the will\nof God, and submit to it when known, in every particular. They in\nconsequence require a retrenchment of all inordinate and superfluous\ndesires of the soul, the keeping a strict guard and government over\nourselves, a total abstinence from criminal, and a prudent reserve even\nin the lawful gratifications of sense and appetite. If such instances of\nspiritual circumcision were required of those under the Old Law, to\nqualify them for acceptance with God, can any thing less than the same\nentitle us Christians to the claim of spiritual kindred with faithful\nAbraham, and to share of that redemption which Christ began this day to\npurchase for us at the expense of his blood? We must cut off whatever\ninordinate or superfluous desires of riches, honors, or pleasures reign\nin our hearts, and renounce whatever holds us wedded to our senses or\nthe world. Though this sacrifice required the last drop of our blood, we\nought cheerfully to make it. The example of Christ powerfully excites us\nnot to spare ourselves. A thousand irregular affections reign in our\nsouls, and self-love is master there. This enemy is only to be expelled\nby compunction, watchfulness over ourselves, perfect obedience, humble\nsubmission to correction, voluntary self-denials, and patience under\ncrosses. To these endeavors we must join earnest prayer for the\nnecessary grace to discover, and courageously crucify whatever opposes\nthe reign of the pure love of God in our affections. If we are conscious\nto ourselves of having taken a contrary course, and are of the unhappy\nnumber of the _uncircumcised to heart_; what more proper time to set\nabout a thorough reformation, by cutting off whatever is inconsistent\nwith or prejudicial to the true Christian spirit, than this very day,\nthe first of the new year? that so it may be a _new_ year to us in the\nmost Christian and beneficial sense of the word.[11]\n\n{062}\n\nWherefore, after having consecrated its first-fruits to God, by the most\nsincere and fervent homage of praise and adoration; after having paid\nhim the just tribute of thanksgiving for all his benefits, and in\nparticular for the mercy by which he vouchsafes us still time to appease\nhis anger, and serve him; it becomes us to allot some part of this day\nto tears of compunction for our past offences, and to the diving into\nthe source of our spiritual sloth and other irregularities, with a view\nto the amendment of our lives, and the preventing of relapses: not\ncontenting ourselves with general purposes, which cost self-love so\nlittle, the insufficiency of which our own experience has convinced us\nof; we must lay the axe to the root, and seriously resolve to decline,\nto the best of our power, the particular occasions which have betrayed\nus into sin, and embrace the most effectual means of reformation of life\nand improvement in virtue. Every year ought to find us more fervent in\ncharity; every day ought our soul to augment in strength, and be decked\nwith new flowers of virtue and good works. If the plant ceases to grow,\nor the fruit to ripen, they decay of course, and are in danger of\nperishing. By a rule far more sacred, the soul, which makes not a daily\nprogress in virtue loses ground: a dreadful symptom in the spiritual\nlife.\n\nThe more intense ought our fervor to be, as we draw the nearer to the\nend of our course: _So much the more_, says the apostle, _as you\nperceive the day to approach_,[12] the day of _retribution_ to each\naccording to his works, which will be that of our death, which may be\nmuch nearer than we are willing to imagine. Perhaps we may not live to\nthe end of this very year: it will be the case of thousands, who at this\ntime are as regardless of it as we can be. What security can we have\nagainst a surprise, the consequences whereof are infinite and\nirretrievable, except that of a sincere and speedy conversion, of being\nupon our guard against temptations, of dedicating effectually this\nensuing year and the remainder of our short lives to God, our last end\nand only good, and frequently imploring his grace and mercy. It is our\nblessed Saviour's advice and injunction: _Watch ye therefore; praying at\nall times {063} ... that you may be accounted worthy ... to stand before\nthe Son of man_.[13]\n\nThe Christian's devotion on this day ought to consist, first, in the\nsolemn consecration of the first-fruits of the year to God; and\nsecondly, in honoring the mystery of the Incarnation of the Son of God,\nparticularly his birth and circumcision. The church invites us on this\nday to unite our homage with the seraphic ardors and transports of\ndevotion with which the glorious Mother of God assisted at these\nwonderful mysteries which we commemorate, but in which she acted herself\nso great a part. With what sentiments did Mary bear in her womb, bring\nforth, and serve her adorable son, who was also her God? with what love\nand awe did she fix her eyes upon him particularly at his circumcision,\nwho can express in what manner she was affected when she saw him\nsubjected to this painful and humbling ceremony? Filled with\nastonishment, and teeming affections of love and gratitude, by profound\nadorations and praise she endeavored to make him all the amends in her\npower, and the best return and acknowledgment she was able. In amorous\ncomplaints that he would begin, in the excess of his love, to suffer for\nus in so tender an age, and to give this earnest of our redemption, she\nmight say to him: _Truly than art to me a spouse of blood._[14] With the\nearly sacrifice Christ here made of himself to his Father, she joined\nher own offering her divine son, and with and through him herself, to be\nan eternal victim to his honor and love, with the most ardent desire to\nsuffer all things, even to blood, for the accomplishment of his will.\nUnder her mediation we ought to make him the tender of our homages, and\nwith and through this holy Redeemer, consecrate ourselves to God without\nreserve.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  In the ancient sacramentary of the Roman church, published by\n    cardinal Thomasius, (the finishing of which some ascribe to Pope\n    Gelasius I., others more probably to Leo I., though the ground was\n    doubtless the work of their predecessors,) this festival is called\n    the Octave of our Lord's Nativity. The same title is given to it in\n    the Latin calendar (or rather collection of the gospels read at Mass\n    throughout the year) written above 900 years ago, presented to the\n    public by F. John Fronteau, regular canon of saint Genevieve's at\n    Paris, and by Leo Allatius. The inference which Baillet draws from\n    thence that the mystery of our Lord's circumcision was not then\n    commemorated in the office of this day, is a notorious mistake. For\n    Thomassin takes notice from Ivo of Chartres, that the word Octave\n    here implies the circumcision of our Lord, which was performed on\n    the eighth day after his birth; and in the above mentioned\n    Sacramentary express mention is made of the circumcision in the\n    Secret of the Mass. In F. Froubeau's calendar the gospel read on\n    this day is the history of the circumcision given, by St. Luke. An\n    old Vatican MS. copy of St. Gregory's Sacramentary and that of\n    Usuard's Martyrology kept at St. Germain des-Pres, express both the\n    titles of the Octave day and of the circumcision.\n\n    Durandus in the 13th century, (Ration. offic. l. 6, c. 15,) John\n    Beleth, a theologian of Paris, (c. 71,) and several missals of the\n    middle ages prescribe two masses to be said on this day, one on the\n    circumcision, the other on the B. Virgin Mary. Micrologus (c. 39)\n    assigns this reason, that as the B. Virgin, who had so great a share\n    in the birth of Christ, could not be mentioned in that solemn\n    office, therefore a commemoration of her is deferred to the Octave\n    day. The second Mass is now abolished: but in a great part of the\n    office a regard is had to the B. Virgin. In F. Fronteau's Roman\n    calendar, after the title of the Octave is added, _Natale S. Mariae_\n    for which Dom Martenne would have us read _S. Martinae_; but without\n    grounds. For, as Pope Benedict XIV. observes, (Comment. de Festis\n    Domini, c. 1,) the original unquestionably means a festival of the\n    B. Virgin Mary. The word _Natale_, which was used originally for the\n    birth-day of the emperors, was afterwards taken for any annual\n    feast.\n2.  Gen. xvii.\n3.  Grounding their opinion on Gen. xvii. 14, &c.\n4.  Luke i. 31.\n5.  Matt. i. 21.\n6.  Phil. ii. 8, 9, 10.\n7.  Matt. xxviii. 18.\n8.  The Jews generally named their children on the day of their\n    circumcision, but this was not of precept. There are several\n    instances of children named on the day of their birth, (Gen. xxx.)\n    which could not be that of their circumcision by an express law\n    requiring the interval of eight days from their birth; the child\n    being presumed too weak and delicate to undergo the operation\n    sooner, without danger of its life. It seems to have been the\n    practice among the Jews for children to be circumcised at home; nor\n    was a priest the necessary or ordinary minister, but the father,\n    mother, or any other person could perform the ceremony, as we see in\n    the time of Abraham, (Gen. xvii.; Acts vii.) and of the Maccabees,\n    (1 Mac. 1.) St. Epiphanius, (Haer. 20.) Whence F. Avala, in his\n    curious work entitled _Pietor Christianus_, printed at Madrid in\n    1730, shows that it is a vulgar error of painters who represent\n    Christ circumcised by a priest in the temple. The instrument was\n    sometimes a sharp stone, (Exod. iv. Jos. v.,) but doubtless most\n    frequently of iron or steel.\n9.  Rom. ii. 29.\n10. Deut. x. 16; xxx. 6; Jer. iv. 4.\n11. The pagan Romans celebrated the _Saturnalia_, or feast of Saturn,\n    from the 17th of December during seven days: at which time slaves\n    dined with their masters, and were allowed an entire liberty of\n    speech, in the superstitious remembrance of the golden age of the\n    world, in which no distinction of ranks was yet known among men.\n    (Macrob {}, 10. Horat. &c.) The calends also of January were\n    solemnized with licentious shows in honor of Janus and the goddess\n    Strenia: and it is from those infamous diversions that among\n    Christians, are derived the profane riots of new year's day,\n    twelfthtide, and shrovetide, by which many pervert these times into\n    days of sin and intemperance. Several councils severely condemn\n    these abuses; and the better to prevent them, some churches formerly\n    kept the 1st of January a fast-day, as it is mentioned by St.\n    Isidore of Seville (lib. 2 offic c. 40) Alcuin (lib. de div offic)\n    &c. Dom Martenne observes, (lib. de antiquis ritibus in celebr. div.\n    offic. c. 13,) that on this account the second council of Tours in\n    567 ordered that on the calends of the circumcision the litany be\n    sung, and high mass begun only at the eighth hour, that is, two in\n    the afternoon, that it might be finished by three, the hour at which\n    it was allowed to eat on the fasts of the stations. We have among\n    the works of the fathers many severe invectives against the\n    superstitions and excesses of this time. See St. Austin, (serm. 198,\n    in hunc diem,) St. Peter Chrysologus, (serm. in calendas,) St.\n    Maximus of Turin, (Hom. 5, apud Mabill. in Musaeo Italico,) Faustinus\n    the Bishop, (apud Bolland. hac die. p. 3,) &c. The French name\n    Etrennes is pagan, from _strenae_, or new-year gifts, in honor of the\n    goddess Strenia. The same in Poitou and Perche, anciently the\n    country of the Druids, is derived from their rites. For the\n    Poitevins for Etrennes use the word Auguislanneuf, and the\n    Percherons, Equilans, from the ancient cry of the Druids, _Au guy\n    l'an neuf_, i.e. _Ad Viscum, annul novus_, or to the mistletoe the\n    new-year, when on new-year's day the Pagans went into the forests to\n    seek the mistletoe on the oaks. See Chatelain, notes on the Martyr.\n    Jan. 1, p. 7.\n\n    The ancients began the year, some from the autumnal, others from the\n    vernal equinox. The primitive patriarchs from that of autumn, that\n    is, from the month called by the Hebrews Tisri, which coincides with\n    part of our September and October. Hence it seems probable, that the\n    world was created about that season; the earth, as appears from Gen.\n    iii. 2, being then covered with trees, plants, fruits, seeds, and\n    all other things in the state of their natural maturity and\n    perfection. The Jews retained this commencement of the year, as a\n    date for contracts and other civil purposes; as also for their\n    sabbatical year and jubilee. But God commanded them to begin their\n    ecclesiastical year, or that by which their religious festivals were\n    regulated, from the spring equinox, or the Hebrew month Nisan, the\n    same with part of our March and April, Exod. xii. 2. Christian\n    nations commenced the year, some from the 25th of March, the feast\n    of the Annunciation, and bordering upon the spring equinox; others\n    from Christmas; others from its octave day, the first of January, in\n    which our ancestors have often varied their practice. Europe is now\n    agreed in fixing the first of January for this epoch.\n\n    The Julian year, so called from Julius Caesar, from whom the Roman\n    calendar received its last reformation, consisted of 365 days and 6\n    hours, which exceed the true solar year by 11 minutes, for\n    astronomers compute the yearly revolution of the sun not to exceed\n    365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 37 seconds, according to Cassini,\n    but according to Keil 57 seconds, or almost 49 minutes. This error,\n    becoming daily more sensible, would have occasioned the autumnal\n    equinox to have at length fallen on the day reckoned the solstice,\n    and in process of time, on that held for the vernal equinox. The\n    Golden number, or Grecian cycle of the lunar years, was likewise\n    defective. The remedy both which, pope Gregory XIII., in 1585,\n    established the new style. Scaliger, Tachet, and Cassini have\n    demonstrated that cycles might be chosen still more exact by some\n    few seconds: however, this adopted by pope Gregory, besides being\n    the easiest in the execution, admits of no material error, or\n    sensible inconveniency. This correction of the style was received by\n    act of Parliament, in Great Britain, in 1752; for the promoting of\n    which, great praise is due to the two illustrious ornaments of the\n    republic of letters, the earls of Chesterfield and Macclesfield.\n12. Heb. x. 25.\n13. Luke xxi. 36.\n14. Exod. v. 25.\n\nTHE LIFE OF S. FULGENTIUS, B.C.\n\nExtracted from his works, and from his life, accurately written by a\ndisciple of great abilities, the companion of his exile: and dedicated\nto Felician, his successor in the see of Ruspa. The author declares\nhimself a monk: consequently was not the deacon Ferrandus, as some\ncritics imagine.\n\nA.D. 533.\n\nFABIUS CLAUDIUS GORDIANUS FULGENTIUS was the descendant of a noble\nsenatorian family of Carthage: but much decayed in its splendor by the\ninvasion of the Vandals. His father Claudius, being unjustly deprived of\nhis house in Carthage, which was made over to the Arian priests, settled\nat an estate belonging to him at Telepte, the capital city of the\nprovince of Byzacena. Our saint was born in 468, about thirty years\nafter the Barbarians had dismembered Africa from the Roman empire. He\nwas educated in sentiments of piety with his younger brother, under the\ncare of his mother Mariana, who was left a young widow. Being, by her\nparticular direction, taught the Greek very young, he spoke it with as\nproper and exact an accent as if it had been his native language. He\nalso applied himself to Latin, and all the useful parts of human\nliterature, under masters distinguished for consummate abilities: yet he\nknew how to mingle business with study; for he took upon himself the\nregulation of the family concerns, in order to ease his mother of the\nburden. His prudent circumspection in all the affairs he transacted, his\nvirtuous conduct, his mild carriage to all, and more especially his\ndeference for his mother, without whose express orders or approbation he\nnever did any thing, caused him to be beloved and admired wherever his\nname was known. He was chosen procurator, that is, lieutenant-governor,\nand general receiver of the taxes of Byzacena. But it was not long\nbefore {064} he grew disgusted with the world; and being justly alarmed\nat its dangers he armed himself against them by pious reading, assiduous\nprayer, and rigorous fasting. His visits to monasteries were frequent;\nand happening among other books of spiritual entertainment, to read a\nsermon of St. Austin on the thirty-sixth psalm, in which that father\ntreats of the world and the short duration of human life, he felt within\nhim strong desires of embracing the monastic state.\n\nHuneric, the Arian king, had driven most of the orthodox bishops from\ntheir sees. One of these, named Faustus, had erected a monastery in\nByzacena. It was to him that the young nobleman addressed himself for\nadmittance; but Faustus immediately objecting the tenderness of his\nconstitution, discouraged his desires with words of some harshness;\n\"Go,\" said he, \"and first learn to live in the world abstracted from its\npleasures. Who can well suppose, that you on a sudden, relinquishing a\nlife of softness and ease, can take up with our coarse diet and clothing\nand can inure yourself to our watchings and fastings?\" The saint, with\ndowncast eyes, modestly replied: \"He, who hath inspired me with the will\nto serve him, can also furnish me with courage and strength.\" This\nhumble, yet resolute answer, induced Faustus to admit him on trial. The\nsaint was then in the twenty-second year of his age. The news of so\nunthought of an event both surprised and edified the whole country; many\neven imitated the example of the governor. But Mariana his mother, in\ntransports of grief, ran to the monastery, crying out at the gates:\n\"Faustus! restore to me my son; to the people, their governor: the\nchurch always protects widows; why then rob you me, a desolate widow, of\nmy son?\" She persisted several days in the same tears and cries. Nothing\nthat Faustus could urge was sufficient to calm her, or prevail with her\nto depart without her son. This was certainly as great a trial of\nFulgentius's resolution as it could well be put to; but the love of God,\nhaving the ascendant in his breast, gave him a complete victory over all\nthe suggestions of nature: Faustus approved his vocation, and\naccordingly recommended him to the brethren. The saint having now\nobtained all he wished for in this world, made over his estate to his\nmother, to be discretionally disposed of by her in favor of his brother,\nas soon as he should be arrived at a proper age. He totally abstained\nfrom oil and every thing savory; from wine also, drinking only water.\nHis mortifications brought on him a dangerous illness; yet after\nrecovery he abated nothing in them. The persecution breaking out anew,\nFaustus was obliged to withdraw; and our saint, with his consent,\nrepaired to a neighboring monastery, of which Felix, the abbot, would\nfain resign to him the government. Fulgentius was much startled at the\nproposal, but at length was prevailed upon to consent that they should\njointly execute the functions. It was admirable to observe with what\nharmony these two holy abbots for six years governed the house. No\ncontradiction ever took place between them; each always contended to\ncomply with the will of his colleague. Felix undertook the management of\nthe temporal concerns; Fulgentius's province was to preach and instruct.\n\nIn the year 499, the country being ravaged by an irruption of the\nNumidians, the two abbots were necessitated to fly to Sicca Veneria, a\ncity of the proconsular province of Africa. Here it was, that an Arian\npriest ordered them to be apprehended and scourged on account of their\npreaching the consubstantiality of the Son of God. Felix, seeing the\nexecutioners seize first on Fulgentius, cried out: \"Spare that poor\nbrother of mine, whose delicate complexion cannot bear torments; let\nthem rather be my portion who am strong of body.\" They accordingly, at\nthe instigation of this wicked priest, fell on Felix first, and the old\nman endured their stripes {065} with the greatest alacrity. When it was\nFulgentius's turn to experience the same rigorous treatment, he bore the\nlashes with great patience; but feeling the pain excessive, that he\nmight gain a little respite and recruit his spirits, he requested his\njudge to give ear to something he had to impart to him. The executioners\nthereupon being commanded to desist, he began to entertain him with an\naccount of his travels. This savage monster expected nothing more than\nsome overtures to be proposed to him of an intention to yield; but\nfinding himself disappointed, in the utmost rage, ordered his torments\nto be redoubled. At length having glutted his barbarity, the confessors\nwere dismissed, their clothes rent, their bodies inhumanly torn, and\ntheir beards and hair plucked off. The very Arians were ashamed of such\ncruelty, and their bishop offered to punish the priest, if Fulgentius\nwould but undertake his prosecution. His answer was, that a Christian is\nnever allowed to seek revenge; and for their parts it was incumbent on\nthem not to lose the advantage of patience, and the blessings accruing\nfrom the forgiving of injuries. The two abbots, to avoid an additional\neffort of the fury of these heretics, travelled to Ididi, on the\nconfines of Mauritania. Here Fulgentius went aboard a ship for\nAlexandria, being desirous, for the sake of greater perfection, to visit\nthe deserts of Egypt, renowned for the sanctity of the solitaries who\ndwelt there. But the vessel touching at Sicily, St. Eulalius, abbot at\nSyracuse, diverted him from his intended voyage, on assuring him, that\n\"a perfidious dissension had severed this country from the communion of\nPeter,\"[1] meaning that Egypt was full of heretics, with whom those that\ndwelt there were obliged either to join in communion, or be deprived of\nthe sacraments. The liberality and hospitality of Fulgentius to the\npoor, out of the small pittance he received for his particular\nsubsistence, made Eulalius condemn himself of remissness in those\nvirtues, and for the future imitate so laudable an example.\n\nOur saint having laid aside the thoughts of pursuing his voyage to\nAlexandria, embarked for Rome, to offer up his prayers at the tombs of\nthe apostles. One day passing through a square called Palma Aurea, he\nsaw Theodoric, the king of Italy, seated on an exalted throne, adorned\nwith pompous state, surrounded by the senate, and his court, with all\nthe grandeur of the city displayed in the greatest magnificence: \"Ah!\"\nsaid Fulgentius, \"how beautiful must the heavenly Jerusalem be, if\nearthly Rome be so glorious! What honor, glory, and joy will God bestow\non the saints in heaven, since here in this perishable life he clothes\nwith such splendor the lovers and admirers of vanity!\" This happened\ntowards the latter part of the year 500, when that king made his first\nentry into Rome. Fulgentius returned home in a short time after, and was\nreceived with incredible joy. He built a spacious monastery in Byzacena,\nbut retired to a cell himself, which was situate on the sea-shore. Here\nhis time was employed in writing, reading, prayer, mortification, and\nthe manual labor of making mats and umbrellas of palm-tree leaves.\nFaustus, who was his bishop, obliged him to resume the government of his\nmonastery; and many places at the same time sought him for their bishop.\nKing Thrasimund having prohibited by edict the ordination of orthodox\nbishops, several sees by this means had been long vacant and destitute\nof pastors. The orthodox prelates resolved to remedy this inconveniency,\nas they effectually did; but the king receiving intelligence of the\nmatter, caused Victor, the primate of Carthage, to be apprehended. All\nthis time our saint lay concealed, though sought after eagerly by many\ncitizens for their bishop. Thinking the danger over, he appeared again:\nbut Ruspa, now a little town called {066} Alfaques, in the district of\nTunis, still remained without a pastor; and by the consent of the\nprimate, while detained in the custody of the king's messengers,\nFulgentius was forcibly taken out of his cell, and consecrated bishop in\n508.\n\nHis new dignity made no alteration in his manners. He never wore the\n_orarium_, a kind of stole then used by bishops, nor other clothes than\nhis usual coarse garb, which was the same in winter and summer. He went\nsometimes barefoot: he never undressed to take rest, and always rose to\nprayer before the midnight office. His diet chiefly consisted of pulse\nand herbs, with which he contented himself, without consulting the\npalate's gratification by borrowed tastes: but in more advanced years,\nfinding his sight impaired by such a regimen, he admitted the use of a\nlittle oil. It was only in very considerable bodily indispositions, that\nhe suffered a drop or two of wine to be mingled with the water which he\ndrank; and he never could be prevailed upon in any seeming necessity to\nuse the least quantity of flesh-meat, from the time of his monastic\nprofession till his death. His modesty, meekness, and humility, gained\nhim the affection of all, even of the ambitious deacon Felix, who had\nopposed his election, and whom the saint received and treated with the\nmost cordial charity. His great love for a recluse life induced him to\nbuild a monastery near his own house at Ruspa, which he designed to put\nunder the direction of his ancient friend Felix; but before the building\ncould be completed, or he acquit himself to his wish of his episcopal\nduties, orders were issued from King Thrasimund, for his banishment to\nSardinia, with others to the number of sixty orthodox bishops.\nFulgentius, though the youngest of this venerable body, who were\ntransported from Carthage to Sardinia, was notwithstanding their sole\noracle in all doubts, and their tongue and pen upon all occasions; and\nnot only of them, but even of the whole church of Africa. What spread a\nbrighter lustre on these amiable qualities, were the humility and\nmodesty with which he always declared his sentiments: he never preferred\nhis counsel to that of another, his opinion he never intruded. Pope\nSymmachus, out of his pastoral care and charity, sent every year\nprovisions in money and clothes to these champions of Christ.[2] A\nletter of this pope to them is still extant,[3] in which he encourages\nand comforts them; and it was at the same time that he sent them certain\nrelics of SS. Nazarius and Romanus, \"that the example and\n_patronage_,\"[4] as he expresses it, \"of those generous soldiers of\nChrist, might animate the confessors to fight valiantly the battles of\nthe Lord.\" Saint Fulgentius, with some companions, converted his house\nat Cagliari into a monastery; which immediately became the comfort of\nall in affliction, the refuge of the poor, and the oracle to which the\nwhole country resorted for deciding their controversies without appeal.\nIn this retirement the saint composed many learned treatises for\nconfirming and instructing the faithful in Africa. King Thrasimund,\nhearing that he was their principal support, and their invincible\nadvocate, was desirous of seeing him; and having accordingly sent for\nhim, appointed him lodgings in Carthage. The king then drew up a set of\nobjections, to which he required his immediate answer: the saint without\nhesitation complied with, and discharged the injunction; and this is\nsupposed to be his book, entitled, An Answer to Ten Objections. The king\nequally admired his humility and learning, and the orthodox triumphed\nexceedingly in the advantage their cause gained by this piece. To\nprevent a second time the same effect, the king, when he sent him new\nobjections, ordered them to be only read to him. Fulgentius refused to\ngive an answer in writing, unless he was allowed {067} to take a copy of\nthem. He addressed, however, to the king an ample and modest confutation\nof Arianism, which we have under the title of his Three Books to King\nThrasimund. The prince was pleased with the work, and granted him\npermission to reside at Carthage; till upon repeated complaints from the\nArian bishops of the success of his preaching, which threatened they\nsaid, a total extinction of their sect in Carthage, he was sent back to\nSardinia in 520. Being ready to go aboard the ship, he said to a\ncatholic, whom he saw weeping: \"Grieve not, Juliatus!\" for that was his\nname, \"I shall shortly return, and we shall see the true faith of Christ\nflourish again in this kingdom, with full liberty to profess it; but\ndivulge not this secret to any.\" The event confirmed the truth of the\nprediction. His humility concealed the multiplicity of miracles which he\nwrought, and he was wont to say: \"A person may be endowed with the gift\nof miracles, and yet may lose his soul: miracles ensure not salvation;\nthey may indeed procure esteem and applause; but what will it avail a\nman to be esteemed on earth, and afterwards be delivered up to hell\ntorments?\" If the sick, for whom he prayed, recovered, to avoid being\npuffed up with vain-glory, he ascribed it wholly to the divine mercy.\nBeing returned to Cagliari, he erected a new monastery near that city,\nand was exceedingly careful to supply his monks with all necessaries,\nespecially in sickness; but would not suffer them to ask for any thing,\nalleging, \"That we ought to receive all things as from the hand of God,\nwith resignation and gratitude.\" Thus he was sensible how conducive the\nunreserved denial of the will is for perfecting ourselves in the paths\nof virtue.\n\nKing Thrasimund died in 523, having nominated Hilderic his successor.\nKnowing him inclined to favor the orthodox, he exacted from him an oath,\nthat he would never restore their profession. To evade this, Hilderic,\nbefore the death of his predecessor, signed an order for the liberty of\nthe orthodox churches, but never had the courage to declare himself of\nthe same belief; his lenity having quite degenerated into softness and\nindolence. However, the professors of the true faith called home their\npastors. The ship which brought them back, was received at Carthage with\nthe greatest demonstrations of joy: the shore echoed far and near with\nrepeated acclamations, more particularly when Fulgentius appeared on the\nupper deck of the vessel. The confessors went straight to the church of\nSt. Agileus, to return thanks to God, and were accompanied by thousands;\nbut on their way, being surprised with a sudden storm, the people, to\nshow their singular regard for Fulgentius, made a kind of umbrella over\nhis head with their cloaks to defend him from the inclemency of the\nstorm. The saint hastened to his own church, and immediately set about\nthe reformation of the abuses that had crept in during the persecution,\nwhich had now continued seventy years; but this reformation was carried\non with a sweetness that won, sooner or later, the hearts of the most\nvicious. In a council held at Junque, in 524, a certain bishop, named\nQuodvultdeus, disputed the precedency with our saint, who made no reply,\nthough he would not oppose the council, which ordered him to take the\nfirst place. The other resented this as an injury offered to the dignity\nof his see; and St. Fulgentius, in another council soon after, publicly\nrequested that Quodvultdeus might be allowed the precedency. His talents\nfor preaching were singular; and Boniface, the archbishop of Carthage,\nnever heard him without watering, all the time, the ground with his\ntears, thanking God for having given so great a pastor to his church.[5]\n\n{068}\n\nAbout a year before his death, he secretly retired from all business\ninto a monastery on the little island, of rock, called Circinia, in\norder to prepare {069} himself for his passage to eternity, which he did\nwith extraordinary fervor. The necessities and importunities of his\nflock recalled him to Ruspa a little before his exit. He bore the\nviolent pains of his last illness for seventy days with admirable\npatience, having this prayer almost always in his mouth:[6] \"Lord, grant\nme patience now, and hereafter mercy and pardon.\" The physicians advised\nhim the use of baths; to whom he answered \"Can baths make a mortal man\nescape death, when his life is arrived at its final period?\" He would\nabate nothing of his usual austerities without an absolute necessity. In\nhis agony, calling for his clergy and monks, who were all in tears, he\nbegged pardon if he had ever offended any one of them; he comforted\nthem, gave them some short, moving instructions, and calmly breathed\nforth his pious soul in the year 533, and of his age the 65th, on the\n1st of January, on which day his name occurs in many calendars soon\nafter his death, and in the Roman; but in some few on the 16th of\nMay,--perhaps the day on which his relics were translated to Bourges, in\nFrance, about the year 714, where they still remain deposited.[7] His\ndisciple relates, that Pontian, a neighboring bishop, was assured in a\nvision of his glorious immortality. The veneration for his virtues was\nsuch, that he was interred within the church, contrary to the law and\ncustom of that age, as is remarked by the author of his life. St.\nFulgentius proposed to himself St. Austin for a model; and, as a true\ndisciple, imitated him in his conduct, faithfully expounding his\ndoctrine, and imbibing his spirit.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  A comumnione Petri perfida dissentio separavit. Vit S. Fulg. c. 12.\n2.  Anastas. in Symmacho. Bar. ad ann. 504. Fleury, Liv. 31.\n3.  Inter opera Ennodii. t. 4. Conc. Labb. col. 1300.\n4.  Patrocinia.\n5.  S. Fulgentius, in his first letter, to a gentleman whose wife in a\n    violent sickness had made a vow of continency, proves that a vow of\n    chastity ought not to be made by a person engaged in a married\n    state, without the free consent of the husband. In his second, to\n    Galla, a most virtuous Roman lady, he comforts her upon the death of\n    her husband, who, he says, was only gone a little before her to\n    glory; and he sets before her the divine mercy, which by this means\n    calls her to a more heroic practice of all virtues in the state of\n    widowhood,--especially continence, plainness in dress, furniture,\n    and diet, profuse alms-deeds, and holy prayer, the exercise whereof\n    ought to be her most assiduous employment. Herein he warns her that\n    vanity and pride are our most dangerous enemies, against which we\n    must diligently watch and arm ourselves. In his third letter,\n    addressed to the holy lady Proba, sister to Galla, consecrated to\n    God by a vow of virginity, he shows the excellency of that virtue,\n    and recommends, at length, temperance, penance, and perfect\n    humility, as its essential attendants, without which it cannot\n    render a soul the spouse of Christ, who chose her poor, and bestowed\n    on her all she had. In his fourth letter, to the same lady, he again\n    puts her in mind of the extreme danger of pride and vain-glory, and\n    lays down excellent precepts concerning the necessity of assiduous\n    prayer and compunction; in which spirit we are bound to weep\n    continually before God, imploring his mercy and succor under the\n    weight of our miseries, and to pay him the constant tribute of\n    praise and thanksgiving for all his benefits and gratuitous favors.\n    His letter to the abbot Eugypius, is a commendation of fraternal\n    charity, a principal fruit of which is, to pray for one another. In\n    the sixth letter, he congratulates with Theodorus, a senator, upon\n    his conversion from the world, promising himself that such an\n    example would have great influence over many: for \"those who are\n    raised above others by their rank in the world, either draw many\n    with themselves into eternal damnation, or are to many an occasion\n    of salvation.\" The saint strenuously exhorts him to the study of the\n    most profound humility, which is the only greatness of a Christian,\n    and is always attended with its sister virtue, meekness. The seventh\n    letter of this father is addressed to the illustrious and venerable\n    lady Venantia, and contains a strong exhortation to the spirit and\n    practice of penance, with advice against despair. The sermons and\n    homilies of S. Fulgentius are usually short: we have near one\n    hundred extant which bear his name, but some of these belong to S.\n    Austin. The danger and evil of presumption and pride, are points\n    which he takes every occasion to inculcate: he teaches that it is\n    impossible to know God, and his benefits and goodness, unless we\n    have a true knowledge of ourselves, and our own frailty and\n    miseries. (Hom. 14, p. 123. Bibl. Patr. Lugdun. T. 9, part 1.) In\n    his sermons and letters, he frequently enforces the obligation of\n    alms-deeds. His other works are chiefly polemical, against the\n    Arians, Pelagians, and Nestorians. In his books against the Sermon\n    of Fastidiosus, (an Arian priest,) to Felix the Notary; On the\n    Orthodox Faith, to Donatus, against Fabian; Three Books to King\n    Thrasimund; Ten Answers to Ten Objections of the Arians, &c., he\n    explains the trinity of persons in one divine nature, solidly\n    answers the objections of the Arians, and frequently shows that\n    prayers which are addressed to the Father, or to the Son, or to the\n    Holy Ghost, are addressed to the whole Blessed Trinity. (Lib. 9,\n    contra Fabium, p. 620, &c.) Showing that the Father, Son, and Holy\n    Ghost are equally to be adored, he distinguishes the worship of\n    _Latria_, or adoration, which is due to God alone, and that of\n    _Dulia_, which is given to creatures. (Ib. lib. 4, p. 592.) Pinta,\n    an Arian bishop, having published a treatise against our saint's\n    books to King Thrasimund, St. Fulgentius answered him by a work\n    which is lost. For that which we have among his writings, is the\n    performance of some other Catholic controvertist of the same age, as\n    the learned agree. This author's style falls short of St.\n    Fulgentius's: he quotes the Scripture according to the Old Italic\n    Version; our saint always makes use of the Vulgate. He understood\n    not the Greek tongue, in which St. Fulgentius was well skilled. And\n    the author of our saint's life mentions, that in his book against\n    Pinta he referred to his books to King Thrasimund, which is not\n    found in this work.\n\n    One of the most famous among the writings of St. Fulgentius, is that\n    entitled, On the Two-fold Predestination, to Monimus, in answer to\n    certain difficulties proposed to him by a friend of that name. In\n    the first book he shows, that though God foresees sin, he\n    predestinates no one to evil, but only to good, or to grace and\n    glory. In the second book he proves, that the sacrifice of Christ's\n    body and blood is offered not to the Father alone, as the Arians\n    pretended, but to the whole Blessed Trinity. In this and the third\n    book he answers certain other difficulties. In his two books, On the\n    Remission of Sins, to Euthymius, he proves that sins can never be\n    forgiven without sincere repentance, or out of the pale of the true\n    church. When Peter, a deacon, and three other deputies from the\n    Scythian monks in the East, arrived at Rome, to be informed of the\n    sentiments of the western churches concerning the late errors\n    advanced in the East, against the mystery of the Incarnation, and in\n    the West, by the Semipelagians against the necessity of divine\n    grace, they consulted the sixty African bishops who were at that\n    time in banishment, in Sardinia. St. Fulgentius was pitched upon to\n    send an answer in the name of this venerable company of Confessors.\n    This produced his book, On the Incarnation and Grace, in the first\n    part of which he confutes the Nestorians and Eutychians, and in the\n    second the Semipelagians. His three books, On the Truth of\n    Predestination and Grace, addressed to John the Archimandrite, and\n    Venerius, deacon of Constantinople, are another fruit of the leisure\n    which his exile gave him. In the first part he shows, that grace is\n    the pure effect of the divine goodness and mercy; in the second,\n    that it destroys not free-will; and in the third, that the Divine\n    election both to grace and glory is purely gratuitous. In another\n    treatise or letter, to the same John and Venerius, who had consulted\n    the Confessors in Sardinia about the doctrine of Faustus of Riez, he\n    confutes Semipelagianism. In the treatise, On the Incarnation, to\n    Scarilas, he explains that mystery, showing that the Son became\n    man,--not the Father, or the Holy Ghost; and that in God the trinity\n    destroys not the unity of the nature. Ferrand, the learned deacon of\n    Carthage, consulted St. Fulgentius about the baptism of a certain\n    Ethiopian, who had desired that sacrament, but was speechless and\n    senseless when it was administered to him. Our saint, in a short\n    treatise on this subject, demonstrates this baptism to have been\n    both necessary and valid. By another treatise, addressed to this\n    Ferrand, he answers five questions proposed by him, concerning the\n    Trinity and Incarnation. Count Reginus consulted him, whether the\n    body of Christ was corruptible, and begged certain rules for leading\n    a Christian life in a military state. St. Fulgentius answered the\n    first point, proving that Christ's mortal body was liable to hunger,\n    thirst, pain, and corruption. The second part of moral instructions,\n    which he lived not to finish, was added by Ferrand the deacon. St.\n    Fulgentius's book, On Faith, to Peter, is concise and most useful.\n    It was drawn up after the year 523, about the time of his return\n    from Sardinia. One Peter, designing to go to Jerusalem, requested\n    the saint to give him in writing a compendious rule of faith, by\n    studying which he might be put upon his guard against the heresies\n    of that age. St. Fulgentius executed this in forty articles, some\n    copies and forty-one. In these he explains, under anathemas, the\n    chief mysteries of our faith: especially the Trinity. Incarnation,\n    sacrifice of the altar, (cap. 19. p. 475,) absolute necessity of the\n    true faith, and of living in the true church, to steadfastness, in\n    which he strongly and pathetically exhorts all Christians in the\n    close of the work, (c. 44, 45.) For if we owe fidelity to our\n    temporal prince, much more to Christ who redeemed our souls, and\n    whose anger we are bound to fear above all things, nay, as the only\n    evil truly to be dreaded. The writings of this father discover a\n    deep penetration and clear conception, with an admirable perspicuity\n    in the diction; but seeming apprehensive of not having sufficiently\n    inculcated his matter, he is diffusive, end runs into repetitions.\n    His reasoning is just and close, corroborated by Scripture and\n    tradition. The accurate F. Sirmond published part of his writings,\n    but the most complete edition of them was given at Paris, in 4vo.,\n    1584.\n6.  Domine, da mihi modo patientiam, et postea indulgentiam.\n7.  See Gall. Christ. Nov. T. l, p. 121. and Baillet, p. 16. The written\n    relation of this translation is a production of the tenth century,\n    and deserves no regard; but the constant tradition of the church and\n    country proves the translation to have been made (See Hist. Liter.\n    de la France, T. 6, p. 265.) The hutch in which these relics are\n    venerated at Bourget, is called S. Fulgentius's. The saint's head is\n    in the church of the archbishop's seminary, which was anciently an\n    abbey, and named Monte-maven.\n\nST. ODILO, OR OLON, SIXTH ABBOT OF CLUNI\n\nHIS family was that of the lords of Mercteur, one of the most\nillustrious of Auvergne. Divine grace inclined him from his infancy to\ndevote himself to God with his whole heart. He was very young when he\nreceived the monastic habit at Cluni, from the hands of S. Mayeul, by\nwhose appointment he was made his coadjutor in 991, though only\ntwenty-nine years of age, and from the death of S. Mayeul in 994, our\nsaint was charged with the entire government of that great abbey. He\nlabored to subdue his carnal appetites by rigorous fasting, wearing\nhair-cloth next his skin, and studded iron chains. Notwithstanding\nthose austerities practised on himself, his carriage to others was\nmost mild and humane. It was usual with him to say, that of two\nextremes, he chose rather to offend by tenderness, than a too rigid\nseverity. In a great famine in 1006, his liberality to the poor was by\nmany censured as profuse; for he melted down the sacred vessels and\nornaments, and sold the gold crown S. Henry made a present of to that\nabbey, to relieve their necessities. He accompanied that prince in his\njourney to Rome when he was crowned emperor, in 1014. This was his\nsecond journey thither; he made a third in 1017, and a fourth in\n1022. Out of devotion to S. Bennet he paid a visit to Mount Cassino,\nwhere he begged leave, with the greatest earnestness, to kiss the feet\nof all the monks, which was granted him with great difficulty. Besides\nthe journeys which the reformation he established in many monasteries\nobliged him to undertake, he made one to Orbe, to wait on the empress\nAlice. That pious princess burst into tears upon seeing him, and\ntaking hold of his habit, kissed it, and applied it to her eyes, and\ndeclared to him she should die in a {070} very short time. This was in\n999, and she died on the 16th of December the same year. Massacres and\nplunders were so common in that age, by the right which every petty\nlord pretended of revenging his own injuries and quarrels by private\nwars, that the treaty called the truce of God was set on foot. By\nthis, among other articles, it was agreed, that churches should be\nsanctuaries to all sorts of persons, except those that violated this\ntruce; and that from Wednesday till Monday morning no one should offer\nviolence to any one, not even by way of satisfaction for any injustice\nhe had received. This truce met with the greatest difficulties among\nthe Neustrians, but was at length received and observed in most\nprovinces of France, through the exhortations and endeavors of\nSt. Odilo, and B. Richard, abbot of St. Vanne's, who were charged with\nthis commission.[1] Prince Casimir, son of Miceslaw, king of Poland,\nretired to Cluni, where he professed the monastic state, and was\nordained deacon. He was afterwards, by a solemn deputation of the\nnobility, called to the crown. St. Odilo referred the matter to pope\nBenedict IX., with whose dispensation Casimir mounted the throne in\n1041, married, had several children, and reigned till his death in\n1058.[2]\n\nSt. Odilo being moved by several visions, instituted the annual\ncommemoration of all the faithful departed, to be observed by the\nmembers of his community with alms, prayers, and sacrifices, for the\nrelief of the suffering souls in purgatory; and this charitable devotion\nhe often much recommended. He was very devout to the Blessed Virgin; and\nabove all sacred mysteries, that of the divine Incarnation employed his\nparticular attention. As the monks were singing that verse in the\nchurch, \"thou being to take upon thee to deliver man, didst not abhor\nthe womb of a virgin;\" melting away with the tenderest emotions of love,\nhe fell to the ground; the ecstatic agitations of his body bearing\nevidence to that heavenly fire which glowed in his soul. Most of his\nsermons and little poems extant, treat of the mysteries of our\nredemption, or of the Blessed Virgin.[3] He excelled in an eminent\nspirit of compunction, and contemplation. While he was at prayer,\ntrickling tears often watered his cheeks. Neither importunities nor\ncompulsion could prevail upon him to submit to his being elected\narchbishop of Lyons in 1031. Having patiently suffered during five years\nthe most painful diseases, he died of the cholic, at Souvigny, a priory\nin Bourbonnois, while employed in the visitation of his monasteries,\nJanuary 1, 1049, being then eighty-seven years old, and having been\nfifty-six years abbot. He would be carried to the church, to assist at\nthe divine office, even in his agony; and having received the viaticum\nand extreme-unction the day before, he expired on sackcloth strewed with\nashes on the ground. See his life, by his disciple Lotsald, as also, by\nSt. Peter Damian, who wrote it soon after the saint's death, at the\nrequest of St. Hugh of Cluni, his successor, in Bollandus, and\nBibliotheca Cluniacensis by Dom Marrier, and in Andrew Duchesne, fol.\nParis, 1614. See likewise certain epistles of St. Odilo, ib., and\nfourteen Sermons on the festivals of our Lord, the B. Virgin, &c., in\nBibl. Patr. Lugdun. an. 1677, T. 17, p. 653.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  Glaber, monk of Cluni, in his history which he dedicated to St.\n    Odilo, l. 4, c. 5, l. 5, c. 1.\n2.  Mab. Annal. l. 57, n. 45. Solignac, Hist. de Pologne, t. 1.\n3.  Ceillier demonstrates, (T. 20, p. 258,) against Basnage, (observ. in\n    vit. Adelaid. T. 3, le t. Canis, p. 71,) that the life of St. Alice\n    the empress is the work of St. Odilo, no less than the life of St.\n    Mayeul. We have four letters, some poems, and several sermons of\n    this saint in the library of Cluni, (p. 370,) and in that of the\n    Fathers, (T. 17, p. 653.) Two other sermons hear his name in\n    Martenn{} (Anned. T. 5.)\n\n{071}\n\nST. ALMACHUS, OR TELEMACHUS, M.\n\nWAS a holy solitary of the East, but being excited by the ardors of a\npious zeal in his desert, and pierced with grief that the impious\ndiversion of gladiators should cause the damnation of so many unhappy\nsouls, and involve whole cities and provinces in sin; he travelled to\nRome, resolved, as far as in him lay, to put a stop to this crying evil.\nWhile the gladiators were massacring each other in the amphitheatre, he\nran in among them; but as a recompense for his kind remonstrance, and\nentreating them to desist, he was beaten down to the ground, and torn in\npieces, on the 1st of January, 404. His zeal had its desired success;\nfor the effusion of his blood effected what till that time many emperors\nhad found impracticable. Constantine, Constantius, Julian, and\nTheodosius the elder, had, to no purpose, published several edicts\nagainst those impious scenes of blood. But Honorius took occasion from\nthe martyrdom of this saint, to enforce their entire abolition. His name\noccurs in the true martyrology of Bede, in the Roman and others. See\nTheodoret, Hist. l. 5, c. 62, t. 3, p. 740.[1]\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  The martyrologies of Bede, Ado, Usuard, &c. mention St. Almachus, M.\n    put to death at Rome, for boldly opposing the heathenish\n    superstitions on the octave of our Lord's nativity. Ado adds, that\n    he was slain by the gladiators at the command of Alypius, prefect of\n    Rome. A prefect of this name is mentioned in the reign of\n    Theodosius, the father of Honorius. This name, the place, day, and\n    cause seeming to agree, Baronius, (Annot. In Martyr. Rom.) Bolland,\n    and Baillet, doubt not but this martyr is the same with St.\n    Telemachus, mentioned by Theodoret. Chatelain, canon of the\n    cathedral at Paris, (Notes sur le Martyr. Rom. p. 8,) and Benedict\n    XIV., (in Festo Circumcis. T. 10, p. 18.) think they ought to be\n    distinguished, and that Almachus suffered long before Telemachus.\n    Wake, (on Enthusiasm,) Geddes, &c. pretend the name to have been a\n    mistake for Almanachum; but are convicted by Chatelain of several\n    unpardonable blunders, and of being utterly unacquainted with\n    ancient MSS. of this kind, and the manner of writing them. Scaliger\n    and Salmasius tell us that the word Almanach is of Arabic\n    extraction. La Crosse observes, (Bibl. Univ. T. 11,) that it occurs\n    in Porphyry, (apud Eus. Praef. Evang. l. 3, c. 4,) who says that\n    horoscopes are found [Greek: en tois almenichiaxois], where it seems\n    of Egyptian origin. But whatever be the meaning of that term in\n    Porphyry, Du Cange, after the strictest search, assures us that the\n    barbarous word Almanach is never met with in any MS. Calendars or\n    Ephemerides. Menage (Origine de la Langue Francoise V. Almanach)\n    shows most probably that the word is originally Persian, with the\n    Arabic article prefixed. It seems to have been first used by the\n    Armenians to signify a calendar, ib.\n\nST. EUGENDUS, IN FRENCH OYEND, A.\n\nAFTER the death of the two brothers, St. Romanus and St. Lupicinus, the\nholy founders of the abbey of Condate, under whose discipline he had\nbeen educated from seven years of age, he was first coadjutor to\nMinausius, their immediate successor, and soon after, upon his demise,\nabbot of that famous monastery. His life was most austere, his clothes\nbeing sackcloth, and the same in summer as in winter. He took only one\nsmall refection in the day, which was usually after sunset. He inured\nhimself to cold and all mortifications; and was so dead to himself, as\nto seem incapable of betraying the least emotion of anger. His\ncountenance was always cheerful; yet he never laughed. By meekness he\novercame all injuries, was well skilled in Greek and Latin, and in the\nholy scriptures, and a great promoter of the sacred studies in his\nmonastery. No importunities could prevail upon him to consent to be\nordained priest. In the lives of the first abbots of Condate, of which a\nMS. copy is preserved in the Jesuit's library in the college of\nClermont, at Paris, enriched with MS. notes by F. Chifflet, it is\nmentioned, that the monastery which was built by St. Romanus, of timber,\nbeing consumed by fire, St. Eugendus rebuilt it of stone; and also near\nthe oratory, which St. Romanus had built, erected a handsome church in\nhonor of SS. Peter, Paul, and Andrew, enriched with precious relics. His\nprayer was almost continual, and his devotion so tender, that the\nhearing {072} of a pious word was sufficient visibly to inflame his\nsoil, and to throw him sometimes into raptures even in public, and at\ntable. His ardent sighs to be united with his God, were most vehement\nduring his last illness. Having called the priest among his brethren, to\nwhom he had enjoined the office of anointing the sick, he caused him to\nanoint his breast according to the custom, says the author of his life,\nand he breathed forth his happy soul five days after, about the year\n510, and of his age sixty-one.[1] The great abbey of Condate, in\nFranche-comte, seven leagues from Geneva, on mount Jura, or Mont-jou,\nreceived from this saint the name of St. Oyend; till in the thirteenth\ncentury it exchanged it for that of St. Claude; who having resigned the\nbishopric of Besanzon, which see he had governed seven years in great\nsanctity, lived fifty-five years abbot of this house, a perfect copy of\nthe virtues of St. Oyend, and died in 581. He is honored on the 6th of\nJune. His body remains entire to this day; and his shrine is the most\ncelebrated place of resort for pilgrims in all France.[2] See the life\nof St. Oyend by a disciple, in Bollandus and Mabillon. Add the remarks\nof Rivet. His. Liter. T. 3, p. 60.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  The history of the first Abbots of Condate, compiled, according to\n    F. Chifflet, in 1252, mentions translation of the relics of St.\n    Eugendus, when they were enshrined in the same Church of St. Peter,\n    which had been made with great solemnity, at which this author had\n    assisted, and of which he testifies that he had already wrote the\n    history here quoted. F. Chifflet regrets the loss of this piece, and\n    adds that the girdle of St. Eugendus, made of white leather, two\n    fingers broad, has been the instrument of miraculous cures, and that\n    in 1601 Petronilla Birod, a Calvinist woman in that neighborhood,\n    was converted to the Catholic faith, with her husband and whole\n    family, having been suddenly freed from imminent danger of death and\n    child-bearing, and safely delivered by the application of this\n    relic.\n2.  The rich abbey of St. Claude gave rise to a considerable town built\n    about it, which was made an episcopal see by pope Benedict XIV., in\n    1743: who, secularizing the monastery, converted it into a\n    cathedral. The canons, to gain admittance, must give proof of their\n    nobility for sixteen degrees, eight paternal and as many maternal.\n    St. Romanus was buried at Beaume, St. Lucinius at Leu{}nne, and St.\n    Oyend at Condate: whence this last place for several ages bore his\n    name.\n\nS. FANCHEA, OR FAINE, V.\n\nHER feast has been kept for time immemorial in the parish church of\nRosairthir, in the diocese of Clogher, in Ulster: and at Kilhaine near\nmount Bregh, on the borders of Meath, where her relics have been in\nveneration. She seems to have been an abbess, and is thought to have\nflourished in the sixth century, when many eminent saints flourished in\nIreland. Her name was not known to Bollandus or Sir James Ware. See\nChatelain.\n\nS. MOCHUA, OR MONCAIN, ABBOT,\n\nOTHERWISE CALLED CLAUNUS.\n\nHAVING served his prince in the army, he renounced the world, and\ndevoted himself to God in a monastic state, with so much fervor as to\nbecome a model of perfection to others. He is said to have founded\nthirty churches, and one hundred and twenty cells, and passed thirty\nyears at one of these churches, which is called from him Teach Mochua,\nbut died at Dayrinis on the 1st of January, in the ninety-ninth year of\nhis age, about the sixth century. See his life in Bollandus, p. 45.\n\nSAINT MOCHUA OF BELLA,\n\nOTHERWISE CALLED CRONAN,\n\nWAS contemporary to S. Congal, and founded the monastery (now a town)\nnamed Balla, in Connaught. He departed to our Lord in the fifty-sixth\nyear of his age. See Bollandus, p. 49.\n\n{073}\n\n\nJANUARY II.\n\nS. MACARIUS OF ALEXANDRIA,\n\nANCHORET.\n\nFrom Palladius, bishop of Helenopolis, who had been his disciple, c. 20.\nRufin, Socrates, and others in Rosweide, D'Andilly, Cotelier, and\nBollandus, p. 85 See Tillemont, t. 8, p. 626. Bulteau, Hist. Mon.\nd'Orient, l. 1, c. 9, p. 128.\n\nA.D. 394.\n\nST. MACARIUS the younger, a citizen of Alexandria, followed the business\nof a confectioner. Desirous to serve God with his whole heart, he\nforsook the world in the flower of his age, and spent upwards of sixty\nyears in the deserts in the exercise of fervent penance and\ncontemplation. He first retired into Thebais, or Upper Egypt, about the\nyear 335.[1] Having learned the maxims, and being versed in the practice\nof the most perfect virtue, under masters renowned for their sanctity;\nstill aiming, if possible, at greater perfection, he quitted the Upper\nEgypt, and came to the Lower, before the year 373. In this part were\nthree deserts almost adjoining to each other; that of Scete, so called\nfrom a town of the same name on the borders of Lybia; that of the Cells,\ncontiguous to the former, this name being given to it on account of the\nmultitude of hermit-cells with which it abounded; and a third, which\nreached to the western branch of the Nile, called, from a great\nmountain, the desert of Nitria. St. Macarius had a cell in each of these\ndeserts. When he dwelt in that of Nitria, it was his custom to give\nadvice to strangers, but his chief residence was in that of the Cells.\nEach anchoret had here his separate cell, which he made his continued\nabode, except on Saturday and Sunday, when all assembled in one church\nto celebrate the divine mysteries, and partake of the holy communion. If\nany one was absent, he was concluded to be sick, and was visited by the\nrest. When a stranger came to live among them, every one offered him his\ncell, and was ready to build another for himself. Their cells were not\nwithin sight of each other. Their manual labor, which was that of making\nbaskets or mats, did not interrupt the prayer of the heart. A profound\nsilence reigned throughout the whole desert. Our saint received here the\ndignity of priesthood, and shone as a bright sun influencing this holy\ncompany, while St. Macarius the elder lived no less eminent in the\nwilderness of Scete, forty miles distant. Palladius has recorded[2] a\nmemorable instance of the great self-denial professed and observed by\nthese holy hermits. A present was made of a newly-gathered bunch of\ngrapes to St. Macarius: the holy man carried it to a neighboring monk\nwho was sick; he sent it to another: it passed in like manner to all the\ncells in the desert, and was brought back to Macarius, who was\nexceedingly rejoiced to perceive the abstinence of his brethren, but\nwould not eat of the grapes himself.\n\nThe austerities of all the inhabitants of that desert were\nextraordinary; but St. Macarius, in this regard, far surpasses the rest.\nFor seven years {074} together he lived only on raw herbs and pulse, and\nfor the three following years contented himself with four or five ounces\nof bread a day, and consumed only one little vessel of oil in a year; as\nPalladius assures us. His watchings were not less surprising, as the\nsame author informs us. God had given him a body capable of bearing the\ngreatest rigors; and his fervor was so intense, that whatever spiritual\nexercise be heard of, or saw practised by others, be resolved to copy\nthe same. The reputation of the monastery of Tabenna, under St.\nPachomius, drew him to this place in disguise, some time before the year\n349. St. Pachomius told him that he seemed too far advanced in years to\nbegin to accustom himself to their fastings and watchings; but at length\nadmitted him, on condition he would observe all the rules and\nmortifications of the house. Lent approaching soon after, the monks were\nassiduous in preparations to pass that holy time in austerities, each\naccording to his strength and fervor; some by fasting one, others two,\nthree, or four days, without any kind of nourishment; some standing all\nday, others only sitting at their work. Macarius took some palm-tree\nleaves steeped in water, as materials for his work, and standing in a\nprivate corner, passed the whole time without eating, except a few green\ncabbage leaves on Sundays. His hands were employed in almost continual\nlabor, and his heart conversed with God by prayer. If he left his\nstation on any pressing occasion, he never stayed one moment longer than\nnecessity required. Such a prodigy astonished the monks, who even\nremonstrated to the abbot at Easter against a singularity of this\nnature, which, if tolerated, might on several accounts be prejudicial to\ntheir community. St. Pachomius entreated God to know who this stranger\nwas; and learning by revelation that he was the great Macarius, embraced\nhim, thanked him for his edifying visit, and desired him to return to\nhis desert, and there offer up his prayers for them.[3] Our saint\nhappened one day inadvertently to kill a gnat that was biting him in his\ncell; reflecting that he had lost the opportunity of suffering that\nmortification, he hastened from his cell for the marshes of Scete, which\nabound with great flies, whose stings pierce even boars. There he\ncontinued six months exposed to those ravaging insects; and to such a\ndegree was his whole body disfigured by them with sores and swellings,\nthat when he returned he was only to be known by his voice.[4] Some\nauthors relate[5] that he did this to overcome a temptation of the\nflesh.\n\nThe virtue of this great saint was often exercised with temptations. One\nwas a suggestion to quit his desert and go to Rome, to serve the sick in\nthe hospitals; which, by due reflection, he discovered to be a secret\nartifice of vain-glory inciting him to attract the eyes and esteem of\nthe world. True humility alone could discover the snare which lurked\nunder the specious gloss of holy charity. Finding this enemy extremely\nimportunate, he threw himself on the ground in his cell, and cried out\nto the fiends: \"Drag me hence if you can by force, for I will not stir.\"\nThus he lay till night, and by this vigorous resistance they were quite\ndisarmed.[6] As soon as he arose they renewed the assault; and he, to\nstand firm against them, filled two great baskets with sand, and laying\nthem on his shoulders, travelled along the wilderness. A person of his\nacquaintance meeting him, asked him what he meant, and made an offer of\neasing him of his burden; but the saint made no other reply than this:\n\"I am tormenting my tormentor.\" He returned home in the evening, much\nfatigued in body, but freed from the temptation. Palladius informs us,\nthat St. Macarius, desiring to enjoy more perfectly the sweets of\nheavenly contemplation, at least for five days without interruption,\n{075} immured himself within his cell for this purpose, and said to his\nsoul: \"Having taken up thy abode in heaven, where thou hast God and the\nholy angels to converse with, see that thou descend not thence: regard\nnot earthly things.\" The two first days his heart overflowed with divine\ndelights; but on the third he met with so violent a disturbance from the\ndevil, that he was obliged to stop short of his design, and to return to\nhis usual manner of life. Contemplative souls often desire, in times of\nheavenly consolation, never to be interrupted in the glorious employment\nof love and praise: but the functions of Martha, the frailty and\nnecessities of the human frame, and the temptations of the devil, force\nthem, though reluctant, from their beloved object. Nay, God oftentimes\nwithdraws himself, as the saint observed on this occasion, to make them\nsensible of their own weakness, and that this life is a state of trial.\nSt. Macarius once saw, in a vision, devils closing the eyes of the monks\nto drowsiness, and tempting them by diverse methods to distractions,\nduring the time of public prayer. Some, as often as they approached,\nchased them away by a secret supernatural force, while others were in\ndalliance with their suggestions. The saint burst into sighs and tears;\nand, when prayer was ended, admonished every one of his distractions,\nand of the snares of the enemy, with an earnest exhortation to employ,\nin that sacred duty, a more than ordinary watchfulness against his\nattacks.[7] St. Jerom[8] and others relate, that a certain anchoret in\nNitria, having left one hundred crowns at his death, which he had\nacquired by weaving cloth, the monks of that desert met to deliberate\nwhat should be done with that money. Some were for having it given to\nthe poor, others to the church: but Macarius, Pambo, Isidore, and\nothers, who were called the fathers, ordained that the one hundred\ncrowns should be thrown into the grave and buried with the corpse of the\ndeceased, and that at the same time the following words should be\npronounced: \"_May thy money be with thee to perdition_.\"[9] This example\nstruck such a terror into all the monks, that no one durst lay up any\nmoney by him.\n\nPalladius, who, from 391, lived three years under our saint, was\neye-witness to several miracles wrought by him. He relates, that a\ncertain priest, whose head, in a manner shocking to behold, was consumed\nby a cancerous sore, came to his cell, but was refused admittance; nay,\nthe saint at first would not even speak to him. Palladius, by earnest\nentreaties, strove to prevail upon him to give at least some answer to\nso great an object of compassion. Macarius, on the contrary, urged that\nhe was unworthy, and that God, to punish him for a sin of the flesh he\nwas addicted to, had afflicted him with this disorder: however, that\nupon his sincere repentance, and promise never more during his life to\npresume to celebrate the divine mysteries, he would intercede for his\ncure. The priest confessed his sin with a promise, pursuant to the\nancient canonical discipline, never after to perform any priestly\nfunction. The saint thereupon absolved him by the imposition of hands;\nand a few days after the priest came back perfectly healed, glorifying\nGod, and giving thanks to his servant. Palladius found himself tempted\nto sadness, on a suggestion from the devil, that he made no progress in\nvirtue, and that it was to no purpose for him to remain in the desert.\nHe consulted his master, who bade him persevere with fervor, never dwell\non the temptation, and always answer instantly the fiend: \"My love for\nJesus Christ will not suffer me to quit my cell, where I am determined\nto abide in order to please and serve him agreeably to his will.\"\n\nThe two saints of the name of Macarius happened one day to cross the\n{076} Nile together in a boat, when certain tribunes, or principal\nofficers, who were there with their numerous trains, could not help\nobserving to each other, that those men, from the cheerfulness of their\naspect, must be exceeding happy in their poverty. Macarius of\nAlexandria, alluding to their name, which in Greek signifies _happy_,\nmade this answer: \"You have reason to call us happy, for this is our\nname. But if we are happy in despising the world, are not you miserable\nwho live slaves to it?\" These words, uttered with a tone of voice\nexpressive of an interior conviction of their truth, had such an effect\non the tribune who first spoke, that, hastening home, he distributed his\nfortune among the poor, and embraced an eremitical life. In 375, both\nthese saints were banished for the catholic faith, at the instigation of\nLacius, the Arian patriarch of Alexandria. Our saint died in the year\n394, as Tillemont shows from Palladius. The Latins commemorate him on\nthe 2d, the Greeks with the elder Macarius, on the 19th of January.\n\nIn the desert of Nitria there subsists at this day a monastery which\nbears the name of St. Macarius. The monastic rule called St. Macarius's,\nin the code of rules, is ascribed to this of Alexandria. St. Jerom seems\nto have copied some things from it in his letter to Rusticus. The\nconcord, or collection of rules, gives us another, under the names of\nthe two SS. Macariuses; Serapion (of Arsinoe, or the other of Nitria;)\nPaphnutius (of Becbale, priest of Scete;) and thirty-four other\nabbots.[10] It was probably collected from their discipline, or\nregulations and example. According to this latter, the monks fasted the\nwhole year, except on Sundays, and the time from Easter to Whitsuntide;\nthey observed the strictest poverty, and divided the day between manual\nlabor and hours of prayer; hospitality was much recommended in this\nrule, but, for the sake of recollection, it was strictly forbid for any\nmonk, except one who was deputed to entertain guests, ever to speak to\nany stranger without particular leave.[11] The definition of a monk or\nanchoret, given by the abbot Rance of la Trappe, is a lively portraiture\nof the great Macarius in the desert when, says he, a soul relishes God\nin solitude, she thinks no more of any thing but heaven, and forgets the\nearth, which has nothing in it that can now please her; she burns with\nthe fire of divine love, and sighs only after God, regarding death as\nher greatest advantage; nevertheless they will find themselves much\nmistaken, who, leaving the world, imagine they shall go to God by\nstraight paths, by roads sown with lilies and roses, in which they will\nhave no difficulties to conquer, but that the hand of God will turn\naside whatever could raise any in their way, or disturb the tranquillity\nof their retreat: on the contrary, they must be persuaded that\ntemptations will everywhere follow them, that there is neither state nor\nplace in which they can be exempt, that the peace which God promises is\nprocured amidst tribulations, as the rose-bud amidst thorns; God has not\npromised his servants that they shall not meet with trials, but that\nwith the temptation, he will give them grace to be able to bear it:[12]\nheaven is offered to us on no other conditions; it is a kingdom of\nconquest, the prize of victory--but, O God, what a prize!\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  Some confound our saint with Macarius of Pisper, or the disciple of\n    Saint Antony. But the best critics distinguish them. The latter,\n    with his fellow-disciple Amathas, buried St. Antony, who left him\n    his staff, as Cronius, the Priest of Nitria, related to Palladius.\n    To this Macarius of Pisper St. Antony committed the government of\n    almost five thousand monks as appears from the life of saint\n    Posthumias.\n2.  Hist. Lausiac, c. 20.\n3.  Pallad. Laus. c. 20.\n4.  Ib.\n5.  Rosweide b. 8, c. 20, p. 722.\n6.  Pallad. Laus. c. 20.\n7.  Rosweide, Vit. Patr. l. 2, c. 29, p. 481.\n8.  S. Hier. ep. 18 (ol. 22) ad. Eustoch. T. 4, par. 2, p. 44, ed. Ben.\n    et Rosw. Vit. Patr. l. 3, c. 319\n9.  Acts viii. 20.\n10. Concordia Regularum, autore S. Benedicto Ananiae Abbate, edita ab\n    Hugone Menardo, O.S.B. in 4to Parisiis, 1638. Item, Codex Regularum\n    collectus a S. Benedicto Ananiae, auctus a Luca Holstenio, two vols.\n    4to. Romae, 1661.\n11. C. 60, p. 809 edit. Mena{}.\n12. 1 Cor. x. 13.\n\n_On the same day_\n\nAre commemorated many holy martyrs throughout the provinces of the Roman\nempire; who, when Dioclesian, in 303, commanded the holy scriptures,\n{077} wherever found, to be burnt, chose rather to suffer torments and\ndeath than to be accessary {sic.} to their being destroyed by\nsurrendering them into the hands of the professed enemies of their\nAuthor.[1]\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  See Baron. n. annal. et annot. in Martyr. Rom. Eus. l. 8, c. 2. H.\n    Vales. not. ib. p. 163. Ruinart, in Acta SS Saturn &c. and S.\n    Felicis. Fleury. Moeurs des Chret. p. 45. Tillem. Pers. de. Dicol.\n    art. 10, t. 5. Lactant. de mort. Pers. c. 15 et 18, cum not. Baluz.\n    &c.\n\n_Also_, ST. CONCORDIUS, M.\n\nA HOLY subdeacon, who in the reign of Marcus Antoninus, was apprehended\nin a desert, and brought before Torquatus, governor of Umbria, then\nresiding at Spoletto, about the year 178. The martyr, paying no regard\nto his promises or threats, in the first interrogatory was beaten with\nclubs, and in the second was hung on the rack, but in the height of his\ntorments he cheerfully sang: \"Glory be to thee, Lord Jesus!\" Three days\nafter, two soldiers were sent by Torquatus, to behead him in the\ndungeon, unless he would offer sacrifice to an idol, which a priest who\naccompanied them carried with him for this purpose. The saint showed his\nindignation by spitting upon the idol, upon which one of the soldiers\nstruck off his head. In the Roman Martyrology his name occurs on the\n1st, in some others on the 2d of January. See his genuine acts in\nBollandus, p. 9, and Tillemont, t. 2, p. 439.\n\n_Also_, ST. ADALARD, OR ADALARD. A.C.\n\nPronounced ALARD.[1]\n\nTHE birth of this holy monk was most illustrious, his father Bernard\nbeing son of Charles Martel, and brother of king Pepin, so that Adalard\nwas cousin-german to Charlemagne, by whom he was called in his youth to\nthe court, and created count of his palace. A fear of offending God made\nhim tremble at the sight of the dangers of forfeiting his grace, with\nwhich he was surrounded, and of the disorders which reigned in the\nworld. Lest he should be engaged to entangle his conscience, by seeming\nto approve of things which he thought would endanger his salvation, he\ndetermined to forsake at once both the court and the world. His\nsacrifice was the more perfect and edifying, as he was endowed with the\ngreatest personal accomplishments of mind and body for the world, and in\nthe flower of his age; for he was only twenty years old, when, in 773,\nhe took the monastic habit at Corbie in Picardy, a monastery that had\nbeen founded by queen Bathildes, in 662. After he had passed a year in\nthe fervent exercises of his novitiate, he made his vows; the first\nemployment assigned him in the monastery was that of gardener, in which,\nwhile his hands were employed in the business of his calling, his\nthoughts were on God and heavenly things. Out of humility, and a desire\nof closer retirement, he obtained leave to be removed to mount Cassino,\nwhere he hoped he should be concealed from the world; but his eminent\nqualifications, and the great example of his virtue, betrayed and\ndefeated all the projects of his humility, and did not suffer him to\nlive long unknown; he was brought back to Corbie, and some years after\nchosen abbot. Being obliged by Charlemagne often to attend at court, he\nappeared there as the first among the king's counsellors, as he is\nstyled by Hincmar,[2] who had seen him there in 796. He was compelled by\nCharlemagne {078} entirely to quit his monastery, and take upon him the\ncharge of chief minister to that prince's eldest son Pepin, who, at his\ndeath at Milan in 810, appointed the saint tutor to his son Bernard,\nthen but twelve years of age. In this exalted and distracting station,\nAdalard appeared even in council recollected and attentive to God, and\nfrom his employments would hasten to his chamber, or the chapel, there\nto plunge his heart in the centre of its happiness. During the time of\nhis prayers, tears usually flowed from his eyes in great abundance,\nespecially on considering his own miseries, and his distance from God.\nThe emperor recalled him from Milan, and deputed him to pope Leo III. to\nassist at the discussion of certain difficulties started relating to the\nclause inserted in the creed, concerning the procession of the Holy\nGhost from the Father and the Son. Charlemagne died in 814, on the 28th\nof January, having associated his son, Lewis le Debonnaire, in the\nempire in the foregoing September. While our saint lived in his\nmonastery, dead to the world, intent only on heavenly things,\ninstructing the ignorant, and feeding the poor, on whom he always\nexhausted his whole revenue, Lewis declared his son, Lothaire, his\npartner and successor in the empire, in 817: Bernard, who looked upon\nthat dignity as his right, his father Pepin having been eldest brother\nto Lewis, rebelled, but lost both his kingdom and his life. Lewis was\nprevailed upon, by certain flatterers, to suspect our saint to have been\nno enemy to Bernard's pretensions, and banished him to a monastery,\nsituated in the little island Heri, called afterwards Hermoutier, and\nSt. Philebert's, on the coast of Aquitain. The saint's brother Wala (one\nof the greatest men of that age, as appears from his curious life,\npublished by Mabillon) he obliged to become a monk at Lerins. His sister\nGondrada he confined in the monastery of the Holy Cross, at Poitiers;\nand left only his other sister Theodrada, who was a nun, at liberty in\nher convent at Soissons. This exile St. Adalard regarded as his gain,\nand in it his tranquillity and gladness of soul met with no\ninterruptions. The emperor at length was made sensible of his innocence,\nand, after five years' banishment, called him to his court towards the\nclose of the year 821; and, by the greatest honors and favors,\nendeavored to make amends for the injustice he had done him. Adalard\n(whose soul, fixed wholly on God, was raised above all earthly things)\nwas the same person in prosperity and adversity, in the palace as in the\ncell, and in every station: the distinguishing parts of his character\nwere, an extraordinary gift of compunction and tears, the most tender\ncharity for all men, and an undaunted zeal for the relief and protection\nof all the distressed. In 823, he obtained leave to return to the\ngovernment of his abbey of Corbie, where he with joy frequently took\nupon himself the most humbling and mortifying employments of the house.\nBy his solicitude, earnest endeavors, and powerful example, his\nspiritual children grew daily in fervor and divine love; and such was\nhis zeal for their continual advancement, that he passed no week without\nspeaking to every one of them in particular, and no day without\nexhorting them all in general, by pathetic and instructive discourses.\nThe inhabitants of the country round his monastery had also a share in\nhis pious labors, and he exhausted on the poor the revenue of his\nmonastery, and whatever other temporal goods came to his hands, with a\nprofusion which many condemned as excessive, but which heaven, on urgent\noccasions, sometimes approved by sensible miracles. The good old man\nwould receive advice from the meanest of his monks, with an astonishing\nhumility; when entreated by any to moderate his austerities, he\nfrequently answered, \"I will take care of your servant, that he may\nserve you the longer;\" meaning himself. Several hospitals were erected\nby him. During his banishment, another Adalard, who governed the\nmonastery by his appointment, began, upon our saint's project, to {079}\nprepare the foundation of the monastery of New Corbie, vulgarly called\nCorwey, in the diocese of Paderborn, nine leagues from that city, upon\nthe Weser, that it might be a nursery of evangelical laborers, to the\nconversion and instruction of the northern nations. St. Adalard, after\nhis return to Corbie, completed this great undertaking in 822, for which\nhe went twice thither, and made a long stay, to settle the discipline of\nhis colony. Corwey is an imperial abbey; its territory reaches from the\nbishopric of Paderborn to the duchy of Brunswick, and the abbot is one\nof the eleven abbots, who sit with twenty-one bishops, in the imperial\ndiet at Ratisbon: but the chief glory of this house is derived from the\nlearning and zeal of St. Anscharius, and many others, who erected\nillustrious trophies of religion in many barbarous countries. To\nperpetuate the regularity which he established in his two monasteries,\nhe compiled a book of statutes for their use, of which considerable\nfragments are extant:[3] for the direction of courtiers in their whole\nconduct, he wrote an excellent book, On the Order of the Court; of which\nwork we have only the large extracts, which Hincmar has inserted in his\nInstructions of king Carloman, the master-piece of that prelate's\nwritings, for which he is indebted to our saint. A treatise on the\nPaschal Moon, and other works of St. Adalard, are lost. By those which\nwe have, also by his disciples, St. Paschasius Radbertus, St.\nAnscharius, and others, and by the testimony of the former in his life,\nit is clear that our saint was an elegant and zealous promoter of\nliterature in his monasteries: the same author assures us, that he was\nwell skilled, and instructed the people not only in the Latin, but also\nin the Tudesque and vulgar French languages.[4] St. Adalard, for his\neminent learning, and extraordinary spirit of prayer and compunction,\nwas styled the Austin, the Antony, and the Jeremy of his age. Alcuin, in\na letter addressed to him under the name of Antony, calls him his\nson;[5] whence many infer that he had been scholar to that great man.\nSt. Adalard was returned out of Germany to Old Corbie, when he fell sick\nthree days before Christmas: he received extreme unction some days\nafter, which was administered by Hildemar, bishop of Beauvais, who had\nformerly been his disciple; the viaticum he received on the day after\nthe feast of our Lord's circumcision, about seven o'clock in the\nmorning, and expired the same day about three in the afternoon, in the\nyear 827, of his age seventy-three. Upon proof of several miracles, by\nvirtue of a commission granted by pope John XIX. (called by some XX.)\nthe body of the saint was enshrined, and translated with great solemnity\nin 1040; of which ceremony we have a particular history written by St.\nGerard, who also composed an office in his honor, in gratitude for\nhaving been cured of a violent headache through his intercession: the\nsame author relates seven other miracles performed by the same means.[6]\nThe relics of St. Adalard, except a small portion given to the abbey of\nChelles, are still preserved at Corbie, in a rich shrine and two smaller\ncases. His name has never been inserted in the Roman Martyrology, though\nhe is honored as principal patron in many parish churches, and by\nseveral towns on the banks of the Rhine and in the Low Countries. See\nhis life, compiled with accuracy, in a very florid pathetic style, by\nway of panegyric, by his disciple Paschasius Radbertus, {080} extant in\nBollandus, and more correctly in Mabillon, (Act. Ben. t. 5, p. 306, also\nthe same abridged in a more historical style, by St. Gerard, first monk\nof Corbie, afterwards first abbot of Seauve-majeur in Guienne, founder\nby William, duke of Aquitain and count of Poitiers, in 1080. The history\nof the translation of the saint's body, with an account of eight\nmiracles by the same St. Gerard, is also given us by Bollandus.)\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  It was usual among the ancient French, to add to certain words,\n    syllables, or letters which they did not pronounce; as Chrodobert,\n    or Rigobert, for Robert: Cloves for Louis; Clothaire for Lotharie,\n    &c.\n2.  Hinc. l. Inst. Regis, c. 12.\n3.  Published by D'Achery, Spicil. tom. 4, p. 1, 20.\n4.  From this testimony it is clear, that the French language, used by\n    the common people, had then so much deviated from the Latin as to be\n    esteemed a different tongue; which is also evident from Nithard, an\n    officer in the army of Lewis le Debonnaire, who, in his history of\n    the divisions between the sons of Lewis le Debonnaire, (published\n    among the French historians by du Chesne,) gives us the original act\n    of the agreement between the two brothers, Charles the Bald, and\n    Lewis of Germany, at Strasburg, in 842.\n5.  Alcuin, Ep. 107.\n6.  St. Gerard, of Seauve-majeur, died on the 5th of April, 1095, and\n    was canonized by C[oe]lestine III. in 1197. See his life, with an\n    account of the foundation of his monastery, in Mabillon, Acts,\n    Sanctorum ad S. Benedict. t. 9, p. 841.\n\n\nJANUARY III.\n\nST. PETER BALSAM, M.\n\nFrom his valuable acts in Ruinart, p. 501. Bollandus, p. 128. See\nTillemont, T. 5. Assemani, Act Mart. Occid. T. 2, p. 106.\n\nA.D. 311.\n\nPETER BALSAM, a native of the territory of Eleutheropolis, in Palestine,\nwas apprehended at Aulane, in the persecution of Maximinus. Being\nbrought before Severus, governor of the province, the interrogatory\nbegan by asking him his name. Peter answered: \"Balsam is the name of my\nfamily, but I received that of Peter in baptism.\" SEVERUS. \"Of what\nfamily, and of what country are you?\" PETER. \"I am a Christian.\"\nSEVERUS. \"What is your employ?\" PETER. \"What employ can I have more\nhonorable, or what better thing can I do in the world, than to live a\nChristian?\" SEVERUS. \"Do you know the imperial edicts?\" PETER. \"I know\nthe laws of God, the sovereign of the universe.\" SEVERUS. \"You shall\nquickly know that there is an edict of the most clement emperors,\ncommanding all to sacrifice to the gods, or be put to death.\" PETER.\n\"You will also know one day that there is a law of the eternal king,\nproclaiming that every one shall perish, who offers sacrifice to devils:\nwhich do you counsel me to obey, and which, do you think, should be my\noption; to die by your sword, or to be condemned to everlasting misery,\nby the sentence of the great king, the true God?\" SEVERUS. \"Seeing you\nask my advice, it is then that you obey the edict, and sacrifice to the\ngods.\" PETER. \"I can never be prevailed upon to sacrifice to gods of\nwood and stone, as those are which you adore.\" SEVERUS. \"I would have\nyou know, that it is in my power to revenge these affronts by your\ndeath.\" PETER. \"I had no intention to affront you. I only expressed what\nis written in the divine law.\" SEVERUS. \"Have compassion on yourself,\nand sacrifice.\" PETER. \"If I am truly compassionate to myself, I ought\nnot to sacrifice.\" SEVERUS. \"My desire is to use lenity; I therefore\nstill do allow you time to consider with yourself, that you may save\nyour life.\" PETER. \"This delay will be to no purpose, for I shall not\nalter my mind; do now what you will be obliged to do soon, and complete\nthe work, which the devil, your father, has begun; for I will never do\nwhat Jesus Christ forbids me.\"\n\nSeverus, on hearing these words, ordered him to be hoisted on the rack,\nand while he was suspended in the air, said to him scoffing: \"What say\nyou now, Peter; do you begin to know what the rack is? Are you yet\nwilling to sacrifice?\" Peter answered: \"Tear me with iron hooks, and\ntalk not of my sacrificing to your devils: I have already told you, that\nI will sacrifice to that God alone for whom I suffer.\" Hereupon the\ngovernor {081} commanded his tortures to be redoubled. The martyr, far\nfrom fetching the least sigh, sung with alacrity those verses of the\nroyal prophet: _One thing I have asked of the Lord; this will I seek\nafter: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my\nlife_.[1] _I will take the chalice of salvation, and will call upon the\nname of the Lord_.[2] The governor called forth fresh executioners to\nrelieve the first, now fatigued. The spectators, seeing the martyr's\nblood run down in streams, cried out to him: \"Obey the emperors:\nsacrifice, and rescue yourself from these torments.\" Peter replied: \"Do\nyou call these torments? I, for my part, feel no pain: but this I know,\nthat if I am not faithful to my God, I must expect real pains, such as\ncannot be conceived.\" The judge also said: \"Sacrifice, Peter Balsam, or\nyou will repent it.\" PETER. \"Neither will I sacrifice, nor shall I\nrepent it.\" SEVERUS. \"I am just ready to pronounce sentence.\" PETER. \"It\nis what I most earnestly desire.\" Severus then dictated the sentence in\nthis manner: \"It is our order, that Peter Balsam, for having refused to\nobey the edict of the invincible emperors, and having contemned our\ncommands, after obstinately defending the law of a man crucified, be\nhimself nailed to a cross.\" Thus it was that this glorious martyr\nfinished his triumph, at Aulane, on the 3d of January, which day he is\nhonored in the Roman Martyrology, and that of Bede.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nIn the example of the martyrs we see, that religion alone inspires true\nconstancy and heroism, and affords solid comfort and joy amidst the most\nterrifying dangers, calamities, and torments. It spreads a calm\nthroughout a man's whole life, and consoles at all times. He that is\nunited to God, rests in omnipotence, and in wisdom and goodness; he is\nreconciled with the world whether it frowns or flatters, and with\nhimself. The interior peace which he enjoys, is the foundation of\nhappiness, and the delights which innocence and virtue bring, abundantly\ncompensate the loss of the base pleasures of vice. Death itself, so\nterrible to the worldly man, is the saint's crown, and completes his joy\nand his bliss.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  Ps. xxvi. 4.\n2.  Ps. cxv. 4.\n\nST. ANTERUS, POPE.\n\nHE succeeded St. Pontianus in 235. He sat only one month and ten days,\nand is styled a martyr by Bede, Ado, and the present Roman Martyrology.\nSee Card. d'Aguirre, Conc. Hispan. T. 3. In the martyrology called S.\nJerom's, kept at S. Cyriacus's, it is said that he was buried on the\nAppian road, in the Paraphagene, where the cemetery of Calixtus was\nafterwards erected.\n\nST. GORDIUS.\n\nMARTYRED at Caesarea, in Cappadocia, was a centurion to the army, but\nretired to the deserts when the persecution was first raised by\nDioclesian. The desire of shedding his blood for Christ made him quit\nhis solitude, while the people of that city were assembled to the\nCircus[1] to solemnize public games in honor of Mars. His attenuated\nbody, long beard and hair and ragged clothes, drew on him the eyes of\nthe whole assembly; yet, with this strange garb and mien, the graceful\nair of majesty that appeared in his {082} countenance commanded\nveneration. Being examined by the governor, and loudly confessing his\nfaith, he was condemned to be beheaded. Having fortified himself by the\nsign of the cross,[2] he joyfully received the deadly blow. St. Basil,\non this festival, pronounced his panegyric at Caesarea, in which he says,\nseveral of his audience had been eye-witnesses of the martyr's triumph.\nHom. 17, t. 1.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  The _Circus_ was a ring, or large place, wherein the people sat and\n    saw the public games.\n2.  [Greek: Heautou ton tupon tou staurou perigrapsas.] St. Basil, t. 1,\n    p. 452.\n\nST. GENEVIEVE, OR GENOVEFA, V.\n\nCHIEF PATRONESS OF THE CITY OF PARIS.\n\nHER father's name was Severus, and her mother's Gerontia: she was born\nabout the year 422, at Nanterre, a small village four miles from Paris,\nnear the famous modern stations, or Calvary, adorned with excellent\nsculptures, representing our Lord's Passion, on Mount Valerien. When St.\nGermanus, bishop of Auxerre, went with St. Lupus into Britain to oppose\nthe Pelagian heresy, he lay at Nanterre in his way. The inhabitants\nflocked about them to receive their blessing, and St. Germanus made them\nan exhortation, during which he took particular notice of Genevieve,\nthough only seven years of age. After his discourse he inquired for her\nparents, and addressing himself to them, foretold their daughter's\nfuture sanctity, and said that she would perfectly accomplish the\nresolution she had taken of serving God, and that others would imitate\nher example. He then asked Genevieve whether it was not her desire to\nserve God in a state of perpetual virginity, and to bear no other title\nthan that of a spouse of Jesus Christ. The virgin answered, that this\nwas what she had long desired, and begged that by his blessing she might\nbe from that moment consecrated to God. The holy prelate went to the\nchurch of the place, followed by the people, and, during long singing of\npsalms and prayers, says Constantius,[1]--that is, during the recital of\nNone and Vespers,[2] as the author of the life of St. Genevieve\nexpresses it,[3] he held his hand upon the virgin's head. After he had\nsupped, he dismissed her, giving a strict charge to her parents to bring\nher again to him very early the next morning. The father complied with\nthe commission, and St. Germanus asked Genevieve whether she remembered\nthe promise she had made to God. She said she did, and declared she\nwould, by the divine assistance, faithfully perform it. The bishop gave\nher a brass medal, on which a cross was engraved, to wear always about\nher neck, to put her in mind of the consecration she had made of herself\nto God; and at the same time, he charged her never to wear bracelets, or\nnecklaces of pearls, gold, or silver, or any other ornaments of vanity.\nAll this she most religiously observed, and considering herself as the\nspouse of Christ, gave herself up to the most fervent practices of\ndevotion and penance. From the words of St. Germanus, in his exhortation\nto St. Genevieve never to wear jewels, Baillet and some others infer,\nthat she must have been a person of quality and fortune; but the ancient\nBreviary and constant tradition of the place assure us, that her father\nwas a poor shepherd. Adrian, Valois, and Baluze, observe, that her most\nancient life ought not to be esteemed of irrefragable authority, and\nthat the words of St. Germanus are {083} not perhaps related with a\nscrupulous fidelity.[4] The author of her life tells us, that the holy\nvirgin begging one day with great importunity that she might go to the\nchurch, her mother struck her on the face, but in punishment lost her\nsight, which she only recovered, two months after, by washing her eyes\ntwice or thrice with water which her daughter fetched from the well, and\nupon which she had made the sign of the cross. Hence the people look\nupon the well at Nanterre as having been blessed by the saint. About\nfifteen years of age, she was presented to the bishop of Paris to\nreceive the religious veil at his hands, together with two other persons\nof the same sex. Though she was the youngest of the three, the bishop\nplaced her the first, saying, that heaven had already sanctified her; by\nwhich he seems to have alluded to the promise she had already made, in\nthe presence of SS. Germanus and Lupus, of consecrating herself to God.\nFrom that time she frequently ate only twice in the week, on Sundays and\nThursdays. Her food was barley bread with a few beans. At the age of\nfifty, by the command of certain bishops, she mitigated this austerity,\nso far as to allow herself a moderate use of fish and milk. Her prayer\nwas almost continual, and generally attended with a large flow of tears.\nAfter the death of her parents she left Nanterre, and settled with her\ngod-mother at Paris; but sometimes undertook journeys upon motives of\ncharity, and illustrated the cities of Meaux, Leon, Tours, Orleans, and\nall other places wherever she went, with miracles and remarkable\npredictions. God permitted her to meet with some severe trials; for at a\ncertain time all persons indiscriminately seemed to be in a combination\nagainst her, and persecuted her under the opprobrious names of\nvisionary, hypocrite, and the like imputations, all tending to asperse\nher innocency. The arrival of St. Germanus at Paris, probably on his\nsecond journey to Britain, for some time silenced her calumniators; but\nit was not long ere the storm broke out anew. Her enemies were fully\ndetermined to drown her, when the archdeacon of Auxerre arrived with\n_Eulogies_, or blessed bread, sent her by St. Germanus, as a testimony\nof his particular esteem for her virtues, and a token of communion. This\nseems to have happened while St. Germanus was absent in Italy in 449, a\nlittle before his death. This circumstance, so providentially opportune,\nconverted the prejudices of her calumniators into a singular veneration\nfor her during the remainder of her life. The Franks or French had then\npossessed themselves of the better part of Gaul; and Childeric, their\nking, took Paris.[5] During the long blockade of that city, the citizens\nbeing extremely distressed by famine, St. Genevieve, as the author of\nher life relates, went out at the head of a company who were sent to\nprocure provisions, and brought back from Arcis-sur-Aube and Troyes\nseveral boats laden with corn. Nevertheless, Childeric, when he had made\nhimself master of Paris, though always a pagan, respected St. Genevieve,\nand, upon her intercession, spared the lives of many prisoners, and did\nseveral other acts of clemency and bounty. Our saint, out of her\nsingular devotion to St. Dionysius and his companions, the apostles of\nthe country, frequently visited their tombs at the borough of\nCatulliacum, which many think the borough since called Saint Denys's.\nShe also excited the zeal of many pious persons to build there a church\nin {084} honor of St. Dionysius, which King Dagobert I. afterwards\nrebuilt with a stately monastery in 629.[6] Saint Genevieve likewise\nperformed several pilgrimages, in company with other holy virgins, to\nthe shrine of St. Martin at Tours. These journeys of devotion she\nsanctified by the exercise of holy recollection and austere penance.\nKing Clovis, who embraced the faith in 496, listened often with\ndeference to the advice of St. Genevieve, and granted liberty to several\ncaptives at her request. Upon the report of the march of Attila with his\narmy of Huns, the Parisians were preparing to abandon their city, but\nSt. Genevieve persuaded them, in imitation of Judith and Hester, to\nendeavor to avert the scourge, by fasting, watching, and prayer. Many\ndevout persons of her sex passed many days with her in prayer in the\nbaptistery; from whence the particular devotion to St. Genevieve, which\nis practised at St. John-le-rond, the ancient public baptistery of the\nchurch of Paris, seems to have taken rise. She assured the people of the\nprotection of heaven, and their deliverance; and though she was long\ntreated by many as an impostor, the event verified the prediction, that\nbarbarian suddenly changing the course of his march, probably by\ndirecting it towards Orleans. Our author attributes to St. Genevieve the\nfirst design of the magnificent church which Clovis began to build in\nhonor of SS. Peter and Paul, by the pious counsel of his wife Saint\nClotilda, by whom it was finished several years after; for he only laid\nthe foundation a little before his death, which happened in 511.[7] St.\nGenevieve died about the same year, probably five weeks after that\nprince, on the 3d of January, 512, being eighty-nine years old. Some\nthink she died before King Clovis. Prudentius, bishop of Paris, had been\nburied about the year 409, on the spot where this church was built.\nClovis was interred in it: his remains were afterwards removed into the\nmiddle of the choir, where they are covered with a modern monument of\nwhite marble, with an inscription. St. Clotilda was buried near the\nsteps of the high altar in 545; but her name having been enrolled among\nthe saints, her relics were enshrined, and are placed behind the high\naltar. Those of St. Alda, the companion of St. Genevieve, and of St.\nCeraunus, bishop of Paris, are placed in silver shrines on the altar of\nS. Clotilda. The tombs of St. Genevieve and King Clovis were near\ntogether. Immediately after the saint was buried, the people raised an\noratory of wood over her tomb, as her historian assures us, and this was\nsoon changed into the stately church built under the invocation of SS.\nPeter and Paul. From this circumstance, we gather that her tomb was\nsituated in a part of this church, which was only built after her death.\nHer tomb, though empty, is still shown in the subterraneous church, or\nvault, betwixt those of Prudentius, and St. Ceraunus, bishop of Paris.\nBut her relics were enclosed, by St. {085} Eligius, in a costly shrine,\nadorned with gold and silver, which he made with his own hands about the\nyear 630, as St. Owen relates in his life. In 845 these relics, for fear\nof the Normans, were removed to Atis, and thence to Dravel, where the\nabbot of the canons kept a tooth for his own church. In 850 they were\ncarried to Marisy, near Ferte-Milon, and five years after brought back\nto Paris. The author of the original life of St. Genevieve concludes it\nby a description of the Basilick which Clovis and St. Clotilda erected,\nadorned with a triple portico, in which were painted the histories of\nthe patriarchs, prophets, martyrs, and confessors. This church was\nseveral times plundered, and at length burnt, by the Normans. When it\nwas rebuilt, soon after the year 856, the relics of St. Genevieve were\nbrought back. The miracles which were performed there from the time of\nher burial, rendered this church famous over all France, so that at\nlength it began to be known only by her name. The city of Paris has\nfrequently received sensible proofs of the divine protection, through\nher intercession. The most famous instance is that called the miracle of\n_Des Ardens_, or of the burning fever. In 1129, in the reign of Louis\nVI., a pestilential fever, with a violent inward heat, and pains in the\nbowels, swept off, in a short time, fourteen thousand persons; nor could\nthe art of physicians afford any relief. Stephen, bishop of Paris, with\nthe clergy and people, implored the divine mercy, by fasting and\nsupplications. Yet the distemper began not to abate till the shrine of\nSt. Genevieve was carried in a solemn procession to the cathedral.\nDuring that ceremony many sick persons were cured by touching the\nshrine; and of all that then lay ill of that distemper in the whole\ntown, only three died, the rest recovered, and no others fell ill. Pope\nInnocent II. coming to Paris the year following, after having passed a\ncareful scrutiny on the miracle, ordered an annual festival in\ncommemoration of it on the 26th of November, which is still kept at\nParis. A chapel near the cathedral, called anciently St. Genevieve's the\nLittle, erected near the house in which she died, afterward, from this\nmiracle, (though it was wrought not at this chapel, but chiefly at the\ncathedral, as Le Beuf demonstrates,) was called St. Genevieve des\nArdens, which was demolished in 1747, to make place for the Foundling\nHospital.[8] Both before and since that time, it is the custom, in\nextraordinary public calamities, to carry the shrine of St. Genevieve,\naccompanied with those of St. Marcel, St. Aurea, St. Lucan, martyr, St.\nLandry, St. Merry, St. Paxentius, St. Magloire, and others, in a solemn\nprocession to the cathedral; on which occasion the regular canons of St.\nGenevieve walk barefoot, and at the right hand of the chapter of the\ncathedral, and the abbot walks on the right hand of the archbishop. The\npresent rich shrine of St. Genevieve was made by the abbot, and the\nrelics enclosed in it in 1242. It is said that one hundred and\nninety-three marks of silver, and eight of gold, were used in making it;\nand it is almost covered with precious stones, most of which are the\npresents of several kings and queens. The crown or cluster of diamonds\nwhich glitters on the top, was given by Queen Mary of Medicis. The\nshrine is placed behind the choir, upon a fine piece of architecture,\nsupported by four high pillars, two of marble, and two of jaspis.[9] See\nthe Ancient Life of St. Genevieve, written by an anonymous author,\neighteen years after her death, of which the best edition is given by F.\nCharpentier, a Genevevan regular canon, in octavo, in 1697. It is\ninterpolated in several editions. Bollandus has added another more\nmodern life; see also Tillemont, t. 16, p. 621, and notes, ib. p. 802.\nLikewise, Gallia Christiana Nova, t. 7, p. 700.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  Constant. in vit. S. Germani. Altiss. l. 1, c. 20.\n2.  _Nonam atque duodecim_. It deserves the attention of clergymen, that\n    though anciently the canonical hours were punctually observed in the\n    divine office, SS. Germanus and Lupus deferred None beyond the hour,\n    that they might recite it in the church, rather than on the road.\n    The word _duodecima_ used for Vespers, is a clear demonstration that\n    the canonical hour of Vespers was not five, but six o'clock,--which,\n    about the _equinox_, was the twelfth hour of the natural day: which\n    is also proved from the name of the Ferial hymn at Vespers, _Jam ter\n    quaternis_, &c. See Card. Bona, de div. Psalmodia, &c.\n3.  Apud Bolland.\n4.  See Piganiol, Descrip. de Paris, t. 8, v. Nanterre.\n5.  Paris was called by the Romans the castle of the Parisians, being by\n    its situation one of the strongest fortresses in Gaul; for at that\n    time it was confined to the island of the river Seine, now called\n    the Isle _du Palais_, and the _City_: though the limits of the city\n    are now extended somewhat beyond that island, it is the smallest\n    part of the town. This isle was only accessible over two wooden\n    bridges, each of which was defended by a castle, which were\n    afterwards called the _Great_ and _Little_ Chatelet. (See Lobineau.\n    Hist. de la Ville de Paris, t. l, l. 1.) The greatest part of the\n    neighboring country was covered with thick woods. The Roman\n    governors built a palace without the island, (now in Rue de\n    l'Harpe,) which Julian, the Apostate, while he commanded in Gaul,\n    exceedingly embellished, furnished with water by a curious aqueduct,\n    and, for the security of his own person, contrived a subterraneous\n    passage from the palace to the castle or Great Chatelet; of all\n    which works certain vestiges are to be seen at this day.\n6.  Some think that Catualliacum was rather Montmartre than St. Denys's,\n    and that the church built there in the time of St. Genevieve stood\n    near the bottom of the mountain, because it is said in her life to\n    have been at the place where St. Dionysius suffered martyrdom; and\n    it is added, that she often visited the place, attended by many\n    virgins, watched there every Saturday night in prayer, and that one\n    night when she was going thither with her companions in the rain,\n    and through very dirty roads, the lamp that was carried before her\n    was extinguished, but lighted again upon her taking it into her own\n    hands: all which circumstances seem not to agree to a place two\n    leagues distant, like St. Denys's.\n7.  The author of the life of St. Bathildes testifies, that Clovis built\n    this church for the use of monks; which Mabillon confirms by other\n    proofs, (Op. Posth. t. 2, p. 356.) He doubts not but it continued in\n    their hands, till being burnt by the Normans in 856 (as appears from\n    Stephen of Tournay, ep. 146,) it was soon after rebuilt, and given\n    to secular canons. These, in punishment of a sedition, were expelled\n    by the authority of Eugenius III., and Suger, abbot of St. Denys's,\n    and prime minister to Lewis VII., or the Young, in 1148, who\n    introduced into this church twelve regular canons of the order of\n    St. Austin, chosen out of St. Victor's abbey, which had been erected\n    about forty years before, and was then most famous for many great\n    men, the austerity of its rule, and the piety and learning which\n    flourished in it. Cardinal Francis Rochefoucault, the history of\n    whose most edifying life and great actions will be a model of all\n    pastoral virtues to all ages to come, having established an\n    excellent reformation in the abbey of St. Vincent, at regular\n    canons, at Senlis, when he was bishop of that see, being nominated\n    abbot of St. Genevieve's by Lewis XIII., called from St. Vincent's\n    F. Charles Faure, and twelve others, in 1624, and by their means\n    introduced the same reformation in this monastery, which was\n    confirmed in 1634, when F. Faure was chosen abbot coadjutor to the\n    cardinal. He died in odor of sanctity in 667, the good cardinal\n    having passed to a better life in 1645.\n8.  _De Miraculo Ardentium_. See Anonym. ap. Bolland. et Brev. Paris. ad\n    26 Nov.\n9.  See Piganiol, Descr. de Paris, t. 5, p. 238, et Le Fevre Calendrier\n    Hist. de l'Eglise de Paris, Nov 26, et Jan. 3. Gallia Christian.\n    Nova, t. 7, p. 700. Le Beuf l. 2, p. 95, et l. 1, p. 387.\n\n{086}\n\n\nJANUARY IV.\n\nST. TITUS, DISCIPLE OF ST. PAUL, B.\n\nSee St. Paul, ep. ad Tit. and 1 and 2 ad Cor.; also, Tillemont T. 2,\nCalmet, T. 8, Le Quien Oriens Christianus, T. 2, p. 256. F. Farlat\nIllyrici sacri. T. 1, p. 354 ad 392.\n\nST. TITUS was born a Gentile, and seems to have been converted by St.\nPaul, who calls him his son in Christ. His extraordinary virtue and\nmerit gained him the particular esteem and affection of this apostle;\nfor we find him employed as his secretary and interpreter; and he styles\nhim his brother, and copartner in his labors; commends exceedingly his\nsolicitude and zeal for the salvation of his brethren,[1] and in the\ntenderest manner expresses the comfort and support he found in him,[2]\ninsomuch, that, on a certain occasion, he declared that he found no rest\nin his spirit, because at Troas he had not met Titus.[3] In the year 51,\nhe accompanied him to the council that was held at Jerusalem, on the\nsubject of the Mosaic rites. Though the apostle had consented to the\ncircumcision of Timothy, in order to render his ministry acceptable\namong the Jews, he would not allow the same in Titus, apprehensive of\ngiving thereby a sanction to the error of certain false brethren, who\ncontended that the ceremonial institutes of the Mosaic law were not\nabolished by the law of grace. Towards the close of the year 56, St.\nPaul sent Titus from Ephesus to Corinth, with full commission to remedy\nthe several subjects of scandal, as also to allay the dissensions in\nthat church. He was there received with great testimonies of respect,\nand was perfectly satisfied with regard to the penance and submission of\nthe offenders; but could not be prevailed upon to accept from them any\npresent, not even so much as his own maintenance. His love for that\nchurch was very considerable, and at their request he interceded with\nSt. Paul for the pardon of the incestuous man. He was sent the same year\nby the apostle a second time to Corinth, to prepare the alms that church\ndesigned for the poor Christians at Jerusalem. All these particulars we\nlearn from St. Paul's two epistles to the Corinthians.\n\nSt. Paul, after his first imprisonment, returning from Rome into the\neast, made some stay in the island of Crete, to preach there the faith\nof Jesus Christ: but the necessities of other churches requiring his\npresence elsewhere, he ordained his beloved disciple Titus bishop of\nthat island, and left him to finish the work he had successfully begun.\n\"We may form a judgment,\" says St. Chrysostom,[4] \"from the importance\nof the charge, how great the esteem of St. Paul was for his disciple.\"\nBut finding the loss of such a companion too material, at his return\ninto Europe the year after, the apostle ordered him to meet him at\nNicopolis in Epirus, where he intended to pass the winter, and to set\nout for that place as soon as either Tychichus, or Arthemas, whom he had\nsent to supply his place during his absence, should arrive in Crete. St.\nPaul sent these instructions to Titus, in the canonical epistle\naddressed to him, when on his Journey to Nicopolis, in autumn, in the\nyear 64. He ordered him to establish Priests,[5] that is, {087} bishops,\nas St. Jerom, St. Chrysostom, and Theodoret expound it, in all the\ncities of the island. He sums up the principal qualities necessary for a\nbishop, and gives him particular advice touching his own conduct to his\nflock, exhorting him to hold to strictness of discipline, but seasoned\nwith lenity. This epistle contains the rule of episcopal life, and as\nsuch, we may regard it as faithfully copied in the life of this\ndisciple. In the year 65, we find him sent by St. Paul to preach in\nDalmatia.[6] He again returned to Crete, and settled the faith in that\nand the adjacent little island. All that can be affirmed further of him\nis, that he finished a laborious and holy life by a happy death in\nCrete, in a very advanced old age, some affirm in the ninety-fourth year\nof his age. The body of St. Titus was kept with great veneration in the\ncathedral of Gortyna, the ruins of which city, the ancient metropolis of\nthe island, situated six miles from mount Ida, are still very\nremarkable. This city being destroyed by the Saracens in 823, these\nrelics could never since be discovered: only the head of our saint was\nconveyed safe to Venice, and is venerated in the Ducal basilica of St.\nMark (See Creta Sacra, Auctore Flaminio Cornelio, Senatore Veneto.\nVenetiis, anno 1755, de S. Tito, T. 1, p. 189, 195.) St. Titus has been\nlooked upon in Crete as the first archbishop of Gortyna, which\nmetropolitical see is fixed at Candia, since this new metropolis was\nbuilt by the Saracens. The cathedral of the city of Candia, which now\ngives its name to the whole island, bears his name. The Turks leave this\nchurch in the hands of the Christians. The city of Candia was built in\nthe ninth century, seventeen miles from the ancient Gortyn or Gortyna.\nUnder the metropolitan of Candia, there are at present in this island\neleven suffragan bishops of the Greek communion.\n\nWhen St. Paul assumed Titus to the ministry, this disciple was already a\nsaint, and the apostle found in him all the conditions which he charged\nhim so severely to require in those whom he should honor with the\npastoral charge. It is an illusion of false zeal, and a temptation of\nthe enemy, for young novices to begin to teach before they have learned\nthemselves how to practise. Young birds, which leave their nests before\nthey are able to fly, are sure to perish. Trees which push forth their\nbuds before the season, yield no fruit, the flowers being either nipped\nby the frost, or destroyed by the sun. So those who give themselves up\nto the exterior employments of the ministry, before they are thoroughly\ngrounded in the spirit of the gospel, strain their tender interior\nvirtue, and produce only unclean or tainted fruit. All who undertake the\npastoral charge, besides a thorough acquaintance with the divine law,\nand the maxims and spirit of the gospel, and experience, discretion, and\na knowledge of the heart of man, or his passions, must have seriously\nendeavored to die to themselves by the habitual practice of self-denial,\nand a rooted humility; and must have been so well exercised in holy\ncontemplation, as to retain that habitual disposition of soul amidst\nexterior employments, and in them to be able still to say, _I sleep, and\nmy heart watches_;[7] that is, I sleep to all earthly things, and am\nawake only to my heavenly friend and spouse, being absorbed in the\nthoughts and desires of the most ardent love.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  2 Cor. viii. 16, xii. 18.\n2.  2 Cor. vii. 6, 7.\n3.  2 Cor. xi. 13.\n4.  Hom. i. in Tit.\n5.  [Greek: Presbuterous], Tit. i. 5. See the learned Dr. Hammond's\n    dissertation on this subject. From the words of St. Paul, Tit. i. De\n    Marca de Concord. l. 1, c. 3, n. 2. and Schelstrate, T. 2, Ant.\n    Eccl. Diss. 4, c. 2 prove archbishops to be of apostolic\n    institution.\n6.  St. Titus certainly preached in Dalmatia, 2 Tim. iv. 10, &c. He is\n    honored in that country as its principal apostle, on which see the\n    learned Jesuit F. Fariat, Illyrici Sacr. T. i. p. 355. Saint\n    Domnius, who is honored among the saints on the 7th of May, is said\n    to have been ordained by him first bishop of Salona, then the\n    metropolis, which see was afterwards translated to Spalatro.\n7.  Cant. v.\n\n{088}\n\nST. GREGORY, B.\n\nHE was one of the principal senators of Autun, and continued from the\ndeath of his wife a widower till the age of fifty-seven, at which time,\nfor his singular virtues, he was compelled from his private penitential\nlife, and consecrated bishop of Langres, which see he governed with\nadmirable prudence and zeal thirty-three years, sanctifying his pastoral\nlabors by the most profound humility, assiduous prayer, and\nextraordinary abstinence and mortification. An incredible number of\ninfidels were converted by him from idolatry, and worldly Christians\nfrom their disorders. He died about the beginning of the year 541, but\nsome days after the Epiphany. Out of devotion to St. Benignus, he\ndesired to be buried near that saint's tomb at Dijon, which town was\nthen in the diocese of Langres, and had often been the place of his\nresidence. This was executed by his virtuous son Tetricus--who succeeded\nhim in his bishopric. The 4th of January seems to have been the day of\nthe translation of his relics. He is mentioned in the Roman Martyrology.\nSee his miracles recorded by St. Gregory of Tours. Vit. Patr. c. 7.\nHist. Franc. l. 3, c. 15, 19. Cointe Annal. et Gall. Christ.\n\nST. RIGOBERT, OR ROBERT.\n\nHE was abbot of Orbais, afterwards bishop of Rheims, was favored with\nthe gift of miracles, and suffered an unjust banishment under Charles\nMartel. He was recalled by Pepin, but finding Milo in possession of his\nsee, retired to Gernicour, a village four or five leagues from Rheims,\nwhere he led a retired life in the exercises of penance and prayer. He\ndied about the year 750, and was buried in the church of St. Peter at\nGernicour, which he had built. Hincmar, the fifth bishop from him,\ntranslated his relics to the abbey of St. Theodoric, and nine years\nafter, to the church of St. Dionysius at Rheims. Fulco, Hincmar's\nsuccessor, removed them into the metropolitan church of our lady, in\nwhich the greater part is preserved in a rich shrine; but a portion is\nkept in the church of St. Dionysius there, and another portion in the\ncathedral of Paris, where a chapel bears his name. See his anonymous\nlife in Bollandus; also Flodoard, l. 2. Hist. Rhemens. &c.\n\nST. RUMON, B.C.\n\nWILLIAM of Malmesbury informs us, that the history of his life was\ndestroyed by the wars, which has also happened in other parts of\nEngland. He was a bishop, though it is not known of what see. His\nveneration was famous at Tavistock, in Devonshire, where Ordulf, earl of\nDevonshire, built a church under his invocation, before the year 960.\nWilson, upon informations given him by certain persons of that country,\ninserted his name on this day; in the second edition of his English\nMartyrology. See Malmesb. l. 2. De gestis Pont. Angl. in Cridiensibus.\n\n{089}\n\n\nJANUARY V.\n\nST. SIMEON STYLITES, C.\n\nFrom the account given of him by Theodoret, one of the most judicious\nand most learned prelates of the church, who lived in the same country,\nand often visited him; this account was written sixteen years before the\nsaint's death. Also from St. Simeon's life written by Antony, his\ndisciple, published genuine in Bollandus, and the same in Chaldaic by\nCosmas, a priest; all three contemporaries and eye-witnesses. This work\nof Cosmas has been lately published by Monsignor Stephen Assemani,[1]\nfrom a Chaldaic MS, which he proves to have been written in the year\n474, fifteen years only after the death of St. Simeon. Also from the\nancient lives of SS. Euthyinius, Theodosius, Auxentius, and Daniel\nStylites. Evagrius, Theodorus Lector, and other most faithful writers of\nthat and the following age, mention the most wonderful actions of this\nsaint. The severest critics do not object to this history, in which so\nmany contemporary writers, several of them eye-witnesses, agree; persons\nof undoubted veracity, virtue, and sagacity, who could not have\nconspired in a falsehood, nor could have imposed upon the world facts,\nwhich were of their own nature public and notorious. See Tillemont, T.\n14.\n\nA.D. 459.\n\nST. SIMEON was, in his life and conduct, a subject of astonishment, not\nonly to the whole Roman empire, but also to many barbarous and infidel\nnations. The Persians, Medes, Saracens, Ethiopians, Iberians, and\nScythians, had the highest veneration for him. The kings of Persia\nthought his benediction a great happiness. The Roman emperors solicited\nhis prayers, and consulted him on matters of the greatest importance. It\nmust, nevertheless, be acknowledged, that his most remarkable actions,\nhow instrumental soever they might be to this universal veneration and\nregard for him, are a subject of admiration, not of imitation. They may\nserve, notwithstanding, to our spiritual edification and improvement in\nvirtue; as we cannot well reflect on his fervor, without condemning and\nbeing confounded at our own indolence in the service of God.\n\nSt. Simeon was son to a poor shepherd in Cilicia, on the borders of\nSyria, and at first kept his father's sheep. Being only thirteen years\nof age, he was much moved by hearing the beatitudes one day read in the\nchurch, particularly these: _Blessed are they that mourn; blessed are\nthe clean of heart_. The youth addressed himself to a certain old man,\nto learn the meaning of those words; and begged to know how the\nhappiness they promised was to be obtained. He told him that continual\nprayer, watching, fasting, weeping, humiliation, and patient suffering\nof persecutions, were pointed out by those texts as the road to _true\nhappiness_; and that a solitary life afforded the best opportunities for\nenforcing the practice of these good works, and establishing a man in\nsolid virtue. Simeon, upon this, withdrew to a small distance, where,\nfalling prostrate upon the ground, he besought Him, who desires all may\nbe saved, to conduct him in the paths which lead to happiness and\nperfection; to the pursuit of which, under the help of his divine grace,\nhe unreservedly from that moment devoted himself. At length, falling\ninto a slumber, he was favored with a vision, which it was usual with\nhim afterward to relate.. He seemed to himself to be digging a pit for\nthe foundation of a house, and that, as often as he stopped for taking a\nlittle breath, which was four times, he was commanded each time to dig\ndeeper, till at length he was told he might desist, the pit being deep\nenough to receive the intended foundation, on which he would be able to\nraise a superstructure of what kind, and to what height he pleased. \"The\nevent,\" says Theodoret, \"verified the prediction; the actions of this\nwonderful man were so superior {090} to nature, that they might well\nrequire the deepest foundation of humility and fervor whereon to raise\nand establish them.\"\n\nRising from the ground, he repaired {\"here paired\" in the original text}\nto a monastery in that neighborhood under the direction of a holy abbot,\ncalled Timothy, and lay prostrate at the gate for several days, without\neither eating or drinking; begging to be admitted on the footing of the\nlowest servant in the house, and as a general drudge. His petition was\ngranted, and he complied with the terms of it with great fervor and\naffection for four months. During this time he learned the Psalter by\nheart, the first task enjoined the novices; and his familiarity with the\nsacred oracles it contains, greatly helped to nourish his soul in a\nspiritual life. Though yet in his tender youth, he practised all the\nausterities of the house; and, by his humility and charity, gained the\ngood-will of all the monks. Having here spent two years, he removed to\nthe monastery of Heliodorus, a person endowed with an admirable spirit\nof prayer; and who, being then sixty-five years of age, had spent\nsixty-two of them in that community, so abstracted from the world, as to\nbe utterly ignorant of the most obvious things in it, as Theodoret\nrelates, who was intimately acquainted with him. Here Simeon much\nincreased his mortifications; for whereas those monks ate but once a\nday, which was towards night, he, for his part, made but one meal a\nweek, which was on Sundays. These rigors, however, he moderated at the\ninterposition of his superior's authority, and from that time was more\nprivate in his mortifications. With this view, judging the rough rope of\nthe well, made of twisted palm-tree leaves, a proper instrument of\npenance, he tied it close about his naked body, where it remained\nunknown both to the community and his superior, till such time as it\nhaving eat into his flesh, what he had privately done was discovered by\nthe stench proceeding from the wound. Three days successively his\nclothes, which clung to it, were to be softened with liquids, to\ndisengage them; and the incisions of the physician, to cut the cord out\nof his body, were attended with such anguish and pain, that he lay for\nsome time as dead. On his recovery, the abbot, to prevent the ill\nconsequences such a dangerous singularity might occasion, to the\nprejudice of uniformity in monastic discipline, dismissed him.\n\nAfter this he repaired to a hermitage, at the foot of mount Telnescin,\nor Thelanissa, where he came to a resolution of passing the whole forty\ndays of Lent in a total abstinence, after the example of Christ, without\neither eating or drinking. Bassus, a holy priest, and abbot of two\nhundred monks, who was his director, and to whom he had communicated his\ndesign, had left with him ten loaves and water, that he might eat if he\nfound it necessary. At the expiration of the forty days he came to visit\nhim, and found the loaves and water untouched, but Simeon stretched out\non the ground, almost without any signs of life. Taking a sponge, he\nmoistened his lips with water, then gave him the blessed Eucharist.\nSimeon, having recovered a little, rose up, and chewed and swallowed by\ndegrees a few lettuce-leaves, and other herbs. This was his method of\nkeeping Lent during the remainder of his life; and he had actually\npassed twenty-six Lents after this manner, when Theodoret wrote his\naccount of him; in which are these other particulars, that he spent the\nfirst part of Lent in praising God standing; growing weaker, he\ncontinued his prayer sitting; and towards the end, finding his spirits\nalmost quite exhausted, not able to support himself in any other\nposture, he lay on the ground. However, it is probable, that in his\nadvanced years he admitted some mitigation of this wonderful austerity.\nWhen on his pillar, he kept himself, during this fast, tied to a pole;\nbut at length was able to fast the whole term, without any support. Many\nattribute this to the strength of his constitution, which was naturally\nvery {091} robust, and had been gradually habituated to such an\nextraordinary abstinence. It is well known that the hot eastern climates\nafford surprising instances of long abstinence among the Indians.[2] A\nnative of France has, within our memory, fasted the forty days of Lent\nalmost in that manner.[3] But few examples occur of persons fasting\nupwards of three or six days, unless prepared and inured by habit.\n\nAfter three years spent in this hermitage, the saint removed to the top\nof the same mountain, where, throwing together some loose stones, in the\nform of a wall, he made for himself an enclosure, but without any roof\nor shelter to protect him from the inclemencies of the weather; and to\nconfirm his resolution of pursuing this manner of life, he fastened his\nright leg to a rock with a great iron chain. Meletius, vicar to the\npatriarch of Antioch, told him, that a firm will, supported by God's\ngrace, was sufficient to make him abide in his solitary enclosure,\nwithout having recourse to any bodily restraint: hereupon the obedient\nservant of God sent for a smith, and had his chain knocked off.\n\nThe mountain began to be continually thronged, and the retreat his soul\nso much sighed after, to be interrupted by the multitudes that flocked,\neven from remote and infidel countries, to receive his benediction; by\nwhich many sick recovered their health. Some were not satisfied unless\nthey also touched him. The saint, to remove these causes of distraction,\nprojected for himself a new and unprecedented manner of life. In 423, he\nerected a pillar six cubits high, and on it he dwelt four years; on a\nsecond twelve cubits high, he lived three years; on a third, twenty-two\ncubits high, ten years: and on a fourth, forty cubits high, built for\nhim by the people, he spent the last twenty years of his life. Thus he\nlived thirty-seven years on pillars, and was called Stylites, from the\nGreek word _Stylos_, which signifies a pillar. This singularity was at\nfirst censured by all, as a mark of vanity or extravagance. To make\ntrial of his humility, an order was sent him, in the name of the\nneighboring bishops and abbots, to quit his pillar and new manner of\nlife. The saint, ready to obey the summons, was for stepping down: which\nthe messenger seeing, said, that as he had shown a willingness to obey,\nit was their desire that he might follow his vocation in God. His pillar\nexceeded not three feet in diameter on the top, which made it impossible\nfor him to lie extended on it; neither would he allow a seat. He only\nstooped, or leaned, to take a little rest, and often in the day bowed\nhis body in prayer. A certain person once reckoned one thousand two\nhundred and forty-four such reverences of adoration made by him in one\nday. He made exhortations to the people twice a day. His garments were\nthe skins of beasts, and he wore an iron collar about his neck. He never\nsuffered any woman to come within the enclosure where his pillar stood.\nHis disciple Antony mentions, that he prayed most fervently for the soul\nof his mother after her decease.\n\nGod is sometimes pleased to conduct certain fervent souls through\nextraordinary paths, in which others would find only dangers of\nillusion, vanity, and self-will, which we cannot sufficiently guard\nourselves against. We should notwithstanding consider, that the sanctity\nof these fervent souls does not consist in such wonderful actions, or\nmiracles, but in the perfection of their unfeigned charity, patience,\nand humility; and it was the exercise {092} of these solid virtues that\nrendered so conspicuous the life of this saint; these virtues he\nnourished and greatly increased, by fervent and assiduous prayer. He\nexhorted people vehemently against the horrible custom of swearing, as\nalso, to observe strict justice, to take no usury, to be assiduous at\nchurch and in holy prayer, and to pray for the salvation of souls. The\ngreat deference paid to his instructions, even by barbarians, is not to\nbe expressed. Many Persians, Armenians, and Iberians, with the entire\nnation of the Lazi in Colchis, were converted by his miracles and\ndiscourses, which they crowded to hear. Princes and queens of the\nArabians came to receive his blessing. Vararanes V. king of Persia,\nthough a cruel persecutor, respected him. The emperors Theodosius the\nyounger, and Leo, often consulted him, and desired his prayers. The\nemperor Marcian visited him, disguised in the dress of a private man. By\nhis advice the empress Eudoxia abandoned the Eutychian party a little\nbefore her death. His miracles and predictions are mentioned at large in\nTheodoret and others. By an invincible patience he bore all afflictions,\nausterities, and rebukes, without ever mentioning them. He long\nconcealed a horrible ulcer in his foot, swarming with maggots. He always\nsincerely looked upon, and treated himself, as the outcast of the world,\nand the last of sinners; and he spoke to all with the most engaging\nsweetness and charity. Domnus, patriarch of Antioch, administered unto\nhim the holy communion on his pillar: undoubtedly he often received that\nbenefit from others. In 459, according to Cosmas, on a Wednesday, the 2d\nof September, this incomparable penitent, bowing on a pillar, as if\nintent on prayer, gave up the ghost, in the sixty-ninth year of his age.\nOn the Friday following his corpse was conveyed to Antioch, attended by\nthe bishops and the whole country. Many miracles, related by\nEvagrius,[4] Antony, and Cosmas, were wrought on occasion; and the\npeople immediately, over all the East, kept his festival with great\nsolemnity.[5]\n\nThe extraordinary manner of life which this saint led, is a proof of the\nfervor with which he sought to live in the most perfect sequestration\nfrom creatures, and union with God and heaven. The most perfect\naccomplishment of the Divine Will was his only view, and the sole object\nof his desires; whence upon the least intimation of an order from a\nsuperior, he was ready to leave his pillar; nor did he consider this\nundertaking as any thing great or singular, by which he should appear\ndistinguished from others. By humility he looked upon himself as justly\nbanished from among men and hidden from the world in Christ. No one is\nto practise or aspire after virtue or perfection upon a motive of\ngreatness, or of being exalted by it. This would be to fall into the\nsnare of pride, which is to be feared under the cloak of sanctity\nitself. The foundation of Christian perfection is a love of humiliation,\na sincere spirit of humility. The heroic practice of virtue must be\nundertaken, not because it is a sublime and elevated state, but because\nGod calls us to it, and by it we do his will, and become pleasing to\nhim. The path of the cross, or of contempt, poverty, and sufferings, was\nchosen {093} by the Father for his divine Son, to repair his glory, and\nrestore to man the spiritual advantages of which sin had robbed him. And\nthe more perfectly we walk in his spirit, by the love and esteem of his\ncross, the greater share shall we possess in its incomparable\nadvantages. Those who in the practice of virtue prefer great or singular\nactions, because they appear more shining, whatever pretexts of a more\nheroic virtue, or of greater utility to others they allege, are the\ndupes of a secret pride, and follow the corrupt inclinations of their\nown heart, while they affect the language of the saints. We are called\nto follow Christ by bearing our crosses after him, leading at least in\nspirit a hidden life, always trembling in a deep sense of our frailty,\nand humbled in the centre of our nothingness, as being of ourselves the\nvery abstract of weakness, and an unfathomed abyss of corruption.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  Act. Mart. T. 2, app {}.\n2.  Lettres edifiantes et curieuses.\n3.  Don Claude Leaute, a Benedictin monk of the congregation of St.\n    Maur, in 1731, when he was about fifty-one years of age, had fasted\n    eleven years, without taking any food the whole forty days, except\n    what he daily took at mass; and what added to the wonder is, that\n    during Lent he did not properly sleep, but only dozed. He could not\n    bear the open air; and towards the end of Lent he was excessively\n    pale and wasted. This fact is attested by his brethren and\n    superiors, in a relation printed at Sens, in 1731; and recorded by\n    Dom L'Isle, in his History of Fasting; and by Feyjoo, in his Theatro\n    Critico Universal.\n4.  Evagrius, l. 1, c. 13, 14.\n5.  Monsignor Majelli, a domestic prelate to pope Benedict XIV., in his\n    dissertation on the _Stylites_, or religious men living on pillars,\n    represents the pillar of St. Simeon enclosed with rails around the\n    top. Whenever he slept a little he leaned on them, or his staff.\n    This author shows the order of the Stylites to have been propagated\n    in the East from saint Simeon, down to the Saracen and Turkish\n    empires. The inclemency of the air makes that manner of life\n    impracticable to the West. However, St. Gregory of Tours mentions\n    one (l. 8. c. 15) V{}filaick, a Lombard, and disciple of the abbot\n    St. Yrier, who leaving Limousin went to Triers, and lived some time\n    on a pillar in that neighborhood. He engaged the people of the\n    villages to renounce the worship of idols, and to hew down the great\n    statue of Diana at Ardens, that had been famous from the time of\n    Domitian. The bishop ordered him to quit a manner of life too severe\n    for the cold climate. He instantly obeyed, and lived afterwards in a\n    neighboring monastery. He seems to have been the only _Stylite_ of\n    the West. See Fleury, l. 35, T. 8, p. 54.\n\nST. TELESPHORUS, P.M.\n\nHE was a Grecian by birth, and the seventh bishop of Rome. Towards the\nend of the year 128, he succeeded Saint Sixtus I., sat eleven years, and\nsaw the havoc which the persecution of Adrian made in the church. \"He\nended his life by an illustrious martyrdom,\" says Eusebius;[1] which is\nalso confirmed by St. Irenaeus.[2]\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  Hist. l. 4, c. 10.\n2.  L. 3, c. 3.\n\nST. SYNCLETICA, V.\n\nSHE was born at Alexandria in Egypt, of wealthy Macedonian parents. From\nher infancy she had imbibed the love of virtue, and in her tender years\nshe consecrated her virginity to God. Her great fortune and beauty\ninduced many young noblemen to become her suitors for marriage, but she\nhad already bestowed her heart on her heavenly spouse. Flight was her\nrefuge against exterior assaults, and, regarding herself as her own most\ndangerous enemy, she began early to subdue her flesh by austere fasts\nand other mortifications. She never seemed to suffer more than when\nobliged to eat oftener than she desired. Her parents, at their death,\nleft her heiress to their opulent estate; for the two brothers she had\ndied before them; and her sister being blind, was committed entirely to\nher guardianship. Syncletica, having soon distributed her fortune among\nthe poor, retired with her sister into a lonesome monument, on a\nrelation's estate; where, having sent for a priest, she cut off her hair\nin his presence, as a sign whereby she renounced the world, and renewed\nthe consecration of herself to God. Mortification and prayer were from\nthat time her principal employment; but her close solitude, by\nconcealing her pious exercises from the eyes of the world, has deprived\nus in a great measure of the knowledge of them.\n\nThe fame of her virtue being spread abroad, many women resorted to her\nabode to confer with bet upon spiritual matters. Her humility made her\nunwilling to take upon herself the task of instructing, but charity, on\nthe other side, opened her mouth. Her pious discourses were inflamed\nwith so much zeal, and accompanied with such an unfeigned humility, and\nwith so many tears, that it cannot be expressed what deep impressions\nthey made on her hearers. \"Oh,\" said the saint, \"how happy should we be,\ndid we but take as much pains to gain heaven and please God, as\nworldlings do to heap up riches and perishable goods! by land they\nventure among thieves and robbers; at sea they expose themselves to the\nfury of winds and storms; {094} they suffer shipwrecks, and all perils;\nthey attempt all, try all, hazard all; but we, in serving so great a\nmaster, for so immense a good, are afraid of every contradiction.\" At\nother times, admonishing them of the dangers of this life, she was\naccustomed to say, \"We must be continually upon our guard, for we are\nengaged in a perpetual war; unless we take care, the enemy will surprise\nus, when we are least aware of him. A ship sometimes passes safe through\nhurricanes and tempests, yet, if the pilot, even in a calm, has not a\ngreat care of it, a single wave, raised by a sudden gust, may sink her.\nIt does not signify whether the enemy clambers in by the window, or\nwhether all at once he shakes the foundation, if at last he destroys the\nhouse. In this life we sail, as it were, in all unknown sea. We meet\nwith rocks, shelves, and sands; sometimes we are becalmed, and at other\ntimes we find ourselves tossed and buffeted by a storm. Thus we are\nnever secure, never out of danger; and, if we fall asleep, are sure to\nperish. We have a most intelligent and experienced pilot at the helm of\nour vessel, even Jesus Christ himself, who will conduct us safe into the\nhaven of salvation, if, by our supineness, we cause not our own\nperdition.\" She frequently inculcated the virtue of humility, in the\nfollowing words: \"A treasure is secure so long as it remains concealed;\nbut when once disclosed, and laid open to every bold invader, it is\npresently rifled; so virtue is safe so long as secret, but, if rashly\nexposed, it but too often evaporates into smoke. By humility, and\ncontempt of the world, the soul, like an eagle, soars on high, above all\ntransitory things, and tramples on the backs of lions and dragons.\" By\nthese, and the like discourses, did this devout virgin excite others to\ncharity, humility, vigilance, and every other virtue.\n\nThe devil, enraged to behold so much good, which all his machinations\nwere not capable to prevent, obtained permission of God, for her trial,\nto afflict this his faithful servant, like another Job: but even this\nserved only to render her virtue the more illustrious. In the eightieth\nyear of her age she was seized with an inward burning fever, which\nwasted her insensibly by its intense heat; at the same time an\nimposthume was formed in her lungs; and a violent and most tormenting\nscurvy, attended with a corroding hideous stinking ulcer, ate away her\njaws and mouth, and deprived her of her speech. She bore all with\nincredible patience and resignation to God's holy will; and with such a\ndesire of an addition to her sufferings, that she greatly dreaded the\nphysicians would alleviate her pains. It was with difficulty that she\npermitted them to pare away or embalm the parts already dead. During the\nthree last months of her life, she found no repose. Though the cancer\nhad robbed her of her speech, her wonderful patience served to preach to\nothers more movingly than words could have done. Three days before her\ndeath she foresaw, that in the third day she should be released from the\nprison of her body; and on it, surrounded by a heavenly light, and\nravished by consolatory visions, she surrendered her pure soul into the\nhands of her Creator, in the eighty-fourth year of her age. The Greeks\nkeep her festival on the 4th, the Roman Martyrology mentions her on the\n5th of January.[1] The ancient beautiful life of S. Syncletica is quoted\nin the old lives of the fathers published by Rosweide, l. 6, and in the\nancient notes of St. John Climacus. It appears, from the work itself,\nthat the author was personally acquainted with the saint. It has been\nascribe to St. Athanasius, but without sufficient grounds. It was\ntranslated into {095} French, though not scrupulously, by d'Andilly,\nVies des SS. Peres des De certs, T. 3, p. 91. The antiquity of this\npiece is confirmed by Montfaucon, Catal. Bibl. Coislianae, p. 417.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  She must not have lived later than the fourth century, for we find\n    her life quoted in the fifth and sixth; and as she lived eighty-four\n    years, she could not at least be much younger than St. Athanasius.\n    From the age in which she lived, she is thought by some to have been\n    the first foundress of nunneries, of religious women living in\n    community, as St. Antony was of men. On this head consult Helyott,\n    Hist. des Ord., and Mr. Stevens in his English Monasticon, c. 1, p.\n    16. However, St. Antony's sister found a nunnery erected when she\n    was but young, and this was prior to the time of Constantine the\n    Great.\n\n\nJANUARY VI.\n\nTHE EPIPHANY OF OUR LORD.\n\nEPIPHANY, which in the original Greek signifies appearance or\nmanifestation, as St. Austin observes,[1] is a festival principally\nsolemnized in honor of the discovery Jesus Christ made of himself to the\nMagi, or wise men; who, soon after his birth, by a particular\ninspiration of Almighty God, came to adore him and bring him\npresents.[2] Two other manifestations of our Lord are jointly\ncommemorated on this day in the office of the church; that at his\nbaptism, when the Holy Ghost descended on him in the visible form of a\ndove, and a voice from heaven was heard at the same time: _This is my\nbeloved Son, in whom I am well pleased_.[3] The third manifestation was\nthat of his divine power at the performance of his first miracle, the\nchanging of water into wine, at the marriage at Cana,[4] _by which he\nmanifested his glory, and his disciples believed in him_.[5] Upon so\nmany accounts ought this festival to challenge a more than ordinary\nregard and veneration; but from none more than us Gentiles, who, in the\npersons of the wise men, our first-fruits and forerunners, were on this\nday called to the faith and worship of the true God. Nothing so much\nillustrates this mercy as the wretched degeneracy into which the\nsubjects of it were fallen. So great this, that there was no object so\ndespicable as not to be thought worthy of divine honors, no vice so\ndetestable as not to be enforced by the religion of those _times of\nignorance_,[6] as the scripture emphatically calls them. God had, in\npunishment of their apostasy from him by idolatry, given them over to\nthe most shameful passions, as described at large by the apostle:\n_Filled with all iniquity, fornication, covetousness, maliciousness,\nenvy, murder, contention, deceit, whisperers, detracters, proud,\nhaughty, disobedient, without fidelity, without affection, without\nmercy, &c._[7] Such were the generality of our pagan ancestors, and such\nshould we ourselves have been, but for God's gracious and effectual call\nto the true faith.\n\nThe call of the Gentiles had been foretold for many ages before in the\nclearest terms. David and Isaias abound with predictions of this import;\nthe like is found in the other prophets; but their completion was a\nmercy reserved for the times of the Messiah. It was to him, who was also\nthe consubstantial Son of God, that the eternal Father had made the\npromise of all _nations for his inheritance_;[8] who being born the\nspiritual king of the {096} whole world, for the salvation of _all\nmen_,[9] would therefore manifest his coming both to those that _were\nnear, and those that were afar off_;[10] that is, both to Jew and\nGentile. Upon his birth, angels[11] were dispatched ambassadors to the\nJews, in the persons of the poor shepherds, and a star[12] was the\ndivine messenger on this important errand to the Gentiles of the\nEast;[13] conformably to Balaam's prophecy,[14] who foretold the coming\nof the Messias by that sign.\n\nThe summons of the Gentiles to Bethlehem to pay homage to the world's\nRedeemer was obeyed by several whom the scripture mentions under the\nname and title of _Magi_,[15] or wise men; but is silent as to their\nnumber. The general opinion, supported by the authority of St. Leo,\nCaesarius, Bede, and others, declares for three.[16] However, the number\nwas small, comparatively to those many others that saw that star, no\nless than the wise men, but paid no regard to this voice of heaven:\nadmiring, no doubt, its uncommon brightness, but culpably ignorant of\nthe divine call in it, or hardening their hearts against its salutary\nimpressions, overcome by their passions, and the dictates of self-love.\nIn like manner do Christians, from the same causes, turn a deaf ear to\nthe voice of divine grace in their souls, and harden their hearts\nagainst it in such numbers, that, notwithstanding their call, their\ngraces, and the mysteries wrought in their favor, it is to be feared,\nthat even among _them_ many _are called, but few are chosen_. It was the\ncase with the Jews, _with the most of whom_, St. Paul says, _God was not\nwell pleased_.[17]\n\nHow opposite was the conduct of the wise men! Instead of being swayed by\nthe dictates of self-love, by the example of the crowd, and of many\nreputed moral men among them, they no sooner discovered the heavenly\nmessenger, but, without the least demur, set out on their journey to\nfind the Redeemer of their souls. Convinced that they had a call from\nheaven by the star, which spoke to their eyes, and by an inward grace,\nthat spoke to their hearts, they cut off all worldly consultations,\nhuman reasonings, and delays, and postponed every thing of this kind to\nthe will of God. Neither any affairs to be left unfinished, nor the care\nof their provinces or families, nor the difficulties and dangers of a\nlong and tedious journey through deserts and mountains almost\nunpassable, and this in the worst season of the year, and through a\ncountry which in all ages had been notoriously {097} infested with\nrobbers: nothing of all this, or the many other false lights of worldly\nprudence and policy, made use of, no doubt, by their counsellors and\ndependents, and magnified by the enemy of souls, could prevail with them\nto set aside or defer their journey; or be thought deserving the least\nattention, when God called. They well know that so great a grace, if\nslighted, might perhaps have been lost forever. With what confusion must\nnot this their active and undaunted zeal cover our sloth and cowardice!\n\nThe wise men being come, by the guidance of the star, into Jerusalem, or\nnear, it, it there disappears: whereupon they reasonably suppose they\nare come to their journey's end, and upon the point of being blessed\nwith the sight of the new-born king: that, on their entering the royal\ncity, they shall in every street and corner hear the acclamations of a\nhappy people, and learn with ease the way to the royal palace, made\nfamous to all posterity by the birth of their king and Saviour. But to\ntheir great surprise there appears not the least sign of any such\nsolemnity. The court and city go quietly on in seeking their pleasure\nand profit! and in this unexpected juncture what shall these weary\ntravellers to? Were they governed by human prudence, this disappointment\nis enough to make them abandon their design, and retreat as privately as\nthey can to screen their reputation, and avoid the raillery of the\npopulace, as well as to prevent the resentment of the most jealous of\ntyrants, already infamous for blood. But true virtue makes trials the\nmatter and occasion of its most glorious triumphs. Seeming to be\nforsaken by God, on their being deprived of extraordinary, they have\nrecourse to the ordinary means of information. Steady in the resolution\nof following the divine call, and fearless of danger, they inquire in\nthe city with equal confidence and humility, and pursue their inquiry in\nthe very court of Herod himself: _Where is he that is born king of the\nJews?_ And does not their conduct teach us, under all difficulties of\nthe spiritual kind, to have recourse to those God has appointed to be\nour spiritual guides, for their advice and direction? To _obey and be\nsubject to them_,[18] that so God may lead us to himself, as he guided\nthe wise men to Bethlehem by the directions of the priests of the Jewish\nchurch.\n\nThe whole nation of the Jews, on account of Jacob's and Daniel's\nprophecies, were then in the highest expectation of the Messiah's\nappearance among them; the place of whose birth having been also\nforetold, the wise men, by the interposition of Herod's authority,\nquickly learned, from the unanimous voice of the Sanhedrim, or great\ncouncil of the Jews,[19] that Bethlehem was the place which was to be\nhonored with his birth; as having been pointed out by the prophet\nMicheas,[20] several ages before. How sweet and adorable is the conduct\nof divine providence! He teaches saints his will by the mouths of\nimpious ministers, and furnishes Gentiles with the means of admonishing\nand confounding the blindness of the Jews. But graces are lost on carnal\nand hardened souls. Herod had then reigned upwards of thirty years; a\nmonster of cruelty, ambition, craft, and dissimulation; old age and\nsickness had at that time exasperated his jealous mind in an unusual\nmanner. He dreaded nothing so much as the appearance of the Messiah,\nwhom the generality then expected under the notion of a temporal prince,\nand whom he could consider in no other light than that of a rival and\npretender to his crown; so no wonder that he was startled at the news of\nhis birth. All Jerusalem, likewise, instead of rejoicing at such happy\ntidings, were alarmed and disturbed together with him. We {098} abhor\ntheir baseness; but do not we, at a distance from courts, betray several\nsymptoms of the baneful influence of human respects running counter to\nour duty? Likewise in Herod we see how extravagantly blind and foolish\nambition is. The divine infant came not to deprive Herod of his earthly\nkingdom, but to offer him one that is eternal; and to teach him a holy\ncontempt of all worldly pomp and grandeur. Again, how senseless and\nextravagant a folly was it to form designs against those of God himself!\nwho confounds the wisdom of the world, baffles the vain projects of men,\nand laughs their policy to scorn. Are there no Herods now-a-days;\npersons who are enemies to the spiritual kingdom of Christ in their\nhearts?\n\nThe tyrant, to ward off the blow he seemed threatened with, has recourse\nto his usual arts of craft and dissimulation. He pretends a no less\nardent desire of paying homage to the new-born king, and covers his\nimpious design of taking away his life, under the specious pretext of\ngoing himself in person to adore him. Wherefore, after particular\nexamination about the time when the wise men first saw this star, and a\nstrict charge to come back and inform him where the child was to be\nfound, he dismisses them to the place determined by the chief priests\nand scribes. Herod was then near his death; but as a man lives, such\ndoes he usually die. The near prospect of eternity seldom operates in so\nsalutary a manner on habitual sinners, as to produce in them a true and\nsincere change of heart.\n\nThe wise men readily comply with the voice of the Sanhedrim,\nnotwithstanding the little encouragement these Jewish leaders afford\nthem from their own example to persist in their search; for not one\nsingle priest or scribe is disposed to bear them company, in seeking\nafter, and paying due homage to their own king. The truths and maxims of\nreligion depend not on the morals of those that preach them; they spring\nfrom a higher source, the wisdom and veracity of God himself. When\ntherefore a message comes undoubtedly from God, the misdemeanors of him\nthat immediately conveys it to us can be no just plea or excuse for our\nfailing to comply with it. As, on the other side, an exact and ready\ncompliance will then be a better proof of our faith and confidence in\nGod, and so much the more recommend us to his special conduct and\nprotection, as it did the wise men. For no sooner had they left\nJerusalem, but, to encourage their faith and zeal, and to direct their\ntravels, God was pleased to show them the star again, which they had\nseen in the East, and which continued to go before them till it\nconducted them to the very place where they were to see and adore their\nGod and Saviour. Here its ceasing to advance, and probably sinking lower\nin the air tells them in its mute language: \"Here shall you find the\nnew-born king.\" The holy men, with an unshaken and steady faith, and in\ntransports of spiritual joy, entered the poor cottage, rendered more\nglorious by this birth than the most sumptuous stately palace in the\nuniverse, and finding the child with his mother, they prostrate\nthemselves, they adore him, they pour forth their souls in his presence\nin the deepest sentiments of praise, thanksgiving, and a total sacrifice\nof themselves. So far from being shocked at the poverty of the place,\nand at his unkingly appearance, their faith rises and gathers strength\non the sight of obstacles which, humanly speaking, should extinguish it.\nIt captivates their understanding; it penetrates these curtains of\npoverty, infancy, weakness, and abjection; it casts them on their faces,\nas unworthy to look up to this star, this God of Jacob: they confess him\nunder this disguise to be the only and eternal God: they own the excess\nof his goodness in becoming man, and the excess of human misery, which\nrequires for its relief so great a humiliation of the Lord of glory. St.\nLeo thus extols their faith and devotion: \"When a star had conducted\nthem to adore Jesus, they did not find him commanding devils, or raising\nthe dead, {099} or restoring sight to the blind, or speech to the dumb,\nor employed in any divine actions; but a silent babe, under the care of\na solicitous mother, giving no sign of power, but exhibiting a miracle\nof humility.\"[21] Where shall we find such a faith in Israel? I mean\namong the Christians of our days. The wise men knew by the light of\nfaith that he came not to bestow on us earthly riches, but to banish our\nlove and fondness for them, and to subdue our pride. They had already\nlearned the maxims of Christ, and had imbibed his spirit: whereas\nChristians are for the greatest part such strangers to it, and so\ndevoted to the world, and its corrupt maxims, that they blush at poverty\nand humiliation, and will give no admittance in their hearts to the\nhumility and the cross of Jesus Christ. Such by their actions cry out\nwith those men in the gospel: _We will not have this man to reign over\nus_.[22] This their opposite conduct shows what they would have thought\nof Christ and his humble appearance at Bethlehem.\n\nThe Magi, pursuant to the custom of the eastern nations, where the\npersons of great princes are not to be approached without presents,\npresent to Jesus, as a token of homage, the richest produce their\ncountries afforded, gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Gold, as an\nacknowledgment of his regal power: incense, as a confession of his\nGodhead: and myrrh, as a testimony that he was become man for the\nredemption of the world. But their far more acceptable presents were the\nholy sentiments and affections of their souls; their fervent charity,\nsignified by gold; their devotion, figured by frankincense; and the\nunreserved sacrifice of themselves by mortification, represented by\nmyrrh.[23] The divine king, no doubt, richly repaid their generosity by\nfavors of a much greater excellency, the spiritual gifts of his grace.\nIt is with the like sentiments and affections of love, praise,\ngratitude, compunction, and humility, that we ought frequently, and\nparticularly on this solemnity, to draw near, in spirit, to the infant\nJesus; making him an affectionate tender of our hearts, but first\ncleansed by tears of sincere repentance.\n\nThe holy kings being about to return home, God, who saw the hypocrisy\nand malicious designs of Herod, by a particular intimation diverted them\nfrom their purpose of carrying back word to Jerusalem, where the child\nwas to be found. So, to complete their fidelity and grace, they returned\nnot to Herod's court; but, leaving their hearts with their infant\nSaviour, took another road back into their own country. In like manner,\nif we would persevere in the possession of the graces bestowed on us, we\nmust resolve from this day to hold no correspondence with a sinful\nworld, the irreconcilable enemy to Jesus Christ; but to take a way that\nlies at a distance from it, I mean that which is marked out to us by the\nsaving maxims of the gospel. And pursuing this with an unshaken\nconfidence in his grace and merits, we shall safely arrive at our\nheavenly country.\n\nIt has never been questioned but that the holy Magi spent the rest of\ntheir lives in the fervent service of God. The ancient author of the\nimperfect comment on St. Matthew, among the works of St. Chrysostom,\nsays, they were afterwards baptized in Persia, by St. Thomas the\napostle, and became themselves preachers of the gospel. Their bodies\nwere said to have been translated to Constantinople under the first\nChristian emperors. From thence they were conveyed to Milan, where the\nplace in which they were deposited is still shown in the Dominicans'\nchurch of that city. The emperor Frederick Barbarossa having taken\nMilan, caused them to be translated to Cologne in Germany, in the\ntwelfth century.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  St. Aug. Serm. 203, ol. 64, de div.\n2.  According to Papebroch, it was pope Julius the First, in the fourth\n    century, by whom the celebration of these two mysteries, the\n    nativity and manifestation of Christ to the Magi, was first\n    established in the western church on distinct days. The Greeks still\n    keep the Epiphany with the birth of Christ on Christmas-day, which\n    they call _Theophany_, or the manifestation of God, which is the\n    ancient name for the Epiphany in St. Isidore of Pelusium, St.\n    Gregory Nazianzen, Eusebius, &c. See Thomassi Tr. des Fotes,\n    Martenne Anecd. T. 5, p. 206, B. et in Nota, ib.\n3.  Matt. iii. 17.\n4.  Footnote: Jo. ii. 11.\n5.  Bollandus (Pref. gen. c. 4) and Ruinart (in Cal. in calce. act.\n    Mart.) quote a fragment of Polemeus Sylvius written in 448, in which\n    is said that all these three manifestations of Christ happened on\n    this day, though S. Maximus of Turin was uncertain.\n6.  Acts xvii. 30.\n7.  Rom. i.\n8.  Ps. ii. 8.\n9.  1 Tim. ii. 4.\n10. Eph. ii. 17.\n11. Luke ii. 10, 11.\n12. This phenomenon could not have been a real star, that is, one of the\n    fixed, the least or nearest of which is for distance too remote, and\n    for bulk too enormous, to point out any particular house or city\n    like Bethlehem, as St. Chrysostom well observes; who supposes it to\n    have been an angel assuming that form. If of a corporeal nature, it\n    was a miraculous shining meteor, resembling a star, but placed in\n    the lower region of our atmosphere; its motion, contrary to the\n    ordinary course of the stars, performing likewise the part of a\n    guide to these travellers; accommodating itself to their\n    necessities, disappearing or returning as they could best or least\n    dispense with its guidance. See S. Thomas, p. 3, quaest 36, a. 7.\n    Federicus Miegius Diss. _De Stella a Magis conspecta_ in Thesauro\n    Dissertationum in Nov. Testament. Amstelodami. An. 1702, T. 1,\n    Benedictus XIV. de Canoniz. l. 4, part 1, c. 25.\n13. What and where this East was, is a question about which interpreters\n    have been much divided. The controverted places are Persia, Chaldea,\n    Mesopotamia, and Arabia Felix. As they lay all more or less eastward\n    from Palestine, so, in each of these countries, some antecedent\n    notions of a Messias may be accounted for. In Persia and Chaldea, by\n    the Jewish captivity and subsequent dispersion; also the prophecies\n    of Daniel. In Arabia, by the proximity of situation and frequent\n    commerce. In Mesopotamia, besides these, the aforesaid prophecy of\n    Balaam, a native of that country.\n14. Num. xxiv. 17.\n15. In the eastern parts, particularly in Persia,_Magi_ was the title\n    they gave to their wise men and philosophers. In what veneration\n    they were there held appears from the most important affairs, sacred\n    and civil, being committed to their administration. They were deemed\n    the oracles of the eastern countries. These that came to Bethlehem\n    on this solemn occasion are vulgarly called kings, as they very\n    likely were at least of an inferior and subordinate rank. They are\n    called princes by Tertullian, (L. contra Judaeos, c. 9, L. 5, contra\n    Marcion.) See Gretser, l. 1. de Festis, c. 30, (T. 5, Op. nup. ad.\n    Ratisp.) Baronius ad ann. l, n. 30, and the learned author Annot.\n    ad histor. vitae Christi, Urbini, anno 1730, c. 7, who all agree that\n    the Magi seem to have been governors, or petty princes, such\n    anciently being often styled kings. See a full account of the Magi,\n    or Magians, in Prideaux's Connexion, p. 1, b. 4.\n16. St. Leo, Serm. 30, &c. St. Caesar. Serm. 139, &c. See Maldonat. on\n    Saint Matt. ii. for the grounds of this opinion. Honoratus of St.\n    Mary, Regles de la Critique, l. 3, diss. 4, a. 2, F. Ayala in Pictor\n    Christian. l. 3, c. 3, and Benedict XIV. de Festis Christi. l. 1, c.\n    2, de Epiph. n. 7, p. 22. This last great author quotes a picture\n    older than St. Leo, found in an ancient Roman cemetery, of which a\n    type was published at Rome in a collection of such monuments printed\n    at Rome in 1737. T. 1., Tab. 22.\n17. 1 Cor. x. 5.\n18. Heb. xiii. 17.\n19. This consisted principally of the chief priests and scribes or\n    doctors of the law.\n20. Ch. v. 2.\n21. Ser. 36, in Epiph. 7, n. 2.\n22. Luke xix. 14.\n23. Myrrh was anciently made use of in embalming dead bodies: a fit\n    emblem of mortification, because this virtue preserves the soul from\n    the corruption of sin.\n\n{100}\n\nS. MELANIUS, B.C.\n\nHE was a native of Placs or Plets, in the diocese of Vannes in Brittany\nand had served God with great fervor in a monastery for some years, when\nNoon the death of St. Amandus, bishop of Rennes, he was compelled by the\nclergy and people to fill that see, though his humility made great\nopposition. His virtue was chiefly enhanced by a sincere humility, and a\nspirit of continual prayer. The author of his life tells us, that he\nraised one that was dead to life, and performed many other miracles.\nKing Clovis after his conversion held him in great veneration. The\nalmost entire extirpation of idolatry in the diocese of Rennes was the\nfruit of our saint's zeal. He died in a monastery which he had built at\nPlacs, the place of his nativity, according to Dom Morice, in 490. He\nwas buried at Rennes, where his feast is kept on the 6th of November. In\nthe Roman Martyrology he is commemorated on the 6th of January. St.\nGregory, of Tours, mentions a stately church erected over his tomb.\nSolomon, sovereign prince of Brittany, in 840, founded a monastery under\nhis invocation, which still subsists in the suburbs of Rennes, of the\nBenedictin order. See the anonymous ancient life of St. Melanius in\nBollandus; also St. Greg. Tour. l. de glor. Conf. c. 55. Argentre, Hist.\nde Bretagne. Lobineau, Vies des Saints de Bretagne, p.32 Morice, Hist.\nde Bretagne, note 28, p. 932.\n\nSAINT NILAMMON, A HERMIT,\n\nNEAR PELUSIUM, IN EGYPT,\n\nWHO being chosen bishop of Geres, and finding the patriarch Theophilus\ndeaf to his tears and excuses, prayed that God would rather take him out\nof the world than permit him to be consecrated bishop of the place, for\nwhich he was intended. His prayer was heard, for he died before he had\nfinished it.[1] His name occurs in the modern Roman Martyrology on this\nday. See Sozomen, Hist. l. 8, c. 19.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  A like example is recorded in the life of brother Columban,\n    published in Italian and French, in 1755, and abridged in the\n    Relation de la Mort do quelques religieux de la Trappe, T. 4. p.\n    334, 342. The life of this holy man from his childhood at Abbeville,\n    the place of his birth, and afterwards at Marseilles, was a model of\n    innocence, alms-deeds, and devotion. In 1710 he took the Cistercian\n    habit, according to the reformation of la Trappe, at Buon Solazzo in\n    Tuscany, the only filiation of that Institute. In this most rigorous\n    penitential institute his whole comportment inspired with humility\n    and devotion all who beheld him. He bore a holy envy to those whom\n    he ever saw rebuked by the Abbot, and his compunction, charity,\n    wonderful humility, and spirit of prayer, had long been the\n    admiration of that fervent house, when he was ordered to prepare\n    himself to receive holy orders, a thing not usually done in that\n    penitential institute. The abbot had herein a private view of\n    advancing him to the coadjutorship in the abbacy for the easing of\n    his own shoulders in bearing the burden of the government of the\n    house. Columban, who, to all the orders of his superior, had never\n    before made any reply, on this occasion made use of the strongest\n    remonstrances and entreaties, and would have had recourse to flight,\n    had not his vow of stability cut off all possibility. Being by\n    compulsion promoted gradually to the orders of deacon, he most\n    earnestly prayed that God would by some means prevent his being\n    advanced to the priesthood; soon after he was seized with a lameness\n    in his hands, 1714, and some time after taken happily out of this\n    world. These simples are most edifying in such persons who were\n    called to a retired penitential life. In the clergy all promotion to\n    ecclesiastical honors ought to be dreaded, and generally only\n    submitted to by compulsion; which Stephen, the learned bishop of\n    Tourney, in 1179, observes to be the spirit and rule of the\n    primitive church of Christ, (ser. 2.) Yet too obstinate a resistance\n    may become a disobedience, an infraction of order and peace, a\n    criminal pusillanimity, according to the just remark of St. Basil,\n    Reg. disput. c. 21 Innocent III. ep. ad Episc. Calarit. Decret. l.\n    2, tit. 9, de Renunciatione.\n\nSAINT PETER,\n\nDISCIPLE of St. Gregory the Great, and first abbot of St. Austin's, in\nCanterbury, then called St. Peter's. Going to France in 608, he was\ndrowned near the harbor of Ambleteuse, between Calais and Bologne, and\nis named in the English and Gallican Martyrologies. See Bede, Hist. l.\n1, c. 33.\n\n{101}\n\n\nJANUARY VII.\n\nST. LUCIAN, PRIEST AND MARTYR.\n\nFrom his panegyric by St. Chrysostom, at Antioch, in 387, and pronounced\non his festival, T. 2, p. 524. And also from St. Jerom de script c. 77.\nEusebius, l. 8, c. 12, l. 9, c. 6, and Rufinus. See Tillemont T. 5, p.\n474. Pagi, an. 311.\n\nA.D. 312.\n\nST. LUCIAN, surnamed of Antioch, was born at Samosata, in Syria. He lost\nhis parents while very young; and being come to the possession of his\nestate, which was very considerable, he distributed all among the poor.\nHe became a great proficient in rhetoric and philosophy, and applied\nhimself to the study of the holy scriptures under one Macarius at\nEdessa. Convinced of the obligation annexed to the character of\npriesthood, which was that of devoting himself entirely to the service\nof God and the good of his neighbor, he did not content himself with\ninculcating the practice of virtue both by word and example; he also\nundertook to purge the scriptures, that is, both the Old and New\nTestament, from the several faults that had crept into them, either by\nreason of the inaccuracy of transcribers, or the malice of heretics.\nSome are of opinion, that as to the Old Testament, he only revised it,\nby comparing different editions of the Septuagint: others contend, that\nhe corrected it upon the Hebrew text, being well versed in that\nlanguage. Certain, however, it is that St. Lucian's edition of the\nscriptures was much esteemed, and was of great use to St. Jerom.[1][2]\n\n{102}\n\nS. Alexander, bishop of Alexandria, says that Lucian remained some years\nseparated from the catholic communion,[3] at Antioch, under three\nsuccessive bishops, namely, Domnus, Timaeus, and Cyril. If it was for too\nmuch favoring Paul of Samosata, condemned at Antioch in the year 269, he\nmust have been deceived, for want of a sufficient penetration into the\nimpiety of that dissembling heretic. It is certain, at least, that he\ndied in the catholic communion; which also appears from a fragment of a\nletter written by him to the church of Antioch, and still extant in the\nAlexandrian Chronicle. Though a priest of Antioch, we find him at\nNicomedia, in the year 303, when Dioclesian first published his edicts\nagainst the Christians. He there suffered a long imprisonment for the\nfaith; for the Paschal Chronicle quotes these words from a letter which\nhe wrote out of his dungeon to Antioch, \"All the martyrs salute you. I\ninform you that the pope Anthimus (bishop of Nicomedia) has finished his\ncourse by martyrdom.\" This happened in 303. Yet Eusebius informs us,\nthat St. Lucian did not arrive himself at the crown of martyrdom till\nafter the death of St. Peter of Alexandria, in 311, so that he seems to\nhave continued nine years in prison. At length he was brought before\nthe governor, or, as the acts intimate, the emperor himself, for the\nword[4] which Eusebius uses may imply either. On his trial, he presented\nto the judge an excellent apology for the Christian faith. Being\nremanded to prison, an order was given that no food should be allowed\nhim; but, when almost dead with hunger, dainty meats that had been\noffered to idols were set before him, which he would not touch. It was\nnot in itself unlawful to eat of such meats, as St. Paul teaches, except\nwhere it would give scandal to the weak, or when it was exacted as an\naction of idolatrous superstition, as was the case here. Being brought a\nsecond time before the tribunal, he would give no other answer to all\nthe questions put to him, but this: \"I am a Christian.\" He repeated the\nsame while on the rack, and he finished his glorious course in prison,\neither by famine, or, according to St. Chrysostom, by the sword. His\nacts relate many of his miracles, with other particulars; as that, when\nbound and chained down on his back in prison, he consecrated the divine\nmysteries upon his own breast, and communicated the faithful that were\npresent: this we also read in Philostorgius,[5] the Arian historian. St.\nLucian suffered at Nicomedia, where Maximinus II. resided.\n\nHis body was interred at Drepanum, in Bithynia, which, in honor of him,\nConstantine the Great soon after made a large city, which he exempted\nfrom all taxes, and honored with the name of Helenopolis, from his\nmother. St. Lucian was crowned in 312, on the 7th of January, on which\nday his festival was kept at Antioch immediately after his death, as\nappears from St. Chrysostom.[6] It is the tradition of the church of\nArles, that the body of St. {103} Lucian was sent out of the East to\nCharlemagne, who built a church under his invocation at Arles, in which\nhis relics are preserved.[7]\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe first thing that is necessary in the service of God, is earnestly to\nsearch his holy will, by devoutly reading, listening to, and meditating\non his eternal truths. This will set the divine law in a clear and full\nlight, and conduct us, by unerring rules, to discover and accomplish\nevery duty. It will awake and continually increase a necessary\ntenderness of conscience, which will add light and life to its\nconvictions, oblige us to a more careful trial and examination of all\nour actions, keep us not only from evil, but from every appearance of\nit, render us steadfast and immoveable in every virtuous practice, and\nalways preserve a quick and nice sense of good and evil. For this\nreason, the word of God is called in holy scripture, _Light_, because it\ndistinguisheth between good and evil, and, like a lamp, manifesteth the\npath which we are to choose, and disperseth that mist with which the\nsubtilty of our enemy and the lusts of our heart have covered it. At the\nsame time, a daily repetition of contrition and compunction washes off\nthe stains which we discover in our souls, and strongly incites us, by\nthe fervor and fruitfulness of our following life, to repair the sloth\nand barrenness of the past. Prayer must be made our main assistant in\nevery step of this spiritual progress. We must pray that God would\nenable us to search out and discover our own hearts, and reform whatever\nis amiss in them. If we do this sincerely, God will undoubtedly grant\nour requests; will lay open to us all our defects and infirmities, and,\nshowing us how far short we come of the perfection of true holiness of\nlife, will not suffer any latent corruptions in our affections to\ncontinue undiscovered, nor permit us to forget the stains and ruins\nwhich the sins of our life past have left behind them.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  St. Hier. Catal. Vir. illustr. c. 77, Ep. 107, et Praef. in Paralip.\n    Item Synopsis ap. St. Athan. ad fin.\n2.  The Greek translation of the Old Testament, commonly called of the\n    seventy, was made by the Jews living at Alexandria, and used by all\n    the Hellenist Jews. This version of the Pentateuch appeared about\n    two hundred and eighty-five years before Christ, according to Dr.\n    Hody, (_de Bibliorum Textibus, Original. et Versionibus_, p. 570,\n    &c.) that of the other parts somewhat later, and at different times,\n    as the style seems to prove. The Jews even of Palestine at first\n    gloried in this translation, as Philo testifies; but it being\n    employed by the Christians against them, they began, soon after the\n    beginning of the second century, to condemn it, alleging that it was\n    not always conformable to the Hebrew original. This text had then\n    suffered several alterations by the blunders, and, according to\n    Kennicott, some few by the wilful malice of transcribers; though\n    these differences are chiefly ascribed by Origen to alterations of\n    the Hebrew text, introduced after the version was made. The seventy\n    being exploded by the Jews, three new versions were set on foot\n    among them. The first was formed in 129, by Aquila, of Sinope, in\n    Pontus, whom the emperor Adrian, when he built Jerusalem, under the\n    name of AElia, appointed overseer of that undertaking. He had been\n    baptized, but for his conduct being expelled from among the\n    Christians, became a Jew, and gave his new translation out of hatred\n    to the Christians. A second was published about the year 175, by\n    Theodotion, a native of Ephesus, some time a Christian, but a\n    disciple first of the heretic Tatian, then of Marcion. At length he\n    fell into Judaism, or at least connected obedience to the Ritual Law\n    of Moses with a certain belief in Christ. His translation, which\n    made its appearance in the reign of Commodus, was bolder than that\n    of Aquila. The third version was formed about the year 200, by\n    Symmachus, who having been first a Samaritan, afterwards, upon some\n    disgust turned Jew. In this translation he had a double view of\n    thwarting both the Jews and Christians. St. Jerom extols the\n    elegance of his style, but says he walked in the steps of\n    Theodotion; with the two former translators he substituted [Greek:\n    neanis] for [Greek: parthenos] in the famous prophecy of Isaiah, (c.\n    vii. v. 14,) and in that of Jacob, (Gen. xlix. 10,) [Greek: ta\n    apokeimena autoi] for [Greek: oi apokeitai] Both which\n    falsifications St. Justin Martyr charges upon Aquila, (Dial. cum\n    Tryphon. p. 224, 395, 284, ed. Thirlbii.) and St. Irenaeus reproaches\n    Aquila and Theodotion with the former, (p. 253, ed. Grebe.) Many\n    additions from these versions, and several various readings daily\n    creeping into the copies of the seventy, which were transcribed, to\n    apply a remedy to this danger, Origen compiled his Hexapla, &c., of\n    which see some account in the appendix to April 21. Before the year\n    300 three other corrected editions of the old Greek version were\n    published, the first by Lucian, the second by Hesychius, and the\n    third by Pamphilus the martyr. The first was made use of in the\n    churches, from Constantinople to Antioch; that of Hesychius was\n    received at Alexandria, and in the rest of Egypt; and the third in\n    the intermediate country of Palestine, as we are informed by St\n    Jerom, (_Praef. in Paralip. et Praef. in Explic. Daniel_.) The edition\n    of Lucian came nearest to the [Greek: koine] or common edition of\n    the seventy, and was the purest as St. Jerom (ep. ad Suniam et\n    Fretel. T. 2, col. 627,) and Euthymius affirm, and is generally\n    allowed by modern critics, says Mr. Kennicott, (diss. 2, p. 397.)\n    The excellent Vatican MS. of the seventy, published (though with\n    some amendments from other MSS.) by Cardinal Carafa, at the command\n    of Sixtus V., in 1587, is said in the preface to have been written\n    before the year 390; but Blanchini (Vindiciae vet. Cod. p. 34)\n    supposes it somewhat later. It is proved from St. Jerom's letter to\n    Sunia and Fretela, and several instances, that this Vatican MS.\n    comes nearest to the [Greek: koine], and to Lucian's edition, as\n    Grabe, (See Annot. in ep. ad Sun. et Fretel. T. 2, col. 671,)\n    Blanchini, (Vindiciae, p. 256) and Kennicott (diss. 2, p. 416) take\n    notice: the old Alexandrian MS. kept in the British Museum at\n    London, is thought by Grabe to have been written about the year 396;\n    by Mills and Wetstein, (in their _Prolegom. in Nov. Test. Gr._) about\n    one hundred years later. It was published by Grabe, though not pure;\n    for in some places he gives the reading of this MS. in the margin,\n    and prefers some other in the text. Though none of Origen's Asterics\n    are retained, it comes nearest to his edition in the Hexapla, as\n    Grabe, Montfaucon, and Kennicott agree: in some places it is\n    conformable to Theodotion, or Symmachus, and seems mostly the\n    Hesychian edition. See Montfaucon, Praelim. in Hexapla; Kennicott,\n    diss. 2.\n3.  [Greek: Aposunagwgos emo ne.]\n4.  [Greek: Arxontos]\n5.  2 B. 2, c. 12, 13.\n6.  The Arians boasted that Arius had received his impious doctrine from\n    St. Lucian: but he is justified with regard to that calumny by the\n    silence of Saint Athanasius; the panegyrics of St. Chrysostom and\n    St. Jerom; the express testimony of the ancient book, On the\n    Trinity, among the works of St. Athanasius, Dial. 3, tom. 2, p. 179;\n    his orthodox confession of faith in Sozomen, l. 3, c. 5, p. 502; and\n    the authority of the church, which from his death has always ranked\n    him among her illustrious martyrs.\n7.  Saussaye Mart. Gallic. t. 1, p. 17. Chatelain, p. 114.\n\nST. CEDD, BISHOP OF LONDON.\n\nHE was brother to St. Chad, bishop of Litchfield, and to St. Celin, and\nCimbert, apostolic priests, who all labored zealously in the conversion\nof the English Saxons, their countrymen. St. Cedd long served God in the\nmonastery of Lindisfarne, founded by St. Aidan, and for his great\nsanctity was promoted to the priesthood. Peada, the son of Penda, king\nof Mercia, was appointed by his father king of the midland English; by\nwhich name Bede distinguishes the inhabitants of Leicestershire, and\npart of Lincolnshire and Derbyshire, from the rest of the Mercians. The\nyoung king, with a great number of noblemen, servants, and soldiers,\nwent to Atwall, or Walton, the seat of Oswy, king of the Northumbers,\nand was there baptized with all his attendants, by Finan, bishop of\nLindisfarne. Four priests, Saint Cedd, Adda, Betta, and Diuma, the last\na Scot, the rest English, were sent to preach the gospel to his people,\nthe midland English; among whom great multitudes received the word of\nlife with joy. King Penda himself obstructed not these missionaries in\npreaching the faith in other parts of Mercia, but hated and despised\nsuch as embraced the gospel, yet lived not up to it, saying, \"Such\nwretches deserved the utmost contempt, who would not obey the God in\nwhom they believed.\" St. Cedd, after laboring there some time with great\nsuccess, was called from this mission to a new harvest. Sigbercht, or\nSigebert, king of the East-Saxons, paying a visit to Oswy, in {104}\nNorthumberland, was persuaded by that prince to forsake his idols, and\nwas baptized by bishop Finan. When he was returned to his own kingdom,\nhe entreated king Oswy to send him some teachers, who might instruct his\npeople in the faith of Christ. Oswy called St. Cedd out of the province\nof the midland English, and sent him with another priest to the nation\nof the East-Saxons. When they had travelled over that whole province,\nand gathered numerous churches to our Lord, St. Cedd returned to\nLindisfarne, to confer with bishop Finan about certain matters of\nimportance. That prelate ordained him bishop of the East-Saxons, having\ncalled two other bishops to assist at his consecration. St. Cedd going\nback to his province, pursued the work he had begun, built churches, and\nordained priests and deacons. Two monasteries were erected by him in\nthose parts, which seem afterwards to have been destroyed by the Danes,\nand never restored. The first, he founded near a city, called by the\nEnglish Saxons, Ythancester, formerly Othona, seated upon the bank of\nthe river Pante, (now Froshwell,) which town was afterwards swallowed up\nby the gradual encroaching of the sea. St. Cedd's other monastery was\nbuilt at another city called Tillaburg, now Tilbury, near the river\nThames, and here Camden supposes the saint chiefly to have resided, as\nthe first English bishops often chose to live in monasteries. But others\ngenerally imagine, that London, then the seat of the king, was the\nordinary place of his residence, as it was of the ancient bishops of\nthat province, and of all his successors. In a journey which St. Cedd\nmade to his own country, Edilwald, the son of Oswald, who reigned among\nthe Deiri, in Yorkshire, finding him to be a wise and holy man, desired\nhim to accept of some possessions of land to build a monastery, to which\nthe king might resort to offer his prayers with those who should attend\nthe divine service without intermission, and where he might be buried\nwhen he died. The king had before with him a brother of our saint,\ncalled Celin, a priest of great piety, who administered the divine word,\nand the sacraments, to him and his family. St. Cedd pitched upon a place\namidst craggy and remote mountains, which seemed fitter to be a retreat\nfor robbers, or a lurking place for wild beasts, than a habitation for\nmen. Here he resolved first to spend forty days in fasting and prayer,\nto consecrate the place to God. For this purpose he retired thither in\nthe beginning of Lent. He ate only in the evening, except on Sundays,\nand his meal consisted of an egg, and a little milk mingled with water,\nwith a small portion of bread, according to the custom of Lindisfarne,\nderived from that of St. Columba, by which it appears that, for want of\nlegumes so early in the year, milk and eggs were allowed in that\nnorthern climate, which the canons forbade in Lent. Ten days before the\nend of Lent, the bishop was called to the king for certain pressing\naffairs, so that he was obliged to commission his priest, Cynibil, who\nwas his brother, to complete it. This monastery being founded in 658,\nwas called Lestingay. St. Cedd placed in it monks, with a superior from\nLindisfarne; but continued to superintend the same, and afterwards made\nseveral visits thither from London. Our saint excommunicated a certain\nnobleman among the East-Saxons, for an incestuous marriage; forbidding\nany Christian to enter his house, or eat with him. Notwithstanding this\nprohibition, the king went to a banquet at his house. Upon his return,\nthe holy bishop met him, whom, as soon as the king saw, he began to\ntremble, and lighting from his horse, prostrated himself at his feet,\nbegging pardon for his offence. The bishop touched him with the rod\nwhich he held in his hand, and said, \"O king, because thou wouldst not\nrefrain from the house of that wicked excommunicated person, thou\nthyself shalt die in that very house.\" Accordingly, some time after, the\nking was basely murdered, in 661. by this nobleman and another, {105}\nboth his own kinsmen, who alleged no other reason for their crime, than\nthat he was too easy in forgiving his enemies. This king was succeeded\nby Suidhelm, the son of Sexbald, whom St. Cedd regenerated to Christ by\nbaptism. In 664, St. Cedd was present at the conference, or synod, of\nStreneshalch, in which he forsook the Scottish custom, and agreed to\nreceive the canonical observance of the time of Easter. Soon after, a\ngreat pestilence breaking out in England, St. Cedd died of it, in his\nbeloved monastery of Lestingay, in the mountainous part of Yorkshire,\nsince destroyed by the Danes, so that its exact situation is not known.\nHe was first buried in the open cemetery, but, not long after, a church\nof stone being built in the same monastery, under the invocation of the\nBlessed Virgin, the mother of our Lord, his body was removed, and laid\nat the right hand of the altar. Thirty of the saint's religious brethren\nin Essex, upon the news of his death, came to Lestingay, in the\nresolution to live and die where their holy father had ended his life.\nThey were willingly received by their brethren, but were all carried off\nby the same pestilence, except a little boy, who was afterwards found\nnot to have been then baptized, and being in process of time advanced to\nthe priesthood, lived to gain many souls to God. St. Cedd died on the\n26th of October, but is commemorated in the English Martyrology on the\n7th of January. See Bede, Hist. l. 3, c. 21, 22, 23. Wharton Hist.\nEpisc. Lond. &c.\n\nST. KENTIGERNA, WIDOW.\n\nSHE is commemorated on the 7th of January, in the Aberdeen Breviary,\nfrom which we learn, that she was of royal blood, daughter of Kelly,\nprince of Leinster in Ireland, as Colgan proves from ancient monuments.\nShe was mother of the holy abbot St. Foelan, or Felan. After the death\nof her husband, she left Ireland, and consecrated her to God in a\nreligious state, and lived in great austerity and humility, and died on\nthe 7th of January, in the year 728. Adam King informs us that a famous\nparish church bears her name at Locloumont, in Inchelroch, a small\nisland into which she retired some time before her death, that she might\nwith greater liberty give herself up to heavenly meditation. See Brev.\nAberden. et Colgan ad 7 Jan. p. 23.\n\nST. ALDRIC, BISHOP OF MANS, C.\n\nTHIS saint was born of a noble family, of partly Saxon and partly\nBavarian extraction, about the year 800. At twelve years of age he was\nplaced by his father in the court of Charlemagne, in the family of Lewis\nle Debonnaire, where, by his application to the exercises of devotion,\nand to serious studies, and by his eminent virtue, he gained the esteem\nof the whole court. But the false lustre of worldly honors had no charms\nto one who, from his infancy, had entertained no other desire than that\nof consecrating himself to the divine service. About the year 821,\nbidding adieu to the court, he retired from Aix-la-chapelle to Metz,\nwhere he entered himself amongst the clergy, in the bishop's seminary,\nand received the clerical tonsure. Two years after, he was promoted to\nthe holy orders of deacon, and, after three years more, to the\npriesthood. The emperor Lewis le Debonnaire called him again to court,\nand made him his first chaplain and his confessor. In 832, St. Aldric\nwas chosen bishop of Mans, and consecrated on the 22d of December. The\nemperor arrived at Mans three days after, and kept the {106} Christmas\nholydays with him. The holy pastor was humble, patient, severe towards\nhimself, and mild and charitable to all others. He employed both his\npatrimony and his whole interest and credit in relieving the poor,\nredeeming captives, establishing churches and monasteries, and promoting\npiety and religion. In the civil wars which divided the French monarchy,\nhis fidelity to his prince, and to his successor Charles the Bald, was\ninviolable, for which he was for almost a year expelled, by the\nfactious, from his see; though it is a subject of dispute whether this\nhappened in the former or in the latter reign. It was a principal part\nof his care, to maintain an exact discipline in his clergy; for whose\nuse he drew up a collection of canons, of councils, and decretals of\npopes, called his Capitulars, which seems to have been the most learned\nand judicious work of that kind which that age produced, so that the\nloss of it is much regretted.[1] Some fragments have reached us of the\nexcellent regulations which he made for the celebration of the divine\nservice, in which he orders ten wax candles, and ninety lamps with oil,\nto be lighted up in his cathedral on all great festivals.[2] We have\nthree testaments of this holy prelate extant.[3] The last is an edifying\nmonument of his sincere piety: in the two first, he bequeaths several\nlands and possessions to many churches of his diocese, adding prudent\nadvice and regulations for maintaining good order, and a spirit of\ncharity, between the clergy and monks. In 836, he was deputed by the\ncouncil of Aix-la-chapelle, with Erchenrad, bishop of Paris, to Pepin,\nking of Aquitain, who was then reconciled with the emperor his father;\nand that prince was prevailed on by them to cause all the possessions of\nchurches, which had been seized by those of his party, to be restored.\nOur saint assisted at the eighth council of Paris, in 846, and at the\ncouncil of Tours, in 849. The two last years of his life he was confined\nto his bed by a palsy, during which time he redoubled his fervor and\nassiduity in holy prayer, for which he had from his infancy an\nextraordinary ardor. He died the 7th of January, 856, having been bishop\nalmost twenty-four years. He was buried in the church of St. Vincent, to\nwhich, and the monastery to which it belongs, he had been a great\nbenefactor. His relics are honorably preserved there at this day, and\nhis festival has been kept at Mans from time immemorial. See his life\npublished by Baluze, T. 3, Miscell. from an ancient MS. belonging to his\nchurch. The author produces many original public instruments, and seems\nto have been contemporary. (See Hist Lit. de la France, T. 5, p. 145.)\nAnother life, probably compiled by a canon of the cathedral of Mans, in\nthe time of Robert, successor to Saint Aldric, is given us by Mabillon,\nAnnal. T. 3, p. 46, 246, 397, &c., but inserts some false pieces. (See\nHist. Lit. ib. p. 148.) The life of St. Aldric, which we find in\nBollandus, is a modern piece composed by John Moreau, canon of Mans.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  See Baluze, Capitul. Regnum Fr. T. 2, p. 44.\n2.  Ibid. p. 143.\n3.  Ib. p. 63, 70, 72, 80.\n\nSAINT THILLO,\n\nCALLED IN FRANCE THEAU, IN FLANDERS TILLOINE, OR TILMAN, C.\n\nHE was by birth a Saxon, and being made captive, was carried into the\nLow Countries, where he was ransomed and baptized by St. Eligius. That\napostolical man sent him to his abbey of Solignac, in Limousin. St.\nThillo was called thence by St. Eligius, ordained priest, and employed\nby him some time at Tournay, and in other parts of the Low Countries.\nThe inhabitants of the country of Isengihen, near Courtray, regard him\nas their apostle. Some years after the death of St. Eligius, St. Thillo\nreturned to Solignac, {107} and lived a recluse near that abbey, in\nsimplicity, devotion, and austerities, imitating the Antonies and\nMacariuses. He died in his solitude, about the year 702, of his age\nninety-four, and was honored with miracles. His name is famous in the\nFrench and Belgic calendars, though it occurs not in the Roman. St.\nOwen, in his life of St. Eligius, names Thillo first among the seven\ndisciples of that saint, who worked with him at his trade of goldsmith,\nand imitated him in all his religious exercises, before that holy man\nwas engaged in the ministry of the church. Many churches in Flanders,\nAuvergne, Limousin, and other places, are dedicated to God, under his\ninvocation. The anonymous life of St. Thillo, in Bollandus, is not\naltogether authentic; the history which Mabillon gives of him from the\nBreviary of Solignac, is of more authority, (Mab. Saec. 2, Ben. p. 996.)\nSee also Bulteau, Hist. Ben. T. i. l. 3, c. 16. Molanus in Natal. Sanct.\nBelgii, &c.\n\nST. CANUT,\n\nSECOND son of Eric the Good, king of Denmark, was made duke of Sleswig,\nhis elder brother Nicholas being king of Denmark. Their father, who\nlived with his people as a father with his children, and no one ever\nleft him without comfort, says the ancient chronicle Knytling-Saga, p.\n71, died in Cyprus, going on a pilgrimage to the holy land, in which he\nhad been received by Alexius Comnenus, emperor, at Constantinople, with\nthe greatest honor, and had founded an hospital at Lucca for Danish\npilgrims. He died in 1103, on the 11th of July. Mallet, 1. 2, p. 112.\n\nCanut set himself to make justice and peace reign in his principality:\nthose warriors could not easily be restrained from plundering. One day,\nwhen he had condemned several together to be hanged for piracies, one\ncried out, that he was of blood royal, and related to Canut. The prince\nanswered, that to honor his extraction, he should be hanged on the top\nof the highest mast of his ship, which was executed. (Helmold, l. 6, c.\n49) Henry, king of the Sclavi, being dead, and his two sons, St. Canut\nhis nephew succeeded, paid homage to the emperor Lothaire II. and was\ncrowned by him king of the Obotrites, or western Sclavi. St. Canut was\nmuch honored by that emperor, in whose court he had spent part of his\nyouth. Valor, prudence, zeal, and goodness, endeared him to all. He was\nslain by conspiracy of the jealous Danes, the 7th of January, 1130, and\ncanonized in 1171. His son became duke of Sleswig, and in 1158 king of\nDenmark, called Valdemar I. and the Great, from his virtuous and\nglorious actions.\n\n{108}\n\n\nJANUARY VIII.\n\nST. APOLLINARIS, THE APOLOGIST,\n\nBISHOP\n\nFrom Eusebius, Theodoret, St. Jerom, &c. See Tillemont, Mem. t. 2, p.\n492, and Hist des Emp. t. 2, p. 309.\n\nA.D. 175.\n\nCLAUDIUS APOLLINARIS, bishop of Hierapolis, in Phrygia, was one of the\nmost illustrious prelates of the second age. Notwithstanding the great\nencomiums bestowed on him by Eusebius, St. Jerom, Theodoret, and others,\nwe know but very little of his actions; and his writings, which then\nwere held in great esteem, seem now to be all lost. Photius,[1] who had\nread them, and who was a very good judge, commends them both for their\nstyle and matter. He wrote against the Encratites, and other heretics,\nand pointed out, as St. Jerom testifies,[2] from what philosophical sect\neach heresy derived its errors. The last of these works was against the\nMontanists and their pretended prophets, who began to appear in Phrygia\nabout the year 171. But nothing rendered his name so illustrious, as his\nnoble apology for the Christian religion, which he addressed to the\nemperor Marcus Aurelius, about the year 175, soon after the miraculous\nvictory that prince had obtained over the Quadi by the prayers of the\nChristians, of which the saint made mention.\n\nMarcus Aurelius having long attempted, without success, to subdue the\nGermans by his generals, resolved in the thirteenth year of his reign,\nand of Christ 171, to lead a powerful army against them. He was beyond\nthe Danube, (for Germany was extended much further eastward than it is\nat present,) when the Quadi, a people inhabiting that tract now called\nMoravia, surrounded him in a very disadvantageous situation, so that\nthere was no possibility that either he or his army could escape out of\ntheir hands, or subsist long where they were, for want of water. The\ntwelfth legion, called the Melitine, from a town of that name in\nArmenia, where it had been quartered a long time, was chiefly composed\nof Christians. These, when the army was drawn up, but languid and\nperishing with thirst, fell upon their knees, \"as we are accustomed to\ndo at prayer,\" says Eusebius, and poured forth earnest supplications to\nGod in this public extremity of their state and emperor, though hitherto\nhe had been a persecutor of their religion. The strangeness of the sight\nsurprised the enemies, who had more reason to be astonished at the\nevent; for all on a sudden the sky was darkened with clouds, and a thick\nrain showered down with impetuosity just as the Barbarians had assailed\nthe Roman camp. The Romans fought and drank at the same time, catching\nthe rain, as it fell, in their helmets, and often swallowing it mingled\nwith blood. Though by this means exceedingly refreshed, the Germans were\nmuch too strong for them; but the storm being driven by a violent wind\nupon their faces, and accompanied with dreadful flashes of lightning,\nand loud thunder, the Germans were deprived of their sight, beaten down\nto the ground, and terrified to such a degree, that they were entirely\nrouted and put to flight. Both heathen and Christian writers give this\naccount of the victory. The heathens ascribe it, some to the power of\n{109} magic, others to their gods, as Dio Cassius;[3] but the Christians\nunanimously recount it as a miracle obtained by the prayers of this\nlegion, as St. Apollinaris in his apology to this very emperor, who\nadds, that as an acknowledgment, the emperor immediately gave it the\nname of the Thundering Legion, and from him it is so called by\nEusebius,[4] Tertullian,[5] St. Jerom,[6] and St. Gregory of Nyssa.[7]\n\nThe Quadi and Sarmatians brought back thirteen thousand prisoners, whom\nthey had taken, and begged for peace on whatever conditions it should\nplease the emperor to grant it them. Marcus Aurelius hereupon took the\ntitle of the _seventh time emperor_, contrary to custom, and without the\nconsent of the senate, regarding it as given him by heaven. Out of\ngratitude to his Christian soldiers, he published an edict, in which he\nconfessed himself indebted for his delivery _to the shower obtained_,\nPERHAPS, _by the prayers of the Christians_;[8] and more he could not\nsay without danger of exasperating the pagans. In it he forbade, under\npain of death, any one to accuse a Christian on account of his religion;\nyet, by a strange inconsistency, especially in so wise a prince, being\noverawed by the opposition of the senate, he had not the courage to\nabolish the laws already made and in force against Christians. Hence,\neven after this, in the same reign, many suffered martyrdom, though\ntheir accusers were also put to death; as in the case of St. Apollonius\nand of the martyrs of Lyons. Trajan had in like manner forbid Christians\nto be accused, yet commanded them to be punished with death if accused,\nas may be seen declared by him in his famous letter to Pliny the\nYounger. The glaring injustice of which law Tertullian demonstrates by\nan unanswerable dilemma.\n\nSt. Apollinaris, who could not see his flock torn in pieces and be\nsilent, penned his apology to the emperor, about the year 172, to remind\nhim of the benefit he had received from God by the prayers of the\nChristians, and to implore his protection. We have no account of the\ntime of this holy man's death, which probably happened before that of\nMarcus Aurelius. The Roman Martyrology mentions him on the 8th of\nJanuary.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nWe believe the same great truths, and divine mysteries,--we profess the\nsame faith which produced such wonderful fruits in the souls of the\nsaints. Whence comes it that it has not the like effects in us?--that\nthough we acknowledge virtue to be the richest treasure of the soul of\nman, we take little pains about it, passionately seek the things of this\nworld, are cast down and broken under every adversity, and curb and\nrestrain our passions only by halves?--that the most glorious objects,\nGod and heaven, and the amazing and dreadful truths, a judgment to come,\nhell, and eternity, strike us so feebly, and operate so little in us?\nThe reason is plain: because we meditate not sufficiently on these great\ntruths. Our notions of them are dim and imperfect; our thoughts pass so\nslightly over them, that they scarce retain any print or traces of them.\nOtherwise it is impossible that things {110} so great and terrible\nshould excite in us no fear, or that things in their own nature\ninfinitely amiable, should enkindle in us no desire. Slight and faint\nimages of things move our minds very weakly, and affect them very\ncoldly, especially in such matters as are not subject to our senses. We\ntherefore grossly deceive ourselves in not allotting more time to the\nstudy of divine truths. It is not enough barely to believe them, and let\nour thoughts now and then glance upon them: that knowledge which shows\nus heaven, will not bring us to the possession of it, and will deserve\npunishments, not rewards, if it remain slight, weak, and superficial. By\nserious and frequent meditation it must be concocted, digested, and\nturned into the nourishment of our affections, before it can be powerful\nand operative enough to change them, and produce the necessary fruit in\nour lives. For this all the saints affected solitude and retreats from\nthe noise and hurry of the world, as much as their circumstances allowed\nthem.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  {}\n2.  Ep. 83, ad Magn.\n3.  B. 71.\n4.  Hist. B. 5, c. 5.\n5.  Apol. c. 5. L. ad Scap. c. 4.\n6.  Chron.\n7.  Or. 2, de 40 mart.\n8.  _Christianorum_ FORTE _militum precationibus impetrato imbri_.\n    Tertull. Apolog. c. 5. Euseb. l. 5, c. 5. Some take the word _forte_\n    here to signify, _casually, accidentally, as hap was_. Several\n    learned Protestants have written in defence of this miracle: see Mr.\n    Weston's dissertation in 1748. The exceptions of Le Clerc, Hist.\n    Eccl. p. 744, and of Moyle, in his essay on the Thundering Legion,\n    deserve no notice. The deliverance of the emperor is represented on\n    the _Columna Antoniniana_, in Rome, by the figure of a Jupiter\n    Pluvius, being that of an old man flying in the air, with his arms\n    expanded, and a long beard which seems to waste away in rain. The\n    soldiers are there represented as relieved by this sudden tempest,\n    and in a posture, partly drinking of the rain-water, and partly\n    fighting against the enemy; who, on the contrary are represented as\n    stretched out on the ground with their horses, and upon them only\n    the dreadful part of the storm descending. The original letter of\n    Marcus Aurelius concerning this matter, was extant when Tertullian\n    and St. Jerom wrote. See Hier. in Chron. Euseb. ad annum 176. Tert.\n    Apol. c. 5, et lib. ad Scapul. The letter of Marcus Aurelius to the\n    senate now extant, is rejected as supposititious by Scaliger,\n    (Animadv. In Eus. ad an. 189.).It is published in the new edition of\n    the works of Marcus Aurelius, printed by Robert Fowlis in 1748, t.\n    1, p. 127, in Greek, t. 2, p. 126, in Latin, with notes, ib. p. 212.\n    Mamachi, t. 1, p 366.\n\nST. SEVERINUS, ABBOT,\n\nAND APOSTLE OF NORICUM, OR AUSTRIA.\n\nFrom his life, by Eugippius his disciple, who was present at his death.\nSee Tillemont, t. 16, p. 168. Lambecius Bibl. Vend. t. 1, p. 28, and\nBollandus, p. 497.\n\nA.D. 482.\n\nWE know nothing of the birth or country of this saint. From the purity\nof his Latin, he was generally supposed to be a Roman; and his care to\nconceal what he was according to the world, was taken for a proof of his\nhumility, and a presumption that he was a person of birth. He spent the\nfirst part of his life in the deserts of the East; but, inflamed with an\nardent zeal for the glory of God, he left his retreat to preach the\ngospel in the North. At first he came to Astures, now Stokeraw, situate\nabove Vienna; but finding the people hardened in vice, he foretold the\npunishment God had prepared for them, and repaired to Comagenes, now\nHaynburg on the Danube, eight leagues westward of Vienna. It was not\nlong ere his prophecy was verified; for Astures was laid waste, and the\ninhabitants destroyed by the sword of the Huns, soon after the death of\nAttila. St. Severinus's ancient host with great danger made his escape\nto him at Comagenes. By the accomplishment of this prophecy, and by\nseveral miracles he wrought, the name of the saint became famous.\nFavianes, a city on the Danube, twenty leagues from Vienna, distressed\nby a terrible famine, implored his assistance. St. Severinus preached\npenance among them with great fruit; and he so effectually threatened\nwith the divine vengeance a certain rich woman, who had hoarded up a\ngreat quantity of provisions, that she distributed all her stores among\nthe poor. Soon after his arrival, the ice of the Danube and the Ins\nbreaking, the country was abundantly supplied by barges up the rivers.\nAnother time by his prayers he chased away the locusts, which by their\nswarms had threatened with devastation the whole produce of the year. He\nwrought many miracles; yet never healed the sore eyes of Bonosus, the\ndearest to him of his disciples, who spent forty years in almost\ncontinual prayer, without any abatement of his fervor. The holy man\nnever ceased to exhort all to repentance and piety: he redeemed\ncaptives, relieved the oppressed, was a father to the poor, cured the\nsick, mitigated or averted public calamities, and brought a blessing\nwherever he came. Many cities desired him for their bishop; but he\nwithstood their importunities by urging, that it was sufficient he had\nrelinquished his dear solitude for their instruction and comfort.\n\n{111}\n\nHe established many monasteries, of which the most considerable was one\non the banks of the Danube, near Vienna; but he made none of them the\nplace of his constant abode, often shutting himself up in a hermitage\nfour leagues from his community, where be wholly devoted himself to\ncontemplation. He never ate till after sunset, unless on great\nfestivals. In Lent he ate only once a week. His bed was sackcloth spread\non the floor in his oratory. He always walked barefoot, even when the\nDanube was frozen. Many kings and princes of the Barbarians came to\nvisit him, and among them Odoacer, king of the Heruli, then on his march\nfor Italy. The saint's cell was so low that Odoacer could not stand\nupright in it. St. Severinus told him that the kingdom he was going to\nconquer would shortly be his; and Odoacer seeing himself, soon after,\nmaster of Italy, sent honorable letters to the saint, promising him all\nhe was pleased to ask; but Severinus only desired of him the restoration\nof a certain banished man. Having foretold his death long before it\nhappened, he fell ill of a pleurisy on the 5th of January, and on the\nfourth day of his illness, having received the viaticum, and arming his\nwhole body with the sign of the cross, and repeating that verse of the\npsalmist, _Let every spirit praise the Lord_,[1] he closed his eyes, and\nexpired in the year 482. Six years after, his disciples, obliged by the\nincursions of Barbarians, retired with his relics into Italy, and\ndeposited them at Luculano, near Naples, where a great monastery was\nbuilt, of which Eugippius, his disciple, and author of his life, was\nsoon after made the second abbot. In the year 910 they were translated\nto Naples, where to this day they are honored in a Benedictin abbey,\nwhich bears his name. The Roman and other Martyrologies place his\nfestival on this day, as being that of his death.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nA perfect spirit of sincere humility is the spirit of the most sublime\nand heroic degree of Christian virtue and perfection. As the great work\nof the sanctification of our souls is to be begun by humility, so must\nit be completed by the same. Humility invites the Holy Ghost into the\nsoul, and prepares her to receive his graces; and from the most perfect\ncharity, which he infuses, she derives a new interior light, and an\nexperimental knowledge of God and herself, with an _infused_ humility\nfar clearer in the light of the understanding, in which she sees God's\ninfinite greatness, and her own total insufficiency, baseness, and\nnothingness, after a quite new manner; and in which she conceives a\nrelish of contempt and humiliations as her due, feels a secret sentiment\nof joy in suffering them, sincerely loves her own abjection, dependence,\nand correction, dreads the esteem and praises of others, as snares by\nwhich a mortal poison may imperceptibly insinuate itself into her\naffections, and deprive her of the divine grace; is so far from\npreferring herself to any one, that she always places herself below all\ncreatures, is almost sunk in the deep abyss of her own nothingness,\nnever speaks of herself to her own advantage, or affects a show of\nmodesty in order to appear humble before men, in all good, gives the\n_entire_ glory to God alone, and as to herself, glories only in her\ninfirmities, pleasing herself in her own weakness and nothingness,\nrejoicing that God is the great _all_ in her and in all creatures.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  Ps. 150.\n\n{112}\n\nST. LUCIAN,\n\nAPOSTLE OF BEAUVAIS, IN FRANCE.\n\nHE preached the gospel in Gaul, in the third century; came from Rome,\nand was probably one of the companions of St. Dionysius, of Paris, or at\nleast of St. Quintin. He sealed his mission with his blood at Beauvais,\nunder Julian, vicar or successor to the bloody persecutor Rictius Varus,\nin the government of Gaul, about the year 290. Maximian, called by the\ncommon people Messien, and Julian, the companions of his labors, were\ncrowned with martyrdom at the same place a little before him. His\nrelics, with those of his two colleagues, were discovered in the seventh\nage, as St. Owen informs us in his life of St. Eligius. They are shown\nin three gilt shrines, in the abbey which bears his name, and was\nfounded in the eighth century. Rabanus Maurus says, that these relics\nwere famous for miracles in the ninth century.\n\nSt. Lucian is styled only martyr, in most calendars down to the\nsixteenth century, and in the Roman Martyrology, and the calendar of the\nEnglish Protestants, in all which it is presumed that he was only\npriest; but a calendar compiled in the reign of Lewis le Debonnaire,[1]\ngives him the title of bishop, and he is honored in that quality at\nBeauvias. See Bollandus, p. 540; though the two lives of this saint,\npublished by him, and thought to be one of the ninth, the other of the\ntenth age, are of little or no authority. Tillemont, T. 4, p. 537.\nLoisel and Louvet, Hist. de Beauvais, p. 76.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  Spicileg. T. 10, p. 130.\n\nST. PEGA, V.\n\nSHE was sister to St. Guthlack, the famous hermit of Croyland, and\nthough of the royal blood of the Mercian kings, forsook the world, and\nled an austere retired life in the country which afterwards bore her\nname, in Northamptonshire, at a distance from her holy brother. Some\ntime after his death she went to Rome, and there slept in the Lord,\nabout the year 719. Ordericus Vitalis says, her relics were honored with\nmiracles, and kept in a church which bore her name at Rome, but this\nchurch is not now known. From one in Northamptonshire, a village still\nretains the name of Peagkirk, vulgarly Pequirk; she was also titular\nsaint of a church and monastery in Pegeland, which St. Edward the\nConfessor united to Croyland. She is called St. Pee in Northamptonshire,\nand St. Pege at Croyland. See Ingulph. et Ord. Vitalis, l. 4. Florence\nof Worcester, ad ann. 714. Harpsfield, sec. 8, c. 19.\n\nST. VULSIN, BISHOP OF SHIREBURN, C.\n\nWILLIAM of Malmesbury informs us, that St. Dunstan, when bishop of\nLondon, appointed him abbot of twelve monks at Thorney, since called\nWestminster, where Saint Mellitus had built a church in honor of St.\nPeter. Vulsin was afterwards chosen bishop of Shireburn; his holy life\nwas crowned with a happy death in 973. He is called Ultius by Matthew of\nWestminster, {113} but his true ancient name, given by Capgrave, is\nVulsin. See Malmesbury de Pontif. Angl. l. 2. Capgrave and Harpsfield,\nsaec. 10, c. 9, saec. 11, c. 16.\n\nST. GUDULA, V.\n\nCALLED IN BRABANT GOULE, OR ERGOULE, IN FLEMISH SINTE-R-GOELEN,\n\nPATRONESS OF BRUSSELS.\n\nST. AMALBERGE, mother of this saint, was niece to Pepin, mayor of the\npalace. Gudula was educated at Nivelle, under the care of St. Gertrude,\nher cousin and god-mother; after whose death, in 664, she returned to\nthe house of count Witger, her father, and having by vow consecrated her\nvirginity to God, led there a most austere and holy life, in watching,\nfasting, and prayer. By her profuse alms, in which she bestowed her\nwhole revenue on the poor, she was truly the mother of all the\ndistressed; though her father's castle was two miles from the church of\nour Saviour at Morzelle, she went thither early every morning, with a\nmaid to carry a lantern before her; and the wax taper being once put\nout, is said to have miraculously lighted again at her prayers, whence\nshe is usually represented in pictures with a lantern. She died on the\n8th of January, not in 670, as Miraeus says, but in 712, and was buried\nat Ham, near Villevord. In the reign of Charlemagne, her body was\nremoved to the church of our Saviour at Morzelle, and placed behind the\nhigh altar; this emperor, out of veneration of her memory, often\nresorted thither to pray, and founded there a nunnery, which soon after\nchanged its name of St. Saviour for that of St. Goule: this house was\ndestroyed in the irruptions of the Normans. The relics of St. Gudula, by\nthe care of Charles, duke of Lorrain, (in which Brabant was then\ncomprised,) were translated to Brussels, in 978, where they were first\ndeposited to the church of St. Gery, but in 1047, removed into the great\ncollegiate church of St. Michael, since called from her St. Gudula's.\nSee her life wrote by Hubert of Brabant, in the eleventh century, soon\nafter this translation of her relics to St. Michael's, who assures us\nthat he took the whole relation from an ancient life of this saint,\nhaving only changed the order and style.\n\nST. NATHALAN, BISHOP OF ABERDEEN, C.\n\nHE possessed a large estate, which he distributed among the poor; and\nseeing that agriculture is an employment best suiting a life of\ncontemplation, he made this an exercise of penance, joining with the\nsame assiduous prayer. He was a proficient in profane and sacred\nlearning, and being made bishop, (to which dignity he was raised by the\npope, in a journey of devotion which he made to Rome,) he continued to\nemploy his revenues in charities as before, living himself in great\nausterity by the labor of his hands, and at the same time preaching the\ngospel to the people. By his means Scotland was preserved from the\nPelagian heresy. He was one of the apostles of that country, and died in\n452. He resided at Tullicht, now in the diocese of Aberdeen, and built\nthe churches of Tullicht Bothelim, and of the Hill; in the former of\nthese he was buried, and it long continued famous for miracles wrought\nby his relics, which were preserved there till the change of religion.\nSee King, the Chronicles of Dumferling, and the lessons of the Aberdeen\nBreviary on this day. The see of Aberdeen was {114} not then regularly\nestablished; it was first erected at Murthlac by St. Bean, in the\nbeginning of the eleventh century, and translated thence to Aberdeen by\nNectan, the fourth bishop, in the reign of king David.[2] See Hector\nBoetius in the lives of the bishops of Aberdeen,[3] and Spotswood, b. 2,\np. 101.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  The Aberdeen Breviary resembles that called _of Sarum_, and contains\n    the feasts of many French saints. It was printed at Edinburg, by\n    Walter Chapman, in 1509.\n2.  Few authentic memoirs of the ancient Scotch church, or history, have\n    been handed down to us, except those of certain noble families. A\n    catalogue of the bishops of Galloway, from St. Ninianus, in 450; of\n    the archbishops of Glascow, from St. Kentigern; of St. Andrew's,\n    from the year 840; and of the bishops of the other sees, from the\n    twelfth century, is printed at the end of an old edition of\n    Spotsword in 166{} and reprinted by bishop Burnet, in an appendix to\n    his memoirs of the house of Hamilton.\n3.  De vitis episcopor. Aberd. Praelo. Afrensiano, anno 1522.\n\n\nJANUARY IX.\n\nST. PETER OF SEBASTE, B.C.\n\nFrom the life of his sister St. Macrina, composed by their brother St.\nGregory of Nyssa; and from St. Gregory Naz. Or. 20. See also Theodoret,\nHist. Eccl. l. 4, c. 30. Rufin, l. 2., c. 9, and the judicious\ncompilation of Tillemont, in his life of St. Gregory of Nyssa, art. 6,\nt. 9, p. 572.\n\nAbout the year 387.\n\nTHE family of which St. Peter descended, was very ancient and\nillustrious; St. Gregory Nazianzen tells us, that his pedigree was made\nup of a list of celebrated heroes; but their names are long since buried\nin oblivion, while those of the saints which it gave to the church, and\nwho despised the world and its honors, are immortal in the records of\nthe church, and are written in the book of life; for the light of faith,\nand the grace of the Almighty, extinguishing in their breasts the sparks\nof worldly ambition, inspired them with a most vehement ardor to attain\nthe perfection of Christian virtue, and changed their family into a\nhouse of saints; three brothers were at the same time eminently holy\nbishops, St. Basil, St. Gregory of Nyssa, and St. Peter of Sebaste; and\ntheir eldest sister, St. Macrina, was the spiritual mother of many\nsaints and excellent doctors; their father and mother, St. Basil the\nElder, and St. Emolia, were banished for their faith in the reign of the\nemperor Galerius Maximian, and fled into the deserts of Pontus; they are\nrecorded together in the Roman Martyrology, on the 30th of May: the\ngrandmother of our pious and fruitful family of saints, was the\ncelebrated St. Macrina the Elder, who was instructed in the science of\nsalvation, by St. Gregory Thaumaturgus. St. Peter of Sebaste was the\nyoungest of ten children, and lost his father in his cradle, some think\nbefore he was born; and his eldest sister, Macrina, took care of his\neducation, in which it was her only aim to instruct him in the maxims of\nreligion, and form him to perfect piety; profane studies she thought of\nlittle use, to one who designed to make salvation the sole end of all\nhis inquiries and pursuits, nor did he ever make them any part of his\nemployment, confining his views to a monastic state. His mother had\nfounded two monasteries, one for men, the other for women; the former\nshe put under the direction of her son Basil, the latter under that of\nher daughter Macrina. Peter, whose thoughts were wholly bent on\ncultivating the seeds of piety that had been sown in him, retired into\nthe house governed by his brother, situated on the bank of the river\nIris; when St. Basil was obliged to quit that post, in 362, he left the\nabbacy in the hands of St. Peter, who discharged this office for {115}\nseveral years with great prudence and virtue. When the provinces of\nPontus and Cappadocia were visited by a severe famine, he gave a\nremarkable proof of his charity; human prudence would have advised him\nto be frugal in the relief of others, till his own family should be\nsecured against that calamity; but Peter had studied the principles of\nChristian charity in another school, and liberally disposed of all that\nbelonged to his monastery, and whatever he could raise, to supply with\nnecessaries the numerous crowds that daily resorted to him, in that time\nof distress. Soon after St. Basil was made bishop of Caesarea in\nCappadocia, in 370, he promoted his brother Peter to the priesthood; the\nholy abbot looked on the holy orders he had received as a fresh\nengagement to perfection. His brother St. Basil died on the 1st of\nJanuary, in 379, and his sister Macrina in November, the same year.\nEustathius, bishop of Sebaste, in Armenia, a violent Arian, and a\nfurious persecutor of St. Basil, seems to have died soon after them, for\nSt. Peter was consecrated bishop of Sebaste in 380, to root out the\nArian heresy in that diocese, where it had taken deep root; the zeal of\na saint was necessary, nor can we doubt but God placed our saint in that\ndignity for this purpose. A letter which St. Peter wrote, and which is\nprefixed to St. Gregory of Nyssa's books against Eunomius, has entitled\nhim to a rank among the ecclesiastical writers, and is a standing proof,\nthat though he had confined himself to sacred studies, yet by good\nconversation and reading, and by the dint of genius, and an excellent\nunderstanding, he was inferior to none but his incomparable brother\nBasil, and his colleague Nazianzen, in solid eloquence. In 381, he\nattended the general council held at Constantinople, and joined the\nother bishops in condemning the Macedonian heretics. Not only his\nbrother St. Gregory, but also Theodoret, and all antiquity, bear\ntestimony to his extraordinary sanctity, prudence, and zeal. His death\nhappened in summer, about the year 387, and his brother of Nyssa\nmentions, that his memory was honored at Sebaste (probably the very year\nafter his death) by an anniversary solemnity, with several martyrs of\nthat city.[1] His name occurs in the Roman Martyrology, on the 9th of\nJanuary.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nWe admire to see a whole family of saints! This prodigy of grace, under\nGod, was owing to the example, prayers, and exhortations of the elder\nSt. Macrina, which had this wonderful influence and effect; from her\nthey learned most heartily and deeply to imbibe the true spirit of\nself-denial and humility, which all Christians confess to be the\nfundamental maxim of the gospel; but this they generally acknowledge in\nspeculation only, whereas it is in the heart that this foundation is to\nbe laid: we must entertain no attachment, says St. Gregory of Nyssa,[2]\nto any thing, especially where there is most danger of passion, by some\nsensual pleasure annexed; and we must begin by being upon our guard\nagainst sensuality in eating, which is the most ancient enemy, and the\nfather of vice: we must observe in our whole life the most exact rule of\ntemperance, never making the pleasure of sense our end, but only the\nnecessity of the use we make of things, even those in which a pleasure\nis taken. In another treatise he says,[3] he who despises the world,\nmust also renounce himself, so as never to follow his own will, but\npurely to seek in all things the will of God; we are his in justice, his\nwill must be the law and rule of our whole life. This precept of dying\nto ourselves, that Christ may live in us, and all our affections and\nactions governed by his spirit, is excellently inculcated by St. Basil\nthe Great.[4]\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  St. Gr. Nyss. ep. ad Flav. t. 3, p. 645.\n2.  St. Gr. Nyss. de Virg. c. 9.\n3.  St. Basil, in Ps. 34, de Bapt. l. 1, et interr. 237.\n4.  Id. de perfecta Christi forma.\n\n{116}\n\nSS. JULIAN AND BASILISSA, MM.\n\nACCORDING to their acts, and the ancient Martyrologies, though engaged\nin a married state, they by mutual consent lived in perpetual chastity,\nsanctified themselves by the most perfect exercises of an ascetic life,\nand employed their revenues in relieving the poor and the sick; for this\npurpose they converted their house into a kind of hospital, in which, if\nwe may credit their acts, they sometimes entertained a thousand indigent\npersons. Basilissa attended those of her sex, in separate lodgings from\nthe men, of whom Julian took care, who from his charity is surnamed the\nHospitalarian. Egypt, where they lived, had then begun to abound with\nexamples of persons, who, either in cities or in deserts, devoted\nthemselves to the most perfect exercises of charity, penance, and\ncontemplation. Basilissa, after having stood severe persecutions, died\nin peace; Julian survived her many years, and received the crown of a\nglorious martyrdom, together with Celsus a youth, Antony a priest,\nAnastatius, and Marcianilla the mother of Celsus. They seem to have\nsuffered in the reign of Maximin II., in 313, on the 6th of January;\nfor, in the most ancient lectionary used in the church of Paris, under\nthe first race of the French kings, quoted by Chatelain,[1] and several\nancient calendars, their festival is marked on that day, or on the eve.\nOn account of the concurrence of the Epiphany, it was deferred in\ndifferent churches to the 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 17, 27, 28, or\n29th, of January; 12, 13, 14, 17, 19, 24, or 27th, of February; 20, 21,\nor 22d of June; or 31st of August. The menology, published by Canisius,\nplaces the martyrdom of St. Julian and his companions, at Antinopolis in\nEgypt; certain ancient MS. copies of the Martyrology, which bear the\nname of St. Jerom, say more correctly Antinous: by mistaking the\nabbreviation of this name in some MS. copies, several Latins have read\nit Antioch;[2] and the Latin acts say these martyrs suffered at Antioch\nin Egypt: but no town of that name is ever mentioned in that country;\nthough Seleucus, the son of Antiochus, gave it to sixteen cities which\nhe built in Asia, as Appian takes notice. Many churches and hospitals in\nthe east, and especially in the west, bear the name of one or other of\nthese martyrs: at Antioch, in Syria, our St. Julian was titular saint of\na famous church and St. Julian of Anazarbus, of two others. Chatelain[3]\nproves from ancient images and other monuments, that four churches at\nhome, and three out of five at Paris, which bear the name of St. Julian,\nwere originally dedicated under the name of St. Julian the hospitalarian\nand martyr; though some of these latter afterward took either St. Julian\nbishop of Mans, confessor, or St. Julian of Brioude, martyr, for patron.\nThe same has happened to some, out of the great number of churches and\nhospitals in the Low Countries, erected under his invocation; but the\nhospitalarian and martyr is still retained in the office of the greatest\npart, especially at Brussels, Antwerp, Tournay, Douay, &c. In the time\nof St. Gregory the Great, the skull of St. Julian, husband of St.\nBasilissa, was brought out of the east into France, and given to queen\nBrunehault; she gave it to the nunnery which she founded at Etampes;\npart of it is at present in the {117} monastery of Morigny, near\nEtampes, and part in the church of the regular canonesses of St.\nBasilissa, at Paris.[4]\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  Notes sur le Martyrol. 6 Jan., p. 106. Mabill. Lit. Gallic. l. 2,\n    pp. 115, 116.\n2.  The abbreviation _Antio_ for Antinous, found in a MS. copy mentioned\n    by Chatelain, p. 106, was probably mistaken for Antioch, a name\n    better known. Certain circumstances related from the false acts of\n    these martyrs, by St. Antoninus, gave occasion to the painters in\n    Italy to represent St. Julian as a sportsman with a hawk on his\n    hand; and in France, as a boatsman, in a barge; and the postilions\n    and bargemen keep his feast, as of their principal patron.\n3.  Notes on Jan. 6, p. 109.\n4.  See Chatelain, notes on Jan. 6, p. 110, from a MS. at Morigny.\n\n\nST. MARCIANA, V.M.\n\nSHE was a native of Rusuccur in Mauritania, and courageously despising\nall worldly advantages, to secure to herself the possession of the\nprecious jewel of heavenly grace, she was called to the trial in the\npersecution of Dioclesian, which was continued in Africa under his\nsuccessors, till the death of Severus, who was declared Caesar in 305,\nand slain in 309. St. Marciana was beaten with clubs, and her chastity\nexposed to the rude attempts of pagan gladiators, in which danger God\nmiraculously preserved her, and she became the happy instrument of the\nconversion of one of them to the faith: at length she was torn in pieces\nby a wild bull and a leopard, in the amphitheatre at Caesarea in\nMauritania. She is the same who is commemorated on the 12th of July, in\nthe ancient breviary of Toledo; and in the Roman, and some other\nMartyrologies, both on the 9th of July, and on the 9th of January. See a\nbeautiful ancient hymn in her praise, in the Mozarabic breviary, and her\nacts in Bollandus, though their authority is not altogether certain.\nConsult Tillemont, t. 5, p. 263. Chatelain, notes on the 9th of January\np. 146.\n\nST. BRITHWALD, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY.\n\nHE was abbot of Glastenbury, but resigning that dignity, came to the\nlittle monastery of Riculf, or Riculver, near the isle of Thanet, in\nKent, that he might improve himself in the study of the Holy Scriptures,\nin the neighborhood of St. Theodorus; after whose death he was promoted\nto the see of Canterbury, in 692, in which he sat thirty-seven years and\nsix months, a living {icon} of perfection to this church. He died in\n731. See John of Glastenbury, published by Hearne; William of\nMalmesbury, in the antiquities of Glastenbury, published by Thomas Gale;\nand Bede, l. 5, c. 9, and 24.\n\nST. FELAN, OR FOELAN, ABBOT\n\nHIS name is famous in the ancient Scottish and Irish Calendars. The\nexample and instructions of his pious parents, Feriach and St.\nKentigerna, inspired him from the cradle with the most ardent love of\nvirtue. In his youth, despising the flattering worldly advantages to\nwhich high birth and a great fortune entitled him, he received the\nmonastic habit from a holy abbot named Mundus, and passed many years in\na cell at some distance from the monastery, not far from St. Andrew's.\nHe was by compulsion drawn from this close solitude, being chosen abbot.\nHis sanctity in this public station shone forth with a bright light.\nAfter some years he resigned this charge, and retired to his uncle\nCongan, brother to his mother, in a place called Siracht, a mountainous\npart of Glendarchy, now in Fifeshire, where, with the assistance of\nseven others, he built a church, near which he served for several years.\nGod glorified him by a wonderful gift of miracles; and called him to the\nreward of his labors on the 9th of January, in the seventh century.\n{118} He was buried in Straphilline, and his relics were long preserved\nthere with honor. This account is given us of him in the lessons of the\nAberdeen Breviary.[1] The Scottish historians[2] attribute to the\nintercession of St. Felan a memorable victory obtained by king Robert\nBruce, in 1314, over a numerous army of English, at Bannocburn, not far\nfrom Sterling, in the reign of Edward II. of England, who narrowly\nescaped, being obliged to pass the Tweed in a boat, with only one\ncompanion. See Lesley, l. 17; Boetius, l. 14. Chatelain certainly\nmistakes in confounding this saint with St. Finan, bishop of\nLindisfarne.[3]\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  T. 1, part 2, fol. 28.\n2.  Hector Boetius, l. 14, &c.\n3.  St. Felan flourished in the county of Fife, and probably in the\n    monastery of Pettinuime, where his memory was famous, as is\n    testified by the author of MS. memoirs on the Scottish saints,\n    preserved in the college of the Scots at Paris, who declares himself\n    to have been a missionary priest in Scotland to 1609. The county of\n    Fife was famous for the rich and most ancient monasteries of\n    Dumferling, Lindore, St. Andrew's, or Colrosse, or Courose,\n    Pettinuime, Balmure, and Petmoace; and two stately nunneries:\n    Aberdaure and Elcho. All these noble buildings they levelled to the\n    ground with incredible fury, crying, \"Pull down, pull down: the\n    crows' nest must be utterly exterminated, lest they should return\n    and attempt again to renew their settlement.\" Ib. MS. fol. 7.\n\nST. ADRIAN, ABBOT AT CANTERBURY\n\nDIVINE Providence conducted this holy man to Britain, in order to make\nhim an instructor of innumerable saints. Adrian was an African by birth,\nand was abbot of Nerida, not far from Naples, when pope Vitalian, upon\nthe death of St. Deusdedit the archbishop of Canterbury, judged him, for\nhis skill in sacred learning, and experience in the paths of true\ninterior virtue, to be of all others the most proper person to be the\ndoctor of a nation, zealous in the pursuit of virtue, but as yet\nignorant in the sciences, and in the canons of the church. The humble\nservant of God found means to decline that dignity, by recommending St.\nTheodorus as most capable, but refused not to share in the laborious\npart of the ministry. The pope therefore enjoined him to be the\ncompanion, assistant, and adviser of the apostolic archbishop, which\ncharge Adrian willingly took upon himself. In travelling through France\nwith St. Theodorus, he was stopped by Ebroin, the jealous mayor of the\npalace, who feared lest the emperor of the East had given these two\npersons, who were his born subjects, some commission in favor of his\npretensions to the western kingdoms. Adrian stayed a long time in\nFrance, at Meaux, and in other places, before he was allowed to pursue\nhis journey. St. Theodorus established him abbot of the monastery of SS.\nPeter and Paul, afterward called St. Austin, near Canterbury, where he\ntaught the learned languages and the sciences, and principally the\nprecepts and maxims of our divine religion. He had illustrated this\nisland by his heavenly doctrine, and the bright example of his virtues,\nfor the space of thirty-nine years, when he departed to our Lord on the\n9th of January, in the year 710. His tomb was famed for miracles, as we\nare assured by Joscelin the Monk, quoted by William of Malmesbury and\nCapgrave; and his name is inserted in the English calendars. See Bede,\nl. 4, c. 1, l. 5, c. 21. Malmesb. de Pontif. Angl. and Capgrave.\n\nST. VANENG, C.\n\nFROM various fragments of ancient histories of his life, the most modern\nof which was compiled in the twelfth century, it appears that Vaneng was\nmade by Clotaire III. governor of that part of Neustria, or Normandy,\nwhich was anciently inhabited by the Caletes, and is called Pais de\nCaux, {119} at which time he took great pleasure in hunting.\nNevertheless, he was very pious, and particularly devout to St. Eulalia\nof Barcelona, called in Guienne, St. Aulaire. One night be seemed, in a\ndream, to hear that holy Virgin and Martyr repeat to him those words of\nour blessed Redeemer in the gospel, that \"it is easier for a camel to\npass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to be saved.\" Soon\nafter this he quitted the world, assisted St. Vandrille in building the\nchurches of SS. Peter and Paul at Fontenelles, and founded in the valley\nof Fecam[1] a church in honor of the holy Trinity, with a great nunnery\nadjoining, under the direction of St. Owes and St. Vandrille.\nHildemarca, a very virtuous nun, was called from Bourdeaux, and\nappointed the first abbess. Under her, three hundred and sixty nuns\nserved God in this house, and were divided into as many choirs as were\nsufficient, by succeeding one another, to continue the divine office\nnight and day without interruption. St. Vaneng died about the year 688,\nand is honored, in the Gallican and Benedictin Martyrologies, on the 9th\nof January; but at St. Vandrille's, and in other monasteries in\nNormandy, on the 31st of January. This saint is titular patron of\nseveral churches in Aquitain and Normandy; one near Touars in Poictou\nhas given its name to the village of St. Vaneng. His body is possessed\nin a rich shrine, in the abbatial church of Our Lady at Ham, in Picardy,\nbelonging to the regular canons of St. Genevieve. See Mabillon, t. 2, p.\n972; Bollandus, and chiefly the life of St. Vaneng, judiciously\ncollected and printed at Paris in 1700;[2] also, the breviary of the\nabbey of Fontenelle, now St. Vandrille's. The abbeys of Fecam, St.\nVandrille, Jumiege, Bec, St. Stephen's at Caen, Cerisy, &c., are now of\nthe reformed congregation of St. Maur, abbot of St. Benignus, at Dijon,\nwhose life Bollandus has given us among the saints, January 1. Fecam,\nhonored by the dukes of Normandy above all their other monasteries, is\nthe richest and most magnificent abbey in Normandy.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  The monastery of Fecam was ruined in the invasion of the Normans.\n    Rollo, who came into France in 876, was baptized, and, after having\n    founded the duchy of Normandy, died in 917. His sepulchral monument\n    is shown in one of the chapels near the door in the cathedral at\n    Rouen. His son William built a palace at Fecam, where his son\n    Richard was born. The church of the Holy Trinity being\n    re-established, this Richard placed in it secular canons; but, on\n    his death-bed, ordered it to be put into the hands of the monks.\n    This was executed by his successor, the monks being sent by William\n    the most holy abbot.\n2.  Ferrarius, an Italian servite, Du-Saussaye, Bollandus, and F. Giry,\n    place among the saints of this day, Sithride, or Sedredo, an English\n    virgin, and second abbess of Farmoutiers. Bede tells us (l. 3, c. 8)\n    that she was daughter of St. Hereswide, by a former husband, before\n    she married Annas, king of the East Angles, and that going to the\n    monastery of Brie, (now Farmoutiers,) she was second abbess between\n    St. Fara and St. Aubierge, King Annas's own daughter. But though St.\n    Aubierge be honored at Farmoutiers in July, with great solemnity,\n    and St. Arthongate in February, the name of Sedredo is not found in\n    the calendar of any church, nor are any of her relics enshrined like\n    the others, unless she be the same with St. Sissetrudis, who in some\n    calendars is named on the 6th, in others on the 7th of May. But St.\n    Sissetrude is called by Jonas of Bobio, cellerer, not abbess. See\n    Chatelain, &c. 3.\n\n{120}\n\n\nJANUARY X.\n\nSAINT WILLIAM, CONFESSOR,\n\nARCHBISHOP OF BOURGES.\n\nFrom his life written by a faithful acquaintance at Bourges, (abridged\nby Surius,) and again by Peter, a monk of Chaalis, both soon after his\ndeath: collected by Dom le Nain, in his history of the Cistercians, t.\n7. See also the notes of Bollandus, with a fragment of a third life, and\nGallia Christ. Nov. t. 2. p. 63.\n\nA.D. 1209.\n\nWILLIAM BERRUYER, of the illustrious family of the ancient counts of\nNevers, was educated by Peter the Hermit, archdeacon of Soissons, his\nuncle by the mother's side. He learned from his infancy to despise the\nfolly and emptiness of the riches and grandeur of the world, to abhor\nits pleasures, and to tremble at its dangers. His only delight was in\nexercises of piety and in his studies, in which he employed his whole\ntime with indefatigable application. He was made canon, first of\nSoissons, and afterwards of Paris; but he soon took the resolution of\nabandoning all commerce with the world, and retired into the solitude of\nGrandmont, where he lived with great regularity in that austere order,\ntill seeing its peace disturbed by a contest which arose between the\nfathers and lay-brothers, he passed into the Cistercian, then in\nwonderful odor of sanctity. He took the habit in the abbey of Pontigny,\nand shining as a perfect model of monastic perfection, was after some\ntime chosen prior of that house, and afterwards abbot, first of\nFountaine-Jean, in the diocese of Sens, (a filiation of Pontigny,\nfounded in 1124, by Peter de Courtenay, son of king Louis the Fat,) and\nsome time after, of Chaalis, near Senlis, a much more numerous\nmonastery, also a filiation of Pontigny, built by Louis the Fat in 1136,\na little before his death. St. William always reputed himself the last\namong his brethren. The universal mortification of his senses and\npassions, laid in him the foundation of an admirable purity of heart,\nand an extraordinary gift of prayer; in which he received great heavenly\nlights, and tasted of the sweets which God has reserved for those to\nwhom he is pleased to communicate himself. The sweetness and\ncheerfulness of his countenance testified the uninterrupted joy and\npeace that overflowed his soul, and made virtue appear with the most\nengaging charms in the midst of austerities.\n\nOn the death of Henry de Sully, archbishop of Bourges, the clergy of\nthat church requested his brother Endo, bishop of Paris, to come and\nassist them in the election of a pastor. Desirous to choose some abbot\nof the Cistercian Order, then renowned for holy men, they put on the\naltar the names of three, written on as many billets. This manner of\nelection by lots would have been superstitious, and a tempting of God,\nhad it been done relying on a miracle without the warrant of divine\ninspiration. But it deserved not this censure when all the persons\nproposed seemed equally worthy and fit, as the choice was only\nrecommended to God, and left to this issue by following the rules of his\nordinary providence, and imploring his light, without rashness, or a\nneglect of the usual means of scrutiny: prudence might sometimes even\nrecommend such a method, in order to terminate a debate when the\ncandidates seemed equally qualified. God, in such cases is said\nsometimes to have miraculously interposed.\n\n{121}\n\nEudo, accordingly, having written three billets, laid them on the altar,\nand having made his prayer drew first the name of the abbot William, on\nwhom, at the same time, the majority of the votes of the clergy had made\nthe election fall, the 23d of November, 1200. This news overwhelmed\nWilliam, with grief. He never would have acquiesced, had he not received\na double command in virtue of obedience, from the pope, and from his\ngeneral the abbot of Citeaux. He left his clear solitude with many\ntears, and was received at Bourges as one sent by heaven, and soon after\nwas consecrated. In this new dignity his first care was to conform both\nhis exterior and interior to the most perfect rules of sanctity; being\nvery sensible that a man's first task is to honor God perfectly in his\nown soul. He redoubled all his austerities, saying, it was now incumbent\non him to do penance for others, as well as for himself. He always wore\na hair-shirt under his religious habit, and never added, nor diminished,\nany thing in his clothes, either winter or summer. He never ate any\nflesh-meat, though he had it at his table for strangers. His attention\nto feed his flock was no less remarkable, especially in assisting the\npoor both spiritually and corporally, saying, that he was chiefly sent\nfor them. He was most mild to penitent sinners; but inflexible towards\nthe impenitent, though he refused to have recourse to the civil power\nagainst them, the usual remedy of that age. Many such he at last\nreclaimed by his sweetness and charity. Certain great men, abusing his\nlenity, usurped the rights of his church; but the saint strenuously\ndefended them even against the king himself, notwithstanding his threats\nto confiscate his lands. By humility and resolution he overcame several\ncontradictions of his chapter and other clergy. By his zeal he converted\nmany of the Albigenses, contemporary heretics, and was preparing himself\nfor a mission among them, at the time he was seized with his last\nillness. He would, notwithstanding, preach a farewell sermon to his\npeople, which increased his fever to such a degree that he was obliged\nto set aside his journey, and take to his bed. Drawing near his end, he\nreceived first extreme unction, according to the discipline of that\nage;[1] then, in order to receive the viaticum, he rose out of bed, fell\non his knees melting in tears, and prayed long prostrate with his arms\nstretched out in the form of a cross. The night following, perceiving\nhis last hour approach, he desired to anticipate the nocturns, which are\nsaid at midnight; but having made the sign of the cross on his lips and\nbreast, was able to pronounce no more than the two first words. Then,\naccording to a sign made by him, he was laid on ashes in the hair-cloth\nwhich he always privately wore. In this posture he soon after expired, a\nlittle past midnight, on the morning of the 10th of January, in 1209.\nHis body was interred in his cathedral; and being honored by many\nmiracles, was taken up in 1217; and in the year following he was\ncanonized by pope Honorius III. His relics were kept with great\nveneration till 1562, when they were burnt, and scattered in the winds\nby the Huguenots, on occasion of their plundering the cathedral of\nBourges, as Baillet and Bollandus mention. A bone of his arm is shown\nwith veneration at Chaalis, whither it had been sent soon after the\nsaint's body was taken up; and a rib is preserved in the church of the\ncollege of Navarre, at Paris, on which the canons of St. Bourges\nbestowed it in 1399.[2] His festival is kept in that church with great,\nsolemnity, and a great concourse of devout persons; St. William being\nregarded in several parts of France as one of the patrons of the nation,\nthough his name is not mentioned in the Roman Martyrology. The\ncelebrated countess Maud, his niece, out of veneration for his memory,\nbestowed certain lands in the {122} Nivernois, on the church of\nBourges.[3] B. Philip Berruyer, a nephew of St. William, was archbishop\nof Bourges from the year 1236 to 1260, in which he died in the odor of\nsanctity. Nangi ascribes to him many miracles, and other historians bear\ntestimony to his eminent virtue.[4] Dom Martenne has published his\nedifying original life.[5]\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nIf we look into the lives of all the saints, we shall find that it was\nby a spirit and gift of prayer that the Holy Ghost formed in their\nhearts the most perfect sentiments of all virtues. It is this which\nenlightens the understanding, and infuses a spiritual knowledge, and a\nheavenly wisdom, which is incomparably more excellent than that in which\nphilosophers pride themselves. The same purifies the affections,\nsanctifies the soul, adorns it with virtues, and enriches it with every\ngift of heaven. Christ, who is the eternal wisdom, came down among us on\nearth to teach us more perfectly this heavenly language, and he alone is\nour master in it. He vouchsafed also to be our model. In the first\nmoment in which his holy soul began to exist, it exerted all its powers\nin contemplating and adorning the divine Trinity, and employed his\naffections in the most ardent acts of praise, love, thanksgiving,\noblation, and the like. His whole moral life was an uninterrupted\nprayer; more freely to apply himself to this exercise, and to set us an\nexample, he often retired into mountains and deserts, and spent whole\nnights in prayer; and to this employment he consecrated his last breath\nupon the cross. By him the saints were inspired to conceive an infinite\nesteem for holy prayer, and such a wonderful assiduity and ardor in this\nexercise, that many renounced altogether the commerce of men to only\nthat of God, and his angels; and the rest learned the art of conversing\nsecretly with heaven even amidst their exterior employments, which they\nonly undertook for God. Holy pastors have always made retirement and a\nlife of prayer their apprenticeship or preparation for the ministry, and\nafterward, amidst its functions were still men of prayer in them, having\nGod always present to their mind, and setting apart intervals in the\nday, and a considerable part of the nights, to apply themselves with\ntheir whole attention to this exercise, in the silence of all creatures.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  See Bellarmin, de Arte moriendi. Iuenin, de Sacram. t. 2, et Hist.\n    des Sacr. t. 7.\n2.  See Chatelain. Not. p. 161, Brev. Paris.\n3.  Gallia Christ. Nov. t. 2, p. 63{?}.\n4.  Ib. p. 69.\n5.  Martenne Anecdot. t. 3, p. 1927.\n\nST. AGATHO, POPE.\n\nAGATHO, a Sicilian by birth, was remarkable for his charity and\nbenevolence, a profound humility, and an engaging sweetness of temper.\nHaving been several years treasurer of the church of Rome, he succeeded\nDomnus in the pontificate in 679. He presided by his three legates in\nthe sixth general council, and third of Constantinople, in 680, in the\nreign of the pious emperor Constantine Pogonatus, against the\nMonothelite heresy, which he confuted in a learned letter to that\nemperor, by the tradition of the apostolic church of Rome:\n\"Acknowledged,\" says he, \"by the whole Catholic church, to be the mother\nand mistress of all other churches, and to derive her superior authority\nfrom St. Peter, the prince of the apostles, to whom Christ committed his\nwhole flock, with a promise that his faith should never fail.\" This\nepistle was approved as a rule of faith by the same council, which\ndeclared, _that Peter spoke by Agatho_. This pope restored St. Wilfrid\nto the see of York, and was a great benefactor to the Roman clergy and\nto the churches. Anastatius says, that the number of his miracles\nprocured him the title of Thaumaturgus. He died in 682, having held the\npontificate {123} two years and a half. His feast is kept both by the\nLatins and Greeks. See Anastatius published by Bianchini; also Muratori\nand Labbe, Conc. t. 6, p. 1109.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe style of this pope's letters is inferior to that both of his\npredecessors and successors. The reason he alleges in excusing the\nlegates whom he sent to Constantinople for their want of eloquence,\nbecause the graces of speech could not be cultivated amidst the\nincursions of barbarians, while with much difficulty they earned Thor\ndaily subsistence by manual labor; \"But we preserve,\" said he, with\nsimplicity of heart, \"the faith, which our fathers have handed down to\nus.\" The bishops, his legates, say the same thing: \"Our countries are\nharassed by the fury of barbarous nations. We live in the midst of\nbattles, inroads, and devastations; our lives pass in continual alarms\nand anxiety, and we subsist by the labor of our hands.\"\n\nST. MARCIAN, PRIEST,\n\nAND TREASURER OF THE CHURCH OF CONSTANTINOPLE, IN THE FIFTH AGE,\n\nWAS born at Constantinople, though of a Roman family related to the\nimperial house of the Theodosiuses. From his childhood he served God in\ncontinual watching, fasting, and prayer, in imitation of St. John the\nBaptist; and for the relief of the necessitous he gave away immense\noccult alms. The time which was not employed in these charities, he\nspent in holy retirement and prayer. In the reign of the emperor\nMarcian, Anatolius the archbishop, offering violence to the saint's\nhumility, ordained him priest. In this new state the saint saw himself\nunder a stricter obligation than before of laboring to attain to the\nsummit of Christian perfection; and while he made the instruction of the\npoor his principal and favorite employment, he redoubled his earnestness\nin providing for their corporal necessities, and was careful never to\nrelax any part of his austerities. The severity of his morals was made a\nhandle, by those who feared the example of his virtue, as a tacit\ncensure of their sloth, avarice, and irregularities, to fasten upon him\na suspicion of Novatianism; but his meekness and silence at length\ntriumphed over the slander. This persecution served more and more to\npurify his soul, and exceedingly improve his virtue. This shone forth\nwith greater lustre than ever, when the cloud was dispersed; and the\npatriarch Gennadius, with the great applause of the whole body of the\nclergy and people, conferred on him the dignity of treasurer, which was\nthe second in that church. St. Marcian built or repaired in a stately\nmanner a great number of churches in Constantinople, confounded the\nArians and other heretics, and was famous for miracles both before and\nafter his happy death, which happened towards the end of the fifth\ncentury. He is honored both in the Greek Menaea, and Roman Martyrology,\non the 10th of January. See his ancient anonymous life in Surius, and\nBollandus; also Cedrenus, Sozomen, and Theodorus Lector, l. 1. Codinus\nOrig. Constant. p. 60. See Tillemont, t. 16, p. 161.\n\n{124}\n\n\nJANUARY XI.\n\nST. THEODOSIUS, THE CENOBIARCH.\n\nFrom his life by Theodorus, bishop of Petra, some time his disciple, in\nSurius and Bollandus, and commended by Fleury, Baillet, &c.\n\nA.D. 529.\n\nST. THEODOSIUS was born at Mogariassus, called in latter ages Marissa,\nin Cappadocia, in 423. He imbibed the first tincture of virtue from the\nfervent example and pious instructions of his virtuous parents. He was\nordained reader, but some time after being moved by Abraham's example to\nquit his country and friends, he resolved to put this motion in\nexecution. He accordingly set out for Jerusalem, but went purposely out\nof his road, to visit the famous St. Simeon Stylites on his pillar, who\nforetold him several circumstances of his life, and gave him proper\ninstructions for his behavior in each. Having satisfied his devotion in\nvisiting the holy places in Jerusalem, he began to consider in what\nmanner he should dedicate himself to God in a religious state. The\ndangers of living without a guide, made him prefer a monastery to a\nhermitage; and he therefore put himself under the direction of a holy\nman named Longinus, to whom his virtue soon endeared him in a very\nparticular manner. A pious lady having built a church under the\ninvocation of the Blessed Virgin, on the high road to Bethlehem,\nLonginus could not well refuse her request, that his pupil should\nundertake the charge of it; but Theodosius, who loved only to obey,\ncould not be induced by any entreaties to consent to this proposal:\nabsolute commands were necessary to force him to a compliance. Nor did\nhe govern long; for dreading the poison of vanity from the esteem of\nmen, he retired into a cave at the top of a neighboring desert mountain,\nand employed his time in fasting, watching, prayers, and tears, which\nalmost continually flowed from his eyes. His food was coarse pulse and\nwild herbs: for thirty years he never tasted so much as a morsel of\nbread. Many desired to serve God under his direction: he at first\ndetermined only to admit six or seven, but was soon obliged to receive a\ngreater number, and at length came to a resolution, which charity\nextorted from him, never to reject any that presented themselves with\ndispositions that seemed sincere. The first lesson which he taught his\nmonks was, that the continual remembrance of death is the foundation of\nreligious perfection; to imprint this more deeply in their minds, he\ncaused a great grave or pit to be dug, which might serve for the common\nburial-place of the whole community, that by the presence of this\nmemorial of death, and by continually meditating on that object, they\nmight more perfectly learn to die daily. The burial-place being made,\nthe abbot one day, when he had led his monks to it, said, \"The grave is\nmade, who will first perform the dedication?\" Basil, a priest, who was\none of the number, falling on his knees, said to St. Theodosius, \"I am\nthe person, be pleased to give me your blessing.\" The abbot ordered the\nprayers of the church for the dead to be offered up for him, and on the\nfortieth day, Basil wonderfully departed to our Lord in peace, without\nany apparent sickness. When the holy company of disciples were twelve in\nnumber, it happened that at the great feast of Easter they had nothing\nto eat; they had not even bread for the sacrifice: some murmured; the\nsaint bid them trust {125} in God and he would provide: which was soon\nremarkably verified, by the arrival of certain mules loaded with\nprovisions. The lustre of the sanctity and miracles of St. Theodosius,\ndrawing great numbers to him who desired to serve God under his\ndirection, his cave was too little for their reception; therefore,\nhaving consulted heaven by prayer, he, by its particular direction,\nbuilt a spacious monastery at a place called Cathismus, not far from\nBethlehem, at a small distance from his cave, and it was soon filled\nwith holy monks. To this monastery were annexed three infirmaries; one\nfor the sick, the gift of a pious lady in that neighborhood; the two\nothers St. Theodosius built himself, one for the aged and feeble, the\nother for such as had been punished with the loss of their senses, or by\nfalling under the power of the devil, for rashly engaging in a religious\nstate through pride, and without a due dependence on the grace of God to\ncarry them through it. All succors, spiritual and temporal, were\nafforded in these infirmaries, with admirable order, care, and\naffection. He erected also several buildings for the reception of\nstrangers, in which he exercised an unbounded hospitality, entertaining\nall that came, for whose use there were one day above a hundred tables\nserved with provisions: these, when insufficient for the number of\nguests, were more than once miraculously multiplied by his prayers. The\nmonastery itself was like a city of saints in the midst of a desert, and\nin it reigned regularity, silence, charity, and peace. There were four\nchurches belonging to it, one for each of the three several nations of\nwhich his community was chiefly composed, each speaking a different\nlanguage; the fourth was for the use of such as were in a state of\npenance, which those that recovered from their lunatic or possessed\ncondition before, mentioned, were put into, and detained till they had\nexpiated their fault. The nations into which his community was divided,\nwere the Greeks, which were far the most numerous, and consisted of all\nthose that came from any provinces of the empire; the Armenians, with\nwhom were joined the Arabians and Persians; and, thirdly, the Bessi, who\ncomprehended all the northern nations below Thrace, or all who used the\nRunic or Sclavonian tongue. Each nation sung the first part of the mass\nto the end of the gospel, in their own church, but after the gospel, all\nmet in the church of the Greeks, where they celebrated the essential\npart of the sacrifice in Greek and communicated all together.[1]\n\nThe monks passed a considerable part of the day and night at their\ndevotions in the church, and at the times not set apart for public\nprayer and necessary rest, every one was obliged to apply himself to\nsome trade, of manual labor, not incompatible with recollection, that\nthe house might be supplied with conveniences. Sallust, bishop of\nJerusalem, appointed St. Sabas superior general of the hermits, and our\nsaint of the Cenobites, or religious men living in community throughout\nall Palestine, whence he was styled the Cenobiarch. These two great\nservants of God lived in strict friendship, and had frequent spiritual\nconferences together; they were also united in their zeal and sufferings\nfor the church.\n\nThe emperor Anastasius patronized the Eutychian heresy, and used all\npossible means to engage our saint in his party. In 513 he deposed\nElias, patriarch of Jerusalem, as he had banished Flavian II., patriarch\nof Antioch, and intruded Severus, an impious heretic, into that see,\ncommanding the Syrians to obey and hold communion with him. SS.\nTheodosius and Sabas maintained boldly the right of Elias, and of John\nhis successor; whereupon the imperial officers thought it most advisable\nto connive at their proceedings, considering the great authority they\nhad acquired by {126} their sanctity. Soon after, the emperor sent\nTheodosius a considerable sum of money, for charitable uses in\nappearance, but in reality to engage him in his interest. The saint\naccepted of it, and distributed it all among the poor. Anastasius now\npersuading himself that he was as good as gained over to his cause, sent\nhim an heretical profession of faith, in which the divine and human\nnatures in Christ were confounded into one, and desired him to sign it.\nThe saint wrote him an answer full of apostolic spirit; in which,\nbesides solidly confuting the Eutychian error, he added, that he was\nready to lay down his life for the faith of the church. The emperor\nadmired his courage and the strength of his reasoning, and returning him\na respectful answer, highly commended his generous zeal, made some\napology for his own inconsiderateness, and protested that he only\ndesired the peace of the church. But it was not long ere he relapsed\ninto his former impiety and renewed his bloody edicts against the\northodox, dispatching troops everywhere to have them put in execution.\nOn the first intelligence of this, Theodosius went over all the deserts\nand country of Palestine, exhorting every one to be firm in the faith of\nthe four general councils. At Jerusalem, having assembled the people\ntogether, he from the pulpit cried out with a loud voice: \"If any one\nreceives not the four general councils as the four gospels, let him be\nanathema.\" So bold an action in a man of his years, inspired with\ncourage those whom the edicts had terrified. His discourses had a\nwonderful effect on the people, and God gave a sanction up his zeal by\nmiracles: one of these was, that on his going out of the church at\nJerusalem, a woman was healed of a cancer on the spot, by only touching\nhis garments. The emperor sent an order for his banishment, which was\nexecuted; but dying soon after, Theodosius was recalled by his Catholic\nsuccessor, Justin; who, from a common soldier, had gradually ascended\nthe imperial throne.\n\nOur saint survived his return eleven years, never admitting the least\nrelaxation in his former austerities. Such was his humility, that seeing\ntwo monks at variance with each other, he threw himself at their\nfeet, and could not rise till they were perfectly reconciled; and once\nhaving excommunicated one of his subjects for a crime, who\ncontumaciously pretended to excommunicate him in his turn, the saint\nbehaved as if he had been really excommunicated, to gain the sinner's\nsoul by this unprecedented example of submission, which had the desired\neffect. During the last year of his life he was afflicted with a painful\ndistemper, in which he gave proof of an heroic patience, and an entire\nsubmission to the will of God; for being advised by one that was an\neye-witness of his great sufferings, to pray that God would be pleased\nto grant him some ease, he would give no ear to it, alleging that such\nthoughts were impatience, and would rob him of his crown. Perceiving the\nhour of his dissolution at hand, he gave his last exhortation to his\ndisciples, and foretold many things, which accordingly came to pass\nafter his death: this happened in the one hundred and fifth year of his\nage, and of our Lord 529. Peter, patriarch of Jerusalem, and the whole\ncountry, assisted with the deepest sentiments of respect at the\nsolemnity of his interment, which was honored by miracles. He was buried\nin his first cell, called the cave of the magi, because the wise men,\nwho came to adore Christ soon after his birth, were said to have lodged\nin it. A certain count being on his march against the Persians, begged\nthe hair shirt which the saint used to wear next his skin, and believed\nthat he owed the victory which he obtained over them, to the saint's\nprotection through the pledge of that relic. Both the Roman and Greek\ncalendars mention his festival on the 11th of January.\n\n{127}\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe examples of the Nazarites and Essenes among the Jews, and of many\nexcellent and holy persons among the Christians through every age,\ndemonstrate that many are called by God to serve him in a retired\ncontemplative life; nay, it is the opinion of St. Gregory the Great,\nthat the world is to some persons so full of ambushes and snares, or\ndangerous occasions of sin, that they cannot be saved but by choosing a\nsafe retreat. Those who from experience are conscious of their own\nweakness, and find themselves to be no match for the world, unable to\ncountermine its policies, and oppose its power, ought to retire as from\nthe face of too potent an enemy; and prefer a contemplative state to a\nbusy and active life: not to indulge sloth, or to decline the service of\nGod and his neighbor, but to consult his own security, and to fly from\ndangers of sin and vanity. Yet there are some who find the greatest\ndangers in solitude itself; so that it is necessary for every one to\nsound his own heart, take a survey of his own forces and abilities, and\nconsult God, that he may best he able to learn the designs of his\nprovidence with regard to his soul; in doing which, a great purity of\nintention is the first requisite. Ease and enjoyment must not be the end\nof Christian retirement, but penance, labor, and assiduous\ncontemplation; without great fervor and constancy in which, close\nsolitude is the road to perdition. If greater safety, or an unfitness\nfor a public station, or a life of much business (in which several are\nonly public nuisances) may be just motives to some for embracing a life\nof retirement, the means of more easily attaining to perfect virtue may\nbe such to many. Nor do true contemplatives bury their talents, or cease\neither to be members of the republic of mankind, or to throw in their\nmite towards its welfare. From the prayers and thanksgivings which they\ndaily offer to God for the peace of the world, the preservation of the\nchurch, the conversion of sinners, and the salvation of all men,\ndoubtless more valuable benefits often accrue to mankind, than from the\nalms of the rich, or the labors of the learned. Nor is it to be\nimagined, how far and how powerfully their spirit, and the example of\ntheir innocence and perfect virtue, often spread their influence; and\nhow serviceable persons who lead a holy and sequestered life may be to\nthe good of the world; nor how great glory redounds to God, by the\nperfect purity of heart and charity to which many souls are thus raised.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  See Le Brun, Explic. des Ceremonies de la Messe, t. 4, pp. 234-235,\n    dissert. l. 4, art. 2.\n\nST. HYGINUS, P. AND M.\n\nHE was placed in the chair of St. Peter after the martyrdom of St.\nTelesphorus, in the year 139. Eusebius informs us,[1] that he sat four\nyears. The church then enjoyed some sort of calm, under the mild reign\nof the emperor Antoninus Pius; though several martyrs suffered in his\ntime by the fury of the populace, or the cruelty of certain magistrates.\nThe emperor himself never consented to such proceedings; and when\ninformed of them by the governors of Asia, Athens, Thessalonica, and\nLarissea, he wrote to them in favor of the Christians, as is recorded by\nSt. Justin and Eusebius.[2]\n\nBut the devil had recourse to other arts to disturb the peace of God's\nchurch. Cerdo, a wolf in sheep's clothing, in the year 140, came from\nSyria to Rome, and began to teach the false principles which Marcion\nadopted afterward with more success. He impiously affirmed that there\nwere two Gods; the one rigorous and severe, the author of the Old\nTestament; the other merciful and good, the author of the New, and the\nfather of Christ, sent by him to redeem man from the tyranny of the\nformer; and that Christ was not really born of the Virgin Mary, or true\nman, but such {128} in shadow only and appearance. Our holy pope, by his\npastoral vigilance detected that monster, and cut him off from the\ncommunion of the church. The heresiarch, imposing upon him by a false\nrepentance, was again received; but the zealous pastor having discovered\nthat he secretly preached this old opinions, excommunicated him a second\ntime.[3]\n\nAnother minister of Satan was Valentine, who being a Platonic\nphilosopher, puffed up with the vain opinion of his learning, and full\nof resentment for another's being preferred to him in an election to a\ncertain bishopric in Egypt, as Tertullian relates,[4] revived the errors\nof Simon Magus, and added to them many other absurd fictions, as of\nthirty AEones or ages, a kind of inferior deities, with whimsical\nhistories of their several pedigrees. Having broached these opinions at\nAlexandria, he left Egypt for Rome. At first he dissembled his heresies,\nbut by degrees his extravagant doctrines came to light. Hyginus, being\nthe mildest of men, endeavored to reclaim him without proceeding to\nextremities; so that Valentine was not excommunicated before the first\nyear of St. Pius his immediate successor.\n\nSt. Hyginus did not sit quite four years, dying in 142. We do not find\nthat he ended his life by martyrdom, yet he is styled a martyr in some\nancient calendars, as well as in the present Roman Martyrology;\nundoubtedly on account of the various persecutions which he suffered,\nand to which his high station in the church exposed him in those\nperilous times. See Tillemont, t. 2, p. 252.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  Eus. l. 4, c. 11.\n2.  Eus. l. 4, c. 30.\n3.  St. Epiph. hom. 41; Iren. l. 3, c. 4; Euseb. &c.\n4.  Tertull. l. contra Valent. c. 4.\n\nST. EGWIN, B.C.\n\nHE was of the royal blood of the Mercian kings, devoted himself to the\ndivine service in his youth, and succeeded O{}or in the episcopal see of\nWorcester, in 692. by his zeal and severity in reproving vice, he\nstirred up some of his own flock to persecute him, which gave him an\nopportunity of performing a penitential pilgrimage Rome. Some legends\ntell us, that setting out he put on his legs iron shackles, and threw\nthe key into the river Severn, others say the Avon; but found it in the\nbelly of a fish, some say at Rome, others in his passage from France to\nEngland. After his return, with the assistance of Coenred or Kenred,\nking of Mercia, he founded the famous abbey of Evesham, under the\ninvocation of the Blessed Virgin. After this he undertook a second\njourney to Rome, in the company of Coenred, king of the Mercians, and of\nOffa, of the East Saxons, who gave up their temporal principalities to\nlabor with greater earnestness to secure an eternal crown. St. Egwin\ndied on the 30th of December, in 717, and was buried in the monastery of\nEvesham. His body was translated to a more honorable place in 1183,\nprobably on the 11th of January, on which day many English Martyrologies\nmark his festival. See his life in Capgrave, the Annals of Worcester, in\nWharton's Anglia Sacra; Malmesbury, l. 4, de Pontif. Ang. Harpsfield.\nSaec. 8, c. 15, 18, and Dr. Thomas in his History the Cathedral of\nWorcester. Monast. Anglic. vol. 1, p. 144, and vol. 2, p. 851. Leland's\nCollections, vol. 1, pp. 240 and 298; vol. 3, p. 160. Dr. Brown Willis,\nHistory of Abbeys, t. 1, p. 90.\n\nST. SALVIUS, OR SAUVE, BISHOP OF AMIENS,\n\nFAMOUS for miracles, succeeded Ado in 672, and flourished in the reign\nof Theodoric III. His relics rest at Montreuil, in Picardy, in the\nBenedictin {129} Abbey which bears his name, whither they were\ntranslated from the cathedral of Amiens, several years after his death,\nas is related in his anonymous life, a piece of uncertain authority with\nregard to his actions. A relic of this saint was formerly kept with\ngreat veneration in the cathedral of Canterbury, mentioned in the\nhistory of that church, &c. This saint must not be confounded with St.\nSalvius of Alby, nor with the martyr of this name in Africa, on whose\nfestival St. Austin made a sermon. See his anonymous life in Bollandus;\nalso Baillet. Gall. Christ. Nova, t. 10, p. 1154. This seems the day of\nhis translation, and the 28th of October that of his death.\n\n\nJANUARY XII.\n\nST. ARCADIUS, MARTYR.\n\nFrom his ancient acts, much esteemed by Baronius, and inserted by\nRuinart in his authentic collection. St. Zeno of Verona made use of them\nin his forty-ninth sermon on this martyr. See Tillemont. t. 5 p. 557.\n\nTHE time of this saint's martyrdom is not mentioned in his acts; some\nplace it under Valerian, others under Dioclesian: he seems to have\nsuffered in some city of Mauritania, probably the capital, Caesarea. The\nfury of the tyrants raged violently, and the devil had instigated his\nsoldiers to wage, like so many wolves, a bloody war against the servants\nof Jesus. Upon the least suspicion they broke into houses, made rigorous\nsearches, and if they found a Christian, they treated him upon the spot\nwith the greatest cruelty, their impatience not suffering them to wait\nthe bringing him before a judge. Every day new sacrileges were\ncommitted; the faithful were compelled to assist at superstitious\nsacrifices, to lead victims crowned with flowers through the streets, to\nburn incense before idols, and to celebrate the enthusiastic feasts of\nBacchus. Arcadius, seeing his city in great confusion, left his estate\nand withdrew to a solitary place in the neighboring country, serving\nJesus Christ in watching, prayer, and other exercises of a penitential\nlife. His flight could not be long a secret; for his not appearing at\nthe public sacrifices made the governor send soldiers to his house; who\nsurrounded it, forced open the doors, and finding one of his relations\nin it, who said all he could to justify his kinsman's absence; they\nseized him, and the governor ordered him to be kept in close custody\ntill Arcadius should be taken. The martyr, informed of his friend's\ndanger, and burning with a desire to suffer for Christ, went into the\ncity, and presenting himself to the judge, said: \"If on my account you\ndetain my innocent relation in chains, release him; I, Arcadius, am come\nin person to give an account of myself, and to declare to you, that he\nknew not where I was.\" \"I am willing,\" answered the judge, \"to pardon\nnot only him, but you also, on condition that you will sacrifice to the\ngods.\" Arcadius replied, \"How can you propose to me such a thing? Do you\nnot know the Christians, or do you believe that the fear of death will\never make me swerve from my duty? Jesus Christ is my life, and death is\nmy gain. Invent what torments you please; but know that nothing shall\nmake me a traitor to my God.\" The governor, in a rage, paused to devise\nsome unheard-of torment for him. Iron hooks seemed too easy; neither\nplummets of lead, nor cudgels could satisfy his fury; the very rack he\nthought by much too gentle. At last {130} imagining he had found a\nmanner of death suitable to his purpose, he said to the ministers of his\ncruelty, \"Take him, and let him see and desire death, without being able\nto obtain it. Cut off his limbs joint by joint, and execute this so\nslowly, that the wretch may know what it is to abandon the gods of his\nancestors for an unknown deity.\" The executioners dragged Arcadius to\nthe place, where many other victims of Christ had already suffered; a\nplace dear and sweet to all who sigh after eternal life. Here the martyr\nlifts up his eyes to heaven, and implores strength from above; then\nstretches out his neck, expecting to have his head cut off; but the\nexecutioner bid him hold out his hand, and joint after joint chopped off\nhis fingers, arms, and shoulders. Laying the saint afterward on his\nback, he in the same barbarous manner cut off his toes, feet, legs, and\nthighs. The holy martyr held out his limbs and joints, one after\nanother, with invincible patience and courage, repeating these words,\n\"Lord, teach me thy wisdom:\" for the tyrants had forgot to cut out his\ntongue. After so many martyrdoms, his body lay a mere trunk weltering in\nits own blood. The executioners themselves, as well as the multitude,\nwere moved to tears and admiration at this spectacle, and at such an\nheroic patience. But Arcadius, with a joyful countenance, surveying his\nscattered limbs all around him, and offering them to God, said, \"Happy\nmembers, now dear to me, as you at last truly belong to God, being all\nmade a sacrifice to him!\" Then turning to the people, he said, \"You who\nhave been present at this bloody tragedy, learn that all torments seem\nas nothing to one who has an everlasting crown before his eyes. Your\ngods are not gods; renounce their worship. He alone for whom I suffer\nand die, is the true God. He comforts and upholds me in the condition\nyou see me. To die for him is to live; to suffer for him is to enjoy the\ngreatest delights.\" Discoursing in this manner to those about him, he\nexpired on the 12th of January, the pagans being struck with\nastonishment at such a miracle of patience. The Christians gathered\ntogether his scattered limbs, and laid them in one tomb. The Roman and\nother Martyrologies make honorable mention of him on this day.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nWe belong to God by numberless essential titles of interest, gratitude,\nand justice, and are bound to be altogether his, and every moment to\nlive to him alone, with all our powers and all our strength: whatever it\nmay cost us to make this sacrifice perfect and complete, if we truly\nlove him, we shall embrace it with joy and inexpressible ardor. In these\nsentiments we ought, by frequent express acts, and by the uninterrupted\nhabitual disposition of our souls, to give all we are and have to God,\nall the powers of our souls, all the senses and organs of our bodies,\nall our actions, thoughts, and affections. This oblation we may\nexcellently comprise in any of the first petitions of our Lord's prayer:\nthe following is a form of an oblation to our divine Redeemer, which St.\nIgnatius of Loyola drew up and used to repeat: \"O sovereign king, and\nabsolute Lord of all things, though I am most unworthy to serve you,\nnevertheless, relying on your grace and boundless mercy, I offer myself\nup entire to you, and subject whatever belongs to me to your most holy\nwill; and I protest, in presence of your infinite goodness, and in\npresence of the glorious Virgin your mother, and your whole heavenly\ncourt, that it is my most earnest desire, and unshaken resolution, to\nfollow and imitate you the nearest I am able, in bearing all injuries\nand crosses with meekness and patience, and in laboring to die to the\nworld and myself in a perfect spirit of humility and poverty, that I may\nbe wholly yours and you may reign in me in time and eternity.\"\n\n{131}\n\nSAINT BENEDICT BISCOP,\n\nCOMMONLY CALLED BENNET.\n\nHE was nobly descended, and one of the great officers of the court of\nOswi, the religious king of the Northumbers: he was very dear to his\nprince, and was beholden to his bounty for many fair estates, and great\nhonors; but neither the favors of so good and gracious a king, nor the\nallurements of power, riches, and pleasures, were of force to captivate\nhis heart, who could see nothing in them but dangers, and snares so much\nthe more to be dreaded, as fraught with the power of charming. At the\nage therefore of twenty-five, an age that affords the greatest relish\nfor pleasure, he bid adieu to the world, made a journey of devotion to\nRome, and at his return devoted him wholly to the studies of the\nscriptures and other holy exercises. Some time after his return to\nEngland, Alcfrid, son of king Oswi, being desirous to make a pilgrimage\nto the shrines of the apostles, engaged Biscop to bear him company to\nRome. The king prevented his son's journey; nevertheless our saint\ntravelled thither a second time, burning with an earnest desire of\nimproving himself in the knowledge of divine things, and in the love of\nGod. From Rome he went to the great monastery of Lerins, then renowned\nfor its regular discipline; there he took the monastic habit, and spent\ntwo years in the most exact observance of the rule, and penetrated in\nevery exercise with its true spirit: after this he returned to Rome,\nwhere he received an order of pope Vitalian to accompany St. Theodorus,\narchbishop of Canterbury, and St. Adrian, to England. When he arrived at\nCanterbury, St. Theodorus committed to him the care of the monastery of\nSS. Peter and Paul, near that city, which abbacy he resigned to St.\nAdrian upon his arrival in England. St. Bennet stayed about two years in\nKent, giving himself up to religious exercises and sacred studies, under\nthe discipline of those two excellent persons. Then he took a fourth\njourney to Rome, with a view of perfecting himself in ecclesiastical\ndiscipline, and the rules and practice of a monastic life; for which\npurpose he made a considerable stay at Rome and other places: he brought\nhome with him a choice library, relics and pictures of Christ, the\nBlessed Virgin, and other saints. When he returned to Northumberland,\nking Egfrid (in whose father's court St. Bennet had formerly lived)\nbestowed on him seventy ploughs or families of land for building a\nmonastery;[1] this the saint founded on the mouth of the river Were,\nwhence it was called Weremouth. When the monastery was built, St. Bennet\nwent over to France, and brought back with him skilful masons, who built\nthe church for this monastery of stone, and after the Roman fashion; for\ntill that time stone buildings were very rare in Britain, even the\nchurch of Lindisfarne was of wood, and covered over with a thatch of\nstraw and reeds, till bishop Eadbert procured both the roof and the\nwalls to be covered with sheets of lead, as Bede mentions.[2] St. Bennet\nalso brought over glaziers from France, for the art of making glass was\nthen unknown in Britain. In a fifth journey to Rome, St. Bennet\nfurnished himself with a larger stock of good books, especially the\nwritings of the fathers, also of relics and holy pictures, with which he\nenriched his own country.\n\nHis first monastery of Weremouth was entitled from Saint Peter, prince\nof the apostles; and such was the edification which it gave, that the\nsame {132} king added to the saint a second donation of lands,\nconsisting of forty ploughs; on which Biscop built another monastery, at\na place called Girwy, now Jarrow, on the Tine, six miles distant from\nthe former, and this latter was called St. Paul's; these two monasteries\nwere almost looked upon as one; and St. Bennet governed them both,\nthough he placed in each a superior or abbot, who continued subject to\nhim, his long journey to Rome and other avocations making this\nsubstitution necessary.[3] In the church of St. Peter at Weremouth he\nplaced the pictures of the Blessed Virgin, the twelve apostles, the\nhistory of the gospel, and the visions in the revelation of St. John:\nthat of St. Paul's at Jarrow, he adorned with other pictures, disposed\nin such manner as to represent the harmony between the Old and New\nTestament, and the conformity of the figures in one to the reality in\nthe other. Thus Isaac carrying the wood which was to be employed in the\nsacrifice of himself, was explained by Jesus Christ carrying his cross,\non which he was to finish his sacrifice; and the brazen serpent was\nillustrated by our Saviour's crucifixion. With these pictures, and many\nbooks and relics, St. Bennet brought from Rome in his last voyage, John,\nabbot of St. Martin's, precentor in St. Peter's church, whom he\nprevailed with pope Agatho to send with him, and whom he placed at\nWeremouth to instruct perfectly his monks in the Gregorian notes, and\nRoman ceremonies for singing the divine office. Easterwin, a kinsman of\nSt. Bennet, and formerly an officer in the king's court, before he\nbecame a monk, was chosen abbot before our saint set out for Rome, and\nin that station behaved always as the meanest person in the house; for\nthough he was eminently adorned with all virtues, humility, mildness,\nand devotion seemed always the most eminent part of his character. This\nholy man died on the 6th of March, when he was but thirty-six years old,\nand had been four years abbot, while St. Bennet was absent in the last\njourney to Rome. The monks chose in his place St. Sigfrid, a deacon, a\nman of equal gravity and meekness, who soon after fell into a lingering\ndecay, under which he suffered violent pains in his lungs and bowels. He\ndied four months before our saint. With his advice, two months before\nhis death, St. Bennet appointed St. Ceolfrid abbot of both his\nmonasteries, being himself struck with a dead palsy, by which all the\nlower parts of his body were without life; he lay sick of this distemper\nthree years, and for a considerable time was entirely confined to his\nbed. During this long illness, not being able to raise his voice to the\nusual course of singing the divine office, at every canonical hour he\nsent for some of his monks and while they, being divided into two\nchoirs, sung the psalms proper for the hour of the day or night, he\nendeavored as well as he could to join not only his heart, but also his\nvoice, with theirs. His attention to God he seemed never to relax, and\nfrequently and earnestly exhorted his monks to a constant observance of\nthe rule he had given them. \"You must not think,\" said he, \"that the\nconstitutions which you have received from me were my own invention,\nfor, having in my frequent journeys visited seventeen well-ordered\nmonasteries, I informed myself of all their laws and rules, and picking\nout the best among them, these I have recommended to you.\" The saint\nexpired soon after, having received the viaticum on the 12th of January,\nin 690. His relics, according to Malmesbury,[4] were translated to\nThorney abbey, in 970, but the monks of Glastenbury thought themselves\npossessed at least of part of that treasure.[5] The true name of our\nsaint was Biscop {133} Baducing, as appears from Eddius-Stephen, in his\nlife of St. Wilfrid. The English Benedictins honor him as one of the\npatrons of their congregation, and he is mentioned in the Roman\nMartyrology on this day. See his life in Bede's history of the first\nabbots of Weremouth, published by Sir James Ware, at Dublin, in 1664.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  A plough, or family of land, was as much as one plough, or one yoke\n    of oxen could throw up in a year, or as sufficed for the maintenance\n    of a family.\n2.  Hist. l. 3, c. 25.\n3.  The abbeys of Weremouth and Jarrow were destroyed by the Danes. Both\n    were rebuilt in part, and from the year 1083 were small priories or\n    cells dependent on the abbey of Durham, till their dissolution {}th\n    of Henry VIII.\n4.  Malmes. l. 4, de Pontif.\n5.  See Monast. Ang. t. 1, p. 4, and John of Glastenbury, Hist. Glasten.\n\nTYGRIUS, A PRIEST,\n\nWHO was scourged, tormented with the disjointing of his bones, stripped\nof all his goods, and sent into banishment; and EUTROPIUS, lector, and\nprecentor of the church of Constantinople, who died in prison of his\ntorments, having been scourged, his cheeks torn with iron hooks, and his\nsides burnt with torches; are honored in the Roman Martyrology with the\ntitle of martyrs on the 12th of January.\n\nST. AELRED,\n\nABBOT OF RIEVAL, OR RIDAL, IN YORKSHIRE.\n\nHE was of noble descent, and was born in the north of England, in 1109.\nBeing educated in learning and piety, he was invited by David, the pious\nking of Scotland, to his court, made master of his household, and highly\nesteemed both by him and the courtiers. His virtue shone with bright\nlustre in the world, particularly his meekness, which Christ declared to\nbe his favorite virtue, and the distinguishing mark of his true\ndisciples. The following is a memorable instance to what a degree he\npossessed this virtue: a certain person of quality having insulted and\nreproached him in the presence of the king, Aelred heard him out with\npatience, and thanked him for his charity and sincerity, in telling him\nhis faults. This behavior had such an influence on his adversary as made\nhim ask his pardon on the spot. Another time, while he was speaking on a\ncertain matter, one interrupted him with very harsh, reviling\nexpressions: the servant of God heard him with tranquillity, and\nafterwards resumed his discourse with the same calmness and presence of\nmind as before. His desires were ardent to devote himself entirely to\nGod, by forsaking the world; but the charms of friendship detained him\nsome time longer in it, and were fetters to his soul; reflecting,\nnotwithstanding, that he must sooner or later be separated by death from\nthose he loved most, he condemned his own cowardice, and broke at once\nthose bands of friendship, which were more agreeable to him than all\nother sweets of life. He describes the situation of his soul under this\nstruggle, and says, \"Those who saw me, judging by the gaudy show which\nsurrounded me, and not knowing what passed within my soul, said,\nspeaking of me: Oh, how well is it with him! how happy is he! But they\nknew not the anguish of my mind; for the deep wound in my heart gave me\na thousand tortures, and I was not able to bear the intolerable stench\nof my sins.\" But after he had taken his resolution, he says, \"I began\nthen to know, by a little experience, what immense pleasure is found in\nthy service, and how sweet that peace is, which is its inseparable\ncompanion.\"[1] To relinquish entirely all his worldly engagements, he\nleft Scotland, and embraced the austere Cistercian order, at Rieval, in\na valley upon the hanks of the Rie, in Yorkshire, where a noble lord,\ncalled Walter {134} Especke, had founded a monastery in 1122. At the age\nof twenty-four, in 1133, he became a monk under the first abbot,\nWilliam, a disciple of St. Bernard. Fervor adding strength to his tender\ndelicate body, he set himself cheerfully about practising the greatest\nausterities, and employed much of his time in prayer and the reading of\npious books. He converted his heart with great ardor to the love of God,\nand by this means finding all his mortifications sweet and light, he\ncried out,[2] \"That yoke doth not oppress, but raiseth the soul; that\nburden hath-wings, not weight.\" He speaks of divine charity always in\nraptures, and by his frequent ejaculations on the subject, it seems to\nhave been the most agreeable occupation of his soul. \"May thy voice\n(says he) sound in my ears, O good Jesus, that my heart may learn how to\nlove thee, that my mind may love thee, that the interior powers, and, as\nit were, bowels of my soul, and very marrow of my heart, may love thee,\nand that my affections may embrace thee, my only true good, my sweet and\ndelightful joy! What is love? my God! If I mistake not, it is the\nwonderful delight of the soul, so much the more sweet as more pure, so\nmuch the more overflowing and inebriating as more ardent. He who loves\nthee, possesses thee; and he possesses thee in proportion as he loves,\nbecause thou art love. This is that abundance with which thy beloved are\ninebriated, melting away from themselves, that they may pass into thee,\nby loving thee.\"[3] He had been much delighted in his youth with reading\nTully; but after his conversion, found that author, and all other\nreading, tedious and bitter, which was not sweetened with the honey of\nthe holy name of Jesus, and seasoned with the word of God, as he says in\nthe preface to his book, _On spiritual friendship_. He was much edified\nwith the very looks of a holy monk, called Simon, who had despised high\nbirth, an ample fortune, and all the advantages of mind and body, to\nserve God in that penitential state. This monk went and came as one deaf\nand dumb, always recollected in God; and was such a lover of silence,\nthat he would scarce speak a few words to the prior on necessary\noccasions. His silence, however, was sweet, agreeable, and full of\nedification. Our saint says of him, \"The very sight of his humility\nstifled my pride, and made me blush at the immortification of my looks.\nThe law of silence practised among us, prevented my ever speaking to him\ndeliberately; but, one day, on my speaking a word to him inadvertently,\nhis displeasure appeared in his looks for my infraction of the rule of\nsilence; and he suffered me to lie some time prostrate before him to\nexpiate my fault; for which I grieved bitterly, and which I never could\nforgive myself.\"[4] This holy monk, having served God eight years in\nperfect fidelity, died in 1142, in wonderful peace, repeating with his\nlast breath, \"I will sing eternally, O Lord, thy mercy, thy mercy, thy\nmercy!\"\n\nSt. Aelred, much against his inclination, was made abbot of a new\nmonastery of his order, founded by William, Earl of Lincoln, at Revesby,\nin Lincolnshire, in 1142, and of Rieval, over three hundred monks, in\n1143. Describing their life, he says, that they drank nothing but water;\nate little, and that coarse; labored hard, slept little, and on hard\nboards; never spoke, except to their superiors on necessary occasions;\ncarried the burdens that were laid on them without refusing any; went\nwherever they were led; had not a moment for sloth, or amusements of any\nkind, and never had any lawsuit or dispute.[5] St. Aelred also mentions\ntheir mutual charity and peace in the most affecting manner, and is not\nable to find words to express the joy he felt at the sight of every one\nof them. His humility and love of solitude made him constantly refuse\nmany bishoprics which were pressed {135} upon him. Pious reading and\nprayer were his delight. Even in times of spiritual dryness, if he\nopened the divine books, he suddenly found his soul pierced with the\nlight of the Holy Ghost. His eyes, though before as dry as marble,\nflowed with tears, and his heart abandoned itself to sighs accompanied\nwith a heavenly pleasure, by which he was ravished in God. He died in\n1166, and the fifty-seventh of his age, having been twenty-two years\nabbot. See his works published at Douay in 1625, and in Bibl. Cisterc.\nt. 5, particularly his _Mirrour of Charity_; Hearne's Notes on Gulielmus\nNeubrigensis, who dedicated to our saint the first book of his history,\nt. 3, p. 1: likewise his life in Capgrave, and the annals of his order.\nThe general chapter held at Citeaux in 1250, declared him to be ranked\namong the saints of their order; as Henriquez and the additions to the\nCistercian Martyrology testify. In the new Martyrology published by\nBenedict XIV. for the use of this order, the feast of St. Aelred is\nmarked on the 2d of March,[6] with a great eulogium of his learning,\ninnocence of life, wonderful humility, patience, heavenly conversation,\ngift of prophecy, and miracles.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  Spec. {} 1, c. 28.\n2.  Spec. l. 1, c. 5.\n3.  Ibid. l. 1, c. 1.\n4.  Ibid. l. 1, c. ult.\n5.  L. 2, c. 2.\n6.  P. 304\n\n\nJANUARY XIII.\n\nST. VERONICA, OF MILAN.\n\nFrom her life, in Bollandus, t. 1, p. 890.\n\nA.D. 1497.\n\nALL states furnish abundant means for attaining to sanctity and\nChristian perfection, and it is only, owing to our sloth and tepidity\nthat we neglect to make use of them. This saint could boast of no\nworldly advantages either by birth or fortune.[1] Her parents maintained\ntheir family by hard labor in a village near Milan, and were both very\npious; her father never sold a horse, or any thing else he dealt in,\nwithout being more careful to acquaint the purchaser with all that was\nsecretly faulty in it, than to recommend its good qualities. His narrow\ncircumstances prevented his giving his daughter any schooling, so that\nshe never learned to read; but his own, and his devout wife's example,\nand fervent though simple instructions, filled her tender heart from the\ncradle with lively sentiments of virtue. The pious {136} maid from her\ninfancy applied herself to continual prayer, was very attentive to the\ninstructions given in the catechism; and the uninterrupted consideration\nof the holy mysteries, and the important truths of religion, engrossed\nher whole soul to themselves. She was, notwithstanding, of all others,\nthe most diligent and indefatigable in labor; and so obedient to her\nparents and masters, even in the smallest trifles, so humble and\nsubmissive to her equals, that she seemed to have no will of her own.\nHer food was coarse and very sparing, and her drink the same which the\npoorer sort of people used in that country, water, except sometimes\nwhey, or a little milk. At her work she continually conversed in her\nheart with God; insomuch that in company she seemed deaf to their\ndiscourses, mirth, and music. When she was weeding, reaping, or at any\nother labor in the fields, she strove to work at a distance from her\ncompanions, to entertain herself the more freely with her heavenly\nspouse. The rest admired her love of solitude, and on coming to her,\nalways found her countenance cheerful, yet often bathed in tears, which\nthey sometimes perceived to flow in great abundance; though they did not\nknow the source to be devotion: so carefully did Veronica conceal what\npassed in her soul between her and God.\n\nThrough a divine call to a religious and conventual state of life, she\nconceived a great desire to become a nun, in the poor, austere, and\nedifying convent of St. Martha, of the order of St. Austin in Milan. To\nqualify herself for this state, being busied the whole day at work, she\nsat up at night to learn to read and write, which the want of an\ninstructor made a great fatigue to her. One day being in great anxiety\nabout her learning, the Mother of God, to whom she had always\nrecommended herself, in a comfortable vision bade her banish that\nanxiety; for it was enough if she knew three letters: The first, purity\nof the affections, by placing her whole heart on God alone, loving no\ncreature, but in him and for him; the second, never to murmur, or be\nimpatient at the sins, or any behavior of others, but to bear them with\ninterior peace and patience, and humbly to pray for them; the third, to\nset apart some time every day to meditate on the passion of Christ.\nAfter three years' preparation, she was admitted to the religious habit\nin St. Martha's. Her life was entirely uniform, perfect, and fervent in\nevery action, no other than a living copy of her rule, which consisted\nin the practice of evangelical perfection reduced to certain holy\nexercises. Every moment of her life she studied to accomplish it to the\nleast tittle, and was no less exact in obeying the order or direction of\nany superior's will. When she could not obtain leave to watch in the\nchurch so long as she desired, by readily complying, she deserved to\nhear from Christ, that obedience was a sacrifice the most dear to him,\nwho, to obey his Father's will, came down from heaven, _becoming\nobedient even unto death_.[2]\n\nShe lay three years under a lingering illness, all which time she would\nnever be exempted from any duty of the house, or part of her work, or\nmake use of the least indulgence, though she had leave; her answer\nalways was, \"I must work while I can, while I have time.\" It was her\ndelight to help and serve every one. She always sought with admirable\nhumility the last place, and the greatest drudgery. It was her desire to\nlive always on bread and water. Her silence was a sign of her\nrecollection and continual prayer, in which her gift of abundant and\nalmost continual tears was most wonderful. She nourished them by\nconstant meditation on her own miseries, on the love of God, the joys of\nheaven, and the sacred passion of Christ. She always spoke of her own\nsinful life, as she called it, though it was most innocent, with the\nmost feeling sentiments of compunction. She was favored by God with many\nextraordinary visits and {137} comforts. By moving exhortations to\nvirtue, she softened and converted several obdurate sinners. She died at\nthe hour which she had foretold, in the year 1497, and the fifty-second\nof her age. Her sanctity was confirmed by miracles. Pope Leo X., by a\nbull in 1517, permitted her to be honored in her monastery in the same\nmanner as if she had been beatified according to the usual form. The\nbull may be seen in Bollandus.[3] Her name is inserted on this day in\nthe Roman Martyrology, published by Benedict XIV., in the year 1749; but\non the 28th of this month, in that of the Austin friars, approved by the\nsame pope.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nChristian perfection consists very much in the performance of our\nordinary actions, and the particular duties of our respective stations.\nGod, as the good father and great master of the family of the world,\nallots to every one his proper place and office in it; and it is in this\nvariety of states by which it subsists; and in their mutual dependence\nupon each other, that its good order and beauty consist. It is the most\nholy and wise appointment of providence and the order of nature, that\nthe different stations in the world be filled. Kings and subjects, rich\nand poor, reciprocally depend upon each other; and it is the command of\nGod that every one perform well the part which is assigned him. It is,\nthen, by the constant attendance on all the duties of his state, that a\nperson is to be sanctified. By this all his ordinary actions will be\nagreeable sacrifices to God, and his whole life a continued chain of\ngood works. It is not only in great actions, or by fits and starts, but\nin all that we do, and in every moment, that we are bound to live to\nGod. The regulation of this point is of essential importance in a\nvirtuous life, that every action may be performed with regularity,\nexactitude in all its circumstances, and the utmost fervor, and by the\nmost pure motive, referred solely to divine honor, in union with the\nmost holy actions and infinite merits of Christ. Hence St. Hilary\nsays,[4] \"When the just man performs all his actions, with a pure and\nsimple view to the divine honor and glory, as the apostle admonishes us,[5]\nhis whole life becomes an uninterrupted prayer; and as he passes his\ndays and nights in the accomplishment of the divine will, it is true to\nsay, that the whole course of a holy life is a constant meditation on\nthe law of God.\" Nevertheless this axiom, that the best devotion is the\nconstant practice of a person's ordinary duties, is abused by some, to\nexcuse a life of dissipation. Every one is bound to live to himself in\nthe first place, and to reserve leisure for frequent exercises of\ndevotion; and it is only by a spirit of perfect self-denial, humility,\ncompunction, and prayer, and by an assiduous attention of the soul to\nGod, that our exterior ordinary actions will be animated by the motives\nof divine faith and charity, and the spirit of true piety nourished in\nour breasts; in this consists the secret of a Christian life in all\nstates.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  The print of the holy face of our Saviour on a linen cloth, is kept\n    in Saint Peter's church at Rome, with singular veneration. It is\n    mentioned in an ancient ceremonial of that church, dedicated to\n    Celestin II. in 1143, published by Mabillon, (Museum Ital. t 2 p.\n    122;) also in Matthew of Westminster, Flores Hist. under Innocent\n    III. who died in 1216; and in a Bull of Nicholas IV. in 1290. It was\n    called Veronica, or true image of our Lord's face, from Vera and\n    Iconica, a word used by St. Gregory of Tours. (Vit. Patr. c, 12.)\n    for an image, from the Greek word Icon. Some moderns imagine that it\n    served at the burial of out Lord; others say, that a devout woman\n    wiped his face with it, when he was fainting under the load of his\n    cross, going to mount Calvary. In some particular missals, as in\n    that of Mentz in 1493, among the votive masses, is one \"de Sancta\n    Veronica sei vultu Domini,\" in the same manner as there is a mass,\n    \"On the cross.\" Such devotions are directed to honor our Lord, with\n    a remembrance of this relic, memorial, or pledge. From this office\n    of the Veronica is taken an Anthem and Prayer which are said in some\n    private churches, as a commemoration of the holy face of Lucca,\n    which is a very ancient and miraculous crucifix, in the chapel of\n    the Holy Cross, in the cathedral dedicated to St. Martin at Lucca. A\n    copy of the true Veronica is kept in the Cistercian nunnery at\n    Montreuil, a present of Urban IV. to this house, his sister being a\n    nun there. See his letter to them in Chiffleter, \"de Linteis\n    sepulchralibus Domini.\" This letter was dated in 1249, when the\n    author was archdeacon and chaplain to Innocent IV. Some private\n    writers and churches have given the name of St. Veronica to the\n    devout woman who is said to have presented this linen cloth to our\n    divine Redeemer; but without sufficient warrant. See Rapebroch Matt.\n    t. 7, p. 356, n. 126, and Chatelain. Notes on the Martyr, on Jan.\n    13, pp. 201, 222.\n2.  Phil. ii. 8.\n3.  T. 1, p. 889.\n4.  S. Hilar. in Ps. i. p. 20.\n5.  1 Cor. x. 31.\n\nST. KENTIGERN, BISHOP OF GLASCO, C.\n\nIN ANCIENT BRITISH, KYNDEYRN; SURNAMED MUNGHO, OR MUNGHU.\n\nTHIS eminent saint of the ancient church of North Britain, was of royal\nblood among the Picts, or original inhabitants of that country, and born\nabout the year 516. He was placed very young under the discipline of St.\nServanus, bishop and abbot of Culros, a monastery, situated upon the\nfrith which divides Lothian from Fife. By this holy prelate he was\ntrained up in the perfect spirit of Christian meekness and piety. For\nhis innocence and great virtues he was beloved by his master, and all\nwho were acquainted {138} with that religious family, above all his\nfellow-disciples, for which reason he was called Munghu, or Mungho,\nwhich in the language of that country signified \"one dearly beloved;\"\nand this is the name which the Scots usually give him to this day. When\nhe was grown up, by the direction of St. Servanus, he retired to a place\ncalled Glasghu, where he led a solitary life in great abstinence, till\nthe clergy and people earnestly demanded him for their bishop. He was\nconsecrated by an Irish bishop, invited over for that purpose, and fixed\nhis see at Glasghu, or Glasco, where he assembled a numerous company of\nreligious brethren, who formed their rule of life upon the model of the\nprimitive Christians at Jerusalem. The saint's diocese was of vast\nextent, reaching from sea to sea, and being wild and uncultivated,\nafforded continual exercise for his zeal and patience; he travelled\nalways on foot, sparing no pains to spread the light of the gospel among\nthe unbelievers, of whom he converted and baptized great numbers. The\nPelagian heresy having taken deep root among the Christians in those\nparts, he so vigorously opposed that fatal, growing evil, as entirely to\nbanish that hydra out of the church of the Picts. Besides the recital of\nthe whole Psalter, he performed every day several other exercises of\ndevotion; lived in a constant union of his soul with God, and by\nperpetual abstinence, rigorous fasts, and other extraordinary\nausterities, he made his whole life an uninterrupted course of penance.\nEvery Lent he retired from the sight and conversation of men, into some\ndesert, to hold a close communication with God in solitude. As both in\nhis virtues and labors he imitated the apostles, so God was pleased to\nauthorize his preaching, by conferring on him an apostolic grace of the\nmiraculous powers. Out of his monks and disciples, he sent many\nmissionaries to preach the faith in the north of Scotland, in the isles\nof Orkney, in Norway, and Iceland.\n\nThe form of government among the Straith-Cluid Britons and the\nCumbrians, the latter inhabiting the country from the Picts' wall, to\nthe Ribble in Lancashire, was in part aristocratical; for many petty\nlords or princes enjoyed so great authority in their respective\nterritories, as often to wage war among themselves: yet they all obeyed\none monarch, who usually resided at Alcluyd, or Dunbritton. Besides the\nfeuds and quarrels of particular chieftains and their clans, there\nhappened about that time several revolutions in the monarchy. We learn\nfrom the book entitled the Triades, that when St. Kentigern was made\nbishop of Glasco, Gurthmel Wledig was king of the North Britons, and\ncontemporary with Arthur. He was succeeded by Rydderch, surnamed Hael,\ni.e. _The Liberal_, who vanquished his enemies and rivals in war,\nespecially by the great victory of Arderyth, in 577.[1] He was a\nreligious and deserving prince, and his magnificence, generosity, and\nother virtues, are extolled by the ancient author of the Triades, by\nMerlin, Taliessin, the old laws of the Britons, and the authors of the\nlives of St. Kentigern and St. Asaph. This prince, however, was\nafterwards obliged by rebellious subjects, under Morcant Mawr, and\nAeddon, surnamed Uraydog, or _The Treacherous_, to fly into Ireland. The\nimpious Morcant (as he is styled in the fragment of St. Asaph's life,\nextant in Coch-Asaph) usurped the throne of the Straith-Cluid Britons;\nbut the Cumbrians, who dwelt on the south side of the wall, were\nprotected by Urien, lord of Rheged, a nobleman who had lived at the\ncourt of king Arthur, and whose great qualities are celebrated by the\npens of Lhowarch-Hen, (his cousin-german,) Taliessin, and the author of\nthe Triades. In the beginning of the usurpation of Morcant Mawr, St.\nKentigern was obliged to fly into Wales, where he stayed some time with\nSt. David, at Menevia, {139} till Cathwallain, (uncle to king Maelgun\nGwynedh,[2]) a religious prince of part of Denbighshire, bestowed on him\nthe land at the meeting of the rivers Elwy and Cluid, on which he built\na famous monastery and school, called from the river Elwy, Llan-Elwy, or\nabsolutely Elgwy, where a great number of disciples and scholars soon\nput themselves under his direction. St. Kentigern was here when St.\nDavid died, in 546, or rather in 544, when the first of March fell on a\nTuesday.[3] After the death of the usurper Morcant, Rydderch returned\nfrom Ireland, and recovered his crown, and St. Kentigern, leaving his\nschool to the care of St. Asaph, (whose name the town, which was raised\nat Elgwy, bears to this day,) went back to Glasco, taking with him\nseveral hundreds of his scholars; their number having probably been much\nincreased after the death of Daniel, bishop of Bangor, which happened\nbetween the years 542 and 545. The return of St. Kentigern to his see,\nis generally placed about the year 560, nor can it be placed later,\nsince in 565 he had a conference with St. Columbo, when that holy man\ncame over to Scotland, in order to convert the northern Picts, to whom\nSt. Kentigern had already sent missionaries.[4] Wharton therefore justly\nplaces the residence of St. Kentigern in Wales, from the year 543 to\n560.[5] King Rydderch powerfully seconded the zeal of our saint in all\nhis undertakings, being his constant friend and protector; as were the\ntwo princes who afterward succeeded him, Guallauc, (who seems to have\nbeen his son,) and Morcant Mwynfawn, (who was certainly his brother.)\nThe valor of Rydderch, and these two successors, which is highly\ncommended by an ancient author in Nennius, and other British historians,\nwas the bulwark of their dominions against the inroads of the Saxons.\nSt. Kentigern employed his zeal all this time, with wonderful success,\nin correcting abuses, reforming the manners of his flock, and\npropagating the faith; was favored with a wonderful gift of miracles,\nand died in 601, aged eighty-five years. His tomb, in his titular church\nat Glasco, was famous for miracles, and his name was always most\nillustrious in the Scottish calendars. See his ancient life, Leland de\nScriptor. Usher, Ant. c. 15. Hector Boetius, Leslie, &c.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  Vaughn's Dissert. on the British Chron. Carte. t. 1, p. 211.\n2.  See Notes on St. Gildas and St. David.\n3.  Usher, Ant. Brit. c. 14.\n4.  Vit. S. Kentigerni. Usher, Antiqu. c. 15, p. 358.\n5.  Wharton de Episcopis Asaphensibus, pp. 300, 302.\n\nThis is also the Octave of the Epiphany.[1] The principal object of the\ndevotion of the church on this day is the baptism of our Saviour by St.\nJohn in the Jordan. We learn from the great council of Oxford, in\n1222,[2] that it was then kept a holyday of the third class; on which\nall were obliged to hear mass, though they might work afterwards. In\nFrance and Germany all servile work was forbidden on it, by the\ncapitulars of Lewis le Debonnaire.[3] The emperor Theodosius II. forbids\nall civil courts and transactions during eight days before the festival\nof the Epiphany, and as many after it.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  The church prolongs more solemn festivals during eight days, with a\n    daily continuation of the sacred office proper to each such\n    festival. This term is called its octave, and the eighth day is\n    called the octave-day.\n2.  Can. 8.\n3.  L. 2, de feriis.\n\n{140}\n\n\nJANUARY XIV.\n\nST. HILARY, BISHOP.\n\nFrom his own writings, and the histories of that age, which furnish the\nmost authentic memoirs of his life. See what Dom Coutant, the Benedictin\nmonk, has recorded of him in his excellent edition of his works; as also\nTillemont, t. 7, Ceillier, t. 5, and Rivet, Hiss. Lit. t. 1, part 2, p.\n139. The two books, the one of his life, the other of his miracles, by\nFortunatus of Poictiers, 600, are inaccurate. Both the Fortunatases were\nfrom Italy; and probably one was the author of the first, and the other\nof the second book.\n\nA.D. 368.\n\nST. AUSTIN, who often urges the authority of St. Hilary against the\nPelagians, styles him _the illustrious doctor of the churches_.[1] St.\nJerom says[2] that he was a _most eloquent man, and the trumpet of the\nLatins against the Arians_; and in another place, that in _St. Cyprian_\nand _St. Hilary_, God had transplanted two _fair cedars_ out of the\nworld into his church.[3]\n\nSt. Hilary was born at Poictiers, and his family one of the most\nillustrious in Gaul.[4] He spent his youth in the study of eloquence. He\nhimself testifies that he was brought up in idolatry, and gives us a\nparticular account of the steps by which God conducted him to the\nknowledge of his saving faith.[5] He considered by the glimmering or\nfaint light of reason, that man, who is created a moral and free agent,\nis placed in this world for the exercise of patience, temperance, and\nother virtues, which he saw must receive from God a recompense after\nthis life. He ardently set about learning what God is; and after some\nresearches into the nature of the Supreme Being, quickly discovered the\nabsurdity of polytheism, or a plurality of gods; and was convinced that\nthere can be only one God, and that the same is eternal, unchangeable,\nall-powerful, the first cause and author of all things. Full of these\nreflections, he met with the holy scriptures, and was wonderfully\naffected with that just and sublime description Moses gives of God in\nthose words, so expressive of his self-existence,[6] I AM WHO AM: and\nwas no less struck with the idea of his immensity and supreme dominion,\nillustrated by the most lively images in the inspired language of the\nprophets. The reading of the New Testament put an end to, and completed\nhis inquiries; and he learned from the first chapter of St. John, that\nthe Divine Word, God the Son, is coeternal and consubstantial with the\nFather. Here he checked his natural curiosity, avoided subtilties, and\nsubmitted his understanding to divine revelation, resolving what seemed\nincomprehensible into the veracity and power of God; and not presuming\nto measure divine mysteries by his shallow capacity. Being thus brought\nto the knowledge of faith, he received the heavenly regeneration by\nbaptism. From that time forth he so squared his whole life by the rules\nof piety, and so zealous were his endeavors to confirm others in the\nfaith of the holy Trinity, and to encourage all to virtue, that he\nseemed, though a layman, already to possess the grace of the priesthood.\n\nHe was married before his conversion to the faith; and his wife, by whom\nhe had a daughter named Apra, or Abram, was yet living, when he was\nchosen bishop of Poictiers, about the year 353; but from the time of\n{141} his ordination he lived in perpetual continency.[7] He omitted no\nendeavors to escape this promotion: but his humility only made the\npeople the more earnest to see him vested with that dignity; and indeed\ntheir expectations were not frustrated in him, for his eminent virtue\nand capacity shone forth with such a lustre, as soon drew upon him the\nattention, not only of all Gaul, but of the whole church. Soon after he\nwas raised to the episcopal dignity, he composed, before his exile,\nelegant comments on the gospel of Saint Matthew, which are still extant.\nThose on the Psalms he compiled after his banishment.[8] Of these\ncomments on the Psalms, and on St. Matthew, we are chiefly to understand\nSt. Jerom, when he recommends, in a particular manner, the reading of\nthe works of St. Hilary to virgins and devout persons.[9] From that time\nthe Arian controversy chiefly employed his pen. He was an excellent\norator and poet. His style is lofty and noble, beautified with\nrhetorical ornaments and figures, but somewhat studied; and the length\nof his periods renders him sometimes obscure to the unlearned,[10] as\nSt. Jerom takes notice.[11] It is observed by Dr. Cave, that all his\nwritings breathe an extraordinary vein of piety. Saint Hilary solemnly\nappeals to God,[12] that he held it as the great work of his life, to\nemploy all his faculties to announce God to the world, and to excite all\nmen to the love of him. He earnestly recommends the practice of\nbeginning every action and discourse by prayer,[13] and some act of\ndivine praise;[14] as also to meditate on {142} the law of God day and\nnight, to pray without ceasing, by performing all our actions with a\nview to God their ultimate end, and to his glory.[15] He breathes a\nsincere and ardent desire of martyrdom, and discovers a soul {143}\nfearless of death and torments. He had the greatest veneration for\ntruth, sparing no pains in its pursuit, and dreading no dangers in its\ndefence. The emperor Constantius, having labored for several years to\ncompel the eastern churches to embrace Arianism, came into the West: and\nafter the overthrow of the tyrant Magnentius, made some stay at Arles,\nwhile his Arian bishops held a council there, in which they engaged\nSaturninus, the impious bishop of that city, in their party, in 353. A\nbolder Arian council at Milan, in 355, held during the residence of the\nemperor in that city, required all to sign the condemnation of St.\nAthanasius. Such as refused to comply were banished; among whom were St.\nEusebius of Vercelli, Lucifer of Cagliari, and St. Dionysius of Milan,\ninto whose see Auxentius, the Arian, was intruded. St. Hilary wrote on\nthat occasion his first book to Constantius, in which he mildly\nentreated him to restore peace to the church. He separated himself from\nthe three Arian bishops in the West, Ursacius, Valens, and Saturninus,\nand exhibited an accusation against the last in a synod at Beziers. But\nthe emperor, who had information of the matter from Saturninus, sent an\norder to Julian, then Caesar, and surnamed afterwards the Apostate, who\nat that time commanded in Gaul, for St. Hilary's immediate banishment\ninto Phrygia, together with St. Rhodanius, bishop of Toulouse. The\nbishops in Gaul being almost all orthodox, remained in communion with\nSt. Hilary, and would not suffer the intrusion of any one into his see,\nwhich in his absence he continued to govern by his priests. The saint\nwent into banishment about the middle of the year 356, with as great\nalacrity as another would take a journey of pleasure, and never\nentertained the least disquieting thought of hardships, dangers, or\nenemies, having a soul above both the smiles and frowns of the world,\nand fixed only on God. He remained in exile somewhat upwards of three\nyears, which time he employed in composing several learned works. The\nprincipal and most esteemed of these is that _On the Trinity, against\nthe Arians_, in twelve {144} books. In them he proves the\nconsubstantiality of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. He teaches that\nthe church is one, out of which all heresies spring; not that by this\nshe is distinguished, as standing always one, always alone against them\nall, and confounding them all: whereas they by perpetual divisions tear\neach other in pieces, and so become the subject of her triumph.[16] He\nproves that Arianism cannot be the faith of Christ, because not revealed\nto St. Peter, upon whom the church was built and secured forever; for\nwhose faith Christ prayed, that it might never fail; who received the\nkeys of the kingdom of heaven, and whose judiciary sentence on earth is\nthat of heaven:[17] all which arguments he frequently urges.[18] He\nproves the divinity of Christ by the miracles wrought at the sepulchres\nof the apostles and martyrs, and by their relics: for the devils\nthemselves confess Christ's godhead, and roar and flee at the presence\nof the venerable bones of his servants,[19] which he also mentions and\nurges in his invective against Constantius.[20] In 358, he wrote his\nbook _On Synods_, or _On the Faith of the Orientals_, to explain the\nterms and variation of the eastern Arians in their synods.\n\nIn his exile he was informed that his daughter Apra, whom he had left in\nGaul, had thoughts of embracing the married state; upon which he\nimplored Christ, with many tears, to bestow on her the precious jewel of\nvirginity. He sent her a letter that is still extant, in which he\nacquaints her, that if she contemned all earthly things, spouse,\nsumptuous garments, and riches, Christ had prepared for her, and had\nshown unto him, at his prayers and tears, an inestimable never-falling\ndiamond, infinitely more precious than she was able to frame to herself\nan idea of. He conjures her by the God of heaven, and entreats her not\nto make void his anxiety for her, nor to deprive herself of so\nincomparable a good. Fortunatus assures us that the original letter was\nkept with veneration in the church of Poictiers, in the sixth century,\nwhen he wrote, and that Apra followed his advice, and died happily at\nhis feet after his return.[21] St. Hilary sent to her with this letter\ntwo hymns, composed by himself; one for the evening, which does not seem\nto have reached our times; the other for the morning, which is the hymn\n_Lucis largitor splendide_.\n\nThe emperor, by an unjust usurpation in the affairs of the Church,\nassembled a council of Arians at Seleucia, in Isauria, to undermine the\ngreat council of Nice. St. Hilary, who had then passed four years in\nbanishment, in Phrygia, was invited thither by the Semi-Arians, who\nhoped from his lenity that he would be useful to their party in crushing\nthe staunch Arians, that is, those who adhered strictly to the doctrine\nof Arius. But no human considerations could daunt his courage. He boldly\ndefended the decrees of Nice, till at last, tired out with hearing the\nblasphemies of the heretics, he withdrew to Constantinople. The weak\nemperor was the dupe sometimes of the Arians, and at other times of the\nSemi-Arians. These last prevailed at Seleucia, in September, 359, as the\nformer did in a council held at Constantinople in the following year,\n360, where having the advantage, they procured the banishment of the\nSemi-Arians, less wicked than themselves. St. Hilary, who had withdrawn\nfrom Seleucia to Constantinople, presented to the emperor a request,\ncalled his second book to Constantius, begging the liberty of holding a\npublic disputation about religion with {145} Saturninus, the author of\nhis banishment. He presses him to receive the unchangeable apostolic\nfaith, injured by the late innovations, and smartly rallies the fickle\nhumor of the heretics, who were perpetually making new creeds, and\ncondemning their old ones, having made four within the compass of the\nforegoing year; so that faith was become that of the times, not that of\nthe gospels, and that there were as many faiths as men, as great a\nvariety of doctrine as of manners, as many blasphemies as vices.[22] He\ncomplains that they had their yearly and monthly faiths; that they made\ncreeds to condemn and repent of them; and that they formed new ones to\nanathematize those that adhered to their old ones. He adds, that every\none had scripture texts, and the words _Apostolic Faith_, in their\nmouths, for no other end than to impose on weak minds: for by attempting\nto change faith, which is unchangeable, faith is lost; they correct and\namend, till weary of all, they condemn all. He therefore exhorts them to\nreturn to the haven from which the gusts of their party spirit and\nprejudice had driven them, as the only means to be delivered out of\ntheir tempestuous and perilous confusion. The issue of this challenge\nwas, that the Arians, dreading such a trial, persuaded the emperor to\nrid the East of a man that never ceased to disturb its peace, by sending\nhim back into Gaul; which he did, but without reversing the sentence of\nhis banishment, in 360.\n\nSt. Hilary returned through Illyricum and Italy to confirm the weak. He\nwas received at Poictiers with the greatest demonstrations of joy and\ntriumph, where his old disciple, St. Martin, rejoined him, to pursue the\nexercises of piety under his direction. A synod in Gaul, convoked at the\ninstance of St. Hilary, condemned that of Rimini, which, in 359, had\nomitted the word _Consubstantial_. Saturninus, proving obstinate, was\nexcommunicated and deposed for his heresy and other crimes. Scandals\nwere removed, discipline, peace, and purity of faith were restored, and\npiety flourished. The death of Constantius put an end to the Arian\npersecution. St. Hilary was the mildest of men, full of condescension\nand affability to all: yet seeing this behavior ineffectual, he composed\nan invective against Constantius, in which he employed severity, and the\nharshest terms; and for which undoubtedly he had reasons that are\nunknown to us. This piece did not appear abroad till after the death of\nthat emperor. Our saint undertook a journey to Milan, in 364, against\nAuxentius, the Arian usurper of that see, and in a public disputation\nobliged him to confess Christ to be true God, of the same substance and\ndivinity with the Father. St. Hilary indeed saw through his hypocrisy;\nbut this dissembling heretic imposed so far on the emperor Valentinian,\nas to pass for orthodox. Our saint died at Poictiers, in the year 368,\non the thirteenth of January, or on the first of November, for his name\noccurs in very ancient Martyrologies on both these days. In the Roman\nbreviary his office is celebrated on the fourteenth of January. The one\nis probably that of some translation of his relics. The first was made\nat Poictiers in the reign of Clovis I., on which see Cointe.[23] From\nSt. Gregory of Tours, it appears that before his time some part of St.\nHilary's relics was honored in a church in Limousin.[24] Alcuin mentions\nthe veneration of the same at Poictiers;[25] and it is related that his\nrelics were burned by the Huguenots at Poictiers.[26] But this we must\nunderstand of some small portion, or of the dust remaining in his tomb.\nFor his remains were translated from Poictiers to the abbey of St.\nDenys, near Paris, as is proved by the tradition of that abbey, a writer\nof the abbey of Richenow, in {146} the ninth century,[27] and other\nmonuments.[28] Many miracles performed by St. Hilary are related by\nVenantius Fortunatus, bishop of Poictiers, and are the subject of a\nwhole book added to his life, which seems to have been written by\nanother Fortunatus. St. Gregory of Tours, Flodoard, and others, have\nmentioned several wrought at his tomb. Dom Coutant, the most judicious\nand learned Maurist monk, has given an accurate edition of his works, in\none volume in folio, at Paris, in 1693, which was reprinted at Verona by\nthe Marquis Scipio Maffei, in 1730, together with additional comments on\nseveral Psalms.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nSt. Hilary observes, that singleness of heart is the most necessary\ncondition of faith and true virtue, \"For Christ teaches that only those\nwho become again as it were little children, and by the simplicity of\nthat age cut off the inordinate affections of vice, can enter the\nkingdom of heaven. These follow and obey their father, love their\nmother; are strangers to covetousness, ill-will, hatred, arrogance, and\nlying, and are inclined easily to believe what they hear. This\ndisposition of affections opens the way to heaven. We must therefore\nreturn to the simplicity of little children, in which we shall bear some\nresemblance to our Lord's humility.\"[29] This, in the language of the\nHoly Ghost, is called the foolishness of the cross of Christ,[30] in\nwhich consists true wisdom. That prudence of the flesh and worldly\nwisdom, which is the mother of self-sufficiency, pride, avarice, and\nvicious curiosity, the source of infidelity, and the declared enemy of\nthe spirit of Christ, is banished by this holy simplicity; and in its\nstead are obtained true wisdom, which can only be found in a heart freed\nfrom the clouds of the passions, perfect prudence, which, as St. Thomas\nshows, is the fruit of the assemblage of all virtues, and a divine light\nwhich grace fails not to infuse. This simplicity, which is the mother of\nChristian discretion, is a stranger to all artifice, design, and\ndissimulation, to all views or desires of self-interest, and to all\nundue respect or consideration of creatures. All its desires and views\nare reduced to this alone, of attaining to the perfect union with God.\nUnfeignedly to desire this one thing, to belong to God alone, to arrive\nat his pure love, and to do his will in all things, is that simplicity\nor singleness of heart of which we speak, and which banishes all\ninordinate affections of the heart, from which arise the most dangerous\nerrors of the understanding. This is the essential disposition of every\none who sincerely desires to live by the spirit of Christ. That divine\nspouse of souls, loves to communicate himself to such.[31] His\nconversation (or as another version has it, his secret) is with the\nsimple.[32] His delight is in those who walk with simplicity.[33] This\nis the characteristic of all the saints:[34] whence the Holy Ghost cries\nout, Approach him not with a double heart.[35] That worldly wisdom is\nnot subject to the law of God, neither can it be.[36] Its intoxication\nblinds men, and shuts their eyes to the light of divine revelation. They\narrogate to themselves the exclusive privilege of learning and clear\nunderstanding: but the skepticism, the pitiful inconsistencies, and\nmonstrous extravagances, which characterize their writings and\ndiscourses, make us blush to see so strong an alliance of ignorance and\npresumption; and lament that the human mind should be capable of falling\ninto a state of so deplorable degeneracy. Among the fathers of the\nchurch we admire men the most learned of their age, the most penetrating\nand most judicious, and at the same time {147} the most holy and\nsincere; who, being endowed with true simplicity of heart, discovered in\nthe mysteries of the cross the secrets of infinite wisdom, which they\nmade their study, and the rule of their actions.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  L. 2, adv. Julian, c. 8.\n2.  L. 2, adv. Rufin. p. 415.\n3.  In Isa. c. 60.\n4.  S. Hieron. in Catal.\n5.  L. 1, de Trin. p. 1-10.\n6.  Exod. iii. 14.\n7.  The contrary is certainly a mistake in Dr. Cave; for St. Jerom,\n    writing against Jovinian, says, in {} p. 175, that though the church\n    was sometimes obliged to make choice of married men for the\n    priesthood, because virgins, or unmarried, could not always be\n    found, they notwithstanding lived ever after continent. _Certe\n    confiteris, non posse esse episcopum qui in episcopatu filios\n    faciat: alioqui si deprehensus fuerit non quasi vir tenebitur, sed\n    quasi adulter condemnabitur, ib_. And in his book against\n    Vigilantius, p. 28, he observes, that in the churches of the East,\n    in Egypt, and in the apostolic see of Rome, those only were made\n    clergymen, who were virgins, or single; or if they were married,\n    they ceased to live as husbands. _Aut virgines clericos accipiunt,\n    aut contintes; aut si uxores habuerint, mariti esse desinunt_, p.\n    281.\n8.  S. Hilar. in Ps. 53, n. 8, in Ps. 67, p. 15, and Contant, Armon. in\n    S. Hilar. in Psalmos, p. 165.\n9.  Ep. ad Laetam.\n10. On the interpretation of certain obscure passages of the works of\n    St. Hilary, see Dom Coutant, in an excellent preface to his edition\n    of this father's works; also Witasse de Incarn. t. 2, &c.\n11. Ep. 49, ad Paulinum, t. 4, p. 567.\n12. Lib. 1, de Trinit.\n13. Doubtless his love of prayer, and the assiduous application of his\n    mind to that holy exercise, moved him to make the Psalms a main\n    object of his sacred studies and meditation. His comments are\n    elegant; though in them he dwells much on the literal sense, he\n    neglects not the mystical and allegorical, every thing in these\n    divine oracles being prophetic, as he takes notice, (in Ps. 142, n.\n    1.) Often he finds the immediate literal sense clear; in other\n    passages, he shows Christ and his Church to be pointed out. The true\n    sense of the holy scriptures he teaches, only to be opened to us by\n    the spirit of assiduous prayer, (in Ps. 125, n. 2, &c.) The fatal\n    and opposite errors, which the overweening spirit and study of a\n    false criticism have produced in every age, justify this general\n    remark of the fathers, that though the succor of reasonable\n    criticism ought by no means to be neglected, a spirit of prayer is\n    the only key which can open to us the sacred treasures of the divine\n    truths, by the light which it obtains of the Holy Ghost, and the\n    spirit of simplicity, piety, and humility, which it infuses. In this\n    disposition, the holy doctors of the Church discovered in the divine\n    oracles that spirit of perfect virtue, which they imbibed and\n    improved from their assiduous meditation. St. Hilary remarks, that\n    the first lesson we are to study in them is, that of humility, in\n    which \"Christ has taught, that all the titles and prizes of our\n    faith are comprised:\" In humilitate docuit omnia fidei nomina et\n    praemia contineri, (in Ps. 118, l. 20, n. 1, p. 358.) Whence the\n    royal prophet entreats God, to consider nothing in him but his\n    lowliness of heart, (v. 153, ibid.) This holy father sticks not to\n    say, humility is the greatest work of our faith, our best sacrifice\n    to God, (in Ps. 1311, n. 1. p. 442;) but true humility is\n    accompanied with an invincible courage, and a firmness and constancy\n    in virtue, which no fear of worldly powers is ever able to shake,\n    (in Ps. xiv. p. 66.) St. Hilary laments, that even several pastors\n    of the church thought it a part of piety to flatter princes. But\n    true religion teaches us (Matt. x. 28) only to fear things which are\n    justly to be feared, that is, to fear God, to fear sin, or what can\n    hurt our souls: for what threatens only our bodies, this is to be\n    despised, when the interest of God and our souls is concerned. We\n    indeed study out of charity to give offence to no one, (1 Cor. x.\n    32, 33;) but desire only to please men for God, not by contemning\n    him, (in Ps. 52, p. 89, 90.) Prayer is the great Christian duty,\n    which this holy doctor was particularly solicitous to inculcate,\n    teaching that it consists in the cry of the heart; not in the lips,\n    as David cried to God in his whole heart, Ps. cxviii. v. 145, (in\n    Ps. cxviii. l. 19, p. 352.) We are to pour forth our souls before\n    God, with earnestness, and with abundance of tears, (in Ps. 41, apud\n    Marten. t. 9, p. 71.) Amidst the dangers and evils of this life, our\n    only comfort ought to be in God, in the assured hope of his\n    promises, and in prayer. (Ib.) That prayer is despised by God, which\n    is slothful and lukewarm, accompanied with distrust, distracted with\n    unprofitable thoughts, weakened by worldly anxiety and desires of\n    earthly goods, or fruitless, for want of the support of good works,\n    (in Ps. liv. p. 104.) All our actions and discourses ought to be\n    begin by prayer, and the divine praise, (in Ps. lxiv. p. 162.) The\n    day among Christians is always begun by prayer, and ended by hymns\n    to God, (ib. n. 12, p. 169.) By this public homage of the church,\n    and of every faithful soul in it, God is particularly honored, and\n    he delights in it. (St. Jerom. in eund. Ps.) St. Hilary takes\n    notice, that the night is of all others the most proper time for\n    prayer; as the example of Christ, David, and other saints,\n    demonstrates, (in Ps. cxviii. l. 8, p. 292.) He observes, that it\n    cannot be doubted, but among all the acts of prayer, that of the\n    divine praise is in general the most noble and most excellent: and\n    that it is for his infinite goodness and mercy, in the first place,\n    that we are bound to praise him, (in Ps. cxxxiv p. 469.) Next to\n    this, he places the duty of thanksgiving. (Ib.) To be silent in the\n    divine praises, he calls the greatest of all punishments; and takes\n    notice, that every one makes what he loves the chiefest object of\n    his joy: as we see in the drunkard, the covetous, or the ambitious\n    man: thus the prophet makes the heavenly Jerusalem the beginning of\n    his joy; always bearing in mind, that this is his eternal country,\n    in which he will be associated with the troops of angels, be\n    received into the kingdom of God, and put in possession of its\n    glory; he therefore finds all other things insipid, and knows no\n    other comfort or joy but in this hope, bearing always in mind, that\n    the glorious inhabitants of that kingdom never cease singing the\n    divine praises, saying, Holy, holy, holy, &c. (in Ps. cxxxvi. n. 11,\n    p. 494.) In another place he tells us, that the prophet bears not\n    the delays of his body, (moras corporis sui non patitur,) sighing\n    with the apostle to be dissolved and clothed with immortality: but\n    earnestly praying, that he may find mercy, and be delivered from\n    falling into the lake of torments, (in Ps. cxlii. n. 8, 9, p. 549.)\n    During this exile to meditate on eternity, and on the divine law and\n    judgments, ought to be our assiduous occupation, (in Ps. cxlii. n.\n    6, p. 548,) especially in time of tribulations and temptations, (in\n    Ps. cxviii. l. 12, n. 10, p. 313.) The world is to be shunned, at\n    least in spirit; first, because it is filled on every side with\n    snares and dangers, secondly, that our souls may more freely soar\n    above it, always thinking on God; hence, he says, our souls must be,\n    as it were, spiritual birds of heaven, always raised high on the\n    wing; and he cries out, \"Thou art instructed in heavenly science:\n    what hast thou to do with anxious worldly cares? Thou hast renounced\n    the world; what hast thou to do with its superfluous concerns? Why\n    dost thou complain if thou art taken in a snare, by wandering in a\n    strange land, who oughtest to restrain thy affections from straying\n    from home? Say rather, Who will give me wings as of a dove, and I\n    will fly, and will be at rest?\" Ps. liv. 7, (in Ps. cxviii. l. 14,\n    p. 328.) To build a house for God, that is, to prepare a dwelling\n    for him in our souls, we must begin by banishing sin, and all\n    earthly affections, (in Ps. xxxi. p. 73;) for Christ, who is wisdom,\n    sanctity, and truth, cannot establish his reign in the breast of a\n    fool, hypocrite, or sinner, (in Ps. xli. p. 60, ap. Marten. t. 9.)\n    It is easy for God, by penance, to repair his work, howsoever it may\n    have been defaced by vice, as a potter can restore or improve the\n    form of a vessel, while the clay is yet moist, (in Ps. ii. p. 47:)\n    but he often inculcates that repentance, or the confession of sin,\n    is a solemn profession of sinning no more, (in Ps. cxxxvii. p. 498,\n    in Ps. li. and cxviii. p. 263, &c.) Every thing that is inordinate\n    in the affections must be cut off. \"The prophet gave himself entire\n    to God, according to the tenor of his consecration of himself.\n    Whatever lives in him, lives to God. His whole heart, his whole soul\n    is fixed on God alone, and occupied in him, and he never loses sight\n    of him. In all his works and thoughts God is before his eyes.\" Totum\n    quod vivit, Deo vivit. (Ps. cxviii. l. 14, n. 16, p. 327.) Upon\n    these words, _I am thy servant_, Ps. cxviii. v. 125, he observes,\n    that every Christian frequently repeats this, but most deny by their\n    actions what they profess in words, \"It is the privilege of the\n    prophet to call himself the servant of God in every affection of his\n    heart, in every circumstance and action of his life,\" &c. (in Ps.\n    cxviii. l. 17, p. 339.) He teaches that the angels, patriarchs, and\n    prophets are as it were mountains protecting the church, (in Ps.\n    cxxiv. n. 6, p. 404;) and that holy angels attend and succor the\n    faithful, (in Ps. cxxxvii. p. 499;) assist them in time of combat\n    against the devils, (in Ps. lxv. p. 178, and in Ps. cxxxiv. p. 475;)\n    carry up their prayers to their heavenly Father with an eager zeal;\n    and looking upon this ministry as an honor, (in Matt. c. 18, p.\n    699.) That the church of Christ is one, out of which, as out of the\n    ark of Noah, no one man be saved, (in Ps. cxlvi., xiv., lxiv.,\n    cxxviii., and cxvvii. in Matt. c. 4, and 7 De Trinit. l. 7, p. 917.)\n    He mentions fast days of precept, the violation of which renders a\n    Christian a slave of the devil, a vessel of death, and fuel of hell,\n    (in Ps. cxviii. l. 18, p. 349.) This crime he joins with pride and\n    fornication, as sins at the sight of which every good Christian\n    ought to pine away with grief and zeal, according to the words of\n    Ps. cxviii. v. 139. Saint Hilary seems to have explained the whole\n    Psalter, though only part is recovered by the editors of his works.\n    To the comments published by Dom Coutant at Paris, in 1693, the\n    marquis Scipio Maffei added some others on several other Psalms, in\n    his edition at Verona, in 1730. Dom Martenne, in 1733, published\n    others on certain other Psalms, which he had discovered in a\n    manuscript at Anchin, in his Amplissima Monumentorum Collectio, t.\n    9, p. 55. These comments on the Psalms, St. Hilary compiled after\n    his exile, as appears from certain allusions to his books on the\n    Trinity, and from his frequent reflections against the Arians.\n    Nothing of this is found in his commentary on St. Matthew, which Dom\n    Coutant shows to have been the first of his works in the order of\n    time, composed soon after he was raised to the episcopal dignity. He\n    here and there borrows short passages from Origen, but sticks closer\n    to the literal sense, though he sometimes has recourse to the\n    allegorical, for the sake of some moral instruction. St. Hilary is\n    one of the first who published any Latin comments in the holy\n    scriptures. Rheticius, bishop of Autun, and St. Victorinus of\n    Passaw, though the latter wrote in Greek, had opened the way in the\n    West in the beginning of the same century. St. Hilary, in this\n    commentary on St. Matthew, excellently inculcates in few words the\n    maxims of Christian virtue, especially fraternal charity and\n    meekness, by which our souls pass to divine charity and peace, (in\n    Matt. c. 4, v. 18, 19, p. 626:) and the conditions of fasting and\n    prayer, though for the exposition of our Lord's prayer, he refers to\n    that of St. Cyprian; adding that Tertullian has left us also a very\n    suitable work upon it; but that his subsequent error has weakened\n    the authority of his former writings which may deserve approbation,\n    (in c. 5, p. 630.) The road to heaven he shows to be exceeding\n    narrow, because even among Christians very few sincerely despise the\n    world, and labor strenuously to subdue their flesh and all their\n    passions, and to shun all the incentives of vice, (in c. 6, p. 368.)\n    St. Peter he calls the Prince of the College of the Apostles, and\n    the Porter of Heaven, and extols the authority of the keys conferred\n    upon him, (in Matt. c. 7, p. 642, in c. 16, p. 690. Also 1. 6. de\n    Trin. p. 891, 903, 9114.) He proves that Christ, in his bloody\n    sweat, grieved more for the danger of his disciples and other\n    causes, than for his own death; because he had in his last supper\n    already consecrated his blood to be poured forth for the remission\n    of sin. Numquid pati ipse nolebat. Atquin superius fundendum in\n    remissionem peccatorum corporis sui sanguinem consecraverat, (S.\n    Hilar. in Matt. c. 31, p. 743.) His twelve books on the Trinity he\n    compiled during his banishment in Phrygia, between the years 356 and\n    359, as is clear from his own express testimony, and that of St.\n    Jerom. In the first book of this immortal monument of his admirable\n    genius and piety, he beautifully shows that man's felicity is only\n    to be found in God; and that the light of reason suffices to\n    demonstrate this, which he illustrates by an account of his own\n    conversion to the faith. After this he takes notice, that we can\n    learn only by God's revelation, his nature, or what he is, he being\n    the competent witness of himself, who it known only by himself, (n.\n    18, p. 777.) In the second book he explains the Trinity, which we\n    profess in the form of baptism, and says, that faith alone in\n    believing, and sincerity and devotion in adoring, this mystery ought\n    to suffice without disputing or prying, and laments, that by the\n    blasphemies of the Sabellians and Arians, who perverted the true\n    sense of the scriptures, he was compelled to dispute of things\n    ineffable and incomprehensible which only necessity can excuse, (n.\n    25.) He then proves the eternal generation of the Son, the\n    procession of the Holy Ghost, and their consubstantiality in one\n    nature, (l. 2 and 3.) He checks their presumption in pretending to\n    fathom the Trinity, by showing that they cannot understand many\n    miracles of Christ or corporeal things, which yet they confess to be\n    most certain, (l. 3, n. 19, 20, 24.) He detects and confutes the\n    subtilties of the Arians, in their various confessions of faith, (l.\n    4, 5, 6,) also of the Sabellians and Photinians, (l. 7;) and\n    demonstrates the divinity of Christ, from the confession of St.\n    Peter, &c., (l. 6,) and of the very Jews, who were more sincere than\n    the Arians, acknowledging that Christ called himself the natural Son\n    of God. (John x. 31, &c. l. 7, n. 2, 3, p. 931.) The natural unity\n    of the Father and Son, he demonstrates from that text, \"I and my\n    Father are one,\" and others, (l. 8,) and observes that both from the\n    testimony of Christ in the holy scriptures, and from the faith of\n    the church, we believe without doubting the Eucharist to be the true\n    body and blood of Christ, (l. 8, n. 14, p. 955, 956.) He answers\n    several objections from scripture, (l. 9,) and shows there was\n    something in Christ (viz. the divine person, &c.) which did not\n    suffer in his passion, (l. 10.) Other objections he confutes, (l.\n    11,) and in his last book defends the eternity of the Son of God.\n    Between August in 358, and May in 359, St. Hilary, after he had been\n    three years in banishment, and was still in Asia, published his book\n    On Synods, to inform the Catholics in Gaul, Britain, and Germany,\n    what judgment they ought to form of several synods, held lately in\n    the East, chiefly by the Arians and Semi-Arians: a work of great use\n    in the history of those times, and in which St. Hilary's prudence,\n    humility, modesty, greatness of soul, constancy, invincible\n    meekness, and love of peace, shine forth. In this work he mollifies\n    certain expressions of the Semi-Arians in their councils, because\n    writing before the council of Rimini, he endeavored to gain them by\n    this method, whereas he at other times severely condemned the same;\n    as did also St. Athanasius, in his book on the same subject, and\n    under the same title, which he composed after the council of Rimini;\n    and expressly to show the variations of those heretics. (See\n    Coutant, vit. S. Hilar. p. c. ci. et praef. in S. Hilar. de Synodis,\n    p. 1147.) Fifteen fragments of St. Hilary's history of the councils\n    of Rimini and Seleucia furnish important materials for the history\n    of Arianism, particularly of the council of Rimini. In his first\n    book to the emperor Constantius, which he wrote in 355 or 356, he\n    conjures that prince with tears to restore peace to the church, and\n    leave the decision of ecclesiastical causes to its pastors. The\n    excellent request which he presented to Constantius at\n    Constantinople, in 360, is called his second book to that prince.\n    The third book ought to be styled, with Coutant, Against\n    Constantius: for in it St. Hilary directs it to the Catholics, (n. 2\n    and 12) though he often uses an apostrophe to Constantius. The saint\n    wrote it five years after the council of Milan, in 355, as he\n    testifies; consequently in 360, after that prince had rejected his\n    second request; but it was only published after the death of that\n    emperor, in the following year, as is clear from St. Jerom: He says\n    Constantius, by artifices and flattery, was a more dangerous\n    persecutor than Nero and Decius: he tells him, \"Thou receivest the\n    priests with a kiss, as Christ was betrayed by one: thou bowest thy\n    head to receive their blessing, that thou mayest trample on their\n    faith: thou entertainest them at thy table, as Judas went from table\n    to betray his master.\" Fleury (l. 14, n. 26) bids us observe, in\n    these words, with what respect emperors then treated bishops. St.\n    Hilary in his elegant book against Auxentius, gives the catholics an\n    account of his conferences with that heretic at Milan in 364.\n14. In Ps. 64.\n15. In Ps. 1, p. 19, 20.\n16. Lib. 7, de Trinit. n. 4, p. 917.\n17. Lib. 6, n. 37, 38, p. 904.\n18. In Ps. 131, n. 4, p. 447, in cap. 16, Matt. n. 7, p. 690.\n19. Lib. 11, de Trinit. n. 3.\n20. Lib. 3, adv. Constant. n. 8, p. 1243, Ed. Ben.\n21. This letter is commended by the most judicious critics, Baronius,\n    Tillemont, Fleury, and Coutant, a monk of the congregation of St.\n    Maur, in his edition of the works of St. Hilary, and others. The\n    style is not pompous, but adapted to the capacity of a girl of\n    thirteen years of age.\n22. Facta est fides temporum, potius quam evangellorum, l. 2, ad Const.\n    p. 1227. Tot nunc fides existere, quot voluntates, ib. Annuas atque\n    menstruas de Deo fides decernimus, decretis poenitimusm poenitentes\n    defendimus, defensos anathematizamus. ib. p. 1228.\n23. Cointe Annal. Fr. ad ann. 538, n. 41, 42, 43.\n24. L. de Gl. Conf. c. 2.\n25. Alcuin, Hom. de S. Willibrodo.\n26. Baillet, Vie de S. Hilaire.\n27. Ap. Mab. anal. t. 4, p. 644.\n28. Aimion. l. 4, c. 17 & 33. Coutant, Vit. S. Hilar. p. cxxiv, cxxv,\n    cxxix.\n29. S. Hilar. in Matt. c. 18, v. i. p. 698.\n30. 1 Cor. i. 17, & iii. 18. S. Hilar. l. 3, de Trin. n. 24, 25, pp.\n    822, 823.\n31. 1 Par. xxix. 17.\n32. Prov. iii. 32.\n33. Prov. xi. 20.\n34. 2 Cor. i. 12.\n35. Eccles. i. 39.\n36. Rom. viii. 7.\n\n\nST. FELIX OF NOLA, P. AND C.\n\nIT is observed by the judicious Tillemont, with regard to the life of\nthis saint, that we might doubt of its wonderful circumstances, were\nthey not supported by the authority of a Paulinus; but that great\nmiracles ought to be received with the greater veneration, when\nauthorized by incontestable vouchers.\n\nSt. Felix was a native of Nola, a Roman colony in Campania, fourteen\nmiles from Naples, where his father Hermias, who was by birth a Syrian,\nand had served in the army, had purchased an estate and settled himself.\nHe had two sons, Felix and Hermias, to whom at his death he left his\npatrimony. The younger sought preferment in the world among the lovers\nof vanity, by following the profession of arms, which at that time was\nthe surest road to riches and honors. Felix, to become in effect what\nhis name in Latin imported, that is, _happy_, resolved to follow no\nother standard than that of the king of kings, Jesus Christ. For this\npurpose, despising all earthly things, lest the love of them might\nentangle his soul, he distributed the better part of his substance among\nthe poor, and was ordained Reader, Exorcist, and, lastly, Priest, by\nMaximus, the holy bishop of Nola; who, charmed with his sanctity and\nprudence, made him his principal support in these times of trouble, and\ndesigned him for his successor.[1]\n\nIn the year 250, the emperor Decius raised a bloody persecution against\nthe church. Maximus, seeing himself principally aimed at, retired into\nthe deserts, not through the fear of death, which he desired, but rather\nnot to tempt God by seeking it, and to preserve himself for the service\nof his flock. The persecutors not finding him, seized on Felix, who, in\nhis absence, was very vigilant in the discharge of all his pastoral\nduties. The governor caused him to be scourged; then loaded with bolts\nand chains about his neck, hands, and legs, and cast into a dungeon, in\nwhich, as St. Prudentius informs us,[2] the floor was spread all over\nwith potsherds and pieces of broken glass, so that there was no place\nfree from them, on which the saint could either stand or lie. One night\nan angel appearing in great glory, filled the prison with a bright\nlight, and bade St. Felix go and assist his bishop, who was in great\ndistress. The confessor, seeing his chains fall off, and the doors open,\nfollowed his guide, and was conducted by heaven to the place where\nMaximus lay, almost perished with hunger and cold, speechless, and\nwithout sense: for, through anxiety for his flock, and the hardships of\nhis solitary retreat, he had suffered more than a martyrdom. Felix, not\nbeing able to bring him to himself, had recourse to prayer; and\ndiscovering thereupon a bunch of grapes within reach, he squeezed some\nof the juice into his mouth, which had the desired effect. The good\nbishop no sooner beheld his friend Felix, but he embraced him, and\nbegged to be conveyed back to his church. The saint, taking him on his\nshoulders, carried him to his episcopal house in the city, before day\nappeared, where a pious ancient woman took care of him.[3]\n\nFelix, with the blessing of his pastor, repaired secretly to his own\nlodgings, and there kept himself concealed, praying for the church\nwithout ceasing till peace was restored to it by the death of Decius, in\nthe year 251. {148} He no sooner appeared again in public, but his zeal\nso exasperated the pagans that they came armed to apprehend him; but\nthough they met him, they knew him not; they even asked him where Felix\nwas, a question he did not think proper to give a direct answer to. The\npersecutors going a little further, perceived their mistake, and\nreturned; but the saint in the mean time had stepped a little out of the\nway, and crept through a hole in a ruinous old wall, which was instantly\nclosed up by spiders' webs. His enemies never imagining any thing could\nhave lately passed where they saw so close a spider's web, after a\nfruitless search elsewhere, returned in the evening without their prey.\nFelix finding among the ruins, between two houses, an old well half dry,\nhid himself in it for six months; and received during that time\nwherewithal to subsist by means of a devout Christian woman. Peace being\nrestored to the church by the death of the emperor, the saint quitted\nhis retreat, and was received in the city as an angel sent from heaven.\n\nSoon after, St. Maximus' dying, all were unanimous for electing Felix\nbishop; but he persuaded the people to make choice of Quintus, because\nthe older priest of the two, having been ordained seven days before him.\nQuintus, when bishop, always respected St. Felix as his father, and\nfollowed his advice in every particular. The remainder of the saint's\nestate having been confiscated in the persecution, he was advised to lay\nclaim to it, as others had done, who thereby recovered what had been\ntaken from them. His answer was, that in poverty he should be the more\nsecure of possessing Christ.[4] He could not even be prevailed upon to\naccept what the rich offered him. He rented a little spot of barren\nland, not exceeding three acres, which he tilled with his own hands, in\nsuch manner as to receive his subsistence from it, and to have something\nleft for alms. Whatever was bestowed on him, he gave it immediately to\nthe poor. If he had two coats, he was sure to give them the better; and\noften exchanged his only one for the rags of some beggar. He died in a\ngood old age, on the fourteenth of January, on which day the\nMartyrology, under the name of St. Jerom, and all others of later date\nmention him. Five churches have been built at, or near the place where\nhe was first interred, which was without the precinct of the city of\nNola. His precious remains are at present kept in the cathedral; but\ncertain portions are at Rome, Benevento, and some other places. Pope\nDamasus, in a pilgrimage which he made from Rome to Nola, to the shrine\nof this saint, professes, in a short poem which he composed in\nacknowledgment, that he was miraculously cured of a distemper through\nhis intercession.\n\nSt. Paulinus, a Roman senator in the fifth age, forty-six years after\nthe death of St. Damasus, came from Spain to Nola, desirous of being\nporter in the church of St. Felix. He testifies that crowds of pilgrims\ncame from Rome, from all other parts of Italy, and more distant\ncountries, to visit his sepulchre on his festival: he adds, that all\nbrought some present or other to his church, as wax-candles to burn at\nhis tomb, precious ointments, costly ornaments, and such like; but that\nfor his part, he offered to him the homage of his tongue, and himself,\nthough an unworthy victim. [5] He everywhere expresses his devotion to\nthis saint in the warmest and strongest terms, and believes that all the\ngraces he received from heaven were conferred on him through the\nintercession of St. Felix. To him he addressed himself in all his\nnecessities; by his prayers he begged grace in this life, and glory\nafter {149} death.[6] He describes at large the holy pictures of the\nwhole history of the Old Testament, which were hung up in the church of\nSt. Felix, and which inflamed all who beheld them, and were as so many\nbooks that instructed the ignorant. We may read with pleasure the pious\nsentiments the sight of each gave St. Paulinus.[7] He relates a great\nnumber of miracles that were wrought at his tomb, as of persons cured of\nvarious distempers and delivered from dangers by his intercession, to\nseveral of which he was an eye-witness. He testifies that he himself had\nfrequently experienced the most sensible effects of his patronage, and,\nby having recourse to him, had been speedily succored.[8] St. Austin\nalso has given an account of many miracles performed at his shrine.[9]\nIt was not formerly allowed to bury any corpse within the walls of\ncities. The church of St. Felix, out of the walls of Nola, not being\ncomprised under this prohibition, many devout Christians sought to be\nburied in it, that their faith and devotion might recommend them after\ndeath to the patronage of this holy confessor, upon which head St.\nPaulinus consulted St. Austin. The holy doctor answered him by his book,\n_On the care for the dead_: in which he shows that the faith and\ndevotion of such persons would be available to them after death, as the\nsuffrages and good works of the living in behalf of the faithful\ndeparted are profitable to the latter. See the poems of St. Paulinus on\nhis life, confirmed by other authentic ancient records, quoted by\nTillemont, t. 4, p. 226, and Ruinart, Acta Sincera, p. 256; Muratori,\nAnecd. Lat.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  S. Paulin. Carm. 19, 20. Seu Natali, 4.\n2.  De Cor. hymn 5.\n3.  Paulin. Carm. 19.\n4.  _Dives egebo Deo; nam Christum pauper habebo_. Paulin. Carm. 2.\n    Natali S. Felicia 5.\n5.  ________________ _Ego munere linguae,\n      Nudus opum, famulor, de me mea debita solvens\n      Meque ipsum pro me, vilis licet hostia pendam._ Natal. 6\n6.  Nat. 1, 2, &c.\n7.  Nat. 9, 10.\n8.  St. Paulin. Ep. 28 & 36. Carm. 13, 18, 21, 22, 23, 29, &c.\n9.  St. August. Ep. 78, olim 137, lib. De cura pro moritus, c. 16.\n\nSS. ISAIAS, SABBAS,\n\nAND thirty-eight other holy solitaries on mount Sinai, martyred by a\ntroop of Arabians in 273; likewise Paul, the abbot; Moses, who by his\npreaching and miracles had converted to the faith the Ishmaelites of\nPharan; Psaes, a prodigy of austerity, and many other hermits in the\ndesert of Raithe, two days' journey from Sinai, near the Red Sea, were\nmassacred the same year by the Blemmyans, a savage infidel nation of\nEthiopia. All these anchorets lived on dates, or other fruits, never\ntasted bread, worked at making baskets in cells at a considerable\ndistance from each other, and met on Saturdays, in the evening, in one\ncommon church, where they watched and said the night office, and on the\nSunday received together the holy eucharist. They were remarkable for\ntheir assiduity in praying and fasting. See their acts by Ammonius, an\neye-witness, published by F. Combefis; also Bulteau, Hist. Mon.\nd'Orient, l. 2, c. 1, p. 209.\n\nAlso, many holy anchorets on mount Sinai, whose lives were faithful\ncopies of Christian perfection, and who met on Sundays to receive the\nholy eucharist, were martyred by a band of Saracens in the fifth\ncentury. A boy of fourteen years of age led among them an ascetic life\nof great perfection. The Saracens threatened to kill him, if he did not\ndiscover where the ancient monks had concealed themselves. He answered,\nthat death did not terrify him, and that he could not ransom his life by\na sin in betraying his fathers. They bade him put off his clothes:\n\"After you have killed me,\" said the modest youth, \"take my clothes and\nwelcome: but as I never saw my body naked, have so much compassion and\nregard for my shamefacedness, as to let me die covered.\" The barbarians,\nenraged at this answer, fell on him with all their weapons at once, and\nthe pious youth died by as many martyrdoms as he had executioners. St.\nNilus, who had been formerly governor {150} of Constantinople, has left\nus an account of this massacre in seven narratives: at that time he led\nan eremitical life in those deserts, and had placed his son Theodulus in\nthis holy company. He was carried away captive, but redeemed after many\ndangers. See S. Nili, Septem Narrationes; also, Bulteau, Hist. Mon.\nd'Orient, l. 2, c. 2, p. 220.\n\nS. BARBASCEMINUS,\n\nAND SIXTEEN OF HIS CLERGY, MM.\n\nHE succeeded his brother St. Sadoth in the metropolitical see of\nSeleucia and Ctesiphon, in 342, which he held six years. Being accused\nas an enemy to the Persian religion, and as one who spoke against the\nPersian divinities, _Fire_ and _Water_, he was apprehended, with sixteen\nof his clergy, by the orders of king Sapor II. The king seeing his\nthreats lost upon him, confined him almost a year in a loathsome\ndungeon, in which he was often tormented by the Magians with scourges,\nclubs, and tortures, besides the continual annoyance of stench, filth,\nhunger, and thirst. After eleven months the prisoners were again brought\nbefore the king. Their bodies were disfigured by their torments, and\ntheir faces discolored by a blackish hue which they had contracted.\nSapor held out to the bishop a golden cup as a present, in which were a\nthousand sineas of gold, a coin still in use among the Persians. Besides\nthis he promised him a government, and other great offices, if he would\nsuffer himself to be initiated in the rites of the sun. The saint\nreplied that he could not answer the reproaches of Christ at the last\nday, if he should prefer gold, or a whole empire, to his holy law; and\nthat he was ready to die. He received his crown by the sword, with his\ncompanions, on the 14th of January, in the year 346, and of the reign of\nking Sapor II. the thirty-seventh, at Ledan, in the province of the\nHuzites. St. Maruthas, the author of his acts, adds, that Sapor,\nresolving to extinguish utterly the Christian name in his empire,\npublished a new terrible edict, whereby he commanded every one to be\ntortured and put to death who should refuse to adore the sun, to worship\nfire and water, and to feed on the blood of living creatures.[1] The see\nof Seleucia remained vacant twenty years, and innumerable martyrs\nwatered all the provinces of Persia with their blood. St. Maruthas was\nnot able to recover their names, but has left us a copious panegyric on\nthen heroic deeds, accompanied with the warmest sentiments of devotion,\nand desires to be speedily united with them in glory. See Acta Mart.\nOrient. per Steph. Assemani, t. 1, p. 3.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  The Christians observed for several ages, especially in the East,\n    the apostolic temporary precept of abstaining from blood. Acts, xv.\n    20. See Nat. Alexander Hist. Saec. 1, dissert 9.\n\n{151}\n\n\nJANUARY XV.\n\nST. PAUL, THE FIRST HERMIT.\n\nFrom his life, compiled by St. Jerom, in 365. Pope Gelasius I., in his\nlearned Roman council, in 494, commends this authentic history. St. Paul\nis also mentioned by Cassian, St. Fulgentius, Sulpitius Severus,\nSidonius, Paulinus, in the life of St. Ambrose, &c. St. Jerom received\nthis account from two disciples of St. Antony, Amathas and Macariux. St.\nAthanasius says, that he only wrote what he had heard from St. Antony's\nown mouth, or from his disciples; and desires others to add what they\nknow concerning his actions. On the various readings and MS. copies of\nthis life, see the disquisition of P. Jem{} de Prato, an oratorian of\nVerona, in his new edition of the works of Sulpitius Severus, t. l, app.\n2, p. 403. The Greek history of St. Paul the hermit, which Bollandus\nimagines St. Jerom to have followed, is evidently posterior; and borrows\nfrom him, as Jos. Assemani shows. Comm. In Calend. Univ. t. 6, p. 92.\nSee Gudij Epistolae, p. 278.\n\nA.D. 342.\n\nELIAS and St. John the Baptist sanctified the deserts, and Jesus Christ\nhimself was a model of the eremitical state during his forty days' fast\nin the wilderness; neither is it to be questioned but the Holy Ghost\nconducted the saint of this day, though young, into the desert, and was\nto him an instructor there; but it is no less certain, that an entire\nsolitude and total sequestration of one's self from human society, is\none of those extraordinary ways by which God leads souls to himself, and\nis more worthy of our admiration, than calculated for imitation and\npractice: it is a state which ought only to be embraced by such as are\nalready well experienced in the practices of virtue and contemplation,\nand who can resist sloth and other temptations, lest, instead of being a\nhelp, it prove a snare and stumbling-block in their way to heaven.\n\nThis saint was a native of the Lower Thebais, in Egypt, and had lost\nboth his parents when he was but fifteen years of age: nevertheless, he\nwas a great proficient in the Greek and Egyptian learning, was mild and\nmodest, and feared God from his earliest youth. The bloody persecution\nof Decius disturbed the peace of the church in 250; and what was most\ndreadful, Satan, by his ministers, sought not so much to kill the\nbodies, as by subtle artifices and tedious tortures to destroy the souls\nof men. Two instances are sufficient to show his malice in this respect:\nA soldier of Christ, who had already triumphed over the racks and\ntortures, had his whole body rubbed over with honey, and was then laid\non his back in the sun, with his hands tied behind him, that the flies\nand wasps, which are quite intolerable in hot countries, might torment\nand gall him with their stings. Another was bound with silk cords on a\nbed of down, in a delightful garden, where a lascivious woman was\nemployed to entice him to sin; the martyr, sensible of his danger, bit\noff part of his tongue and spit it in her face, that the horror of such\nan action might put her to flight, and the smart occasioned by it be a\nmeans to prevent, in his own heart, any manner of consent to carnal\npleasure. During these times of danger, Paul kept himself concealed in\nthe house of another; but finding that a brother-in-law was inclined to\nbetray him, that he might enjoy his estate, he fled into the deserts.\nThere he found many spacious caverns in a rock, which were said to have\nbeen the retreat of money-coiners in the days of Cleopatra, queen of\nEgypt. He chose for his dwelling a cat; in this place, near which were a\npalm-tree[1] and a clear spring: the former by its leaves furnished him\nwith raiment, and by its fruit with food; and the latter supplied him\nwith water for his drink.\n\n{152}\n\nPaul was twenty-two years old when he entered the desert. His first\nintention was to enjoy the liberty of serving God till the persecution\nshould cease; but relishing the sweets of heavenly contemplation and\npenance, and learning the spiritual advantages of holy solitude, he\nresolved to return no more among men, or concern himself in the least\nwith human affairs, and what passed in the world: it was enough for him\nto know that there was a world, and to pray that it might be improved in\ngoodness. The saint lived on the fruit of his tree till he was\nforty-three years of age, and from that time till his death, like Elias,\nhe was miraculously fed with bread brought him every day by a raven. His\nmethod of life, and what he did in this place during ninety years, is\nunknown to us: but God was pleased to make his servant known a little\nbefore his death.\n\nThe great St. Antony, who was then ninety years of age, was tempted to\nvanity, as if no one had served God so long in the wilderness as he had\ndone, imagining himself also to be the first example of a life so\nrecluse from human conversation: but the contrary was discovered to him\nin a dream the night following, and the saint was at the same time\ncommanded, by Almighty God, to set out forthwith in quest of a perfect\nservant of his, concealed in the more remote parts of those deserts. The\nholy old man set out the next morning in search of the unknown hermit.\nSt. Jerom relates from his authors, that he met a centaur, or creature\nnot with the nature and properties, but with something of the mixed\nshape of man and horse,[2] and that this monster, or phantom of the\ndevil, (St. Jerom pretends not to determine which it was,) upon his\nmaking the sign of the cross, fled away, after having pointed out the\nway to the saint. Our author adds, that St. Antony soon after met a\nsatyr,[3] who gave him to understand that he was an inhabitant of those\ndeserts, and one of that sort whom the deluded Gentiles adored for gods.\nSt. Antony, after two days and a night spent in the search, discovered\nthe saint's abode by a light that was in it, which he made up to. Having\nlong begged admittance at the door of his cell, St. Paul at last opened\nit with a smile: they embraced, called each other by their names, which\nthey knew by divine revelation. St. Paul then inquired whether idolatry\nstill reigned in the world. While they were discoursing together, a\nraven flew towards them, and dropped a loaf of bread before them. Upon\nwhich St. Paul said, \"Our good God has sent us a dinner. In this manner\nhave I received half a loaf every day these sixty years past; now you\nare come to see me, Christ has doubled his provision for his servants.\"\nHaving given thanks to God they both sat down by the fountain; but a\nlittle contest arose between them who should break the bread; St. Antony\nalleged St. Paul's greater age, and St. Paul pleaded that Antony was the\nstranger: both agreed at last to take up their parts together. Having\nrefreshed themselves at the spring, they spent the night in prayer. The\nnext morning St. Paul told his guest that the time of his death\napproached, and that he was sent to bury him; adding, \"Go and fetch the\ncloak given you by St. Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria, in which I\ndesire you to wrap my body.\" This he might say with the intent of being\nleft alone in prayer, while he expected to be called out of this world;\nas also that he might testify his veneration for St. Athanasius, and his\nhigh regard for the faith and communion of the Catholic church, on\naccount of which that holy bishop was then a great sufferer. St. Antony\nwas surprised to hear him mention the cloak, which he could not have\nknown but by divine revelation. Whatever was his motive for desiring to\nbe buried {153} in it, St. Antony acquiesced to what was asked of him:\nso, after mutual embraces, he hastened to his monastery to comply with\nSt. Paul's request. He told his monks that he, a sinner, falsely bore\nthe name of a servant of God, but that he had seen Elias and John the\nBaptist in the wilderness, even Paul in Paradise. Having taken the\ncloak, he returned with it in all haste, fearing lest the holy hermit\nmight be dead, as it happened. While on his road, he saw his happy soul\ncarried up to heaven, attended by choirs of angels, prophets, and\napostles. St. Antony, though he rejoiced on St. Paul's account, could\nnot help lamenting on his own, for having lost a treasure so lately\ndiscovered. As soon as his sorrow would permit, he arose, pursued his\njourney, and came to the cave. Going in, he found the body kneeling, and\nthe hands stretched out. Full of joy, and supposing him yet alive, he\nknelt down to pray with him, but by his silence soon perceived he was\ndead. Having paid his last respects to the holy corpse, he carried it\nout of the cave. While he stood perplexed how to dig a grave, two lions\ncame up quietly, and, as it were, mourning; and tearing up the ground,\nmade a hole large enough for the reception of a human body. St. Antony\nthen buried the corpse, singing hymns and psalms, according to what was\nusual and appointed by the church on that occasion. After this he\nreturned home praising God, and related to his monks what he had seen\nand done. He always kept as a great treasure, and wore himself on great\nfestivals, the garment of St. Paul, of palm-tree leaves patched\ntogether. St. Paul died in the year of our Lord 342, the hundred and\nthirteenth year of his age, and the ninetieth of his solitude, and is\nusually called the _first hermit_, to distinguish him from others of\nthat name. The body of this saint is said to have been conveyed to\nConstantinople, by the emperor Michael Comnenus, in the twelfth century,\nand from thence to Venice in 1240.[4] Lewis I., king of Hungary,\nprocured it from that republic, and deposited it at Buda, where a\ncongregation of hermits under his name, which still subsists in Hungary,\nPoland, and Austria, was instituted by blessed Eusebius of Strigonium, a\nnobleman, who, having distributed his whole estate among the poor,\nretired into the forests; and being followed by others, built the\nmonastery of Pisilia, under the rule of the regular canons of St.\nAustin. He died in that house, January the 20th, 1270.\n\nSt. Paul, the hermit, is commemorated in several ancient western\nMartyrologies on the 10th of January, but in the Roman on the 15th, on\nwhich he is honored in the anthologium of the Greeks.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nAn eminent contemplative draws the following portraiture of this great\nmodel of an eremitical life:[5] St. Paul, the hermit, not being called\nby God to the external duties of an active life, remained alone,\nconversing only with God, in a vast wilderness, for the space of near a\nhundred years, ignorant of all that passed in the world, both the\nprogress of sciences, the establishment of religion, and the revolutions\nof states and empires; indifferent even as to those things without which\nhe could not live, as the air which he breathed, the water he drank, and\nthe miraculous bread with which he supported life. What did he do? say\nthe inhabitants of this busy world, who think they could not live\nwithout being in a perpetual hurry of restless projects; what was his\nemployment all this while? Alas! ought we not rather to put this\nquestion to them; what are you doing while you are not taken up in doing\nthe will of God, which occupies the heavens and the earth in all their\nmotions? Do you call that doing nothing which is the great end God {154}\nproposed to himself in giving us a being, that is, to be employed in\ncontemplating, adoring, and praising him? Is it to be idle and useless\nin the world to be entirely taken up in that which is the eternal\noccupation of God himself, and of the blessed inhabitants of heaven?\nWhat employment is better, more just, more sublime, or more advantageous\nthan this, when done in suitable circumstances? To be employed in any\nthing else, how great or noble soever it may appear in the eyes of men,\nunless it be referred to God, and be the accomplishment of his holy\nwill, who in all our actions demands our heart more than our hand, what\nis it, but to turn ourselves away from our end, to lose our time, and\nvoluntarily to return again to that state of nothing out of which we\nwere formed, or rather into a far worse state?\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  Pliny recounts thirty-nine different sorts of palm-trees, and says\n    that the best grow in Egypt, which are ever green, have leaves thick\n    enough to make ropes and a fruit which serves in some places to make\n    bread.\n2.  Pliny, l. 7, c. 3, and others, assure us that such monsters have\n    been seen. Consult the note of Rosweide.\n3.  The heathens might feign their gods of the woods, from certain\n    monsters sometimes seen. Plutarch, in his life of Sylla, says, that\n    a satyr was brought to that general at Athens; and St. Jerom tells\n    us, that one was shown alive at Alexandria, and after its death was\n    salted and embalmed, and sent to Antioch that Constantine the Great\n    might see it.\n4.  See the whole history of this translation, published from an\n    original MS. by F. Gamans, a Jesuit, inserted by Bollandus in his\n    collection.\n5.  F. Ambrose de Lombez, Capucin, Tr. de la Paix Interieure, (Paris,\n    1758,) p. 372.\n\nST. MAURUS, ABBOT\n\nAMONG the several noblemen who placed their sons under the care of St.\nBenedict, to be brought up in piety and learning, Equitius, one of that\nrank, left with him his son Maurus, then but twelve years old, in 522.\nThe youth surpassed all his fellow monks in the discharge of monastic\nduties, and when he was grown up, St. Benedict made him his coadjutor in\nthe government of Sublaco. Maurus, by his singleness of heart and\nprofound humility, was a model of perfection to all the brethren, and\nwas favored by God with the gift of miracles. St. Placidus, a fellow\nmonk, the son of the senator Tertullus, going one day to fetch water,\nfell into the lake, and was carried the distance of a bow-shot from the\nbank. St. Benedict saw this in spirit in his cell, and bid Maurus run\nand draw him out. Maurus obeyed, walked upon the waters without\nperceiving it, and dragged out Placidus by the hair, without sinking in\nthe least himself. He attributed the miracle to the prayers of St.\nBenedict; but the holy abbot, to the obedience of the disciple. Soon\nafter that holy patriarch had retired to Cassino, he called St. Maurus\nthither, in the year 528. Thus far St. Gregory, Dial. l. 2, c. 3, 4, 6.\n\nSt. Maurus coming to France in 543, founded, by the liberality of king\nTheodebert, the great abbey of Glanfeuil, now called St. Maur-sur-Loire,\nwhich he governed several years. In 581 he resigned the abbacy to\nBertulf, and passed the remainder of his life in close solitude, in the\nuninterrupted contemplation of heavenly things, in order to prepare\nhimself for his passage to eternity. After two years thus employed, he\nfell sick of a fever, with a pain in his side: he received the\nsacraments of the church, lying on sackcloth before the altar of St.\nMartin, and in the same posture expired on the 15th of January, in the\nyear 584. He was buried on the right side of the altar in the same\nchurch,[1] and on a roll of parchment laid in his tomb was inscribed\nthis epitaph: \"Maurus, a monk and deacon, who came into France in the\ndays of king Theodebert, and died the eighteenth day before the month of\nFebruary.\"[2] St. Maurus is named in the ancient French litany composed\nby Alcuin, and in the Martyrologies of Florus, Usuard, and others. {155}\nFor fear of the Normans, in the ninth century, his body was translated\nto several places; lastly, in 868, to St. Peter's des Fusses, then a\nBenedictin abbey, near Paris,[3] where it was received with great\nsolemnity by AEneas, bishop of Paris. A history of this translation,\nwritten by Eudo, at that time abbot of St. Peter's des Fusses, is still\nextant. This abbey des Fusses was founded by Blidegisilus, deacon of the\nchurch of Paris, in the time of king Clovis II. and of Audebert, bishop\nof Paris: St. Babolen was the first abbot. This monastery was reformed\nby St. Mayeul, abbot of Cluni, in 988: in 1533 it was secularized by\nClement VII. at the request of Francis I., and the deanery united to the\nbishopric of Paris; but the church and village have for several ages\nborne the name of St. Maur. The abbey of Glanfeuil, now called St.\nMaur-sur-Loire, was subjected to this des Fosses from the reign of\nCharles the Bald to the year 1096, in which Urban II., at the\nsolicitation of the count of Anjou, re-established its primitive\nindependence. Our ancestors had a particular veneration for St. Maurus,\nunder the Norman kings; and the noble family of Seymour (from the French\n_Saint Maur_) borrow from him its name, as Camden observes in his\n_Remains_. The church of St. Peter's des Fusses, two leagues from Paris,\nnow called St. Maurus's, was secularized, and made a collegiate, in\n1533; and the canons removed to St. Louis, formerly called St. Thomas of\nCanterbury's, at the Louvre in Paris, in 1750. The same year the relics\nof St. Maurus were translated thence to the abbey of St.\nGermain-des-Prez, where they are preserved in a rich shrine.[4] An arm\nof this saint was with great devotion translated to mount Cassino, in\nthe eleventh century,[5] and by its touch a demoniac was afterwards\ndelivered, as is related by Desiderius at that time abbot of mount\nCassino,[6] who was afterwards pope, under the name of Victor III. See\nMabill. Annal. Bened. t. 1, l. 3 and 4; and the genuine history of the\ntranslation of the body of St. Maurus to the monastery des Fosses, by\nEndo, at that time abbot of this house. The life of St. Maurus, and\nhistory of his translation, under the pretended name of Faustus, is\ndemonstrated by Cointe and others to be a notorious forgery, with\nseveral instruments belonging to the same.[7]\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  Mab. Annal. Ben. t. 1, l. 7, ad annos 581, 584.\n2.  All writers, at least from the ninth century, are unanimous in\n    affirming with Amalarius, that St. Maurus of Anjou, the French\n    abbot, was the same Maurus that was the disciple of St. Benedict;\n    which is also proved against certain modern critics, by Dom Ruinart\n    in his Apologia Missionis St. Mauri, in append. 1. annal. Bened. per\n    Mabill. t. 1, p. 630. The arguments which are alleged by some for\n    distinguishing them, may be seen in Chatelain's notes on the\n    Martyrol. p. 253. In imitation of the congregation of SS. Vane and\n    Hydulphus, then lately established in Lorraine, certain French\n    Benedictin monks instituted a like reformation of their order, under\n    the title of the congregation of St. Maurus, in 1621, which was\n    approved of by Gregory XV. and Urban VIII. It is divided into six\n    provinces, under its own general, who usually resides at St.\n    Germain-des-Prez, at Paris. These monks live in strict retirement,\n    and constantly abstain from flesh meat, except in the infirmary.\n    Their chief houses are, St. Maur-sur-Loire, St. Germain-des Prez,\n    Fleury, or St. Benoit-sur-Loire, Marmoutier at Tours, Vendome, St.\n    Remigius at Rheims, St. Peter of Corbie, Fecan &c.\n3.  Ib. l. 15, p. 465, l. 36, p. 82. See Dom Beaunier, Recueil\n    Historique des Evech. et Abbayes, t. 1, p. 17.\n4.  Dom Vaissette, Geographie Histor. t. 6, p. 515, and Le Beuf, Hist.\n    du Diocese de Paris, t. 5, p. 17. Piganiol, Descrip. of Paris, t. 8,\n    p. 165, t. 3, p. 114, t. 7, p. 79.\n5.  S. Odilo in vita S. Majoli; et Leo Ostiens in chron. Casin. l. 2, c.\n    55.\n6.  Victor III. Dial. l. 2. Ruinart, Apol. Miss. S. Mauri, p. 632.\n    Mabill. Annal. Bened. l. 56, c. 73.\n7.  Dom Freville, the Maurist monk, and curate of St. Symphorian's, at\n    the abbey of St. Germain-des-Prez, has nevertheless made use of\n    these pieces in a MS. history of the life and translations of this\n    saint, which he has compiled, and of which he allowed me the\n    perusal. When the relics of St. Maurus were translated to St.\n    Germain-des-Prez, those of St. Babolen, who died about the year 671,\n    and is honored is the Paris breviary on the 28th of June, and\n    several others which had enriched the monastery des Fosses were\n    conveyed to the church of St. Louis, at the Louvre.\n\nST. MAIN, ABBOT\n\nTHIS saint was a British bishop, who, passing into Little Britain in\nFrance, there founded an abbey in which he ended his days.\n\nST. JOHN CALYBITE, RECLUSE.\n\nHE was the son of Eutropius, a rich nobleman in Constantinople. He\nsecretly left home to become a monk among the Acaemetes.[1] After six\n{156} years he returned disguised in the rags of a beggar, and subsisted\nby the charity of his parents, as a stranger, in a little hut near their\nhouse; hence he was called the Calybite.[2] He sanctified his soul by\nwonderful patience, meekness, humility, mortification, and prayer. He\ndiscovered himself to his mother, in his agony, in the year 450, and,\naccording to his request, was buried under his hut; but his parents\nbuilt over his tomb a stately church, as the author of his life\nmentions. Cedrenus, who says it stood in the western quarter of the\ncity, calls it _the church of poor John_;[3] Zonaras, the church of St.\nJohn Calybite.[4] An old church standing near the bridge of the isle of\nthe Tiber in Rome, which bore his name, according to an inscription\nthere, was built by pope Formosus, (who died in 896,) together with an\nhospital. From which circumstance Du Cange[5] infers that the body of\nour saint, which is preserved in this church, was conveyed from\nConstantinople to Rome, before the broaching of the Iconoclast heresy\nunder Leo the Isarian, in 706: but his head remained at Constantinople\ntill after that city fell into the hands of the Latins, in 1204; soon\nafter which it was brought to Besanzon in Burgundy, where it is kept in\nSt. Stephen's church, with a Greek inscription round the case. The\nchurch which bears the name of Saint John Calybite, at Rome, with the\nhospital, is now in the hands of religious men of the order of St. John\nof God. According to a MS. life, commended by Baronius, St. John\nCalybite flourished under Theodosius the Younger, who died in 450:\nNicephorus says, under Leo, who was proclaimed emperor in 457; so that\nboth accounts may be true. On his genuine Greek acts, see Lambecius,\nBibl. Vind. t. 8, pp. 228, 395; Bollandus, p. 1035, gives his Latin acts\nthe same which we find in Greek at St. Germain-des-Prez. See Montfaucon,\nBibl. Coislianae, p. 196. Bollandus adds other Latin acts, to which he\ngives the preference. See also Papebroch, Comm. ad Januarium Graecum\nmetricum, t. 1. Maij. Jos. Assemani, in Calendaria Univ. ad 15 Jan. t.\n6, p. 76. Chatelain, p. 283, &c.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  Papebroch supposes St. John Calybite to have made a long voyage at\n    sea; but this circumstance seems to have no other foundation than\n    the mistake of those who place his birth at Rome, forgetting that\n    Constantinople was then called New Rome. No mention is made of any\n    long voyage in his genuine Greek acts, nor in the interpolated\n    Latin. He sailed only threescore furlongs from Constantinople to the\n    place called [Greek: Gomon], and from the peaceful abode of the\n    Acaemetes' monk, ([Greek: Eirenaion], or dwelling of peace,) opposite\n    to Sosthenium on the Thrancian shore, where the monastery of the\n    Acaemetes stood.\n2.  From [Greek: kalube], a cottage, a hut.\n3.  Cedr. ad an. 461.\n4.  Zonaras, p. 41.\n5.  Du Cange, Constantinop. Christiana, l. 4, c. 6, n. 51.\n\n\nST. ISIDORE, PRIEST AND HOSPITALLER,\n\nOF ALEXANDRIA.[1]\n\nHE was taken from his cell where he had passed many years in the\ndeserts, ordained Priest, and placed in the dignity of hospitaller, by\nSt. Athanasius. He lived in that great city a perfect model of meekness,\npatience, mortification, and prayer. He frequently burst into tears at\ntable, saying: \"I who am a rational creature, and made to enjoy God, eat\nthe food of brutes, instead of feeding on the bread of angels.\"\nPalladius, afterwards bishop of Helenopolis, on going to Egypt to\nembrace an ascetic life, addressed himself first to our saint for\nadvice: the skilful director bade him go and exercise himself for some\ntime in mortification and self-denial, and then return for further\ninstructions. St. Isidore suffered many persecutions, first from Lucius\nthe Arian intruder, and afterwards from Theophilus, who unjustly accused\nhim of Origenism.[2] He publicly condemned that heresy at {157}\nConstantinople, where he died in 403, under the protection of St.\nChrysostom. See Palladius in Lausiac, c. 1 and 2. Socrates, l. 6, c. 9.\nSozomen, c. 3 and 12. St. Jerom, Ep. 61, c. 15, ad Princip. Theodoret.\nl. 4, c. 21. Pallad. de Vita S. Chrys. Bulteau, Hist. Mon. d'Orient. l.\n1, c. 15\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  A hospitaller is one residing in an hospital, in order to receive\n    the poor and strangers.\n2.  St. Jerom's zeal against the Origenists was very serviceable to the\n    church; yet his translation of Theophilus's book against the memory\n    of St. Chrysostom, (ap. Fac. herm. l. 6, c. 4,) is a proof that it\n    sometimes carried him too far. This weakens his charge against the\n    holy hospitaller of Alexandria, whom Theophilus expelled Egypt, with\n    the four long brothers, (Dioscorus, Ammonias, Eusebius, and\n    Euthymius,) and about three hundred other monks. Some accuse\n    Theophilus of proceeding against them out of mere jealousy. It is at\n    least certain, that St. Isidore and the four long brothers\n    anathematized Origenism at Constantinople, before St. Chrysostom\n    received them to his communion, and that Theophilus himself was\n    reconciled to them at Chalcedon, in the council at the Oak, without\n    requiring of them any confession of faith, or making mention of\n    Origen. (Sozom. l. 8, c. 17.) Many take the St. Isidore, mentioned\n    in the Roman Martyrology, for the hospitaller; but Bulteau observes,\n    that St. Isidore of Scete is rather meant; at least the former is\n    honored by the Greeks.\n\nST. ISIDORE, P.H.\n\nHE was priest of Scete, and hermit in that vast desert. He excelled in\nan unparalleled gift of meekness, continency, prayer, and recollection.\nOnce perceiving in himself some motions of anger to rise, he that\ninstant threw down certain baskets he was carrying to market, and ran\naway to avoid the occasion.[1] When, in his old age, others persuaded\nhim to abate something in his labor, he answered: \"If we consider what\nthe Son of God hath done for us, we can never allow ourselves any\nindulgence in sloth. Were my body burnt, and my ashes scattered in the\nair, it would be nothing.\"[2] Whenever the enemy tempted him to despair,\nhe said, \"Were I to be damned, thou wouldest yet be below me in hell;\nnor would I cease to labor in the service of God, though assured that\nthis was to be my lot.\" If he was tempted to vain-glory, he reproached\nand confounded himself with the thought, how far even in his exterior\nexercises he fell short of the servants of God, Antony, Pambo, and\nothers.[3] Being asked the reason of his abundant tears, he answered: \"I\nweep for my sins: if we had only once offended God, we could never\nsufficiently bewail this misfortune.\" He died a little before the year\n391. His name stands in the Roman Martyrology, on the fifteenth of\nJanuary. See Cassian. coll. 18, c. 15 and 16. Tillem. t. 8, p. 440.\n\nFootnotes:\n\n1.  Cotellier, Mon. Gr. t. 1, p. 487.\n2.  Ib. p. 686. Rosweide, l. 5, c. 7\n3.  Cotel. ib. t. 2, p. 48. Rosweide, l. 3, c. 101, l. 7, c. 11.\n\nSAINT BONITUS, BISHOP OF AUVERGNE, C.\n\n(COMMONLY, IN AUVERGNE, BONET; AT PARIS, BONT.)\n\nST. BONET was referendary or chancellor, to Sigebert III., the holy king\nof Austrasia; and by his zeal, religion, and justice, flourished in that\nkingdom under four kings. After the death of Dagobert II., Thierry III.\nmade him governor of Marseilles and all Provence, in 680. His elder\nbrother St. Avitus II., bishop of Clermont, in Auvergne, having\nrecommended him for his successor, died in 689, and Bonet was\nconsecrated. But after having governed that see ten years, with the most\nexemplary piety, he had a scruple whether his election had been\nperfectly canonical; and having consulted St. Tilo, or Theau, then\nleading an eremitical life at Solignac, resigned his dignity, led for\nfour years a most penitential life in the abbey of Manlieu, now of the\norder of St. Bennet, and after having made a pilgrimage to Rome, died of\nthe gout at Lyons on the fifteenth of January in 710, being eighty-six\nyears old. His relics were enshrined in the cathedral at Clermont; but\nsome small portions are kept at Paris, in the churches of St. Germain\nl'Auxerrois, and St. Bont, near that of St. Merry. See his life, {158}\nwritten by a monk of Sommon in Auvergne, in the same century, published\nby Bollandus, also le Cointe, an. 699. Gallia Christiana Nova, &c.\n\nST. ITA, OR MIDA, V. ABBESS\n\nSHE was a native of Nandesi, now the barony of Dessee in the county of\nWaterford, and descended from the royal family. Having consecrated her\nvirginity to God, she led an austere retired life at the foot of the\nmountain Luach, in the diocese of Limerick, and founded there a famous\nmonastery of holy virgins, called Cluain-cred-hail. By the mortification\nof her senses and passions, and by her constant attention to God and his\ndivine love, she was enriched with many extraordinary graces. The lesson\nshe principally inculcated to others was, that to be perpetually\nrecollected in God is the great means of attaining to perfection. She\ndied January 15, in 569. Her feast was solemnized in her church of\nCluain-cred-hail; in the whole territory of Hua-Conail, and at Rosmide,\nin the territory of Nandesi. See her ancient life in Bollandus, Jan.\nxvi., and Colgan, t. 1, p. 72, who calls her the second St. Bridget of\nIreland.\n\n\nJANUARY XVI.\n\nST. MARCELLUS, POPE, M.\n\nSee the epitaph of eight verses, composed for this Pope, by St. Damasus,\ncarm. 48, and Tillemont, t. 5.\n\nA.D. 310.\n\nST. MARCELLUS was priest under pope Marcellinus. whom he succeeded in\n308, after that see had been vacant for three years and a half. An\nepitaph written on him by pope Damasus, who also mentions himself in it,\nsays, that by enforcing the canons of holy penance, he drew upon himself\nthe contradictions and persecutions of many tepid and refractory\nChristians, and that for his severity against a certain apostate, he was\nbanished by the tyrant Maxentius.[1] He died in 310, having sat one\nyear, seven months, and twenty days. Anastatius writes, that Lucina, a\ndevout widow of one Pinianus, who lodged St. Marcellus when he lived in\nRome, after his death converted her house into a church, which she\ncalled by his name. His false acts relate, that among his other\nsufferings, he was condemned by the tyrant to keep cattle in this place.\nHe is styled a martyr in the sacramentaries of Gelasius I. and St.\nGregory, and in the Martyrologies ascribed to St. Jerom and Bede, which,\nwith the rest of the Western calendars, mention his feast on the\nsixteenth of January. His body lies under the high altar in the ancient\nchurch, which bears his name, and gives title to a cardinal in Rome; but\ncertain portions of his relics are honored at Cluni, Namur, Mons, &c.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nGod is most wonderful in the whole economy of his holy providence over\nhis elect: his power and wisdom are exalted infinitely above the\nunderstanding {159} of creatures, and we are obliged to cry out, \"Who\ncan search his ways?\"[2] We have not penetration to discover all the\ncauses and ends of exterior things which we see or feel. How much less\ncan we understand this in secret and interior things, which fall not\nunder our senses? \"Remember that thou knowest not his work. Behold he is\na great God, surpassing our understanding.\"[3] How does he make every\nthing serve his purposes for the sanctification of his servants! By how\nmany ways does he conduct them to eternal glory! Some he sanctifies on\nthrones; others in cottages; others in retired cells and deserts; others\nin the various functions of an apostolic life, and in the government of\nhis church. And how wonderfully does he ordain and direct all human\nevents to their spiritual advancement, both in prosperity and in\nadversity! In their persecutions and trials, especially, we shall\ndiscover at the last day, when the secrets of his providence will be\nmanifested to us, the tenderness of his infinite love, the depth of his\nunsearchable wisdom, and the extent of his omnipotent power. In all his\nappointments let us adore these his attributes, earnestly imploring his\ngrace, that according to the designs of his mercy, we may make every\nthing, especially all afflictions, serve for the exercise and\nimprovement of our virtue.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  Damasus, carm. 26.\n2.  Job xxxvi, 23.\n3.  Ib.\n\nST. MACARIUS, THE ELDER, OF EGYPT\n\nFrom the original authors of the lives of the fathers of the deserts, in\nRosweide, d'Andilly, Bollandus, 15 Jan., Tillemont, t. 13, p. 576,\ncollated with a very ancient manuscript of the lives of the Fathers,\npublished by Rosweide, &c., in the hands of Mr. Martin, of Palgrave, in\nSuffolk.\n\nA.D. 390.\n\nST. MACARIUS, the Elder, was born in Upper Egypt, about the year 300,\nand brought up in the country in tending cattle. In his childhood, in\ncompany with some others, he once stole a few figs, and ate one of them:\nbut from his conversion to his death, he never ceased to weep bitterly\nfor this sin.[1] By a powerful call of divine grace, he retired from the\nworld in his youth, and dwelling in a little cell in a village, made\nmats, in continual prayer and great austerities. A wicked woman falsely\naccused him of having defloured her; for which supposed crime he was\ndragged through the streets, beaten, and insulted, as a base hypocrite,\nunder the garb of a monk. He suffered all with patience, and sent the\nwoman what he earned by his work, saying to himself: \"Well, Macarius!\nhaving now another to provide for, thou must work the harder.\" But God\ndiscovered his innocency; for the woman falling in labor, lay in extreme\nanguish, and could not be delivered till she had named the true father\nof her child. The people converted their rage into the greatest\nadmiration of the humility and patience of the saint.[2] To shun the\nesteem of men, he fled into the vast hideous desert of Scete,[3] being\nthen about thirty years of age. In this solitude he lived sixty years,\nand became the spiritual parent of innumerable holy persons, who put\nthemselves under his direction, and were governed by the rules he\nprescribed them; but all dwelt in separate hermitages. St. Macarius\nadmitted only one disciple with him, to entertain strangers. He was\n{160} compelled by an Egyptian bishop to receive the order of\npriesthood, about the year 340, the fortieth of his age, that he might\ncelebrate the divine mysteries for the convenience of this holy colony.\nWhen the desert became better peopled, there were four churches built in\nit, which were served by so many priests. The austerities of St.\nMacarius were excessive; he usually ate but once a week. Evagrius, his\ndisciple, once asked him leave to drink a little water, under a parching\nthirst; but Macarius bade him content himself with reposing a little in\nthe shade, saying: \"For these twenty years, I have never once ate,\ndrunk, or slept, as much as nature required.\"[4] His face was very pale,\nand his body weak and parched up. To deny his own will, he did not\nrefuse to drink a little wine when others desired him; but then he would\npunish himself for this indulgence, by abstaining two or three days from\nall manner of drink; and it was for this reason, that his disciple\ndesired strangers never to tender unto him a drop of wine.[5] He\ndelivered his instructions in few words, and principally inculcated\nsilence, humility, mortification, retirement, and continual prayer,\nespecially the last, to all sorts of people. He used to say, \"In prayer,\nyou need not use many or lofty words. You can often repeat with a\nsincere heart, Lord, show me mercy as thou knowest best. Or, assist me,\nO God!\"[6] He was much delighted with this ejaculation of perfect\nresignation and love: \"O Lord, have mercy on me, as thou pleasest, and\nknowest best in thy goodness!\"[7] His mildness and patience were\ninvincible, and occasioned the conversion of a heathen priest, and many\nothers.[8] The devil told him one day, \"I can surpass thee in watching,\nfasting, and many other things; but humility conquers and disarms\nme.\"[9] A young man applying to St. Macarius for spiritual advice, he\ndirected him to go to a burying-place, and upbraid the dead; and after\nto go and flatter them. When he came back, the saint asked him what\nanswer the dead had made: \"None at all,\" said the other, \"either to\nreproaches or praises.\" \"Then,\" replied Macarius, \"go, and learn neither\nto be moved with injuries nor flatteries. If you die to the world and to\nyourself, you will begin to live to Christ.\" He said to another:\n\"Receive, from the hand of God, poverty as cheerfully as riches, hunger\nand want as plenty, and you will conquer the devil, and subdue all your\npassions.\"[10] A certain monk complained to him, that in solitude he was\nalways tempted to break his fast, whereas in the monastery, he could\nfast the whole week cheerfully. \"Vain-glory is the reason,\" replied the\nsaint; \"fasting pleases, when men see you; but seems intolerable when\nthat passion is not gratified.\"[11] One came to consult him, who was\nmolested with temptations to impurity: the saint, examining into the\nsource, found it to be sloth, and advised him never to eat before\nsunset, to meditate fervently at his work, and to labor vigorously,\nwithout sloth, the whole day. The other faithfully complied, and was\nfreed from his enemy. God revealed to St. Macarius, that he had not\nattained the perfection of two married women, who lived in a certain\ntown: he made them a visit, and learned the means by which they\nsanctified themselves. They were extremely careful never to speak any\nidle or rash words: they lived in the constant practice of humility,\npatience, meekness, charity, resignation, mortification of their own\nwill, and conformity to the humors of their husbands and others, where\nthe divine law did not interpose: in a spirit of recollection they\nsanctified all their actions by {161} ardent ejaculations, by which they\nstrove to praise God, and most fervently to consecrate to the divine\nglory all the powers of their soul and body.[12]\n\nA subtle heretic of the sect of the Hieracites, called so from Hierax,\nwho in the reign of Dioclesian denied the resurrection of the dead, had,\nby his sophisms, caused some to stagger in their faith. St. Macarius, to\nconfirm them in the truth, raised a dead man to life, as Socrates,\nSozomen, Palladius, and Rufinus relate. Cassian says, that he only made\na dead corpse to speak for that purpose; then bade it rest till the\nresurrection. Lucius, the Arian usurper of the see of Alexandria, who\nhad expelled Peter, the successor of St. Athanasius, in 376 sent troops\ninto the deserts to disperse the zealous monks, several of whom sealed\ntheir faith with their blood: the chiefs, namely, the two Macariuses,\nIsidore, Pambo, and some others, by the authority of the emperor Valens,\nwere banished into a little isle of Egypt, surrounded with great\nmarshes. The inhabitants, who were Pagans, were all converted to the\nfaith by the confessors.[13] The public indignation of the whole empire,\nobliged Lucius to suffer them to return to their cells. Our saint,\nknowing that his end drew near, made a visit to the monks of Nitria, and\nexhorted them to compunction and tears so pathetically, that they all\nfell weeping at his feet. \"Let us weep, brethren,\" said he, \"and let our\neyes pour forth floods of tears before we go hence, lest we fall into\nthat place where tears will only increase the flames in which we shall\nburn.\"[14] He went to receive the reward of his labors in the year 390,\nand of his age the ninetieth, having spent sixty years in the desert of\nScete.[15]\n\nHe seems to have been the first anchoret who inhabited this vast\nwilderness; and this Cassian affirms.[16] Some style him a disciple of\nSt. Antony; but that quality rather suits St. Macarius of Alexandria;\nfor, by the history of our saint's life, it appears that he could not\nhave lived under the direction of St. Antony before he retired into the\ndesert of Scete. But he afterwards paid a visit, if not several, to that\nholy patriarch of monks, whose dwelling was fifteen days' journey\ndistant.[17] This glorious saint is honored in the Roman Martyrology on\nthe 15th of January; in the Greek Menaea on the 19th. An ancient monastic\nrule, and an epistle addressed to monks, written in sentences, like the\nbook of Proverbs, are ascribed to St. Macarius. Tillemont thinks them\nmore probably the works of St. Macarius of Alexandria, who had under his\ninspection at Nitria five thousand monks.[18] Gennadius[19] says that\nSt. Macarius wrote nothing but this letter. This may be understood of\nSt. Macarius of Alexandria, though one who wrote in Gaul might not have\nseen all the works of an author whose country was so remote, and\nlanguage different. Fifty spiritual homilies are ascribed, in the first\nedition, and in some manuscripts, to St. Macarius of Egypt: yet F.\nPossin[20] thinks they rather belong to Macarius of Pispir, who attended\nSt. Antony at his death, and seems to have been some years older than\nthe two great Macariuses, though some have thought him the same with the\nAlexandrian.[21]\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  Bolland. 15. Jan. p. 1011, Sec.39. Cotel. Mon. Gr{}t, l. 1, p. 546.\n2.  Cotel. ib. p. 525. Rosweide, Vit. Patr. l. 3, c. 99, l. 5, c. 15,\n    Sec.25, p. 623.\n3.  Mount Nitria was above forty miles from Alexandria, towards the\n    Southwest. The desert of Scete lay eighty miles beyond Nitria, and\n    was rather in Lybia than in Egypt. It was of a vast extent, and then\n    were no roads thereabouts, so that men were guided only by the stars\n    in travelling in those parts. See Tillemont on St. Amon and this\n    Macarius.\n4.  Socrates, l. 4, c. 23.\n5.  Rosweide, Vit. Patr. l. 3, Sec.3, p. 505, l. 5, c. 4, Sec.26, p. 569.\n6.  Rosweide, l. 3, c. 20, l. 5, c. 12. Cotel. p. 537.\n7.  Domine, sicut scis et vis, miserere me!\n8.  Rosweide, l. 3, c. 127. Cotel. t. 1, p. 547.\n9.  Rosweide, l. 5, c. 15.\n10. Rosweide, l. 7, c. 48. Cotel. t. 1, p. 537. Rosweide, ib. Sec.9.\n11. Cassian Collat. 5, c. 32.\n12. Rosweide, l. 3, c. 97, l. 6, c. 3, Sec.17, p. 657.\n13. Theodoret, l. 4, c. 18, 19. Socr. l. 4, c. 22. Sozom. l. 6, c. 19,\n20. Rufin. l. 2, c. 3. S. Hier. in Chrom. Oros. l. 7, c. 33. Pallad.\n    Lausiac. c. 117.\n14. Rosw. Vit. Part. l. 5, c. 3, Sec.9. Cotel. Mon. Gr. p. 545.\n15. Pallad. Lausiac. c. 19.\n16. Cassian. Collat. 15, c. 13. Tillem. Note 3, p. 806.\n17. Rosw. Vit. Patr. l. 5, c. 7, Sec.9. Cotel. Apothegm. Patr. 530. Tillem.\n    art. 4, p. 581, and Note 4, p. 80{}.\n18. See Tillem. Note 3, p. 806.\n19. Gennad. Cat. c. 10.\n20. Possin. Ascet. pr. p. 17.\n21.\n    Du Pin allows these fifty homilies to be undoubtedly very ancient:\n    in which judgment others agree, and the discourses themselves bear\n    evident marks. Du Pin and Tillemont leave them to St. Macarius of\n    Egypt; and his claim to them is very well supported by the learned\n    English translator, who published them with an introduction, at\n    London, in 1721, in octavo. The censure of Ceillier upon them seems\n    too severe. Certain passages, which seem to favor Pelagianism, ought\n    to be explained by others, which clearly condemn that heresy; or it\n    must be granted that they have suffered some alteration. The\n    composition is not very methodical, these homilies being addressed\n    to monks, in answer to particular queries. The author exceedingly\n    extols the peace and sweetness which a soul, crucified to the world,\n    enjoys with the consolations of the Holy Ghost, who resides in her.\n    But he says that the very angels deplore, as much as their state\n    will permit, those unhappy souls which taste not these heavenly\n    delights, as men weep over a dear friend who lies sick in his agony,\n    and receives all nourishment from their hands. (St. Macar., hom. 1 &\n    15.) Prayer, without which no one can be free from sin, is a duty\n    which he strongly inculcates, (Hom. 2,) with perfect concord, by\n    which we love, and are inclined to condescend to indifferent things,\n    and to judge well of all men, so as to say, when we see one pray,\n    that he prays for us; if he read, that he reads for us, and for the\n    divine honor; if he rest or work, that he is employed for the\n    advancement of the common good. (Hom. 3.) The practice of keeping\n    ourselves constantly in the divine presence, he calls a principal\n    duty, by which we learn to triumph over our enemies, and refer to\n    the divine honor all we do; \"for this one thing is necessary, that\n    whether we work, read, or pray, we always entertain this life and\n    treasure in our souls; having God constantly in our thoughts, and\n    the Holy Ghost in our breasts.\" (Hom. 3.) A continual watchfulness,\n    and strict guard upon all our senses, and in all our actions, is\n    necessary, especially against vanity, concupiscence, and gluttony;\n    without which, failings will be multiplied; pure and faithful souls\n    God makes his chaste spouses; they always think on him, and place\n    all their desires on him; but those who love the earth are earthly\n    in their thoughts and affections, their corrupt inclinations gain\n    such a mastery, that they seem natural to them. Vigilance is\n    absolutely necessary to remove this insinuating enemy; and purity of\n    conscience begets prudence, which can never be found under the\n    tyranny of the passions, and which is the eye that guides the soul\n    through the craggy paths of this life. Pure souls are raised by\n    divine grace to dwell with God on earth by holy contemplation, and\n    are fitted for eternal bliss, (Hom. 4;) true Christians differ in\n    their desires and actions from other men. The wicked burn with\n    lawless passions, and are disturbed with anxious desires and vain\n    wishes, hunt after, and think of nothing but earthly pleasures; but\n    the true Christian enjoys an uninterrupted tranquillity of mind and\n    joy, even amidst crosses, and rejoices in sufferings and\n    temptations, hope and divine grace sweetening their severest trials.\n    The love of God with which they burn, makes them rejoice in all they\n    suffer for his sake, and by his appointment. It is their most ardent\n    desire to behold God in his glory, and to be themselves transformed\n    into him. (2 Cor. iii.) Even now the sweetness with which God\n    overwhelms them, renders them already, in some measure, partakers of\n    his glory; which will be completed in them in heaven. (Hom. 5.) In\n    prayer we must be freed from all anxious care, trouble of mind, and\n    foreign thoughts; and must cry out to God with our whole hearts in\n    tranquillity and silence; for God descends only in peace and repose,\n    not amidst tumult and clamors. (Hom. 6.) A soul astonished to see\n    God, who is crowned with infinite glory, visit her with so much\n    sweetness, absorbed in hi, sovereignly despises all earthly things,\n    and cries out to his in strains of admiration at his condescension\n    and goodness. (Hom. 7) When a person, endowed with the gift of\n    supernatural prayer, falls on his knees to pray, his heart is\n    straight filled with the divine sweetness, and his soul exults in\n    God as a spouse with her beloved. This joy in one hour of prayer in\n    the silence of the night, makes a soul forget all the labors of the\n    day; being wrapt in God, she expatiates in the depth of his\n    immensity, and is raised above all the toys of this world to\n    heavenly joys, which no tongue can express. Then she cries out, \"Oh!\n    that my soul could now ascend with my prayer out high, to be for\n    evermore united with God!\" But this grace is not always equal; and\n    this light is sometimes stronger, and this ardor is sometimes more\n    vehement, sometimes more gentle; sometimes the soul seems to herself\n    to behold a cross shining with a dazzling brightness, wherewith her\n    interior man is penetrated. Sometimes in a rapture she seems clothed\n    with glory, in some measure as Christ appeared in his\n    transfiguration. At other times, overwhelmed with a divine light,\n    and drowned in the ocean of divine sweetness, she scarce remains\n    herself, and becomes a stranger, and, as it were, foolish to this\n    world, through the excess of heavenly sweetness, and relish of\n    divine mysteries. A perfect state of contemplation is granted to no\n    one in this life; yet when we go to pray, after making the sign of\n    the cross, often grace so overwhelms the heart, and the whole man,\n    filling every power with perfect tranquillity, that the soul,\n    through excess of overflowing joy, becomes like a little child,\n    which knows no evil, condemns no man, but loves all the world. At\n    other times she seems as a child of God, to confide in him as in her\n    father, to penetrate the heavenly mansions which are opened to her,\n    and to discover mysteries which no man can express. (Hom. 8.) These\n    interior delights can only be purchased by many trials; for a soul\n    must be dead to the world, and burn with a vehement love of God\n    alone, so that no creature can separate her from him, and she\n    dedicate herself and all her actions to him, without reserve. (Hom.\n    9.) For this, a most profound humility, cheerfulness, and courage\n    are necessary; sloth, tepidity, and sadness being incompatible with\n    spiritual progress. (Hom. 10.) The Holy Ghost is a violent fire in\n    our breasts, which makes us always active, and spurs us on\n    continually to aspire more and more vehemently towards God. (Hom.\n    11.) The mark of a true Christian is, that he studies to conceal\n    from the eyes of men all the good he receives from God. Those who\n    taste how sweet God is, and know no satiety in his love, in\n    proportion as they advance in contemplation, the more perfectly they\n    see their own wants and nothingness: and always cry out, \"I am most\n    unworthy that this sun sheds its beams upon me.\" (Hom. 15.) In the\n    following homilies, the author delivers many excellent maxims on\n    humility and prayer, and tells us, that a certain monk, after having\n    been favored with a wonderful rapture, and many great graces, fell\n    by pride into several grievous sins. (Hom. 17.) A certain rich\n    nobleman gave his estate to the poor, and set his slaves at liberty;\n    yet afterwards fell into pride, and many enormous crimes. Another,\n    who in the persecution had suffered torments with great constancy\n    for the faith, afterwards, intoxicated with self-conceit, gave great\n    scandal by his disorders. He mentions one who had formerly lived a\n    long time with him in the desert, prayed often with him, and was\n    favored with an extraordinary gift of compunction, and a miraculous\n    power of curing many sick persons, was delighted with glory and\n    applause of men, and drawn into the sink of vice. (Hom. 27.) To\n    preserve the unction of the Holy Ghost, a person must live in\n    constant fear, humility, and compunction. (Hom. 17.) Without Christ\n    and his grace we can do nothing; but by the Holy Ghost dwelling in\n    her, a soul becomes all light, all spirit, as joy, all love, all\n    compassion. Unless a person be animated by divine grace, and\n    replenished with all virtues, the best instructions and exhortations\n    in their mouths produce very little good. (Hom 18.) The servant of\n    God never bears in mind the good works he has done, but, after all\n    his labors, sees how much is wanting to him; and how much he falls\n    short of his duty, and of the perfection of virtue, and says every\n    day to himself, that now he ought to begin, and that to-morrow\n    perhaps God will call him to himself, and deliver him from his\n    labors and dangers (Hom. 26.) The absolute necessity of divine grace\n    he teaches in many places; also the fundamental article of original\n    sin, (Hom. 48. pag. 101, t. 4, Bibl. Patr. Colon. an. {}6{}) which\n    the Pelagians denied.\n\n{162}\n\nST. HONORATUS, ARCHBISHOP OF ARLES.\n\nHe was of a consular Roman family, then settled in Gaul, and was well\nversed in the liberal arts. In his youth he renounced the worship of\nidols, and gained his elder brother, Venantius, to Christ, whom he also\ninspired with a contempt of the world. They desired to renounce it\nentirely, but a {163} fond Pagan father put continual obstacles in their\nway: at length they took with them St. Caprais, a holy hermit, for their\ndirector, and sailed from Marseilles to Greece, with the design to live\nthere unknown, in some desert. Venantius soon died happily at Methone;\nand Honoratus, being also sick, was obliged to return with his\nconductor. He first led an eremitical life in the mountains, near\nFrejus. Two small islands lie in the sea near that coast, one larger, at\na nearer distance from the continent, called Lero, now St. Margaret's;\nthe other smaller and more remote, two leagues from Antibes, named\nLerins, at present St. Honore, from our saint, where he settled; and\nbeing followed by others, he there founded the famous monastery of\nLerins, about the year 400. Some he appointed to live in community;\nothers, who seemed more perfect, in separate cells, as anchorets. His\nrule was chiefly borrowed from that of St. Pachomius. Nothing can be\nmore amiable than the description St. Hilary has given of the excellent\nvirtues of this company of saints, especially of the charity, concord,\nhumility, compunction, and devotion which reigned among them, under the\nconduct of our holy abbot. He was, by compulsion, consecrated archbishop\nof Arles in 426, and died, exhausted with austerities and apostolical\nlabors, in 429. The style of his letters was clear and affecting: they\nwere penned with an admirable delicacy, elegance, and sweetness, as St.\nHilary assures. The loss of all these precious monuments is much\nregretted. His tomb is shown empty under the high altar of the church\nwhich bears his name at Arles; his body having been translated to Lerins\nin 1391, where the greatest part remains. See his panegyric by his\ndisciple, kinsman, and successor, St. Hilary of Arles; one of the most\nfinished pieces extant in this kind. Dom Rivet, Hist. Lit. t. 2, p. 156.\n\nST. FURSEY,\n\nSON OF FINTAN, KING OF PART OF IRELAND,\n\nWAS abbot first of a monastery in his own country, in the diocese of\nTuam, near the lake of Orbsen, where now stands the church of\nKill-fursa, says Colgan. Afterwards, travelling with two of his\nbrothers, St. Foilan and St. Ultan, through England, he founded, by the\nliberality of king Sigibert, the abbey of Cnobbersburg, now Burg-castle\nin Suffolk. Saint Ultan retired into a desert, and St. Fursey, after\nsome time, followed him thither, leaving the government of his monastery\nto St. Foilan. Being driven thence by the irruptions of king Penda, he\nwent into France, and, by the munificence of king Clovis II. and\nErconwald, the pious mayor of his palace, built the great monastery of\nLatiniac, or Lagny, six leagues from Paris, on the Marne. He was deputed\nby the bishop of Paris to govern that diocese in quality of his vicar;\non which account some have styled him bishop. He died in 650 at\nFroheins, that is, Fursei-domus, in the diocese of Amiens, while he was\nbuilding another monastery at Peronne, to which church Erconwald removed\nhis body. His relics have been famous for miracles, and are still\npreserved in the great church at Peronne, which was founded by Erconwald\nto be served by a certain number of priests, and made a royal collegiate\nchurch of canons by Lewis XI. Saint Fursey is honored as {164} patron of\nthat town. See his ancient life in Bollandus, from which Bede extracted\nan account of his visions in a sickness in Ireland, l. 3, hist. c. 19.\nSee also his life by Bede in MS. in the king's library at the British\nMuseum, and Colgan, Jan. 16, p. 75, and Feb. 9, p. 282.\n\nFIVE FRIARS, MINORS, MARTYRS.\n\nBERARDUS, PETER, ACURSIUS, ADJUTUS, AND OTTO,\n\nWERE sent by St. Francis to preach to the Mahometans of the West, while\nhe went in person to those of the East. They preached first to the Moors\nof Seville, where they suffered much for their zeal, and were banished.\nPassing thence into Morocco, they began there to preach Christ, and\nbeing banished, returned again. The infidel judge caused them twice to\nbe scourged till their ribs appeared bare; he then ordered burning oil\nand vinegar to be poured into their wounds, and their bodies to be\nrolled over sharp stones and potsherds. At length the king caused them\nto be brought before him, and taking his cimeter, clove their heads\nasunder in the middle of their foreheads, on the 16th of January, 1220.\nTheir relics were ransomed, and are preserved in the monastery of the\nholy cross in Coimbra. Their names stand in the Roman Martyrology, and\nthey were canonized by Sixtus IV. in 1481. See their acts in Bollandus\nand Wading; also Chalippe, Vie de S. Francois, l. 3, t. 1, p. 275.\n\nST. HENRY, HERMIT.\n\nTHE Danes were indebted in part for the light of faith, under God, to\nthe bright example and zealous labors of English missionaries. Henry was\nborn in that country, of honorable parentage, and from his infancy gave\nhimself to the divine service with his whole heart. When he came to\nman's estate he was solicited by his friends to marry, but having a\nstrong call from God to forsake the world, he sailed to the north of\nEngland. The little island of Cocket, which lies on the coast of\nNorthumberland, near the mouth of the river of the same name, was\ninhabited by many holy anchorets in St. Bede's time, as appears from his\nlife of St. Cuthbert.[1] This island belonged to the monastery of\nTinmouth, and, with the leave of the prior of that house, St. Henry\nundertook to lead in it an eremitical life. He fasted every day, and his\nrefection, which he took at most only once in twenty-four hours, after\nsunset, was only bread and water: and this bread he earned by tilling a\nlittle garden near his cell. He suffered many assaults both from devils\nand men; but by those very trials improved his soul in the perfect\nspirit of patience, meekness, humility, and charity. He died in his\nhermitage in 1127, on the 16th of January, and was buried by the monks\nof Tinmouth, in the church of the Blessed Virgin, near the body of St.\nOswin, king and martyr. See his life in Capgrave and Bollandus.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  Bede, Vit. S. Cuthberti, c. 24.\n\n{165}\n\n\nJANUARY XVII.\n\n\nST. ANTONY, ABBOT,\n\nPATRIARCH OF MONKS.\n\nFrom his life, compiled by the great St. Athanasius, vol. 2, p. 743, a\nwork much commended by St. Gregory Nazianzen, St. Jerom, St. Austin,\nRufinus, Palladius, &c. St. Chrysostom recommends to all persons the\nreading of this pious history, as full of instruction and edification.\nHom. 8, in Matt t. 7. p. 128. It contributed to the conversion of St.\nAustin. Confess. l. 8, c. 6 and 28. See Tillemont, t. 7, Helyot, t. 1,\nStevens, Addit. Mon. Anglic. t. 1, Ceillier, &c.\n\nA.D. 356.\n\nST. ANTONY was born at Coma, a village near Heraclea, or Great\nHeracleopolis, in Upper Egypt, on the borders of Arcadia, or Middle\nEgypt, in 251. His parents, who were Christians, and rich, to prevent\nhis being tainted by bad example and vicious conversation, kept him\nalways at home; so that he grew up unacquainted with any branch of human\nliterature, and could read no language but his own.[1] He was remarkable\nfrom his childhood for his temperance, a close attendance on church\nduties, and a punctual obedience to his parents. By their death he found\nhimself possessed of a very considerable estate, and charged with the\ncare of a younger sister, before he was twenty years of age. Near six\nmonths after, he heard read in the church those words of Christ to the\nrich young man: _Go sell what thou hast, and give it to the poor, and\nthou shalt have treasure in heaven._[2] He considered these words as\naddressed to himself; going home, he made over to his neighbors three\nhundred _aruras_,[3] that is, above one hundred and twenty acres of good\nland, that he and his sister might be free forever from all public taxes\nand burdens. The rest of his estate he sold, and gave the price to the\npoor, except what he thought necessary for himself and his sister. Soon\nafter, hearing in the church those other words of Christ; _Be not\nsolicitous for to-morrow_;[4] he also distributed in alms the moveables\nwhich he had reserved; and placed his sister in a house of virgins,[5]\nwhich most moderns take to be the first instance mentioned in history of\na nunnery. She was afterwards intrusted with the care and direction of\ntethers in that holy way of life. Antony himself retired into a\nsolitude, near his village, in imitation of a certain old man, who led\nthe life of a hermit in the neighborhood of Coma. Manual labor, prayer,\nand pious reading, were his whole occupation: and such was his fervor,\nthat if he heard of any virtuous recluse, he sought him out, and\nendeavored to make the best advantage of his {166} example and\ninstructions. He saw nothing practised by any other in this service of\nGod, which he did not imitate: thus he soon became a perfect model of\nhumility, Christian condescension, charity, prayer, and all virtues. The\ndevil assailed him by various temptations; first, he represented to him\ndivers good works he might have been able to do with his estate in the\nworld, and the difficulties of his present condition: a common artifice\nof the enemy, whereby he strives to make a soul slothful or dissatisfied\nin her vocation, in which God expects to be glorified by her. Being\ndiscovered and repulsed by the young novice, he varied his method of\nattack, and annoyed him night and day with filthy thoughts and obscene\nimaginations. Antony opposed to his assaults the strictest watchfulness\nover his senses, austere fasts, humility, and prayer, till Satan,\nappearing in a visible form, first of a woman coming to seduce him, then\nof a black boy to terrify him, at length confessed himself vanquished.\nThe saint's food was only bread, with a little salt, and he drank\nnothing but water; he never ate before sunset, and sometimes only once\nin two, or four days: he lay on a rush mat, or on the bare floor. In\nquest of a more remote solitude he withdrew further from Coma, and hid\nhimself in an old sepulchre; whither a friend brought him from time to\ntime a little bread. Satan was here again permitted to assault him in a\nvisible manner, to terrify him with dismal noises; and once he so\ngrievously beat him, that he lay almost dead, covered with bruises and\nwounds; and in this condition he was one day found by his friend, who\nvisited him from time to time to supply him with bread, during all the\ntime he lived in the ruinous sepulchre. When he began to come to\nhimself, though not yet able to stand, he cried out to the devils, while\nhe yet lay on the floor, \"Behold! here I am; do all you are able against\nme: nothing shall ever separate me from Christ my Lord.\" Hereupon the\nfiends appearing again, renewed the attack, and alarmed him with\nterrible clamors, and a variety of spectres, in hideous shapes of the\nmost frightful wild beasts, which they assumed to dismay and terrify\nhim; till a ray of heavenly light breaking in upon him, chased them\naway, and caused him to cry out: \"Where wast thou, my Lord and my\nMaster? Why wast thou not here, from the beginning of my conflict, to\nassuage my pains!\" A voice answered: \"Antony, I was here the whole time;\nI stood by thee, and beheld thy combat: and because thou hast manfully\nwithstood thine enemies, I will always protect thee, and will render thy\nname famous throughout the earth.\" At these words the saint arose, much\ncheered, and strengthened, to pray and return thanks to his deliverer.\nHitherto the saint, ever since his retreat, in 272, had lived in\nsolitary places not very far from his village; and St. Athanasius\nobserves, that before him many fervent persons led retired lives in\npenance and contemplation, near the towns; others remaining in the towns\nimitated the same manner of life. Both were called ascetics, from their\nbeing entirely devoted to the most perfect exercises of mortification\nand prayer, according to the import of the Greek word. Before St.\nAthanasius, we find frequent mention made of such ascetics: and Origen,\nabout the year 219,[6] says they always abstained from flesh, no less\nthan the disciples of Pythagoras. Eusebius tells us that St. Peter of\nAlexandria practised austerities equal to those of the ascetics; he says\nthe same of Pamphilus; and St. Jerom uses the same expression of\nPierius. St. Antony had led this manner of life near Coma, till\nresolving to withdraw into the deserts about the year 285, the\nthirty-fifth of his age, he crossed the eastern branch of the Nile, and\ntook up his abode in the ruins of an old castle on the top of the\nmountains; in which close solitude he lived almost twenty years, very\n{167} rarely seeing any man, except one who brought him bread every six\nmonths.\n\nTo satisfy the importunities of others, about the year 305, the\nfifty-fifty of his age, he came down from his mountain, and founded his\nfirst monastery at Phaium.[7] The dissipation occasioned by this\nundertaking led him into a temptation of despair, which he overcame by\nprayer and hard manual labor. In this new manner of life his daily\nrefection was six ounces of bread soaked in water, with a little salt;\nto which he sometimes added a few dates. He took it generally after\nsunset, but on some days at three o'clock; and in his old age he added a\nlittle oil. Sometimes he ate only once in three or four days, yet\nappeared vigorous, and always cheerful: strangers knew him from among\nhis disciples by the joy which was always painted on his countenance,\nresulting from the inward peace and composure of his soul. Retirement in\nhis cell was his delight, and divine contemplation and prayer his\nperpetual occupation. Coming to take his refection, he often burst into\ntears, and was obliged to leave his brethren and the table without\ntouching any nourishment, reflecting on the employment of the blessed\nspirits in heaven, who praise God without ceasing.[8] He exhorted his\nbrethren to allot the least time they possibly could to the care of the\nbody. Notwithstanding which, he was very careful never to place\nperfection in mortification, as Cassian observes, but in charity, in\nwhich it was his whole study continually to improve his soul. His under\ngarment was sackcloth over which he wore a white coat of sheep-skin,\nwith a girdle. He instructed his monks to have eternity always present\nto their minds, and to reflect every morning that perhaps they might not\nlive till night, and every evening that perhaps they might never see the\nmorning; and to perform every action, as if it were the last of their\nlives, with all the fervor of their souls to please God. He often\nexhorted them to watch against temptations, and to resist the devil with\nvigor: and spoke admirably of his weakness, saying: \"He dreads fasting,\nprayer, humility, and good works: he is not able even to stop my mouth\nwho speak against him. The illusions of the devil soon vanish,\nespecially if a man arms himself with the sign of the cross.[9] The\ndevils {168} tremble at the sign of the cross of our Lord, by which he\ntriumphed over and disarmed them.\"[10] He told them in what manner the\nfiend in his rage had assaulted him by visible phantoms, but that these\ndisappeared while he persevered in prayer. He told them, that once when\nthe devil appeared to him in glory, and said, \"Ask what you please; I am\nthe power of God:\" he invoked the holy name of Jesus, and he vanished.\nMaximinus renewed the persecution in 311; St. Antony, hoping to receive\nthe crown of martyrdom, went to Alexandria, served and encouraged the\nmartyrs in the mines and dungeons, before the tribunals, and at the\nplaces of execution. He publicly wore his white monastic habit, and\nappeared in the sight of the governor; yet took care never\npresumptuously to provoke the judges, or impeach himself, as some rashly\ndid. In 312 the persecution being abated, he returned to his monastery,\nand immured himself in his cell. Some time after he built another\nmonastery, called Pispir, near the Nile; but he chose, for the most\npart, to shut himself up in a remote cell upon a mountain of difficult\naccess, with Macarius, a disciple, who entertained strangers. If he\nfound them to be _Hierosolymites_, or spiritual men, St. Antony himself\nsat with them in discourse; if Egyptians, (by which name they meant\nworldly persons,) then Macarius entertained them, and St. Antony only\nappeared to give them a short exhortation. Once the saint saw in a\nvision the whole earth covered so thick with snares, that it seemed\nscarce possible to set down a foot without falling into them. At this\nsight he cried out, trembling: \"Who, O Lord, can escape them all?\" A\nvoice answered him \"Humility, O Antony!\"[11] St. Antony always looked\nupon himself as the least and the very outcast of mankind; he listened\nto the advice of every one, and professed that he received benefit from\nthat of the meanest person. He cultivated and pruned a little garden on\nhis desert mountain, that he might have herbs always at hand to present\na refreshment to those who, on coming to see him, were always weary by\ntravelling over a vast wilderness and inhospitable mountain, as St.\nAthanasius mentions. This tillage was not the only manual labor in which\nSt. Antony employed himself. The same venerable author speaks of his\nmaking mats as an ordinary occupation. We are told that he once fell\ninto dejection, finding uninterrupted contemplation above his strength;\nbut was taught to apply himself at intervals to manual labor, by a\nvision of an angel who appeared platting mats of palm-tree leaves, then\nrising to pray, and after some time sitting down again to work; and who\nat length said to him, \"Do thus, and thou shalt be saved.\"[12] But St.\nAthanasius informs us, that our saint continued in some degree to pray\nwhile he was at work. He watched great part of the nights in heavenly\ncontemplation; and sometimes, when the rising sun called him to his\ndaily tasks, he complained that its visible light robbed him of the\ngreater interior light which he enjoyed, and interrupted his close\napplication and solitude.[13] He always rose after a short sleep at\nmidnight, and continued in prayer, on his knees with his hands lifted up\nto heaven till sunrise, and sometimes till three in the afternoon, as\nPalladius relates in his Lausiac history.\n\nSt. Antony; in the year 339, saw in a vision, under the figure of mules\nkicking down the altar, the havoc which the Arian persecution made two\nyears after in Alexandria, and clearly foretold it, as St. Athanasius,\nSt. Jerom, and St. Chrysostom assure us.[14] He would not speak to a\nheretic, unless to exhort him to the true faith; and he drove all such\nfrom his mountain, calling them venomous serpents.[15] At the request of\nthe bishops, about {169} the year 355, he, took a journey to Alexandria,\nto confound the Arians, preaching aloud in that city, that God the Son\nis not a creature, but of the same substance with the Father; and that\nthe impious Arians, who called him a creature, did not differ from the\nheathens themselves, _who worshipped and served the creature rather than\nthe Creator_. All the people ran to see him, and rejoiced to hear him;\neven the pagans, struck with the dignity of his character, flocked to\nhim; saying, \"We desire to see the man of God.\" He converted many, and\nwrought several miracles: St. Athanasius conducted him back as far as\nthe gates of the city, where he cured a girl possessed by the devil.\nBeing desired by the duke or general of Egypt, to make a longer stay in\nthe city than he had proposed, he answered: \"As fish die if they leave\nthe water, so does a monk if he forsakes his solitude.\"[16]\n\nSt. Jerom and Rufin relate, that at Alexandria he met with the famous\nDidymus, and told him that he ought not to regret much the loss of eyes.\nwhich were common to ants and flies, but to rejoice in the treasure of\nthat interior light which the apostles enjoyed, and by which we see God,\nand kindle the fire of his love in our souls. Heathen philosophers, and\nothers, often went to dispute with him, and always returned much\nastonished at his humility, meekness, sanctity, and extraordinary\nwisdom. He admirably proved to them the truth and security of the\nChristian religion, and confirmed it by miracles. \"We,\" said he, \"only\nby naming Jesus Christ crucified, put to flight those devils which you\nadore as gods; and where the sign of the cross is formed, magic and\ncharms lose their power.\" At the end of this discourse he invoked\nChrist, and signed with the cross twice or thrice several persons\npossessed with devils; in the same moment they stood up sound, and in\ntheir senses, giving thanks to God for his mercy in their regard.[17]\nWhen certain philosophers asked him how he could spend his time in\nsolitude, without the pleasure of reading books, he replied, that nature\nwas his great book, and amply supplied the want of others. When others,\ndespising him as an illiterate man, came with the design to ridicule his\nignorance, he asked them with great simplicity, which was first, reason\nor learning, and which had produced the other? The philosophers\nanswered, \"Reason, or good sense.\" \"This, then,\" said Antony,\n\"suffices.\" The philosophers went away astonished at the wisdom and\ndignity with which he prevented their objections. Some others demanding\na reason of his faith in Christ, on purpose to insult it, he put them to\nsilence by showing that they degraded the notion of the divinity, by\nascribing to it infamous human passions, but that the humiliation of the\ncross is the greatest demonstration of infinite goodness, and its\nignominy appears the highest glory, by the triumphant resurrection, the\nmiraculous raising of the dead, and curing of the blind and the sick. He\nthen admirably proved, that faith in God and his works is more clear and\nsatisfactory than the sophistry of the Greeks. St. Athanasius mentions\nthat he disputed with these Greeks by an interpreter.[18] Our holy\nauthor assures us, that no one visited St. Antony under any affliction\nand sadness, who did not return home full of comfort and joy; and he\nrelates many miraculous cures wrought by him, also several heavenly\nvisions and revelations with which he was favored. Belacius, the duke or\ngeneral of Egypt, persecuting the Catholics with extreme fury, St.\nAntony, by a letter, exhorted him to leave the servants of Christ in\npeace. Belacius tore the letter, then spit and trampled upon it, and\nthreatened to make the abbot the next victim of his fury; but five days\nafter, as he was riding with Nestorius, governor of Egypt, their horses\nbegan to play and prance, and the governor's horse, though otherwise\nremarkably tame, by {170} justling, threw Belacius from his horse, and\nby biting his thigh, tore it in such a manner that the general died\nmiserably on the third day.[19] About the year 337, Constantine the\nGreat, and his two sons, Constantius and Constans, wrote a joint letter\nto the saint; recommending themselves to his prayers, and desiring an\nanswer. St. Antony seeing his monks surprised, said, without being\nmoved: \"Do not wonder that the emperor writes to us, one man to another;\nrather admire that God should have wrote to us, and that he has spoken\nto us by his Son.\" He said he knew not how to answer it: at last,\nthrough the importunity of his disciples, he penned a letter to the\nemperor and his sons, which St. Athanasius has preserved; and in which\nhe exhorts them to the contempt of the world, and the constant\nremembrance of the judgment to come. St. Jerom mentions seven other\nletters of St. Antony, to divers monasteries, written in the style of\nthe apostles, and filled with their maxims: several monasteries of Egypt\npossess them in the original Egyptian language. We have them in an\nobscure, imperfect, Latin translation from the Greek.[20] He inculcates\nperpetual watchfulness against temptations, prayer, mortification, and\nhumility.[21] He observes, that as the devil fell by pride, so he\nassaults virtue in us principally by that temptation.[22] A maxim which\nhe frequently repeats is, that the knowledge of ourselves is the\nnecessary and only step by which we call ascend to the knowledge and\nlove of God. The Bollandists[23] give us a short letter of St. Antony to\nSt. Theodorus, abbot of Tabenna, in which he says that God had assured\nhim in a revelation, that he showed mercy to all true adorers of Jesus\nChrist, though they should have fallen, if they sincerely repented of\ntheir sin. No ancients mention any monastic rule written by St.\nAntony.[24] His example and instructions have been the most perfect rule\nfor the monastic life to all succeeding ages. It is related[25] that St.\nAntony, hearing his disciples express their surprise at the great\nmultitudes who embraced a monastic life, and applied themselves with\nincredible ardor to the most austere practices of virtue, told them with\ntears, that the time would come when monks would be fond of living in\ncities and stately buildings, and of eating at dainty tables, and be\nonly distinguished from persons of the world by their habit; but that\nstill, some among them would arise to the spirit of true perfection,\nwhose crown would be so much the greater, as their virtue would be more\ndifficult, amid the contagion of bad example. In the discourses which\nthis saint made to his monks, a rigorous self-examination upon all their\nactions, every evening, was a practice which he strongly inculcated.[26]\nIn an excellent sermon which he made to his disciples, recorded by St.\nAthanasius,[27] he pathetically exhorts them to contemn the whole world\nfor heaven, to spend every day as if they knew it to be the last of\ntheir lives, having death always before their eyes, continually to\nadvance in fervor, and to be always armed against the assaults of Satan,\nwhose weakness he shows at length. He extols the efficacy of the sign of\nthe cross in chasing him, and dissipating his illusions, and lays down\nrules for the discernment of spirits, the first of which is, that the\ndevil leaves in the soul impressions of fear, sadness, confusion, and\ndisturbance.\n\n{171}\n\nSt. Antony performed the visitation of his monks a little before his\ndeath, which he foretold them with his last instructions, but no tears\ncould move him to die among them. It appears from St. Athanasius, that\nthe Christians had learned from the pagans their custom of embalming the\nbodies of the dead, which abuse, as proceeding from vanity and sometimes\nsuperstition, St. Antony had often condemned: this he would prevent, and\nordered that his body should be buried in the earth, as the patriarchs\nwere, and privately, on his mountain, by his two disciples Diacarius and\nAmathas, who had remained with him the last fifteen years, to serve him\nin his remote cell in his old age. He hastened back to that solitude,\nand some time after fell sick: he repeated to these two disciples his\norders for their burying his body secretly in that place, adding; \"In\nthe day of the resurrection, I shall receive it incorruptible from the\nhand of Christ.\" He ordered them to give one of his sheep-skins, with a\ncloak[28] in which he lay, to the bishop Athanasius, as a public\ntestimony of his being united in faith and communion with that holy\nprelate; to give his other sheep-skin to the bishop Serapion; and to\nkeep for themselves his sackcloth. He added; \"Farewell, my children,\nAntony is departing, and will be no longer with you.\" At these words\nthey embraced him, and he, stretching out his feet, without any other\nsign calmly ceased to breathe. His death happened in the year 355,\nprobably on the 17th of January, on which the most ancient Martyrologies\nname him, and which the Greek empire kept as a holyday soon after his\ndeath. He was one hundred and five years old. From his youth to that\nextreme old age, he always maintained the same fervor in his holy\nexercises: age to the last never made him change his diet (except in the\nuse of a little oil) nor his manner of clothing; yet he lived without\nsickness, his sight was not impaired, his teeth were only worn, and not\none was lost or loosened. The two disciples interred him according to\nhis directions. About the year 561, his body[29] was discovered, in the\nreign of Justinian, and with great solemnity translated to Alexandria,\nthence it was removed to Constantinople, and is now at Vienne in France.\nBollandus gives us an account of many miracles wrought by his\nintercession; particularly in what manner the distemper called the\nSacred Fire, since that time St. Antony's Fire, miraculously ceased\nthrough his patronage, when it raged violently in many parts of Europe,\nin the eleventh century.\n\n{172}\n\nA most sublime gift of heavenly contemplation and prayer was the fruit\nof this great saint's holy retirement. Whole nights seemed to him short\nin those exercises, and when the rising sun in the morning seemed to him\ntoo soon to call him from his knees to his manual labor, or other\nemployments, he would lament that the incomparable sweetness which he\nenjoyed, in the more perfect freedom with which his heart was taken up\nin heavenly contemplation in the silent watching of the night, should be\ninterrupted or abated. But the foundation of his most ardent charity,\nand that sublime contemplation by which his soul soared in noble and\nlofty flights above all earthly things, was laid in the purity and\ndisengagement of his affections, the contempt of the world, a most\nprofound humility, and the universal mortification of his senses and of\nthe powers of his soul. Hence flowed that constant tranquillity and\nserenity of his mind, which was the best proof of a perfect mastery of\nhis passions. St. Athanasius observes of him, that after thirty years\nspent in the closest solitude, \"he appeared not to others with a sullen\nor savage, but with a most obliging sociable air.\"[30] A heart that is\nfilled with inward peace, simplicity, goodness, and charity, is a\nstranger to a lowering or contracted look. The main point in Christian\nmortification is the humiliation of the heart, one of its principal ends\nbeing the subduing of the passions. Hence, true virtue always increases\nthe sweetness and gentleness of the mind, though this is attended with\nan invincible constancy, and an inflexible firmness in every point of\nduty. That devotion or self-denial is false or defective which betrays\nus into pride or uncharitableness; and whatever makes us sour, morose,\nor peevish, makes us certainly worse, and instead of begetting in us a\nnearer resemblance of the divine nature, gives us a strong tincture of\nthe temper of devils.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  St. Athanasius commends St. Antony's love of reading, both when he\n    lived with his father, (p. 795, B.) and afterwards when he lived\n    alone, (p. 797, C.) which we cannot naturally understand of his\n    hearing others read, especially when he was alone; therefore, when\n    St. Athanasius says, (p. 795, A.) that in his childhood he never\n    applied himself to the study of letters, [Greek: grammata mathein],\n    fearing the danger of falling into had company at school, he seems\n    to mean only Greek letters, then the language of all the learned;\n    for he must have learned at home the Egyptian alphabet. In the same\n    manner we are to understand Evagrius and others, who relate, that a\n    certain philosopher expressing his surprise how St. Antony could\n    employ his time, being deprived of the pleasure of reading, the\n    saint told him that the universe was his book. (Socr. l. 4, c. 23,\n    Rosweide, Vit. Patr. l. 6, c. 4, St. Nilus, l. 4, p. 60.)\n    Nevertheless, St. Austin imagined that St. Antony could read no\n    alphabet, and learned by heart and meditated on the scriptures only\n    by hearing them read by others (S. Aug. de Doctr. Chr. pr. p. 3, t.\n    3.) See Rosweide, Not. in Vit. S. Antonii. Bolland. 17 Jan. p. 119,\n    Sec.64, Tillem. note 1, p. 666.\n2.  Matt. xix. 21.\n3.  An aura was one hundred cubits of land. See Lexicon Constantini.\n    Fleury, l. 8, p. 418.\n4.  Ibid. vi. 34.\n5.  [Greek: Parthenon], as St. Athanasius calls it, t. 2, p. 796, ed.\n    Ben. He mentions that St. Antony, long after, paid her a visit, when\n    she was very old, and superior or mistress of many virgins, [Greek:\n    hathegoumenen allos parthenon], n. 54. p. 837.\n6.  Orig. lib. 5, p. 264.\n7.  His first monastery was situated near the confines of Upper and\n    Middle Egypt: it at first consisted of scattered cells. To visit\n    some of these brethren, he is mentioned by St. Athanasius (Vit. p.\n    461) to have crossed the Arsinotic canal, extremely infested with\n    crocodiles. This is sometimes called his monastery near the river,\n    and was situated not far from Aphroditopolis, the lower and more\n    ancient city of that name, in Heptanomis, or Middle Egypt. St.\n    Athanasius seems to place it in Thebais, or Upper Egypt, because it\n    was near the borders, and the boundaries of Upper Egypt were\n    extended much lower by those who divided Egypt only into two parts,\n    the Upper and the Lower; as Sozomen, l. 2, c. 23, and others,\n    frequently did. St. Antony, finding this solitude grow too public,\n    and not bearing the distraction of continual visits, he travelled up\n    the river to seek a more remote wilderness; but after mounting a\n    little way, while he sat on the bank waiting to see a boat pass by,\n    he changed his design, and instead of advancing southward, he went\n    with certain Saracen merchants to the East, and in three days,\n    doubtless on a camel, arrived at the great mountain towards the Red\n    Sea, where he spent the latter years of his life; yet he frequently\n    visited his first monastery, near Aphroditopolis. St. Hilarion going\n    from this latter to St. Antony's great monastery on the mountain,\n    performed that journey in three days, on camels, which a deacon,\n    named Baisan, let to those who desired to visit St. Antony. This\n    latter, near which the saint died, always continued a famous\n    pilgrimage.\n\n    Pispir was the monastery of St. Macarius, but is sometimes called\n    St. Antony's, who often visited it. This was situated on the Nile,\n    in Thebais, thirty measures or [Greek: semeia] from St. Antony's\n    mountain, according to Palladius, (Laus. c. 63.) This some\n    understand of Roman miles, others of Egyptian schaeni of thirty\n    furlongs each; thirty schaeni are nine hundred stadia, or one hundred\n    and thirteen miles. Pispir therefore seems not to have been very far\n    from Aphroditopolis. See Kocher, (comment. In fastos Abyssinorum,)\n    in the journal of Bern, ad an. 1761, t. 1, p. 160 and 169.\n\n    A monastery, of which St. Antony is titular saint, still subsists a\n    little above the ancient city of Aphroditon on the Nile. It is now\n    called Der-mar-Antinious-el-Bahr, that is, The monastery of Antony\n    at the river. See Pocock, p. 70, and the map prefixed to that part\n    of his travels. Travelling from hence one day's journey up the\n    river, then turning from the south towards the east, over sandy\n    deserts, and a chain of high mountains, in which springs of water,\n    in other parts very rare, are here and there found, and camels\n    travel for one hundred miles, we arrive at St. Antony's great\n    monastery, about six or seven hours journey from the Red Sea. See\n    Pocock, ib. p. 128. Granger, Relation du Voyage, &c., p. 107. Nouv.\n    Memoires des Missions, t. 5, p. 136. Vanslebius, Nouv. Relat. pp.\n    299 and 309; and Maillet. Descr. de 'Egypte, p. 320. The Grotto of\n    St. Paul is shown not very far from this great monastery; yet the\n    road wing [sic] round the mountains, and a great way about it, seems\n    to travellers as a great distance from it.\n8.  St. Athan. Vit. Anton. n. 45, p. 830.\n9.  P. 814.\n10. P. 823, ed. Ben.\n11. Rosweide, l. 3, c. 129. Cotelier, &c.\n12. S. Nilus, ep. 24. Cotelier, Apoth. Patr. p. 340. Rosweide, Vit.\n    Patr. l. 3, c. 105, l. 5, c. 7.\n13. Cassian, Collat. c. 31.\n14. S. Athan. n. 82, p. 857. S. Chrys. Hom. 8, in Matt. S. Hier. ep.\n    {}6. Sozom. l. 6, c. 5.\n15. S. Athan. n. 68, 69, p. 847.\n16. Ibid. n. 85. p. 859.\n17. Ibid. n. 80, p. 855.\n18. N. 77, p. 858.\n19. N. 86, p. 860.\n20. Bibl. Patr. Colon. t. 4, p. 26. See S. Antonii. M. Epistolae 20. cura\n    Abr. Eckellens. Paris, 1641. But only the above-mentioned seven\n    letters can be regarded as genuine, except the discourses preserved\n    by St. Athanasius in his life.\n21. Ep. 2, ad Arsinoitas.\n22. Ib.\n23. Maij. t. 3, p. 355.\n24. That under his name in Abraham Eckellensis is not of so high a\n    pedigree. A large body of the monks of St. Basil in the East, since\n    the seventh century, take the name of the Order of St. Antony, but\n    retain the rule of St. Basil, comprised in his ascetic writings; and\n    observe the same fasts, and other exercises, with all the other\n    monks of the East, who are called of the order of St. Basil; which\n    even the Maronites follow; though Tillemont denies it by mistake.\n25. Rosweide, Vit. Patr. l. 5, c. 8. Abr. Eckellens. in Vit. S. Ant. p.\n    106. Cotel. p. 344. Mart. Coptor.\n26. S. Athan. n. 55, p. 858.\n27. N. 16 & 43.\n28. The Ependytes of St. Antony, mentioned by St. Athanasius, n. 46, p.\n    831, has much embarrassed the critics: it seems to have been a cloak\n    of white wool. It is clear, from St. Athanasius, that St. Antony's\n    inner garment was a hair-cloth, over which he wore a cloak made of\n    sheep-skin.\n29. This translation of his relics to Alexandria, though doubted of by\n    some Protestants, is incontestably confirmed by Victor of Tunone,\n    (Chron. p. 11, in Scalig. Thesauro,) who lived then in banishment at\n    Canope, only twelve miles from Alexandria; also, by St. Isidore of\n    Seville, in the same age, Bede. Usuard, &c. They were removed to\n    Constantinople when the Saracens made themselves masters of Egypt,\n    about the year 635. (pee Bollandus, pp. 162, 1134.) They were\n    brought to Vienne in Dauphine, by Joselin, a nobleman of that\n    country, whom the emperor of Constantinople had gratified with that\n    rich present, about the year 1070. These relics were deposited in\n    the church of La Motte S. Didier, not far from Vienne, then a\n    Benedictin priory belonging to the abbey of Mont-Majour near Arles,\n    but now an independent abbey of regular canons of St. Antony. In\n    1089, a pestilential erysipelas distemper, called the Sacred Fire,\n    swept off great numbers in most provinces of France; public prayers\n    and processions were ordered against this scourge; at length it\n    pleased God to grant many miraculous cures of this dreadful\n    distemper, to those who implored his mercy trough the intercession\n    of St. Antony, especially before his relics; the church in which\n    they were deposited was resorted to by great numbers of pilgrims,\n    and his patronage was implored over the whole kingdom against this\n    disease. A nobleman near Vienne, named Gaston, and his son Girond,\n    devoted themselves and their estate to found and serve an hospital\n    near this priory, for the benefit of the poor that were afflicted\n    with this distemper: seven others joined them in their charitable\n    attendance on the sick, whence a confraternity of laymen who served\n    this hospital took its rise, and continued till Boniface VIII.\n    converted the Benedictin priory into an abbey, which he bestowed on\n    those hospitaller brothers, and giving them the religious rule of\n    regular canons of St. Austin, declared the abbot general of this new\n    order, called Regular Canons of St. Antony. An abbey in Paris, which\n    belongs to this order, is called Little St. Antony's, by which name\n    it is distinguished from the great Cistercian nunnery of St. Antony.\n    The general or abbot of St. Antony's, in Viennois, enjoys a yearly\n    revenue of about forty thousand livres according to Piganiol, Descr.\n    de la Fr. t. 4, p. 249, and Dom Beaunier, Rec. Abbayes de Fr. p.\n    982. The superiors of other houses of this order retain the name of\n    commanders, and the houses are called commaranderies, as when they\n    were hospitallers; so that the general is the only abbot. See\n    Bollandus, Beaunict, F. Longueval, Hist. de l'Eglise de France, l.\n    22, t. 8, p. 16, and Drouet, in the late edition of Moreri's Hist.\n    Diction V Antoine, from memoirs communicated by M. Bordet, superior\n    of the convent of this order at Paris.\n30. S. Athan. n. 67, p. 847, & n. 73, p. 850.\n\nSS. SPEUSIPPUS, ELEUSIPPUS, AND MELEUSIPPUS,\n\nMARTYRS.\n\nTHEY were three twin brothers, who, with Leonilla their grandmother,\nglorified God by an illustrious martyrdom in Cappadocia, probably in the\nreign of Marcus Aurelius. The most ancient acts of their martyrdom,\npublished by Rosweide and Bollandus, place it in that country, and their\nrelics were brought from the East to Langres in France, while the first\nrace of French kings filled the throne. A copy of the acts of their\nmartyrdom, which was sent from Langres by one Varnahair, to St.\nCeraunus, bishop of Paris, in the beginning of the seventh century, by\nan evident mistake or falsification, affirms their martyrdom to have\nhappened at Langres; by which false edition, Ado, and many others, were\nled into the same mistake. From certain ancient writings kept at\nLangres, mentioned by Gualtherot in his Anastasius of Langres, Chatelain\nproves that these relics, with the head of St. Mammes, a martyr, also of\nCappadocia, were given by the emperor Zeno to a nobleman of Langres, who\nhad served him in his wars. By him this sacred treasure was deposited in\nthe church of Langres, in the time of the bishop Aprunculus, in 490, to\nbe a protection against devils. The cathedral of Langres, which bears\nthe title of Saint Mammes, is possessed of the head of that martyr in a\nrich shrine. A brass tomb before the high altar, is said to have\ncontained the bodies of the three children who were thrown into the\nfurnace at Babylon, mentioned in the book of Daniel: but Chatelain\nthinks it belonged to the three martyrs whose bodies were given by the\nemperor Zeno to the count of Langres. The church called of St. {173}\nGeome, or Sancti Gemini, that is, the twins, situated two miles from\nLangres, belongs to a priory of regular canons, and is famous out of\ndevotion to those saints, though great part of their relics was\ntranslated by Hariolf, duke of Burgundy, and his brother Erlolf, bishop\nof Langres, into Suabia, and remains in the noble collegiate church of\nSt. Guy, or St. Vitus, at El{}ange. These holy martyrs are secondary\npatrons of the diocese of Langres, and titular saints of many churches\nin France and Germany. See Chatelain Notes on Jan. 17, p. 313.\n\nST. SULPICIUS THE PIOUS, B.\n\nARCHBISHOP OF BOURGES.\n\nTHE church of Bourges in France was founded by St. Ursin, who was sent\nfrom Rome to preach the faith in Gaul. St. Gregory of Tours, in his\nhistory, places his mission in the middle of the third century,[1] yet\nin his book on the Glory of Confessors,[2] he tells us that he was\nordained by the disciples of the apostles, and governed many years the\nchurch of Bourges, which he had planted. He was interred in a common\nburial-place in a field without the city; but his remains were\ntranslated thence by St. Germanus, bishop of Paris, and abbot of St.\nSymphorian's,[3] and by Probianus, bishop of Bourges, and deposited in\nthe church of St. Symphorian, now called St. Ursin's.[4] This saint is\nhonored in the Roman Martyrology on the 9th of November; at Lisieux, and\nsome other places, on the 29th of December. Among the most eminent of\nhis successors, two are called Sulpicius, and both surnamed Pious; the\nfirst, who is sometimes called the Severe, sat from the year 584 to 591,\nand his relics are enshrined in the church of St. Ursin.[5] His name was\ninserted in the Roman Martyrology by Baronius, on the 29th of January,\nand occurs in other more ancient calendars.[6]\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  S. Gr. Tur. Hist. l. 1, c. 28.\n2.  L. de Gl. Conf. c. 80.\n3.  Fortunat. in Vita S. German Paris\n4.  Gallia Christ. nova, t. 2, p. 4.\n5.  See St. Greg. Turon. and Gallia Christ. nov. t. 2, p. 15.\n6.  See Benedict XIV. Litter. Apost. praefix. Martyr. Rom. Sec.46, p. 33.\n\nST. SULPICIUS II., ARCHBISHOP OF BOURGES,\n\nSURNAMED LE DEBONNAIRE,\n\nIS commemorated on this day in the Roman Martyrology. He was descended\nof a noble family in Berry, and educated in learning and piety. His\nlarge patrimony he gave to the church and poor; and being ordained\npriest, served king Clothaire II. in quality of almoner and chaplain in\nhis armies; and on a time when he lay dangerously ill, restored him to\nhis health by prayer and fasting. In 624 he succeeded St. Austregesilus,\ncommonly called St. Outrille, in the see of Bourges. He reformed\ndiscipline, converted all the Jews in his diocese, and employed his\nwhole time in prayer and laborious functions, chiefly in the instruction\nof the poor. He died in 644. Among the letters of St. Desiderius of\nCahors, we have one which he sent to our saint with this title, \"To the\nholy patriarch, Sulpicius;\"[1] and several of our saint to him.[2] The\nfamous monastery which bears his name at Bourges, is said to have been\nfounded by him under the invocation of the Blessed Virgin; it now\nbelongs to the congregation of St. Maur, and is enriched with part of\nhis relics, and with a portion of the blood of St. Stephen, who is the\ntitular saint of the stately cathedral. A bone of one of the arms {174}\nof our saint, is kept in the famous parochial church in Paris, which is\ndedicated to God under his invocation. See his ancient life in Bolland.\nand Mab. saec. 2, Ben. Gallia Christ. nova, t. 2, p. 18.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  Apud Canis. Lect. Ant. t. 5, & Bibl. Patr. t. 8, l. 1, ep. 12.\n2.  Ib. l. 2.\n\nST. MILGITHE, V.\n\nTHUS Dom Menard writes the name of this saint, who by Capgrave is called\nMildgyda, by Josselin, Milvida, and by Thomas of Ely, in a fragment of\nthe life of St. Andry, quoted by Mabillon, Milgrida. Wilson testifies\nthat her feast is mentioned on this day, in an ancient MS. English\nMartyrology; though Menard places it on the 26th of February. Her\nfather, Merowald, was son of Penda, and brother of Peoda, Wulfher, and\nEthelred, kings of Mercia. Her mother, Domneva, was daughter of\nErmenred, who was brother to Erconbert, king of Kent, father of St.\nErcongata, who died a nun at Farmoutier, in France, under the discipline\nof St. Aubierge, her aunt. Her brother Meresin died young, in the odor\nof sanctity. Her elder sisters, SS. Mildred and Milburge, are very\nfamous in the English calendars. St. Milgithe imitated their illustrious\nexample, and contemning the fading pleasures and delights of the world,\nretired into the monastery of Estrey, built by Egbert, king of Kent, not\nfar from Canterbury, and having served God in the heroic practice of all\nChristian virtues, died happily about the close of the seventh century.\nSee Menard in Martyrol. Bened. Wilson's English Martyr. Capgrave and\nBolland. t. 2, p. 176.\n\nST. NENNIUS, OR NENNIDHIUS, ABBOT.\n\nDESPISING the vanities of the world, though of the race of the monarchs\nof Ireland, from his youth he made the science of the cross of Christ\nthe sole object of his ambition; and to engrave in his heart the lessons\nwhich our divine Redeemer taught by that adorable mystery, was the\ncentre of all his desires. Having passed many years, first in the school\nof St. Fiechus, archbishop of Leinster, and afterwards in the celebrated\nmonastery of Clonard, in the province of Meath, under its holy founder\nSt Finian, he retired into the isle of Inis-muighesamb, in the lake of\nErne, in the province of Ulster. Here, in process of time, he became the\ndirector of many souls in the paths of Christian perfection, founded a\ngreat monastery, and, on account of his eminent sanctity, and the number\nof illustrious disciples whom he left behind him, is called one of the\ntwelve apostles of Ireland. He flourished in the sixth century, and has\nbeen honored in Ireland among the saints. F. Colgan was not able to meet\nwith any acts of his life, though he is mentioned in the lives of\nseveral other Irish saints. A church in the isle of the lake, formed by\nthe river Erne, is dedicated to God under his invocation.\n\n{175}\n\n\nJANUARY XVIII.\n\nST. PETER'S CHAIR AT ROME.\n\nSee Phaebeus, de Cathedra in qua S. Petrus Romae sedit, et de antiquitate\net praestantia solemnitatis Cathedrae Romanae. Romae, 1666, 8vo.; also\nChatelain, Notes on the Martyrology, p. 326.\n\nST. PETER having triumphed over the devil in the East, pursued him to\nRome in the person of Simon Magus. He who had formerly trembled at the\nvoice of a poor maid, now feared not the very throne of idolatry and\nsuperstition. The capital of the empire of the world, and the centre of\nimpiety, called for the zeal of the prince of the apostles. God had\nestablished the Roman empire, and extended its dominion beyond that of\nany former monarchy, for the more easy propagation of his gospel. Its\nmetropolis was of the greatest importance for this enterprise. St. Peter\ntook that province upon himself; and, repairing to Rome, there preached\nthe faith and established his Episcopal chair, whose _successors_ the\nbishops of Rome have been accounted in all ages. That St. Peter founded\nthat church by his _preaching_, is expressly asserted by Caius,[1] a\npriest of Rome under pope Zephyrinus; who relates also that his body was\nthen on the Vatican-hill, and that of his fellow-laborer, St. Paul, on\nthe Ostian road. That he and St. Paul planted the faith at Rome, and\nwere both crowned with martyrdom at the same time, is affirmed by\nDionysius,[2] bishop of Corinth, in the second age. St. Irenaeus,[3] who\nlived in the same age, calls the church at Rome \"The greatest and most\nancient church, founded by the two glorious apostles, Peter and Paul.\"\nEusebius, in several places,[4] mentions St. Peter's being at Rome, and\nthe several important transactions of this apostle in that city. Not to\nmention Origen,[5] Hegesippus,[6] Arnobius,[7] St. Ambrose,[8], St.\nAustin,[9] St. Jerom,[10] St. Optatus,[11] Orosius,[12] and others on\nthe same subject.[13] St. Cyprian[14] calls Rome the _chair_ of St.\nPeter, (as Theodoret[15] calls it his _throne_,) which the general\ncouncils and ecclesiastical writers, through every age, and on every\noccasion, repeat. That St. Peter at least preached in Rome, founded that\nchurch, and died there by martyrdom under Nero, are facts the most\nincontestable by the testimony of all writers of different countries,\nwho lived near that time; persons of unquestionable veracity, and who\ncould not but be informed of the truth, in a point so interesting, and\nof its own nature so public and notorious, as to leave them no\npossibility of a mistake. This is also attested by monuments of every\nkind; also by the prerogatives, rights, and privileges, which that\nchurch enjoyed from those early ages; in consequence of this title.\n\nIt was an ancient custom, as cardinal Baronius[16] and Thomassin[17]\nshow by many examples, observed by churches, to keep an annual festival\nof the {176} consecration of their bishops. The feast of the chair of\nSt. Peter is found in ancient Martyrologies, as in one under the name of\nSt. Jerom, at Esternach, copied in the time of St. Willibrord, in 720.\nChristians justly celebrate the founding of this mother-church, the\ncentre of Catholic communion, in thanksgiving to God for his mercies on\nhis church, and to implore his future blessings.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nChrist has taught us {by} the divine model of prayer which he has\ndelivered to us, that we are bound to recommend to him, before all other\nthings, the exaltation of his own honor and glory, and to beg that the\nkingdom of his holy grace and love be planted in all hearts. If we love\nGod above all things, and with our whole hearts, or have any true\ncharity for our neighbor, this will be the centre of all our desires,\nthat God be loved and served by all his creatures, and that he be\nglorified in the most perfect manner, in our own souls. By placing this\nat the head of our requests, we shall most strongly engage God to crown\nall our just and holy desires. As one of his greatest mercies to his\nchurch, we must earnestly beseech him to raise up in it zealous pastors,\neminently replenished with his Spirit, with which he animated his\napostles.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  Apud Eus. l. 2, c. 24, alias 25.\n2.  Ibid.\n3.  L. 3, c. 3.\n4.  L. 2, c. 13 & 15, &c.\n5.  Ib. l. 3, c. 1.\n6.  L. de. Excid. Hier. {}.\n7.  L. 3.\n8.  Ser. de Basilicis.\n9.  L. de Haeres. c. 1, &c.\n10. L. 17, ad Marcell.\n11. Adv. Parm.\n12. L. 7, c. 1.\n13. The general opinion with Eusebius, St. Jerom, and the Roman\n    calendar, fixes the first arrival of St. Peter at Rome in the second\n    year of Claudius. If this date be true, the apostle returned into\n    the East soon after; for he was imprisoned in Judaea, by Agrippa, in\n    the year of Christ 43. Lactantius does not mention this first coming\n    of St. Peter to Rome, but only the second, saying, that he came to\n    Rome in the reign of Nero, who put him and St. Paul to death. L. de\n    Mort. Persec. n. 2.\n14. Ep. 55, ad. Cornel. pap.\n15. L. 2, c. 17.\n16. Notae in Martyr.\n17. Tr. des Fetes, l. 2, c. 10.\n\nSS. PAUL, AND THIRTY-SIX COMPANIONS, MM. IN EGYPT.\n\nFrom their authentic acts in Ruinart, p. 624.\n\nIN Egypt, thirty-seven Christian noblemen, all persons of high birth and\nplentiful fortunes, but richer in the gifts of grace, entered into a\nzealous confederacy to propagate the gospel throughout the country.\nTheir leader and head was one Paul, a true imitator of the great apostle\nwhose name he bore. They divided themselves into four several bands:\nPaul and nine others went eastward: Recombus, with eight more, towards\nthe north: Thoonas, with the like number, to the south: and Papias, with\nthe remaining eight, to the west. They labored zealously in extending\nthe kingdom of Christ on every side, planting the faith, instructing the\ndocile, and purifying the souls of penitents who confessed their sins.\nBut the greatest part of the inhabitants of that great kingdom loved\ndarkness rather than light. The servants of God were treated with all\nmanner of injuries, apprehended, and laid in irons. The governor,\nalarmed at the news of their enterprise, sent orders for their being\nbrought before him from different parts of the kingdom. He employed both\npromises and threats to compel them to sacrifice. Paul answered, in the\nname of them all, that it was better for them to die, saying: \"Do not\nspare us.\" The judge condemned them all to death: those who went to the\neast and south, to be burned; those from the north, to be beheaded; and\nthose from the west to be crucified. But he was affrighted and surprised\nbeyond expression to see with what joy and courage this brave army\nmarched out, and bowed their heads to death. They suffered on the 18th\nof January, but in what year it is not mentioned in their acts.\n\nST. PRISCA, V.M.\n\nSHE was a noble Roman lady, and after many torments finished her triumph\nby the sword, about the year 275. Her relics are preserved in the\nancient church which bears her name in Rome, and gives title in a\ncardinal. {177} She is mentioned in the sacramentary of St. Gregory, and\nin almost all western Martyrologies. The acts of her martyrdom deserve\nno regard: St. Paul, in the last chapter of his epistle to the Romans,\nsalutes Aquila, a person of Pontus, of Jewish extraction, and Priscilla,\nwhom he and all churches thanked, because they had exposed themselves\nfor his sake. He mentions the church which assembled in their house,\nwhich he attributes to no other among the twenty-five Christians whom he\nsaluted, and were then at Rome. This agrees with the immemorial\ntradition at Rome, that St. Peter consecrated an altar, and baptized\nthere in an urn of stone, which is now kept in the church of St. Prisca.\nAquila and Priscilla are still honored in this church, as titular\npatrons with our saint, and a considerable part of their relics lies\nunder the altar. Aquila and Priscilla were tent-makers, and lived at\nCorinth when they were banished from Rome under Claudius: she who is\ncalled Priscilla in the Acts of the Apostles, and Epistles to the Roman,\nand first to the Corinthians, is named Prisca in the second to Timothy.\nSee the Roman Martyrology on the 18th of January and the 8th of July;\nalso Chatelain, not. p. 333.\n\nST. DEICOLUS, ABBOT.\n\nIN IRISH DICHUL, CALLED BY THE FRENCH, ST. DEEL, OR DIEY\n\nHE quitted Ireland, his native country, with St. Columban, and lived\nwith him, first in the kingdom of the East Angles, and afterwards at\nLuxeu; but when his master quitted France, he founded the abbey of\nLutra, or Lure, in the diocese of Besanzon, which was much enriched by\nking Clothaire II.[1] Amidst his austerities, the joy and peace of his\nsoul appeared in his countenance. St. Columban once said to him in his\nyouth: \"Deicolus, why are you always smiling?\" He answered in\nsimplicity: \"Because no one can take my God from me.\" He died in the\nseventh century. See his life and the history of his miracles in F.\nChifflet, and Mabillon, Acta Bened. t. 2, p. 103, both written by a monk\nof Lure in the tenth century, as the authors of l'Hist. Lit. de la\nFrance take notice, t. 6, p. 410. By moderns, this saint is called\nDeicola; but in ancient MSS. Deicolus. In Franche-comte his name Deel is\nfrequently given in baptism, and Deele to persons of the female sex.\n\nFootnotes:\n1. The abbot of Lure was formerly a prince of the empire. At present the\nabbey is united to that of Morbac in Alsace. Lure is situated three\nleagues from Laxeu, which stands near mount Vosge, two leagues from\nLorraine towards the south.\n\nST. ULFRID, OR WOLFRED, BISHOP AND MARTYR.\n\nHE was an Englishman of great learning and virtue; and preached the\nfaith, first in Germany; afterwards in Sweden, under the pious king Olas\nII., who first took the title of king of Sweden; for his predecessors\nhad only been styled kings of Upsal. The good bishop converted many to\nChrist; till in the year 1028, while he was preaching against the idol\nTarstans or Thor, and hewing it down with a hatchet, he was slain by the\npagans. See Adam of Bremen, who wrote his most faithful History of the\nChurch in the North, in 1080, l. 2 c. 44. Albert Kranxius, l. 4. Metrop.\nc. 8. Baron. ad an. 1028, n. 10.\n\n{178}\n\n\nJANUARY XIX.\n\nSS. MARIS, MARTHA, AUDIFAX, AND ABACHUM MM.\n\nAbridged from their acts, concerning which see Bollandus, who allows\nthem, Tillem. t. 4, p. 673; and Chatelain, notes, p. 339.\n\nA.D. 270.\n\nMARIS, a nobleman of Persia, with his wife Martha, and two sons, Audifax\nand Abachum, being converted to the faith, distributed his fortune among\nthe poor, as the primitive Christians did at Jerusalem, and came to Rome\nto visit the tombs of the apostles. The emperor Aurelian then persecuted\nthe church, and by his order a great number of Christians were shut up\nin the amphitheatre, and shot to death with arrows, and their bodies\nburnt. Our saints gathered and buried their ashes with respect; for\nwhich they were apprehended, and after many torments under the governor\nMarcianus, Maris and his two sons were beheaded; and Martha drowned,\nthirteen miles from Rome, at a place now called Santa Ninfa.[1] Their\nrelics were found at Rome in 1590. They are mentioned with distinction\nin all the western Martyrologies from the sacramentary of St. Gregory.\nTheir relics are kept principally at Rome; part in the church of St.\nAdrian, part in that of St. Charles, and in that of St. John of\nCalybite. Eginhart, sole-in-law and secretary of Charlemagne, deposited\na portion of these relics, which had been sent him from Rome, in the\nabbey of Selghenstadt, of which he was the founder, in the diocese of\nMentz.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe martyrs and confessors triumphed over the devil by prayer; by this,\npoor and weak as they were, they were rendered invincible, by engaging\nOmnipotence itself to be their comfort, strength, and protection. If the\nart of praying well be the art of living well, according to the received\nmaxim of the fathers and masters of a spiritual life,[2] nothing is\ncertainly of greater importance, than for us to learn this heavenly art\nof conversing with God in the manner we ought. We admire the wonderful\neffects which this exercise produced in the saints, who by it were\ndisengaged from earthly ties and made spiritual and heavenly, perfect\nangels on earth; but we experience nothing of this in ourselves. Prayer\nwas in them the channel of all graces, the means of attaining all\nvirtues, and all the treasures of heaven. In us it is fruitless: the\nreason is plain; for the promises of Christ cannot fail: we ask, and\nreceive not, because we ask amiss.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  Ninfa, or Nympha, in the corrupted ages of the Latin tongue,\n    signifies water. In this place are several pools called by the\n    Italians from these martyrs, Santa Ninfa. See Chatelain, p. 340, and\n    Du Cange.\n2.  Vere novit recta vivere, qui recti novit orare. Inter Serm. S.\n    Augustini, Sermon 55, in Appendix, ed. Ben. t. 5, p. 101.\n\n{179}\n\nST. CANUTUS, KING OF DENMARK, M.\n\nFrom his life, faithfully written by AElnoth, a monk of Canterbury, who\nhad lived twenty-four years in Denmark, and wrote in 1105. It was\nprinted at Copenhagen, in 1602. See also Saxo Grammaticus, the most\nelegant and judicious of the Danish historians.\n\nA.D. 1086.\n\nST. CANUTUS, or KNUT, the fourth of that name, king of Denmark, was\nnatural son of Swein III., whose great uncle Canutus had reigned in\nEngland. Swein having no lawful issue, took care of the education of\nCanutus, who being endowed with excellent qualities both of mind and\nbody, answered perfectly well the care of his preceptors and governors.\nIt is hard to say, whether he excelled more in courage, or in conduct\nand skill in war; but his singular piety perfectly eclipsed all his\nother endowments. He scoured the seas of pirates, and subdued several\nneighboring provinces which infested Denmark with their incursions. The\nkingdom of Denmark was elective till the year 1660; wherefore, when\nSwein died, many pitched upon our saint, whose eminent virtues best\nqualified him for the throne; but the majority, fearing his martial\nspirit, preferred his eldest natural brother Harald, the seventh king of\nthat name, who, for his stupidity and vices, was commonly called the\nSlothful. Canutus retired into Sweden to king Halstan, who received him\nwith the greatest marks of kindness and esteem; but the king could never\ninduce him to undertake any expedition against Denmark; on the contrary,\nthe Christian hero employed all his power and interest in the service of\nhis country. Harald dying after two years' reign, Canutus was called to\nsucceed him.\n\nDenmark had received the Christian faith long before; some say in 826,\nbut wanted a zealous hand at the helm, to put the finishing stroke to\nthat good work. St. Canutus seems to have been pitched upon by\nprovidence for this purpose. He began his reign by a successful war\nagainst the troublesome barbarous enemies of the state, and by planting\nthe faith in the conquered provinces of Courland, Samogitia, and\nLivonia. Amidst the glory of his victories, he humbly prostrated himself\nat the foot of the crucifix, laying there his diadem, and offering\nhimself and his kingdom to the King of kings. After having provided for\nits peace and safety, and enlarged its territories, he married Eltha, or\nAlice, daughter of Robert, earl of Flanders, by whom he had a pious son,\nSt. Charles, surnamed the Good, afterwards also earl of Flanders. His\nnext concern was to reform abuses at home. For this purpose, he enacted\nsevere, but necessary laws, for the strict administration of justice,\nand repressed the violence and tyranny of the great, without respect of\npersons. He countenanced and honored holy men, granted many privileges\nand immunities to the clergy, to enhance the people's esteem of them;\nand omitted nothing to convince them of their obligation to provide for\ntheir subsistence by the payment of tithes. His charity and tenderness\ntowards his subjects made him study by all possible ways to ease them of\ntheir burdens, and make them a happy people. He showed a royal\nmagnificence in building and adorning churches, and gave the crown which\nhe wore, of exceeding great value, to the church of Roschild, in\nZealand, his capital city, and the place of his residence, where the\nkings of Denmark are yet buried. He chastised his body with fasting,\ndiscipline, and hair-cloths. Prayer was his assiduous exercise. When\nWilliam the Conqueror had made himself master of England, Canutus sent\nforces to assist the vanquished; but these troops finding no one willing\nto {180} join them, were easily defeated in the year 1069. Some time\nafter, being invited by the conquered English, he raised an army to\ninvade this island, and expel the Normans; but through the treacherous\npractices of his brother Olas, or Olaus, was obliged to wait so long on\nthe coast, that his troops deserted him. The pious king, having always\nin view the service of God, and judging this a proper occasion to induce\nhis people to pay tithes to their pastors, he proposed to them either to\npay a heavy fine, by way of punishment for their desertion, or submit to\nthe law of tithes for the pastors of the church. Their aversion to the\nlatter made them choose the tax, to the great mortification of the king,\nwho, hoping they would change their resolution, ordered it to be levied\nwith rigor. But they, being incensed at the severity of the collectors,\nrebelled. St. Canutus retired for safety into the isle of Fionia, and\nwas hindered from joining his loyal troops by the treachery of Blanco,\nan officer, who, to deceive him, assured his majesty that the rebels\nwere returned to their duty. The king went to the church of St. Alban,\nthe martyr, to perform his devotions, and return God thanks for that\nhappy event. This the rebels being informed of by Blanco, they\nsurrounded the church with him at their head. In the mean time the holy\nking, perceiving the danger that threatened his life, confessed his sins\nat the foot of the altar, with great tranquillity and resignation, and\nreceived the holy communion. His guards defended the church doors, and\nBlanco was slain by them. The rebels threw in bricks and stones, through\nthe windows, by which they beat down the shrines of certain relics of\nSt. Alban and St. Oswald, which St. Canutus had brought over from\nEngland. The saint, stretching out his arms before the altar, fervently\nrecommended his soul into the hands of his Creator: in which posture he\nwas wounded with a javelin, darted through the window, and fell a victim\nto Christ. His brother Benedict, and seventeen others, were slain with\nhim, on the 10th of July, 1086, as AElnoth, a contemporary author,\ntestifies, who has specified the date of all the events with the utmost\nexactness. His wicked brother Olas succeeded him in the kingdom. God\npunished the people during eight years and three months of his reign\nwith a dreadful famine, and other calamities; and attested the sanctity\nof the martyr, by many miraculous cures of the sick at his tomb. For\nwhich reason his relics were taken up out of their obscure sepulchre,\nand honorably entombed towards the end of the reign of Olas. His\nsuccessor, Eric III., a most religious prince, restored piety and\nreligion, with equal courage and success, and sent ambassadors to Rome,\nwith proofs of the miracles performed, and obtained from the pope a\ndeclaration authorizing the veneration of St. Canutus, the proto-martyr\nof Denmark. Upon this occasion a most solemn translation of his relics,\nwhich were put in a most costly shrine, was performed, at which AElnoth,\nour historian, was present. He adds, that the first preachers of the\nfaith in Denmark, Sweden, and Norway, were English priests; that the\nDanes then zealously embraced the Christian religion, but that the\nSwedes still continued more obstinate, among whom Eschil, an Englishman,\nreceived the crown of martyrdom, while he was preaching Christ to\ncertain savage tribes.\n\nST. HENRY, ARCHBISHOP OF UPSAL, M.\n\nHE was an Englishman, and preached the faith in the North with his\ncountryman, cardinal Nicholas Breakspear, the apostle of Norway, and\nlegate of the holy see, afterwards pope Adrian IV., by whom he was\nraised to this see, in 1148. St. Eric, or Henry, (for it is the same\nname,) was {181} then the holy king of Sweden.[1] Our saint, after\nhaving converted several provinces, went to preach in Finland, which\nthat king had lately conquered. He deserved to be styled the apostle of\nthat country, but fell a martyr in it, being stoned to death at the\ninstigation of a barbarous murderer, whom he endeavored to reclaim by\ncensures, in 1151. His tomb was in great veneration at Upsal, till his\nashes were scattered on the change of religion, in the sixteenth\ncentury. See John Magnus, l. 1, Vit. Pout. Upsal. Olaus Magnus, l. 4.\nBollandus, and chiefly his life published by Benzelius. Monum. Suec. p.\n33.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  Stiernman, in his discourse, \"On the State of Learning among the\n    ancient Swedes,\" observes, that Sweden was chiefly converted to\n    Christianity by English Saxon missionaries. The principal among\n    these were Ansgar, Sigfrid, Roduard, Richolf, Edward, Eskil, David,\n    and Henric, as he gives their names.\n\n    In the history of the bishops and archbishops of Upsal, published by\n    Benzelius in his Monum. Suec. p 37, the first whose name is recorded\n    is Everin, whom Benzelius supposes to be the person whom St. Sigfrid\n    consecrated to this see. He seems to have been one of his English\n    colleagues. Stephen, the sixth bishop of Upsal, was the first\n    archbishop. See the life of St. Sigfrid, and Benzelius's notes on\n    the catalogue of the bishops of Upsol, p. 186.\n\nST. WULSTAN, BISHOP OF WORCESTER, C.\n\nHE was a native of Icentum, in Warwickshire. In his youth, perceiving\nhimself somewhat touched with wanton love on seeing a woman dance, he\nwithdrew into a thicket hard by, and, lying prostrate, bewailed his\nfault before God, with very great contrition. And he was endowed from\nthat time, by Almighty God, with the gift of such a constant\nwatchfulness over his senses, as prevented his being ever more annoyed\nwith the like temptations. He laid the foundation of his studies and\neducation in the monastery of Evesham, but completed the same at\nPeterborough. His parents having by mutual consent taken the monastic\nhabit at Worcester; his father, Athelstan, in the great monastery of\nmen, and his mother, Wulfgeva, in a nunnery; St. Wulstan put himself\nunder the direction of Brithege, bishop of Worcester, by whom he was\nadvanced to the holy orders of priesthood. In this station he redoubled\nhis ardor for prayer, and practised greater austerities in the world,\nthan monks in their convents. At first, he allowed himself the use of\nflesh; but being one day distracted in saying mass, by the smell of meat\nthat was roasting in the kitchen, he bound himself by vow never more to\neat any flesh. Not long after he entered himself a novice in the great\nabbey at Worcester, where he was remarkable for the innocence and\nsanctity of his life. The first charge with which he was intrusted in\nthe monastery, was the care of instructing the children. He was\nafterwards made preceptor, and then treasurer of the church. In these\ntwo last stations he devoted himself totally to prayer, and watched\nwhole nights in the church. As the meanest employments were always the\nobject of his love and choice, it was contrary to his inclination that\nhe was made prior of Worcester, and, in 1062, bishop of that see, when\nAldred was translated to that of York. Though not very learned, he\ndelivered the word of God with so much dignity and unction, as often to\nmove his whole audience to tears. He always recited the psalter while he\ntravelled, and never passed by any church or chapel without going in, to\npour forth his soul before the altar with tears, which seemed to stand\nalways ready in his eyes for prayer. When the conqueror had deprived the\nEnglish, both nobility and clergy, of the posts of honor they possessed\nin the church and state, in favor of his Normans, on whose fidelity he\ncould depend, Wulstan kept his see, though not without a miracle, as St.\nAelred, Florentius, and Capgrave relate, as follows: In a synod, held at\nWestminster, in which archbishop Lanfranc {182} presided, Wulstan was\ncalled upon to give up his crosier and ring, upon pretext of his\nsimplicity and unfitness for business. The saint confessed himself unfit\nfor the charge, but said, that king Edward, with the concurrence of the\napostolic see, had compelled him to take it upon him, and that he would\ndeliver his crosier to him. Then going to the king's monument, he fixed\nhis crosier to the stone; then went and sat down among the monks. No one\nwas able to draw out the crosier till the saint was ordered to take it\nagain, and it followed his hand with ease. From this time the conqueror\ntreated him with honor. Lanfranc even commissioned him to perform the\nvisitation of the diocese of Chester for himself. When any English\ncomplained of the oppression of the Normans, he used to tell them, \"This\nis a scourge of God for your sins, which you must bear with patience.\"\nThe saint caused young gentlemen who were brought up under his care, to\ncarry in the dishes and wait on the poor at table, to teach them the\npractice of humiliation, in which he set the most edifying example. He\nshowed the most tender charity for penitents, and often wept over them,\nwhile they confessed their sins to-him. He died in 1095, having sat\nthirty-two years, and lived about eighty-seven. He was canonized in\n1203. See his life by William of Malmesbury, in Wharton, t. 2, p. 244.\nAlso, a second, by Florence of Worcester, and a third in Capgrave; and\nhis history, at length, by Dr. Thomas, in his History of the Cathedral\nof Worcester.\n\nST. BLAITHMAIC,\n\nSON of an Irish king, and abbot in the isle of Hij, in Scotland. He was\nmartyred by Danish pirates, to whom he refused to betray the treasures\nof the church, in 793. See his life, by Wilfridus Strabo, in Canisius\nAntiq. {} &c.\n\nST. LOMER, OR LAUDOMARUS, ABBOT.\n\nIN his childhood he kept his father's sheep; in which employment he\nmacerated his body by regular fasts, and spent his time in studies and\nprayer, under the direction of a certain holy priest. Being afterwards,\nby compulsion, ordained priest, he was made canon and cellerer (some\nmoderns say provost) of the church of Chartres. After some years he\nretired into a neighboring forest: Mabillon thinks at the place where\nnow stands Bellomer, a monastery of the order of Fontevrald. Many\ndisciples being assembled near his hermitage, he removed with them into\nanother desert, where he built the monastery of Corbion, (at present a\npriory called Moutier-au-Perche, six leagues from Chartres,) about the\nyear 575. A wonderful spirit of prayer, and gift of miracles, rendered\nhis name famous. He died on the 19th of January, in 593, at Chartres, in\nthe house of the bishop, who had called him thither some time before. In\nthe incursions of the Normans, his remains were removed from place to\nplace, till they were lodged at Perly, in Auvergne. His head is now kept\nin the priory of Maissac, called St. Laumer's, in Auvergne; the rest of\nhis relics were removed to Blois, where an abbey was built which bears\nhis name. Set his anonymous life, written by one who knew him, in\nBollandus and Mabillon; also Chatelain and the Paris Breviary.\n\n{183}\n\n\nJANUARY XX.\n\nST. FABIAN, POPE, M.\n\nSee Tillemont, t. 3, p. 362.\n\nA.D. 250.\n\nHE succeeded St. Anterus in the pontificate, in the year 236. Eusebius\nrelates,[1] that in an assembly of the people and clergy, held for the\nelection of a pastor in his room, a dove, unexpectedly appearing,\nsettled, to the great surprise of all present, on the head of St.\nFabian; and that this miraculous sign united the votes of the clergy and\npeople in promoting him, though not thought of before, as being a layman\nand a stranger. He governed the church sixteen years, sent St. Dionysius\nand other preachers into Gaul, and condemned Privatus, a broacher of a\nnew heresy in Africa, as appears from St. Cyprian.[2] St. Fabian died a\nglorious martyr in the persecution of Decius, in 250, as St. Cyprian and\nSt. Jerom witness. The former, writing to his successor, St. Cornelius,\ncalls him an incomparable man; and says, that the glory of his death had\nanswered the purity and holiness of his life.[3]\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe saints made God, and the accomplishment of his holy will, the great\nobject of all their petitions to their prayers, and their only aim in\nall their actions. \"God,\" says St. Austin,[4] \"in his promises to hear\nour prayers, is desirous to bestow himself upon us; if you find any\nthing better than him, ask it, but if you ask any thing beneath him, you\nput an affront upon him, and hurt yourself by preferring to him a\ncreature which he framed: pray in the spirit and sentiment of love, in\nwhich the royal prophet said to him, 'Thou, O Lord, art my portion.'[5]\nLet others choose to themselves portions among creatures, for my part,\nThou art my portion, Thee alone have I chosen for my whole inheritance.\"\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  Hist. l. 6, c. 29.\n2.  Cypr. Ep. 30. Ed. Pam.\n3.  Ep. 44 ad. Corn.\n4.  S. Aug. Conc. 1, in Ps. 34.\n5.  Ps. lxxii. 26.\n\nST. SEBASTIAN, M.\n\nFrom his acts, written before the end of the fourth age. The gladiators,\nwho were abolished by Honorius, in 403, subsisted when these acts were\ncompiled. See Bollandus, who thinks St. Ambrose wrote them, also\nTillemont, t. 1, p. 551.\n\nA.D. 288.\n\nST. SEBASTIAN was born at Narbonne, in Gaul, but his parents were of\nMilan, in Italy, and he was brought up in that city. He was a fervent\nservant of Christ, and though his natural inclinations gave him an\naversion to a military life, yet to be better able, without suspicion,\nto assist the confessors and martyrs in their sufferings, he went to\nRome, and entered the army under the emperor Carinus, about the year\n283. It happened that the martyrs, Marcus and Marcellianus, under\nsentence of death, appeared in danger of being shaken in their faith by\nthe tears of their friends: Sebastian seeing this, stepped in, and made\nthem a long exhortation to constancy, which {184} he delivered with the\nholy fire, that strongly affected all his hearers. Zoe, the wife of\nNicostratus, having for six years lost the use of speech by a palsy in\nher tongue, fell at his feet, and spoke distinctly, by the saint's\nmaking the sign of the cross on her mouth. She, with her husband\nNicostratus, who was master of the rolls,[1] the parents of Marcus and\nMarcellianus, the jailor Claudius, and sixteen other prisoners, were\nconverted; and Nicostratus, who had charge of the prisoners, took them\nto his own house, where Polycarp, a holy priest, instructed and baptized\nthem. Chromatius, governor of Rome, being informed of this, and that\nTranquillinus, the father of Saints Marcus and Marcellianus, had been\ncured of the gout by receiving baptism, desired to be instructed in the\nfaith, being himself grievously afflicted with the same distemper.\nAccordingly, having sent for Sebastian, he was cured by him, and\nbaptized, with his son Tiburtius. He then enlarged the converted\nprisoners, made his slaves free, and resigned his prefectship.\n\nNot long after, in the year 285, Carinus was defeated and slain in\nIllyricum by Dioclesian, who, the year following, made Maximian his\ncolleague in the empire. The persecution was still carried on by the\nmagistrates, in the same manner as under Carinus, without any new\nedicts. Dioclesian, admiring the courage and virtue of St. Sebastian,\nwho concealed his religion, would fain have him near his person, and\ncreated him captain of a company of the pretorian guards, which was a\nconsiderable dignity. When Dioclesian went into the East, Maximian, who\nremained in the West, honored our saint with the same distinction and\nrespect. Chromatius, with the emperor's consent, retired into the\ncountry in Campania, taking many new converts along with him. It was a\ncontest of zeal, out of a mutual desire of martyrdom, between St.\nSebastian and the priest Polycarp, which of them should accompany this\ntroop, to complete their instruction, and which should remain in the\ncity, to encourage and assist the martyrs, which latter was the more\ndangerous province. St. Austin wished to see such contests of charity\namong the ministers of the church.[2] Pope Caius, who was appealed to,\njudged it most proper that Sebastian should stay in Rome, as a defender\nof the church. In the year 286, the persecution growing hot, the pope\nand others concealed themselves in the imperial palace, as a place of\nthe greatest safety, in the apartments of one Castulus, a Christian\nofficer of the court. St. Zoe was first apprehended, praying at St.\nPeter's tomb on the feast of the apostles. She was stifled with smoke,\nbeing hung by the heels over a fire. Tranquillinus, ashamed to be less\ncourageous than a woman, went to pray at the tomb of St. Paul, and was\nseized by the populace, and stoned to death. Nicostratus, Claudius,\nCastorius, and Victorinus were taken, and after being thrice tortured,\nwere thrown into the sea. Tiburtius, betrayed by a false brother, was\nbeheaded. Castulus, accused by the same wretch, was thrice put on the\nrack, and afterwards buried alive. Marcus and Marcellianus were nailed\nby the feet to a post, and having remained in that torment twenty-four\nhours, were shot to death with arrows.\n\nSt. Sebastian, having sent so many martyrs to heaven before him, was\nhimself impeached before the emperor Dioclesian; who, having grievously\nreproached him with ingratitude, delivered him over to certain archers\nof Mauritania, to be shot to death. His body was covered with arrows,\nand he left for dead. Irene, the widow of St. Castulus, going to bury\nhim, found him still alive, and took him to her lodgings, where, by\ncare, he recovered of his wounds, but refused to fly, and even placed\nhimself one day by a staircase where the emperor was to pass, whom he\nfirst accosted, reproaching {185} him for his unjust cruelties against\nthe Christians. This freedom of speech, and from a person, too, whom he\nsupposed to have been dead, greatly astonished the emperor; but\nrecovering from his surprise, he gave orders for his being seized and\nbeat to death with cudgels, and his body thrown into the common sewer. A\npious lady called Lucina, admonished by the martyr in a vision, got it\nprivately removed, and buried it in the catacombs,[3] at the entrance of\nthe cemetery of Calixtus. A church was afterwards built over his relies\nby pope Damasus, which is one of the seven ancient stationary churches\nat Rome, but not one of the seven principal churches of that city, as\nsome moderns mistake; it neither being one of the five patriarchal\nchurches, nor one of the seventy-two old churches which give titles to\ncardinals. Vandelbert, St. Ado, Eginard, Sigebert, and other\ncontemporary authors relate, that in the reign of Louis Debonnaire, pope\nEugenius II. gave the body of St. Sebastian to Hilduin, abbot of St.\nDenys, who brought it into France, and it was deposited at St. Medard's,\nat Soissons, on the 9th of December, in 826; with it is said to have\nbeen brought a considerable portion of the relics of St. Gregory the\nGreat. The rich shrines of SS. Sebastian, Gregory, and Medard, were\nplundered by the Calvinists, in 1564, and the sacred bones thrown into a\nditch, in which there was water. Upon the declaration of two\neye-witnesses, they were afterwards found by the Catholics; and in 1578,\nenclosed in three new shrines, though the bones of the three saints\ncould not be distinguished from each other.[4] The head of this martyr,\nwhich was given to St. Willibrord by pope Sergius, is kept at Esternach,\nin the duchy of Luxemburg. Portions of his relics are shown in the\ncathedral at St. Victor's; the Theatins and Minims at Paris; in four\nchurches at Mantua; at Malaca, Seville, Toulouse, Munich in the ducal\npalace, Tournay in the cathedral, Antwerp in the church of the Jesuits,\nand at Brussels, in the chapel of the court, not at St. Gudula's, as\nsome have mistaken.[5] St. Sebastian has been always honored by the\nchurch, as one of her most illustrious martyrs. We read in Paul the\ndeacon, in what manner, in the year 680, Rome was freed from a raging\npestilence, by the patronage of this saint. Milan, in 1575, Lisbon, in\n1599, and other places, have experienced, in like calamities, the\nmiraculous effects of his intercession with God in their behalf.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  Primiscrinius.\n2.  Ep. 180.\n3.  On Catacombs, see in St. Calixtus, Oct. 14.\n4.  Chatelain, notes, p. 355. Baillet.\n5.  Bollandus, Chatel. ib.\n\nST. EUTHYMIUS, ABBOT.\n\nFrom his life, faithfully written forty years after his death, by Cyril\nof Scythopolis, a monk of his monastery, one of the best writers of\nantiquity, and author of the life of St. Sabas. See it accurately\npublished by Dom Lottin, Annal. Graec. t. 1, and Cotelier, Mon. Graec. t.\n2, p. 200.\n\nA.D. 473.\n\nTHE birth of this saint was the fruit of the prayers of his pious\nparents, through the intercession of the martyr Polyeuctus. His father\nwas a noble and wealthy citizen of Melitene in Armenia. Euthymius was\neducated in sacred learning, and in the fervent practice of prayer,\nsilence, humility, and mortification, under the care of the holy bishop\nof that city, who ordained him priest, and constituted him his vicar and\ngeneral-overseer of the monasteries. The saint often visited that of St.\nPolyeuctus, and spent whole nights in prayer on a neighboring mountain;\nas he also did all the time from the octave of the Epiphany till towards\nthe end of Lent. The love of solitude daily growing stronger in his\nbreast, he secretly left his own country,{186} at twenty-nine years of\nage: and, after offering up his prayers at the holy places in Jerusalem,\nchose a cell six miles from that city, near the Laura[1] of Pharan. He\nmade baskets, and procured, by selling them, both his own subsistence\nand alms for the poor. Constant prayer was the employment of his soul.\nAfter five years he retired with one Theoctistus, a holy hermit, ten\nmiles further towards Jericho, where they lived together on raw herbs in\na cave. In this place he began to receive disciples, about the year 411.\nHe committed the care of his monastery to Theoctistus, and continued\nhimself in a remote hermitage, only giving audience on Saturdays and\nSundays, to those who desired spiritual advice. He taught all his monks\nnever to eat so much as to satisfy their hunger, but strictly forbade\namong them all singularity in fasts, or any other common observances, as\nsavoring of vanity and self-will. According to his example, they all\nretired into the deserts from the octave of the feast of the Epiphany\ntill the week before Easter, when they met again in their monastery, to\ncelebrate the office peculiar to Holy Week. He enjoined them constant\nsilence and manual labors: they gained their own subsistence, and a\nsurplus, which they devoted as first-fruits to God in the relief of the\npoor.\n\nSt. Euthymius cured, by the sign of the cross and a short prayer,\nTerebon, one half of whose body had been struck dead with a palsy. His\nfather, who was an Arabian prince, named Aspebetes, an idolater, had\nexhausted on his cure, but to no purpose, the much-boasted arts of\nphysic and magic among the Persians, to procure some relief for his son.\nAt the sight of this miracle Aspebetes desired baptism, and took the\nname of Peter. Such multitudes of Arabians followed his example, that\nJuvenal, patriarch of Jerusalem, ordained him their bishop, and he\nassisted at the council of Ephesus against Nestorius in 431. He built\nSt. Euthymius a Laura on the right hand of the road from Jerusalem to\nJericho, in the year 420. Euthymius could never be prevailed upon to\ndepart from his rules of strict solitude; but governed his monks by\nproper superiors, to whom he gave his directions on Sundays. His\nhumility and charity won the hearts of all who spoke to him. He seemed\nto surpass the great Arsenius in the gift of perpetual tears. Cyril\nrelates many miracles which he wrought, usually by the sign of the\ncross. In the time of a great drought, he exhorted the people to\npenance, to avert this scourge of heaven. Great numbers came in\nprocession to his cell, carrying crosses, singing Kyrie eleison, and\nbegging him to offer up his prayers to God for them. He said to them: \"I\nam a sinner, how can I presume to appear before God, who is angry at our\nsins? Let us prostrate ourselves all together before him, and he will\nhear us.\" They obeyed; and the saint going into his chapel with some of\nhis monks, prayed prostrate on the ground. The sky grew dark on a\nsudden, rain fell in abundance, and the year proved remarkably fruitful.\n\nSt. Euthymius showed great zeal against the Nestorian and Eutychian\nheretics. The turbulent empress Eudocia, after the death of her husband\nTheodosius, retired into Palestine, and there continued to favor the\nlatter with her protection. Awaked by the afflictions of her family,\nparticularly in the plunder of Rome, and the captivity of her daughter\nEudocia, and her two granddaughters, carried by the Vandals into Africa,\nshe sent to beg the advice of St. Simeon Stylites. He answered, that her\nmisfortunes were the punishment of her sin, in forsaking and persecuting\nthe orthodox faith; and ordered her to follow the direction of\nEuthymius. She knew that our saint admitted no woman within the precinct\nof his Laura, no more than St. Simeon suffered them to step within the\nenclosure of the mandra or lodge {187} about his pillar. She therefore\nbuilt a tower on the east side of the desert, thirty furlongs from the\nLaura, and prayed St. Euthymius to meet her there. His advice to her was\nto forsake the Eutychians and their impious patriarch Theodosius, and to\nreceive the council of Chalcedon. She followed his advice as the command\nof God, and returning to Jerusalem, embraced the Catholic communion with\nthe orthodox patriarch Juvenal; and an incredible number followed her\nexample. She spent the rest of her life in works of penance and piety.\nIn 459, she desired St. Euthymius to meet her at her tower, designing to\nsettle on his Laura sufficient revenues for its subsistence. He sent her\nword to spare herself the trouble, and to prepare herself for death; for\nGod summoned her before his tribunal. She admired his disinterestedness,\nreturned to Jerusalem, and died shortly after. One of the latest\ndisciples of our saint was the young St. Sabas, whom he tenderly loved.\nIn the year 473, on the 13th of January, Martyrius and Elias, to both\nwhom St. Euthymius had foretold the patriarchate of Jerusalem, came with\nseveral others to visit him, and to conduct him into his Lent-retreat.\nBut he said he would stay with them all that week, and leave them on the\nSaturday following, meaning, by death. Three days after he gave orders\nthat a general watching should be observed on the eve of St. Antony's\nfestival, on which he made a discourse to his spiritual children,\nexhorting them to humility and charity. He appointed Elias his\nsuccessor, and foretold Domitian, a beloved disciple, that he would\nfollow him out of this world, on the seventh day, which happened\naccordingly. Euthymius died on Saturday the 28th day of January, being\nninety-five years old, of which he had spent sixty-eight in the deserts.\nCyril relates his having appeared several times after his death, and the\nmany miracles that were wrought by his intercession; to several of which\nhe declares himself an eye-witness. St. Sabas kept his festival\nimmediately after his death; which is observed both by the Latins and\nGreeks. The latter always style him the Great. It appears from his life\nthat he was ordained priest before he embraced an eremitical state, and\nthat he founded two monasteries, besides a Laura, which was also\nconverted into a monastery after his death.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  A Laura consisted of cells at a little distance from one another,\n    and not under the same roof, as a monastery.\n\nST. FECHIN, ABBOT.\n\nAN ancient hymn on this saint is published by Bollandus. He is honored\nwith singular devotion at Foure, anciently called Fobhar, a village in\nWest-Meath, where he governed a monastery with great sanctity; and\nhappily departed to our Lord in the year 664, being carried off in the\ngreat pestilence which swept off four kings in Ireland; and which scarce\na third part of the inhabitants survived. See his life in Bollandus;\nalso Giraldus Cambr. Topog. Hibern. dist. 2, c. 52, and Colgan. Giraldus\nmentions St. Fechin's mill at Foure, which out of respect it is forbid\nfor any woman ever to enter. Several churches, and some villages in\nIreland, take their name from this saint.\n\n{188}\n\n\nJANUARY XXI.\n\nSAINT AGNES, V.M.\n\nThe following relation is taken from Prudentius, de Coron. hym. 14, St.\nAmbrose, l. 1, de Virgin. & Offic. t. 1, c. 41, and other fathers. Her\nacts are as ancient as the seventh century; but not sufficiently\nauthentic: nor are those given us in Chaldaic by Stephen Assemani of a\nbetter stamp. They contradict St. Ambrose and Prudentius in supposing\nthat she finished her martyrdom by fire. See Tillemont, t. 5.\n\nA.D. 304, or 305.\n\nST. JEROM says,[1] that the tongues and pens of all nations are employed\nin the praises of this saint, who overcame both the cruelty of the\ntyrant and the tenderness of her age, and crowned the glory of chastity\nwith that of martyrdom. St. Austin observes,[2] that her name signifies\nchaste in Greek, and lamb in Latin. She has been always looked upon in\nthe church as a special patroness of purity, with the immaculate Mother\nof God and St. Thecla. Rome was the theatre of the triumph of St. Agnes;\nand Prudentius says, that her tomb was shown within sight of that city.\nShe suffered not long after the beginning of the persecution of\nDioclesian, whose bloody edicts appeared in March in the year of our\nLord 303. We learn from St. Ambrose and St. Austin, that she was only\nthirteen years of age at the time of her glorious death. Her riches and\nbeauty excited the young noblemen of the first families of Rome, to vie\nwith one another in their addresses, who should gain her in marriage.[3]\nAgnes answered them all, that she had consecrated her virginity to a\nheavenly spouse, who could not be beheld by mortal eyes. Her suitors\nfinding her resolution impregnable to all their arts and importunities,\naccused her to the governor as a Christian; not doubting but threats and\ntorments would overcome her tender mind, on which allurements could make\nno impression. The judge at first employed the mildest expressions and\nmost inviting promises; to which Agnes paid no regard, repeating always,\nthat she could have no other spouse than Jesus Christ. He then made use\nof threats, but found her soul endowed with a masculine courage, and\neven desirous of racks and death. At last, terrible fires were made, and\niron hooks, racks, and other instruments of torture displayed before\nher, with threats of immediate execution. The young virgin surveyed them\nall with an undaunted eye; and with a cheerful countenance beheld the\nfierce and cruel executioners surrounding her, and ready to dispatch her\nat the word of command. She was so far from betraying the least symptom\nof fear, that she even expressed her joy at the sight, and offered\nherself to the rack. She was then dragged before the idols, and\ncommanded to offer incense: \"but could by no means be compelled to move\nher hand, except to make the sign of the cross,\" says St. Ambrose.\n\nThe governor seeing his measures ineffectual, said he would send her to\na house of prostitution, where what she prized so highly should be\nexposed to the insults of the debauchees.[4] Agnes answered that Jesus\nChrist was too jealous of the purity of his spouses, to suffer it to be\nviolated in such a manner; for he was their defender and protector. \"You\nmay,\" said she, \"stain your sword with my blood, but will never be able\nto profane my body, consecrated to Christ.\" The governor was so incensed\nat this, that he {189} ordered her to be immediately led to the public\nbrothel, with liberty to all persons to abuse her person at pleasure.\nMany young profligates ran thither, full of the wicked desire of\ngratifying their lust; but were seized with such awe at the sight of the\nsaint, that they durst not approach her; one only excepted, who,\nattempting to be rude to her, was that very instant, by a flash, as it\nwere, of lightning from heaven, struck blind, and fell trembling to the\nground. His companions, terrified, took him up, and carried him to\nAgnes, who was at a distance, singing hymns of praise to Christ, her\nprotector. The virgin by prayer restored him to his sight and health.[5]\n\nThe chief prosecutor of the saint, who at first sought to gratify his\nlust and avarice, now labored to satiate his revenge, by incensing the\njudge against her; his passionate fondness being changed into anger and\nrage. The governor wanted not others to spur him on; for he was highly\nexasperated to see himself baffled, and set at defiance by one of her\ntender age and sex. Therefore, resolved upon her death, he condemned her\nto be beheaded. Agnes, transported with joy on hearing this sentence,\nand still more at the sight of the executioner, \"went to the place of\nexecution more cheerfully,\" says St. Ambrose, \"than others go to their\nwedding.\" The executioner had secret instructions to use all means to\ninduce her to a compliance: but Agnes always answered she could never\noffer so great an injury to her heavenly spouse; and having made a short\nprayer, bowed down her neck to adore God, and receive the stroke of\ndeath. The spectators wept to see so beautiful and tender a virgin\nloaded with fetters, and to behold her fearless under the very sword of\nthe executioner, who with a trembling hand cut off her head at one\nstroke. Her body was buried at a small distance from Rome, near the\nNomentan road. A church was built on the spot in the time of Constantine\nthe Great, and was repaired by pope Honorius in the seventh century. It\nis now in the hands of Canon-Regulars, standing without the walls of\nRome; and is honored with her relics in a very rich silver shrine, the\ngift of pope Paul V., in whose time they were found in this church,\ntogether with those of St. Emerentiana.[6] The other beautiful rich\nchurch of St. Agnes within the city, built by pope Innocent X., (the\nright of patronage being vested in the family of Pamphili,) stands on\nthe place where her chastity was exposed. The feast of St. Agnes is\nmentioned in all Martyrologies, both of the East and West, though on\ndifferent days. It was formerly a holyday for the women in England, as\nappears from the council of Worcester, held in the year 1240. St.\nAmbrose, St. Austin, and other fathers have wrote her panegyric. St.\nMartin of Tours was singularly devout to her. Thomas a Kempis honored\nher as his special patroness, as his works declare in many places. He\nrelates many miracles wrought, and graces received through her\nintercession.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nMarriage is a holy state, instituted by God, and in the order of\nprovidence and nature the general or most ordinary state of those who\nlive in the world. Those, therefore, who upon motives of virtue, and in\na Christian and holy manner engage in this state, do well. Those,\nnevertheless, who for the sake of practising more perfect virtue, by a\ndivine call, prefer a state of perpetual {190} virginity, embrace that\nwhich is more perfect and more excellent. Dr. Wells, a learned\nProtestant, confesses that Christ[7] declares voluntary chastity, for\nthe kingdom of heaven's sake, to be an excellency, and an excellent\nstate of life.[8] This is also the manifest inspired doctrine of St.\nPaul,[9] and in the revelations of St. John,[10] spotless virgins are\ncalled, in a particular manner, the companions of the Lamb, and are said\nto enjoy the singular privilege of following him wherever he goes. The\ntradition of the church has always been unanimous in this point; and\namong the Romans, Greeks Syrians, and Barbarians, many holy virgins\njoyfully preferred torments and death to the violation of their\nintegrity, which they bound themselves by vow to preserve without\ndefilement, in mind or body. The fathers, from the very disciples of the\napostles, are all profuse in extolling the excellency of holy virginity,\nas a special fruit of the incarnation of Christ, his divine institution,\nand a virtue which has particular charms in the eyes of God, who\ndelights in chaste minds, and chooses to dwell singularly in them. They\noften repeat that purity raises men, even in this mortal life, to the\ndignity of angels; purifies the soul, fits it for a more perfect love of\nGod and a closer application to heavenly things, and disengages the mind\nand heart from worldly thoughts and affections. It produces in the soul\nthe clearest resemblance to God. Chastity is threefold; that of virgins,\nthat of widows, and that of married persons; in each state it will\nreceive its crown, as St. Ambrose observes,[11] but in the first is most\nperfect, so that St. Austin calls its fruit an hundred fold, and that of\nmarriage sixty fold; but the more excellent this virtue is, and the\nhigher its glory and reward, the more heroic and the more difficult is\nits victory; nor is it perfect unless it be embellished with all other\nvirtues in an heroic degree, especially divine charity and the most\nprofound humility.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  Ep. 8.\n2.  Serm. 274.\n3.  Footnote: S. Ambrose, l. 1, Virgin.\n4.  Prudent. S. Ambrose.\n5.  St. Basil witnesses, (l. de vera Virgin.,) that when virgins were\n    exposed by the persecutors to the attempts of lewd men, Christ\n    wonderfully interposed in defence of their chastity. Tertullian\n    reproached the heathens with this impiety, in these words: Apolog.\n    \"By condemning the Christian maid rather to the lewd youth than to\n    the lion, you have acknowledged that a stain of purity is more\n    dreaded by us than any torments or death. Yet your crafty cruelty\n    avails you not: it rather serves to gain men over to our holy\n    religion.\"\n6.  This church gives title to a cardinal, and every year on her feast\n    the abbot of St. Peter's ad Vincula blesses in it, at high mass, two\n    lambs, which are thence carried to the pope, by whom they are again\n    blessed. After which they are sent to the nuns of St. Laurence's in\n    Panisperna, or sometimes to the Capucinesses, who make of their wool\n    palliums, which his holiness blesses, and sends to archbishops as\n    emblem of meekness and spotless purity.\n7.  Matt. xix. 11.\n8.  Wells, Paraph. on S. Matt. p. 185.\n9.  1 Cor. vii. 7, 8, 25, 27, 32, 38.\n10. Apoc. xiv. 1, 3, 4, 5.\n11. S. Ambr. l. de Viduis, t. 5, p. 635.\n\nSAINT FRUCTUOSUS, BISHOP OF TARRAGON, AND HIS COMPANIONS, MARTYRS\n\nFrom his most valuable acts in Ruinart, quoted by St. Austin, Serm. 273,\nand transcribed by Prudentius, hymno 6.\n\nA.D. 259.\n\nST. FRUCTUOSUS was the zealous and truly apostolical bishop of Tarragon,\nthen the capital city of Spain. The persecution of Valerian and Gallien\nraging in the year 259, he was apprehended by an order of Emilian the\ngovernor, who sent the soldiers, called Beneficiarii,[1] for that\npurpose. They seized the good bishop in his lodgings, with two deacons,\nAugurius and Eulogius, on Sunday the 16th of January. He was then laid\ndown on his bed, and only asked leave to put on his shoes; after which\nhe cheerfully followed the guards, who committed him and his two\ncompanions to close prison, where he spent his time with them in fervent\nprayer, full of joy at the prospect of the crown prepared for them. He\ngave his benediction to the faithful who visited him, and recommended\nthemselves to his prayers. On Monday he baptized in jail a catechumen\nnamed Rogatianus. On Wednesday he kept the usual fast of the stations[2]\ntill none, or three o'clock in {191} the afternoon. On Friday, the sixth\nday after their commitment, the 21st of January, the governor ordered\nthem to be brought before him, and asked Fructuosus if he knew the\ncontents of the late edict of the emperors. The saint answered that he\ndid not, but that whatever they were, he was a Christian. \"The\nemperors,\" said Emilian, \"command all to sacrifice to the gods.\"\nFructuosus answered, \"I adore one God, who made heaven and earth and all\nthings therein.\" Emilian said, \"Do you not know that there are gods?\"\n\"No,\" replied the saint. The proconsul said, \"I will make you know it\nshortly.\" St. Fructuosus then lifted up his eyes to heaven, and began to\npray in private. The proconsul broke out into this exclamation: \"What\nwill any man fear or adore on earth, if he contemns the worship of the\nimmortal gods, and of the emperors?\" Then turning to the deacon\nAngurius, he bade him not regard what Fructuosus had said: but he\nsatisfied him in a few words that he adored the same almighty God.\nEmilian lastly addressed himself to the other deacon, Eulogius, asking\nhim if he did not adore Fructuosus. The holy man answered, \"I adore not\nFructuosus, but the same God whom he adores.\" Emilian asked Fructuosus\nif he was a bishop; and added, upon his confessing it, \"say you have\nbeen one;\" meaning that he was going to lose his dignity with his life:\nand immediately condemned them to be burnt alive.\n\nThe pagans themselves could not refrain from tears, on seeing them led\nto the amphitheatre; for they loved Fructuosus on account of his rare\nvirtues. The Christians accompanied them with a sorrow mixed with joy.\nThe martyrs exulted to behold themselves on the verge of a glorious\neternity. The faithful offered St. Fructuosus a cup of wine, but he\nwould not taste it, saying, it was not yet the hour of breaking the\nfast, which was observed on Fridays till three o'clock, and it was then\nonly ten in the morning. The holy man hoped to end the station, or fast\nof that day, with the patriarchs and prophets in heaven. When they were\ncome into the amphitheatre, Augustalis, the bishop's lector, came to him\nweeping, and begged he would permit him to pull off his shoes. The\nmartyr said he could easily put them off himself, which he did. Felix, a\nChristian soldier, stepped in, and desired he would remember him in his\nprayers. Fructuosus said aloud: \"I am bound to pray for the whole\nCatholic church spread over the world from the east to the west;\" as if\nhe had said, as St. Austin observes, who much applauds this sentence:[3]\n\"Remain always in the bosom of the Catholic church, and you will have a\nshare in my prayers.\" Martial, one of his flock, desired him to speak\nsome words of comfort to his desolate church. The bishop, turning to the\nChristians, said, \"My brethren, the Lord will not leave you a flock\nwithout a pastor. He is faithful to his promises. Do not grieve for me.\nThe hour of my suffering is short.\" The martyrs were fastened to wooden\nstakes to be burnt; but the flame seemed at first to respect their\nbodies, having consumed only the bands with which their hands were tied,\ngiving them liberty to stretch out their arms in the form of a cross in\nprayer, in which posture they gave up their souls to God before the fire\nhad touched them. Babylas and Mygdone, two Christian servants of the\ngovernor, saw the heavens open, and the saints carried up with crowns on\ntheir heads. The faithful came in the night, extinguished the fire, and\ntook out the half-burnt bodies. Every one carried some part of their\nremains home with them; but being admonished from heaven, brought them\nback and laid them in the same monument. St. Austin has left us a\npanegyric on St. Fructuosus, pronounced on the anniversary day of his\nmartyrdom, on which his name has been always famous in the western\nchurch, especially in Spain and Africa.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  Beneficiarii were soldiers distinguished by certain privileges, and\n    who stood for promotion, as Vege{tius} informs us, l. 2, c. 7.\n2.  Wednesdays and Fridays were fast-days at that time; but only till\n    none, that is, three in the afternoon, and called the fast of the\n    stations.\n3.  Serm. 273.\n\n{192}\n\n\nST. VIMIN, OR VIVIAN, B.C., IN SCOTLAND.\n\nBY the fervent practices of the most perfect monastic discipline in one\nof the famous abbeys in Fifeshire, he qualified himself to become, by\nword and example, a guide and director to many chosen souls in the paths\nof evangelical perfection. This appeared in the fruits of his zealous\npreaching and labors, when he was raised to the abbatial, and soon after\nto the episcopal dignity; for at that time, very few bishoprics being\nerected in Scotland, it was customary for learned and holy abbots of\ngreat monasteries to be often consecrated bishops, and to be attended by\ntheir monks in performing their functions; as venerable Bede informs us,\nspeaking of St. Aidan.[1] St. Vimin, to shun the danger of vain-glory,\nto which the reputation of many miracles which he had wrought exposed\nhim, removed to a more solitary place, and there founded the abbey of\nHolywood, called in Latin Sacrum-boscum, in succeeding ages famous for\nmany learned men; particularly the great mathematician, John a\nSacro-bosco, in the thirteenth century. King places the death of St.\nVimin in 615, but brings no proofs for dating it so high. The noble and\nvery ancient family of Wemse, in Fifeshire, is said in Scotland to be of\nthe same lineage with this saint. The ancient prayer in the Aberdeen\nbreviary on his festival, and other monuments, bear evidence to the\ngreat devotion of the ancient Scottish church to his memory. See\nBreviarium Aberdonense of Chronicou Skonense.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  Bede, Hist. l. 4, c. 17, &c.\n\nST. PUBLIUS, B.M.\n\nHE succeeded St. Dionysius the Areopagite in the see of Athens, as we\nare assured by St. Dionysius of Corinth, quoted by Eusebius.[1] He went\nto God by martyrdom, and St. Quadratus was chosen third bishop of that\ncity. See Le Quien, Or. Christ. t. 2, p. 169.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  Euseb. l. 4, c. 22.\n\nST. EPIPHANIUS, BISHOP OF PAVIA,\n\nFROM 467 TO 497.\n\nTHE reputation of Epiphanius for sanctity and miracles, gave him the\nhighest credit with all the last weak Roman emperors, and with the kings\nOdoacer and Theodoric, though all of opposite interests. By his\nadmirable eloquence and charity he often disarmed the most savage\nbarbarians, obtained the lives and liberty of whole armies of captives,\nthe abolition of several oppressive laws, and the mitigation of heavy\npublic imposts and taxes. By his profuse charities he preserved an\nincredible number of distressed persons from perishing, and by his zeal\nhe stemmed the torrent of iniquity in times of universal disorder and\ncalamity. He performed an embassy to the emperor Anthemius, and another\nto king Euric at Toulouse; both to avert the dangers of war. He rebuilt\nPavia, which had been destroyed by Odoacer, and mitigated the fury of\nTheodoric in the heat of his victories. He undertook a journey into\nBurgundy, to redeem captives detained by the kings Gondebald and\nGodegisile, and died of a cold and fever at Pavia, in the fifty-eighth\nyear of his age. His body was translated to Hildesheim in Lower {193}\nSaxony, in 963. Brower thinks it lies in a silver coffin near the high\naltar. His name is inserted in the Roman Martyrology. See his panegyric\nin verse, by Ennodius, his successor, the master-piece of that author,\npublished by Bollandus and F. Sirmond. Consult also Marroni, of the\nSchola Pia Comment. de Ecclesia & Episcopis Papiensibus. Romae. An. 1758.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  B. MACELAIN, A. His name in Irish signifies the son of Chilian.\n    Passing into Belgic Gaul, in order to lead there an anchoretical\n    life, he was appointed abbot of St. Michael's on the borders of\n    Hainault, and of Vasour, or Vasencour, on the Meuse, in the diocese\n    of Namur: monasteries which were just founded. He appointed St.\n    Cadroe, who had accompanied him from Ireland, provost of the latter\n    in 946, and died in 978. Ferrarius, Saussaye, and Wilson, falsely\n    place this monastery of St. Michael's at Virdun, mistaking the\n    epithet Vir Dni, which is given him in the chronicle of Flodoard,\n    for the name of that town. Though he is styled saint in the\n    catalogue of the abbots of Vasour, and by several martyrologists on\n    this day, he never was honored in any public office even in either\n    of his monasteries, as Bollandus observes; who makes the same remark\n    of his two companions, B. Forannand and B. Cadroe. This latter was\n    called from Vasour, and made abbot of St. Clement's, at Metz, where\n    he died in 975. See Bolland. t. 2, p. 386. Chatelain, p. 371. Gallia\n    Christ. Nova, t. 3, p. 570.\n\n    B. FORANNAND, B.C. This saint is styled in ancient chronicles,\n    Archbishop of Domnachmor, in Ireland. Domnach signifying church, and\n    mor, the greater, says Mabillon: by which epithet many understand\n    Armagh. Resigning his see, he travelled into Belgic Gaul, with\n    twelve companions, among whom were B. Macelain, and B. Cadroe. After\n    leading for some time an eremitical life, he was commanded by pope\n    Benedict VII. to take upon him the charge of the government of\n    Vasour, in which employment he died on the last day of April, in\n    982. See Gallia Christ. Nova, t. 3. p. 571.\n\n\nJANUARY XXII.\n\nST. VINCENT, MARTYR.\n\nFrom Prudentius, hymn 5, and St. Austin, serm, 274, 275, 276, 277, all\nfour preached on his festivals. His ancient acts in Bollandus are also\nauthentic, but not those in Metaphrastes and Surius. See Tillemont t. 5,\np. 217.\n\nA.D. 399.\n\nTHE most glorious martyr St. Vincent was born, some say at Saragossa,\nothers at Valentia, but most authors, and most probably, at Osca, now\nHuesca, in Granada. He was instructed in the sacred sciences and in\nChristian piety by Valerius, the bishop of that city, who ordained him\nhis deacon, and appointed him, though very young, to preach and instruct\nthe people. Dacian, a most bloody persecutor, was then governor of\nSpain. The emperors Dioclesian and Maximian published their second and\nthird bloody edicts against the Christian clergy in the year 303, which\nin the following year were put in force against the laity. It seems to\nhave been before these last that Dacian put to death eighteen martyrs at\nSaragossa, who are mentioned by Prudentius, and in the Roman\nMartyrology, January the 16th, and that he apprehended Valerius and\nVincent. They spilt some of their blood at Saragossa, but were thence\nconducted to Valentia, where the governor let them lie long in prison,\nsuffering extreme famine and other miseries. The proconsul hoped that\nthis lingering torture would shake their constancy; but when they were\nbrought out before him, he was surprised to see them still intrepid in\nmind, and vigorous in body, and reprimanded his officers, as if they had\nnot treated the prisoners according to his orders. Then, turning to the\nchampions of Christ, he employed alternately threats and promises to\ninduce them to sacrifice. Valerius, who had an impediment in his speech,\nmaking no answer, Vincent said to him \"Father, if you order me, I will\nspeak.\" \"Son,\" said Valerius, \"as I committed to you the dispensation of\nthe word of God, so I now charge you to answer in vindication of the\nfaith which we defend.\" The holy deacon then acquainted the judge that\nthey were ready to suffer every thing for the {194} true God, and little\nregarded either his threats or promises in such a cause. Dacian\ncontented himself with banishing Valerius.[1] As for St. Vincent, he was\ndetermined to assail his resolution by every torture his cruel temper\ncould suggest. St. Austin assures us, that he suffered torments far\nbeyond what any man could possibly have endured, unless supported by a\nsupernatural strength; and that he preserved such a peace and\ntranquillity in his words, countenance, and gestures in the midst of\nthem, as astonished his very persecutors, and visibly appeared as\nsomething divine; while the rage and distraction of Dacian's soul was as\nvisible in the violent agitations of his body, by his eyes sparkling\nwith fury, and his faltering voice.\n\nThe martyr was first stretched on the rack by his hands and feet, drawn\nby cords and pulleys, till his joints were almost torn asunder: while he\nhung in this posture, his flesh was unmercifully torn off with iron\nhooks. Vincent, smiling, called the executioners weak and faint-hearted.\nDacian thought they spared him, and caused them to be beaten, which\nafforded the champion an interval of rest: but they soon returned to\nhim, resolved fully to satisfy the cruelty of their master, who excited\nthem all the while to exert their utmost strength. They twice stayed\ntheir hands to take breath, and let his wounds grow cold; then began\nwith fresh vigor to rend and tear his body, which they did in all its\nlimbs and parts with such cruelty, that his bones and bowels were in\nmost places exposed bare to sight. The more his body was mangled, the\nmore did the divine presence cherish and comfort his soul, and spread a\ngreater joy on his countenance. The judge, seeing the streams of blood\nwhich flowed from all the parts of his body, and the frightful condition\nto which it was reduced, was obliged to confess, with astonishment, that\nthe courage of the young nobleman had vanquished him; and his rage\nseemed somewhat abated. Hereupon he ordered a cessation of his torments,\nbegging of the saint for his own sake, that if he could not be prevailed\nupon to offer sacrifice to the gods, he would at least give up the\nsacred books to be burnt, according to the order of the late edicts. The\nmartyr answered, that he feared his torments less than that false\ncompassion which he testified. Dacian, more incensed than ever,\ncondemned him to the most cruel of tortures, that of fire upon a kind of\ngridiron, called by the acts the legal torture.[2] The saint walked with\njoy to the frightful engine, so as almost to get the start of his\nexecutioners, such was his desire to suffer. He mounted cheerfully the\niron bed, in which the bars were framed like scythes, full of sharp\nspikes made red-hot by the fire underneath. On this dreadful gridiron,\nthe martyr was stretched out at length, and bound fast down. He was not\nonly scourged thereon, but, while one part of his body was broiling next\nthe fire, the other was tortured by the application of red-hot plates of\niron. His wounds were rubbed with salt, which the activity of the fire\nforced the deeper into his flesh and bowels. All the parts of his body\nwere tormented in this manner, one after the other, and each several\ntimes over. The melted fat dropping from the flesh, nourished and\nincreased the flames; which, instead of tormenting, seemed, as St.\nAustin says, to give the martyr new vigor and courage; for the more he\nsuffered, the greater seemed to be the inward joy and consolation of his\nsoul. The rage and confusion of the tyrant exceeded all bounds: he\nappeared not able to contain himself, and was continually inquiring what\nVincent did and what he said; but was always answered, that he suffered\nwith joy in his countenance, and seemed every moment to acquire new\nstrength and resolution. {195} He lay unmoved, his eyes turned towards\nheaven, his mind calm, and his heart fixed on God in continual prayer.\n\nAt last, by the command of the proconsul, he was thrown into a dungeon\nand his wounded body laid on the floor strewed with broken potsherds,\nwhich opened afresh his ghastly wounds, and cut his bare flesh. His legs\nwere set in wooden stocks, stretched very wide, and strict orders were\ngiven that he should be left without provisions, and that no one should\nbe admitted to see or speak to him. But God sent his angels to comfort\nhim, with whom he sung the praises of his protector. The jailer\nobserving through the chinks the prison filled with light, and the saint\nwalking and praising God, was converted upon the spot to the Christian\nfaith, and afterwards baptized. At this news Dacian chafed, and even\nwept through rage, but ordered some repose should be allowed the\nprisoner. The faithful were then permitted to see him, and coming in\ntroops wiped and kissed his wounds, and dipped cloths in his blood,\nwhich they kept as an assured protection for themselves and their\nposterity. After this a soft bed was prepared for him, on which he was\nno sooner laid but he expired, the happy moment he had not ceased to\npray for ever since his torments, and his first call to martyrdom.\nDacian commanded his body to be thrown on a marshy field among rushes;\nbut a crow defended it from wild beasts and birds of prey. The acts in\nRuinart and Bollandus, and the sermon attributed to St. Leo, add, that\nit was then tied to a great stone and cast into the sea in a sack, but\nmiraculously carried to the shore, and revealed to two Christians. They\nlaid it in a little chapel out of the walls of Valentia, where God\nhonored these relics with many miracles, as the acts and St. Austin\nwitness. Prudentius informs us, that the iron on which he lay, and other\ninstruments of his passion, were likewise preserved with veneration.\nChildebert, king of France, or rather of Paris, besieging Saragossa,\nwondered to see the inhabitants busied continually in making\nprocessions. Being informed they carried the stole of St. Vincent about\nthe walls in devout prayer, and had been miraculously protected by that\nmartyr's intercession, he raised the siege upon condition that relic\nshould be given him. This he with great solemnity brought to Paris, and\nenriched with it the magnificent church and abbey of St. Vincent, now\ncalled St. Germain-des-Pres, which he built in 559, and which his\nsuccessor Clotaire caused to be dedicated.[3] In the year 855, his\nsacred bones were discovered at Valentia, and conveyed into France, and\ndeposited in the abbey of Castres, now an episcopal see in Languedoc,\nwhere they remain; but several portions have been given to the abbey of\nSt. Germain-des-Pres at Paris, and other churches; and part was burnt at\nCastres by the Huguenots about the end of the sixteenth century.[4]\nAimoinus, a contemporary monk, wrote the history of this translation,\nwith an account of many miracles which attended it.[5] St. Gregory of\nTours mentions a portion of his relics to have been famous for miracles,\nin a village church near Poictiers.[6] In the life of St. Domnolus,\nmention is made of a portion placed by him in a great monastery in the\nsuburb of the city of Mans. But it is certain that the chief part of\nthis martyr's body was conveyed to Lisbon. To escape the cruel\npersecution of the Saracen king Abderamene, at Valentia, many Christians\nprivately withdrew themselves, and, carrying with them the body of St.\nVincent, took shelter on the southwest cape, called {196} the Sacred\nPromontory, and from these relics St. Vincent's, in the kingdom of\nAlgarb, then under the Saracens. Alphonsus Henry, the most pious first\nking of Portugal, son of count Henry, having defeated five Moorish\nkings, at Ourique, in the year 1139, received from those faithful\nkeepers the body of St. Vincent, sent it by sea to Lisbon, and built the\nroyal monastery of the Cross of regular canons of St. Austin, in which\nhe most religiously deposited this treasure, rendered more famous by\nmiracles, in the year 1148. This account is recorded by contemporary\nunexceptionable vouchers in Bollandus, p. 406. Mariana, and especially\nThomas ab Incarnatione, a regular canon, in his Historia Ecclesiae\nLusitanae, printed at Lisbon, A.D. 1759, Saec. 4, c. 6, t. 1, p. 215. The\nPortuguese, ever since the year 1173, keep an annual commemoration of\nthis translation on the 15th of September, which feast was confirmed by\nSixtus V.\n\nPrudentius finishes his hymn on this holy martyr by a prayer to him,\nthat he would present the marks of his sufferings to Christ, to move him\nto compassion in his behalf.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nGod never more visibly manifested his power, nor gave stronger or more\nwonderful proofs of his tenderness and love for his church, than when he\nsuffered it to groan under the most violent oppression and persecution;\nnor does his grace anywhere appear more triumphant than in the victories\nof his martyrs under the severest trials, and in the heroic virtues\nwhich they displayed amidst torments and insults. Under the slightest\ndisappointments and afflictions we are apt to fall into discouragement,\nand to imagine, by our sloth and impatience, that our situation is of\nall others the most unhappy and intolerable. If nature feels, and we\nimplore the divine mercy, and a deliverance, if this may be conducive to\nGod's honor, we must be careful never to sink under the trials, or\nconsent to the least secret murmuring: we must bear them if not with\njoy, at least with perfect submission; and remain assured that God only\nseems to withdraw himself from us, that we may follow him more\nearnestly, and unite ourselves more closely to him.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  He is named in the Roman Martyrology, January the 28th, and his\n    relics are kept with veneration at Saragossa, famous for miracles\n    wrought by them even in the last age. See Bollandus, January the\n    28th, p. 838.\n2.  Quaestio legitima.\n3.  S. Greg. Tur. Hist. Franc. l. 3, c. 29. Aimoin. de Gestis Franc. l.\n    2, c. 19 and 20. Ade In Chron. &c.\n4.  See Chatelain, Notes on the Martyrol. p. 378.\n5.  This Aimoinus is something more ancient than another monk of the\n    same name, who has left a history of France. His relation depends\n    upon the authority of Audald, a monk of Conques in the diocese of\n    Rhodes, who brought them from Valentia into Languedoc. See his\n    account in Bollandus, which yet the Spaniards deny, and say it could\n    only be a small part of these bones: or the body of another martyr\n    of the same name.\n6.  De Gk. Mart. l. 1, c. 90.\n\nST. ANASTASIUS, MARTYR.\n\nFrom his genuine acts, which are commended in the seventh general\ncouncil, abut one hundred and sixty years after his death.\n\nA.D. 628.\n\nST. ANASTASIUS was a trophy of the holy cross of Christ, when it was\ncarried away into Persia by Chosroes, in the year 614, after he had\ntaken and plundered Jerusalem. The martyr was a Persian, son of a\nMagian, instructed in the sciences of that sect, and a young soldier in\nthe Persian troops. Upon hearing the news of the taking of the cross by\nhis king, he became very inquisitive concerning the Christian religion:\nand its sublime truths made such an impression on his mind, that being\nreturned into Persia from an expedition into the Roman empire, he left\nthe army with his brother, who also served in it, and retired to\nHierapolis. In that city he lodged with a devout Persian Christian, a\nsilversmith, with whom he went often to prayer. The holy pictures which\nhe saw, moved him exceedingly, and gave him occasion to inquire daily\nmore into our faith, and to admire the courage of the martyrs whose\nglorious sufferings were painted in the churches. At length, desirous of\nbaptism, he left Hierapolis, which city was subject to the Persians, and\nwent to Jerusalem, where he received that sacrament by the hands of\nModestus who governed that church as vicar during the absence {197} of\nthe patriarch Zachary, whom Chosroes had led away captive into Persia.\nIn baptism he changed his Persian name Magundat, into that of\nAnastasius, meaning, according to the signification of that Greek word,\nthat he was risen from death to a new and spiritual life. He had\nprepared himself with wonderful devotion for that sacrament while a\ncatechumen, and he spent in no less fervor the several days after it,\nwhich persons baptized passed in white garments, in prayer, and in\nreceiving more perfect instructions in the faith. At the end of this\nterm, Anastasius, the more easily and more perfectly to keep inviolably\nhis sacred baptismal vows and obligations, desired to become a monk in a\nmonastery five miles distant from Jerusalem. Justin, the abbot, made him\nfirst learn the Greek tongue and the psalter; then cutting off his hair,\ngave him the monastic habit, in the year 621.\n\nAnastasius was always the first at all spiritual duties, especially in\nassisting at the celebration of the divine mysteries. His attention to\npious discourse testified the earnest thirst of his soul; nor was he\nless fervent in practice. He never read the triumphs of the martyrs\nwithout abundance of tears, and burned with an ardent desire of the like\nhappiness. Being molested beyond measure with blasphemous thoughts of\nmagic and superstitions, which his father had taught him, he was\ndelivered from that troublesome temptation by discovering it to his\ndirector, and by his advice and prayers. After seven years spent in\ngreat perfection in this monastery, his desire of martyrdom daily\nincreasing, and having been assured by a revelation, that his prayers\nfor that grace were heard, he left that house, and visited the places of\ndevotion in Palestine, at Diospolis, Garizim, and our Lady's church at\nCaesarea, where he stayed two days. This city, with the greatest part of\nSyria, was then subject to the Persians. The saint seeing certain\nPersian soothsayers of the garrison occupied in their abominable\nsuperstitions in the streets, boldly spoke to them, remonstrating\nagainst the impiety of such practices. The Persian magistrates\napprehended him as a suspected spy; but he informed them that he once\nenjoyed the dignity of Magian with them, and had renounced it to become\na humble follower of Christ. Upon this confession he was thrown into a\ndungeon, where he lay three days without eating of drinking, till the\nreturn of Marzabanes, the governor, to the city. Being interrogated by\nhim, he confessed his conversion to the faith, and equally despised his\noffers of great preferments, and his threats of crucifying him.\nMarzabanes commanded him to be chained by the foot to another criminal,\nand his neck and one foot to be also linked together by a heavy chain,\nand condemned him in this condition to carry stones. The Persians,\nespecially those of his own province of Rasech, and his former\nacquaintance, upbraided him as the disgrace of his country, kicked and\nbeat him, plucked his beard, and loaded him with burdens above his\nstrength. The governor sent for him a second time, but could by no means\nprevail with him to pronounce the impious words which the Magians used\nin their superstitions: he said, \"That the wilful calling them to\nremembrance would defile the heart.\" The judge then threatened he would\nwrite immediately to the king against him, if he did not comply. \"Write\nwhat you please,\" said the saint, \"I am a Christian: I repeat it again,\nI am a Christian.\" Marzabanes commanded him to be forthwith beaten with\nknotty clubs. The executioners were preparing themselves to bind him\nfast on the ground; but the saint told him it was unnecessary, for he\nhad courage enough to lie down under the punishment without moving, and\nhe regarded it as his greatest happiness and pleasure to suffer for\nChrist. He only begged leave to put off his monk's habit, lest it should\nbe treated with contempt, which only his body deserved. He therefore\nlaid it aside in a respectful manner, and then stretched himself on the\nground, and without {198} being bound did not stir all the time of the\ncruel torment, bearing it without changing his posture. The governor\nagain threatened him to acquaint the king of his obstinacy: \"Whom ought\nwe rather to fear,\" said Anastasius, \"a mortal man, or God, who made all\nthings out of nothing?\" The judge pressed him to sacrifice to fire, and\nto the sun and moon. The saint answered, he could never acknowledge as\ngods, creatures which God had made only for our use; upon which he was\nremanded to prison.\n\nHis old abbot hearing of his sufferings, sent two monks to assist him,\nand ordered prayers for him. The confessor, after carrying stones all\nthe day, spent the greatest part of the night in prayer, to the surprise\nof his companions: one of whom, a Jew, saw and showed him to others at\nprayer in the night, shining in brightness and glory like a blessed\nspirit, and angels praying with him. As the confessor was chained to a\nman condemned for a public crime, he prayed always with his neck bowed\ndownwards, keeping his chained foot near his companion not to disturb\nhim. Marzabanes in the mean time having informed Chosroes, and received\nhis orders, acquainted the martyr by a messenger, without seeing him,\nthat the king would be satisfied on condition he would only by word of\nmouth abjure the Christian faith: after which he might choose whether he\nwould be an officer in the king's service, or still remain a Christian\nand a monk; adding, he might in his heart always adhere to Christ,\nprovided he would but for once renounce him in words privately, in his\npresence, \"in which there could be no harm, nor any great injury to his\nChrist,\" as he said. Anastasius answered firmly, that he would never\neven seem to dissemble, or to deny his God. Then the governor told him,\nthat he had orders to send him bound into Persia to the king. \"There is\nno need of binding me,\" said the saint: \"I go willingly and cheerfully\nto suffer for Christ.\" The governor put on him and on two other\nprisoners the mark, and gave orders that they should set out after five\ndays. In the mean time, on the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, the\n14th of September, at the request of the Comerciarius, or tax-gatherer\nfor the king, who was a Christian of distinction, Anastasius had leave\nto go to the church and assist at the divine service. His presence and\nexhortations encouraged the faithful, excited the tepid to fervor, and\nmoved all to tears. He dined that day with the Comerciarius, and then\nreturned with joy to his prison. On the day appointed, the martyr left\nCaesarea, in Palestine, with two other Christian prisoners, under a\nstrict guard, and was followed by one of the monks whom the abbot had\nsent to assist and encourage him. The acts of his martyrdom were written\nby this monk, or at least from what be related by word of mouth. The\nsaint received great marks of honor, much against his inclination, from\nthe Christians wherever he came. This made him fear lest human applause\nshould rob trim of his crown by infecting his heart with pride. He wrote\nfrom Hierapolis, and again from the river Tigris, to his abbot, begging\nthe prayers of his brethren.\n\nBeing arrived at Barsaloe in Assyria, six miles from Discartha, or\nDastagerde, near the Euphrates, where the king then was, the prisoners\nwere thrown into a dungeon till his pleasure was known. An officer came\nfrom Chosroes to interrogate the saint, who made answer, with regard to\nhis magnificent promises, in these words: \"My religious habit and poor\nclothes show that I despise from my heart the gaudy pomp of the world.\nThe honors and riches of a king, who must shortly die himself, are no\ntemptation to me.\" Next day the officer returned to the prison, and\nendeavored to intimidate him by blustering threats and reproaches. But\nthe saint said calmly: \"My lord judge, do not give yourself so much\ntrouble about me. By the grace of Christ I am not to be moved: so\nexecute your pleasure without more ado.\" The officer caused him to be\nunmercifully beaten with staves, after {199} the Persian manner,\ninsulting him all the time, and often repeating, that because he\ncontemned the king's bounty, he should be treated in that manner every\nday as long as he lived. This punishment was inflicted on him three\ndays; on the third the judge commanded him to be laid on his back, and a\nheavy beam pressed down by the weight of two men on his legs, crushing\nthe flesh to the very bone. The martyr's tranquillity and patience\nastonished the officer, who went again to acquaint the king of his\nbehavior. In his absence the jailer, being a Christian by profession,\nthough too weak to resign his place rather than detain such a prisoner,\ngave every one free access to the martyr. The Christians immediately\nfilled the prison; every one sought to kiss his feet or chains, and kept\nas relics whatever had been sanctified by their touch: they also\noverlaid his fetters with wax, in order to receive their impression. The\nsaint, with confusion and indignation, strove to hinder them, and\nexpressed how extremely dissatisfied he was with such actions. The\nofficer returning from the king caused him to be beaten again, which the\nconfessor bore rather as a statue, than as flesh and blood. Then he was\nhung up for two hours by one hand, with a great weight at his feet, and\ntampered with by threats and promises. The judge despairing to overcome\nhim, went back to the king; for his last orders, which were, that he and\nall the Christian captives should be put to death. He returned speedily\nto put them in execution, and caused Anastasius's two companions, with\nthreescore and six other Christians, to be strangled one after another\non the banks of the river, before his face, whom the judge all the time\npressed to return to the Persian worship, and to escape so disgraceful a\ndeath, promising, in case of compliance, that he should be made one of\nthe greatest men in the court. Anastasius, with his eyes lifted up to\nheaven, gave thanks to God for bringing his life to so happy a\nconclusion; and said he expected that he should have met with a more\ncruel death in the torture of all his members: but seeing God granted\nhim one so easy, he embraced with joy that end of a life which he\notherwise must shortly have lost in a more painful manner. He was\naccordingly strangled, and after his death his head was cut off. This\nwas in the year 628, the seventeenth of the emperor Heraclius, on the\n22d of January, on which day both the Latins and Greeks keep his\nfestival. His body, among the other dead, was exposed to be devoured by\ndogs, but it was the only one they left untouched. It was afterwards\nredeemed by the Christians, who laid it in the monastery of St. Sergius,\na mile from the place of his triumph, in the city Barsaloe, called\nafterwards from that monastery, Sergiopolis. The monk that attended him\nbrought back his Colobium, or liners tunic without sleeves. The saint's\nbody was afterwards brought into Palestine. Some years after, it was\nremoved to Constantinople, and lastly to Rome.\n\nThe seventh general council[1] proves the use of pious pictures from the\nhead of this holy martyr, and his miraculous image, then kept at Rome\nwith great veneration: where it is still preserved in the church\nbelonging to the monastery of our Lady ad Aquas Sylvias, which now bears\nthe name of SS. Vincent and Anastasius.[2] The rest of his relics are\nreposited in the holy chapel ad Scalas Sanctas, near St. John Lateran.\nSee the history of many miracles wrought by them in Bollandus. St.\nAnastasius foretold the speedy fall of the tyrant Chosroes: and ten days\nafter his martyrdom the emperor Heraclius entered Persia.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  Act. 4.\n2.  Mabill. Iter. Ital. p. 141.\n\n{200}\n\n\nJANUARY XXIII.\n\nST. RAYMUND, OF PENNAFORT, C.\n\nFrom the bull of his canonization, by Clement VIII. in 1601, and his\nlife, written by several Spanish, Italian, and French authors. See\nFleury, b. 78, n. 55, 84, and chiefly Touron, Hommes Illustres de\nl'Ordre de S. Domin. t. 1, p. 1.\n\nA.D. 1275.\n\nTHE house of Pegnafort, or, as it is pronounced, Pennafort, was\ndescended from the counts of Barcelona, and nearly allied to the kings\nof Aragon. Raymund was born in 1175, at Pennafort, a castle in\nCatalonia, which in the fifteenth century was changed into a convent of\nthe order of St. Dominick. Such was his rapid progress in his studies,\nthat at the age of twenty he taught philosophy at Barcelona, which he\ndid gratis, and with so great reputation, that he began then to be\nconsulted by the ablest masters. His principal care was to instil into\nhis scholars the most perfect maxims of a solid piety and devotion, to\ncompose all differences among the citizens, and to relieve the\ndistressed. He was about thirty years of age when he went to Bologna, in\nItaly, to perfect himself in the study of the canon and civil law,\ncommenced Doctor in that faculty, and taught with the same\ndisinterestedness and charity as he had done in his own country. In 1219\nBerengarius, bishop of Barcelona, who had been at Rome, took Raymund\nhome with him, to the great regret of the university and senate of\nBologna; and, not content with giving him a canonry in his church, made\nhim his archdeacon, grand vicar, and official. He was a perfect model to\nthe clergy, by his innocence, zeal, devotion, and boundless liberalities\nto the poor, whom he called his creditors. In 1222 he took the religious\nhabit of St. Dominick at Barcelona, eight months after the death of the\nholy founder, and in the forty-seventh year of his age. No person was\never seen among the young novices more humble, more obedient, or more\nfervent. To imitate the obedience of a Man-God, who reduced himself to a\nstate of subjection to his own creatures, to teach us the dangers and\ndeep wound of self-will, and to point out to us the remedy, the saint\nwould depend absolutely on the lights of his director in all things. And\nit was upon the most perfect self-denial that he laid the foundation of\nthat high sanctity which he made the object of his most earnest desires.\nThe grace of prayer perfected the work which mortification had begun. In\na spirit of compunction he begged of his superiors that they would\nenjoin him some severe penance, to expiate the vain satisfaction and\ncomplacency which he said he had sometimes taken in teaching. They\nindeed imposed on him a penance, but not such a one as be expected. It\nwas to write a collection of cases of conscience for the instruction and\nconveniency of confessors and moralists. This produced his Sum, the\nfirst work of that kind. Had his method and decisions been better\nfollowed by some later authors of the like works, the holy maxims of\nChristian morality had been treated with more respect by some moderns\nthan they have been, to our grief and confusion.\n\nRaymund joined to the exercises of his solitude the functions of an\napostolical life, by laboring without intermission in preaching,\ninstructing, hearing confessions with wonderful fruit, and converting\nheretics, Jews, and Moors. Among his penitents were James, king of\nAragon, and St. Peter Nolasco, {201} with whom he concerted the\nfoundation of the Order of the B. Virgin of mercy for the redemption of\ncaptives. James, the young king of Aragon, had married Eleonora of\nCastile within the prohibited degrees, without a dispensation. A legate\nwas sent by pope Gregory IX. to examine and judge the case. In a council\nof bishops of the two kingdoms, held at Tarragon, he declared the\nmarriage null, but that their son Don Alphonso should be reputed\nlawfully born, and heir to his father's crown. The king had taken his\nconfessor with him to the council, and the cardinal legate was so\ncharmed with his talents and virtue, that he associated him in his\nlegation, and gave him a commission to preach the holy war against the\nMoors. The servant of God acquitted himself of that function with so\nmuch prudence, zeal, and charity, that he sowed the seeds of the total\noverthrow of those infidels in Spain. His labors were no less successful\nin the reformation of the manners of the Christians detained in\nservitude under the Moors, which were extremely corrupted by their long\nslavery or commerce with these infidels. Raymund showed them, by words\nfull of heavenly unction and fire, that, to triumph over their bodily,\nthey must first conquer their spiritual enemies, and subdue sin in\nthemselves, which made God their enemy. Inculcating these and the like\nspiritual lessons, he ran over Catalonia, Aragon, Castile, and other\ncountries. So general a change was wrought hereby in the manners of the\npeople, as seemed incredible to all but those who were witnesses of it.\nBy their conversion the anger of God was appeased, and the arms of the\nfaithful became terrible to their enemies. The kings of Castile and Leon\nfreed many places from the Moorish yoke. Don James, king of Aragon,\ndrove them out of the islands of Majorca and Minorca, and soon after, in\n1237, out of the whole kingdom of Valentia. Pope Gregory IX. having\ncalled St. Raymund to Rome in 1230, nominated him his chaplain, (which\nwas the title of the Auditor of the causes of the apostolic palace,) as\nalso grand penitentiary. He made him likewise his own confessarius, and\nin difficult affairs came to no decision but by his advice. The saint\nstill reserved himself for the poor, and was so solicitous for them that\nhis Holiness called him their father. He enjoined the pope, for a\npenance, to receive, hear, and expedite immediately all petitions\npresented by them. The pope, who was well versed in the canon law,\nordered the saint to gather into one body all the scattered decree, of\npopes and councils, since the collection made by Gratian in 1150.\nRaymund compiled this work in three years, in five books, commonly\ncalled the Decretals, which the same pope Gregory confirmed in 1234. It\nis looked upon as the best finished part of the body of the canon law;\non which account the canonists have usually chosen it for the texts of\ntheir comments. In 1235, the pope named St. Raymund to the archbishopric\nof Tarragon, the capital of Aragon: the humble religious man was not\nable to avert the storm, as he called it, by tears and entreaties; but\nat length fell sick through anxiety and fear. To restore him to his\nhealth, his Holiness was obliged to consent to excuse him, but required\nthat he should recommend a proper person. The saint named a pious and\nlearned canon of Gironne. He refused other dignities with the like\nconstancy.\n\nFor the recovery of his health he returned to his native country, and\nwas received with as much joy as if the safety of the whole kingdom, and\nof every particular person, had depended on his presence. Being restored\nagain to his dear solitude at Barcelona, he continued his former\nexercises of contemplation, preaching, and administering the sacrament\nof penance. Except on Sundays, he never took more than one very small\nrefection in the day. Amidst honors and applause he was ever little in\nhis own eyes. He appeared in the schools like a scholar, and in his\nconvent begged the {202} superior to instruct him in the rules of\nreligious perfection, with the humility and docility of a novice.\nWhether he sung the divine praises with his brethren, or prayed alone in\nhis cell, or some corner of the church, he poured forth an abundance of\ntears; and often was not able to contain within himself the ardor of his\nsoul. His mildness and sweetness were unalterable. The incredible number\nof conversions of which he was the instrument, is known only to Him who,\nby his grace, was the author of them. He was employed frequently in most\nimportant commissions, both by the holy see and by the king. But he was\nthunderstruck by the arrival of four deputies from the general chapter\nof his order at Bologna, in 1238, with the news that he was chosen third\ngeneral, Jordan of Saxony being lately dead. He wept and entreated, but\nat length acquiesced in obedience. He made the visitation of his order\non foot, without discontinuing any of his penitential austerities, or\nrather exercises. He instilled into his spiritual children a love of\nregularity, solitude, mortification, prayer, sacred studies, and the\napostolical functions, especially preaching. He reduced the\nconstitutions of the order into a clearer method, with notes on the\ndoubtful passages. Thus his code of rules was approved in three general\nchapters. In one held at Paris in 1239, he procured the establishment of\nthis regulation, that a voluntary demission of a superior, founded upon\njust reasons, should be accepted. This he contrived in his own favor;\nfor, to the extreme regret of the order, he in the year following\nresigned the generalship, which he had held only two years. He alleged\nfor his reason his age of sixty-five years. Rejoicing to see himself\nagain a private religious man, he applied himself with fresh vigor to\nthe exercises and functions of an apostolical life, especially the\nconversion of the Saracens. Having this end in view, he engaged St.\nThomas to write his work 'Against the Gentiles;' procured the Arabic and\nHebrew tongues to be taught in several convents of his order; and\nerected convents, one at Tunis, and another at Murcia, among the Moors.\nIn 1256, he wrote to his general that ten thousand Saracens had received\nbaptism. King James took him into the island of Majorca. The saint\nembraced that opportunity of cultivating that infant church. This prince\nwas an accomplished soldier and statesman, and a sincere lover of\nreligion, but his great qualities were sullied by a base passion for\nwomen. He received the admonitions of the saint with respect, and\npromised amendment of life, and a faithful compliance with the saint's\ninjunctions in every particular; but without effect. St. Raymund, upon\ndiscovering that he entertained a lady at his court with whom he was\nsuspected to have criminal conversation, made the strongest instances to\nhave her dismissed, which the king promised should be done, but\npostponed the execution. The saint, dissatisfied with the delay, begged\nleave to retire to his convent at Barcelona. The king not only refused\nhim leave, but threatened to punish with death any person that should\nundertake to convey him out of the island. The saint, full of confidence\nin God, said to his companion, \"A king of the earth endeavors to deprive\nus of the means of retiring; but the King of heaven will supply them.\"\nHe then walked boldly to the waters, spread his cloak upon them, tied up\none corner of it to a staff for a sail, and having made the sign of the\ncross, stepped upon it without fear, while his timorous companion stood\ntrembling and wondering on the shore. On this new kind of vessel the\nsaint was wafted with such rapidity, that in six hours he reached the\nharbor of Barcelona, sixty leagues distant from Majorca. Those who saw\nhim arrive in this manner met him with acclamations. But he, gathering\nup his cloak dry, put it on, stole through the crowd, and entered his\nmonastery. A chapel and a tower, built on the place where he landed,\nhave transmitted the memory of this miracle to posterity. {203} This\nrelation is taken from the bull of his canonization, and the earliest\nhistorians of his life. The king became a sincere convert, and governed\nhis conscience, and even his kingdoms, by the advice of St. Raymund from\nthat time till the death of the saint. The holy man prepared himself for\nhis passage to eternity, by employing days and nights in penance and\nprayer. During his last illness, Alphonsus, king of Castile, with his\nqueen, sons, and brother; and James, king of Aragon, with his court,\nvisited him, and received his last benediction. He armed himself with\nthe last sacraments; and, in languishing sighs of divine love, gave up\nhis soul to God, on the 6th of January, in the year 1275, and the\nhundredth of his age. The two kings, with all the princes and princesses\nof their royal families, honored his funeral with their presence: but\nhis tomb was rendered far more illustrious by miracles. Several are\nrecorded in the bull of his canonization, published by Clement VIII. in\n1601. Bollandus has filled fifteen pages in folio with an account of\nthem. His office is fixed by Clement X. to the 23d of January.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe saints first learned in solitude to die to the world and themselves,\nto put on the spirit of Christ, and ground themselves in a habit of\nrecollection and a relish only for heavenly things, before they entered\nupon the exterior functions even of a spiritual ministry. Amidst these\nweighty employments, not content with reserving always the time and\nmeans of frequent retirement for conversing with God and themselves, in\ntheir exterior functions by raising their minds to heaven with holy\nsighs and desires, they made all their actions in some measure an\nuninterrupted prayer and exercise of divine love and praise. St.\nBonaventure reckons it among the general exercises of every religious or\nspiritual man,[1] \"That he keep his mind always raised, at least\nvirtually, to God: hence, whensoever a servant of God has been\ndistracted from attending to him for ever so short a space, he grieves\nand is afflicted, as if he was fallen into some misfortune, by having\nbeen deprived of the presence of such a friend who never forgets us.\nSeeing that our supreme felicity and glory consists in the eternal\nvision of God, the constant remembrance of him is a kind of imitation of\nthat happy state: _this_ the reward, _that_ the virtue which entitles us\nto it. Till we are admitted to his presence, let us in our exile always\nbear him in mind: every one will behold him in heaven with so much the\ngreater joy, and so much the more perfectly, as he shall more\nassiduously and more devoutly have remembered him on earth. Nor is it\nonly in our repose, but also in the midst of our employments, that we\nought to have him present to our minds, in imitation of the holy angels,\nwho, when they are sent to attend on us, so acquit themselves of the\nfunctions of this exterior ministry as never to be drawn from their\ninterior attention to God. As much as the heavens exceed the earth, so\nmuch larger is the field of spiritual meditation than that of all\nterrestrial concerns.\"\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  S. Bonav. de Profectu Religios. l. 2, c. 20. p. 604.\n\nST. JOHN THE ALMONER, C.\n\nPATRIARCH OF ALEXANDRIA.\n\nHE received his surname from his profuse alms-deeds; was nobly\ndescended, very rich, and a widower, at Amathus in Cyprus, where, having\nburied all his children, he employed the whole income of his estate in\nthe {204} relief of the poor, and was no less remarkable for his great\npiety. The reputation of his sanctity raised him to the patriarchal\nchair of Alexandria about the year 605, at which time he was upwards of\nfifty years of age. On his arrival in that city, he ordered an exact\nlist to be taken of his Masters. Being asked who these were, his answer\nwas, \"The poor;\" namely, on account of their great interest in the court\nof heaven in behalf of their benefactors. Their number amounted to seven\nthousand five hundred, whom he took under his special protection, and\nfurnished with all necessaries. He prepared himself, by this action, to\nreceive the fulness of grace in his consecration. On the same day he\npublished severe ordinances, but in the most humble terms, conjuring and\ncommanding all to use just weights and measures, in order to prevent\ninjustices and oppressions of the poor. He most rigorously forbade all\nhis officers and servants ever to receive the least presents, which are\nno better than bribes, and bias the most impartial. Every Wednesday and\nFriday he sat the whole day on a bench before the church, that all might\nhave free access to him to lay their grievances before him, and make\nknown their necessities. He composed all differences, comforted the\nafflicted, and relieved the distressed. One of his first actions at\nAlexandria was to distribute the eighty thousand pieces of gold which he\nfound in the treasury of his church, among hospitals and monasteries. He\nconsecrated to the service of the poor the great revenues of his see,\nthen the first in all the East, both in riches and rank. Besides these,\nincredible charities flowed through his hands in continual streams,\nwhich his example excited every one to contribute according to their\nabilities. When his stewards complained that he impoverished his church,\nhis answer was, that God would provide for them. To vindicate his\nconduct, and silence their complaints, he recounted to them a vision he\nhad in his youth, of a beautiful woman, brighter than the sun, with an\nolive garland on her head, whom he understood to be Charity, or\ncompassion for the miserable; who said to him \"I am the eldest daughter\nof the great King. If you enjoy my favor, I will introduce you to the\ngreat monarch of the universe. No one has so great an interest with him\nas myself, who was the occasion of his coming down from heaven to become\nman for the redemption of mankind.\" When the Persians had plundered the\nEast, and sacked Jerusalem, St. John entertained all that fled from\ntheir swords into Egypt; and sent to Jerusalem, for the use of the poor\nthere, besides a large sum of money, one thousand sacks of corn, as many\nof pulse, one thousand pounds of iron, one thousand loads of fish, one\nthousand barrels of wine, and one thousand Egyptian workmen to assist in\nrebuilding the churches; adding, in his letter to Modestus, the bishop,\nthat he wished it had been in his power to have gone in person, and\ncontributed the labor of his hands towards carrying on that holy work.\nHe also sent two bishops and an abbot to ransom captives. No number of\nnecessitous objects, no losses, no straits to which he saw himself often\nreduced, discouraged him, or made him lose his confidence in divine\nprovidence, and resources never failed him in the end. When a certain\nperson, whom he had privately relieved with a most bountiful alms,\nexpressed his gratitude in the strongest terms, the saint cut him short,\nsaying, \"Brother, I have not yet spilt my blood for you, as Jesus\nChrist, my master and my God, commands me.\" A certain merchant, who had\nbeen thrice ruined by shipwrecks, had as often found relief from the\ngood patriarch, who the third time gave him a ship belonging to the\nchurch, laden with twenty thousand measures of corn. This vessel was\ndriven by a storm to the British Islands, and a famine raging there, the\nowners sold their cargo to great advantage, {205} and brought back a\nconsiderable value in exchange, one half in money, the other in pewter.\n\nThe patriarch lived himself in the greatest austerity and poverty, as to\ndiet, apparel, and furniture. A person of distinction in the city, being\ninformed that our saint had but one blanket on his bed, and this a very\nsorry one, sent him one of value, begging his acceptance of it, and that\nhe would make use of it for the sake of the donor. He accepted of it,\nand put it to the intended use, but it was only for one night; and this\nhe passed in great uneasiness, with severe self-reproaches for being so\nrichly covered, while so many of his masters (his familiar term for the\npoor) were so ill accommodated. The next morning he sold it, and gave\nthe price to the poor. The friend being informed of it, bought it for\nthirty-six pieces, and gave it him a second, and a third time; for the\nsaint always disposed of it in the same way, saying facetiously, \"We\nshall see who will be tired first.\" He was well versed in the\nscriptures, though a stranger to the pomp of profane eloquence. The\nfunctions of his ministry, prayer, and pious reading, employed his whole\ntime. He studied with great circumspection to avoid the least idle word,\nand never chose to speak about temporal affairs, unless compelled by\nnecessity, and then only in very few words. If he heard any detract from\nthe reputation of their neighbor, he was ingenious in turning the\ndiscourse to some other subject, and he forbade them his house, to deter\nothers from that vice. Hearing that when an emperor was chosen, it was\ncustomary for certain carvers to present to him four or five blocks of\nmarble, to choose one out of them for his tomb, he caused his grave to\nbe half dug, and appointed a man to come to him on all occasions of\npomp, and say, \"My lord, your tomb is unfinished; be pleased to give\nyour orders to have it completed, for you know not the hour when death\nwill seize you.\" The remembrance of the rigorous account which we are to\ngive to God, made him often burst into the most pathetic expressions of\nholy fear. But humility was his distinguishing virtue, and he always\nexpressed, both in words and actions, the deepest sentiments of his own\nnothingness, sinfulness, miseries, and pride. He often admired how\nperfectly the saints saw their own imperfections, and that they were\ndust, worms, and unworthy to be ranked among men.\n\nThe saint regarded injuries as his greatest gain and happiness. He\nalways disarmed his enemies of their rancor by meekness, and frequently\nfell at the feet of those who insulted him, to beg their pardon.\nNicetas, the governor, had formed a project of a new tax, very\nprejudicial to the poor. The patriarch modestly spoke in their defence.\nThe governor in a passion left him abruptly. St. John sent him this\nmessage towards evening: \"The sun is going to set:\" putting him in mind\nof the advice of the apostle: _Let not the sun go down upon your anger_.\nThis admonition had its intended effect on the governor, and pierced him\nto the quick. He arose, and went to the patriarch, bathed in tears,\nasked his pardon, and by way of atonement, promised never more to give\near to informers and tale-bearers. St. John confirmed him in that\nresolution, adding, that he never believed any man whatever against\nanother, till he himself had examined the party accused; and that he\npunished all calumniators and tale-bearers in a manner which might deter\nothers from so fatal a vice. Having in vain exhorted a certain nobleman\nto forgive one with whom he was at variance, he soon after invited him\nto his private chapel to assist at his mass, and there desired him to\nrecite with him the Lord's prayer. The saint stopped at that petition;\n_Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those that trespass against\nus_. When the nobleman had recited it alone, he conjured him to reflect\non what he had been saying to God at the hour of the tremendous\nmysteries, {206} begging to be pardoned in the same manner as he forgave\nothers. The other, feeling himself struck to the heart, fell at his\nfeet, and from that moment was sincerely reconciled with his adversary.\nThe saint often exhorted men against rash judgment, saying,\n\"Circumstances easily deceive us; magistrates are bound to examine and\njudge criminals; but what have private persons to do with others, unless\nit be to vindicate them?\" He used to relate many examples of persons who\nwere found innocent and eminent saints, though they had been condemned\nby the world upon circumstances; as that of a certain monk, who brought\nto that city a Jewess whom he had converted, but was accused as guilty\nof lewdness with her, and cruelly scourged; for he said nothing to\njustify himself, out of a desire of humiliation and suffering. But his\ninnocence and sanctity were soon after brought to light. St. John\nemployed Sophronius and John Moschus in reducing to the faith the\nSeverians and other heretics. Observing that many amused themselves\nwithout the church, during part of the divine office, which was then of\na very considerable length, he followed them out, and seated himself\namong them, saying, \"My children, the shepherd must be with his flock.\"\nThis action, which covered them with confusion, prevented their being\nguilty of that irreverence any more. As he was one day going to church,\nhe was accosted on the way by a woman who demanded justice against her\nson-in-law that had injured her. The woman being ordered by some\nstanders-by to wait the patriarch's return from church, he overhearing\nthem, said, \"How can I hope that God will hear my prayer, if I put off\nthe petition of this woman?\" Nor did he stir from the place till he had\nredressed the grievance complained of.\n\nNicetas, the governor, persuaded the saint to accompany him to\nConstantinople, to pay a visit to the emperor. St. John was admonished\nfrom heaven, while he was on his way, at Rhodes, that his death drew\nnear, and said to Nicetas, \"You invite me to the emperor of the earth;\nbut the King of heaven calls me to himself.\" He therefore sailed for\nCyprus, and soon after died happily at Amathus, about the year of our\nLord 619, in the sixty-fourth of his age, and tenth of his patriarchal\ndignity. His body was afterwards carried to Constantinople, where it was\nkept a long time. The Turkish emperor made a present of it to Matthias,\nking of Hungary, which he deposited in his chapel at Buda. In 1530 it\nwas translated to Tall, near Presbourg; and, in 1632, to the cathedral\nitself of Presbourg, where, according to Bollandus, it still remains.\nThe Greeks honor this saint on the 11th of November, the day of his\ndeath; but the Roman Martyrology on the 23d of January, the day marked\nfor the translation of his relics. His life, written by his two vicars,\nSophronius and Moschus, is lost; but we have that by Leontius, bishop of\nNaplouse in Cyprus, from the relation of the saint's clergy, commended\nin the seventh general council. It is published more correct by Rosweide\nand Bollandus. We have another life of this saint, conformable to the\nformer, given us by Metaphrastes. See Le Quien, Oriens Christi, t. 2, p.\n446.\n\nST. EMERENTIA, V.M.\n\nSHE suffered about the year 304, and is named in the Martyrologies under\nthe name of St. Jerom, Bede, and others. She is said in her acts to have\nbeen stoned to death, while only a catechumen, praying at the tomb of\nSt. Agnes.\n\n{207}\n\nST. CLEMENT OF ANCYRA, B.M.\n\nHE suffered under Dioclesian, and is ranked by the Greeks among the\ngreat martyrs. His modern Greek acts say, his lingering martyrdom was\ncontinued by divers torments during twenty-eight years; but are\ndemonstrated by Baronius and others to be of no authority. Two churches\nat Constantinople were dedicated to God under the invocation of St.\nClement of Ancyra; one called of the Palace, the other now in Pera, a\nsuburb of that city. Several parts of his relics were kept with great\ndevotion at Constantinople. His skull, which was brought thence to Paris\nwhen Constantinople was taken by the Latins, in the thirteenth century,\nwas given by queen Anne of Austria to the abbey of Val de Grace. See\nChatelain, p. 386. Le Quien, Oriens Chr. t. 1, p. 457.\n\nST. AGATHANGELUS,\n\nTHE fellow-martyr of St. Clement, bishop of Ancyra. His relics, with\nthose of St. Clement, lay in a church in the suburbs of Constantinople,\nnow called Pera; but were brought into the West when that city was taken\nby the Latins.\n\nST. ILDEFONSUS, B.\n\nHE was a learned Benedictin abbot of a monastery called Agaliense, in a\nsuburb of Toledo, promoted to the archbishopric of that city after the\ndeath of Eugenius, in December, 657, according to F. Flores; sat nine\nyears and two months, and died on the 23d of January, 667, according to\nthe same learned author, in the eighteenth year of king Rescisvintho.\nHis most celebrated work is a book On the spotless virginity of the\nVirgin Mary, against Helvidius, Jovinian, and a certain Jew: he breathes\nin it the most tender devotion to her, and confidence in her\nintercession with her Son. He had a singular devotion to St. Leocadia,\npatroness of Toledo. Certain sermons of St. Ildefonsus on the B.\nVirgin Mary, and some letters, are published by Flores.[1] Some of his\nletters, which were first given us by D'Achery, were reprinted by\ncardinal D'Aguirre.[2] In Spanish this saint is called Ildefonso, and by\nthe common people Alanso, for Alphonsus, which is an abbreviation of\nIldefonsus. See his short life by St. Julian, bishop of Toledo,\ntwenty-three years after his death. In Mabillon, saec. 2. Fleury, b. 39,\nn. 40. That by Cixila is not authentic. See especially the remarks of\nthe learned F. Flores on these two lives, &c., in his Spana Sagrada, t.\n5, tr. 5, c. 3, n. 31, p. 275, and app. 9, ib. p. 522. F. Flores reckons\nSt. Ildefonsus the thirty-first bishop of Toledo, from St. Eugenius, the\ndisciple of St. Dionysius of Paris, whom, with the writers of his\ncountry, he counts the first, in the year 112.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  F. Flores. Spana Sagrada, t. 5, append. 7, p. 490.\n2.  Card. D'Aguirre, Conc. Hispan. t. 2, p. 534.\n\n{208}\n\nST. EUSEBIUS,\n\nAN ABBOT BETWEEN ANTIOCH AND BER[OE]A\n\nHIS example was a perpetual and a most moving sermon, and his very\ncountenance inspired all who beheld him with the love of virtue. He took\nnourishment but once in four days, but would not allow any of his monks\nto pass above two days without eating. He prescribed them mortifications\nof each sense in particular, but made perpetual prayer his chief rule,\nordering them to implore the divine mercy in their hearts, in whatever\nlabor their hands were employed. While Ammianus, who had resigned to him\nthe government of the abbey, was one day reading aloud, out of the\nscriptures, for their mutual edification, Eusebius happened to cast his\neye on certain laborers in the field where they sat, so as not to give\ndue attention to the lecture: to punish himself for this slight fault,\nhe put on, and wore till his death, for above forty years, a heavy iron\ncollar about his neck, fastened by a stiff chain to a great iron girdle\nabout his middle, so that he could only look downwards under his feet:\nand he never afterwards stirred out of his cell but by a narrow passage\nfrom his cell to the chapel. His sanctity drew many disciples to him. He\nflourished in the fourth century. See Theodoret Philoth. c. 4. Item\nHist. Eccles. l. 4, c. 28.\n\n\nJANUARY XXIV.\n\nST. TIMOTHY, B. AND M.\n\nSee Tillemont, t. 2, p. 142.\n\nST. TIMOTHY, the beloved disciple of St. Paul, was of Lycaonia, and\nprobably of the city Lystra. His father was a Gentile, but his mother\nEunice a Jewess. She, with Lois his grandmother, embraced the Christian\nreligion, and St. Paul commends their faith. Timothy had made the holy\nscriptures his study from his infancy.[1] When St. Paul preached in\nLycaonia, in the year 51, the brethren of Iconium and Lystra gave him so\nadvantageous a character of the young man, that the apostle, being\ndeprived of St. Barnaby, took him for the companion of his labors, but\nfirst circumcised him at Lystra. For though the Jewish ceremonies ceased\nto be obligatory from the death of Christ, it was still lawful to use\nthem (but not as of precept and obligation) till about the time of the\ndestruction of Jerusalem with the temple, that the synagogue might be\nburied with honor. Therefore St. Paul refused to circumcise Titus, born\nof Gentile parents, to assert the liberty of the gospel, and to condemn\nthose who erroneously affirmed circumcision to be still of precept in\nthe New Law. On the other side, he circumcised Timothy, born of a\nJewess, by that condescension to render him the more acceptable to the\nJews, and to make it appear that himself was no enemy to their law. St.\nChrysostom[2] here admires the prudence, steadiness, {209} and charity\nof St. Paul; and we may add, the voluntary obedience of the disciple.\nSt. Austin[3] extols his zeal and disinterestedness in immediately\nforsaking his country, his house, and his parents, to follow this\napostle, to share in his poverty and sufferings. After he was\ncircumcised, St. Paul, by the imposition of hands, committed to him the\nministry of preaching, his rare virtue making ample amends for his want\nof age. From that time the apostle regarded him not only as his disciple\nand most dear son, but as his brother, and the companion of his\nlabors.[4] He calls him a man of God,[5] and tells the Philippians, that\nhe found no one so truly united to him in heart and sentiments, as\nTimothy.[6] This esteem of the apostle is a sufficient testimony of the\nextraordinary merit of the disciple, whose vocation and entrance into\nthe ministry was accompanied with prophecies in his behalf.[7]\n\nSt. Paul travelled from Lystra over the rest of Asia, sailed into\nMacedon, and preached at Philippi, Thessalonica, and Ber[oe]a, in the year\n52. Being compelled to quit this last city by the fury of the Jews, he\nleft Timothy behind him, to confirm the new converts there. On St.\nPaul's arrival at Athens he sent for him, but being informed that the\nChristians of Thessalonica lay under a very heavy persecution for the\nfaith, he soon after deputed him to go thither, to comfort and encourage\nthem under it; and he returned to St. Paul, then at Corinth, to give him\nan account of his success in that commission.[8] Upon this the apostle\nwrote his first epistle to the Thessalonians. From Corinth St. Paul went\nto Jerusalem, and thence to Ephesus, where he spent two years. Here he\nformed a resolution of returning into Greece, and sent Timothy and\nErastus before him through Macedon, to apprize the faithful in those\nparts of his intention, and to prepare the alms intended to be sent the\nChristians of Jerusalem.\n\nTimothy had a particular order to go afterwards to Corinth, to correct\ncertain abuses, and to revive in the minds of the faithful there the\ndoctrine which the apostle had taught them; who, writing soon after to\nthe Corinthians, earnestly recommended this disciple to them.[9] St.\nPaul waited in Asia for his return, and then went with him into Macedon\nand Achaia. St. Timothy left him at Philippi, but rejoined him at Troas.\nThe apostle on his return to Palestine was imprisoned, and after two\nyears custody at Caesarea, was sent to Rome. Timothy seems to have been\nwith him all or most of this time, and is named by him in the titles of\nhis epistles to Philemon, and to the Philippians and Thessalonians, in\nthe years 61 and 62. St. Timothy himself suffered imprisonment for\nChrist, and gloriously confessed his name, in the presence of many\nwitnesses; but was set at liberty.[10] He was ordained bishop by a\nprophecy, and a particular order of the Holy Ghost.[11] He received by\nthis imposition of hands, not only the grace of the sacrament, and the\nauthority to govern the church, but also the power of miracles, and the\nother exterior gifts of the Holy Ghost. St. Paul being returned from\nRome into the East, in the year 64, left St. Timothy at Ephesus, to\ngovern that church, to oppose false teachers, and to ordain priests,\ndeacons, and even bishops.[12] For St. Chrysostom[13] and other fathers\nobserve, that he committed to him the care of all the churches of Asia:\nand St. Timothy is always named the first bishop of Ephesus.[14]\n\nSt. Paul wrote his first epistle to Timothy from Macedon, in 64; and his\nsecond, in 65, from Rome, while there in chains, to press him to come to\nRome, that he might see him again before he died. It is an effusion of\nhis heart, full of tenderness towards this his dearest son. In it he\nencourages {210} him, endeavors to renew and stir up in his soul that\nspirit of intrepidity, and that fire of the Holy Ghost, with which he\nwas filled at his ordination; gives him instructions concerning the\nheretics of that time, and adds a lively description of such as would\nafterwards arise.[15]\n\nWe learn[16] that St. Timothy drank only water: but his austerities\nhaving prejudiced his health, on account of his weak stomach and\nfrequent infirmities, St. Paul ordered him to use a little wine. The\nfathers observe that he only says a little, even in that necessity,\nbecause the flesh is to be kept weak, that the spirit may be vigorous\nand strong. St. Timothy was then young: perhaps about forty. It is not\nimprobable that he went to Rome to confer with his master. In the year\n64 he was made by St. Paul bishop of Ephesus, before St. John arrived\nthere, who resided also in that city as an apostle, and exercising a\ngeneral inspection over all the churches of Asia.[17] St. Timothy is\nstyled a martyr in the ancient martyrologies.\n\nHis acts, in some copies ascribed to the famous Polycrates, bishop of\nEphesus, but which seem to have been written at Ephesus, in the fifth or\nsixth age, and abridged by Photius, relate, that under the emperor\nNerva, in the year 97, St. John being still in the isle of Patmos, St.\nTimothy was slain with stones and clubs by the heathens, while he was\nendeavoring to oppose their idolatrous ceremonies on one of their\nfestivals called Catagogia, kept on the 22d of January, on which the\nidolaters walked in troops, every one carrying in one hand an idol, and\nin the other a club. St. Paulinus,[18] Theodorus Lector, and\nPhilostorgius,[19] inform us, that his relics were with great pomp\ntranslated to Constantinople in the year 356, in the reign of\nConstantius. St. Paulinus witnesses, that the least portion of them\nwrought many miracles wherever they were distributed. These precious\nremains, with those of St. Andrew. and St. Luke, were deposited under\nthe altar, in the church of the apostles in that city, where the devils,\nby their howlings, testified how much they felt their presence, says St.\nJerom;[20] which St. Chrysostom also confirms.[21]\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nPious reading was the means by which St. Timothy, encouraged by the\nexample and exhortations of his virtuous grandmother and mother, imbibed\nin his tender years, and nourished during the whole course of his life,\nthe most fervent spirit of religion and all virtues; and his ardor for\nholy reading and meditation is commended by St. Paul, as the proof of\nhis devotion and earliest desire of advancing in divine charity. When\nthis saint was wholly taken up in the most laborious and holy functions\nof the apostolic ministry, that great apostle strongly recommends to him\nalways to be assiduous in the same practice,[22] and in all exercises of\ndevotion. A minister of the gospel who neglects regular exercises of\nretirement, especially self-examination, reading, meditation, and\nprivate devotion, forgets his first and most essential duty, the care he\nowes to his own soul. Neither can he hope to kindle the fire of charity\nin others, if he suffer it to be extinguished {211} in his own breast.\nThese exercises are also indispensably necessary in a certain degree, in\nall states and circumstances of life; nor is it possible for a Christian\notherwise to maintain a spirit of true piety, which ought to animate the\nwhole body of all his actions, and without which even spiritual\nfunctions want as it were their soul.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  2 Tim. iii. 15.\n2.  Praef. in 1 Tim.\n3.  Serm. 177, n. 7.\n4.  1 Thess. iii. 2. 1 Cor. iv. 17.\n5.  1 Tim. vi. 11.\n6.  Phil. ii. 20.\n7.  1 Tim. i. 18.\n8.  Acts xviii.\n9.  1 Cor. xvi. 10.\n10. Heb. xiii. 23.\n11. 1 Tim. iv. 14.\n12. 1 Tim. {}.\n13. Hom. 15, in 1 Tim.\n14. Eus. l. 3, c. {} Conc. t. 4, p. 699.\n15. 2 Tim. iii. 1, 2.\n16. 1 Tim. v. 23.\n17. In the Apocalypse, which was written in the year 95, Christ\n    threatens the bishop of Ephesus, because he was fallen from his\n    first charity, and exhorts him to do penance and return to his first\n    works. (Apoc. xi. 4.) Calmet says, that this bishop could be no\n    other than St. Timothy; Pererius, Cornelieus a Lapide, Grotius,\n    Alcazar, Bossuet, and other learned men, agree in this point; also\n    Tillemont, t. 2, p. 147, and Bollandus ad 21 Jan. pp. 563 & 564.\n    Nicholas a Lyra and Ribera cannot be persuaded that St. Timothy ever\n    deserved such a censure, unless we understand it only of his flock.\n    The others say, he might have fallen into some venial remissness in\n    not reprehending the vices of others with sufficient vigor; which\n    fault he repaired, upon this admonition, with such earnestness, as\n    to have given occasion to his martyrdom, in 97. He was succeeded in\n    the see of Ephesus by John I., who was consecrated by St. John\n    Evangelist. (See Consitut. Apostol. l. 8, c. 46.) Onesiumus was\n    third bishop of Ephesus. See Le Quien Oriens. Chris. t. 1, p. 672.\n18. Carm. 26.\n19. L. 3, c. 2.\n20. In Vigilant. c. 2.\n21. Hom. 1, ad Pop. Antioch.\n22. 1 Tim. iv. 7 and 13.\n\nST. BABYLAS,\n\nBISHOP OF ANTIOCH AND MARTYR.\n\nFrom St. Chrysostom, l. contra Gentiles de S. Babyla, and hom. de S.\nBabyla, t. 2, ed. Ben. p. 531. He wrote the first discourse against the\nGentiles, expressly to confound them by the miracles of this saint. He\nspoke the second five years after, in 3871 on St. Babylas's feast,\nbefore a numerous auditory, and mentions Flavian, the bishop of Antioch,\nand others, who were to speak after him on the same subject. The\nmiracles were recent, performed before the eyes of many then present.\nNome of the three acts of this saint in Bollandus can be authentic. See\nTillemont, Mem. t. 3, p. 400, and Hist. des Empereurs, t. 3, and F.\nMerlin. Dissertation contre M. Bayle sur ce que rapporte S. Chrysostome\ndu Martyre de S. Babylas, Mem. de Trevoux, Juin 1737, p. 1051. Also\nStilting, the Bollandist, in Vit. S. Chrysost. Sec.15. p 439, ad 14\nSeptemb. t. 4.\n\nAbout the year 250.\n\nTHE most celebrated of the ancient bishops of Antioch, after St.\nIgnatius, was St. Babylas, who succeeded Zebinus in the year 237, and\ngoverned that church with great zeal and virtue, about thirteen years,\nunder the emperors Gordian, Philip, and Decius. Philip, an Arabian by\nbirth, and of mean extraction, raised by the young emperor Gordian to be\nprefect of the praetorian guards, perfidiously murdered his master at the\nhead of his victorious army in Persia, and caused himself to be\nacknowledged emperor by the senate and people of Rome, in the year 244.\nWe have very imperfect histories of his reign. Eusebius says that he\nabolished the public stews and promiscuous bathing in Rome, which\nAlexander Severus, the most virtuous of the heathen emperors, had in\nvain attempted to do. The same historian adds, it was averred[1] that\nPhilip, being a Christian, subjected himself to canonical penance at\nAntioch, where being arrived on the eve of a great festival, as the\nchronicle of Alexandria relates, he presented himself at the Christian\noratory, with his wife; but being excluded by the bishop, with a meek\nrebuke for his crimes, he made his exomologesis, or confession, and\nranked himself among the penitents without doors. St. Jerom, Vincent of\nLerins, Orosius, and others, positively affirm that this emperor was a\nChristian: and Eusebius, Rufinus, St. Jerom, Vincent of Lerins, and\nSyncellus say, that Origen wrote two letters, one to the emperor Philip,\nanother to his wife, with an authority which the Christian priesthood\ngave him over emperors.\n\nPhilip assisted at the heathenish solemnity of the thousandth year of\nRome; but his presence was necessary on that occasion, nor is he said to\nhave offered sacrifice. He was indeed a bad Christian, and probably only\na catechumen, an ambitious and cruel tyrant, who procured the death of\nMisitheus, father-in-law of Gordian, murdered Gordian himself to usurp\nhis empire, and put to death the young prince, son of the king of\nPersia, of the Parthians, left a hostage in his hands: circumstances\nmentioned by St. Chrysostom. Having reigned something upwards of five\nyears, he was slain with his son Philip, his colleague in the empire, by\nDecius, about the middle of the year 249. The peace and favor which the\nchurch had enjoyed during his reign, had much increased her numbers, but\nhad relaxed the fervor of many, as we see in St. Cyprian's works, and in\nthe life of St. Gregory Thaumaturgus. Whole cities had embraced the\nfaith, and public {212} churches were erected. Decius equally hated the\nPhilips and the Christian religion, against which he published the most\ncruel edicts in the year 250; which caused the seventh general\npersecution, permitted by God to purge away the dross to his flock, and\nto awake them to fervor.\n\nSt. Chrysostom extols the courage and zeal of St. Babylas, in shutting\nthe church-doors against an emperor and a barbarous tyrant, then at the\nhead of a victorious army. We find Philip styled conqueror of the\nParthians, in an inscription in Gruter,[2] by which he seems to have\nreturned triumphant, though Zonoras pretends he had bought a peace.\nEusebius mentions it as a report, that the emperor received the bishop's\nrebuke with meekness, and submitted to public penance: but St.\nChrysostom insinuates, that the same tyrant, in a rage for being refused\nadmittance, threw St. Babylas into a dungeon, where he soon died. St.\nJerom says that Decius imprisoned him, which seems the true account. F.\nStilting thinks that Decius, after being proclaimed emperor in Pannonia,\nmarched first against Philip, and when he was slain, led his army into\nSyria, where Priscus, Philip's brother, commanded the troops of those\nparts, and Jotapian about that time assumed the purple, but was soon\ncrushed. At this time he doubts not but Decius was forbid by St. Babylas\nto enter the church, because he was an idolater, and had perfidiously\nmurdered a prince who was the son of some king of a nation of\nbarbarians, who had sent him as a hostage to that tyrant. For many\ntransactions of that time are not recorded by the Roman historians. At\nleast it seems to have been under Decius that St. Babylas consummated\nhis martyrdom by the hardships of his prison: and when dying, ordered\nhis chains to be buried with him, as the happy instruments and marks of\nhis triumph. The Christians built a church over his tomb. His body\nrested here about one hundred years, till 351, when Gallus Caesar\ntranslated it to Daphne, five miles from Antioch, to oppose the worship\nof a famous idol of Apollo, which gave oracles in that place. Gallus\nerected a church, sacred to the name of St. Babylas, near the profane\ntemple, and placed in it his venerable ashes in a shrine above ground.\nThe neighborhood of the martyr's relics struck the devil dumb, as is\naverred by St. Chrysostom. Theodoret,[3] Sozomen, and others, who\ntriumph over the pagans on this account.[4] Eleven years after, Julian\nthe Apostate came to Antioch, in the year 362, and by a multitude of\nsacrifices endeavored to learn of the idol the cause of his silence. At\nlength the fiend gave him to understand, that the neighborhood was full\nof dead bones, which must be removed before he could be at rest and\ndisposed to give answers. Julian understood this of the body of St.\nBabylas, and commanded that the Christians should immediately remove his\nshrine to some distant place; but not touch the other dead bodies. Thus\ndo the fathers and Christian historians of that age relate this\nmiracle.[5] The Christians obeyed the order, and with great solemnity\ncarried back in procession the sacred relics to Antioch, singing on this\noccasion the psalms which ridicule the vanity and feebleness of idols,\nrepeating after every verse: \"May they who adore idols and glory in\nfalse gods, blush with shame and be covered with confusion.\" The\nfollowing evening, lightning fell on the temple of Apollo, and reduced\nto ashes all the rich and magnificent ornaments with which it was\nembellished, and the idol itself, leaving only the walls standing.\nJulian, the emperor's uncle, {213} and governor of the East, upon this\nnews hastened to Daphne, and endeavored by tortures to compel the\npriests to confess if the accident had happened by any negligence, or by\nthe interposition of the Christians: but it was clearly proved by the\ntestimony of these very priests, and also by that of several peasants\nwho saw the fire fall from heaven, that lightning was the cause. The\nApostate durst not restore the idol lest the like thunder should fall on\nhis own head: but he breathed nothing but fury against the Christians in\ngeneral, more especially against those of Antioch, the fatal effects of\nwhich he intended they should feel at his return from the Persian war.\nVain projects against God, who defeated them by his unhappy death in\nthat expedition! The ruins of this temple remained in the same condition\nabove twenty years after. The Roman Martyrology, with that of St. Jerom\nand others of the West, celebrate the memory of St. Babylas on the 24th\nof January, but the Greeks on the 4th of September, together with three\nchildren martyred with him, as St. Chrysostom and others mention. His\nbody is said to be now at Cremona, brought from the East in the\ncrusades. St. Babylas is the titular saint of many churches in Italy,\nFrance, and Spain.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  [Greek: Touton katexei xristianon honta] Eus. l. 6, c. 3.\n2.  P. 273.\n3.  Theodoret l. 3. Hist. c. 6, and de Graecor. Affect. l. 10. Rufin.\n    Chrys.\n4.  St. Chrysostom has given us the lamentation of Libanius, the\n    celebrated heathen sophist, bewailing the silence of Apollo at\n    Daphne; adding that Julian had delivered him from the neighborhood\n    of a dead man, which was troublesome to him.\n5.  Ammianus Marcellinus, a heathen, and Julian's own historian, says b.\n    2, p. 225, that he caused all the bones of dead men to be taken away\n    to purify the place.\n\nST. SURANUS, ABBOT IN UMBRIA,\n\nWHO gave all things, even the herbs out of his garden, to the poor. He\nwas martyred by the Lombards in the seventh century, and his relics were\nfamed for miracles.[1]\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  St. Greg. Dial. l. 4, c. 22.\n\nST. MACEDONIUS, ANCHORET IN SYRIA.\n\nHE lived forty years on barley moistened in water, till finding his\nhealth impaired, he ate bread, reflecting that it was not lawful for him\nto shorten his life to shun labors and conflicts, as he told the mother\nof Theodoret; persuading her, when in a bad state of health, to use a\nproper food, which he said was physic to her. Theodoret relates many\nmiraculous cures of sick persons, and of his own mother among them, by\nwater on which he had made the sign of the cross, and that his own birth\nwas the effect of his prayers, after his mother had lived childless in\nmarriage thirteen years.[1] {214} The saint died, ninety years old, and\nis named in the Greek menologies. See Theodoret, Hist. Eccles. l. 5, c.\n19, and Philotheae, c. 13. St. Chrysost. hom. 17, ad Pop. Antioch.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  The great Theodoret was dedicated to God by his parents before he\n    was born, and was educated in the study of every true branch of\n    Syriac, Greek, and Hebrew learning. He gave a large estate to the\n    poor, and entered a monastery near Apamea, but was taken out of it\n    against his will, and consecrated bishop of Cyrus in 423, being very\n    young. He converted all the Marcionites, Arians, and other heretics\n    in his diocese, in which he reckons eight hundred churches, or\n    parishes. (Ep. 113, p. 987.) Cyrus was a very small poor town in a\n    desert country, eighty miles from Antioch, one hundred and twenty\n    from Apamea, and one hundred and seventeen from Samosata. Though\n    Theodoret lived in great poverty, he enriched the poor and the\n    churches, and built for his city an aqueduct, two large bridges,\n    porticoes, and baths. In 430 pope Celestin and St. Cyril of\n    Alexandria wrote to John, patriarch of Antioch, against Nestorius,\n    who on his side sent an orthodox letter to the same prelate: soon\n    after St. Cyril wrote his third letter to Nestorius, to which he\n    subjoined twelve anathematisms against the errors of Nestorius. In\n    this writing certain obscure phrases occur, which John of Antioch\n    thought favorable to the heresy of Apollinaris: whereupon he engaged\n    Theodoret to undertake a confutation of them. Theodoret carried on\n    this contest with great warmth in several writings, and when the\n    ecumenical council of Ephesus was assembled in 431, refused, with\n    John of Antioch, and the rest of the forty Oriental bishops, to\n    enter it, because Nestorius had been condemned in it on the 21st of\n    June, before they arrived at Ephesus on the 27th. They even went so\n    far as to pretend to excommunicate St. Cyril, and form a schism in\n    the church. F. Garnier, the most declared enemy to Theodoret among\n    the moderns, lays to his charge several things, of which Tillemont\n    and others clear him. It is certain that he wrote with great\n    bitterness against St. Cyril, and his anathematisms, as appears from\n    the works which he wrote upon that occasion, especially certain\n    letters and fragments of his Pentalogus, (or work in five books,\n    against St. Cyril,) still extant. But St. Cyril having made a clear\n    confession of his faith in a letter to Acacius of Ber[oe]a, Theodoret\n    loudly declared him orthodox, and this he proved even in letters\n    which he wrote to Nestorius himself, and to Alexander of Hierapolis,\n    his own metropolitan, the warmest of all St. Cyril's enemies. John\n    of Antioch and many others made their peace with St. Cyril, about\n    the month of April. In 433, Theodoret stood out some time longer, by\n    refusing to condemn the person of Nestorius. St. Cyril and John of\n    Antioch afterwards admitted him to their communion without requiring\n    that condition, and Theodoret labored to gain over Alexander of\n    Hierapolis; but in vain, so that this prelate was banished by the\n    emperor; Theodoret himself, though he enjoyed the communion of St.\n    Cyril, and of John of Antioch, was often accused, because he\n    persisted to defend the person of Nestorius. The persecution was\n    often renewed against Theodoret, so long as he adhered to Nestorius,\n    especially after St. Cyril, St. Proclus, and all the western\n    prelates condemned the writings of Theodorus of Mopsuestia, as the\n    master of the heresiarch Nestorius in his capital error. The\n    Orientals defended Theodorus, and Theodoret endeavored to justify\n    him by several writings against St. Cyril, of which only fragments\n    quoted in the fifth council are extant. St. Cyril, by his silence\n    and moderation, calmed this dispute, and always maintained peace\n    with the Orientals from the time it was settled between them. His\n    death happened in June, 444, and Dioscorus, the impious Eutychian,\n    was his successor. Theodorus, bishop of Mopsuestia, in Cilicia, who\n    died in 428, in his erroneous writings laid the foundation both of\n    the Pelagian and Nestorian heresies. Theodoret, in his writings\n    against St. Cyril, adopts certain expressions which favored\n    Nestorianism, and were condemned in the fifth general council;\n    nevertheless, his sentiments were always orthodox, as is proved by\n    Tillemont, (Art. 20, t. 15, p. 253,) Natalis Alexander, Graveson,\n    &c. By exerting his zeal against Eutyches and Dioscorus, he incurred\n    the indignation of their sect, and the false council of Ephesus\n    pronounced a pretended sentence of deposition against him.\n    Theodosius the younger first forbade him to stir out of his diocese,\n    and when he desired to go to Rome to justify himself, in 450,\n    banished him to his monastery near Apamea. The emperor Marcian put\n    an end to the persecution raised by the Eutychians under his\n    predecessor; yet Theodoret chose to continue in his monastery till\n    he was called by pope Leo to assist at the council of Chalcedon. He\n    had received, with great applause, the excellent letter of that pope\n    to Flavian, and St. Leo declared null all the proceedings of\n    Dioscorus against him at Ephesus, and restored him to his see,\n    (Conc. t. 4, p. 622.) The council of Chalcedon met in 451, and in\n    the seventh session, held on the 26th of October, Theodoret\n    presented his request that his writings and faith might be examined.\n    Those who were prepossessed against him would not allow any such\n    examination, but required that he should anathematize Nestorius,\n    which he at length did; and the council, with high commendations,\n    declared him orthodox, and worthy of his see. Marcian, by a law\n    published the following year, annulled the edict of Theodosius\n    against him and Flavian. He died at Cyrus, about the year 458. The\n    heresy of Nestorius he had clearly condemned from the beginning,\n    with John of Antioch, in their exhortatory letter to Nestorius,\n    (Conc. t. 3, p. 394). What mistakes and faults he fell into he\n    cancelled by his edifying repentance; and the great virtues which he\n    practised even under his disgrace, the extent of his learning, and\n    the sublimity and acuteness of his genius, have established his\n    reputation in all succeeding ages, and he is deservedly ranked among\n    the must illustrious fathers of the church. His excellent writings\n    are the most authentic monuments of his extraordinary learning and\n    piety. He modestly compares himself (Proleg. in Osee. t. 2, p. 700)\n    to the Jewish poor women, who in the building of the tabernacle,\n    having neither gold nor silver to give to God towards this work,\n    picked and gathered together the hair, thread, or cloths,\n    contributed by others, or spun, or sewed something, not to be found\n    quite empty-handed. St. Chrysostom was taken away from Antioch in\n    397, and Theodoret was only born about the year 393: but though he\n    had not the happiness of hearing his divine discourses, he took him\n    for his principal model, and especially in his comments on the\n    scriptures usually adhered to those of that incomparable doctor. His\n    works were printed at Paris, in 1642, in four volumes in folio, to\n    which F. Garnier, a learned Jesuit, in 1684, added a fifth under the\n    title of an Auctarium, containing certain letters and discourses of\n    this father, with several prolix historical dissertations on the\n    Nestorian heresy. The judicious F. Sirmond, far more equitable than\n    F. Garnier. admires Theodoret's brevity, joined with great\n    perspicuity, especially in his commentaries, and commends the\n    pleasing beauty and attic elegance of his style. Photius praises his\n    fruitfulness of invention, the purity of his language, the choice of\n    his words, and the smoothness and neatness of his style, in which he\n    finds everywhere a decent and noble elevation, though he thinks his\n    metaphors sometimes too bold. This great critic calls his method of\n    short notes the most accomplished model for interpreting the holy\n    scriptures, and mentions, as an instance of his sincere humility,\n    that he never employs a single word, or produces a quotation for\n    ostentation, never falling into digressions foreign to his purpose;\n    we may almost say, that a superfluous word scarce ever escapes him.\n    (Phot. Cod. 203, p. 526. Cod. 31, 46, 56.)\n\n    His comments on St. Paul, and on most of the books of the old\n    Testament, are concise literal, and solid, but contain not that\n    inexhausted and excellent treasure of morality which we find in St.\n    Chrysostom, whose commentaries Theodoret had always before him: this\n    latter excels chiefly on the prophets. His church history, in five\n    books, from the close of that of Eusebius in 324 to 429, is a\n    valuable compilation. Photius justly prefers his style to that of\n    Eusebius, Evagrius, Socrates, and Sozomen, as more historical,\n    clear, and lofty, without any redundancy. (Cod. 31) His religious\n    history, or Philothea, (_i.e._ History of the Friends of God,)\n    contains the lives of thirty monks and anchorets of his time. He was\n    himself an eye-witness to several of the miracles which he relates\n    to have been wrought by the sign of the cross, holy water, and\n    blessed oil. Of some other miracles which he mentions, he tells us\n    that they were so authentic and notorious that no one who believes\n    those of Moses, Elias, and the Apostles, could deny them. The five\n    books, Of Heretical Fables, are a history of ancient heresies which\n    he wrote at the request of Sporacius, one of the imperial\n    commissaries at the council of Chalcedon, who was consul in 452. In\n    the fourth book, he inveighs most bitterly against Nestorius, whom\n    he had for some time unwarily favored. The letters of Theodoret\n    which are extant, amount to the number of 146. His book Against the\n    twelve Anthematisms of St. Cyril, he tacitly recalled by his\n    condemnation of Nestorius; also his Pentalogus on the same subject,\n    which is now lost, except some fragments preserved by Marius\n    Mercator. His three dialogues against the Eutychians, he entitled\n    Polymorphus, (_i.e._ of many shapes,) and Eranistes, that is, the\n    Beggar, because the Eutychian error was gathered from the various\n    heresies of Marcian, Valentin, Arius, and Apollinaris. The first\n    dialogue he calls the Unchangeable, because in it he shows that the\n    divine Word suffered no change by becoming man. The second is\n    entitled The Inconfused, from the subject, which is to prove that in\n    Christ, after the Incarnation, the divine and human nature remain\n    really distinct. The third is called, The Impassible, because in it\n    the author demonstrates that the divinity neither did nor could\n    suffer; the same is the purport of his Demonstration by syllogisms.\n    The dialogues were written about the year 447; for the author\n    clearly confutes Eutyches, though he never names him; and it appears\n    that St. Cyril was then dead, the author reckoning him in the end\n    among the Catholic doctors, who had formerly flourished in the\n    church, and among the stars which had enlightened the world. (Dial.\n    2. p. 86, and 111.)\n\n    Theodoret's ten sermons On Providence, is a work never yet\n    paralleled by any other writer, ancient or modern, on that sublime\n    subject; whether we consider the matter and the choice of thoughts,\n    or the author's sincere piety, or his extensive knowledge, and the\n    depth of his philosophical inquiries, or the strength and solidity\n    of his reasoning, or the noble sublimity of the expression, and the\n    elegance and perspicuity of the diction. It was the love of God\n    which engaged him to undertake, in this task, the defence of the\n    cause of our best Father and supreme Lord, as he modestly assures\n    us, (p. 320,) and this motive animated him with fresh life and\n    uncommon vigor in exerting and displaying the strength and beauty of\n    his genius on so great a subject.\n\n    His twelve discourses On healing the Prejudices of the Greeks, are\n    an excellent apology for our faith against the pagans; a performance\n    which falls little short of the former. In it we meet with many\n    curious anecdotes relating to the heathenish theology of the\n    ancients, and the impiety and vices with which their philosophers\n    disgraced their profession. In the eighth of these discourses, which\n    is entitled, On the Martyrs, he clearly demonstrates that the\n    veneration which Christians pay to the saints in heaven, is entirely\n    different from the worship which the heathens give to their false\n    gods, and elegantly explains (pp. 591, 660, 606) in what manner the\n    souls of the martyrs now in heaven, with the choirs of angels, are\n    our protectors and mediators with God, the physicians of our bodies,\n    and savers of our souls: the portions of their divided relics are\n    the guard and protection of our cities, which through their\n    intercession with God obtain divine gifts: Christians give their\n    names to their children to put these under their patronage: it was a\n    custom to hang up before their shrines, gold or silver images of\n    eyes, feet, or hands, as tokens or memorials of health, or other\n    benefits received by their means: they keep their festivals, as\n    those of Peter, Paul, Thomas, Sergius, Marcellus, Leontius,\n    Panteleemon, Antoninus, Mauritius, and others, in prayer, divine\n    canticles, and holy sermons. The same he testifies in his other\n    works. Almost every life of holy monks which he wrote, he closes by\n    imploring their intercession, and mentions that as far as Rome,\n    handicraftsman hang up in their shops the picture of St. Simeon\n    Stylites, hoping by their devotion to share in the protection of his\n    prayers. (Philoth. c. 26, p. 862.) We learn from, him, that\n    Christians were always accustomed to make the sign of the cross on\n    the cup before they drank. (Hist. Eccl. l. 3, c. 13.) He often\n    extols the virtues of that holy sign, honored, as he says, by all\n    Christians, whether Greeks, Romans, or Barbarians, (Serm. 6, de\n    Prov. p. 580, t. 4,) and he relates, (Hist. Eccl. l. 3. c. 1,) that\n    Julian the Apostate, by making it in a fright, drove away the devils\n    which one of his enchanters was invoking. His book in praise of\n    virginity, to which he refers us, (on 1 Cor. vii. 33.) is lost; also\n    the book in which he confuted both Eutyches and Nestorius, which is\n    mentioned by Gennadius (c. 89) and Marcellinus. (ad an. 466.) His\n    book Against the Jews, and several others, have not reached us.\n    Among those which are extant his Octateuch, (or comments on the five\n    books of Moses, and those of Joshua, Judges, and Ruth,) to which he\n    added comments on the books of Kings and Paralipomenon, much\n    commended by Photius, seems to be the last work which he wrote. See\n    Tillem. t. 15. Ceillier.\n\n{215}\n\nST. CADOCUS, OR CADOC, ABBOT IN WALES.\n\nCADOC was son to Gundleus, a prince of South Wales, by his wife Gladusa,\ndaughter of Braghan, whose name wax given to the province now called\nBrecknockshire. His parents were not less ennobled by their virtues than\nby their blood, and his father, who some years before his death\nrenouncing the world, led an eremitical life near a country church which\nhe had built, was honored in Wales among the saints. Cadoc, who was his\neldest son, succeeded in the government, but not long after followed his\nfather's example; and embracing a religious life, put himself under the\ndirection of St. Tathai, an Irish monk, who had opened a famous school\nat Gwen{t}, the ancient Venta Silurum of the Romans, afterwards a\nbishop's see, now in ruins in Monmouthshire. Our saint made such\nprogress both in learning and virtue, that when he returned into\nGlamorganshire, his own country, he spread on every side the rays of his\nwisdom and sanctity. Here, three miles from Cowbridge, he built a church\nand a monastery, which was called Llan-carvan, or the Church of Stags,\nand sometimes Nancarvan, that is, the Vale of Stags. The school which he\nestablished in this place became most illustrious, and fruitful in great\nand holy men. By our saint's persuasion St. Iltut renounced the court\nand the world, and learned at Llan-carvan that science which he\npreferred to all worldly treasures. He afterwards founded the great\nmonastery of Llan-Iltut. These two monasteries and that of St. Docuinus,\nall situated in the diocese of Landaff, were very famous for many ages,\nand were often governed by abbots of great eminence. St. Gildas, after\nhis return from Ireland, entered the monastery of St. Cadoc, where he\ntaught for one year, and copied a book of the gospels, which was long\npreserved with great care in the church of St. Cadoc, and highly\nreverenced by the Welsh, who used it in their most solemn oaths and\ncovenants. After spending there one year, St. Gildas and St. Cadoc left\nLlan-carvan, being desirous to live in closer retirement. They hid\nthemselves first in the islands of Ronech and Echni. An ancient life of\nSt. Cadoc tells us, that he died at Benevenna, which is the {216} Roman\nname of a place now called Wedon, in Northamptonshire. Some moderns take\nit for Benevento, in Italy, where they suppose him to have died.\nChatelain imagines this St. Cadoc to be the same who is honored at\nRennes, under the name of Cadoc, or Caduad, and from whom a small island\non the coast of Vennes is called Enes-Caduad. St. Cadoc flourished in\nthe beginning of the sixth century, and was succeeded in the abbacy of\nLlan-carvan, by Ellenius, \"an excellent disciple of an excellent\nmaster,\" says Leland. See the Acts of St. Cadoc, in Capgrave; Usher's\nAntiquities, c. 13, p. 252. Chatelain's Notes on the. Martyr. p. 399.\n\n\nJANUARY XXV.\n\nTHE CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL.\n\nSee Tillemont, t. 1, p. 192.\n\nTHIS great apostle was a Jew, of the tribe of Benjamin. At his\ncircumcision, on the eighth day after his birth, he received the name of\nSaul. His father was by sect a Pharisee, and a denizen of Tarsus, the\ncapital of Cilicia: which city had shown a particular regard for the\ncause of the Caesars; on which account Cassius deprived it of its\nprivileges and lands; but Augustus, when conqueror, made it ample amends\nby honoring it with many new privileges, and with the freedom of Rome,\nas we read in the two Dions and Appian. Hence St. Paul, being born at\nTarsus, was by privilege a Roman citizen, to which quality a great\ndistinction and several exemptions were granted by the laws of the\nempire.[1] His parents sent him young to Jerusalem, where he was\neducated and instructed in the strictest observance of the law of Moses,\nby Gamaliel,[2] a learned and noble Jew, and probably a member of the\nSanhedrim; and was a most scrupulous observer of it in every point. He\nappeals even to his enemies to bear evidence how conformable to it his\nlife had been in every respect.[3] He embraced the sect of the\nPharisees, which was of all others the most severe, though by its pride\nthe most opposite to the humility of the gospel.[4] It was a rule among\nthe Jews that all their children were to learn some trade with their\nstudies, were it but to avoid idleness, and to exercise the body, as\nwell as the mind, in something serious.[5] It is therefore probable that\nSaul learned in his youth the trade which he exercised even after his\napostleship, of making tents.[6]\n\nSaul, surpassing all his equals in zeal for the Jewish law and their\ntraditions, which he thought the cause of God, became thereby a,\nblasphemer, a persecutor, and the most outrageous enemy of Christ.[7] He\nwas one of those who combined to murder St. Stephen, and by keeping the\ngarments of all who stoned that holy martyr, he is said by St. Austin to\nhave stoned him by the hands of all the rest;[8] to whose prayers for\nhis enemies he ascribes {217} the conversion of St. Paul:[9] \"If\nStephen,\" said he, \"had not prayed, the church would never have had St.\nPaul.\"\n\nAfter the martyrdom of the holy deacon, the priests and magistrates of\nthe Jews raised a violent persecution against the church at Jerusalem,\nin which Saul signalized himself above others. By virtue of the power he\nhad received from the high priest, he dragged the Christians out of\ntheir houses, loaded them with chains, and thrust them into prison.[10]\nHe procured them to be scourged in the synagogues, and endeavored by\ntorments to compel them to blaspheme the name of Christ. And as our\nSaviour had always been represented by the leading men of the Jews as an\nenemy to their law, it was no wonder that this rigorous Pharisee fully\npersuaded himself that _he ought to do many things contrary to the name\nof Jesus of Nazareth_.[11] By the violences he committed, his name\nbecame everywhere a terror to the faithful. The persecutors not only\nraged against their persons, but also seized their estates and what they\npossessed in common,[12] and left them in such extreme necessity, that\nthe remotest churches afterwards thought it incumbent on them to join in\ncharitable contributions to their relief. All this could not satisfy the\nfury of Saul; he breathed nothing but threats and the slaughter of the\nother disciples.[13] Wherefore, in the fury of his zeal, he applied to\nthe high priest and Sanhedrim for a commission to take up all Jews at\nDamascus who confessed Jesus Christ, and bring them bound to Jerusalem,\nthat they might serve as public examples for the terror of others. But\nGod was pleased to show forth in him his patience and mercy; and, moved\nby the prayers of St. Stephen and his other persecuted servants, for\ntheir enemies, changed him, in the very heat of his fury, into a vessel\nof election, and made him a greater man in his church by the grace of\nthe apostleship, than St. Stephen had ever been, and a more illustrious\ninstrument of his glory. He was almost at the end of his journey to\nDamascus, when about noon, he and his company were on a sudden\nsurrounded by a great light from heaven, brighter than the sun.[14] They\nall saw the light, and being struck with amazement, fell to the ground.\nThen Saul heard a voice, which to him was articulate and distinct; but\nnot understood, though heard by the rest:[15] _Saul, Saul, why dost thou\npersecute me?_ Christ said not: Why dost thou persecute my disciples?\nbut me: for it is he, their head, who is chiefly persecuted in his\nservants. Saul answered: _Who art thou, Lord?_ Christ said: _Jesus of\nNazareth, whom thou persecutest. It is hard for thee to kick against the\ngoad:_ \"to contend with one so much mightier than thyself. By\npersecuting my church you make it flourish, and only prick and hurt\nyourself.\" This mild expostulation of our Redeemer, accompanied with a\npowerful interior grace, strongly affecting his soul, cured his pride,\nassuaged his rage, and wrought at once a total change in him. Wherefore,\ntrembling and astonished, he cried out: _Lord, what wilt thou have me to\ndo?_ What to repair the past? What to promote your glory? I make a\njoyful oblation of myself to execute your will in every thing, and to\nsuffer for your sake afflictions, disgraces, persecutions, torments, and\nevery sort of death. The true convert expressed this, not in a bare form\nof words, nor with faint languid desires, nor with any exception lurking\nin the secret recesses of his heart; but with an entire sacrifice of\nhimself, and an heroic victory over the world with its frowns and\ncharms, over the devils with their snares and threats, and over himself\nand all inclinations of self-love; devoting himself totally to God. A\n{218} perfect model of a true conversion, the greatest work of almighty\ngrace! Christ ordered him to arise and proceed on his journey to the\ncity, where he should be informed of what he expected from him. Christ\nwould not instruct him immediately by himself, but, St. Austin\nobserves,[16] sent him to the ministry[17] which he had established in\nthe church, to be directed in the way of salvation by those whom he had\nappointed for that purpose. He would not finish the conversion and\ninstruction of this great apostle, whom he was pleased to call in so\nwonderful a manner, but by remitting him to the guidance of his\nministers; showing us thereby that his holy providence has so ordered\nit, that all who desire to serve him, should seek his will by listening\nto those whom he has commanded us to hear, and whom he has sent in his\nown name and appointed to be our guides. So perfectly would he abolish\nin his servants all self-confidence and presumption, the source of error\nand illusion. The convert, rising from the ground, found that, though\nhis eyes were open, he saw nothing. Providence sent this corporal\nblindness to be an emblem of the spiritual blindness in which he had\nlived, and to signify to him that he was henceforward to die to the\nworld, and learn to apply his mind totally to the contemplation of\nheavenly things. He was led by the hand into Damascus, whither Christ\nseemed to conduct him in triumph. He was lodged in the house of a Jew\nnamed Judas, where he remained three days blind, and without eating or\ndrinking. He doubtless spent his time in great bitterness of soul, not\nyet knowing what God required of him. With what anguish he bewailed his\npast blindness and false zeal against the church, we may conjecture both\nfrom his taking no nourishment during those three days, and from the\nmanner in which he ever after remembered and spoke of his having been a\nblasphemer and a persecutor. Though the entire reformation of his heart\nwas not gradual, as in ordinary conversions, but miraculous in the order\nof grace, and perfect in a moment; yet a time of probation and a severe\ninterior trial (for such we cannot doubt but he went through on this\noccasion) was necessary to crucify the old man and all other earthly\nsentiments in his heart, and to prepare it to receive the extraordinary\ngraces which God designed him. There was a Christian of distinction in\nDamascus, much respected by the Jews for his irreproachable life and\ngreat virtue; his name was Ananias. Christ appeared to this holy\ndisciple; and commanded him to go to Saul, who was then in the house of\nJudas at prayer: Ananias trembled at the name of Saul, being no stranger\nto the mischief he had done in Jerusalem, or to the errand on which he\nwas set out to Damascus. But our Redeemer overruled his fears, and\ncharged him a second time to go to him, saying: _Go, for he is a vessel\nof election to carry my name before Gentiles and kings, and the children\nof Israel: and I will show him how much he has to suffer for my name_.\nFor tribulation is the test and portion of all the true servants of\nChrist. Saul in the mean time saw in a vision a man entering, and laying\nhis hands upon him, to restore his sight. Ananias, obeying the divine\norder, arose, went to Saul, and laying his hands upon him, said:\n_Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to thee on thy journey, hath\nsent me that thou mayest receive thy sight, and be filled with the Holy\nGhost._ Immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and he\nrecovered his eyesight. Ananias added: _The God of our fathers hath\nchosen thee that thou shouldst know his will and see the just one, and\nshouldst hear the voice from his mouth: and thou shalt be his witness\nunto all men to publish what thou hast seen and heard. Arise, therefore,\nbe baptized and washed from thy sins, invoking the name of the Lord._\nSaul then arose, was baptized,{219} and took some refreshment. He stayed\nsome few days with the disciples at Damascus, and began immediately to\npreach in the synagogues, that Jesus was the Son of God, to the great\nastonishment of all that heard him, who said: _Is not this he who\npersecuted at Jerusalem those who invoked the name of Jesus, and who is\ncome hither to carry them away prisoners?_ Thus a blasphemer and a\npersecutor was made an apostle, and chosen to be one of the principal\ninstruments of God in the conversion of the world.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nSt. Paul never recalled to mind this his wonderful conversion, without\nraptures of gratitude and praise to the divine mercy. The church, in\nthanksgiving to God for such a miracle of his grace, from which it has\nderived such great blessings, and to commemorate so miraculous an\ninstance of his almighty power, and to propose to penitents a perfect\nmodel of a true conversion, has instituted this festival, which we find\nmentioned in several calendars and missals of the eighth and ninth\ncenturies, and which pope Innocent III. commanded to be observed with\ngreat solemnity. It was for some time kept a holy day of obligation in\nmost churches in the West; and we read it mentioned as such in England\nin the council of Oxford in 1222, in the reign of king Henry III.[18]\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  Acts, xxi. 29, xxii. 3.\n2.  Ibid. xxii. 3.\n3.  Ibid. xxvi. 4.\n4.  Ibid. xxvi. 5.\n5.  Rabbi Juda says, \"That a parent, who neglects his duty, is as\n    criminal as if he taught his son to steal.\" See Grotius and Sanctius\n    on Acts xviii. 3.\n6.  These tents were for the use of soldiers and mariners, and were made\n    of skins sewn together. {} think that his business was that of\n    making tapestry and hangings for theatres.\n7.  Gal. i. 14.\n8.  Serm. 301.\n9.  Ibid. l. 16, c. 4. Acts, vi.\n10. Acts, viii. 3, xxii. 4, xxvi. 10.\n11. Acts, xxvi. 9.\n12. Heb. x. 32.\n13. Acts, x. 1.\n14. Acts, ix. xiii. xxvi.\n15. So the Greek word [Greek: akoein] is often used in scripture, as in\n    J{} xiv. 2. And thus the text is very reconcilable with Acts. xxii.\n    9.\n16. Qu. Evang. l. 2, c. 40, et praef. 1, de doctr. Christ. p. 32.\n17. St. Austin doubts not but Ananias was a bishop, or at least a\n    priest. The Greeks give him a place in their calendar on the 1st of\n    October, and style him bishop of Damascus and martyr.\n18. Conc. Labbe, t. xi. p. 274.\n\nSS. JUVENTINUS AND MAXIMINUS, MARTYRS.\n\nFrom the elegant panegyric of St. Chrysostom, t. 2, p. 578, ed. Montf.,\nand from Theodoret, Hist. l. 3, c. 11.\n\nA.D. 363.\n\nTHESE martyrs were two officers of distinction in the foot-guards of\nJulian the Apostate.[1] When that tyrant was on his march against the\nPersians, they let fall at table certain free reflections on his impious\nlaws against the Christians, wishing rather for death than to see the\nprofanation {220} of holy things. The emperor, being informed of this,\nsent for them, and finding that they could not be prevailed upon by any\nmeans to retract what they had said, nor to sacrifice to idols, he\nconfiscated their estates, caused them to be cruelly scourged, and, some\ndays after, to be beheaded in prison at Antioch, January the 25th, 363.\nThe Christians, with the hazard of their lives, stole away their bodies,\nand after the death of Julian, who was slain in Persia on the 26th of\nJune following, erected for them a magnificent tomb. On their festival\nSt. Chrysostom pronounced their panegyric, in which he says of these\nmartyrs: \"They support the church as pillars, defend it as towers, and\nrepel all assaults as rocks. Let us visit them frequently, let us touch\ntheir shrine, and embrace their relics with confidence, that we may\nobtain from thence some benediction. For as soldiers, showing to the\nking the wounds which they have received in his battles, speak with\nconfidence, so they, by an humble representation of their past\nsufferings for Christ, obtain whatever they ask of the King of\nheaven.\"[2]\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  Julian, surnamed the Apostate, rebelled against Constantius, his\n    cousin-german, in the spring, in 360, and by his death, in November,\n    361, obtained the empire. He was one of the most infamous\n    dissemblers that ever lived. Craft, levity, inconstancy, falsehood,\n    want of judgment, and an excessive vanity, discovered themselves in\n    all his actions, and appear in his writings, namely, his epistles,\n    his satire called Misopogon, and his lives of the Caesars. He wrote\n    the last work to censure all the former emperors, that he might\n    appear the only great prince: for a censorious turn is an effect of\n    vanity and pride. He was most foolishly superstitious, and\n    exceedingly fond of soothsayers and magicians. After the death of\n    Constantius, he openly professed idolatry, and by besmearing himself\n    with the blood of impious victims, pretended to efface the character\n    of baptism. He was deceived in almost every step by ridiculous\n    omens, oracles, and augurs, as may be seen in his heathen historian,\n    Ammianus Marcellinus, (b. 22.) Maximus, the magician, and others of\n    that character, were his chief confidants. He endeavored, by the\n    black art, to rival the miracles of Christ, though he effected\n    nothing. He disqualified Christians from bearing offices in the\n    state; he forbade them to teach either rhetoric of philosophy, that\n    he might deprive them of the advantages of human literature, a thing\n    condemned by Ammianus himself. He commanded, by an edict, that they\n    should be no longer called Christians, but Galileans, and though he\n    pretended to toleration, he destroyed more souls by recompenses,\n    caresses, and strategems, than he could have done by cruelties. He\n    levied heavy fines and seized the estates of Christians, saying, in\n    raillery, that he did it to oblige them to follow the gospel, which\n    recommends poverty. He often put them to death, but secretly, and on\n    other pretences, that he might deprive them of the honor of\n    martyrdom: which artifice might have its influence on philosophers,\n    the lovers of vanity; but not on the servants of God, who desired to\n    be known to him alone, and to suffer, regardless of the applause of\n    men, as St. Gregory Nazianzen observes. (Or. 3, in Julian.) That\n    father, when he knew him a student at Athens, in 355, prognosticated\n    (Or. 4, in Julian, p. 122) from his light carriage, wandering eye,\n    haughty look, impertinent questions, and foolish answers, what a\n    monster the Roman empire was fostering and breeding up. In his march\n    to his Persian expedition, he was made a subject of mockery and\n    ridicule at Antioch, on account of his low stature, gigantic gait,\n    great goat's beard, and bloody sacrifices. In answer to which, he\n    wrote his Misopogon, or Beardhater, a low and insipid satire. He\n    everywhere threatened the Christians upon his return from the\n    Persian war. The oracles of Delos, Delphos, Dodona, and others,\n    promised him victories, as Theodoret, St. Gregory Nazianzen,\n    Philostorgius, and Libanius himself, (Libanius, Or. 12,) a heath,\n    and the chief favorite of Julian, testify: all the pagan deities\n    wherever he passed, gave him the like assurances, as he himself\n    writes (Julian, ep. 2.) But in Persia he rashly ventured into wilds\n    and deserts, with an army of sixty-five thousand men, where he was\n    defeated and slain in June, 363. Ammianus, who was then in the army,\n    only says that he was mortally wounded in the battle, and died in\n    his tent the same day, before noon. Theodoret, Sozomen, and the acts\n    of St. Theodoret the martyr, say, that finding himself wounded, he\n    threw up a handful of blood towards heaven, crying out: \"Thou hast\n    conquered, O Galilean, thou hast conquered.\" It was revealed to many\n    holy hermits, that God cut him off to give peace to his church.\n2.  Hom. in SS. Juv. et Max. t. 2, p. 583.\n\nST. PROJECTUS, BISHOP OF CLERMONT, M.\n\nCALLED AT LYONS ST. PRIEST, AT SENS ST. PREST, IN SAINT-ONGE ST. PREILS,\nAT PARIS AND IN PICARDY ST. PRIX.\n\nTHE episcopal see of Auvergne, which was founded by St. Austremonius, in\nthe middle of the third century, has been honored with many holy\nbishops, of whom twenty-six are ranked among the saints. Of these the\nmost eminent are St. Alidius, called in French Allyre, the fourth\nbishop, in 380, St. Sidonius Apollinaris in 482, St. Gallus in 656, St.\nPrix in 674, and St. Bont in 710. About the year 1160, the title of\nbishops of Auvergne was changed into that of Clermont, from the city of\nthis name. St. Prix was a native of Auvergne, and trained up in the\nservice of the church, under the care of St. Genesius, first archdeacon,\nafterwards bishop of Auvergne, and was well skilled in plain song,\n(which was esteemed in that age the first part of the science of a\nclergyman,) and in holy scriptures and church history. The parish of\nIssoire, and afterwards the nunnery, of Candedin, (now probably\nChantoen, a convent of barefooted Carms,) were the chief theatres of his\nzeal, till about the year 666 he was called by the voice of the people,\nseconded by Childeric II., king of Austrasia, to the episcopal dignity,\nupon the death of Felix, bishop of Auvergne. Partly by his own ample\npatrimony, and partly by the great liberalities of Genesius, the holy\ncount of Auvergne, he was enabled to found several monasteries,\nchurches, and hospitals; so that all distressed persons in his extensive\ndiocese were provided for, and a spirit of fervor in the exercises of\nreligion, and all Christian virtues, reigned in all parts. This was the\nfruit of the unwearied and undaunted zeal, assiduous sermons and\nexhortations, and the admirable example and sanctity of the holy\nprelate; whose learning, eloquence, and piety, are exceedingly extolled\nby the two historians of his life. The saint, on his road to the court\nof king Childeric, whither he was going for the affairs of his diocese,\nrestored to health St. Damarin, or Amarin, a holy abbot of a monastery\nin the mountains of Voge, who was afterwards martyred with him. This\nking caused Hector, the patrician of Marseilles, whom the saint had\nseverely rebuked for having ravished a young lady of Auvergne, a rich\nheiress, and having unjustly usurped considerable estates belonging to\nhis church, to be put to death for this rape and other crimes. One\nAgritius, imputing his death to the complaints carried to the king by\nSt. Prix, in revenge {221} stirred up many persons against the holy\nprelate, and with twenty armed men met the bishop as he returned from\ncourt, at Volvic, two leagues from Clermont, and first slew the abbot\nSt. Damarin, whom the ruffians mistook for the bishop. St. Prix,\nperceiving their design, courageously presented himself to them, and was\nstabbed in the body by a Saxon named Radbert. The saint, receiving this\nwound, said, \"Lord, lay not this sin to their charge, for they know not\nwhat they do.\" Another of the assassins clove his head with a\nback-sword, and scattered his brains. This happened in 674, on the 25th\nof January. The veneration which the Gallican churches paid to the\nmemory of this martyr began from the time of his death. His name was\nadded to the calendar in the copies of the Sacramentary of St. Gregory,\nwhich were transcribed in France, and churches were erected under his\ninvocation in almost every province of that kingdom. The principal part\nof his relics remain in the abbey of Flavigny, whither they were carried\nabout the year 760. Some portions are kept in the abbey of St. Prix at\nSt. Quintin's, of the congregation of Cluni; another in the priory of\nSt. Prix near Bethune, and in certain other places. See the two lives of\nSt. Prix, the first written by one who was acquainted with him, the\nother by one of the same age, both extant in Bollandus, pp. 628, 636,\nand in Mabillon Act. Ben. t. 1, pp. 642, 650.\n\nST. POPPO, ABBOT OF STAVELO\n\nST. POPPO was born in Flanders in 978, and received a pious education,\nunder the care of a most virtuous mother, who died a nun at Verdun. In\nhis youth he served for some time in the army, but even while he lived\nin the world, he found the spiritual food of heavenly meditation and\nprayer, with which the affections of the soul are nourished,[St. Aug.\nTr. 26. in Joan.] to be incomparably sweeter than all the delights of\nthe senses, and to give himself up entirely to these holy exercises, he\nrenounced his profession and the world. In a visit which he made by a\npenitential pilgrimage to the holy places at Jerusalem, he brought\nthence many precious relics, with which he enriched the church of our\nLady at Deisne, now a marquisate between Ghent and Courtray. He made\nalso a pilgrimage to the shrines of the apostles at Rome, and, some time\nafter his return, took the monastic habit at St. Thierry's, near Rheims.\nRichard, abbot of Verdun, becoming acquainted with his eminent virtue,\nobtained with great difficulty his abbot's consent to remove him\nthither; and being made abbot of St. Vedast's, at Arras, upon the\ndeposition of Folrad, who had filled that house with scandalous\ndisorders, he appointed Poppo procurator. In a journey which our saint\nwas obliged to make to the court of St. Henry, he prevailed with that\nreligious prince to abolish the combats of men and bears. St. Poppo was\nchosen successively prior of St. Vedast's, provost of St. Vennes, and\nabbot of Beaulieu, which last he rebuilt. He was afterwards chosen abbot\nof St. Vedast's, and some time later of the two united abbeys of Stavelo\nand Malmedy, about a league asunder, in the diocese of Liege; also, two\nyears after this, of St. Maximin's at Triers. Those of Arms and\nMarchiennes were also committed to his care: in all which houses he\nsettled the most exact discipline. He died at Marchiennes, on the 25th\nof January, in 1048, being seventy years of age. St. Poppo received\nextreme unction at the hands of Everhelm, abbot of Hautmont, afterwards\nof Blandinberg at Ghent, who afterwards wrote his life, in which he\ngives a particular account of his great {222} virtues. The body of St.\nPoppo was carried to Stavelo, and there interred: his remains were taken\nup and enshrined in 1624, after Baronius had inserted his name in the\nRoman Martyrology; for Molanus, in his Indiculus, and Miraeus observe\nthat he was never canonized. Chatelain denies against Trithemius that\nany commemoration was ever made of him in the public office in any of\nthe abbeys which he governed. But Martenne assures us that he was\nhonored among the saints at Stavelo, in the year 1624. See his life\nwritten by the monk Onulf, and abridged by Everhelm, abbot of Hautmont,\nin Bollandus, p. 673, and Martenne, Amplis. Collectio, t. 2, Praef. p.\n17.\n\nST. APOLLO, ABBOT IN THEBAIS.\n\nAFTER passing many years in a hermitage, he formed and governed a\ncommunity of five hundred monks, near Heliopolis. They all wore the same\ncoarse white habit, all received the holy communion every day, and the\nholy abbot made them also a daily exhortation with admirable unction. He\nentertained them often on the evils of melancholy and sadness, saying,\nthat spiritual joy and cheerfulness of heart are necessary amid our\ntears of penance; as being the fruit of charity, and requisite to\nsupport the fervor of the soul. He was known to strangers by the joy of\nhis countenance. By humility he ranked himself among the goats, unworthy\nto be numbered among the sheep. He made it his constant and earnest\npetition to God, that he might know himself, and be preserved from the\nsubtile snares and illusions of pride. It is said that the devil left a\npossessed person at his command, crying out that he was not able to\nwithstand his humility. The saint received a visit from St. Petronius,\nafterwards bishop of Bologna, in 393, being then near eighty years old,\nwhich he did not long survive. See Sozom. l. 6, c. 29. Rufin. l. 2.\nTillem. t. 10, p. 35. The Greek menaea and Bollandus on this day.\n\nST. PUBLIUS, ABBOT\n\nNEAR ZEUGMA, UPON THE EUPHRATES,\n\nIS honored by the Greeks. He was the son of a senator in that city, and\nsold his estate, plate, and furniture, for the benefit of the poor; and\nlived first a hermit, afterwards governed a numerous community in the\nfourth age. He allowed his monks no other food than herbs and pulse, and\nvery coarse bread; no drink but water: he forbade milk, cheese, grapes,\nand even vinegar, also oil, except from Easter to Whitsuntide. To put\nhimself always in mind of advancing continually in fervor and charity,\nhe added every day something to his exercises of penance and devotion:\nhe was remarkably solicitous to avoid sloth, being sensible of the\ninestimable value of time. Alas! what would not a damned soul, what\nwould not a suffering soul in purgatory give, for one of those moments\nwhich we unthinkingly throw away. As far as the state of the blessed in\nheaven can admit of regret, they eternally condemn their insensibility\nas having lost every moment of their mortal life, which they did not\nimprove to the utmost advantage. Theodoret tells us that the holy abbot\nPublius founded two congregations, the one of Greeks, the other of\nSyrians, each using their own tongue in the divine office: for the Greek\nand Chaldean were from the beginning {223} sacred languages, or\nconsecrated by the church in her public prayers. St. Publius flourished\nabout the year 369. See Theodoret, Philoth. c. 5. Rosweide, l. 6, c. 7.\nChatel. Mart. Univ. p. 886, among the Aemeres, or saints who are not\ncommemorated on any particular day.\n\n\nJANUARY XXVI.\n\nST. POLYCARP, BISHOP OF SMYRNA, M.\n\nFrom his acts, written by the church of Smyrna in an excellent circular\nletter to the churches of Pontus, immediately after his martyrdom: a\npiece abridged by Eusebius, b. 4, c. 14, highly esteemed by the\nancients. Joseph Scaliger, a supercilious critic, says that nothing in\nthe whole course of church history so strongly affected him, as the\nperusal of these acts, and those relating to the martyrs of Lyons: that\nhe never read them but they gave him extraordinary emotions. Animad. in\nChron. Eusebii, n. 2183, &c. They are certainly most valuable pieces of\nChristian antiquity. See Eusebius, St. Jerom, and St. Irenaeus. Also\nTillemont, t. 2, p. 327. Dom Ceillier, t. 1. Dom Marechal, Concordance\ndes Peres Grecs et Latins, t. 1.\n\nA.D. 166.\n\nST. POLYCARP was one of the most illustrious of the apostolic fathers,\nwho, being the immediate disciples of the apostles, received\ninstructions from their mouths, and inherited of them the spirit of\nChrist, in a degree so much the more eminent, as they lived nearer the\nfountain head. He embraced Christianity very young, about the year 80;\nwas a disciple of the apostles, in particular of St. John the\nEvangelist, and was constituted by him bishop of Smyrna, probably before\nhis banishment to Patmos, in 96: so that he governed that important see\nseventy years. He seems to have been the angel or bishop of Smyrna, who\nwas commended above all the bishops of Asia by Christ himself in the\nApocalypse,[1] and the only one without a reproach. Our Saviour\nencouraged him under his poverty, tribulation, and persecutions,\nespecially the calumnies of the Jews, called him rich in grace, and\npromised him the crown of life by martyrdom. This saint was respected by\nthe faithful to a degree of veneration. He formed many holy disciples,\namong whom were St. Irenaeus and Papias. When Florinus, who had often\nvisited St. Polycarp, had broached certain heresies, St. Irenaeus wrote\nto him as follows:[2] \"These things were not taught you by the bishops\nwho preceded us. I could tell you the place where the blessed Polycarp\nsat to preach the word of God. It is yet present to my mind with what\ngravity he everywhere came in and went out: what was the sanctity of his\ndeportment, the majesty of his countenance and of his whole exterior,\nand what were his holy exhortations to the people. I seem to hear him\nnow relate how he conversed with John and many others, who had seen\nJesus Christ; the words he had heard from their mouths. I can protest\nbefore God, that if this holy bishop had heard of any error like yours,\nhe would have immediately stopped his ears, and cried out, according to\nhis custom: Good God! that I should be reserved to these times to hear\nsuch things! That very instant he would have fled out of the place in\nwhich he had heard such doctrine.\" St. Jerom[3] mentions, that St.\nPolycarp met at Rome the heretic Marcion, in the streets, who resenting\nthat the holy bishop did not take that notice of him which he expected,\nsaid to him: \"Do not you {224} know me, Polycarp?\" \"Yes,\" answered the\nsaint, \"I know you to be the first-born of Satan.\" He had learned this\nabhorrence of the authors of heresy, who knowingly and willingly\nadulterate the divine truths, from his master St. John, who fled out of\nthe bath in which he saw Cerinthus.[4] St. Polycarp kissed with respect\nthe chains of St. Ignatius, who passed by Smyrna on the road to his\nmartyrdom, and who recommended to our saint the care and comfort of his\ndistant church of Antioch; which he repeated to him in a letter from\nTroas, desiring him to write in his name to those churches of Asia to\nwhich he had not leisure to write himself.[5] St. Polycarp {225} wrote a\nletter to the Philippians shortly after, which is highly commended by\nSt. Irenaeus, St. Jerom, Eusebius, Photius, and others, and is still\nextant. It is justly admired both for the excellent instructions it\ncontains, and for the simplicity and perspicuity of the style; and was\npublicly read in the church in Asia, in St. Jerom's time. In it he calls\na heretic, as above, the eldest son of Satan. About the year 158, he\nundertook a journey of charity to Rome, to confer with pope Anicetus\nabout certain points of discipline, especially about the time of keeping\nEaster, for the Asiatic churches kept it on the fourteenth day of the\nvernal equinoctial moon, as the Jews did, on whatever day of the week it\nfell; whereas Rome, Egypt, and all the West, observed it on the Sunday\nfollowing. It was agreed that both might follow their custom without\nbreaking the bands of charity. St. Anicetus, to testify his respect,\nyielded to him the honor of celebrating the Eucharist in his own\nchurch.[6] We find no further particulars concerning our saint recorded\nbefore the acts of his martyrdom.\n\nIn the sixth year of Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus, Statius Quadrates\nbeing proconsul of Asia, a violent persecution broke out in that\ncountry, in which the faithful gave heroic proofs of their courage and\nlove of God, to the astonishment of the infidels. When they were torn to\npieces with scourges till their very bowels were laid bare, amidst the\nmoans and tears of the spectators, who were moved with pity at the sight\nof their torments, not one of them gave so much as a single groan: so\nlittle regard had they for their own flesh in the cause of God. No kinds\nof torture, no inventions of cruelty were forborne to force them to a\nconformity to the pagan worship of the times. Germanicus, who had been\nbrought to Smyrna with eleven or twelve other Christians, signalized\nhimself above the rest, and animated the most timorous to suffer. The\nproconsul in the amphitheatre called upon him with tenderness,\nentreating him to have some regard for his youth, and to value at least\nhis life: but he, with a holy impatience, provoked the beasts to devour\nhim, to leave this wicked world. One Quintus, a Phrygian, who had\npresented himself to the judge, yielded at the sight of the beast let\nout upon him, and sacrificed. The authors of these acts justly condemn\nthe presumption of those who offered themselves to suffer,[7] and says\nthat the martyrdom of St. Polycarp was conformable to the gospel,\nbecause he exposed not himself to the temptation, but waited till the\npersecutors laid hands on him, as Christ our Lord taught us by his own\nexample. The same venerable authors observe, that the martyrs by their\npatience and constancy demonstrated to all men, that, while their bodies\nwere tormented, they were in spirit estranged from the flesh, and\nalready in heaven; or rather that our Lord was present with them and\nassisted them; for the fire of the barbarous executioners seemed as if\nit had been a cooling refreshment to them.[8] The spectators, seeing the\ncourage of Germanicus and his companions, and being fond of their\nimpious bloody diversions, cried out: \"Away with the impious; let\nPolycarp be sought for.\" The holy man, though fearless, had been\nprevailed upon by his friends to withdraw and conceal himself in a\nneighboring village during the storm, spending most of his time in\nprayer. Three days before his martyrdom, he in a vision saw his pillow\non fire; from which he understood by revelation, and {226} foretold his\ncompanions, that he should be burnt alive. When the persecutors were in\nquest of him he changed his retreat, but was betrayed by a boy, who was\nthreatened with the rack unless he discovered him. Herod, the Irenarch,\nor keeper of the peace, whose office it was to prevent misdemeanors and\napprehend malefactors, sent horsemen by night to beset his lodgings. The\nsaint was above stairs in bed, but refused to make his escape, saying:\n\"God's will be done.\" He went down, met them at the door, ordered them a\nhandsome supper, and desired only some time for prayer before he went\nwith them. This granted, he began his prayer standing, which he\ncontinued in that posture for two hours, recommending to God his own\nflock and the whole church with so much earnestness and devotion, that\nseveral of those that were come to seize him repented they had\nundertaken the commission. They set him on an ass, and were conducting\nhim towards the city, when he was met on the road by Herod and his\nfather Nicetes, who took him into their chariot, and endeavored to\npersuade him to a little compliance, saying: \"What harm is there in\nsaying Lord Caesar, or even in sacrificing, to escape death?\" By the word\nLord was meant nothing less than a kind of deity or godhead. The bishop\nat first was silent, in imitation of our Saviour: but being pressed, he\ngave them this resolute answer: \"I shall never do what you desire of\nme.\" At these words, taking off the mask of friendship and compassion,\nthey treated him with scorn and reproaches, and thrust him out of the\nchariot with such violence, that his leg was bruised by the fall. The\nholy man went forward cheerfully to the place where the people were\nassembled. Upon his entering it, a voice from heaven was heard by many:\n\"Polycarp, be courageous, and act manfully.\"[9] He was led directly to\nthe tribunal of the proconsul, who exhorted him to respect his own age,\nto swear by the genius of Caesar, and to say: \"Take away the impious,\"\nmeaning the Christians. The saint turning towards the people in the pit,\nsaid, with a stern countenance: \"Exterminate the wicked,\" meaning by\nthis expression either a wish that they might cease to be wicked by\ntheir conversion to the faith of Christ: or this was a prediction of the\ncalamity which befell their city in 177, when Smyrna was overturned by\nan earthquake, as we read in Dion[10] and Aristides.[11] The proconsul\nrepeated: \"Swear by the genius of Caesar, and I discharge you; blaspheme\nChrist.\" Polycarp replied: \"I have served him these fourscore and six\nyears, and he never did me any harm, but much good; and how can I\nblaspheme my King and my Saviour? If you require of me to swear by the\ngenius of Caesar, as you call it, hear my free confession: I am a\nChristian; but if you desire to learn the Christian religion, appoint a\ntime, and hear me.\" The proconsul said: \"Persuade the people.\" The\nmartyr replied: \"I addressed my discourse to you; for we are taught to\ngive due honor to princes as far as is consistent with religion. But the\npopulace is an incompetent judge to justify myself before.\" Indeed, rage\nrendered them incapable of hearing him.\n\nThe proconsul then assuming a tone of severity, said: \"I have wild\nbeasts:\" \"Call for them,\" replied the saint: \"for we are unalterably\nresolved not to change from good to evil. It is only good to pass from\nevil to good.\" The proconsul said: \"If you contemn the beasts, I will\ncause you to be burnt to ashes.\" Polycarp answered: \"You threaten me\nwith a fire which burns for a short time, and then goes out; but are\nyourself ignorant of the {227} judgment to come, and of the fire of\neverlasting torments which is prepared for the wicked. Why do you delay?\nBring against me what you please.\" While he said thus and many other\nthings, he appeared in a transport of joy and confidence, and his\ncountenance shone with a certain heavenly grace, and pleasant\ncheerfulness, insomuch that the proconsul himself was struck with\nadmiration. However, he ordered a crier to make public proclamation\nthree times it the middle of the Stadium, (as was the Roman custom in\ncapital cases:) \"Polycarp hath confessed himself a Christian.\"[12] At\nthis proclamation the whole multitude of Jews and Gentiles gave a great\nshout, the latter crying out: \"This is the great teacher of Asia; the\nfather of the Christians; the destroyer of our gods, who preaches to men\nnot to sacrifice to or adore them.\" They applied to Philip the\nAsiarch,[13] to let loose a lion upon Polycarp. He told them that it was\nnot in his power, because those shows had been closed. Then they\nunanimously demanded that he should be burnt alive. Their request was no\nsooner granted, but every one ran with all speed to fetch wood from the\nbaths and shops. The Jews were particularly active and busy on this\noccasion. The pile being prepared, Polycarp put off his garments, untied\nhis girdle, and began to take off his shoes; an office he had not been\naccustomed to, the Christians having always striven who should do these\nthings for him, regarding it as a happiness to be admitted to touch him.\nThe wood and other combustibles were heaped all round him. The\nexecutioners would have nailed him to the stake; but he said to them:\n\"Suffer me to be as I am. He who gives me grace to undergo this fire,\nwill enable me to stand still without that precaution.\" They therefore\ncontented themselves with tying his hands behind his back, and in this\nposture, looking up towards heaven, he prayed as follows: \"O Almighty\nLord God, Father of thy beloved and blessed Son Jesus Christ, by whom we\nhave received the knowledge of thee, God of angels, powers, and every\ncreature, and of all the race of the just that live in thy presence! I\nbless thee for having been pleased in thy goodness to bring me to this\nhour, that I may receive a portion in the number of thy martyrs, and\npartake of the chalice of thy Christ, for the resurrection to eternal\nlife, in the incorruptibleness of the holy Spirit. Amongst whom grant me\nto be received this day as a pleasing sacrifice, such an one as thou\nthyself hast prepared, that so thou mayest accomplish what thou, O true\nand faithful God! hast foreshown. Wherefore, for all things I praise,\nbless, and glorify thee, through the eternal high priest Jesus Christ\nthy beloved Son, with whom, to Thee and the Holy Ghost be glory now and\nfor ever. Amen.\" He had scarce said Amen, when fire was set to the pile,\nwhich increased to a mighty flame. But behold a wonder, say the authors\nof these acts, seen by us, reserved to attest it to others; the flames\nforming themselves into an arch, like the sails of a ship swelled with\nthe wind, gently encircled the body of the martyr, which stood in the\nmiddle, resembling not roasted flesh, but purified gold or silver,\nappearing bright through the flames; and his body sending forth such a\nfragrancy, that we seemed to smell precious spices. The blind infidels\nwere only exasperated to see his body could not be consumed, and ordered\na spearman to pierce him through, which he did, and such a quantity of\nblood issued out of his left side as to quench the fire.[14] The malice\nof the devil ended not here: {228} he endeavored to obstruct the relics\nof the martyr being carried off by the Christians; for many desired to\ndo it, to show their respect to his body. Therefore, by the suggestion\nof Satan, Nicetes advised the proconsul not to bestow it on the\nChristians, lest, said he, abandoning the crucified man, they should\nadore Polycarp: the Jews suggested this, \"Not knowing,\" say the authors\nof the acts, \"that we can never forsake Christ, nor adore any other,\nthough we love the martyrs, as his disciples and imitators, for the\ngreat love they bore their king and master.\" The centurion, seeing a\ncontest raised by the Jews, placed the body in the middle, and burnt it\nto ashes. \"We afterwards took up the bones,\" say they, \"more precious\nthan the richest jewels or gold, and deposited them decently in a place\nat which may God grant us to assemble with joy, to celebrate the\nbirth-day of the martyr.\" Thus these disciples and eye-witnesses. It was\nat two o'clock in the afternoon, which the authors of the acts call the\neighth hour, in the year 166, that St. Polycarp received his crown,\naccording to Tillemont; but, in 169, according to Basnage.[15] His tomb\nis still shown with great veneration at Smyrna, in a small chapel. St.\nIrenaeus speaks of St. Polycarp as being of an uncommon age.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe epistle of St. Polycarp to the Philippians, which is the only one\namong those which he wrote that has been preserved, is, even in the dead\nletter, a standing proof of the apostolic spirit with which he was\nanimated, and of that profound humility, perfect meekness, burning\ncharity, and holy zeal, of which his life was so admirable an example.\nThe beginning is an effusion of spiritual joy and charity with which he\nwas transported at the happiness of their conversion to God, and their\nfervor in divine love. His extreme abhorrence of heresy makes him\nimmediately fall upon that of the Docaetae, against which he arms the\nfaithful, by clearly demonstrating that Christ was truly made man, died,\nand rose again: in which his terms admirably express his most humble and\naffectionate devotion to our divine Redeemer, under these great\nmysteries of love. Besides walking in truth, he takes notice, that to be\nraised with Christ in glory, we must also do his will, keep all his\ncommandments, and love whatever he loved; refraining from all fraud,\navarice, detraction, and rash judgment; repaying evil with good,\nforgiving and showing mercy to others that we ourselves may find mercy.\n\"These things,\" says he, \"I write to you on justice, because you incited\nme; for neither I, nor any other like me, can attain to the wisdom of\nthe blessed and glorious Paul, into whose epistles if you look, you may\nraise your spiritual fabric by strengthening faith, which is our mother,\nhope following, and charity towards God, Christ, and our neighbor\npreceding us. He who has charity is far from all sin.\" The saint gives\nshort instructions to every particular state, then adds; \"Every one who\nhath not confessed that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, is\nantichrist;[16] and who hath not confessed the suffering of the cross,\nis of the devil; and who hath drawn the oracles of the Lord to his\npassions, and hath said that there is no resurrection nor judgment, he\nis the oldest son of Satan.\" He exhorts to watching always in prayer,\nlest we be led into temptation; to be constant in fasting, persevering,\njoyful in hope, and in the pledge of our justice, which is Christ {229}\nJesus, imitating his patience; for, by suffering for his name, we\nglorify him. To encourage them to suffer, he reminds them of those who\nhad suffered before their eyes: Ignatius, Zozimus, and Rufus, and some\nof their own congregation,[17] \"who are now,\" says our saint, \"in the\nplace which is due to them with the Lord, with whom they also suffered.\"\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  Ch. ii. v. 9.\n2.  Eus. Hist. l. 5, c. 20, p. 188.\n3.  Cat. vir. illustr. c. 17.\n4.  See also 1 John ii. 18, 22, and 2 John 10.\n5.  St. Ignatius begins his letter to the faithful at Smyrna, by\n    glorifying God for their great spiritual wisdom, saying he knew them\n    to be perfect in their unshaken faith, as men crucified with our\n    Lord Jesus in flesh and in spirit, and deeply grounded in charity by\n    the blood of Christ. He then solidly confutes the Docaetae, heretics\n    who imagined that Christ was not incarnate, and died only in\n    appearance; whom he calls demoniacs. He adds: \"I give you this\n    caution, knowing that you hold the true faith, but that you may\n    stand upon your guard against these wild beasts in human shape, whom\n    you ought not to receive under your roof, nor even meet if possible;\n    and be content only to pray for them that they may be converted, if\n    it be possible; for it is very difficult; though it is in the power\n    of Jesus Christ, our true life. If Jesus Christ did all this in\n    appearance only, then I am only chained in imagination; and why have\n    I delivered myself up to death, to fire, to the sword, to beasts?\n    but who is near the sword, is near God; he who is among beasts is\n    with God. I suffer all things only in the name of Jesus Christ, that\n    I may suffer with him, he giving me strength, who was made perfectly\n    man. What does it avail me to be commended by any one, if he\n    blasphemes our Lord, not confessing him to have flesh? The whole\n    consists in faith and charity; nothing can take place before these.\n    Now consider those who maintain a false opinion of the grace of\n    Jesus Christ, how they also oppose charity; they take no care of the\n    widow, or orphan, or him who is afflicted, or pining with hunger or\n    thirst. _They abstain from the Eucharist and prayer, (says he,)\n    because they confess not the Eucharist to be the flesh of our\n    Saviour Jesus Christ, which was crucified for our sins, and which\n    the Father, by his goodness, raised again._ It is advisable for you\n    to separate yourselves from them, and neither to speak to them in\n    public or in private. Shun schisms and all discord, as the source of\n    evils. Follow your bishop as Christ his Father, and the college of\n    priests as the apostles; respect the deacons as the precept of God.\n    Let no one do any thing that belongs to the church without the\n    bishop. Let that Eucharist be regarded as lawful which is celebrated\n    by the bishop, or one commissioned by him. Wherever the bishop makes\n    his appearance, there let the people be assembled, as wherever\n    Christ Jesus is, there is the Catholic church. It is not lawful to\n    baptize or celebrate the Agape without the bishop or his authority.\n    What he approves of is acceptable to God. He who does any thing\n    without the bishop's knowledge, serves the devil.\" The saint most\n    affectionately thanks them for the kindness they had shown him and\n    his followers; begs they will depute some person to his church in\n    Syria, to congratulate with his flock for the peace which God had\n    restored to them, adding that he was unworthy to be called a member\n    of that church of which he was the last. He asks the succor of their\n    prayers, that by them he might enjoy God. \"Seeing,\" says he, \"that\n    you are perfect, entertain perfect sentiments of virtue: for God is\n    ready to bestow on you who desire to do well.\" After the most tender\n    salutations of many in particular, and of all in general, especially\n    the virgins who were called widows, (_i.e._ the deaconesses, who\n    were called widows, because they were often such, though these were\n    virgins,) he closes his letter by praying for their advancement in\n    all charity, grace, mercy, peace, and patience. St. Ign. ep. ad\n    Smyrnaeos, p. 872, ed. Cotel.\n\n    The apostolic St. Ignatius writes as follows, in his letter to St.\n    Polycarp. \"Thy resolution in God, founded as it were upon an\n    unshaken rock, I exceedingly commend, having been made worthy of thy\n    holy face, which I pray I may enjoy in God. I conjure thee in the\n    grace with which thou art enriched, to increase thy stock in thy\n    course, and to exhort all that they may be saved. Have great care of\n    unity and concord, than which nothing is better. Bear with all men,\n    that God may bear with thee; bear all men by charity, as thou dost\n    apply thyself to prayer without interruption. Ask more perfect\n    understanding than thou hast. Watch, seeing that the spirit which\n    sleepeth not, dwelleth within thee. Speak to every one according to\n    the grace which God giveth thee. Bear the weaknesses and distemper\n    of all as a stout champion. Where the labor is greater, the gain is\n    exceeding great. If thou lovest the disciples that are good, thou\n    deservest not thanks; strive rather to subdue the wicked by\n    meekness. Every wound is not healed by the same plaster; assuage\n    inflammations by lenitives. Be not intimidated by those who seem\n    worthy of faith, yet teach things that are foreign. Stand firm, as\n    an anvil which is beaten: it is the property of a true champion to\n    be struck and to conquer. Let not the widows be neglected. Let\n    religious assemblies be most frequent. Seek out every one in them by\n    name. Despise not the slaves, neither suffer them to be puffed up;\n    but to the glory of God let them serve with greater diligence, that\n    they may obtain of God a better liberty. Let them not desire that\n    their liberty be purchased or procured for them by the congregation,\n    lest they fall under the slavery of their own passions. Fly evil\n    artifices; let them not be so much as named. Engage my sisters to\n    love the Lord, and never entertain a thought of any man but their\n    husbands. In like manner enjoin my brethren, in the name of Jesus\n    Christ, to love their wives as Christ loveth his church. If any one\n    is able to remain in a state of continency, in honor of our Lord's\n    flesh, let him be constantly humble: if he boasts, or is puffed up,\n    he is lost. Let all marriages be made by the authority of the\n    bishop, that they may be made in the Lord, not by the passions of\n    men. Let all things be done to the honor of God.\" Then addressing\n    himself to all the faithful at Smyrna, he writes: \"Listen to your\n    bishop, that God may also hearken to you. With joy I would lay down\n    my life for those who are subject to the bishop, priests, and\n    deacons. May my portion be with them in God. Let all things be in\n    common among you: your labor, your warfare, your sufferings, your\n    rest, and your watching, as becomes the dispensers, the assessors,\n    and the servants of God. Please hi, in whose service you fight, and\n    from whom you receive your salary. Let your baptism be always your\n    weapons, faith your helmet, charity your spear, and patience your\n    complete armor. Let your good works the the treasure which you lay\n    up, that you may receive the fruit which is worthy. Bear with each\n    other in all meekness, as God bears with you. I pray that I may\n    always enjoy and rejoice in you. Because the church of Antioch by\n    our prayers now enjoys peace, I am in mind secure in God; provided\n    still that by suffering I may go to God, and be found in the\n    resurrection your servant. You will do well, O Polycarp, most\n    blessed in God, to hold an assembly, and choose a very dear person\n    fit for dispatch in a journey, who may be styled the divine\n    messenger; him honor with a commission to go to Antioch, and there\n    bear witness of the fervor of your charity. A Christian lives not\n    for himself alone, but belongs to God.\" The holy martyr concludes by\n    desiring St. Polycarp to write for him to the other churches of\n    Asia, he being at that moment called on board by his guards to sail\n    from Troas to Naples.\n6.  St. Iren. b. 3, c. 3. Euseb. b. 5, c. 24. S. Hieron. c. 17.\n7.  N. 1, and 4.\n8.  [Greek: To tur hen autois psuxron to ton apathon basanitzon.]\n    Frigidis ipsis videbatur immanium carnificum ignis. n. 2, p. 1020.\n9.  Dr. Middleton pretends, that this voice was only heard by some few;\n    but the acts in Ruinart say, by those who were present, [Greek: hoi\n    parontes]: Eusebius says, [Greek: polloi]: Rufinus _plurimi_, very\n    many. A voice from heaven must certainly be sensibly discerned to be\n    more than human, and manifest itself sufficiently, to be perceived\n    that it could not come from the crowd.\n10. L. 71.\n11. Or. 20, 21, 22, 41.\n12. The great council of Asia seems to have been held at that time in\n    Smyrna, instead of Ephesus, which the Arundelian marbles show\n    sometimes to have been done.\n13. Or president of the public games, chosen yearly by the\n    common-council of Asia.\n14. Dr. Middleton ridicules the mention of a dove issuing out of the\n    wound of the side; but this is only found in some modern MSS. by the\n    blunder of a transcriber: it is not in Eusebius, Rufinus,\n    Nicephorus, or the Greek Menaea; though the last two would have\n    magnified a prodigy if they had found the least authority for any.\n    According to Le Moyen, (Proleg. ad varia sacra.) Ceillier, &c., the\n    true reading is [Greek: ep apisera], on the left side; which some\n    transcriber blundered into [Greek: perisera], a dove. As to the\n    foregoing miracle, that a wind should naturally divest the fire of\n    its property of burning, and form it into an arch about the body, is\n    a much more wonderful supposition of the doctor's than any miracle.\n15. St. Polycarp says himself, \"That he had served Christ eighty-six\n    years.\" Basnage thinks he had been bishop so long, and was a hundred\n    and twenty years old when he suffered: but it is far more probable\n    that this is the term he had been a Christian, having been converted\n    in his youth, and dying about one hundred years old or upwards, as\n    Tillemont understands it.\n16. 1 John iv. 3.\n17. Some of the Philippians had seen St. Ignatius in chains, and perhaps\n    at Rome. The primitive martyrs, Zozimus and Rufus, are commemorated\n    in the Martyrologies on the 18th of December.\n\nST. PAULA, WIDOW.\n\nThis illustrious pattern of widows surpassed all other Roman ladies in\nriches, birth, and the endowments of mind. She was born on the 5th of\nMay, in 347. The blood of the Scipios, the Gracchi, and Paulus AEmilius,\nwas centred in her by her mother Blesilla. Her father derived his\npedigree from Agamemnon, and her husband Toxotius his from Iulus and\nAEneas. By him she had a son called also Toxotius, and four daughters,\nnamely, Blesilla, Paulina, Eustochium, and Rufina. She shone a bright\npattern of virtue in the married state, and both she and her husband\nedified Rome by their good example; but her virtue was not without its\nalloy; a certain degree of the love of the world being almost\ninseparable from honors and high life. She did not discern the secret\nattachments of her heart, nor feel the weight of her own chains: she had\nneither courage to break them, nor light whereby to take a clear and\ndistinct view of her spiritual poverty and misery. God, compassionating\nher weakness, was pleased in his mercy to open her eyes by violence, and\nsent her the greatest affliction that could befall her in the death of\nher husband, when she was only thirty-two years of age. Her grief was\nimmoderate till such time as she was encouraged to devote herself\ntotally to God, by the exhortations of her friend St. Marcella, a holy\nwidow, who then edified Rome by her penitential life. Paula, thus\nexcited to set aside her sorrow, erected in her heart the standard of\nthe cross of Jesus Christ, and courageously resolved to walk after it.\nFrom that time, she never sat at table with any man, not even with any\nof the holy bishops and saints whom she entertained. She abstained from\nall flesh meat, fish, eggs, honey, and wine; used oil only on holydays;\nlay on a stone floor covered with sackcloth; renounced all visits and\nworldly amusements, laid aside all costly garments, and gave every thing\nto the poor which it was in her power to dispose of. She was careful in\ninquiring after the necessitous, and deemed it a loss on her side if any\nother hands than her own administered relief to them. It was usual with\nher to say, that she could not make a better provision for her children,\nthan to secure for them by alms the blessings of heaven. Her occupation\nwas prayer, pious reading, and fasting. She could not bear the\ndistraction of company, which interrupted her commerce with God; and, if\never she sought conversation, it was with the servants of God for her\nown edification. She lodged St. Epiphanius and St. Paulinus of Antioch,\nwhen they came to Rome; and St. Jerom was her director in the service of\nGod, during his stay in that city for two years and a half, under pope\nDamasus. Her eldest daughter Blesilla, having, in a short time after\nmarriage, lost her husband, came to a resolution of forsaking the world,\nbut died before she could compass her pious design. The mother felt this\naffliction too sensibly. St. Jerom, who at that time was newly arrived\nat Bethlehem, in 384, wrote to her both to comfort and reprove her.[1]\nHe first condoles their common loss; but adds {230} that God is master,\nthat we are bound to rejoice in his will, always holy and just, to thank\nand praise him for all things; and, above all, not to mourn for a death\nat which the angels attend, and for one who by it departs to enjoy\nChrist: and that it is only the continuation of our banishment which we\nought to lament. \"Blesilla,\" says he, \"has received her crown, dying in\nthe fervor of her resolution, in which she had purified her soul near\nfour months.\" He adds, that Christ seemed to reproach her grief in these\nterms: \"Art thou angry, O Paula! that thy daughter is made mine? Thou\nart offended at my providence, and by thy rebellious tears, thou dost\noffer an injury to me who possess her.\"[2] He pardons some tears in a\nmother, occasioned by the involuntary sensibility of nature; but calls\nher excess in them a scandal to religion, abounding with sacrilege and\ninfidelity: adding, that Blesilla herself mourned, as far as her happy\nstate would allow, to see her offend Christ, and cried out to her; \"Envy\nnot my glory: commit not what may forever separate us. I am not alone.\nInstead of you I have the mother of God, I have many companions whom I\nnever knew before. You mourn for me because I have left the world; and I\npity your prison and dangers in it.\" Paula afterwards, completing the\nvictory over herself, showed herself greatly superior to this weakness.\nHer second daughter Paulina was married to St. Pammachius, and died in\n397. Eustochium, the third, was her individual companion. Rufina died\nyoung.\n\nThe greater progress Paula made in spiritual exercises, and in the\nrelish of heavenly things, the more insupportable to her was the\ntumultuous life of the city. She sighed after the deserts, longed to be\ndisincumbered of attendants, and to live in a hermitage, where her heart\nwould have no other occupation than on God. The thirst after so great a\nhappiness made her ready to forget her house, family, riches, and\nfriends; yet never did mother love her children more tenderly.[3] At the\nthought of leaving them her bowels yearned, and being in an agony of\ngrief, she seemed as if she had been torn from herself. But in this she\nwas the most wonderful of mothers, that while she felt in her soul the\ngreatest emotions of tenderness, she knew how to keep them within due\nbounds. The strength of her faith gave her an ascendant over the\nsentiments of nature, and she even desired this cruel separation,\nbearing it with joy, out of a pure and heroic love of God. She had\nindeed taken a previous care to have all her children brought up saints;\notherwise her design would have been unjustifiable. Being therefore\nfixed in her resolution, and having settled her affairs, she went to the\nwater side, attended by her brother, relations, friends, and children,\nwho all strove by their tears to overcome her constancy. Even when the\nvessel was ready to sail, her little son Toxotius, with uplifted hands\non the shore, and bitterly weeping, begged her not to leave him. The\nrest, who were not able to speak with gushing tears, prayed her to defer\nat least her voluntary banishment. But Paula, raising her dry eyes to\nheaven, turned her face from the shore, lest she should discover what\nshe could not behold without feeling the most sensible pangs of sorrow.\nShe sailed first to Cyprus, where she was detained ten days by St.\nEpiphanius; and from thence to Syria. Her long journeys by land she\nperformed on the backs of asses; she, who till then had been accustomed\nto be carried about by eunuchs in litters. She visited with great\ndevotion all the principal places which we read to have been consecrated\nby the mysteries of the life of our divine Redeemer, as also the\nrespective abodes of all the principal anchorets and holy solitaries of\nEgypt and Syria. At Jerusalem the proconsul had prepared a stately\npalace richly furnished for her reception; but excusing herself with\nregard {231} to the proffered favor, she chose to lodge in an humble\ncell. In this holy place her fervor was redoubled at the sight of each\nsacred monument, as St. Jerom describes. She prostrated herself before\nthe holy cross, pouring forth her soul in love and adoration, as if she\nhad beheld our Saviour still bleeding upon it. On entering the\nsepulchre, she kissed the stone which she angel removed on the occasion\nof our Lord's resurrection, and imparted many kisses full of faith and\ndevotion to the place where the body of Christ had been laid. On her\narrival at Bethlehem, she entered the cave or stable in which the\nSaviour of the world was born, and she saluted the crib with tears of\njoy, crying out; \"I, a miserable sinner, am made worthy to kiss the\nmanger, in which my Lord was pleased to be laid an infant babe weeping\nfor me! This is my dwelling-place, because it was the country chosen by\nmy Lord for himself.\"\n\nAfter her journeys of devotion, in which she distributed immense alms,\nshe settled at Bethlehem with her daughter Eustochium, under the\ndirection of St. Jerom. The three first years she spent there in a poor\nlittle house; but in the mean time she took care to have a hospital\nbuilt on the road to Jerusalem, as also a monastery for St. Jerom and\nhis monks, whom she maintained; besides three monasteries for women,\nwhich properly made but one house, for all assembled in the same chapel\nto perform together the divine service day and night; and on Sundays in\nthe church that was adjoining. At prime, tierce, sext, none, vespers,\ncomplin, and the midnight office, they daily sung the whole psalter,\nwhich every sister was obliged to know by heart. Their food was very\ncoarse and temperate, their fasts frequent and austere. All the sisters\nworked with their hands, and made clothes for themselves and others. All\nwore the same uniform poor habit, and used no linen except for the\nwiping of their hands. No man was ever suffered to set a foot within\ntheir doors. Paula governed them with a charity full of discretion,\nanimating them in the practice of every virtue by her own example and\ninstructions, being always the first, or among the first, in every duty;\nsharing with her daughter Eustochium in all the drudgery and meanest\noffices of the house, and appearing everywhere as the last of her\nsisters. She severely reprimanded a studied neatness in dress, which she\ncalled an uncleanness of the mind. If any one was found talkative, or\nangry, she was separated from the rest, ordered to walk the last in\norder, to pray at the outside of the door, and for some time to eat\nalone. The holy abbess was so tender of the sick, that she sometimes\nallowed them to eat flesh-meat, but would not admit of the same\nindulgence in her own ailments, nor even allow herself a drop of wine in\nthe water she drank. She extended her love of poverty to her buildings\nand churches, ordering them all to be built low, and without any thing\ncostly or magnificent; she said that money is better laid out on the\npoor, who are the living members of Christ. She wept so bitterly for the\nsmallest faults, that others would have thought her guilty of grievous\ncrimes. Under an overflow of natural grief for the death of her\nchildren, she made frequent signs of the cross on her mouth and breast\nto overcome nature, and remained always perfectly resigned in her soul\nto the will of God. Her son Toxotius married Laeta, daughter to a priest\nof the idols, but, as to herself, she was a most virtuous Christian.\nBoth were faithful imitators of the sanctity of our saint. Their\ndaughter, Paula the younger, was sent to Bethlehem. to be under the care\nof her grandmother, whom she afterwards succeeded in the government of\nthat monastery. St. Jerom wrote to Laeta some excellent lessons[4] for\nthe education of this girl, which parents can never read too often. Our\nsaint lived {232} fifty-six years and eight months, of which she had\nspent in her widowhood five at Rome, and almost twenty at Bethlehem. In\nher last illness, but especially in her agony, she repeated almost\nwithout intermission certain verses of the psalms, which express an\nardent desire of the heavenly Jerusalem, and of being united to God.\nWhen she was no longer able to speak, she formed the sign of the cross\non her lips, and expired in the most profound peace, on the 26th of\nJanuary, 404. Her corpse, carried by bishops, and attended with lighted\nwax torches, was interred on the 28th of the same month, in the midst of\nthe church of the holy manger. Her tomb is still shown in the same\nplace, near that of St. Jerom, but empty: even the Latin epitaph which\nSt. Jerom composed in verse, and caused to be engraved on her tomb, is\nerased or removed, though extant in the end of this letter which he\naddressed to her daughter. Her relics are said to be in the possession\nof the metropolitical church at Sens, and the feast of St. Paula is kept\na holiday of precept in that city on the 27th of January; on which day\nher name is placed by Ado, Usuard, &c., because she died on the 26th,\nafter sunset, and the Jews in Palestine began the day from sunset: but\nher name occurs on the 26th in the Roman Martyrology, &c. See her life\nin St. Jerom's letter to her daughter, called her epitaph, ep. 86, &c.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  Ep. 22, ol. 54.\n2.  Rebellibus lachrymis injurian facis possidenti.\n3.  Nulla sic amabat filios, &c. St. Heir {} epitaph. Paulae.\n4.  Ep. 57, ol. 7.\n\nST. CONON, BISHOP OF THE ISLE OF MAN.\n\nIF we can give credit to some lives of St. Fiaker, and the old breviary\nof Limoges, that saint was son of Eusenius, king of Scotland, and by his\nfather committed in his childhood, with his two brothers, to the care of\nSt. Conon, from which saintly education he received that ardent love and\nperfect spirit of piety, by which he was distinguished during the whole\ncourse of his life. Conon, by the purity and fervor in which he served\nGod, was a saint from his infancy. The Isle of Man, which was a famous\nancient seat of the Druids, is said to have received the seeds of the\nChristian faith by the zeal of St. Patrick. St. Conon, passing thither\nfrom Scotland, completed that great work, and is said to have been made\nbishop of Man, or of Sodor, supposed by these authors to have been\nanciently, a town in this island. This bishopric was soon after united\nwith that of the Hebrides or the Western islands, which see was fixed in\nthe isle of Hi, Iona or Y-colmkille. St. Conon died in the isle of Man,\nabout the year 648. His name continued, to the change of religion, in\ngreat veneration throughout the Hebrides, or islands on the West of\nScotland.[1] On St. Conon, see Leslie, Hist. of Scotland, &c.\n\nFootnotes:\n1. In some few of these islands, the laird and all the inhabitants\nremain still Catholics; as Banbecuis, under Ranal Mac Donald;\nSouth-Vist, under Alan Mac Donald of Moydart, whose ancestors were once\nkings of these islands; Barry under Mac Neil; Canny, and Egg, and some\nothers. In many others there are long since no Catholics, as in Lewis,\nNorth-Vist, Harries, St. Kilda, &c. See the latest edition of the\nPresent State of England and bishop Leslie's nephew, in his MS. account,\n&c.\n\n{233}\n\n\nJANUARY XXVII.\n\nST. JOHN CHRYSOSTOM,\n\nARCHBISHOP OF CONSTANTINOPLE, AND DOCTOR OF THE CHURCH.\n\nFrom Socrates, Theodoret, and other historians: as also from the saint's\nworks; and his life, written by way of dialogue, with great fidelity, by\nhis friend and strenuous advocate Palladius, a holy bishop, but a\ndistinct person from Palladius the bishop of Helenopolis and author of\nthe Lausiac history, who was then young, and is evidently distinguished\nby this writer in many places, as Tillemont, Montfaucon, and Stilting\nshow against Baillet and others; though also Palladius, bishop of\nHelenopolis, exerted himself in defence of St. Chrysostom. Palladius,\nauthor of the Dialogue on the life of St. Chrysostom, was never accused\nof Origenism except by those who, at least in the proofs alleged for\nthis charge, confounded him with the bishop of Helenopolis. F. Stilting\nclears also the latter from the charge of Origenism, and answers the\narguments produced by Baronius against him. Comm. Hist. Sec.1, p. 404. The\nlater Greek panegyrists, George, patriarch of Alexandria, in 620, the\nemperor Leo the Wise, in 890, &c., deserve very little notice. See the\nlife of our saint compiled by Dom Montfaucon. Op. t. 13. And lastly, the\naccurate commentary on his life given by F. Stilting the Bollandist, on\nthe 14th of September, from p. 401 to 709, t. 4.\n\nA.D. 407.\n\nTHIS incomparable doctor, on account of the fluency and sweetness of his\neloquence, obtained soon after his death the surname of Chrysostom, or\nGolden Mouth, which we find given him by St. Ephrem of Antioch,\nTheodoret, and Cassiodorus. But his tender piety, and his undaunted\ncourage and zeal in the cause of virtue, are titles far more glorious,\nby which he holds an eminent place among the greatest pastors and saints\nof the church. About the year 344, according to F. Stilting, Antioch,\nthe capital city of the East, was ennobled by his illustrious birth. He\nhad one elder sister, and was the only son and heir of Secundus, master\nof the horse, that is, chief commander of the imperial troops in Syria.\nHis mother, Anthusa, left a widow at twenty years of age, continued such\nthe remainder of her life, dividing her time between the care of her\nfamily and the exercises of devotion. Her example in this respect made\nsuch an impression on our saint's master, a celebrated pagan sophist,\nthat he could not forbear crying out, \"What wonderful women have the\nChristians!\"[1] She managed the estate of her children with great\nprudence and frugality, knowing this to be part of her duty to God, but\nshe was sensible that their spiritual instruction in virtue was of\ninfinitely greater importance. From their cradle she instilled into them\nthe most perfect maxims of piety, and contempt of the world. The ancient\nRomans dreaded nothing more in the education of youth, than their being\nill taught the first principles of the sciences; it being more difficult\nto unlearn the errors then imbibed, than to begin on a mere tabula rasa,\nor blank paper. Wherefore Anthusa provided her son the ablest masters in\nevery branch of literature, which the empire at that time afforded.\nEloquence was esteemed the highest accomplishment, especially among the\nnobility, and was the surest means of raising men to the first dignities\nin the state. John studied that art under Libanius, the most famous\norator of that age; and such was his proficiency, that even in his youth\nhe excelled his masters. Libanius being asked by his pagan friends on\nhis death-bed, about the year 390, who should succeed him in his school:\n\"John,\" said he, \"had not the Christians stolen him from us.\"[2] Our\nsaint was then priest. While he was only a scholar, that sophist one day\nread to an assembly of orators a declamation composed by him, and it was\nreceived with unusual tokens {234} of admiration and applause. Libanius\npronounced the young orator happy, \"as were also the emperors,\" he said,\n\"who reigned at a time when the world was possessed of so great a\ntreasure.\"[3] The progress of the young scholar in philosophy, under\nAndragatius, was no less rapid and surprising; his genius shone in every\ndisputation. All this time his principal care was to study Christ, and\nto learn his spirit. He laid a solid foundation of virtue, by a perfect\nhumility, self-denial, and a complete victory over himself. Though\nnaturally hot and inclined to anger, he had extinguished all emotions of\npassion in his breast.[4] His modesty, meekness, tender charity, and\nsingular discretion, rendered him the delight of all he conversed with.\n\nThe first dignities of the empire were open to John. But his principal\ndesire was to dedicate himself to God, without reserve, in holy\nsolitude. However, not being yet twenty years of age, he for some time\npleaded at the bar. In that employment he was drawn by company into the\ndiversions of the world, and sometimes assisted at the entertainments of\nthe stage. His virtue was in imminent danger of splitting against that\nfatal rock, when God opened his eyes. He was struck with horror at the\nsight of the precipice upon the brink of which he stood; and not content\nto flee from it himself, he never ceased to bewail his blindness, and\ntook every occasion to caution the faithful against that lurking place\nof hellish sirens, but more particularly in his vehement sermons against\nthe stage. Alarmed at the danger he had narrowly escaped, full of\ngratitude to God his deliverer, and to prevent the like danger for the\ntime to come, he was determined to carry his resolution of renouncing\nthe world into immediate execution. He began by the change of his garb,\nto rid himself the more easily of the importunities of friends: for a\npenitential habit is not only a means for preserving a spirit of\nmortification and humility, but is also a public sign and declaration to\nthe world, that a person has turned his back on its vanities, and is\nengaged in an irreconcilable war against them. His clothing was a coarse\ngray coat: he watched much, fasted every day, and spent the greater part\nof his time in prayer and meditation on the holy scriptures: his bed was\nno other than the hard floor. In subduing his passions, he found none of\nso difficult a conquest as vain-glory;[5] this enemy he disarmed by\nembracing every kind of public humiliation. The clamors of his old\nfriends and admirers, who were incensed at his leaving them, and pursued\nhim with their invectives and censures, were as arrows shot at random.\nJohn took no manner of notice of them: he rejoiced in contempt, and\ndespised the frowns of a world whose flatteries he dreaded: Christ\ncrucified was the only object of his heart, and nothing could make him\nlook back after he had put his hand to the plough. And his progress in\nvirtue was answerable to his zealous endeavors.\n\nSt. Meletius, bishop of Antioch, called the young ascetic to the service\nof the church, gave him suitable instructions, during three years, in\nhis own palace, and ordained him Reader. John had learned the art of\nsilence, in his retirement, with far greater application than he had\nbefore studied that of speaking. This he discovered when he appeared\nagain in the world, though no man ever possessed a greater fluency of\nspeech, or a more ready and enchanting eloquence, joined with the most\nsolid judgment and a rich fund of knowledge and good sense; yet in\ncompany he observed a modest silence, and regarded talkativeness as an\nenemy to the interior recollection of the heart, as a source of many\nsins and indiscretions, and as a mark of vanity and self-conceit. He\nheard the words of the wise with the humble docility of a scholar, and\nhe bore the impertinence, trifles, and blunders of {235} fools in\ndiscourse, not to interrupt the attention of his soul to God, or to make\nan ostentatious show of his eloquence or science: yet with spiritual\npersons he conversed freely on heavenly things, especially with a pious\nfriend named Basil, one of the same age and inclinations with himself,\nwho had been his most beloved school-fellow, and who forsook the world\nto embrace a monastic life, a little before our saint. After three\nyears, he left the bishop's house to satisfy the importunities of his\nmother, but continued the same manner of life in her house, during the\nspace of two years. He still saw frequently his friend Basil, and he\nprevailed on two of his school-fellows under Libanius to embrace an\nascetic life; Theodorus, afterwards bishop of Mopsuestia, and Maximus,\nbishop of Seleucia. The former returned in a short time to the bar, and\nfell in love with a young lady called Hermione. John lamented his fall\nwith bitter tears before God, and brought him back to his holy institute\nby two tender and pathetic exhortations to penance, \"which breathe an\neloquence above the power of what seems merely human,\" says Sozomen. Not\nlong after, hearing that the bishops of the province were assembled at\nAntioch, and deliberated to raise him and Basil to the episcopal\ndignity, he privately withdrew, and lay hid till the vacant sees were\nfilled. Basil was made bishop of Raphanaea near Antioch; and had no other\nresource in his grief for his promotion, but in tears and complaints\nagainst his friend who had betrayed him into so perilous a charge. John,\nbeing then twenty-six years old, wrote to him in his own justification\nsix incomparable books, Of the Priesthood.\n\nFour years after, in 374, he retired into the mountains near Antioch,\namong certain holy anchorets who peopled them, and whose manner of life\nis thus described by our saint:[6] They devoted all the morning to\nprayer, pious reading, and meditating on the holy scriptures. Their food\nwas bread with a little salt; some added oil, and those who were very\nweak, a few herbs or pulse; no one ever ate before sunset. After the\nrefection it was allowed to converse with one another, but only on\nheavenly things. They always closed their night-prayers with the\nremembrance of the last judgment, to excite themselves to a constant\nwatchfulness and preparation; which practice St. Chrysostom earnestly\nrecommends to all Christians with the evening examination.[7] These\nmonks had no other bed than a mat spread on the bare ground. Their\ngarments were made of the rough hair of goats or camels, or of old\nskins, and such as the poorest beggars would not wear, though some of\nthem were of the richest families, and had been tenderly brought up.\nThey wore no shoes; no one possessed any thing as his own; even their\npoor necessaries were all in common. They inherited their estates only\nto distribute them among the poor; and on them, and in hospitality to\nstrangers, they bestowed all the spare profits of their work. They all\nused the same food, wore a uniform habit, and by charity were all one\nheart. The cold words mine and thine, the baneful source of lawsuits and\nanimosities among men, were banished from their cells. They rose at the\nfirst crowing of the cock, that is, at midnight, being called up by the\nsuperior; and after the morning hymns and psalms, that is, matins and\nlauds, all remained in their private cells, where they read the holy\nscriptures, and some copied books. All met in the church at the\ncanonical hours of tierce, sext, none, and vespers, but returned to\ntheir cells, none being allowed to speak, to jest, or to be one moment\nidle. The time which others spend a table, or in diversions, they\nemployed in honoring God; even their meal took up very little time, and\nafter a short sleep, (according to the custom of hot countries,) {236}\nthey resumed their exercises, conversing not with men but with God, with\nthe prophets and apostles in their writings and pious meditation; and\nspiritual things were the only subject of their entertainment. For\ncorporal exercise they employed themselves in some mean manual labor,\nsuch as entertained them in humility, and could not inspire vanity or\npride: they made baskets, tilled and watered the earth, hewed wood,\nattended the kitchen, washed the feet of all strangers, and waited on\nthem without distinction, whether they were rich or poor. The saint\nadds, that anger, jealousy, envy, grief, and anxiety for worldly goods\nand concerns, were unknown in these poor cells; and he assures us, that\nthe constant peace, joy, and pleasure which reigned in them, were as\ndifferent from the bitterness and tumultuous scenes of the most\nbrilliant worldly felicity, as the security and calmness of the most\nagreeable harbor are, from the dangers and agitation of the most\ntempestuous ocean. Such was the rule of these cenobites, or monks who\nlived in community. There were also hermits on the same mountains who\nlay on ashes, wore sackcloth, and shut themselves up in frightful\ncaverns, practising more extraordinary austerities. Our saint was at\nfirst apprehensive that he should find it an insupportable difficulty to\nlive without fresh bread, use the same stinking oil for his food and for\nhis lamp, and inure his body to hard labor under so great\nausterities.[8] But by courageously despising this apprehension, in\nconsequence of a resolution to spare nothing by which he might learn\nperfectly to die to himself; he found the difficulty entirely to vanish\nin the execution. Experience shows that in such undertakings, the\nimagination is alarmed not so much by realities as phantoms, which\nvanish before a courageous heart which can look them in the face with\ncontempt. Abbot Rance, the reformer of la Trappe, found more difficulty\nin the thought of rising without a fire in winter, in the beginning of\nhis conversion, than he did in the greatest severities which he\nafterwards practised. St. Chrysostom passed four years under the conduct\nof a veteran Syrian monk, and afterwards two years in a cave as a\nhermit. The dampness of this abode brought on him a dangerous distemper,\nand for the recovery of his health he was obliged to return into the\ncity. By this means he was restored to the service of the church in 381,\nfor the benefit of innumerable souls. He was ordained deacon by St.\nMeletius that very year, and priest by Flavian in 386, who at the same\ntime constituted him his vicar and preacher, our saint being then in the\nforty-third year of his age.[9] He discharged all the duties of that\narduous station during twelve {237} years, being the hand and the eye of\nhis bishop, and his mouth to his flock. The instruction and care of the\npoor he regarded as his first obligation: this he always made his\nfavorite employment and his delight. He never ceased in his sermons to\nrecommend their cause and the precept of alms deeds to the people.\nAntioch, he supposed, contained at that time one hundred thousand\nChristian souls: all these he fed with the word of God, preaching\nseveral days in the week, and frequently several times on the same day.\nHe confounded the Jews and Pagans, also the Anomaeans, and other\nheretics. He abolished the most inveterate abuses, repressed vice, and\nchanged the whole face of that great city. It seemed as if nothing could\nwithstand the united power of his eloquence, zeal, and piety.\n\nTheodosius I., finding himself obliged to levy a new tax on his\nsubjects, on occasion of his war with Maximus, who had usurped the\nWestern empire in 387, the populace of Antioch, provoked at the demand,\nmutinied, and discharged their rage on the emperor's statue, those of\nhis father, his two sons, and his late consort, Flavilla, dragged them\nwith ropes through the streets, and then broke them to pieces. The\nmagistrates durst not oppose the rabble in their excesses. But as soon\nas their fury was over, and that they began to reflect on what they had\nbeen guilty of, and the natural consequences of their extravagances,\nthey were all seized with such terror and consternation, that many\nabandoned the city, others absconded, and scarce any durst appear\npublicly in the streets. The magistrates in the mean time were filling\nthe prisons with citizens, in order to their trials, on account of their\nrespective share in the combustion. Their fears were heightened on the\narrival of two officers dispatched from Constantinople to execute the\nemperor's orders with regard to the punishment of the rioters. The\nreports which were spread abroad on this occasion imported, that the\nemperor would cause the guilty to be burned alive, would confiscate\ntheir estates, and level the city with the ground. The consternation\nalone was a greater torment than the execution itself could have been.\nFlavian, notwithstanding his very advanced age, and though his sister\nwas dying when he left her, set out without delay in a very severe\nseason of the year, to implore {238} the emperor's clemency in favor of\nhis flock. Being come to the palace, and admitted into the emperor's\npresence, he no sooner perceived that prince but he stopped at a\ndistance, holding down his head, covering his face, and speaking only by\nhis tears, as though himself had been guilty. Thus he remained for some\ntime. The emperor seeing him in this condition, carrying, as it were,\nthe weight of the public guilt in his breast, instead of employing harsh\nreproaches, as Flavian might naturally have expected, summed up the many\nfavors he had conferred on that city, and said at the conclusion of each\narticle: \"Is this the acknowledgment I had reason to expect? Is this\ntheir return for my love? What cause of complaint had they against me?\nHad I ever injured them? But granting that I had, what can they allege\nfor extending their insolence even to the dead? Had they received any\nwrong from them? Why were they to be insulted too? What tenderness have\nI not shown on all occasions for their city? Is it not notorious that I\nhave given it the preference in my love and esteem to all others, even\nto that which gave me birth? Did not I always express a longing desire\nto see it, and that it gave the highest satisfaction to think I should\nsoon be in a condition of taking a journey for this purpose?\"\n\nThen the holy bishop, being unable to bear such stinging reproaches or\nvindicate their conduct, made answer: \"We acknowledge, Sir, that you\nhave on all occasions favored us with the greatest demonstrations of\nyour singular affection; and this it is that enhances both our crime and\nour grief, that we should have carried our ingratitude to such a pitch\nas to have offended our best friend and greatest benefactor: hence,\nwhatever punishment you may inflict upon us, it will still fall short of\nwhat we deserve. But alas! the evil we have done ourselves is worse than\ninnumerable deaths: for what can be more afflicting than to live, in the\njudgment of all mankind, guilty of the blackest ingratitude, and to see\nourselves deprived of your sweet and gracious protection, which was our\nbulwark. We dare not look any man in the face; no, not the sun itself.\nBut as great as our misery is, it is not irremediable; for it is in your\npower to remove it. Great affronts among private men have often been the\noccasion of great charity. When the devil's envy had destroyed man,\nGod's mercy restored him. That wicked spirit, jealous of our city's\nhappiness, has plunged her into this abyss of evils, out of which you\nalone can rescue her. It is your affection, I dare say it, which has\nbrought them upon us, by exciting the jealousy of the wicked spirits\nagainst us. But, like God himself, you may draw infinite good out of the\nevil which they intended us. If you spare us, you are revenged on them.\n\n\"Your clemency on this occasion will be more honorable to you than your\nmost celebrated victories. It will adorn your head with a far brighter\ndiadem than that which you wear, as it will be the fruit only of your\nown virtue. Your statues have been thrown down: if you pardon this\ninsult, you will raise yourself others, not of marble or brass, which\ntime destroys, but such as will exist eternally in the hearts of all\nthose who will hear of this action. Your predecessor, Constantine the\nGreat, when importuned by his courtiers to exert his vengeance on some\nseditious people that had disfigured his statues by throwing stones at\nthem, did nothing more than stroke his face with his hand, and told\nthem, smiling, that he did not feel himself hurt. This his saying is yet\nin the mouths of all men, and a more illustrious trophy to his memory\nthan all the cities which he built, than all the barbarous nations which\nhe subdued. Remember your own memorable saying, when you ordered the\nprisons to be opened, and the criminals to be pardoned at the feast of\nEaster: 'Would to God I were able in the same manner to open the graves,\nand restore the dead to life!' That time is now come. {239} Here is a\ncity whose inhabitants are already dead; and is, as it were, at the\ngates of its sepulchre. Raise it then, as it is in your power to do,\nwithout cost or labor. A word will suffice. Suffer it by your clemency\nto be still named among the living cities. It will then owe more to you\nthan to its very founder. He built it small, you will raise it great and\npopulous. To have preserved it from being destroyed by barbarians would\nnot have been so great an exploit, as to spare it on such an occasion as\nnow offers.\n\n\"Neither is the preservation of an illustrious city the only thing to be\nconsidered; your own glory, and, above all, the honor of the Christian\nreligion, are highly interested in this affair. The Jews and Pagans, all\nbarbarous nations, nay, the whole world, have their eyes fixed on you at\nthis critical juncture; all are waiting for the judgment you will\npronounce. If it be favorable, they will be filled with admiration, and\nwill agree to praise and worship that God, who checks the anger of those\nwho acknowledge no master upon earth, and who can transform men into\nangels; they will embrace that religion which teaches such sublime\nmorality. Listen not to those who will object that your clemency on this\noccasion may be attended with, and give encouragement to the like\ndisorders in other cities. That could only happen, if you spared for\nwant of a power to chastise: but whereas you do not divest yourself, by\nsuch an act of clemency, of this power, and as by it you endear and\nrivet yourself the more in the affections of your subjects, this,\ninstead of encouraging such insults and disorders, will rather the more\neffectually prevent them. Neither immense sums of money, nor innumerable\narmies, could ever have gained you so much the hearts of your subjects\nand their prayers for your person and empire, as will this single\naction. And if you stand fair for being such a gainer from men, what\nrewards may you not reasonably expect from God? It is easy for a master\nto punish, but rare and difficult to pardon.\n\n\"It will be extremely glorious to you to have granted this pardon at the\nrequest of a minister of the Lord, and it will convince the world of\nyour piety, in that you overlooked the unworthiness of his person, and\nrespected only the power and authority of that Master who sent him. For\nthough deputed immediately by the inhabitants of Antioch to deprecate\nyour just displeasure on this occasion, it is not only in their name\nthat I appear in this place, for I am come from the sovereign Lord of\nmen and angels to declare to you in his name, that, if you pardon men\ntheir faults, he will forgive you your sins. Call to mind then that\ndreadful day on which we shall all be summoned to give in an account of\nall our actions. Reflect on your having it now in your power, without\npain or labor, to efface your sins, and to find mercy at that terrible\ntribunal. You are about to pronounce your own sentence. Other\nambassadors bring gold, silver, and other like presents, but as for me,\nI offer nothing but the law of God, and entreat you to imitate his\nexample on the cross.\" He concluded his harangue by assuring the emperor\nthat if he refused to pardon the city, he would never more return to it,\nnor look upon that city as his country, which a prince of his humane\ndisposition could not prevail upon himself to pardon.\n\nThis discourse had its desired effect on the emperor, who with much\ndifficulty suppressed his tears while the bishop spoke, whom he answered\nin these few words: \"If Jesus Christ, the Lord of all things, vouchsafed\nto pardon and pray for those very men that crucified him, ought I to\nhesitate to pardon them who have offended me? I, who am but a mortal man\nlike them, and a servant of the same Master.\" The patriarch, overjoyed\nat his success, prostrated himself at the emperor's feet, wishing him a\nreward for such an action suitable to its merit. And whereas the prelate\nmade an offer of passing the feast of Easter with the emperor at\nConstantinople, he, to {240} testify how sincerely he was reconciled to\nthe city of Antioch, urged his immediate return, saying: \"Go, Father,\ndelay not a moment the consolation your people will receive at your\nreturn, by communicating to them the assurances of the pardon I grant\nthem; I know they must be in great affliction.\" The bishop set out\naccordingly; but, to delay as little as possible the joy of the\ncitizens, he dispatched a courier before him with the emperor's letter\nof pardon, which produced a comfortable change in the face of affairs.\nThe bishop himself arrived time enough before Easter to keep that\nsolemnity with his people. The joy and triumph of that city could not be\ngreater; it is elegantly described by St. Chrysostom, extolling above\nall things the humility and modesty of Flavian, who attributed the whole\nchange of Theodosius's mind, and all the glory of the action, to God\nalone. The discourse which Flavian addressed to the emperor, except the\nintroduction, had been composed by St. Chrysostom, who recited it to the\npeople to comfort them, and ceased not strongly to exhort them to\npenance, and the fervent exercise of good works, during the whole time\nof their bishop's absence.[10] After this storm our saint continued his\nlabors with unwearied zeal, and was the honor, the delight, and the\ndarling not of Antioch only but of all the East, and his reputation\nspread itself over the whole empire.[11] But God was pleased to call him to\nglorify his name on a new theatre, where he prepared for his virtue\nother trials, and other crowns.\n\nSt. Chrysostom had been five years deacon, and twelve years priest, when\nNectarius, bishop of Constantinople, dying in 397, the emperor Arcadius,\nat the suggestion of Eutropius the eunuch, his chamberlain, resolved to\nprocure the election of our saint to the patriarchate of that city. He\ntherefore dispatched a secret order to the count of the East, enjoining\nhim to send John to Constantinople, but by some stratagem; lest his\nintended removal, if known at Antioch, should cause a sedition, and be\nrendered impracticable. The count repaired to Antioch, and desiring the\nsaint to accompany him out of the city to the tombs of the martyrs, on\nthe pretence of devotion, he there delivered him into the hands of an\nofficer sent on purpose, who, taking him into his chariot, conveyed him\nwith all possible speed to the imperial city. Theophilus, patriarch of\nAlexandria, a man of a proud and turbulent spirit, was come thither to\nrecommend a creature of his own to that dignity. He endeavored by\nillegal practices secretly to traverse the canonical promotion of our\nsaint; but was detected, and threatened to be accused in a synod.\nWhereupon he was glad to desist from his intrigues, and thus John was\nconsecrated by him on the 26th of February, in 398.[12] In regulating\nhis own conduct and his domestic concerns, he retrenched all the great\nexpenses which his predecessors had entailed on their dignity, which he\nlooked upon as superfluous, and an excessive prodigality, and these sums\nhe applied to the relief of the poor, especially of the sick. For this\npurpose he erected and maintained several numerous hospitals, under the\ngovernment of holy and charitable priests, and was very careful that all\nthe servants and attendants were persons of great virtue, tenderness,\ncompassion, and prudence. His own family being settled in good order,\nthe next thing he took in hand after his promotion was the reformation\nof his clergy. This he forwarded by zealous exhortations and proper\nrules for their conduct, tending both to their sanctification and\nexemplarity. And to give these his endeavors their due force, he lived\nan exact model of what he inculcated to others: but his zeal exasperated\nthe tepid part of that order, and raised a storm against himself. The\nimmodesty {241} of women in their dress in that gay capital excited in\nhim sentiments of the most just abhorrence and indignation. Some young\nladies seemed to have forgot that clothing is the covering of the\nignominy of sin, and ought to be an instrument of penance, and a motive\nof confusion and tears, not of vanity. But the exhortations of St.\nChrysostom moved many to despise and lay aside the use of purple, silks,\nand jewels. It was a far more intolerable scandal that some neglected to\ncover their necks, or used such thin veils as served only to invite the\neyes of others more boldly. Our saint represented to such persons that\nthey were in some respects worse than public prostitutes: for these hide\ntheir baits at home only for the wicked: \"but you,\" said he, \"carry your\nsnare everywhere, and spread your nets publicly in all places. You\nallege, that you never invited others to sin. You did not by your\ntongue, but you have done it by your dress and deportment more\neffectually than you could by your voice: when you have made another to\nsin in his heart, how can you be innocent? You sharpened and drew the\nsword: you gave the thrust by which the soul is wounded.[13] Tell me,\nwhom does the world condemn? whom do judges punish? Those who drink the\npoison, or those who prepare and give the fatal draught? You have\nmingled the execrable cup; you have administered the potion of death:\nyou are so much more criminal than poisoners, as the death which you\ncause is the more terrible; for you murder not the body, but the soul.\nNor do you do this to enemies; nor compelled by necessity, nor provoked\nby any injury; but out of a foolish vanity and pride. You sport\nyourselves in the ruin of the souls of others, and make their spiritual\ndeath your pastime.\" Hence he infers, how false and absurd their excuse\nis in saying, they mean no harm. These and many other scandals he\nabolished. He suppressed the wicked custom of swearing, first at\nAntioch, then at Constantinople. By the invincible power of his\neloquence and zeal he tamed the fiercest sinners, and changed them into\nmeek lambs: he converted an incredible number of idolaters and\nheretics.[14] His mildness towards sinners was censured by the\nNovatians; he invited them to repentance with the compassion of the most\ntender father, and was accustomed to cry out: \"If you are fallen a\nsecond time, or even a thousand times into sin, come to me and you shall\nbe healed.\"[15] But he was firm and severe in maintaining discipline,\nthough without harshness; to impenitent sinners he was inflexible. To\nmention one instance of the success of his holy zeal out of the many\nwhich his sermons furnish; in the year 399, the second of his\nepiscopacy, on Wednesday in Holy Week, so violent a rain fell as to\nendanger the corn, and threaten the whole produce of the country.\nHereupon public processions were made to the church of the apostles by\nthe bishop and people, to avert the scourge by imploring the\nintercession chiefly of St. Peter, St. Andrew, (who is regarded as the\nfounder of the church of Byzantium,) St. Paul, and St. Timothy.[16] The\nrain ceased, but not their fears. Therefore they all crossed the\nBosphorus to the church of SS. Peter and Paul, on the opposite side of\nthe water. This danger was scarce over, when on the Friday following\nmany ran to see certain horse-races, and on Holy Saturday to games\nexhibited at the theatre. The good bishop was pierced to the quick with\ngrief, and on the next day, Easter-Sunday, preached a most zealous and\neloquent sermon, Against the Games and Shows of the Theatre and Circus.\nIndignation made him not so much as mention the paschal solemnity;{242}\nbut by an abrupt exordium he burst into the most vehement pathos, as\nfollows: \"Are these things to be borne? Can they be tolerated? I appeal\nto yourselves, be you your own judges. Thus did God expostulate with the\nJews.\"[17] This exclamation he often repeated to assuage his grief. He\nput the people in mind of the sanctity of our faith; of the rigorous\naccount we must give to God of all our moments, and the obligation of\nserving him incumbent on us from his benefits, who has made for us the\nheaven and earth, the sun, light, rivers, &c. The saint grieved the\nmore, because, after all, they said they had done no harm, though they\nhad murdered not only their own souls, but also those of their children.\n\"And how will you,\" said he, \"after this approach the holy place? How\nwill you touch the heavenly food? Even now do I see you overwhelmed with\ngrief, and covered with confusion. I see some striking their foreheads,\nperhaps those who have not sinned, but are moved with compassion for\ntheir brethren. On this account do I grieve and suffer, that the devil\nshould make such a havoc in such a flock. But if you join with me, we\nwill shut him out. By what means? If we seek out the wounded, and snatch\nthem out of his jaws. Do not tell me their number is but small: though\nthey are but ten, this is a great loss: though but five, but two, or\nonly one. The shepherd leaving ninety-nine, did not return till he had\ncompleted his number by recovering that sheep which was lost. Do not\nsay, it is only one; but remember that it is a soul for which all things\nvisible were made; for which laws were given, miracles wrought, and\nmysteries effected: for which God spared not his only Son. Think how\ngreat a price hath been paid for this one sheep, and bring him back to\nthe fold. If he neither hears your persuasions nor my exhortations, I\nwill employ the authority with which God hath invested me.\" He proceeds\nto declare such excommunicated. The consternation and penance of the\ncity made the holy pastor forbear any further censure, and to commend\ntheir conversion. Palladius writes that he had the satisfaction to see\nthose who had been the most passionately fond of the entertainments of\nthe stage and circus, moved by his sermons on that subject, entirely\nrenounce those schools of the devil. God is more glorified by one\nperfect soul than by many who serve him with tepidity. Therefore, though\nevery individual of his large flock was an object of his most tender\naffection and pastoral concern, those were particularly so, who had\nsecluded themselves from the world by embracing a religious state of\nlife, the holy virgins and nuns. Describing their method of life, he\nsays:[18] Their clothing was sackcloth, and their beds only mats spread\non the floor; that they watched part of the night in prayer, walked\nbarefoot, never ate before evening, and never touched so much as bread,\nusing no other food than pulse and herbs, and that they were always\noccupied in prayer, manual labor, or serving the sick of their own sex.\nThe spiritual mother, and the sun of this holy company, St. Nicareta, is\nhonored December the 27th. Among the holy widows who dedicated\nthemselves to God under the direction of this great master of saints,\nthe most illustrious were the truly noble ladies St. Olympias, Salvina,\nProcula, and Pantadia. This last (who was the widow of Timasus, formerly\nthe first minister to the emperor) was constituted by him deaconess of\nthe church of Constantinople. Widows he considered as by their state\ncalled to a life of penance, retirement, and devotion; and he spared no\nexhortations or endeavors to engage them faithfully to correspond to the\ndivine grace, according to the advice which St. Paul gives them.[19] St.\nOlympias claimed the privilege of furnishing the expenses of the saint's\n{243} frugal table. He usually ate alone: few would have been willing to\ndine so late, or so coarsely and sparingly as he did; and he chose this\nto save both time and expenses: but he kept another table in a house\nnear his palace, for the entertainment of strangers, which he took care\nshould be decently supplied. He inveighed exceedingly against sumptuous\nbanquets. All his revenues he laid out on the poor; for whose relief he\nsold the rich furniture which Nectarius had left; and once, in a great\ndearth, he caused some of the sacred vessels to be melted down for that\npurpose. This action was condemned by Theophilus, but is justly regarded\nby St. Austin as a high commendation of our holy prelate. Besides the\npublic hospital near his cathedral, and several others which he founded\nand maintained, he erected two for strangers. His own patrimony he had\ngiven to the poor long before, at Antioch. His extraordinary charities\nobtained him the name of John of alms-deeds.[20] The spiritual\nnecessities of his neighbor were objects of far greater compassion to\nhis tender charity. His diocese, nay, the whole world, he considered as\na great hospital of souls, spiritually blind, deaf, sick, and in danger\nof perishing eternally; many standing on the brink, many daily falling\nfrom the frightful precipice into the unquenchable lake. Not content\nwith tears and supplications to the Father of mercies for their\nsalvation, he was indefatigable in labors and in every endeavor to open\ntheir eyes; feared no dangers, no not death itself in its most frightful\nshapes, to succor them in their spiritual necessities, and prevent their\nfall. Neither was this pastoral care confined to his own flock or\nnation: he extended it to the remotest countries. He sent a bishop to\ninstruct the Nomades or wandering Scythians: another, an admirable man,\nto the Goths. Palestine, Persia, and many other distant provinces felt\nthe most beneficent influence of his zeal. He was himself endued with an\neminent spirit of prayer: this he knew to be the great channel of\nheavenly graces, the cleanser of the affections of the soul from earthly\ndross, and the means which renders them spiritual and heavenly, and\nmakes men angels, even in their mortal body. He was therefore\nparticularly earnest in inculcating this duty, and in instructing others\nin the manner of performing it. He warmly exhorted the laity to rise to\nthe midnight office of matins together with the clergy: \"Many artisans,\"\nsaid he, \"watch to labor, and soldiers watch as sentries; and cannot you\ndo as much to praise God?\"[21] He observes, that the silence of the\nnight is peculiarly adapted to devout prayer, and the sighs of\ncompunction: which exercise we ought never to interrupt too long; and by\nwatching, prayer becomes more earnest and powerful. Women he will not\nhave to go easily abroad to church in the night-time; but advises that\neven children rise in the night to say a short prayer, and as they\ncannot watch long be put to bed again: for thus they will contract from\ntheir infancy a habit of watching, and a Christian's whole house will be\nconverted into a church. The advantages and necessity of assiduous\nprayer he often recommends with singular energy; but he expresses\nhimself on no subject with greater tenderness and force than on the\nexcess of the divine love, which is displayed in the holy Eucharist, and\nin exhorting the faithful to the frequent use of that heavenly\nsacrament. St. Proclus says,[22] that he abridged the liturgy of his\nchurch. St. Nilus[23] assures us that he was often favored with visions\nof angels in the church during the canonical hours, surrounding the\naltars in troops during the celebration of the divine mysteries, and at\nthe communion of the people. The saint himself confidently avers {244}\nthat this happens at those times,[24] which he confirms by the visions\nof several hermits.\n\nThe public concerns of the state often called on the saint to afford the\nspiritual succors of his zeal and charity. Eutropius was then at the\nhead of affairs. He was a eunuch, and originally a slave, but had worked\nhimself into favor with the emperor Arcadius. In 395 he was instrumental\nin cutting off Rufinus, the chief minister, who had broke out into an\nopen rebellion, and he succeeded the traitor in all his honors: golden\nstatues were erected to him in several parts of the city, and what\nClaudian, Marcellinus in his chronicle, Suidas, and others, represent as\nthe most monstrous event that occurs in the Roman Fasti, was declared\nconsul, though a eunuch. Being placed on so high a pinnacle, a situation\nbut too apt to turn the strongest head, forgetful of himself and the\nindispensable rules of decency and prudence, it was not long before he\nsurpassed his predecessor in insolence, ambition, and covetousness.\nWholesome advice, even from a Chrysostom, served only to exasperate a\nheart devoted to the world, and open to flatterers, who added\ncontinually new flames to its passions. In the mean time, the murmurs\nand indignation of the whole empire at the pride and avarice of\nEutropius were a secret to him, till the pit was prepared for his fall.\nGainas, general of the auxiliary Goths in the imperial army, was stirred\nup to revenge an affront which his cousin Trigibildus, a tribune, had\nreceived from the haughty minister. At the same time the empress\nEudoxia, having been insulted by him, ran to the emperor, carrying her\ntwo little babes in her arms, and cried out for justice against the\ninsolent servant. Arcadius, who was as weak in abandoning, as he was\nimprudent in choosing favorites, gave orders that the minister should be\ndriven out of the court, and his estates confiscated. Eutropius found\nhimself in a moment forsaken by all the herds of his admirers and\nflatterers, without one single friend, and fled for protection to the\nchurch, and to those very altars whose immunities he had infringed and\nviolated. The whole city was in an uproar against him; the army called\naloud for his death, and a troop of soldiers surrounded the church with\nnaked swords in their hands, and fire in their eyes. St. Chrysostom went\nto the emperor, and easily obtained of him that the unhappy criminal\nmight be allowed to enjoy the benefit of sanctuary; and the soldiers\nwere prevailed upon, by the tears of the emperor and the remonstrances\nof the bishop, to withdraw. The next day the people flocked to behold a\nman whose frown two days before made the whole world to tremble, now\nlaying hold of the altar, gnashing his teeth, trembling and shuddering,\nhaving nothing before his eyes but drawn swords, dungeons, and\nexecutioners. St. Chrysostom on this occasion made a pathetic discourse\non the vanity and treachery of human things, the emptiness and falsehood\nof which he could not find a word emphatical enough to express. The poor\nEutropius could not relish such truths a few days ago, but now found his\nvery riches destructive. The saint entreated the people to forgive him\nwhom the emperor, the chief person injured, was desirous to forgive: he\nasked them how they could beg of God the pardon of their own sins if\nthey did not pardon a man who then, by repentance, was perhaps a saint\nin the eyes of God. At this discourse not a single person in the church\nwas able to refrain from tears, and all things seemed in a state of\ntranquillity.[25] Some days after, Eutropius left the church, hoping to\nescape privately out of the city, but was seized, and banished into\nCyprus.[26] He was recalled a few months after, and being impeached\n{245} of high-treason was condemned and beheaded, chiefly at the\ninstigation of Gainas; in compliance with whose unjust demands the weak\nemperor consented to the death of Aurelianus and Saturninus, two\nprincipal lords of his court. But St. Chrysostom, by several journeys,\nprevailed with the barbarian to content himself with their banishment,\nwhich they underwent, but were soon after recalled. As unjust\nconcessions usually make rebels the more insolent, Gainas hereupon\nobliged the emperor to declare him commander-in-chief of all his troops.\nYet even when his pride and power were at the highest, St. Chrysostom\nrefused him the use of any Catholic church in Constantinople for the\nArian worship. And when, some time after, he laid siege to that capital,\nthe saint went out to him, and by kind expostulations prevailed on him\nto withhold his design and draw off his army. He was afterwards defeated\nin passing the Hellespont; and fleeing through the country of the Huns,\nwas overthrown, and slain by them in 400.\n\nThis same year, 400, St. Chrysostom held a council of bishops in\nConstantinople; one of whom had preferred a complaint against his\nmetropolitan Antoninus, the archbishop of Ephesus, which consisted of\nseveral heads, but that chiefly insisted on was simony.[27] All our\nsaint's endeavors to discuss this affair being frustrated by the\ndistance of places, he found it necessary, at the solicitation of the\nclergy and people of Ephesus, to go in person to that city, though the\nseverity of the winter season, and the ill state of health he was then\nin, might be sufficient motives for retarding this journey. In this and\nthe neighboring cities several councils were held, in which the\narchbishop of Ephesus and several other bishops in Asia, Lycia, and\nPhrygia, were deposed for simony. Upon his return after Easter, in 401,\nhaving been absent a hundred days, he preached the next morning,[28]\ncalling his people, in the transports of tender joy, his crown, his\nglory, his paradise planted with flourishing trees; but if any bad\nshrubs should be found in it, he promised that no pains should be spared\nto change them into good. He bid them consider if they rejoiced so much\nas they testified, to see him again who was only one, how great his joy\nmust be which was multiplied in every one of them: he calls himself\ntheir bond-slave, chained to their service, but says, that slavery was\nhis delight, and that during his absence he ever had them present to his\nmind, offering up his prayers for their temporal and spiritual welfare.\n\nIt remained that our saint should glorify God by his sufferings, as he\nhad already done by his labors: and if we contemplate the mystery of the\ncross with the eyes of faith, we shall find him greater in the\npersecutions he sustained than in all the other occurrences of his life.\nAt the same time we cannot sufficiently deplore the blindness of envy\nand pride in his enemies, as in the Pharisees against Christ himself. We\nought to tremble for ourselves: if that passion does not make us\npersecute a Chrysostom, it may often betray us into rash judgments,\naversions, and other sins, even under a cloak of virtue. The first open\nadversary of our saint was Severianus, bishop of Gabala, in Syria, to\nwhom the saint had left the care of his church during his absence. This\nmart had acquired the reputation of a preacher, was a favorite of the\nempress Eudoxia, and had employed all his talents and dexterity to\nestablish himself in the good opinion of the court and people, to the\nprejudice of the saint, against whom he had preached in his own city.\nSeverianus being obliged to leave Constantinople at the saint's return,\nhe made an excellent discourse to his flock on the peace Christ came to\nestablish on earth, and begged they would receive again Severianus, whom\nthey {246} had expelled the city. Another enemy of the saint was\nTheophilus, patriarch of Alexandria, whom Sozomen, Socrates, Palladius,\nSt. Isidore of Pelusium, and Synesius, accuse of avarice and oppressions\nto gratify his vanity in building stately churches; of pride, envy,\nrevenge, dissimulation, and an incontrollable love of power and rule, by\nwhich he treated other bishops as his slaves, and made his will the rule\nof justice. His three paschal letters, which have reached us, show that\nhe wrote without method, and that his reflections and reasonings were\nneither just nor apposite: whence the loss of his other writings is not\nmuch to be regretted. These spiritual vices sullied his zeal against the\nAnthropomorphites, and his other virtues. He died in 412, wishing that\nhe had lived always in a desert, honoring the name of the holy\nChrysostom, whose picture he caused to be brought to his bedside, and by\nreverencing it, showed his desire to make atonement for his past ill\nconduct towards our saint.[29] This turbulent man had driven from their\nretreat four abbots of Nitria, called the tall brothers, on a groundless\nsuspicion of Origenism, as appears from Palladius, though it was\nbelieved by St. Jerom, which is maintained by Baronius. St. Chrysostom\nadmitted them to communion, but not till they had juridically cleared\nthemselves of it in an ample manner.[30] This however was grievously\nresented by Theophilus: but the empress Eudoxia, who, after the disgrace\nof Eutropius, governed her husband and the empire, was the main spring\nwhich moved the whole conspiracy against the saint. Zozimus, a heathen\nhistorian, says, that her flagrant avarice, her extortions and\ninjustices, knew no bounds, and that the court was filled with\ninformers, calumniators, and harpies, who, being always on the watch for\nprey, found means to seize the estates of such as died rich, and to\ndisinherit their children or other heirs. No wonder that a saint should\ndisplease such a court while he discharged his duty to God. He had\npreached a sermon against the extravagance and vanity of women in dress\nand pomp. This was pretended by some to have been levelled at the\nempress; and Severianus was not wanting to blow the coals. Knowing\nTheophilus was no friend to the saint, the empress, to be revenged of\nthe supposed affront, sent to desire his presence at Constantinople, in\norder to depose him. He obeyed the summons with pleasure, and landed at\nConstantinople in June, 403, with several Egyptian bishops his\ncreatures, refused to see or lodge with John, and got together a packed\ncabal of thirty-six bishops, the saint's enemies, in a church at\nChalcedon, calling themselves the synod at the Oak, from a great tree\nwhich gave name to that quarter of the town. The heads of the\nimpeachment drawn up against the holy bishop were: that he had deposed a\ndeacon for beating a servant; that he had called several of his clergy\nbase men; had deposed bishops out of his province; had ordained priests\nin his domestic chapel, instead of the cathedral; had sold things\nbelonging to the church; that nobody knew what became of his revenues;\nthat he ate alone; and that he gave the holy communion to persons who\nwere not fasting: all which were false or frivolous. The saint held a\nlegal council of forty bishops in the city at the same time; and refused\nto appear before that at the Oak, alleging most notorious infractions of\nthe canons in their pretended council. The cabal proceeded to a sentence\nof deposition, which they sent to the city and to the emperor, to whom\nthey also accused him of treason, for having called the empress Jezabel,\na false assertion, as Palladius testifies. The emperor hereupon issued\nout an order for his banishment, but the execution of it was opposed by\nthe people, who assembled about the great church to guard their pastor.\n{247} He made them a farewell sermon,[31] in which he spoke as follows:\n\"Violent storms encompass me on all sides; yet I am without fear,\nbecause I stand upon a rock. Though the sea roar, and the waves rise\nhigh, they cannot sink the vessel of Jesus. I fear not death, which is\nmy gain: not banishment, for the whole earth is the Lord's: nor the loss\nof goods; for I came naked into the world, and must leave it in the same\ncondition. I despise all the terrors of the world and trample upon its\nsmiles and favor. Nor do I desire to live unless for your service.\nChrist is with me: whom shall I fear? Though waves rise against me:\nthough the sea, though the fury of princes threaten me, all these are to\nme more contemptible than a spider's web. I always say: O Lord, may thy\nwill be done: not what this or that creature wills, but what it shall\nplease thee to appoint, that shall I do and suffer with joy. This is my\nstrong tower: this is my unshaken rock: this is my staff that can never\nfail. If God be pleased that it be done, let it be so. Wheresoever his\nwill is that I be, I return him thanks.\" He declared that he was ready\nto lay down a thousand lives for them, if at his disposal, and that he\nsuffered only because he had neglected nothing to save their souls. On\nthe third day after the unjust sentence given against him, having\nreceived repeated orders from the emperor to go into banishment, and\ntaking all possible care to prevent a sedition, he surrendered himself,\nunknown to the people, to the count, who conducted him to Praenetum in\nBithynia. After his departure his enemies entered the city with guards,\nand Severianus mounted the pulpit, and began to preach, pretending to\nshow the deposition of the saint to have been legal and just. But the\npeople would not suffer him to proceed, and ran about as if distracted,\nloudly demanding in a body the restoration of their holy pastor. The\nnext night the city was shook with an earthquake. This brought the\nempress to reflect with remorse on what she had done against the holy\nbishop. She applied immediately to the emperor, under the greatest\nconsternation, for his being recalled; crying out: \"Unless John be\nrecalled, our empire is undone:\" and with his consent she dispatched\nletters the same night, inviting him home with tender expressions of\naffection and esteem, and protesting her ignorance of his banishment.\nAlmost all the city went out to meet him, and great numbers of lighted\ntorches were carried before him. He stopped to the suburbs, refusing to\nenter the city till he had been declared innocent by a more numerous\nassembly of bishops. But the people would suffer no delay: the enemies\nof the saint fled, and he resumed his functions, and preached to his\nflock. He pressed the emperor to call Theophilus to a legal synod: but\nthat obstinate persecutor alleged that he could not return without\ndanger of his life. However, Sozomen relates that threescore bishops\nratified his return: but the fair weather did not last long. A silver\nstatue of the empress having been erected on a pillar before the great\nchurch of St. Sophia, the dedication of it was celebrated with public\ngames, which, besides disturbing the divine service, engaged the\nspectators in extravagances and superstition. St. Chrysostom had often\npreached against licentious shows; and the very place rendered these the\nmore criminal. On this occasion, fearing lest his silence should be\nconstrued as an approbation of the thing, he, with his usual freedom and\ncourage, spoke loudly against it. Though this could only affect the\nManichaean overseer of those games, the vanity of the empress made her\ntake the affront to herself, and her desires of revenge were\nimplacable.[32] His enemies were invited back: Theophilus {248} durst\nnot come, but sent three deputies. Though St. John had forty-two bishops\nwith him, this second cabal urged to the emperor certain canons of an\nArian council of Antioch, made only to exclude St. Athanasius, by which\nit was ordained that no bishop who had been deposed by a synod, should\nreturn to his see till he was restored by another synod. This false plea\noverruled the justice of the saint's cause, and Arcadius sent him an\norder to withdraw. He refused to forsake a church committed to him by\nGod, unless forcibly compelled to leave it. The emperor sent troops to\ndrive the people out of the churches on Holy-Saturday, and the holy\nplaces were polluted with blood and all manner of outrages. The saint\nwrote to pope Innocent, begging him to declare void all that had been\ndone; for no injustice could be more notorious.[33] He also wrote to beg\nthe concurrence of certain other holy bishops of the West. The pope\nhaving received from Theophilus the acts of the false council at the\nOak, even by them saw the glaring injustice of its proceedings, and\nwrote to him, exhorting him to appear in another council, where sentence\nshould be given according to the canons of Nice, meaning by those words\nto condemn the Arian canons of Antioch. He also wrote to St. Chrysostom,\nto his flock, and several of his friends: and endeavored to redress\nthese evils by a new council: as did also the emperor Honorius. But\nArcadius and Eudoxia found means to prevent its assembling, the very\ndread of which made Theophilus, Severianus, and other ringleaders of the\nfaction to tremble.\n\nSt. Chrysostom was suffered to remain at Constantinople two months after\nEaster. On Thursday, in Whitsun-week, the emperor sent him an order for\nhis banishment. The holy man, who received it in the church, said to\nthose about him, \"Come, let us pray, and take leave of the angel of the\nchurch.\" He took leave of the bishops, and, stepping into the\nbaptistery, also of St. Olympias and the other deaconesses, who were\noverwhelmed with grief and bathed in tears. He then retired privately\nout of the church, to prevent a sedition, and was conducted by Lucius, a\nbrutish captain, into Bithynia, and arrived at Nice on the 20th of June,\n404. After his departure, a fire breaking out, burnt down the great\nchurch and the senate-house, two buildings which were the glory of the\ncity: but the baptistery was spared by the flames, as it were to justify\nthe saint against his calumniators; for not one of the rich vessels was\nfound wanting. In this senate-house perished the incomparable statues of\nthe muses from Helicon, and other like ornaments, the most valuable then\nknown: so that Zozimus looks upon this conflagration as the greatest\nmisfortune that had ever befallen that city. Palladius ascribes the fire\nto the anger of heaven. Many of the saint's friends were put to the most\nexquisite tortures on this account, but no discovery could be made. The\nIsaurians plundered Asia, and the Huns several other provinces. Eudoxia\nended her life and crimes in childbed on the 6th of October following,\nfive days after a furious hail-storm had made a dreadful havoc in the\ncity. The emperor wrote to St. Nilus, to recommend himself and his\nempire to his prayers. The hermit answered him with a liberty of speech\nwhich became one who neither hoped nor feared any thing from the world.\n\"How do you hope,\" said he, \"to see Constantinople delivered from the\ndestroying angel of God, after such enormities authorized by laws? after\nhaving banished the most blessed John, the pillar of the church, the\nlamp of truth, the trumpet of Jesus Christ!\"[34] And again: \"You have\nbanished John, the greatest light of the earth:--At least, {249} do not\npersevere in your crime.\"[35] His brother, the emperor Honorius, wrote\nstill in stronger terms,[36] and several others. But in vain; for\ncertain implacable court ladies and sycophants, hardened against all\nadmonitions and remorse, had much too powerful an ascendant over the\nunhappy emperor, for these efforts of the saint's friends to meet with\nsuccess. Arsacius, his enemy and persecutor, though naturally a soft and\nweak man, was by the emperor's authority intruded into his see. The\nsaint enjoyed himself comfortably at Nice: but Cucusus was pitched upon\nby Eudoxia for the place of his banishment. He set out from Nice in\nJuly, 404, and suffered incredible hardships from heats, fatigues,\nseverity of guards, almost perpetual watchings, and a fever which soon\nseized him with pains in his breast. He was forced to travel almost all\nnight, deprived of every necessary of life, and was wonderfully\nrefreshed if he got a little clear water to drink, fresh bread to eat,\nor a bed to take a little rest upon. All he lamented was the impenitence\nof his enemies, for their own sake: calling impunity in sin, and honor\nconferred by men on that account, the most dreadful of all\njudgments.[37] About the end of August, after a seventy days' journey,\nhe arrived at Cucusus, a poor town in Armenia, in the deserts of Mount\nTaurus. The good bishop of the place vied with his people in showing the\nman of God the greatest marks of veneration and civility, and many\nfriends met him there, both from Constantinople and Antioch. In this\nplace, by sending missionaries and succors, he promoted the conversion\nof many heathen countries, especially among the Goths, in Persia and\nPhoenicia. He appointed Constantius, his friend, a priest of Antioch,\nsuperior of the apostolic missions in Phoenicia and Arabia. The letters\nof Constantius are added to those of St. Chrysostom. The seventeen\nletters of our saint to St. Olympias might be styled treatises. He tells\nher,[38] \"I daily exult and am transported with joy in my heart under my\nsufferings, in which I find a hidden treasure: and I beg that you\nrejoice on the same account, and that you bless and praise God, by whose\nmercy we obtain to such a degree the grace of suffering.\" He often\nenlarges on the great evils and most pernicious consequences of sadness\nand dejection of spirit, which he calls[39] \"the worst of human evils, a\nperpetual domestic rack, a darkness and tempest of the mind, an interior\nwar, a distemper which consumes the vigor of the soul, and impairs all\nher faculties.\" He shows[40] that sickness is the greatest of trials, a\ntime not of inaction, but of the greatest merit, the school of all\nvirtues, and a true martyrdom. He advises her to use physic, and says it\nwould be a criminal impatience to wish for death to be freed from\nsufferings. He laments the fall of Pelagius, whose heresies he abhorred.\nHe wrote to this lady his excellent treatise, That no one can hurt him\nwho does not hurt himself. Arsacius dying in 405, many ambitiously\naspired to that dignity, whose very seeking it was sufficient to prove\nthem unworthy. Atticus, one of this number, a violent enemy to St.\nChrysostom, was preferred by the court, and placed in his chair. The\npope refused to hold communion with Theophilus or any of the abettors of\nthe persecution of our saint.[41] He and the emperor Honorius sent five\nbishops to Constantinople to insist on a council, and that, in the mean\ntime, St. Chrysostom should be restored to his see, his deposition\nhaving been notoriously unjust.[42] But the deputies were cast into prison\nin Thrace, because they refused to communicate with Atticus. The\npersecutors saw that, if the council was held, they would be inevitably\ncondemned and deposed by it, therefore they stuck at nothing to prevent\nits meeting. The incursions of the Isaurian plunderers obliged St.\nChrysostom to take shelter in the castle of Arabissus, on{250} Mount\nTaurus. He enjoyed a tolerable state of health during the year 406 and\nthe winter following, though it was extremely cold in those mountains,\nso that the Armenians were surprised to see how his thin, weak body was\nable to support it. When the Isaurians had quitted the neighborhood, he\nreturned to Cucusus. But his impious enemies, seeing the whole Christian\nworld both honor and defend him, resolved to rid the world of him. With\nthis view they procured an order from the emperor that he should be\nremoved to Arabissus, and thence to Pytius, a town situated on the\nEuxine sea, near Colchis, at the extremity of the empire, on the\nfrontiers of the Sarmatians, the most barbarous of the Scythians. Two\nofficers were ordered to convey him thither in a limited number of days,\nthrough very rough roads, with a promise of promotion, if, by hard\nusage, he should die in their hands. One of these was not altogether\ndestitute of humanity, but the other could not bear to hear a mild word\nspoken to him. They often travelled amidst scorching heats, from which\nhis head, that was bald, suffered exceedingly. In the most violent rains\nthey forced him out of doors, obliging him to travel till the water ran\nin streams down his back and bosom. When they arrived at Comana Pontica,\nin Cappadocia, he was very sick; yet was hurried five or six miles to\nthe martyrium or chapel in which lay the relics of the martyr St.\nBasiliscus.[43] The saint was lodged in the oratory of the priest. In\nthe night, that holy martyr appearing to him, said, \"Be of good courage,\nbrother John; to-morrow we shall be together.\" The confessor was filled\nwith joy at this news, and begged that he might stay there till eleven\no'clock. This made the guards drag him out the more violently; but when\nthey had travelled four miles, perceiving him in a dying condition, they\nbrought him back to the oratory. He there changed all his clothes to his\nvery shoes, putting on his best attire, which was all white, as if he\nmeant it for his heavenly nuptials. He was yet fasting, and having\nreceived the holy sacrament, poured forth his last prayer, which he\nclosed with his usual doxology: Glory be to God for all things. Having\nsaid Amen, and signed himself with the sign of the cross, he sweetly\ngave up his soul to God on the feast of the exaltation of the holy\ncross, the 14th of September, as appears from the Menaea, in 407, having\nbeen bishop nine years and almost seven months.[44]\n\nHis remains were interred by the body of St. Basiliscus, a great\nconcourse of holy virgins, monks, and persons of all ranks from a great\ndistance flocking to his funeral. The pope refused all communion with\nthose who would not allow his name a place in the Dyptics or registers\nof Catholic bishops deceased. It was inserted at Constantinople by\nAtticus, in 417, and at Alexandria, by St. Cyril, in 419: for Nestorius\ntells him that he then venerated the ashes of John against his will.[45]\nHis body was translated to Constantinople in 434, by St. Proclus, with\nthe utmost pomp, the emperor Theodosius and his sister Pulcheria\naccompanying St. Proclus in the procession, and begging pardon for the\nsins of their parents, who had unadvisedly persecuted this servant of\nGod. The precious remains were laid in the church of the apostles, the\nburying-place of the emperors and bishops, on the 27th of January, 438;\non which day he is honored by the Latins: {251} but the Greeks keep his\nfestival on the 13th of November.[46] His ashes were afterwards carried\nto Rome, and rest under an altar which bears his name in the Vatican\nchurch. The saint was low in stature; and his thin, mortified\ncountenance bespoke the severity of his life. The austerities of his\nyouth, his cold solitary abode in the mountains, and the fatigues of\ncontinual preaching, had weakened his breast, which occasioned his\nfrequent distempers. But the hardships of his exile were such as must\nhave destroyed a person of the most robust constitution. Pope Celestine,\nSt. Austin, St. Nilus, St. Isidore of Pelusium, and others, call him the\nillustrious doctor of churches, whose glory shines on every side, who\nfills the earth with the light of his profound sacred learning, and who\ninstructs by his works the remotest corners of the world, preaching\neverywhere, even where his voice could not reach. They style him the\nwise interpreter of the secrets of God, the sun of the whole universe,\nthe lamp of virtue, and the most shining star of the earth. The\nincomparable writings of this glorious saint, make his standing and most\nauthentic eulogium.\n\nIn the character which St. Chrysostom has in several places drawn of\ndivine and fraternal charity and holy zeal, we have a true portraiture\nof his holy soul. He excellently shows, from the words of our Lord to\nSt. Peter,[47] that the primary and essential disposition of a pastor of\nsouls is a pure and most ardent love of God, whose love for these souls\nis so great, that he has delivered his Son to death for them. Jesus\nChrist shed his blood to save this flock, which he commits to the care\nof St. Peter. Nothing can be stronger or more tender than the manner in\nwhich this saint frequently expresses his charity and solicitude for his\nspiritual children.[48] When he touches this topic, his words are all\nfire and flame, and seem to breathe the fervor of St. Peter, the zeal of\nSt. Paul, and the charity of Moses. This favorite of God was not afraid,\nfor the salvation of his people, to desire to be separated from the\ncompany of the saints, provided this could have been done without\nfalling from the love of God; though he knew that nothing would more\nclosely unite him forever to God, than this extraordinary effort of his\nlove. The apostle of nations desired to be an anathema for his brethren,\nand for their salvation;[49] and the prince of the apostles gave the\nstrongest proof of the ardor of his love for Christ, by the floods of\ntears which he shed for his flock. From the same furnace of divine love,\nSt. Chrysostom drew the like sentiments towards his flock, joined with a\nsovereign contempt of all earthly things; another distinguishing\nproperty of charity, which he describes in the following words:[50]\n\"Those who burn with a spiritual love, consider as nothing all that is\nshining or precious on earth. We are not to be surprised if we\nunderstand not this language, who have no experience of this sublime\nvirtue. For whoever should be inflamed with the fire of the perfect love\nof Jesus Christ, would be in such dispositions with regard to the earth,\nthat he would be indifferent both to its honors and to its disgrace, and\nwould be no more concerned about its trifles than if he was alone in the\nworld. He would despise sufferings, scourges, and dungeons, as if they\nwere endured in another's body, not in his own; and would be as\ninsensible to the pleasures and enjoyments of the world; as we are to\nthe bodies of the dead, or as the dead are to their own bodies. He would\nbe as pure from the stain of any inordinate passions, as gold perfectly\nrefined is from all rust or spot. And as flies beware of falling into\nthe flames, and keep at a distance, so irregular passions dare not\napproach him.\"\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  S. Chrys. ad Vid. jun. t. 1, p. 340.\n2.  Sozom. l. 8, c. 22.\n3.  Liban. ep. ad Joan. apud S. Isidor. Pelus. l. 2, ep. 42.\n4.  L. 3, de Sacerd. c. 14, p. 390.\n5.  L. 3, de Sacerd. c. 14.\n6.  Hom. 72 (ol. 73) and 69 (ol. 69,) in Matt. Hom. 14, in 1 Tim. t. 11,\n    pp. 628, 630, {}3, contra vitup. vita Mon. c. 14.\n7. Lib. de Compunct. p. {1}32.\n8. Lib. 1, de Compunct. &c.\n9.  Flavian I. was a native of Antioch, of honorable extraction, and\n    possessed of a plentiful estate, which he employed in the service of\n    the church and relief of the poor. He was remarkably grave and\n    serious, and began early to subdue his flesh by austerities and\n    abstinence, in which he remitted nothing even in his old age. Thus\n    was his heart prepared to receive and cherish the seeds of divine\n    grace, the daily increase of which rendered him so conspicuous in\n    the world, and of such advantage to the church. The Arians being at\n    that time masters of the church of Antioch, Flavian and his\n    associate Diodorus, afterwards bishop of Tarsus, equally\n    distinguished by their birth, fortune, learning, and virtue, were\n    the great supports of the flock St. Eustathius had been forced to\n    abandon. In 348, they undertook the defence of the Catholic faith\n    against Leontius, the Arian bishop, who made use of all his craft\n    and authority to establish Arianism to that city; one of whose chief\n    expedients was to promote none to holy orders but Arians. The\n    scarcity of Catholic pastors, on this account called for all their\n    zeal and charity in behalf of the abandoned flock. The Arians being\n    in possession of the churches to the city, these two zealous laymen\n    assembled them without the walls, at the tombs of the martyrs, for\n    the exercise of religious duties. They introduced among them the\n    manner of singing psalms alternately, and of concluding each psalm\n    with _Glory be to the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; as it was,_ &c.,\n    which pious custom was soon after spread over all the eastern and\n    western churches. Theodoret (l. 2, c. 19) says, that Flavian and\n    Diodorus were the first who directed the psalms to be sung in this\n    manner by two choirs: though Socrates (l. 6, c. 8) attributes its\n    institution to St. Ignatius the martyr: who having, as he there\n    relates, heard angels in a vision singing the divine praises\n    alternately, instituted that manner of singing in the church of\n    Antioch; but this might have been disused. Pliny's famous letter to\n    Trajan shows, that singing was then in use among the Christians In\n    Bithynia; and it appears from Philo, that the Therapeuts did the\n    same before that time. Leontius stood so much in awe of Flavian and\n    Diodorus while they were only laymen, that in compliance with their\n    demands he deposed Aetius that most impious and barefaced blasphemer\n    of all the Arians, from the rank of deacon.\n\n    St. Meletius, on his being promoted to the see of Antioch, about the\n    year 361, raised these both to the priesthood, and they took care of\n    that church, as his delegates, during his banishment by Constantius.\n    Thus they continued together their zealous labors till Diodorus was\n    made bishop of Tarsus. In 381, St. Meletius took Flavian with him to\n    the general council which was assembled at Constantinople; but dying\n    in that capital, Flavian was chosen to succeed him. His life was a\n    perfect copy of the eminent episcopal virtues, and especially of the\n    meekness, the candor, and affability of his worthy predecessor.\n\n    Unhappily the schism, which for a long time had divided the church\n    of Antioch, was not yet extinguished. The occasion was this: after\n    the death of St. Eustathius, they could not agree in the choice of\n    his successor; those who were most attached to this holy prelate,\n    with St. Athanasius and the West, followed Paulinus: the\n    Apollinarists declared for Vitalis: and the greatest body of the\n    orthodox of Antioch, with Flavian, Diodorus, and all the East,\n    adhered to St. Meletius, who, as we have seen already, was succeeded\n    by Flavian. Paulinus, bishop of that part of the Catholics called\n    Eustathians, from their attachment to that prelate, though long\n    since dead, still disputed that see with Flavian; but dying in 383,\n    the schism of Antioch must have ended, had not his abettors kept\n    open the breach by choosing Evagrius in his room; though it does not\n    appear that he had one bishop in communion with him, Egypt and the\n    West being now neuter, and the East all holding communion with\n    Flavian. Evagrius dying in 395, the Eustathians, though now without\n    a pastor, still continued their separate meetings, and kept up the\n    schism several years longer. St. Chrysostom being raised to the see\n    of Constantinople, in 398, labored hourly to abolish this fatal\n    schism, which was brought about soon after by commissioners\n    constituted for this purpose by the West, Egypt, and all the other\n    parties concerned, and the Eustathians received Flavian as their\n    bishop. In the year 404, when St. Chrysostom was banished, Flavian\n    testified his indignation against so unjust a proceeding, and wrote\n    upon that subject to the clergy of Constantinople. But he did not\n    live to be witness of all the sufferings his dear friend was to meet\n    with, dying about three years before him, in 404. The general\n    council of Chalcedon calls him blessed, (Conc. t. 4, p. 840,) and\n    Theodoret (l. 5, c. 232) gives him the titles of the great, the\n    admirable saint. St. Chrysostom is lavish in his praises of him.\n    Flavian's sermons and other writings are all lost except his\n    discourse to Theodosius, preserved by St. Chrysostom. No church or\n    Martyrology, whether among the Greeks or Latins, ever placed Falvius\n    I. of Antioch in the catalogue of the saints. Whence Chatelain, in\n    his notes, speaking of St. Meletius, February the 12th, p. 630; and\n    on St. Flavian of Constantinople, February the 17th, p. 685,\n    expresses his surprise at the boldness of Baillet and some others,\n    who, without regard to the decrees of Urban VIII., presumed to do it\n    of their own private authority, and without any reason, have\n    assigned for his feast the 21st of February. Chatelain, in his\n    additions to his Universal Martyrology, p. 711, names him with the\n    epithet of venerable only, on the 26th of September. He is only\n    spoken of here, to answer our design of giving in the notes some\n    account of the most eminent fathers of the church who have never\n    been ranked among the saints. On St. Flavian II. of Antioch,\n    banished by the emperor Anastasius with St. Elias of Jerusalem, for\n    their zeal in defending the council of Chalcedon against the\n    Eutychians, see July {} 4th, on which these two confessors are\n    commemorated in the Roman Martyrology.\n10. St. Chrys. Hom. 21, ad Pap. Antioch. seu de Statius. t. 2.\n11. Sozom. l. 8, c. 2, &c.\n12. Socrat. c. 2. See Stilting, Sec.35, p. 511.\n13. St. Chrys. l. Quod regulares foeminae, t. 1, p. 250.\n14. Stilting, Sec.41, p. 526.\n15. Phot. Cod. 59. Socr. l. 6, c. 21. Stilting, Sec.40, p. 523.\n16. [Greek: Kai sunegores elambanomen]. Chrys. Serm. contra ludos et\n    spect. t. 6, p. 272. Ed. Ben. [Greek: Andreas Paulon kai Timotheon].\n17. Mich. vi. 3. Jer. ii. 5.\n18. Hom. 13, in Ephes. t. 11, p. 95\n19. Pallad in Vit. Chrysost. Item S. Chrysost. Hom. in 1 Tim. v. 5, l.\n    3, de Sacerd. c. 8, and l. ad V{}oior. Stilting, Sec.67, p. 603.\n20. [Greek: Ioannes hu tes eleemosunes]. Pallad. c. 12.\n21. Hom. 2, & 25, in Acta. Hom. 14, in Hebr. Pallad. in Vit. S. Chrys.\n22. S. Procl. Or. 22. p. 581.\n23. L. 2, Ep. 294, p. 266.\n24. L. 3, de Sacerd.\n25. Stilting, Sec.43, p. 530, et seq.\n26. About this time the poet Claudian wrote his two books against\n    Eutropius, as he had done before against Rufinus.\n27. Pallad. Dial. {} 127. Stilting, Sec.47, p. 542.\n28. T. 3, p. 411.\n29. S. Joan. Damasc. Orat. 3, de Imaginibus, p. 480, {} Billii. See F.\n    Sollier in Hist. Chronol. Patriarch Alexand. in Theophilo, p. 52.\n30. See Stilting, Sec.54, 55, 5{}, p. 567.\n31. T. 3, p. 415.\n32. Socrates and Sozomen say that he preached another sermon against the\n    empress, beginning with these words: Herodias is again became\n    furious. But Montfaucon refutes this slander, trumped up by his\n    enemies. The sermon extant under that title is a manifest forgery,\n    t. {}n spuriis, p. 1. See Montfaucon, and Stilting, Sec.63, p. 503.\n33. {}p t. 3, p. 515. Pallad. Dial. Stilting, Sec.58, p. 578.\n34. S. Nilus, l. 2, ep. 265.\n35. L. 3, ep. 279.\n36. T. 3, p. 525.\n37. Ep. 8.\n38. Ep. 8, p. 589.\n39. Ibid. 3, p. 552.\n40. Ibid. 4, p. 570.\n41. Pallad. Theodoret, l. 5, c. 34.\n42. Pallad. Sozom. l. 8. c. 28.\n43. The passage of Palladius, in which St. Basiliscus is called bishop\n    of Comana, is evidently falsified by the mistake of copiers, as\n    Stilting demonstrates; who shows this Basiliscus to have suffered\n    not at Nicomedia, but near Comana, in the country where his relics\n    remained; the same that is honored on the 2d of March. It is without\n    grounds that Tillemont, Le Quien, &c., imagine there were two\n    martyrs of the same name, the one a soldier, who suffered at Comana\n    under Galerius Maximian; the other, bishop of that city. T. 5, in S.\n    Basilisc. note 4. See Stilting, Sec.83, p. 665.\n44. Sir Harry Saville is of opinion that he was only fifty-two years\n    old: but he must have been sixty-three, as born in 344.\n45. Nestorius, Or. 12, apud Marium Mercat. par. 2, p. 86, ed. Gamier.\n    Stilting, Sec.88, p. 685.\n46. Jos. Assemani. Comm. In Calend. Univ. t. 6. p. 105, and Stilting.\n47. Joan. xxi. 17. St. Chrys. l. 2, de Sacred. c. 1.\n48. Hom. 3 & 44, in Act. et alibi saepe.\n49. See St. Chrys. hom. 16, in Rom.\n50. Hom. 52, in Acta.\n\n\n{252}\n\nON THE WRITINGS\n\nOF\n\nST. JOHN CHRYSOSTOM.\n\nIN the Benedictine edition of his works given by Dom Montfaucon, we have\nin the first tome his two Exhortations to Theodorus; three books against\nthe Adversaries of a Monastic Life; the Comparison between a King and a\nMonk; two books on Compunction; three books to Stagirius the monk, on\nTribulation and Providence; against those Clergymen who harbor Women\nunder their roof to serve them; another treatise to prove that\nDeaconesses, or other Regular Women, ought not to live under the same\nroof with men; On Virginity; To a Young Widow; On the Priesthood; and a\nconsiderable number of scattered homilies. Theodorus, after renouncing\nthe advantages which high birth, a plentiful estate, a polite education,\nand an uncommon stock of learning offered him in the world, and having\nsolemnly consecrated himself to God in a monastic state, violated his\nsacred engagement, returned into the world, took upon him the\nadministration of his estate, fell in love with a beautiful young woman\nnamed Hermione, and desired to marry her. St. Chrysostom, who had\nformerly been his school-fellow, under Libanius, and been afterwards\ninstrumental in inducing him to forsake the world, and some time his\ncompanion in a religious state, grievously lamented his unhappy fall;\nand by two most tender and pathetic exhortations to repentance, gained\nhim again to God. Every word is dictated by the most ardent zeal and\ncharity, and powerfully insinuates itself into the heart by the charm of\nan unparalleled sweetness, which gives to the strength of the most\npersuasive eloquence an irresistible force. Nothing of the kind extant\nis more beautiful, or more tender, than these two pieces, especially the\nformer. The saint, in the beginning, borrows the most moving parts of\nthe lamentations of Jeremy, showing that he had far more reason to\nabandon himself to bitter grief than that prophet; for he mourned not\nfor a material temple and city with the holy ark and the tables of the\nlaw, but for an immortal soul, far more precious than the whole material\nworld. And if one soul which observes the divine law is greater and\nbetter than ten thousand which transgress it, what reason had he to\ndeplore the loss of one which had been sanctified, and the holy living\ntemple of God, and shone with the grace of the Holy Ghost: one in which\nthe Father, Son, and Holy Ghost had dwelt; but was stripped of its glory\nand fence, robbed of its beauty, enslaved by the devil, and fettered\nwith his bolts and chains. Therefore the saint invites all creatures to\nmourn with him, and declares he will receive no comfort, nor listen to\nthose who offer him any, crying out with the prophet: _Depart from me: I\nwill weep bitterly: offer not to comfort me_. Isa. xxii. 4. His grief,\nhe says, was just, because he wept for a soul that was fallen from\nheaven to hell, from grace into sin: it was reasonable, because by tears\nshe might yet be recovered; and he protests that he would never\ninterrupt them, till he should learn that she was risen again. To\nfortify his unhappy friend against the temptation of despair, he shows\nby the promises, examples, and parables of the Old and New Testaments,\nthat no one can doubt of the power or goodness of God, who is most ready\nto pardon every sinner that sues for mercy. Observing that hell was not\ncreated for man, but heaven, he conjures him not to defeat the design of\nGod in his creation, and destroy the work of his mercy by persevering in\nsin. The difficulties which seemed to stand in his way, and dispirited\nhim, the saint shows would be all removed, and would even vanish of\nthemselves, if he undertook the work with courage and resolution: this\nmakes the conversion of a soul easy. He terrifies him by moving\nreflections on death, and the divine judgments, by a dreadful\nportraiture which he draws of the fire of hell, which resembles not our\nfire, but burns souls, and is eternal; lastly, by the loss of heaven, on\nthe joys of which kingdom he speaks at large; on its immortality, the\ncompany of the angels, the joy, liberty, beauty, and glory of the\nblessed, adding, that such is this felicity, that in its loss consists\nthe most dreadful of all the torments of the damned. Penance averts\nthese evils, and restores to a soul all the titles and advantages which\nshe had forfeited by her fall: and its main difficulty and labor are\nvanquished by a firm resolution, and serious beginning of the work. This\nweakens and throws down the enemy: if he be thoroughly vanquished in\nthat part where he was the strongest, the soul will pursue, with ease\nand cheerfulness, the delightful and beautiful course of virtue upon\nwhich she has entered. He conjures Theodorus, by all that is dear, to\nhave compassion on himself; also to have pity on his mourning friends,\nand not by grief send them to their graves: he exhorts him resolutely to\nbreak his bonds at once, not to temporize only with his enemy, or\npretend to rise by degrees; and he entreats him to exert his whole\nstrength in laboring to {253} be of the happy number of those who, from\nbeing the last, are raised by their fervor to the first rank in the\nkingdom of God. To encourage him by examples, he mentions a young\nnobleman of Phoenicia, the son of one Urbanus, who, having embraced with\nfervor the monastic state, insensibly fell into lukewarmness, and at\nlength returned into the world, where he enjoyed large possessions,\nlived in pomp, and abandoned himself to the pursuit of vanity and\npleasures; till, opening his eyes upon the remonstrances of certain\npious friends, he distributed his whole estate among the poor, and spent\nthe rest of his life in the desert with extraordinary fervor. Another\nascetic, falling by degrees, in an advanced age, committed the crime of\nfornication; but immediately rising, attained to an eminent degree of\nsanctity, and was honored with the gift of miracles. The disciple of St.\nJohn, who had been a captain of a troop of robbers and murderers, became\nan illustrious penitent. In like manner, our saint exhorts and conjures\nthis sinner to rise without delay, before he was overtaken by the divine\njudgments, and to confess his sins with compunction of heart, abundant\nbitter tears, and a perfect change of life, laboring to efface his\ncrimes by good works, to the least of which Christ has promised a\nreward.\n\nSt. Chrysostom begins his second Exhortation to Theodorus, which is much\nshorter than the first, by expressing his grief as follows: (t. 1, p.\n35:) \"If tears and groans could have been conveyed by letters, this\nwould have been filled. I grieve not that you have taken upon you the\nadministration of your affairs; but that you have trampled under your\nfeet the sacred engagement you had made of yourself to Christ. For this\nI suffer excessive trouble and pain; for this I mourn; for this I am\nseized with fear and trembling, having before my eyes the severe\ndamnation which so treacherous and base a perfidiousness deserves.\" He\ntells him yet \"that the case is not desperate for a person to have been\nwounded, but for him to neglect the cure of his wounds. A merchant after\nshipwreck labors to repair his losses; many wrestlers, after a fall,\nhave risen and fought so courageously as to have been crowned; and\nsoldiers, after a defeat, have rallied and conquered. You allege,\" says\nhe, \"that marriage is lawful. This I readily acknowledge; but it is not\nnow in your power to embrace that state: for it is certain that one who,\nby a solemn engagement, has given himself to God as his heavenly spouse,\nif he violates this contract, he commits an adultery, though he should a\nthousand times call it marriage. Nay, he is guilty of a crime so much\nthe more enormous as the majesty of God surpasses man. Had you been\nfree, no one would charge you with desertion; but since you are\ncontracted to so great a king, you are not at your own disposal.\" St.\nChrysostom pathetically shows him the danger, baseness, and crime of\ndeferring his repentance, sets before him hell, the emptiness of the\nworld, the uneasiness and troubles which usually attend a married life,\nand the sweetness of the yoke of Christ. He closes this pressing\nexhortation by mentioning the tears and prayers of his friends, which\nthey would never interrupt, till they had the comfort of seeing him\nraised from his fall. St. Chrysostom wrote these two exhortations about\nthe year 369, which was the second that he spent in his mother's house\nat Antioch when he led there an ascetic life. The fruit of his zeal and\ncharity was the conversion of Theodorus, who broke his engagements with\nthe world, and returned to his solitude. In 381 he was made bishop of\nMopsuestia. In opposing the Apollinarist heresy, he had the misfortune\nto lay the seeds of Nestorianism in a book which he composed on the\nIncarnation, and other writings. He became a declared protector of\nJulian the Pelagian, when he took refuge in the East; wrote an express\ntreatise against original sin; and maintained the Pelagian errors in a\nmultitude of other works, which were all condemned after his death,\nthough only fragments of them have reached us, preserved chiefly in\nFacundus, Photius, and several councils. He died in 428, before the\nsolemn condemnation of his errors, and in the communion of the Catholic\nchurch. See Tillemont, t. 12.\n\nDuring St. Chrysostom's retreat in the mountains, two devout servants of\nGod desired of him certain instructions on the means of attaining to the\nvirtue of compunction. Demetrius, the first of these, though he was\narrived at a high degree of perfection in an ascetic life, always ranked\nhimself among those who crawl on the earth, and said often to St.\nChrysostom, kissing his hand, and watering it with tears, \"Assist me to\nsoften the hardness of my heart.\" St. Chrysostom addressed to him his\nfirst book on Compunction, in which he tells him that he was not\nunacquainted with this grace, of which he had a pledge in the\nearnestness of his desire to obtain it, his love of retirement, his\nwatching whole nights, and his abundant tears, even those with which,\nsqueezing him by the hand, he lead begged the succor of his advice and\nprayers, in order to soften his dry, stony heart into compunction. With\nthe utmost confusion for his own want of this virtue, he yielded to his\nrequest, begging in return his earnest prayers for the conversion of his\nown soul. Treating first on the necessities and motives of compunction,\nhe takes notice that Christ pronounces those blessed who mourn, and says\nwe ought never to cease weeping for our own sins, and those of the whole\nworld, which deserves and calls for our tears so much the more loudly,\nas it is insensible of its own miseries. We should never cease weeping,\nif we considered how much sin reigns among men. The saint considers the\nsin of rash judgment as a general vice among men, from which he thinks\nscarce any one will be found to have lived always free. He {254} says\nthe same of anger; then of detraction; and considering how universally\nthese crimes prevail among men, cries out: \"What hopes of salvation\nremain for the generality of mankind, who commit, without reflection,\nsome or other of these crimes, one of which is enough to damn a soul?\"\nHe mentions also, as general sins, swearing, evil words, vain-glory, not\ngiving alms, want of confidence in divine providence, and of resignation\nto his will, covetousness, and sloth in the practice of virtue. He\ncomplains that whereas the narrow path only leads to heaven, almost all\nmen throw themselves into the broad way, walking with the multitude in\ntheir employs and actions, seeking their pleasure, interest, or\nconvenience, not what is safest for their souls. Here what motives for\nour tears! A life of mortification and penance he prescribes, as an\nessential condition for maintaining a spirit of compunction; saying that\nwater and fire are not more contrary to each other, than a life of\nsoftness and delights is to compunction; pleasure being the mother of\ndissolute laughter and madness. A love of pleasure renders the soul\nheavy and altogether earthly; but compunction gives her wings, by which\nshe raises herself above all created things. We see worldly men mourn\nfor the loss of friends and other temporal calamities. And are not we\nexcited to weep for our spiritual miseries? We can never cease if we\nhave always before our eyes our sins, our distance from heaven, the\npains of hell, God's judgments, and our danger of losing Him, which is\nthe most dreadful of all the torments of the damned.\n\nIn his second book On Compunction, which is addressed to Stelechius, he\nexpresses his surprise that he should desire instructions on compunction\nof one so cold in the divine service as he was; but only one whose\nbreast is inflamed with divine love, and whose words are more\npenetrating than fire, can speak of that virtue. He says that\ncompunction requires in the first place, solitude, not so much that of\nthe desert, as that which is interior, or of the mind. For seeing that a\nmultitude of objects disturbs the sight, the soul must restrain all the\nsenses, remain serene, and without tumult or noise within herself,\nalways intent on God, employed in his love, deaf to corporeal objects.\nAs men placed on a high mountain hear nothing of the noise of a city\nsituated below them, only a confused stir which they no way heed; so a\nChristian soul, raised on the mountain of true wisdom, regards not the\nhurry of the world; and though she is not destitute of senses, is not\nmolested by them, and applies herself and her whole attention to\nheavenly things. Thus St. Paul was crucified and insensible to the\nworld, raised as far above its objects as living men differ from\ncarcasses. Not only St. Paul, amid a multiplicity of affairs, but also\nDavid, living in the noise of a great city and court, enjoyed solitude\nof mind, and the grace of perfect compunction, and poured forth tears\nnight and day, proceeding from an ardent love and desire of God and his\nheavenly kingdom, the consideration of the divine judgments, and the\nremembrance of his own sins. Persons that are lukewarm and slothful,\nthink of what they do or have done in penance to cancel their debts; but\nDavid nourished perpetually in his breast a spirit of compunction, by\nnever thinking on the penance he had already done, but only on his debts\nand miseries, and on what he had to do in order to blot out or deliver\nhimself from them. St. Chrysostom begs his friend's prayers that he\nmight be stirred up by the divine grace to weep perpetually under the\nload of his spiritual evils, so as to escape everlasting torments.\n\nThe saint's three books, On Providence, are an exhortation to comfort,\npatience, and resignation, addressed to Stagirius, a monk possessed by\nan evil spirit. This Stagirius was a young nobleman, who had exasperated\nhis father by embracing a monastic state: but some time after fell into\nlukewarmness, and was cruelly possessed by an evil spirit, and seized\nwith a dreadful melancholy, from which those who had received a power of\ncommanding evil spirits were not able to deliver him. St. Chrysostom\nwrote these books soon after he was ordained deacon in 380. In the\nfirst, he shows that all things are governed by divine providence, by\nwhich even afflictions are always sent and directed for the good of the\nelect. For any one to doubt of this is to turn infidel: and if we\nbelieve it, what can we fear whatever tribulations befall us, and to\nwhatever height their waves ascend? Though the conduct of divine\nprovidence, with regard to the just, be not uniform, it sends to none\nany tribulations which are not for their good; when they are most heavy,\nthey are designed by God to prepare men for the greatest crowns.\nMoreover, God is absolute master to dispose of us, as a potter of his\nclay. What then have we to say? or how dare we presume to penetrate into\nhis holy counsels? The promise of God can never fail: this gives us an\nabsolute security of the highest advantages, mercy, and eternal glory,\nwhich are designed us in our afflictions. St. Chrysostom represents to\nStagirius that his trials had cured his former vanity, anger, and sloth,\nand it was owing to them that he now spent nights and days in fasting,\nprayer, and reading. In the second book, he presses Stagirius\nstrenuously to reject all melancholy and gloomy thoughts, and not to be\nuneasy either about his cure, or the grief his situation was likely to\ngive his father, but leaving the issue to God, with perfect resignation\nto ask of him this mercy, resting in the entire confidence that whatever\nGod ordained would turn to his greatest advantage. In the third book, he\nmentions to Stagirius several of his acquaintance, whose sufferings,\nboth in mind and body, were more grievous than those with which he was\nafflicted. He bids him also pay a visit to the hospitals and prisons;\nfor he would there see that his cross was light in comparison of what\nmany others endured. {255} He tells him that sin ought to be to him the\nonly subject of grief; and that he ought to rejoice in sufferings as the\nmeans by which his sins were to be expiated. A firm confidence in God, a\nconstant attention to his presence, and perpetual prayer, he calls the\nstrong ramparts against sadness.\n\nWhen the Arian emperor Valens, in 375, commanded the monks to be turned\nout of their deserts, and enrolled in the troops, and several Catholics\nreviled them as bigots and madmen, St. Chrysostom took up his pen to\njustify them, by three books, entitled, Against the Impugners of a\nMonastic State. T. 1, p. 44, he expresses his surprise that any\nChristians could speak ill of a state which consists in the most perfect\nmeans of attaining to true virtue, and says they hurt themselves, not\nthe monks, whose merit they increase; as Nero's persecution of St. Paul,\nbecause he had converted one of the tyrant's concubines, enhanced the\napostle's glory. A more dreadful judgment is reserved to these enemies\nof the love of Christ. They said, they drew no one from his faith. The\nsaint retorts: What will faith avail without innocence and virtue? They\nalleged that a Christian may be saved without retiring into the desert.\nHe answers: Would to God men lived so in the world that monasteries were\nof no advantage! but seeing all disorders prevail in it, who can blame\nthose who seek to shelter themselves from the storm? He elegantly shows\nthat the number of those that are saved in the world is exceeding small,\nand that the gate of life is narrow. The multitude perished in Noah's\nflood, and only eight escaped in the ark. How foolish would it have been\nto rely carelessly on safety in such danger! Yet here the case is far\nmore dreadful, everlasting fire being the portion of those that are\nlost. Yet in the world how few resist the torrent, and are not carried\ndown with the crowd, sliding into anger, detraction, rash judgment,\ncovetousness, or some other sin. Almost all, as if it were by common\nconspiracy, throw themselves into the gulf, where the multitude of\ncompanions will be no comfort. Is it not, then, a part of wisdom to fly\nfrom these dangers, in order to secure our only affair in the best\nmanner possible?\n\nWhereas parents sometimes opposed the vocation of their children to a\nmonastic state, in his second book he addresses himself to a Pagan\nfather, who grieved to see his son and heir engaged in that profession.\nHe tells him he has the greatest reason to rejoice; proving from\nSocrates, and other heathen philosophers, that his son is more happy in\nvoluntary poverty and contempt of the world, than he could have been in\nthe possession of empires: that he is richer than his father, whom the\nloss of one bag of his treasures would afflict, whereas the monk, who\npossessed only a single cloak, could see without concern even that\nstolen, and would even rejoice though condemned to banishment or death.\nHe is greater than emperors, more happy than the world, out of the reach\nof its malice or evil, whom no one could hurt if he desired it. A father\nwho loves his son ought more to rejoice at his so great happiness than\nif he had seen him a thousand times king of the whole earth, and his\nlife and kingdom secured to him for ten thousand years. What treasures\nwould not have been well employed to purchase for him such a soul as his\nwas rendered by virtue, could this blessing have been procured for\nmoney? He displays the falsehood of worldly pleasure; the inconstancy,\nanxiety, trouble, grief, and bitterness of all its enjoyments, and says\nthat no king can give so sensible a joy as the very sight of a virtuous\nman inspires. As he speaks to a Pagan, he makes a comparison between\nPlato and Dionysius the tyrant; then mentions an acquaintance of his\nown. This was a holy monk, whom his Pagan father, who was a rich\nnobleman, incensed at his choice of that state, disinherited; but was at\nlength so overcome by the virtue of this son, that he preferred him to\nall his other children, who were accomplished noblemen in the world,\noften saying that none of them was worthy to be his slave; and he\nhonored and respected him as if he had been his own father. In the third\nbook, St. Chrysostom directs his discourse to a Christian father, whom\nhe threatens with the judgment of Hell, if he withdrew his children from\nthis state of perfection, in which they would have become suns in\nheaven, whereas, if they were saved in the world, their glory would\nprobably be only that of stars. He inveighs against parents, who, by\ntheir discourse and example, instil into their children a spirit of\nvanity, and sow in their tender minds the seeds of covetousness, and all\nthose sins which overrun the world. He compares monks to angels, in\ntheir uninterrupted joy and attention to God; and observes that men in\nthe world are bound to observe the same divine law with the monks, but\ncannot so easily acquit themselves of this obligation, as he that is\nhampered with cords cannot run so well as he that is loose and at\nliberty. He exhorts parents to breed up their children for some years in\nmonasteries, and to omit nothing in forming them to perfect virtue. In\nhis elegant short treatise, entitled A Comparison between a King and a\nMonk, t. 1, p. 116, he beautifully shows that a pious monk is\nincomparably more honorable, more glorious, and more happy than the\ngreatest monarch, by enjoying the favor of heaven, and possessing God;\nby the empire over himself and his own passions, by which he is king in\nhis own breast, exercising the most glorious command; by the sweetness\nand riches of divine grace; by the kingdom of God established in his\nsoul; by prayer, by which all things are in his power; by his universal\nbenevolence and beneficence to others, procuring to every one all\nspiritual advantages as far as lies in him; by the comfort which he\nfinds in death which is terrible {256} to kings, but by which he is\ntranslated to an immortal crown, &c. This book is much esteemed by\nMontfaucon and the devout Blosius.\n\nSt. Chrysostom, in his treatise on Virginity, t. 1, p. 268, says this\nvirtue is a privilege peculiar to the true church, not to be found, at\nleast pure, among heretics: he proves against the Manichees, that\nmarriage is good: yet says that virginity as far excels it as angels\nmen, but that all its excellency is derived from the consecration of a\nsoul to God, and her attention to please him, without which this state\navails nothing.\n\nAfter he was ordained deacon at Antioch, he composed his book To a Young\nWidow, (t. 1, p. 337,) a lady who had lost her husband Tarasius,\ncandidate for the prefectship of the city. He draws motives to comfort\nher from the spiritual advantages of holy widowhood, and the happiness\nto which her husband was called. His second book To the Widow, (t. 1, p.\n349,) is a dissuasive from second marriages, when they are contracted\nupon worldly motives.\n\nHis six incomparable books on the Priesthood, he composed to excuse\nhimself to his friend Basil, who complained that he had been betrayed by\nhim into the episcopal charge; for Chrysostom persuaded him they had\ntime yet to conceal themselves; yet secretly absconded himself and left\nthe other to be chosen. Basil, when he met him afterwards, was not able\nto speak for some time but by a flood of tears; and at length broke\nthrough them only to give vent to his grief in bitter complaints against\nthe treachery of his friend. This work is wrote in a dialogue between\nthe two friends. St. Chrysostom, in the first book, alleges (t. 1, p.\n362) that he could not deprive the church of a pastor so well qualified\nto serve it as Basil was; nor undertake himself a charge for which he\nhad not the essential talents, and in which he should involve others and\nhimself in ruin. In the second book he justifies his own action in not\nhindering the promotion of his friend to the episcopacy, by observing\nthat to undertake the charge of souls is the greatest proof we can give\nof our love for Christ, which He declared by putting the question thrice\nto St. Peter whether he loved him, before he committed to him the care\nof his flock. John xxi. 15. If we think it an argument of our love for a\nfriend to take care of his servants or cattle, much more will God\nrecompense faithful pastors, who feed those dear souls to save which God\ndied. The pastoral charge is certainly the first of all others in merit\nand dignity. The saint therefore thinks he should have prevaricated if\nhe had deprived the church of a minister capable of serving it. But in\norder to justify his own flight, he adds that the dangers and\ndifficulties of this state are proportioned to its pre-eminence and\nadvantages. For what can be more difficult and dangerous than the charge\nof immortal souls, and of applying to them remedies, which, to take\neffect, depend upon their own co-operation and consent, and must be\nalways proportioned to their dispositions and character, which must be\nsounded, as well as to their wounds? Remissness leaves a wound half\ncured: and a suitable penance often exasperates and makes it wider.\nHerein the greatest sagacity and prudence are necessary: Nor is the\ndifficulty less in bringing back to the church members which are\nseparated from it. Basil replied to this discourse of St. Chrysostom:\n\"You then love not Christ, who fly from the charge of souls.\" St.\nChrysostom answered, that he loved him, and fled from this charge\nbecause he loved him, fearing to offend him by taking upon him such an\noffice, for which he was every way unqualified. Basil retorts with\nwarmth, that his treachery towards himself was unpardonable, because he\nwas acquainted with his friend's incapacity. Chrysostom answers, that he\nshould never have betrayed him into that dignity, if he had not known\nhis charity and other qualifications. In order to show that he had\nreason to shun that charge, he in his third book sets forth the\nexcellence and obligations of that dignity; for it is not earthly, but\naltogether heavenly, and its ministry would do honor to the angels; and\na pastor ought to look upon himself as placed among the heavenly\nspirits, and under an obligation of being no less pure and holy. This he\nshows, first, from the tremendous sacrifice of the altar, which requires\nin the offerer a purity truly becoming heaven, and even far surpassing\nthe sanctity which was required in so terrible a manner of priests in\nthe Old Law, a mere shadow of ours. \"For,\" says he, \"when you behold the\nLord himself lying the victim on the altar, and offered, and the priest\nattending, and praying over the sacrifice, purpled with his precious\nblood, do you seem to remain among men and on earth, or not rather to be\ntranslated into heaven? O wonderful prodigy! O excess of the divine\nmercy! He who is seated above at the right hand of the Father, is in\nthat hour held by all in their hands, and gives himself to be touched\nand received. Figure to yourself Elias before the altar, praying alone,\nthe multitude standing around him in silence, and trembling, and the\nfire falling from heaven and consuming the sacrifice. What is now done\nis far more extraordinary, more awful, and more astonishing. The priest\nis here standing, and calls down from heaven, not fire, but the Holy\nGhost: he prays a long time, not that a flame may be kindled, but that\ngrace may touch the sacrifice, and that the hearts of all who partake of\nit may be purged by the same.\" c. 5, p. 385. (See the learned prelate\nGiacomelli's Note on St. Chrysostom's doctrine on the real presence of\nthe body of Christ in the Eucharist, and on the sacrifice of the altar,\nin hunc librum, c. 4, p. 340.) Secondly, he mentions the eminent\nprerogative of binding and loosing, not bodies, but souls, with which\nthe priesthood of the New Law is {257} honored: a power reaching the\nheavens, where God confirms the sentence pronounced by priests below: a\npower never given to angels, yet granted to men. John xx. 22. All power\nwas given by the Father to the Son, who again transferred it on men. It\nis esteemed a great authority if an emperor confers on a private person\npower to imprison others or to set them at liberty. How great then is\nthe authority with which God honors the priesthood. The priests of the\nOld Law declared lepers healed; those of the New really cleanse and heal\nour souls. They are our spiritual parents, by whom we are reborn to\neternal life; they regenerate us by baptism, again remit our sins by\nextreme unction, (James v. 14,) and by their prayers appease God whom we\nhave offended. From all which he infers that it is arrogance and\npresumption to seek such a dignity, which made St. Paul himself tremble\n(1 Cor. xi. 3, &c.) If the people in a mad phrensy should make an\nignorant cobble general of their army, every one would commend such a\nwretch if he fled and hid himself that he might not be instrumental in\nhis own and his country's ruin. \"If any one,\" says he, \"should appoint\nme pilot, and order me to steer a large vessel in the dangerous Egaen or\nTyrrhenian sea, I should be alarmed and struck with fear, and rather fly\nthan drown both myself and crew.\" The saint proceeds to mention the\nprincipal temptations to which a pastor of souls is himself exposed, and\nthe storms by which he is assailed; as vain-glory, for instance, a more\ndreadful monster than the sirens of the poets, which passengers, by\nstanding on their guard, could sail by and escape. \"This rock,\" says he,\n\"is so troublesome to me even now, when no necessity drives me upon it,\nthat I do not quite escape being hurt by it. But if any one had placed\nme on so high a pinnacle, it would have been as if, having tied my hands\nbehind my back, he had exposed me to wild beasts to be torn in pieces.\"\nHe adds the danger of human respect, fear of the great ones, contempt or\nneglect of the poor; observing that none can encounter such dangers, but\nsuch as are perfect in virtue, disinterested, watchful over themselves,\ninured to mortification by great abstinence, resting on hard beds, and\nassiduous labor: lastly, what is most rare, dead to themselves by\nmeekness, sweetness, and charity, which no injuries or reproaches, no\ningratitude, no perverseness, or malice, can ever weary or overcome: for\na perfect victory over anger is a most essential part of the character\nof a good pastor, without which all his virtues will be tarnished, and\nhe will reap no fruit of his labors. He makes this dreadful remark, that\nwithin the circle of his own acquaintance he had known many who in\nsolitude led lives pleasing to God, but being advanced to the\npriesthood, lost both themselves and others. If no Christian can call to\nmind, without trembling, the dreadful account which he is to give at the\ntribunal of Christ for his own sins, how must he tremble at this\nthought, who sees himself charged with the sins and souls of others?\nHeb. xiii. 17. In the fourth book he proves that one unfit for the\npastoral charge is not excused because it is imposed on him by others,\nas one unacquainted with the rules of architecture can by no means\nundertake to build, nor one to practise medicine who is a stranger to\nthat profession. He speaks of the crime of those who choose unworthy\npastors, and of the learning necessary for this charge, especially in\napplying suitable remedies to every spiritual disorder, in confuting\nPagans, Jews, and heretics, and in instructing the faithful. A talent\nfor preaching is an indispensable qualification. In the fifth book he\nprescribes the manner in which a preacher ought to announce the word of\nGod, with what indefatigable pains, and with what purity of intention,\ndesiring only to please God and plant his love in all hearts, and\ndespising the applause of men, insensible both to their praise and\ncensures. His discourse must be set off by piety, natural eloquence,\nplain simplicity, and dignity, that all may hear the divine word\nwillingly, and with respect and pleasure, so as to wish at the end of\nthe sermon that it were longer. The extreme danger of vain-glory so much\nalarmed him, that in the close of this book he again speaks against that\nvice, and says, that he who entirely subdued this furious wild beast,\nand cut off its numberless heads, enjoys a great interior calm, with\ninfinite spiritual advantages; and that every one is bound to stand\nalways armed against its assaults. In the sixth book, he shows that\npriests will be punished for the sins of others. It is no excuse for a\nwatchman to say, _I heard not the trumpet: I saw not the enemy\napproach_, (Ezech. xxxiii. 3,) for he is appointed sentinel to watch and\nannounce the danger to others. If a single soul perishes through his\nneglect, this will condemn him at the last day. In how great\nwatchfulness must he live not to be infected with the contagion of the\nworld, with which he is obliged to converse! With what zeal, vigilance,\nand fervor is he bound to acquit himself of all his duties and\nfunctions! For priests are ambassadors of heaven, sent not to one city,\nbut to the whole earth, with a strict charge never to cease scattering\nthe divine seed, preaching and exhorting with so great diligence, that\nno secret sinner may be able to escape them. They are moreover appointed\nby God mediators to intercede with him for the sins both of the living\nand the dead; to offer the tremendous sacrifice, and hold the common\nLord of all things in their hands. With what purity, with what sanctity\nought he to be adorned, who exercises so sublime a function? In it\nangels attend the priest, all the choir of heaven joins, and the holy\nplace near the altar is occupied by legions of blessed spirits, in honor\nof Him who is laid upon it. This he confirms by a vision of a holy old\nman, who saw a multitude of bright spirits surrounding the altar,\nprofoundly bowing their heads. \"Another,\" says the {258} saint, \"assured\nme, that he had both seen himself, and heard from others, that the souls\nof those who receive the holy mysteries before death, depart out of\ntheir bodies attended by angels as troops of heavenly guards.\" Lastly,\nhe shows that sins are more easily committed, and are more grievous, in\nthe episcopal ministry than in holy retirement. Basil, at this\ndiscourse, almost swooned away in the excess of grief and fear with\nwhich he was seized, till after some time, recovering himself, he said\nin the bitterness of his heart, What has the church of God committed to\nhave deserved so dreadful a calamity, that the pastoral charge should be\nintrusted to the most unworthy of men? For he had before his eyes on one\nside the glory, the sanctity, the spiritual beauty and wisdom of the\nsacred spouse of Christ; and on the other, the sins and miseries of his\nown soul; and this consideration drew from him a flood of tears.\nChrysostom said, that as to himself, upon the first news of his danger\nhe had swooned away, and only returned to himself to vent his grief by\nabundance of tears; in which agony he passed all that time. He adds: \"I\nwill now discover to you the deplorable state of my mind at that time,\nthat out of mere compassion you may forgive me what I have done; and I\nwish I could show you my wretched heart itself.--But all my alarms are\nnow converted into joy.\" Basil replied: \"But I am now plunged in bitter\nsorrow and tears: and what protection can I seek? If you have still any\nbowels of tenderness and compassion for my soul, any consolation in\nChrist, I conjure you never to forsake me in the dangers in which you\nhave engaged me.\" St. Chrysostom answered, smiling, \"In what can I serve\nyou in your exalted station? However, when a respite from your functions\naffords you any leisure, I will wait upon you, and will never be wanting\nin any thing in my power.\" Basil at this arose weeping. St. John,\nembracing him and kissing his head, said, \"Be of good courage, trusting\nin Christ, who has called you to his holy ministry.\"\n\nIn the first tome of his works, p. 228, we have a book which he composed\nwhen he was first made bishop of Constantinople, in 397, Against those\nwho have sub-introduced Women; that is, against such of the clergy as\nkept deaconesses, or spiritual sisters, under the same roof to take care\nof their household. Saint Chrysostom condemns this custom as criminal in\nitself, both because dangerous, and because scandalous to others.\nWhatever pretext such persons allege of imaginary necessities, and of\ntheir security and precautions against the danger, he shows that there\nis always danger of their finding a lurking pleasure in such company.\nThough they perceive not any secret passion, he will not believe them\nexempt; for men are often the greatest strangers to their own hearts. He\nurges that this conduct is at least criminal, because it is an occasion\nand incentive of evil. Job, so holy a man, so dead to himself by long\nhabits of mortification, durst not cast his eyes upon a virgin. St.\nPaul, not content with his continual fatigues and sufferings, added\nvoluntary chastisements of his flesh to subdue it. What austerities do\nanchorets practise to tame their bodies, by perpetual fasts, watching,\nand sackcloth! yet never suffer even visits of persons of the other sex.\nIronically inveighing against the presumption of such as had not the\nlike saving apprehension of danger, he tells them; \"I must indeed call\nthese strong men happy, who have nothing to fear from such a danger, and\nI could wish myself to be endowed with equal strength,\" (t. 1, p. 231.)\nBut he tells them this is as impossible as for a man to carry fire in\nhis bosom without being burnt. \"You bid me,\" says he, \"believe that\nthough I see you converse with a virgin, this is a work of piety, not\npassion. O wonderful man! this may be said of those who live not with\nmen, but among stones,\" (t. 1, p. 235.) Our zealous pastor shows that\nthe capital point in this warfare is, not to awake our domestic enemy,\nbut by watchfulness to shun whatever can rouse him: and he adds, that\nthough a man were invulnerable, he ought not to scandalize the weak, and\nby his example, draw them into a like snare. The stronger a person is,\nthe more easy must it be to him not to give scandal. To the pretext of\nnecessity, he answers, that this is mere madness, for a clergyman ought\nnot to be so nice, either in his furniture or table. The saint addressed\na like book to women, under this title: That regular (or religious)\nWomen ought not to live in the same house with Men, (t. 1, p. 248.)\nBesides condemning this abuse and scandal, he zealously inveighs against\nthe airy, light dress of many ladies, and pathetically invites all\nservants of God to mingle floods of tears with his in the bitter anguish\nof his soul, for a scandal by which snares are laid for others, souls\nmurdered, (though undesignedly,) and sin against the divine Majesty\npropagated.\n\nSt. Chrysostom seems to have been only deacon when he compiled his book\nOn St. Babylas, against the Gentiles; in which he speaks of the miracles\nwrought at his relics, as of facts to which he and his auditors had been\neye-witnesses, (t. 2, p. 530.) Montfaucon refers to the same time his\nSynopsis of the Old Testament: in which he places in the canon the\ndeutero-canonical books of Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, Esther, Toby, and\nJudith: and out of the seven canonical epistles counts only three, viz:\nthat of St. James, one of St. Peter, and one of St. John, (no others\nbeing received by the Syrians, as appears from Cosmas Indicopleustes,)\nt. 6, p. 308.\n\nSt Chrysostom was ordained priest by the patriarch Flavian, in 386, and\nappointed his ordinary preacher. On this occasion the saint made a\nsermon, (t. 1, p. 436,) in which he expresses his dread and surprise at\nhis promotion, earnestly begs the prayers of the people, {259} and says\nhe desires to entertain them on the praises of God, but was deterred by\nthe checks of his conscience, and remorse for his sins: for the royal\nprophet, who invites all creatures, even dragons and serpents, to sound\nforth the praises of God, passes by sinners as unworthy to be allowed a\nplace in that sacred choir: they are ignominiously ejected, as a\nmusician cuts off a string that is not tunable with the rest.\n\nThe holy doctor, grieving for the spiritual blindness of many who were\nseduced by heresy, and considering their dangers as most grievous, and\ntheir miseries most pressing, preached five most eloquent sermons on the\nIncomprehensible Nature of God, against the Anomaeans. He had taken\nnotice that these heretics, who were very numerous in Syria, resorted\nwillingly to his sermons with the Catholics, which afforded him an\nopportunity of more easily reclaiming them. The Anomaeans were the\nfollowers of Eunomius, who, to the errors of the rankest Arianism, added\na peculiar blasphemy, asserting that both the blessed in heaven, and\nalso men in this mortal life, not only know God, but also comprehend and\nfathom the divine nature as clearly as we know our own, and even as\nperfectly as God comprehends himself. This fanaticism and impiety St.\nChrysostom confutes in these five homilies, demonstrating, from the\ninfinitude of the divine attributes, and from holy scriptures, that God\nis essentially incomprehensible to the highest angels. He strongly\nrecommends to Catholics a modest and mild behavior towards heretics; for\nnothing so powerfully gains others as meekness and tender charity; this\nheals all wounds, whereas harshness exasperates and alienates the mind.\n(Hom. 2, p. 461.) His method is to close every discourse with some\npathetic moral exhortation. In his third homily, On the\nIncomprehensible, he complains bitterly that many who heard his sermon\nwith patience, left the church when it was at an end, without attending\nthe celebration of the divine mysteries. He shows the efficacy of public\nprayer to be far greater than that of private, and a far more glorious\nhomage to be paid by it to God: by this St. Peter was delivered from his\nchains; to it the apostles ascribed the wonderful success of their\npreaching. He mentions, that ten years ago, when a magistrate condemned\nfor high treason was led to execution with a halter about his neck, the\ncitizens ran in a body to the hippodrome to beg a reprieve; and the\nemperor, who was not able to reject the request of the whole city,\nreadily granted the criminal a full pardon. Much more easily will the\nFather of mercy suffer himself to be overcome by the concord of many in\nprayer, and show mercy to sinners. Not only men join the tremendous\nvoice during the sacred mysteries, but the angels and archangels present\nto the Father of all things the body of the Lord, entreating him to have\nmercy on them for whom he shed his blood, and sacrificed this very body.\n\"By your acclamations you testify your approbation of what is said; but\nby your compliance show that your applause is sincere. This is the only\napplause that can give me pleasure or joy,\" &c., (p. 471.) In the\nfollowing sermon (Hom. 4, p. 477) he commends their compliance by all\nassisting to the end of the public office, but severely finds fault that\nsome conversed together in the church, and in that awful hour when the\ndeacon cried out, \"Let us stand attentive.\" He bids them call to mind\nthat they are then raised above created things, placed before the throne\nof God, and associated with the seraphims and cherubims in sounding\nforth his praises, (p. 477.) In the fifth homily he again makes fervent\nand humble prayer, by which all things are obtained and effected, the\nsubject of his moral exhortation. Public prayer is a duty which he\nfrequently inculcates as a most essential obligation, a homage most\nhonorable to God, and a most powerful means of grace to ourselves and\nall mankind. (See Hom. de Obscur. Prophet, t. 6, p. 187, &c.) We have\nseen other homilies of this father against the Anomaeans, in which he\nproves the consubstantiality of God the Son; subjoining exhortations to\nprayer, humility, good works, &c. His sermon Upon not Anathematizing,\n(t. 1, p. 691,) was the fruit of his pious zeal to induce the Meletians\nand Paulinians to concord, and prevent private persons from\nanathematizing or branding others with the crime of heresy or schism;\ncensures being reserved to the chief pastors, who are very sparing in\nusing them. The spirit of Christ is meekness, and compassion and\ntenderness the means to gain souls. By this discourse he healed the\nsores left in the church of Antioch by the late schism. The Jews and the\nGentiles shared in the fruits of his zeal and charity. Eight sermons\nwhich he preached against the Jews, whom he proves to have been cast off\nby God, and their ceremonial rites abolished, have reached us, and many\nothers are lost. In his book Against the Jews and Gentiles, he\ndemonstrates the Christian religion from the propagation of the gospel,\nthe martyrs, prophecies, and the triumph of the cross: this ensign now\nadorns the crowns of emperors, is carried by every one on his forehead,\nand placed everywhere with honor, in houses, market-places, deserts,\nhighways, mountains, hills, woods, ships, beds, clothes, arms, vessels,\njewels, and pictures; on the bodies of beasts when sick, on energumens,\n&c. We are all more adorned with it than with crowns and a thousand\nprecious stones; all eagerly visit the wood on which the sacred body was\ncrucified; men and women have small particles of it set in gold, which\nthey hang about their necks. On the 20th of December, 386, our saint\npronounced his discourse on St. Philogonius, the twenty-fast bishop of\nAntioch. who had zealously opposed the rising heresy of Arius, and died\non this day in 322. St. Chrysostom left the subject of the panegyric to\nhis bishop Flavian, who {260} was to speak after him, and entertained\nhis people with an exhortation to the holy communion on Christmas-day,\nfive days after. He tells them the Magi had the happiness only of\nadoring Christ, but that they who should approach him with a pure\nconscience, would receive him and carry him with them; that he whose\nlife is holy and free from crimes, may communicate every day; but he who\nis guilty in the sight of God, not even on the greatest festival.\nNevertheless, the sinner ought to prepare himself, by a sincere\nconversion and by good works, during the interval of five days, and then\ncommunicate. The Ninevites appeased the divine vengeance in three days\nby the fervor of their penance.\n\nIn his homily On the Calends, or First Day of the Year, (t. 1, p. 697,)\nhe inveighs with great zeal against rioting and revels usual in that\nseason, and strongly exhorts all to spend that day in works of piety,\nand in consecrating the year to God. As builders raise a wall by a ruler\nor plummet, that no unevenness may spoil their work, so must we make the\nsincere intention of the divine glory our rule in our prayers, fasts,\neating, drinking, buying, selling, silence, and discourse. This must be\nour great staff, our arms, our rampart, our immense treasure: wherever\nwe are, and whatever we say or do, we must bear this motto always\nwritten on our heart: \"To the glory of God;\" ever glorifying God, not\nbarely in words, but by all our actions in the sincere affections of our\nhearts, that we may receive glory from him who says: \"Those who glorify\nme, I will crown with glory,\" (p. 697.)\n\nIn seven discourses, On Lazarus and the Rich Man, he shows that a life\nof sensuality and pleasures is condemned by Christ; laments that any\nChristian should abandon himself to debauchery, and declares he will\nnever cease to pursue sinners by his exhortations, as Christ did Judas,\nto the last moment: if any remain obstinately incorrigible, he shall\nesteem it a great happiness if he reclaim but one soul, or even prevent\nbut one sin; at least that he can never see God offended and remain\nsilent. (Hom. 1.) He sets off the advantages of afflictions, which are\noccasions of all virtue, and even in the reprobate, at least abate the\nnumber of their sins, and the torments of another life. In the seventh\nhomily, he severely condemns the diversions of the circus, and expresses\nthe most tender grief that any Christian should so far forget God as to\nfrequent them. He paternally exhorts all such to repentance; proves\nafflictions and the cross to be the portion of the just in this life,\nand says, \"That they whom God does not visit with tribulations, ought at\nleast to afflict themselves by the labors of penance, the only path\nwhich can conduct us with Lazarus to God,\" (p. 736.)\n\nIn the second tome, we have the holy doctor's twenty-one sermons to the\npeople of Antioch, or, On the Statues; the following discourses, to the\nnumber of sixty, in the old editions not being genuine, but patched up\nby modern Greeks, chiefly out of several works of this father. The great\nsedition happened at Antioch on the 26th of February, 387, just after\nthe saint had preached the first of the sermons, in which he spoke\nagainst drunkenness and blasphemy, pressing all persons to expel their\ncompany any one who should blaspheme. After the sedition, he was silent,\nin the general grief and consternation, for seven days: then made his\nsecond sermon, in which he tells the people that their confusion and\nremorse is itself a greater punishment than it was in the power of the\nemperor to inflict; he exhorts them to alms-deeds, and to hope in the\nmercy of Christ, who, leaving the earth, left us his own flesh, which\nyet he carried with him to heaven, and that blood which he spilt for us,\nhe again imparted to us. After this, what will he refuse to do for our\nsalvation? The third sermon being made in the beginning of Lent, the\npreacher inculcates the obligation of fasting: from his words it is\nclear that Christians then abstained from wine and fish no less than\nfrom fowls and all flesh. He insists chiefly on the moral fast of the\nwill from all sin, and of all the senses by self-denials in each of\nthem. Detraction he singles out as the most common sin, and exhorts us\nto abhor, with the royal prophet, every one who secretly detracts\nanother; to say to such, \"If you have any thing to say to the advantage\nof another, I will hear you with pleasure; but if you have only ill to\ntell me, this is what I cannot listen to.\" If detracters were thoroughly\npersuaded that by their evil speeches they rendered themselves more\nodious than those of whom they speak ill, they would be effectually\ncured of this pestilential habit. The saint draws an inference from what\nthe people then saw before their eyes, and represented to them that if\nemperors punish with extreme rigor those who injure their statues, with\nwhat severity will God revenge the injury done by the detracter to his\nliving image, and that offered by the blasphemer to his own adorable\nname. In the fourth homily, he speaks on the usefulness of afflictions,\nwhich withdraw men from many dangers of sin, and make them earnestly\nseek God. In the fifth, he continues the same subject, and shows that\nthey ought not to fear death, if they prepare themselves for it by\nsincere penance. Their conversion he would have them begin by correcting\nthe habit of swearing, which had taken deep root among many of them.\nThis victory, he says, would be easy if every one who had contracted\nsuch a habit would enjoin himself some penance for every oath which\nshould escape him, as the loss of a meal. \"Hunger and thirst,\" says the\nsaint, \"will put you in mind always to watch over yourself, and you will\nstand in need of no other exhortation.\" In the sixth, he shows that\ndeath is desirable to a Christian, who, by a penitential life, in\nimitation of the holy anchorets, is dead to the world and himself. {261}\nIn the fourteenth, he describes the dreadful consternation with which\nthe whole city was filled at the sight of new troops, and of a tribunal\nerected; and, to awake sinners to a sincere repentance, he sets before\ntheir eyes the terrors of the last judgment. In the twentieth, he\nexhorts them to redouble their fervor in preparing their souls for the\nPaschal communion, the nearer that time approached; especially by\nforgiving all injuries. In the twenty-first, which was spoken on\nEaster-day, after the return of the patriarch, he recites great part of\nFlavian's speech, and the emperor's gracious answer, whose clemency he\nelegantly extols, with a pathetic exhortation to the people never to\nforget the divine mercy. From the mention he makes of Flavian's speech,\n(Hom. 3, p. 35,) it appears that our saint had concerted it with him. He\npreached every day this Lent; but only these twenty-one have reached us:\nand only two catechetical discourses, out of many others which he made\nabout Easter that year to the catechumens. In the first he censures\nthose who defer baptism, and explains the names and fruits of that great\nsacrament; in the second, he exhorts them always to bear in mind, and to\nrepeat to themselves, on every occasion, those solemn words, \"I renounce\nthee, Satan;\" and to make it the study of their whole lives to be ever\nfaithful to this most sacred engagement. He next puts them in mind, that\nthey ought to pray without intermission, and always to have God before\ntheir eyes, at work, in the shop, abroad, sitting, or whatever else they\nwere doing.\n\nAbout the year 392, Diodorus, bishop of Tarsus, formerly St.\nChrysostom's master, happened to preach at Antioch, and in his sermon\nhighly commended our saint, whom he called John the Baptist, the voice\nof the church, and the rod of Moses. The people, by loud acclamations,\ntestified how agreeable these encomiums of their preacher were to them:\nonly St. Chrysostom heard them with grief and confusion, and ascribed\nthem to the fondness of a good master, and the charity of the people.\nAfterwards, ascending the pulpit, he said that every word of the\ndiscourse had struck him to the heart, and made him sigh within himself:\nfor praises sting the conscience no less than sins, when a soul is\nconscious to herself how far she is from what is said of her: they only\nset before her eyes the last day, in which, to her greater confusion,\nall things will appear naked and as they are; for we shall not be judged\nby the masks which are put on us by other men. T. 3, F. 747.\n\nIn three sermons On the Devil, he shows that the divine mercy has\nrestored us more by grace in our redemption, than the devil has robbed\nus of by the sin of Adam; and that the punishment itself of that sin\nserved to set forth the excess of the divine mercy and goodness, (Hom.\n1, de Diabolo, t. 2, p. 246;) that temptations and the devil's malice\nare occasions of great advantage, if we make a good use of them: that\ntemporal calamities are sent by God: we fall into sin only by our own\nmalice: the devil has no power against us but by the divine permission,\nand all his efforts are weak, unless by our sloth we give him power over\nus. He draws a parallel between Adam sinning in paradise by his free\nwill, and Job victorious by patience on his dunghill under his\nsufferings, of which he gives a lively description, showing them to have\nbeen far more grievous than all the calamities under which we so easily\nlose our patience and crown.\n\nIn nine homilies On Penance, he extols its efficacy, and invites all\nsinners to repentance. Hom. 6, p. 316, he vehemently condemns stage\nentertainments, which he calls the school of pleasure, the seat of\npestilence, and the furnace of Babylon. Hom. 3, he calls alms the queen\nof virtues, and charity and compassion the key of the divine mercy. Hom.\n9, p. 347, he presses all to assist assiduously at the divine mysteries,\nbut with attention, awe, and trembling.\n\nIn two homilies On the Treason of Judas, (p. 376,) he recommends\nmeekness towards persecutors, and the pardon of injuries, by which we\nreap from them, without trouble of expense, the most precious of all\nadvantages, grace and the pardon of our sins. Speaking on the holy\neucharist, he says, that Christ gives us in it the same body which he\ndelivered to death for us, and that he refused not to present to Judas\nthe very blood which that traitor sold. (Hom. 1, de proditione Judae, t.\n2, p. 383.) He repeats the same thing, (Hom. 2, ib. p. 393.) He\nobserves, that as God, by his word, (Gen. i. 28,) propagates and\nmultiplies all things in nature to the end of the world, so it is not\nthe priest, but Christ, by the words pronounced by the priest, and by\nvirtue of those which he spoke at his last supper, saying, \"This is my\nbody,\" who changes the offering (or bread and wine) in every church from\nthat to this time, and consummates the sacrifice till his coming. (Hom.\n1, ib. p. 383.)\n\nIn two homilies, On the Cross, and on the Good Thief, preached on Good\nFriday, he makes many excellent reflections on the conversion of the\nlatter, and on the precept of our forgiving injuries, by which we become\ntrue imitators of Christ, and inherit the privileges of his disciples.\nThe cross he commends as the instrument of Christ's glorious triumph,\nand of our happiness.\n\nIn a homily On the Resurrection of the Dead, he proves this article to\nbe the foundation, both of our faith, and of our morals. In that On the\nResurrection of our Lord, he tells his flock, that on that day (which\nwas the solemnity of Easter) they were no longer obliged to drink only\nwater, to abstain from the bath, to live on herbs and pulse, and to fast\nas in Lent; but that they were bound to shun intemperance: he speaks\nagainst drunkenness, {262} and says the poor have equal reason for joy\nand thanksgiving with the rich on that solemnity, the advantages which\nit brings consisting in spiritual graces, not in feasting or pomp. In\nthe first homily, On Whitsunday, he proves, that though the descent of\nthe Holy Ghost is no longer manifested by miracles, since the faith had\nbeen sufficiently established by them, it was not less real, though made\nin an invisible manner in our souls, by his grace and peace. In the\nsecond, on the same feast, he calls Whitsunday the accomplishment of all\nthe mysteries of our faith; and teaches that the Holy Ghost delayed his\ndescent, that he might not come upon the apostles in vain, or without\nhaving been long and earnestly desired; and that he manifested his\ndescent by the emblem of tongues of fire, to represent that he consumes\nlike fire the thorns of our souls, and that his principal gift is\ncharity. His seven homilies On St. Paul, are standing proofs of his\nsingular veneration for that great apostle, and admiration of his divine\nvirtues. In the third, speaking of that apostle's ardent love of God,\nwhich made ignominies and torments for his sake a triumph, and a subject\nof joy and pleasure, he seems to surpass himself, (p. 481.) In the\nsixth, he speaks of miracles wrought at the relics of St. Babylas at\nDaphne, and says, that the devil trembled at the name of Christ, and\nfled whenever it was pronounced. In many other homilies he speaks in\nraptures on the admirable virtues of St. Paul, whose spirit he had\nimbibed and studied in his writings and example. The miracles of St.\nBabylas are the subject of a panegyric, which St. Chrysostom has left us\non that holy martyr, (ib. p. 531.) We have his panegyrics or homilies on\nSt. Meletius, St. Lucian, SS. Juventinus and Maximin, St. Pelagia, St.\nIgnatius, St. Eustathius, St. Romanus, the Maccabees, SS. Bernice,\nProsodoche, and Domnina, St. Drosis, St. Phocas, &c., in which he\nfrequently and strongly recommends the most devout veneration for their\nrelics. See that on St. Ignatius, p. 593, &c. In homily 1, On the\nMartyrs, (p. 650,) he says that the very sight of their relics more\nstrongly moves to virtue than the most pathetic sermons, and that their\nshrines are more precious than the richest earthly treasures, and that\nthe advantages which these relics afford, are not diminished by their\ndivision, but multiplied. Some being surprised that in this discourse he\nhad compared the crime of an unworthy communion to that of the Jews, who\ncrucified Christ, he made another under this title, That we are not to\npreach to please Men; in which he repeats and enforces the same\ncomparison; but adds a serious exhortation to frequent communion, after\na sincere repentance, and the distinct confession of every sin; \"For it\nis not enough to say, I am a sinner, but every kind of sin is to be\nexpressed,\" (p, 667.) Though some circumstances aggravate a sacrilegious\ncommunion beyond the crime of Judas and that of the crucifiers of\nChrist; the last was doubtless, as St. Thomas Aquinas shows, far more\nenormous in itself; an injury offered to Christ in his own natural form\ndiffering from an insult which he receives hid under sacramental veils,\nthough it is hard to imagine that any crime into which a Christian can\nfall since the death of Christ, can be more enormous than an unworthy\ncommunion. St. Chrysostom, in his second sermon On the Martyrs, (p.\n668,) bids the faithful remain a long time in prayer at their tombs, and\ndevoutly kiss their shrines, which abound with blessings. In that On the\nMartyrs of Egypt, (p. 699,) he calls their relics dispersed in different\nplaces, \"the ramparts of the cities,\" &c. In that On the Earthquake, he\nexpresses a deep and tender concern for the public calamity, but\nrejoices at the spiritual advancement of the people, saying, that this\nscourge had wrought such a change in them, that they seemed to be become\nangels. Two books On Prayer, bear the name of St. Chrysostom: if they\nare not mentioned by the ancients among his works, that most important\nsubject is treated in them in a manner not unworthy his pen. This book\nis made use of in many pious schools as a Greek classic, with another On\nthe Education of Children, full of excellent maxims, ascribed to our\nsaint; but unjustly, for it is a compilation, made without much method,\nout of several of his sermons and other works.\n\nThe first part of the third tome, in the Benedictin edition, presents us\nthirty-four elegant sermons of this saint on divers texts of holy\nscripture, and on various Christian virtues and duties. Those on\nforgiving injuries, humility, alms, prayer, widowhood, and three on\nmarriage, particularly deserve attention. That On Alms he took occasion\nto preach from the extreme miseries under which he saw the beggars\ngroan, lying abandoned in the streets as he passed through them coming\nto the church; whence it is inferred by Tillemont and others, that it\nwas spoken extempore, or without preparation. He says, that water does\nnot so easily wash away the spots of our clothes, as alms blot out the\nstains of our souls. On Marriage, he proves that state to be holy, and\nwill not have it dishonored by profane pomps, which no custom can\nauthorize; as by them God is offended. Christ is to be invited to give\nthe nuptial blessing in the persons of the priests, and what many throw\naway on musicians, would be a grateful sacrifice to God if bestowed on\nthe poor. Every one ought to be ambitious to set the example of so\nwholesome and holy a custom, which others would imitate. What\nincomparable advantages does a wife bring to a house, when she enters it\nloaded with the blessings of heaven? This is a fortune far beyond all\nthe riches of the world. In the third discourse, he speaks of the\ninviolable precept of mutual tender love which the husband and wife are\nbound constantly to bear each other, and of forgetting one another's\nfaults, as {263} a man in engaging in this state seeks a companion for\nlife, the saint observes that nothing is busier than for him to make it\nan affair of traffic, or a money job. A wife with a moderate fortune\nusually brings more complaisance and submission, and blesses a house\nwith peace, union, and friendship. How many rich men, by marrying great\nfortunes, in seeking to increase their estates, have forfeited the\nrepose of their minds for the rest of their lives. A virtuous wife gives\nevery succor and comfort to a family, by the virtuous education of her\nchildren, by possessing the heart of her husband, and by furnishing\nsupplies for every necessity, and comfort in every distress. Virtue was\nthe only quality and circumstance which Abraham was solicitous about in\nthe choice which he made of a wife for his son. Among the letters of the\nsaint, which, with certain scattered homilies, fill up the latter part\nof this volume, the seventeen addressed to St. Olympias, both by the\nsubjects and style, deserve rather the title of treatises than of\nepistles.\n\nThe fourth tome contains sixty-seven homilies on Genesis, which were\npreached at Antioch during Lent, some year later than 386. Photius takes\nnotice, that in these his style is less correct than in any of his other\nwritings, and as far beneath his comments on the Acts of the Apostles,\nas those fall short of his most eloquent discourses on Isaiah, or on the\nepistles of St. Paul. His parentheses are sometimes so long, that he\nforgets to wind up his discourse and return to his subject: for speaking\nnot only with little or no preparation, but without much attention to a\nregular method, for the instruction of the peoples, he suffered himself\noften to be carried sway with the ardor with which some new important\nthought inspired him. Yet the purity of his language, the liveliness of\nhis images and similes, the perspicuity of his expression, and the\ncopiousness of his invention, never fall: his thoughts and words flow\neverywhere in a beautiful stream, like an impetuous river. He\ninterweaves excellent moral instructions against vain-glory, detraction,\nrash judgment, avarice, and the cold words mine and thine; on prayer,\n&c. His encomiums of Abraham and other patriarchs, are set off by\ndelicate strokes. In the first thirty-two he often explains the\nconditions of the Lent fast. In the year 386, during Lent, at which time\nthe church read the book of Genesis, he explained the beginning thereof\nin eight elegant sermons, t. 4, p. 615. In the first, he congratulates\nwith the people for the great joy and holy eagerness for penance with\nwhich they received the publication of the Lent fast, this being the\nmost favorable season for obtaining the pardon of sins, and reaping the\nmost abundant heavenly blessings and graces; a season in which the\nheavens are in a particular manner open, through the joint prayers,\nfasts, and alms of the whole church. These are usually called sermons on\nGenesis, in order to be distinguished from the foregoing homilies, which\nwere posterior to them in time. Five sermons On Anna, the mother of\nSamuel, (t. 4, p. 6{}9,) were preached at Antioch in 387, after the\nemperor had granted his gracious pardon for the sedition. The saint\ntreats in them on fasting, the honor due to martyrs and their relics, on\npurity, the education of children, the spiritual advantages of poverty,\nand on perpetual earnest prayer, which he recommends to be joined with\nevery ordinary action, and practised at all times, by persons while they\nspun, walked, sat, lay down, &c. Invectives against stage-entertainments\noccur both in those, and in the following three discourses On David, in\nwhich he says many excellent things also on patience, and on forgiving\ninjuries. (T. 4, p. 747.)\n\nThe fifth tome presents us with fifty-eight sermons on the Psalms. He\nexplained the whole Psalter; but the rest of the discourses are lost; a\nmisfortune much to be regretted, these being ranked among the most\nelegant and beautiful of his works. In them notice is taken of several\ndifferences in the Greek translations of Aquila, Symmachus, and\nTheodotion; also in the Hebrew text, though written in Greek letters, as\nin Origen s Hexapla. The critics find the like supply for restoring\nparts of these ancient versions also in the spurious homilies in the\nappendix of this volume, compiled by some other ancient Greek preacher.\nIn this admired work of St. Chrysostom the moral instructions are most\nbeautiful, on prayer, especially that of the morning, meekness,\ncompunction, careful self-examination every evening, fasting, humility,\nalms, &c. In Pa. 43, p. 146, he thus apostrophizes the rich: \"Hear this,\nyou all who are slack in giving alms: hear this, you who, by hoarding up\nyour treasures, lose them yourselves: hear me you, who, by perverting\nthe end of your riches, are no better by them than those who are rich\nonly in a dream; nay, your condition is fair worse,\" &c. He says that\nthe poor, though they seem so weak, have arms more powerful and more\nterrible than the greatest magistrates and princes; for the sighs and\ngroans which they send forth in their distresses, pierce the heavens,\nand draw down vengeance without thinking to demand it, upon the rich,\nupon cities, upon whole nations. In Ps. 11, p. 120, he will have prayer\nto be made effectual by the exercise of all virtues and good works,\nespecially by a pure love of God, hunger after his justice alone, and\ndisengagement of the heart from all love of earthly things. In P. 41, p.\n190, this prayer by aspirations, which may be borrowed from the psalms,\nhe recommends to be practised in all places and times. Ib. He insists,\nthat with David we begin the day by prayer, doing nothing before this\nduty to God be complied with: and that with him we consecrate part of\nthe night to compunction and prayer. In. Ps. 6, he says many excellent\nthings on the remedies we are bound to employ against concupiscence,\nespecially assiduous prayer, shunning {264} all occasions which can\nprove incentives to this enemy or to our senses, and above all dangerous\ncompany; assiduous meditation on death and hell, &c. Ib. God only\nafflicts the just out of the excess of his love for them, and desire to\nunite them closely to himself. In Ps. 114, p. 308, as the Jews obtained\nnot their return from their captivity to Jerusalem but by long and\nearnestly desiring it, so only an ardent and pure desire of the heavenly\nJerusalem can raise us thither; and an attachment to earthly goods and\npleasures links us to our slavery, and chains us down too fast for us\never to rise so high. In Ps. Graduales, p. 328, it was the custom at\nAntioch for all the faithful to recite, every morning, the 140th psalm,\nwhich he desires them carefully to understand, so as to penetrate the\nriches of the excellent sentiments every word contains, in order to\nrepeat it with more dilated affections of the heart. In like manner he\nmentions that the 62d psalm was recited by all every evening. From his\nexposition of Ps. 41, p. 131, it appears that the people answered by\nrepeating the first verse of every psalm, after every verse, as it was\nsung by the clergy.\n\nIn the sixth tome occur his excellent discourses on the seven first\nchapters of Isaiah: then his four homilies on the fall of king Ozias,\n(Isa. vi.,) in which he sets forth the danger of pride, and necessity of\nperseverance and constant watchfulness. (T. 6, p. 94.) After several\nhomilies on certain texts of Jeremy, Daniel, &c., we have his two\nelegant discourses On the Obscurity of the Prophets, in which he shows\nthat the wisdom of Providence is displayed; for too great perspicuity\nwould not have so well answered the various ends of the Old Law. The\nadvantages of public prayer are here strongly set forth; and in the\nsecond the saint declaims against detraction, a vice which brings\nneither profit nor pleasure, yet is most enormous even in those who only\nlisten to it. If he who scandalizes one brother is so grievously\npunished, what will be the chastisement of him who scandalizes so many?\nWe are bound to cover, not to proclaim the faults of others; but it is\nour duty to endeavor to reclaim and save sinners, according to the\nprecept of Christ. The very company of detracters ought to be shunned:\nto correct, or at least set a mark upon such, he wishes, in order that\nthey may be known and avoided, they were publicly branded with the name\nof flies, because, like these insects, they delight to dwell on filth\nand corruption. In the homily On Perfect Charity, he draws a most\namiable portraiture of that virtue in society; and another, in striking\ncolors, of the day of judgment. It is uncertain by what accident the\nimperfect work of St. Matthew was formerly taken by some for a\nperformance of St. Chrysostom. The mistake is notorious; for the author\ndeclares himself an advocate for Arian ism, (Hom. 19, 22, 28, &c.,) and\nfor the re-baptization of heretics. (Hom. 13 and 15.) He seems to have\nwritten about the beginning of the seventh century, and to have been a\nLatin, (not a Greek,) for he follows closely the Latin text.\n\nThe commentary of St. Chrysostom on St. Matthew fills the seventh tome,\nand consists of ninety homilies: the old Latin version, by dividing the\nnineteenth into two, counts ninety-one. They were preached at Antioch,\nprobably in the year 390. This literal and most pious exposition of that\ngospel contains the whole practical science of virtues and vices, and is\nan inexhausted source of excellent morality, and a finished model of\npreaching the word of God, and of expounding the oracles of eternal life\nfor the edification of souls. St. Thomas Aquinas was possessed only of a\nbad Latin translation of this unparalleled work, yet said he would\nrather be master of this single book than of the whole city of Paris.\nThe example of the saint shows that the most essential preparation for\nthe study of the holy scriptures consists in simplicity and purity of\nheart, an eminent spirit of prayer, and habitual profound meditation on\nthe sacred oracles. Thus qualified, he, with admirable sagacity and\npiety, penetrates and unfolds the unbounded spiritual riches of the\nleast tittle in the divine word; and explains its sacred truths with\nincomparable ease, perspicuity, elegance, and energy of style. The moral\ninstructions are enforced by all the strength and ornaments of the most\nsweet and persuasive eloquence. Inveighing against the stage, he calls\nit the reign of vice and iniquity, and the ruin of cities: and commends\nthe saying of that ancient Roman, who, hearing an account of the usual\nentertainments which were represented on the stage, and how eagerly the\ncitizens ran to them, cried out, \"Have they then neither wives nor\nchildren at home?\" giving to understand, that men ought not to seek\ndiversion abroad which they would more rationally procure at home with\nthose whom they love. (Hom. 37, p. 414.) On the precept of self-denial\nhe takes notice, that by it Christ commands us, first, to be crucified\nto our own flesh and will; secondly, to spare ourselves in nothing;\nthirdly, not only to deny ourselves, but thoroughly to deny ourselves;\nby this little particle _thoroughly_, adding great force to his precept.\nHe says further, _Let him take up his cross_; this is, bearing not only\nall reproaches and injurious words, but also every kind of sufferings or\ndeath. (Hom. 55, p. 556.) On Vain Glory, he calls it the most tyrannical\nof all the diseases of the soul, (Hom. 19, p. 244,) and pathetically\nlaments the extreme misery of a soul that forsakes God, who would\ncommend and reward her, to court the empty esteem of the vainest of all\ncreatures, and those who will the more hate and despise her as she more\neagerly hunts after applause. He compares her to a king's daughter who\nshould abandon a most amiable and rich prince, to run night and day\nthrough the streets after fugitives and slaves, that hate and fly from\nher as the {265} basest of prostitutes. Those she seeks to have for\nwitnesses and applauders, or rather she herself, act the part of\nrobbers, and rifle treasures laid up even in heaven in a place of\nsafety. The devil sees them inaccessible to his arts, therefore employs\nthis worm to devour them. When you bestow an alms, shut your door; let\nhim alone to whom you give it be witness, nor even him if possible; of\nothers see you they will proclaim your vain-glory, and be published by\nGod himself. (Hom. 71.) Speaking on alms, (Hom. 66,) he says, that the\nChurch of Antioch was then possessed only of the revenue of one rich and\nof one poor man, yet maintained three thousand virgins and widows,\nbesides hospitals &c. What then is not one rich man able to do? But they\nhave children. The saint replies, that the best fortune they can leave\nis a treasure laid up in heaven. Every one is bound at least to count\nthe poor among his children, and allot to them one half, a third, or at\nleast a tenth part. He declares (Hom. 88.) that he will never cease\npreaching on the obligation, efficacy, and advantages of alms. He\nasserts, (Hom. 85,) that in the church of Antioch were contained one\nhundred thousand souls; besides whom as many Jews and idolaters dwelt in\nthat city. (Hom. in St. Ignat. t. 2, p. 591.) He applauds the constancy\nand virtue of a famous actress, (Hom. 67,) who being converted to God,\nwould not be compelled by the threats of the governor or any punishment,\nto appear again upon the stage. In Hom. 68 and 69, he gives an amiable\nand edifying account of the lives of the monks of Syria: and (Hom. 47,\n80, 81, 90, &c.) commends a state of voluntary poverty, and preaches on\nthe contempt of the world. On visiting the tombs of martyrs, to obtain\nhealth of body and every spiritual advantage, see Hom. 37, 424. On the\nsign of the cross he says, (Hom. 54, p. 551,) \"Let us carry about the\ncross of Christ as a crown, and let no one blush at the ensign of\nsalvation. By it is every thing in religion done: the cross is employed\nif a person is regenerated, or fed with the mystical food, or ordained;\nwhatever else is to be done, this ensign of victory is ever present;\ntherefore we have it in our houses, paint it on our walls and windows,\nmake it on our foreheads, and always carry it devoutly in our hearts. We\nmust not content ourselves with forming it with our fingers, but must do\nit with great sentiments of faith and devotion. If you thus form it on\nyour face, no unclean spirit will be able to stand against you when he\nbeholds the instrument which has given him the mortal stab. If we\ntremble at the sight of the place where criminals are executed, think\nwhat the devils must suffer when they see that weapon by which Christ\nstripped them of their power, and cut off the head of their leader. Be\nnot ashamed of so great a good which has been bestowed on you, lest\nChrist should be ashamed of you when he shall appear in glory, and this\nstandard be borne before him brighter than the rays of the sun; for then\nthe cross shall appear speaking as it were with a loud voice. This sign,\nboth in the time of our forefathers and in our own, has opened gates,\ndeadened malignant poisons, and healed wounds made by the sting or bite\nof venomous creatures. If it has broken down the gates of hell, unbolted\nthose of paradise, destroyed the empire and weakened the powers of the\ndevil, what wonder if it overcomes poisons and wild beasts?\" On the\nvirtue of the sign of the cross, see also Hom. 8, ib. and Hom. 4, de St.\nPaolo, t. 2, 9. 494, et de libello repudii, t. 3, p. 204, &c. On the\nHoly Eucharist, he gives frequent and admirable instructions. Speaking\nof the sick, who were cured by touching the hem of Christ's garments, he\nadds, (Hom. 50, p. 517,) \"What grace is not in our power to receive by\ntouching and receiving his holy body? What if you hear not his voice;\nyou see him laid. He has given us himself to eat, and has set himself in\nthe state of a victim sacrificed before us,\" &c. And Hom. 82, p. 787, he\nwrites: \"How many now say, they wish to see his shape, his garments? You\ndesire to see his garments, but he gives himself to you not only to be\nseen, but to be touched, to be eaten, to be received within you. Then\nwhat beam of the sun ought not that hand to be more which divides this\nflesh? that mouth which is filled with this spiritual fire? that tongue\nwhich is purpled with this adorable blood? The angels beholding it\ntremble, and dare not look thereupon through awe and fear, and on\naccount of the rays which dart from that wherewith we are nourished,\nwith which we are mingled, being made one body, one flesh with Christ.\nWhat shepherd ever fed his sheep with his own limbs? nay, many mothers\ngive their children to other nurses; whereas he feeds us with his own\nblood,\" &c. It is a familiar reflection of our saint, that by the\ncommunion we become of one flesh and of one body with Christ, to express\nthe close union of our souls with him in this divine sacrament. In the\nsame Homily, 82, (olim 83,) on St. Matthew, p. 782, t. 7, he says, the\napostles were not affrighted when they heard Christ assure them, _This\nis my body_; because he had before initiated them in most wonderful\nmysteries, and made them witnesses to many prodigies and miracles, and\nhad already instructed them in this very sacrament, at which they had\nbeen at first much struck, and some of them scandalized. John vi.\nMoreover, that they might not fear, or say, Shall we then drink his\nblood and eat his flesh? he set the example in taking the cup, and\ndrinking his own blood the first of all. The saint charges us (ib. p.\n787) not to question or contradict the words of Christ, but to captivate\nour reason and understanding in obeying him, and believing his word,\nwhich cannot deceive us, whereas our senses often lead us into mistakes.\nWhen, therefore, he tells us, _This is_ {266} _my body_, we must believe\nhim, and consider the mystery with spiritual eyes; for we learn from\nhim, that what he gives us is something spiritual, which falls not under\nour senses. See this further on the same subject, Hom. 50, (olim 51,) in\nMatt. pp. 516, 517, 518. Hom. de Baptismo Christi, t. 2, pp. 374, 375.\nHom. in Laudem Martyrum, t. 2, p. 654. Hom non esse ad gratiam\nconcionandum, ib. pp. 658, 659. Expos. in Ps. 46, t. 5, p. 189, and in\nPd. 133, p. 382. Hom. 5, in illud: Vidi Dominum, t. 6, p. 143. Hom. de\nSt. Philogonio, t. 1, p. 498, besides the passages quoted in this\nabstract. In the same comments on St. Matthew, t. 7, Hom. 82, p. 788, he\nvehemently exhorts the faithful to approach the holy table with a\nburning thirst and earnest desire to suck in the spiritual milk, as it\nwere, from the divine breasts. As children throw themselves into the\nbosom of their nurse or mother, and eagerly suck their breast, so ought\nwe with far greater ardor to run to the sacred mysteries, to draw into\nour hearts, as the children of God, the grace of his Holy Spirit. To be\ndeprived of this heavenly food ought to be to us the most sensible, nay,\nour only grief, (ib p. 788.) Nothing can be more tender than his\nexhortations to frequent communion; he even recommends it daily, (Hom.\nde St. Philogonio, t. 1, pp. 499, 500,) provided persons lead Christian\nlives, and bring suitable dispositions. But no solemnity can be a reason\nfor those who are under the guilt of sin ever to approach in that state.\n(Ib,) No terms can be stronger than those in which he speaks in many\nplaces of the enormity of a sacrilegious communion, which he compares to\nthe crime of Judas who betrayed Christ, of the Jews who crucified him,\nsud of Herod who sought to murder him in his cradle, (Hom. 7, in Matt.\np. 112, &c.,) and frequently explains the dispositions requisite to\napproach worthily the holy table, insisting chiefly on great purity of\nsoul, fervent devotion, and a vehement hunger and thirst after this\ndivine banquet. (Hom. 17, in Heb. t. 12, p. 169. Hom. 24, in 1 Cor t.\n10, p. 218, &c.) He denounces the most dreadful threats of divine\nvengeance against unfaithful ministers who admit to it notorious\nsinners. (Hom. 72, in Matt. t. 7, pp. 789, 790.) \"Christ,\" says he,\n\"will demand of you an account of his blood, if you give it to those who\nare unworthy. If any such person presents himself, though he were\ngeneral of the army, or emperor, drive him from the holy table. The\npower with which you are invested is above that of an emperor. If you\ndare not refuse to admit the unworthy, inform me. I will rather suffer\nmy blood to be spilt than offer this sacred blood to one who is\nunworthy,\" &c. (Ib.) In this work of St. Chrysostom upon St. Matthew, we\nmeet with beautiful instructions on almost every Christian virtue. Read\nHom. 38, on humility, which he styles the queen of all virtues; Hom. 58,\nwhere he calls it the beginning of a virtuous life; and Hom. 65, where\nhe shows that it exalts a man above the highest dignities. On the entire\ncontempt of the world as a nothing, Hom. 12, 33, &c. On the happiness of\nhim who serves God, whom the whole world cannot hurt, Hom. 24, 56, 90.\nAgainst avarice, Hom. 28, 74, 63. Against drunkenness, Hom. 70. On\ncompunction, Hom. 41, where he proves it indispensable from the\ncontinual necessity of penance for hidden sins, and for detraction,\nvain-glory, avarice, &c. We ought also to weep continually for our\ndangers. Speaking on the same virtue, Hom. 6, p. 94, he, teaches that\ncompunction is the daughter of divine love, which consumes in the heart\nall affections for temporal things, so that a man is disposed with\npleasure to part with the whole world and life itself. A soul is by it\nmade light, and soaring above all things visible, despises them as\nnothing. He who is penetrated with this spirit of love and compunction,\nfrequently breaks into floods of tears; but these tears afford him\nincredible sweetness and pleasure. He lives in cities as if he were in a\nwilderness; so little notice does he take of the things of this life. He\nis never satiated with tears which he pours forth for his own sins and\nthose of others. Hence the saint takes occasion to launch forth into the\ncommendation of the gift of holy tears, pp. 96, 97. He inveighs against\nstage entertainments, Hom. 6, 7, 17, 37, &c. See especially Hom. contra\nludos et theatra, t. 6, 274.\n\nOn Hell, he says (Hom. 23, in Matt.) that the loss of God is the\ngreatest of all the pains which the damned endure, nay, more grievous\nthan a thousand hells. Many tremble at the name of hell; but he much\nmore at the thought of losing God, which the state of damnation implies.\n(Ib.) He distinguishes in hell the loss of God, and secondly, fire and\nthe other pains of sense. (Hom. 47.) He shows that company abates\nnothing in its torments. (Hom. 43.) Some object that to meditate on\nthose torments is too frightful; to whom he answers, that this is most\nagreeable, because by it we learn to shun them, the hope of which\ninspires joy, and so great earnestness in the practice of penance, that\nausterities themselves become agreeable. (Ib.) He often mentions grace\nbefore and after meat; and, Hom. 55, p. 561, recites that which the\nmonks about Antioch used before their meals, as follows: \"Blessed God,\nwho feedest me from my youth, who givest nourishment to all flesh, fill\nour hearts with joy, that being supported by thy bounty we may abound in\nevery good work to Christ Jesus our Lord, with whom be all honor,\npraise, and glory given with the Holy Ghost, world without end. Amen.\nGlory be to thee, O Lord; glory be to thee, O Holy; glory be to thee, O\nKing, because Thou hast given us food in joyfulness. Fill us with thy\nHoly Spirit, that we may be found acceptable in thy sight, that we may\nnot be covered with confusion when Thou shalt render to every one\naccording to his works:\" This whole prayer is {267} admirable, says the\nsaint, but especially the close, the remembrance of the last day being a\nbridle and check to sensuality and concupiscence. (Ib.) The saint shows\n(Horn. 86, p. 810) the malice and danger of small faults wilfully\ncommitted, which many are apt to make slight of; but from such the most\ndreadful falls take their rise. The old Latin translation of St.\nChrysostom's homilies on St. Matthew, is too full of words, and often\ninaccurate. Anian, the author, seems to have been the Pelagian deacon of\nthat name, who assisted at the council of Diospolis in 415. The new\nLatin translation is far more exact, but very unequal in elegance and\ndignity of expression to the original.\n\nThe eighth tome is composed of the homilies of St. Chrysostom upon St.\nJohn, which are eighty-eight in number, though in former Latin editions,\nin imitation of Morellus, the first is called preface, and only\neighty-seven bear the title of homilies. They were preached at Antioch,\nabout the year 394, at break of day, long before the usual hour of the\nsermon (Hom. 31.) We find here the same elevation of thought, the same\ngenius and lively imagination, and the same strength of reasoning which\nwe admire in those on St. Matthew; but the method is different. After a\nshort literal exposition of the text, the holy doctor frequently inserts\npolemical discussions, in which he proves the Consubstantiality of the\nSon against the Anomaeans. Hence his moral reflections in the end are\nshort: in which, nevertheless, he is always admirable, especially when\nhe speaks of the love which God testifies for us in the mystery of the\nIncarnation. (See Hom. 27, olim 26, p. 156.) He observes that Christ\nmiraculously multiplied five loaves, before he gave his solemn promise\nof the Eucharist, which he calls \"The miracle of mysteries,\" and this he\ndid, says our saint, \"That being taught by that miracle, they might not\ndoubt in giving credit to his words--that not only by love, but in\nreality, we are mingled with his flesh.\" (Hom. 46, olim 45, in Joan. t.\n8, p. 272.) Christ by this institution thus invites us to his heavenly\nbanquet, says our saint. \"I feed you with my flesh, I give you myself\nfor your banquet. I would become your brother: for your sake, I took\nupon myself flesh and blood: Again, I give you the flesh and blood, by\nwhich I have made myself of the same nature and kindred with you,\n([Greek: suggenes], congener.) This blood by being poured forth has\ncleansed the whole world. This blood has purified the sanctuaries and\nthe Holy of Holies. If its figure had so great efficacy in the temple of\nthe Hebrews, and sprinkled on the doors of Egypt, the truth will have\nmuch greater.\" (Ib. p. 273.) He calls the holy Eucharist \"the tremendous\nmysteries, the dreadful altar,\" [Greek: frikta ontos ta museria, frikton\nontos to fusiasterion], (ib.,) and says, \"When you approach the sacred\ncup, come as if you were going to drink the blood flowing from his\nside.\" (Hom. 85, olim 84, in Joan. p. 507.)\n\nThe fifty-five homilies _On the Acts of the Apostles_, he preached at\nConstantinople in the third year of his episcopal dignity, of our Lord\n401, as appears from Hom. 44, p. 335, t. 9. The famous censure of\nErasmus, who judged them absolutely unworthy of our saint, (ep. ad\nWarham. archiepiscopum Cantuarens,) is well known: Billius, on the\ncontrary, thinks them very elegant. Both judgments show how far\nprepossession is capable of misleading the most learned men. That this\nwork is undoubtedly genuine, is demonstrated by Sir Henry Saville.\nPhotius justly admires an admirable eloquence, rich veins of gold\nscattered through it, and the moral instructions are so noble and\nbeautiful, that no other genius but that of a Chrysostom could have\nformed them. The style indeed, in many parts of the comments, is not\nregular or correct; which might be owing to some indisposition, or to an\nextraordinary hurry of troublesome affairs, to a confusion of mind, and\nto alarms, the city being then in imminent danger by the revolt and\nblockade of Gainas, and in daily fears of being plundered by that\nbarbarian. In the first homily our saint speaks against those who\ndeferred to receive baptism, for fear of forfeiting the grace by\nrelapsing into sin: which delay he shows to imply a wilful and obstinate\ncontempt of God and his grace, with the guilt of a base and inexcusable\nsloth, like one who should desire to enrol himself in the army when the\nwar was over, yet expect a share in the triumph; or a wrestler who\nshould enter the lists when the games are closed. He adds, that in\nsickness, under alarms and pains, it is scarce to be hoped that a person\nwill be able to dispose himself for so great a sacrament. Prudent men\nmake their wills while in health, imagining that at best they will\nretain their senses but by halves at the approaches of death; and can we\nthink dying men capable of duly making so solemn an engagement with God?\nHe assures his flock that he is notable to express the consternation,\ngrief, and agony, with which he is seized whenever he hears of any one\nbeing dead without baptism or penance, (p. 13.) In Hom. 3, p. 30, he\nexaggerates the grievousness of sin in a priest, and has these\nremarkable words, \"I do not believe that many priests are saved; but\nthat far the greater number are lost: for this dignity requires a great\nsoul and much courage.\" In Hom. 7, he draws a most amiable and beautiful\nportraiture of the charity which reigned in the primitive church, when\nall with joy cast away their money; setting no value but on the\ninestimably greater treasures which they possessed in God; when all\nlived without envy, jealousy, pride, contempt of any one, and without\nany cunning or ill-will; and when the cold words mine and thine were\nbanished from among them, pp. 58,59. A passage often quoted by those who\nwrite on the small number of the elect occurs Hom. 24, p. 198, \"How\nmany,\" says he, \"do you think there are in this city {268} who will be\nsaved? What I am going to say is frightful indeed; yet I will speak it.\nOut of so many thousands not one hundred belongs to the number of the\nelect: and even of these I doubt. How much vice among the youth! What\nsloth in the old! No one takes due care of the education of his\nchildren. If we see a man truly devout in his old age, he is imitated by\nnobody. I see persons behave disrespectfully and without due attention\nin the church, and even when the priest is giving his blessing. Can any\ninsolence be found equal to this? Amidst such scandals, what hopes can\nwe entertain of the salvation of many? At a ball every one dances in his\nrank, every thing is regulated, and done without confusion. And here in\nthe company of angels, and singing the praises of God with the blessed\nspirits, you talk and laugh. Should we be surprised if thunder fell from\nheaven to punish such impiety?\" The monks then lived without the walls,\nand could not be included by him: nor probably the clergy, deaconesses,\nor others particularly consecrated to a devout life; as appears from his\ninvective. Nor does he speak this with any certitude, but from his\nprivate apprehension by comparing the lives of the generality of the\npeople with the severe maxims of the gospel. This is manifest from the\nproof he draws from the manners of the people, and from a like invective\nin Hom. 61, olim 62, on St. Matthew, (t. 7, p. 612,) spoken at Antioch\nten years before. See also l. 1, adv. Oppugnatores Vitae Mon. n. 8, t. 1,\np. 55. Speaking on the general impiety of the world, (Hom. 10, in 1\nTim,) he says: \"We have great reason to weep: scarce the least part of\nthe world is saved: almost all live in danger of eternal death.\" But he\nshows that the multitude will only increase the torments of the wicked,\nas if a man saw his wife and children to be burnt alive with him. St.\nChrysostom counts in Constantinople, at that time, one hundred thousand\nChristians, (Hom. 11, in Acts,) and says that the poor in that city\namounted to fifty thousand, and the riches of the particulars to about\none million pounds of gold. Yet he reckons the assembly of the\nChristians greater at Antioch than at Constantinople. (Hom. 1, adv.\nJudaeos. p. 592, t. 1.) If the estate of one rich and that of one poor\nman maintained three thousand poor at Antioch, and the like estates of\nten rich men would have supported all the poor of that city, it is\ninferred that there were in Antioch only thirty thousand poor, though it\nmight perhaps have more inhabitants than Constantinople. See Bandurius\non the site and extent of Constantinople under the emperors Arcadius and\nHonorius; and Hasius de magnitudine urbium, p. 47.\n\nSt. Chrysostom teaches that grace is conferred by God at the imposition\nof hands in the ordination of priests, Hom. 14, in Acta. p. 114, also\nHom. 3, de Resurrect. t. 2, p. 436, and Hom. 21, in Acta. p. 175, that\n\"Oblations (or masses) are not offered in vain for the dead.\" It is his\npious counsel (Hom. 17, in Acta.) that when we find ourselves provoked\nto anger, we form on our breast the sign of the cross; and Hom. 26, he\nexhorts all Christians, even the married, and both men and women, to\nrise every midnight to pray in their own houses, and to awake little\nchildren at that hour that they may say a short prayer in bed. He says\nthat saints and martyrs are commemorated in the holy mysteries, because\nthis is doing them great honor, (Hom. 21, in Acta. p. 276,) and by the\ncommunion with them in their virtues, the rest of the faithful departed\nreap much benefit. (Hom. 51, in 1 Corinth. t. 10, p. 393.)\n\nFor a specimen of the zeal and charity with which this great preacher\ninstructed his flock, two or three passages are here inserted. Hom. 3,\nin Acta. p. 31, t. 9. \"I wish,\" says he, \"I could set before your eyes\nthe tender charity and love which I bear you: after this no one could\ntake it amiss or be angry if I ever seem to use too harsh words in\ncorrecting disorders. Nothing is dearer to me than you; not even life or\nlight. I desire a thousand times over to lose my sight, if by this means\nI could convert your souls to God; so much more sweet is your salvation\nto me. If it happens that any of you fall into sin, you are present even\nin my sleep: through grief I am like persons struck with a palsy, or\ndeprived of their senses. For what hope or comfort can I have left, if\nyou advance not in virtue? And if you do well, what can afflict me? I\nseem to feel myself taking wing when I hear any good of you. _Make my\njoy complete_. Phil. ii. 2. Your progress is my only desire. You are to\nme all, father and mother, and brothers and children.\" Hom. 44, in Act.\np. 335, having appealed to his closet and secret retreats to bear\nwitness how many tears he shed without intermission for them, he says,\n\"What shall I do? I am quite spent daily crying out to you: Forsake the\nstage. Yet many laugh at our words: Refrain from oaths and avarice, and\nno one listens to us. For your sakes I have almost abandoned the care of\nmy own soul and salvation; and while I weep for you, I bewail also my\nown spiritual miseries, to which, through solicitude for you, I am not\nsufficiently attentive: so true it is that you are all things to me. If\nI see you advance in virtue, through joy I feel not my own ills; and if\nI perceive you make no progress, here again through grief I forget my\nown miseries. Though I am sinking under them, on your account, I am\nfilled with joy: and whatever subject of joy I have in myself, I am\noverwhelmed with grief if all is not well with you. For what comfort,\nwhat life, what hope can a pastor have, if his flock be perishing? How\nwill he stand before God? What will he say? Though he should be innocent\nof the blood of them all, still he will be pierced with bitter sorrow\nwhich nothing will be able to assuage. For though parents were no way in\nfault, they would suffer the most {269} cruel anguish for the ruin or\nloss of their children. Whether I shall be demanded an account of year\nsouls or no, this will not remove my grief. I am not anxious that you\nmay attain to happiness by my labors, but that you be saved at any rate,\nor by any means. You know not the impetuous tyranny of spiritual\ntravails, and how he who spiritually brings forth children to God\ndesires a thousand times over to be hewn to pieces rather than to see\none of his children fall or perish. Though we could say with assurance,\nwe have done all that lay in us, and are innocent of his blood, this\nwill not be enough to comfort us. Could my heart be laid open and\nexposed to your view, you would see that you are every one there, and\nmuch dilated, women, children, and men. So great is the power of charity\nthat it makes a soul wider than the heavens. St. Paul bore all Corinth\nwithin his breast. 2 Cor. vii. 2. I can make you no reproaches for any\nindifference towards me on your side. I am sensible of the love which\nyou reciprocally bear me. But what will be the advantage either of your\nlove for me or of mine for you, if the duties you owe to God are\nneglected? It is only an occasion of rendering my grief more heavy. You\nhave never been wanting in any thing towards me. Were it possible, you\nwould have given me your very eyes: and on our side we were desirous to\ngive you with the gospel also our lives. Our love is reciprocal. But\nthis is not the point. We must in the first place love Christ. This\nobligation both you and I have great need to study: not that we entirely\nneglect it; but the pains we take are not adequate to this great end.\"\n\nTo abolish the sacrilegious custom of swearing at Constantinople, as he\nhad done at Antioch, he strained every sinew, and in several sermons he\nexerted his zeal with uncommon energy, mingled with the most tender\ncharity. In Hom. 8, in Act t. 9, pp. 66, 67, he complains that some who\nhad begun to correct their criminal habit, after having fallen through\nsurprise, or by a sudden fit of passion, had lost courage. These he\nanimates to a firmer resolution and vigor, which would crown them with\nvictory. He tells them he suffers more by grief for them than if he\nlanguished in a dungeon, or was condemned to the mines; and begs, by the\nlove which they bear him, they would give the only comfort which could\nremove the weight of his sorrow by an entire conversion. It will not\njustify him, he says, at the last day, to allege that he had reprimanded\nthose who swore. The judge will answer: \"Why didst not thou check,\ncommand, and by laws restrain those that disobeyed?\" Heli reprimanded\nhis sons; but was condemned for not having done it, because he did not\nuse sufficient severity. 1 Kings xi. 24. \"I every day cry aloud,\" says\nthe saint, \"yet am not heard. Fearing to be myself condemned at the last\nday for too great lenity and remissness, I raise my voice, and denounce\naloud to all, that if any swear, I forbid them the church. Only this\nmonth is allowed for persons to correct their habit.\" His voice he calls\na trumpet, with which in different words he proclaims thrice this\nsentence of excommunication against whosoever should persist refractory,\nthought he were a prince, or he who wears the diadem. Hom. 9, p. 76, he\ncongratulates with his audience for the signs of compunction and\namendment which they had given since his last sermon, and tells the\ngreatest part of the difficulty is already mastered by them. To inspire\nthem with a holy dread and awe for the adorable name of God, he puts\nthem in mind that in the Old Law only the high priest was allowed ever\nto pronounce it, and that the devils trembled at its sound. Hom. 10, he\ncharges them never to name God but in praising him or in imploring his\nmercy. He takes notice that some among them still sometimes swore, but\nonly for want of attention, by the force of habit, just as they made the\nsign of the cross by mere custom, without attention, when they entered\nthe baths, or lighted a candle. He tells them (Hom. 11, p. 95) that the\nterm of a month, which he had fixed, was almost elapsed, and most\naffectionately conjures them to make their conversion entire. A sight of\none such conversion, he says, gave him more joy, than if a thousand\nimperial diadems of the richest jewels had been placed upon his head.\nOther specimens of the saint's ardent love for his people at\nConstantinople, see Hom. 9, in Hebr. t. 12, p. 100; Hom. 23, in Hebr. p.\n217; Hom. 9, in 1 Thes. t. 11, p. 494; Hom. 7, in 1 Coloss. Hom. 39, in\nAct. p. 230, &c. For his people at Antioch, t. 3, p. 362, t. 2, p. 279,\nt. 7, p. 374, &c. On his humility, t. 2, p. 455, t. 4, p. 339. On his\ndesire to suffer for Christ, t. 1, p. 453, t. 7, p. 243, t. 11, pp. 53,\n55.\n\nThe inspired epistles of St. Paul were the favorite subject of this\nsaint's intense meditation, in which he studied the most sublime maxims,\nand formed in himself the most perfect spirit of Christian virtue. The\nepistle to the Romans is expounded by him in thirty-two homilies, (t. 9,\np. 429,) which he made at Antioch, as is clear from Hom. 8, p. 508, and\nHom. 30, p. 743. Nothing can go beyond the commendations which St\nIsidore of Pelusium bestows on this excellent work, (l. 5, ep. 32,) to\nwhich all succeeding ages have subscribed. The errors of Pelagius, which\nwere broached soon after in the West, are clearly guarded against by the\nholy preacher, though he is more solicitous to confute the opposite\nheresy of the Manichees, which then reigned in many parts of the East.\nHe also confounds frequently the Jews. But what we most admire is the\npious sagacity with which he unfolds the deep sense of the sacred text,\nand its author, the true disciple of Christ, and the perspicuity and\neloquence with which he enforces his moral instructions. Whoever reads\nanyone of these homilies, will hear testimony to this eulogium. See Hom.\n24. (t. 9, p. 694,) {270} on the shortness of human life: Hom. 8, on\nfraternal charity and forgiving injuries: Hom. 20, on our obligation of\noffering to God a living sacrifice of our bodies by the exercise of all\nvirtues, and the sanctity of our affections: Hom. 22 and 27, on patience\nin bearing all injuries, by which we convert them into our greatest\ntreasure: Hom. 5, on the fear of God's judgments, and on his love, to\nwhich he pathetically says, it would be more grievous to offend God than\nto suffer all the torments of hell, which every one incurs who is not in\nthis disposition, (p. 469,) though it is a well-known maxim that persons\nought not to propose to themselves in too lively a manner such\ncomparisons, or to become their own tempters: Hom. 7, against envy, and\non alms, he says this is putting out money at interest for one hundred\nfold from God, who is himself our security, and who herein considers not\nthe sum, but the will, as he did in St. Peter, who left for him only a\nbroken net, a line, and a hook. The promise of a hundred fold made to\nhim, is no less made to us.\n\nThe commentary On the First Epistle to the Corinthians, (t. 10,) in\nforty-four homilies, was likewise the fruit of his zeal at Antioch, and\nis one of the most elaborate and finished of his works. The interpreter\nseems animated with the spirit of the great apostle whose sacred oracle\nhe expounds, so admirably does he penetrate the pious energy of the\nleast tittle. If St. Paul uses the words _My God_, he observes, that out\nof the vehement ardor and tenderness of his love he makes Him his own,\nwho is the common God of all men; and that he names Him with a sentiment\nof burning affection and profound adoration, because he had banished all\ncreated things from his heart, and all his affections were placed in\nGod. He extols the merit and advantages of holy virginity, (Hom. 19,)\nand Hom. 26, speaks on the duties of a married state, especially that of\nmutual love and meekness in bearing each other's faults: this he bids\nthem learn from Socrates, a pagan, who chose a very shrew for his wife,\nand being asked how he could bear with her, said: \"I have a school of\nvirtue at home, in order to learn meekness and patience by the daily\npractice.\" The saint adds, it was a great grief to him to see Christians\nfall short of the virtue of a heathen, whereas they ought to be\nimitators of the angels, nay, of God himself. Recommending the most\nprofound respect for the holy eucharist, and a dread of profaning it, he\nsays, Hom. 24, pp. 217, 218, \"No one dares touch the king's garments\nwith dirty hands. When you see Him (_i.e._ Christ) exposed before you,\nsay to yourself: This body was pierced with nails; this body which was\nscourged, death did not destroy; this body was nailed to a cross, at\nwhich spectacle the sun withdrew its rays; this body the Magi\nvenerated,\" &c. The saint inveighs against several superstitious\npractices of that age, Hom. 12. His discourses are animated and strong\non the characters of fraternal charity, and against avarice, envy, &c.\n\nThe thirty homilies, On the Second Epistle to the Corinthians, (t. 10,\np. 417,) were also preached at Antioch: for he speaks of Constantinople\nas at a distance, (Hom. 26,) which passage Sir Henry Saville has\nmistaken, as Montfaucon clearly shows. This commentary is inferior to\nthe last, though not in elegance, yet in fire, the moral instructions\nbeing shorter. The saint mentions several of the ceremonies used still\nat mass, or in the public office of the church. Hom. 18, p. 568. Hom.\n30, p. 6{5}0. On visiting the shrines of martyrs, he says, Hom. 26, p.\n629, \"The tombs of those who served the crucified Christ surpass in\nsplendor the courts of kings. Even he who wears purple visits and\ndevoutly kisses them, and standing suppliant, prays the saint to be a\nprotection to him before God.\" He adds that emperors sue for their\npatronage, and count it an honor to be porters to them in their graves.\nBy this he alludes to the burial of Constantine the Great in the porch\nof the church of the apostles. He proves, Hom. 3, p. 441, and Hom. 14,\np. 537, that the essence of repentance consists in a change of the\nheart: that without an amendment of life, penance is only a mask and a\nshadow, what fasts or other works soever attend it, and that it must be\nfounded not barely in the fear of hell, but in the love of so good and\nloving a God. He teaches, Hom. 10, p. 505, that a Christian ought to\nrejoice at the approaches of death. He speaks in many places on the\nprecept of alms-deeds with great vehemence. He says, Hom. 16, that to be\nanimated with a spirit of charity and compassion is something greater\nthan to raise the dead to life: our alms must be liberal, plentiful,\nvoluntary, and given with joy. He says, Hom. 19, that Christ stripped\nhimself of his immense glory and riches for love of us; yet men refuse\nhim a morsel of bread. They throw away on dogs, and what is superfluous\namong servants, that which Christ wants in his members, to whom all\nstrictly belongs whatever we enjoy beyond what is necessary for life. He\nenters into a severe and elegant detail of these superfluities, Hom. 19,\np. 570. The apostle, as he observes, (Hom. 20, p. 577,) justly calls\nalms a seed, because it is not lost, but sown, and produces a most\nplentiful harvest.\n\nHis commentary On the Epistle to the Galatians (t. 10) is an accurate\ninterpretation of the text, with frequent remarks against the Anomoeans,\nMarcionites, and Manichees, but very sparing in moral exhortations:\nthese the saint probably added in the pulpit, and gave to the work the\nform of discourses; for it appears to have been delivered in homilies to\nthe people, though it is not now divided into discourses. It was\ncertainly compiled at Antioch.\n\nThe twenty-four homilies On the Epistle to the Ephesians (t. 11) were\npreached at Antioch; and though some passages might have received a\nhigher polish from a second touch of the saint's masterly file, are a\nmost useful and excellent work. From Hom. 3, p. 16, it {271} is clear\nthat his predecessor Nectarius had not abolished canonical public\npenances, when he removed the public penitentiary; but that this office,\nas before the institution of such a charge, was exercised altogether by\nthe bishop. For St. Chrysostom having taken notices that many assisted\nat mass who did not communicate, tells them, that those who were guilty\nof any grievous sin could not approach the holy table even on the\ngreatest solemnity; but that such persons ought to be in a course of\npenance, and consequently not at mass with the rest of the faithful: and\nhe terrifies them by exaggerating the danger and crime of delaying to do\npenance. Those who are not excluded by such an obstacle, he exhorts\nstrongly to frequent communion, seeming desirous that many would\ncommunicate at every day's mass. \"With a pure conscience,\" says he,\n\"approach always; without this disposition, never. In vain is the daily\nsacrifice offered; to no purpose do we assist at the altar: no one\ncommunicates. I say not this to induce any one to approach unworthily,\nbut to engage all to render yourselves worthy. The royal table is\nprepared, the administering angels are present, the King himself is\nthere waiting for you: yet you stand with indifference,\" &c. (Hom. 3, in\nEphes. p. 23.) The virtues of St. Paul furnish the main subject of his\nsixth and seventh homilies; in the eighth he speaks of that apostle's\nsufferings for Christ, and declares, in a kind of rapturous exclamation,\nthat he prefers his chains to gold and diadems, and his company in\nprison to heaven itself. He wishes he could make a pilgrimage to Rome,\nto see and kiss those chains at which the devils tremble, and which the\nangels reverence, while they venerate the hands which were bound with\nthem. For it is more desirable and more glorious to suffer with Christ,\nthan to be honored with him in glory: this is an honor above all others.\nChrist himself left heaven to meet his cross: and St. Paul received more\nglory from his chains, than by being rapt up to the third heaven, or by\ncuring the sick by the touch of his scarfs, &c. He desires to feast his\nheart by dwelling still longer on the chains of this apostle, being\nhimself fettered with a chain from which he would not be separated: for\nhe declares himself to be closer and faster linked to St. Paul's chains\nby desire, than that apostle was in prison. In the like strain he speaks\nof the chains of St. Peter, and of St. John Baptist. In the next Homily,\n(9,) he returns in equal raptures to St. Paul in chains for Christ; in\nwhich state he calls him a spectacle of glory far beyond all the\ntriumphs of emperors and conquerors. Our saint gives excellent\ninstructions on the duties of married persons, Hom. 20; on the education\nof children in the practice and spirit of obedience and piety, Hom. 21;\nand on the duties of servants, Hom. 22.\n\nThe eighteen homilies On the First Epistle to Timothy, and ten On the\nSecond, seem also to have been preached at Antioch, (t. 11, p. 146.)\nThey are not equally polished, but contain excellent instructions\nagainst covetousness, and the love of the world; on alms, on the duties\nof bishops, and those of widows, &c.; on the education of children, Hom.\n10, p. 596. The six, On the Epistle to Titus, are more elaborate: also\nthree On the Epistle to Philemon, which seem all to have been finished\nat Antioch.\n\nIn the eleventh tome we have also eleven sermons, which St. Chrysostom\npreached at Constantinople about the end of the year 398. Tile second\nwas spoken upon the following occasion, (ib. p. 332:) The empress\nEudoxia procured a solemn procession and translation of the relics of\ncertain martyrs, to be made from the great church in Constantinople to\nthe church of St. Thomas the apostle in Drypia, on the sea-shore, nine\nmiles out of town. The princes without any retinue, priests, monks,\nnuns, ladies, and the people, attended the procession in such\nmultitudes, that from the light of the burning tapers which they carried\nin their hands the sea seemed as it were on fire. The empress walked all\nthe way behind, touching the shrine and the veil which covered it. The\nprocession set out in the beginning of the night, passed through the\nmarket-place, and arrived at Drypia about break of day. There St.\nChrysostom made an extemporary sermon, in which he described the pomp of\nthis ceremony, commended the piety of the empress, and proved that if\nthe clothes, handkerchiefs, and even shadow of saints on earth had\nwrought many miracles, a blessing is certainly derived from their relics\nupon those who devoutly touch them. The next day the emperor Arcadius,\nattended by his court and guards, arrived, and the soldiers having laid\naside their arms, and the emperor his diadem, he paid his devotions\nbefore the shrine. After his departure St. Chrysostom preached again,\n(p. 336.)\n\nSt. Chrysostom was removed to Constantinople in 397. The fifteen (or, if\nwith some editors we include the prologue, sixteen) homilies On the\nEpistle to the Philippians, (t. 11, p. 189,) were preached in that\ncapital of the empire. The moral instructions turn mostly on alms and\nriches. The order which prudence prescribes in the distribution of alms,\nhe explains, (Hom. 1, t. 11, p. 201,) and condemns too anxious an\ninquiry and suspicion of imposture in the poor, as contrary to Christian\nsimplicity and charity, affirming that none are so frequently imposed\nupon by cheat as the most severe inquirers. Prudence and caution he\nallows to be necessary ingredients of alms, in which those whose wants\nare most pressing, or who are most deserving, ought to be first\nconsidered. Hom. 3, p. 215, he lays it down as a principle, that\ncatechumens who die without baptism, and penitents without absolution,\n\"are excluded heaven with the damned;\" which we are to understand,\nunless they were purified by perfect contrition joined with a desire of\nthe sacrament, as St. Ambrose, St. {272} Austin, and all the fathers and\ncouncils declare. St. Chrysostom adds, that it is a wholesome ordinance\nof the apostles in favor of the faithful departed, to commemorate them\nin the adorable mysteries: for how is it possible God should be deaf to\nour prayers for them, at a time when all the people stand with stretched\nforth hands with the priests, in presence of the most adorable\nsacrifice? But the catechumens are deprived of this comfort, though not\nof all succor, for alms may be given for them, from which they receive\nsome relief or mitigation of their pains. Though such not dying within\nthe exterior pale of the church cannot be commemorated in its public\nsuffrages and sacrifices; yet if by desire they were interiorly its\nmembers, and by charity united to Christ its head, they may be benefited\nby private suffrages which particulars may offer for them. This is the\nmeaning of this holy doctor. Exhorting the faithful to live in perpetual\nfear of the dangers with which we are surrounded, (Hom. 8, in Ephes. t.\n11,) he says, \"A builder on the top of a house always apprehends the\ndanger of falling, and on this account is careful how he stands: so\nought we much more to fear, how much soever we may be advanced in\nvirtue. The principal means always to entertain in our souls this saving\nfear, is to have God always before our eyes, who is everywhere present,\nhears and sees all things, and penetrates the most secret foldings of\nour hearts. Whether you eat, go to sleep, sit at dainty tables, are\ninclined to anger, or any other passion, or whatever else you do,\nremember always,\" says he, \"that God is present, and you will never fall\ninto dissolute mirth, or be provoked to anger; but will watch over\nyourselves in continual fear.\" With great elegance he shows (Hom. 10, p.\n279,) that precious stones serve for no use, are not so good even as\ncommon stones, and that all their value is imaginary, and consists\nbarely in the mad opinion of men; and he boldly censures the insatiable\nrapaciousness and unbounded prodigality of the rich, in their sumptuous\npalaces, marble pillars, and splendid clothes and equipages. Houses are\nonly intended to defend us from the weather, and raiment to cover our\nnakedness. All vanities he shows to be contrary to the designs of\nnature, which is ever content with little. In Hom. 12, we have an\nexcellent instruction on that important maxim in a spiritual life, That\nwe must never think how far we have run, but what remains of our course,\nas in a race a man thinks only on what is before him. It will avail\nnothing to have begun, unless we finish well our course. In Hom. 13, he\nexcellently explains the mystery of the cross, which we bear if we study\ncontinually to crucify ourselves by self-denial. We must in all places\narm ourselves with the sign of the cross.\n\nThe Exposition of the epistle to the Colossians, in twelve homilies, (t.\n11) was made at Constantinople in the year 399. In the second homily (p.\n333) he says, that a most powerful means to maintain in ourselves a deep\nsense of gratitude to God, and to increase the flame of his love in our\nhearts, is to bear always in mind his numberless benefits to us, and the\ninfinite evils from which he has mercifully delivered us. In Hom. 8, p.\n319, he teaches, that no disposition of our souls contributes more\neffectually to our sanctification, than that of returning thanks to God\nunder the severest trials of adversity, a virtue little inferior to\nmartyrdom. A mother who, without entertaining the least sentiment of\ncomplaint at the sickness and death of her dearest child, thanks God\nwith perfect submission to his will, will receive a recompense equal to\nthat of martyrs. After condemning the use of all superstitious practices\nfor the cure of distempers, he strongly exhorts mothers rather to suffer\ntheir children to die, than ever to have recourse to such sacrilegious\nmethods; and contenting themselves with making the sign of the cross\nupon their sick children to answer those who suggested any superstitious\nremedy: \"These are my only arms; I am utterly a stranger to other\nmethods of treating this distemper.\" The tenth homily (p. 395) contains\na strong invective against the excessive luxury and immodesty of ladies\nin their dress, and their vanity, pride, and extravagance. The empress\nEudoxia, who was at the head of these scandalous customs, and the\nmistress of court fashions and vices, could not but be highly offended\nat this zealous discourse. The saint says, that many ladies used vessels\nof silver for the very meanest uses, and that the king of Persia wore a\ngolden beard.\n\nThe eleven homilies On the First Epistle to the Thessalonians, were also\npart of the fruit of his episcopal labors at Constantinople. (T. 11.) In\nthe second he shows the excellency of fraternal love and friendship, by\nwhich every thing is, as it were, possessed in common, and those cold\nwords mine and thine, the seed of all discords, are banished as they\nwere from the primitive Christians. In the third, he doubts not but\nperfect patience, under grievous sicknesses, may equal the merit of\nmartyrdom. In the fifth, he speaks incomparably on the virtue of purity,\nand against occasions which may kindle in the heart the contrary\npassion, which, with St. Paul, he will not have so much as earned,\nespecially against the stage, and all assemblies where women make their\nappearance dressed out to please the eyes and wound the hearts of\nothers. In Hom. 6, he condemns excessive grief for the death of friends.\nTo indulge this sorrow for their sake, he calls want of faith: to grieve\nfor our own sake because we are deprived of a comfort and support in\nthem, he says, must proceed from a want of confidence in God; as if any\nfriend on earth could be our safeguard, but God alone. God took this\nfriend away, because he is jealous of our hearts and will have us love\nhim without a rival, (p. 479.) In Hom. 10, we are instructed, that {273}\nthe best revenge we can take of an enemy is to forgive him, and to bear\ninjuries patiently. In Hom. 11, p. 505, he gives an account, that a\ncertain lady being offended at a slave for a great crime, resolved to\nsell him and his wife. The latter wept bitterly; and a mediator, whose\ngood offices with her mistress in her behalf she implored, conjured the\nlady in these words: \"May Christ appear to you at the last day in the\nsame manner in which you now receive our petition.\" Which words so\nstrongly affected her, that she forgave the offence. The night following\nChrist appeared to her in a comfortable vision, as St. Chrysostom was\nassured by herself. In Hom. 7, (ib.,) he shows the possibility of the\nresurrection of the flesh, against infidels.\n\nThe five homilies On the Second Epistle to the Thessalonians, were also\npreached at Constantinople, (t. 11, p. 510.) In the second, he exhorts\nall to make the torments of hell a frequent subject of their meditation,\nthat they may never sin; and to entertain little children often with\nsome discourse on them instead of idle stories, that sentiments of holy\nfear and virtue may strike deep roots in their tender hearts. On\ntraditions received by the church from the apostles he writes as\nfollows: (Hom. 4, in 2 Thess. p. 532.) \"Hence it is clear that they did\nnot deliver all things by their epistles, but communicated also many\nthings without writing: and these likewise deserve our assent or faith.\nIt is a tradition: make no further inquiry.\" In the same Hom. 4, p. 534,\nhe expresses how much he trembled at the thought of being, by the\nobligation of his office, the mediator betwixt God and his people; and\ndeclares, that he ceased not most earnestly to pour forth his prayers\nfor them both at home and abroad. Hom. 4, ib., he severely reprimands\nthose who reproach the poor in harsh words, adding to the weight of\ntheir affliction and misery.\n\nThe thirty-four homilies On the Epistle to the Hebrews, (t. 12, p. 1,)\nwere compiled at Constantinople. In the seventh he shows, that the\nevangelical precepts and counsels belong to all Christians, not only to\nmonks, if we except the vow of perpetual virginity: though also men\nengaged in a married state are bound to be disentangled in spirit, and\nto use the world as if they used it not. Hom. 17, ib. p. 169, he\nexplains that the sacrifice of the New Law is one, because the same body\nof Christ is every day offered; not one day one sheep, another day a\nsecond, &c. (On this sacrifice see also Hom. 5, in 1 Tim. t. 11, p. 577,\nHom. 3, contra Judaeos. t. 1, p. 611. Hom. 7, contra Judaeos. t. 1, p.\n664. Hom. in St. Eustath. t. 2, p. 606. Hom. 24, in 1 Cor. t. 10, p.\n213.) In Hom. 34, ad Hebr. p. 313, he expresses his extreme fears for\nthe rigorous account which a pastor is obliged to give for every soul\ncommitted to his charge, and cries out, \"I wonder that any superior of\nothers is saved.\"\n\nA letter to a certain monk called Caesarius, has passed under the name of\nSt. Chrysostom ever since Leontius and St. John Damascen; and not only\nmany Protestants, but also F. Hardouin, (Dissert. de ep. ad Caesarium\nMonachum) Tillemont, (t. 11, art. 130, p. 340,) and Tournely, (Tr. de\nEuchar. t. 1, p. 282, and Tract. de Incarnat. p. 486,) are not unwilling\nto look upon it as a genuine work of our holy doctor. But it is\ndemonstrated by F. Le Quien, (Diss. 3, in St. Joan. Damasc.) Dom\nMontfaucon, (in Op. St. Chrys. t. 3, p. 737,) Ceillier, (t. 9, p. 249,)\nF. Merlin in his learned dissertations on this epistle, (in Memoires de\nTrevoux an. 1737, pp. 252, 516, and 917,) and F. Stilting, the\nBollandist, (t. 4, Sept. Comment. in vitam St. Chrys. Sec.82, p. 656,) that\nit has been falsely ascribed to him, and is a patched work of some later\nignorant Greek writer, who has borrowed some things from the first\nletter of St. Chrysostom to Olympias, as Stilting shows. Merlin thinks\nthe author discovers himself to have been a Nestorian heretic. At least\nthe style is so opposite to that of St. Chrysostom, both in the diction\nand in the manner of reasoning, that the reader must find himself quite\nin another world, as Montfaucon observes. The author's long acquaintance\nwith this Caesarius seems not easily reconcilable with the known history\nof St. Chrsysostom's life. This piece, moreover, is too direct a\nconfutation of the Eutychian error to have been written before its\nbirth: or if it had made its appearance, how could it have escaped all\nthe antagonists of that heresy? Whoever the author was, he is far from\nopposing the mystery of the real presence, or that of\ntransubstantiation, in the blessed eucharist, for both which he is an\nevident voucher in these words, not to mention others: \"The nature of\nbread and that of our Lord's body are not two bodies, but one body of\nthe Son,\" which he introduces to make a comparison with the unity of\nChrist's Person in the Incarnation. It is true, indeed, that he says the\nnature of bread remains in the sacrament: but it is easy to show that by\nthe nature of bread he means its external natural qualities or\naccidents.\n\nAmong former Latin translations of St. Chrysostom's works, only those\nmade by the learned Jesuit Fronto-le-Duc are accurate. These are\nretained by Montfaucon, who has given us a new version of those writings\nwhich Le Duc had not translated. The edition of Montfaucon in twelve\nvolumes, an. 1718, is of all others the most complete. But it is much to\nbe wished that he had favored us with a more elegant Latin translation,\nwhich might bear some degree of the beauty of the original. The Greek\nedition, made by Sir Henry Saville at Eton, in nine volumes, in 1612, is\nmore correct and more beautiful than that of the learned Benedictin, and\nusually preferred by those who stand in need of no translation.\n\n{274}\n\nAs to the French translations, that of the homilies on the epistles to\nthe Romans, Ephesians, &c., by Nicholas Fontaine, the Port-Royalist, in\n1693, was condemned by Harlay, archbishop of Paris; and recalled by the\nauthor, who undesignedly established in it the Nestorian error. The\nFrench translation of the homilies on St. John, was given us by Abbe le\nMerre: of those on Genesis and the Acts, with eighty-eight chosen\ndiscourses, by Abbe de Bellegarde, though for some time attributed to de\nMarsilly, and by others to Sacy. That of the homilies on St. Matthew,\nascribed by many to de Marsilly, was the work of le Maitre and his\nbrother Sacy. That of the homilies to the People of Antioch, was given\nto by Abbe de Maucroix in 1671. That of the saint's panegyrics on the\nmartyrs, is the work of F. Durauty de Bourecueil, an Oratorian, and made\nits appearance in 1735.\n\nSt Chrysostom wrote comments on the whole scripture, as Cassiodorus and\nSuidas testify; but of these many, with a great number of sermons, &c.,\nare lost. Theophylactus, AEcumenius, and other Greek commentators, are\nchiefly abridgers of St. Chrysostom. Even Theodoret is his disciple in\nthe excellent concise notes he composed on the sacred text. Nor can\npreachers or theologians choose a more useful master or more perfect\nmodel in interpreting the scripture; but ought to join with him some\njudicious, concise, critical commentator. As in reading the classics,\ngrammatical niceties have some advantage in settling the genuine text;\nyet if multiplied or spun out in notes, are extremely pernicious, by\ndeadening the student's genius and spirit, and burying them in rubbish,\nwhile they ought to be attentive to what will help them to acquire true\ntaste, to be employed on the beauties, ease, and gentleness of the\nstyle, and on the greatness, delicacy, and truth of the thoughts or\nsentiments, and to be animated by the life, spirit, and fire of an\nauthor; so much more in the study of the sacred writings, a competent\nskill in resolving grammatical and historical scruples in the text is of\ngreat use, and sometimes necessary in the church: in which, among the\nfathers, Origen and St. Jerom are our models. Yet from the conduct of\ndivine providence over the church, and the example of the most holy and\nmost learned among the primitive fathers, it is clear, as the learned\ndoctor Hare, bishop of Chichester, observes, that assiduous, humble, and\ndevout meditation on the spirit and divine precepts of the sacred\noracles, is the true method of studying them, both for our own\nadvantage, and for that of the church. Herein St. Chrysostom's comments\nare our most faithful assistant and best model: The divine majesty and\nmagnificence of those writings is above the reach, and beyond the power,\nof all moral wit. None but the Spirit of God could express his glory,\nand display either the mysteries of his grace, or the oracles of his\nholy law. And none but they whose hearts are disengaged from objects of\nsense, and animated with the most pure affections of every sublime\nvirtue, and whose minds are enlightened by the beams of heavenly truth,\ncan penetrate the spirit of these divine writings, and open it to us.\nHence was St. Chrysostom qualified to become the interpreter of the word\nof God, to discover its hidden mysteries of love and mercy, the perfect\nspirit of all virtues which it contains, and the sacred energy or each\nword or least circumstance.\n\nThe most ingenious Mr. Blackwall, in his excellent Introduction to the\nClassics, writes as follows on the style of St. Chrysostom, p. 139: \"I\nwould fain beg room among the classics for three primitive writers of\nthe church--St. Chrysostom, Minutius Felix, and Lactantius. St.\nChrysostom is easy and pleasant to new beginners; and has written with a\npurity and eloquence which have been the admiration of all ages. This\nwondrous man in a great measure possesses all the excellences of the\nmost valuable Greek and Roman classics. He has the invention,\ncopiousness, and perspicuity of Cicero; and all the elegance and\naccuracy of composition which is admired in Isocrates, with much greater\nvariety and freedom. According as his subject requires, he has the\neasiness and sweetness of Xenophon, and the pathetic force and rapid\nsimplicity of Demosthenes. His judgment is exquisite, his images noble,\nhis morality sensible and beautiful. No man understands human nature to\ngreater perfection, nor has a happier power of persuasion. He is always\nclear and intelligible upon the loftiest and greatest subjects, and\nsublime and noble upon the least.\" All that has been said of St.\nChrysostom's works is to be understood only of those which are truly\nhis. The irregular patched compilations from different parts of his\nwritings, made by modern Greeks, may be compared to scraps of rich\nvelvet, brocade, and gold cloth, which are clumsily sewed together with\n{}thread.\n\n{275}\n\nST. JULIAN, FIRST BISHOP OF MANS, C.\n\nTOWARDS THE END OF THE THIRD CENTURY.\n\nHE was succeeded by St. Turibius. His head is shown in the cathedral of\nMans, but the most of his relics in the neighboring Benedictin abbey of\nnuns called St. Julian's du Pre, famous for miracles; though the\ngreatest part of these relics was burnt, or scattered in the wind by the\nHuguenots, who plundered the shrine of St. Julian, in 1562. He was much\nhonored in France, and many churches built during the Norman succession\nin England, especially about the reign of Henry II., who was baptized in\nthe church of St. Julian, at Mans, bear his name: one in particular at\nNorwich, which the people by mistake imagine to have been dedicated\nunder the title of the venerable Juliana, a Benedictin nun at Norwich,\nwho died in the odor of sanctity, but never was publicly invoked as a\nsaint. St. Julian of Mans had an office in the Sarum breviary. See\nTillem. t. 4, pp. 448, 729. Gal. Christ. Nov. &c.\n\nST. MARIUS, ABBOT.\n\nDYNAMIUS, patrician of the Gauls who is mentioned by St. Gregory of\nTours, (l. 6, c. 11,) and who was for some time steward of the patrimony\nof the Roman church in Gaul, in the time of St. Gregory the Great, as\nappears by a letter of that pope to him, (in which he mentions that he\nsent him in a reliquary some of the filings of the chains of St. Peter,\nand of the gridiron of St. Laurence,) was the author of the lives of St.\nMarius and of St. Maximus of Ries. From the fragments of the former in\nBollandus, we learn that he was born at Orleans, became a monk, and\nafter some time was chosen abbot at La-Val-Benois, in the diocese of\nSisteron, in the reign of Gondebald, king of Burgundy, who died in 509.\nSt. Marius made a pilgrimage to St. Martin's, at Tours, and another to\nthe tomb of St. Dionysius, near Paris, where, falling sick, he dreamed\nthat he was restored to health by an apparition of St. Dionysius, and\nawaking, found himself perfectly recovered. St. Marius, according to a\ncustom received in many monasteries before the rule of St. Bennet, in\nimitation of the retreat of our divine Redeemer, made it a rule to live\na recluse in a forest during the forty days of Lent. In one of these\nretreats, he foresaw, in a vision, the desolation which barbarians would\nsoon after spread in Italy, and the destruction of his own monastery,\nwhich he foretold before his death, in 555. The abbey of\nLa-Val-Benois[1] being demolished, the body of the saint was translated\nto Forcalquier, where it is kept with honor in a famous collegiate\nchurch which bears his name, and takes the title of Concathedral with\nSisteron. St. Marius is called in French St. May, or St. Mary, in Spain,\nSt. Mere, and St. Maire, and in some places, by mistake, St. Marrus. See\nfragments of his life compiled by Dynamius, extant in Bollandus, with\nten preliminary observations.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  In Latin Vallis Bodonensis. Baillet and many others call it at\n    present Beuvons, or Beuvoux: but there is no such village. Bevons\n    indeed is the name of a village in Provence, one league from\n    Sisteron; but the ruins of the abbey La-Val-Benois are very\n    remarkable, in a village called St. May, in Dauphine, sixteen\n    leagues from Sisteron, in which diocese it is. See many mistakes of\n    martyrologists and geographers concerning this saint and abbey\n    rectified by Chatelain, p. 424.\n\n{276}\n\n\nJANUARY XXVIII.\n\nSAINT AGNES, V.M.\n\nA SECOND commemoration of St. Agnes occurs on this day in the ancient\nSacramentaries of pope Gelasius and St. Gregory the Great; as also in\nthe true Martyrology of Bede. It was perhaps the day of her burial, or\nof a translation of her relics, or of some remarkable favor obtained\nthrough her intercession soon after her death.\n\nST. CYRIL,\n\nPATRIARCH OF ALEXANDRIA.\n\nFrom Socrates, Marius Mercator, the councils, and his works. See\nTillemont, t. 14, p. 272. Ceillier, t. 13, p. 241.\n\nA.D. 444.\n\nST. CYRIL was raised by God to defend the faith of the Incarnation of\nhis Son, \"of which mystery he is styled the doctor, as St. Austin is of\nthat of grace,\" says Thomassin. He studied under his uncle Theophilus,\nand testifies[1] that he made it his rule never to advance any doctrine\nwhich he had not learned from the ancient Fathers. His books against\nJulian the Apostate show that he had read the profane writers. He often\nsays himself that he neglected human eloquence: and it is to be wished\nthat he had written in a clearer style, and with greater purity of the\nGreek tongue. Upon the death of Theophilus, in 412, he was raised by the\npeople to the patriarchal dignity. He began to exert his authority by\ncausing the churches of the Novatians in the city to be shut up, and\ntheir sacred vessels and ornaments to be seized; an action censured by\nSocrates, a favorer of those heretics; but we do not know the reasons\nand authority upon which he proceeded. He next drove the Jews out of the\ncity, who were very numerous, and enjoyed great privileges there from\nthe time of Alexander the Great. Seditions, and several acts of violence\ncommitted by them, excited him to this, which grievously offended\nOrestes the governor, but was approved by the emperor Theodosius: and\nthe Jews never returned. St. Cyril sent to conjure the governor by the\nholy gospels that he would consent to a reconciliation, and that he\nwould join in sincere friendship with him: but his offers were rejected.\nThis unhappy disagreement produced pernicious effects. Hypatia, a pagan\nlady, kept a public school of philosophy in the city. Her reputation for\nlearning was so great, that disciples flocked to her from all parts.\nAmong these was the great Synesius, who afterwards submitted his works\nto her censure. She was consulted by philosophers of the first rank on\nthe most intricate points of learning, and of the Platonic philosophy in\nparticular, in which she was remarkably well versed.[2] She was much\nrespected and consulted by the governor, and often visited him. The mob,\nwhich was nowhere more unruly, or more fond of riots and tumults than in\nthat populous city, the second in the world for extent, upon a {277}\nsuspicion that she incensed the governor against their bishop,\nseditiously rose, pulled her out of her chariot, cut and mangled her\nflesh, and tore her body in pieces in the streets, in 415, to the great\ngrief and scandal of all good men, especially of the pious bishop.[3][4]\nHe had imbibed certain prejudices from his uncle against the great St.\nChrysostom: but was prevailed on by St. Isidore of Pelusium, and others,\nto insert his name in the Dyptics of his church, in 419: after which,\npope Zozimus sent him letters of communion.[5]\n\nNestorius, a monk and priest of Antioch, was made bishop of\nConstantinople in 428. The retiredness and severity of his life, joined\nwith a hypocritical exterior of virtue, a superficial learning, and a\nfluency of words, gained him some reputation in the world. But being\nfull of self conceit, he neglected the study of the Fathers, was a man\nof weak judgment, extremely vain, violent, and obstinate. This is the\ncharacter he bears in the history of those times, and which is given him\nby Socrates, and also by Theodoret, whom he had formerly imposed upon by\nhis hypocrisy. Marius Mercator informs us, that he was no sooner placed\nin the episcopal chair, but he began to persecute, with great fury, the\nArians, Macedonians, Manichees, and Quartodecimans, whom he banished out\nof his diocese. But though he taught original sin, he is said to have\ndenied the necessity of grace; on which account he received to his\ncommunion Celestius and Julian, who had been condemned by the popes\nInnocent and Zozimus, and banished out of the West by the emperor\nHonorius, for Pelagianism. Theodosius obliged them to leave\nConstantinople, notwithstanding the protection of the bishop. Nestorius\nand his mercenary priests broached also new errors from the pulpit,\nteaching two distinct persons in Christ, that of God, and that of man,\nonly joined by a moral union, by which he said the Godhead dwelt in the\nhumanity merely as in its temple. Hence he denied the Incarnation, or\nthat God was made man: and said the Blessed Virgin ought not to be\nstyled the mother of God, but of the man who was Christ, whose humanity\nwas only the temple of the divinity, not a nature hypostatically assumed\nby the divine Person; though at length convicted by the voice of\nantiquity, he allowed her the empty title of mother of God, but\ncontinued to deny the mystery. The people were shocked at these\nnovelties, and the priests, St. Proclus, Eusebius, afterwards bishop of\nDorylaeum, and others, separated themselves from his communion, after\nhaving attempted in vain to reclaim him by remonstrances. His homilies,\nwherever they appeared, gave great offence, and excited everywhere\nclamors against the errors and blasphemies they contained. St. Cyril\nhaving read them, sent him a mild expostulation ob the subject, but was\nanswered with haughtiness and contempt. Pope Celestine, being applied to\nby both parties, examined his doctrine in a council at Rome; condemned\nit, and pronounced a sentence of excommunication and deposition against\nthe author, unless within ten days after notification of the sentence,\nhe publicly condemned and retracted it, appointing St. Cyril as his\nvicegerent in this affair, to see that the sentence was put in\nexecution.[6] Our saint, together with his third and last summons, sent\nNestorius twelve propositions with anathemas, hence called\nanathematisms, to be signed by him as a proof of his orthodoxy, but the\nheresiarch appeared more {278} obstinate than ever. This occasioned the\ncalling of the third general council opened at Ephesus, in 431, by two\nhundred bishops, with St. Cyril at their head, as pope Celestine's\nlegate and representative.[7] Nestorius, though in the town, and thrice\ncited, refused to appear. His heretical sermons were read, and\ndepositions received against him, after which his doctrine was\ncondemned, and the sentence of excommunication and deposition was\npronounced against him and notified to the emperor.\n\nSix days after, John, patriarch of Antioch, arrived at Ephesus with\nforty-one oriental bishops; who secretly favoring the person but not the\nerrors of Nestorius, of which they deemed him innocent, had advanced but\nslowly on their journey to the place. Instead of associating with the\ncouncil, they assembled by themselves, and presumed to excommunicate St.\nCyril and his adherents. Both sides had recourse to the emperor for\nredress, by whose order, soon after, St. Cyril and Nestorius were both\narrested and confined, but our saint the worst treated of the two. Nay,\nthrough his antagonist's greater interest at court, he was upon the\npoint of being banished, when three legates from pope\nCelestine--Arcadius and Projectus, bishops, and Philip, a\npriest--arrived at Ephesus, which gave a new turn to affairs in our\nsaint's favor. The three new legates having considered what had been\ndone under St. Cyril, the condemnation of Nestorius was confirmed, the\nsaint's conduct approved, and the sentence pronounced against him\ndeclared null and invalid. Thus, matters being cleared up, he was\nenlarged with honor. The Orientals, indeed, continued their schism till\n433, when they made their peace with St. Cyril, condemned Nestorius, and\ngave a clear and orthodox exposition of their faith. That heresiarch,\nbeing banished from his see, retired to his monastery in Antioch. John,\nthough formerly his friend, yet finding him very perverse and obstinate\nin his heresy, and attempting to pervert others, entreated the emperor\nTheodosius to remove him. He was therefore banished to Oasis, in the\ndeserts of Upper Egypt, on the borders of Libya, in 431, and died\nmiserably and impenitent in his exile. His sect remains to this day very\nnumerous in the East.[8] St. Cyril triumphed over this heresiarch by his\nmeekness, intrepidity, and courage; thanking God for his sufferings, and\nprofessing himself ready to spill his blood with joy for the gospel.[9]\nHe arrived at Alexandria on the 30th of October, 431, and spent the\nremainder of his days in maintaining the faith of the church in its\npurity, in promoting peace and union among the faithful, and the zealous\nlabors of his pastoral charge, till his glorious death in 444, on the\n28th of June, that is, the 3d of the Egyptian month Epiphi, as the\nAlexandrians, the Copts, and the Ethiopians unanimously affirm, who, by\nabridging his name, call him Kerlos, and give him the title of Doctor of\nthe world. The Greeks keep the 18th of January in his honor; and have a\nsecond commemoration of him again on the 9th of June.[10] The Roman\nMartyrology mentions him on this day. Pope Celestine styles him, \"The\ngenerous defender of the church and faith, the Catholic doctor, and an\napostolical man.\"[11]\n\nThe extraordinary devotion of this holy doctor towards the holy\nsacrament appears from the zeal with which he frequently inculcates the\nglorious effects which it produces in the soul of him who worthily\nreceives it, especially in healing all his spiritual disorders,\nstrengthening him against temptations,{279} subduing the passions,\ngiving life, and making us one with Christ by the most sacred union, not\nonly in spirit, but also with his humanity. Hence this father says that\nby the holy communion we are made concorporeal with Christ.[12] The\neminent dignity and privileges of the ever glorious Virgin Mary were\nlikewise a favorite subject on which he often dwells. In his tenth\nhomily,[13] after having often repeated her title of Mother of God, he\nthus salutes her: \"Hail, O Mary, mother of God, rich treasure of the\nworld,[14] inextinguishable lamp, crown of virginity, sceptre of the\ntrue doctrine, temple which cannot fall, the residence of him whom no\nplace can contain, Mother and Virgin, by whom He is who cometh Blessed\nin the name of the Lord. Hail, Mary, who in your virgin womb contained\nHim who is immense and incomprehensible: You through whom the whole\nblessed Trinity is glorified and adored, through whom the precious cross\nis honored and venerated over the whole world, through whom heaven\nexults, the angels and archangels rejoice, the devils are banished, the\ntempter is disarmed, the creature that was fallen is restored to heaven,\nand comes to the knowledge of the truth, through whom holy baptism is\ninstituted, through whom is given the oil of exultation, through whom\nchurches are founded over the whole earth, through whom nations are\nbrought to penance. And what need of more words? Through whom the only\nbegotten Son of God has shone the light to those who sat in darkness and\nin the shade of death, &c.--What man can celebrate the most praiseworthy\nMary according to her dignity?\"\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  Ep. 56, and 35 apud Lupum.\n2.  Synesius, ep. 153.\n3.  Vie d'Hypacie par l'abbe Goujet. Memoires de Litterature, t. 5.\n4.  It is very unjust in some moderns to charge him as conscious of so\n    horrible a crime, which shocks human nature. Great persons are never\n    to be condemned without proofs which amount to conviction. The\n    silence of Orestes, and the historian Socrates, both his declared\n    enemies, suffices to acquit him.\n5.  We have nothing further of the life of this father, until the year\n    428, when his zeal was first exerted in defence of the faith against\n    Nestorianism: we shall introduce this period of his labors with some\n    account of the author of this heresy.\n6. Conc. t. 3, p. 343. Liberat. in Breviar. c. 4.\n7. St. Leo, Ep. 72, c. 3. Conc. t. 3, p. 656, 980.\n8.  They have a liturgy under the name of Nestorius, and two others\n    which they pretend to be still more ancient. See Renaudot, liturg.\n    orient. t. 2, and Le Brun, liturg. t. 3. The former contains a clear\n    profession of transubstantiation and the sacrifice of the mass.\n9.  Ep. ad Theopomp, t. 3. Conc. p. 771.\n10. Smith on the present state of the Greek church, p. 13. Thomassin Tr.\n    des Fetes, l. 1, ch. 7.\n11. Conc. t. 3, p. 1077.\n12. {Footnote not found in text.} L. 4, contra Nestor, t. 6, parte 1, p.\n    110. l. 7, de adoratione in spiritu et verit. t. 1, p. 231, c. 10,\n    in Joan. t. 1, c. 13.\n13. T. 5, parte 2, p. 380. Item Conc. t. 3, p. 583.\n14. [Greek: Keimelion tes oikomenes]. The rich furniture of the world.\n\nAPPENDIX\n\nON\n\nTHE WRITINGS OF ST. CYRIL\n\nOF ALEXANDRIA.\n\nThe old Latin translations of the works of this father were extremely\nfaulty, before the edition of Paris, by John Aubert, in 1638, in six\ntomes, folio, bound in seven, which yet might be improved. Baluze and\nLupus have published some letters of this holy doctor, which had escaped\nAubert and Labbe. If elegance, choice of thoughts, and beauty of style\nbe wanting in his writings, these defects are compensated by the\njustness and precision with which he expresses the great truths of\nreligion, especially in clearing the terms concerning the mystery of the\nIncarnation. Hence his controversial works are the most valuable part of\nhis writings. His books against Nestorius, those against Julian, and\nthat called The Treasure, are the most finished and important.\n\nHis treatise On Adoration in Spirit and Truth, with which he begins his\ncommentary on the Bible, contains, in seventeen books, an exposition of\nseveral passages of the Pentateuch, or five books of Moses, (though not\nin order,) in moral and allegorical interpretations.\n\nIn the thirteen books entitled Glaphyrs, _i.e._ profound or elegant, the\nlonger passages of the same books are explained allegorically of Christ\nand his church.\n\nIn his commentaries on Isaiah, and the twelve lesser prophets, he gives\nboth the literal and allegorical sense.\n\nOn the Gospel of St. John, we have ten books entire, and fragments of\nthe seventh and eighth. In the old editions, the fifth, sixth, seventh,\nand eighth books, which were entirely wanting, were patched up by\nClictou from the writings of other fathers: which, for want of reading\nthe preface, have been quoted by some as St. Cyril's. In this great work,\nthe {280} saint gives not only the literal and spiritual senses of the\nsacred text, but likewise refutes the reigning heresies of that age,\nespecially those against the consubstantiality of the Son, as the\nEunomians. He also answers all the objections of the Manichees. He is\nvery clear in establishing in the holy sacrament of the altar the\nreality of Christ's body contained in it and the holy sacrifice,\nteaching that \"the holy body of Christ gives life to us when received,\nand preserves us in it, being the very body of life itself, according to\nnature, and containing all the virtue of the Word united to it, and\nbeing endued with all his efficacy by whom all things receive life, and\nare preserved.\" (L. 4, in Joan. p. 324.) That we shall, by tasting it,\n\"have life in us, being united together with his body as it is with the\nWord dwelling in it.\" (Ibid. p. 361.) That \"as death had devoured all\nhuman nature, he who is life, being in us by his flesh, might overcome\nthat tyrant.\" (Ibid. p. 272.) \"Christ by his flesh, hides in us life and\na seed of immortality, which destroys in us all corruption,\" (Ibid. p.\n363,) and \"heals our diseases, assuaging the law of the flesh raging in\nour members.\" (ibid. p. 365.) In the tenth look he is most diffusive and\nclear on this sacrament, extolling its miraculous institution, the most\nexalted of all God's mysteries, above our comprehension, and the\nwonderful manner by which we are united and made one with him; not by\naffection, but by natural participation; which he calls \"a mixture, an\nincorporation, a blending together; for as wax melted and mingled with\nanother piece of melted wax, makes one; so by partaking of his precious\nbody and blood, he is united in us, and we in him,\" &c. (L. 10, in Joan.\npp. 862, 863, item pp. 364, 365.) See the longer and clearer texts of\nthis doctrine in this book itself, and in the controversial writers upon\nthat subject. Also, in his works Against Nestorius, whom he confutes\nfrom the blessed eucharist, proving Christ's humanity to be the humanity\nof the divine Person. \"This,\" says he, \"I cannot but add in this place,\nnamely, that when we preach the death of the only begotten Son of God,\nthat is, of Jesus Christ, and his resurrection from the dead, and\nconfess his ascension into heaven, we celebrate the unbloody sacrifice\nin the church, and do by this means approach the mystical benedictions,\nand are sanctified, being made partakers of the sacred flesh and\nprecious blood of Christ, the Saviour of us all. And we do not receive\nit as common flesh, ([Greek: me genoito],) God forbid; nor as the flesh\nof man who is sanctified and joined to the Word by a unity of dignity,\nor as having a divine habitation; but we receive it, as it is truly, the\nlife-giving and proper flesh of the Word.\" (Ep. ad Nestorium, de\nExcommun. p. 72, t. 5, par. 2, and in Declaratione undecimi\nAnathematismi, t. 6, p. 156.) In this latter place he speaks of it also\nas a true sacrifice: \"We perform in the churches the holy and\nlife-giving and unbloody sacrifice, believing the body which is placed,\nand the precious blood to be made the very body and blood of the Word,\nwhich gives life to all things, &c. He proves that it is only to be\noffered in Catholic churches, in the only one house of Christ\" (L. adv.\nAnthropomorph. t. 6, p. 380.) He heard that some imagined that the\nmystical benediction is lost if the eucharist is kept to another day;\nbut says, \"they are mad; for Christ is not altered, nor his body\nchanged.\" (T. 6, p. 365, ep. ad Calosyrium.) In his fourth book on St.\nJohn, (t. 4, p. 358,) he as expressly confutes the Jewish doubt about\nthe possibility of the holy sacrament, as if he had the modern\nSacramentarians in view.\n\nTo refute the whole system of Arianism, he wrote the book which he\ncalled The Treasure, which he divided into thirty-five titles or\nsections. He answers in it all the objections of those heretics, and\nestablishes from scripture the divinity of the Son of God; and from\ntitle thirty-three, that of the Holy Ghost.\n\nHis book On the Holy and Consubstantial Trinity, consists of seven\ndialogues, and was composed at the request of Nemesm and Hermias. This\nwork was also written to prove the consubstantiality of Christ, but is\nmore obscure than the former. The holy doctor added two other Dialogues,\nthe eighth and ninth, On the Incarnation, against the errors of\nNestorius, then only known by report at Alexandria. He afterwards\nsubjoined Scholia, to answer certain objections; likewise a short book\nOn the Incarnation, in which he proves the holy Virgin to be, as she is\ncalled, the Mother of God; as Jesus Christ is at the same time both the\nSon of God, and the Son of man. By his skirmishes with the Arians he was\nprepared to oppose and crush the extravagances of Nestorius, broached at\nthat time against the same adorable mystery of the Incarnation, of which\nGod raised our holy doctor the champion in his church; for by his\nwritings he both stifled the heresy of Nestorius in the cradle, and\nfurnished posterity with arms against that of Eutyches, says Basil of\nSeleucia. (T. 4, Conc. p. 925.)\n\nSt. Cyril composed at Ephesus his three treatises On the Right Faith,\nagainst Nestorius. The first is addressed to the Emperor Theodosius. It\ncontains an enumeration of the heresies against the Incarnation, namely,\nof Cerinthus, Photinus, Apollinaris, and Nestorius, with a refutation of\neach, especially the last. The second is inscribed to the princesses\nPulcheria, Arcadia, and Marina, the emperor's sisters, all virgins,\nconsecrated to God. This contains the proofs of the Catholic faith\nagainst Nestorius. The third is a confutation of the heretics'\nobjections against it.\n\nHis five books against Nestorius, are the neatest and best penned of his\npolemic writings. They contain a refutation of the blasphemous homilies\nof that heresiarch, who yet is never {281} named in them; by which\ncircumstance they seem to have been written before his condemnation. St.\nCyril sent to Nestorius twelve Anathematisms against his errors. This\nwork was read in the council of Ephesus, and is entirely orthodox, yet\nsome censured it as favoring Apollinarism, or as denying the distinction\nof two natures in Christ, the divine and human, after the Incarnation;\nand the Eutychians afterwards strained them in favor of their heresy.\nJohn, patriarch of Antioch, prepossessed against St. Cyril, pretended\nfor some time to discover that error in them; and persuaded Andrew,\nbishop of Samosata, and the great Theodoret of Cyr, to write against\nthem. St. Cyril gave in his clear Explication of them to the council of\nEphesus, at its desire, extant, p. 145.\n\nHe also wrote, soon after that synod, two Apologies of the\nAnathematisms; one against Andrew of Samosata, and other Oriental\nprelates, who through mistake were offended at them; and the other,\nagainst Theodoret of Cyr. And lastly, An Apologetic for them to the\nemperor Theodosius, to remove some sinister suspicions which his enemies\nhad endeavored to give that prince against his sentiments in that work.\n\nThe Anthropomorphite heretics felt likewise the effects of St. Cyril's\nzeal. These were certain ignorant monks of Egypt, who having been taught\nby the elders, in order to help their gross minds in the continual\npractice of the presence of God, to represent him to themselves under a\ncorporeal human figure, by which they at length really believed him to\nbe not a pure spirit, but corporeal, like a man; because man was created\nto his image. Theophilus immediately condemned, and the whole church\nexploded, this monstrous absurdity. St. Cyril wrote a letter to confute\nit to Calosyrius, bishop of Arsinoe, showing that man is framed\naccording to the Divine image, not in his body, for God being the most\npure Spirit, can have no sensible figure, but in being endued with\nreason, and capable of virtue. In the same letter he rejects a second\nerror of other ignorant monks, who imagined that the blessed Eucharist\nlost its consecration if kept to the following day. He reprehends other\nanchorets, who, upon a pretence of continual prayer, did not work at\ncertain hours of the day, making it a cloak of gluttony and laziness.\nThe saint has left us another book against the Anthropomorphites, in\nwhich he proves that man is made to God's image, by bearing the\nresemblance of his sanctity, by grace and virtue. So he says the angels\nare likewise made to his likeness. He answers in this book twenty-seven\ndogmatical questions put to him by the same monks.\n\nHe wrote, in the years 437 and 438, two Dogmatical Letters (pp. 51 and\n52) against certain propositions of Theodorus of Mopsuestia, the\nforerunner of Nestorius, though he had died in the communion of the\nchurch.\n\nThe book on the Trinity cannot be St. Cyril's; for it refutes the\nMonothelite heresy, not known before the year 620.\n\nJulian the Apostate, while he was preparing for the Persian war, had,\nwith the assistance of Maximus and his other impious philosophers,\npublished three books against the holy gospels, which were very\nprejudicial to weak minds; though nothing was advanced in them that had\nnot been said by Celsus, and fully answered by Origen in his books\nagainst that philosopher, and by Eusebius in his Evangelical\nPreparation. St. Cyril, out of zeal, composed ten books against Julian,\nwhich he dedicated to the emperor Theodosius; and also sent to John of\nAntioch to show the sincerity of his reconciliation. In this work he has\npreserved us Julian's words, omitting only his frequent repetitions and\npuerilities. Nor have we any thing else of that work of the Apostate,\nbut what is preserved here by St. Cyril. He begins by warning the\nemperor against bad company, by which Julian fell into such extravagant\nimpieties. In the first book he justifies Moses's history of the world,\nand proves with great erudition from profane history that its events are\nposterior, and the heathen sages and historians younger than that divine\nlawgiver, from whom they all borrowed many things. In the second, he\ncompares the sacred history of the creation, which Julian had pretended\nto ridicule, with the puerilities and absurdities of Pythagoras, Thales,\nPlato, &c., of whom Julian was an admirer to a degree of folly. In the\nthird, he vindicates the history of the Serpent, and of Adam's fall; and\nretorts the ridiculous Theogony of Hesiod, &c. In the fourth, he shows\nthat God governs all things by himself, not by inferior deities, as\nJulian pretended, the absurdity of which he sets forth: demonstrating,\nlikewise, that things are ruled by a wise free providence; not by\ndestiny or necessity, which even Porphyry and the wiser heathens had\njustly exploded, though the Apostate adopted that monstrous doctrine. He\njustifies against his cavils the history of the Tower of Babel: and in\nhis fifth book, the Ten Commandments; showing in the same, that God is\nnot subject to jealousy, anger, or other passions, though he has an\ninfinite horror of sin. Julian objected that we also adore God the Son,\nconsequently have two gods. St. Cyril answers that he is the same God\nwith the Father. In the sixth book he reports the shameful vices of\nSocrates, Plato, and their other heroes of paganism, in opposition to\nthe true virtues of the prophets and saints. Julian reproached Christ\nthat he did not appear great in the world, and only cured the pool, and\ndelivered demoniacs in villages; he reprehended Christians for refusing\nto adore the noble ensign, the gift of Jupiter or Mars; yet, says he,\nyou adore the wood of {282} the cross, make its sign on your forehead,\nand engrave it on the porches of your houses ([Greek: To toutu saurou\nproskuneite tzolon, eikonas autou skiagrafountes en to metopo, kai pro\nton opennatos eggrafontes.] L. 6, adv. Jul. t. 6, p. 194.) To which St.\nCyril answers, (p. 195:) We glory in this sign of the precious cross,\nsince Christ triumphed on it; and it is to us the admonition of all\nvirtue. This father says in another place, (in Isaiam, t. 4, p. 294:)\n\"The faithful arm and intrench themselves with the sign of the cross,\noverthrowing and breaking by it the power, and every assault of the\ndevils: for the cross is to us an impregnable rampart.\" In this sixth\nbook he produces the open acknowledgment of Julian that the heathenish\noracles had all ceased; but this he ascribed to old age and length of\ntime. St. Cyril shows the extravagance of this supposition, and that the\ntrue reason was, because the power of the devil had been restrained by\nthe coming of Christ. He mentions the same in his Commentary on Isaiah,\n(t. 2, p. 596.) In the seventh book, he proves that the great men in the\ntrue religion far surpassed in virtue all the heroes of paganism. In the\neighth and ninth, that Christ was foretold by the ancient prophets, and\nthat the Old and New Law are in substance the same. In the tenth he\nproves, that not only St. John, but all the Evangelists, teach Christ to\nbe truly God. Julian objects, (pp. 333, 335, 339, and 350,) that we also\nadore the martyrs and their sepulchres: \"Why do you prostrate yourselves\nat the sepulchres?--which it is to be believed your Apostles did after\nthe death of their Master, and taught you this art magic,\" (p. 339.) The\nsaint answers, We make an infinite difference between God and the\nmartyrs: which he had before told him, (l. 6, pp. 201 and 203,) where he\nwrites, \"We neither call the martyrs gods, nor adore them with divine\nworship; but with affection and honor reverence them: we pay them the\nhighest honors, because they contemned their life for the truth,\" &c.\n\nWe have in the second part of the fifth tome several Homilies and\nLetters of this saint. It was ordained by the council of Nice that the\nbishop of Alexandria, in which city chiefly flourished the sciences of\nmathematics and astronomy, should at the end of every year examine\ncarefully on what day the next Easter was to be kept. They, by custom,\nacquainted by a circular letter other bishops near them, and in\nparticular the bishop of Rome, that he might notify it to all the\nprelates of the West. St. Cyril was very exact in this duty. Possevin\nsays he saw his paschal discourses in the Vatican library, for every\nyear of hie episcopacy, namely thirty-one, from the year 414. We have\nbut twenty-nine printed: those for 443 and 444 being wanting. He spoke\nthem to his own flock, as well as sent them to other bishops; and marks\nin each the beginning of Lent, the Monday and Saturday in Holy Week, and\nEaster-day, counting Lent exactly of forty days. In these paschal\nhomilies he exceedingly recommends the advantages of fasting; which he\nshows (Hom. 1.) to be the \"source of all virtues, the image of an\nangelical life, the extinction of lust, and the preparation of a soul to\nheavenly communications.\" He says, \"If it seems at first bitter and\nlaborious, its fruits and reward infinitely compensate the pains; for\nmore should seem nothing for the purchase of virtue: even in temporal\nthings, nothing valuable can be obtained without labor and cost. If we\nare afraid of fasting here, we shall fall into eternal flames hereafter;\nan evil infinitely worse, and quite intolerable.\" In the following\nhomilies he extols the absolute necessity of this mortification, to\ncrucify in us the old man, and punish past irregularities; but shows it\nmust be accompanied with alms and other good works. In his latter\npaschal discourses, and others extant, he explains the mystery of the\nIncarnation against Nestorianism and other heresies. The ninth homily is\nOn the Mystical Supper, or Holy Banquet of the Communion and Sacrifice,\nin which \"the tremendous mystery is performed, and the Lamb of God\nsacrificed, (p. 271;) in which (p. 272) the Eternal Wisdom distributes\nhis body as bread, and his saving blood as wine: the Maker gives himself\nto the work of his own hands. Life bestows itself to be eat and drunk by\nmen,\" &c. At this divine table he cries out, (p. 376,) \"I am filled with\ndread when I behold it. I am transported cut of myself with astonishment\nwhen I consider it,\" &c. He proves, against Nestorianism, (p. 318,) that\nthere is but one Person in Christ, because in this holy sacrament is\nreceived his true body and blood: not the Divinity alone, which nobody\ncould receive, nor a pure man's body, which could not give life; but a\nman made the Word of God--who is Christ, the Son of the living God, one\nof the adorable Trinity. He remains the priest and the victim: he who\noffers, and he who is offered. ([Greek: Oti autos menei hiereus kai\nlusia, autos ho prosferon kai ho prosferomenos.] p. 378.) In the tenth\nhomily he pronounces an encomium of the blessed Mary, mother of God.\nThis was delivered at Ephesus, in an assembly of bishops, during the\ncouncil; for he apostrophizes that city, and St. John the Evangelist,\nits protector. In it he calls the pope \"the most holy Celestine, the\nfather and archbishop of the whole world, and the patriarch of the great\ncity Rome.\" (Ib. Encom. in St. Mariam. part 2, p. 384.) He more clearly\nextols the supreme prerogative of the church of Rome, founded on the\nfaith of Peter; which church is perpetual, impregnable to hell, and\nconfirmed beyond the danger of falling. (Dial. 4, de Trinit. pp. 507,\n508.) His eleventh homily is On the Presentation, or, as the Greeks call\nit, [Greek: apantesis]. The meeting of the Lord in the Temple, and The\nPurification of our Lady, in which he speaks of the lamp or candles used\non that festival. He has a pathetic Sermon on the Pains of {283} Hell:\nhe paints the terrors of the last Judgment in a manner which cannot fail\nto make a strong impression upon all who read it. (Or. de Exitu animi,\net de secundo Adventu.)\n\nThe epistles which we have from his pen all relate to the public affairs\nof the church, and principally those of Nestorius. His second letter to\nthat heresiarch, and his letter to the Orientals, were adopted by the\ngeneral councils of Ephesus and Chalcedon, and are a rule of the\nCatholic faith. His sixteenth letter is placed among the canons of the\nGreek church. In it be recommends to the bishops of Libya and\nPentapolis, the strictest scrutiny of the capacity and manners of those\nwho are admitted to holy Orders; and the greatest solicitude and\nwatchfulness that no one die without baptism, if only a catechumen, and\nthe Holy Eucharist or Viaticum. See Beveridge.\n\nSS. THYRSUS, LEUCIUS, AND CALLINICUS, MM.\n\nTHEIR Greek and Latin Acts agree that, after suffering many torments,\nthey were put to death, on three different days, at Apollonia, in\nPhrygia, in the persecution of Decius. Sozomen tells us that Caesarius,\nwho had been prefect and consul, built at Constantinople a magnificent\nchurch under the invocation of St. Thyrsus, with a portion of whose\nrelics it was enriched. Another church within the city bore his name, as\nappears from the Menaea, on the 14th of December. In the cathedral of our\nLady at Sisteron, in a church at Limoges, &c., St. Thymus is one of the\npatrons. Many churches in Spain bear his name. Silon, King of Oviedo and\nAsturia, in a letter to Cyxilas, archbishop of Toledo in 777, says that\nthe queen had sent presents to the church of St. Thyrsus, which the\narchbishop had built, viz. a silver chalice and paten, a basin to wash\nthe hands in, with a pipe and a diadem on the cover, to be used when the\nblood of our Lord was distributed to the people.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  Cum suo naso. Du Cange, not understanding this word, substitutes\n    vaso. But nasus here signifies a silver pipe or quill to suck up the\n    blood of Christ at the communion, such as the pope sometimes uses.\n    Such a one is kept at St. Denys's, near Paris. The ancient Ordo\n    Romanus calls that _pugillar_ which is here called nasus, because it\n    sucks up as a nose draws up air. In the reign of Philip II., in\n    1595, in certain ruins near the cathedral of Toledo, this cover of\n    the chalice was discovered with the diadem. Chatelain, p. 440.\n\nST. JOHN OF REOMAY, A.\n\nNOW CALLED MOUTIER-SAINT-JEAN, IN BURGUNDY\n\nHE was a native of the diocese of Langres, and took the monastic habit\nat Lerins. He was called into his own country by the bishop of Langres\nto found the abbey from which he received his surname. He settled it\nunder the rule of St. Macarius, governed it many years with great\nreputation of sanctity, and was rendered famous by miracles. He went to\nGod about the year 540, being almost one hundred and twenty years old,\nand was one of the holy institutors of the monastic state in France. St.\nGregory of Tours gives an account of him in the eighty-seventh chapter\nof his book, On the Glory of Confessors. His life was also compiled by\nJonas, the disciple of Columban, extant in Bollandus. See P. Rover,\nHist. Monast. S. Joan. Reom. Paris, 1637.\n\n{284}\n\nB. MARGARET, PRINCESS OF HUNGARY, V.\n\nSHE was daughter to Bala IV., the pious king of Hungary. Her parents\nconsecrated her to God by a vow before her birth, and when but three\nyears and a half old she was placed in the monastery of Dominican nuns\nat Vesprin, and at ten removed to a new nunnery of that order, founded\nby her father in an isle of the Danube, near Buda, called from her the\nisle of St. Margaret. She was professed at twelve.[1] In her tender age\nshe outstripped the most advanced in devotion, and was favored with\nextraordinary communications from heaven. It was her delight to serve\neverybody, and to practise every kind of humiliation: she never spoke of\nherself, as if she was beneath all notice: never loved to see her royal\nparents, or to speak of them, saying it was her misfortune that she was\nnot of poor parentage. Her mortifications were excessive. She endeavored\nto conceal her sicknesses for fear of being dispensed with or shown any\nindulgence in the rule. From her infancy she conceived the most ardent\ndevotion towards her crucified Redeemer, and kissed very often, both by\nday and night, a little cross made of the wood of our Saviour's cross,\nwhich she always carried about her. She commonly chose to pray before\nthe altar of the cross. Her affection for the name of Jesus made her\nhave it very frequently in her mouth, which she repeated with incredible\ninward feeling and sweetness. Her devotion to Christ in the blessed\nsacrament was most remarkable: she often wept abundantly, or appeared in\necstasies during the mass, and much more when she herself received the\ndivine spouse of her soul: on the eve she took nothing but bread and\nwater, and watched the night in prayer. On the day itself she remained\nin prayer and fasting till evening, and then took a small refection. She\nshowed a sensible joy in her countenance when she heard any festival of\nour Lady announced, through devotion to the mother of God; she performed\non them, and during the octaves, one thousand salutations each day,\nprostrating herself on the ground at each, besides saying the office of\nour blessed Lady every day. If any one seemed offended at her, she fell\nat their feet and begged their pardon. She was always the first in\nobedience, and was afraid to be excepted if others were enjoined penance\nfor a breach of silence or any other fault. Her bed was a coarse skin,\nlaid on the bare floor, with a stone for her pillow. She was favored\nwith the gift of miracles and prophecy. She gave up her pure soul to\nGod, after a short illness, on the 18th of January, in the year 1271,\nand of her age the twenty-eighth. Her body is preserved at Presbourg.\nSee her life by Guerinus, a Dominican, by order of his general, in 1340:\nand an abridgment of the same by Ranzano. She was never canonized, but\nis honored with an office in all the churches in Hungary, especially\nthose of the Dominicans in that kingdom, by virtue of a decree of Pope\nPius II, as Touron assures us.[2]\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  Touron, Vies des Hommes Illustres de l'Ordre de St. Dominique, in\n    Humbert des Romains, fifth general of the Dominicans, t. 1, p. 325.\n2.  Touron, ib. in Innocent V. t. 1, p. 384.\n\nST. PAULINUS, PATRIARCH OF AQUILEIA, C.\n\nONE of the most illustrious and most holy prelates of the eighth and\nninth centuries was Paulinus, patriarch of Aquileia, who seems to have\nbeen born {285} about the year 728, in a country farm, not far from\nFriuli. His family could boast of no advantages of fortune, and his\nparents having no other revenue than what arose from the tillage of\ntheir farm, he spent part of his youth in agriculture. Yet he found\nleisure for his studios, and in process of time became so eminent a\ngrammarian and professor, that Charlemagne honored him with a rescript,\nin which he styles him Master of Grammar, and Very Venerable. This\nepithet seems to imply that he was then priest. The same prince, in\nrecompense of his extraordinary merit, bestowed on him an estate in his\nown country. It seems to have been about the year 776, that Paulinus was\npromoted, against his will, to the patriarchate of Aquileia, which\ndignity had not then been long annexed to that see, after the extinction\nof the schism of Istria. From the zeal, abilities, and piety of St.\nPaulinus, this church derived its greatest lustre. Such was his\nreputation, that Charlemagne always expressed a particular desire that\nhe should be present at all the great councils which were assembled in\nhis time, though in the remotest part of his dominions. He assisted at\nthose of Aix-la-Chapelle in 789, of Ratisbon in 792, and of Frankfort in\n794; and held himself one at Friuli, in 791, or 796, against the errors\nwhich some had begun to spread in that age concerning the Procession of\nthe Holy Ghost, and the mystery of the Incarnation.\n\nFelix, bishop of Urgel in Catalonia, in a letter to Elipandus, bishop of\nToledo, who had consulted him on that subject, before the year 783,\npretended to prove that Christ as man is not the natural, but only the\nadoptive Son of God: which error he had already advanced in his public\ndiscourses.[1] The rising error was vigorously opposed by Beatus, a\npriest and abbot, and his disciple Etherius, who was afterwards bishop\nof Osma. Soon after it was condemned by a council at Narbonne, in\n788,[2] and by another at Ratisbon, in 792, while Charlemagne kept his\ncourt in that city. Felix revoked his error first in this council at\nRatisbon, and afterwards before pope Leo III. at Rome.[3] Yet after his\nreturn into Spain he continued both by letters and discourses to spread\nhis heresy; which was therefore again condemned in the great council of\nFrankfort, in 794, in which a work of our saint, entitled\nSacro-Syllabus, against the same, was approved, and ordered to be sent\ninto Spain, to serve for all antidote against the spreading poison.[4]\nFrom this book of St. Paulinus it is clear that Elipandus also returned\nto the vomit. Alcuin returning from England, where he had stayed three\nyears, in 793, wrote a tender moving letter to Felix, exhorting him\nsincerely to renounce his error. But the unhappy man, in a long answer,\nendeavored to establish his heresy so roundly as to fall into downright\nNestorianism, which indeed is a consequence of his erroneous principle.\nFor Christ as man cannot be called the adoptive Son of God, unless his\nhuman nature subsist by a distinct person from the divine.[5] By an\norder of Charlemagne, Alcuin and St. Paulinus solidly confuted the\nwritings of these two heresiarchs, the former in seven, our saint in\nthree books. Alcuin wrote four other books against the pestilential\nwritings of Elipandus, in which he testifies that Felix was then at\nRome, and converted to the Catholic faith. Elipandus, who was not a\nsubject of Charlemagne, could not be compelled to appear before the\ncouncils held in his dominions, Toledo being at that time subject to the\nMoors. Felix, after his relapse, returned to the faith with his\nprincipal followers in the council of Aix-la-Chapelle, in 797.[6] From\nthat time he concealed his heresy, but continued in secret to defend it,\nand at his {286} death, in 815, left a written profession of his\nheresy.[7] Elipandus died in 809.[8]\n\nThe zeal of St. Paulinus was not less successful in the conversion of\ninfidels than in the extinction of this heresy. Burning with zeal for\nthe salvation of souls, and a vehement desire of laying down his life\nfor Christ, he preached the gospel to the idolaters, who had remained to\nthat time obstinately attached to their superstition among the Carantani\nin Carinthia and Stiria; in which provinces also St. Severinus the\nabbot, who died in 481, and afterwards St. Virgilius, bishop of\nSaltzburg, who died in 785, planted several numerous churches. Whence a\ncontest arising between Arno, St. Virgilius's successor, and Ursus, the\nsuccessor of Paulinus, to which see Carinthia ought to be annexed, it\nwas settled in 811, that the churches which are situated on the south of\nthe Drave should be subject of the patriarchate of Aquileia, and those\non the north to the archbishopric of Saltzburg.[9] The Avares, a\nbarbarous nation of Huns, who were settled in part of Pannonia, and were\ntwice subdued by Charlemagne, received the faith by the preaching of St.\nPaulinus, and of certain missionaries sent by the archbishops of\nSaltzburg.[10] Henry, a virtuous nobleman, being appointed by\nCharlemagne Duke of Friuli, and governor of that country which he had\nlately conquered, St. Paulinus wrote for his use an excellent book Of\nExhortation, in which he strongly invites him to aspire with his whole\nheart after Christian perfection, and lays down the most important rules\non the practice of compunction and penance: on the remedies against\ndifferent vices, especially pride, without which he shows that no sin\never was, or will be committed, this being the beginning, end, and cause\nof all sin:[11] on an earnest desire and study to please God with all\nour strength in all our actions:[12] on assiduous prayer and its\nessential dispositions: on the holy communion, of the preparation to\nwhich after sin he shows confession and penance to be an essential\npart:[13] on shunning bad company, &c. He closes the book with a most\nuseful prayer; and in the beginning promises his prayers for the\nsalvation of the good duke. By tears and prayers he ceased not to draw\ndown the blessings of the divine mercy on the souls committed to his\ncharge. Alcuin earnestly besought him as often as bathed in tears he\noffered the spotless victim to the divine Majesty, to implore the divine\nmercy in his behalf.[14] In 802, St. Paulinus assembled a council at\nAltino, a city near the Adriatic sea, which had been destroyed by\nAttila, and was at that time only a shadow of what it had been, though\nfamous for a monastery, in which this synod was probably held.[15] It is\nlong since entirely decayed. St. Paulinus closed a holy life by a happy\ndeath on the 11th of January, in 804, as Madrisius proves.[16] His\nfestival occurs on this day in the old missal of Aquileia, and in\nseveral German Martyrologies: but it is at present kept at Aquileia,\nFriuli, and in some other places, on the 28th of January.[17] See the\nlife of St. Paulinus of Aquileia, compiled by Nicoletti, {287} with the\nnotes of Madrisius; and far more accurately by Madrisius himself an\nOratorian of U{}na, who in 1737 published at Venice the works of this\nfather in folio, illustrated with long notes and dissertations on every\ncircumstance relating to the history or writings of our saint. See also\nCeillier t. 18, p. 262, and Bollandus ad 11 Januarii.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  See Madrisius, Dissert. 4, p. 214.\n2.  On this council see Baluse, additam. ad. e. 25, l. 6, Petri de\n    Marca, de Concord. Sacerd. et. Imp.\n3.  Leo III. in Conc. Rom. 799. Act. 2, et Eginard in Annal. &c.\n4.  See Madrisius, dissert. 4, p. 219.\n5.  See Natal. Alex. Saec. 8. diss. 5.\n6.  Alcuin, l. 1, contra Elipand.\n7.  Agobard, l. 1, adv. Felicem. n. 1 & 5.\n8.  From certain false chronicles, Iamayo and Ceillier (in St. Beatus.\n    t. 18, p. 364,) relate that Ellpandus revoked his error in a council\n    which he held at Toledo, and died penitent. Madrisius shows this\n    circumstance to be uncertain, (Diss. 4, in op. S. Paulini, p. 225,)\n    and Nicolas Antony of Seville, in his Bibl. Hisp. l. 6, c. 2, n. 42,\n    has proved the monuments upon which it is founded to be of no\n    authority. Claudius, bishop of Turin, a disciple of Felix of Urgel,\n    renewed this heresy in Italy, and denied the veneration due to holy\n    images, and was refuted by Jonas, bishop of Orleans, and others.\n9.  Sconleben, Annal. Austr. and Madrisius, Vit. S. Paulini, c. 8.\n10. Alcuin. ep. 112. F. Inchofer, in Annal. Hungar. Eccl. ad an. 795.\n    Madrisius, in Vit. St. Paulini, c. 8, p. 31.\n11. St. Paulin. l, Exhort. ad Henr. ducem. c. 19, p. 29.\n12. C. 24, p. 34.\n13. C. 33, p. 29. See 1 Corinth. xi. 28, St. Cypr. ep. 9, 10, 11, and\n    Tract. de Lapsis.\n14. Alcuin, ep. 113, and Poem. 214.\n15. See Madrisius, Dissert. 6.\n16. Mardis. in Vita St. Paulini, c. 13, p. 37.\n17. Besides the polemical and spiritual works of St. Paulinus of\n    Aquileia, mentioned above, we have several poems of his composition:\n    the first contains a rule of faith against the Arians, Nestorians,\n    and Eutychians: the rest are hymns or rhythms on the Chair of St.\n    Peter, and on several other festivals and saints. Among his letters\n    the second is most remarkable, in which he complains severely to\n    Charlemagne that several bishops attending the court neglected to\n    reside in their dioceses. Against this abuse he quotes the council\n    of Sardica, which forbade any bishop to be absent from his see above\n    three weeks. Madrisius, p. 188.\n\nB. CHARLEMAGNE, EMPEROR.\n\nCHARLEMAGNE, or Charles the Great, son of king Pepin, was born in 742,\nand crowned king of France in 768; but his youngest brother Carloman\nreigned in Austrasia till his death, in 771. Charlemagne vanquished\nHunauld, duke of Aquitaine, and conquered the French Gothia or\nLanguedoc; subdued Lombardy; conferred on pope Adrian the exarchate of\nRavenna, the duchy of Spoletto, and many other dominions; took Pavia,\n(which had been honored with the residence of twenty kings,) and was\ncrowned king of Lombardy in 774. The emir Abderamene in Spain, having\nshaken off the yoke of the caliph of the Saracens, in 736, and\nestablished his kingdom at Cordova, and other emirs in Spain setting up\nindependency, Charlemagne, in 778, marched as far as the Ebro and\nSaragossa, conquered Barcelona, Gironne, and many other places, and\nreturned triumphant. His cousin Roland, who followed him with the rear\nof his army, in his return was set upon in the Pyrenean mountains by a\ntroop of Gascon robbers, and slain; and is the famous hero of numberless\nold French romances and songs. The Saxons having in the king's absence\nplundered his dominions upon the Rhine, he flew to the Weser, and\ncompelled them to make satisfaction. Thence he went to Rome, and had his\ninfant sons crowned kings, Pepin of Lombardy, and Lewis of Aquitaine.\nThe great revolt of the Saxons, in 782, called him again on that side.\nWhen they were vanquished, and sued for pardon, he declared he would no\nmore take their oaths which they had so often broken, unless they became\nChristians. Witikind embraced the condition, was baptized with his chief\nfollowers in 785, and being created duke of part of Saxony, remained\never after faithful in his religion and allegiance. From him are\ndescended, either directly or by intermarriages, many dukes of Bavaria,\nand the, present houses of Saxony, Brandenburg, &c., as may be seen in\nthe German genealogists. Some other Saxons afterwards revolted, and were\nvanquished and punished in 794, 798, &c., so that, through their\nrepeated treachery and rebellions, this Saxon war continued at intervals\nfor the space of thirty-three years. Thassillon, duke of Bavaria, for\ntreasonable practices, was attacked by Charlemagne in 788, vanquished,\nand obliged to put on a monk's cowl to save his life: from which time\nBavaria was annexed to Charlemagne's dominions. To punish the Abares for\ntheir inroads, he crossed the Inns into their territories, sacked\nVienna, and marched to the mouth of the Raab, upon the Danube. In 794,\nhe assisted at the great council of Frankfort, held in his royal palace\nthere. He restored Leo III. at Rome, quelled the seditions there, and\nwas crowned by him on Christmas-day, in 800, emperor of Rome and of the\nWest: in which quality he was afterwards solemnly acknowledged by\nNicephorus, emperor of Constantinople. Thus was the western empire\nrestored, which had been extinct in Momylus Agustulus in the fifth\ncentury. In 805, Charlemagne quelled and conquered the Sclavonians. The\nDanube, {288} the Teisse, and the Oder on the East, and the Ebro and the\nocean on the West, were the boundaries of his vast dominions. France,\nGermany, Dacia, Dalmatia, Istria, Italy, and part of Pannonia and Spain,\nobeyed his laws. It was then customary for kings not to reside in great\ncities, but to pass the summer often in progresses or campaigns, and the\nwinter at some country palace. King Pepin resided at Herstal, now Jopin,\nin the territory of Liege, and sometimes at Quiercy on the Oise:\nCharlemagne often at Frankfort or Aix-la-Chapelle, which were country\nseats; for those towns were then inconsiderable places: though the\nlatter had been founded by Serenas Granus in 124, under Adrian. It owes\nits greatness to the church built there by Charlemagne.\n\nThis prince was not less worthy of our admiration in the quality of a\nlegislator than in that of a conqueror; and in the midst of his marches\nand victories, he gave the utmost attention to the wise government of\nhis dominions, and to every thing that could promote the happiness of\nhis people, the exaltation of the church, and the advancement of piety\nand every branch of sacred and useful learning.[1] What pains he took\nfor the reformation of monasteries, and for the sake of uniformity\nintroducing in them the rule of St. Bennet, appears from his\ntransactions, and several ecclesiastical assemblies in 789. His zeal for\nthe devout observance of the rites of the church is expressed in his\nbook to Alcuin on that subject, and in his encyclical epistle on the\nrites of baptism,[2] and in various works which he commissioned Alcuin\nand others to compile. For the reformation of manners, especially of the\nclergy, he procured many synods to be held, in which decrees were\nframed, which are called his Capitula.[3] His Capitulars, divided into\nmany chapters, are of the same nature. The best edition of these\nCapitulars is given by Baluzius, with dissertations, in 1677, two vols.\nfolio. The Carolin Books are a theological work, (adopted by this\nprince, who speaks in the first person,) compiled in four books, against\na falsified copy of the second council of Nice, sent by certain\nIconoclasts from Constantinople, on which see F. Daniel[4] and\nCeillier.[5]\n\nThere never was a truly great man, who was not a lover and encourager of\nlearning, as of the highest improvement of the human mind. Charlemagne,\nby most munificent largesses, invited learned men over from foreign\nparts, as Alcuin, Peter of Pisa, Paul the deacon, &c., found no greater\npleasure than in conversing with them, instituted an academy in his own\npalace, and great schools at Paris, Tours, &c., assisted at literary\ndisputations, was an excellent historian, and had St. Austin's book, On\nthe City of God, laid every night under his pillow to read if he awaked.\nYet Eginhard assures us that whatever pains he took, he could never\nlearn to write, because he was old when he first applied himself to it.\nHe was skilled in astronomy, arithmetic, music, and every branch of the\nmathematics; understood the Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and Syriac, also the\nSclavonian, and several other living languages, so as never to want an\ninterpreter to converse with ambassadors of neighboring nations. He\nmeditated assiduously on the scriptures, assisted at the divine office,\neven that of midnight, if possible; had good books read to him at table,\nand took but one meal a day, which he was obliged to anticipate before\nthe hour of evening on fasting days, that all his officers and servants\nmight dine before midnight. He was very abstemious, had a paternal care\nof the poor in all his dominions, and honored good men, especially among\nthe clergy. Charlemagne died January the 28th, in 814, seventy-two years\nold, and was buried at Aix-la-Chapelle. The incontinence into {289}\nwhich he fell in his youth, he expiated by sincere repentance, so that\nseveral churches in Germany and France honor him among the saints. In\nthe university of Paris, the most constant nation of the Germans, (which\nwas originally called the English nation, in 1250, when the distinction\nof nations n the faculty of arts was there established,) take\nCharlemagne for their patron, but only keep his festival since the year\n1480, which is now common to the other three nations of French, Picards,\nand Normans, since 1661.[6]\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  See Hardion, Hist. Universelle, t. 10.\n2.  Apud Mabill. Analect. t. 1, p. 21.\n3.  Conc. t. 6 & 7, ed. Labbe.\n4.  Hist. de France in Charlem. French edit. in fol.\n5.  Ceillier, pp. 376 & 400.\n6.  Pagi (in Breviario Rom. Pontif. t. 3, in Alex. III. p. 82) proves\n    that suffrages for the soul of Charlemagne were continued at\n    Aix-la-Chapelle, till the antipope Pascal, at the desire of Frederic\n    Barbarossa, enshrined his remains in that city, and published a\n    decree for his canonization. From the time of this enshrining of his\n    remains, he is honored among the saints in many churches in Germany\n    and the Low Countries, as Goujet (De Festis propriis Sanctor. l. 1,\n    c. 5, quaest. 9) and Bollandus (ad 28 Jan. and t. 2, Febr. Schemate\n    19) show. The tacit approbation of the popes is to be looked upon as\n    equivalent to a beatification, as Benedict XIV. proves (De Canoniz.\n    l. 1, c. 9, n. 5, p. 72.) Molanus, (in Natal. SS. Belg.,) Natalis\n    Alexander. (Hist. Saec. 9 and 10., cap. 7, a. 1,) and many others,\n    have made the same observation.\n\nST. GLASTIAN, B.C. IN SCOTLAND.\n\nHE was a native of the county of Fife, and discharged in the same,\nduring many years, the duties of the episcopal character with which he\nwas honored. Amidst the desolation which was spread over the whole\ncountry, in the last bloody civil war between the Scots and Picts, in\nwhich the latter were entirely subdued, St. Glastian was the comforter,\nspiritual father, and most charitable protector of many thousands of\nboth nations. He died in 830, at Kinglace in Fifeshire, and was\nparticularly honored in that country, and in Kyntire. According to the\nancient custom of that country, his name is frequently written\nMac-Glastian, the word Mac signifying son. See the Breviary of Aberdeen;\nKing in his Calendar, &c.\n\n\nJANUARY XXIX.\n\nSAINT FRANCIS OF SALES,\n\nBISHOP AND CONFESSOR.\n\nFrom his writings and authentic lives, chiefly that written by his\nnephew, Charles Augustus de Sales: also that by F. Goulu, general of the\nFeuillans: that by Henry de Maupas du Tour, bishop of Puy, afterwards of\nEvreux: and that by Madame de Bussi-Rabutin, nun of the Visitation See\nhis life, collected by M. Marsoillier, and done into English by the late\nMr. Crathorne. See also the bull of his canonization, and an excellent\ncollection of his maxims and private actions, compiled by his intimate\nfriend and real admirer, M. Peter Caums, bishop of Bellay, in his book,\nentitled, L'Espirit de St. Francois de Sales, and in his scarce and\nincomparable work under the title. Quel est le meilleur Gouvernement, le\nrigoureux ou le dour, printed at Paris without the name of the author,\n1636. Though I find not this book in any catalogue of bishop Camus's\nworks, the conformity of style, and in several places the repetition of\nthe same expressions which occur in the last-mentioned work, seem to\nprove this to be also the production of his pen. See also the excellent\nnew edition of the letters of St. Francis of Sales, in six volumes,\n12mo. 1758.\n\nA.D. 1622.\n\nTHE parents of this saint were Francis, count of Sales, and Frances of\nSionas. The countess being with child, offered her fruit to God with the\nmost fervent prayers, begging he would preserve it from the corruption\nof the world, and rather deprive her of the comfort of seeing herself a\nmother, than suffer her to give birth to a child who should ever become\nhis enemy by sin. The saint was born at Sales, three leagues from\nAnnecy, the seat of that noble family; and his mother was delivered of\nhim when she was {290} but seven months advanced in her pregnancy.[1]\nHence he was reared with difficulty, and was so weak, that his life,\nduring his infancy, was often despaired of by physicians. However, he\nescaped the danger, and grew robust: he was very beautiful, and the\nsweetness of his countenance won the affections of all who saw him: but\nthe meekness of his temper, the pregnancy of his wit, his modesty,\ntractableness, and obedience, were far more valuable qualifications. The\ncountess could scarce suffer the child out of her sight, lest any\ntincture of vice might infect his soul. Her first care was to inspire\nhim with the most profound respect for the church, and all holy things;\nand she had the comfort to observe in him a recollection and devotion at\nhis prayers far above his age. She read to him the lives of the saints,\nadding recollections suited to his capacity; and she took care to have\nhim with her when she visited the poor, making him the distributer of\nher alms, and to do such little offices for them as he was able. He\nwould set by his own meat for their relief, and when he had nothing left\nto bestow on them, would beg for them of all his relations. His horror\nof a lie, even in his infancy, made him prefer any disgrace or\nchastisement to the telling of the least wilful untruth.\n\nHis mother's inclination for a domestic preceptor, to prevent his being\ncorrupted by wicked youth in colleges, was overruled by her husband's\npersuasion of the usefulness of emulation for advancing children in\ntheir studies; hoping his son's virtue and modesty would, under God, be\na sufficient guard of his innocency. He was accordingly sent to\nRocheville, at six years of age, and some time after to Annecy. An\nexcellent memory, a solid judgment, and a good application, could not\nfail of great progress. The young count spent as much of his time as\npossible in private studies and lectures of piety, especially that of\nthe lives of saints; and by his diligence always doubled or trebled his\nschool tasks. He showed an early inclination for the ecclesiastical\nstate, and obtained his father's consent, though not without some\nreluctance, for his receiving tonsure in the year 1578, and the eleventh\nof his age. He was sent afterwards, under the care of a virtuous priest,\nhis preceptor, to pursue his studies in Paris; his mother having first\ninstilled into him steady principles of virtue, a love of prayer, and a\ndread of sin and its occasions. She often repeated to him those words of\nqueen Blanche to her son St. Louis, king of France: \"I had rather see\nyou dead, than hear you had committed one mortal sin.\" On his arrival at\nParis, he entered the Jesuits' schools, and went through his rhetoric\nand philosophy with great applause. In pure obedience to his father's\norders, he learned in the academy to ride, dance, and fence, whence he\nacquired that easy behavior which he retained ever after. But these\nexercises, as matters of amusement, did not hinder his close application\nto the study of the Greek and Hebrew languages, and of positive\ndivinity, for six years, under the famous Genebrard and Maldonatus. But\nhis principal concern all this time was a regular course of piety, by\nwhich he labored to sanctify himself and all his actions. Pious\nmeditation, and the study of the holy scripture, were his beloved\nentertainments: and he never failed to carry about him that excellent\nbook, called the Spiritual Combat. He sought the conversation of the\nvirtuous, particularly of F. Angelus Joyeuse, who, from a duke and\nmarshal of France, was become a Capuchin friar. The frequent discourses\nof this good man on the necessity of mortification, induced the count to\nadd, to his usual austerities, the wearing of a hair shirt three days in\nthe week. His chief resort during his stay at Paris, was to some\nchurches, that especially of Saint Stephen des Grez, as being one of the\nmost retired. Here, he made {291} a vow of perpetual chastity, putting\nhimself under the special patronage of the Blessed Virgin. God, to\npurify his heart, permitted a thick darkness insensibly to overspread\nhis mind, and a spiritual dryness and melancholy to overwhelm him. He\nseemed, from a perfect tranquillity and peace of mind, to be almost\nbrought to the brink of despair. Seized with the greatest terrors, he\npassed nights and days in tears and lamentations, and suffered more than\ncan be conceived by those who have not felt the severity of such\ninterior conflicts. The bitterness of his grief threw him into a deep\njaundice; he could neither eat, drink, nor sleep. His preceptor labored,\nbut all in vain, to discover the cause of this disorder, and find out a\nremedy. At last, Francis, being at prayer in the same church of St.\nStephen, cast his eyes on a picture of our Lady: this awaking his\nconfidence in her intercession, he prostrated himself on the ground,\nand, as unworthy to address the Father of all consolation, begged that\nshe would be his advocate, and procure him the grace to love God with\nhis whole heart. That very moment he found himself eased of his grief as\nof a heavy weight taken off his heart, and his former peace and\ntranquillity restored, which he ever after enjoyed. He was now eighteen\nyears old, when his father recalled him from Paris, and sent him to\nPadua, to study the law, where his master was the celebrated Guy\nPancirola; this was in the year 1554. He chose the learned and pious\nJesuit, Antony Possevin, for his spiritual director; who at the same\ntime explained to him St. Thomas's Sum, and they read together\nBellarmin's controversies. His nephew, Augustus, gives us his written\nrule of life, which he made at Padua: it chiefly shows his perpetual\nattention to the presence of God, his care to offer up every action to\nhim, and implore his aid at the beginning of each. Falling sick, he was\ndespaired of by the physicians, and he himself expected with joy his\nlast moment. His preceptor, Deage, who had ever attended him, asked him\nwith tears, what he had to order about his funeral and other matters.\n\"Nothing,\" answered he, cheerfully, \"unless it be, that my body be given\nto the anatomy theatre to be dissected; for it will be a comfort to me\nif I can be of any advantage when dead, having been of none while alive.\nThus I may also prevent some of the disorders and quarrels which happen\nbetween the young physicians and the friends of the dead, whose bodies\nthey often dig up.\" However, he recovered; and by his father's orders,\nbeing twenty years of age, commenced doctor in laws, with great applause\nand pomp, in presence of forty-eight doctors. After which he travelled\nthrough Italy to see the antiquities, and visit the holy places there.\nHe went to Rome by Ferrara, and returned by Loretto and Venice. To any\ninsult offered him on the road he returned only meekness; for which he\nmet with remarkable blessings from heaven. The sight of the pompous\nremains of ancient Rome gave him a feeling contempt of worldly grandeur:\nbut the tombs of the martyrs drew everywhere tears of devotion from his\neyes. Upon his return his father received him with great joy, at his\ncastle of Tuille, where he had prepared for him a good library of books.\n\nAll persons were charmed with the young count, but none so much as the\ngreat Antony Favre, afterwards first president of the parliament of\nChamberry, and Claudius Cranier, the learned and truly apostolic bishop\nof Geneva, who already consulted him as an oracle. His father had a very\ngood match in view for him, and obtained in his behalf, from the duke of\nSavoy, patents creating him counsellor of the parliament of Chamberry.\nFrancis modestly, but very firmly, refused both; yet durst not propose\nto his parents his design of receiving holy orders; for the tonsure was\nnot all absolute renouncing of the world. At last, he discovered it to\nhis pious preceptor, Deage, and begged of him to mention it to his\nfather: but this he {292} declined, and used his utmost endeavors to\ndissuade the young count from such a resolution, as he was the eldest\nson, and destined by the order of nature for another state. Francis\nanswered all his reasonings, but could not prevail on him to charge\nhimself with the commission. He had then recourse to a cousin, Lewis of\nSales, a priest and canon of Geneva, who obtained the consent of his\nparents, but not without the greatest difficulty. His cousin also\nobtained for him from the pope, without his knowledge, the provostship\nof the church of Geneva, then vacant: but the young clergyman held out a\nlong time before he would accept of it. At last he yielded, and took\npossession of that dignity, and was in a short time after promoted to\nholy orders by his diocesan, who, as soon as he was deacon, employed him\nin preaching. His first sermons gained him an extraordinary reputation,\nand were accompanied with incredible success. He delivered the word of\nGod with a mixture of majesty and modesty; had a strong, sweet voice,\nand an animated manner of gesture, far from any affectation or vanity:\nbut what chiefly affected the hearts of his hearers was the humility and\nunction with which he spoke from the abundance of his own heart. Before\nhe preached, he always renewed the fervor of his heart before God, by\nsecret sighs and prayer. He studied as much at the foot of the crucifix\nas in books, being persuaded that the essential quality of a preacher is\nto be a man of prayer. He received the holy order of priesthood with\nextraordinary preparation and devotion, and seemed filled by it with an\napostolic spirit. He every day began his functions by celebrating the\nholy mysteries early in the morning, in which, by his eyes and\ncountenance of fire, the inward flames of his soul appeared. He then\nheard the confessions of all sorts of people, and preached. He was\nobserved to decline with the utmost care whatever might gain him the\napplause of men, seeking only to please God, and to advance his glory.\nHe chiefly resorted to cottages, and country villages, instructing an\ninfinity of poor people. His piety, his charity to the poor, his\ndisinterestedness, his care of the sick and those in prison, endeared\nhim to all: but nothing was so moving as his meekness, which no\nprovocation was ever capable of disturbing. He conversed among all as\ntheir father, with a fellow-feeling of all their wants, being all to\nall. He was indeed naturally of a hasty and passionate temper, as he\nhimself confesses; and we find in his writings a certain fire and\nimpetuosity which renders it unquestionable. On this account from his\nyouth he made meekness his favorite virtue, and by studying in the\nschool of a God who was meek and humble of heart, he learned that\nimportant lesson to such perfection, as to convert his predominant\npassion into his characteristical virtue. The Calvinists ascribed\nprincipally to his meekness the wonderful conversions he made among\nthem. They were certainly the most obstinate of people at that time,\nnear Geneva; yet St. Francis converted no less than seventy-two thousand\nof them.\n\nBefore the end of this first year of his ministry, in 1591, he erected\nat Annecy a confraternity of the Holy Cross, the associates of which\nwere obliged to instruct the ignorant, to comfort and exhort the sick\nand prisoners, and to beware of all lawsuits, which seldom fail to\nshipwreck Christian charity. A Calvinistical minister took occasion from\nthis institution to write against the honor paid by Catholics to the\ncross. Francis answered him by his book entitled, The Standard of the\nCross. At this time, fresh matter presented itself for the exercise of\nthe saint's zeal. The bishop of Geneva was formerly lord of that city,\npaying an acknowledgment to the duke of Savoy. While these two were\ndisputing about the sovereignty, the Genevans expelled them both, and\nformed themselves into a republic in alliance with the Switzers; and\ntheir city became the centre of Calvinism. {293} Soon after, the\nProtestant canton of Bern seized the country of Vaux, and the republic\nof Geneva, the dutchy of Chablais, with the bailiwicks of Gex, Terni,\nand Gaillard; and there by violence established their heresy, which from\nthat time had kept quiet possession for sixty years. The duke Charles\nEmmanuel had recovered these territories, and resolving to restore the\nCatholic religion, wrote in 1594 to the bishop of Geneva, to recommend\nthat work to him. The wise ones, according to this world, regarded the\nundertaking as impracticable; and the most resolute, whether\necclesiastics or religious, were terrified at its difficulties and\ndangers. Francis was the only one that offered himself for the work, and\nwas joined by none but his cousin-german Lewis de Sales. The tears and\nremonstrances of his parents and friends to dissuade him from the\nundertaking, made no impression on his courageous soul. He set out with\nhis cousin on the 9th of September, in 1594. Being arrived on the\nfrontiers of Chablais, they sent back their horses, the more perfectly\nto imitate the apostles. On his arrival at Thonon, the capital of\nChablais, situate on the lake of Geneva, he found in it only seven\nCatholics. After having commended the souls to God, and earnestly\nimplored his mercy through the intercession of the guardian angels, and\ntutelar saints of the country, he was obliged to take up his quarters in\nthe castle of Allinges, where the governor and garrison were Catholics,\ntwo leagues from Thonon, whither he went every day, visiting also the\nneighboring country. The Calvinists for a long time shunned him, and\nsome even attempted his life. Two assassins, hired by others, having\nmissed him at Thonon, lay in wait to murder him on his return; but a\nguard of soldiers had been sent to escort him safe, the conspiracy\nhaving taken wind. The saint obtained their pardon, and, overcome by his\nlenity and formed by his holy instructions, they both became very\nvirtuous converts. All our saint's relations, and many friends, whom he\nparticularly respected for their great virtue and prudence, solicited\nhim by the most pressing letters to abandon such a dangerous and\nfruitless enterprise. His father, to the most tender entreaties, added\nhis positive commands to him to return home, telling him that all\nprudent persons called his resolution to continue his mission a foolish\nobstinacy and madness; that he had already done more than was needful,\nand that his mother was dying of grief for his long absence, the fear of\nlosing him entirely, and the hardships, atrocious slanders, and\ncontinual alarms and dangers in which he lived. To compel him to abandon\nthis undertaking, the father forbade his friends to write any more to\nhim, or to send him necessary supplies. Nevertheless, St. Francis\npersevered, and at length his patience, zeal, and eminent virtue,\nwrought upon the most obdurate, and insensibly wore away their\nprejudices. His first converts were among the soldiers, whom he brought\nover, not only to the faith, but also to an entire change of manners and\nstrict virtue, from habits of swearing, duelling, and drunkenness. He\nwas near four years, however, without any great fruit among the\ninhabitants, till the year 1597, when God was pleased to touch several\nof them with his grace. The harvest daily increased both in the town and\ncountry so plentifully, that a supply of new laborers from Annecy was\nnecessary, and the bishop sent some Jesuits and Capuchins to carry on\nthe good work with Francis and under his direction. In 1598 the public\nexercise of the Catholic religion was restored, and Calvinism banished\nby the duke's orders over all Chablais, and the two bailiwicks of Terni\nand Gaillard. Though the plague raged violently at Thonon, this did not\nhinder Francis either by day or night from assisting the sick in their\nlast moments; and God preserved him from the contagion, which seized and\nswept off several of his fellow-laborers. It is incredible what fatigues\nand hardships he underwent in the course of his mission; with what\ndevotion {294} and tears he daily recommended the work of God: with what\ninvincible courage he braved the greatest dangers: with what meekness\nand patience he bore all manner of affronts and calumnies. Baron\nD'Avuli, a man of quality, and of great worth and learning, highly\nesteemed among the Calvinists, and at Geneva, being converted by him,\ninduced him to go thither, to have a conference with the famous minister\nLa Faye. The minister, during the whole conference, was ever shifting\nthe matter in debate, as he found himself embarrassed and pressed by his\nantagonist. His disadvantage being so evident that be himself could read\nit in the countenance of every one present, he broke off the conference\nby throwing out a whole torrent of injurious language on Francis, who\nbore it with so much meekness as not to return the least sharp answer.\nDuring the whole course of his ministry in these parts, the violent\nmeasures, base cowardice in declining all dispute, and the shameful\nconduct of the ministers in other respects, set the saint's behavior and\nhis holy cause still in a more shining light. In 1597 he was\ncommissioned by pope Clement VIII. to confer with Theodore Beza at\nGeneva, the most famous minister of the Calvinist party, in order to win\nhim back to the Catholic church. He accordingly paid him four visits in\nthat city, gained a high place in that heresiarch's esteem, and made him\noften hesitate in deep silence and with distracted looks, whether he\nshould return to the Roman Catholic church or not, wherein he owned from\nthe beginning that salvation was attainable. St. Francis had great hopes\nof bringing him over in a fifth visit, but his private conferences had\nalarmed the Genevans so much that they guarded Beza too close for him to\nfind admittance to him again, and Beza died soon after. 'Tis said, that\na little before death he lamented very much he could not see Francis.[2]\nIt is certain, from his first conference with him, he had ever felt a\nviolent conflict within himself, between truth and duty on one hand, and\non the other, the pride of being head of a party, the shame of\nrecanting, inveterate habits, and certain secret engagements in vice, to\nwhich he continued enslaved to the last. The invincible firmness and\nconstancy of the saint appeared in the recovery of the revenues of the\ncuracies and other benefices which had been given to the Orders of St.\nLazarus and St. Maurice; the restoration of which, after many\ndifficulties, he effected by the joint authority of the pope and the\nduke of Savoy. In 1596 he celebrated mass on Christmas-day in the church\nof St. Hippolytus at Thonon, and had then made seven or eight hundred\nconverts. From this time he charged himself with the parish of the town,\nand established two other Catholic parishes in the country. In the\nbeginning of the year 1599 he had settled zealous clergymen in all the\nparishes of the whole territory.\n\nThe honors the saint received from the pope, the duke of Savoy, the\ncardinal of Medicis, and all the church, and the high reputation which\nhis virtues had acquired him, never made the least impression on his\nhumble mind, dead to all motions of pride and vanity. His delight was\nwith the poor: the most honorable functions he left to others, and chose\nfor himself the meanest and most laborious. Every one desired to have\nhim for their director, wherever he went: and his extraordinary\nsweetness, in conjunction with his eminent piety, reclaimed as many\nvicious Catholics as it converted heretics. In 1599, he went to Annecy\nto visit his diocesan, Granier, who had procured him to be made his\ncoadjutor. The fear of resisting God, in refusing this charge, when\npressed upon him by the pope, in conjunction with his bishop and the\nduke of Savoy, at last extorted his consent; but the apprehension of the\nobligations annexed to the episcopacy was so strong that it threw him\ninto an illness which had like to have cost him his life. {295} On his\nrecovery he set out for Rome to receive his bulls, and to confer with\nhis Holiness on matters relating to the missions of Savoy. He was highly\nhonored by all the great men at Rome, and received of the pope the bulls\nfor being consecrated bishop of Nicopolis; and coadjutor of Geneva. On\nthis occasion he made a visit of devotion to Loretto, and returned to\nAnnecy before the end of the year 1599. Here he preached the Lent the\nyear following, and assisted his father during his last sickness, heard\nhis general confession, and administered to him the rites of the church.\nAn illness he was seized with at Annecy made him defer his consecration.\n\nOn his recovery he was obliged to go to Paris, on affairs of his\ndiocese, and was received there by all sorts of persons with all the\nregard due to his extraordinary merit. The king was then at\nFontainebleau; but the saint was desired to preach the Lent to the court\nin the chapel of the Louvre. This he did in a manner that charmed every\none, and wrought innumerable wonderful conversions. The duchesses of\nMorcoeur and Longueville sent him thereupon a purse of gold: he admired\nthe embroidery, but gave it back, with thanks to them for honoring his\ndiscourses with their presence and good example. He preached a sermon\nagainst the pretended reformation, to prove it destitute of a lawful\nmission; it being begun at Meaux, by Peter Clark, a wool-carder; at\nParis, by Masson Riviere, a young man called to the ministry by a\ncompany of laymen; and elsewhere after the like manner. This sermon\nconverted many Calvinists; among others the countess of Perdrieuville,\nwho was one of the most obstinate learned ladies of the sect: she\nconsulted her ministers, and repaired often to Francis's conferences,\ntill she had openly renounced Calvinism with all her numerous family.\nThe whole illustrious house of Raconis followed her example, and so many\nothers, even of the most inveterate of the sect, that it made cardinal\nPerron, a man famous for controversy, say: \"I can confute the\nCalvinists; but, to persuade and convert them, you must carry them to\nthe coadjutor of Geneva.\" Henry IV. was charmed with his preaching, and\nconsulted him several times in matters relating to the direction of his\nconscience. There was no project of piety going forward about which he\nwas not advised with. He promoted the establishment of the Carmelite\nnuns in France, and the introduction of F. Berulle's congregation of the\noratory. The king himself earnestly endeavored to detain him in France,\nby promises of 20,000 livres pension, and the first vacant bishopric:\nbut Francis said, God had called him against his will to the bishopric\nof Geneva, and he thought it his obligation to keep it till his death;\nthat the small revenue he had sufficed for his maintenance, and more\nwould only be an incumbrance. The king was astonished at his\ndisinterestedness, when he understood that the bishopric of Geneva,\nsince the revolt of that city, did not yield the incumbent above four or\nfive thousand livres, that is, not two hundred and fifty-nine pounds,\na-year.\n\nSome envious courtiers endeavored to give the king a suspicion of his\nbeing a spy. The saint heard this accusation just as he was going into\nthe pulpit; yet he preached as usual without the least concern; and that\nprince was too well convinced of the calumny, by his sanctity and\ncandor. After a nine months' stay in Paris, he set out with the king's\nletters,[3] and heard on the road, that Granier, bishop of Geneva, was\ndead. He hastened to Sales-Castle, and as soon as clear of the first\nvisits, made a twenty days' retreat to prepare himself for his\nconsecration. He made a general confession, and {296} laid down a plan\nof life, which he ever punctually observed. This was, never to wear any\nsilk or camlets, or any clothes but woollen, as before; to have no\npaintings in his house but of devotions: no magnificence in furniture:\nnever to use coach or litter, but to make his visits on foot: his family\nto consist of two priests, one for his chaplain, the other to take care\nof his temporalities and servants: nothing but common meats to be served\nto his table: to be always present at all feasts of devotion, kept in\nany church in town: his regulation with respect to alms was incredible,\nfor his revenues: to go to the poor and sick in person: to rise every\nday at four, make an hour's meditation, say lauds and prime, then\nmorning prayers with his family: to read the scripture till seven, then\nsay mass, which he did every day, afterwards to apply to affairs till\ndinner, which being over, he allowed an hour for conversation; the rest\nof the afternoon he allotted to business and prayer. After supper he\nread a pious book to his family for an hour, then night prayers; after\nwhich he said matins. He fasted all Fridays and Saturdays, and our\nLady's eves: be privately wore a hair shirt, and used the discipline,\nbut avoided all ostentatious austerities. But his exact regularity and\nuniformity of life, with a continued practice of internal self-denials,\nwas the best mortification. He redoubled his fasts, austerities, and\nprayers, as the time of his consecration drew nearer. This was performed\non the 3d of December, 1602. He immediately applied himself to preaching\nand the other functions of his charge. He was exceedingly cautious in\nconferring holy orders. He ordained but few, neither was it without the\nstrictest scrutiny passed upon all their qualifications for the\npriesthood. He was very zealous, both by word and example, in promoting\nthe instruction of the ignorant by explanations of the catechism, on\nSundays and holidays; and his example had a great influence over the\nparish-priests in this particular, as also over the laity, both young\nand old. He inculcated to all the making, every hour when the clock\nstruck, the sign of the cross, with a fervent aspiration on the passion\nof Christ. He severely forbade the custom of Valentines or giving boys,\nin writing, the names of girls to be admired and attended on by them;\nand, to abolish it, he changed it into giving billets with the names of\ncertain saints for them to honor and imitate in a particular manner. He\nperformed the visitation of his diocese as soon as possible, published a\nnew ritual, set on foot ecclesiastical conferences, and regulated all\nthings; choosing St. Charles Borromeo for his model.\n\nAbove all things he hated lawsuits, and strictly commanded all\necclesiastics to avoid them, and refer all disputes to arbitration. He\nsaid they were such occasions of sins against charity, that, if any one\nduring the course of a lawsuit had escaped them, that alone would\nsuffice for his canonization. Towards the close of the visitation of his\ndiocese, he reformed several monasteries. That of Six appealed to the\nparliament of Chamberry: but our saint was supported there, and carried\nhis point. While Francis was at Six, he heard that a valley, three\nleagues off, was in the utmost desolation, by the tops of two mountains\nthat had fallen, and buried several villages, with the inhabitants and\ncattle. He crawled over impassable ways to comfort and relieve these\npoor people, who had neither clothes to cover, nor cottages to shelter\nthem, nor bread to stay their hunger; he mingled his tears with theirs,\nrelieved them, and obtained from the duke a remission of their taxes.\nThe city of Dijon having procured leave from the duke of Savoy, the\nsaint preached the Lent there in 1604, with wonderful fruit; but refused\nthe present offered him by the city on that occasion. Being solicited by\nHenry IV. to accept of a considerable abbey, the saint refused it;\nalleging, that he dreaded riches as much as others could desire them;\nand that, the less he had of them the less he would have to answer for.\nThat king {297} offered to name him to the dignity of cardinal at the\nnext promotion; but the saint made answer, that though he did not\ndespise the offered dignity, he was persuaded that great titles would\nnot sit well upon him, and might raise fresh obstacles to his salvation.\nHe was also thought of at Rome as a very fit person to be promoted to\nthat dignity, but was himself the only one who everywhere opposed and\ncrossed the design. Being desired on another occasion by the same king\nto accept of a pension; the saint begged his majesty to suffer it to\nremain in the hands of his comptroller till he should call for it; which\nhandsome refusal much astonished that great prince, who could not\nforbear saying: \"That the bishop of Geneva, by the happy independence in\nwhich his virtue had placed him, was as far above him, as he by his\nroyal dignity was above his subjects.\" The saint preached the next Lent\nat Chamberry, at the request of the parliament, which notwithstanding at\nthat very time seized his temporalities for refusing to publish a\nmonitory at its request; the saint alleging, that it was too trifling an\naffair, and that the censures of the church were to be used more\nreservedly. To the notification of the seizure he only answered\nobligingly, that he thanked God for teaching him by it, that a bishop is\nto be altogether spiritual. He neither desisted from preaching, nor\ncomplained to the duke, but heaped most favors on such as most insulted\nhim, till the parliament, being ashamed, granted him of their own accord\na replevy. But the great prelate found more delight in preaching in\nsmall villages than amidst such applause, though he everywhere met with\nthe like fruit; and he looked on the poor as the object of his\nparticular care. He took a poor dumb and deaf man into his family,\ntaught him by signs, and by them received his confession. His steward\noften found it difficult to provide for his family by reason of his\ngreat alms, and used to threaten to leave him. The saint would answer:\n\"You say right; I am an incorrigible creature, and what is worse, I look\nas if I should long continue so.\" Or at other times, pointing to the\ncrucifix; \"How can we deny any thing to a God who reduced himself to\nthis condition for the love of us!\"\n\nPope Paul V. ordered our saint to be consulted about the school dispute\nbetween the Dominicans and Jesuits on the grace of God, or de auxiliis.\nHis opinion appears from his book On the Love of God: but he answered\nhis Holiness in favor of neutrality, which he ever observed in school\nopinions; complaining often in how many they occasioned the breach of\ncharity, and spent too much of their precious time, which, by being\notherwise employed, might be rendered more conducive to God's honor. In\n1609 he went to Bellay, and consecrated bishop John Peter Camus, one of\nthe most illustrious prelates of the church of France, and linked to our\nsaint by the strictest bands of holy friendship. He wrote the book\nentitled, The Spirit of St. Francis of Sales, consisting of many of his\nordinary sayings and actions, in which his spirit shines with great\nadvantage, discovering a perpetual recollection always absorbed in God,\nand a constant overflowing of sweetness and divine love. His writings to\nthis day breathe the same; every word distils that love and meekness\nwith which his heart was filled. It is this which makes his epistles,\nwhich we have to the number of five hundred and twenty-nine, in seven\nbooks, to be an inestimable treasure of moving instructions, suitable to\nall sorts of persons and circumstances.\n\nHis incomparable book, the Introduction to a Devout Life, was originally\nletters to a lady in the world, which, at the pressing instances of many\nfriends, he formed into a book and finished, to show that devotion\nsuited Christians in a secular life, no less than in cloisters. Villars,\nthe archbishop of Vienna, wrote to him upon it: \"Your book charms,\ninflames, and puts me in raptures, as often as I open any part of it.\"\nThe author received {298} the like applause and commendations from all\nparts, and it was immediately translated into all the languages of\nEurope. Henry IV. of France was extremely pleased with it; his queen,\nMary of Medicis, sent it richly bound and adorned with jewels to James\nI. of England, who was wonderfully taken with it, and asked his bishops\nwhy none of them could write with such feeling and unction.[4] There\nwas, however, one religious Order in which this book was much censured,\nas if it had allowed of gallantry and scurrilous jests, and approved of\nballs and comedies, which was very far from the saint's doctrine. A\npreacher of that Order had the rashness and presumption to declaim\nbitterly against the book in a public sermon, to cut it in pieces, and\nbum it in the very pulpit. The saint bore this outrage without the least\nresentment; so perfectly was he dead to self-love. This appears more\nwonderful to those who know how jealous authors are of their works, as\nthe offspring of their reason and judgment, of which men are of all\nthings the fondest. His book of the Love of God cost him much more\nreading, study, and meditation. In it he paints his own soul. He\ndescribes the feeling sentiments of divine love, its state of fervor, of\ndryness, of trials, sufferings, and darkness: in explaining which he\ncalls in philosophy to his assistance. He writes on this sublime subject\nwhat he had learned by his own experience. Some parts of this book are\nonly to be understood by those souls who have gone through these states:\nyet the author has been ever justly admired for the performance. The\ngeneral of the Carthusians had written to him upon his Introduction,\nadvising him to write no more, because nothing else could equal that\nbook. But seeing this, he bade him never cease writing, because his\nlatter works always surpassed the former; and James 1. was so delighted\nwith the book, that he expressed a great desire to see the author. This\nbeing told the saint, he cried out: \"Ah! who will give me the wings of a\ndove, and I will fly to the king, into that great island, formerly the\ncountry of saints; but now overwhelmed with the darkness of error. If\nthe duke will permit me, I will arise, and go to that great Ninive: I\nwill speak to the king, and will announce to him, with the hazard of my\nlife, the word of the Lord.\" In effect, he solicited the duke of Savoy's\nconsent, but could never obtain it.[5] That jealous sovereign feared\nlest he should be drawn in to serve another state, or sell to some other\nhis right to Geneva; on which account he often refused him leave to go\nto preach in France, when invited by many cities. His other works are\nsermons which are not finished as they were preached, except, perhaps,\nthat on the Invention of the Cross. We have also his Preparation for\nMass: his Instructions for Confessors: a collection of his Maxims, pious\nBreathings and Sayings, written by the bishop of Bellay; some Fragments,\nand his Entertainments to his nuns of the Visitation, in which he\nrecommends to them the most perfect interior self-denial, a\ndisengagement of affections from all things temporal, and obedience. The\ninstitution of that Order may be read in the life of B. Frances Chantal.\nSaint Francis designing his new Order to be such, that all, even the\nsickly and weak, might be admitted into it, he chose for it the rule of\nSt. Austin, as commanding few extraordinary bodily austerities, and\nwould have it possess funds and settlements in common, to prevent being\ncarried off from the interior life by anxious cares about necessaries.\nBut then he requires from each person so strict a practice of poverty,\nas to allow no one the property or even the long use of any thing; and\norders them every year to change chambers, beds, crosses, beads, and\nbooks. He will have no manner of account to be made of birth, wit, or\ntalents; but only of humility; {299} he obliges them only to the little\noffice of our Lady, which all might easily learn to understand;\nmeditations, spiritual reading, recollection, and retreats, abundantly\ncompensating the defect. All his regulations tend to instil a spirit of\npiety, charity, meekness, and simplicity. He subjects his Order to the\nbishop of each place, without any general. Pope Paul V. approved it, and\nerected the congregation of the Visitation into a religious Order.\n\nSt. Francis, finding his health decline, and his affairs to multiply,\nafter having consulted cardinal Frederic Borromeo, archbishop of Milan,\nchose for his coadjutor in the bishopric of Geneva, his brother John\nFrancis of Sales, who was consecrated bishop of Chalcedon at Turin, in\n1618. But the saint still applied himself to his functions as much as\never. He preached the Lent at Grenoble, in 1617, and again in 1618, with\nhis usual conquests of souls; converting many Calvinists, and among\nthese the duke of Lesdiguieres. In 1619, he accompanied to Paris the\ncardinal of Savoy, to demand the sister of king Louis XIII., Christina\nof France, in marriage for the prince of Piedmont. He preached the Lent\nin St. Andre-des-Arcs, and had always such a numerous audience, that\ncardinals, bishops, and princes could scarce find room. His sermons and\nconferences, and still more the example of his holy life, and the\nengaging sweetness of his conversation, most powerfully moved not only\nthe devout, but also heretics, libertines, and atheists; while his\neloquence and learning convinced their understandings. The bishop of\nBellay tells us, that he entreated the saint at Paris not to preach\ntwice every day, morning and evening, for the sake of his health. St.\nFrancis answered him with a smile: \"That it cost him much less to preach\na sermon than to find an excuse for himself when invited to perform that\nfunction.\" He added: \"God has appointed me a pastor and a preacher: and\nis not every one to follow his profession? But I am surprised that the\npeople in this great city flock so eagerly to my sermons: for my tongue\nis slow and heavy, my conceptions low, and my discourses flat, as you\nyourself are witness.\" \"Do you imagine,\" said the other, \"that eloquence\nis what they seek in your discourses? It is enough for them to see you\nin the pulpit. Your heart speaks to them by your countenance, and by\nyour eyes, were you only to say the Our Father with them. The most\ncommon words in your mouth, burning with the fire of charity, pierce and\nmelt all hearts. There is I know not what so extraordinary in what you\nsay, that every word is of weight, every word strikes deep into the\nheart. You have said every thing even when you seem to have said\nnothing. You are possessed of a kind of eloquence which is of heaven:\nthe power of this is astonishing.\" St. Francis, smiling, turned off the\ndiscourse.[6] The match being concluded, the princess Christina chose\nFrancis for her chief almoner, desiring to live always under his\ndirection: but all her entreaties could neither prevail on him to leave\nhis diocese, though he had a coadjutor, nor to accept of a pension: and\nit was only on these two conditions he undertook the charge, always\nurging that nothing could dispense with him from residence. The princess\nmade him a present of a rich diamond, by way of an investiture, desiring\nhim to keep it for her sake. \"I will,\" said he, \"unless the poor stand\nin need of it.\" She answered, she would then redeem it. He said, \"This\nwill happen so often, that I shall abuse your bounty.\" Finding it given\nto the poor afterwards at Turin, she gave him another, richer, charging\nhim to keep that at least. He said. \"Madam, I cannot promise you: I am\nvery unfit to keep things of value.\" Inquiring after it one day, she was\ntold it was always in pawn for the poor, and that {300} the diamond\nbelonged not to the bishop, but to all the beggars of Geneva. He had\nindeed a heart which was not able to refuse any thing to those in want.\nHe often gave to beggars the waistcoat off his own back, and sometimes\nthe cruets of his chapel. The pious cardinal, Henry de Gondi, bishop of\nParis, used all manner of arguments to obtain his consent to be his\ncoadjutor in the see of Paris; but he was resolved never to quit the\nchurch which God had first committed to his charge.\n\nUpon his return to Annecy he would not touch a farthing of his revenue\nfor the eighteen months he was absent; but gave it to his cathedral,\nsaying, it could not be his, for he had not earned it. He applied\nhimself to preaching, instructing, and hearing confessions with greater\nzeal than ever. In a plague which raged there, he daily exposed his own\nlife to assist his flock. The saint often met with injurious treatment,\nand very reviling words, which he ever repaid with such meekness and\nbeneficence as never failed to gain his very enemies. A lewd wretch,\nexasperated against him for his zeal against a wicked harlot, forged a\nletter of intrigue in the holy prelate's name, which made him pass for a\nprofligate and a hypocrite with the duke of Nemours and many others: the\ncalumny reflected also on the nuns of the Visitation. Two years after,\nthe author of it, lying on his death-bed, called in witnesses, publicly\njustified the saint, and made an open confession of the slander and\nforgery. The saint had ever an entire confidence in the divine\nprovidence, was ever full of joy, and resigned to all the appointments\nof heaven, to which he committed all events. He had a sovereign contempt\nof all earthly things, whether riches, honors, dangers, or sufferings.\nHe considered only God and his honor in all things: his soul perpetually\nbreathed nothing but his love and praises; nor could he contain this\nfire within his breast, for it discovered itself in his countenance;\nwhich, especially while he said mass, or distributed the blessed\neucharist, appeared shining, as it were, with rays of glory, and\nbreathing holy fervor. Often he could not contain himself in his\nconversation, and would thus express himself to his intimate friends:\n\"Did you but know how God treats my heart, you would thank his goodness,\nand beg for me the strength to execute the inspirations which he\ncommunicates to me. My heart is filled with an inexpressible desire to\nbe forever sacrificed to the pure and holy love of my Saviour. Oh! it is\ngood to live, to labor, to rejoice only in God. By his grace I will\nforevermore be nothing to any creature; nor shall any creature be\nanything to me but in him and for him.\" At another time, he cried out to\na devout friend: \"Oh! if I knew but one string of my heart which was not\nall God's, I would instantly tear it out. Yes; if I knew that there was\none thread in my heart which was not marked with the crucifix, I would\nnot keep it one moment.\"\n\nIn the year 1622, he received an order from the duke of Savoy to go to\nAvignon to wait on Louis XIII., who had just finished the civil wars in\nLanguedoc. Finding himself indisposed, he took his last leave of his\nfriends, saying, he should see them no more; which drew from them floods\nof tears. At Avignon he was at his prayers during the king's triumphant\nentry, and never went to the window to see any part of that great pomp.\nHe was obliged to attend the king and the cardinal of Savoy to Lyons,\nwhere he refused all the grand apartments offered him by the intendant\nof he province and others, to lodge to the poor chamber of the gardener\nto the monastery of the Visitation: as he was never better pleased than\nwhen he could most imitate the poverty of his Saviour. He received from\nthe king and queen-mother, and from all the princes, the greatest marks\nof honor and esteem: and though indisposed, continued to preach and\nperform all his {301} functions, especially on Christmas-day, and St.\nJohn's in the morning. After dinner he began to fall gradually into an\napoplexy, was put to bed by his servant, and received extreme unction;\nbut as he had said mass that day and his vomiting continued, it was\nthought proper not to give him the viaticum. He repeated with great\nfervor: \"My heart and my flesh rejoice in the living God; I will sing\nthe mercies of the Lord to all eternity. When shall I appear before his\nface? Show me, my beloved, where thou feedest, where thou restest at\nnoonday. O my God, my desire is before thee, and my sighs are not hidden\nfrom thee. My God and my all! my desire is that of the hills eternal.\"\nWhile the physicians applied blistering plasters, and hot irons behind\nhis neck, and a caustic to the crown of his head, which burned him to\nthe bone, he shed abundance of tears under excess of pain, repeating:\n\"_Wash me, O Lord, from my iniquities, and cleanse me from my sin. Still\ncleanse me more and more_. What do I here, my God, distant from thee,\nseparated from thee?\" And to those about him: \"Weep not, my children;\nmust not the will of God be done?\" One suggesting to him the prayer of\nSt. Martin, \"If I am still necessary for thy people, I refuse not to\nlabor:\" he seemed troubled at being compared to so great a saint, and\nsaid, he was an unprofitable servant, whom neither God nor his people\nneeded. His apoplexy increasing, though slowly, he seemed at last to\nlose his senses, and happily expired on the feast of Holy Innocents, the\n28th of December, at eight o'clock at night, in the year 1622, the\nfifty-sixth of his age, and the twentieth of his episcopacy. His corpse\nwas embalmed, and carried with the greatest pomp to Annecy, where he had\ndirected by will it should be interred. It was laid in a magnificent\ntomb near the high altar in the church of the first monastery of the\nVisitation. After his beatification by Alexander VII., in 1661, it was\nplaced upon the altar in a rich silver shrine. He was canonized in 1665\nby the same pope, and his feast fixed to the 29th of January, on which\nday his body was conveyed to Annecy. His heart was kept in a leaden\ncase, in the church of the Visitation at Lyons: it was afterwards\nexposed in a silver one, and lastly in one of gold, given by king Louis\nXIII. Many miracles, as the raising to life two persons who were\ndrowned, the curing of the blind, paralytic, and others, were\nauthentically attested to have been wrought by his relics and\nintercession; not to mention those he had performed in his lifetime,\nespecially during his missions. Pope Alexander VII., then cardinal\nChigi, and plenipotentiary in Germany, Louis XIII., XIV., and others,\nattributed their cures in sickness to this saint's patronage.\n\nAmong his ordinary remarkable sayings, we read that he often repeated to\nbishop Camus, \"That truth must be always charitable; for bitter zeal\ndoes harm instead of good. Reprehensions are a food of hard digestion,\nand ought to be dressed on a fire of burning charity so well, that all\nharshness be taken off; otherwise, like unripe fruit, they will only\nproduce gripings. Charity seeks not itself nor its own interests, but\npurely the honor and interest of God: pride, vanity, and passion cause\nbitterness and harshness: a remedy injudiciously applied may be a\npoison. A judicious silence is always better than a truth spoken without\ncharity.\" St. Francis, seeing a scandalous priest thrown into prison,\nfell at his feet, and with tears conjured him to have compassion on him,\nhis pastor, on his religion, which he scandalized, and on his own soul;\nwhich sweetness converted the other, so that he became an example of\nvirtue. By his patience and meekness under all injuries, he overcame the\nmost obstinate, and ever after treated them with singular affection,\ncalling them dearer friends, because regained. A great prelate observes,\nfrom his example, that the meek are kings of other hearts, which they\npowerfully attract, and can turn as they please; and in {302} an express\nand excellent treatise, proposes him as an accomplished model of all the\nqualifications requisite in a superior to govern well.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nMeekness was the favorite virtue of St. Francis de Sales. He once was\nheard to say, that he had employed three years in studying it in the\nschool of Jesus Christ, and that his heart was still far from being\nsatisfied with the progress he had made. If he, who was meekness itself,\nimagined, nevertheless, that he had possessed so little of it; what\nshall we say of those, who, upon every trifling occasion, betray the\nbitterness of their hearts in angry words and actions of impatience and\noutrage? Our saint was often tried in the practice of this virtue,\nespecially when the hurry of business and the crowds that thronged on\nhim for relief in their various necessities, scarce allowed him a moment\nto breathe. He has left us his thoughts upon this situation, which his\nextreme affability rendered very frequent to him. \"God,\" says he, \"makes\nuse of this occasion to try whether our hearts are sufficiently\nstrengthened to bear every attack. I have myself been sometimes in this\nsituation: but I have made a covenant with my heart and with my tongue,\nin order to confine them within the bounds of duty. I considered those\npersons who crowd in one upon the other, as children who run into the\nembraces of their father: as the hen refuseth not protection to her\nlittle ones when they gather around her, but, on the contrary, extendeth\nher wings so as to cover them all; my heart, I thought, was in like\nmanner expanded, in proportion as the numbers of these poor people\nincreased. The most powerful remedy against sudden starts of impatience\nis a sweet and amiable silence; however little one speaks, self-love\nwill have a share in it, and some word will escape that may sour the\nheart, and disturb its peace for a considerable time. When nothing is\nsaid, and cheerfulness preserved, the storm subsides, anger and\nindiscretion are put to flight, and nothing remains but a joy, pure and\nlasting. The person who possesses Christian meekness, is affectionate\nand tender towards every one; he is disposed to forgive and excuse the\nfrailties of others; the goodness of his heart appears in a sweet\naffability that influences his words and actions, and presents every\nobject to his view in the most charitable and pleasing light; he never\nadmits in his discourse any harsh expression, much less any term that is\nhaughty or rude. An amiable serenity is always painted on his\ncountenance, which remarkably distinguishes him from those violent\ncharacters, who, with looks full of fury, know only how to refuse; or\nwho, when they grant, do it with so bad a grace, that they lose all the\nmerit of the favor they bestow.\"\n\nSome persons thinking him too indulgent towards sinners, expressed their\nthoughts one day with freedom to him on this head. He immediately\nreplied: \"If there was any thing more excellent than meekness, God would\nhave certainly taught it us; and yet there is nothing to which he so\nearnestly exhorts us, as to be _meek and humble of heart_. Why would you\nhinder me to obey the command of my Lord, and follow him in the exercise\nof that virtue which he so eminently practised and so highly esteems?\nAre we then better informed in these matters than God himself?\" But his\ntenderness was particularly displayed in the reception of apostates and\nother abandoned sinners; when these prodigals returned to him, he said,\nwith all the sensibility of a father: \"Come, my dear children, come, let\nme embrace you; ah, let me hide you in the bottom of my heart! God and I\nwill assist you: all I require of you is not to despair: I shall take on\nmyself the labor of the rest.\" Looks full of compassion and love\nexpressed the sincerity of his feelings: his affectionate and charitable\ncare of them extended even to their bodily wants and his purse was open\nto them as well as his heart; {303} he justified this proceeding to\nsome, who, disedified at his extreme indulgence, told him it served only\nto encourage the sinner, and harden him still more in his crimes, by\nobserving, \"Are they not a part of my flock? Has not our blessed Lord\ngiven them his blood, and shall I refuse them my tears? These wolves\nwill be changed into lambs: a day will come when, cleansed from their\nsins, they will be more precious in the sight of God than we are: if\nSaul had been cast off, we would never have had a St. Paul.\"\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  It is a problem in nature, discussed without success by several\n    great physicians, why children born in their seventh month more\n    frequently live than those that are brought forth in their eighth\n    month.\n2.  Aug. Sales de Vit. l. {} p. 123.\n3.  The saint being on his return to Savoy, was informed that a convent\n    of religious women, of the order of Fontevrault, received\n    superfluous pensions. He wrote about it to those religious, and\n    after giving testimony to their virtue, in order to gain their\n    confidence, he conjured them, in the strongest and most pathetic\n    terms, to banish such an abuse from their monastery; persuaded that\n    such pensions were not exempt from sin, were an obstacle to monastic\n    perfection, and opposite to their essential vow of poverty;\n    lamenting that after doing so much they should, for the sake of one\n    small reserve, destroy the merit of their whole sacrifice. This\n    letter is extremely useful and beautiful. L. 1, ep. 41, t. 1, p.\n    136.\n4.  Aug. Sales in Vit.\n5.  Aug. Sales in Vit.\n6.  Quel est le meilleur Gouvernment, &c. ch. 8, p. 298.\n\nSAINT SULPICIUS SEVERUS[1]\n\nDISCIPLE OF ST. MARTIN.\n\nHE was born in Aquitaine, not at Agen, as Scaliger, Vossius, Baillet,\n&c., have falsely inferred from a passage of his history,[2] but near\nToulouse. That he was of a very rich and illustrious Roman family, we\nare assured by the two Paulinus's, and Gennadius.[3] His youth he spent\nin studying the best Roman authors of the Augustan age, upon whom he\nformed his style, not upon the writers of his own time: he also applied\nhimself to the study of the laws, and surpassed all his contemporaries\nin eloquence at the bar. His wife was a lady of a consular family, whom\nhe lost soon after their marriage, but he continued to enjoy a very\ngreat estate which he had inherited by her. His mother-in-law, Bassula,\nloved him constantly, as if he had been her own son: they continued to\nlive several years in the same house, and had in all things the same\nmind.[4] The death of his beloved consort contributed to wean his heart\nfrom the world: in which resolution he seems to have been confirmed by\nthe example and exhortations of his pious mother-in-law. His conversion\nfrom the world happened in the same year with that of St. Paulinus of\nNola,[5] though probably somewhat later: and St. Paulinus mentions that\nSulpicius was younger than himself, and at that time (that is, about the\nyear 392) in the flower of his age. De Prato imagines Sulpicius to have\nbeen ten years younger than St. Paulinus, consequently that he was\nconverted in the thirty-second year of his age. Whereas St. Paulinus\ndistributed his whole fortune among the poor at once; Sulpicius reserved\nhis estates to himself and his heirs, employing the yearly revenue on\nthe poor, and in other pious uses, so that he was no more than a servant\nof the church and the poor, to keep accounts for them.[6] But he sold so\nmuch of them as was necessary to discharge him of all obligations to\nothers. Gennadius tells us that he was promoted to the priesthood; but\nfrom the silence of St. Paulinus, St. Jerom, and others, Tillemont and\nDe Prato doubt of this circumstance. Sulpicius suffered much from the\ncensures of friends, who condemned his retreat, having chosen for his\nsolitude a cottage at Primuliacus, a village now utterly unknown in\nAquitaine, probably in Languedoc. In his kitchen nothing was ever\ndressed but pulse and herbs, boiled without any seasoning, except a\nlittle vinegar: he ate also coarse bread. He and his few disciples had\nno other beds but straw of sackcloth spread on the ground. He set at\nliberty several of his slaves, and admitted them, and some of his old\nservants, to familiar intercourse and {304} conversation. About the year\n394, not long after his retreat, he made a visit to St. Martin at Tours,\nand was so much taken with his saintly comportment, and edified by his\npious discourses and counsels, that he became from that time his\ngreatest admirer, and regulated his conduct by his direction. Ever after\nhe visited that great saint once or twice almost every summer as long as\nhe lived, and passed some time with him, that he might study more\nperfectly to imitate his virtues. He built and adorned several churches.\nFor two which he founded at Primuliacus, he begged some relics of St.\nPaulinus, who sent him a piece of the cross on which our Saviour was\ncrucified, with the history of its miraculous discovery by St.\nHelena.[7] This account Sulpicius inserted in his ecclesiastical\nhistory. These two saints sent frequent presents to each other, of poor\ngarments or the like things, suitable to a penitential life, upon which\nthey make in their letters beautiful pious reflections, that show how\nmuch they were accustomed to raise their thoughts to God from every\nobject.[8] Our saint recommending to St. Paulinus a cook, facetiously\ntells him that he was utterly a stranger to the art of making sauces,\nand to the use of pepper, or any such incentives of gluttony, his skill\nconsisting only in gathering and boiling herbs in such a manner that\nmonks, who only eat after having fasted long, would find delicious. He\nprays his friend to treat him as he would his own son, and wishes he\ncould himself have served him and his family in that quality.[9] In the\nyear 399 St. Paulinus wrote to our saint that he hoped to have met him\nat Rome, whither he went to keep the feast of the prince of the\napostles, and where he had stayed ten days, but without seeing any thing\nbut the tombs of the apostles, before which he passed the mornings, and\nthe evenings were taken up by friends who called to see him.[10]\nSulpicius answered, that an indisposition had hindered him from\nundertaking that journey. Of the several letters mentioned by Gennadius,\nwhich Sulpicius Severus wrote to the devout virgin Claudia, his sister,\ntwo are published by Baluze.[11] Both are strong exhortations to fervor\nand perseverance. In the first, our saint assures her that he shed tears\nof joy in reading her letter, by which he was assured of her sincere\ndesire of serving God. In a letter to Aurelius the deacon, he relates\nthat one night in a dream he saw St. Martin ascend to heaven in great\nglory, and attended by the holy priest Clarus, his disciple, who was\nlately dead: soon after, two monks arriving from Tours, brought news of\nthe death of St. Martin. He adds, that his greatest comfort in the loss\nof so good a master, was a confidence that he should obtain the divine\nblessings by the prayers of St. Martin in heaven. St. Paulinus mentions\nthis vision in an inscription in verse, which he made and sent to be\nengraved on the marble altar of the church of Primuliacus.[12] St.\nSulpicius wrote the life of the incomparable St. Martin, according to\nTillemont and most others, before the death of that saint: but De Prato\nthinks, that though it was begun before, it was neither finished nor\npublished till after his death. The style of this piece is plainer and\nmore simple than that of his other writings. An account of the death of\nSt. Martin, which is placed by De Prato in the year 400, is accurately\ngiven by St. Sulpicius in a letter to Bassula, his mother-ill-law, who\nthen lived at Triers. The three dialogues of our saint are the most\nflorid of all his writings. In the first Posthumian, a friend who had\nspent three years in the deserts of Egypt and the East, and was then\nreturned, relates to him and Gallus, a disciple of St. Martin, (with\nwhom our saint then lived under the same roof,) the wonderful examples\nof virtue he had seen abroad. In the second dialogue, Gallus recounts\n{305} many circumstances of the life of St. Martin, which St. Sulpicius\nhad omitted in his history of that saint. In the third, under the name\nof the same Gallus, several miracles wrought by St. Martin are proved by\nauthentic testimonies.[13] The most important work of our saint is his\nabridgment of sacred history from the beginning of the world down to his\nown time, in the year 400. The elegance, conciseness, and perspicuity\nwith which this work is compiled, have procured the author the name of\nthe Christian Sallust; some even prefer it to the histories of the Roman\nSallust, and look upon it as the most finished model extant of\nabridgments.[14] His style is the most pure of any of the Latin fathers,\nthough also Lactantius, Minutius Felix, we may almost add St. Jerom, and\nSalvian of Marseilles, deserve to be read among the Latin classics. The\nheroic sanctity of Sulpicius Severus is highly extolled by St. Paulinus\nof Nola, Paulinus of Perigueux, about the year 460.[15] Venantius\nFortunatus, and many others, down to the present {306} age. Gennadius\ntells us, that he was particularly remarkable for his extraordinary love\nof poverty and humility. After the death of St. Martin, in 400, St.\nSulpicius Severus passed five years in that illustrious saint's cell at\nMarmoutier. F. Jerom de Prato thinks that he at length retired to a\nmonastery at Marseilles, or in that neighborhood; because in a very\nancient manuscript copy of his works, transcribed in the seventh\ncentury, kept in the library of the chapter of Verona, he is twice\ncalled a monk of Marseilles. From the testimony of this manuscript, the\nBenedictin authors of the new treatise On the Diplomatique,[16] and the\ncontinuators of the Literary History of France,[17] regard it as\nundoubted that Sulpicius Severus was a monk at Marseilles before his\ndeath. While the Alans, Sueves, and Vandals from Germany and other\nbarbarous nations, laid waste most provinces in Gaul in 406, Marseilles\nenjoyed a secure peace under the government of Constantine, who, having\nassumed the purple, fixed the seat of his empire at Arles from the year\n407 to 410. After the death of St. Chrysostom in 407, Cassian came from\nConstantinople to Marseilles, and founded there two monasteries, one for\nmen, the other for women. Most place the death of St. Sulpicius Severus\nabout the year 420, Baronius after the year 432; but F. Jerom de Prato\nabout 410, when he supposes him to have been near fifty years old,\nsaying that Gennadius, who tells us that he lived to a very great age,\nis inconsistent with himself. Neither St. Paulinus nor any other writer\nmentions him as living later than the year 407, which seems to prove\nthat he did not survive that epoch very many years. Guibert, abbot of\nGemblours, who died in 1208, in his Apology for Sulpicius Severus,[18]\ntestifies that his festival was kept at Marmoutier with great solemnity\non the 29th of January. Several editors of the Roman Martyrology, who\ntook Sulpicius Severus, who is named in the calendars on this day, to\nhave been this saint, added in his eulogium, Disciple of St. Martin,\nfamous for his learning and merits. Many have proved that this addition\nwas made by the mistake of private editors, and that the saint\noriginally meant here in the Roman Martyrology was Sulpicius Severus,\nbishop of Bourges;[19] and Benedict XIV. proves and declares[20] that\nSulpicius Severus, the disciple of St. Martin, is not commemorated in\nthe Roman Martyrology. Nevertheless, he has been ranked among the saints\nat Tours from time immemorial, and is honored with a particular office\non this day in the new breviary used in all that diocese. See his works\ncorrectly printed, with various readings, notes, dissertations, and the\nlife of this saint, at Verona in 1741, in two volumes folio, by F. Jerom\nde Prato, an Italian Oratorian of Verona: also Gallia Christiana tum\nVetus tum Nova: Tillemont, t. 12. Ceillier, t. 10, p. 635. Rivet, Hist.\nLitter. de la France, t. 2, p. 95.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  Severus was his own proper name, Sulpicius that of his family, as is\n    testified by Gennadius and all antiquity. Vossius, Dupin, and some\n    others, on this account, will have him called Severus Sulpicius,\n    with Eugippius and St. Gregory of Tours. But other learned men\n    agree, that after the close of the republic of Rome, under the\n    emperors, the family name was usually placed first, though still\n    called Cognomen, and the other Praenomen, because the proper name\n    went anciently before the other. Thus we say Caecilius Cyprianus,\n    Eusebius Hieronymus, Aurelius Agustinus, &c. See Sirmond, Ep.\n    praefixe Op. Serva. Lapi, and Hier. De Prato in vita Sulpicii Severi,\n    p. 56, &c.\n2.  Sulp. Sev. Hist. l. 2, c. 44.\n3.  {Footnote not in text} Ib. c. 48, and Ep. ad Bassulam. de Prato, p.\n    57.\n4.  S. Paulinus, Ep. 5 & 35.\n5.  Ib. Ep. 11, n. 6.\n6.  S. Paulinus, Ep. 1 & 24.\n7.  Ib. Ep. 52.\n8.  Sulpic. Sev. Ep. ad Paulin. ed a D'Achery in Spicileg. t. 52, p.\n    532, et inter opera S. Paulini, p. 119.\n9.  Ibid.\n10. S. Paulin. Ep. ad Sulpic. Sev. p. 96.\n11. Baluze, t. 1, Miscellan. p. 329.\n12. S. Paulinus, Ep. 32, p. 204.\n13. Many, upon the authority of St. Jerom, rank Sulpicius Severus among\n    the Millenarians, though all allow that he never defended any error\n    so as to be out of the communion of the church. But that he could\n    not be properly a Millenarian, seems clear from several parts of his\n    writings. For, Ep. 2 and 3, he affirms, that the souls of St. Martin\n    and St. Clarus passed from this world to the immediate beatific\n    vision of God. He establishes the same principles, Ep. 1, ad\n    Claudiam Soror., c. 5. And in his Sacred History, l. 2, c. 3,\n    explaining the dream of Nabachodonosor, he teaches that the\n    destruction of the kingdoms of this world will be immediately\n    succeeded by the eternal reign of Christ with his saints in heaven.\n    In the passage, Dial. 2, c. 14, upon which the charge is founded,\n    Sulpicius relates, in the discourse of Gallus, that St. Martin, on a\n    certain occasion, said, that the reign of Nero in the West, and his\n    persecution, were immediate forerunners of the last day: as is the\n    reign of Antichrist in the East, who will rebuild Jerusalem and its\n    temple, reside in the same, restore circumcision, kill Nero, and\n    subject the whole world to his empire. Where he advances certain\n    false conjectures about the reign of Nero, and the near approach of\n    the last judgment at that time: likewise the restoration of\n    Jerusalem by Antichrist; though this last is maintained probable by\n    cardinal Bellarmin, l. 3, de Rom. Pontif. c. 13. But the Millenarian\n    error is not so much as insinuated. Nor could it have been inserted\n    by the author in that passage and omitted by copiers, as De Prato\n    proves, against that conjecture of Tillemont. St. Jerom, indeed, l.\n    11, in Ezech. c. 36, represents certain Christian writers who\n    imitated some later Jews in their Deuteroseis in a carnal manner of\n    expounding certain scripture prophecies, expecting a second\n    Jerusalem of gold and precious stones, a restoration of bloody\n    sacrifices, circumcision, and a Sabbath. Among these he names\n    Tertullian, in his book De Spe Fidelium, (now lost,) Lactantius,\n    Victorious Petabionensis, and Severus, (Sulpicius,) in his dialogue\n    entitled, Gallus, then just published: and among the Greeks, Irenaeus\n    and Apollinarius. De Prato thinks he only speaks of Sulpicius\n    Severus by hearsay, because he mentions only one dialogue called\n    Gallus, whereas two bear that title. At least St. Jerom never meant\n    to ascribe all these errors to each of those he names; for none of\n    them maintained them all except Apollinarius. His intention was only\n    to ascribe one point or other of such carnal interpretations to\n    each, and to Sulpicius the opinion that Jerusalem, with the temple\n    and sacrifices, will be restored by Antichrist, &c., which cannot be\n    called erroneous; though St. Jerom justly rejects that\n    interpretation, because the desolation foretold by Daniel is to\n    endure to the end. In the decree of Gelasius this dialogue of Gallus\n    is called Apocryphal, but in the same sense in which it was rejected\n    by St. Jerom. Nor is this exposition advanced otherwise than as a\n    quotation from St. Martin's answer on that subject. See the\n    justification of Sulpicius Severus, in a dissertation printed at\n    Venice in 1738, in Racolta di Opuscoli Scientifici, t. 18, and more\n    amply by F. Jerom de Prato, Disser. 5, in Opera Sulpicii Severi, t.\n    1, p. 259, commended in the Acta Eruditor. Lipsiae, ad an. 1760.\n    Gennadius, who wrote about the year 494, tells us, (Cat. n. 19.)\n    that Sulpicius was deceived in his old age by the Pelagians, but\n    soon opening his eyes, condemned himself to five years' rigorous\n    silence to expiate this fault. From the silence of other authors,\n    and the great commendations which the warmest enemies of the\n    Pelagians bestow on our saint, especially Paulinus of Milan, in his\n    life of St. Ambrose, (written at latest in 423,) and St. Paulinus of\n    Nola, and Paulinus of Perigueux, (who in 461 wrote in verse the life\n    of St. Martin,) l. 5, v, 193, &c., some look upon this circumstance\n    as a slander, which depends wholly on the testimony of so inaccurate\n    a writer, who is inconsistent with himself in other matters relating\n    to Sulpicius Severus, whose five years' silence might have other\n    motives. If the fact be true, it can only be understood of the\n    semi-Pelagian error, which had then many advocates at Marseilles,\n    and was not distinguished in its name from Pelagianism till some\n    years after our saint's death, nor condemned by the church before\n    the second council of Orange in 529. Pelagius was condemned by the\n    councils of Carthage and Milevis in 416, and by pope Innocent I. in\n    412. If Sulpicius Severus fell into any error, especially before it\n    had been clearly anathematized by the church, at least he cannot be\n    charged with obstinacy, having so soon renounced it. We must add,\n    that even wilful offences are blotted out by sincere repentance. See\n    F. Jerom de Pram in vita Sulp. Sev., Sec.12, pp. 69 and 74, t. 1, Op.\n    Veronae, 1741.\n14. The sacred history of Sulpicius Severus is a most useful classic for\n    Christian schools; but not to be studied in the chosen fragments\n    mangled by Chompre, and prescribed for the schools in Portugal. True\n    improvement of the mind is impossible without the beauties of method\n    and the advantages of taste, which are nowhere met with but by\n    seeing good compositions entire, and by considering the art with\n    which the whole is wound up. A small edition of Sulpicius's history,\n    made from that correctly published by De Prato, would be of great\n    service. Nevertheless, Sulpicius, though he has so well imitated the\n    style of the purest ages, declares that he neglects elegance; and he\n    takes the liberty to use certain terms and phrases which are not of\n    the Augustan standard, sometimes because they were so familiar in\n    his time that he otherwise would not have seemed to write with ease,\n    and sometimes because they are necessary to express the mysteries of\n    our faith. How shocking is the delicacy of Bembo; who, for fear of\n    not being Ciceronian, conjures the Venetians, _per Deos immortales_,\n    and uses the words _Dea Lauretana!_ or that of Justus Lipsius, who\n    used _Fatum_ or destiny, for Providence, because this latter word is\n    not in Cicero, who with the Pagans, usually speaks according to the\n    notion of an overruling destiny in events which they by believed\n    ordained by heaven. For this term some of Lipsius's works were\n    censured, and by him recalled.\n15. Vit. St. Martin, versu expressa, l. 5, v. 193, &c.\n16. Tr. de Diplomatique, t. 3.\n17. Hist. Litter. t. 11, Advertissement preliminaire, p. 5.\n18. Published by Bollandus ad 29 Jan. p. 968.\n19. See Annalus, Theolog. positivae, l. 4, c. 26, and Dominic Georgi in\n    Notis ad Martyrol. Adonis, ad {} Jan.\n20. Benedict. XIV. in litteris apost. praefixis novae suae editioni Romani\n    Martyrologii, (Romae, 1749,), Sec.47, p. 34.\n\nST. GILDAS THE WISE, OR BADONICUS, ABBOT.\n\nHE was son to a British lord, who, to procure him a virtuous education,\nplaced him in his infancy in the monastery of St. Iltutus in\nGlamorganshire. The surname of Badonicus was given him, because, as we\nlearn from his writings, he was born in the year in which the Britons\nunder Aurelius Ambrosius, or, according to others, under king Arthur,\ngained the famous victory over the Saxons at Mount Badon, now\nBannesdown, near Bath, in Somersetshire. This Bede places in the\nforty-fourth year after the first {307} coming of the Saxons into\nBritain, which was in 451. Our saint, therefore, seems to have been born\nin 494; he was consequently younger than St. Paul, St. Samson, and his\nother illustrious school-fellows in Wales: but by his prudence and\nseriousness in his youth he seemed to have attained to the maturity of\njudgment and gravity of an advanced age. The author of the life of St.\nPaul of Leon, calls him the brightest genius of the school of St. Iltut.\nHis application to sacred studies was uninterrupted, and if he arrived\nnot at greater perfection in polite literature, this was owing to the\nwant of masters of that branch in the confusion of those times. As to\nimprove himself in the knowledge of God and himself was the end of all\nhis studies, and all his reading was reduced to the study of the science\nof the saints, the greater progress he made in learning, the more\nperfect he became in all virtues. Studies which are to many a source of\ndissipation, made him more and more recollected, because in all books he\nfound and relished only God, whom alone he sought. Hence sprang that\nlove for holy solitude, which, to his death, was the constant ruling\ninclination of his heart. Some time after his monastic profession, with\nthe consent, and perhaps by the order of his abbot, St. Iltut, he passed\nover into Ireland, there to receive the lessons of the admirable masters\nof a religious life, who had been instructed in the most sublime maxims\nof an interior life, and formed to the practice of perfect virtue, by\nthe great St. Patrick. The author of his Acts compares this excursion,\nwhich he made in the spring of his life, to that of the bees in the\nseason of flowers, to gather the juices which they convert into honey.\nIn like manner St. Gildas learned, from the instructions and examples of\nthe most eminent servants of God, to copy in his own life whatever\nseemed most perfect. So severe were his continual fasts, that the motto\nof St. John Baptist might in some degree be applied to him, that he\nscarce seemed to eat or drink at all. A rough hair-cloth, concealed\nunder a coarse cloak, was his garment, and the bare floor his bed, with\na stone for his bolster. By the constant mortification of his natural\nappetites, and crucifixion of his flesh, his life was a prolongation of\nhis martyrdom, or a perpetual sacrifice which he made of himself to God\nin union with that which he daily offered to him on his altars. If it be\ntrue that he preached in Ireland in the reign of king Ammeric, he must\nhave made a visit to that island from Armorica, that prince only\nbeginning to reign in 560: this cannot be ascribed to St. Gildas the\nAlbanian, who died before that time. It was about the year 527, in the\nthirty-fourth of his age, that St. Gildas sailed to Armorica, or\nBrittany, in France:[1] for he wrote his invective ten years {308} after\nhis arrival there, and in the forty-fourth year of his age, as is\ngathered from his life and writings. Here he chose for the place of his\nretirement the little isle of Houac, or Houat, between the coast of\nRhuis and the island of Bellisle, four leagues from the latter. Houat\nexceeds not a league in length; the isle of Hoedre is still smaller, not\nfar distant: both are so barren as to yield nothing but a small quantity\nof corn. Such a solitude, which appeared hideous to others, offered the\ngreatest charms to the saint, who desired to fly, as much as this mortal\nstate would permit, whatever could interrupt his commerce with God. Here\nhe often wanted the common necessaries and conveniences of life; but the\ngreater the privation of earthly comforts was in which he lived, the\nmore abundant were those of the Holy Ghost which he enjoyed, in\nproportion as the purity of his affections and his love of heavenly\nthings were more perfect. The saint promised himself that he should live\nhere always unknown to men: but it was in vain for him to endeavor to\nhide the light of divine grace under a bushel, which shone forth to the\nworld, notwithstanding all the precautions which his humility took to\nconceal it. Certain fishermen who discovered him were charmed with his\nheavenly deportment and conversation, and made known on the continent\nthe treasure they had found. The inhabitants flocked from the coast to\nhear the lessons of divine wisdom which the holy anchoret gave with a\nheavenly unction which penetrated their hearts. To satisfy their\nimportunities, St. Gildas at length consented to live among them on the\ncontinent, and built a monastery at Rhuis, in a peninsula of that name,\nwhich Guerech, the first lord of the Britons about Vannes, is said to\nhave bestowed upon him. This monastery was soon filled with excellent\ndisciples and holy monks. St. Gildas settled them in good order; then,\nsighing after closer solitude, he withdrew, and passing beyond the gulf\nof Vannes, and the promontory of Quiberon, chose for his habitation a\ngrot in a rock, upon the bank of the river Blavet, where he found a\ncavern formed by nature extended from the east to the west, which on\nthat account he converted into a chapel. However, he often visited this\nabbey of Rhuis, and by his counsels directed many in the paths of true\nvirtue. Among these was St. Trifina, daughter of Guerech, first British\ncount of Vannes. She was married to count Conomor, lieutenant of king\nChildebert, a brutish and impious man, who afterwards murdered her, and\nthe young son which he had by her, who at his baptism received the name\nof Gildas, and was godson to our saint: but he is usually known by the\nsurname of Treuchmeur, or Tremeur, in Latin Trichmorus. SS. Trifina and\nTreuchmeur are invoked in the English Litany of the seventh century, in\nMabillon. The great collegiate church of Carhaix bears the name of St.\nTreuchmeur: the church of Quimper keeps his feast on the 8th of\nNovember, on which day he is commemorated in several churches in\nBrittany, and at St. Magloire's at Paris. A church situated between\nCorlai and the abbey of Coetmaloen in Brittany, is dedicated to God\ntinder the invocation of St. Trifina.[2]\n\nSt. Gildas wrote eight canons of discipline, and a severe invective\nagainst the crimes of the Britons, called De Excidio Britanniae, that he\nmight confound {309} those whom he was not able to convert, and whom God\nin punishment delivered first to the plunders of the Picts and Scots,\nand afterwards to the perfidious Saxons, the fiercest of all nations. He\nreproaches their kings, Constantine, (king of the Danmonians, in\nDevonshire and Cornwall,) Vortipor, (of the Dimetians, in South Wales,)\nConon, Cuneglas, and Maglocune, princes in other parts of Britain, with\nhorrible crimes: but Constantine was soon after sincerely converted, as\nGale informs us from an ancient Welsh chronicle.[3] According to John\nFordun[4] he resigned his crown, became a monk, preached the faith to\nthe Scots and Picts, and died a martyr in Kintyre: but the apostle of\nthe Scots seems to have been a little more ancient than the former.[5]\nOur saint also wrote an invective against the British clergy, whom he\naccuses of sloth, of seldom sacrificing at the altar, &c. In his\nretirement he ceased not with tears to recommend to God his own cause,\nor that of his honor and glory, and the souls of blind sinners, and died\nin his beloved solitude in the island of Horac, (in Latin Horata,)\naccording to Usher, in 570, but according to Ralph of Disse, in 581.[6]\nSt. Gildas is patron of the city of Vannes. The abbey which bears his\nname in the peninsula of Rhuis, between three and four leagues from\nVannes, is of the reformed congregation of St. Maur since the year 1649.\nThe relics of St. Gildas were carried thence for fear of the Normans\ninto Berry, about the year 919, and an abbey was erected there on the\nbanks of the river Indre, which was secularized and united to the\ncollegiate church of Chateauroux in 1623. St. Gildas is commemorated in\nthe Roman Martyrology on the 29th of January. A second commemoration of\nhim is made in some places on the 11th of May, on account of the\ntranslation of his relics. His life, compiled from the ancient archives\nof Rhuis by a monk of that house, in the eleventh century, is the best\naccount we have of him, though the author confounds him sometimes with\nSt. Gildas the Albanian. It is published in the library of Fleury, in\nBollandus, p. 954, and most correctly in Mabillon, Act. SS. Ord. Saint\nBelled. t. 1, p. 138. See also Dom Lobineau, Vies des Saints de\nBretagne, (fol. an. 1725,) p. 72, and Hist. de la {310} Bretagne, (2\nvol. fol. an. 1707,) and the most accurate Dom Morice, Memoires Sur\nl'Histoire de Bretagne, 3 vol. fol. in 1745, and Hist. de la Bretagne, 2\nvol. fol. an. 1750.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  Armorica, which word in the old Celtic language signified a maritime\n    country, comprised that part of Celtic Gaul which is now divided\n    into Brittany, Lower Normandy, Anjou, Maine, and Touraine. Tours was\n    the capital, and still maintains the metropolitical dignity. By St.\n    Gatian, about the middle of the third century, the faith was first\n    planted in those parts: but the entire extirpation of idolatry was\n    reserved to the zeal of British monks. Dom Morice distinguishes\n    three principal transmigrations of inhabitants from Great Britain\n    into Armorica: the first, when many fled from the arms of Carausius\n    and Allectus, who successively assumed the purple in Great Britain:\n    Constance made these fugitives welcome in Gaul, and allowed them to\n    settle on the coast of Armorica about the year 293. A second and\n    much larger colony of Britons was planted here under Conan, a\n    British prince by Maximus, whom all the British youth followed into\n    Gaul in 383. After the defeat of Maximus, these Armorican Britons\n    chose this Conan, surnamed Meriedec, king, formed themselves into an\n    independent state, and maintained their liberty against several\n    Roman generals in the decline of that empire, and against the Alans,\n    Vandals, Goths, and other barbarians. Des Fontaines, (Diss. p. 118,)\n    and after him Dom Morice. demonstrates that Brittany was an\n    independent state before the year 421. The third transmigration of\n    Britons hither was completed at several intervals while the Saxons\n    invaded and conquered Britain, where Hengist first landed in 470.\n    Brittany was subjected to the Romans during four centuries: an\n    independent state successively under the title of a kingdom, county,\n    and duchy, for the space of about eleven hundred and fifty years,\n    and has been united to the kingdom of France ever since the year\n    1532, by virtue of the marriage of king Charles VIII. with Anne,\n    sole heiress of Brittany, daughter of duke Francis, celebrated in\n    1491. This province was subdued by Clovis I., who seems to have\n    treacherously slain Budic, king of Brittany. This prince left six\n    sons, Howel I., Ismael, bishop of Menevia, St. Tifel, honored as a\n    martyr at Pennalun, St. Oudecee, bishop of Landaff, Urbian or\n    Concur, and Dinot, father of St. Kineda. Brittany remained subject\n    to the sons of Clovis, and it was by the authority of Childobert\n    that St. Paul was made bishop of Leon in 512. But Howel, returning\n    from the court of king Arthur in 513, recovered the greater part of\n    these dominions. See Dom Morice, Hist. t. 1, p. 14. Howel I., often\n    called Rioval, that is, king Rowel, was a valiant prince, and\n    liberal to churches and monasteries. Among many sons whom he left\n    behind him, Howel II. succeeded him, and two are honored among the\n    saints, viz. St. Leonor or Lunaire, and St. Tudgual or Pabutual,\n    first Bishop of Treguier. See Morice. t. 1, pp. 14. and 729. Howel\n    III., alias Juthael, recovered all Brittany. King Pepin again\n    conquered this country, and Charlemagne and Louis le Debonnaire\n    quelled it when it thrice rebelled. The latter established the\n    Benedictin rule at Llandevenec. which probably was soon imitated in\n    others: for the monastic rule which first prevailed here was that of\n    the Britons in Wales, borrowed from the Orientals. After the\n    straggles made by this province for its liberty, Charles the Bald\n    yielded it up in 858, and some time after treated Solomon III. as\n    king of Brittany. See Morice, Des Fontaines, &c.\n2.  In this churchyard stands an ancient pyramid, on which are engraved\n    letters of an unknown alphabet, supposed to be that of the Britons\n    and Gauls before the Roman alphabet was introduced among them.\n    Letters of the same alphabet are found upon some other monuments of\n    Brittany. See Lobineau, Vies des Saints de la Bretagne. in St.\n    Treuchmeur, p. 8. Dom Morice endeavors to prove that the Welsh, the\n    old British, and the Celtic, are the same language. (Hist. t. 1, p.\n    867.) That they are so in part is unquestionable.\n3.  Mr. Vaughan, in his British Antiquities revived, printed at Oxford\n    in 1662, shows that there were at this time many princes or\n    chieftains among the Britons in North Wales, but that they all held\n    their lands of one sovereign, though each in his own district was\n    often honored with the title of king. The chief prince at this time\n    was Maelgun Gwynedth, the lineal heir and eldest descendant of\n    Cuneda, who flourished in the end of the fourth, or beginning of the\n    fifth century, and from one or other of whose eight sons all the\n    princes of North Wales, also those of Cardigan, Dimetia, Glamorgan,\n    and others in South Wales, derived their descent. The ancient\n    author, published at the end of Nenbius, says Maelgun began his\n    reign one hundred and forty-six years after Cuaedha, who was his\n    Atavus, or great-grandfather's grandfather. Maelgun was prince only\n    of Venedotia for twenty-five years before he was acknowledged in\n    564, after the death of Arthur, chief king of the Britons in Wales,\n    while St. David was primate, Arthur king of the Britons in general,\n    Gurthmyll king, and St. Kentigern bishop of the Cumbrian Britons.\n    \"He had received a good education under the elegant instructor of\n    almost all Britain,\" says Gildas, pointing out probably St. Iltutus.\n    Yet he fell into enormous vices. Touched with remorse, he retired\n    into a monastery in 552; but being soon tired of that state,\n    reassumed his crown, and relapsed into his former impieties. He died\n    in 565. Gildas, who wrote his epistle De Excidio Britanniae, between\n    the years 564 and 570, that of his death, hints that Veralam was\n    then fallen into the hands of the Saxons: which is certain of\n    London, &c. The other princes reprehended by Gildas were lesser\n    toparchs, as Aurelius Canon, Vortipor, Cuneglas, and Constantine.\n    These were chieftains, Vortipor in Pembrokeshire, the rest in some\n    quarter or other of Britain, all living when Gildas wrote.\n    Constantine, whom Gildas represents as a native of Cornwall, and as\n    he is commonly understood, also as prince of that country, did\n    penance. The chief crime imputed to him is the murder of two royal\n    youths in a church, and of two noblemen who had the charge of their\n    education. Those Carte imagines to have been the sons of Caradoc\n    Ureich Uras, who was chief prince of the Cornish Britons in the\n    latter end of king Arthur's reign, as is attested by the author of\n    the Triades. The prelates whom Gildas reproves, were such as Maelgun\n    had promoted: for the sees of South-Wales were at that time filled\n    with excellent prelates, whose virtues Gildas desired to copy.\n    Carte, t. 1, p. 214.\n4.  Scoti-chron. c. 26.\n5.  Gildas's epistle, De Excidio Britanniae, was published extremely\n    incorrect and incomplete, till the learned Thomas Gale gave us a far\n    more accurate and complete edition, t. 3, Scriptor. Britan., which\n    is reprinted with notes by Bertrame in Germany, Hanniae imp. an.\n    1757, together with Nennius's history of the Britons, and Richard\n    Corin, of Westminster, De Situ Britanniae. Gildas's Castigatio Cleri\n    is extant in the library of the fathers, ed. Colon. t. 5, part 3, p.\n    682.\n6.  Dom Morice shows that about one hundred and twenty years were an\n    ordinary term of human life among the ancient Britons, and that\n    their usual liquor, called Kwrw, made of barley and water, was a\n    kind of beer, a drink most suitable to the climate and constitutions\n    of the inhabitants. See Dom Morice, Memoires sur l'Histoire de\n    Bretange, t. 1, preface; and Lamery, Diss. sur les Boissons.\n\nST. GILDAS THE ALBANIAN, OR THE SCOT, C.[1]\n\nHIS father, who was called Caunus, and was king of certain southern\nprovinces in North Britain, was slain in war by king Arthur. St. Gildas\nimproved temporal afflictions into the greatest spiritual advantages,\nand, despising a false and treacherous world, aspired with his whole\nheart to a heavenly kingdom. Having engaged himself in a monastic state,\nhe retired with St. Cado, abbot of Llan-carvan, into certain desert\nislands, whence they were driven by pirates from the Orcades. Two\nislands, called Ronech and Ecni, afforded him for some time a happy\nretreat, which he forsook to preach to sinners the obligation of doing\npenance, and to invite all men to the happy state of divine love. After\ndischarging this apostolical function for several years, he retired to\nthe southwest part of Britain into the abbey of Glastenbury, where he\ndied and was buried in 512. William of Malmesbury[2] and John Fordun[3]\nmention his prophecies and miracles. See F. Alford, an. 512. Dom\nLobineau, Saints de Bret. p. 72. Dom Morice, Hist. de Bret. t. 1, in the\nnotes.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  Mr. Gale has cleared up the dispute about the two Gildases, and\n    demonstrates this to have been a distinct person from the former,\n    which is also proved by Dom Lobineau and Dom Morice.\n2.  Gul. Malmesb. de Antiq. Glast.\n3.  Scoti-chron. c. 22.\n\nOn this day is commemorated in the Roman Martyrology, ST. SABINIANUS of\nTROYES in CHAMPAGNE, a martyr of the third century. His festival is kept\nat Troyes on the 24th. See Bollan. 29th Jan. p. 937. Tillem. Hist. des\nEmp, t. 3, p. 541.\n\nAlso, ST. SULPICIUS, surnamed SEVERUS, Bishop of Bourges in 591. See\nGreg. Tour. Hist. Franc. l. 6, c. 39. Gall. Christ. and Ben. XIV. Pref.\nin Mart. Rom.\n\n\nJANUARY XXX.\n\nST. BATHILDES, QUEEN OF FRANCE.\n\nFrom her life written by a contemporary author, and a second life, which\nis the same with the former, except certain additions of a later date,\nin Bollandus and Mabillon, sec. 4, Ben. p. 447, and Act. Sanct. Ben. t.\n2. See also Dubois, Hist. Eccl. Paris, p. 198, and Chatelain. Notes on\nthe Martyr. 30 Jan. p. 462. See Historia St. Bathildis et Fundationem\nejus, among the MS. lives of saints in the abbey of Jumieges, t. 2. Also\nher MS. life at Bec, &c.\n\nA.D. 680.\n\nST. BATHILDES, or BALDECHILDE, in French Bauteur, was an English-woman,\nwho was carried over very young into France, and there sold for a slave,\nat a very low price, to Erkenwald, otherwise called Erchinoald, and,\nArchimbald, mayor of the palace under King Clovis II. When she grew up\nhe was so much taken with her prudence and virtue, that he committed to\nher the care of his household. She was no ways puffed up, but seemed\n{311} the more modest, more submissive to her fellow-slaves, and always\nready to serve the meanest of them in the lowest offices. King Clovis\nII. in 649 took her for his royal consort, with the applause of his\nprinces and whole kingdom: such was the renown of her extraordinary\nendowments. This unexpected elevation, which would have turned the\nstrongest head of a person addicted to pride, produced no alteration in\na heart perfectly grounded to humility and other virtues. She seemed\neven to become more humble than before, and more tender of the poor. Her\npresent station furnished her with the means of being truly their\nmother, which she was before in the inclination and disposition of her\nheart. All other virtues appeared more conspicuous in her, but above the\nrest an ardent zeal for religion. The king gave her the sanction of his\nroyal authority for the protection of the church, the care of the poor,\nand the furtherance of all religions undertakings. She bore him three\nsons, who all successively wore the crown, Clotaire III., Childeric II.,\nand Thierry I. He dying in 655, when the eldest was only five years old,\nleft her regent of the kingdom. She seconded the zeal of St. Owen, St.\nEligius, and other holy bishops, and with great pains banished simony\nout of France, forbade Christians to be made slaves,[1] did all in her\npower to promote piety, and filled France with hospitals and pious\nfoundations. She restored the monasteries of St. Martin, St. Denys, St.\nMedard, &c., founded the great abbey of Corbie for a seminary of virtue\nand sacred learning, and the truly royal nunnery of Chelles,[2] on the\nMarne, which had been begun by St. Clotildis. As soon as her son\nClotaire was of an age to govern, she with great joy shut herself up in\nthis monastery of Chelles, in 665, a happiness which she had long\nearnestly desired, though it was with great difficulty that she obtained\nthe consent of the princes. She had no sooner taken the veil but she\nseemed to have forgotten entirely her former dignity, and was only to be\ndistinguished from the rest by her extreme humility, serving them in the\nlowest offices, and obeying the holy abbess St. Bertilla as the last\namong the sisters. She prolonged her devotions every day with many\ntears, and made it her greatest delight {312} to visit and attend the\nsick, whom she comforted and served with wonderful charity. St. Owen, in\nhis life of St. Eligius, mentions many instances of the great veneration\nwhich St. Bathildes bore that holy prelate, and relates that St.\nEligius, after his death, in a vision by night, ordered a certain\ncourtier to reprove the queen for wearing jewels and costly apparel in\nher widowhood, which she did not out of pride, but because she thought\nit due to her state while she was regent of the kingdom. Upon this\nadmonition, she laid them aside, distributed a great part to the poor,\nand with the richest of her jewels made a most beautiful and sumptuous\ncross, which she placed at the head of the tomb of St. Eligius. She was\nafflicted with long and severe colics and other pains, which she\nsuffered with an admirable resignation and joy. In her agony she\nrecommended to her sisters charity, care of the poor, fervor, and\nperseverance, and gave up her soul in devout prayer, on the 30th of\nJanuary, in 680, on which day she is honored in France, but is named on\nthe 26th in the Roman Martyrology.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nA Christian, who seriously considers that he is to live here but a\nmoment, and will live eternally in the world to come, must confess that\nit is a part of wisdom to refer all his actions and views to prepare\nhimself for that everlasting dwelling, which is his true country. Our\nonly and necessary affair is to live for God, to do his will, and to\nsanctify and save our souls. If we are employed in a multiplicity of\nexterior business, we must imitate St. Bathildes, when she bore the\nwhole weight of the state. In all we do God and his holy will must be\nalways before our eyes, and to please him must be our only aim and\ndesire. Shunning the anxiety of Martha, and reducing all our desires to\nthis one of doing what God requires of us, we must with her call in Mary\nto our assistance. In the midst of action, while our hands are at work,\nour mind and heart ought to be interiorly employed on God, at least\nvirtually, that all our employments may be animated with the spirit of\npiety: and hours of repose must always be contrived to pass at the feet\nof Jesus, where in the silence of all creatures we may listen to his\nsweet voice, refresh in him our wearied souls, and renew our fervor.\nWhile we converse with the world, we must tremble at the sight of its\nsnares, and be upon our guard that we never be seduced so far as to be\nin love with it, or to learn its spirit. To love the world, is to follow\nits passions; to be proud, covetous, and sensual, as the world is. The\nheight of its miseries and dangers, is that blindness by which none who\nare infected with its spirit, see their misfortune, or are sensible of\ntheir disease. Happy are they who can imitate this holy queen in\nentirely separating themselves from it!\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  The Franks, when they established themselves in Gaul, allowed the\n    Roman Gauls to live according to their own laws and customs, and\n    tolerated their use of slaves, but gradually mitigated their\n    servitude. Queen Bathildes alleviated the heaviest conditions, gave\n    great numbers their liberty, and declared all capable of property.\n    The Franks still retained slaves with this condition, attached to\n    certain manors or farms, and bound to certain particular kinds of\n    servitude. The kings of the second race often set great numbers\n    free, and were imitated by other lords. Queen Blanche and Saint\n    Lewis contributed more than any others to ease the condition of\n    vassals, and Louis Hutin abolished slavery in France, declaring all\n    men free who live in that kingdom according to the spirit of\n    Christianity, which teaches us to treat all men as our brethren. See\n    the life of St. Bathildes, and Gratigny, [OE]vres posthumes, an. 1757.\n    Disc. sur la Servitude et son Abolition en France.\n2.  In the village of Chelles, in Latin Cala, four leagues from Paris,\n    the kings of the first race had a palace. St. Clotildis founded near\n    it a small church under the invocation of St. George, with a small\n    number of cells adjoining for nuns. St. Bathildes so much enlarged\n    this monastery as to be looked upon as the principal foundress. The\n    old church of St. George falling to decay, Saint Bathildes built\n    there the magnificent church of the Holy Cross, in which she was\n    buried. Gisela, sister to the emperor Charlemagne, abbess of this\n    house, rebuilt the great church, which some pretend to be the same\n    that is now standing. At present here are three churches together;\n    the first, which is small, the oldest, and only a choir, is called\n    the church of the Holy Cross, and is used by six monks who assist\n    the nuns; the lowest church is called St. George's, and is a\n    parochial church for the seculars who live within the jurisdiction\n    of the monastery: the great church which serves the nuns is\n    dedicated under the invocation of the Blessed Virgin, and is said to\n    be the same that was built by the abbess Gisela, and much enlarged\n    and enriched by Hegilvich, abbess of this monastery, mother to the\n    empress Judith, whose husband, Louis le Debonnaire, caused the\n    remains of our saint to be translated into this new church, in 833,\n    and from this treasure it is more frequently called the church of\n    St. Bathlides, than our Lady's. Two rich silver shrines are placed\n    over the iron rails of the chancel, in one of which rest the sacred\n    remains of St. Bathildes, in the other those of St. Bertilla, first\n    abbess of Chelles: these rails, which are of admirable workmanship,\n    were the present of an illustrious princess of the house of Bourbon,\n    Mary Adelaide of Orleans, abbess of this house in 1725, who not\n    thinking her sacrifice complete by having renounced the world, after\n    some years abdicated her abbacy, and died in the condition of humble\n    obedience, and of a private religious woman, near the shrines of SS.\n    Bathildes and Bertilla, and those of St. Genesius of Lyons, St.\n    Eligius and Radegondes of Chelles, called also little St. Bathildes.\n    The last-mentioned princess was god-daughter to our saint, and died\n    in her childhood, in this monastery, two or three days before her.\n    See Piganiol's Descr. de Paris, t. 1 and S. Chatelain's notes in\n    martyr. p. 464, and especially Le Boeuf, Hist. du Diocese de Paris,\n    t. 6, p. 32. This author gives (p. 43) the full relation of a\n    miracle approved by John Francis Gondy, archbishop of Paris,\n    mentioned in a few words by Mabillon and Baillet. Six nuns were\n    cured of inveterate distempers, attended with frequent fits of\n    convulsions, by touching the relics of Saint Bathildes, when her\n    shrine was opened on the 13th of July, in 1631.\n\nST. MARTINA, V.M.\n\nSHE was a noble Roman virgin, who glorified God, suffering many torments\nand a cruel death for his faith, in the capital city of the world, in\nthe third century. There stood a chapel consecrated to her memory in\nRome, which was frequented with great devotion in the time of St.\nGregory the Great. Her relics were discovered in a vault, in the ruins\nof her old church, and translated with great pomp in the year 1634,\nunder the pope Urban VIII., who built a new church in her honor, and\ncomposed himself the hymns used in her office in the Roman Breviary. The\ncity of Rome ranks her among its particular patrons. She is mentioned in\nthe Martyrologies of Ado, Usuard, &c. The history of the discovery of\nher relics was published by Honoratus of Viterbo, an Oratorian. See\nBollandus.\n\n{313}\n\nST. ALDEGONDES, V. ABBESS.\n\nSHE was daughter of Walbert, of the royal blood of France, and born in\nHainault about the year 630. She consecrated herself to God by a vow of\nvirginity, when very young, and resisted all solicitations to marriage,\nserving God in the house of her holy parents, till, in 638, she took the\nreligious veil, and founded and governed a great house of holy virgins\nat Maubeuge.[1] She was favored with an eminent gift of prayer, and many\nrevelations; but was often tried by violent slanders and persecutions,\nwhich she looked upon as the highest favors of the divine mercy, begging\nof God that she might be found worthy to suffer still more for his sake.\nHis divine providence sent her a lingering and most painful cancer in\nher breast. The saint bore the torture of her distemper, also the\ncaustics and incisions of the surgeons, not only with patience, but even\nwith joy, and expired in raptures of sweet love, on the 30th of January,\nin 660, according to Bollandus. Her relics are enshrined in the great\nchurch of Maubeuge, where her monastery is now a college of noble\nvirgins canonesses. Her name occurs on this day in the ancient breviary\nof Autun, and in the martyrologies of Rabanus, Usuard, and Notker: also\nin the Roman. At St. Omer, where a parish church bears her name, she is\ncalled Saint Orgonne. See her life written some time after her death: a\nsecond a century later, and a third by Hucbald, a learned monk of St.\nArmand's, in 900, with the remarks of Mabillon, (Act. Bened. t. 2, p.\n937,) and the Bollandists. Consult also Miraeus's Fasti Belgici, and La\nVie de St. Aldegonde, par P. Binet, Jesuite, in 12mo. Paris, 1625.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  The act of this foundation, published by Miraeus, is spurious, as\n    mention is made therein of persons who were not living at that time:\n    neither could it have been made in the twentieth year of Dagobert,\n    as it contains facts which cannot be reconciled with the history of\n    that prince. See the note of Bollandus, t. 2, p. 1039, and\n    Chatelain, p 461.\n\n\nST. BARSIMAEUS, B.M.\n\nCALLED BY THE SYRIANS BARSAUMAS.\n\nHE was the third bishop of Edessa from St. Thaddaeus, one of the\nseventy-two disciples. St. Barsaumas was crowned with martyrdom, being\ncondemned to die for his zeal in converting great multitudes to the\nfaith, by the president Lysias, in the reign of Trajan, when that\nprince, having passed the Euphrates, made the conquest of Mesopotamia in\n114. St. Barsimaeus is mentioned on the 30th of January in the Roman\nMartyrology, and in the Greek Maenology.\n\n{314}\n\n\nJANUARY XXXI.\n\nSAINT PETER NOLASCO, C.\n\nFOUNDER OF THE ORDER OF OUR LADY FOR THE REDEMPTION OF CAPTIVES.\n\nFrom Chronica Sacri et Militaris Ordinis B.M. de Mercede, per Bern. de\nVargas, ej. Ord. 2 vol. in fol. Panormi, 1622, and by John de Latomis in\n12mo. in 1621, and especially the Spanish history of the same by Alonso\nRoman, 2 vol. fol. at Madrid, in 1618, and the life of the saint\ncompiled in Italian by F. Francis Olihano, in 4to. 1668. See also\nBaillet, and Hist. des Ordres Relig. par Helyot, and Hist de l'Ordre de\nNotre Dame de la Merci, par les RR. Peres de la Merci, de la\nCongregation de Paris, fol. printed at Amiens, in 1685.\n\nA.D. 1258.\n\nPETER, of the noble family of Nolasco, in Languedoc, was born in the\ndiocese of St. Papoul, about the year 1189. His parents were very rich,\nbut far more illustrious for their virtue. Peter, while an infant, cried\nat the sight of a poor man, till something was given him to bestow on\nthe object of his compassion. In his childhood he gave to the poor\nwhatever he received for his own use. He was exceeding comely and\nbeautiful; but innocence and virtue were his greatest ornaments. It was\nhis pious custom to give a very large alms to the first poor man he met\nevery morning, without being asked. He rose at midnight, and assisted at\nmatins in the church, as then the more devout part of the laity used to\ndo, together with all the clergy. At the age of fifteen he lost his\nfather, who left him heir to a great estate: and he remained at home\nunder the government of his pious mother, who brought him up in\nextraordinary sentiments and practices of virtue. Being solicited to\nmarry, he betook himself to the serious consideration of the vanity of\nall earthly things; and rising one night full of those thoughts,\nprostrated himself in fervent prayer, which he continued till morning,\nmost ardently devoting himself to God in the state of celibacy, and\ndedicating his whole patrimony to the promoting of his divine honor. He\nfollowed Simon of Montfort, general of the holy war against the\nAlbigenses, an heretical sect, which had filled Languedoc with great\ncruelties, and over spread it with universal desolation. That count\nvanquished them, and in the battle of Muret defeated and killed Peter,\nking of Aragon, and took his son James prisoner, a child of six years\nold. The conqueror having the most tender regard and compassion for the\nprince his prisoner, appointed Peter Nolasco, then twenty-five years\nold, his tutor, and sent them both together into Spain. Peter, in the\nmidst of the court of the king at Barcelona,[1] where the kings of\nAragon resided, led the life of a recluse, practising the austerities of\na cloister. He gave no part of his time to amusements, but spent all the\nmoments which the instruction of his pupil left free, in holy prayer,\nmeditation, and pious reading. The Moors at that time were possessed of\na considerable part of Spain, and great numbers of Christians groaned\nunder their tyranny in a miserable slavery both there and in Africa.\nCompassion for the poor had always been the distinguishing virtue of\nPeter. The sight of so many moving objects in captivity, and the\nconsideration of the spiritual dangers to which their faith and virtue\nstood exposed under their Mahometan masters, touched his heart to the\nquick, and he soon spent his whole estate in redeeming as many as he\ncould. Whenever he saw {315} any poor Christian slaves, he used to say:\n\"Behold eternal treasures which never fail.\" By his discourses he moved\nothers to contribute large alms towards this charity, and at last formed\na project for instituting a religious order for a constant supply of men\nand means whereby to carry on so charitable an undertaking. This design\nmet with great obstacles in the execution, but the Blessed Virgin, the\ntrue mother of mercy, appearing to St. Peter, the king, and St. Raymund\nof Pennafort, in distinct visions the same night, encouraged them to\nprosecute the holy scheme under the assurance of her patronage and\nprotection. St. Raymund was the spiritual director both of St. Peter and\nof the king, and a zealous promoter of this charitable work. The king\ndeclared himself the protector of the Order, and assigned them a large\nquarter of his own palace for their abode. All things being settled for\nlaying the foundation of it, on the feast of St. Laurence, in the year\n1223, the king and St. Raymund conducted St. Peter to the church and\npresented him to Berengarius, the bishop of Barcelona, who received his\nthree solemn religious vows, to which the saint added a fourth, to\ndevote his whole substance and his very liberty, if necessary, to the\nransoming of slaves; the like vow he required of all his followers. St.\nRaymund made an edifying discourse on the occasion, and declared from\nthe pulpit, in the presence of this august assembly, that it had pleased\nAlmighty God to reveal to the king, to Peter Nolasco, and to himself,\nhis will for the institution of an Order for the redemption of the\nfaithful, detained in bondage among the infidels. This was received by\nthe people with the greatest acclamations of joy, happy presages of the\nfuture success of the holy institute.[2] After this discourse, St. Peter\nreceived the new habit (as Mariana and pope Clement VIII. in his bull\nsay) from St. Raymund, who established him first general of this new\nOrder, and drew up for it certain rules and constitutions. Two other\ngentlemen were professed at the same time with St. Peter. When St.\nRaymund went to Rome, he obtained from pope Gregory IX., in the year\n1225, the confirmation of this Order, and of the rule and constitutions\nhe had drawn up. He wrote an account of this from Rome to St. Peter,\ninforming him how well pleased his Holiness was with the wisdom and\npiety of the institute. The religious chose a white habit, to put them\ncontinually in mind of innocence: they wear a scapular, which is\nlikewise white: but the king would oblige them, for his sake, to bear\nthe royal arms of Aragon, which are interwoven on their habit upon the\nbreast. Their numbers increasing very fast, the saint petitioned the\nking for another house; who, on this occasion, built for them, in 1232,\na magnificent convent at Barcelona.[3]\n\nKing James having conquered the kingdom of Valencia, founded in it\nseveral rich convents; one was in the city of Valencia, which was taken\nby the aid of the prayers of St. Peter, when the soldiers had despaired\nof {316} success, tired out by the obstinacy of the besieged and\nstrength of the place. In thanksgiving for this victory, the king built\nthe rich monastery in the royal palace of Uneza, near the same city, on\na spot where an image of our Lady was dug up, which is still preserved\nin the church of this convent end is famous for pilgrimages. It is\ncalled the monastery of our Lady of mercy del Puche.[4] That prince\nattributed to the prayers of Saint Peter thirty great victories which he\nobtained over the infidels, and the entire conquest of the two kingdoms\nof Valencia and Murcia. St. Peter, after his religious profession,\nrenounced all his business at court, and no entreaties of the king could\never after prevail with him to appear there but once, and this was upon\na motive of charity to reconcile two powerful noblemen, who by their\ndissension had divided the whole kingdom, and kindled a civil war. The\nsaint ordained that two members of the Order should be sent together\namong the infidels, to treat about the ransom of Christian slaves, and\nthey are hence called Ransomers. One of the two first employed in this\npious work was our saint; and the kingdom of Valencia was the first\nplace that was blessed with his labors; the second was that of Granada.\nHe not only comforted and ransomed a great number of captives, but by\nhis charity and other rare virtues, was the happy instrument of inducing\nmany of the Mahometans to embrace the faith of Christ. He made several\nother journeys to the coasts of Spain, besides a voyage to Algiers,\nwhere, among other sufferings, he underwent imprisonment for the faith.\nBut the most terrifying dangers could never make him desist from his\npious endeavors for the conversion of the infidels, burning with a holy\ndesire of martyrdom. He begged earnestly of his Order to be released\nfrom the burden of his generalship: but by his tears could only obtain\nthe grant of a vicar to assist him in the discharge of it. He employed\nhimself in the meanest offices of his convent, and coveted above all\nthings to have the distribution of the daily alms at the gate of the\nmonastery: he at the same time instructed the poor in the knowledge of\nGod and in virtue. St. Louis IX. of France wrote frequently to him, and\ndesired much to see him. The saint waited on him in Languedoc, in the\nyear 1243, and the king, who tenderly embraced him, requested him to\naccompany him in his expedition to recover the Holy Land. St. Peter\nearnestly desired it, but was hindered by sickness, with which he was\ncontinually afflicted during the last years of his life, the effect of\nhis fatigues and austerities, and he bore it with incomparable patience.\nIn 1249, he resigned the offices of Ransomer and General, which was six\nor seven years before his death. This happened on Christmas-day, in\n1256. In his agony, he tenderly exhorted his religious to perseverance,\nand concluded with those words of the psalmist: _Our Lord hath sent\nredemption to his people; he hath commanded his covenant forever_.[5] He\nthen recommended his soul to God by that charity with which Christ came\nfrom heaven to redeem us from the captivity of the devil, and melting\ninto tears of compunction and divine love, he expired, being in the\nsixty-seventh year of his age. His relics are honored by many miracles.\nHe was canonized by pope Urban VIII. His festival was appointed by\nClement VIII. to be kept on the 31st of January.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nCharity towards all mankind was a distinguishing feature in the\ncharacter of the saints. This benevolent virtue so entirely possessed\ntheir hearts, that they were constantly disposed to sacrifice even their\nlives to the relief and assistance of others. Zealously employed in\nremoving their temporal necessities, they labored with redoubled vigor\nto succor their spiritual wants, {317} by rooting out from their souls\nthe dominion of sin, and substituting in its room the kingdom of God's\ngrace. Ingratitude and ill-treatment, which was the return they\nfrequently met with for their charitable endeavors, were not able to\nallay their ardent zeal: they considered men on these occasions as\npatients under the pressure of diseases, more properly the object of\ncompassion than of resentment. They recommended them to God in their\nprivate devotions, and earnestly besought his mercy in their favor. This\nconduct of the saints, extraordinary as it is, ceases to appear\nsurprising when we recollect the powerful arguments our Blessed Saviour\nmade use of to excite us to the love of our neighbor. But how shall we\njustify our unfeeling hard-heartedness, that seeks every trifling\npretence to exempt us from the duty of succoring the unfortunate? Have\nwe forgot that Jesus Christ our Redeemer, who alone hath bestowed on us\nwhatever we possess, hath made charity towards our fellow-creature, but\nespecially towards the needy, an indispensable precept? Do we not know\nthat he bids us consider the suffering poor as members of the same head,\nheirs of the same promises, as our brethren and his children who\nrepresent him on earth? He declares, that whatever we bestow upon them\nhe will esteem it as given to himself; and pledges his sacred word that\nhe will reward our alms with an eternity of bliss. Such motives, says\nSt. Chrysostom, would be sufficient to touch a heart of stone: but there\nis something still more cogent, continues the same holy father, which\nis, that the same Jesus Christ, whom we refuse to nourish in the persons\nof the poor, feeds our souls with his precious body and blood. If such\nconsiderations move not our hearts to commiserate and assist the\nindigent, what share of mercy and relief can we hope for in the hour of\nneed? Oh, incomprehensible blindness! we perhaps prepare for ourselves\nan eternal abyss, by those very means which, properly applied, would\nsecure as the conquest of a kingdom which will never have an end.[6]\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  A century before, the counts of Barcelona were become kings of\n    Aragon by a female title, and had joined Catalonia to Aragon, making\n    Barcelona their chief residence and capital.\n2.  F. Tonron, in the life of St. Raymund, p. 20, quotes an original\n    letter of St. Raymund, which mentions this revelation. The\n    authenticity of this letter cannot be called in question, being\n    proved by F. Bremond, Bullar. Ord. Praed. t. 1, not. in Constit. 36,\n    Greg. X. The same revelation is inserted in the bull of the saint's\n    canonization, in the Histories of Zumel, Vargas, Penia, &c. Benedict\n    XIV. also mentions it, Canoniz. SS. l. 1, c. 41, and proves that it\n    cannot reasonably be contested.\n3.  This Order consisted at first of some knights, who were dressed like\n    seculars, wearing only a scarf or scapular; and of friars who were\n    in holy orders, and attended the choir. The knights were to guard\n    the coast against the Saracens, but were obliged to choir when not\n    on duty. St. Peter himself was never ordained priest; and the first\n    seven generals or commanders were chosen out of the knights, though\n    the friars were always more numerous. Raymond Albert, in 1317. was\n    the first priest who was raised to that dignity; and the popes\n    Clement V., and John XXII., ordered that the general should be\n    always a priest after which, the knight were incorporated into other\n    military Orders, or were rarely renewed. It is styled, \"The royal\n    military religious Order of our Lady of Mercy for the redemption of\n    Captives.\" It is divided into commanderies, which in Spain are very\n    rich. It has eight provinces in America, three in Spain, and one,\n    the poorest, in the southern part of France, called the province of\n    Guienne. Whereas this Order is not bound to many extraordinary\n    domestic austerities, a reformation, obliging the members to go\n    barefoot, was established among them in the sixteenth century, and\n    approved by pope Clement VIII. It observes the strictest poverty,\n    recollection, solitude, and abstinence, and has two provinces in\n    Spain, and one in Sicily, besides several nunneries. It was erected\n    by F. John Baptist Gonzales, or of the holy sacrament, who died in\n    the year 1{}18, and is said to have been honored with miracles.\n4.  Podoniensis.\n5.  Ps. cx. 9.\n6.  S. Chrys. Hom. in illud: Vidua eligatur, &c. t. 3, p. 397. Ed. Ben.\n\nST. SERAPION, M.\n\nHE was a zealous Englishman, whom St. Peter Nolasco received into his\nOrder at Barcelona. He made two journeys among the Moors for the ransom\nof captives, in 1240. The first was to Murcia, in which he purchased the\nliberty of ninety-eight slaves: the second to Algiers, in which he\nredeemed eighty-seven, but remained himself a hostage for the full\npayment of the money. He boldly preached Christ to the Mahometans, and\nbaptized several: for which he was cruelly tortured, scourged, cut and\nmangled, at length fastened to a cross, and was thereon stabbed and\nquartered alive in the same year, 1240. Pope Benedict XIII. declared him\na martyr, and proved his immemorial veneration in his Order, by a decree\nin 1728, as Benedict XIV. relates. L. 2, de Canoniz. c. 24, p. 296.\n\nSS. CYRUS AND JOHN, MM.\n\nCYRUS, a physician of Alexandria, who by the opportunities which his\nprofession gave him, had converted many sick persons to the faith; and\nJohn, an Arabian, hearing that a lady called Athanasia, and her three\ndaughters, of which the eldest was only fifteen years of age, suffered\ntorments for the name of Christ at Canope in Egypt, went thither to\nencourage them. They were apprehended themselves, and cruelly beaten:\ntheir sides {318} were burnt with torches, and salt and vinegar poured\ninto their wounds in the presence of Athanasia and her daughters, who\nwere also tortured after them. At length the four ladies, and a few days\nafter, Cyrus and John, were beheaded, the two latter on this day. The\nSyrians, Egyptians, Greeks, and Latins, honor their memory. See their\nacts[1] by St. Sophronius commended in the seventh general council, and\npublished with remarks by Bollandus.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  St. Cyrus is the same as Abba-Cher, mentioned in the Coptic calendar\n    on this day, which is the 8th of their month Mechir. He is called\n    Abbacyrus in the life of St. John the Almoner, written by Leontius,\n    in many ancient Martyrologies, and other monuments of antiquity.\n    Abbacyrus is a Chaldaic word, signifying the Father Cyr. As this\n    saint was an Egyptian, it is probable he was originally called\n    Pa-Cher, or Pa-Cyrus, the Egyptians having been accustomed to prefix\n    the article Pa to the names of men, as we see in Pa-chomis,\n    Pa-phantis, Pa-phantis, &c.\n\n    It is said in the acts of our two martyrs, that they were buried at\n    Canopus, twelve furlongs from Alexandria, and that their relics were\n    afterwards translated to Manutha, a village near Canopus, which was\n    celebrated for a great number of miracles wrought there. These\n    relies are now in a church at Rome called Sant' Apassara: this word\n    being corrupted by the Italians from Abbacyrus. Formerly there were\n    many churches in that city dedicated under the invocation of these\n    two holy martyrs. See Chatelain, notes on the Rom. Mart, p. 469, et\n    seq.\n\nST. MARCELLA, WIDOW.\n\nSHE IS styled by St. Jerom the glory of the Roman ladies. Having lost\nher husband in the seventh month of her marriage, she rejected the suit\nof Cerealis the consul, uncle of Gallus Caesar, and resolved to imitate\nthe lives of the ascetics of the East. She abstained from wine and\nflesh, employed all her time in pious reading, prayer, and visiting the\nchurches of the apostles and martyrs, and never spoke with any man\nalone. Her example was followed by many virgins of the first quality,\nwho put themselves under her direction, and Rome was in a short time\nfilled with monasteries. We have eleven letters of St. Jerom to her in\nanswer to her religious queries. The Goths under Alaric plundered Rome\nin 410. St. Marcella was scourged by them for the treasures which she\nhad long before distributed among the poor. All that time she trembled\nonly for her dear spiritual pupil, Principia (not her daughter, as some\nhave reputed her by mistake,) and falling at the feet of the cruel\nsoldiers, she begged, with many tears, that they would offer her no\ninsult. God moved them to compassion. They conducted them both to the\nchurch of St. Paul, to which Alaric had granted the right of sanctuary\nwith that of St. Peter. St. Marcella, who survived this but a short\ntime, which she spent in tears, prayers, and thanksgiving, closed her\neyes by a happy death, in the arms of St. Principia, about the end of\nAugust, in 410, but her name occurs in the Roman Martyrology on the 31st\nof January. See St. Jerom, Ep. 96, ol. 16, ad Principiam, t. 4, p. 778.\nEd. Ben. Baronius ad ann. 410, and Bollandus, t. 2, p. 1105.\n\nST. MAIDOC, OR MAODHOG,\n\nCALLED ALSO AIDAN AND MOGUE, BISHOP OF FERNS, IN IRELAND.\n\nHE was born in Connaught, a province of Ireland, and seemed from his\ninfancy to be deeply impressed with the fear of God. He passed in his\nearly days into Wales, where he lived for a considerable time under the\ndirection of the holy abbot David. He returned afterwards to his own\ncountry, accompanied with several monks of eminent piety, founded a\ngreat number of churches and monasteries, and was made bishop of Ferns.\nHe {319} died in 632, according to Usher. His name is celebrated among\nthe Irish saints. It appears from Cambrensis that his festival was\nobserved in Wales in the twelfth century. He was also honored in\nScotland.[1] See Colgan, Jan. 31, pp. 208, 223. Chatelain, notes, p.\n481.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  There is found in the chronicle of Scone, and in the Breviary of\n    Aberdeen, an ancient collect, in which the Divine mercy is implored\n    through his intercession. Chatelain tells us that in Lower Brittany\n    he is called St. De, (contracted from the Latin word Aideus, or\n    Aidanus,) and that the village and church which bear his name,\n    celebrate his festival on the 18th of March, the day perhaps on\n    which they received some portion of his relics.\n\n{320 blank page}\n{321}\n\n_Only Complete and Unabridged Edition with nearly 100 pages of\nChronological and General Index, Alphabetical and Centenary Table, etc._\n\nTHE\nLIVES\nOF\nTHE FATHERS, MARTYRS,\nAND OTHER\nPRINCIPAL SAINTS;\nCOMPILED FROM\nORIGINAL MONUMENTS, AND OTHER AUTHENTIC RECORDS;\nILLUSTRATED WITH THE\nREMARKS OF JUDICIOUS MODERN CRITICS AND HISTORIANS,\nBY THE REV. ALBAN BUTLER.\n_With the approbation of\nMOST REV. M. A. CORRIGAN, D.D.,\nArchbishop of New York._\n\nVOL. II.\n\nNEW YORK:\nP.J. KENEDY,\nPUBLISHER TO THE HOLY SEE,\nEXCELSIOR CATHOLIC PUBLISHING HOUSE,\n5 BARCLAY STREET.\n1903.\n\n{322 blank page}\n{323}\n/*\nCONTENTS.\nFEBRUARY.\n\n1.                                             PAGE\nSt. IGNATIUS, Bishop of Antioch, Martyr........ 325\nSt. Pionius, Priest and Martyr................. 333\nSt. Bridget, Virgin and Abbess, Patroness of\n  Ireland...................................... 334\nSt Kinnia, Virgin, of Ireland.................. 334\nSt. Sigebert, King of Austrasia, Confessor..... 337\n\n2.\nThe Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary.... 337\nSt. Laurence, Archbishop of Canterbury......... 342\n\n3.\nSt Blaze, Bishop and Martyr.................... 343\nSt. Anscharius, Archbishop of Hamburgh and\n  Bremen, Confessor............................ 344\nSt. Wereburge, Virgin and Abbess, in England,\n  Patroness of Chester......................... 345\nSt. Margaret, Virgin in England................ 348\n\n4.\nSt. Andrew Corsini, Bishop and Confessor....... 349\nSt. Phileas and Philoromus, Bishop of Thmuis,\n  Martyrs...................................... 351\nSt. Gilbert, Abbot, Founder of the Gilbertins.. 353\nSt. Jean, or Joan, of Valois, Queen of France.. 353\nSt. Isidore of Pelusium, Priest................ 354\nSt Rembert, Archbishop of Bremen, Confessor.... 355\nSt. Modan, Abbot in Scotland, Confessor........ 355\nSt. Joseph of Leonissa, Confessor.............. 356\n\n5.\nSt. Agatha, Virgin and Martyr.................. 357\nThe Martyrs of Japan........................... 359\nAppendix to the Martyrs of China............... 362\nSS. Martyrs of Pontus, under Dioclesian........ 366\nSt. Avitus, Archbishop of Vienne, Confessor.... 366\nSt. Alice, or Adelaide, Virgin and Abbess...... 366\nSt. Abraamius, Bishop of Arbela, Martyr........ 367\n\n6.\nSt. Dorothy, Virgin and Martyr................. 367\nSt. Vedast, Bishop of Arras, Confessor......... 368\nSt. Amandus, Bishop and Confessor.............. 369\nSt. Barsanuphius, Anchoret..................... 370\n\n7.\nSt. Romuald, Abbot and Confessor, Founder of\n  the Order of Camaldoli....................... 370\nSt. Richard, King in England, and Confessor.... 377\nSt. Theodorus, of Heraclea, Martyr............. 377\nSt. Tresain, or Tresanus, Priest and Confessor. 378\nSt. Augulus, Bishop in England, and Martyr..... 379\n\n8.\nSt. John of Matha, Confessor, Founder of the\n  Order of Trinitarians........................ 379\nSt. Stephen of Grandmont, Abbot................ 382\nAppendix to the Life of St. Stephen............ 384\nSt. Paul, Bishop of Verdun, Confessor.......... 384\nSt. Cuthman, in England, Confessor............. 385\n\n9.\nSt. Apollonia, Virgin and Martyr............... 388\nSt. Nicephorus, Martyr......................... 388\nSt. Theliau, Bishop in England, and Confessor.. 489\nSt. Ansbert, Archbishop of Rouen in 695,\n  Confessor.................................... 390\nSt. Attracta, or Tarahata, Virgin, in Ireland.. 390\nSt. Erhard, Abbot and Confessor, native of\n  Scotland..................................... 390\n\n10.\nSt. Scholastica, Virgin........................ 391\nSt. Soteris, Virgin and Martyr................. 393\nSt. William of Maleval, Hermit, and Institutor\n  of the Order of Gulielmites.................. 393\nSt. Erlulph, Bishop and Martyr, native of\n  Scotland..................................... 305\n\n11.\nSS. Saturninus, Dativus, and others, Martyrs of\n  Africa....................................... 395\nSt. Severinus, Abbot of Agaunum................ 397\nSt. Theodora, Empress.......................... 398\n\n12.\nSt. Benedict of Anian, Abbot................... 398\nSt. Meletius, Patriarch of Antioch, Confessor.. 401\nSt. Eulalia, Virgin, of Barcelona, Martyr...... 405\nSt. Antony Cauleas, Patriarch of\n  Constantinople, Confessor.................... 405\n\n13.\nSt. Catharine de Ricci, Virgin................. 406\nSt. Licinius, Bishop of Angers, Confessor...... 408\nSt. Polyeuctus, Martyr......................... 409\nSt. Gregory II., Pope and Confessor............ 410\nSt. Martinianus, Hermit at Athens.............. 412\nSt. Modomnoc, or Dominick, of Ossory, Bishop\n  and Confessor................................ 413\nSt. Stephen, Abbot............................. 413\nB. Roger, Abbot and Confessor.................. 413\n\n14.\nSt. Valentine, Priest and Martyr............... 413\nSt. Maro, Abbot................................ 414\nSt. Abraames, Bishop of Carres................. 415\nSt. Auxentius, Hermit.......................... 415\nSt. Conran, Bishop of Orkney, Confessor........ 416\n\n15.\nSS. Faustinus and Jovita, Martyrs.............. 416\nSt. Sigefride, or Sigfrid, Bishop. Apostle of\n  Sweden....................................... 417\n\n16.\nSt. Onesimus, Disciple of St. Paul............. 418\nSS. Elias, Jeremy, Isaias, Samuel, Daniel, and\n  other Holy Martyrs at Caesarea, in Palestine. 419\nSt. Juliana, Virgin and Martyr................. 420\nSt. Gregory X., Pope and Confessor............. 420\nSt. Tanco, or Tatta, Bishop and Martyr, native\n  of Scotland.................................. 422\n\n{324}\n\n17.\nSt. Flavian, Archbishop of Constantinople,\n  Martyr....................................... 422\nSS. Theodulus and Julian, Martyrs.............. 425\nSt. Silvin of Auchy, Bishop and Confessor...... 426\nSt. Loman, or Luman, Bishop in Ireland,\n  Confessor.................................... 426\nSt. Fintan, Abbot of Cluian-Ednech, in Ireland. 427\n\n18.\nSt. Simeon, Bishop of Jerusalem, Martyr........ 427\nSS. Leo and Paregorius, Martyrs................ 429\n\n19.\nSt. Barbatus, or Barbas, Bishop of Benevento,\n  Confessor.................................... 431\n\n20.\nSS. Tyrannio, Bishop of Tyre, Zenobius, and\n  other Martyrs in Phoenicia................... 433\nSt. Sadoth, Bishop of Seleucia and Ctesiphon,\n  with 128 Companions, Martyrs................. 434\nSt. Eleutherius, Bishop of Tourney, Martyr..... 436\nSt. Mildred, Virgin and Abbess................. 436\nSt. Eucherius, Bishop of Orleans, Confessor.... 437\nSt. Ulrick, Recluse in England................. 438\n\n21.\nSt. Severianus, Bishop of Scythopolis, Martyr.. 439\nSS. German, Abbot of Granfel, and Randaut,\n  Martyrs...................................... 440\nSS. Daniel, Priest, and Verde, Virgin, Martyrs. 441\nB. Pepin of Landen, Mayor of the Palace........ 441\n\n22.\nThe Chair of St. Peter, at Antioch............. 442\nSt. Margaret of Cortona, Penitent.............. 443\nSS. Thalassius and Limneus, Confessors......... 444\nSt. Baradat, Confessor......................... 444\n\n23.\nSt. Serenas, a Gardener, Martyr................ 445\nSt. Milburge, Virgin in England................ 447\nSt. Dositheus, Monk............................ 447\nB. Peter Damian, Cardinal, Bishop of Ostia..... 448\nSt. Boisil, Prior of Melross, Confessor........ 431\n\n24.\nSt. Matthias, Apostle.......................... 453\nSS. Montanus, Lucius, Flavian, Julian,\n  Victoricus, Primolus, Rhenus, and Donatian,\n  Martyrs at Carthage.......................... 453\nSt. Lethard, Bishop of Senlis, Confessor....... 459\nB. Robert, of Arbrissel, Priest................ 459\nSt. Pretextatus, or Prix, Archbishop of Rouen,\n  Martyr....................................... 460\nSt. Ethelbert, Confessor, First Christian King\n  among the English............................ 462\n\n25.\nSt. Tarasius, Patriarch of Constantinople,\n  Confessor.................................... 463\nSt. Victorinus, and Six Companions, Martyrs.... 468\nSt. Walburge, Abbess in England................ 469\nSt. Caesarius, Physician, Confessor............. 470\nSt. Alexander, Patriarch of Alexandria,\n  Confessor.................................... 470\nSt. Porphyrius, Bishop of Gaza, Confessor...... 473\nSt. Victor, or Vittre, of Arcis in Champagne,\n  Anchoret and Confessor....................... 477\n\n26.\nSt. Leander, Bishop of Seville, Confessor...... 478\nSS. Julian, Chronion, and Besas, Martyrs ...... 480\nSt. Thalilaeus, a Cilician, Recluse in Syria.... 481\nSt. Galmier, of Lyons.......................... 481\nSt. Nestor, Bishop and Martyr.................. 481\nSt. Alnoth, Anchoret and Martyr................ 482\n\n28.\nMartyrs who died in the Great Pestilence in\n  Alexandria................................... 482\nSt. Proterius, Patriarch of Alexandria, Martyr. 482\nSS. Romanus and Lupicinus, Abbots.............. 484\n\n29.\nSt. Oswald, Bishop of Worcester, and\n  Archbishop of York........................... 484\n*/\n{325}\n\n\nFEBRUARY I.\n\nST. IGNATIUS, BISHOP OF ANTIOCH, M.\n\nFrom his genuine epistles; also from the acts of his martyrdom, St.\nChrys. Hom. In St. Ignat. M. t. 3, p. {}{9}2. Ed. Nov. Eusebius. See\nTillemont, t. 2, p. 191. Cave, t. 1, p. 100. Dom Ceillier. Dom Marechal\nConcordance des Peres Grecs et Latins, t. 1, p. 58.\n\nA.D. 107.\n\nST. IGNATIUS, surnamed Theophorus,[1] a word implying a divine or\nheavenly person, was a zealous convert and an intimate disciple of St.\nJohn the Evangelist, as his acts assure us; also the apostles SS. Peter\nand Paul, who united their labors in planting the faith at Antioch.[2]\nIt was by their direction that he succeeded Evodius in the government of\nthat important see, as we are told by St. Chrysostom,[3] who represents\nhim as a perfect model of virtue in that station, in which he continued\nupwards of forty years. During the persecution of Domitian, St. Ignatius\ndefended his flock by prayer, fasting, and daily preaching the word of\nGod. He rejoiced to see peace restored to the church on the death of\nthat emperor, so far as this calm might be beneficial to those committed\nto his charge: but was apprehensive that he had not attained to the\nperfect love of Christ, nor the dignity of a true disciple, because he\nhad not as yet been called to seal the truth of his religion with his\nblood, an honor he somewhat impatiently longed for. The peaceable reign\nof Nerva lasted only fifteen months. The governors of several provinces\nrenewed the persecution under Trajan his successor: and it appears from\nTrajan's letter to Pliny the younger, governor of Bithynia, that the\nChristians were ordered to be put to death, if accused; but it was\nforbid to make any inquiry after them. That emperor sullied his clemency\nand bounty, and his other pagan virtues, by incest with his sister, by\nan excessive vanity, which procured him the surname of Parietmus, (or\ndauber of every wall with the inscriptions of his name and actions,) and\nby blind superstition, which rendered him a persecutor of the true\nfollowers of virtue, out of a notion of gratitude to his imaginary\ndeities, especially after his victories over the Daci and Scythians in\n101 and 105. In the year 106, which was the ninth of his reign, he set\nout for the East on an expedition {326} against the Parthians, and made\nhis entry into Antioch on the 7th of January, 107, with the pomp of a\ntriumph. His first concern was about the affair of religion and worship\nof the gods, and for this reason he resolved to compel the Christians\neither to acknowledge their divinity and sacrifice to them, or suffer\ndeath in case of refusal.\n\nIgnatius, as a courageous soldier, being concerned only for his flock,\nwillingly suffered himself to be taken, and carried before Trajan, who\nthus accosted him: \"Who art thou, wicked demon, that durst transgress my\ncommands, and persuade others to perish?\" The saint answered: \"No one\ncalls Theophorus a wicked demon.\" Trajan said: \"Who is Theophorus?\"\nIgnatius answered: \"He who carrieth Christ in his breast.\" Trajan\nreplied: \"And do not we seem to thee to bear the gods in our breasts,\nwhom we have assisting us against our enemies?\" Ignatius said: \"You err\nin calling those gods who are no better than devils: for there is only\none God, who made heaven and earth, and all things that are in them: and\none Jesus Christ his only Son, into whose kingdom I earnestly desire to\nbe admitted.\" Trajan said: \"Do not you mean him that was crucified under\nPontius Pilate?\" Ignatius answered: \"The very same, who by his death\nhas crucified with sin its author, who overcame the malice of the\ndevils, and has enabled those, who bear him in their heart, to trample\non them.\" Trajan said: \"Dost thou carry about Christ within thee?\"\nIgnatius replied, \"Yes; for it is written: _I will dwell and walk in\nthem_.\"[4] Then Trajan dictated the following sentence: \"It is our will\nthat Ignatius, who saith that he carrieth the crucified man within\nhimself, be bound and conducted to Rome, to be devoured there by wild\nbeasts, for the entertainment of the people.\" The holy martyr, hearing\nthis sentence, cried out with joy: \"I thank thee, O Lord, for\nvouchsafing to honor me with this token of perfect love for thee, and to\nbe bound with chains of iron, in imitation of thy apostle Paul, for thy\nsake.\" Having said this, and prayed for the church, and recommended it\nwith tears to God, he joyfully put on the chains, and was hurried away\nby a savage troop of soldiers to be conveyed to Rome. His inflamed\ndesire of laying down his life for Christ, made him embrace his\nsufferings with great joy.\n\nOn his arrival at Seleucia, a sea-port, about sixteen miles from\nAntioch, he was put on board a ship which was to coast the southern and\nwestern parts of Asia Minor. Why this route was pitched upon, consisting\nof so many windings, preferably to a more direct passage from Seleucia\nto Rome, is not known; probably to render the terror of his punishment\nthe more extensive, and of the greater force, to deter men from\nembracing and persevering in the faith: but providence seems to have\nordained it for the comfort and edification of many churches. Several\nChristians of Antioch, taking a shorter way, got to Rome before him,\nwhere they waited his arrival. He was accompanied thither from Syria by\nReus, Philo, a deacon, and Agathopodus, who seem to have written these\nacts of his martyrdom. He was guarded night and day, both by sea and\nland, by ten soldiers, whom he calls ten leopards, on account of their\ninhumanity and merciless usage who, the kinder he was to them, were the\nmore fierce and cruel to him. This voyage, however, gave him the\nopportunity of confirming in faith and piety the several churches he saw\non his route; giving them the strictest caution against heresies and\nschism, and recommending to them an inviolable attachment to the\ntradition of the apostles. St. Chrysostom adds, that he taught them\nadmirably to despise the present life, to love only the good things to\ncome, and never to fear any temporal evils whatever. The faithful {327}\nflocked from the several churches he came near, to see him, and to\nrender him all the service in their power, hoping to receive benefit\nfrom the plenitude of his benediction. The cities of Asia, besides\ndeputing to him their bishops and priests, to express their veneration\nfor him, sent also deputies in their name to bear him company the\nremainder of his journey; so that he says he had many churches with him.\nSo great was his fervor and desire of suffering, that by the fatigues\nand length of the voyage, which was a very bad one, he appeared the\nstronger and more courageous. On their reaching Smyrna, he was suffered\nto go ashore, which he did with great joy, to salute St. Polycarp, who\nhad been his fellow-disciple under St. John the Evangelist. Their\nconversation was upon topics suitable to their character, and St.\nPolycarp felicitated him on his chains and sufferings in so good a\ncause. At Smyrna he was met by deputies of several churches, who were\nsent to salute him. Those from Ephesus were Onesimus, the bishop;\nBurrhus, the deacon; Crocus, Euplus, and Fronto. From Magnesia in Lydia,\nDamas the bishop, Bassus and Apollo, priests, and Sotio, deacon. From\nTralles, also in Lydia, Polybius the bishop. From Smyrna, St. Ignatius\nwrote four letters: in that to the church of Ephesus, he commends the\nbishop Onesimus, and the piety and concord of the people, and their zeal\nagainst all heresies, and exhorts them to glorify God all manner of\nways: to be subject, in unanimity, to their bishop and priests; to\nassemble, as often as possible, with them in public prayer, by which the\npower of Satan is weakened: to oppose only meekness to anger, humility\nto boasting, prayers to curses and reproaches, and to suffer all\ninjuries without murmuring. He says, that because they are spiritual,\nand perform all they do in a spiritual manner, that all, even their\nordinary actions, are spiritualized, because they do all in Jesus\nChrist. That he ought to have been admonished by them, but his charity\nwould not suffer him to be silent: wherefore he prevents them, by\nadmonishing first, that both might meet in the will of God. He bids them\nnot be solicitous to speak, but to live well, and to edify others by\ntheir actions; and recommends himself and his widow-church of Antioch to\ntheir prayers. Himself he calls their outcast, yet declares that he is\nready to be immolated for their sake, and says they were persons who had\nfound mercy, but he a condemned man: they were strengthening in grace,\nbut he struggling in the midst of dangers. He calls them\nfellow-travellers in the road to God, which is charity, and says they\nbore God and Christ in their breasts, and were his temples, embellished\nwith all virtues, and that he exulted exceedingly for the honor of being\nmade worthy to write to them, and rejoice in God with them: for setting\na true value on the life to come, they loved nothing but God alone.\nSpeaking of heretics, he says, that he who corrupts the faith for which\nChrist died, will go into unquenchable fire, and also he who heareth\nhim. It is observed by him, that God concealed from the devil three\nmysteries: the virginity of Mary, her bringing forth, and the death of\nthe Lord: and he calls the Eucharist the medicine of immortality, the\nantidote against death, by which we always live in Christ. \"Remember me,\nas I pray that Jesus Christ be mindful of you. Pray for the church of\nSyria, from whence I am carried in chains to Rome, being the last of the\nfaithful who are there. Farewell in God the Father, and in Jesus Christ,\nour common hope.\" The like instructions he repeats with a new and most\nmoving turn of thought, in his letters to the churches of Magnesia, and\nof the Trallians; inculcates the greatest abhorrence of schism and\nheresy, and begs their prayers for himself and his church in Syria, of\nwhich he is not worthy to be called a member, being the last of them.[5]\nHis {328} fourth letter was written to the Christians of Rome. The saint\nknew the all-powerful efficacy of the prayers of the saints, and feared\nlest they should obtain of God his deliverance from death. He therefore\nbesought St. Polycarp and others at Smyrna, to join their prayers with\nhis, that the cruelty of the wild beasts might quickly rid the world of\nhim, that he might be presented before Jesus Christ. With this view he\nwrote to the faithful at Rome, to beg that they would not endeavor to\nobtain of God that the beasts might spare him, as they had several other\nmartyrs; which might induce the people to release him, and so disappoint\nhim of his crown.\n\nThe ardor of divine love which the saint breathes throughout this\nletter, is as inflamed as the subject is extraordinary. In it he writes:\n\"I fear your charity, lest it prejudice me: for it is easy for you to do\nwhat you please; but it will be difficult for me to attain unto God if\nyou spare me. I shall never have such an opportunity of enjoying God:\nnor can you, if ye shall now be silent, ever be entitled to the honor of\na better work. For if ye be silent in my behalf, I shall be made\npartaker of God; but if ye love my body, I shall have my course to run\nagain. Therefore, a greater kindness you cannot do me, than to suffer me\nto be sacrificed unto God, while the altar is now ready; that so\nbecoming a choir in love, in your hymns ye may give thanks to the Father\nby Jesus Christ, that God has vouchsafed to bring me, the bishop of\nSyria, from the East unto the West, to pass out of the world unto God,\nthat I may rise again unto him. Ye have never envied any one. Ye have\ntaught others. I desire, therefore, that you will firmly observe that\nwhich in your instructions you have prescribed to others. Only pray for\nme, that God would give me both inward and outward strength, that I may\nnot only say, but do: that I may not only be called a Christian, {329}\nbut be found one: for if I shall be found a Christian, I may then\ndeservedly be called one; and be thought faithful, when I shall no\nlonger appear to the world. Nothing is good that is seen. A Christian is\nnot a work of opinion, but of greatness, when he is hated by the world.\nI write to the churches, and signify to them all, that I am willing to\ndie for God, unless you hinder me. I beseech you that you show not an\nunseasonable good-will towards me. Suffer me to be the food of wild\nbeasts, whereby I may attain unto God: I am the wheat of God, and I am\nto be ground by the teeth of the wild beasts, that I may be found the\npure bread of Christ. Rather entice the beasts to my sepulchre, that\nthey may leave nothing of my body, that, being dead, I may not be\ntroublesome to any. Then shall I be a true disciple of Jesus Christ,\nwhen the world shall not see so much as my body. Pray to Christ for me,\nthat in this I may become a sacrifice to God. I do not, as Peter and\nPaul, command you; they were apostles, I am an inconsiderable person:\nthey were free, I am even yet a slave. But if I suffer, I shall then\nbecome the freeman of Jesus Christ, and shall arise a freeman in him.\nNow I am in bonds for him, I learn to have no worldly or vain desires.\nFrom Syria even unto Rome, I fight with wild beasts, both by sea and\nland, both night and day, bound to ten leopards, that is, to a band of\nsoldiers; who are the worse for kind treatment. But I am the more\ninstructed by their injuries; yet am I not thereby justified.[6] I\nearnestly wish for the wild beasts that are prepared for me, which I\nheartily desire may soon dispatch me; whom I will entice to devour me\nentirely and suddenly, and not serve me as they have done some whom they\nhave been afraid to touch; but if they are unwilling to meddle with me,\nI will even compel them to it.[7] Pardon me this matter, I know what is\ngood for me. Now I begin to be a disciple. So that I have no desire\nafter any thing visible or invisible, that I may attain to Jesus Christ.\nLet fire, or the cross, or the concourse of wild beasts, let cutting or\ntearing of the flesh, let breaking of bones and cutting off limbs, let\nthe shattering in pieces of my whole body, and all the wicked torments\nof the devil come upon me, so I may but attain to Jesus Christ. All the\ncompass of the earth, and the kingdoms of this world, will profit me\nnothing. It is better for me to die for the sake of Jesus Christ, than\nto rule unto the ends of the earth. Him I seek who died for us: Him I\ndesire who rose again for us. He is my gain at hand. Pardon me,\nbrethren: be not my hinderance in attaining to life, for Jesus Christ is\nthe life of the faithful; while I desire to belong to God, do not ye\nyield me back to the world. Suffer me to partake of the pure light. When\nI shall be there, I shall be a man of God. Permit me to imitate the\npassion of Christ my God. If any one has him within himself, let him\nconsider what I desire, and let him have compassion on me, as knowing\nhow I am straitened. The prince of this world endeavors to snatch me\naway, and to change the desire with which I burn of being united to God.\nLet none of you who are present attempt to succor me. Be rather on my\nside, that is, on God's. Entertain no desires of the world, having Jesus\nChrist in your mouths. Let no envy find place in your breasts. Even were\nI myself to entreat you when present, do not obey me; but rather believe\nwhat I now signify to you by letter. Though I am alive at the writing of\nthis, yet my desire is to die. My love is crucified. The fire that is\nwithin me does not crave any water; but being alive and springing\nwithin, says: Come to the Father. I take no pleasure in the food of\ncorruption, nor in the pleasure of this life. I desire {330} the bread\nof God, which is the flesh of Jesus Christ, and for drink, his blood,\nwhich is incorruptible charity. I desire to live no longer according to\nmen; and this will be, if you are willing. Be, then, willing, that you\nmay be accepted by God. Pray for me that I may possess God. If I shall\nsuffer, ye have loved me: if I shall be rejected, ye have hated me.\nRemember in your prayers the church of Syria, which now enjoys God for\nits shepherd instead of me. I am ashamed to be called of their number,\nfor I am not worthy, being the last of them, and an abortive: but\nthrough mercy I have obtained that I shall be something, if I enjoy\nGod.\" The martyr gloried in his sufferings as in the highest honor, and\nregarded his chains as most precious jewels. His soul was raised above\neither the love or fear of any thing on earth; and, as St. Chrysostom\nsays, he could lay down his life with as much ease and willingness as\nanother man could put off his clothes. He even wished, every step of his\njourney, to meet with the wild beasts; and though that death was most\nshocking and barbarous, and presented the most frightful ideas,\nsufficient to startle the firmest resolution; yet it was incapable of\nmaking the least impression upon his courageous soul. The perfect\nmortification of his affections appears from his heavenly meekness; and\nhe expressed how perfectly he was dead to himself and the world, living\nonly to God in his heart, by that admirable sentence: \"My love is\ncrucified.\"[8] To signify, as he explains himself afterwards, that his\nappetites and desires were crucified to the world, and to all the lusts\nand pleasures of it.\n\nThe guards pressed the saint to leave Smyrna, that they might arrive at\nRome before the shows were over. He rejoiced exceedingly at their hurry,\ndesiring impatiently to enjoy God by martyrdom. They sailed to Troas,\nwhere he was informed that God had restored peace to his church at\nAntioch: which freed him from the anxiety he had been under, fearing\nlest there should be some weak ones in his flock. At Troas he wrote\nthree other letters, one to the church of Philadelphia, and a second to\nthe Smyrnaeans, in which he calls the heretics who denied Christ to have\nassumed true flesh, and the Eucharist to be his flesh, wild beasts in\nhuman shape; and forbids all communication with them, only allowing them\nto be prayed for, that they may be brought to repentance, which is very\ndifficult. His last letter is addressed to St. Polycarp, whom he exhorts\nto labor for Christ without sparing himself; for the measure of his\nlabor will be that of his reward.[9] The style of the martyr everywhere\nfollows the impulses of a burning charity, rather than the rules of\ngrammar, and his pen is never able to express the sublimity of his\nthoughts. In every word there is a fire and a beauty not to be\nparalleled: every thing is full of a deep sense. He everywhere breathes\nthe most profound humility and contempt of himself as an abortive, and\nthe last of men; a great zeal for the church, and abhorrence of schisms:\nthe most ardent love of God and his neighbor, and tenderness for his own\nflock: begging the prayers of all the churches in its behalf to whom he\nwrote, and entreating of several that they would send an embassy to his\nchurch at Antioch, to comfort and exhort them. The {331} seven epistles\nof this apostolic father, the same which were quoted by St. Irenaeus,\nOrigen, Eusebius, St. Athanasius, St. Chrysostom, Theodoret, Gildas,\n&c., are published genuine by Usher, Vossius, Cotelier, &c., and in\nEnglish by archbishop Wake, in 1710.\n\nSt. Ignatius, not being allowed time to write to the other churches of\nAsia, commissioned St. Polycarp to do it for him. From Troas they sailed\nto Neapolis in Macedonia, and went thence to Philippi, from which place\nthey crossed Macedonia and Epirus on foot; but took shipping again at\nEpidamnum in Dalmatia, and sailing by Rhegium and Puteoli, were carried\nby a strong gale into the Roman port, the great station of the navy near\nOstia, at the mouth of the Tiber, sixteen miles from Rome. He would\ngladly have landed at Puteoli, to have traced St. Paul's steps, by going\non foot from that place to Rome, but the wind rendered it impracticable.\nOn landing, the authors of these acts, who were his companions, say they\nwere seized with great grief, seeing they were soon to be separated from\ntheir dear master; but he rejoiced to find himself so near the end of\nhis race. The soldiers hastened him on, because the public shows were\ndrawing to an end. The faithful of Rome came out to meet him, rejoicing\nat the sight of him, but grieving that they were so soon to lose him by\na barbarous death. They earnestly wished that he might be released at\nthe request of the people. The martyr knew in spirit their thoughts, and\nsaid much more to them than he had done in his letter on the subject of\ntrue charity, conjuring them not to obstruct his going to the Lord. Then\nkneeling with all the brethren, he prayed to the Son of God for the\nChurch, for the ceasing of the persecution, and for perpetual charity\nand unanimity among the faithful. He arrived at Rome the 20th of\nDecember, the last day of the public entertainments, and was presented\nto the prefect of the city, to whom the emperor's letter was delivered\nat the same time. He was then hurried by the soldiers into the\namphitheatre. The saint hearing the lions roar, cried out: \"I am the\nwheat of the Lord; I must be ground by the teeth of these beasts to be\nmade the pure bread of Christ.\" Two fierce lions being let out upon him,\nthey instantly devoured him, leaving nothing of his body but the larger\nbones: thus his prayer was heard. \"After having been present at this\nsorrowful spectacle,\" say our authors, \"which made us shed many tears,\nwe spent the following night in our house in watching and prayer,\nbegging of God to afford us some comfort by certifying us of his glory.\"\nThey relate, that their prayer was heard, and that several of them in\ntheir slumber saw him in great bliss. They are exact in setting down the\nday of his death, that they might assemble yearly thereon to honor his\nmartyrdom.[10] They add, that his bones were taken up and carried to\nAntioch, and there laid in a chest as an inestimable treasure. St.\nChrysostom says his relics were carried in triumph on the shoulders of\nall the cities from Rome to Antioch. They were first laid in the\ncemetery without the Daphnitic gate, but in the reign of Theodosius the\nyounger were translated thence with great pomp to a church in the city,\nwhich had been a temple of Fortune, but from this time bore his name, as\nEvagrius {332} relates.[11] St. Chrysostom exhorts all people to visit\nthem, assuring them they would receive thereby many advantages,\nspiritual and corporal, which he proves at length.[12] They are now at\nRome, in the church of St. Clement, pope, whither they were brought\nabout the time when Antioch fell into the hands of the Saracens in the\nreign of Heraclius, in 637.[13] The regular canons at Arouaise near\nBapaume in Artois, the Benedictin monks at Liesse in Haynault, and some\nother churches, have obtained each some bone of this glorious\nmartyr.[14] The Greeks keep his feast a holyday on the day of his death,\nthe 20th of December. His martyrdom happened in 107.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe perfect spirit of humility, meekness, patience, charity, and all\nother Christian virtues, which the seven epistles of St. Ignatius\nbreathe in every part, cannot fail deeply to affect all who attentively\nread them. Critics confess that they find in them a sublimity, an energy\nand beauty of thought and expression, which they cannot sufficiently\nadmire. But the Christian is far more astonished at the saint's perfect\ndisengagement of heart from the world, the ardor of his love for God,\nand the earnestness of his desire of martyrdom. Every period in them is\nfull of profound sense, which must be attentively meditated on before we\ncan discover the divine sentiments of all virtues which are here\nexpressed. Nor can we consider them without being inspired by some\ndegree of the same, and being covered with confusion to find ourselves\nfall so far short of the humility and fervor of the primitive saints.\nLet us listen to the instructions which this true disciple of Christ\ngives in his letter to the Philadelphians, an abstract of his other six\nepistles being given above. He begins it by a strenuous recommendation\nof union with their bishop, priests, and deacons; and gives to their\nbishop (whom he does not name) great praises, especially for his\nhumility and meekness, insomuch that he says his silence was more\npowerful than the vain discourses of others, and that conversing with an\nunchangeable serenity of mind, and in the sweetness of the living God,\nhe was utterly a stranger to anger. He charges them to refrain from the\npernicious weeds of heresy and schism, which are not planted by the\nFather, nor kept by Christ. \"Whoever belong to God and Jesus Christ,\nthese are with the bishop. If any one follows him who maketh a schism,\nhe obtains not the inheritance of the kingdom of God. He who walks in\nthe simplicity of obedience is not enslaved to his passion. Use one\neucharist: for the flesh of the Lord Jesus Christ is one, and the cup is\none in the unity of his blood. There is one altar, as there is one\nbishop, with the college of the priesthood and the deacons, my\nfellow-servants, that you may do all things according to God. My\nbrethren, my heart is exceedingly dilated in the tender love which I\nbear you, and exulting beyond bounds, I render you secure and cautious;\nnot I indeed, but Jesus Christ, in whom being bound I fear the more for\nmyself, being yet imperfect. But your prayer with God will make me\nperfect, that I may obtain the portion which his mercy assigns me.\"\nHaving cautioned them against adopting Jewish ceremonies, and against\ndivisions and schisms, he mentions one that had lately happened among\nthem, and speaks of a revelation which he had received of it as follows:\n\"When I was among you, I cried out with a loud voice, with the voice of\nGod, saying: Hearken to your bishop, and the priesthood, and the\ndeacons. Some suspected that I said this from a foresight of the\ndivision which some afterwards {333} made. But He for whom I am in\nchains is my witness, that I knew it not from man, but the Spirit\ndeclared it, saying: Do ye nothing without your bishop. Keep your body\nholy as the temple of God. Be lovers of unity; shun all divisions. Be ye\nimitators of Jesus Christ, as he is of the Father. I therefore did what\nlay in me, as one framed to maintain union. Where disagreement or anger\nis found, there God never dwells. But God forgives all penitents.\" He\ncharges them to send some person of honor from their church to\ncongratulate with his church in Syria upon peace being restored to it,\nand calls him blessed who should be honored with this commission.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  The accent placed on the penultima of [Greek: Theophoros], as the\n    word is written in the saint's acts, denotes it of an active\n    signification, _one that carrieth God_; but of the passive, _carried\n    of God_, if placed on the antepenultima.\n2.  St. Gregory tells us, (l. 4, ep. 37,) that he was a disciple of St.\n    Peter. The apostolic constitutions add, also of St. Paul, (l. 7, c.\n    46.) We are assured by St. Chrysostom (Hom. in St. Ignat.) and\n    Theodoret, (Dial. 1, p. 33,) that he was made bishop by the\n    direction of the apostles, and by the imposition of their hands. St.\n    Chrysostom says, that St. Peter appointed him bishop to govern the\n    see of Antioch, when he quitted it himself; which seems also to be\n    affirmed by Origen, (in Luc. Hom. 6,) St. Athanasius, (de Syn. p.\n    922,) F{}dus, &c. Baronius thinks he was left by St. Peter, bishop\n    of the Jewish converts, and became bishop also of the Gentiles in\n    68: for Eusebius (Hist. l. 3, c. 22, 36.) says, that St. Evodius\n    succeeded St. Peter at Antioch; he adds in his chronicle, in the\n    year 43, that he died in 68, and was succeeded by St. Ignatius. Some\n    think there is a mistake in the chronicle of Eusebius, as to the\n    year of the death of Evodius, and that this happened before the\n    martyrdom of St. Peter, who appointed St. Ignatius his successor.\n    See Cotelier, not. p. 299. Tillem. not. t. 2. p. 619. The Greek\n    Menaea mentions Evodius on the 7th of September.\n3.  Hom. in St. Ignat. t. 2, p. 592. See also Theodoret. Dial. 1, p. 33.\n4.  2 Cor. v. 16.\n5.  In his letter to the Magnesians, after saluting them, he says, he\n    rejoices exceedingly in their charity and faith, and adds: \"Having\n    the honor to bear a name of divine dignity, on account to the chains\n    which I carry, I sing the glow of the churches, and wish them the\n    union of the flesh and spirit of Jesus Christ our perpetual life, of\n    faith, and of charity, than which nothing is more excellent; and\n    what is chiefest, of Jesus and the Father, in whom, bearing with\n    patience the whole power of the prince of this world, and escaping\n    him, we shall possess God.\" The saint much commends their bishop\n    Damas, and exhorts them to yield him perfect obedience,\n    notwithstanding his youth. Setting death before their eyes as near\n    at hand to every one, he puts them in mind that we must bear the\n    mark of Jesus Christ, (which is charity,) not that of the world. \"If\n    we are not ready to die, in imitation of his sufferings, his life is\n    not in us,\" says he. \"I recommend to you that you do all things in\n    the concord of God, the bishop presiding for God, the priests in the\n    place of the college of the apostles, and my dearest deacons, to\n    whom is the ministry of Jesus Christ, who was with the Father before\n    all ages, and has appeared in the end. Therefore, following all the\n    same conduct, respect one another, and let no one consider his\n    neighbor according to the flesh, but ever love each other in Jesus\n    Christ. As the Lord did nothing without the Father, so neither do\n    you say thing without the priests. Meeting together, have one\n    prayer, one mind, one hope in charity, in holy joy. All of you meet\n    as in one church of God, as to one altar, as to one Jesus Christ,\n    who proceeds from one Father, exists in one, and returns to him in\n    Unity.\" He cautions them against admitting the Jewish ceremonies,\n    and against the errors of the Docetes. Then adds: \"I shall enjoy you\n    in all things if I am worthy. For though I am in chains, I am not to\n    be compared to any one of you who enjoy your liberty. I know there\n    is in you no pride; for you have Jesus Christ within you. And when I\n    commend you, I know that you are more confounded, as it is written:\n    _The just man is his own accuser_.\" Prov. xviii. 18. He again\n    tenderly exhorts them to concord, and to obedience to their bishop,\n    and commends himself, that he may attain to God and his church, of\n    which he is not worthy to be called one, to their prayers, adding:\n    \"I stand much in need of your united prayer and charity in God, that\n    the church in Syria may deserve to be watered by your church.\"\n\n    The epistle to the Trallians he begins thus: \"I know that your\n    sentiments are pure, your hearts inseperable in patience and\n    meekness, which is not passing, but as it were natural; as I learn\n    from your bishop Polybius who congratulated with me in my chains in\n    Christ Jesus, in such manner that in him I beheld your whole\n    multitude. Receiving through him your good-will in God, I gloried,\n    finding you to be, as I knew, imitators of God. As you are subject\n    to the bishop as to Christ, you seem not to live according to men,\n    but according to Jesus Christ.\" He bids them respect the deacons\n    (whom be calls the ministers of the mysteries of Jesus Christ) as\n    the precept of Christ; the priests as the senate of God, and the\n    bishop as representing God. \"Without these the very name of a church\n    is not given,\" says he--\"I know many things in God, but I measure\n    myself, lest by glorying I perish. Now I have reason more to fear:\n    nor must I listen to those who speak kindly to me; for they who\n    speak to commend me, scourge me. I desire indeed to suffer: but I\n    know not whether I am worthy. Though I am in chains, and understand\n    heavenly things, the ranks of angels and principalities, things\n    visible and invisible; am I on this account a disciple? for many\n    things are wanting to us that we be not separated from God. I\n    conjure you, not I, but the charity of Jesus Christ, to use\n    Christian food, and to refrain from foreign weed, which is heresy.\n    Heretics join Jesus Christ with what is defiled, giving a deadly\n    poison in a mixture of wine and honey which they who take, drink\n    with pleasure their own death without knowing it. Refrain from such,\n    which you will do if you remain united to God, Jesus Christ, and the\n    bishop, and the precepts of the apostles. He who is within the altar\n    is clean, but he who is without it, that is, without the bishop,\n    priests, and deacons, is not clean.\" He adds his usual exhortations\n    to union, and begs their prayers for himself and his church, of\n    which he is not worthy to be called one, being the last of them, and\n    yet fighting is danger. \"May my spirit sanctify you, not only now,\n    but also when I shall enjoy God.\"\n6.  1 Cor. iv. 4.\n7.  Not that he would really incite the beasts to dispatch him, without\n    a special inspiration, because that would have been self-murder; but\n    this expresses the courage and desire of his soul.\n8.  [Greek: Ho hemos eros estanrotai.]\n9.  See an account of these two last in the life of St. Polycarp. Orsi\n    draws a proof in favor of the supremacy of the see of Rome, from the\n    title which St. Ignatius gives it at the head of his epistle. In\n    directing his other letters, and saluting other churches, he only\n    writes: \"To the blessed church which is at Ephesus:\" [Greek: Te ese\n    en Epheso] \"at Magnesia near the Maeander: at Tralles: at\n    Philadelphia: at Smyrna:\" but in that to the Romans he changes his\n    style, and addresses his letter: \"To the beloved church which is\n    enlightened, (by the will of Him who ordaineth all things which are\n    according to the charity of Jesus Christ our God,) which presides in\n    the country of the Romans, [Greek: etis prokathetai en topo chores\n    Romaion], worthy of God, most adorned, justly happy, most commended,\n    fitly regulated and governed, most chaste, and presiding in charity,\n    &c.\"\n10. According to the common opinion, St. Ignatius was crowned with\n    martyrdom in the year 107. The Greek copies of a homily of the sixth\n    age, On the False Prophets, among the works of St. Chrysostom, say\n    on the 20th; but Bede, in his Martyrology, on the 17th of December.\n    Antoni Pagi, convinced by the letter of Dr. Loyde, bishop of St.\n    Asaph's, places his martyrdom about the end of the year 116: for\n    John Malalas of Antioch tells us the great earthquake, in which Dion\n    Cassias mentions that Trajan narrowly escaped at Antioch, happened\n    in that journey of Trajan in which he condemned St. Ignatius. Now\n    Trajan marching to the Parthian war, arrived at Antioch on the 8th\n    of January, in 113, the sixteenth year of his reign: and in his\n    return from the East, above two years later, passed again through\n    Antioch in 116, when this earthquake happened. St. Ignatius suffered\n    at Rome towards the end of that year. Le Quien prefers this date,\n    because it best agrees with the chronology of his successors to\n    Theophilus. Orien. Christ. t. 2, p. 700.\n11. Evagr. Hist. Eccl. l. 1, c. 16, Ed. Vales.\n12. Or. in S. Ignat. t. 2, p. 600. Ed. Nov.\n13. See Baron. Annal. ad an. 637, and Not. ad Martyr. Rom. ad 17 Dec.\n14. See Henschenius, Feb. t. 1, p. 35.\n\nST. PIONIUS, M.\n\nHE was priest of Smyrna, a true heir of the spirit of St. Polycarp, an\napostolic man, who converted multitudes to the faith. He excelled in\neloquence, and in the science of our holy religion. The paleness of his\ncountenance bespoke the austerity of his life. In the persecution of\nDecius, in 250, on the 23d of February, he was apprehended with Sabina\nand Asclepiades, while they were celebrating the anniversary festival of\nSt. Polycarp's martyrdom. Pionius, after having fasted the eve with his\ncompanions, was forewarned thereof by a vision. On the morning after\ntheir solemn prayer, taking the holy bread (probably the eucharist) and\nwater, they were surprised and seized by Polemon, the chief priest, and\nthe guardian of the temple. In prolix interrogatories before him, they\nresisted all solicitations to sacrifice; professed they were ready to\nsuffer the worst of torments and deaths rather than consent to his\nimpious proposals, and declaring that they worshipped one only God, and\nthat they were of the Catholic church. Asclepiades being asked what God\nhe adored, made answer: \"Jesus Christ.\" At which Polemon said: \"Is that\nanother God?\" Asclepiades replied: \"No; he is the same they have just\nnow confessed.\" A clear confession of the consubstantiality of God the\nSon, before the council of Nice. Being all threatened to be burnt alive,\nSabina smiled. The pagans said: \"Dost thou laugh? thou shalt then be led\nto the public stews.\" She answered: \"God will be my protector on that\noccasion.\" They were cast into prison, and preferred a lower dungeon,\nthat they might be more at liberty to pray when alone. They were carried\nby force into the temple, and all manner of violence was used to compel\nthem to sacrifice. Pionius tore the impious garlands which were put upon\nhis head, and they resisted with all their might. Their constancy\nrepaired the scandal given by Eudaemon, the bishop of Smyrna, there\npresent, who had impiously apostatized and offered sacrifice. In the\nanswers of St. Pionius to the judges, and in all the circumstances of\nhis martyrdom, we admire the ardent piety and courage of one who had\nentirely devoted himself to God, and employed his whole life in his\nservice. When Quintilian the proconsul arrived at Smyrna, he caused\nPionius to be hung on the rack, and his body to be torn with iron hooks,\nand afterwards condemned him to be burned alive; he was accordingly\nnailed to a trunk or post, and a pile heaped round him and set on fire.\nMetrodorus, a Marcionite priest, underwent the same punishment with him.\nHis acts were written by eye-witnesses, quoted by Eusebius, l. 4, c. 15,\nand are extant genuine in Ruinart, p. 12. See Tillemont t. 3, p. 397;\nBollandus, Feb. t. 1, p. 37.\n\n{334}\n\nST. BRIDGIT, OR BRIDGET, V.\n\nAND BY CONTRACTION, BRIDE, ABBESS, AND PATRONESS OF IRELAND.\n\nSHE was born at Fochard, in Ulster, soon after Ireland had been blessed\nwith the light of faith. She received the religious veil in her youth,\nfrom the hands of St. Mel, nephew and disciple of St. Patrick. She built\nherself a cell under a large oak, thence called Kill-dara, or cell of\nthe oak; living, as her name implies, the bright shining light of that\ncountry by her virtues. Being joined soon after by several of her own\nsex, they formed themselves into a religious community, which branched\nout into several other nunneries throughout Ireland; all which\nacknowledged her for their mother and foundress, as in effect she was of\nall in that kingdom. But a full account of her virtues has not been\ntransmitted down to us, together with the veneration of her name. Her\nfive modern lives mention little else but wonderful miracles. She\nflourished in the beginning of the sixth century, and is named in the\nMartyrology of Bede, and in all others since that age. Several churches\nin England and Scotland are dedicated to God under her name, as, among\nothers, that of St. Bride in Fleet-street; several also in Germany, and\nsome in France. Her name occurs in most copies of the Martyrology which\nbears the name of St. Jerom, especially in those of Esternach and\nCorbie, which are most ancient. She is commemorated in the divine office\nin most churches of Germany, and in that of Paris, till the year 1607,\nand in many others in France. One of the Hebrides, or western islands\nwhich belong to Scotland, near that of Ila, was called, from a famous\nmonastery built there in her honor, Brigidiani. A church of St. Brigit,\nin the province of Athol, was reputed famous for miracles, and a portion\nof her relics was kept with great veneration in a monastery of regular\ncanons at Aburnethi, once capital of the kingdom of the Picts, and a\nbishopric, as Major mentions.[1] Her body was found with those of SS.\nPatrick and Columba, in a triple vault in Down-Patrick, in 1185, as\nGiraldus Cambrensis informs us:[2] they were all three translated to the\ncathedral of the same city;[3] but their monument was destroyed in the\nreign of king Henry VIII. The head of St. Bride is now kept in the\nchurch of the Jesuits at Lisbon.[4] See Bollandus, Feb. t. 1, p. 99.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  Major de Gestis Scotor. l. 2, c. 14.\n2.  Topogr. Hibern. dist. 3, c. 18. Camden, &c.\n3.  {Footnote not in text} Camden.\n4.  Bolland. p. 112 and p. 941, t. 1, Februarii.\n\nST. KINNIA. V.\n\nHER memory was long sacred in Ireland, and her relics were in veneration\nat Lowth, in the southern part of Ulster; but we have no other authentic\naccount of her actions, than that she was baptized by St. Patrick, and\nreceived the religious veil at his hand. See Jocelin's life of St.\nPatrick, Colgan, and Bollandus, ad 1 Feb. p. 96.\n\nST. SIGEBERT II., FRENCH KING OF AUSTRASIA, C.\n\nDAGOBERT I., king of France, led for some time a very dissolute life,\nbut was touched by an extraordinary grace upon the birth of his son\nSigebert {335} and from that time entirely converted to God. Bagnetrude,\nour saint's mother, is only styled the concubine of Dagobert, though he\nwas publicly married to her. The father desiring to have his son\nbaptized by the most holy prelate of his dominions, recalled St. Amand,\nbishop of Masstricht, whom he had banished for his zeal in reproving his\nvices, fell at his feet at Clichi, near Paris, to ask his pardon,\npromised amendment, and by the advice of St. Owen and St. Eligius, then\nlaymen in his court, engaged him to initiate his son in the sacrament of\nregeneration. The ceremony was performed with great pomp at Orleans,\nCharibert, king of part of Aquitaine, and brother to Dagobert, being\ngod-father. The young prince's education was intrusted by the father to\nthe blessed Pepin of Landen, mayor of his palace, who being forced by\nthe envy of the nobility to withdraw for some time, carried Sigebert\ninto the dominions of Charibert in Aquitaine, where he enjoyed a\nconsiderable estate, the paternal patrimony of his wife, the blessed\nItta. Pepin remained there about three years; after which term he was\nrecalled to the court of Dagobert, who declared his son Sigebert, though\nonly three years old, in 633, king of Austrasia, and gave him for his\nministers, St. Cunibert, archbishop of Cologne, and duke Adelgise, and\ncommitted the administration of the whole kingdom to Pepin, whom he\nalways kept near his own person. Dagobert's second son, Clovis II., was\nborn in the following year, 634, and to him the father allotted for his\ninheritance all the western part of France, containing all Neustria and\npart of Burgundy.[1] Austrasia, or Eastern France, (in which sense\nAustria retains a like name in Germany,) at that time comprised Provence\nand Switzerland, (dismembered from the ancient kingdom of Burgundy,) the\nAlbigeois, Auvergne, Quercy, the Cevennes, Champagne, Lorraine, Upper\nPicardy, the archbishopric of Triers, and other states, reaching to the\nborders of Friesland; Alsace, the Palatinate, Thuringia, Franconia,\nBavaria, Suabia, and the country which lay betwixt the Lower Rhine and\nOld Saxony. Dagobert died in 638, and was buried at the abbey of St.\nDenys, of which he was the munificent founder. According to the\nsettlement which he had made, he was succeeded in Austrasia by St.\nSigebert, and in the rest of France by his youngest son Clovis II. Pepin\nof Landen, who had been mayor of the palace to the father, discharged\nthe same office to his death under St. Sigebert, and not content to\napprove himself a faithful minister, and true father to the prince, he\nformed him from the cradle to all heroic Christian virtues. By his\nprudence, virtue, and valor, St. Sigebert in his youth was beloved and\nrespected by his subjects, and feared by all his enemies. Pepin dying in\n640, the virtuous king appointed his son Grimoald mayor of his palace.\nHe reigned in perfect intelligence with his brother, of which we have\nfew examples among the Merovingian kings whenever the French monarchy\nwas divided. The Thuringians revolting, he reduced them to their duty;\nand this is the only war in which he was engaged. The love of peace\ndisposed his heart to be a fit temple of the Holy Ghost, whom he invited\ninto his soul by assiduous prayer, and the exercise of all Christian\nvirtues. His patrimony he employed in relieving the necessitous, and in\nbuilding or endowing monasteries, churches, and hospitals. He founded\ntwelve monasteries, the four principal of which were Cougnon, now a\npriory, not far from Bouillon; Stavelo and Malmedi, two miles from each\nother, and St. Martin's, near Metz. St. Remaclus brought from Solignac\nthe rule of St. Columban, which king Sigebert {336} in his charter to\nCougnon calls the rule of the ancient fathers. This that holy abbot\nestablished first at Cougnon, and afterwards at Malmedi and Stavelo. A\nlife filled with good works, and devoted all to God, can never be called\nshort. God was pleased to call this good king from the miseries of this\nworld to the recompense of his labors on the 1st of February, in the\nyear 656, the eighteenth of his reign, and the twenty-fifth of his\nage.[2] He was interred in the abbey of St. Martin's, near Metz, which\nhe had built. His body was found incorrupt in 1063, and placed in a\nmonument on the side of the high altar: and in 1170 it was enshrined in\na silver case. The monastery of St. Martin's, and all others in the\nsuburbs, were demolished by Francis of Lorraine, duke of Guise, in 1552,\nwhen Charles V. laid siege to Metz. The relics of St. Sigebert are now\ndeposited in the collegiate church of our Lady at Nancy. He is honored\namong the saints in great part of the dominions which he governed, and\nin the monasteries and churches which he founded. See Fredegarius and\nhis continuator, Sigebert of Gemblours, in his life of this saint, with\nthe learned remarks of Henschenius, p. 40. Also Calmet, Hist. de\nLorraine, t. 1, p. 419. Schoepflin, Alsatia Illustrata, Colmariae, an.\n1751. Sect. 2, p. 742.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  Charibert, though he took the title of king, and resided at\n    Toulouse, held his estates of his brother Dagobert, and by his gift.\n    After Charibert's death, Chilperic, his eldest son, was put to death\n    by Dagobert; but his second son, Boggis, left a numerous posterity,\n    which was only extinguished in Louis d'Armagnac, duke of Nemours,\n    slain at the battle of Cerignole, where he commanded for Louis XII.\n    against Gonzales de Cordova, surnamed The Great Captain, for the\n    Catholic king Ferdinand in 1503, by which the French lost the\n    kingdom of Naples. So long did the family of Clovis II. subsist. See\n    Vaisette, Hist de Languedoc, Henault, Abr. de l'Hist. de France, t.\n    1, pp. 26, and 818.\n2.  St. Sigebert left his son Dagobert, about seven years old, under the\n    care of Grimoald, mayor of his palace, who treacherously sent him\n    into Ireland, and placed his own son Childebert on the throne. This\n    usurper reigned seven months, as Schoepflin proves from the express\n    testimony of Chronicon Brevissimum, and from circumstances mentioned\n    by Fredegarius, against the mistake of the authors, l'Art de\n    verifier les Dates, p. 481, who say he only reigned seven days. By\n    an insurrection of the people, Grimoald and his son were deposed,\n    and both perished in prison: but Dagobert not being found, Clovis\n    II. united Austrasia to his other dominions. Dagobert II., by the\n    assistance of St. Wilfrid, afterwards archbishop of York, returned\n    into France eighteen years after the death of his father, and\n    recovered Alsace and some other provinces by the cession either of\n    Childeric II., son of Clovis II., (then monarch of all France,) or\n    of his brother Theodoric III., who succeeded him before the month of\n    April, in 674: for the reign of Dagobert II must be dated from the\n    latter end of 673, with Henault, or from 674, with Schoepflin. The\n    spirit of religion and piety, which he had learned in the school of\n    afflictions, and under the great masters of a spiritual life, who\n    then flourished among the Scots and Irish, was eminently the\n    distinguishing part of his character. As he resided chiefly in\n    Alsace, he filled that country, in the first place, with monuments\n    of his devotion, being so liberal in founding and endowing\n    monasteries and churches, that though his reign was only of six\n    years, Schoepflin assures us that the French church is not more\n    indebted to any reign than to this, at least in those parts, (p.\n    740.) St. Wilfrid, bishop of York, had exceedingly promoted his\n    return into France; and when that prelate was compelled to leave\n    England Dagobert entertained him with the most cordial affection,\n    and, upon the death of St. Arbogastus, earnestly pressed him to\n    accept of that see. St. Wilfrid declined that dignity, promising,\n    however, to call upon this good king in his return from Rome, where\n    he obtained a sentence of pope Agatho in his favor. But coming but\n    into France, he found his royal friend cut off by a violent death.\n    It is the general persuasion of the French historians, that the\n    impious Ebroin, mayor of the palace to Theodoric III., king of\n    Burgundy and Noustria, was the author of his death, with a view to\n    seize his dominions. Dagobert was murdered by assassins at Stenay\n    upon the Meuse, now the best town in the duchy of Bar in Lorraine.\n    The people, however, chose Pepin and Martin dukes or governors of\n    Austrasia, who defended their liberty against Ebroin. Martin was\n    afterwards assassinated by the contrivance of Ebroin, and Ebroin by\n    Ermenfrid; but Pepin, in 687, defeated Theodoric III. at Testry,\n    took Paris, and the king himself; from which time, under the title\n    of mayor, he enjoyed the supreme power in the French monarchy. The\n    death of St. Dagobert happened in 679, on the 23d of December, on\n    which day he is commemorated in the Martyrology of Ado and others,\n    and honored as a martyr at Stenay, in the diocese of Verdun, ever\n    since the eighth century. The church of Strasburg was much enriched\n    by this prince, as maybe seen in Schoepflin's Alsatia Illustrata.\n    The same author gives an account of some of the monasteries which\n    were founded by this prince in those parts, (c. 11, Sec.254, p. 736,)\n    and shows from his charters that the palace where he chiefly resided\n    was at Isenburg in Alsace. (Sect. 1, c. 10, Sec.146, p. 693.) The year\n    of the death of Dagobert II. is learned from the life of St.\n    Wilfrid, who returned from Rome when St. Agatho sat in St. Peter's\n    chair. See on this holy king the lives of St. Wilfrid and St.\n    Salaberga; also his charters; and, among the moderns, Dan.\n    Schoepflin, professor of history and eloquence at Strasburg, in his\n    Alsatia Illustrata, anno 1751. Sect. 2, c. 1, Sec.3, pp. 740, 743, and\n    Sec.1, c. 10, Sec.146, p. 693, c. 11, Sec.254, p. 736. Also Calmet, Hist. de\n    Lorraine, t. 1, l. 10, n. 16, p. 432. The first edition of this work\n    was given in 1728, in three volumes folio, but the second edition is\n    so much enlarged as to fill six volumes folio. The reign of Dagobert\n    II. escaped most of the French historians; which omission, and a\n    false epoch of the beginning of the reign of Dagobert I., brought\n    incredible confusion into the chronology and history of most of the\n    Merovingian kings, which Adrian Valois, Henschenius, Le Cointe,\n    Pagi, Louguerue and others have taken great pains to clear up.\n\n{337}\n\nFEBRUARY II.\n\nTHE PURIFICATION,\n\nCOMMONLY CALLED CANDLEMAS-DAY.\n\nTHE law of God, given by Moses to the Jews, to insinuate both to us and\nto them, that by the sin of Adam man is conceived and born in sin, and\nobnoxious to his wrath, ordained that a woman, after childbirth, should\ncontinue for a certain time in a state which that law calls unclean;\nduring which she was not to appear in public, nor presume to touch any\nthing consecrated to God.[1] This term was of forty days upon the birth\nof a son, and the time was double for a daughter: on the expiration of\nwhich, the mother was to bring to the door of the tabernacle, or temple,\na lamb of a year old, and a young pigeon or turtle-dove. The lamb was\nfor a holocaust, or burnt-offering, in acknowledgment of the sovereignty\nof God, and in thanksgiving for her own happy delivery; the pigeon or\nturtle-dove was for a sin-offering. These being sacrificed to Almighty\nGod by the priest, the woman was cleansed of the legal impurity, and\nreinstated in her former privileges.\n\nA young pigeon, or turtle-dove, by way of a sin-offering, was required\nof all, whether rich or poor: but whereas the charge of a lamb might be\ntoo burdensome on persons of narrow circumstances, in that case, nothing\nmore was required than two pigeons, or two turtle-doves, one for a\nburnt, the other for a sin-offering.[2]\n\nOur Saviour having been conceived by the Holy Ghost, and his blessed\nMother remaining always a spotless virgin, it is most evident from the\nterms of the law,[3] that she was, in reality, under no obligation to\nit, nor within the intent of it. She was, however, within the letter of\nthe law, in the eye of the world, who were as yet strangers to her\nmiraculous conception. And her humility making her perfectly resigned,\nand even desirous to conceal her privilege and dignity, she submitted\nwith great punctuality and exactness to every humbling circumstance\nwhich the law required. Pride indeed proclaims its own advantages, and\nseeks honors not its due; but the humble find their delight in obscurity\nand abasement, they shun all distinction and esteem, which they clearly\nsee their own nothingness and baseness to be most unworthy of: they give\nall glory to God alone, to whom it is due. Devotion also and zeal to\nhonor God by every observance prescribed by his law, prompted Mary to\nperform this act of religion, though evidently exempt from the precept.\nBeing poor herself, she made the offering appointed for the poor:\naccordingly is this part of the law mentioned by St. Luke,[4] as best\nagreeing with the meanness of her worldly condition. But her offering,\nhowever mean in itself, was made with a perfect heart, which is what God\nchiefly regards in all that is offered to him. The King of Glory would\nappear everywhere in the robes of poverty, to point out to us the\nadvantages of a suffering and lowly state, and to repress our pride, by\nwhich, though really poor and mean in the eyes of God, we covet to\nappear rich, and, though sinners, would be deemed innocents and saints.\n\nA second great mystery is honored this day, regarding more immediately\n{338} the person of our Redeemer, viz. his presentation in the\ntemple.[5] Besides the law which obliged the mother to purify herself,\nthere was another which ordered that the first-born son should be\noffered to God: and in these two laws were included several others, as,\nthat the child, after its presentation, should be ransomed[6] with a\ncertain sum of money,[7] and peculiar sacrifices offered on the\noccasion.\n\nMary complies exactly with all these ordinances. She obeys not only in\nthe essential points of the law, as in presenting herself to be\npurified, and in her offering her first-born, but has strict regard to\nall the circumstances. She remains forty days at home, she denies\nherself all this time the liberty of entering the temple, she partakes\nnot of things sacred, though the living temple of the God of Israel; and\non the day of her purification, she walks several miles to Jerusalem,\nwith the world's Redeemer in her arms. She waits for the priest at the\ngate of the temple, makes her offerings of thanksgiving and expiation,\npresents her divine Son by the hands of the priest to his eternal\nFather, with the most profound humility, adoration, and thanks giving.\nShe then redeems him with five shekels, as the law appoints, and\nreceives him back again as a depositum in her special care, till the\nFather shall again demand him for the full accomplishment of man's\nredemption. It is clear that Christ was not comprehended in the law;\n\"The king's son, to whom the inheritance of the crown belongs, is exempt\nfrom servitude:--much more Christ, who was the Redeemer both of our\nsouls and bodies, was not subject to any law by which he was to be\nhimself redeemed,\" as St. Hilary observes.[8] But he would set an\nexample of humility, obedience, and devotion: and would renew, in a\nsolemn and public manner, and in the temple, the oblation of himself to\nhis Father for the accomplishment of his will, and the redemption of\nman, which he had made privately in the first moment of his Incarnation.\nWith what sentiments did the divine Infant offer himself to his Father\nat the same time! the greatest homage of his honor and glory the Father\ncould receive, and a sacrifice of satisfaction adequate to the injuries\ndone to the Godhead by our sins, and sufficient to ransom our souls from\neverlasting death! With what cheerfulness and charity did he offer\nhimself to all his torments! to be whipped, crowned with thorns, and\nignominiously put to death for us!\n\nLet every Christian learn hence to offer himself to God with this divine\nvictim, through which he may be accepted by the Father; let him devote\nhimself with all his senses and faculties to his service. If sloth, or\nany other vice, has made us neglectful of this essential duty, we must\nbewail past omissions, and make a solemn and serious consecration of\nourselves this day to the divine majesty with the greater fervor, crying\nout with St. Austin, in compunction of heart: \"Too late have I known\nthee, too late have I begun to love thee, O beauty more ancient than the\nworld!\" But our sacrifice, if we desire it may be accepted, must not be\nlame and imperfect. It would be an insult to offer to God, in union with\nhis Christ, a divided heart, or a heart infected with wilful sin. It\nmust therefore first be cleansed by tears of sincere compunction: its\naffections must be crucified to the world by perfect mortification. Our\noffering must be sincere and fervent, without reserve, allowing no\nquarter to any of our vicious passions and inclinations, and no division\nin any of our affections. It must also be universal; to suffer and to do\nall for the divine honor. If we give our hearts to Christ in this\nmanner, we shall receive him with his graces and {339} benedictions. He\nwould be presented in the temple by the hands of his mother: let us\naccordingly make the offering of our souls through Mary and beg his\ngraces through the same channel.\n\nThe ceremony of this day was closed by a third mystery, the meeting in\nthe temple of the holy persons, Simeon and Anne, with Jesus and his\nparents, from which this festival was anciently called by the Greeks\nHypante, the meeting.[9] Holy Simeon, on that occasion, received into\nhis arms the object of all his desires and sighs, and praised God in\nraptures of devotion for being blessed with the happiness of beholding\nthe so much longed-for Messias. He foretold to Mary her martyrdom of\nsorrow; and that Jesus brought redemption to those who would accept of\nit on the terms it was offered them; but a heavy judgment on all\ninfidels who should obstinately reject it, and on Christians also whose\nlives were a contradiction to his holy maxims and example. Mary, hearing\nthis terrible prediction, did not answer one word, felt no agitation of\nmind from the present, no dread for the future; but courageously and\nsweetly committed all to God's holy will. Anne also, the prophetess,\nwho, in her widowhood, served God with great fervor, had the happiness\nto acknowledge and adore in this great mystery the world's Redeemer.\nAmidst the crowd of priests and people, the Saviour of the world is\nknown only by Simeon and Anne. Even when he disputed with the doctors,\nand when he wrought the most stupendous miracles, the learned, the wise,\nand the princes did not know him. Yet here, while a weak, speechless\nchild, carried in the arms of his poor mother, he is acknowledged and\nadored by Simeon and Anne. He could not hide himself from those who\nsought him with fervor, humility, and ardent love. Unless we seek him in\nthese dispositions, he will not manifest himself, nor communicate his\ngraces to us. Simeon, having beheld his Saviour in the flesh, desired no\nlonger to see the light of this world, nor any creatures on earth. If we\ntruly love God, our distance from him must be a continual pain: and we\nmust sigh after that desired moment which will free us from the danger\nof ever losing him by sin, and will put us in possession of Him who is\nthe joy of the blessed, and the infinite treasure of heaven. Let us\nnever cease to pray that he purify our hearts from all earthly dross,\nand draw them to himself: that he heal, satiate, and inflame our souls,\nas he only came upon earth to kindle in all hearts the fire of his love.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  Lev. xii. 2.\n2.  Lev. xii. 8.\n3.  Ibid. 2.\n4.  Luke ii. 64.\n5.  {Footnote not in text} Luke ii. 23.\n6.  Exod. xiii. 13.\n7.  This, from Levit. xxvii. 6, and Numb. iii. 47, appears to have been\n    five shekels, each shekel weighing according to Prideaux, (Preface\n    to Connection of the Old and New Testament, p. xvii.) about three\n    shillings of our money: so that the five amounted to about fifteen\n    shillings sterling.\n8.  S. Hilar. in Matt. c. 17, n. 11, pp. 696, 697.\n9.  [Greek: Hypante], from [Greek: hupantao], occurro.\n\n_On blessing the candles and the procession._\n\nThe procession with lighted tapers on this day is mentioned by pope\nGelasius I., also by St. Ildefonsus, St. Eligius,[1] St. Sophronius,\npatriarch of Jerusalem, St. Cyril of Alexandria, &c., in their sermons\non this festival, St. Bernard says:[2] \"This holy procession was first\nmade by the virgin mother, St. Joseph, holy Simeon, and Anne, to be\nafterwards performed in all places and by every nation, with the\nexultation of the whole earth, to honor this mystery.\" In his second\nsermon on this feast he describes it thus:[3] \"They walk two and two,\nholding in their hands candles lighted, not from common fire, but from\nthat which had been first blessed in the church by the priests,[4] and\nsinging in the ways of the Lord, because great is his glory.\" He shows\nthat the concurrence of many in the procession and prayer is a symbol\nof our union and charity, and renders our praises {340} the more\nhonorable and acceptable to God. We _walk_ while we sing to God, to\ndenote that to stand still in the paths of virtue is to go back. The\nlights we bear in our hands represent the divine fire of love with\nwhich our hearts ought to be inflamed, and which we are to offer to\nGod without any mixture of strange fire, the fire of concupiscence,\nenvy, ambition, or the love of creatures. We also hold these lights in\nour hands to honor Christ, and to acknowledge him as the _true\nlight_,[5] whom they represent under this character, and who is called\nby holy Simeon in this mystery, _a light for the enlightening of the\nGentiles;_[6] for he came to dispel our spiritual darkness. The\ncandles likewise express that by faith his light shines in our souls:\nas also that we are to _prepare his way_ by good works, by which we\nare to be _a light to_ men.[7]\n\nLights are used by the church during the celebration of the divine\nmysteries, while the gospel is read, and the sacraments administered,\non a motive of honor and respect. On the same account lamps burned\nbefore the Lord in the tabernacle[8] and temple. Great personages were\nanciently received and welcomed with lights, as was king Antiochus by\nJason and others on his entering Jerusalem.[9] Lights are likewise\nexpressive of joy, and were anciently used on this account in\nreceiving Roman emperors, and on other public occasions, as at\npresent. \"Throughout all the churches of the East,\" says St. Jerom,\n\"when the gospel is to be read, though the sun shines, torches are\nused, not to chase away darkness, but for a sign of joy.\"[10] The\napostolic canons mention incense, and oil for the lamps, then used in\nthe churches.[11] Many out of devotion burned lamps before the bodies\nof saints, as we read in Prudentius,[12] St. Paulinus,[13] &c. The\ncorporeal creatures, which we use, are the gifts of God: it is\ntherefore just that we should honor and glorify him by them. Besides,\nin our embodied state, they contribute to excite our souls to\ndevotion; they are to our eyes, what words are to our ears, and by our\norgans move the affections of our hearts.[14] Though piety consists in\nthe fervor of the soul, and is interior and spiritual, yet many\nsensible things concur to its aid and improvement; and we may as well\ncondemn the use of words, which are corporeal, and affect the soul by\nthe sense of hearing, as the use of suitable approved ceremonies.\nChrist made use of sensible signs in the institution of his most\ndivine sacraments, and in several miraculous cures, &c. The church\nalways used external rites and ceremonies in the divine worship. These\ncontribute to the majesty and dignity of religion, which in our\npresent condition would appear naked, if destitute of all exterior.\nThe candles are blessed previously to the use of them, because the\nchurch blesses and sanctifies, by prayer, what ever is employed in the\ndivine service. We are to hold the candles in our hands on this day,\nwhile the gospel is read or sung; also from the elevation to the\ncommunion, in the most fervent spirit of sacrifice, offering ourselves\nto God with our divine Redeemer, and desiring to meet in spirit this\nblessed company in this mystery; likewise to honor the mother of God\nin her purification, and still more so, with the most profound\nadoration and gratitude, our divine Saviour in his presentation in our\nflesh for us. The same lively sentiments of devotion ought to inflame\nour breasts on this occasion, as if we had been present with holy\nSimeon and the rest in the temple, while we carry in our hands these\nemblems of our spiritual joy and homage, and of the consecration of\nourselves in union with our heavenly victim, through the intercession\nof his virgin mother.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  Serm. 2.\n2.  Serm. de Purif. p. 959.\n3.  Serm. 2, p. 961.\n4.  According to the ceremonies then in use.\n5.  John i. 9.\n6.  Luke ii. 3.\n7.  Matt. v. 6.\n8.  Exod. xxviii. 20.\n9.  2 Macch. iv. 22.\n10. Adv. Vigil. p. 304.\n11. Can. 3.\n12. Hymn 2.\n13. Nat. iii. v. 98.\n14. See the pastoral charge of the late Dr. Butler, bishop of Durham.\n\n{341}\n\n_On the Christian rite of churching women after childbirth._\n\nGod, in the old law, declared several actions unclean, which, though\ninnocent and faultless it themselves, had a constant but remote regard\nto sin. One of these was childbirth, to denote the impurity of man's\norigin by his being conceived and born in sin. For the removal of legal\nuncleanness in general, God established certain expiatory rites,\nconsisting of ablutions and sacrifices, to which all were strictly\nobliged who desired to be purified; that is, restored to the privileges\nof their brethren, and declared duly qualified members of the synagogue\nor Jewish church. It would be superstitious since the death of Christ,\nand the publication of the new law, to stand in awe of legal\nuncleannesses, or to have recourse to Jewish purifications on account of\nany of them, whether after childbirth or in any other cases. It is not,\ntherefore, with that intention, that Christian mothers come to the\nchurch, as Jewish women did to the tabernacle, in order to be purified\nfrom any uncleanness they contract by childbirth. It is not on any\nconsideration peculiar to the Jews that this ceremony was established in\nthe Christian church, but on a motive common to all mankind, the\nperforming the duty of thanksgiving and prayer. Hence in the canon law,\npope Innocent III. speaks of it as follows: \"If women after childbearing\ndesire immediately to enter the church, they commit no sin by so doing,\nnor are they to be hindered. Nevertheless, if they choose to refrain out\nof respect for some time, we do not think their devotion ought to be\nreprehended.\"[1]\n\nIn some dioceses this term is limited to a certain number of days. Where\nthis is not regulated by custom, or by any particular statute, the party\nmay perform this duty as soon as she is able to go abroad. Her first\nvisit is to be to the church: first, to give God thanks for her safe\ndelivery: secondly, to implore his blessing on herself and her child. It\nought to be her first visit, to show her readiness to acquit herself of\nthis duty to God, and to give him the first-fruits of her recovery and\nblessing received; as the first-fruits in every thing are most\nparticularly due to God, and most agreeable to him, and which, in the\nold law, he was most jealous in exacting of his people. The\nacknowledgment of a benefit received, is the least return we can make\nfor it: the law of nature dictates the obligation of this tribute; God\nstrictly requires it, and this is the means to draw down new blessings\non us, the flowing of which is by nothing more effectually obstructed\nthan by insensibility and ingratitude: wherefore, next to the praise and\nlove of God, thanksgiving is the principal homage we owe him in the\nsacrifice of our hearts, and is a primary act of prayer. The book of\npsalms abounds with acts of thanksgiving; the apostle everywhere\nrecommends and inculcates it in the strongest terms. The primitive\nChristians had these words, _Thanks be to God_, always in their mouths,\nand used them as their ordinary form of salutation on all occasions, as\nSt. Austin mentions,[2] who adds, \"What better thing can we bear in our\nhearts, or pronounce with our tongues, or express with our pens, than,\n_Thanks be to God_?\" It is the remark of St. Gregory of Nyssa,[3] that\nbesides past benefits, and promises of other inestimable benefits to\ncome, we every instant of our lives receive from God fresh favors; and\ntherefore we ought, if it were possible, every moment to make him a\nreturn of thanks with our whole hearts, and never cease from this duty.\nWe owe a particular thanksgiving for his more remarkable blessings. A\nmother regards her safe delivery, and her happiness is being blessed\nwith a child, as signal benefits, and therefore she owes a {342}\nparticular holocaust of thanks for them. This she comes to offer at the\nfoot of the altar. She comes also to ask the succors of divine grace.\nShe stands in need of an extraordinary aid from above, both for herself\nand her child. For herself, that, by her example, instructions, and\nwatchfulness, she may fulfil her great obligations as a mother. For her\nchild, that it may reap the advantage of a virtuous education, may live\nto God, and become one day a citizen of the heavenly Jerusalem:\notherwise, what will it avail her to have been a mother, or the child to\nhave been born? Now prayer is the channel which God has appointed for\nthe conveyance of his graces to us. The mother, therefore, must be\nassiduous in begging daily of the Father of mercies all necessary\nsuccors for these purposes: but this she should make the subject of her\nmost zealous petitions on the occasion of her first solemn appearance\nafter childbed before his altar. She should, at the same time, make the\nmost perfect offering and consecration of her child to the divine\nMajesty. Every mother, in imitation of the Blessed Virgin, ought to\nperform this triple duty of thanksgiving, petition, and oblation, and\nthrough her hands, who, on the day of her purification, set so perfect a\npattern of this devotion.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  Cap. unico de Purif. post partum.\n2.  Ep. 41. olim 77.\n3.  Or. 1, de praest. t. 1, p. 715\n\n\nST. LAURENCE, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY.\n\nHE was one of those who accompanied St. Austin into this island, about\nthe year 597, and was his immediate successor in the see of Canterbury,\nin 608, in which he sat eleven years. When Eadbald, son and successor to\nthe holy king Ethelbert, not only refused to follow his father's example\nin embracing the faith, but gave into idolatry, and incestuously took to\nhis bed his father's widow, Laurence having labored hard for his\nconversion to no purpose, and despairing of reclaiming him, thought of\nnothing but retiring into France, as some others had already done. But\nhe was severely scourged by St. Peter, in a dream, on the eve of his\nintended departure, with reproaches for designing to forsake that flock\nfor which Christ had laid down his life. This did not only prevent his\ngoing, but had such an effect upon the king, when he was shown the marks\nof the stripes he had received on this occasion, that he became a\nthorough convert, doing whatever was required of him, both for his own\nsanctification, and the propagation of Christianity in his dominions.\nSt. Laurence did not long survive this happy change, dying in the year\n619. He is mentioned in the Roman Martyrology. See Bede, Hist. b. 2, c.\n4, 6, 7.[1] Malmesb. l. 1, Pontif. Angl.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  From these words of Bede, b. 1, c. 27, Austin sent to Rome Laurence\n    the priest, and Peter the monk, some modern historians infer that\n    St. Laurence was no monk, but a secular priest; though this proof is\n    wreak. See Collier, Dict. Suppl. Henschenius, p. 290. and Le Quien,\n    Oriens Christ. t. 1, p. 421.\n\n{343}\n\nFEBRUARY III.\n\nST. BLASE, BISHOP AND MARTYR.\n\nThe four modern different Greek acts of this Saint are of small\nauthority. Bollandus has supplied this deficiency by learned remarks.\n\nA D. 316.\n\nHE was bishop of Sebaste in Armenia, and was crowned with martyrdom in\nthe persecution of Licinius, in 316, by the command of Agricolaus,\ngovernor of Cappadocia and the lesser Armenia. It is mentioned in the\nacts of St. Eustratius, who received the crown of martyrdom in the reign\nof Dioclesian, and is honored on the 13th of December, that St. Blase,\nthe bishop of Sebaste, honorably received his relics, deposited them\nwith those of St. Orestes, and punctually executed every article of the\nlast will and testament of St. Eustratius. His festival is kept a\nholiday in the Greek church on the 11th of February. He is mentioned in\nthe ancient Western Martyrologies which bear the name of St. Jerom. Ado\nand Usuard, with several more ancient manuscript Martyrologies, quoted\nby Chatelain, place his name on the 15th. In the holy wars his relics\nwere dispersed over the West, and his veneration was propagated by many\nmiraculous cures, especially of sore throats. He is the principal patron\nof the commonwealth of Ragusa.[1] No other reason than the great\ndevotion of the people to this celebrated martyr of the church, seems to\nhave given occasion to the wool-combers to choose him the titular patron\nof their profession: on which account his festival is still kept by them\nwith a solemn guild at Norwich. Perhaps also his country might in part\ndetermine them to this choice: for it seems that the first branch, or at\nleast hint of this manufacture, was borrowed from the remotest known\ncountries of the East, as was that of silk: or the iron combs, with\nwhich he is said to have been tormented, gave occasion to this choice.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe iron combs, hooks, racks, swords, and scaffolds, which were purpled\nwith the blood of the martyrs, are eternal proofs of their invincible\ncourage and constancy in the divine service. But are they not at the\nsame time subjects of our condemnation and confusion? How weak are our\nresolutions! How base our pusillanimity and cowardice in the pursuit of\nvirtue! We have daily renewed our most sacred baptismal engagements, and\nour purposes of faithfully serving God: these we have often repeated at\nthe feet of God's ministers, and in presence of his holy altars; and we\nhave often begun our conversation with great fervor. Yet these fair\nblossoms were always nipped in the bud: for want of constancy we soon\nfell back into our former sloth and disorders, adding to our other\nprevarications that of base infidelity. Instead of encountering gibbets\nand wild beasts, we were scared at the sight of the least difficulty; or\nwe had not courage to make the least sacrifice of our passions, or to\nrepulse the weakest and most contemptible assaults of the world. Its\nexample, or that dangerous company from which we had not resolution to\nseparate ourselves, carried us {344} away; and we had not courage to\nwithstand those very maxims which we ourselves condemn in the moments of\nour serious reflections, as contrary to the spirit of the gospel.\nPerhaps we often flew back for fear of shadows, and out of apprehensions\nfrequently imaginary, lest we should forfeit some temporal advantage,\nsome useful or agreeable friend. Perhaps we were overcome by the\ndifficulties which arose barely from ourselves, and wanted resolution to\ndeny our senses, to subdue our passions, to renounce dangerous\noccasions, or to enter upon a penitential life. Blinded by self-love,\nhave we not sheltered our dastardly pusillanimity under the cloak of\npretended necessity, or even virtue?\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  See Bollandus, Pagi ad an. 316. Chatelain, Notes on the Martyr. p.\n    507, and Jos. Assemani in Cal. Univ. ad 11 Feb. t. 6, p. 123.\n\nST. ANSCHARIUS, C.,\n\nARCHBISHOP OF HAMBURG AND BREMEN.\n\nFrom his excellent life compiled by St. Rembert, his successor, with the\nremarks of Mabillon, Act. Bened t. 4, p. 401, and the preliminary\ndiscourse of Henschenius, p. 391. Adam Bremensis, Hist. Episc. Hamb. and\nOlof Dolin, in his new excellent history of Sweden in the reigns of\nListen, Bel, and Bagnar, c. 16.\n\nA.D. 865.\n\nHE was a monk, first of Old Corbie in France, afterwards of Little\nCorbie in Saxony. Harold, or Heriold, prince of Denmark, having been\nbaptized in the court of the emperor Louis Debonnaire, Anscarius\npreached the faith with great success, first to the Danes, afterwards to\nthe Swedes, and lastly in the north of Germany. In 832, he was made\narchbishop of Hamburg, and legate of the holy see, by pope Gregory IV.\nThat city was burnt by an army of Normans, in 845. The saint continued\nto support his desolate churches, till, in 849, the see of Bremen\nbecoming vacant, pope Nicholas united it to that of Hamburg, and\nappointed him bishop of both. Denmark and Sweden had relapsed into\nidolatry, notwithstanding the labors of many apostolical missionaries\nfrom New Corbie, left there by our saint. His presence soon made the\nfaith flourish again in Denmark, under the protection of king Horick.\nBut in Sweden the superstitious king Olas cast lots whether he should be\nadmitted or no. The saint, grieved to see the cause of God and religion\ncommitted to the cast of a die, recommended the issue to the care of\nheaven. The lot proved favorable, and the bishop converted many of the\nlower rank, and established many churches there, which he left under\nzealous pastors at his return to Bremen. He wore a rough hair shirt,\nand, while his health permitted him, contented himself with a small\nquantity of bread and water. He never undertook any thing without\nrecommending it first to God by earnest prayer, and had an extraordinary\ntalent for preaching. His charity to the poor had no bounds; he washed\ntheir feet, and waited on them at table. He ascribed it to his sins,\nthat he never met with the glory of martyrdom in all that he had\nsuffered for the faith. To excite himself to compunction and to the\ndivine praise, he made a collection of pathetic sentences, some of which\nhe placed at the end of each psalm; several of which are found in\ncertain manuscript psalters, as Fleury takes notice. The learned\nFabricius, in his Latin Library of the middle ages, calls them an\nillustrious monument of the piety of this holy prelate. St. Anscharius\ndied at Bremen in the year 865, the sixty-seventh of his age, and\nthirty-fourth of his episcopal dignity; and was honored with miracles.\nHis name occurs in the Martyrologies soon after his death. In the German\nlanguage he is called St. Scharies, and his collegiate church of Bremen\nSant-Scharies. That at Hamburg, which bore his name, has been converted\nby the Lutherans into an hospital for orphans. His name was rather\nAnsgar, as it {345} is written in his own letter, and in a charter of\nLouis Debonnaire. In this letter[1] he attributes all the fruits and\nglory of the conversion of the Northern nations, to which he preached,\nto the zeal of that emperor and of Ebbo, archbishop of Rheims, without\ntaking the least notice of himself or his own labors. The life of St.\nWillehad, first bishop of Bremen, who died in 789 or 791, compiled by\nSt. Anscharius, is a judicious and elegant work, and the preface a\nmasterpiece for that age. It is abridged and altered by Surius, but\npublished entire at Cologne, in 1642; and more correctly by Mabillon;\nand again by Fabricius, among the historians of Hamburg, t. 2.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  Ap. Bolland. et. Mabill.\n\nST. WEREBURGE, V. ABBESS.\n\nPATRONESS OF CHESTER.\n\nFrom Harpsfield, Bede, Brompton, Florence of Worcester, Higden,\nLanghorn's Chronicle, Leland's Collections, Powel's History of Wales,\nthe Saxon Chronicle, Simeon of Durham, and her curious life, written in\nold English metre, from the Passionary of the monastery of Chester, by\nHenry Bradshaw, a monk of that house, who died in 1521, on whom see\nWood, Athen. Oxon., vol. 1, p. 9, n. 14, and Tanner, Bibl. p. 121. This\nscarce history was printed in 1521, by Richard Pynson, printer to king\nHenry VIII. See her ancient life, a MS. copy of which Camden sent to F.\nRosweide, published by Henschenius, with notes, p. 386. See also the\nsummary of the life of St. Wereburge, with an historical account of the\nimages carved on her shine, (now the episcopal throne,) in the choir of\nthe cathedral of Chester, by William Cooper, M.D., at Chester 1749.\n\nSeventh Age.\n\nST. WEREBURGE was daughter of Wulfere, king of Mercia, by St. Ermenilde,\ndaughter of Ercombert, king of Kent, and St. Sexburge. In her was\ncentred the royal blood of all the chief Saxon kings; but her glory was\nthe contempt of a vain world, even from her cradle, on the pure motive\nof the love of God. She had three brothers, Wulfade and Rufin, who died\nmartyrs, and Kenred, who ended his life at Rome in the odor of sanctity.\nHer father, Wulfere, resided near Stone, in Staffordshire. His eldest\nbrother, Peada, had begun to plant the faith in Mercia. Wulfere promised\nat his marriage to extirpate the remains of idolatry, and was then a\nChristian; but worldly motives made him delay the performance of his\npromise. Ermenilde endeavored to soften the fierceness of his temper;\nbut she found it a far more easy task to dispose the minds of her tender\nnursery to be faithful to divine grace; and, under her care, all her\nchildren grew up fruitful plants in the garden of the saints. Wereburge\nexcelled the rest in fervor and discretion. She was humble, obedient,\nand meek; never failed of assisting with her mother at the daily\nperformance of the whole church office; besides spending many hours on\nher knees in private devotion in her closet. She eagerly listened to\nevery instruction and exhortation of piety. At an age in which youth is\nthe fondest of recreations, pleasures, and vanities, she was always\ngrave, reserved, and mortified. She was a stranger to any joy but that\nwhich the purity of her conscience afforded her; and in holy compunction\nbewailed before God, without ceasing, her distance from him, and her\nother spiritual miseries. She trembled at the thought of the least\ndanger that could threaten her purity; fasting and prayer were her\ndelight, by which she endeavored to render her soul acceptable to her\nheavenly bridegroom. Her beauty and her extraordinary qualifications,\nrendered more conspicuous by the greater lustre of her virtue, drew to\nher many suitors for marriage. But a mountain might sooner be moved than\nher resolution shaken. The prince of the West-Saxons waited on her with\nrich presents; but she refused to accept them or listen to his\nproposals, saying she had chosen the Lord Jesus, the Redeemer of\nmankind, for the Spouse of her {346} soul, and had devoted herself to\nhis service in the state of virginity. But her greatest victory was over\nthe insidious attempts of Werbode, a powerful, wicked knight of her\nfather's court. The king was greatly indebted to the valor and services\nof this knight for his temporal prosperity, and entertained a particular\naffection for him. The knight, sensible of this, and being passionately\nfond of Wereburge, made use of all his interest with the king to obtain\nhis consent to marry her, which was granted, on condition he could gain\nthat of the royal virgin. Queen Ermenilde and her two sons, Wulfade and\nRufin, were grievously afflicted at the news. These two princes were\nthen upon their conversion to Christianity, and for this purpose\nresorted to the cell of St. Chad, bishop of Litchfield, under pretence\nof going a hunting; for the saint resided in a hermitage, situate in a\nforest. By him they were instructed in the faith, and baptized. Werbode,\nfinding them an obstacle to his design, contrived their murder, for\nwhich he is said to have moved the father to give an order in a fit of\npassion, by showing him the young princes returning from the bishop, and\nincensing him against them by slanders: for the king was passionate, and\nhad been likewise prevailed on by his perfidious minister to countenance\nand favor idolatry. Werbode died miserably soon after, and Wulfere no\nsooner heard that the murder was perpetrate but, stung with grief and\nremorse, he entered into himself, did great penance, and entirely gave\nhimself up to the advice of his queen and St. Chad. He destroyed all the\nidols, converted their temples into churches, founded the abbey of\nPeterborough, and the priory of Stone, where the two martyrs were\nburied, and exceedingly propagated the worship of the true God, by his\nzealous endeavors and example.\n\nWereburge, seeing this perfect change in the disposition of her father,\nwas no longer afraid to disclose to him her earnest desire of\nconsecrating herself to God in a religious state of life. Finding him\naverse, and much grieved at the proposal, she pleaded her cause with so\nmany tears, and urged the necessity of preparing for death in so\npathetic a manner, that her request was granted. Her father even thanked\nGod with great humility for so great a grace conferred on her, though\nnot without many tears which such a sacrifice cost him. He conducted her\nin great state to Ely, attended by his whole court, and was met at the\ngate of the monastery by the royal abbess St. Audry, with her whole\nreligious family in procession, singing holy hymns to God. Wereburge,\nfalling on her knees, begged to be admitted in quality of a penitent.\nShe obtained her request, and Te Deum was sung. She went through the\nusual trials with great humility and patience, and with joy exchanged\nher rich coronet, purple, silks, and gold, for a poor veil and a coarse\nhabit, and resigned herself into the hands of her superior, to live only\nto Christ. King Wulfere, his three brothers, and Egbright, or Egbert,\nking of Kent, and Adulph, king of the East-Angles, together with the\ngreat lords of their respective states, were present at these her solemn\nespousals with Christ,[1] and were entertained by Wulfere with a royal\nmagnificence. The virgin here devoted herself to God with new fervor in\nall her actions, and made the exercises of obedience, prayer,\ncontemplation, humility, and penance, her whole occupation, instead of\nthat circle of vanities and amusements which employ the slaves of the\nworld. King Wulfede dying in 675, was buried at Litchfield. Kenred, his\nson, being then too young to govern, his brother Ethelred succeeded him.\nSt. Ermenilde was no sooner at liberty, but she took the religions veil\nat Ely, under her mother, St. Sexburge, at whose death she was chosen\nthird abbess, and honored in England among the saints on the 13th of\nFebruary. Her daughter, St. Wereburge, at her {347} uncle king\nEthelred's persuasion, left Ely to charge herself, at his request, with\nthe superintendency of all the houses of religious women in his kingdom,\nthat she might establish in them the observance of the most exact\nmonastic discipline. By his liberality she founded those of Trentham in\nStaffordshire, of Hanbury, near Tutbury, in the county of Stafford, (not\nin the county of Huntingdon, as some mistake,) and of Wedon, one of the\nroyal palaces in Northamptonshire. This king also founded the collegiate\nchurch of St. John Baptist, in the suburbs of West-Chester, and gave to\nSt. Egwin the ground for the great abbey of Evesham; and after having\nreigned twenty-nine years, embraced the monastic state in his beloved\nmonastery of Bardney, upon the river Witham, not far from Lincoln, of\nwhich he was afterwards chosen abbot. He resigned his crown to Kenred,\nhis nephew, brother to our saint, having been chosen king only on\naccount of the nonage of that prince. Kenred governed his realm with\ngreat prudence and piety, making it his study, by all the means in his\npower, to prevent and root out all manner of vice, and promote the\nknowledge and love of God. After a reign of five years, he recommended\nhis subjects to God, took leave of them, to their inexpressible grief,\nleft his crown to Coelred, his uncle's son, and, making a pilgrimage to\nRome, there put on the monastic habit in 708, and persevered in great\nfervor till his happy death.\n\nSt. Wereburge, both by word and example, conducted to God the souls\ncommitted to her care. She was the most perfect model of meekness,\nhumility, patience, and purity. Besides the church office, she recited\nevery day the psalter on her knees, and, after matins, remained in the\nchurch in prayer, either prostrate on the ground or kneeling, till\ndaylight, and often bathed in tears. She never took more than one repast\nin the day, and read with wonderful delight the lives of the fathers of\nthe desert. She foretold her death, visited all places under her care,\nand gave her last orders and exhortations. She prepared herself for her\nlast hour by ardent invitations of her heavenly bridegroom, and\nlanguishing aspirations of divine love, in which she breathed forth her\npure soul on the 3d of February, at Trentham, about the end of the\nseventh century. Her body, as she had desired, was interred at Hanbury.\nNine years after, in 708, it was taken up in presence of king Coelred,\nhis council, and many bishops, and being found entire and uncorrupt, was\nlaid in a costly shrine on the 21st of June. In 875 her body was still\nentire; when, for fear of the Danish pirates, who were advanced as far\nas Repton, in the county of Derby, a royal seat (not Ripon, as Guthrie\nmistakes) within six miles of Hanbury, (in the county of Stafford,) her\nshrine was carried to West-Chester, in the reign of king Alfred, who,\nmarrying his daughter Elfleda to Ethelred, created him first earl of\nMercia, after the extinction of its kings. This valiant earl built, and\nendowed with secular canonries, a stately church, as a repository for\nthe relics of St. Wereburge, which afterwards became the cathedral. His\nlady rebuilt other churches, walled in the city, and fortified it with a\nstrong castle against the Welsh.[2] The great kings, Athelstan and\nEdgar, devoutly visited and enriched the church of St. Wereburge. In the\nreign of St. Edward the Confessor, Leofrick, earl of Mercia, and his\npious wife, Godithe, rebuilt many churches and monasteries in those\nparts, founded the abbeys of Leonence, near Hereford, also that of\nCoventry, which city this earl made free. At Chester they repaired the\ncollegiate church of St. John, and out of their singular devotion to St.\nWereburge, rebuilt her minster in a most stately {348} manner. William\nthe Conqueror gave to his kinsman and most valiant knight, Hugh Lupus,\nthe earldom of Chester, with the sovereign dignity of a palatinate, on\ncondition he should win it. After having been thrice beaten and\nrepulsed, he at last took the city, and divided the conquered lands of\nthe country among his followers. In 1093, he removed the secular canons\nof St. Wereburge, and in their stead placed monks under an abbot,\nbrought over from Bec in Normandy. Earl Richard, son and heir to Lupus,\ngoing in pilgrimage to St. Winefrid's at Holywell, attributed to the\nintercession of St. Wereburge his preservation from an army of Welshmen,\nwho came with an intention to intercept him. In memory of which, his\nconstable, William, gave to her church the village of Newton, and\nfounded the abbey of Norton on the Dee, at the place where his army\nmiraculously forded that great river to the succor of his master, which\nplace is still called Constable Sondes, says Bradshaw. The same learned\nauthor relates, from the third book of the Passionary of the Abbey, many\nmiraculous cures of the sick, and preservations of that city from the\nassaults of the Welsh, Danes, and Scots, and, in 1180, from a terrible\nfire, which threatened to consume the whole city, but was suddenly\nextinguished when the monks carried in procession the shrine of the\nvirgin in devout prayer. Her body fell to dust soon after its\ntranslation to Chester. These relics being scattered in the reign of\nHenry VIII., her shrine was converted into the episcopal throne in the\nsame church, and remains in that condition to this day. This monument is\nof stone, ten feet high, embellished with thirty curious antique images\nof kings of Mercia and other princes, ancestors or relations of this\nsaint. See Cooper's remarks on each.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  Some authors in Leland's Collectanea place her religious profession\n    after the death of her father; but our account is supported by the\n    authority of Bradshaw.\n2.  This noble lady, heiress of the great virtues of her royal father,\n    rebuilt, after the death of her husband, the churches and towns of\n    Stafford, Warwick, Tamworth, and Shrewsbury; and founded, besides\n    some others, the great abbey of St. Peter's in Gloucester, which\n    church she enriched with the relics of St. Oswalk, king and martyr,\n    and in which she herself was buried. See Bradshaw, Dugdale, Launden.\n\nST. MARGARET SURNAMED OF ENGLAND, V.\n\nHER body is preserved entire, and resorted to with great devotion, in\nthe church of the Cistercian nuns of Seauve Benoite,[1] in the diocese\nof Puy, is Velay, eight leagues from that city toward Lyons. The\nbrothers of Sainte Marthe, in the old edition of Gallia Christiana,[2]\nand Dom Besunier, the Maurist monk,[3] confirm the tradition of the\nplace, that she was an English woman, and that her shrine is famous for\nmiracles. Yet her life in old French, (a manuscript copy of which is\npreserved by the Jesuits of Clermont college, in Paris, with remarks of\nF. Peter Francis Chifflet,) tells us that she was by birth a noble\nHungarian. Her mother, probably at least of English extraction, after\nthe death of her husband, took her with her on a pilgrimage to\nJerusalem; and both led a very penitential religious life, first in that\ncity, and afterwards at Bethlehem. St. Margaret having buried her mother\nin that country, made a pilgrimage to Montserrat, in Spain, and\nafterwards to our Lady's, at Puy in Velay. Then she retired to the\nCistercian nunnery of Seauve Benoite,[4] where she happily ended her\nmortal course in the twelfth century. See Gallia Christ. Nova in Dioec.\nAniciensi seu Podiensi, t. 2, p. 777.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  Sylva Benedicta.\n2.  Gallia Christ. vetus, t. 4, p. 828.\n3.  Recueil Hist. des Abbayes de France, t. 1, p. 314.\n4.  This St. Margarey perhaps never professed the Cistercian order. At\n    least Henriquez, in the annals of that order, speak only of one\n    Margaret, and English woman, whose brother Thomas was banished by\n    Henry II. among the friends and relations of St. Thomas of\n    Canterbury. By this brother's advice she made her profession in the\n    Cistercian nunnery at Laon, where she died in odor of sanctity in\n    1192. See Henriquez ad eum annum.\n\n{349}\n\n\nFEBRUARY IV.\n\nSAINT ANDREW CORSINI\n\nBISHOP AND CONFESSOR.\n\nFrom his two original lives, written, the one by a disciple, the other\nby Peter Andrew Castagna, a friar of his Order, one hundred years after\nhis death. See the same compiled in Latin by Francis Venturius bishop of\nSan-Severo, printed at Rome in 1620, in quarto, and abridged by the\nelegant Jesuit Maffei.\n\nA.D. 1373.\n\nTHIS saint at his baptism was called Andrew, from the apostle of that\nname, on whose festival he was born in Florence, in 1302. The family of\nthe Corsini was then one of the most illustrious of that commonwealth.\nThis child was the fruit of the prayers of his pious parents, who\nconsecrated him by vow to God before his birth. But notwithstanding the\ncare his parents took to instil good principles into him, he spent the\nfirst part of his youth in vice and extravagance, in the company of such\nas were as wicked as himself. His devout mother Peregrina never ceased\nweeping and praying for his conversion, and one day said to him, with\nmany sighs, in the bitterness of her grief: \"I see you are the wolf I\nsaw in my sleep;\" giving him to understand, that when with child of him\nshe had dreamed she was brought to bed of a wolf, which running into a\nchurch, was turned into a lamb. She added, that she and her husband had\nin a particular manner devoted him, while in the womb, to the service of\nGod, under the protection of the blessed Virgin; and that in consequence\nof his being born not for them, nor for the world, but for God, a very\ndifferent kind of life from what he led was expected from him. This\ndiscourse made so strong an impression on his heart, that he went\nimmediately to the church of the Carmelite friars, and having prayed\nthere for some time with great fervor before the altar of our Lady, he\nwas so touched by God, that he took a resolution upon the spot to return\nno more to his father's house, but to embrace the religious state of\nlife professed in that convent. He was readily admitted, in the year\n1318, and after a novitiate of a year and some months, during which he\neluded the artifices of his worldly companions, and resolutely rejected\nthe solicitations of an uncle who sought to draw him back into the\nworld, he made his solemn profession. He never departed from the first\nfervor of his conversion. He strenuously labored to subdue his passions\nby extreme humiliations, obedience even to the last person in the house,\nby silence and prayer; and his superiors employed him in the meanest\noffices, often in washing the dishes in the scullery. The progress he\nmade in learning, particularly in the holy scriptures and in divinity,\nwas very great. In the year 1328 he was ordained priest; but to prevent\nthe music and feast which his family had prepared, according to custom,\nfor the day on which he was to say his first mass, he privately withdrew\nto a little convent seven miles out of town, where he offered, unknown,\nhis first-fruits to God, with wonderful recollection and devotion. After\nsome time employed in preaching at Florence, he was sent to Paris, where\nhe studied three years, and took some degrees. He prosecuted his studies\nsome time at Avignon, with his uncle, cardinal Corsini; and in 1332,\nreturning to Florence, was chosen prior of that convent by a provincial\nchapter. God honored his extraordinary {350} virtue with the gifts of\nprophecy and miracles; and the astonishing fruits of his example and\nzealous preaching made him be looked upon as a second apostle of his\ncountry. Among other miracles and conquests of hardened souls, was the\nconversion of his cousin John Corsini, an infamous gamester; and the\nmiraculous cure of an ulcer in his neck.\n\nThe bishop of Fiesoli, a town three miles from Florence, being dead, the\nchapter unanimously chose our saint to fill up the vacant see. Being\ninformed of their proceedings, he hid himself, and remained so long\nconcealed that the canons, despairing to find him, were going to proceed\nto a second election; when, by a particular direction of divine\nprovidence, he was discovered by a child. Being consecrated bishop in\nthe beginning of the year 1360, he redoubled his former austerities. To\nhis hair-shirt he added an iron girdle. He daily said the seven\npenitential psalms and the litany of the saints, and gave himself a\nsevere discipline while he recited the litany. His bed was of\nvine-branches strewed on the floor. All his time was taken up in prayer\nor in his functions. Holy meditation and reading the scriptures he\ncalled his recreation from his labors. He avoided discourse with women\nas much as possible, and would never listen to flatterers or informers.\nHis tenderness and care of the poor were incredible, and he had a\nparticular regard for the bashful among them, that is, such as were\nashamed to make known their distress: these he was diligent in seeking\nout, and assisted them with all possible secrecy. By an excellent talent\nfor composing differences and dissensions, he never failed to reconcile\npersons at variance, and to appease all seditions that happened in his\ntime, either at Fiesoli, or at Florence. Urban V., on this account, sent\nhim vested with legatine power to Bologna, where the nobility and people\nwere miserably divided. He happily pacified them, and their union\ncontinued during the remainder of his life. He was accustomed every\nThursday to wash, with singular charity and humility, the feet of the\npoor: one excused himself, alleging that his feet were full of ulcers\nand corruption; the saint insisted upon washing them notwithstanding,\nand they were immediately healed. In imitation of St. Gregory the Great,\nhe kept a list of the names of all the poor, and furnished them all with\nallowances. He never dismissed any without an alms, for which purpose he\nonce miraculously multiplied bread. He was taken ill while he was\nsinging high mass on Christmas-night, in the year 1372. His fever\nincreasing, he gave up his happy soul to God with a surprising joy and\ntranquillity, on the 6th of January, 1373, being seventy-one years and\nfive weeks old, having been twelve years bishop. He was honored with\nmany miracles, and immediately canonized by the voice of the people. The\nstate of Florence has often sensibly experienced his powerful\nintercession. Pope Eugenius IV. allowed his relics to be exposed to\npublic veneration. He was canonized by Urban VIII. in 1629. His festival\nwas transferred to the 4th of February. Clement XII. being of this\nfamily, in conjunction with his nephew, the marquis of Corsini,\nsumptuously adorned the chapel of the Carmelite friars' church in\nFlorence, in which the saint's body is kept. He also built and endowed a\nmagnificent independent chapel in the great church of St. John Lateran,\nunder the name of this his patron, in which the corpse of that pope is\ninterred.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe example of all the saints confirms the fundamental maxim of our\ndivine Redeemer, that the, foundation of all solid virtue and of true\nsanctity, is to be laid by subduing the passions and dying to ourselves.\nPride, sensuality, covetousness, and every vice must be rooted out of\nthe heart, the senses must be mortified, the inconstancy of the mind\nmust be settled, and its inclination to roving and dissipation fixed by\nrecollection, and all depraved {351} affections curbed. Both in\ncloisters and in the world, many Christians take pains to become\nvirtuous by multiplying religious practices, yet lose in a great measure\nthe fruit of their labors, because they never study with their whole\nhearts to die to themselves. So long as self-love reigns in their souls,\nalmost without control, this will often blind and deceive them, and will\neasily infect even their good works, and their devotion will be liable\nto a thousand illusions, and always very imperfect. Hence religious\npersons, after many years spent in the rigorous observance of their\nrule, still fail upon the least trial or contradiction which thwarts\ntheir favorite inclination, and are stopped in their spiritual progress\nas it were by every grain of sand in their way: their whole life they\ncrawl like base insects in the mire of their imperfections, whereas if\nthey studied once in good earnest to curb sensuality and to renounce\ntheir own lights, their own will, and the inordinate love of themselves,\ndifficulties would disappear before them, and they would in a short time\narrive at the perfection of true virtue, and enjoy the liberty of the\nchildren of God, and his interior peace, the true road to which is only\nhumility, meekness, and perfect self-denial. Did we know the treasure\nand happiness which this would procure us, we should, in imitation of\nthe ancient holy monks, desire to meet with superiors who would exercise\nus by the severest trials, and think ourselves most obliged to those who\napply the strongest remedies to purge and cure our sick souls.\n\nSS. PHILEAS, MM.\n\nBISHOP OF THMUIS, AND PHILOROMUS.\n\nPHILEAS was a rich nobleman of Thmuis[1] in Egypt, very eloquent and\nlearned. Being converted to the faith, he was chosen bishop of that\ncity; but was taken and carried prisoner to Alexandria by the\npersecutors, under the successors of Dioclesian. Eusebius has preserved\npart of a letter which he wrote in his dungeon, and sent to his flock to\ncomfort and encourage them.[2] Describing the sufferings of his fellow\nconfessors at Alexandria, he says that every one had full liberty\nallowed to insult, strike, and beat them with rods, whips, or clubs.\nSome of the confessors, with their hands behind their backs, were tied\nto pillars, their bodies stretched out with engines, and their sides,\nbelly, thighs, legs, and cheeks, hideously torn with iron hooks: others\nwere hung by one hand, suffering excessive pain by the stretching of\ntheir joints: others hung by both hands, their bodies being drawn down.\nThe governor thought no treatment too bad for Christians. Some expired\non the racks; others expired soon after they were taken down: others\nwere laid on their backs in the dungeons, with their legs stretched out\nin the wooden stocks to the fourth hole, &c. Culcian, who had been\nprefect of Thebais, was then governor of all Egypt, under the tyrant\nMaximinus, but afterwards lost his head in 313, by the order of\nLicinius. We have a long interrogatory of St. Phileas before him from\nthe presidial registers. Culcian, after many other things, asked him,\n\"Was Christ God?\" The saint answered, \"Yes;\" and alleged his miracles as\na proof of his divinity. The governor professed a great regard for his\nquality and merit, and said: \"If you were in misery, or necessity, you\nshould be {352} dispatched without more ado; but as you have riches and\nestates sufficient not only for yourself and family, but for the\nmaintenance almost of a whole province, I pity you, and will do all in\nmy power to save you.\" The counsellors and lawyers, desirous also of\nsaving him, said: \"He had already sacrificed in the Phrontisterium, (or\nacademy for the exercises of literature.\") Phileas cried out: \"I have\nnot by any immolation; but say barely that I have sacrificed, and you\nwill say no more than the truth.\" Having been confined there some time,\nhe might perhaps have said mass in that place.[3]\n\nHis wife, children, brother, and other relations, persons of\ndistinction, and Pagans, were present at the trial. The governor, hoping\nto overcome him by tenderness, said:--\"See how sorrowful your wife\nstands with her eyes fixed upon you.\" Phileas replied: \"Jesus Christ,\nthe Saviour of souls, calls me to his glory: and he can also, if he\npleases, call my wife.\" The counsellors, out of compassion, said to the\njudge: \"Phileas begs a delay.\" Culcian said to him: \"I grant it you most\nwillingly, that you may consider what to do.\" Phileas replied: \"I have\nconsidered, and it is my unchangeable resolution to die for Jesus\nChrist.\" Then all the counsellors, the emperor's lieutenant, who was the\nfirst magistrate of the city, all the other officers of justice, and his\nrelations, fell down together at his feet, embracing his knees, and\nconjuring him to have compassion on his disconsolate family, and not to\nabandon his children in their tender years, while his presence was\nabsolutely necessary for them. But he, like a rock unshaken by the\nimpetuous waves that dash against it, stood unmoved; and raising his\nheart to God, protested aloud that he owned no other kindred but the\napostles and martyrs. Philoromus, a noble Christian, was present: he was\na tribune or colonel, and the emperor's treasurer-general in Alexandria,\nand had his tribunal in the city, where he sat every day hearing and\njudging causes, attended by many officers in great state. Admiring the\nprudence and inflexible courage of Phileas, and moved with indignation\nagainst his adversaries, he cried out to them: \"Why strive ye to\novercome this brave man, and to make him, by an impious compliance with\nmen, renounce God? Do not you see that, contemplating the glory of\nheaven, he makes no account of earthly things?\" This speech drew upon\nhim the indignation of the whole assembly, who in rage demanded that\nboth might be condemned to die. To which the judge readily assented.\n\nAs they were led out to execution, the brother of Phileas, who was a\njudge, said to the governor: \"Phileas desires his pardon.\" Culcian there\nfore called him back, and asked him if it was true. He answered: \"No;\nGod forbid. Do not listen to this unhappy man. Far from desiring the\nreversion of my sentence, I think myself much obliged to the emperors,\nto you, and to your court: for by your means I become coheir with\nChrist, and shall enter this very day into the possession of his\nkingdom.\" Hereupon he was remanded to the place of execution, where\nhaving made his prayer aloud, and exhorted the faithful to constancy and\nperseverance, he was beheaded with Philoromus. The exact time of their\nmartyrdom is not known, but it happened between the years 306 and 312.\nTheir names stand in the ancient martyrologies. See Eusebius, Hist. l.\n8, c. 9. St. Hier. in Catal. in Philea; and their original beautiful\nacts, published by Combefis, Henschenius, and Ruinart.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  Thmuis, capital of the Nomos, or district of Mendes, is called, by\n    Strata, Mendes: which word in the Egyptian tongue signifies a goat,\n    Pan being there worshipped with extraordinary superstition under the\n    figure of a goat. This city was anciently one of the largest and\n    richest in Egypt, as Amm. Marcellinus (l. 22) testifies; but is now\n    reduced to the condition of a mean village, and called Themoi, or\n    rather Them{o}wia. See Le Quien. Oriens Christ. t. 2. p. 53{}.\n2.  Eus. Hist. l. 8, c. 10, p. 302.\n3.  See Tillemont and Ceillier.\n\n{353}\n\nST. GILBERT, A.\n\nFOUNDER OF THE GILBERTINS\n\nHE was born at Sempringham in Lincolnshire, and, after a clerical\neducation, was ordained priest by the bishop of Lincoln. For some time\nhe taught a free-school, training up youth in regular exercises of piety\nand learning. The advowson of the parsonages of Sempringham and\nTirington being the right of his father, he was presented by him to\nthose united livings, in 1123. He gave all the revenues of them to the\npoor, except a small sum for bare necessaries, which he reserved out of\nthe first living. By his care his parishioners seemed to lead the lives\nof religious men, and were known to be of his flock, by their\nconversation, wherever they went. He gave a rule to seven holy virgins,\nwho lived in strict enclosure in a house adjoining to the wall of his\nparish church of St. Andrew at Sempringham, and another afterwards to a\ncommunity of men, who desired to live under his direction. The latter\nwas drawn from the rule of the canon regulars; but that given to his\nnuns, from St. Bennet's: but to both he added many particular\nconstitutions. Such was the origin of the Order of the Gilbertins, the\napprobation of which he procured from pope Eugenius III. At length he\nentered the Order himself, but resigned the government of it some time\nbefore his death, when he lost his sight. His diet was chiefly roots and\npulse, and so sparing, that others wondered how he could subsist. He had\nalways at table a dish which he called, The plate of the Lord Jesus, in\nwhich he put all that was best of what was served up; and this was for\nthe poor. He always wore a hair shirt, took his short rest sitting, and\nspent great part of the night in prayer. In this, his favorite exercise,\nhis soul found those wings on which she continually soared to God.\nDuring the exile of St. Thomas of Canterbury, he and the other superiors\nof his Order were accused of having sent him succors abroad. The charge\nwas false: yet the saint chose rather to suffer imprisonment and the\ndanger of the suppression of his Order, than to deny it, lest he should\nseem to condemn what would have been good and just. He departed to our\nLord on the 3d of February, 1190, being one hundred and six years old.\nMiracles wrought at his tomb were examined and approved by Hubert,\narchbishop of Canterbury, and the commissioners of pope Innocent III. in\n1201, and he was canonized by that pope the year following. The Statutes\nof the Gilbertins, and Exhortations to his Brethren, are ascribed to\nhim. See his life by a contemporary writer, in Dugdale's Monasticon, t.\n2, p. 696; and the same in Henschenius, with another from Capgrave of\nthe same age. See also, Harpsfield, Hist. Angl. cent. 12, c. 37. De\nVisch, Bibl. Cisterc. Henschenius, p. 567. Helyot, &c.\n\nST. JANE, JOAN, OR JOANNA OF VALOIS,\n\nQUEEN OF FRANCE.\n\nSHE was daughter of king Louis XI. and Charlotte of Savoy, born to 1464.\nHer low stature and deformed body rendered her the object of her\nfather's aversion, who, notwithstanding, married her to Louis duke of\nOrleans, his cousin-german, in 1476. She obtained his life of her\nbrother, Charles VIII., who had resolved to put him to death for\nrebellion. Yet {354} nothing could conquer his antipathy against her,\nfrom which she suffered every thing with patience, making exercises of\npiety her chief occupation and comfort. Her husband coming to the crown\nof France in 1498, under the name of Louis XII., having in view an\nadvantageous match with Anne, the heiress of Brittany, and the late\nking's widow, alleging also the nullity of his marriage with Jane,\nchiefly on account of his being forced to it by Louis XI., applied to\npope Alexander VI. for commissaries to examine the matter according to\nlaw. These having taken cognizance of the affair, declared the marriage\nvoid; nor did Jane make any opposition to the divorce, but rejoiced to\nsee herself at liberty, and in a condition to serve God in a state of\ngreater perfection, and attended with fewer impediments in his service.\nShe therefore meekly acquiesced in the sentence, and the king, pleased\nat her submission, gave her the duchy of Berry, besides Pontoise and\nother townships. She resided at Bourges, wore only sackcloth, and\naddicted herself entirely to the exercises of mortification and prayer,\nand to works of charity, in which she employed all her great revenues.\nBy the assistance of her confessarius, a virtuous Franciscan friar,\ncalled Gabriel Maria, as he always signed his name, she instituted, in\n1500, the Order of nuns of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin.[1] It\nwas approved by Julius II., Leo X., Paul V., and Gregory XV. The nuns\nwear a black veil, a white cloak, a red scapular, and a brown habit with\na cross, and a cord for a girdle. The superioress is only called\nAncelle, or servant, for humility. St. Jane took the habit herself in\n1504, but died on the 4th of February, 1505. The Huguenots burned her\nremains at Bourges, in 1562.[2] She was canonized by Clement XII. in\n1738, but had been venerated at Bourges from the time of her death. See\nthe brief of Benedict XIV., concerning her immemorial veneration, t. 2,\nde Canoniz. l. 2, c. 24, p. 296. Bullarii, t. 16, p. 104, and Helyot,\nHist. des Ord. Rel. t. 7, p. 339. Also, Henschenius, p. 575. Chatelain's\nNotes on the Mart. Her life, compiled by Andrew Fremiot, archbishop of\nBourges; by Hilarion de Coste, of the Order of Minims, among his\nillustrious ladies; another printed by the order of Doni d'Attichi,\nbishop of Autun, in 1656, (who had from his youth professed the same\nOrder of the Minims, of which he wrote the Annals, and a History of the\nFrench Cardinals.) See also, on St. Jane, Godeau, Eloges des Princesses,\n&c.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  The imitation of the ten principal virtues, of which the mysteries\n    of the Blessed Virgin, honored by the Church in her yearly\n    festivals, furnish perfect models, is the peculiar end of this\n    religious institute, which takes its name from the first and\n    principal of the joyful mysteries of the mother of God. These nuns\n    wear a gray habit with a red scapular, with a gold cross (or of\n    silver gilt) hanging before their breast, and a gold ring on one of\n    their fingers. A noble Genoese widow, called Mary Victoria Fornaro,\n    instituted in 1604 another Order of the same title, called of the\n    Celestial Annunciades, Annuntiatae Coelestinae. As an emblem of\n    heaven, their habit is white, with a blue mantle to represent the\n    azure of the heavens. The most rigorous poverty, and a total\n    separation from the world, are prescribed. The religious are only\n    allowed to speak to externs six times in a year, and then only to\n    near relations, the men to those of the first, the women to those of\n    the first and second degree. See the life of ven. Mary Victoria\n    Fornaro, by F. Ambrose Spinola, Jesuit; and Hist. des Ordres Relig.\n    t. 4, p. 297.\n2.  See Henschenius, p. 578.\n\nST. ISIDORE OF PELUSIUM.\n\nHE was a monk from his youth, and became superior of a monastery in the\nneighborhood of that city, in the fifth age. Facundus and Suidas assure\nus that he was promoted to the dignity of priest. He was looked upon as\na living rule of religious perfection, and treated by his patriarch, St.\nCyril, and the other prelates of his time, as their father. He chose St.\nChrysostom for his model. We have still extant two thousand and twelve\nof his letters, abounding with excellent instructions of piety, and with\ntheological {355} and critical learning. They are concise, and the style\nnatural, very elegant, agreeable, full of fire and penetration. Possevin\nlaments that they are not in use as a classic author for the Greek\nlanguage. His prudence, undaunted zeal, profound humility, ardent love\nof God, and other virtues, shine admirably in them. He died about the\nyear 449. See Photius, Bibl. Cod. 232 and 228. Tillem. t. 15, p. 97.\nBolland. 4 Feb, p. 468.\n\nST. REMBERT, ARCHBISHOP OF BREMEN, C.\n\nHE was a native of Flanders, near Bruges, and a monk in the neighboring\nmonastery of Turholt. St. Anscharius called him to his assistance in his\nmissionary labors, and in his last sickness recommended him for his\nsuccessor, saying: \"Rembert is more worthy to be archbishop, than I to\ndischarge the office of his deacon.\" After his death, in 865, St.\nRembert was unanimously chosen archbishop of Hamburg and Bremen, and\nsuperintended all the churches of Sweden, Denmark, and the Lower\nGermany, finishing the work of their conversion. He also began the\nconversion of the Sclavi and the Vandals, now called Brandenburghers. He\nsold the sacred vessels to redeem captives from the Normans; and gave\nthe horse on which he was riding for the ransom of a virgin taken by the\nSclavi. He was most careful never to lose a moment of time from serious\nduties and prayer, and never to interrupt the attention of his mind to\nGod in his exterior functions. He died on the 11th of June, in 888, but\nis commemorated in the Roman Martyrology on the 4th of February, the day\non which he was chosen archbishop. His life of St. Anscharius is\nadmired, both for the author's accuracy and piety, and for the elegance\nand correctness of the composition. His letter to Walburge, first abbess\nof Nienherse, is a pathetic exhortation to humility and virginity. The\nsee of Hamburg being united to Bremen by St. Anscharius, this became the\nmetropolitan church of all the north of Germany: but the city becoming\nLutheran, expelled the archbishop in the reign of Charles V. This see\nand that of Ferden were secularized and yielded to the Swedes by the\ntreaty of Westphalia, in 1648. See his life written soon after his\ndeath, in Henschenius, p. 555. Mabillon, Act. Bened., &c.\n\nST. MODAN, ABBOT IN SCOTLAND, C.\n\nDRYBURGH, situated near Mailros, was anciently one of the most famous\nmonasteries in Scotland: in this house of saints, Modan dedicated\nhimself to God, about the year 522. Being persuaded that Christian\nperfection is to be attained by holy prayer and contemplation, and by a\nclose union of our souls with God, he gave six or seven hours every day\nto prayer, and moreover seasoned with it all his other actions and\nemployments. A spirit of prayer is founded in the purity of the\naffections, the fruit of self-denial, humility, and obedience. Hence\nproceeded the ardor with which our saint studied to crucify his flesh\nand senses by the practice of the greatest austerities, to place himself\nbeneath all creatures by the most profound and sincere humility, and in\nall things to subject his will to that of his superiors with such an\nastonishing readiness and cheerfulness, that they unanimously declared\nthey never saw any one so perfectly divested of all self-will, and dead\nto himself, as Modan. The abbacy falling vacant, he was raised against\nhis will to that dignity. In this charge, his conduct was a clear proof\nof the well-known maxim, that no man possesses the art of governing\n{356} others well, unless he is perfectly master of that of obeying. His\ninflexible firmness, in maintaining every point of monastic discipline,\nwas tempered by the most winning sweetness and charity, and an\nunalterable calmness and meekness. Such, moreover, was his prudence, and\nsuch the unction of his words in instructing or reproving others, that\nhis precepts and very reprimands gave pleasure, gained all hearts, and\ninspired the love, and communicated the spirit of every duty. He\npreached the faith at Stirling, and in other places near the Forth,\nespecially at Falkirk; but frequently interrupted his apostolic\nemployments to retire among the craggy mountains of Dunbarton, where he\nusually spent thirty or forty days at once in the heavenly exercises of\ndevout contemplation, in which he enjoyed a kind of anticipation or\nforetaste of the delights in which consists the happiness of the\nblessed. He died in his retirement near Alcluid, (a fortress on the\nriver Cluid,) since called Dunbritton, now Dunbarton. His death is\nusually placed in the seventh century, though some think he flourished\nlater. His relics were kept with singular veneration in a famous church\nof his name at Rosneith. He is also titular saint of the great church at\nStirling, and honored particularly at Dunbarton and Falkirk. See Hector\nBoetius, Lesley, King, in his Calendar, the Breviary of Aberdeen, and\nthe Chronicle of Scone: also Bollandus, p. 497.\n\nST. JOSEPH OF LEONISSA, C.\n\nTHIS saint was born to 1556, at Leonissa a small town near Otricoli, in\nthe ecclesiastical state, and at eighteen years of age made his\nprofession among the Capuchin friars, in the place of his birth, taking\nthe name of Joseph; for before he was called Eufranius. He was always\nmild, humble, chaste, patient, charitable, mortified, and obedient to an\nheroic degree: with the utmost fervor, and on the most perfect motive of\nreligion, he endeavored to glorify God in all his actions. Three days in\nthe week he usually took no other sustenance than bread and water, and\npassed several Lents in the year after the same manner. His bed was hard\nboards, with the trunk of a vine for his pillow. The love of injuries,\ncontumelies, and humiliations, made him find in them his greatest joy.\nHe looked upon himself as the basest of sinners, and said, that indeed\nGod by his infinite mercy had preserved him from grievous crimes; but\nthat by his sloth, ingratitude, and infidelity to the divine grace, he\ndeserved to have been abandoned by God above all creatures. By this\nhumility and mortification he crucified in himself the _old man with his\ndeeds_, and prepared his soul for heavenly communications in prayer and\ncontemplation, which was his assiduous exercise. The sufferings of\nChrist were the favorite and most ordinary object of his devotions. He\nusually preached with a crucifix in his hands, and the fire of his words\nkindled a flame in the hearts of his hearers and penitents. In 1587 he\nwas sent by his superiors into Turkey, to labor as a missioner among the\nChristians at Pera, a suburb of Constantinople, He there encouraged and\nserved the Christian galley-slaves with wonderful charity and fruit,\nespecially during a violent pestilence, with which he himself was\nseized, but recovered. He converted many apostates, one of whom was a\nbashaw. By preaching the faith to the Mahometans he incurred the utmost\nseverity of the Turkish laws, was twice imprisoned, and the second time\ncondemned to a cruel death. He was hung on a gibbet by one hand, which\nwas fastened by a chain, and pierced with a sharp hook at the end of the\nchain; and by one foot in the same manner. Having been some time on\n{357} the gibbet, he was released,[1] and the sentence of death was\nchanged by the sultan into banishment. Wherefore, embarking for Italy,\nhe landed at Venice; and after two years' absence arrived at Leonissa.\nHe resumed his apostolic labors in his Own country with extraordinary\nzeal, and an uncommon benediction from heaven. To complete his\nsacrifice, he suffered very much towards the end of his life from a\npainful cancer, to extirpate which he underwent two incisions without\nthe least groan or complaint, only repeating: \"Holy Mary, pray for us\nmiserable afflicted sinners:\" and holding all the while a crucifix to\nhis hand, on which he fixed his eyes. When some said, before the\noperation, that he ought to be bound or held, he pointed to the\ncrucifix, saying: \"This is the strongest band: this will hold me unmoved\nbetter than any cords could do.\" The operation proving unsuccessful, the\nsaint happily expired, on the 4th day of February, in 1612, being\nfifty-eight years old. His name was inserted in the Roman Martyrology on\nthe 4th of February. See the history of his miracles in the acts of his\nbeatification, which ceremony was performed by Clement XII. in 1737, and\nin those of his canonization by Benedict XIV. in 1746. Acta\nCanonizationis 5 Sanctorum, viz. Fidelis a Sigmaringa, M. Camilli de\nLelia, Petri Regalati, Josephi a Leonissa, and Catharinaea de Riccis, a\nBenedicto XIV., an. 1746, printed at Rome an. 1749, pp. 11, 85, and the\nbull for his canonization, p. 558. Also Bollan. t. 15, p. 127.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  Some say he was released by an angel, after hanging three days, but\n    this circumstance is not mentioned by Benedict XIV., in the decree\n    for his canonization, p. 559.\n\n\nFEBRUARY V.\n\nST. AGATHA, VIRGIN AND MARTYR.\n\nWe have her panegyrics by St. Aldhelm, in the seventh, and St.\nMethodius, patriarch of Constantinople, in the ninth, centuries; also a\nhymn in her honor among the poems of pope Damasus, and another by St.\nIsidore of Seville, in Bollandus, p. 596. The Greeks have interpolated\nher acts, but those in Latin are very ancient. They are abridged by\nTillemont, t. 3, p. 409. See also Rocci Pyrrho, in Sicilia Sacra on\nPalermo, Catana, and Malta.\n\nA. D 251.\n\nTHE cities of Palermo and Catana, in Sicily, dispute the honor of her\nbirth: but they do much better who, by copying her virtues, and claiming\nher patronage, strive to become her fellow-citizens in heaven. It is\nagreed that she received the crown of martyrdom at Catana, in the\npersecution of Decius, in the third consulship of that prince, in the\nyear of our Lord 251. She was of a rich and illustrious family, and\nhaving been consecrated to God from her tender years, triumphed over\nmany assaults upon her chastity. Quintianus, a man of consular dignity,\nbent on gratifying both his lust and avarice, imagined he should easily\ncompass his wicked designs on Agatha's person and estate, by means of\nthe emperor's edict against the Christians. He therefore caused her to\nbe apprehended and brought before him at Catana. Seeing herself in the\nhands of the persecutors, she made this prayer: \"Jesus Christ, Lord of\nall things, you see my heart, you know my desire: possess alone all that\nI am. I am your sheep, make me worthy to overcome the devil.\" She wept,\nand prayed for courage and strength all the way she {358} went. On her\nappearance, Quintianus gave orders for her being put into the hands of\nAphrodisia, a most wicked woman, who with six daughters, all\nprostitutes, kept a common stew. The saint suffered in this infamous\nplace, assaults and stratagems against her virtue, infinitely more\nterrible to her than any tortures or death itself. But placing her\nconfidence in God, she never ceased with sighs and most earnest tears to\nimplore his protection, and by it was an overmatch for all their hellish\nattempts, the whole month she was there. Quintianus being informed of\nher constancy after thirty days, ordered her to be brought before him.\nThe virgin, in her first interrogatory, told him, that to be a servant\nof Jesus Christ was the most illustrious nobility, and true liberty. The\njudge, offended at her resolute answers, commanded her to be buffeted,\nand led to prison. She entered it with great joy, recommending her\nfuture conflict to God. The next day she was arraigned a second time at\nthe tribunal, and answered with equal constancy that Jesus Christ was\nher life and her salvation. Quintianus then ordered her to be stretched\non the rack, which torment was usually accompanied with stripes, the\ntearing of the sides with iron hooks, and burning them with torches or\nmatches. The governor, enraged to see her suffer all this with\ncheerfulness, commanded her breast to be tortured, and afterwards to be\ncut off. At which she made him this reproach: \"Cruel tyrant, do you not\nblush to torture this part of my body, you that sucked the breasts of a\nwoman yourself?\" He remanded her to prison with a severe order, that\nneither salves nor food should be allowed her. But God would be himself\nher physician, and the apostle St. Peter in a vision comforted her,\nhealed all her wounds, and filled her dungeon with a heavenly light.\nQuintianus, four days after, not the least moved at the miraculous cure\nof her wounds, caused her to be rolled naked over live coals mixed with\nbroken potsherds. Being carried back to prison, she made this prayer:\n\"Lord, my Creator, you have ever protected me from the cradle. You have\ntaken from me the love of the world, and given me patience to suffer:\nreceive now my soul.\" After which words she sweetly gave up the ghost.\nHer name is inserted in the canon of the mass, in the calendar of\nCarthage, as ancient as the year 530, and in all martyrologies of the\nLatins and Greeks. Pope Symmachus built a church in Rome on the Aurelian\nway, under her name, about the year 500, which is fallen to decay.[1]\nSt. Gregory the Great enriched a church which he purged from the Arian\nimpiety, with her relics,[2] which it still possesses. This church had\nbeen rebuilt in her honor by Ricimer, general of the western empire, in\n460. Gregory II. built another famous church at Rome, under her\ninvocation, in 726, which Clement VIII. gave to the congregation of the\nChristian doctrine. St. Gregory the Great[3] ordered some of her relics\nto be placed in the church of the monastery of St. Stephen, in the Isle\nof Capreae, now Capri. The chief part, which remained at Catana, was\ncarried to Constantinople by the Greek general, who drove the Saracens\nout of Sicily about the year 1040: these were brought back to Catana in\n1127, a relation of which translation, written by Mauritius, who was\nthen bishop, is recorded by Rocci Pyrrho, and Bollandus.[4] The same\nauthors relate in what manner the torrent of burning sulphur and stones\nwhich issue from mount AEtna, in great eruptions, was several times\naverted from the walls of Catana by the veil of St. Agatha, (taken out\nof her tomb,) which was carried in procession. Also that through her\nintercession, Malta (where she is honored as patroness of the island)\nwas preserved from the Turks who invaded it in 1551. Small portions of\nrelics of St. Agatha are said to be distributed in many places.\n\n{359}\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe perfect purity of intention by which St. Agatha was entirely dead to\nthe world and herself, and sought only to please God, is the\ncircumstance which sanctified her sufferings, and rendered her sacrifice\ncomplete. The least cross which we bear, the least action which we\nperform in this disposition, will be a great holocaust, and a most\nacceptable offering. We have frequently something to suffer--sometimes\nan aching pain in the body, at other times some trouble of mind, often\nsome disappointment, some humbling rebuke, or reproach, or the like. If\nwe only bear these trials with patience when others are witnesses, or if\nwe often speak of them, or are fretful under them, or if we bear\npatiently public affronts or great trials, yet sink under those which\nare trifling, and are sensible to small or secret injuries, it is\nevident that we have not attained to true purity of intention in our\npatience; that we are not dead to ourselves, and love not to disappear\nto the eyes of creatures, but court them, and take a secret complacency\nin things which appear great. We profess ourselves ready to die for\nChrist; yet cannot bear the least cross or humiliation. How agreeable to\nour divine spouse is the sacrifice of a soul which suffers in silence,\ndesiring to have no other witness of her patience than God alone, who\nsends her trials; which shuns superiority and honors, but takes all care\npossible that no one knows the humility or modesty of such a refusal;\nwhich suffers humiliations, and seeks no comfort or reward but from God.\nThis simplicity and purity of heart; this love of being hid in God,\nthrough Jesus Christ, is the perfection of all our sacrifices, and the\ncomplete victory over self-love, which it attacks and forces out of its\nstrongest intrenchments: this says to Christ, with St. Agatha, \"Possess\nalone all that I am.\"\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  Fronteau Cal. p. 25.\n2.  Disi. l. 3, c. 30.\n3.  L. 1, ep. 52.\n4.  Feb. {}1, p. 647.\n\nTHE MARTYRS OF JAPAN.\n\nSee the triumph of the martyrs of Japan. by F. Trigault, from the year\n1612 to 1640, the history of Japan, by F. Crasset, to the year 1658, and\nthat by the learned F. Charlevoix in nine volumes: also the life of F.\nSpinola, &c.\n\nTHE empire of Japan, so called from one of the islands of which it is\ncomposed, was discovered by certain Portuguese merchants, about the year\n1541. It is generally divided into several little kingdoms, all which\nobey one sovereign emperor. The capital cities are Meaco and Jedo. The\nmanners of this people are the reverse of ours in many things. Their\ncharacteristic is pride, and an extravagant love of honor. They adore\nidols of grotesque shapes, by which they represent certain famous wicked\nancestors: the chiefest are Amida and Xacha. Their priests are called\nBonzas, and all obey the Jaco, or high-priest. St. Francis Xavier\narrived in Japan in 1549, baptized great numbers, and whole provinces\nreceived the faith. The great kings of Arima, Bungo, and Omura, sent a\nsolemn embassy of obedience to pope Gregory XIII. in 1582: and in 1587\nthere were in Japan above two hundred thousand Christians, and among\nthese several kings, princes, and bonzas, but in 1588, Cambacundono, the\nhaughty emperor, having usurped the honors of a deity, commanded all the\nJesuits to leave his dominions within six months: however, many remained\nthere disguised. In 1593, the persecution was renewed, and several\nJapanese converts received the crown of martyrdom. The emperor\nTagcosama, one of the proudest and most vicious of men, was worked up\ninto rage and jealousy by a suspicion suggested by certain European\nmerchants desirous of the monopoly of this trade, that the view of the\nmissionaries in preaching the Christian faith was to facilitate the\nconquest of their country by the Portuguese or Spaniards. Three Jesuits\nand six Franciscans were crucified on {360}a hill near Nangasaqui in\n1597. The latter were partly Spaniards and partly Indians, and had at\ntheir head F. Peter Baptist, commissary of his Order, a native of Avila,\nin Spain. As to the Jesuits, one was Paul Michi, a noble Japanese and an\neminent preacher, at that time thirty-three years old. The other two,\nJohn Gotto and James Kisai, were admitted into the Society in prison a\nlittle before they suffered. Several Japanese converts suffered with\nthem. The martyrs were twenty-six in number, and among them were three\nboys who used to serve the friars at mass; two of them were fifteen\nyears of age, and the third only twelve, yet each showed great joy and\nconstancy in their sufferings. Of these martyrs, twenty-four had been\nbrought to Meaco, where only a part of their left ears was cut off, by a\nmitigation of the sentence which had commanded the amputation of their\nnoses and both ears. They were conducted through many towns and public\nplaces, their cheeks stained with blood, for a terror to others. When\nthe twenty-six soldiers of Christ were arrived at the place of execution\nnear Nangasaqui, they were allowed to make their confession to two\nJesuits of the convent, in that town, and being fastened to crosses by\ncords and chains, about their arms and legs, and an iron collar about\ntheir necks, were raised into the air, the foot of each cross falling\ninto a hole prepared for it in the ground. The crosses were planted in a\nrow, about four feet asunder, and each martyr had an executioner near\nhim with a spear ready to pierce his side, for such is the Japanese\nmanner of crucifixion. As soon as all the crosses were planted, the\nexecutioners lifted up their lances, and at a signal given, all pierced\nthe martyrs almost in the same instant; upon which they expired and went\nto receive the reward of their sufferings. Their blood and garments were\nprocured by Christians, and miracles were wrought by them. Urban VIII.\nranked them among the martyrs, and they are honored on the 5th of\nFebruary, the day of their triumph. The rest of the missionaries were\nput on board a vessel, and carried out of the dominions, except\ntwenty-eight priests, who stayed behind in disguise. Tagcosama dying,\nordered his body should not be burned, as was the custom in Japan, but\npreserved enshrined in his palace of Fuximi, that he might be worshipped\namong the gods under the title of the new god of war. The most stately\ntemple in the empire was built to him, and his body deposited in it. The\nJesuits returned soon after, and though the missionaries were only a\nhundred in number, they converted, in 1599, forty thousand, and in 1600,\nabove thirty thousand, and built fifty churches; for the people were\nhighly scandalized to see him worshipped as a god, whom they had\nremembered a most covetous, proud, and vicious tyrant. But in 1602,\nCubosama renewed the bloody persecution, and many Japanese converts were\nbeheaded, crucified, or burned. In 1614, new cruelties were exercised to\novercome their constancy, as by bruising their feet between certain\npieces of wood, cutting off or squeezing their limbs one after another,\napplying red-hot irons or slow fires, flaying off the skin of the\nfingers, putting burning coals to their hands, tearing off the flesh\nwith pincers, or thrusting reeds into all parts of their bodies, and\nturning them about to tear their flesh, till they should say they would\nforsake their faith: all which, innumerable persons, even children, bore\nwith invincible constancy till death. In 1616, Xogun succeeding his\nfather Cubosama in the empire, surpassed him in cruelty. The most\nillustrious of these religious heroes was F. Charles Spinola. He was of\na noble Genoese family, and entered the Society at Nola, while his uncle\ncardinal Spinola was bishop of that city. Out of zeal and a desire of\nmartyrdom, he begged to be sent on the Japanese mission. He arrived\nthere in 1602; labored many years in that mission, gained many to\nChrist, by his mildness, and lived in great austerity, for his usual\nfood was only a little rice and {361} herbs. He suffered four years a\nmost cruel imprisonment, during which, in burning fevers, he was not\nable to obtain of his keepers a drop of cold water out of meals: yet he\nwrote from his dungeon: \"Father, how sweet and delightful is it to\nsuffer for Jesus Christ! I have learned this better by experience than I\nam able to express, especially since we are in these dungeons where we\nfast continually. The strength of my body fails me, but my joy increases\nas I see death draw nearer. O what a happiness for me, if next Easter I\nshall sing the heavenly Alleluia in the company of the blessed!\" In a\nlong letter to his cousin Maximilian Spinola, he said: \"O, if you had\ntasted the delights with which God tills the souls of those who serve\nhim, and suffer for him, how would you contemn all that the world can\npromise! I now begin to be a disciple of Jesus Christ, since for his\nlove I am in prison, where I suffer much. But I assure you, that when I\nam fainting with hunger, God hath fortified me by his sweet\nconsolations, so that I have looked upon myself as well recompensed for\nhis service. And though I were yet to pass many years in prison, the\ntime would appear short, through the extreme desire which I feel of\nsuffering for him, who even here so well repays our labors. Besides\nother sickness, I have been afflicted with a continual fever a hundred\ndays without any remedies or proper nourishment. All this time my heart\nwas so full of joy, that it seemed to me too narrow to contain it. I\nhave never felt any equal to it, and I thought myself at the gates of\nparadise.\" His joy was excessive at the news that he was condemned to be\nburnt alive, and he never ceased to thank God for so great a mercy, of\nwhich he owned himself unworthy. He was conducted from his last prison\nat Omura to Nangasaqui, where fifty martyrs suffered together on a hill\nwithin sight of that city-nine Jesuits, four Franciscans, and six\nDominicans, the rest seculars: twenty-five were burned, the rest\nbeheaded. The twenty-five stakes were fixed all in a row, and the\nmartyrs tied to them. Fire was set to the end of the pile of wood\ntwenty-five feet from the martyrs, and gradually approached them, two\nhours before it reached them. F. Spinola stood unmoved, with his eyes\nlifted up towards heaven, till the cords which tied him being burnt, he\nfell into the flames, and was consumed, on the 2d of September, in 1622,\nbeing fifty-eight years old. Many others, especially Jesuits, suffered\nvariously, being either burnt at slow fires, crucified, beheaded, or\nthrown into a burning mountain, or hung with their heads downward in\npits, which cruel torment usually put an end to their lives in three or\nfour days. In 1639, the Portuguese and all other Europeans, except the\nDutch, were forbid to enter Japan, even for trade; the very ambassadors\nwhich the Portuguese sent thither were beheaded. In 1642, five Jesuits\nlanded secretly in Japan, but were soon discovered, and after cruel\ntortures were hung in pits till they expired. Thus hath Japan encouraged\nthe church militant, and filled the triumphant with glorious martyrs:\nthough only the first-mentioned have as yet been publicly declared such\nby the holy See, who are mentioned in the new edition of the Roman\nMartyrology published by Benedict XIV. in 1749.\n\n{362}\n\nAPPENDIX\n\nON\n\nTHE MARTYRS OF CHINA.\n\nTHE devil set all his engines to work, that he might detain in his\ncaptivity those great nations, which, by the inscrutable judgments of\nGod, lay yet buried in the night of infidelity, and by their vicious\nhabits and prejudices had almost extinguished the law written in their\nbreast by their Creator. The pure light of the gospel sufficed to dispel\nthe dark clouds of idolatry by its own brightness; but the passions of\nmen were not to be subdued but by the omnipotent hand of Him who\npromised that his holy faith and salvation should be propagated\nthroughout all nations. All the machinations of hell were not able to\ndefeat the divine mercy, not even by the scandal of those false\nChristians, whom jealousy, covetousness, and the spirit of the world\nblinded and seared to every feeling, not only of religion, but even of\nhumanity. Religious missionaries, filled with the spirit of the\napostles, and armed with the power of God, baffled obstacles which\nseemed insurmountable to flesh and blood; and by their zeal, charity,\npatience, humility, meekness, mortification, and invincible courage,\ntriumphantly planted the standard of the cross in a world heretofore\nunknown to us, and but lately discovered, not by blind chance, but for\nthese great purposes of divine providence.\n\nIt appears from the Chinese annals, in F. Du Halde's History of China,\nthat this vast empire is the most ancient in the world. Mr. Shuckford\n(B. 1, 2, 6) thinks, that their first, king, Fo-hi, was Noah himself,\nwhom he imagines to have settled here soon after the deluge. Mr.\nSwinton, in the twentieth tome of the Universal History, justly censures\nthis conjecture, and rejects the first dynasty of the Chinese history;\nwhich Mr. Jackson in his chronology, with others, vindicates. We must\nown that the Chinese annals are unanimous in asserting this first\ndynasty, whatever some have, by mistake, wrote against it; and this\nantiquity agrees very well with the chronology of the Septuagint, or\nthat of the Samaritan Pentateuch, one of which several learned men seem\nat present much inclined to embrace. As for this notion that the Chinese\nare originally an Egyptian colony, and that their first dynasty is\nborrowed from the latter; notwithstanding my great personal respect for\nthe worthy author of that system, it stands in need of proofs founded in\nfacts, not in conjectures. A little acquaintance with languages shows,\nthat we frequently find in certain words and circumstances a surprising\nanalogy, in some things, between several words or customs of the most\ndisparate languages and manners of very distant countries: several\nPersian words are the same in English, and it would be as plausible a\nsystem to advance that one of these nations was a colony of the other.\nFrom such circumstances it only results, that all nations have one\ncommon original. Allowing therefore the Chinese an antiquity of which\nthey are infinitely jealous, Fo-hi was perhaps either Sem himself, or\none that lived very soon after the flood, from whom this empire derives\nits origin. Confucius was the great philosopher of this people, who drew\nup the plan of their laws and religion. He is thought to have flourished\nabout the time of king Solomon, or not much later. He was of royal\nextraction, and a man of severe morals. His writings contain many\nsublime moral truths, and show him to have been the greatest philosopher\nthat ever lived. As he came nearer to the patriarchs in time, and\nreceived a more perfect tradition from them, he surpassed, in the\nexcellency of his moral precepts, Pythagoras, Socrates, and Plato. He\ntaught men to obey, honor, and fear the Lord of Heaven, to love their\nneighbor as themselves, to subdue irregular inclinations, and to be\nguided in all things by reason; that God is the original and ultimate\nend of all things, which he produced and preserves, himself eternal,\ninfinite, and immutable; one, supremely holy, supremely intelligent, and\ninvisible. He often mentioned the expectation of a Messias to come, a\nperfect guide and teacher of virtue; calling him the holy man, and the\nholy person, who is expected to come on earth. It is a tradition in\nChina, that he was often heard to say, \"That in the West the Holy One\nwill appear.\" This he delivered from the patriarchal tradition; but he\nnot only mentions heavenly spirits, the ministers of God, but he also\nordains the worship of these spirits by religious rites and sacrifices,\nand concurs with the idolatry which was established in his time. St.\nFrancis Xavier had made the conversion of China the object of his\nzealous wishes; but died, like another Moses, in sight of it. His\nreligious brethren long attempted in vain to gain admittance into that\ncountry; but the jealousy of the inhabitants refused entrance to all\nstrangers. However, God was pleased, at the repeated prayers of his\nservants, to crown them with success. The Portuguese made a settlement\nat Macao. an island within sight of China, and obtained leave to go\nthither {363} twice a year for to trade at the fairs of Canton. F.\nMatthew Ricci, a Roman Jesuit, a good mathematician, and a disciple of\nClavius, being settled a missionary at Macao, went over with them\nseveral times into China, and in 1593, obtained leave of the governor to\nreside there with two other Jesuits. A little catechism which he\npublished, and a map of the world, in which he placed the first meridian\nin China, to make it the middle of the world, according to the Chinese\nnotion, gained him many friends and admirers. In 1595, he established a\nsecond residence of Jesuits, at Nanquin; and made himself admired them\nby teaching the true figure of the earth, the cause of lunar eclipses,\n&c. He also built an observatory, and converted many to the faith. In\n1600, he went to Pekin, and carried with him a clock, a watch, and many\nother presents to the emperor, who granted him a residence in that\ncapital. He converted many, and among these several officers of the\ncourt, one of whom was Paul Siu, afterwards prime minister, under whose\nprotection a flourishing Church was established in his country, Xankai,\n(in the province of Nanquin,) in which were forty thousand Christians\nwhen the late persecution began. Francis Martinez, a Chinese Jesuit,\nhaving converted a famous doctor, was beaten several times, and at\nlength expired under the torment. Ricci died in 1617, having lived in\nfavor with the emperor Vanlie.\n\nF. Adam Schall, a Jesuit from Cologn, by his mathematics, became known\nto the emperor Zonchi: but in 1636, that prince laid violent hands upon\nhimself, that he might not fall into the hands of two rebels who had\ntaken Pekin. The Chinese called in Xuute, king of a frontier nation of\nthe Tartars, to their assistance, who recovered Pekin, but demanded the\nempire for the prize of his victory: and his son Chunchi obtained quiet\npossession of it in 1650. From that time the Tartars have been emperors\nof China, but they govern it by its own religion and laws. They\nfrequently visit their original territories, but rather treat them as\nthe conquered country. Chunchi esteemed F. Schall, called him father,\nand wag favorable to the Christians. After his death the four regents\npat to death five Christian mandarins for their faith, and condemned F.\nSchall, but granted him a reprieve; during which he died. The young\nemperor Camhi coming of age, put a stop to the persecution, and employed\nF. Verbiest, a Jesuit, to publish the yearly Chinese calendar, declared\nhim president of the mathematics in his palace, and consequently a\nmandarin. The first year he opened the Christian churches, which was in\n1671, above twenty thousand souls were baptized: and in the year\nfollowing, an uncle of the emperor, one of the eight perpetual generals\nof the Tartar troops, and several other persons of distinction. The\nsucceeding emperors were no less favorable to the Christians, and\npermitted them to build a most sumptuous church within the enclosures of\ntheir own palace, which in many respects surpassed all the other\nbuildings of the empire. It was finished in 1702. The Dominican friars,\naccording to Touron, (Hommes Illustr. t. 6,) entered China in 1556,\nconverted many to the faith, and, in 1631, laid the foundation of the\nmost numerous church of Fokieu, great part of which province they\nconverted to the faith. Four priests of this order received the crown of\nmartyrdom in 1647, and a fifth, named Francis de Capillas, from the\nconvent of Valladolid, the apostle of the town of Fogau, was cruelly\nbeaten, and soon after beheaded, on the 15th of January, 1648;\n\"because,\" as his sentence imported, \"he contemned the spirits and gods\nof the country.\" Relations hereof were transmitted to the Congregation\nde Propaganda Fide, under pope Urban VIII.\n\nUpwards of a hundred thousand souls zealously professed the faith, and\nthey had above two hundred churches. But a debate arose whether certain\nhonors paid by the Chinese to Confucius and their deceased ancestors,\nwith certain oblations made, either solemnly, by the mandarins and\ndoctors at the equinoxes, and at the now and full moons, or privately,\nin their own houses or temples, were superstitious and idolatrous. Pope\nClement XI., in 1704, condemned those rites as superstitious, _utpote\nsuperstitione imbutos_, the execution of which decree he committed to\nthe patriarch of Antioch, afterwards cardinal Tournon, whom he sent as\nhis commissary into that kingdom. Benedict XIV. confirmed the same more\namply and severely by his constitution, _ex quo singulari_, in 1742, in\nwhich he declares, that the faithful ought to express God, in the\nChinese language, by the name Thien Chu, _i.e._ the Lord of heaven: and\nthat the words Tien, the heaven, and Xang Ti, the Supreme Ruler, are not\nto be used, because they signify the supreme god of the idolaters, a\nkind of fifth essence, or intelligent nature, in the heaven itself: that\nthe inscription, King Tien, worship thou the heaven, cannot be allowed.\nThe obedience of those who had formerly defended these rites to be\nmerely political and civil honors, not sacred, was such, that from that\ntime they have taken every occasion of testifying it to the world. By a\nlike submission end victory over himself, Fenelon was truly greater than\nby all his other illustrious virtues and actions.\n\nThe emperor Kang-hi protected the Christian religion in the most\nfavorable manner. Whereas his successor, Yongtching, banished the\nmissionaries out of the chief cities, but kept those religious in his\npalace who were employed by him in painting, mathematics, and other\nliberal arts, and who continued mandarins of the court. Kien-long, the\nnext emperor, carried the persecution to the greatest rigors of cruelty.\nThe tragedy was begun by the viceroy of Fokieu, who stirred up the\nemperor himself. A great number of Christians of {364} all ages and\nsexes were banished, beaten, and tortured divers ways, especially by\nbeing buffeted on the face with a terrible kind of armed ferula, one\nblow of which would knock the teeth out, and make the head swell\nexceedingly. All which torments even the young converts bore with\nincredible constancy, rather than discover where the priest lay hid, or\ndeliver up the crosses, relics, or sacred books, or do any thing\ncontrary to the law of God. Many priests and others died of their\ntorments, or of the hardships of their dungeons. One bishop and six\npriests received the crown of martyrdom. Peter Martyr Sanz, a Spanish\nDominican friar, arrived in China in 1715, where he had labored fifteen\nyears, when he was named by the congregation bishop of Mauricastre, and\nordained by the bishop of Nanquin, assisted by the bishops of Pekin and\nMacao, and appointed Apostolic Vicar for the province of Fokieu. In\n1732, the emperor, by an edict, banished all the missionaries. Peter\nSauz retired to Macao, but returned to Fokieu, in 1738, and founded\nseveral new churches for his numerous converts, and received the vows of\nseveral virgins who consecrated themselves to God. The viceroy, provoked\nat this, caused him to be apprehended, amidst the tears of his dear\nflock, with four Dominican friars, his fellow-laborers. They were beaten\nwith clubs, buffeted on the face with gauntlets made of several pieces\nof leather, and at length condemned to lose their heads. The bishop was\nbeheaded on the same day, the 26th of May, 1747. The Chinese\nsuperstitiously imagine, that the soul of one that is put to death\nseizes the first person it meets, and therefore all the spectators run\naway as soon as they see the stroke of death given; but none of them did\nso at the death of this blessed martyr. On the contrary, admiring the\njoy with which he died, and esteeming his holy soul happy, they thought\nit a blessing to come the nearest to him, and to touch his blood; which\nthey did as respectfully as Christians could have done, for whom a pagan\ngathered the blood, because they durst not appear. The other four\nDominican friars, who were also Spaniards, suffered much during\ntwenty-eight months' cruel imprisonment, and were strangled privately in\ntheir dungeons on the 28th of October, 1748. Pope Benedict XIV. made a\ndiscourse to the cardinals on the precious death of this holy bishop,\nSeptember 16, 1748. See Touron, t. 6, p. 729.\n\nThese four fellow-martyrs of the Order of St. Dominic, were, Francis\nSerranus, fifty-two years old, who had labored nineteen years in the\nChinese mission, and during his last imprisonment was nominated by pope\nBenedict XIV., bishop of Tipasa: Joachim Roio, fifty-six years old, who\nhad preached in that empire thirty-three years: John Alcober, forty-two\nyears old, who had spent eighteen years in that mission: and Francis\nDiaz, thirty-three years old, of which he had employed nine in the same\nvineyard. During their imprisonment, a report that their lives would be\nspared, filled them not with joy, but with grief, to the great\nadmiration of the infidels, as pope Benedict XIV. mentions in his\ndiscourse to the consistory of cardinals, on their death, delivered in\n1752: in which he qualifies them crowned, but not declared martyrs:\n_martyres consummatos, nondum martyres vindicatos_. In the same\npersecution, two Jesuits, F. Joseph of Attemis, an Italian, and F.\nAntony Joseph Heuriquez, a Portuguese, were apprehended in December,\n1747, and tortured several times, to compel them to renounce their\nreligion. They were at length condemned to death by the mandarins, and\nthe sentence, according to custom, being sent to the emperor, was\nconfirmed by him, and the two priests were strangled in prison on the\n12th of September, 1748. On these martyrs see F. Touron, Hommes\nIllustres de l'Ordre de S. Domin., t. 6, and the letters of the Jesuit\nmissionaries. On the history of China, F. Du Halde's Description of\nChina, in four vols. fol. Mullerus de Chataia, Navarrete, Tratados\nHistoricos de la China, an. 1676. Lettres Edifiantes et Curieuses des\nMissionaires, vols. 27, 28. Jackson's Chronology, &c.\n\nIn Tonquin, a kingdom southwest of China, in which the king and\nmandarins follow the Chinese religion, though various sects of idolatry\nand superstition reign among the people, a persecution was raised\nagainst the Christians in 1713. In this storm one hundred and fifty\nchurches were demolished, many converts were beaten with a hammer on\ntheir knees, and tortured various other ways; and two Spanish missionary\npriests of the order of St. Dominick suffered martyrdom for the faith,\nF. Francis Gil de Federich, and F. Matthew Alfonso Leziniana. F. Gil\narrived there in 1735, and found above twenty thousand Christians in the\nwest of the kingdom, who had been baptized by priests of his order. This\nvineyard he began assiduously to cultivate; but was apprehended by a\nneighboring Bonza, in 1737, and condemned to die the year following. The\nTouquinese usually execute condemned persons only in the last moon of\nthe year, and a rejoicing or other accidents often cause much longer\ndelays. The confessor was often allowed the liberty of saying mass in\nthe prison: and was pressed to save his life, by saying that he came\ninto Tonquin as a merchant; but this would have been a lie, and he would\nnot suffer any other to give in such an answer for him. Father Matthew,\na priest of the same order, after having preached ten years in Tonquin,\nwas seized while he was saying mass; and because he refused to trample\non a crucifix, was condemned to die in 1743; and in May, 1744, was\nbrought into the same prison with F. Gil. The idolaters were so\nastonished to see their ardor to die, and the sorrow of the latter upon\nan offer of his life, that they cried out: \"Others desire to live, but\n{365} these men to die.\" They were both beheaded together on the 22d of\nJanuary, 1744. See Touron, t. 6, and Lettres Edif. of Curieuses des\nMissionaires.\n\nMany other vast countries, both in the eastern and western parts of the\nworld, received the light of the gospel in the sixteenth century; in\nwhich great work several apostolic men were raised by God, and some were\nhonored with the crown of martyrdom. Among the zealous missionaries who\nconverted to the faith the savage inhabitants of Brazil, in America, of\nwhich the Portuguese took possession in 1500, under king John II., F.\nJoseph Anchieta is highly celebrated. He was a native of the Canary\nislands, but took the Jesuit's habit at Coimbra; died in Brazil, on the\n9th of June, 1597, of his age sixty-four; having labored in cultivating\nthat vineyard forty-seven years. He was a man of apostolic humility,\npatience, meekness, prayer, zeal, and charity. The fruit of his labors\nwas not less wonderful than the example of his virtues. See his life by\nF. Peter Roterigius, and by F. Sebastian Beretarius. The sanctity of the\nvenerable F. Peter Claver, who labored in the same vineyard, was so\nheroic, that a process has been commenced for his canonization.\n\nF. Peter Claver was nobly born in Catalonia, and entered himself in the\nSociety at Tarragon, in 1602, when about twenty years old. From his\ninfancy he looked upon nothing small in which the service of God was\nconcerned; for the least action or circumstance which is referred to his\nhonor is great and precious, and requires our utmost application: in\nthis spirit of fervor he considered God in every neighbor and superior;\nand upon motives of religion was humble and meek towards all, and ever\nready to obey and serve every one. From the time of his religious\nprofession, he applied himself with the greatest ardor to seek nothing\nin the world, but what Jesus Christ sought in his mortal life, that is,\nthe kingdom of his grace: for the only aim of this servant of God was,\nthe sanctification of his own soul, and the salvation of others. He was\nthoroughly instructed that a man's spiritual progress depends very much\nupon the fervor of his beginning; and he omitted nothing both to lay a\nsolid foundation, and continually to raise upon it the structure of all\nvirtues; and he sought and found God in all things. The progress which\nhe made was very great, because he set out by the most perfect exterior\nand interior renunciation of the world and himself. Being sent to\nMajorca, to study philosophy and divinity, he contracted a particular\nfriendship with a lay-brother, Alphonsus Rodriguez, then porter of the\ncollege, an eminent contemplative, and perfect servant of God: nor is it\nto be expressed how much the fervent disciple improved himself in the\nschool of this humble master, in the maxims of Christian perfection. His\nfirst lessons were, to speak little with men, and much with God: to\ndirect every action in the beginning with great fervor, to the most\nperfect glory of God, in union with the holy actions of Christ: to have\nGod always present in his heart; and to pray continually for the grace\nnever to offend God: never to speak of any thing that belongs to\nclothing, lodging, and such conveniences, especially eating or drinking:\nto meditate often on the sufferings of Christ, and on the virtues of his\ncalling. F. Claver, in 1610, was, at his earnest request, sent with\nother missionaries to preach the faith to the infidels at Carthagena,\nand the neighboring country in America. At the first sight of the poor\nnegro slaves, he was moved with the strongest sentiments of compassion,\ntenderness, and zeal, which never forsook him; and it was his constant\nstudy to afford them all the temporal comfort and assistance in his\npower. In the first place he was indefatigable in instructing and\nbaptizing them, and in giving them every spiritual succor: the title in\nwhich he gloried was that of the Slave of the Slaves, or of the Negroes;\nand incredible were the fatigues which he underwent night and day with\nthem, and the many heroic acts of all virtues which he exercised in\nserving them. The Mahometans, the Pagans, and the very Catholics, whose\nscandalous lives were a reproach to their holy religion; the hospitals\nand the prisons, were other theatres where he exercised his zeal. The\nhistory of his life furnishes us with most edifying instances, and gives\nall account of two persons raised to life by him, and of other miracles;\nthough his assiduous prayer, and his extraordinary humility,\nmortification of his senses, and perfect self-denial, might be called\nthe greatest of his miracles. In the same rank we may place the\nwonderful conversions of many obstinate sinners, and the heroic sanctity\nof many great servants of God, who were by him formed to perfect virtue.\nAmong his maxims of humility, he used especially to inculcate, that he\nwho is sincerely humble desires to be contemned; he seeks not to appear\nhumble, but worthy to be humbled, is subject to all in his heart, and\nready to obey the whole world. By the holy hatred of ourselves, we must\nsecretly rejoice in our hearts when we meet with contempt end affronts;\nbut must take care, said this holy man, that no one think we rejoice at\nthem, but rather believe that we are confounded and grieved at the\nill-treatment which we receive. F. Claver died on the 8th of September,\n1651, being about seventy-two years old; having spent in the Society\nfifty-five years, in the same uniform crucified life, and in the\nconstant round of the same uninterrupted labors, which perhaps requires\na courage more heroic than martyrdom. In the process for his\ncanonization, the scrutiny relating to his life and virtues is happily\nfinished; and Benedict XIV. confirmed the decree of the Congregation of\nRites, in 1747, by which it is declared, that the proofs of the heroic\ndegree of the Christian virtues which he practised, are competent and\nsufficient. See his life by F. Fleuriau.\n\n{366}\n\nMANY Martyrs in Pontus, under Dioclesian. Some were tortured with melted\nlead poured upon them, others with sharp reeds thrust under their nails,\nand such like inventions, several times repeated: at length they various\nways completed their martyrdom. See Eusebius, Hist. l. 8, c. 12, p. 306.\n\nST. AVITUS, ARCHBISHOP OF VIENNE, C.\n\nST. ALCIMUS ECDITIUS AVITUS was of a senatorian Roman family, but born\nin Auvergne. His father, Isychius, was chosen archbishop of Vienne upon\nthe death of St. Mammertus, and was succeeded in that dignity by our\nsaint, in 490. Ennodius, in his life of St. Epiphanius of Pavia, says of\nhim, that he was a treasure of learning and piety; and adds, that when\nthe Burgundians had crossed the Alps, and carried home many captives out\nof Liguria, this holy prelate ransomed a great number. Clovis, king of\nFrance, while yet a pagan, and Gondebald, king of Burgundy, though an\nArian, held him in great veneration. This latter, for fear of giving\noffence to his subjects, durst not embrace the Catholic faith, yet gave\nsufficient proofs that he was convinced of the truth by our saint, who,\nin a public conference, reduced the Arian bishops to silence in his\npresence, at Lyons. Gondebald died in 516. His son and successor,\nSigismund, was brought over by St. Avitus to the Catholic faith. In 517,\nour saint presided in the famous council of Epaone, (now called Yenne,)\nupon the Rhone, in which forty canons of discipline were framed. When\nking Sigismund had imbrued his hands in the blood of his son Sigeric,\nupon a false charge brought against him by a stepmother, St. Avitus\ninspired him with so great a horror of his crime, that he rebuilt the\nabbey of Agaunum, or St. Maurice, became a monk, and died a saint. Most\nof the works of St. Avitus are lost: we have yet his poem on the praises\nof virginity, to his sister Fuscina, a nun, and some others; several\nepistles; two homilies On the Rogation days; and a third on the same,\nlately published by Dom Martenne;[1] fragments of eight other homilies;\nhis conference against the Arians is given us in the Spicilege.[2] St.\nAvitus died in 525, and is commemorated in the Roman Martyrology on the\n5th of February; and in the collegiate church of our Lady at Vienne,\nwhere he was buried, on the 20th of August. Ennodius, and other writers\nof that age, extol his learning, his extensive charity to the poor, and\nhis other virtues. See St. Gregory of Tours, Hist. l. 2. His works, and\nhis life in Henschenius;[3] and Gallia Christ. Nova, t. 2, p. 242.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  Martenne Thesaur. Anecdot. t. 5, p. 49.\n2.  Spicil. t. 5.\n3.  F. Sirmond published the works of St. Avitus, with judicious short\n    notes, in 8vo., 1643. See them in Sirmond's works, t. 2, and Bibl.\n    Patr. His close manner of confuting the Arians in some of his\n    letters, makes us regret the loss of many other works, which he\n    wrote against them.\n\nST. ALICE, OR ADELAIDE, V. ABBESS.\n\nSHE was daughter of Megendose, count of Guelders, and governed the\nnunnery of Bellich on the Rhine, near Bonn, (now a church of\ncanonesses,) but died in 1015, abbess of our Lady's in Cologne, both\nmonasteries having been founded by her father. Her festival, with an\noctave, is kept at Bellich, or Vilich, where the nunnery which she\ninstituted, of the order of St. Bennet, is now converted into a church\nof canonesses. See her life in Surius and Bollandus; also Miraeus, in\nFastis Belgicis, &c.\n\n{367}\n\nST. ABRAAMIUS, BISHOP OF ARBELA, M.\n\nTHIS city, after the fall of Ninive, was long the capital of Adiabene,\nin Assyria, and was one bishopric with Hazza, anciently called Adiab.\nArbeta, now called Irbil, was famous for the victory of Alexander; but\nreceived far greater lustre from the martyrdom of St. Abraamius, its\nbishop, who sealed his faith with his blood, after having suffered\nhorrible torments, which were inflicted by order of an arch magian, in\nthe fifth year of king Sapor's persecution, that is, of Christ 348. See\nSozomen, l. 2, c. 12 and the Greek Menaea and Synaxary.\n\nFEBRUARY VI.\n\nST. DOROTHY, VIRGIN AND MARTYR.\n\nSee S. Aldhelm, Ado, Usuard, &c., in Bollandus, p. 771.\n\nST. ALDHELM relates from her acts,[1] that Fabritius, the governor of\nCaesarea, in Cappadocia, inflicted on her most cruel torments, because\nshe refused to marry, or to adore idols: that she converted two apostate\nwomen sent to seduce her: and that being condemned to be beheaded, she\nconverted one Theophilus, by sending him certain fruits and flowers\nmiraculously obtained of her heavenly spouse. She seems to have suffered\nunder Dioclesian. Her body is kept in the celebrated church which bears\nher name, beyond the Tiber, in Rome. She is mentioned on this day in the\nancient Martyrology under the name of St. Jerom. There was another holy\nvirgin, whom Rufin calls Dorothy, a rich and noble lady of the city of\nAlexandria, who suffered torments and a voluntary banishment, to\npreserve her faith and chastity against the brutish lust and tyranny of\nthe emperor Maximinus, in the year 308, as is recorded by Eusebius[2]\nand Rufinus:[3] but many take this latter, whose name is not mentioned\nby Eusebius, to be the famous St. Catharine of Alexandria.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe blood of the martyrs flourished in its hundred-fold increase, as St.\nJustin has well observed: \"We are slain with the sword, but we increase\nand multiply: the more we are persecuted and destroyed, the more are\nadded to our numbers. As a vine, by being pruned and cut close, shoots\nforth new suckers, and bears a greater abundance of fruit; so is it with\nus.\"[4] Among other false reflections, the baron of Montesquieu, an\nauthor too much admired by many, writes:[5] \"It is hardly possible that\nChristianity should ever be established in China. Vows of virginity, the\nassembling of women in the churches, their necessary intercourse with\nthe ministers of religion, their participation of the sacraments,\nauricular confession, the marrying but one wife; all this oversets the\nmanners and customs, and strikes at the religion and laws of the\ncountry.\" Could he forget that the gospel overcame {368} all these\nimpediments where it was first established, in spite of the most\ninveterate prejudices, and of all worldly opposition from the great and\nthe learned; whereas philosophy, though patronized by princes, could\nnever in any age introduce its rules even into one city. In vain did the\nphilosopher Plotinus solicit the emperor Gallienus to rebuild a ruined\ncity in Campania, that he and his disciples might establish in it the\nrepublic of Plato: a system, in some points, flattering the passions of\nmen, almost as Mahometism fell in with the prejudices and passions of\nthe nations where it prevailed. So visibly is the church the work of\nGod.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  L. de Laud. Virgin. c. 25.\n2.  L. 8, c. 14.\n3.  L. 1, c. 17.\n4.  Apol. 2, ol. 1.\n5.  L'Esprit des Loix, b. xix. 18.\n\nST. VEDAST, BISHOP OF ARRAS, C.\n\nFrom a very short life of his, written soon after his death, and another\nlonger, corrected by Alcuin, both published by Henschenius, with\nremarks, p. 782, t. 1. Febr. See Alcuin's Letter ad Monachos Vedastinos,\nin Martenne, Ampl. Collectio, t. l, p. 50. Gallia Christ. Nova, t. 3, p.\n3.\n\nA.D. 539.\n\nST. VEDAST left his own country very young, (which seems to have been in\nthe west of France,) and led a holy life concealed from the world in the\ndiocese of Toul, where the bishop, charmed with his virtue, promoted him\nto the priesthood. Clovis I., king of France, returning from his victory\nover the Alemanni, hastening to Rheims to receive baptism, desired at\nToul some priest who might instruct and prepare him for that holy\nsacrament on the road. Vedast was presented to his majesty for this\npurpose. While he accompanied the king at the passage of the river\nAisne, a blind man begging on the bridge besought the servant of God to\nrestore him to his sight: the saint, divinely inspired, prayed, and made\nthe sign of the cross on his eyes, and he immediately recovered it. The\nmiracle confirmed the king in the faith, and moved several of his\ncourtiers to embrace it. St. Vedast assisted St. Remigius in converting\nthe French, till that prelate consecrated him bishop of Arras, that he\nmight re-establish the faith in that country. As he was entering that\ncity in 499, he restored sight to a blind man, and cured one that was\nlame. These miracles excited the attention, and disposed the hearts of\nmany infidels to a favorable reception of the gospel, which had been\nreceived here when the Romans were masters of the country: but the\nravages of the Vandals and the Alans having either dispersed or\ndestroyed the Christians, Vedast could not discover the least footsteps\nof Christianity, save only in the memory of some old people, who showed\nhim without the walls a poor ruinous church, where Christians used to\nhold their religious assemblies. He sighed to see the Lord's field so\novergrown with bushes and brambles, and become the haunt of wild beasts;\nwhereupon he made it his most earnest supplication to God, that he would\nin his mercy vouchsafe to restore his worship in that country. A\nnational faith is so great a blessing, that we seldom find it granted a\nsecond time to those, who, by imitating the ingratitude of the Jews,\nhave drawn upon themselves the like terrible chastisement. St. Vedast\nfound the infidels stupid and obstinate; yet persevered, till by his\npatience, meekness, charity, and prayers, he triumphed over bigoted\nsuperstition and lust, and planted throughout that country the faith and\nholy maxims of Christ. The great diocese of Cambray, which was extended\nbeyond Brussels, was also committed to the care of this holy pastor, by\nSt. Remigius, in 510, and the two sees remained a long time united. St.\nVedast continued his labors almost forty years, and left his church\nflourishing in sanctity at his decease, on the 6th of February, in 539.\nHe was buried in the cathedral, which is dedicated to God, under the\npatronage {369} of the Blessed Virgin; but a hundred and twenty-eight\nyears after, St. Aubertus, the seventh bishop, changed a little chapel\nwhich St. Vedast had built in honor of St. Peter, without the walls,\ninto an abbey, and removed the relics of St. Vedast into this new\nchurch, leaving a small portion of them in the cathedral. The great\nabbey of St. Vedast was finished by St. Vindicianus, successor to St.\nAubertus, and most munificently endowed by king Theodoric or Thierry,\nwho lies buried in the church with his wife Doda. Our ancestors had a\nparticular devotion to St. Vedast, whom they called St. Foster, whence\ndescends the family name of Foster, as Camden takes notice in his\nRemains. Alcuin has left us a standing monument of his extraordinary\ndevotion to St. Vedast, not only by writing his life, but also by\ncompiling an office and mass in his honor, for the use of his monastery\nat Arras, and by a letter to the monks of that house, in 769, in which\nhe calls this saint his protector. See this letter in Martenne, Ampliss.\nCollect. t. 1, p. 50.\n\nSAINT AMANDUS, B.C.\n\nHE was born near Nantes, of pious parents, lords of that territory. At\ntwenty years of age, he retired into a small monastery in the little\nisle of Oye, near that of Rhe. He had not been there above a year, when\nhis father found him out, and made use of every persuasive argument in\nhis power to prevail with him to quit that state of life. To his threats\nof disinheriting him, the saint cheerfully answered: \" Christ is my only\ninheritance.\" The saint went to Tours, and a year after to Bourges,\nwhere he lived near fifteen years under the direction of St.\nAustregisilus, the bishop, in a cell near the cathedral. His clothing\nwas a single sackcloth, and his sustenance barley-bread and water. After\na pilgrimage to Rome, he was ordained in France a missionary bishop,\nwithout any fixed see, in 628, and commissioned to preach the faith to\ninfidels. He preached the gospel in Flanders, and among the Sclavi in\nCarinthia and other provinces near the Danube:[1] but being banished by\nking Dagobert, whom he had boldly reproved for his scandalous crimes, he\npreached to the pagans of Gascony and Navarre. Dagobert soon recalled\nhim, threw himself at his feet to beg his pardon, and caused him to\nbaptize his new-born sort, St. Sigebert, afterwards king. The idolatrous\npeople about Ghent were so savage, that no preacher durst venture\nhimself among them. This moved the saint to choose that mission; during\nthe course of which he was often beaten, and sometimes thrown into the\nriver: he continued preaching, though for a long time he saw no fruit,\nand supported himself by his labor. The miracle of his raising a dead\nman to life, at last opened the eyes of the barbarians, and the country\ncame in crowds to receive baptism, destroying the temples of their idols\nwith their own hands. In 633 the saint having built them several\nchurches, founded two great monasteries in Ghent, both under the\npatronage of St. Peter; one was named Blandinberg, from the hill Blandin\non which it stands, now the rich abbey of St. Peter's; the other took\nthe name of St. Bavo, from him who gave his estate for its foundation;\nthis became the cathedral in 1559, when the city was created a bishop's\nsee. Besides many pious foundations, both in France and Flanders, in\n639, he built the great abbey three leagues from Tourney, called Elnon,\nfrom the river on which it stands; but it has long since taken the name\nof St. Amand, with its town and warm mineral baths. In 649 he was chosen\nbishop of Maestricht; but three years after he resigned that see to St.\nRemaclus, and returned to his missions, to which his compassion for the\nblindness of infidels always inclined {370} his heart. He continued his\nlabors among them till the age of eighty-six, when, broken with\ninfirmities, he retired to Orion, which house he governed as abbot four\nyears more, spending that time in preparing his soul for his passage to\neternity, which happened in 675. His body is honorably kept in that\nabbey. The Sarum Breviary honored St. Amandus and St. Vedast with an\noffice of nine lessons. See Buzelin, Gallo-Flandria, and Henschenius, 6\nFeb. p. 815, who has published five different lives of this saint.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  See Henschenius. p. 828.\n\nST. BARSANUPHIUS, ANCHORET.\n\nHAVING renounced the world, he passed some years in the monastery of St.\nSeridon, near Gaza in Palestine, in the happy company of that holy\nabbot, John the prophet, the blessed Dorotheus, and St. Dositheus. That\nhe might live in the constant exercise of heavenly contemplation, the\nsweetness of which he had begun to relish, he left the monastery about\nthe year 540, and in a remote cell led a life rather angelical than\nhuman. He wrote a treatise against the Origenist monks, which Montfaucon\nhas published in his Bibl. Coislin. The Greeks held this saint in so\ngreat veneration, that his picture was placed in the sanctuary of the\nchurch of Sancta Sophia in Constantinople, with those of St. Antony and\nSt. Ephrem, as we are informed by the Studite monk who wrote the preface\nto the Instructions of St. Dorotheus, translated into French by abbot\nRance of la Trappe. The relics of St. Barsanuphius were brought in the\nninth century to Oria, near Siponto in Italy, where he is honored as\nprincipal patron, on the 7th of February. The Greek Synaxaries have his\noffice on the 6th of this month. Baronius placed his name in the Roman\nMartyrology on the 11th of April. See on him Evagrius, (who finished his\nhistory in 593,) l. 4, c. 33. Pagi ad an. 548, n. 10. Bulteau, Hist.\nMon. d'Orient. l. 4, c. 9, p. 695.\n\n\nFEBRUARY VII.\n\nST. ROMUALD, ABBOT, C.\n\nFOUNDER OF THE ORDER OF CAMALDOLI.\n\nFrom his life, written by St. Peter Damian, fifteen years after his\ndeath. See also Magnotii, Eremi Camaldol. descriptio, Romae, an. 1570.\nHistorarium Camaldulensium, libri 3. anth. Aug. Florentino, in 4to.\nFlorentiae, 1575. Earumdem pans posterior, in 4to. Venetiis, 1579.\nDissertationes Camaldulenses, in quibus agitui de institutione Ordinis,\naetate St. Romualdi, &c. auth. Guidone Grando, ej. Ord. Lucae, 1707. The\nLives of the Saints of this Order, in Italian, by Razzi, 1600, and in\nLatin, by F. Thomas de Minis, in two vols. in 4to. an. 1605, 1606.\nAnnales Camaldulenses Ordinis St. Benedicti, auctoribus Jo. Ben.\nMittarelli, abbate, et Ans. Costadoni, presbyteris et monachis e Cong.\nCamald. Venetiis, in four vols fol., of which the fourth is dedicated to\npope Clement XIII., in 1760.\n\nA.D. 1027.\n\nST. ROMUALD, of the family of the dukes of Ravenna, called Honesti, was\nborn in that capital about the year 956. Being brought up in the maxims\nof the world, in softness and the love of pleasure, he grew every day\nmore and more enslaved to his passions: yet he often made a resolution\nof undertaking something remarkable for the honor of God; and when he\nwent a hunting, if he found an agreeable solitary place in the woods, he\nwould stop in it to pray, and would cry out: \"How happy were the ancient\nhermits, who had {371} such habitations! With what tranquillity could\nthey serve God, free from the tumult of the world!\" His father, whose\nname was Sergius, a worldly man, agreed to decide a dispute he had with\na relation about an estate by a duel. Romuald was shocked at the\ncriminal design; but by threats of being disinherited if he refused, was\nengaged by his father to be present as a spectator: Sergius slew his\nadversary. Romuald, then twenty years of age, struck with horror at the\ncrime that had been perpetrated, though he had concurred to it no\nfurther than by his presence, thought himself, however, obliged to\nexpiate it by a severe course of penance for forty days in the\nneighboring Benedictine monastery of Classis, within four miles of\nRavenna. He performed great austerities, and prayed and wept almost\nwithout intermission. His compunction and fervor made all these\nexercises seem easy and sweet to him: and the young nobleman became\nevery day more and more penetrated with the fear and love of God. The\ngood example which he saw, and the discourses of a pious lay-brother,\nwho waited on him, concerning eternity and the contempt of the world,\nwrought so powerfully upon him, that he petitioned in full chapter to be\nadmitted as a penitent to the religious habit. After some demurs,\nthrough their apprehensions of his father's resentment, whose next heir\nthe saint was, his request was granted. He passed seven years in this\nhouse in so great fervor and austerity, that his example became odious\nto certain tepid monks, who could not bear such a continual reproach of\ntheir sloth. They were more exasperated when his fervor prompted him to\nreprove their conduct, insomuch, that some of the most abandoned formed\na design upon his life, the execution of which he prevented by leaving\nthat monastery, with the abbot's consent, and retiring into the\nneighborhood of Venice, where he put himself under the direction of\nMarinus, a holy hermit, who there led an austere ascetic life. Under\nthis master, Romuald made great progress in every virtue belonging to a\nreligious state of life.\n\nPeter Urseoli was then doge of Venice. He had been unjustly raised to\nthat dignity two years before by a faction which had assassinated his\npredecessor Peter Candiano; in which conspiracy he is said by some to\nhave been an accomplice: though this is denied by the best Venetian\nhistorians.[1] This murder, however, paved the way for his advancement\nto the sovereignty, which the stings of his conscience would not suffer\nhim quietly to enjoy. This put him upon consulting St. Guarinus, a holy\nabbot of Catalonia, then at Venice, about what he was to do to be saved.\nThe advice of St. Marinus and St. Romuald was also desired. These three\nunanimously agreed in proposing a monastic state, as affording the best\nopportunities for expiating his crimes. Urseoli acquiesced, and, under\npretence of joining with his family at their villa, where he had ordered\na great entertainment, set out privately with St. Guarinus, St. Romuald,\nand John Gradenigo, a Venetian nobleman of singular piety, and his\nson-in-law John Moresini, for St. Guarinus's monastery of St. Michael of\nCusan, in that part of Catalonia which was then subject to France. Here\nUrseoli and Gradenigo made their monastic profession: Marinus and\nRomuald, leaving them under the conduct of Guarinus, retired into a\ndesert near Cusan, and there led an eremitical life. Many flocked to\nthem, and Romuald being made superior, first practised himself what he\ntaught others, joining rigorous fasts, solitude, and continual prayer,\nwith hard manual labor. He had an extraordinary ardor {372} for prayer,\nwhich he exceedingly recommended to his disciples, in whom he could not\nbear to see the least sloth or tepidity with regard to the discharge of\nthis duty; saying, they had better recite one psalm with fervor; than a\nhundred with less devotion. His own fasts and mortifications were\nextremely rigorous, but he was more indulgent to others, and in\nparticular to Urseoli, who had exchanged his monastery for St. Romuald's\ndesert, where he lived under his conduct; who, persevering in his\npenitential state, made a most holy end, and is honored in Venice as a\nsaint, with an office, on the 14th of January: and in the Roman\nMartyrology, published by Benedict XIV., on the 10th of that month.\n\nRomuald, in the beginning of his conversion and retreat from the world,\nwas molested with various temptations. The devil sometimes directly\nsolicited him to vice; at other times he represented to him what he had\nforsaken, and that he had left it to ungrateful relations. He would\nsometimes suggest that what he did could not be agreeable to God; at\nother times, that his labors and difficulties were too heavy for man to\nbear. These and the like attempts of the devil he defeated by watching\nand prayer, in which he passed the whole night; and the devil strove in\nvain to divert him from this holy exercise by shaking his whole cell,\nand threatening to bury him in the ruins. Five years of grievous\ninterior conflicts and buffetings of the enemy, wrought in him a great\npurity of heart, and prepared him for most extraordinary heavenly\ncommunications. The conversion of count Oliver, or Oliban, lord of that\nterritory, added to his spiritual joy. That count, from a voluptuous\nworldling, and profligate liver, became a sincere penitent, and embraced\nthe order of St. Benedict. He carried great treasures with him to mount\nCassino, but left his estate to his son. The example of Romuald had also\nsuch an influence on Sergius, his father, that, to make atonement for\nhis past sins and enormities, he had entered the monastery of St.\nSeverus, near Ravenna; but after some time spent there, he yielded so\nfar to the devil's temptations, as to meditate a return into the world.\nThis was a sore affliction to our saint, and determined him to return to\nItaly, to dissuade his father from leaving his monastery. But the\ninhabitants of the country where he lived, had such an opinion of his\nsanctity, that they were resolved not to let him go. They therefore\nformed a brutish extravagant design to kill him, that they might keep at\nleast his body among them, imagining it would be their protection and\nsafeguard on perilous occasions. The saint being informed of their\ndesign, had recourse to David's stratagem, and feigned himself mad upon\nwhich the people, losing their high opinion of him, guarded him no\nlonger. Being thus at liberty to execute his design, he set out on his\njourney to Ravenna, through the south of France. He arrived there in\n994, and made use of all the authority his superiority in religion gave\nhim over his father; and by his exhortations, tears, and prayers,\nbrought him to such an extraordinary degree of compunction and sorrow,\nas to prevail with him to lay aside all thoughts of leaving his\nmonastery, where he spent the remainder of his days in great fervor, and\ndied with the reputation of sanctity.\n\nRomuald, having acquitted himself of his duty towards his father,\nretired into the marsh of Classis, and lived in a cell, remote from all\nmankind. The devil pursued him here with his former malice; he sometimes\noverwhelmed his imagination with melancholy, and once scourged him\ncruelly in his cell. Romuald at length cried out: \"Sweetest Jesus,\ndearest Jesus, why hast thou forsaken me? hast thou entirely delivered\nme over to my enemies?\" At that sweet name the wicked spirits betook\nthemselves to flight, and such an excess of divine sweetness and\ncompunction filled the breast of Romuald, that he melted into tears, and\nhis heart seemed quite dissolved. {373} He sometimes insulted his\nspiritual enemies, and cried out: \"Are all your forces spent? have you\nno more engines against a poor despicable servant of God?\" Not long\nafter, the monks of Classis chose Romuald for their abbot. The emperor,\nOtho III. who was then at Ravenna, made use of his authority to engage\nthe saint to accept the charge, and went in person to visit him in his\ncell, where he passed the night lying on the saint's poor bed. But\nnothing could make Romuald consent, till a synod of bishops then\nassembled at Ravenna, compelled him to it by threats of excommunication.\nThe saint's inflexible zeal for the punctual observance of monastic\ndiscipline, soon made these monks repent of their choice, which they\nmanifested by their irregular and mutinous behavior. The saint being of\na mild disposition, bore with it for some time, in hopes of bringing\nthem to a right sense of their duty. At length, finding all his\nendeavors to reform them ineffectual, he came to a resolution of leaving\nthem, and went to the emperor, then besieging Tivoli, to acquaint him of\nit; whom, when he could not prevail upon to accept of his resignation,\nthe saint, in the presence of the archbishop of Ravenna, threw down his\ncrosier at his feet. This interview proved very happy for Tivoli; for\nthe emperor, though he had condemned that city to plunder, the\ninhabitants having rebelled and killed duke Matholin, their governor,\nspared it at the intercession of St. Romuald. Otho having also, contrary\nto his solemn promise upon oath, put one Crescentius, a Roman senator,\nto death, who had been the leader in the rebellion of Tivoli, and made\nhis widow his concubine; he not only performed a severe public penance\nenjoined him by the saint, as his confessor, but promised, by St.\nRomuald's advice, to abdicate his crown and retire into a convent during\nlife; but this he did not live to perform. The saint's remonstrances had\na like salutary effect on Thamn, the emperor's favorite, prime minister\nand accomplice in the treachery before mentioned, who, with several\nother courtiers, received the religious habit at the hands of St.\nRomuald, and spent the remainder of his days in retirement and penance.\nIt was a very edifying sight to behold several young princes and\nnoblemen, who a little before had been remarkable for their splendid\nappearance and sumptuous living, now leading an obscure, solitary,\npenitential life in humility, penance, fasting, cold, and labor. They\nprayed, sung psalms, and worked. They all had their several employments:\nsome spun, others knit, others tilled the ground, gaining their poor\nlivelihood by the sweat of their brow. St. Boniface surpassed all the\nrest in fervor and mortification. He was the emperor's near relation,\nand so dear to him, that he never called him by any other name than, My\nsoul! he excelled in music, and in all the liberal arts and sciences,\nand after having spent many years under the discipline of St. Romuald,\nwas ordained bishop, and commissioned by the pope to preach to the\ninfidels of Russia, whose king he converted by his miracles, but was\nbeheaded by the king's brothers, who were themselves afterwards\nconverted on seeing the miracles wrought on occasion of the martyr's\ndeath. Several other monks of St. Romuald's monastery met with the same\ncruel treatment in Sclavonia, whither they were sent by the pope to\npreach the gospel.\n\nSt. Romuald built many other monasteries, and continued three years at\none he founded near Parenzo, one year in the community to settle it, and\ntwo in a neighboring cell. Here he labored some time under a spiritual\ndryness, not being able to shed one tear; but he ceased not to continue\nhis devotions with greater fervor. At last being in his cell, at those\nwords of the psalmist; _I will give thee understanding, and will\ninstruct thee_, he was suddenly visited by God with an extraordinary\nlight and spirit of compunction, which from that time never left him. By\na supernatural light, the fruit of prayer, he understood the holy\nscriptures, and wrote an exposition of the {374} psalms full of\nadmirable unction. He often foretold things to come, and gave directions\nfull of heavenly wisdom to all who came to consult him, especially to\nhis religious, who frequently came to ask his advice how to advance in\nvirtue, and how to resist temptations; he always sent them back to their\ncells full of an extraordinary cheerfulness. Through his continual\nweeping he thought others had a like gift, and often said to his monks:\n\"Do not weep too much; for it prejudices the sight and the head.\" It was\nhis desire, whenever he could conveniently avoid it, not to say mass\nbefore a number of people, because he could not refrain from tears in\noffering that august sacrifice. The contemplation of the Divinity often\ntransported him out of himself; melting in tears, and burning with love,\nhe would cry out: \"Dear Jesus! my dear Jesus! my unspeakable desire! my\njoy! joy of the angels! sweetness of the saints!\" and the like, which he\nwas heard to speak with a jubilation which cannot be expressed. To\npropagate the honor of God, he resolved, by the advice of the bishop of\nPola and others, to exchange his remote desert, for one where he could\nbetter advance his holy institute. The bishop of Paienzo forbade any\nboat to carry him off, desiring earnestly to detain him; but the bishop\nof Pola sent one to fetch him. He miraculously calmed a storm at sea,\nand landed safe at Capreola. Coming to Bifurcum, he found the monks'\ncells too magnificent, and would lodge in none but that of one Peter, a\nman of extraordinary austerity, who never would live in a cell larger\nthan four cubits. This Peter admired the saint's spirit of compunction,\nand said, that when he recited the psalms alternately with him, the holy\nman used to go out thirty times in a night as if for some necessity, but\nhe saw it was to abandon himself a few moments to spiritual consolation,\nwith which he overflowed at prayer, or to sighs and tears which he was\nnot able to contain. Romuald sent to the counts of the province of\nMarino, to beg a little ground whereon to build a monastery. They\nhearing Romuald's name, offered him with joy whatever mountains, woods,\nor fields he would choose among them. He found the valley of Castro most\nproper. Exceeding great was the fruit of the blessed man's endeavors,\nand many put themselves with great fervor under his direction. Sinners,\nwho did not forsake the world entirely, were by him in great multitudes\nmoved to penance, and to distribute great part of their possessions\nliberally among the poor. The holy man seemed in the midst of them as a\nseraph incarnate, burning with heavenly ardors of divine love, and\ninflaming those who heard him speak. If he travelled, he rode or walked\nat a distance behind his brethren, reciting psalms, and watering his\ncheeks almost without ceasing with tears that flowed in great abundance.\n\nThe saint had always burned with an ardent desire of martyrdom, which\nwas much increased by the glorious crowns of some of his disciples,\nespecially of St. Boniface. At last, not able to contain the ardor of\nhis charity and desire to give his life for his Redeemer, he obtained\nthe pope's license, and set out to preach the gospel in Hungary, in\nwhich mission some of his disciples accompanied him. He had procured two\nof them to be consecrated archbishops by the pope, declining himself the\nepiscopal dignity; but a violent illness which seized him on his\nentering Hungary, and returned as often as he attempted to proceed on\nhis intended design, was a plain indication of the will of God in this\nmatter; so he returned home with seven of his associates. The rest, with\nthe two archbishops, went forward, and preached the faith under the holy\nking, St. Stephen, suffering much for Christ, but none obtained the\ncrown of martyrdom. Romuald in his return built some monasteries in\nGermany, and labored to reform others; but this drew on him many\npersecutions. Yet all, even the great ones of the world, trembled in his\npresence. He refused to accept either water or wood, without {375}\npaying for it, from Raynerius; marquis of Tuscia, because that prince\nhad married the wife of a relation whom he had killed. Raynerius, though\na sovereign, used to say, that neither the emperor nor any mortal on\nearth could strike him with so much awe as Romuald's presence did. So\npowerful was the impression which the Holy Ghost, dwelling in his\nbreast, made on the most haughty sinners. Hearing that a certain\nVenetian had by simony obtained the abbey of Classis, he hastened\nthither. The unworthy abbot strove to kill him, to preserve his unjust\ndignity. He often met with the like plots and assaults from several of\nhis own disciples, which procured him the repeated merit, though not the\ncrown, of martyrdom. The pope having called him to Rome, he wrought\nthere several miracles, built some monasteries in its neighborhood, and\nconverted innumerable souls to God. Returning from Rome, he made a long\nstay at Mount Sitria. A young nobleman addicted to impurity, being\nexasperated at this saint's severe remonstrances, had the impudence to\naccuse him of a scandalous crime. The monks, by a surprising levity,\nbelieved the calumny, enjoined him a most severe penance, forbid him to\nsay mass, and excommunicated him. He bore all with patience and in\nsilence, as if really he had been guilty, and refrained from going to\nthe altar for six months. In the seventh month he was admonished by God\nto obey no longer so unjust and irregular a sentence pronounced without\nany authority and without grounds. He accordingly said mass again, and\nwith such raptures of devotion, as obliged him to continue long absorbed\nin ecstasy. He passed seven years in Sitria, in his cell, in strict\nsilence, but his example did the office of his tongue and moved many to\npenance. In bis old age, instead of relaxing, he increased his\nausterities and fasts. He had three hair-shirts which he now and then\nchanged. He never would admit of the least thing to give a savor to the\nherbs or meal-gruel on which he supported himself. If any thing was\nbrought him better dressed, he, for the greater self-denial, applied it\nto his nostrils, and said: \"O gluttony, gluttony, thou shalt never taste\nthis; perpetual war is declared against thee.\" His disciples also were\nremarkable for their austere lives, went always barefoot, and looked\nexcessive pale with continual fasting. No other drink was known among\nthem but water, except in sickness. St. Romuald wrought in this place\nmany miraculous cures of the sick. At last, having settled his disciples\nhere in a monastery which he had built for them, he departed for\nBifurcum.\n\nThe holy emperor St. Henry II., who had succeeded Otho III., coming into\nItaly, and being desirous to see the saint, sent an honorable embassy to\nhim to induce him to come to court. At the earnest request of his\ndisciples he complied, but not without great reluctance on his side. The\nemperor received him with the greatest marks of honor and esteem, and\nrising out of his chair, said to him: \"I wish my soul was like yours.\"\nThe saint observed a strict silence the whole time the interview lasted,\nto the great astonishment of the court. The emperor being convinced that\nthis did not proceed from pride or disdain, but from humility and a\ndesire of being despised, was so far from being offended at it, that it\noccasioned his conceiving a higher esteem and veneration for him. The\nnext day he received from him wholesome advice in his closet. The German\nnoblemen showed him the greatest respect as he passed through the court,\nand plucked the very hairs out of his garments for relics, at which he\nwas so much grieved, that he would have immediately gone back if he had\nnot been stopped. The emperor gave him a monastery on Mount Amiatus.\n\nThe most famous of all his monasteries is that of Camaldoli, near\nArezzo, in Tuscany, on the frontiers of the ecclesiastical state, thirty\nmiles east from Florence, founded by him about the year 1009. It lies\nbeyond a mountain, {376} very difficult to pass over, the descent from\nwhich, on the opposite side, is almost a direct precipice looking down\nupon a pleasant large valley, which then belonged to a lord called\nMaldoli, who gave it the saint, and from him it retained the name\nCamaldoli.[2] In this place St. Romuald built a monastery, and by the\nseveral observances he added to St. Benedict's rule, gave birth to that\nnew order called Camaldoli, in which he united the cenobitic and\neremitical life. After seeing in a vision his monks mounting up a ladder\nto heaven all in white, he changed their habit from black to white. The\nhermitage is two short miles distant from the monastery. It is a\nmountain quite overshaded by a dark wood of fir-trees. In it are seven\nclear springs of water. The very sight of this solitude in the midst of\nthe forest helps to fill the mind with compunction, and a love of\nheavenly contemplation. On entering it, we meet with a chapel of St.\nAntony for travellers to pray in before they advance any further. Next\nare the cells and lodgings for the porters. Somewhat further is the\nchurch, which is large, well built, and richly adorned. Over the door is\na clock, which strikes so loud that it may be heard all over the desert.\nOn the left side of the church is the cell in which St. Romuald lived,\nwhen he first established these hermits. Their cells, built of stone,\nhave each a little garden walled round. A constant fire is allowed to be\nkept in every cell, on account of the coldness of the air throughout the\nyear: each cell has also a chapel in which they may say mass: they call\ntheir superior, major. The whole hermitage is now enclosed with a wall:\nnone are allowed to go out of it; but they may walk in the woods and\nalleys within the enclosure at discretion. Every thing is sent them from\nthe monastery in the valley: their food is every day brought to each\ncell; and all are supplied with wood and necessaries, that they may have\nno dissipation or hinderance in their contemplation. Many hours of the\nday are allotted to particular exercises; and no rain or snow stops any\none from meeting in the church to assist at the divine office. They are\nobliged to strict silence in all public common places; and everywhere\nduring their Lents, also on Sundays, Holydays, Fridays, and other days\nof abstinence, and always from Complin till prime the next day.\n\nFor a severer solitude, St. Romuald added a third kind of life; that of\na recluse. After a holy life in the hermitage, the superior grants leave\nto any that ask it, and seem called by God, to live forever shut up in\ntheir cells, never speaking to any one but to the superior when he\nvisits them, and to the brother who brings them necessaries. Their\nprayers and austerities are doubled, and their fasts more severe and\nmore frequent. St. Romuald condemned himself to this kind of life for\nseveral years; and fervent imitators have never since failed in this\nsolitude.\n\nSt. Romuald died in his monastery in the valley of Castro, in the\nmarquisate of Ancona. As he was born about the year 956, he must have\ndied seventy years and some months old, not a hundred and twenty, as the\npresent copies of his life have it. The day of his death was the 19th of\nJune; but his principal feast is appointed by Clement VIII. on the 7th\nof February, the day of his translation. His body was found entire and\nuncorrupt five years after his death, and again in 1466. But his tomb\nbeing sacrilegiously opened, and his body stolen in 1480, it fell to\ndust, in which state it was translated to Fabriano, and there deposited\nin the great church, all but the remains of one arm, sent to Camaldoli.\nGod has honored his relics with many miracles. The order of Camaldoli is\nnow divided into five congregations, under so many generals or majors.\nThe life of the hermits is very severe, though something mitigated since\nthe time of St. Romuald. The {377} Cenobites are more like Benedictines,\nand perhaps were not directly established by St. Romuald, says F.\nHelyot.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nIf we are not called to practise the extraordinary austerities of many\nsaints, we cannot but confess that we lie under an indispensable\nnecessity of leading mortified lives, both in order to fulfil our\nobligation of doing penance, and to subdue our passions and keep our\nsenses and interior faculties under due command. The appetites of the\nbody are only to be reduced by universal temperance, and assiduous\nmortification and watchfulness over all the senses. The interior powers\nof the soul must be restrained, as the imagination, memory, and\nunderstanding: their proneness to distraction, and the itching curiosity\nof the mind, must be curbed, and their repugnance to attend to spiritual\nthings corrected by habits of recollection, holy meditation, and prayer.\nAbove all, the will must be rendered supple and pliant by frequent\nself-denial, which must reach and keep in subjection all its most\ntrifling sallies and inclinations. If any of these, how insignificant\nsoever they may seem, are not restrained and vanquished, they will prove\nsufficient often to disturb the quiet of the mind, and betray one into\nconsiderable inconveniences, faults, and follies. Great weaknesses are\nsometimes fed by temptations which seem almost of too little moment to\ndeserve notice. And though these infirmities should not arise to any\ngreat height, they always fetter the soul, and are an absolute\nimpediment to her progress towards perfection.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  Sanuti tells us, that St. Peter Urseoli, from his cradle, devoted\n    himself with his whole heart to the divine service, and proposed to\n    himself in all his actions the holy will and the greater glory of\n    God. He built in the church of St. Mark a chapel, in which the body\n    of that evangelist was secretly laid, the place being known by very\n    few. Being chosen doge, he refused that dignity for a long time with\n    great obstinacy, but at length suffered himself to be overcome by\n    the importunity of the people. He had held it only two years and\n    eight months, when he retired. Sanuti. Vite de Duchi di Venezia, c.\n    976. Maramri, Rerum Italicar. Scriptores, t. 22, p. 564.\n2.  Contracted from Campo Maldoli.\n\nST. RICHARD, KING AND C.\n\nTHIS saint was an English prince, in the kingdom of the West-Saxons, and\nwas perhaps deprived of his inheritance by some revolution in the state\nor he renounced it to be more at liberty to dedicate himself to the\npursuit of Christian perfection. His three children, Winebald,\nWillibald, and Warburga, are all honored as saints. Taking with him his\ntwo sons, he undertook a pilgrimage of penance and devotion, and sailing\nfrom Hamble-haven, landed in Neustria on the western coasts of France.\nHe made a considerable stay at Rouen, and made his devotions in the most\nholy places that lay in his way through France. Being arrived at Lucca\nin Italy, in his road to Rome, he there died suddenly, about the year\n722, and was buried in St. Fridian's church there. His relics are\nvenerated to this day in the same place, and his festival kept at Lucca\nwith singular devotion. St. Richard, when living, obtained by his\nprayers the recovery of his younger son Willibald, whom he laid at the\nfoot of a great crucifix erected in a public place in England, when the\nchild's life was despaired of in a grievous sickness and since his\ndeath, many have experienced the miraculous power of his intercession\nwith God, especially where his relics invite the devotion of the\nfaithful. His festival is kept at Lucca, and his name honored in the\nRoman Martyrology on the 7th of February. See the Life of St. Willibald\nby his cousin, a nun of Heidenhelm, to Canisius's Lectiones Antiquae,\nwith the notes of Basnage. Henschenius, Feb. t. 2, p. 70.\n\nST. THEODORUS OF HERACLEA, M.\n\nAMONG those holy martyrs whom the Greeks honor with the title of\nMegalomartyrs, (_i.e._ great martyrs,) as St. George, St. Pantaleon,\n&c., four are {378} distinguished by them above the rest as principal\npatrons, namely, St. Theodorus of Heraclea, surnamed Stratilates,\n(_i.e._ general of the army,) St. Theodorus of Amasea, surnamed Tyro,\nSt. Procopius, and St. Demetrius. The first was general of the forces of\nLicinius, and governor of the country of the Mariandyni, who occupied\npart of Bithynia, Pontus, and Paphlagonia, whose capital at that time\nwas Heraclea of Pontus, though originally a city of Greeks, being\nfounded by a colony from Megara. This was the place of our saint's\nresidence, and here he glorified God by martyrdom, being beheaded for\nhis faith by an order of the emperor Licinius, the 7th of February, on a\nSaturday, in 319, as the Greek Menaea and Menologies all agree: for the\nGreek Acts of his martyrdom, under the name of Augarus, are of no\nauthority. It appears from a Novella of the emperor Manuel Comnenus, and\nfrom Balsamon's Scholia on the Nomocanon of Photius,[1] that the Greeks\nkept as semi-festivals, that is, as holydays till noon, both the 7th of\nFebruary, which was the day of his martyrdom, and that of the\ntranslation of his relics, the 8th of June, when they were conveyed soon\nafter his death, according to his own appointment, to Euchaia, or\nEuchaitae, where was the burial-place of his ancestors, a day's journey\nfrom Amasea, the capital of all Pontus. This town became so famous for\nhis shrine, that the name of Theodoropolis was given it; and out of\ndevotion to this saint, pilgrims resorted thither from all parts of the\neast, as appears from the Spiritual Meadow,[2] Zonaras,[3] and\nCedrenus.[4] The two latter historians relate, that the emperor John I.,\nsurnamed Zemisces, about the year 970, ascribed a great victory which he\ngained over the Saracens, to the patronage of this martyr: and in\nthanksgiving rebuilt in a stately manner the church where his relics\nwere deposited at Euchaitae.[5] The republic of Venice has a singular\nveneration for the memory of St. Theodorus of Heraclea, who, as Bernard\nJustiniani proves,[6] was titular patron of the church of St. Mark in\nthat city, before the body of that evangelist was translated into it\nfrom another part of the city. A famous statue of this St. Theodorus is\nplaced upon one of the two fine pillars which stand in the square of St.\nMark. The relics of this glorious martyr are honored in the magnificent\nchurch of St. Saviour at Venice, whither they were brought by Mark\nDandolo in 1260, from Constantinople; James Dandolo having sent them to\nthat capital from Mesembria, an archiepiscopal maritime town in Romania,\nor the coast of Thrace, when in 1256 he scoured the Euxine sea with a\nfleet of galleys of the republic, as the Venetian historians inform\nus.[7] See archbishop Falconius, Not. in Tabulis Cappon. and Jos.\nAssemani in Calend. Univ. on the 8th and 17th of February, and the 8th\nof June;[8] also Lubin. Not. in Martyr. Rom. p. 283, and the Greek\nSynaxary.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  Tit. 7, c. 1, Thomassin, l. 1, c. 7, n. 3.\n2.  Prat. Spir. c. 180.\n3.  Zonar. 3, parte Annal.\n4.  Ced. in Joanne Zemisce Imp.\n5.  See Baronius in his notes on the Martyrology, (ad 9 Nov.,) who\n    justly censures those who confound this saint with St. Theodoras\n    Tyro, as Fabricius has since done. (t. 9, Bibl. Graecae, p. 147.) Yet\n    himself falsely places Tyro's shrine at Euchaitae, and ascribes to\n    him these pilgrimages and miracles which certainly belong to St.\n    Theodorus Stratilates, or of Heraclea.\n6.  De Rebus Venetis, l. 6.\n7.  Sansovin, l. 13, Hist. &c.\n8.  The modern Greeks have transferred his feast from the 7th to the\n    8th of February.\n\nST. TRESAIN, IN LATIN, TRESANUS, PRIEST, C.\n\nHe was a holy Irish priest, who, having left his own country, preached\nwith great zeal in France, and died curate of Mareuil upon the Marne, in\nthe sixth century. His relics are held in great veneration at Avenay in\nChampagne. See his life in Colgan and Bollandus.\n\n{379}\n\nST. AUGULUS, B M.\n\nHIS name occurs with the title of bishop in all the manuscript copies of\nthe ancient Western Martyrology, which bears the name of St. Jerom. That\nof the abbey of Esternach, which is very old, and several others, style\nhim martyr. He probably received that crown soon after St. Alban. All\nmartyrologies place him in Britain, and at Augusta, which name was given\nto London, as Amm. Marcellinus mentions; never to York, for which\nHenschenius would have it to be taken in this place, because it was at\nthat time the capital of Britain. In the ancient copy of Bede's\nmartyrology, which was used at St. Agnan's at Orleans, he is called St.\nAugustus; in some others St. Augurius. The French call him St. Aule.\nChatelain thinks him to be the same saint who is famous in some parts of\nNormandy under the name of St. Ouil.\n\n\nFEBRUARY VIII.\n\nST. JOHN OF MATHA,\n\nFOUNDER OF THE ORDER OF THE TRINITARIANS\n\nFrom several bulls of Innocent III. and the many authors of his life,\nespecially that compiled by Robert Gagnin, the learned general of this\nOrder, in 1490, collected by Baillet, and the Hist. des Ordres Relig. by\nF. Helyot. See also Annales Ordinis SS. Trinitatis, auctore Bon. Baro,\nOrd. Minor. Romae. 1684, and Regula et Statuta Ord. SS. Trinitatis, in\n12mo. 1570.\n\nA.D. 1213.\n\nST. JOHN was born of very pious and noble parents, at Faucon, on the\nborders of Provence, June the 24th, 1169, and was baptized John, in\nhonor of St. John the Baptist. His mother dedicated him to God by a vow\nfrom his infancy. His father, Euphemius, sent him to Aix, where he\nlearned grammar, fencing, riding, and other exercises fit for a young\nnobleman. But his chief attention was to advance in virtue. He gave the\npoor a considerable part of the money his parents sent him for his own\nuse: he visited the hospital every Friday, assisting the poor sick,\ndressing and cleansing their sores, and affording them all the comfort\nin his power.\n\nBeing returned home, he begged his father's leave to continue the pious\nexercises he had begun, and retired to a little hermitage not far from\nFaucon, with the view of living at a distance from the world, and united\nto God alone by mortification and prayer. But finding his solitude\ninterrupted by the frequent visits of his friends, he desired his\nfather's consent to go to Paris to study divinity, which he easily\nobtained. He went through these more sublime studies with extraordinary\nsuccess, and proceeded doctor of divinity with uncommon applause, though\nhis modesty gave him a reluctancy in that honor. He was soon after\nordained priest, and said his first mass in the bishop of Paris's\nchapel, at which the bishop himself, Maurice de Sully, the abbots of St.\nVictor and of St. Genevieve. and the rector of the {380} university,\nassisted; admiring the graces of heaven in him, which appeared in his\nextraordinary devotion on this occasion, as well as at his ordination.\n\nOn the day he said his first mass, by a particular inspiration from God,\nhe came to a resolution of devoting himself to the occupation of\nransoming Christian slaves from the captivity they groaned under among\nthe infidels: considering it as one of the highest acts of charity with\nrespect both to their souls and bodies. But before he entered upon so\nimportant a work, he thought it needful to spend some time in\nretirement, prayer, and mortification. And having heard of a holy\nhermit, St. Felix Valois, living in a great wood near Gandelu, in the\ndiocese of Meux, he repaired to him and begged he would admit him into\nhis solitude, and instruct him in the practice of perfection. Felix soon\ndiscovered him to be no novice, and would not treat him as a disciple,\nbut as a companion. It is incredible what progress these two holy\nsolitaries made in the paths of virtue, by perpetual prayer,\ncontemplation, fasting, and watching.\n\nOne day, sitting together on the bank of a spring, John disclosed to\nFelix the design he had conceived on the day on which he said his first\nmass, to succor the Christians under the Mahometan slavery, and spoke so\nmovingly upon the subject that Felix was convinced that the design was\nfrom God, and offered him his joint concurrence to carry it into\nexecution. They took some time to recommend it to God by prayer and\nfasting, and then set out for Rome in the midst of a severe winter,\ntowards the end of the year 1197, to obtain the pope's benediction. They\nfound Innocent III. promoted to the chair of St. Peter, who being\nalready informed of their sanctity and charitable design by letters of\nrecommendation from the bishop of Paris, his holiness received them as\ntwo angels from heaven; lodged them in his own palace, and gave them\nmany long private audiences. After which he assembled the cardinals and\nsome bishops in the palace of St. John Lateran, and asked their advice.\nAfter their deliberations he ordered a fast and particular prayers to\nknow the will of heaven. At length, being convinced that these two holy\nmen were led by the spirit of God, and that great advantages would\naccrue to the church from such an institute, he consented to their\nerecting a new religious order, and declared St. John the first general\nminister. The bishop of Paris, and the abbot of St. Victor, were ordered\nto draw up their rules, which the pope approved by a bull, in 1198. He\nordered the religious to wear a white habit, with a red and blue cross\non the breast, and to take the name of the order of the Holy Trinity. He\nconfirmed it some time after, adding new privileges by a second bull,\ndated in 1209.\n\nThe two founders having obtained the pope's blessing and certain indults\nor privileges, returned to France, and presented themselves to the king,\nPhilip Augustus, who authorized the establishment of their Order in his\nkingdom, and favored it with his liberalities. Gaucher III., lord of\nChatillon, gave them land whereon to build a convent. Their number\nincreasing, the same lord, seconded by the king, gave them Cerfroid, the\nplace in which St. John and St. Felix concerted the first plan of their\ninstitute. It is situated in Brie, on the confines of Valois. This house\nof Cerfroid, or De Cervo frigido, is the chief of the order. The two\nsaints founded many other convents in France, and sent several of their\nreligious to accompany the counts of Flanders and Blois, and other\nlords, to the holy war. Pope Innocent III. wrote to recommend these\nreligious to Miramolin, king of Morocco; and St. John sent thither two\nof his religions in 1201, who redeemed one hundred and eighty-six\nChristian slaves the first voyage. The year following, St. John went\nhimself to Tunis, where he purchased the liberty of one hundred and ten\nmore. He returned into Provence, and there received great charities,\nwhich he carried into Spain, and redeemed many in captivity {381} under\nthe Moors. On his return he collected large alms among the Christians\ntowards this charitable undertaking. His example produced a second order\nof Mercy, instituted by St. Peter Nolasco, in 1235.\n\nSt. John made a second voyage to Tunis in 1210, in which he suffered\nmuch from the infidels, enraged at his zeal and success in exhorting the\npoor slaves to patience and constancy in their faith. As he was\nreturning with one hundred and twenty slaves he had ransomed, the\nbarbarians took away the helm from his vessel, and tore all its sails,\nthat they might perish in the sea. The saint, full of confidence in God,\nbegged him to be their pilot, and hung up his companions' cloaks for\nsails, and, with a crucifix in his hands, kneeling on the deck, singing\npsalms, after a prosperous voyage, they all landed safe at Ostia, in\nItaly. Felix, by this time, had greatly propagated his order in France,\nand obtained for it a convent in Paris, in a place where stood before a\nchapel of St. Mathurin, whence these religious in France are called\nMathurins.\n\nSt. John lived two years more in Rome, which he employed in exhorting\nall to penance with great energy and fruit. He died on the 21st of\nDecember, in 1213, aged sixty-one. He was buried in his church of St.\nThomas, where his monument yet remains, though his body has been\ntranslated into Spain. Pope Honorius III. confirmed the rule of this\norder a second time. By the first rule, they were not permitted to buy\nany thing for their sustenance except bread, pulse, herbs, oil, eggs,\nmilk, cheese, and fruit; never flesh nor fish: however, they might eat\nflesh on the principal festivals, on condition it was given them. They\nwere not, in travelling, to ride on any beasts but asses.[1]\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nSt. Chrysostom[2] elegantly and pathetically extols the charity of the\nwidow of Sarepta, whom neither poverty nor children, nor hunger, nor\nfear of death, withheld from affording relief to the prophet Elias, and\nhe exhorts every one to meditate on her words, and keep her example\npresent to his mind. \"How hard or insensible soever we are,\" says he,\n\"they will make a deep impression upon us, and we shall not be able to\nrefuse relief to the poor, when we have before our eyes the generous\ncharity of this widow. It is true, you will tell me, that if you meet\nwith a prophet in want, you could not refuse doing him all the good\noffices in your power. But what ought you not to do for Jesus Christ,\nwho is the master of the prophets? He takes whatsoever you do to the\npoor as done to himself.\" When we consider the zeal and joy with which\nthe saints sacrificed themselves for their neighbors, how must we blush\nat, and condemn our insensibility at the spiritual and the corporal\ncalamities of others! The saints regarded affronts, labors, and pains,\nas nothing for the service of others in Christ: we cannot bear the least\nword or roughness of temper.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  A mitigation of this rule was approved by pope Clement IV. in 1267,\n    which allows them to use horses, and to buy fish, flesh, and all\n    other necessaries: on which mitigations see Historia prolixior\n    Priorum Grandimont, published by Martenne, Ampliff. Collectio, t. 6,\n    p. 138. This order is possessed of about two hundred and fifty\n    monasteries, divided into thirteen provinces, in France, Spain,\n    Italy, and Portugal. That formerly in England had forty-three\n    houses; that in Scotland nine, and that in Ireland fifty-two. The\n    general of the order is chosen by a general chapter, which is always\n    held at Cerfroid. Each house is governed by a superior who is called\n    minister. Those in the provinces of Champagne, Normandy, and Picardy\n    (which last includes Flanders) are perpetual but to Italy and Spain,\n    triennial. Their rule is that of the canons regular of St. Austin.\n    Their principal exercises are to sing the divine office at the\n    canonical hours, praising and glorifying the adorable Trinity, as\n    angel of the earth; and to gather and carry alms in Barbary for the\n    redemption of slaves, to which work one third of the revenues of\n    each house is applied. A reformation was made in this order in the\n    years 1573 and 1576, which, by degrees, has been introduced into the\n    greater part of the convents, and into that of Cerfroid itself.\n    These never eat meat except on Sundays, sing matins at midnight, and\n    wear no linen. The reformation of the barefooted Trinitarians, still\n    much more severe, was set on foot in Spain, in 1594, by John Baptist\n    of the Conception, who suffered many persecutions in the\n    undertaking, and died in 1613, in great reputation for sanctity and\n    miracles, the examination of which has been commenced in order to\n    his beatification.\n2.  Hom. de Eila et Vidua Sarept. pp. 33, 338, ed. Montf.\n\n{382}\n\nST. STEPHEN OF GRANDMONT, ABBOT.\n\nHis life was written by Stephen de Liciaco, fourth prior of Grandmont,\nin 1141: but this work seems now lost. Gerard Ithier, seventh prior, and\nhis abridger, fell into several anachronisms and mistakes, which are to\nbe corrected by the remarks of Dom Martenne, who has given us a new and\naccurate edition of this life, and other pieces relating to it, Ver.\nScriptorum Ampliff. Collectio, t. 6, p. 1043. See also Dom Rivet, Hist.\nLitter. de la France, t. 10, p. 410. Gallia Christ. Nova, t. 2, p. 646.\n\nA.D. 1124.\n\nST. STEPHEN was son of the virtuous viscount of Thiers, the first\nnobleman of Auvergne. From his infancy he gave presages of an uncommon\nsanctity. Milo, a pious priest, at that time dean of the church of\nParis, was appointed his tutor, and being made bishop of Beneventum in\n1074, kept the saint with him, continued to instruct him in sacred\nlearning, and in the maxims of Christian perfection, and ordained him\ndeacon. After his death in 1076, Stephen pursued his studies in Rome\nduring four years. All this time he seemed to himself continually\nsolicited by an interior voice to seek a sanctuary for his soul in holy\nsolitude, considering the dangers of the pastoral charge, the\nobligations of leading a penitential life, and the happiness of the\nexercises of holy retirement. He desired to imitate the rigorous\ninstitute of a certain monastery which he had seen in Calabria, and\nobtained leave of pope Gregory VII. to embrace an eremitical life. He\ntherefore returned to the castle of Thiers, the seat of his late\nparents, to settle his affairs. He had always been their favorite child,\nand regarded by them as the blessing bestowed on their prayers and\nfasts, by which they had begged him of God. Being both exceeding pious,\nthey had rejoiced to see him so virtuously inclined; but they being now\ndead, his other friends vehemently opposed his design of renouncing the\nworld. Stephen left them privately, and travelling through many deserts,\narrived at Muret, a desolate, barren mountain, in the neighborhood of\nLimoges, haunted by wild beasts, and of an exceeding cold situation.\nHere he took up his abode, and, by a vow, consecrated himself to the\ndivine service, in these words: \"I, Stephen, renounce the devil and his\npomps, and do offer and dedicate myself to the Father, Son, and Holy\nGhost, one God in three Persons.\" This engagement he wrote and kept\nalways by him with a ring as the symbol. He built himself a hut with the\nboughs of trees, and in this place passed forty-six years in prayer, and\nthe practice of such austerities as almost surpassed the strength of a\nhuman body.[1] He lived at first on wild herbs and roots. In the second\nsummer he was discovered by certain shepherds, who brought him a little\ncoarse bread; which some country people from that time continued to do\nas long as he lived. He always wore next his skin a hair-cloth with iron\nplates and hoops studded with sharp spikes, over which his only garment,\nmade of the coarsest stuff, was the same both in summer and winter. When\novercome by sleep, he took a short rest on rough boards, laid in the\nform of a coffin. When he was not employed in manual labor, he lay\nprostrate on the ground in profound adoration of the majesty of God. The\nsweetness which he felt in divine contemplation made him often forget to\ntake any refreshment for two or three days together. When sixty years of\n{383} age, finding his stomach exceeding weak, he suffered a few drops\nof wine to be mixed with the water which he drank.\n\nMany were desirous to live with him and become his disciples. Though\nmost rigorous to himself, he was mild to those under his direction, and\nproportioned their mortifications to their strength. But he allowed no\nindulgence with regard to the essential points of a solitary life,\nsilence, poverty, and the denial of self-will. He often exhorted his\ndisciples to a total disengagement of their hearts from all earthly\nthings, and to a love of holy poverty for that purpose. He used to say\nto those who desired to be admitted into his community: \"This is a\nprison without either door or hole whereby to return into the world,\nunless a person makes for himself a breach. And should this misfortune\nbefall you, I could not send after you, none here having any commerce\nwith the world any more than myself.\" He behaved himself among his\ndisciples as the last of them, always taking the lowest place, never\nsuffering any one to rise up to him; and while they were at table, he\nwould seat himself on the ground in the midst of them, and read to them\nthe lives of the saints. God bestowed on him a divine light, by which he\noften told others their secret thoughts. The author of his life gives a\nlong history of miracles which he wrought. But the conversions of many\nobstinate sinners were still more miraculous: it seemed as if no heart\ncould resist the grace which accompanied his words.\n\nTwo cardinals coming into France, as legates to the king from the pope,\none of whom was afterwards pope Innocent II., paid the saint a visit to\nhis desert. They asked him whether he was a canon, a monk, or a hermit.\nHe said he was none of those. Being pressed to declare what he was: \"We\nare sinners,\" said he, \"whom the mercy of God hath conducted into this\nwilderness to do penance. The pope himself hath imposed on us these\nexercises, at our request, for our sins. Our imperfection and frailty\ndeprive us of courage to imitate the fervor of those holy hermits who\nlived in divine contemplation almost without any thought for their\nbodies. You see that we neither wear the habit of monks nor of canons.\nWe are still further from usurping those names, which we respect and\nhonor at a distance in the persons of the priests, and in the sanctity\nof the monks. We are poor, wretched sinners, who, terrified at the rigor\nof the divine justice, still hope, with trembling, by this means, to\nfind mercy from our Lord Jesus Christ in the day of his judgment.\" The\nlegates departed exceedingly edified at what they saw and heard. Eight\ndays after the saint was admonished by God of the end of his mortal\ncourse, after which he most earnestly sighed. He redoubled his fervor in\nall his exercises, and falling sick soon after, gave his disciples his\nlast instructions, and exhorted them to a lively confidence in God, to\nwhom he recommended them by a humble prayer. His exhortation was so\nmoving and strong that it dispelled their fears in losing him, and they\nseemed to enter into his own sentiments. He caused himself to be carried\ninto the chapel, where he heard mass, received extreme unction and the\nviaticum: and on the 8th day of February, 1124, being fourscore years\nold, expired in peace, repeating those words: \"_Lord, into thy hands I\ncommend my spirit_.\" He had passed in his desert fifty years, bating two\nmonths. His disciples buried him privately, to prevent the crowds of\npeople breaking in. But the news of his death drew incredible numbers to\nhis tomb, which was honored by innumerable miracles. Four months after\nhis death, the priory of Ambazac, dependent on the great Benedictin\nabbey of St. Austin, to Limoges, put in a claim to the land of Muret.\nThe disciples of the holy man, who had inherited his maxims and spirit,\nabandoned the ground to them without any contention, and retired to\nGrandmont, a desert one league distant, carrying with them his precious\nremains. From this place the order {384} took its name. The saint was\ncanonized by Clement III., in 1189, at the request of king Henry II. of\nEngland. See Gallia Christ. Nova, t. 2, p. 646.\n\nAPPENDIX\n\nTO\n\nTHE LIFE OF ST. STEPHEN OF GRANDMONT.\n\nSuch was the fervor and sanctity of the first disciples of St. Stephen\nof Grandmont, that they were the admiration of the world in the age\nwherein they lived. Peter, the learned and pious abbot of Celles, calls\nthem angels, and testifies that he placed an extraordinary confidence in\ntheir prayers. (Petr. Cellens. ep. 8.) John of Salisbury, a contemporary\nauthor, represents them as men who, being raised above the necessities\nof life, had conquered not only sensuality and avarice, but even nature\nitself. (Joan. Salisb. Poly. l. 7, c. 23.) Stephen, bishop of Tournay,\nspeaks of them in as high strains. (Steph. Tournac. ep. 2.) Trithemius,\nYepez, and Miraeus, imagined that St. Stephen made the rule of St. Bennet\nthe basis of his order; and Mabillon at first embraced this opinion,\n(Mabill. Praef. in part 2, sec. 6, Bened.,) but changed it afterwards,\n(Annul. Bened. l. 64, n. 37 and 112,) proving that this saint neither\nfollowed the rule of Saint Bennet nor that of St. Austin. Dom Martenne\nhas set this in a much fuller light in his preface to the sixth tome of\nhis great collection. (Amplise Collect. t. 6, n. 20, &c.) Baillet,\nHelyot, and some others, pretend that St. Stephen never wrote any thing\nhimself, and that his rule was compiled by some of his successors from\nhis sayings, and from the discipline which he had established. But some\nof the very passages to which these critics appeal, suffice to confute\nthem, and St. Stephen declares himself the author of the written rule\nboth in the prologue, and in several other places, (Regula Grandim. c.\n9, 11, 14,) as Mabillon, or rather Martenne, (who was author of this\naddition to his annals,) takes notice. (Annal. t. 6, l. 74, n. 9l.) The\nrule of this holy founder consists of seventy-five chapters. In a\npathetic prologue he puts his disciples in mind, that the rule of rules,\nand the origin of all monastic rules, is the gospel: they are but\nstreams derived from this source, and in it are all the means of\narriving at Christian perfection pointed out. He recommends strict\npoverty and obedience, as the foundation of a religious life; forbids\nhis religious ever to receive any retributions for their masses, or to\nopen the door of their oratory to secular persons on Sundays or\nholydays, because on these days they ought to attend their parish\nchurches. He forbids his religious all lawsuits. (Reg. c. 15. See\nChatelain, Notes sur le Martyr. p. 378.) He forbids them the use of\nflesh meat even in time of sickness, and prescribes rigorous fasts, with\nonly one meal a day for a great part of the year. This rule, which was\napproved by Urban III. in 1186, was mitigated by pope Innocent IV. in\n1247, and again by Clement V. in 1309. It is printed at Rouen in 1672.\nBesides this rule, certain maxims or instructions of St. Stephen are\nextant, and were collected together by his disciples after his death.\nThey were printed at Paris in Latin and French, in 1704. Baillet\npublished a new translation of them in 1707. In them we admire the\nbeauty and fruitfulness of the author's genius, and still much more the\ngreat sentiments of virtue which they contain, especially concerning\ntemptations, vain-glory, ambition, the sweetness of God's service, and\nhis holy commandments; the obligation without bounds which all men have\nof loving God, the incomprehensible advantages of praising him, the\nnecessity of continually advancing in fervor, and of continually\ngathering, by the practice of good works, new flowers, of which the\ngarland of our lives ought to be composed. This useful collection might\ndoubtless have been made much more ample by his disciples. Several other\nholy maxims and short lessons delivered by him, occur in the most\nancient of his lives, entitled, Stephani Dicta et Facta, compiled by the\ncare of St. Stephen de Liciaco. (Martenne, t. 6, p. 1046.)\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  William of Dandina, an accurate writer, in the life of Hugh of\n    Lacerta, the most famous among the first disciples of St. Stephen,\n    published by Martenne, (t. 6, p. 1143,) says, that the saint died in\n    the forty-sixth year after his conversion. His retreat, therefore,\n    cannot be dated before the year 1076, and the foundation of his\n    order, which some place in 1076, must have been posterior to this.\n    Gerard Ithier mistakes when he says that St. Stephen went to\n    Benevento in the twelfth year of his age; and remained there twelve\n    years. He went only then to Paris to Milo, who was bishop only two\n    years. See Martenne, p. 1053.\n\nST. PAUL, BISHOP OF VERDUN, C.\n\nHAVING lived in the world a perfect pattern of perfection by alms,\nfasts, assiduous prayer, meekness, and charity, he retired among the\nhermits of {385} Mount Voge, near Triers, on a hill called from him\nPaulberg. King Dagobert placed him in the episcopal chair of Verdun, and\nwas his protector in his zealous labors and ample foundations of that\nchurch. The saint died in 631. See his authentic anonymous life in\nHenschenius. Also Calmet, Hist. de Lorraine, t. 1, l. 9, n. 41, p. 402.\nBollandus, Feb. t. 2, p. 169.\n\nST. CUTHMAN, C.\n\nTHE spiritual riches of divine grace were the happy portion of this\nsaint, who seemed from his cradle formed to perfect virtue. His name\ndemonstrates him to have been an English-Saxon, not of British\nextraction, either from Wales or Cornwall, as Bollandus conjectured. He\nwas born in the southern parts of England, and, from the example of his\npious parents, inherited the most perfect spirit of Christian piety.\nFrom his infancy he never once transgressed their orders in the least\narticle, and when sent by his father to keep his sheep, he never failed\ncoming home exactly at the time appointed. This employment afforded him\nan opportunity of consecrating his affections to God, by the exercises\nof holy prayer, which only necessary occasions seemed to interrupt, and\nwhich he may be said to have always continued in spirit, according to\nthat of the spouse in the Canticles: I sleep, but my heart watcheth. By\nthe constant union of his soul with God, and application to the\nfunctions and exercises of the angels, the affections of his soul were\nrendered daily more and more pure, and his sentiments and whole conduct\nmore heavenly and angelical. What gave his prayer this wonderful force\nin correcting and transforming his affections, was the perfect spirit of\nsimplicity, disengagement from creatures, self-denial, meekness,\nhumility, obedience, and piety, in which it was founded. We find so\nlittle change in our souls by our devotions, because we neglect the\npractice of self-denial and mortification, live wedded to the world, and\nslaves to our senses and to self-love, which is an insuperable obstacle\nto this principal effect of holy prayer. Cuthman, after the death of his\nfather, employed his whole fortune and all that he gained by the labor\nof his hands, in supporting his decrepit mother: and afterwards was not\nashamed to beg for her subsistence. To furnish her necessaries by the\nsweat of his brow, and by the charitable succors of others, he removed\nto several places; nor is it to be expressed what hardships and\nausterities he voluntarily and cheerfully suffered, which he embraced as\npart of his penance, increasing their severity in order more perfectly\nto die to himself and to his senses, and sanctifying them by the most\nperfect dispositions in which he bore them. Finding, at a place called\nSteninges, a situation according to his desire, he built there a little\ncottage to be a shelter from the injuries of the air, in which, with his\nmother, he might devote himself to the divine service, without\ndistraction. His hut was no sooner finished but he measured out the\nground near it for the foundation of a church, which he dug with his own\nhands. The inhabitants, animated by his piety and zeal, contributed\nliberally to assist him in completing this work. The holy man worked\nhimself all day, conversing at the same time in his heart with God, and\nemployed a considerable part of the night in prayer. Here he said in his\nheart: \"Whither shall I go from thy spirit, O Lord! this is the place of\nmy rest for ever and ever, in which I will every day render to thee my\nvows.\" His name was rendered famous by many miracles, of which God was\npleased to make him the instrument, both living and after his death. He\nflourished about the eighth century, and his relics were honored at\nSteninges. This place Saint Edward {386} the Confessor bestowed on the\ngreat abbey of Fecam in Normandy, which was enriched with a portion of\nhis relics. This donation of Steninges, together with Rye, Berimunster,\nand other neighboring places, made to the abbey of Fecam, was confirmed\nto the same by William the Conqueror, and the two first Henries, whose\ncharters are still kept among the archives of that house, and were shown\nme there. This parish, and that of Rye, were of the exemption of Fecam,\nthat is, were not subject to the jurisdiction of the diocesan, but to\nthis abbey, as twenty-four parishes in Normandy are to this day. For in\nthe enumeration of the parishes which belong to this exemption in the\nbulls of several popes, in which it is confirmed, Steninges and Rye are\nalways mentioned with this additional clause, that those places are\nsituated in England.[1] St. Cuthman was titular patron of Steninges or\nEstaninges, and is honored to this day, on the 8th of February, in the\ngreat abbeys of Fecam, Jumieges, and others in Normandy: and his name\noccurs in the old Missal, used by the English Saxons before the Norman\nconquest, kept in the monastery of Jumieges, in which a proper mass is\nassigned for his feast on the 8th of February. In the account of the\nprincipal shrines of relics of saints, honored anciently in England,\npublished by the most learned Dr. Hickes, mention is made of St.\nCuthman's, as follows: \"At Steninge, on the river Bramber, among the\nSouth-Saxons, rests St. Cuthman.\" See Narratio de Sanctis qui in Anglia\nquiescunt, published by Hickes, in his Thesaurus Linguarum veterum\nSeptentr. t. 1, in Dissert. Epistol. p. 121. See also two lives of St.\nCuthman, in Bollandus, t. 2, Feb. p. 197, and the more accurate lessons\nfor his festival in the breviary of Fecam. He is honored in most of the\nBenedictin abbeys in Normandy.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  Bollandus had not seen these charters and bulls, or he could not\n    have supposed Steninges to be situated in Normandy, and St. Cuthman\n    to have died in that province. Dom Le Noir, a learned Benedictin\n    monk of the congregation of St. Maur, and library-keeper at Fecam,\n    who is employed in compiling a history of Normandy, gives me the\n    following information by a letter from Fecam: \"On tient ici a Feca,\n    pas une espece de tradition que Hastings, port d'Angleterre, sur la\n    Manche, dens le comte de Sossex, et dans le voisinage de Rye, est le\n    Staninges de l'Abbaye de Fecam. Si le nom est un pen different\n    aujourd'hui on voit des noms des lieux qui ont souffert des plus\n    grandes alterations.\" This pretended tradition is an evident\n    mistake. Hastings was a famous sea-port under the same name, in the\n    ninth century, and Stening is at this day a borough in Sussex,\n    situated under the reins of Bramber castle, not far from the river,\n    which was formerly navigable so high, though at present even\n    Shoreham at its month has no harbor, the sea having made frequent\n    changes on this coast, especially in the twelfth century.\n\n\nFEBRUARY IX.\n\nST. APOLLONIA, VIRGIN AND MARTYR.\n\nHer acts are of no authority, and falsely place her triumph at Rome,\ninstead of Alexandria. See Tillemont, t. 3, p. 495. Her authentic\nhistory is in the letter of St. Dionysius, then bishop of Alexandria,\npreserved by Eusebius, l. 6, c. 41, 42, p. 236. Ed. Val.\n\nA.D. 249.\n\nST. DIONYSIUS of Alexandria wrote to Fabius, bishop of Antioch, a\nrelation of the persecution raised at Alexandria by the heathen populace\nof that city, in the last year of the reign of the emperor Philip. A\ncertain poet of Alexandria, who pretended to foretell things to come,\nstirred up this great city against the Christians on the motive of\nreligion. The first victim of their rage was a venerable old man, named\nMetras, or Metrius, whom they would have compelled to utter impious\nwords against the worship of {387} the true God: which, when he refused\nto do, they beat him with staffs, thrust splinters of reeds into his\neyes, and having dragged him into one of the suburbs, stoned him to\ndeath. The next person they seized was a Christian woman, called Quinta,\nwhom they carried to one of their temples to pay divine worship to the\nidol. She loaded the execrable divinity with many reproaches, which so\nexasperated the people that they dragged her by the heels upon the\npavement of sharp pebbles, cruelly scourged her, and put her to the same\ndeath. The rioters, by this time, were in the height of their fury.\nAlexandria seemed like a city taken by storm. The Christians mads no\nopposition, but betook themselves to flight, and beheld the loss of\ntheir goods with joy; for their hearts had no ties on earth. Their\nconstancy was equal to their disinterestedness; for of all who fell into\ntheir hands, St. Dionysius knew of none that renounced Christ.\n\nThe admirable Apollonia, whom old age and the state of virginity\nrendered equally venerable, was seized by them. Their repeated blows on\nher jaws beat out all her teeth. At last they made a great fire without\nthe city, and threatened to cast her into it, if she did not utter\ncertain impious words. She begged a moment's delay, as if it had been to\ndeliberate on the proposal; but, to convince her persecutors that her\nsacrifice was perfectly voluntary, she no sooner found herself at\nliberty, than of her own accord she leaped into the flames. They next\nexercised their fury on a holy man called Serapion, and tortured him in\nhis own house with great cruelty. After bruising his limbs, disjointing\nand breaking his bones, they threw him headlong from the top of the\nhouse on the pavement, and so completed his martyrdom. A civil war among\nthe pagan citizens put an end to their fury this year, but the edict of\nDecius renewed it in 250. See the rest of the relation on the 27th of\nFebruary. An ancient church in Rome, which is frequented with great\ndevotion, bears the name of St. Apollonia: under whose patronage we meet\nwith churches and altars in most parts of the Western church.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe last part of our saint's conduct is not proposed to our imitation,\nas self-murder is unjustifiable. If any among the Fathers have commended\nit, they presumed, with St. Austin, that it was influenced by a\nparticular direction of the Holy Ghost, or was the effect of a pious\nsimplicity, founded in motives of holy zeal and charity. For it can\nnever be lawful for a person by any action wilfully to concur to, or\nhasten his own death, though many martyrs out of an ardent charity, and\ndesire of laying down their lives for God, and being speedily united to\nhim, anticipated the executioners in completing their sacrifice. Among\nthe impious, absurd, and false maxims of the Pagan Greeks and Romans,\nscarce any thing was more monstrous than the manner in which they\ncanonized suicide in distress, as a remedy against temporal miseries,\nand a point of heroism. To bear infamy and all kind of sufferings with\nunshaken constancy and virtue, is true courage and greatness of soul,\nand the test and triumph of virtue: and to sink under misfortunes, is\nthe most unworthy baseness of soul. But what name can we find for the\npusillanimity of those who are not able so much as to look humiliations,\npoverty, or affliction in the face? Our life we hold of God, and he who\ndestroys it injures God, to whom he owes it. He refuses also to his\nfriends and to the republic of mankind, the comfort and succors which\nthey are entitled in justice or charity to receive from him. Moreover,\nif to murder another is the greatest temporal injustice a man can commit\nagainst a neighbor, life being of all temporal blessings the greatest\nand most noble, suicide is a crime so much more enormous, as the charity\nwhich every one owes to himself, especially to his immortal soul, is\nstricter, {388} more noble and of a superior order to that which he owes\nto his neighbor.\n\nSAINT NICEPHORUS, M.\n\nFrom his genuine Acts in Ruinart, p. 244. Tillemont, t. 4, p. 16.\n\nTHERE dwelt in Antioch a priest called Sapricius, and a layman, named\nNicephorus, who had been linked together for many years by the strictest\nfriendship. But the enemy of mankind sowing between them the seeds of\ndiscord, this their friendship was succeeded by the most implacable\nhatred, and they declined meeting each other in the streets. Thus it\ncontinued a considerable time. At length, Nicephorus, entering into\nhimself, and reflecting on the grievousness of the sin of hatred,\nresolved on seeking a reconciliation. He accordingly deputed some\nfriends to go to Sapricius to beg his pardon, promising him all\nreasonable satisfaction for the injury done him. But the priest refused\nto forgive him. Nicephorus sent other friends to him on the same errand,\nbut though they pressed and entreated him to be reconciled, Sapricius\nwas inflexible. Nicephorus sent a third time, but to no purpose;\nSapricius having shut his ears not to men only, but to Christ himself,\nwho commands us to forgive as we ourselves hope to be forgiven.\nNicephorus, finding him deaf to the remonstrances of their common\nfriends, went in person to his house, and casting himself at his feet,\nowned his fault, and begged pardon for Christ's sake; but all in vain.\n\nThe persecution suddenly began to rage under Valerian and Gallien in the\nyear 260. Sapricius was apprehended and brought before the governor, who\nasked him his name. \"It is Sapricius,\" answered he. Governor. \"Of what\nprofession are you?\" Sapricius. \"I am a Christian.\" Governor. \"Are you\nof the clergy?\" Sapricius. \"I have the honor to be a priest.\" He added:\n\"We Christians acknowledge one Lord and Master Jesus Christ, who is God;\nthe only and true God, who created heaven and earth. The gods of nations\nare devils.\" The president, exasperated at his answer, gave orders for\nhim to be put into an engine, like a screw-press, which the tyrants had\ninvented to torment the faithful. The excessive pain of this torture did\nnot shake Sapricius's constancy, and he said to the judges: \"My body is\nin your power; but my soul you cannot touch. Only my Saviour Jesus\nChrist is master of this.\" The president seeing him so resolute,\npronounced this sentence: \"Sapricius, priest of the Christians, who is\nridiculously persuaded that he shall rise again, shall be delivered over\nto the executioner of public justice to have his head severed from his\nbody, because he has contemned the edict of the emperors.\"\n\nSapricius seemed to receive the sentence with great cheerfulness, and\nwas to haste to arrive at the place of execution in hopes of his crown.\nNicephorus ran out to meet him, and casting himself at his feet, said:\n\"Martyr of Jesus Christ, forgive me my offence.\" But Sapricius made him\nno answer. Nicephorus waited for him in another street which he was to\npass through, and as soon as he saw him coming up, broke through the\ncrowd, and falling again at his feet, conjured him to pardon the fault\nhe had committed against him, through frailty rather than design. This\nhe begged by the glorious confession he had made of the divinity of\nJesus Christ. Sapricius's heart was more and more hardened, and now he\nwould not so much as look on him. The soldiers laughed at Nicephorus,\nsaying: \"A greater fool than thou was never seen, in being so solicitous\nfor a man's {389} pardon who is upon the point of being executed.\" Being\narrived at the place of execution, Nicephorus redoubled his humble\nentreaties and supplications: but all in vain; for Sapricius continued\nas obstinate as ever, in refusing to forgive. The executioners said to\nSapricius: \"Kneel down that we may cut off your head.\" Sapricius said.\n\"Upon what account?\" They answered: \"Because you will not sacrifice to\nthe gods, nor obey the emperor's orders, for the love of that man that\nis called Christ.\" The unfortunate Sapricius cried out: \"Stop, my\nfriends; do not put me to death: I will do what you desire: I am ready\nto sacrifice.\" Nicephorus, sensibly afflicted at his apostacy, cried\naloud to him: \"Brother, what are you doing? renounce not Jesus Christ\nour good master. Forfeit not a crown you have already gained by tortures\nand sufferings.\" But Sapricius would give no manner of attention to what\nhe said. Whereupon, Nicephorus, with tears of bitter anguish for the\nfall of Sapricius, said to the executioner: \"I am a Christian, and\nbelieve in Jesus Christ, whom this wretch has renounced; behold me here\nready to die in his stead.\" All present were astonished at such an\nunexpected declaration. The officers of justice being under an\nuncertainty how to proceed, dispatched a lictor or beadle to the\ngovernor, with this message: \"Sapricius promiseth to sacrifice, but here\nis another desirous to die for the same Christ, saying: I am a\nChristian, and refuse to sacrifice to your gods, and comply with the\nedicts of the emperors.\" The governor, on hearing this, dictated the\nfollowing sentence: \"If this man persist in refusing to sacrifice to the\nimmortal gods, let him die by the sword:\" which was accordingly put in\nexecution. Thus Nicephorus received three immortal crowns, namely, of\nfaith, humility, and charity, triumphs which Sapricius had made himself\nunworthy of. The Greek and the Roman Martyrologies mention him on this\nday.\n\nSAINT THELIAU, BISHOP AND CONFESSOR.\n\nHE was born in the same province with St. Samson at Eccluis-Guenwa{},\nnear Monmouth. His sister Anaumed went over to Armorica in 490, and upon\nher arrival was married to Budic, king of the Armorican Britons. Before\nshe left her own country she promised St. Theliau to consecrate her\nfirst child in a particular manner to God. Our saint was educated under\nthe holy discipline of St. Dubritius, and soon after the year 500, made\na pilgrimage to Jerusalem with his schoolfellows St. David and St.\nPaternus. In their return St. David stopped at Dole, with Sampson the\nelder, who had been bishop of York, but being expelled by the Saxons,\nfled into Armorica and was made bishop of Dole. This prelate and St.\nTheliau planted a great avenue, three miles long, from Dole to Cai,\nwhich for several ages was known by their names. The people of Dole,\nwith the bishop and king Budic, pressed our saint to accept of that\nbishopric; but in vain. After his return into the island, St. Dubritius\nbeing removed from the see of Landaff to that of Caerleon, in 495,\nTheliau was compelled to succeed him in Landaff, of which church he has\nalways been esteemed the principal patron. His great learning, piety,\nand pastoral zeal, especially in the choice and instruction of his\nclergy, have procured him a high reputation which no age can ever\nobliterate, says Leland.[1] His authority alone decided whatever\ncontroversies arose in his time. When the yellow plague depopulated\nWales, he exerted his courage and charity with an heroic intrepidity.\nProvidence preserved his life for the sake of others, and he died {390}\nabout the year 580, in a happy old age, in solitude, where he had for\nsome time prepared himself for his passage. The place where he departed\nto our Lord was called from him Llan deilo-vaur, that is, the church of\nthe great Theliau: it was situated on the bank of the river Tovy in\nCaermarthenshire. The Landaff register names among the most eminent of\nhis disciples his nephew St. Oudoceus, who succeeded him in the see of\nLandaff, St. Ismael, whom he consecrated bishop, St. Tyfhei, martyr, who\nreposeth in Pennalun, &c. See Capgrave, Harpsfield, Wharton,\nBrown-Willis, D. Morice, Hist. de Bretagne, t. 1, p. 22, and the notes,\npp. 785 and 819. Bolland. Feb. t. 2, p. 303.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  De Script. Brit. c. 30.\n\nST. ANSBERT, ARCHBISHOP OF ROUEN, C. IN 695.\n\nHE had been chancellor to king Clotaire III., in which station he had\nunited the mortification and recollection of a monk with the duties of\nwedlock, and of a statesman. Quitting the court, he put on the monastic\nhabit at Fontenelle, under St. Wandregisile, and when that holy\nfounder's immediate successor, St. Lantbert, was made bishop of Lyons,\nAnsbert was appointed abbot of that famous monastery. He was confessor\nto king Theodoric III., and with his consent was chosen archbishop of\nRouen, upon the death of St. Owen in 683. By his care, good order,\nlearning, and piety flourished in his diocese; nevertheless Pepin, mayor\nof the palace, banished him, upon a false accusation, to the monastery\nof Aumont, upon the Sambre in Hainault, where he died in the year 698.\nSee Mab. Saec. 2, Ben. and Annal. l. 18.. Rivet, Hist. Litter. t. 4, p.\n33, and t. 3, p. 646. Henschenius, Feb. t. 2, p. 342.\n\nST. ATTRACTA, OR TARAHATA, AN IRISH VIRGIN.\n\nSHE received the veil from St. Patrick, and lived at a place called from\nher Kill-Attracta to this day, in Connaught. Her acts in Colgan are of\nno authority.\n\nST. ERHARD, ABBOT, C.\n\nCALLED BY MERSAEUS AND OTHER GERMANS, EBERHARDUS.\n\nHE was a Scotchman by birth, and being well instructed in the\nscriptures, went into Germany to preach the gospel, with two brothers.\nHe taught the sacred sciences at Triers, when St. Hydulphus was bishop\nof that city, whom Welser and some others take for a Scot, and one of\nour saint's brothers. When St. Hydulphus resigned his bishopric to end\nhis days in retirement in 753, St. Erhard withdrew to Ratisbon, where he\nfounded a small monastery, and is said to have been honored with\nmiracles, both living and after his death, which happened to that city.\nHe was commemorated on this day in Scotland, but in Germany on the 8th\nof January. See Peter Merssaeus, Catal. Archiep. Trevirens. M. Welserus,\nl. 5. Rerum B{}iocar, ad ab, 753. Pantaleon, Prosopographiae, part 1.\n\n{391}\n\n\nFEBRUARY X.\n\nST. SCHOLASTICA, VIRGIN.\n\nFrom St. Gregory the Great, Dial. l. 2, c. 33 and 34. About the year\n543.\n\nTHIS saint was sister to the great St. Benedict. She consecrated herself\nto God from her earliest youth, as St. Gregory testifies. Where her\nfirst monastery was situated is not mentioned; but after her brother\nremoved to Mount Cassino, she chose her retreat at Plombariola, in that\nneighborhood, where she founded and governed a nunnery about five miles\ndistant to the south from St. Benedict's monastery.[1] St. Bertharius,\nwho was abbot of Cassino three hundred years after, says, that she\ninstructed in virtue several of her own sex. And whereas St. Gregory\ninforms us, that St. Benedict governed nuns as well as monks, his sister\nmust have been their abbess under his rule and direction. She visited\nher holy brother once a year, and as she was not allowed to enter his\nmonastery, he went out with some of his monks to meet her at a house at\nsome small distance. They spent these visits in the praises of God, and\nin conferring together on spiritual matters, St. Gregory relates a\nremarkable circumstance of the last of these visits. Scholastica having\npassed the day as usual in singing psalms, and pious discourse, they sat\ndown in the evening to take their refection. After it was over,\nScholastica, perhaps foreknowing it would be their last interview in\nthis world, or at least desirous of some further spiritual improvement,\nwas very urgent with her brother to delay his return till the next day,\nthat they might entertain themselves till morning upon the happiness of\nthe other life. St. Benedict, unwilling to transgress his rule, told her\nhe could not pass a night out of his monastery: so desired her not to\ninsist upon such a breach of monastic discipline. Scholastica, finding\nhim resolved on going home, laying her hands joined upon the table and\nher head upon them, with many tears begged of Almighty God to interpose\nin her behalf. Her prayer was scarce ended, when there happened such a\nstorm of rain, thunder, and lightning, that neither St. Benedict nor any\nof his companions could set a foot out of doors. He complained to his\nsister, saying: \"God forgive you, sister; what have you done?\" She\nanswered: \"I asked you a favor, and you refused it me: I asked it of\nAlmighty God, and he has granted it me.\" St. Benedict was therefore\nobliged to comply with her request, and they spent the night in\nconferences on pious subjects, chiefly on the felicity of the blessed,\nto which both most ardently aspired, and which she was shortly to enjoy.\nThe nest morning they parted, and three days after St. Scholastica died\nin her solitude. St. Benedict was then alone in contemplation on Mount\nCassino, and lifting up his eyes to heaven, he saw the soul of his\nsister ascending thither in the shape of a dove. Filled with joy at her\nhappy passage, he gave thanks for it to God, and declared her death to\nhis brethren; some of whom he sent to bring her corpse to his monastery,\nwhere {392} he caused it to be laid in the tomb which he had prepared\nfor himself. She must have died about the year 543. Her relics are said\nto have been translated into France, together with those of St. Bennet,\nin the seventh century, according to the relation given by the monk\nAdrevald.[2] They are said to have been deposited at Mans, and kept in\nthe collegiate church of St. Peter in that city in a rich silver\nshrine.[3] In 1562 this shrine was preserved from being plundered by the\nHuguenots, as is related by Chatelain. Her principal festival at Mans is\nkept a holyday on the 11th of July, the day of the translation of her\nrelics. She was honored in some places with an office of three lessons,\nin the time of St. Louis, as appears from a calendar of Longchamp,\nwritten in his reign.\n\nLewis of Granada, treating on the perfection of the love of God,\nmentions the miraculous storm obtained by St. Scholastica, to show with\nwhat excess of goodness God is always ready to hear the petitions and\ndesires of his servants. This pious soul must have received strong\npledges and most sensible tokens of his love, seeing she depended on\nreceiving so readily what she asked of him. No child could address\nhimself with so great confidence to his most tender parent. The love\nwhich God bears us, and his readiness to succor and comfort us, if we\nhumbly confess and lay before him our wants, infinitely surpasses all\nthat can be found in creatures. Nor can we be surprised that he so\neasily heard the prayer of this holy virgin, since at the command of\nJoshua he stopped the heavens, God obeying the voice of man. He hears\nthe most secret desires of those that fear and love him, and does their\nwill: if he sometimes seem deaf to their cries, it is to grant their\nmain desire by doing what is most expedient for them, as St. Austin\nfrequently observes. The short prayer by which St. Scholastica gained\nthis remarkable victory over her brother, who was one of the greatest\nsaints on earth, was doubtless no more than a single act of her pure\ndesires, which she continually turned towards, and fixed on her beloved.\nIt was enough for her to cast her eye interiorly upon him with whom she\nwas closely and inseparably united in mind and affections, to move him\nso suddenly to change the course of the elements in order to satisfy her\npious desire. By placing herself, as a docile scholar, continually at\nthe feet of the Divine Majesty, who filled all the powers of her soul\nwith the sweetness of his heavenly communications, she learned that\nsublime science of perfection in which she became a mistress to so many\nother chaste souls by this divine exercise. Her life in her retirement,\nto that happy moment which closed her mortal pilgrimage, was a continued\nuniform contemplation, by which all her powers were united to, and\ntransformed into God.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  This nunnery underwent the same fate with the abbey of Mount\n    Cassino, both being burnt to the ground by the Lombards. When\n    Rachim, king of that nation, having been converted to the Catholic\n    faith by the exhortations of pope Zachary, re-established that\n    abbey, and taking the monastic habit, ended his life there, his\n    queen Tasai and his daughter Ratruda rebuilt and richly endowed the\n    nunnery of Plombariola, in which they lived with great regularity to\n    their deaths, as is related by Leo of Ostia in his Chronicle of\n    Mount Cassino, ad an. 750. It has been since destroyed, so that at\n    present the land is only a farm belonging to the monastery of Mount\n    Cassino. See Dom Mege, Vie de St. Benoit, p. 412. Chatelain, Notes,\n    p. 605. Murarori, Antichita, &c. t. 3. p. 400. Diss. 66, del\n    Monasteri delle Monache.\n2.  See Paul the deacon, Hist. Longob. and Dom Mege, Vie de St. Benoit,\n    p. 48.\n3.  That the relics of St. Bennet were privately carried off from Mount\n    Cassino, in 660, soon after the monastery was destroyed, and brought\n    to Fleury on the Loire by Algiulph the monk, and those of St.\n    Scholastica, by certain persons of Mans to that city, is maintained\n    by Mabillon, Menard, and Bosche. But that the relics of both these\n    saints still remain at Mount Cassino, is strenuously affirmed by\n    Loretus Angelus de Nuce, and Marchiarelli, the late learned monk of\n    the Order of Camaldoli: and this assertion Benedict XIV. looks upon\n    as certain, (de Canoniz. l. 4, part 2, c. 24, t, 4, p. 245.) For\n    pope Zachary in his bull assures us, that he devoutly honored the\n    relics of SS. Benedict and Scholastica, at Mount Cassino, in 746.\n    Leo Ostiensis and Peter the deacon visited them and found them\n    untouched in 1071, as Alexander II. affirms in the bull he published\n    when he consecrated the new church there. By careful visitations\n    made by authority, in 1486 and 1545, the same is proved. Yet Angelus\n    de Nuce allows some portions of both saints to be at Mans and\n    Fleury, on the Loire. Against the supposed translation of the whole\n    shrines of St. Benedict and St. Scholastica into France, see\n    Muratori, Antichita, &c., dissert. 58, t. 3, p. 244.\n\n{393}\n\nST. SOTERIS, VIRGIN AND MARTYR.\n\nFrom St. Ambrose, Exhort. Virginit, c. 12, and l. 3. de Virgin. c. 6\nTillemont, t. 5, p. 259.\n\nFOURTH AGE.\n\nST. AMBROSE boasts of this saint as the greatest honor of his family.\nSt. Soteris was descended from a long series of consuls and prefects:\nbut her greatest glory was her despising, for the sake of Christ, birth,\nriches, great beauty, and all that the world prizes as valuable. She\nconsecrated her virginity to God, and to avoid the dangers her beauty\nexposed her to, neglected it entirely, and trampled under her feet all\nthe vain ornaments that might set it off. Her virtue prepared her to\nmake a glorious confession of her faith before the persecutors, after\nthe publication of the cruel edicts of Dioclesian and Maximian against\nthe Christians. The impious judge commanded her face to be buffeted. She\nrejoiced to be treated as her divine Saviour had been, and to have her\nface all wounded and disfigured by the merciless blows of the\nexecutioners. The judge ordered her to be tortured many other ways, but\nwithout being able to draw from her one sigh or tear. At length,\novercome by her constancy and patience, he commanded her head to be\nstruck off. The ancient martyrologies mention her.\n\nST. WILLIAM OF MALEVAL, H.\n\nAND INSTITUTER OF THE ORDER OF GULIELMITES.\n\nFrom l'Hist des Ordres Relig., t. 6, p. 155, by F. Helyot.\n\nA.D. 1157\n\nWE know nothing of the birth or quality of this saint: he seems to have\nbeen a Frenchman, and is on this account honored in the new Paris Missal\nand Breviary. He is thought to have passed his youth in the army, and to\nhave given into a licentious manner of living, too common among persons\nof that profession. The first accounts we have of him represent him as a\nholy penitent, filled with the greatest sentiments of compunction and\nfervor, and making a pilgrimage to the tombs of the apostles at Rome.\nHere he begged pope Eugenius III. to put him into a course of penance,\nwho enjoined him a pilgrimage to Jerusalem in the year 1145. In\nperforming this, with great devotion, the saint spent eight years.\nReturning into Tuscany, in 1153, he retired into a desert. He was\nprevailed upon to undertake the government of a monastery in the isle of\nLupocavio, in the territory of Pisa, but not being able to bear with the\ntepidity and irregularity of his monks, he withdrew, and settled on\nMount Pruno, till, finding disciples there no less indocile to the\nseverity of his discipline than the former, he was determined to pursue\nhimself that rigorous plan of life which he had hitherto unsuccessfully\nproposed to others. He pitched upon a desolate valley for this purpose,\nthe very sight of which was sufficient to strike the most resolute with\nhorror. It was then called the Stable of Rhodes, but since, Maleval; and\nis situated in the territory of Sienna, in the diocese of Grosseto. He\nentered this frightful solitude in September, 1155, and had no other\nlodging than a cave in the ground, till being discovered some months\nafter, the lord of Buriano built him a cell. During the first four\nmonths, he had no other company than that of wild beasts eating only the\nherbs on which they fed. {394} On the feast of the Epiphany, in the\nbeginning of the year 1156, he was joined by a disciple or companion,\ncalled Albert, who lived with him to his death, which happened thirteen\nmonths after, and who has recorded the last circumstances of his life.\nThe saint, discoursing with others, always treated himself as the most\ninfamous of criminals, and deserving the worst of deaths; and that these\nwere his real sentiments, appeared from that extreme severity which he\nexercised upon himself. He lay on the bare ground: though he fed on the\ncoarsest fare, and drank nothing but water, he was very sparing in the\nuse of each; saying, sensuality was to be feared even in the most\nordinary food. Prayer, divine contemplation, and manual labor, employed\nhis whole time. It was at his work that he instructed his disciple in\nhis maxims of penance and perfection, which he taught him the most\neffectually by his own example, though in many respects so much raised\nabove the common, that it was fitter to be admired than imitated. He had\nthe gift of miracles, and that of prophecy. Seeing his end draw near, he\nreceived the sacraments from a priest of the neighboring town of\nChatillon, and died on the 10th of February, in 1157, on which day he is\nnamed in the Roman and other martyrologies.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nDivine Providence moved one Renauld, a physician, to join Albert, a\nlittle before the death of the saint. They buried St. William's body in\nhis little garden, and studied to live according to his maxims and\nexample. Some time after, their number increasing, they built a chapel\nover their founder's grave, with a little hermitage. This was the origin\nof the Gulielmites, or Hermits of St. William, spread in the next age\nover Italy, France, Flanders, and Germany. They went barefoot, and their\nfasts were almost continual: but pope Gregory IX. mitigated their\nausterities, and gave them the rule of St. Benedict, which they still\nobserve. The order is now become a congregation united to the hermits of\nSt. Austin, except twelve houses to the Low Countries, which still\nretain the rule of the Gulielmites, which is that of St. Benedict, with\na white habit like that of the Cistercians.\n\nThe feast of St. William is kept at Paris in the Abbey of\nBlancs-Manteaux, so called from certain religious men for whom it was\nfounded, who wore white cloaks, and were of a mendicant Order, called of\nthe Servants of the Virgin Mary: founded at Marseilles, and approved by\nAlexander IV., in 1257. This order being extinguished, by virtue of the\ndecree of the second council of Lyons, in 1274, by which all mendicants,\nexcept the four great Orders of Dominicans, Franciscans, Carmelites, and\nAustin friars, were abolished, this monastery was bestowed on the\nGulielmites, who removed hither from Montrouge, near Paris, in 1297. The\nprior and monks embraced the order of St. Bennet, and the reformation of\nthe Congregation of St. Vanne of Verdun, soon after called in France, of\nSt. Maur, in 1618, and this is in order the fifth house of that\nCongregation in France, before the abbeys of St. Germany-des-Prez, and\nSt. Denys.[1]\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  Villefore confounds this saint with St. William, founder of the\n    hermits of Monte Virgine in the kingdom of Naples, who lived in\n    great repute with king Roger, and is commemorated in the Roman\n    Martyrology, June 25. Others confound him with St. William, duke of\n    Aquitaine, a monk of Gellone. He was a great general, and often\n    vanquished the Saracens who invaded Languedoc. In recompense,\n    Charlemagne made him duke or governor of Aquitaine, and appointed\n    Toulouse for his residence. Some years after, in 806, having\n    obtained the consent of his duchess, (who also renounced the world,)\n    and or Charlemagne, though with great difficulty, he made his\n    monastic profession at Gellone, a monastery which he had founded in\n    a valley of that name, a league distant from Aniane, in the diocese\n    of Lodeve. St. William received the habit at the hands of St.\n    Benedict of Aniane, was directed by him in the exercises of a\n    religious life, and sanctified himself with great fervor, embracing\n    the most humbling and laborious employments, and practising\n    extraordinary austerities, till his happy death in 812, on the 28th\n    of May, on which day his festival is kept in the monastery of\n    Gellone, (now called St. Guillem de Desert, founded by this saint in\n    804,) and in the neighboring churches. See, on him, Mabillon, Saec.\n    Ben. 4, p. 88. Henschenius, diss, p. 488. Bultea p. 367. and Hist.\n    Gen. du Languedoc par deux Benedictins, l. 9. Many have also\n    confounded our saint with William, the last duke of Guienne, who,\n    after a licentious youth, and having been an abettor of the\n    anti-pope, Peter Leonis, was wonderfully converted by St. Bernard,\n    sent to him by pope Innocent II., in the year 1135. The year\n    following he renounced his estates, which his eldest daughter\n    brought in marriage to Louis the Young, king of France; and clothed\n    with hair-cloth next his skin, end in a tattered garment expressive\n    of the sincerity of his repentance and contrition, undertook a\n    pilgrimage to Compostella, and died in that journey, in 1137. See\n    Ordericus Vitalis, Hist. Norman. et Armoldus Bonae-Vallis, in vita\n    Bernardi; with the Historical Dissert. of Henschenius on the 10th of\n    February; and Abrege Chronol. des Grands Fiefs, p. 223.\n\n{395}\n\nSAINT ERLULPH, BISHOP AND MARTYR.\n\nSEVERAL Scottish missionaries passed into the northwestern parts of\nGermany, to sow there the seeds of the faith, at the time when\nCharlemagne subdued the Saxons. In imitation of these apostolic men, St.\nErlulph, a holy Scotchman, went thither, and after employing many years\nwith great success in that arduous mission, was chosen the tenth bishop\nof Verdun. His zeal in propagating the faith enraged the barbarous\ninfidels, and he was slain by them at a place called Eppokstorp, in 830.\nSee Krantzius, l. 3. Metrop. c. 30. Democh. Gatal. episc. Verd.\nPantaleon, &c.[1]\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  This saint must not be confounded with Ernulph, a most holy man, the\n    apostle of Iceland, who flourished in the year 890; on whom see\n    Jonas, Histor. Islandiae.\n\n\nFEBRUARY XI.\n\nSS. SATURNINUS, DATIVUS,\n\nAND MANY OTHER MARTYRS, OF AFRICA.\n\nFrom their contemporary acts, received as authentic by St. Austin,\nBrevic. Coll. die 3, c. 17. The Donatists added a preface to them and a\nfew glosses, in which condition they are published by Baluzius, t. 2.\nBut Bollandus and Ruinart give them genuine.\n\nA.D. 304\n\nTHE emperor Dioclesian had commanded all Christians, under pain of\ndeath, to deliver up the holy scriptures to be burnt. This persecution\nhad raged a whole year in Africa; some had betrayed the cause of\nreligion, but many more had defended it with their blood, when these\nsaints were apprehended. Abitina, a city of the proconsular province of\nAfrica, was the theatre of their triumph. Saturninus, priest of that\ncity, celebrated the divine mysteries on a Sunday, in the house of\nOctavius Felix. The magistrates having notice of it, came with a troop\nof soldiers, and seized forty-nine persons of both sexes. The principal\namong them were the priest Saturninus, with his four children, viz.:\nyoung Saturninus and Felix, both Lectors, Mary, who had consecrated her\nvirginity to God, and Hilarianus, yet a child; also, Dativus, a noble\nsenator, Ampelius, Rogatianus, and Victoria. Dativus, the ornament of\nthe senate of Abitina, whom God destined to be one of the principal\nsenators of heaven, marched at the head of this holy troop. Saturninus\nwalked by his side, surrounded by his illustrious family. The others\nfollowed in silence. Being brought before the magistrates, they\nconfessed Jesus Christ so resolutely, that their very judges applauded\ntheir courage, which repaired the infamous sacrilege committed there a\nlittle before by Fundanus, the bishop of Abitina, who in that same place\nhad given up to the magistrates the sacred books to be burnt: but a\nviolent shower suddenly falling, put out the fire, and a prodigious hail\nravaged the whole country.\n\n{396}\n\nThe confessors were shackled and sent to Carthage, the residence of the\nproconsul. They rejoiced to see themselves in chains for Christ, and\nsung hymns and canticles during their whole journey to Carthage,\npraising and thanking God. The proconsul, Anulinus, addressing himself\nfirst to Dativus, asked him of what condition he was, and if he had\nassisted at the collect or assembly of the Christians. He answered, that\nhe was a Christian, and had been present at it. The proconsul bid him\ndiscover who presided, and in whose house those religious assemblies\nwere held: but without waiting for his answer, commanded him to be put\non the rack and torn with iron hooks, to oblige him to a discovery. They\nunderwent severally the tortures of the rack, iron hooks, and cudgels.\nThe weaker sex fought no less gloriously, particularly the illustrious\nVictoria; who, being converted to Christ in her tender years, had\nsignified a desire of leading a single life, which her pagan parents\nwould not agree to, having promised her in marriage to a rich young\nnobleman. Victoria, on the day appointed for the wedding, full of\nconfidence in the protection of Him, whom she had chosen for the only\nspouse of her soul, leaped out of a window, and was miraculously\npreserved from hurt. Having made her escape, she took shelter in a\nchurch; after which she consecrated her virginity to God, with the\nceremonies then used on such occasions at Carthage, in Italy, Gaul, and\nall over the West.[1] To the crown of virginity, she earnestly desired\nto join that of martyrdom. The proconsul, on account of her quality, and\nfor the sake of her brother, a pagan, tried all means to prevail with\nher to renounce her faith. He inquired what was her religion. Her answer\nwas: \"I am a Christian.\" Her brother, Fortunatianus, undertook her\ndefence, and endeavored to prove her lunatic. The saint, fearing his\nplea might be the means of her losing the crown of martyrdom, made it\nappear by her wise confutations of it, that she was in her perfect\nsenses, and protested that she had not been brought over to Christianity\nagainst her will. The proconsul asked her if she would return with her\nbrother? She said: \"She could not, being a Christian, and acknowledging\nnone as brethren but those who kept the law of God.\" The proconsul then\nlaid aside the quality of judge to become her humble suppliant, and\nentreated her not to throw away her life. But she rejected his\nentreaties with disdain, and said to him: \"I have already told you my\nmind. I am a Christian, and I assisted at the collect.\" Anulinus,\nprovoked at this constancy, reassumed his rage, and ordered her to\nprison with the rest, to wait the sentence of death which he not long\nafter pronounced upon them all.\n\nThe proconsul would yet try to gain Hilarianus, Saturninus's youngest\nson, not doubting to vanquish one of his tender age. But the child\nshowed more contempt than fear of the tyrant's threats, and answered his\ninterrogatories: \"I am a Christian: I have been at the collect, and it\nwas of my own voluntary choice, without any compulsion.\" The proconsul\nthreatened him with those little punishments with which children are\naccustomed to be chastised, little knowing that God himself fights in\nhis martyrs. The child only laughed at him. The governor then said to\nhim: \"I will cut off your nose and ears.\" Hilarianus replied: \"You may\ndo it; but I am a Christian.\" The proconsul, dissembling his confusion,\nordered him to prison. Upon which the child said: \"Lord, I give thee\nthanks.\" These martyrs ended their lives under the hardships of their\nconfinement, and are honored in the ancient calendar of Carthage, and\nthe Roman Martyrology, on the 11th of February, though only two (of the\nname of Felix) died on that day of their wounds.\n\n{397}\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe example of these martyrs condemns the sloth with which many\nChristians in this age celebrate the Lord's Day. When the judge asked\nthem, how they durst presume to hold their assembly against the imperial\norders, they always repeated, even on the rack: \"The obligation of the\nSunday is indispensable. It is not lawful for us to omit the duty of\nthat day. We celebrated it as well as we could. We never passed a Sunday\nwithout meeting at our assembly. We will keep the commandments of God at\nthe expense of our lives.\" No dangers nor torments could deter them from\nthis duty. A rare example of fervor in keeping that holy precept, from\nwhich too many, upon lame pretences, seek to excuse themselves. As the\nJew was known by the religious observance of the Sabbath, so is the true\nChristian by his manner of celebrating the Sunday. And as our law is\nmore holy and more perfect than the Jewish, so must be our manner of\nsanctifying the Lord's Day. This is the proof of our religion, and of\nour piety towards God. The primitive Christians kept this day in the\nmost holy manner, assembling to public prayer in dens and caves, knowing\nthat, \"without this religious observance, a man cannot be a Christian,\"\nto use the expression of an ancient father.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  These were, by laying her head on the altar to offer it to God, and\n    all her life after wearing her hair long as the ancient Nazarenes\n    did: (Act. p. 417. St. Optatas, l. 6. S. Ambr. ad Virg. c. 8.)\n    Whereas the ceremony of this consecration in Egypt and Syria was for\n    the virgin to cut off her hair in the presence of a priest.\n    (Bulteau, Hist. Mon. p. 170.)\n\nST. SEVERINUS, ABBOT OF AGAUNUM.\n\nFrom his ancient short life, in Mabillon App. Saec. l. Ben. The additions\nin Surius and Bollandus are too modern. See Chatelain, Notes on the\nMartyrol., p. 618.\n\nA.D. 507.\n\nST. SEVERINUS, of a noble family in Burgundy, was educated in the\nCatholic faith, at a time when the Arian heresy reigned in that country.\nHe forsook the world in his youth, and dedicated himself to God in the\nmonastery of Agaunum, which then only consisted of scattered cells, till\nthe Catholic king Sigismund, son and successor to the Arian Gondebald,\nwho then reigned in Burgundy, built there the great abbey of St.\nMaurice. St. Severinus was the holy abbot of that place, and had\ngoverned his community many years in the exercise of penance and\ncharity, when, in 504, Clovis, the first Christian kin; of France, lying\nill of a fever, which his physicians had for two years ineffectually\nendeavored to remove, sent his chamberlain to conduct him to court; for\nhe heard how the sick from all parts recovered their health by his\nprayers. St. Severinus took leave of his monks, telling them he should\nnever see them more in this world. On his journey he healed Eulalius,\nbishop of Nevers, who had been for some time deaf and dumb, also a leper\nat the gates of Paris; and coming to the palace, he immediately restored\nthe king to perfect health, by putting on him his own cloak. The king in\ngratitude distributed large alms to the poor, and released all his\nprisoners.[1] St. Severinus returning towards Agaunum, stopped at\nChateau-Landon, in Gatinois, where two priests served God in a solitary\nchapel, among whom he was admitted, at his request, as a stranger, and\nwas soon greatly admired by them for his sanctity. He foresaw his death,\nwhich happened shortly after, in 507. The place is now an abbey of\nreformed canons regular of St. Austin. The Huguenots scattered the\ngreatest part of his relics, when they plundered this church. He is\nmentioned in the Roman Martyrology, and a large parish in Paris takes\nits name from this saint, not from the hermit who was St. Cloud's\nmaster.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  {Footnote not in text} See Le Boeuf, Hist. du Diocese de Paris, t.\n    1, p. 151, 157, and Le Fevre, Calend. Hist de Paris, p. 40{}.\n\n{398}\n\nTHE EMPRESS THEODORA.\n\nWHOM THE GREEKS RANK AMONG THE SAINTS.\n\nBY her mildness and patience she often softened the cruel temper of her\nbrutish husband, Theophilus, and protected the defenders of holy images\nfrom the fury of his persecution. Being left by his death regent of the\nempire during the minority of her son, Michael III., she put an end to\nthe Iconoclast heresy, one hundred and twenty years after the first\nestablishment of it by Leo the Isaurian: and the patriarch Methodius\nwith great solemnity restored holy images in the great church in\nConstantinople, on the first Sunday of Lent, which we call the second,\nof which event the Greeks make an annual commemoration, calling it the\nfeast of Orthodoxy. After she had governed the empire with great glory\ntwelve years, she was banished by her unnatural son and his impious\nuncle, Bardas. She prepared herself for death by spending the last eight\nyears of her life in a monastery, where she gave up her soul to God in\n867. She is ranked among the saints in the Menology of the emperor\nBasil, in the Menaea, and other calendars of the Greeks. See the\ncompilations of Bollandus from the authors of the Byzantine history.\n\n\nFEBRUARY XII.\n\nST. BENEDICT, OF ANIAN, ABBOT.\n\nFrom his life, written with great piety, gravity, and erudition, by St.\nArdo Smaragdus, his disciple, to whom he committed the government of his\nmonastery of Anian, when he was called by the emperor near the court.\nArdo died March the 7th, in 843, and is honored at Anian among the\nsaints. He is not to be confounded with Smaragdus, abbot in the diocese\nof Verdun, author of a commentary on the rules of St. Bennet. This\nexcellent life is published by Dom Menard, at the head of St. Bennet's\nConcordia Regularum; by Henschenius, 12 Feb., and by Dom Mabillon, Acta\nSS. Ben., vol. 5, pp. 191, 817. See Helyot, Hist. des Ord. Relig. t. 5,\np. 139. See also Bulteau, Hist. de l'Ord. de S. Benoit, l. 5, c. 2, p.\n342. Eckart. de Reb. Fran. t. 2, pp. 117, 163.\n\nA.D. 821.\n\nHE was the son of Aigulf, count or governor of Languedoc, and served\nking Pepin and his son Charlemagne in quality of cupbearer, enjoying\nunder them great honors and possessions. Grace made him sensible of the\nvanity of all perishable goods, and at twenty years of age he took a\nresolution of seeking the kingdom of God with his whole heart. From that\ntime he led a most mortified life in the court itself for three years,\neating very sparingly and of the coarsest fare, allowing himself very\nlittle sleep, and mortifying all his senses. In 774, having narrowly\nescaped being drowned in the Tesin, near Pavia, in endeavoring to save\nhis brother, he made a vow to quit the world entirely. Returning to\nLanguedoc, he was confirmed in his resolution by the pious advice of a\nhermit of great merit and virtue, called Widmar; and under a pretext of\ngoing to the court at Aix-la-Chapelle, he went to the abbey of St.\nSeine, five leagues from Dijon, and having sent back all his attendants,\nbecame a monk there. He spent two years and a half in wonderful\nabstinence, treating his body as a furious wild beast, to {399} which he\nwould show no other mercy than barely not to kill it. He took no other\nsustenance on any account but bread and water; and when overcome with\nweariness, he allowed himself nothing softer than the bare ground\nwhereon to take a short rest; thus making even his repose a continuation\nof penance. He frequently passed the whole night in prayer, and stood\nbarefoot on the ground in the sharpest cold. He studied to make himself\ncontemptible by all manner of humiliations, and received all insults\nwith joy, so perfectly was he dead to himself. God bestowed on him an\nextraordinary spirit of compunction, and the gift of tears, with an\ninfused knowledge of spiritual things to an eminent degree. Not content\nto fulfil the rule of St. Benedict in its full rigor, he practised all\nthe severest observances prescribed by the rules of St. Pachomius and\nSt. Basil. Being made cellarist, he was very solicitous to provide for\nothers whatever St. Benedict's rule allowed, and had a particular care\nof the poor and of the guests.\n\nHis brethren, upon the abbot's death, were disposed to choose our saint,\nbut he, being unwilling to accept of the charge on account of their\nknown aversion to a reformation, left them, and returned to his own\ncountry, Languedoc, in 780, where he built a small hermitage, near a\nchapel of St. Saturninus, on the brook Anian, near the river Eraud, upon\nhis own estate. Here he lived some years in extreme poverty, praying\ncontinually that God would teach him to do his will, and make him\nfaithfully correspond with his eternal designs. Some solitaries, and\nwith them the holy man Widmar, put themselves under his direction,\nthough he long excused himself. They earned their livelihood by their\nlabor, and lived on bread and water, except on Sundays and solemn\nfestivals, on which they added a little wine and milk when it was given\nthem in alms. The holy superior did not exempt himself from working with\nthe rest in the fields, either carrying wood or plugging; and sometimes\nhe copied good books. The number of his disciples increasing, he quitted\nthe valley, and built a monastery in a more spacious place, in that\nneighborhood. He showed his love of poverty by his rigorous practice of\nit: for he long used wooden, and afterwards glass or pewter chalices at\nthe altar; and if any presents of silk ornaments were made him, he gave\nthem to other churches. However, he some time after changed his way of\nthinking with respect to the church; built a cloister, and a stately\nchurch adorned with marble pillars, furnished it with silver chalices,\nand rich ornaments, and bought a great number of books. He had in a\nshort time three hundred religious under his direction, and also\nexercised a general inspection over all the monasteries of Provence,\nLanguedoc, and Gascony, which respected him as their common parent and\nmaster. At last he remitted something in the austerities of the\nreformation he had introduced among them. Felix, bishop of Urgel, had\nadvanced that Christ was not the natural, but only the adoptive son of\nthe eternal Father. St. Benedict most learnedly opposed this heresy, and\nassisted, in 794, at the council assembled against it at Frankfort. He\nemployed his pen to confute the same, in four treatises, published in\nthe miscellanies of Clausius.\n\nBenedict was become the oracle of the whole kingdom, and he established\nhis reformation in many great monasteries with little or no opposition.\nHis most illustrious colony was the monastery of Gellone, founded in\n804, by William, duke of Aquitaine, who retired into it himself, whence\nit was called St. Guillem du Desert. By the councils held under\nCharlemagne, in 813, and by the Capitulars of that prince, published the\nsame year, it was ordained that the canons should live according to the\ncanons and laws of the church, and the monks according to the rule of\nSt. Bennet: by which regulation a uniformity was introduced in the\nmonastic order in the West. The emperor Louis Debonnaire, who succeeded\nhis father on the 28th of {400} January, 814, committed to the saint the\ninspection of all the abbeys in his kingdom. To have him nearer his own\nperson, the emperor obliged him to live in the abbey of Marmunster, in\nAlsace; and as this was still too remote, desirous of his constant\nassistance in his councils, he built the monastery of Inde, two leagues\nfrom Aix-la-Chapelle, the residence of the emperor and court.\nNotwithstanding St. Benedict's constant abode in this monastery, he had\nstill a hand in restoring monastic discipline throughout France and\nGermany; as he also was the chief instrument in drawing up the canons\nfor the reformation of prebendaries and monks in the council of\nAix-la-Chapelle, in 817, and presided in the assembly of abbots the same\nyear, to enforce restoration of discipline. His statutes were adopted by\nthe order, and annexed to the rule of St. Benedict, the founder. He\nwrote, while a private monk at Seine, the Code of Rules, being a\ncollection of all the monastic regulations which he found extant; as\nalso a book of homilies for the use of monks, collected, according to\nthe custom of that age, from the works of the fathers: likewise a\nPenitential, printed in the additions to the Capitulars. In his Concord\nof Rules he gives that of St. Benedict, with those of other patriarchs\nof the monastic order, to show their uniformity in the exercises which\nthey prescribe.[1] This great restorer of the monastic order in the\nWest, worn out at length with mortification and fatigues, suffered much\nfrom continual sickness the latter years of his life. He died at Inde,\nwith extraordinary tranquillity and cheerfulness, on the 11th of\nFebruary, 821, being then about seventy-one years of age, and was buried\nin the same monastery, since called St. Cornelius's, the church being\ndedicated to that holy pope and martyr. At Anian his festival is kept on\nthe 11th, but by most other Martyrologies on the 12th of February, the\nday of his burial. His relics remain in the monastery of St. Cornelius,\nor of Inde, in the duchy of Cleves, and have been honored with miracles.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nSt. Bennet, by the earnestness with which he set himself to study the\nspirit of his holy rule and state, gave a proof of the ardor with which\nhe aspired to Christian perfection. The experienced masters of a\nspiritual life, and the holy legislators of monastic institutes, have in\nview the great principles of an interior life, which the gospel lays\ndown: for in the exercises which they prescribe, powerful means are\noffered by which a soul may learn perfectly to die to herself, and be\nunited in all her powers to God. This dying to, and profound\nannihilation of ourselves, is of such importance, that so long as a soul\nremains in this state, though all the devils in hell were leagued\ntogether, they can never hurt her. All their efforts will only make her\nsink more deeply in this feeling knowledge of herself, in which she\nfinds her strength, her repose, and her joy, because by it she is\nprepared to receive the divine grace: and if self-love be destroyed, the\ndevil can have no power over us; for he never makes any successful\nattacks upon us but by the secret intelligence which he holds with this\ndomestic enemy. The crucifixion of the old man, and perfect\ndisengagement of the heart, by the practice of universal self-denial, is\nabsolutely necessary before a soul can ascend the mountain of the God of\nJacob, on which his infinite majesty is seen, separated from all\ncreatures; as Blosius,[2] and all other directors in the paths of an\ninterior life, strongly inculcate.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  See Codex Regularum, collectus a B. Benedicto Anianae, auctus a Luca\n    Holstenio, printed by Holstenias at Rome, in 1661. Also, Concordia\n    Regularum, authore B. Benedicto Anianae abbate, edita ab. Hug.\n    Menardo Benedictia{} Parisiis, 1638.\n2.  Instit. Spir. c. 1, n. 6, &c.\n\n{401}\n\nST. MELETIUS, PATRIARCH OF ANTIOCH, C.\n\nHE was of one of the best families of Lesser Armenia, and born a\nMelitene, which Strabo and Pliny place to Cappadocia; but Ptolemy, and\nall succeeding writers, in Lesser Armenia, of which province it became\nthe capital. The saint, in his youth, made fasting and mortification his\nchoice, to the midst of every thing that could flatter the senses. His\nconduct was uniform and irreproachable, and the sweetness and affability\nof his temper gained him the confidence and esteem both of the Catholics\nand Arians; for he was a nobleman of charming simplicity and sincerity,\nand a great lover of peace. Eustathius, bishop of Sebaste, a semi-Arian,\nbeing deposed by the Arians, in a council held at Constantinople, in\n360, Meletius was promoted to that see; but meeting with too violent\nopposition, left it, and retired first into the desert, and afterwards\nto the city of Beraea, in Syria, of which Socrates falsely supposes him\nto have been bishop. The patriarchal church of Antioch had been\noppressed by the Arians, ever since the banishment of Eustathius, in\n331. Several succeeding bishops, who were intruded into that chair, were\ninfamous abettors of that heresy. Eudoxus, the last of these, had been\nremoved from the see of Germanicia to that of Antioch, upon the death of\nLeontius, an Arian like himself, but was soon expelled by a party of\nArians, in a sedition, and be shortly after usurped the see of\nConstantinople. Both the Arians and several Catholics agreed to raise\nSt. Meletius to the patriarchal chair at Antioch, and the emperor\nordered him to be put in possession of that dignity in 361; but some\namong the Catholics refused to acknowledge him, regarding his election\nas irregular, on account of the share which the Arians had had in it.\nThe Arians hoped that he would declare himself of their party, but were\nundeceived when, the emperor Constantius arriving at Antioch, he was\nordered, with certain other prelates, to explain in his presence that\ntext of the Proverbs,[1] concerning the wisdom of God: _The Lord hath\ncreated me in the beginning of his ways_. George of Laodicea first\nexplained it in an Arian sense, next Acacius of Caesarea, in a sense\nbordering on that heresy; but the truth triumphed in the mouth of\nMeletius, who, speaking the third,[2] showed that this text is to be\nunderstood not of a strict creation, but of a new state or being, which\nthe Eternal Wisdom received in his incarnation. This public testimony\nthunderstruck the Arians, and Eudoxus, then the bishop of\nConstantinople, prevailed with the emperor to banish him into Lesser\nArmenia, thirty days after his installation. The Arians intruded the\nimpious Euzoius into that see, who, formerly being deacon at Alexandria,\nhad been deposed and expelled the church, with the priest and\narch-heretic Arius, by St. Alexander, bishop of Alexandria. From this\ntime is dated the famous schism of Antioch, in 360, though it drew its\norigin from the banishment of St. Eustathius about thirty years before.\nMany zealous Catholics always adhered to St. Eustathius, being convinced\nthat his faith was the only cause of his unjust expulsion. But others,\nwho were orthodox in their principles, made no scruple, at least for\nsome time, to join communion in the great church with the intruded\npatriarchs; in which their conscience was more easily imposed upon, as,\nby the artifices of the Arians, the cause of St. Eustathius appeared\nmerely personal and secular, or at least mixed; and his two first\nshort-lived successors Eulalius and Euphronius, do not appear to have\ndeclared themselves Arians, otherwise than by their intrusion. Placillus\nthe Third joined in condemning St. Athanasius in the councils of Tyre,\nin 335, and of Antioch {402} in 341. His successors, Stephen I., (who at\nPhilippopolis opposed the council of Sardica,) Leontius, and Eudoxus,\nappeared everywhere leagued with the heads of the Arians. But the\nintrusion of Euzoius, with the expulsion of St. Meletius, rendered the\nnecessity of an entire separation to communion more notorious; and many\nwho were orthodox in their faith, yet, through weakness or ignorance of\nfacts, had till then communicated with the Arians in the great church,\nwould have no communion with Euzoius, or his adherents; but under the\nprotection of Diodorus and Flavian, then eminent and learned laymen,\nafterwards bishops, held their religious assemblies with their own\npriests, in the church of the apostles without the city, in a suburb\ncalled Palaea, that is, the old suburb or church. They attempted in vain\nto unite themselves to the Eustathians, who for thirty years past had\nheld their separate assemblies; but these refused to admit them, or to\nallow the election of Meletius, on account of the share the Arians had\nhad therein: they therefore continued their private assemblies within\nthe city. The emperor Constantius, in his return from the Persian war,\nwith an intention to march against his cousin Julian, Caesar, in the\nWest, arrived at Antioch, and was baptized by the Arian bishop Euzoius;\nbut died soon after, in his march at Mopsucrene, in Cilicia, on the 3d\nof November, 361. Julian having allowed the banished bishops to go to\ntheir respective churches, St. Meletius returned to Antioch about the\nend of the year 362, but had the affliction to see the breach made by\nthe schism grow wider. The Eustathians not only refused still to receive\nhim, but proceeded to choose a bishop for themselves. This was Paulinus,\na person of great meekness and piety, who had been ordained priest by\nSt. Eustathius himself, and had constantly attended his zealous flock.\nLucifer, bishop of Cagliari, passing by Antioch in his return from\nexile, consecrated Paulinus bishop, and by this precipitate action,\nriveted the schism which divided this church near fourscore and five\nyears, and in which the discussion of the facts upon which the right of\nthe claimants was founded, was so intricate that the saints innocently\ntook part on both sides. It was an additional affliction to St.\nMeletius, to see Julian the Apostate make Antioch the seat of the\nsuperstitious abominations of idolatry, which he restored; and the\ngenerous liberty with which he opposed them, provoked that emperor to\nbanish him a second time. But Jovian soon after succeeding that unhappy\nprince, in 363, our saint returned to Antioch. Then it appeared that the\nArians were men entirely guided by ambition and interest, and that as\nnothing could be more insolent than they had shown themselves when\nbacked by the temporal power, so nothing was more cringing and\nsubmissive, when they were deprived of that protection. For the emperor\nwarmly embracing the Nicene faith, following in all ecclesiastical\nmatters the advice of St. Athanasius, and expressing a particular regard\nfor St. Meletius; the moderate Arians, with Acacius of Caesarea, in\nPalestine, at their head, went to Antioch, where our saint held a\ncouncil of twenty-seven bishops, and there subscribed an orthodox\nprofession of faith. Jovian dying, after a reign of eight months, Valens\nbecame emperor of the East, who was at first very orthodox, but\nafterwards, seduced by the persuasions of his wife, he espoused the\nArian heresy, and received baptism from Eudoxus, bishop of\nConstantinople, who made him promise upon oath to promote the cause of\nthat sect. The cruel persecution which this prince raised against that\nchurch, and the favor which he showed not only to the Arians, but also\nto Pagans, Jews, and all that were not Catholics, deterred not St.\nMeletius from exerting his zeal in defence of the orthodox faith. This\nprince coming from Caesarea, where he had been vanquished by the\nconstancy of St. Basil, arrived at Antioch in April, 372, where he left\nnothing unattempted {403} to draw Meletius over to the interest of his\nsect; but meeting with no success, ordered him a third time into\nbanishment. The people rose tumultuously to detain him among them, and\nthrew stones at the governor, who was carrying him off, so that he only\nescaped with his life by our saint's stepping between him and the mob,\nand covering him with his cloak. It is only to this manner that the\ndisciples of Jesus Christ revenge injuries, as St. Chrysostom\nobserves.[3] Hermant and Fleury suppose this to have happened at his\nfirst banishment. By the order of Valens, he was conducted into Lesser\nArmenia, where he made his own estate at Getasus, near Nicopolis, the\nplace of his residence. His flock at Antioch, by copying his humility,\nmodesty, and patience, amid the persecution which fell upon them, showed\nthemselves the worthy disciples of so great a master. They were driven\nout of the city, and from the neighboring mountains, and the banks of\nthe river, where they attempted to hold their assemblies; some expired\nunder torments, others were thrown into the Orontes. In the mean time,\nValens allowed the pagans to renew their sacrifices, and to celebrate\npublicly the feasts of Jupiter, Ceres, and Bacchus.[4] Sapor, king of\nPersia, having invaded Armenia, took by treachery king Arsaces, bound\nhim in silver chains, (according to the Persian custom of treating royal\nprisoners,) and caused him to perish in prison. To, check the progress\nof these ancient enemies of the empire, Valens sent an army towards\nArmenia, and marched himself to Edessa, in Mesopotamia. Thus the\npersecution at Antioch was abated, to which the death of Valens put an\nend, who was burnt by the Goths in a cottage, after his defeat near\nAdrianople, in 378. His nephew Gratian, who then became master of the\nEast, went in all haste to Constantinople, by his general, Theodosius,\nvanquished the Goths, and by several edicts recalled the Catholic\nprelates, and restored the liberty of the church in the Eastern empire.\nSt. Meletius, upon his return, found that the schism had begun to engage\ndistant churches in the division. Most of the Western prelates adhered\nto the election of Paulinus. St. Athanasius communicated with him, as he\nhad always done with his friends the Eustathian Catholics, though, from\nthe beginning, he disapproved of the precipitation of Lucifer of\nCagliari in ordaining him, and he afterwards communicated also with St.\nMeletius. St. Basil, St. Amphilochius of Iconium, St. Pelagius of\nLaodicea, St. Eusebius of Samosata, St. Cyril of Jerusalem, St. Gregory\nof Nyasa, St. Gregory of Nazianzum, St. Chrysostom, and the general\ncouncil of Constantinople, with almost the unanimous suffrage of all the\nEast, zealously supported the cause of St. Meletius. Theodosius having,\nafter his victory over the Goths, been associated by Gratian, and taken\npossession of the Eastern empire, sent his general, Sapor, to Antioch,\nto re-establish there the Catholic pastors. In an assembly which was\nheld in his presence, in 379, St. Meletius, Paulinus, and Vitalis, whom\nApollinarius had consecrated bishop of his party there, met, and St.\nMeletius, addressing himself to Paulinus, made the following\nproposal:[5] \"Since our sheep have but one religion, and the same faith,\nlet it be our business to unite them into one flock; let us drop all\ndisputes for precedency, and agree to feed them together. I am ready to\nshare this see with you, and let the survivor have the care of the whole\nflock.\" After some demur the proposal was accepted of, and Sapor put St.\nMeletius in possession of the churches which he had governed before his\nlast banishment, and of those which were in the hands of the Arians, and\nPaulinus was continued in his care of the Eustathians. St. Meletius\nzealously reformed the disorders which heresy and divisions {404} had\nproduced, and provided his church with excellent ministers. In 379 he\npresided in a council at Antioch, in which the errors of Apollinarius\nwere condemned without any mention of his name. Theodosius, whom Gratian\ndeclared Augustus, and his partner in the empire at Sirmich, on the 19th\nof January, soon after his arrival at Constantinople, concurred\nzealously in assembling the second general council which was opened at\nConstantinople, in the year 381. Only the prelates of the Eastern empire\nassisted, so that we find no mention of legates of pope Damasus, and it\nwas general, not in the celebration, but by the acceptation of the\nuniversal church. St. Meletius presided as the first patriarch that was\npresent; in it one hundred and fifty Catholic bishops, and thirty-six of\nthe Macedonian sect, made their appearance; but all these latter chose\nrather to withdraw than to retract their error, or confess the divinity\nof the Holy Ghost. The council approved of the election of St. Gregory\nof Nazianzen to the see of Constantinople, though he resigned it to\nsatisfy the scruples and complaints of some, who, by mistake, thought it\nmade against the Nicene canon, which forbade translations of bishops;\nwhich could not be understood of him who had never been allowed to take\npossession of his former see. The council then proceeded to condemn the\nMacedonian heresy, and to publish the Nicene creed, with certain\nadditions. In the second, among the seven canons of discipline, the two\noriental patriarchates of Alexandria and Antioch were acknowledged. In\nthe third, the prerogative of honor, next to the see of Rome, is given\nto that of Constantinople, which before was subject to the metropolitan\nof Heraclea, in Thrace. This canon laid the foundation of the\npatriarchal dignity to which that see was raised by the council of\nCalcedon, though not allowed for some time after in the West. St.\nMeletius died at Constantinople while the council was sitting, to the\ninexpressible grief of the fathers, and of the good emperor. By an\nevangelical meekness, which was his characteristic, he had converted the\nvarious trials that he had gone through into occasions of virtue, and\nhad exceedingly endeared himself to all that had the happiness of his\nacquaintance. St. Chrysostom assures us, that his name was so venerable\nto his flock at Antioch, that they gave it their children, and mentioned\nit with all possible respect. They cut his image upon their seals, and\nupon their plate, and carved it in their houses. His funeral was\nperformed at Constantinople with the utmost magnificence, and attended\nby the fathers of the council, and all the Catholics of the city. One of\nthe most eminent among the prelates, probably St. Amphilochius of\nIconium, pronounced his panegyric in the council. St. Gregory of Nyssa\nmade his funeral oration in presence of the emperor, in the great\nchurch, in the end of which he says, \"He now sees God face to face, and\nprays for us, and for the ignorance of the people.\" St. Meletius's body\nwas deposited in the church of the apostles, till it was removed before\nthe end of the same year, with the utmost pomp, to Antioch, at the\nemperor's expense, and interred near the relics of St. Babylas, in the\nchurch which he had erected in honor of that holy martyr. Five years\nafter, St. Chrysostom, whom our saint had ordained deacon, spoke his\nelegant panegyric on the 12th of February, on which his name occurs in\nthe Menaea, and was inserted by Baronius in the Roman Martyrology; though\nit is uncertain whether this be the day of his death, or of his\ntranslation to Antioch. On account of his three banishments and great\nsufferings, he is styled a martyr by St. John Damascen.[6] His\npanegyrics, by St. Gregory of Nyssa, and St. Chrysostom, are extant. See\nalso Socrates, l. 5, c. 5, p. 261. Sozom. l. 4, c. 28, p. 586.\nTheodoret, l. 3, c. 5, p. 128, l. 2, c. 27, p. 634. Jos. Assem. in Cal.\nUniver. t. 6, p. 125.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  Prov. viii. 22.\n2.  St. Epiph. haer. 73, n. 29.\n3.  Hom. in St. Melet. t. 2.\n4.  Theod. l. 4, c. 23, 24. Sozom. l. 6, c. 17.\n5.  Socr. l. 5, c. 5. Sozom. l. 7, c. 3. Theodoret. l. 5, c. 22.\n6.  Or. 2. de Imagin.\n\n{405}\n\nST. EULALIA, OF BARCELONA, V.M.\n\nTHIS holy virgin was brought up in the faith, and in the practice of\npiety, at Barcelona in Spain. In the persecution of Dioclesian, under\nthe cruel governor Dacian, she suffered the rack, and being at last\ncrucified on it, joined the crown of martyrdom with that of virginity.\nHer relics are preserved at Barcelona, by which city she is honored as\nits special patroness. She is titular saint of many churches, and her\nname is given to several villages of Guienne and Languedoc, and other\nneighboring provinces, where, in some places, she is called St. Eulalie,\nin others St. Olaire, St. Olacie, St. Occille, St. Olaille, and St.\nAulazie. Sainte-Aulaire and Sainte-Aulaye are names of two ancient\nFrench families taken from this saint. Her acts deserve no notice. See\nTillemont, t. 5, in his account from Prudentius, of St. Eulalia of\nMerida, with whom Vincent of Beauvais confounds her; but she is\ndistinguished by the tradition of the Spanish churches, by the Mozarabic\nmissal, and by all the martyrologies which bear the name of St. Jerom,\nAdo, Usuard, &c.\n\nST. ANTONY CAULEAS, CONFESSOR,\n\nPATRIARCH OF CONSTANTINOPLE.\n\nHE was by extraction of a noble Phrygian family, but born at a country\nseat near Constantinople, where his parents lived retired for fear of\nthe persecution and infection of the Iconoclasts. From twelve years of\nage he served God with great fervor, in a monastery of the city, which\nsome moderns pretend to have been that of Studius. In process of time he\nwas chosen abbot, and, upon the death of Stephen, brother to the emperor\nLeo VI., surnamed the Wise, or the Philosopher, patriarch of\nConstantinople in 893. His predecessor had succeeded Photius in 886,\n(whom this emperor expelled,) and labored strenuously to extinguish the\nschism he had formed, and restore the peace of the church over all the\nEast. St. Antony completed this great work, and in a council in which he\npresided at Constantinople, condemned or reformed all that had been done\nby Photius during his last usurpation of that see, after the death of\nSt. Ignatius. The acts of this important council are entirely lost,\nperhaps through the malice of those Greeks who renewed this unhappy\nschism. A perfect spirit of mortification, penance, and prayer,\nsanctified this great pastor, both in his private and public life. He\ndied in the year 896, of his age sixty-seven, on the 12th of February,\non which day his name is inserted in the Greek Menaea, and in the Roman\nMartyrology. See an historical panegyric on his virtues, spoken soon\nafter his death by a certain Greek philosopher named Nicephorus, in the\nBollandists. Le Quien, Oriens Christianus, t. 3; also t. 1, p. 250.\n\n{406}\n\n\nFEBRUARY XIII.\n\nST. CATHARINE DE RICCI, V, O.S.D.\n\nSee her life, written by F. Seraphin Razzi, a Dominican friar, who knew\nher, and was fifty-eight years old when she died. The nuns of her\nmonastery gave an ample testimony that this account was conformable\npartly to what they knew of her, and partly to MS. memorials left by her\nconfessor and others concerning her. Whence F. Echard calls this life a\nwork accurately written. It was printed in 4to. at Lucca, in 1594. Her\nlife was again compiled by F. Philip Galdi, confessor to the saint and\nto the duchess of Urbino, and printed at Florence, in two vols. 4to., in\n1622. FF. Michael Pio and John Lopez, of the same order, have given\nabstracts of her life. See likewise Bened. XIV. de Can. Serv. Dei, t. 5,\ninter Act. Can. 5. SS. Append.\n\nA.D. 1589.\n\nTHE Ricci are an ancient family, which still subsists in a flourishing\ncondition in Tuscany. Peter de Ricci, the father of our saint, was\nmarried to Catharine Bonza, a lady of suitable birth. The saint was born\nat Florence in 1522, and called at her baptism Alexandrina: but she took\nthe name of Catharine at her religious profession. Having lost her\nmother in her infancy, she was formed to virtue by a very pious\ngodmother, and whenever she was missing, she was always to be found on\nher knees in some secret part of the house. When she was between six and\nseven years old, her father placed her in the convent of Monticelli,\nnear the gates of Florence, where her aunt, Louisa de Ricci, was a nun.\nThis place was to her a paradise: at a distance from the noise and\ntumult of the world, she served God without impediment or distraction.\nAfter some years her father took her home. She continued her usual\nexercises in the world as much as she was able; but the interruptions\nand dissipation, inseparable from her station, gave her so much\nuneasiness, that, with the consent of her father, which she obtained,\nthough with great difficulty, in the year 1535, the fourteenth of her\nage, she received the religious veil in the convent of Dominicanesses at\nPrat, in Tuscany, to which her uncle, F. Timothy de Ricci, was director.\nGod, in the merciful design to make her the spouse of his crucified Son,\nand to imprint in her soul dispositions conformable to his, was pleased\nto exercise her patience by rigorous trials. For two years she suffered\ninexpressible pains under a complication of violent distempers, which\nremedies themselves served only to increase. These sufferings she\nsanctified by the interior dispositions with which she bore them, and\nwhich she nourished principally by assiduous meditation on the passion\nof Christ, in which she found an incredible relish, and a solid comfort\nand joy. After the recovery of her health, which seemed miraculous, she\nstudied more perfectly to die to her senses, and to advance in a\npenitential life and spirit, in which God had begun to conduct her, by\npractising the greatest austerities which were compatible with the\nobedience she had professed: she fasted two or three days a week on\nbread and water, and sometimes passed the whole day without taking any\nnourishment, and chastised her body with disciplines and a sharp iron\nchain which she wore next her skin. Her obedience, humility, and\nmeekness, were still more admirable than her spirit of penance. The\nleast shadow of distinction or commendation gave her inexpressible\nuneasiness and confusion, and she would have rejoiced to be able to lie\nhid in the centre of the earth, in order to be entirely unknown to, and\nblotted out of the hearts of all mankind, such were the sentiments of\nannihilation and contempt of herself in which she constantly lived. It\nwas by profound {407} humility and perfect interior self-denial that she\nlearned to vanquish in her heart the sentiments or life of the first\nAdam, that is, of corruption, sin, and inordinate self-love. But this\nvictory over herself, and purgation of her affections, was completed by\na perfect spirit of prayer: for by the union of her soul with God, and\nthe establishment of the absolute reign of his love in her heart, she\nwas dead to, and disengaged from all earthly things. And in one act of\nsublime prayer, she advanced more than by a hundred exterior practices\nin the purity and ardor of her desire to do constantly what was most\nagreeable to God, to lose no occasion of practising every heroic virtue,\nand of vigorously resisting all that was evil. Prayer, holy meditation,\nand contemplation were the means by which God imprinted in her soul\nsublime ideas of his heavenly truths, the strongest and most tender\nsentiments of all virtues, and the most burning desire to give all to\nGod, with an incredible relish and affection for suffering contempt and\npoverty for Christ. What she chiefly labored to obtain, by meditating on\nhis life and sufferings, and what she most earnestly asked of him was,\nthat he would be pleased, in his mercy, to purge her affections of all\npoison of the inordinate love of creatures, and engrave in her his most\nholy and divine image, both exterior and interior, that is to say, both\nin her conversation and affections, that so she might be animated, and\nmight think, speak, and act by his most holy Spirit. The saint was\nchosen, very young, first, mistress of the novices, then sub-prioress,\nand, in the twenty-fifth year of her age, was appointed perpetual\nprioress. The reputation of her extraordinary sanctity and prudence drew\nher many visits from a great number of bishops, princes, and cardinals,\namong others, of Cervini, Alexander of Medicis, and Aldobrandini, who\nall three were afterwards raised to St. Peter's chair, under the names\nof Marcellus II., Clement VIII., and Leo XI. Something like what St.\nAustin relates of St. John of Egypt, happened to St. Philip Neri and St.\nCatharine of Ricci. For having some time entertained together a commerce\nof letters, to satisfy their mutual desire of seeing each other, while\nhe was detained at Rome she appeared to him in a vision, and they\nconversed together a considerable time, each doubtless being in a\nrapture. This St. Philip Neri, though most circumspect in giving credit\nto, or in publishing visions, declared, saying, that Catharine de Ricci,\nwhile living, had appeared to him in vision, as his disciple Galloni\nassures us in his life.[1] And the continuators of Bollandus inform us\nthat this was confirmed by the oaths of five witnesses.[2] Bacci, in his\nlife of St. Philip, mentions the same thing, and pope Gregory XV., in\nhis bull for the canonization of St. Philip Neri, affirms, that while\nthis saint lived at Rome, he conversed a considerable time with\nCatharine of Ricci, a nun, who was then at Prat, in Tuscany.[3] Most\nwonderful were the raptures of St. Catharine in meditating on the\npassion of Christ, which was her daily exercise, but to which she\ntotally devoted herself every week from Thursday noon to three o'clock\nin the afternoon on Friday. After a long illness, she passed from this\nmortal life to everlasting bliss and the possession of the object of all\nher desires, on the feast of the Purification of our Lady, on the 2d of\nFebruary, in 1589, the sixty-seventh year of her age. The ceremony of\nher beatification was performed by Clement XII., in 1732, and that of\nher canonization by Benedict XIV., in 1746. Her festival is deferred to\nthe 13th of February.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nIn the most perfect state of heavenly contemplation which this life\nadmits of, there must be a time allowed for action, as appears from the\nmost {408} eminent contemplatives among the saints, and those religious\ninstitutes which are most devoted to this holy exercise. The mind of man\nmust be frequently unbent, or it will be overset. Many, by a too\nconstant or forced attention, have lost their senses. The body also\nstands in need of exercise, and in all stations men owe several exterior\nduties both to others and themselves, and to neglect any of these, upon\npretence of giving the preference to prayer, would be a false devotion\nand dangerous illusion. Though a Christian be a citizen of heaven, while\nhe is a sojourner in this world, he is not to forget the obligations or\nthe necessities to which this state subjects him, or to dream of flights\nwhich only angels and their fellow inhabitants of bliss take. As a life\naltogether taken up in action and business, without frequent prayer and\npious meditation, alienates a soul from God and virtue, and weds her\ntotally to the world, so a life spent wholly in contemplation, without\nany mixture of action, is chimerical, and the attempt dangerous. The art\nof true devotion consists very much in a familiar and easy habit of\naccompanying exterior actions and business with a pious attention to the\nDivine Presence, frequent secret aspirations, and a constant union of\nthe soul with God. This St. Catharine of Ricci practised at her work, in\nthe exterior duties of her house and office, in her attendance on the\nsick, (which was her favorite employment, and which she usually\nperformed on her knees,) and in the tender care of the poor over the\nwhole country. But this hindered not the exercises of contemplation,\nwhich were her most assiduous employment. Hence retirement and silence\nwere her delight, in order to entertain herself with the Creator of all\nthings, and by devout meditation, kindling in her soul the fire of\nheavenly love, she was never able to satiate the ardor of her desire in\nadoring and praising the immense greatness and goodness of God.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  {Footnote not in text} Gallon. apud Contin. Bolland. Acta Sanctorum,\n    Maii, t. 6, p. 503, col. 2, n. 146.\n2.  Ibid. p. 504, col. 2.\n3.  In Bolland. Cherubini, t. 4, p. 8.\n\nST. LICINIUS, CONFESSOR,\n\nCALLED BY THE FRENCH, LESIN, BISHOP OF ANGERS.\n\nHE was born of a noble family, allied to the kings of France, about the\nyear 540. He was applied to learning as soon as he was capable of\ninstruction, and sent to the court of king Clotaire I., (whose cousin he\nwas,) being about twenty years of age. He signalized himself by his\nprudence and valor, both in the court and in the army, and acquitted\nhimself of all Christian duties with extraordinary exactitude and\nfervor. Fasting and prayer were familiar to him, and his heart was\nalways raised to God. King Chilperic made him count or governor of\nAnjou, and being overcome by the importunities of his friends, the saint\nconsented to take a wife about the year 578. But the lady was struck\nwith a leprosy on the morning before it was to be solemnized. This\naccident so strongly affected Licinius, that he resolved to carry into\nimmediate execution a design he had long entertained of entirely\nrenouncing the world. This he did in 580, and leaving all things to\nfollow Jesus Christ, he entered himself among the clergy, and hiding\nhimself from the world in a community of ecclesiastics, found no\npleasure but in the exercises of piety and the most austere penance, and\nin meditating on the holy scriptures. Audouin, the fourteenth bishop of\nAngers, dying towards the year 600, the people, remembering the equity\nand mildness with which Licinius had governed them, rather as their\nfather than as a judge or master, demanded him for their pastor. The\nvoice of the clergy seconded that of the people, and, the concurrence of\nthe court of Clotaire II. in his minority, under the regency of his\nmother Fredegonda, overcame {409} all the opposition his humility could\nmake. His time and his substance were divided in feeding the hungry,\ncomforting and releasing prisoners, and curing the bodies and souls of\nhis people. Though he was careful to keep up exact discipline in his\ndiocese, he was more inclined to indulgence than rigor, in imitation of\nthe tenderness which Jesus Christ showed for sinners. Strong and\npersuasive eloquence, the more forcible argument of his severe and\nexemplary life, and God himself speaking by miracles, qualified him to\ngain the hearts of the most hardened, and make daily conquest of souls\nto Christ. He renewed the spirit of devotion and penance by frequent\nretreats, and desired earnestly to resign his bishopric, and hide\nhimself in some solitude: but the bishops of the province, whose consent\nhe asked, refusing to listen to such a proposal, he submitted, and\ncontinued to spend the remainder of his life in the service of his\nflock. His patience was perfected by continual infirmities in his last\nyears, and he finished his sacrifice about the year 618, in the\nsixty-fifth of his age. He was buried in the church of St. John Baptist,\nwhich he had founded, with a monastery, which he designed for his\nretreat. It is now a collegiate church, and enriched with the treasure\nof his relics. His memory was publicly honored in the seventh age: the\n1st of November was the day of his festival, though he is now mentioned\nin the Roman Martyrology on the 13th of February. At Angers he is\ncommemorated on the 8th of June, which seems to have been the day of his\nconsecration, and on the 21st of June, when his relics were translated\nor taken up, 1169, in the time of Henry II., king of England, count of\nAnjou. See his life, written from the relation of his disciples soon\nafter his death; and again by Marbodius, archdeacon of Angers,\nafterwards bishop of Rennes, both in Bollandus.\n\nST. POLYEUCTUS, M.\n\nTHE city of Melitine, a station of the Roman troops in the Lesser\nArmenia, is illustrious for a great number of martyrs, whereof the first\nin rank is Polyeuctus. He was a rich Roman officer, and had a friend\ncalled Nearchus, a zealous Christian, who, when the news of the\npersecution, raised by the emperor against the church, reached Armenia,\nprepared himself to lay down his life for his faith; and grieving to\nleave Polyeuctus in the darkness of Paganism, was so successful in his\nendeavors to induce him to embrace Christianity, as not only to gain him\nover to the faith, but to inspire him with an eager desire of laying\ndown his life for the same. He openly declared himself a Christian, and\nwas apprehended and condemned to cruel tortures. The executioners being\nweary with tormenting him, betook themselves to the method of argument\nand persuasion, in order to prevail with him to renounce Christ. The\ntears and cries of his wife Pauline, of his children, and of his\nfather-in-law, Felix, were sufficient to have shaken a mind not superior\nto all the assaults of hell. But Polyeuctus, strengthened by God, grew\nonly the firmer in his faith, and received the sentence of death with\nsuch cheerfulness and joy, and exhorted all to renounce their idols with\nso much energy, on the road to execution, that many were converted. He\nwas beheaded on the 10th of January, in the persecution of Decius, or\nValerian, about the year 250, or 257. The Christians buried his body in\nthe city. Nearchus gathered his blood in a cloth, and afterwards wrote\nhis acts. The Greeks keep his festival very solemnly: and all the Latin\nmartyrologies mention him. There was in Melitine a famous church of St.\nPolyeuctus, in the fourth age, in which St. Euthymius often prayed.\nThere was also a very stately one in Constantinople, under {410}\nJustinian, the vault of which was covered with plates of gold, in which\nit was the custom for men to make their most solemn oaths, as is related\nby St. Gregory of Tours.[1] The same author informs us, in his history\nof the Franks,[2] that the kings of France, of the first race, used to\nconfirm their treaties by the name of Polyeuctus. The martyrology\nascribed to St. Jerom, and the most ancient Armenian calendars, place\nhis feast on the 7th of January, which seems to have been the day of his\nmartyrdom. The Greeks defer his festival to the 9th of January: but it\nis marked on the 13th of February in the ancient martyrology, which was\nsent from Rome to Aquileia in the eighth century, and which is copied by\nAdo, Usuard, and the Roman Martyrology. See his acts taken from those\nwritten by Nearchus, the saint's friend, and Tillem. t. 3, p. 424. Jos.\nAssemani, in Calend. ad 9 Januarii, t. 6.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  De Glor. Mart. c. 103.\n2.  Hist. l. 7, c. 6.\n\nST. GREGORY II., POPE, C.\n\nHE was born in Rome, to an affluent fortune, and being educated in the\npalace of the popes, acquired great skill in the holy scriptures and in\necclesiastical affairs, and attained to an eminent degree of sanctity.\nPope Sergius I., to whom he was very dear, ordained him subdeacon. Under\nthe succeeding popes, John the sixth and seventh, Sisinnius, and\nConstantine, he was treasurer of the church, and afterwards library\nkeeper, and was charged with several important commissions. The fifth\ngeneral council had been held upon the affair of the three chapters, in\n553, in the reign of Justinian, and the sixth against the Monothelites,\nin those of Constantine Pogonatus and pope Agatho, in 660. With a view\nof adding a supplement of new canons to those of the aforesaid two\ncouncils, the bishops of the Greek church, to the number of two hundred\nand eleven, held the council called Quini-sext, in a hall of the\nimperial palace at Constantinople, named Trullus, in 692, which laid a\nfoundation of certain differences to discipline between the Eastern and\nWestern churches; for in the thirteenth canon it was enacted, that a man\nwho was before married should be allowed to receive the holy orders of\nsubdeacon, deacon, or priest, without being obliged to leave his wife,\nthough this was forbid to bishops. (can. 12.) It was also forbid, (canon\n55,) to fast on Saturdays, even in Lent. Pope Sergius I. refused to\nconfirm this council; and, in 695, the emperor, Justinian II., surnamed\nRhinotmetus, who had succeeded his father, Constantine Pogonatus, in\n685, was dethroned for his cruelty, and his nose being slit, (from which\ncircumstance he received his surname,) banished into Chersonesus. First\nLeontius, then Apsimarus Tiberius, ascended the throne; but Justinian\nrecovered it in 705, and invited pope Constantine into the East, hoping\nto prevail upon him to confirm the council in Trullo. The pope was\nreceived with great honor, and had with him our saint, who, in his name,\nanswered the questions put by the Greeks concerning the said council.\nAfter their return to Rome, upon the death of Constantine, Gregory was\nchosen pope, and ordained on the 19th of May, 715. The emperor Justinian\nbeing detested both by the army and people, Bardanes, who took the name\nof Philippicus, an Armenian, one of his generals, revolted, took\nConstantinople, put him and his son Tiberius, only seven years old, to\ndeath, and usurped the sovereignty in December, 711. In Justinian II was\nextinguished the family of Heraclius. Philippicus abetted warmly the\nheresy of the Monothelites, and caused the sixth council to be\nproscribed in a pretended synod at Constantinople. His reign was very\nshort, for Artemius, his secretary, {411} who took the name of\nAnastasius II., deposed him, and stepped into the throne on the fourth\nof June, 713. By him the Monothelites were expelled; but, after a reign\nof two years and seven months, seeing one Theodosius chosen emperor by\nthe army, which had revolted in January, 716, he withdrew, and took the\nmonastic habit at Thessalonica. The eastern army having proclaimed Leo\nIII., surnamed the Isaurian, emperor, on the 25th of March, 717,\nTheodosius and his son embraced an ecclesiastical state, and lived in\npeace among the clergy. Pope Gregory signalized the beginning of his\npopedom by deposing John VI., the Monothelite, false patriarch of\nConstantinople, who had been nominated by Philippicus, and he promoted\nthe election of St. Germanus, who was translated to that dignity from\nCyzicus, in 715. With unwearied watchfulness and zeal he laid himself\nout in extirpating heresies on all sides, and in settling a reformation\nof manners. Besides a hospital for old men, he rebuilt the great\nmonastery near the church of St. Paul at Rome, and, after the death of\nhis mother, in 718, changed her house into the monastery of St. Agatha.\nThe same year he re-established the abbey of Mount Cassino, sending\nthither, from Rome, the holy abbot St. Petronax, to take upon him the\ngovernment, one hundred and forty years after it had been laid in ruins\nby the Lombards. This holy abbot lived to see monastic discipline\nsettled here in so flourishing a manner, that in the same century,\nCarloman, duke or prince of the French, Rachis, king of the Lombards,\nSt. Willebald, St. Sturmius, first abbot of Fulda, and other eminent\npersons, fled to this sanctuary.[1] Our holy pope commissioned zealous\nmissionaries to preach the faith in Germany, and consecrated St.\nCorbinian bishop of Frisingen, and St. Boniface bishop of Mentz. Leo,\nthe Isaurian, protected the Catholic church during the first ten years\nof his reign, and St. Gregory II. laid up among the archives of his\nchurch several letters which he had received from him, from the year 717\nto 726, which proved afterwards authentic monuments of his perfidy. For,\nbeing infatuated by certain Jews, who had gained an ascendant over him\nby certain pretended astrological predictions, in 726 he commanded holy\nimages to be abolished, and enforced the execution of his edicts of a\ncruel persecution. St. Germanus, and other orthodox prelates in the\nEast, endeavored to reclaim him, refused to obey his edicts, and\naddressed themselves to pope Gregory. Our saint employed long the arms\nof tears and entreaties, yet strenuously maintained the people of Italy\nin their allegiance to their prince, as Anastasius assures us. A\nrebellion was raised in Sicily, but soon quelled by the death of\nArtemius, who had assumed the purple. The pope vigorously opposed the\nmutineers, both here and in other parts of the West. When he was\ninformed that the army at Ravenna and Venice, making zeal a pretence for\nrebellion, had created a new emperor, he effectually opposed their\nattempt, and prevented the effect. Several disturbances which were\nraised in Rome were pacified by his care. Nevertheless, he by letters\nencouraged the pastors of the church to resist the heresy which the\nemperor endeavored to establish by bloodshed and violence. The tyrant\nsent orders to several of his officers, six or seven times, to murder\nthe pope: but he was so faithfully guarded by the Romans and Lombards,\nthat he escaped all their snares. St. Gregory II. held the pontificate\nfifteen years, eight months, and twenty-three days, and died in 731, on\nthe 10th of February; but the Roman Martyrology consecrates to his\nmemory the 13th which was probably the day on which his corpse was\ndeposited in the Vatican church.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  Bulteau, Hist. Mon. d'Occid. t. 2, l. 4, c. 2, p. 8.\n\n{412}\n\nST. MARTINIANUS, HERMIT AT ATHENS.\n\nMARTINIANUS was born at Caesarea in Palestine, during the reign of\nConstantius. At eighteen years of age he retired to a mountain near that\ncity, called, The place of the Ark, where he lived for twenty-five years\namong many holy solitaries in the practice of all virtues, and was\nendowed with the gift of miracles. A wicked strumpet of Caesarea, called\nZoe, hearing his sanctity much extolled, at the instigation of the devil\nundertook to pervert him. She feigned herself a poor woman, wandering in\nthe desert late at night, and ready to perish. By this pretext she\nprevailed on Martinianus to let her remain that night in his cell.\nTowards morning she threw aside her rags, put on her best attire, and\ngoing in to Martinianus, told him she was a lady of the city, possessed\nof a large estate and plentiful fortune, all which she came to offer him\nwith herself. She also instanced, in the examples of the saints of the\nOld Testament, who were rich and engaged in the conjugal state, to\ninduce him to abandon his purpose. The hermit, who should have imitated\nthe chaste Joseph in his flight, was permitted, in punishment perhaps of\nsome secret presumption, to listen to her enchanting tongue, and to\nconsent in his heart to her proposal. But as it was near the time that\nhe expected certain persons to call on him to receive his blessing and\ninstructions, he told her he would go and meet them on the road and\ndismiss them. He went out with this intent, but being touched with\nremorse, he returned speedily to his cell, where, making a great fire,\nhe thrust his feet into it. The pain this occasioned was so great, that\nhe could not forbear crying out aloud. The woman at the noise ran in and\nfound him lying on the ground, bathed in tears, and his feet half\nburned. On seeing her he said: \"Ah! if I cannot bear this weak fire, how\ncan I endure that of hell?\" This example excited Zoe to sentiments of\ngrief and repentance; and she conjured him to put her in a way of\nsecuring her salvation. He sent her to Bethlehem, to the monastery of\nSt. Paula, to which she lived in continual penance, and lying on the\nbare floor, with no other sustenance than bread and water. Martinianus,\nas soon as his legs were healed, which was not till seven months after,\nnot being able all that time to rise from the ground, retired to a rock\nsurrounded with water on every side, to be secure from the approach of\ndanger and all occasions of sin. He lived here exposed always to the\nopen air, and without ever seeing any human creature, except a boatman,\nwho brought him twice a year biscuit and fresh water, and twigs\nwherewith to make baskets. Six years after this, he saw a vessel split\nand wrecked at the bottom of his rock. All on board perished, except one\ngirl, who, floating on a plank, cried out for succor. Martinianus could\nnot refuse to go down and save her life: but fearing the danger of\nliving on the same mountain with her till the boatman should come, as\nwas expected in two months, resolved to leave her there to subsist on\nhis provisions till that time, and she chose to end her days on this\nrock in imitation of his penitential life. He, trusting himself to the\nwaves and Providence, to shun all danger of sin, swam to the main land,\nand travelled through many deserts to Athens, where he made a happy end\ntowards the year 400, being about fifty years old. His name, though not\nmentioned in the Roman Martyrology, occurs in the Greek Menaea, and was\nin great veneration in the East, particularly at Constantinople, in the\nfamous church near Sancta Sophia. See his acts in the Bollandists, and\nin most compilers of the lives of the saints. Also Jos. Assemani in Cal.\nUniv. ad 13 Feb. t. 6, p. 145.\n\n{413}\n\nST. MODOMNOC, OR DOMINICK, OF OSSORY, C.\n\nHE is said to have been of the noble race of the O'Neils, and, passing\ninto Wales, to have studied under St. David in the Vale of Ross. After\nhis return home he served God at Tiprat Fachna, in the western part of\nOssory. He is said to have been honored there with the Episcopal\ndignity, about the middle of the sixth century. The see of Ossory was\ntranslated from Seirkeran, the capital of this small county, to Aghavoa,\nin the eleventh century, and in the twelfth, in the reign of Henry II.,\nto Kilkenny. See Sir James Ware, l. De Antiquitatibus Hiberniae, and l.\nDe Episcopal. Hibern.\n\nST. STEPHEN, ABBOT.\n\nHE was abbot of a monastery near the walls of Rieti in Italy, and a man\nof admirable sanctity. He had despised all things for the love of\nheaven. He shunned all company to employ himself wholly in prayer. So\nwonderful was his patience, that he looked upon them as his greatest\nfriends and benefactors, who did him the greatest injuries, and regarded\ninsults as his greatest gain. He lived in extreme poverty, and a\nprivation of all the conveniences of life. His barns, with all the corn\nin them, the whole subsistence of his family, were burned down by wicked\nmen. He received the news with cheerfulness, grieving only for their sin\nby which God was offended. In his agony angels were seen surrounding him\nto conduct his happy soul to bliss. He lived in the sixth age. He is\nnamed in the Roman Martyrology. See St. Gregory, hom. 35, in Evang. t.\n1, p. 1616, and l. 4, Dial. c. 19.\n\nB. ROGER, ABBOT, C.\n\nHAVING embraced the Cistercian order at Loroy, or Locus Regis, in Berry,\nhe was chosen abbot of Elan near Retel in Champagne, and died about the\nyear 1175. His remains are enshrined in a chapel which bears his name,\nin the church at Elan, where his festival is kept with a mass in his\nhonor on the 13th of February. His life was written by a monk of Elan.\nSee Chatelain, on the 4th of January, on which day his name occurs in a\nCistercian calendar printed at Dijon.\n\n\nFEBRUARY XIV.\n\nST. VALENTINE, PRIEST AND MARTYR.\n\nHis acts are commended by Henschenius, but objected to by Tillemont, &c.\nHere is given only an abridgment of the principal circumstances, from\nTillem. l. 4, p. 678.\n\nTHIRD AGE.\n\nVALENTINE was a holy priest in Rome, who, with St. Marius and his\nfamily, assisted the martyrs in the persecution under Claudius II. He\nwas {414} apprehended, and sent by the emperor to the prefect of Rome;\nwho, on finding all his promises to make him renounce his faith\nineffectual, commanded him to be beaten with clubs, and afterwards to be\nbeheaded, which was executed on the 14th of February, about the year\n270. Pope Julius I. is said to have built a church near Ponte Mole to\nhis memory, which for a long time gave name to the gate, now called\nPorts del Popolo, formerly Porta Valentini. The greatest part of his\nrelics are now in the church of St. Praxedes. His name is celebrated as\nthat of an illustrious martyr, in the sacramentary of St. Gregory, the\nRoman missal of Thomasius, in the calendar of F. Fronto, and that of\nAllatius, in Bede, Usuard, Ado, Notker, and all other martyrologies on\nthis day. To abolish the heathen's lewd superstitious custom of boys\ndrawing the names of girls, in honor of their goddess Februata Juno, on\nthe 15th of this month, several zealous pastors substituted the names of\nsaints in billets given on this day. See January 29, on St. Francis de\nSales.\n\nST. MARO, ABBOT.\n\nFrom Theodoret Philoth. c. 16, 22, 24, 30, Tillem. t. 12, p. 412. Le\nQuien, Oriens Christ. t. 3, p. 5, Jos Assemani Bibl. Orient. t. 1, p.\n497.\n\nA.D. 433.\n\nST. MARO made choice of a solitary abode on a mountain in the diocese of\nSyria and near that city, where, out of a spirit of mortification, he\nlived for the most part in the open air. He had indeed a little hut,\ncovered with goat skins, to shelter him from the inclemencies of the\nweather; but he very seldom made use of it for that purpose, even on the\nmost urgent occasions. Finding here a heathen temple, he dedicated it to\nthe true God, and made it his house of prayer. Being renowned for\nsanctity, he was raised, in 405, to the dignity of priesthood. St.\nChrysostom, who had a singular regard for him, wrote to him from\nCucusus, the place of his banishment, and recommended himself to his\nprayers, and begged to hear from him by every opportunity.[1]\n\nSt. Zebinus, our saint's master, surpassed all the solitaries of his\ntime, with regard to assiduity in prayer. He devoted to this exercise\nwhole days and nights, without being sensible of any weariness or\nfatigue: nay, his ardor for it seemed rather to increase than slacken by\nits continuance. He generally prayed in an erect posture; but in his old\nage was forced to support his body by leaning on a staff. He gave advice\nin very few words to those that came to see him, to gain the more time\nfor heavenly contemplation. St. Maro imitated his constancy in prayer:\nyet he not only received all visitants with great tenderness, but\nencouraged their stay with him; though few were willing to pass the\nwhole night in prayer standing. God recompensed his labors with most\nabundant graces, and the gift of curing all distempers, both of body and\nmind. He prescribed admirable remedies against all vices. This drew\ngreat multitudes to him, and he erected many monasteries in Syria, and\ntrained up holy solitaries. Theodoret, bishop of Cyr, says, that the\ngreat number of monks who peopled his diocese were the fruit of his\ninstructions. The chief among his disciples was St. James of Cyr, who\ngloried that he had received from the hands of St. Maro his first\nhair-cloth.\n\nGod called St. Maro to his glory after a short illness, which showed,\nsays Theodoret, the great weakness to which his body was reduced. A\n{415} pious contest ensued among the neighboring provinces about his\nburial. The inhabitants of a large and populous place carried off the\ntreasure, and built to his honor a spacious church over his tomb, to\nwhich a monastery was adjoined, which seems to have been the monastery\nof St. Maro in the diocese of Apamea.[2]\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  St. Chrys. ep. 36.\n2.  It is not altogether certain whether this monastery near Apamea, or\n    another on the Orontes, between Apamea and Emesa, or a third in\n    Palmyrene, (for each of them bore his name,) possessed his body, or\n    gave name to the people called Maronites. It seems most probable of\n    the second, the abbot of which is styled primate of all the\n    monasteries of the second Syria, in the acts of the second council\n    of Constantinople, under the patriarch Mennas, in 536, and he\n    subscribes first a common letter to pope Hormisdas, in 517. The\n    Maronites were called so from these religious, in the fifth century,\n    and adhered to the council of Chalcedon against the Eutychians. They\n    were joined in communion with the Melchites or Loyalists, who\n    maintained the authority of the council of Chalcedon. The Maronites,\n    with their patriarch, who live in Syria, towards the seacoast,\n    especially about mount Libanus, are steady in the communion of the\n    Catholic church, and profess a strict obedience to the pope, as its\n    supreme pastor; and such has always been the conduct of that nation,\n    except during a very short time, that they were inveigled into the\n    Greek schism; and some fell into Eutychianism, and a greater number\n    into Nestorianism; they returned to the communion of the Catholic\n    church under Gregory XIII. and Clement VIII., as Stephen Assemani\n    proves, (Assemani, Act. Mart. t. 2, p. 410,) against the slander of\n    Eutychius in his Arabic Annals, which had imposed upon Renaudot. The\n    Maronites keep the feast of St. Maro on the 9th, the Greeks on the\n    14th of February. The seminary of the Maronites at Rome, founded by\n    Gregory XIII. under the direction of the Jesuits, had produced\n    several great men, who have exceedingly promoted true literature\n    especially the Oriental; such as Abraham Eckellensis, the three\n    Assemani, Joseph, Stephen Evodius, and Lewis, known by his Judicious\n    writings on the ceremonies of the church. The patriarch of the\n    Maronites, styled of Antioch, resides in the monastery of Canabine,\n    at the foot of mount Libanus; he is confirmed by the pope, and has\n    under him five metropolitans, namely, of Tyre, Damascus, Tripolis,\n    Aleppo, and Niocsia, in Cyprus. See Le Quien. Oriens Christianus. t.\n    3, p. 46.\n\nST. ABRAAMES, BISHOP OF CARRES.\n\nHE was a holy solitary, who, going to preach to an idolatrous village on\nMount Libanus, overcame the persecutions of the heathens by meekness and\npatience. When he had narrowly escaped death from their hands, he\nborrowed money wherewith to satisfy the demands of the collectors of the\npublic taxes, for their failure in which respect they were to be cast\ninto prison; and by this charity he gained them all to Christ. After\ninstructing them for three years, he left them in the care of a holy\npriest, and returned to his desert. He was some time after ordained\nbishop of Canes, in Mesopotamia, which country he cleared of idolatry,\ndissensions, and other vices. He joined the recollection and penance of\na monk with the labors of his functions, and died at Constantinople, in\n422, having been sent for to court by Theodosius the Younger, and there\ntreated with the greatest honor on account of his sanctity. The emperor\nkept one of his mean garments, and wore it himself on certain days, out\nof respect. See Theodoret Philoth. c. 17, t. 3, p. 847.\n\nST. AUXENTIUS, H.\n\nHE was a holy hermit in Bithynia, in the fifth age. In his youth he was\none of the equestrian guards of Theodosius the Younger, but this state\nof life, which he discharged with the utmost fidelity to his prince, did\nnot hinder him from making the service of God his main concern. All his\nspare time was spent in solitude and prayer; and he often visited holy\nhermits, to spend the nights with them in tears and singing the divine\npraises, prostrate on the ground. The fear of vain-glory moved him to\nretire to the desert mountain of Oxen, in Bithynia, eight miles from\nConstantinople. After the council of Chalcedon, where he appeared upon\nsummons by order of the emperor Marcian, against Eutyches, he chose a\ncell on the mountain of Siope, near Chalcedon, in which he contributed\nto the sanctification of many who resorted to him for advice; he\nfinished his martyrdom of penance, together {416} with his life, about\n470. Sozomen commended exceedingly his sanctity while he was yet\nliving.[1] St. Stephen the Younger caused the church of his monastery to\nbe dedicated to God, under the invocation of our saint; and mount Siope\nis called to this day mount St. Auxentius. See his life, written from\nthe relation of his disciple Vendimian, with the remarks of Henschenius.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  Sozom. l. 7, c. 21.\n\nST. CONRAN, BISHOP OF ORKNEY, CONFESSOR.\n\nTHE isles of Orkney are twenty-six in number, besides the lesser, called\nHolmes, which are uninhabited, and serve only for pasture. The faith was\nplanted here by St. Palladius, and St. Sylvester, one of his\nfellow-laborers, who was appointed by him the first pastor of this\nchurch, and was honored in it on the 5th of February. In these islands\nformerly stood a great number of holy monasteries, the chief of which\nwas Kirkwall. This place was the bishop's residence, and is at this day\nthe only remarkable town in these islands. It is situated in the largest\nof them, which is thirty miles long, called anciently Pomonia, now\nMainland. This church is much indebted to St. Conran, who was bishop\nhere in the seventh century, and whose name, for the austerity of his\nlife, zeal, and eminent sanctity, was no less famous in those parts, so\nlong as the Catholic religion flourished there, than those of St.\nPalladius and of St. Kentigern. The cathedral of Orkney was dedicated\nunder the invocation of St. Magnus, king of Norway. On St. Conran, see\nbishop Lesley, Hist. Scot. l. 4. Wion, in addit. c. 3. Ligni Vitae. King,\nin Calend.\n\n\nFEBRUARY XV.\n\nSS. FAUSTINUS AND JOVITA, MM.\n\nA.D. 121.\n\nFAUSTINUS and JOVITA were brothers, nobly born, and zealous professors\nof the Christian religion, which they preached without fear in their\ncity of Brescia, while the bishop of that place lay concealed during the\npersecution. The acts of their martyrdom seeming of doubtful authority,\nall we can affirm with certainty of them is, that their remarkable zeal\nexcited the fury of the heathens against them, and procured them a\nglorious death for their faith at Brescia, in Lombardy, under the\nemperor Adrian. Julian, a heathen lord, apprehended them; and the\nemperor himself passing through Brescia, when neither threats nor\ntorments could shake their constancy, commanded them to be beheaded.\nThey seem to have suffered about the year 121.[1] The city of Brescia\nhonors them as its chief patrons, and possesses their relics. A very\nancient church in that city bears their name, and all the martyrologies\nmention them.\n\nThe spirit of Christ is a spirit of martyrdom, at least of mortification\nand penance. It is always the spirit of the cross. The remains of the\nold man, of sin and of death, must be extinguished, before one can be\nmade heavenly by putting on affections which are divine. What mortifies\nthe {417} senses and the flesh gives life to the spirit, and what\nweakens and subdues the body strengthens the soul. Hence the divine love\ninfuses a spirit of mortification, patience, obedience, humility, and\nmeekness, with a love of sufferings and contempt, in which consists the\nsweetness of the cross. The more we share in the suffering life of\nChrist, the greater share we inherit in his spirit, and in the fruit of\nhis death. To souls mortified to their senses and disengaged from\nearthly things, God gives frequent foretastes of the sweetness of\neternal life, and the most ardent desire of possessing him in his glory.\nThis is the spirit of martyrdom, which entitles a Christian to a happy\nresurrection and to the bliss of the life to come.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  See Tillemont, t. 2, p. 249. Pagi, &c.\n\nST. SIGEFRIDE, OR SIGFRID,\n\nBISHOP, APOSTLE OF SWEDES.\n\nFrom Joan. Magnus, Hist. Goth. l. 17, c. 20, quoted by Bollandus, and\nchiefly from a life of this saint, compiled at Wexlow about the year\n1205, published from an ancient MS. by the care of Ericus Benzelius\njunior, in his Monuments Historica vetera Ecclesiae Suevogothicae, printed\nat Upsal in 1709, p. 1, ad p. 14, and in Prolegom. Sect. 1. The editor\nwas not able to discover the author's name: upon which he repeats the\nremark of the learned Maussac, (in Diss. Critica ad Harpocrat.,) that\n\"many monkish writers endeavored to conceal their names out of\nhumility.\" On which see Mabillon, Diar. Ital. p. 36. Benzelius gives us\na considerable fragment of a second life of this holy prelate, ib. p.\n21, ad 29, and some verses of bishop Brynoth the third, on St. Sigfrid\nand the other bishops of this province, ib. p. 72.\n\nOur zealous ancestors having received the light of our faith, propagated\nthe same throughout all the northern provinces of Europe. St. Anscarius\nhad planted the faith in, in 830; but it relapsed soon into idolatry.\nKing Olas Scobcong entreated king Edred, who died in 91{} to send him\nmissionaries to preach the gospel in his country. Sigefride, an eminent\npriest of York, undertook that mission, and on the 21st of June, in 950,\narrived at Wexiow, in Gothland, in the territory of Smaland. He first\nerected a cross, then built a church of wood, celebrated the divine\nmysteries, and preached to the people. Twelve principal men of the\nprovince were converted by him, and one who died, was buried after the\nChristian manner, and a cross placed upon his grave. So great numbers\nwere in a short time brought to the faith, that the cross of Christ was\ntriumphantly planted in all the twelve tribes into which the inhabitants\nof South-Gothland were divided. The fountain near the mountain of\nOstrabo, since called Wexiow, in which St. Sigefride baptized the\ncatechumens, long retained the names of the twelve first converts,\nengraved on a monument. King Olas was much pleased with the accounts he\nheard of the man of God, and many flocked from remote parts, out of mere\ncuriosity to hear his doctrine, and to see him minister at the altar,\nadmiring the rich ornaments of linen, and over them of silk, which he\nwore in celebrating the divine mysteries, with a mitre on his head, and\na crosier, or pastoral staff, in his hand. Also the gold and silver\nvessels which he had brought with him for the use of the altar, and the\ndignity and majesty of the ceremonies of the Christian worship,\nattracted their attention. But the sublime truths of our religion, and\nthe mortification, disinterestedness, zeal, and sanctity of the\napostolic missionaries, engaged them to give them a favorable reception,\nand to open their eyes to the evidence of the divine revelation. St.\nSigefride ordained two bishops, the one of East, the other of West\nGothland, or Lingkoping, and Scara. The see of Wexiow he continued\nhimself to govern so long as he lived. His three nephews, Unaman, a\npriest, and Sunaman and Wiaman, the one a deacon, the other a subdeacon,\nwere his chief assistants in his apostolic labors. Haring intrusted the\nadministration of his see of Wexiow to Unaman, and left his two brothers\nto assist and comfort him, the saint himself set out to carry {418} the\nlight of the gospel into the midland and northern provinces. King Olas\nreceived him with great respect, and was baptized by him, with his whole\ncourt and his army. St. Sigefride founded many churches, and consecrated\na bishop of Upsal, and another of Strengues. The former of these sees\nhad been founded by St. Anscharius, in 830, and the bishop was declared\nby pope Alexander III., in 1160, metropolitan and primate of the whole\nkingdom. During the absence of our saint, a troop of idolatrous rebels,\npartly out of hatred of the Christian religion, and partly for booty,\nplundered the church of Wexiow, and barbarously murdered the holy pastor\nUnaman and his two brothers. Their bodies they buried in the midst of a\nforest, where they have always remained hid. But the murderers put the\nheads of the martyrs into a box, which, with a great stone they had\nfastened to it, they threw into a great pond. But they were afterwards\ntaken out, and kept richly enshrined in the church of Wexiow till their\nrelics were removed by the Lutherans. These three holy martyrs were\nhonored in Sweden. Upon the news of this massacre St. Sigefride hastened\nto Wexiow to repair the ruins of his church. The king resolved to put\nthe murderers to death; but Sigefride, by his earnest entreaties,\nprevailed on him to spare their lives. However, he condemned them to pay\na heavy fine, which he would have bestowed on the saint, but he refused\naccepting a single farthing of it, notwithstanding his extreme poverty,\nand the difficulties which he had to struggle with, in laying the\nfoundation of that new church. He had inherited the spirit of the\napostles in an heroic degree. Our saint died about the year 1002, and\nwas buried in his cathedral at Wexiow, where his tomb became famous for\nmiracles. He was canonized about the year 1158, by pope Adrian IV.,[1]\nan Englishman, who had himself labored zealously, and with great\nsuccess, in the conversion of Norway, and other northern countries,\nabout a hundred and forty years after St. Sigefride, who was honored by\nthe Swedes as their apostle, till the change of religion among them.[2]\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  Vastove, Vinea Aquilonis.\n2.  In the life of St. Sigefride, published by Benzelius, it is\n    mentioned, that St. Sigefride, upon his first arrival in Sweden,\n    preached chiefly by interpreters.\n\n\nFEBRUARY XVI.\n\nST. ONESIMUS, DISCIPLE OF ST. PAUL.\n\nHE was a Phrygian by birth, slave to Philemon, a person of note of the\ncity of Colossae, converted to the faith by St. Paul. Having robbed his\nmaster, and being obliged to fly, he providentially met with St. Paul,\nthen a prisoner for the faith at Rome, who there converted and baptized\nhim, and sent him with his canonical letter of recommendation to\nPhilemon, by whom he was pardoned, set at liberty, and sent back to his\nspiritual father, whom he afterwards faithfully served. That apostle\nmade him, with Tychicus, the bearer of his epistle to the Colossians,[1]\nand afterwards, as St. Jerom[2] and other fathers witness, a preacher of\nthe gospel, and a bishop. The Greeks say he was crowned with martyrdom\nunder Domitian, in the year 95, and {419} keep his festival on the 15th.\nBede, Ado, Usuard, the Roman and other Latin martyrologists mention him\non the 16th of February.[3]\n\nBaronius and some others confound him with St. Onesimus, the third\nbishop of Ephesus, after St. Timothy, who was succeeded first by John,\nthen by Caius. This Onesimus showed great respect and charity to St.\nIgnatius, when on his journey to Rome, in 107, and is highly commended\nby him.[4]\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nWhen a sinner, by the light and power of an extraordinary grace, is\nsnatched like a firebrand out of the fire, and rescued from the gates of\nhell, we cannot wonder if he is swallowed up by the deepest and most\nlively sense of his own guilt, and of the divine mercy; if such a one\nloves much, because much has been forgiven him; if he endeavors to\nrepair his past crimes by heroic acts of penance and all virtues, and if\nhe makes haste to redeem his lost time by a zeal and vigilance hard to\nbe imitated by others. Hence we read of the _first love of the church of\nEphesus_[5] as more perfect. The ardor of the compunction and love of a\ntrue penitent, is compared to the unparalleled _love of Judah in the day\nof her espousal_.[6] This ardor is not to be understood as a passing\nsally of the purest passions, as a shortlived fit of fervor, or desire\nof perfection, as a transient taste or sudden transport of the soul: it\nmust be sincere and constant. With what excess of goodness does God\ncommunicate himself to souls which thus open themselves to him! With\nwhat caresses does he often visit them! With what a profusion of graces\ndoes he enrich and strengthen them! It often happens that, in the\nbeginning, God, either to allure the frailty of a new convert, or to\nfortify his resolution against hazardous trials, favors him with more\nthan usual communications of the sweetness of his love, and ravishes him\nby some glances, as it were, of the beatific vision. His tenderness was\nnot less, when, for their spiritual advancement, their exercise in\nheroic virtues, and the increase of their victories and glory, he\nconducted them through severe trials. On the other side, with what\nfidelity and ardor did these holy penitents improve themselves daily in\ndivine love and all virtues! Alas! our coldness and insensibility, since\nour pretended conversion from the world and sin, is a far greater\nsubject of amazement than the extraordinary fervor of the saints in the\ndivine service.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  Colos. iv.\n2.  Ep. 62, c. 2.\n3.  Tillem. t. 1, p. 294, and note 10, on St. Paul.\n4.  Ep. ad Ephes.\n5.  Apoc. 11. 4.\n6.  Jerem. 11. 2.\n\n\nSS. ELIAS, JEREMY, ISAIAS, SAMUEL, AND DANIEL,\n\nWITH OTHER HOLY MARTYRS AT CAESAREA, IN PALESTINE.\n\nFrom Eusebius's relation of the martyrs of Palestine, at the end of the\neighth book of his history, c. 11, 12, p. 346. Ed. Vales.\n\nA.D. 309.\n\nIn the year 309, the emperors Galerius Maximianus and Maximinus\ncontinuing the persecution begun by Dioclesian, these five pious\nEgyptians went to visit the confessors condemned to the mines in\nCilicia, and on their return were stopped by the guards of the gates of\nCaesarea, in Palestine, as they were entering the town. They readily\ndeclared themselves Christians, together with the motive of their\njourney; upon which they were apprehended. The day following they were\nbrought before Firmilian, the governor of Palestine, together with St.\nPamphilus and others. The judge, before {420} he began his\ninterrogatory, ordered the five Egyptians to be laid on the rack, as was\nhis custom. After they had long suffered all manner of tortures, he\naddressed himself to him who seemed to be their chief, and asked him his\nname and his country. They had changed their names, which, perhaps,\nbefore their conversion, were those of some heathen gods, as was\ncustomary in Egypt. The martyr answered, according to the names they had\ngiven themselves, that he was called Elias, and his companions, Jeremy,\nIsaias, Samuel, and Daniel. Firmilian then asked their country; he\nanswered, Jerusalem, meaning the heavenly Jerusalem, the true country of\nall Christians. The judge inquired in what part of the world that was,\nand ordered him to be tormented with fresh cruelty. All this while the\nexecutioners continued to tear his body with stripes, while his hands\nwere bound behind him, and his feet squeezed in the woodstocks, called\nthe Nervus. The judge, at last, tired with tormenting them, condemned\nall five to be beheaded, which was immediately executed.\n\nPorphyrius, a youth who was a servant of St. Pamphilus, hearing the\nsentence pronounced, cried out, that at least the honor of burial ought\nnot to be refused them. Firmilian, provoked at this boldness, ordered\nhim to be apprehended, and finding that he confessed himself a\nChristian, and refused to sacrifice, ordered his sides to be torn so\ncruelly, that his very bones and bowels were exposed to view. He\nunderwent all this without a sigh or tear, or so much as making the\nleast complaint. The tyrant, not to be overcome by so heroic a\nconstancy, gave orders for a great fire to be kindled, with a vacant\nspace to be left in the midst of it, for the martyr to be laid in, when\ntaken off the rack. This was accordingly done, and he lay there a\nconsiderable time, surrounded by the flames, singing the praises of God,\nand invoking the name of Jesus; till at length, quite broiled by the\nfire, he consummated a slow, but glorious martyrdom.\n\nSeleucus, an eye-witness of this victory, was heard by the soldiers\napplauding the martyr's resolution; and being brought before the\ngovernor, he, without more ado, ordered his head to be struck off.\n\nST. JULIANA, VIRGIN AND MARTYR.\n\nAFTER many torments, she was beheaded at Nicomedia, under Galerius\nMaximianus. St. Gregory the great mentions that her bones were\ntranslated to Rome. Part of them are now at Brussels, in the church of\nour Lady of Sablon. This saint is much honored in the Low Countries. Her\nacts in Bollandus deserve no notice. Bede, and martyrologies ascribed to\nSt. Jerom, call this the day of her martyrdom, which the ancient Corbie\nmanuscript places at Nicomedia. See Chatelain's notes on the\nmartyrology, p. 667.\n\nST. GREGORY X., POPE, C.\n\nHE was of an illustrious family, born at Placentia, and at his baptism\nwas called Theobald. In his youth he was distinguished for his\nextraordinary virtue, and his progress in his studies, especially of the\ncanon law, which he began in Italy, and pursued at Paris, and lastly at\nLiege. He was archdeacon of this last church when he received an order\nfrom the pope to preach the crusade for the recovery of the Holy Land.\nIncredible were the pains which he took in executing this commission,\nand in reconciling the Christian princes, who were at variance. The\ndeath of St. Lewis, in 1270, {421} struck a damp upon the spirits of the\nChristians in the East, though the prince of Wales, soon after Edward\nI., king of England, sailed from Sicily, in March, 1271, to their\nassistance, took Jaffa and Nazareth, and plundered Antioch. A tender\ncompassion for the distressed situation of the servants of Christ in\nthose parts, moved the holy archdeacon of Liege to undertake a dangerous\npilgrimage to Palestine, in order to comfort them, and at the same time\nto satisfy his devotion by visiting the holy places. The see of Rome had\nbeen vacant almost three years, from the death of Clement IV. to\nNovember, 1268, the cardinals who were assembled at Viterbo not coming\nto an agreement in the choice of a pope, till, by common consent, they\nreferred his election to six among them, who, on the 1st of September,\nin 1271, nominated Theobald, the archdeacon of Liege. Upon the news of\nhis election, he prepared himself to return to Italy. Nothing could be\nmore tender and moving than his last farewell to the disconsolate\nChristians of Palestine, whom he promised, in a most solemn manner,\nnever to forget. He arrived at Rome in March, and was first ordained\npriest, then consecrated bishop, and crowned on the 27th of the same\nmonth, in 1272. He took the name of Gregory X., and, to procure the most\neffectual succor to the Holy Land, called a general council to meet at\nLyons, where pope Innocent IV. had held the last in 1245, partly for the\nsame purpose of the holy war, and partly to endeavor to reclaim the\nemperor Frederick II. The city of Lyons was most convenient for the\nmeeting of those princes whose succors were principally expected for the\nholy war; and was most unexceptionable, because at that time it\nacknowledged no other sovereign than its archbishop. Henry III., king of\nEngland, died on the 16th of November, 1272, and Edward I., who had\nconcluded a peace of ten years with the Saracens, in the name of the\nChristians in Syria and Palestine, returned for England, and on the road\nat Trapani, in Sicily, met the news of his father's death. In the same\nplace he received most obliging letters from pope Gregory X. The\nfourteenth general council, the second of Lyons, was opened in that city\nin May, 1274, in which were assembled five hundred bishops and seventy\nabbots. In the fourth session, the Greek ambassadors (who were,\nGermanus, formerly patriarch of Constantinople, Theophanes, archbishop\nof Nice, and the senator, George Acropolita, great logothete, or\nchancellor) were admitted. The logothete abjured the schism in the name\nof the emperor Michael Palaeologus; and the pope, while Te Deum was sung,\nstood with his cheeks all the time bathed in tears. St. Thomas Aquinas\ndied on the 7th of March, before the opening of the council, and St.\nBonaventure at Lyons, on the 15th of July. The council was closed by the\nfifth and last session, on the 17th of July. The more our holy pope was\noverwhelmed with public affairs, the more watchful he was over his own\nsoul, and the more earnest in the interior duties of self-examination,\ncontemplation, and prayer. He spoke little, conversing assiduously in\nhis heart with God; he was very abstemious in his diet, and most\nrigorous to himself in all things. By this crucified life, his soul was\nprepared to taste the hidden manna which is concealed in the divine\nword, with which he continually nourished it in holy meditation. After\nthe council he was taken up in concerting measures for carrying its\ndecrees into execution, particularly those relating to the crusade in\nthe East. By his unwearied application to business, and the fatigues of\nhis journey, in passing the Alps in his return to Rome, he contracted a\ndistemper, of which he died at Arezzo, on the 10th of January, in 1276,\nthree years and nine months after his consecration, and four years, four\nmonths, and ten days after his election. His name is inserted in the\nRoman Martyrology, published by Benedict XIV., on the 16th of February.\nSee Platina, Ciacconius, St. Antoninus, Hist. part 3, it. 20, c. 2. The\naccount of his life and miracles in {422} the archives of the tribunal\nof the Rota, and in Benedict XIV. de Canoniz. l. 2, t. 2, Append. 8, p.\n673; the proofs of his miracles, ib. p. 709; also, ib. l. 2, c. 24, sec.\n37 and 42; and l. 1, c. 20, n. 17. See likewise his life, copied from a\nMS. history of several popes, by Bernard Guidonis, published by\nMuratori, Scriptor. Ital. t. 3, p. 597, and another life of this pope,\nwritten before the canonization of St. Lewis, in which mention is made\nof miraculous cures performed by him, ibid. pp. 599, 604.\n\nST. TANCO, OR TATTA, B.M.\n\nPATTON, abbot of Amabaric, in Scotland, passing into Germany to preach\nthe gospel, and being chosen bishop of Verdun, Tanco, who had served God\nmany years in that abbey in great reputation for his singular learning\nand piety, was raised to the dignity of abbot. Out of an ardent thirst\nafter martyrdom, he resigned this charge, and followed his countryman\nand predecessor into Germany, where, after some time, he succeeded him\nin the see of Verdun, of which he was the third bishop. His success in\npropagating the faith was exceeding great, but it was to him a subject\nof inexpressible grief to see many who professed themselves Christians,\nlive enslaved to shameful passions. In order to convert, or at least to\nconfound them, he preached a most zealous sermon against the vices which\nreigned among them; at which a barbarous mob was so enraged as fiercely\nto assault him; and one of them, stabbing him with a lance, procured him\nthe glorious crown of martyrdom, about the year 815. This account of him\nis given us by Krantzius, (l. 1, Metrop. c. 22 & 29.) Lesley, l. 5,\nHist. Wion, l. 3, Ligni Vitae.\n\nFEBRUARY XVII.\n\nST. FLAVIAN, M.\n\nARCHBISHOP OF CONSTANTINOPLE.\n\nFrom the councils, and historians Cedrenus, Evagrius, Theophanes, &c.\nSee Baronius, Henschenius. t. 3, Feb. p. 71. Fleury, l. 27, 28. Quesnel,\nin his edition of the works of St. Leo, t. 2, diss. 1, and F. Cacciari,\nt. 3, Exercit. in opera St. Leonis, Romae, an. 1755. Dissert. 4, de\nEutychiana Haer. l. 1, c. 2, p. 322; c. 8, p. 383; c. 9, p. 393, c. 11,\np. 432.\n\nA.D. 449\n\nST. FLAVIAN was a priest of distinguished merit, and treasurer of the\nchurch of Constantinople, when he succeeded St. Proclus in the\narchiepiscopal dignity in 447. The eunuch Chrysaphius, chamberlain to\nthe emperor Theodosius the Younger, and a particular favorite, suggested\nto his master, a weak prince, to require of him a present, out of\ngratitude to the emperor for his promotion. The holy bishop sent him\nsome blessed bread, according to the custom of the church at that time,\nas a benediction and symbol of communion. Chrysaphius let him know that\nit was a present of a very different kind that was expected from him.\nSt. Flavian, an enemy to simony, answered resolutely, than the revenues\nand treasure of the church were designed for other uses, namely, the\nhonor of God and the relief of his poor. The eunuch, highly provoked at\nthe bishop's refusal, from that moment {423} resolved to contrive his\nruin. Wherefore, with a view to his expulsion, he persuaded the emperor,\nby the means of his wife Eudoxia, to order the bishop to make Pulcheria,\nsister to Theodosius, a deaconess of his church. The saint's refusal was\na second offence in the eyes of the sycophants of the court. The next\nyear Chrysaphius was still more grievously offended with our saint for\nhis condemning the errors of his kinsman Eutyches, abbot of a monastery\nof three hundred monks, near the city, who had acquired a reputation for\nvirtue, but in effect was no better than an ignorant, proud, and\nobstinate man. His intemperate zeal against Nestorius, for asserting two\ndistinct persons in Christ, threw him into the opposite error, that of\ndenying two distinct natures after the incarnation.\n\nIn a council, held by St. Flavian in 448, Eutyches was accused of this\nerror by Eusebius of Dorylaeum, his former friend, and it was there\ncondemned as heretical, and the author was cited to appear to give an\naccount of his faith. On the day appointed in the last summons he\nappeared before the council, but attended by two of the principal\nofficers of the court, and a troop of the imperial guards. Being\nadmitted and interrogated on the point in question, that is, his faith\nconcerning the incarnation; he declared that he acknowledged indeed two\nnatures before the union, but after it only one. To all reasonings and\nauthority produced against his tenet, his reply was, that he did not\ncome thither to dispute, but to satisfy the assembly what his faith was.\nThe council, upon this, anathematized and deposed him, and St. Flavian\npronounced the sentence, which was subscribed by thirty-two bishops and\ntwenty-three abbots, of which last eighteen were priests. Eutyches said\nprivately to his guards, that he appealed to the bishops of Rome, Egypt,\nand Jerusalem; and in a letter he wrote to St. Leo to complain of his\nusage in the council, he endeavored to impose on the pope. But his\nHoliness being informed of the state of the affair by St. Flavian, wrote\nto him an ample declaration of the orthodox faith upon the point which\nwas afterwards read, and inserted in the acts of the council of\nChalcedon, in which the errors of Eutyches were solemnly condemned.\nChrysaphius, however, had interest enough with the weak emperor to\nobtain an order for a re-examination of the cause between St. Flavian\nand Eutyches in another council. This met in April, 449, consisting of\nabout thirty bishops, one third whereof had assisted at the late\ncouncil. St. Flavian being looked on as a party, Thalassius, bishop of\nCaesarea, presided in his room. After the strictest scrutiny into every\nparticular, the impiety of Eutyches, and the justice of our saint's\nproceedings, clearly appeared. St. Flavian presented to the emperor a\nprofession of his faith, wherein he condemned the errors of both\nEutyches and Nestorius, his adversaries pretending that he favored the\nlatter.\n\nChrysaphius, though baffled in his attempts, was still bent on the ruin\nof the holy bishop, and employed all his craft and power to save\nEutyches and destroy Flavian. With this view he wrote to Dioscorus, a\nman of a violent temper, who had succeeded St. Cyril in the patriarchal\nsee of Alexandria, promising him his friendship and favor in all his\ndesigns, if he would undertake the defence of the deposed abbot against\nFlavian and Eusebius. Dioscorus came into his measures; and, by their\njoint interest with the empress Eudoxia, glad of an opportunity to\nmortify Pulcheria, who had a high esteem for our saint, they prevailed\nwith the emperor to order a council to be called at Ephesus, to\ndetermine the dispute. Dioscorus was invited by the emperor to come and\npreside in it, accompanied with ten metropolitans and other bishops,\ntogether with the archimandrite, or abbot Barsumas, a man strongly\nattached to Eutyches and Dioscorus. The like directions were sent to the\nother patriarchs. St. Leo, who was invited, though late, sent legatee to\nact {424} in his name, Julius, bishop of Puteoli, Renatus, a priest, who\ndied on the road, Hilarius, a deacon, and Dulcitius, a notary. He sent\nby them a learned letter to St. Flavian, in which he taxes the ignorance\nof Eutyches in the holy scriptures, and explains the Catholic doctrine\nagainst that heresiarch, which he also did by other letters.\n\nThe false council of Ephesus, for the violences therein used commonly\ncalled the Latrocinale, was opened on the 8th of August, in 449, and\nconsisted of one hundred and thirty bishops, or their deputies, from\nEgypt and the East. Eutyches was there, and two officers from the\nemperor, with a great number of soldiers. Every thing was carried on, by\nviolence and open faction, in favor of Eutyches, by those officers and\nbishops who had espoused his party and formed a cabal. The pope's\nlegates were never suffered to read his letters to the council. The\nfinal result of the proceedings was, to pronounce sentence of deposition\nagainst St. Flavian and Eusebius. The pope's legates protested against\nthe sentence. Hilarius, the deacon, cried out aloud, \"contradicitur,\"\nopposition is made; which Latin word was inserted in the Greek acts of\nthe synod. And Dioscorus no sooner began to read the sentence, but he\nwas interrupted by several of the bishops, who, prostrating themselves\nbefore him, besought him, in the most submissive terms, to proceed no\nfurther in so unwarrantable an affair. Upon this he starts up, and calls\naloud for the imperial commissioners, Elpidius and Eulogius, who,\nwithout more ado, ordered the church doors to be set open; upon which\nProclus, the proconsul of Asia, entered, surrounded with a band of\nsoldiers, and followed by a confused multitude with chains, clubs, and\nswords. This struck such a terror into the whole assembly, that, when\nthe bishops were required by Dioscorus and his creatures to subscribe,\nfew or none had the courage to withstand his threats, the pope's legates\nexcepted, who protested aloud against these violent proceedings; one of\nwhom was imprisoned; the other, Hilarius, got off with much difficulty,\nand came safe to Rome. St. Flavian, on hearing the sentence read by\nDioscorus, appealed from him to the holy see, and delivered his acts of\nappeal in writing to the pope's legates, then present. This so provoked\nDioscorus,[1] that, together with Barsumas and others of their party,[2]\nafter throwing the holy bishop on the ground, they so kicked and bruised\nhim, that he died within a few days, in 449, not at Ephesus, as some\nhave said by mistake, but in his exile at Epipus, two days' journey from\nthat city, situated near Sardes in Lydia, as Marcellinus testifies in\nhis chronicle.\n\nThe council being over, Dioscorus, with two of his Egyptian bishops, had\nthe insolence to excommunicate St. Leo. But violence and injustice did\nnot triumph long. For the emperor's eyes being opened on his sister\nPulcheria's return to court, whom the ambition of Chrysaphius had found\nmeans to remove in the beginning of these disturbances, the eunuch was\ndisgraced, and soon after put to death; and the empress Eudoxia obliged\nto retire to Jerusalem. The next year the emperor died, as Cedrenus\nsays, penitent; and Pulcheria, ascending the throne in 450, ordered\nSaint Flavian's body to be brought with great honor to Constantinople,\nand there magnificently interred, among his predecessors in that see.\nSt. Leo had, upon the first news of these proceedings, written to him to\ncomfort him, as also to Theodosius, Pulcheria, and the clergy of\nConstantinople, in his defence. The general council of Chalcedon\ndeclared him a saint and martyr, and paid great honors to his memory, in\n451. The same council honorably restored Eusebius of Dorylaeum to his\nsee. Pope Hilarius, who had been St. Leo's legate at Ephesus, had so\ngreat a veneration for the saint, that he caused his martyrdom {425} to\nbe represented in mosaic work, in the church which he built in honor of\nthe holy Cross. The wicked Dioscorus was condemned by the council of\nChalcedon, in 451, and died obstinate and impenitent, in the Eutychian\nheresy, and his other crimes, in his banishment at Gangres, in 454.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nIt was the glory of St. Flavian to die a martyr of the mystery of the\nincarnation of the Son of God. This is the fundamental article of the\nChristian religion, and, above all other mysteries, challenges our most\nprofound homages and constant devotion. In it hath God displayed, in the\nmost incomprehensible manner, the astonishing immensity of his power,\nmercy, wisdom, and love, the contemplation of which will be the sweet\noccupation of angels and saints to all eternity. The servants of God on\nearth find their greatest delight in meditating on this great mystery,\nand in profound adoration and transports of love, honoring, praising,\nand glorifying their divine Saviour, and studying to put on his spirit\nby the constant union in mind and heart, or of their thoughts and\naffections, with him. Is it possible that we who believe in this God,\nwho annihilated himself, and died for us most miserable and ungrateful\nsinners, should not die of love for him? At least, how is it possible we\nshould not always have him present to our minds, and prostrate ourselves\nat his feet a thousand times a day to return him our most humble thanks,\nand to pay him the homages of our adoration, love, and praise? The more\nhe is insulted in this mystery of goodness itself, by the blasphemies of\nunbelievers and heretics, the greater ought to be our zeal and fervor in\nhonoring it. But as the incarnation is the mystery of the unfathomed\nhumility of a God to heal the wound of our pride, it is only by\nhumility, and the annihilation of creatures in our hearts, that we can\nbe disposed to contemplate or honor it with fruit. The dreadful fall and\nimpenitence of Eutyches, after he had renounced the world with a view to\ngive himself to God, were owing to the fatal sin of a secret pride.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  Evag. l. xi. c. 11.\n2.  Conc. Calced. act. 4.\n\nSS. THEODULUS AND JULIAN, MM.\n\nTHEY suffered at Caesarea, in Palestine, at the same time with those\nmentioned yesterday, but are named on this day in the Roman Martyrology.\nTheodulus was an old man of eminent virtue and wisdom, who enjoyed one\nof the most honorable posts in the household of Firmilian, the governor\nof Palestine, and had several sons. His personal merit gained him the\nlove of all that knew him, and the governor had a particular esteem for\nhim. This holy man had seen the invincible courage and patience of the\nfive Egyptian martyrs at Caesarea, and, going to the prisons, made use of\ntheir example to encourage the other confessors, and prepare them for\nthe like battles. Firmilian, vexed at this conduct of an old favorite\nservant, sent for him, reproached him strongly with ingratitude, and,\nwithout hearing his defence, condemned him to be crucified. Theodulus\nreceived the sentence with joy, and went with transports to a death\nwhich was speedily to unite him to his Saviour, and in which he was\nthought worthy to bear a near resemblance to him. Julian, who shared the\nglory of that day with the other martyrs, was a Cappadocian, as was also\nSt. Seleucus; he was only a catechumen, though highly esteemed by the\nfaithful for his many great virtues, and he was just then come to\nCaesarea. At his arrival, hearing of the conflicts of the martyrs, he ran\nto the place, and finding the execution over, expressed his veneration\nfor them, by kissing and embracing the bodies which had been animated by\nthose heroic and happy souls. The guards apprehended {426} him, and\ncarried him to the governor, who, finding him as inflexible as the rest,\nwould not lose his time in useless interrogatories, but immediately\nordered him to be burnt. Julian, now master of all he wished for, gave\nGod thanks for the honor done him by this sentence, and begged he would\nbe pleased to accept of his life as a voluntary sacrifice. The courage\nand cheerfulness which he maintained to his last moment, filled his\nexecutioners with surprise and confusion. See Eusebius, an eye-witness,\nl. de Mart. Palaest. c. 12, p. 337.\n\nST. SILVIN OF AUCHY, B.C.\n\nHE was born of a considerable family in the territory of Thoulouse, and\npassed his first years at the court of two successive kings, Childeric\nII. and Theodoric III. Every thing was ready for his marriage, when,\npowerfully touched by divine grace, he renounced all worldly prospects,\nand retired from court. His thoughts were now bent upon Jesus Christ\nalone, and he longed for nothing so much as to enjoy silence and\nsolitude. After several devout penitential pilgrimages to Jerusalem and\nother places, he took orders at Rome, and was consecrated bishop, some\nsay of Thoulouse, others of Terouenne. But his name is not found in any\nancient register of either of those churches, and it is now agreed,\namong the most judicious critics, that he was ordained a regionary\nbishop to preach the gospel to infidels. His zeal carried him into the\nnorth of France, and he spent most of his time in the diocese of\nTerouenne, which was then full of Pagans, and Christians but one remove\nfrom them. He was indefatigable in preaching to them the great truths\nand essential obligations of our holy faith, and taught them to despise\nand renounce the pleasures of this life, by appearing on all occasions a\nstrong lesson of self-denial and mortification. Instructing them thus,\nboth by words and actions, he gathered a large harvest in a wild and\nuncultivated field. After many years thus spent, he died at Auchy, in\nthe county of Artois, on the 15th of February, in 718. He is\ncommemorated in Usuard, the Belgic and Roman Martyrologies, on the 17th,\nwhich was the day of his burial: but at Auchy on the 15th. The greatest\npart of his relics is now at St. Bertin's, at St. Omers, whither they\nwere carried in 951, for fear of the Normans. Usuard is the first who\nstyles St. Silvin bishop of Terouenne. Some think he was born, not at\nThoulouse, but at Thosa, or Doest, near Bruges; or rather at another\nThosa, now Doesbury, in Brabant; for in his life it is said that he\ntravelled westward to preach the gospel. His original life, which was\nascribed to Antenor, a disciple of the saint, is lost: that which we\nhave was compiled in the ninth century. See Bolland. t. 3, Feb. p. 29,\nMabillon, Act. Bened. Saec. 3, par. 1, p. 298. Chatelain's Notes, p. 659.\n\nST. LOMAN, OR LUMAN, B.C.\n\nJOCELIN calls him a nephew of St. Patrick, by a sister. He was at least\na disciple of that saint, and first bishop of Trim, in Meath.\nPort-Loman, a town belonging to the Nugents in West-meath, takes its\nname from him, and honors his memory with singular veneration. St.\nForcher{n}, son of the lord of that territory, was baptized by St.\nLoman, succeeded him in the bishopric of Trim, and is honored among the\nsaints in Ireland, both on this same day and on the 11th of October. See\nColgan on the 17th Febr. Usher's Antiqu. ad ann. 433.\n\n{427}\n\nST. FINTAN, ABBOT OF CLUAINEDNECH,\n\nWHICH Usher interprets the Ivy-Cave, in the diocese of Lethglean, in\nLeinster, in the sixth century. He had for disciple St. Comgal, the\nfounder of the abbey of Benchor, and master of St. Columban. Colgan\nreckons twenty-four Irish saints of the name of Fintan; but probably\nseveral of these were the same person honored in several places. Another\nSt. Fintan, surnamed Munnu, who is honored on the 21st of October, was\nvery famous. See Colgan, Usher, and Henschenius.\n\n\nFEBRUARY XVIII.\n\nST. SIMEON, BISHOP OF JERUSALEM, M.\n\nFrom Euseb. l. 3, c. 32. Tillem. t. 1, p. 186, and t. 2. Le Quien,\nOriens Christ. t. 3, p. 140.\n\nA.D. 116\n\nST. SIMEON was the son of Cleophas, otherwise called Alpheus, brother to\nSt. Joseph, and of Mary, sister of the Blessed Virgin. He was therefore\nnephew both to St. Joseph and to the Blessed Virgin, and cousin-german\nto Christ. Simeon and Simon are the same name, and this saint is,\naccording to the best interpreters of the holy scripture, the Simon\nmentioned,[1] who was brother to St. James the Lesser, and St. Jude,\napostles, and to Joseph or Jose. He was eight or nine years older than\nour Saviour. We cannot doubt but he was an early follower of Christ, as\nhis father and mother and three brothers were, and an exception to that\nof St. John,[2] that our Lord's relations did not believe in him. Nor\ndoes St. Luke[3] leave us any room to doubt but that he received the\nHoly Ghost on the day of Pentecost, with the blessed Virgin and the\napostles; for he mentions present St. James and St. Jude, and the\nbrothers of our Lord. St. Epiphanius relates,[4] that when the Jews\nmassacred St. James the Lesser, his brother Simeon reproached them for\ntheir atrocious cruelty. St. James, bishop of Jerusalem, being put to\ndeath in the year 62, twenty-nine years after our Saviour's\nresurrection, the apostles and disciples met at Jerusalem to appoint him\na successor. They unanimously chose St. Simeon, who had probably before\nassisted his brother in the government of that church.\n\nIn the year 66, in which SS. Peter and Paul suffered martyrdom at Rome,\nthe civil war began in Judea, by the seditions of the Jews against the\nRomans. The Christians in Jerusalem were warned by God of the impending\ndestruction of that city, and by a divine revelation[5] commanded to\nleave it, as Lot was rescued out of Sodom. They therefore departed out\nof it the same year, before Vespasian, Nero's general, and afterward\nemperor, entered Judaea, and retired beyond Jordan to a small city called\nPella; having St. Simeon at their head. After the taking and burning of\nJerusalem they returned thither again, and settled themselves amidst its\n{428} ruins, till Adrian afterwards entirely razed it. St. Epiphanius[6]\nand Eusebius[7] assure us, that the church here flourished extremely,\nand that multitudes of Jews were converted by the great number of\nprodigies and miracles wrought in it.\n\nSt. Simeon, amidst the consolations of the Holy Ghost and the great\nprogress of the church, had the affliction to see two heresies arise\nwithin its bosom, namely, those of the Nazareans and the Ebionites; the\nfirst seeds of which, according to St. Epiphanius, appeared at Pella.\nThe Nazareans were a sect of men between Jews and Christians, but\nabhorred by both. They allowed Christ to be the greatest of the\nprophets, but said he was a mere man, whose natural parents were Joseph\nand Mary: they joined all the ceremonies of the old law with the new,\nand observed both the Jewish Sabbath and the Sunday. Ebion added other\nerrors to these, which Cerenthus had also espoused, and taught many\nsuperstitions, permitted divorces, and allowed of the most infamous\nabominations. He began to preach at Cocabe, a village beyond Jordan,\nwhere he dwelt; but he afterwards travelled into Asia, and thence to\nRome. The authority of St. Simeon kept the heretics in some awe during\nhis life, which was the longest upon earth of any of our Lord's\ndisciples. But, as Eusebius says, he was no sooner dead than a deluge of\nexecrable heresies broke out of hell upon the church, which durst not\nopenly appear during his life.\n\nVespasian and Domitian had commanded all to be put to death who were of\nthe race of David. St. Simeon had escaped their searches; but Trajan\nhaving given the same order, certain heretics and Jews accused him, as\nbeing both of the race of David and a Christian, to Atticus, the Roman\ngovernor in Palestine. The holy bishop was condemned by him to be\ncrucified: who, after having undergone the usual tortures during several\ndays, which, though one hundred and twenty years old, he suffered with\nso much patience that he drew on him a universal admiration, and that of\nAtticus in particular, he died in 107, according to Eusebius in his\nchronicle, but in 116, according to Dodwell, bishop Loyde, and F. Pagi.\nHe must have governed the church of Jerusalem about forty-three years.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe eminent saints among the primitive disciples of Jesus Christ, were\nentirely animated by his spirit, and being dead to the world and\nthemselves, they appeared like angels among men. Free from the secret\nmixture of the sinister views of all passions, to a degree which was a\nmiracle of grace, they had in all things only God, his will and honor,\nbefore their eyes, equally aspiring to him through honor and infamy. In\nthe midst of human applause they remained perfectly humbled in the\ncentre of their own nothing: when loaded with reproaches and contempt,\nand persecuted with all the rage that malice could inspire, they were\nraised above all these things so as to stand fearless amid racks and\nexecutioners, inflexibly constant in their fidelity to God, before\ntyrants, invincible under torments, and superior to them almost as if\nthey had been impassible. Their resolution never failed them, their\nfervor seemed never slackened. Such wonderful men wrought continual\nmiracles in converting souls to God. We bear the name of Christians, and\nwear the habit of Saints; but are full of the spirit of worldlings, and\nour actions are infected with its poison. We secretly seek ourselves,\neven when we flatter ourselves that God is our only aim, and while we\nundertake to convert the world, we suffer it to pervert us. When shall\nwe begin to study to crucify our passions and die to ourselves, that we\nmay lay a solid foundation of true virtue, and establish its reign in\nour hearts?\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  Matt. xiii.55.\n2.  John vii. 5.\n3.  Acts i. 14.\n4.  Haer. 78. c. 14.\n5.  Eus. l. 3, c. 5, Epiph. haer. 29, c. 7, haer. 30, c. 2.\n6.  L. de Pond. et Mensur. c. 15.\n7.  Demonst. l. 3, c. 5.\n\n{429}\n\nSS. LEO AND PAREGORIUS, MARTYRS\n\nFrom their ancient authentic acts in Ruinart, Bollandus, &c.\n\nTHIRD AGE.\n\nST. PAREGORIUS having spilt his blood for the faith at Patara, in Lycia,\nSt. Leo, who had been a witness of his conflict, found his heart divided\nbetween joy for his friend's glorious victory, and sorrow to see himself\ndeprived of the happiness of sharing in it. The proconsul of Asia being\nabsent in order to wait on the emperors, probably Valerian and Galien,\nthe governor of Lycia, residing at Patara, to show his zeal for the\nidols, published an order on the festival of Serapis, to oblige all to\noffer sacrifice to that false god. Leo seeing the heathens out of\nsuperstition, and some Christians out of fear, going in crowds to adore\nthe idol, sighed within himself, and went to offer up his prayers to the\ntrue God, on the tomb of St. Paregorius, to which he passed before the\ntemple of Serapis, it lying in his way to the martyr's tomb. The\nheathens that were sacrificing in it knew him to be a Christian by his\nmodesty. He had exercised himself from his childhood in the austerities\nand devotions of an ascetic life, and possessed, in an eminent degree,\nchastity, temperance, and all other virtues. His clothes were of a\ncoarse cloth made of camel's hair. Not long after his return home from\nthe tomb of the martyr, with his mind full of the glorious exit of his\nfriend, he fell asleep, and from a dream he had on that occasion,\nunderstood, when he awaked, that God called him to a conflict of the\nsame kind with that of St. Paregorius, which filled him with\ninexpressible joy and comfort.\n\nWherefore, the next time he visited the martyr's tomb, instead of going\nto the place through by-roads, he went boldly through the market-place,\nand by the Tychaeaum, or temple of Fortune, which he saw illuminated with\nlanterns. He pitied their blindness; and, being moved with zeal for the\nhonor of the true God, he made no scruple to break as many of the\nlanterns as were within reach, and trampled on the tapers in open view,\nsaying: \"Let your gods revenge the injury if they are able to do it.\"\nThe priest of the idol having raised the populace, cried out: \"Unless\nthis impiety be punished, the goddess Fortune will withdraw her\nprotection from the city.\" An account of this affair soon reached the\nears of the governor, who ordered the saint to be brought before him,\nand on his appearance addressed him in this manner; \"Wicked wretch, thy\nsacrilegious action surely bespeaks thee either ignorant of the immortal\ngods, or downright mad, in flying in the face of our most divine\nemperors, whom we justly regard as secondary deities and saviours.\" The\nmartyr replied with great calmness: \"You are under a great mistake, in\nsupposing a plurality of gods; there is but one, who is the God of\nheaven and earth, and who does not stand in need of being worshipped\nafter that gross manner that men worship idols. The most acceptable\nsacrifice we can offer him is that of a contrite and humble heart.\"\n\"Answer to your indictment,\" said the governor, \"and don't preach your\nChristianity. I thank the gods, however, that they have not suffered you\nto lie concealed after such a sacrilegious attempt. Choose therefore\neither to sacrifice to them, with those that are here present, or to\nsuffer the punishment due to your impiety.\" The martyr said: \"The fear\nof torments shall never draw me from my duty. I am ready to suffer all\nyou shall inflict. All your tortures cannot reach beyond death. Eternal\nlife is not to be attained but by the way of tribulations; the scripture\naccordingly {430} informs us, _that narrow is the way that leads to\nlife_.\" \"Since you own the way you walk in is narrow,\" said the\ngovernor, \"exchange it for ours, which is broad and commodious.\" \"When I\ncalled it narrow,\" said the martyr, \"this was only because it is not\nentered without difficulty, and that its beginnings are often attended\nwith afflictions and persecutions for justice sake. But being once\nentered, it is not difficult to keep in it by the practice of virtue,\nwhich helps to widen it and render it easy to those that persevere in\nit, which has been done by many.\"\n\nThe multitude of Jews and Gentiles cried out to the judge to silence\nhim. But he said, he allowed him liberty of speech, and even offered him\nhis friendship if he would but sacrifice. The confessor answered: \"You\nseem to have forgot what I just before told you, or you would not have\nurged me again to sacrifice. Would you have me acknowledge for a deity\nthat which has nothing in its nature of divine?\" These last words put\nthe governor in a rage, and he ordered the saint to be scourged. While\nthe executioners were tearing his body unmercifully, the judge said to\nhim: \"This is nothing to the torments I am preparing for you. If you\nwould have me stop here, you must sacrifice.\" Leo said: \"O judge, I will\nrepeat to you again what I have so often told you: I own not your gods,\nnor will I ever sacrifice to them.\" The judge said: \"Only say the gods\nare great, and I will discharge you. I really pity your old age.\" Leo\nanswered: \"If I allow them that title, it can only be with regard to\ntheir power of destroying their worshippers.\" The judge in a fury said:\n\"I will cause you to be dragged over rocks and stones, till you are torn\nto pieces.\" Leo said: \"Any kind of death is welcome to me, that procures\nme the kingdom of heaven, and introduces me into the company of the\nblessed.\" The judge said: \"Obey the edict, and say the gods are the\npreservers of the world, or you shall die.\" The martyr answered: \"You do\nnothing but threaten: why don't you proceed to effects?\" The mob began\nto be clamorous, and the governor, to appease them, was forced to\npronounce sentence on the saint, which was, that he should be tied by\nthe feet, and dragged to the torrent, and there executed; and his orders\nwere immediately obeyed in a most cruel manner. The martyr being upon\nthe point of consummating his sacrifice, and obtaining the\naccomplishment of all his desires, with his eyes lifted up to heaven,\nprayed thus aloud: \"I thank thee, O God, the Father of our Lord Jesus\nChrist, for not suffering me to be long separated from thy servant\nParegorius. I rejoice in what has befallen me as the means of expiating\nmy past sins. I commend my soul to the care of thy holy angels, to be\nplaced by them where it will have nothing to fear from the judgments of\nthe wicked. But thou, O Lord, who willest not the death of a sinner, but\nhis repentance, grant them to know thee, and to find pardon for their\ncrimes, through the merits of thy only Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.\"\nHe no sooner repeated the word Amen, together with an act of\nthanksgiving, but he expired. His executioners then took the body and\ncast it down a great precipice into a deep pit; and notwithstanding the\nfall, it seemed only to have received a few slight bruises. The very\nplace which was before a frightful precipice, seemed to have changed its\nnature; and the acts say, no more dangers or accidents happened in it to\ntravellers. The Christians took up the martyr's body, and found it of a\nlively color, and entire, and his face appeared comely and smiling; and\nthey buried it in the most honorable manner they could. The Greeks keep\nhis festival on the 18th of February.\n\n{431}\n\nFEBRUARY XIX.\n\nST. BARBATUS, OR BARBAS, C.\n\nBISHOP OF BENEVENTO.\n\nFrom his two authentic lives in Bollandus, t. 3, Febr. p. 139. See\nUghelli, Italia Sacra, t. 8, p. l3.\n\nA.D. 682.\n\nST. BARBATUS was born in the territory of Benevento, in Italy, towards\nthe end of the pontificate of St. Gregory the Great, in the beginning of\nthe seventh century. His parents gave him a Christian education, and\nBarbatus in his youth laid the foundation of that eminent sanctity which\nrecommends him to our veneration. Devout meditation on the holy\nscriptures was his chief entertainment; and the innocence, simplicity,\nand purity of his manners, and extraordinary progress in all virtues,\nqualified him for the service of the altar, to which he was assumed by\ntaking holy orders as soon as the canons of the church would allow it.\nHe was immediately employed by his bishop in preaching, for which he had\nan extraordinary talent; and, after some time, made curate of St.\nBasil's, in Morcona, a town near Benevento. His parishioners were\nsteeled in their irregularities, and averse from whatever looked like\nestablishing order and discipline among them. As they desired only to\nslumber on in their sins, they could not bear the remonstrances of their\npastor, who endeavored to awake them to a sense of their miseries, and\nto sincere repentance: they treated him as a disturber of their peace,\nand persecuted him with the utmost violence. Finding their malice\nconquered by his patience and humility, and his character shining still\nmore bright, they had recourse to slanders, in which, such was their\nvirulence and success, that he was obliged to withdraw his charitable\nendeavors among them. By these fiery trials, God purified his heart from\nall earthly attachments, and perfectly crucified it to the world.\nBarbatus returned to Benevento, where he was received with joy by those\nwho were acquainted with his innocence and sanctity. The seed of\nChristianity had been first sown at Benevento by St. Potin, who is said\nto have been sent thither by St. Peter, and is looked upon as the first\nbishop of this see. We have no names of his successors till St.\nJanuarius, by whom this church was exceedingly increased, and who was\nhonored with the crown of martyrdom in 305. Totila, the Goth, laid the\ncity of Benevento in ruins, in 545. The Lombards having possessed\nthemselves of that country, repaired it, and king Autharis gave it to\nZotion, a general among those invaders, with the title of a duchy, about\nthe year 598, and his successors governed it, as sovereign dukes, for\nseveral ages. These Lombards were at that time chiefly Arians; but among\nthem there remained many idolaters, and several at Benevento had\nembraced the Catholic faith, even before the death of St. Gregory the\nGreat, with their duke Arichis, a warm friend of that holy pope. But\nwhen St. Barbatus entered upon his ministry in that city, the Christians\nthemselves retained many idolatrous superstitions, which even their\nduke, or prince Romuald, authorized by his example, though son of\nGrimoald, king of the Lombards, who had edified all Italy by his\nconversion. They expressed a religious veneration to a golden viper, and\nprostrated themselves before it: they paid also a superstitious honor to\na tree, on which they hung {432} the skin of a wild beast, and these\nceremonies were closed by public games, in which the skin served for a\nmark at which bowmen shot arrows over their shoulder. St. Barbatus\npreached zealously against these abuses, and labored long to no purpose:\nyet desisted not, but joined his exhortations with fervent prayer and\nrigorous fasting, for the conversion of this unhappy people. At length\nhe roused their attention by foretelling the distress of their city, and\nthe calamities which it was to suffer from the army of the emperor\nConstans, who, landing soon after in Italy, laid siege to Benevento. In\ntheir extreme distress, and still more grievous alarms and fears, they\nlistened to the holy preacher, and, entering into themselves, renounced\ntheir errors and idolatrous practices. Hereupon St. Barbatus gave them\nthe comfortable assurance that the siege should be raised, and the\nemperor worsted: which happened as he had foretold. Upon their\nrepentance, the saint with his own hand cut down the tree which was the\nobject of their superstition, and afterwards melted down the golden\nviper which they adored, of which he made a chalice for the use of the\naltar. Ildebrand, bishop of Benevento, dying during the siege, after the\npublic tranquillity was restored, St. Barbatus was consecrated bishop on\nthe 10th of March, 653; for this see was only raised to the\narchiepiscopal dignity by pope John XIII., about the year 965. Barbatus,\nbeing invested with the episcopal character, pursued and completed the\ngood work which he had so happily begun, and destroyed every trace or\nthe least remain of superstition in the prince's closet, and in the\nwhole state. In the year 680 he assisted in a council held by pope\nAgatho at Rome, and the year following in the sixth general council held\nat Constantinople against the Monothelites. He did not long survive this\ngreat assembly, for he died on the 29th of February, 682, being about\nseventy years old, almost nineteen of which he had spent in the\nepiscopal chair. He is named in the Roman Martyrology, and honored at\nBenevento among the chief patrons of that city.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nMany sinners are moved by alarming sensible dangers or calamities to\nenter into themselves, on whom the terrors of the divine judgment make\nvery little impression. The reason can only be a supine neglect of\nserious reflection, and a habit of considering them only transiently,\nand as at a distance; for it is impossible for any one who believes\nthese great truths, if he takes a serious review of them, and has them\npresent to his mind, to remain insensible: transient glances effect not\na change of heart. Among the pretended conversions which sickness daily\nproduces, very few bear the characters of sincerity, as appears by those\nwho, after their recovery, live on in their former lukewarmness and\ndisorders.[1] St. Austin, in a sermon which he made upon the news that\nRome had been sacked by the barbarians, relates,[2] that not long\nbefore, at Constantinople, upon the appearance of an unusual meteor, and\na rumor of a pretended prediction that the city would be destroyed by\nfire from heaven, the inhabitants were seized with a panic fear, all\nbegan to do penance like Ninive, and fled, with the emperor at their\nhead, to a great distance from the city. After the term appointed for\nits pretended destruction was elapsed, they sent scouts to the city,\nwhich they had left quite empty, and, hearing that it was still\nstanding, returned to it, and with their fears forgot their repentance\nand all their good resolutions. To prevent the danger of penitents\nimposing upon themselves by superficial conversions, St. Barbatus took\nall necessary precautions to improve their {433} first dispositions to a\nsincere and perfect change of heart, and to cut off and remove all\ndangerous occasions of temptations.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  The devil was sick, the devil a monk would be;\n    The devil was well, the devil no monk was he.\n2.  S. Aug. Serm. de Excidio Urbis, c. 6, t. 6, p. 627, ed. Ben.\n\n\nFEBRUARY XX.\n\nSS. TYRANNIO, BISHOP OF TYRE,\n\nZENOBIUS, AND OTHERS, MARTYRS IN PHOENICIA, ETC.\n\nFrom Eusebius, Hist l. 8, c.7, 13, 25. St. Jerom in Chron. Euseb.\n\nA.D. 304, 310.\n\nEUSEBIUS, the parent of church history, and an eye-witness of what he\nrelates concerning these martyrs, gives the following account of them.\n\"Several Christians of Egypt, whereof some had settled in Palestine,\nothers at Tyre, gave astonishing proofs of their patience and constancy\nin the faith. After innumerable stripes and blows, which they cheerfully\nunderwent, they were exposed to wild beasts, such as leopards, wild\nbears, boars, and bulls. I myself was present when these savage\ncreatures, accustomed to human blood, being let out upon them, instead\nof devouring them, or tearing them to pieces, as it was natural to\nexpect, stood off, refusing even to touch or approach them, at the same\ntime that they fell foul on their keepers, and others that came in their\nway.[1] The soldiers of Christ were the only persons they refused,\nthough these martyrs, pursuant to the order given them, tossed about\ntheir arms, which was thought a ready way to provoke the beasts, and\nstir them up against them. Sometimes, indeed, they were perceived to\nrush towards them with their usual impetuosity, but, withheld by a\ndivine power, they suddenly withdrew; and this many times, to the great\nadmiration of all present. The first having done no execution, others\nwere a second and a third time let out upon them, but in vain; the\nmartyrs standing all the while unshaken, though many of them very young.\nAmong them was a youth of not yet twenty, who had his eyes lifted up to\nheaven, and his arms extended in the form of a cross, not in the least\ndaunted, nor trembling, nor shifting his place, while the bears and\nleopards, with their jaws wide open, threatening immediate death, seemed\njust ready, to tear him to pieces; but, by a miracle, not being suffered\nto touch him, they speedily withdrew. Others were exposed to a furious\nbull, which had already gored and tossed into the air several infidels\nwho had ventured too near, and left them half dead: only the martyrs he\ncould not approach; he stopped, and stood scraping the dust with his\nfeet, and though he seemed to endeavor it with his utmost might, butting\nwith his horns on every side, and pawing the ground with his feet, being\nalso urged on by red-hot iron goads, it was all to no purpose. After\nrepeated trials of this kind with other wild beasts, with as little\nsuccess as the former, the saints were slain by the sword, and their\nbodies cast into the sea. Others who refused to sacrifice were beaten\n{434} to death, or burned, or executed divers other ways.\" This happened\nin the year 304, under Veturius, a Roman general, in the reign of\nDioclesian.\n\nThe church on this day commemorates the other holy martyrs, whose crown\nwas deferred till 310. The principal of these was St. Tyrannio, bishop\nof Tyre, who had been present at the glorious triumph of the former, and\nencouraged them in their conflict. He had not the comfort to follow them\ntill six years after; when, being conducted from Tyre to Antioch, with\nSt. Zenobius, a holy priest and physician of Sidon, after many torments\nhe was thrown into the sea, or rather into the river Orontes, upon which\nAntioch stands, at twelve miles distance front the sea. Zenobius expired\non the rack, while his sides and body were furrowed and laid open with\niron hooks and nails. St. Sylvanus, bishop of Emisa, in Phoenicia, was,\nsome time after, under Maximinus, devoured by wild beasts in the midst\nof his own city, with two companions, after having governed that church\nforty years. Peleus and Nilus, two other Egyptian priests, in Palestine,\nwere consumed by fire with some others. St. Sylvanus, bishop of Gaza,\nwas condemned to the copper mines of Phoenon, near Petra, in Arabia, and\nafterwards beheaded there with thirty-nine others.\n\nSt. Tyrannio is commemorated on the 20th of February, in the Roman\nMartyrology, with those who suffered under Veturius, at Tyre, in 304.\nSt. Zenobius, the priest and physician of Sidon, who suffered with him\nat Antioch, on the 29th of October: St. Sylvanus of Emisa, to whom the\nMenology gives many companions, on the 6th of February: St. Sylvanus of\nGaza, on the 29th of May.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe love of Christ triumphed in the hearts of so many glorious martyrs,\nupon racks, in the midst of boiling furnaces, or flames, and in the\nclaws or teeth of furious wild beasts. How many inflamed with his love\nhave forsaken all things to follow him, despising honors, riches,\npleasures, and the endearments of worldly friends, to take up their\ncrosses, and walk with constancy in the narrow paths of a most austere\npenitential life! We also pretend to love him: but what effect has this\nlove upon us? what fruit does it produce in our lives? If we examine our\nown hearts, we shall be obliged to confess that we have great reason to\nfear that we deceive ourselves. What pains do we take to rescue our\nsouls from the slavery of the world, and the tyranny of self-love, to\npurge our affections of vice, or to undertake any thing for the divine\nhonor, and the sanctification of our souls? Let us earnestly entreat our\nmost merciful Redeemer, by the power of this his holy love, to triumph\nover all his enemies, which are our unruly passions, in our souls, and\nperfectly to subdue our stubborn hearts to its empire. Let it be our\nresolution, from this moment, to renounce the love of the world, and all\nself-love, to seek and obey him alone.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  Rufinus adds, that these beasts killed several of the keepers and\n    spectators. It is in this sense that some have translated this\n    passage with Nicephorus. See Vales. In Annot. p. 165. But it seems\n    improbable that the spectators, who were separated from the arena by\n    iron rails, and seated on stone benches gradually ascending ten or\n    twenty men deep all round, should be killed or injured by the\n    beasts, unless some were so rash as to venture within the rails with\n    the keepers; which we see several do in the combats of wild beasts.\n    This, therefore, we are to restrain to the keepers and those who\n    kept them company.\n\nS. SADOTH, BISHOP OF SELEUCIA AND CTESIPHON,\n\nWITH 128 COMPANIONS, MARTYRS.\n\nFrom his genuine acts in Metaphrastes, Bollandus, and Ruinart; but more\ncorrectly in the original Chaldaic given us by Assemani, t. 1, p. 83.\nOrsi, Hist. t. 5, l. 13. See Le Quien, Oriens Christ. t. 2, p. 1108.\n\nA.D. 342.\n\nSADOTH, as he is called by the Greeks and Latins, is named in the\noriginal Persian language, Schiadustes, which signifies \"friend of the\nking,\" from _schiah_, king, and _dust_, friend. His unspotted purity of\nheart, his ardent zeal, and the practice of all Christian virtues,\nprepared him, from his {435} youth, for the episcopal dignity, and the\ncrown of martyrdom. St. Simeon, bishop of Selec, or Seleucia, and\nCtesiphon, then the two capital cities of Persia, situate on the river\nTigris, being translated to glory by martyrdom, in the beginning of the\npersecution raised by Sapor II., in 341, St. Sadoth was chosen three\nmonths after to fill his see, the most important in that empire, but the\nmost exposed to the storm. This grew more violent on the publication of\na new edict against the Christians, which made it capital to confess\nChrist. To wait with patience the manifestation of the divine will, St.\nSadoth, with part of his clergy, lay hid for some time; which did not\nhowever hinder him from affording his distressed flock all proper\nassistance and encouragement, but rather enabled him to do it with the\ngreater fruit. During this retreat he had a vision which seemed to\nindicate that the time was come for the holy bishop to seal his faith\nwith his blood. This he related to his priests and deacons, whom he\nassembled for that purpose. \"I saw,\" said he, \"in my sleep, a ladder\nenvironed with light and reaching from earth to the heavens. St. Simeon\nwas at the top of it, and in great glory. He beheld me at the bottom,\nand said to me, with a smiling countenance: 'Mount up, Sadoth, fear not.\nI mounted yesterday, and it is your turn to-day:' which means, that as\nhe was slain last year, so I am to follow him this.\" He was not wanting\non this occasion to exhort his clergy, with great zeal and fervor, to\nmake a provision of good works, and employ well their time, till they\nshould be called on in like manner, that they might be in readiness to\ntake possession of their inheritance. \"A man that is guided by the\nSpirit,\" says St. Maruthas, author of these acts, \"fears not death; he\nloves God, and goes to him with an incredible ardor; but he who lives\naccording to the desires of the flesh, trembles, and is in despair at\nits approach: he loves the world, and it is with grief that he leaves\nit.\"\n\nThe second year of the persecution, king Sapor coming to Seleucia,\nSadoth was apprehended, with several of his clergy, some ecclesiastics\nof the neighborhood, end certain monks and nuns belonging to his church,\nto the amount of one hundred and twenty-eight persons. They were thrown\ninto dungeons, where, during five months' confinement, they suffered\nincredible misery and torments. They were thrice called out, and put to\nthe rack or question; their legs were straight bound with cords, which\nwere drawn with so much violence, that their bones breaking, were heard\nto crack like sticks in a fagot. Amidst these tortures the officers\ncried out to them: \"Adore the sun, and obey the king, if you would save\nyour lives.\" Sadoth answered in the name of all, that the sun was but a\ncreature, the work of God, made for the use of mankind; that they would\npay supreme adoration to none but the Creator of heaven and earth, and\nnever be unfaithful to him; that it was indeed in their power to take\naway their lives, but that this would be the greatest favor they could\ndo them; wherefore he conjured them not to spare them, or delay their\nexecution. The officers said: \"Obey! or know that your death is certain,\nand immediate.\" The martyrs all cried out with one voice: \"We shall not\ndie, but live and reign eternally with God and his Son Jesus Christ.\nWherefore inflict death as soon as you please; for we repeat it to you\nthat we will not adore the sun, nor obey the unjust edicts.\" Then\nsentence of death was pronounced upon them all by the king; for which\nthey thanked God, and mutually encouraged each other. They were chained\ntwo and two together, and led out of the city to execution, singing\npsalms and canticles of joy as they went. Being arrived at the place of\ntheir martyrdom, they raised their voices still higher, blessing and\nthanking God for his mercy in bringing them thither, and begging the\ngrace of perseverance, and that by this baptism of their blood they\nmight enter into his glory. These prayers and praises of God did not\ncease but with {436} the life of the last of this blessed company. St.\nSadoth, by the king's orders, was separated from them, and sent into the\nprovince of the Huzites, where he was beheaded. He thus rejoined his\nhappy flock in the kingdom of glory. Ancient Chaldaic writers quoted by\nAssemani say, St. Schiadustes, or Sadoth, was nephew to Simeon Barsaboe,\nbeing son to his sister. He governed his church only eight months, and\nfinished his martyrdom after five months imprisonment, in the year 342,\nand of king Sapor II. the thirty-third. These martyrs are honored in the\nRoman Martyrology on this day.\n\nST. ELEUTHERIUS, MARTYR,\n\nBISHOP OF TOURNAY.\n\nA.D. 532.\n\nHE was born at Tournay, of Christian parents, whose family had been\nconverted to Christ by St. Piat, one hundred and fifty years before. The\nfaith had declined at Tournay ever since St. Piat's martyrdom, by reason\nof its commerce with the heathen islands of Taxandria, now Zealand, and\nby means of the heathen French kings, who resided some time at Tournay.\nEleutherius was chosen bishop of that city in 486; ten years after which\nking Clovis was baptized at Rheims. Eleutherius converted the greatest\npart of the Franks in that country to the faith, and opposed most\nzealously certain heretics who denied the mystery of the Incarnation, by\nwhom he was wounded on the head with a sword, and died of the wound five\nweeks after, on the first of July, in 532. The most ancient monuments,\nrelating to this saint, seem to have perished in a great fire which\nconsumed his church, and many other buildings at Tournay, in 1092, with\nhis relics. See Miraeus, and his life written in the ninth century,\nextant in Bollandus, p. 187.[1] Of the sermons ascribed to St.\nEleutherius, in the Library of the Fathers t. 8, none seem sufficiently\nwarranted genuine, except three on the Incarnation and Birth of Christ,\nand the Annunciation. See Dom. Rivet, Hist. Litter., t. 3, p. 154, and\nt. 5, pp. 40, 41. Gallia Christ. Nova, t. 3, p. 571, and Henschenius, p\n180.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  This author wrote before the invasion of the Normans, and the\n    translation of the saint's relics; but long after the saint's death,\n    and by making him born in the reign of Dioclesian, yet contemporary\n    with St. Medard, destroys his own credit. Some years after, another\n    author much enlarged this life, and inserted a history of the\n    translation of the relics of this saint, made in 897. A third writer\n    added a relation of later miracles, and of the translation of these\n    relics into the city of Tourney, in 1164. All these authors deserve\n    little notice, except in relating facts of their own time.\n\nST. MILDRED, V. ABBESS.\n\nEORMENBURGA,[1] pronounced Ermenburga, otherwise called Domneva, was\nmarried to Merwald, a son of king Penda, and had by him three daughters\nand a son, who all consecrated their whole estates to pious uses, and\nwere all honored by our ancestors among the saints. Their names were\nMilburg, Mildred, Mildgithe, and Mervin. King Egbert caused his two\nnephews, Ethelred and Ethelbright, to be secretly murdered in the isle\nof Thanet. Count Thunor, whom he had charged with that execrable\ncommission, buried the bodies of the two princes under the king's\nthrone, in the {437} royal palace at Estrage, now called Estria. The\nking is said to have been miraculously terrified by seeing a ray of\nbright light dart from the heavens upon their grave, and, in sentiments\nof compunction, he sent for their sister Eormenburga, out of Mercia, to\npay her the weregeld, which was the mulct for a murder, ordained by the\nlaws to be paid to the relations of the persons deceased. In\nsatisfaction for the murder, he settled on her forty-eight ploughs of\nland, which she employed in founding a monastery, in which prayers might\nbe continually put up to God for the repose of the souls of the two\nprinces. This pious establishment was much promoted by the king, and\nthus the monastery was founded about the year 670; not 596, as Leland[2]\nand Speed mistake. The monastery was called Menstrey, or rather Minstre,\nin the isle of Thanet. Domneva sent her daughter Mildred to the abbey of\nChelles, in France, where she took the religious veil, and was\nthoroughly instructed in all the duties of that state, the perfect\nspirit of which she had imbibed from her tender years. Upon her return\nto England she was consecrated first abbess of Minstre, in Thanet, by\nSt. Theodorus, archbishop of Canterbury, and at the same time received\nto the habit seventy chosen virgins. She behaved herself by humility as\nthe servant of her sisters, and conducted them to virtue by the\nauthority of her example, for all were ashamed not to imitate her\nwatching, mortification, and prayer, and not to walk according to her\nspirit. Her aunt, Ermengitha, served God in the same house with such\nfervor, that after her death she was ranked among the saints, and her\ntomb, situated a mile from the monastery, was famous for the resort of\ndevout pilgrims. St. Mildred died of a lingering, painful illness,\ntowards the close of the seventh century. This great monastery was often\nplundered by the Danes, and the nuns and clerks murdered, chiefly in the\nyears 980 and 1011. After the last of these burnings, here were no more\nnuns, but only a few secular priests. In 1033, the remains of St.\nMildred were translated to the monastery of St. Austin's at Canterbury,\nand venerated above all the relics of that holy place, says\nMalmesbury,[3] who testifies frequent miracles to have been wrought by\nthem: Thorn and others confirm the same. Two churches in London bear her\nname. See Thorn's Chronicle, inter Decem Scriptores, coll. 1770, 1783,\n1906. Harpsfield: an old Saxon book, entitled, Narratio de Sanctis qui\nin Anglia quiescunt published by Hickes, Thesaur., t. 1, in Dissert.\nEpistolari, p. 116. Monast. Anglic. t. 1, p. 84. Stevens Supplem. vol.\n1, p. 518. Reyneri Apostolat. Bened. t. 1, p. 61, and Lewis's History of\nthe isle of Thanet, (printed at London in 1723, in 4to.,) pp. 51, 62,\nand in Append. n. 23.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  Eadbald, king of Kent, had by his queen Emma, daughter to a king of\n    the French, St. Eanswithe, (whose relics were venerated at\n    Folkstone, till the change of religion,) and two sons, Eorcombert\n    (afterwards king) and Eormenred, surnamed Clito. This last left four\n    children by his wife Oslave, namely, Eurmenburga and St.\n    Eormengitha, with two sons, St. Ethelred and St. Ethelbright. King\n    Eorcombert had, by his queen Sexburga, Egbert and Lothaire,\n    successively kings, and St. Eormenilda and St. Ercongota.\n    Eormenburga was surnamed Moldeva, as we are assured by the ancient\n    English Saxon account of these saints, published by Hickes: though\n    Capgrave frequently speaks of them as different women.\n2.  Leland, Collect. t. 1, p. 97.\n3.  L. 2, de Reg. Angl. c. 13.\n\nST. EUCHERIUS, BISHOP OF ORLEANS, C.\n\nOUR saint's mother, who was a lady of eminent virtue, and of the first\nquality at Orleans, while she was with child of him, made a daily\noffering of him to God, and begged nothing for him but divine grace.\nWhen he was born, his parents dedicated him to God, and set him to study\nwhen he was but seven years old, resolving to omit nothing that could be\ndone towards cultivating his mind, or forming his heart. His improvement\nin virtue kept pace with his progress in learning: he meditated\nassiduously on the sacred writings, especially on St. Paul's manner of\nspeaking on the world, and its enjoyments, as mere empty shadows, that\ndeceive us and vanish away;[1] and took particular notice that the\napostle says, the wisdom of those who love the pleasures and riches of\nthis life is no better than folly before God. {438} These reflections at\nlength sunk so deep into his mind, that he resolved to quit the world.\nTo put this design in execution, about the year 714, he retired to the\nabbey of Jumiege, on the banks of the Seine, in the diocese of Rouen.\nWhen he had spent six or seven years here, in the practice of\npenitential austerities and obedience, Suavaric, his uncle, bishop of\nOrleans, died: the senate and people, with the clergy of that city,\ndeputed persons to Charles Martel, mayor of the palace, to beg his\npermission to elect Eucherius to the vacant see. That prince granted\ntheir request, and sent with them one of his principal officers of state\nto conduct him from his monastery to Orleans. The saint's affliction at\ntheir arrival was inexpressible, and he entreated the monks to screen\nhim from the dangers that threatened him. But they preferred the public\ngood to their private inclinations, and resigned him up for that\nimportant charge. He was received at Orleans, and consecrated with\nuniversal applause, in 721. Though he received the episcopal character\nwith grievous apprehensions of its obligations and dangers, he was not\ndiscouraged, but had recourse to the supreme pastor for assistance in\nthe discharge of his duties, and devoted himself entirely to the care of\nhis church. He was indefatigable in instructing and reforming his flock,\nand his zeal and even reproofs were attended with so much sweetness and\ncharity, that it was impossible not to love and obey him. Charles\nMartel, to defray the expenses of his wars and other undertakings, and\nto recompense those that served him, often stripped the churches of\ntheir revenues, and encouraged others to do the same. St. Eucherius\nreproved these encroachments with so much zeal, that flatterers\nrepresented it to the prince as an insult offered to his person;\ntherefore, in the year 737, Charles, in his return to Paris, after\nhaving defeated the Saracens in Aquitaine, took Orleans in his way,\nordered Eucherius to follow him to Verneuil upon the Oise, in the\ndiocese of Beauvais, where he then kept his court, and banished him to\nCologne. The extraordinary esteem which his virtue procured him in that\ncity, moved Charles to order him to be conveyed thence to a strong place\nin Hasbain, now called Haspengaw, in the territory of Liege, under the\nguard of Robert, governor of that country. The governor was so charmed\nwith his virtue, that he made him the distributer of his large alms, and\nallowed him to retire to the monastery of Sarchinium, or St. Tron's.\nHere prayer and contemplation were his whole employment, till the year\n743, in which he died on the 20th of February. He is named in the Roman,\nand other martyrologies. See his original life by one of the same age,\nwith the preliminary dissertation of Henschenius, and the remarks of\nMabillon, saec. 3, Ben. The pretended vision of the damnation of Charles\nMartel, is an evident interpolation, found only in later copies and in\nSurius.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  1. Cor. vii {}, m. 19.\n\nST. ULRICK, A RECLUSE.\n\nHE was born near Bristol, and being promoted to the priesthood, took\ngreat pleasure in hunting, till being touched by divine grace, he\nretired near Hoselborough in Dorsetshire, where he led a most austere\nand holy life. He died on the 20th of February, in 1154. See Matthew\nParis, Ford Henry of Huntingdon, and Harpsfield, saec. 12, c. 29\n\n{439}\n\nFEBRUARY XXI.\n\nST. SEVERIANUS, MARTYR.\n\nBISHOP OF SCYTHOPHOLIS.\n\nFrom the life of St. Euthymius, written by Cyril the monk; a letter of\nthe emperor Marcia{}agrius, l. 2, c. 5. Nicephorus Calixt. l. 15, c. 9,\ncollected by Bollandus, p. 246.\n\nA.D. 452, or 453.\n\nIN the reign of Marcian and St. Pulcheria, the council of Chalcedon\nwhich condemned the Eutychian heresy, was received by St. Euthymius, and\nby a great part of the monks of Palestine. But Theodosius, an ignorant\nEutychian monk, and a man of a most tyrannical temper, under the\nprotection of the empress Eudoxia, widow of Theodosius the Younger, who\nlived at Jerusalem, perverted many among the monks themselves, and\nhaving obliged Juvenal, bishop of Jerusalem, to withdraw, unjustly\npossessed himself of that important see, and in a cruel persecution\nwhich he raised, filled Jerusalem with blood, as the emperor Marcian\nassures us: then, at the head of a band of soldiers, he carried\ndesolation over the country. Many, however, had the courage to stand\ntheir ground. No one resisted him with greater zeal and resolution than\nSeverianus, bishop of Scythopolis, and his recompense was the crown of\nmartyrdom; for the furious soldiers seized his person, dragged him out\nof the city, and massacred him in the latter part of the year 452, or in\nthe beginning of the year 453. His name occurs in the Roman Martyrology,\non the 21st of February.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nPalestine, the country which for above one thousand four hundred years\nhad been God's chosen inheritance under the Old Law, when other nations\nwere covered with the abominations of idolatry, had been sanctified by\nthe presence, labors, and sufferings of our divine Redeemer, and had\ngiven birth to his church, and to so many saints, became often the\ntheatre of enormous scandals, and has now, for many ages, been enslaved\nto the most impious and gross superstitions. So many flourishing\nchurches in the East which were planted by the labors of the chiefest\namong the apostles, watered with the blood of innumerable glorious\nmartyrs, illustrated with the bright light of the Ignatiuses, the\nPolycarps, the Basils, the Ephrems, and the Chrysostoms, blessed by the\nexample and supported by the prayers of legions of eminent saints, are\nfallen a prey to almost universal vice and infidelity. With what floods\nof tears can we sufficiently bewail so grievous a misfortune, and\nimplore the divine mercy in behalf of so many souls! How ought we to be\nalarmed at the consideration of so many dreadful examples of God's\ninscrutable judgments, and tremble for ourselves! _Let him who stands\nbeware lest he fall_. _Hold fast what thou hast_, says the oracle of the\nHoly Ghost to every one of us, _lest another bear away thy crown_.\n\n{440}\n\nSS. GERMAN, ABBOT OF GRANFEL,\n\nAND RANDAUT, OR RANDOALD, MARTYRS.\n\nFrom their acts, written by the priest Babolen in the same age, in\nBollandus, Le Cointe, ad an. 662. Bulteau, Hist. Mon. d'Occid. l. 3, c.\n44, p. 661.\n\nABOUT THE YEAR 666.\n\nST. GERMAN, or GERMANUS, was son of a rich senator of Triers, and\nbrought up from the cradle under the care of Modoald, bishop of Triers.\nAt seventeen years of age, he gave all he could dispose of to the poor,\nand with Modoald's consent applied himself to St. Arnoul, who having\nresigned his dignities of bishop of Metz, and minister of state under\nDagobert, then led an eremitical life in a desert in Lorrain, near\nRomberg, or Remiremont. That great saint, charmed with the innocence and\nfervor of the tender young nobleman, received him in the most\naffectionate manner, and gave him the monastic tonsure. Under such a\nmaster the holy youth made great progress in a spiritual life, and after\nsome time, having engaged a younger brother, called Numerian, to forsake\nthe world, he went with him to Romberg, or the monastery of St. Romaric,\na prince of royal blood, who, resigning the first dignity and rank which\nhe enjoyed in the court of king Theodebert, had founded in his own\ncastle, in concert with his friend St. Arnoul, a double house, one\nlarger for nuns, the other less for monks; both known since under the\nname of Remiremont, situated on a part of Mount Vosge. St. Romaric died\nin 653, and is named in the Roman Martyrology on the 8th of December, on\nwhich his festival is kept at Remiremont, and that of the Blessed Virgin\ndeferred to the day following. He settled here the rule of Luxeu, or of\nSt. Columban.[1] St. German made the practices of all manner of\nhumiliations, penance, and religion, the object of his earnest ambition,\nand out of a desire of greater spiritual advancement, after some time\npassed with his brother to the monastery of Luxeu, then governed by the\nholy abbot, St. Walbert. Duke Gondo, one of the principal lords of\nAlsace, having founded a monastery in the diocese of Basil, called the\nGreat Valley, in German, Granfel, and now more commonly Munster-thal, or\nthe Monastery of the valley, St. Walbert appointed St. German abbot of\nthe colony which he settled there. Afterwards the two monasteries of\nUrsiein, commonly called St. Ursitz, and of St. Paul Zu-Werd, or of the\nisland, were also put under his direction, though he usually resided at\nGranfel. Catihe, called also Boniface, who succeeded Gondo in the duchy,\ninherited no share of his charity and religion, and oppressed both the\nmonks and poor inhabitants with daily acts of violence and arbitrary\ntyranny. The holy abbot bore all private injuries in silence, but often\npleaded the cause of the poor. The duke had thrown the magistrates of\nseveral villages into prison, and many ways distressed the other\ninhabitants, laying waste their lands at pleasure, and destroying all\nthe fruits of their toil, and all the means of their poor subsistence.\nAs he was one day ravaging their lands and plundering their houses at\nthe head of a troop of soldiers, St. German went out to meet him, to\nentreat him to spare a distressed and innocent people. The duke listened\nto his remonstrances and promised to desist; but while the saint stayed\nto offer up his prayers in the church of St. Maurice, the {441} soldiers\nfell again to killing, burning, and plundering: and while St. German was\non his road to return to Granfel, with his companion Randoald, commonly\ncalled Randaut, they first stripped them, and then, while they were at\ntheir prayers, pierced them both with lances, about the year 666. Their\nrelics were deposited at Granfel, and were exposed in a rich shrine till\nthe change of religion, since which time the canonries, into which this\nmonastery was converted, are removed to Telsberg, or Delmont.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  Remiremont was destroyed in the tenth century by the Hungarians or\n    New Huns, but rebuilt in the reign of Louis III., in the plain\n    beyond the Moselle, at the bottom of the mountain, where a town is\n    formed. It has been, if not from its restoration, at least for\n    several centuries, a noble collegiate church for canonesses, who\n    make proof of nobility for two hundred years, but can marry if they\n    resign their p{}ends; except the abbess, who makes solemn religious\n    vows.\n\nSS. DANIEL, PRIEST, AND VERDA, VIRGIN,\n\nMARTYRS.\n\nFrom their authentic acts, written by St. Maruthas, in Syriac, and\npublished by Stephen Assemani among the Oriental Martyrs, t. 1, p. 103.\n\nA.D. 344.\n\nTwo years after the martyrdom of St. Milles, Daniel, a priest, and a\nvirgin consecrated to God, named Verda, which in Chaldaic signifies a\nrose, were apprehended in the province of the Razicheans, in Persia, by\nan order of the governor, and put to all manner of torments for three\nmonths, almost without intermission. Among other tortures, their feet\nbeing bored through, were put into frozen water for five days together.\nThe governor, seeing it impossible to overcome their constancy,\ncondemned them to lose their heads. They were crowned on the 25th of the\nmoon of February, which was that year the 21st of that month, in the\nyear of Christ 344, and of king Sapor II., the thirty-fifth. Their names\nwere not known either to the Greek or Latin martyrologists: and their\nillustrious triumph is recorded in few words by St. Maruthas: but was\nmost glorious in the sight of heaven.\n\nB. PEPIN OF LANDEN, MAYOR OF THE PALACE\n\nTO THE KINGS CLOTAIRE II., DAGOBERT, AND SIGEBERT.\n\nHE was son of Carloman, the most powerful nobleman of Austrasia, who had\nbeen mayor to Clotaire I., son of Clovis I. He was grandfather to Pepin\nof Herstal, the most powerful mayor, whose son was Charles Martel, and\ngrandson Pepin the Short, king of France, in whom began the Carlovingian\nrace. Pepin of Landen, upon the river Geete, in Brabant, was a lover of\npeace, the constant defender of truth and justice, a true friend to all\nservants of God, the terror of the wicked, the support of the weak, the\nfather of his country, the zealous and humble defender of religion. He\nwas lord of great part of Brabant, and governor of Austrasia, when\nTheodebert II., king of that country, was defeated by Theodoric II.,\nking of Burgundy, and soon after assassinated in 612: and Theodoric\ndying the year following, Clotaire II., king of Soissons, reunited\nBurgundy, Neustria, and Austrasia to his former dominions, and became\nsole monarch of France. For the pacific possession of Austrasia he was\nmuch indebted to Pepin, whom he appointed mayor of the palace to his son\nDagobert I., when, in 622, he declared him king of Austrasia and\nNeustria. The death of Clotaire II., in 628, put him in possession of\nall France, except a small part of Aquitaine, with Thoulouse, which was\nsettled upon his younger brother, Charibert. When king Dagobert,\nforgetful of the maxims instilled into him in his youth, had given\nhimself up to a shameful lust, this faithful minister {442} boldly\nreproached him with his ingratitude to God, and ceased not till he saw\nhim a sincere and perfect penitent. This great king died in 638, and was\nburied at St. Denys's. He had appointed Pepin tutor to his son Sigebert\nfrom his cradle, and mayor of his palace when he declared him king of\nAustrasia, in 633. After the death of Dagobert, Clovis II. reigning in\nBurgundy and Neustria, (by whom Erchinoald was made mayor for the\nlatter, and Flaochat for the former,) Pepin quitted the administration\nof those dominions, and resided at Metz, with Sigebert, who always\nconsidered him as his father, and under his discipline became himself a\nsaint, and one of the most happy among all the French kings. Pepin was\nmarried to the blessed Itta, of one of the first families in Aquitaine,\nby whom he had a son called Grimoald, and two daughters, St. Gertrude,\nand St. Begga. The latter, who was the elder, was married to Ansigisus,\nson of St. Arnoul, to whom she bore Pepin of Herstal. B. Pepin, of\nLanden, died on the 21st of February, in 640, and was buried at Landen;\nbut his body was afterwards removed to Nivelle, where it is now\nenshrined, as are those of the B. Itta, and St. Gertrude in the same\nplace. His name stands in the Belgi martyrologies, though no other act\nof public veneration has been paid to his memory, than the enshrining of\nhis relics, which are carried in processions. His name is found in a\nlitany published by the authority of the archbishop of Mechlin. See\nBollandus, t. 3, Fehr. p. 250, and Dom Bouquet, Recueil des Hist. de\nFrance, t. 2, p. 603.\n\n\nFEBRUARY XXII.\n\nTHE CHAIR OF ST. PETER AT ANTIOCH.\n\nBaronius, Annot. In Martyrol. ad 18 Januarii, the Bollandists, ib. t. 2\np. 182, sect. 5 and 6, and especially Jos. Bianchini, Dissecr. De Romana\nCathedra in notis in Anastatium Biblioth. t. 4, p. 150.\n\nTHAT Saint Peter, before he went to Rome, founded the see of Antioch, is\nattested by Eusebius,[1] Origen,[2] St. Jerom,[3] St. Innocent,[4] Pope\nGelasius, in his Roman Council,[5] Saint Chrysostom, and others. It was\njust that the prince of the apostles should take this city under his\nparticular care and inspection, which was then the capital of the East,\nand in which the faith took so early and so deep root as to give birth\nin it to the name of Christians. St. Chrysostom says, that St. Peter\nmade there a long stay: St. Gregory the Great,[6] that he was seven\nyears bishop of Antioch; not that he resided there all that time, but\nonly that he had a particular care over that church. If he sat\ntwenty-five years at Rome, the date of his establishing his church at\nAntioch must be within three years after our Saviour's ascension; for in\nthat supposition he must have gone to Rome in the second year of\nClaudius.\n\nThe festival of St. Peter's chair in general, Natale Petri de Cathedra,\nis marked on this day in the most ancient calendar extant, made in the\ntime of pope Liberius, about the year 354.[7] It also occurs in\nGregory's sacramentary, {443} and in all the martyrologies. It was kept\nin France in the sixth century, as appears from the council of Tours,[8]\nand from Le Cointo.[9]\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nIn the first ages it was customary, especially in the East, for every\nChristian to keep the anniversary of his baptism, on which he renewed\nhis baptismal vows, and gave thanks to God for his heavenly adoption:\nthis they called their spiritual birthday. The bishops in like manner\nkept the anniversary of their own consecration, as appears from four\nsermons of St. Leo, on the anniversary of his accession or assumption to\nthe pontifical dignity, and this was frequently continued by the people\nafter their decease, out of respect to their memory. St. Leo says, we\nought to celebrate the chair of St. Peter with no less joy than the day\nof his martyrdom; for as in this he was exalted to a throne of glory in\nheaven, so by the former he was installed head of the church on\nearth.[10]\n\nOn this festival we are especially bound to adore and thank the divine\ngoodness for the establishment and propagation of his church, and\nearnestly to pray that in his mercy he preserve the same, and dilate its\npale, that his name may be glorified by all nations, and by all hearts,\nto the boundaries of the earth, for his divine honor and the salvation\nof souls, framed to his divine image, and the price of his adorable\nblood. The church of Christ is his spiritual kingdom: he is not only the\narchitect and founder, but continues to govern it, and by his spirit to\nanimate its members to the end of the world as its invisible head:\nthough he has left in St. Peter and his successors a vicar, or\nlieutenant, as a visible head, with an established hierarchy for its\nexterior government. If we love him and desire his honor, if we love men\non so many titles linked with us, can we cease weeping and praying, that\nby his sweet omnipotent grace he subdue all the enemies of his church,\nconverting to it all infidels and apostates? In its very bosom sinners\nfight against him. Though these continue his members by faith, they are\ndead members, because he lives not in them by his grace and charity,\nreigns not in their hearts, animates them not with his spirit. He will\nindeed always live by grace and sanctity in many members of his mystical\nbody. Let us pray that by the destruction of the tyranny of sin all\nsouls may subject themselves to the reign of his holy love. Good Jesus!\nfor your mercy's sake, hear me in this above all other petitions: never\nsuffer me to be separated from you by forfeiting your holy love: may I\nremain always _rooted and grounded in your charity_, as is the will of\nyour Father. Eph. iii.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  Chron. and Hist., l. 3, c. 30.\n2.  Hom. 6, in Luc.\n3.  In Catal. c. 1.\n4.  Ep. 18, t. 2, Conc. p. 1269.\n5.  Conc. t. 4, p. 1262.\n6.  Ep. 40, l. 7, t. 2, p. 888, Ed. Ben.\n7.  Some have imagined that the feast of the chair of St. Peter was not\n    known, at least in Africa, because it occurs not in the ancient\n    calendar of Carthage. But how should the eighth day before the\n    calends of March now appear in it, since the part is lost from the\n    fourteenth before the calends of March to the eleventh before the\n    calends of May? Hence St. Pontius, deacon and martyr, on the eighth\n    before the Ides of March; St. Donatus, and some other African\n    martyrs are not there found. At least it is certain that it was kept\n    at Rome long before that time. St. Leo preached a sermon on St.\n    Peter's chair, (Serm. 100, t. 1, p. 285, ad. Rom.) Quesnel denied it\n    to be genuine in his first edition; but in the second at Lyons, to\n    1700, he corrected this mistake, and proved this sermon to be St.\n    Leo's; which is more fully demonstrated by Cacciari in his late\n    Roman edition of St. Leo's works, t. 1, p. 285.\n8.  Can. 22.\n9.  Ad an. 566.\n10. St. Leo Serm. 100, in Cathedra S. Petri, t. 1, p. 285, ed. Romanae.\n\nST. MARGARET OF CORTONA, PENITENT.\n\nFrom her life written by her confessor, in the Acta Sanctorum; by\nBollandus, p. 298. Wadding, Annal. FF. Minorum ad an. 1297; and the\nLives of the SS. of Third Ord. by Barb. t. 1, p. 508.\n\nA.D. 1297\n\nMARGARET was a native of Alviano, in Tuscany. The harshness of a\nstepmother, and her own indulged propension to vice, cast her headlong\ninto the greatest disorders. The sight of the carcass of a man, half\nputrefied, {444} who had been her gallant, struck her with so great a\nfear of the divine judgments, and with so deep a sense of the treachery\nof this world, that she in a moment became a perfect penitent. The first\nthing she did was to throw herself at her father's feet, bathed in\ntears, to beg his pardon for her contempt of his authority and fatherly\nadmonitions. She spent the days and nights in tears: and to repair the\nscandal she had given by her crimes, she went to the parish church of\nAlviano; with a rope about her neck, and there asked public pardon for\nthem. After this she repaired to Cortona, and made her most penitent\nconfession to a father of the Order of St. Francis, who admired the\ngreat sentiments of compunction with which she was filled, and\nprescribed her austerities and practices suitable to her fervor. Her\nconversion happened in the year 1274, the twenty-fifth of her age. She\nwas assaulted by violent temptations of various kinds, but courageously\novercame them, and after a trial of three years, was admitted to her\nprofession among the penitents of the third Order of St. Francis, in\nCortona. The extraordinary austerities with which she punished her\ncriminal flesh soon disfigured her body. To exterior mortification she\njoined all sorts of humiliations; and the confusion with which she was\ncovered at the sight of her own sins, pushed her on continually to\ninvent many extraordinary means of drawing upon herself all manner of\nconfusion before men. This model of true penitents, after twenty-three\nyears spent in severe penance, and twenty of them in the religious\nhabit, being worn out by austerities, and consumed by the fire of divine\nlove, died on the 22d of February, in 1297. After the proof of many\nmiracles, Leo X. granted an office in her honor to the city of Cortona,\nwhich Urban VIII. extended to the whole Franciscan Order, in 1623, and\nshe was canonized by Benedict XIII. in 1728.\n\nSS. THALASSIUS AND LIMNEUS, CC.\n\nTHEY were contemporaries with the great Theodoret, bishop of Cyr, and\nlived in his diocese. The former dwelt in a cavern in a neighboring\nmountain, and was endowed with extraordinary gifts of the Holy Ghost,\nbut was a treasure unknown to the world. His disciple St. Limneus was\nfamous for miraculous cures of the sick, while he himself bore patiently\nthe sharpest colics and other distempers without any human succor. He\nopened his enclosure only to Theodoret, his bishop, but spoke to others\nthrough a window. See Theodoret, Phil. c. 22.\n\nST. BARADAT, C.\n\nHE lived in the same diocese, in a solitary hut, made of wood in\ntrellis, like windows, says Theodoret,[1] exposed to all the severities\nof the weather. He was clothed with the skins of wild beasts, and by\nconversing continually with God, he attained to an eminent degree of\nwisdom, and knowledge of heavenly things. He left his wooden prison by\nthe order of the patriarch of Antioch, giving a proof of his humility by\nhis ready obedience. He studied to imitate all the practices of penance,\nwhich all the other solitaries of those parts exercised, though of a\ntender constitution himself. The fervor of his soul, and the fire of\ndivine love, supported him under his incredible labors {445} though his\nbody was weak and infirm. It is sloth that makes us so often allege a\npretended weakness of constitution, in the practice of penance and the\nexercises of devotion, which courage and fervor would not even feel. See\nTheodoret, Phil. c. 22, t. 3, p. 868, and c. 27.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  This passage of Theodoret shows, that the windows of the ancients\n    were made of trellis or wicker before the invention of glass; though\n    not universally; for in the ruins of Herculaneum, near Portichi were\n    found windows of a diaphanous thin slate, such as the rich in Rome\n    sometimes used.\n\n\nFEBRUARY XXIII.\n\nST. SERENUS, A GARDENER, MARTYR.\n\nFrom his genuine acts in Ruinart, p. 546.\n\nA.D. 327.\n\nSERENUS was by birth a Grecian. He quitted estate, friends, and country,\nto serve God in an ascetic life, that is, in celibacy, penance, and\nprayer. Coming with this design to Sirmium, in Pannonia or Hungary, he\nthere bought a garden, which he cultivated with his own hands, and lived\non the fruits and herbs it produced. The apprehension of the persecution\nmade him hide himself for some months; after which he returned to his\ngarden. On a certain day, there came thither a woman, with her two\ndaughters, to walk. Serenus seeing them come up to him, said, \"What do\nyou seek here?\" \"I take a particular satisfaction,\" she replied, \"in\nwalking in this garden.\" \"A lady of your quality,\" said Serenus, \"ought\nnot to walk here at unseasonable hours, and this you know is an hour you\nought to be at home. Some other design brought you hither. Let me advise\nyou to withdraw, and be more regular in your hours and conduct for the\nfuture, as decency requires in persons of your sex and condition.\" It\nwas usual for the Romans to repose themselves at noon, as it is still\nthe custom in Italy. The woman, stung at our saint's charitable\nremonstrance, retired in confusion, but resolved on revenging the\nsupposed affront. She accordingly writes to her husband, who belonged to\nthe guards of the emperor Maximian, to complain of Serenus as having\ninsulted her. Her husband, on receiving her letter, went to the emperor\nto demand justice, and said: \"While we are waiting on your majesty's\nperson, our wives in distant countries are insulted.\" Whereupon the\nemperor gave him a letter to the governor of the province to enable him\nto obtain satisfaction. With this letter he set out for Sirmium, and\npresented it to the governor, conjuring him, in the name of the emperor\nhis master, to revenge the affront offered to him in the person of his\nwife during his absence. \"And who is that insolent man,\" said the\nmagistrate, \"who durst insult such a gentleman's wife?\" \"It is,\" said\nhe, \"a vulgar pitiful fellow, one Serenus, a gardener.\" The governor\nordered him to be immediately brought before him, and asked him his\nname. \"It is Serenus,\" said he. The judge said: \"Of what profession are\nyou?\" He answered: \"I am a gardener.\" The governor said: \"How durst you\nhave the insolence and boldness to affront the wife of this officer?\"\nSerenus: \"I never insulted any woman, to my knowledge, in my life.\" The\ngovernor then said: \"Let the witnesses be called in to convict this\nfellow of the affront he offered this lady in a garden.\" Serenus,\nhearing the garden mentioned, recalled this woman to mind, and answered:\n\"I remember that, some time ago, a lady came into my garden at an\nunseasonable hour, with a design, as she said, to take a walk: and I own\nI took the liberty to tell her it was against decency {446} for one of\nher sex and quality to be abroad at such an hour.\" This plea of Serenus\nhaving put the officer to the blush for his wife's action, which was too\nplain an indication of her wicked purpose and design, he dropped his\nprosecution against the innocent gardener, and withdrew out of court.\n\nBut the governor, understanding by this answer that Serenus was a man of\nvirtue, suspected by it that he might be a Christian, such being the\nmost likely, he thought, to resent visits from ladies at improper hours.\nWherefore, instead of discharging him, he began to question him on this\nhead, saying: \"Who are you, and what is your religion?\" Serenus, without\nhesitating one moment, answered: \"I am a Christian.\" The governor said:\n\"Where have you concealed yourself? and how have you avoided sacrificing\nto the gods?\" \"It has pleased God,\" replied Serenus, \"to reserve me for\nthis present time. It seemed awhile ago as if he rejected me as a stone\nunfit to enter his building, but he has the goodness to take me now to\nbe placed in it; I am ready to suffer all things for his name, that I\nmay have a part in his kingdom with his saints.\" The governor, hearing\nthis generous answer, burst into rage, and said: \"Since you sought to\nelude by flight the emperor's edicts, and have positively refused to\nsacrifice to the gods, I condemn you for these crimes to lose your\nhead.\" The sentence was no sooner pronounced, but the saint was carried\noff and led to the place of execution, where he was beheaded, on the 23d\nof February, in 307. The ancient Martyrology attributed to St. Jerom,\npublished at Lucca by Florentinius, joins with him sixty-two others,\nwho, at different times, were crowned at Sirmium. The Roman Martyrology,\nwith others, says seventy-two.\n\nThe garden affords a beautiful emblem of a Christian's continual\nprogress to the path of virtue. Plants always mount upwards, and never\nstop in their growth till they have attained to that maturity which the\nauthor of nature has prescribed: all the nourishment they,receive ought\nto tend to this end; if any part wastes itself in superfluities, this is\na kind of disease. So in a Christian, every thing ought to carry him\ntowards that perfection which the sanctity of his state requires; and\nevery desire of his soul, every action of his life, to be a step\nadvancing to this in a direct line. When all his inclinations have one\nuniform bent, and all his labors the same tendency, his progress must be\ngreat, because uninterrupted, however imperceptible it may often appear.\nEven his temporal affairs must be undertaken with this intention, and so\nconducted as to fall within the compass of this his great design. The\nsaints so regulated all their ordinary actions, their meals, their\nstudies, their conversation and visits, their business and toil, whether\ntilling a garden or superintending an estate, as to make the love of God\ntheir motive, and the accomplishment of his will their only ambition in\nevery action. All travail which leadeth not towards this end is but so\nmuch of life misspent and lost, whatever names men may give to their\npolitical or military achievements, study of nature, knowledge of\ndistant shores, or cunning in the mysteries of trade, or arts of\nconversation. Though such actions, when of duty, fall under the order of\nour salvation, and must be so moderated, directed, and animated with a\nspirit of religion, as to be made means of our sanctification. But in a\nChristian life the exercises of devotion, holy desires, and tender\naffections, which proceed from a spirit of humble compunction, and an\nardent love of our Saviour, and by which a soul raises herself up to,\nand continually sighs after him, are what every one ought most\nassiduously and most earnestly to study to cultivate. By these is the\nsoul more and more purified, and all her powers united to God, and made\nheavenly {447} These are properly the most sweet and beautiful flowers\nof paradise, or of a virtuous life.\n\nST. MILBURGE, V.\n\nSee Malmesb. l. 2, Regibus, & l. 4, de Pontif. Angl. c. 3. Thorn's\nChron. Capgrave Harpsfield, &c.\n\nSEVENTH CENTURY.\n\nST. MILBURGE was sister to St. Mildred, and daughter of Merowald, son of\nPenda, king of Mercia. Having dedicated herself to God in a religious\nstate, she was chosen abbess of Wenlock, in Shropshire, which house she\nrendered a true paradise of all virtue. The more she humbled herself,\nthe more she was exalted by God; and while she preferred sackcloth to\npurple and diadems, she became the invisible glory of heaven. The love\nof purity of heart and holy peace were the subject of her dying\nexhortation to her dear sisters. She closed her mortal pilgrimage about\nthe end of the seventh century. Malmesbury and Harpsfield write, that\nmany miracles accompanied the translation of her relics, in 1101, on the\n26th of May; which Capgrave and Mabillon mistake for the day of her\ndeath: but Harpsfield, who had seen the best ancient English\nmanuscripts, assures us that she died on the 23d of February, which is\nconfirmed by all the manuscript additions to the Martyrologies of Bede\nand others, in which her name occurs, which are followed by the Roman on\nthis day. The abbey of Wenlock was destroyed by the Danes: but a\nmonastery of Cluni monks was afterwards erected upon the same spot, by\nwhom her remains were discovered in a vault in 1101, as Malmesbury, who\nwrote not long after, relates.\n\nB. DOSITHEUS, MONK.\n\nFrom his life, by a fellow-disciple, in Bollandus, p. 38, and from S.\nDorotheus, Docum. 1.\n\nDOSITHEUS, a young man who had spent his first years in a worldly\nmanner, and in gross ignorance of the first principles of Christianity,\ncame to Jerusalem on the motive of curiosity, to see a place he had\nheard frequent mention made of in common discourse. Here he became so\nstrongly affected by the sight of a picture representing hell, and by\nthe exposition given him of it by an unknown person, that, on the spot,\nhe forsook the world, and entered into a monastery, where the abbot\nSeridon gave him the monastic habit, and recommended him to the care of\none of his monks, named Dorotheus. This experienced director, sensible\nof the difficulty of passing from one extreme to another, left his pupil\nat first pretty much to his own liberty in point of eating, but was\nparticularly careful to instil into him the necessity of a perfect\nrenunciation of his own will in every thing, both great and little. As\nhe found his strength would permit, he daily diminished his allowance,\ntill the quantity of six pounds of bread became reduced to eight ounces.\nSt. Dorotheus proceeded with his pupil after much the same manner in\nother monastic duties; and thus, by a constant and unreserved denial of\nhis own will, and a perfect submission to his director, he surpassed in\nvirtue the greatest fasters of the monastery. All his actions seemed to\nhave nothing of choice, nothing of his own humor in any circumstance of\nthem, the will of God alone reigned in his heart. At the end of five\nyears he was intrusted with the care of the sick, an office he\ndischarged with such an incomparable vigilance, charity, and sweetness,\nas procured him a high and {448} universal esteem: the sick in\nparticular were comforted and relieved by the very sight of him. He fell\ninto a spitting of blood and a consumption, but continued to the last\ndenying his own will, and was extremely vigilant to prevent any of its\nsuggestions taking place in his heart; being quite the reverse of those\npersons afflicted with sickness, who, on that account, think every thing\nallowed them. Unable to do any thing but pray, he asked continually, and\nfollowed, in all his devotions, the directions of his master; and when\nhe could not perform his long exercises of prayer, he declared this with\nhis ordinary simplicity to St. Dorotheus, who said to him: \"Be not\nuneasy, only have Jesus Christ always present in your heart.\" He begged\nof a holy old man, renowned in that monastery for sanctity, to pray that\nGod would soon take him to himself. The other answered: \"Have a little\npatience, God's mercy is near.\" Soon after he said to him: \"Depart in\npeace, and appear in joy before the blessed Trinity, and pray for us.\"\nThe same servant of God declared after his death, that he had surpassed\nthe rest in virtue, without the practice of any extraordinary austerity.\nThough he is honored with the epithet of saint, his name is not placed\neither in the Roman or Greek calendars.\n\nB. PETER DAMIAN, OR OF DAMIAN,\n\nCARDINAL, BISHOP OF OSTIA.\n\nFrom his life by his disciple, John of Lodi, in Mabill., s. 6. Ben. and\nfrom his own writings. Fleury, {} 99, n. 48, and Hist des Ordres Relig.\nCeillier, t. 20, p. 512. Henschenius ad 23 Febr. p. 406.\n\nA.D. 1072.\n\nPETER, surnamed of Damian, was born about the year 988, in Ravenna, of a\ngood family, but reduced. He was the youngest of many children, and,\nlosing his father and mother very young, was left in the hands of a\nbrother who was married, in whose house he was treated more like a\nslave, or rather like a beast, than one so nearly related; and when\ngrown up, he was sent to keep swine. He one day became master of a piece\nof money, which, instead of laying it out in something for his own use,\nhe chose to bestow in alms on a priest, desiring him to offer up his\nprayers for his father's soul. He had another brother called Damian, who\nwas archpriest of Ravenna, and afterwards a monk; who, taking pity on\nhim, had the charity to give him an education. Having found a father in\nthis brother, he seems from him to have taken the surname of Damian,\nthough he often styles himself the Sinner, out of humility. Those who\ncall him De Honestis, confound him with Peter of Ravenna, who was of the\nfamily of Honesti. Damian sent Peter to school, first at Faenza,\nafterwards at Parma, where he had Ivo for his master. By the means of\ngood natural parts and close application, it was not long before he\nfound himself in a capacity to teach others, which he did with great\napplause, and no less advantage by the profits which accrued to him from\nhis professorship. To arm himself against the allurements of pleasure\nand the artifices of the devil, he began to wear a rough hair shirt\nunder his clothes, and to inure himself to fasting, watching, and\nprayer. In the night, if any temptation of concupiscence arose, he got\nout of bed and plunged himself into the cold river. After this he\nvisited churches, reciting the psalter while he performed this devotion,\ntill the church office began. He not only gave much away in alms, but\nwas seldom without some poor person at his table, and took a pleasure in\nserving such, or rather Jesus Christ in their persons, with his own\nhands. But {449} thinking all this to be removing himself from the\ndeadly poison of sin but by halves, he resolved entirely to leave the\nworld and embrace a monastic life, and at a distance from his own\ncountry, for the sake of meeting with the fewer obstacles to his design.\nWhile his mind was full of these thoughts, two religious of the order of\nSt. Benedict, belonging to Font-Avellano, a desert at the foot of the\nApennine in Umbria, happened to call at the place of his abode; and\nbeing much edified at their disinterestedness, he took a resolution to\nembrace their institute, as he did soon after. This hermitage had been\nfounded by blessed Ludolf, about twenty years before St. Peter came\nthither, and was then in the greatest repute. The hermits here remained\ntwo and two together in separate cells, occupied chiefly in prayer and\nreading. They lived on bread and water four days in the week: on\nTuesdays and Thursdays they ate pulse and herbs, which every one dressed\nin his own cell: on their fast days all their bread was given them by\nweight. They never used any wine, (the common drink of the country,)\nexcept for mass, or in sickness: they went barefoot, used disciplines,\nmade many genuflections, struck their breasts, stood with their arms\nstretched out in prayer, each according to his strength and devotion.\nAfter the night office they said the whole psalter before day. Peter\nwatched long before the signal for matins, and after, with the rest.\nThese excessive watchings brought on him an insomnie, or wakefulness,\nwhich was cured with very great difficulty. But he learned from this to\nuse more discretion. He gave a considerable time to sacred studies, and\nbecame as well versed in the scriptures, and other sacred learning, as\nhe was before in profane literature.\n\nHis superior ordered him to make frequent exhortations to the religious,\nand as he had acquired a very great character for virtue and learning,\nGuy, abbot of Pomposia, begged his superior to send him to instruct his\nmonastery, which consisted of a hundred monks. Peter stayed there two\nyears, preaching with great fruit, and was then called back by his\nabbot, and sent to perform the same function in the numerous abbey of\nSt. Vincent, near the mountain called Pietra Pertusa, or the Hollow\nRock. His love for poverty made him abhor and be ashamed to put on a new\nhabit, or any clothes which were not threadbare and most mean. His\nobedience was so perfect, that the least word of any superior, or signal\ngiven, according to the rule of the house, for the performance of any\nduty, made him run that moment to discharge, with the utmost exactness,\nwhatever was enjoined. Being recalled home some time after, and\ncommanded by his abbot, with the unanimous consent of the hermitage, to\ntake upon him the government of the desert after his death, Peter's\nextreme reluctance only obliged his superior to make greater use of his\nauthority till he acquiesced. Wherefore, at his decease, in 1041, Peter\ntook upon him the direction of that holy family, which he governed with\nthe greatest reputation for wisdom and sanctity. He also founded five\nother numerous hermitages; in which he placed priors under his\ninspection. His principal care was to cherish in his disciples the\nspirit of solitude, charity, and humility. Among them many became great\nlights of the church, as St. Ralph, bishop of Gubio, whose festival is\nkept on the 26th of June, St. Dominick, surnamed Loricatus, the 14th of\nOctober; St. John of Lodi, his successor in the priory of the Holy\nCross, who was also bishop of Gubio, and wrote St. Peter's life; and\nmany others. He was for twelve years much employed in the service of the\nchurch by many zealous bishops, and by four popes successively, namely:\nGregory VI., Clement II., Leo IX., and Victor II. Their successor,\nStephen IX., in 1057, prevailed with him to quit his desert, and made\nhim cardinal bishop of Ostia. But such was his reluctance to the\ndignity, that nothing less than the pope's {450} threatening him with\nexcommunication, and his commands, in virtue of obedience, could induce\nPeter to submit.\n\nStephen IX. dying in 1058, Nicholas II. was chosen pope, a man of deep\npenetration, of great virtue and learning, and very liberal in alms, as\nour saint testifies, who assisted him in obliging John, bishop of\nVeletri, an antipope, set up by the capitaneos or magistrates of Rome,\nto quit his usurped dignity. Upon complaints of simony in the church of\nMilan, Nicholas II. sent Peter thither as his legate, who chastised the\nguilty. Nicholas II. dying, after having sat two years and six months,\nAlexander was chosen pope, in 1062. Peter strenuously supported him\nagainst the emperor, who set up an antipope, Cadolaus, bishop of Parma,\non whom the saint prevailed soon after to renounce his pretensions, in a\ncouncil held at Rome; and engaged Henry IV., king of Germany, who was\nafterwards emperor, to acquiesce in what had been done, though that\nprince, who in his infancy had succeeded his pious father, Henry III.,\nhad sucked in very early the corrupt maxims of tyranny and irreligion.\nBut virtue is amiable in the eyes of its very enemies, and often disarms\nthem of their fury. St. Peter had, with great importunity, solicited\nNicholas II. for leave to resign his bishopric, and return to his\nsolitude; but could not obtain it. His successor, Alexander II., out of\naffection for the holy man, was prevailed upon to allow it, in 1062, but\nnot without great difficulty, and the reserve of a power to employ him\nin church matters of importance, as he might have occasion hereafter for\nhis assistance. The saint from that time thought himself discharged, not\nonly from the burden of his flock, but also from the quality of\nsuperior, with regard to the several monasteries, the general inspection\nof which he had formerly charged himself with, reducing himself to the\ncondition of a simple monk.\n\nIn this retirement he edified the church by his penance and compunction,\nand labored by his writings to enforce the observance of discipline and\nmorality. His style is copious and vehement, and the strictness of his\nmaxims appears in all his works, especially where he treats of the\nduties of clergymen and monks. He severely rebuked the bishop of\nFlorence for playing a game at chess.[1] That prelate acknowledged his\namusement to be a faulty sloth in a man of his character, and received\nthe saint's remonstrance with great mildness, and submitted to his\ninjunction by way of penance, namely: to recite three times the psalter,\nto wash the feet of twelve poor men, and to give to each a piece of\nmoney. He shows those to be guilty of manifold simony, who serve princes\nor flatter them for the sake of obtaining ecclesiastical preferments.[2]\nHe wrote a treatise to the bishop of Besanzon,[3] against the custom\nwhich the canons of that church had of saying the divine office sitting;\nthough he allowed all to sit during the lessons. This saint recommended\nthe use of disciplines whereby to subdue and punish the flesh, which was\nadopted as a compensation for long penitential fasts. Three thousand\nlashes, with the recital of thirty psalms, were a redemption of a\ncanonical penance of one year's continuance. Sir Thomas More, St.\nFrancis of Sales, and others, testify that such means of mortification\nare great helps to tame the flesh, and inure it to the labors of\npenance; also to remove a hardness of heart and spiritual dryness, and\nto soften the soul into compunction. But all danger of abuses, excess,\nand singularity, is to be shunned, and other ordinary bodily\nmortifications, as watching and fasting, are frequently more advisable.\nThis saint wrote most severely on the obligations of religious men,[4]\nparticularly against their strolling abroad; for one of the most\nessential qualities of their state is solitude, or at least the spirit\n{451} of retirement. He complained loudly of certain evasions, by which\nmany palliated real infractions of their vow of poverty. He justly\nobserved: \"We can never restore what is decayed of primitive discipline;\nand if we, by negligence, suffer any diminution in what remains\nestablished, future ages will never be able to repair such breaches. Let\nus not draw upon ourselves so base a reproach; but let us faithfully\ntransmit to posterity the examples of virtue which we have received from\nour forefathers.\"[5] The holy man was obliged to interrupt his solitude\nin obedience to the pope, who sent him in quality of his legate into\nFrance, in 1063, commanding the archbishops and others to receive him as\nhimself. The holy man reconciled discords, settled the bounds of the\njurisdiction of certain dioceses, and condemned and deposed in councils\nthose who were convicted of simony. He, notwithstanding, tempered his\nseverity with mildness and indulgence towards penitents, where charity\nand prudence required such a condescension. Henry IV., king of Germany,\nat eighteen years of age, began to show the symptoms of a heart\nabandoned to impiety, infamous debauchery, treachery, and cruelty. He\nmarried, in 1066, Bertha, daughter to Otho, marquis of Italy, but\nafterwards, in 1069, sought a divorce, by taking his oath that he had\nnever been able to consummate his marriage. The archbishop of Mentz had\nthe weakness to be gained over by his artifices to favor his desires, in\nwhich view he assembled a council at Mentz. Pope Alexander II. forbade\nhim ever to consent to so enormous an injustice, and pitched upon Peter\nDamian for his legate to preside in that synod, being sensible that a\nperson of the most inflexible virtue, prudence, and constancy, was\nnecessary for so important and difficult an affair, in which passion,\npower, and craft, made use of every engine in opposition to the cause of\nGod. The venerable legate met the king and bishops at Frankfort, laid\nbefore them the orders and instructions of his holiness, and in his name\nconjured the king to pay a due respect to the law of God, the canons of\nthe church, and his own reputation, and seriously reflect on the public\nscandal of so pernicious an example. The noblemen likewise all rose up\nand entreated his majesty never to stain his honor by so foul an action.\nThe king, unable to resist so cogent an authority, dropped his project\nof a divorce; but remaining the same man in his heart, continued to hate\nthe queen more than ever.\n\nSaint Peter hastened back to his desert of Font-Avellano. Whatever\nausterities he prescribed to others he was the first to practise\nhimself, remitting nothing of them even in his old age. He lived shut up\nin his cell as in a prison, fasted every day, except festivals, and\nallowed himself no other subsistence than coarse bread, bran, herbs, and\nwater, and this he never drank fresh, but what he had kept from the day\nbefore. He tortured his body with iron girdles and frequent disciplines,\nto render it more obedient to the spirit. He passed the three first days\nof every Lent and Advent without taking any kind of nourishment\nwhatever; and often for forty days together lived only on raw herbs and\nfruits, or on pulse steeped in cold water, without touching so much as\nbread, or any thing which had passed the fire. A mat spread on the floor\nwas his bed. He used to make wooden spoons and such like useful mean\nthings, to exercise himself at certain hours in manual labor. Henry,\narchbishop of Ravenna, having been excommunicated for grievous\nenormities, St. Peter was sent by Pope Alexander II. in quality of\nlegate, to adjust the affairs of the church. When he arrived at Ravenna,\nin 1072, he found the unfortunate prelate just dead; but brought {452}\nthe accomplices of his crimes to a sense of their guilt, and imposed on\nthem a suitable penance. This was his last undertaking for the church,\nGod being pleased soon after to call him to eternal rest, and to the\ncrown of his labors. Old age and the fatigues of his journey did not\nmake him lay aside his accustomed mortifications, by which he\nconsummated his holocaust. In his return towards Rome, he was stopped by\na fever in the monastery of our Lady without the gates of Faenza, and\ndied there on the eighth day of his sickness, while the monks were\nreciting matins round about him. He passed from that employment which\nhad been the delight of his heart on earth, to sing the same praises of\nGod in eternal glory, on the 22d of February, 1072, being fourscore and\nthree years old. He is honored as patron at Faenza and Font-Avellano, on\nthe 23d of the same month.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  Opusc. 20, c. 7.\n2.  Ib. 22.\n3.  Ib. 29, Nat. Alex. Theo Dogm. l. 2, c. 8, reg. 8.\n4.  Opusc. 12.\n5.  The works of St. Peter Damien, printed in three volumes, at Lyons,\n    in 1623, consist of one hundred and fifty-eight letters, fifteen\n    sermons, five lives of saints, namely, of St. Odilo, abbot of Cluni;\n    St. Maurus, bishop of Cesene; St. Romuald; St. Ralph, bishop of\n    Gubio; and St. Dominick Luricatus, and SS. Lucillia and Flora. The\n    third volume contains sixty small tracts, with several prayers and\n    hymns.\n\nST. BOISIL, PRIOR OF MAILROSS, OR MELROSS, C.\n\nTHE famous abbey of Mailross, which in later ages embraced the\nCistercian rule, originally followed that of St. Columba. It was\nsituated upon the river Tweed, in a great forest, and in the seventh\ncentury was comprised in the kingdom of the English Saxons in\nNorthumberland, which was extended in the eastern part of Scotland as\nhigh as the Frith. Saint Boisil was prior of this house under the holy\nabbot Eata, who seem to have been both English youths, trained up in\nmonastic discipline by St. Aidan. Boisil was, says Bede, a man of\nsublime virtues, and endued with a prophetic spirit. His eminent\nsanctity determined St. Cuthbert to repair rather to Mailross than to\nLindisfarne in his youth, and he received from this saint the knowledge\nof the holy scriptures, and the example of all virtues. St. Boisil had\noften in his mouth the holy names of the adorable Trinity, and of our\ndivine Redeemer Jesus, which he repeated with a wonderful sentiment of\ndevotion, and often with such an abundance of tears as excited others to\nweep with him. He would say, frequently, with the most tender affection,\n\"How good a Jesus have we!\" At the first sight of St. Cuthbert, he said\nto the bystanders: \"Behold a servant of God.\" Bede produces the\ntestimony of St. Cuthbert, who declared that Boisil foretold him the\nchief things that afterwards happened to him in the sequel of his life.\nThree years beforehand, he foretold the great pestilence of 664, and\nthat he himself should die of it, but Eata, the abbot, should outlive\nit. Boisil, not content continually to instruct and exhort his religious\nbrethren by word and example, made frequent excursions into the villages\nto preach to the poor, and to bring straying souls into the paths of\ntruth and of life. St. Cuthbert was taken with the pestilential disease:\nwhen St. Boisil saw him recovered, he said to him: \"Thou seest, brother,\nthat God hath delivered thee from this disease, nor shalt thou any more\nfeel it, nor die at this time: but my death being at hand, neglect not\nto learn something of me so long as I shall be able to teach thee, which\nwill be no more than seven days.\" \"And what,\" said Cuthbert, \"will be\nbest for me to read, which may be finished in seven days?\" \"The gospel\nof St. John,\" said he, \"which we may in that time read over, and confer\nupon as much as shall be necessary.\" For they only sought therein, says\nBede, the sincerity of faith working through love, and not the treating\nof profound questions. Having accomplished this reading in seven days,\nthe man of God, Boisil, falling ill of the aforesaid disease, came to\nhis last day, which he passed over in extraordinary jubilation of soul,\nout of his earnest desire of being with Christ. In his last moments he\noften repeated those words of St. Stephen: \"Lord Jesus receive my\nspirit!\" Thus he {453} entered into the happiness of eternal light, in\nthe year 664. The instructions which he was accustomed most earnestly to\ninculcate to his religious brethren were: \"That they would never cease\ngiving thanks to God for the gift of their religious vocation; that they\nwould always watch over themselves against self-love, and all attachment\nto their own will and private judgment, as against their capital enemy;\nthat they would converse assiduously with God by interior prayer, and\nlabor continually to attain to the most perfect purity of heart, this\nbeing the true and short road to the perfection of Christian virtue.\"\nOut of the most ardent and tender love which he bore our divine\nRedeemer, and in order daily to enkindle and improve the sane, he was\nwonderfully delighted with reading every day a part of the gospel of St.\nJohn, which for this purpose he divided into seven parts or tasks. St.\nCuthbert inherited from him this devotion, and in his tomb was fouled a\nLatin copy of St. John's gospel, which was in the possession of the\npresent earl of Litchfield, and which his lordship gave to Mr. Thomas\nPhilips, canon of Tongres.\n\nBede relates[1] as an instance that St. Boisil continued after his death\nto interest himself particularly in obtaining for his country and\nfriends the divine mercy and grace, that he appeared twice to one of his\ndisciples, giving him a charge to assure St. Egbert, who had been\nhindered from going to preach the gospel to the infidels in Germany,\nthat God commanded him to repair to the monasteries of St. Columba, to\ninstruct them in the right manner of celebrating Easter. These\nmonasteries were, that in the island of Colm-Kill, or Iona, (which was\nthe ordinary burial-place of the kings of Scotland down to Malcolm\nIII.,) and that of Magis, in the isles of Orkney, built by bishop\nColman. The remains of St. Boisil were translated to Durham, and\ndeposited near those of his disciple St. Cuthbert, in 1030. Wilson and\nother English authors mention St. Boisil on the 7th of August; but in\nthe Scottish calendars his name occurs on the 23d of February. See Bede,\nHist. l. 4, c. 27, l. 5, c. 10, and in Vita S. Cuthberti, c. 8.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  Hist. l. 5, c. 10.\n\n\nFEBRUARY XXIV.\n\nSAINT MATTHIAS, APOSTLE.\n\nFrom Acts i. 21. See Tillemont, t. 1, p. 406. Henschenius, p. 434.\n\nST. CLEMENT of Alexandria[1] assures us, from tradition, that this saint\nwas one of the seventy-two disciples, which is confirmed by Eusebius[2]\nand St. Jerom;[3] and we learn from the Acts[4] of the apostles, that he\nwas a constant attendant on our Lord, from the time of his baptism by\nSt. John to his ascension. St. Peter having, in a general assembly of\nthe faithful held soon after, declared from holy scripture, the\nnecessity of choosing a twelfth apostle, in the room of Judas; two were\nunanimously pitched upon by the assembly, as most worthy of the dignity,\nJoseph, called Barsabas, and, on account of his extraordinary piety,\nsurnamed the Just, and Matthias. After devout prayer to God, that he\nwould direct them in their choice, they proceeded in {454} it by way of\nlot, which falling by the divine direction on Matthias, he was\naccordingly associated with the eleven, and ranked among the apostles.\nWhen in deliberations each side appears equally good, or each candidate\nof equally approved merit, lots may be sometimes lawfully used;\notherwise, to commit a thing of importance to such a chance, or to\nexpect a miraculous direction of divine providence in it, would be a\ncriminal superstition and a tempting of God, except he himself, by an\nevident revelation or inspiration, should appoint such a means for the\nmanifestation of his will, promising his supernatural interposition in\nit, which was the case on this extraordinary occasion. The miraculous\ndreams or lots, which we read of in the prophets, must no ways authorize\nany rash superstitious use of such means in others who have not the like\nauthority.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nWe justly admire the virtue of this holy assembly of saints. Here were\nno solicitations or intrigues. No one presented himself to the dignity.\nAmbition can find no place in a virtuous or humble heart. He who seeks a\ndignity either knows himself unqualified, and is on this account guilty\nof the most flagrant injustice with regard to the public, by desiring a\ncharge to which he is no ways equal: or he thinks himself qualified for\nit, and this self-conceit and confidence in his own abilities renders\nhim the most unworthy of all others. Such a disposition deprives a soul\nof the divine assistance, without which we can do nothing; for God\nwithdraws his grace and refuses his blessing where self-sufficiency and\npride have found any footing. It is something of a secret confidence in\nourselves, and a presumption that we deserve the divine succor, which\nbanishes him from us. This is true even in temporal undertakings; but\nmuch more so in the charge of souls, in which all success is more\nparticularly the special work of the Holy Ghost, not the fruit of human\nindustry. These two holy candidates were most worthy of the apostleship,\nbecause perfectly humble, and because they looked upon that dignity with\ntrembling, though they considered its labors, dangers, and persecutions\nwith holy joy, and with a burning zeal for the glory of God. No regard\nwas had to worldly talents, none to flesh and blood. God was consulted\nby prayer, because no one is to be assumed to his ministry who is not\ncalled by him, and who does not enter it by the door,[5] and with the\nundoubted marks of his vocation. Judas's misfortune filled St. Matthias\nwith the greater humility and fervor, lest he also should fall. We\nGentiles are called upon the disinherison of the Jews, and are ingrafted\non their stock.[6] We ought therefore to learn to stand always in\nwatchfulness and fear, or we shall be also cut off ourselves, to give\nplace to others whom God will call in our room, and even compel to\nenter, rather than spare us. The number of his elect depends not on us.\nHis infinite mercy has invited us without any merit on our side; but if\nwe are ungrateful, he can complete his heavenly city without us, and\nwill certainly make our reprobation the most dreadful example of his\njustice, to all eternity. The greater the excess of his goodness and\nclemency has been towards us, the more dreadful will be the effects of\nhis vengeance. _Many shall come from the east and the west, and shall\nsit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of God; but the\nsons of the kingdom shall be cast forth_.[7]\n\nSt. Matthias received the Holy Ghost with the rest soon after his\nelection; and after the dispersion of the disciples, applied himself\nwith zeal to the functions of his apostleship, in converting nations to\nthe faith. He is recorded by St. Clement of Alexandria,[8] to have been\nremarkable for inculcating the necessity of the mortification of the\nflesh with regard to all {455} its sensual and irregular desires, an\nimportant lesson he had received from Christ, and which he practised\nassiduously on his own flesh. The tradition of the Greeks in their\nmenologies tells us that St: Matthias planted the faith about Cappadocia\nand on the coasts of the Caspian sea, residing chiefly near the port\nIssus. He must have undergone great hardships and labors amidst so\nsavage a people. The same authors add that he received the crown of\nmartyrdom in Colchis, which they call AEthiopia. The Latins keep his\nfestival on the 24th of February. Some portions of his relics are shown\nin the abbatical church of Triers, and in that of St. Mary Major in\nRome, unless these latter belong to another Matthias, who was one of the\nfirst bishops of Jerusalem: on which see the Bollandists.\n\nAs the call of St. Matthias, so is ours purely the work of God, and his\nmost gratuitous favor and mercy. What thanks, what fidelity and love do\nwe not owe him for this inestimable grace! When he decreed to call us to\nhis holy faith, cleanse us from sin, and make us members of his\nspiritual kingdom, and heirs of his glory, he saw nothing in us which\ncould determine him to such a predilection. We were infected with sin,\nand could have no title to the least favor, when God said to us, _I have\nloved Jacob_: when he distinguished us from so many millions who perish\nin the blindness of infidelity and sin, drew us out of the mass of\nperdition, and bestowed on us the grace of his adoption, and all the\nhigh privileges that are annexed to this dignity. In what transports of\nlove and gratitude ought we not, without intermission, to adore his\ninfinite goodness to us, and beg that we may be always strengthened by\nhis grace to advance continually in humility and his holy love, lest, by\nslackening our pace in his service, we fall from this state of\nhappiness, forfeit this sublime grace, and perish with Judas. Happy\nwould the church be, if all converts were careful to maintain themselves\nin the same fervor in which they returned to God. But by a neglect to\nwatch over themselves, and to shun dangers, and by falling into sloth,\nthey often relapse into a condition much worse than the former.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  Strom. l. 4, p. 488.\n2.  L. 1, c. {1}.\n3.  In Catal.\n4.  C. i. 21.\n5.  Jo. x. 1.\n6.  Rom. xi. 12.\n7.  Matt. viii. 11.\n8.  Strom. l. 3, p. 436.\n\nSS. MONTANUS, LUCIUS, FLAVIAN, JULIAN, VICTORICUS,\n\nPRIMOLUS, RHENUS, AND DONATIAN, MARTYRS AT CARTHAGE.\n\nFrom their original acts written, the first part by the martyrs\nthemselves, the rest by an eye-witness. They are published more\ncorrectly by Ruinart than by Surius and Bollandus. See Tillemont, t. 4,\np. 206.\n\nA.D. 259.\n\nTHE persecution, raised by Valerian, had raged two years, during which\nmany had received the crown of martyrdom, and, among others, St.\nCyprian, in September, 258. The proconsul Galerius Maximus, who had\npronounced sentence on that saint, dying himself soon after, the\nprocurator, Solon, continued the persecution, waiting for the arrival of\na new proconsul from Rome. After some days, a sedition was raised in\nCarthage against him, in which many were killed. The tyrannical man,\ninstead of making search after the guilty, vented his fury upon the\nChristians, knowing this would be agreeable to the idolaters.\nAccordingly he caused these eight Christians, all disciples of St.\nCyprian, and most of them of the clergy, to be apprehended. As soon as\nwe were taken, say the authors of the acts, we were given in custody to\nthe officers of the quarter:[1] when the governor's soldiers told us\nthat we should be condemned to the flames, we prayed to God with great\nfervor to be delivered from that punishment: and he in {456} whose hands\nare the hearts of men, was pleased to grant our request. The governor\naltered his first intent, and ordered us into a very dark and\nincommodious prison, where we found the priest, Victor, and some others:\nbut we were not dismayed at the filth and darkness of the place, our\nfaith and joy in the Holy Ghost reconciled us to our sufferings in that\nplace, though these were such as it is not easy for words to describe;\nbut the greater our trials, the greater is he who overcomes them in us.\nOur brother Rhenus, in the mean time, had a vision, in which he saw\nseveral of the prisoners going out of prison with a lighted lamp\npreceding each of them, while others, that had no such lamp, stayed\nbehind. He discerned us in this vision, and assured us that we were of\nthe number of those who went forth with lamps. This gave us great joy.\nfor we understood that the lamp represented Christ, the true light, and\nthat we were to follow him by martyrdom.\n\nThe next day we were sent for by the governor, to be examined. It was a\ntriumph to us to be conducted as a spectacle through the market-place\nand the streets, with our chains rattling. The soldiers, who knew not\nwhere the governor would hear its, dragged us from place to place, till,\nat length, he ordered us to be brought into his closet. He put several\nquestions to us; our answers were modest, but firm: at length we were\nremanded to prison; here we prepared ourselves for new conflicts. The\nsharpest trial was that which we underwent by hunger and thirst, the\ngovernor having commanded that we should be kept without meat and drink\nfor several days, insomuch that water was refused us after our work: yet\nFlavian, the deacon, added great voluntary austerities to these\nhardships, often bestowing on others what little refreshment which was\nmost sparingly allowed us at the public charge.\n\nGod was pleased himself to comfort us in this our extreme misery, by a\nvision which he vouchsafed to the priest Victor, who suffered martyrdom\na few days after. \"I saw last night,\" said he to us, \"an infant, whose\ncountenance was of a wonderful brightness, enter the prison. He took us\nto all parts to make us go out, but there was no outlet; then he said to\nme, 'You have still some concern at your being retained here, but be not\ndiscouraged. I am with you: carry these tidings to your companions, and\nlet them know that they shall have a more glorious crown.' I asked him\nwhere heaven was; the infant replied, 'Out of the world.' 'Show it me,'\nsays Victor. The infant answered, 'Where then would be your faith?'\nVictor said, 'I cannot retain what you command me: tell me a sign that I\nmay give them.' He answered, 'Give them the sign of Jacob, that is, his\nmystical ladder, reaching to the heavens.'\" Soon after this vision,\nVictor was put to death. This vision filled us with joy.\n\nGod gave us, the night following, another assurance of his mercy by a\nvision to our sister Quartillosia, a fellow-prisoner, whose husband and\nson had suffered death for Christ three days before, and who followed\nthem by martyrdom a few days after. \"I saw,\" says she, \"my son, who\nsuffered; he was in the prison sitting on a vessel of water, and said to\nme: 'God has seen your sufferings.' Then entered a young man of a\nwonderful stature, and he said: 'Be of good courage, God hath remembered\nyou.'\" The martyrs had received no nourishment the preceding day, nor\nhad they any on the day that followed this vision; but at length Lucian,\nthen priest, and afterwards bishop of Carthage, surmounting all\nobstacles, got food to be carried to them in abundance by the subdeacon,\nHerermian, and by Januarius, a catechumen. The acts say they brought the\nnever-failing food[2] {457} which Tillemont understands of the blessed\neucharist, and the following words still more clearly determine it in\nfavor of this sense. They go on: We have all one and the same spirit,\nwhich unites and cements us together in prayer, in mutual conversation,\nand in all our actions. These are those amiable bands which put the\ndevil to flight, are most agreeable to God, and obtain of him, by joint\nprayer, whatever they ask. These are the ties which link hearts\ntogether, and which make men the children of God. To be heirs of his\nkingdom we must be his children, and to be his children we must love one\nanother. It is impossible for us to attain to the inheritance of his\nheavenly glory, unless we keep that union and peace with all our\nbrethren which our heavenly Father has established among us.\nNevertheless, this union suffered some prejudice in our troop, but the\nbreach was soon repaired. It happened that Montanus had some words with\nJulian, about a person who was not of our communion, and who was got\namong us, (probably admitted by Julian.) Montanus on this account\nrebuked Julian, and they, for some time afterwards, behaved towards each\nother with coldness, which was, as it were, a seed of discord. Heaven\nhad pity on them both, and, to reunite them, admonished Montanus by a\ndream, which he related to us as follows: \"It appeared to me that the\ncenturions were come to us, and that they conducted us through a long\npath into a spacious field, where we were met by Cyprian and Lucius.\nAfter this we came into a very luminous place, where our garments became\nwhite, and our flesh became whiter than our garments, and so wonderfully\ntransparent, that there was nothing in our hearts but what was clearly\nexposed to view: but in looking into myself, I could discover some filth\nin my own bosom; and, meeting Lucian, I told him what I had seen,\nadding, that the filth I had observed within my breast denoted my\ncoldness towards Julian. Wherefore, brethren, let us love, cherish, and\npromote, with all our might, peace and concord. Let us be here unanimous\nin imitation of what we shall be hereafter. As we hope to share in the\nrewards promised to the just, and to avoid the punishments wherewith the\nwicked are threatened: as, in fine, we desire to be and reign with\nChrist, let us do those things which will lead us to him and his\nheavenly kingdom.\" Hitherto the martyrs wrote in prison what happened to\nthem there: the rest was written by those persons who were present, to\nwhom Flavian, one of the martyrs, had recommended it.\n\nAfter suffering extreme hunger and thirst, with other hardships, during\nan imprisonment of many months, the confessors were brought before the\npresident, and made a glorious confession. The edict of Valerian\ncondemned only bishops, priests, and deacons to death. The false friends\nof Flavian maintained before the judge that he was no deacon, and,\nconsequently, was not comprehended within the emperor's decree; upon\nwhich, though he declared himself to be one, he was not then condemned;\nbut the rest were adjudged to die. They walked cheerfully to the place\nof execution, and each of them gave exhortations to the people. Lucius,\nwho was naturally mild and modest, was a little dejected on account of\nhis distemper and the inconveniences of the prison; he therefore went\nbefore the rest, accompanied but by a few persons, lest he should be\noppressed by the crowd, and so not have the honor to spill his blood.\nSome cried out to him, \"Remember us.\" \"Do you also,\" says he, \"remember\nme.\" Julian and Victoricus exhorted a long while the brethren to peace,\nand recommended to their care the whole body of the clergy, those\nespecially who had undergone the hardships of imprisonment. Montanus,\nwho was endued with great strength, both of body and mind, cried out,\n\"He that sacrificeth to any God but the true one, shall be utterly\ndestroyed.\" This he often repeated. He also checked the pride and wicked\nobstinacy of the heretics, telling them {458} that they might discern\nthe true church by the multitude of its martyrs. Like a true disciple of\nSaint Cyprian, and a zealous lover of discipline, he exhorted those that\nhad fallen not to be over hasty, but fully to accomplish their penance.\nHe exhorted the virgins to preserve their purity, and to honor the\nbishops, and all the bishops to abide to concord. When the executioner\nwas ready to give the stroke, he prayed aloud to God that Flavian, who\nhad been reprieved at the people's request, might follow them on the\nthird day. And, to express his assurance that his prayer was heard, he\nrent in pieces the handkerchief with which his eyes were to be covered,\nand ordered one half of it to be reserved for Flavian, and desired that\na place might be kept for him where he was to be interred, that they\nmight not be separated even in the grave. Flavian, seeing his crown\ndelayed, made it the object of his ardent desires and prayers. And as\nhis mother stuck close by his side with the constancy of the mother of\nthe holy Maccabees, and with longing desires to see him glorify God by\nhis sacrifice, he said to her \"You know, mother, how much I have longed\nto enjoy the happiness of dying by martyrdom.\" In one of the two nights\nwhich he survived, he was favored with a vision, in which one said to\nhim: \"Why do you grieve? You have been twice a confessor, and you shall\nsuffer martyrdom by the sword.\" On the third day he was ordered to be\nbrought before the governor. Here it appeared how much he was beloved by\nthe people, who endeavored by all means to save his life. They cried out\nto the judge that he was no deacon; but he affirmed that he was. A\ncenturion presented a billet which set forth that he was not. The judge\naccused him of lying to procure his own death. He answered: \"Is that\nprobable? and not rather that they are guilty of an untruth who say the\ncontrary?\" The people demanded that he might be tortured, in hopes he\nwould recall his confession on the rack; but the judge condemned him to\nbe beheaded. The sentence filled him with joy, and he was conducted to\nthe place of execution, accompanied by a great multitude, and by many\npriests. A shower dispersed the infidels, and the martyr was lead into a\nhouse where he had an opportunity of taking his last leave of the\nfaithful without one profane person being present. He told them that in\na vision he had asked Cyprian whether the stroke of death is painful,\nand that the martyr answered: \"The body feels no pain when the soul\ngives herself entirely to God.\" At the place of execution he prayed for\nthe peace of the church and the union of the brethren; and seemed to\nforetell Lucian that he should be bishop of Carthage, as he was soon\nafter. Having done speaking, he bound his eyes with that half of the\nhandkerchief which Montanus had ordered to be kept for him, and,\nkneeling in prayer, received the last stroke. These saints are joined\ntogether on his day in the present Roman and in ancient Martyrologies.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  Apud regionantes.\n2.  Alimentum indeficiens.\n\nST. LETHARD, BISHOP OF SENLIS, C.\n\nCALLED BY VENERABLE BEDE, LUIDHARD.\n\nBEDE, William of Malmesbury, and other historians relate, that when\nBertha, daughter of Charibert, king of the French, was married to\nEthelbert, king of Kent, about the year 566, this holy French prelate\naccompanied her into England, and resided at Canterbury in quality of\nalmoner and chaplain to the queen. Though his name does not occur in the\nimperfect catalogue of the bishops of Senlis, which is found in the\nancient copy of St. Gregory's sacramentary, which belonged to that\nchurch in 880, nor in the old edition of Gallia Christiana yet, upon the\nauthority of the English historians, {459} is inserted in the new\nedition, the thirteenth, from St. Regulus, the founder of that see, one\nof the Roman missionaries in Gaul about the time of St. Dionysius. The\nrelics of St. Regulus are venerated in the ancient collegiate church\nwhich bears his name in Senlis, and his principal festival is kept on\nthe 23d of April. St. Lethard having resigned this see to St. Sanctinus,\nwas only recorded in England. On the high altar of St. Augustine's\nmonastery at Canterbury, originally called SS. Peter and Paul's, his\nrelics were exposed in a shrine near those of the holy king Ethelbert,\nas appears from the Monasticon. St. Lethard died at Canterbury about the\nyear 596. Several miracles are recorded to have been obtained by his\nintercession, particularly a ready supply of rain in time of drought.\nSee Bede, l. 1, c. 25. Will. of Malmesbury, de Pontif. l. 1. Monas.\nAngl. t. 1, p. 24. Tho. Sprot, in his History of the Abbey of\nCanterbury, Thorn, Henschenius ad 24 Feb., Gallia Christ. Nova, t. 10,\np. 1382.\n\nB. ROBERT OF ARBRISSEL,\n\nSO CALLED FROM THE PLACE OF HIS BIRTH.\n\nHE was archpriest and grand vicar of the diocese of Rennes, and\nchancellor to the duke of Brittany; but divested himself of these\nemployments, and led a most austere eremitical life, in the forest of\nCraon, in Anjou. He soon filled that desert with anchorets, and built in\nit a monastery of regular canons. This is the abbey called De la Roe, in\nLatin De Rota, which was founded, according to Duchesne, in 1093, and\nconfirmed by pope Urban II., in 1096. This pope having heard him preach\nat Angers, gave him the powers of an apostolical missionary. The blessed\nman therefore preached in many places, and formed many disciples. In\n1099 he founded the great monastery of Fontevraud, Fons Ebraldi, a\nleague from the Loire, in Poitou. He appointed superioress Herlande of\nChampagne, a near kinswoman to the duke of Brittany; and Petronilla of\nCraon, baroness of Chemille, coadjutress. He settled it under the rule\nof St. Benedict, with perpetual abstinence from flesh, even in all\nsicknesses, and put his order under the special patronage of the blessed\nVirgin. By a singular institution, he appointed the abbess superioress\nover the men, who live in a remote monastery, whose superiors she\nnominates. The holy founder prescribed so strict silence in his order,\nas to forbid any one to speak, even by signs, without necessity. The law\nof enclosure was not less rigorous, insomuch that no priest was allowed\nto enter even the infirmary of the nuns, to visit the sick, if it could\npossibly be avoided, and the sick, even in their agonies, were carried\ninto the church, that they might there receive the sacraments. Among the\ngreat conversions of which St. Robert was the instrument, none was more\nfamous than that of queen Bertrade, the daughter of Simon Montfort, and\nsister of Amauri Montfort, count of Evreux. She was married to Fulk,\ncount of Anjou, in 1089, but quitted him in 1092, to marry Philip I.,\nking of France, who was enamored of her. Pope Urban II. excommunicated\nthat prince on this account in 1094, and again in 1100, because the\nking, after having put her away, had taken her again. These censures\nwere taken off when she and the king had sworn upon the gospels, in the\ncouncil of Poitiers, never to live together again. Bertrade, when she\nhad retired to an estate which was her dower, in the diocese of\nChartres, was so powerfully moved by the exhortations of St. Robert,\nthat, renouncing the world, of which she had been long the idol, she\ntook the religious veil at Fontevraud, and led there an exemplary life\ntill her death. Many other princesses embraced the same state {460}\nunder the direction of the holy founder: among others Hersande of\nChampagne, widow of William of Monsoreau; Agnes of Montroeil, of the\nsame family; Ermengarde, wife of Alin Fergan, duke of Brittany; {}pa,\ncountess of Thoulouse, wife of William IX., duke of Aquitaine, &c. After\nthe death of St. Robert, several queens and princesses had taken\nsanctuary in this monastery, flying from the corruption of the world.\nAmong its abbesses are counted fourteen princesses, of which five were\nof the royal house of Bourbon. The abbot Suger, writing to pope Eugenius\nIII., about fifty years after the death of the founder, says there were\nat that time in this order between five and six thousand religious\npersons. The order of Fontevraud, in France, is divided into four\nprovinces. B. Robert lived to see above three thousand nuns in this one\nhouse. He died in 1116, on the 25th of February, St. Matthias's day, it\nbeing leap-year, in the seventieth of his age, at the monastery of\nOrsan, near Linieres, in Berry. His body was conveyed to Fontevraud, and\nthere interred. The bishop of Poitiers, in 1644, took a juridical\ninformation of many miracles wrought by his intercession.[1] From the\ntime of his death he has been honored with the title of blessed, and is\ninvoked in the litany of his order, which keeps his festival only with a\nmass of the Trinity on St. Matthias's day. See his life by Baldric,\nbishop of Dole, his contemporary; Helyot, Hist. des Ordres Relig. t. 6,\np. 83, Dom Lobineau, Hist. de Bretagne, fol. 1707, p. 113, and, in the\nfirst place, Chatelain, Notes on the Martyrol. p. 736 to 758, who\nclearly confutes those who place his death in 1117.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  Some have raked up most groundless slanders to asperse the character\n    of this holy man, as, that he admitted all to the religious habit\n    that asked it, and was guilty of too familiar conversation with\n    women. These slanders were spread in a letter of Roscelin, whose\n    errors against faith were condemned in the council of Soissons in\n    1095. Such scandalous reports excited the zeal of some good men, and\n    they are mentioned in a letter ascribed to Marbodius, bishop of\n    Rennes, and in another of Godfrey, abbot of Vendome, addressed to\n    the holy man himself. This last letter seems genuine, though some\n    have denied it. But the charge was only gathered from hearsay, and\n    notoriously false, as the very authors of these letters were soon\n    convinced. It is not surprising that a man who bade open defiance to\n    all sinners, and whose reputation ran so high in the world, should\n    excite the murmurs of some and envy of others, which zeal and merit\n    never escape. But his boldness to declaim against the vices of great\n    men, and the most hardened sinners; the high encomiums and favorable\n    testimonies which all who knew him gave to his extraordinary\n    sanctity, which forced even envy itself to respect him; and his most\n    holy comportment and happy death, furnish most invincible proofs of\n    his innocence and purity; which he preserved only by humility, and\n    the most scrupulous flight of all dangerous occasions. Godfrey of\n    Vendome was afterwards perfectly satisfied of the sanctity of this\n    great servant of God and became his warmest friend and patron; as is\n    evident from several of his letters. See l. 1, ep. 24, and 26, l. 3,\n    ep.2, l. 4, ep. 32. He entered into an association of prayers with\n    the monastery of Fontevraud in 1114; and so much did he esteem his\n    virtue that he made a considerable foundation at Fontevraud, often\n    visited the church, and built himself a house near it, called Hotel\n    de Vendome, that he might more frequently enjoy the converse of St.\n    Robert, and promote his holy endeavors. The letter of Marbodius is\n    denied to be genuine by Mainferme and Natalis Alexander, and\n    suspected by D. Beaugendre, who published the works of Marbodius at\n    Paris, in 1708. But the continuator of the Hist. Litter. t. 10, p.\n    359, clearly shows this letter to have been written by Marbodius,\n    who, in it, speaks of these rumors without giving credit to them,\n    and with tenderness and charity exhorts Robert to reform his conduct\n    if the reports were true; to dissipate them by justifying himself,\n    if they were false. Marbodius was soon satisfied as to these\n    calumnies, and was the saint's great protector, in 1101, in his\n    missions in Brittany, particularly in his diocese of Rennes; whither\n    he seems to have invited him. Ermengarde, countess of Brittany, was\n    so moved by St. Robert's sermons, that she earnestly desired to\n    renounce the world, and retire to Fontevraud. The saint exhorted her\n    to continue in the world, and to sanctify her soul by her duties in\n    her public station, especially by patience and prayer: yet, some\n    years after, she took the veil at Fontevaud. See F. de la Mainferme,\n    in his three apologetic volumes in vindication of this patriarch of\n    his order, Natalis Alexander, saec. xii. diss. 6, and especially\n    Sorin's Apologetique du Saint. in 1702, a polite and spirited work.\n\nST. PRETEXTATUS, OR PRIX, M.\n\nARCHBISHOP OF ROUEN.\n\nHE was chosen archbishop of Rouen in 549, and in 557 assisted at the\nthird council of Paris held to abolish incestuous marriages, and remove\nother crying abuses: also at the second council of Tours in 566. By his\nzeal in reproving Fredegonda for her injustices and cruelties, he had\nincurred her indignation. King Clotaire I., in 562, had left the French\nmonarchy {461} divided among his four sons. Charibert was king of Paris,\nGontran of Orleans and Burgundy, Sigebert I. of Austrasia, and Chilperic\nI. of Soissons. Sigebert married Brunehault, younger daughter of\nAthanagilde, king of the Visigoths in Spain, and Chilperic her elder\nsister Galsvinda; but after her death he took to wife Fredegonda, who\nhad been his mistress, and was strongly suspected to have contrived the\ndeath of the queen by poison. Hence Brunehault stirred up Sigebert\nagainst her and her husband. But Fredegonda contrived the assassination\nof king Sigebert in 575, and Chilperic secured Brunehault his wife, her\nthree daughters, and her son Childebert. This latter soon made his\nescape, and fled to Metz, where he was received by his subjects, and\ncrowned king of Austrasia. The city of Paris, after the death of\nCharibert in 566, by the agreement of the three surviving brothers,\nremained common to them all, till Chilperic seized it. He sent Meroveus,\nhis son by his first wife, to reduce the country about Poitiers, which\nbelonged to the young prince Childebert. But Meroveus, at Ronen, fell in\nlove with his aunt Brunehault, then a prisoner in that city; and bishop\nPrix, in order to prevent a grievous scandal, judging circumstances to\nbe sufficiently cogent to require a dispensation, married them: for\nwhich he was accused of high treason by king Chilperic before a council\nat Paris, in 577, in the church of St. Peter, since called St.\nGenevieve. St. Gregory of Tours there warmly defended his innocence, and\nPrix confessed the marriage, but denied that he had been privy to the\nprince's revolt; but was afterwards prevailed upon, through the\ninsidious persuasion of certain emissaries of Chilperic, to plead\nguilty, and confess that out of affection he had been drawn in to favor\nthe young prince, who was his godson. Whereupon he was condemned by the\ncouncil, and banished by the king into a small island upon the coast of\nLower Neustria, near Coutances. His sufferings he improved to the\nsanctification of his soul by penance and the exercise of all heroic\nChristian virtues. The rage and clamor with which his powerful enemies\nspread their slanders to beat down his reputation, staggered many of his\nfriends: but St. Gregory of Tours never forsook him. Meroveus was\nassassinated near Terouanne, by an order of his stepmother Fredegonda,\nwho was also suspected to have contrived the death of her husband\nChilperic, who was murdered at Chelles, in 584. She had three years\nbefore procured Clovis, his younger son by a former wife, to be\nassassinated, so that the crown of Soissons devolved upon her own son\nClotaire II.: but for his and her own protection, she had recourse to\nGontran, the religious king of Orleans and Burgundy. By his order Prix,\nafter a banishment of six years, was restored with honor to his see;\nRagnemond, the bishop of Paris, who had been a principal flatterer of\nChilperic in the persecution of this prelate, having assured this prince\nthat the council had not deposed him, but only enjoined him penance. St.\nPrix assisted at the council of Macon in 585, where he harangued several\ntimes, and exerted his zeal in framing many wise regulations for the\nreformation of discipline. He continued his pastoral labors in the care\nof his flock, and by just remonstrances often endeavored to reclaim the\nwicked queen Fredegonda, who frequently resided at Rouen, and filled the\nkingdom with scandals, tyrannical oppressions, and murders. This Jezabel\ngrew daily more and more hardened in iniquity, and by her secret order\nSt. Prix was assassinated while he assisted at matins in his church in\nthe midst of his clergy on Sunday the 25th of February. Happy should we\nbe if under all afflictions, with this holy penitent, we considered that\nsin is the original fountain from whence all those waters of bitterness\nflow, and by laboring effectually to cut off this evil, convert its\npunishment into its remedy and a source of benedictions. St. Prix of\nRouen to honored in the Roman and Gallican Martyrologies. Those who with\n{462} Chatelain, &c. place his death on the 14th of April, suppose him\nto have been murdered on Easter-day, but the day of our Lord's\nResurrection in this passage of our historian, means no more than\nSunday. See St. Gregory of Tours, Hist. Franc. l. 5, c. 10, 15. Fleury,\nl. 34, n. 52. Gallia Christiana Nova, t. 11, pp. 11 and 638. Mons.\nLevesque de la Ravaliere in his Nouvelle Vie de S. Gregoire, Eveque de\nTours, published in the Memoires de l'Academie des Inscriptions et\nBelles Lettres, An. 1760, t. 26, pp. 699, 60. F. Daniel, Hist. de\nFrance, t. 1, p. 242.\n\nST. ETHELBERT, C.\n\nFIRST CHRISTIAN KING AMONG THE ENGLISH.\n\nHE was king of Kent, the fifth descendant from Hengist, who first\nsettled the English Saxons in Britain, in 448, and the foundation of\nwhose kingdom is dated in 445. Ethelbert married, in his father's\nlifetime, Bertha, the only daughter of Charibert, king of Paris, and\ncousin-german to Clotaire, king of Soissons, and Childebort, king of\nAustrasia, whose two sons, Theodobert and Theodoric, or Thierry, reigned\nafter his death, the one in Austrasia, the other in Burgundy. Ethelbert\nsucceeded his father Ermenric, in 560. The kingdom of Kent having\nenjoyed a continued peace for about a hundred years, was arrived at a\ndegree of power and riches which gave it a pre-eminence in the Saxon\nheptarchy in Britain, and so great a superiority and influence over the\nrest, that Ethelbert is said by Bede to have ruled as far as the Humber,\nand Ethelbert is often styled king of the English. His queen Bertha was\na very zealous and pious Christian princess, and by the articles of her\nmarriage had free liberty to exercise her religion; for which purpose\nshe was attended by a venerable French prelate, named Luidhard, or\nLethard, bishop of Senlis. He officiated constantly in an old church\ndedicated to St. Martin, lying a little out of the walls of Canterbury.\nThe exemplary life of this prelate, and his frequent discourses on\nreligion, disposed several Pagans about the court to embrace the faith.\nThe merit of the queen in the great work of her husband's conversion is\nacknowledged by our historians, and she deserved by her piety and great\nzeal to be compared by St. Gregory the Great to the celebrated St.\nHelen.[1] Divine providence, by these means, mercifully prepared the\nheart of a great king to entertain a favorable opinion of our holy\nreligion, when St. Augustine landed in his dominions: to whose life the\nreader is referred for all account of this monarch's happy conversion to\nthe faith. From that time he appeared quite changed into another man, it\nbeing for the remaining twenty years of his life his only ambition and\nendeavor to establish the perfect reign of Christ, both in his own soul\nand in the hearts of all his subjects. His ardor in the exercises of\npenance and devotion never suffered any abatement, this being a property\nof true virtue, which is not to be acquired without much labor and\npains, self-denial and watchfulness, resolution and constancy. Great\nwere, doubtless, the difficulties and dangers which he had to encounter\nin subduing his passions, and in vanquishing many obstacles which the\nworld and devil failed not to raise: but these trials were infinitely\nsubservient to his spiritual advancement, by rousing him continually to\ngreater vigilance and fervor, and by the many victories and the exercise\nof all heroic virtues of which they furnished the occasions. In the\ngovernment of his kingdom, his thoughts were altogether turned upon the\nmeans of best promoting the {463} welfare of his people. He enacted most\nwholesome laws, which were held in high esteem in succeeding ages in\nthis island: he abolished the worship of idols throughout his kingdom,\nand shut up their temples, or turned them into churches. His royal\npalace at Canterbury he gave for the use of the archbishop St. Austin:\nhe founded in that city the cathedral called Christ Church, and built\nwithout the walls the abbey and church of SS. Peter and Paul, afterwards\ncalled St. Austin's. The foundation of St. Andrew's at Rochester, St.\nPaul's at London, and many other churches, affords many standing proofs\nof his munificence to the church, and the servants of God. He was\ninstrumental in bringing over to the faith of Christ, Sebert, king of\nthe East-Saxons, with his people, and Redwald, king of the East-Angles,\nthough the latter afterwards relapsing, pretended to join the worship of\nidols with that of Christ. King Ethelbert, after having reigned\nfifty-six years, exchanged his temporal diadem for an eternal crown, in\n616, and was buried in the church of SS. Peter and Paul. His remains\nwere afterwards deposited under the high altar in the same church, then\ncalled St. Austin's. St. Ethelbert is commemorated on this day in the\nBritish and Roman Martyrologies: he was vulgarly called by our ancestors\nSt. Albert, under which name he is titular saint of several churches in\nEngland; particularly of one in Norwich, which was built before the\ncathedral, an account of which is given by Blomfield, in his history of\nNorfolk, and the city of Norwich. Polydore Virgil tells us that a light\nwas kept always burning before the tomb of St. Ethelbert, and was\nsometimes an instrument of miracles, even to the days of Henry VIII. See\nBede, Hist. Ang. l. 1, c. 25, &c. Henschen. t. 3, Febr. p. 471.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  St. Greg. M. l. 9, ep. 60.\n\n\nFEBRUARY XXV.\n\nSAINT TARASIUS, CONFESSOR,\n\nPATRIARCH OF CONSTANTINOPLE.\n\nFrom his life written by Ignatius, his disciple, afterwards bishop of\nNice, and from the church historians of his time. See Bollandus, t. 5,\np. 576. Fleury, B. 44.\n\nA.D. 806.\n\nTARASIUS was born about the middle of the eighth century. His parents\nwere both of patrician families. His father, George, was a judge in\ngreat esteem for his well-known justice, and his mother, Eucratia, no\nless celebrated for her piety. She brought him up in the practice of the\nmost eminent virtues. Above all things, she recommended to him to keep\nno company but that of the most virtuous. The young man, by his talents\nand virtue, gained the esteem of all, and was raised to the greatest\nhonors of the empire, being made consul, and afterwards first secretary\nof state to the emperor Constantine and the empress Irene, his mother.\nIn the midst of the court, and in its highest honors, surrounded by all\nthat could flatter pride, or gratify sensuality, he led a life like that\nof a religious man.\n\nLeo, the Isaurian, his son Constantine Copronymus, and his grandson Leo,\nsurnamed Chazarus, three successive emperors, had established, with all\ntheir power, the heresy of the Iconoclasts, or image-breakers, in the\n{464} East. The empress Irene, wife to the last, was always privately a\nCatholic, though an artful, ambitious woman. Her husband dying miserably\nin 780, after a five years' reign, and having left his son Constantine,\nbut ten years old, under her guardianship, she so managed the nobility\nin her favor as to get the regency and whole government of the state\ninto her hands, and put a stop to the persecution of the Catholics.\nPaul, patriarch of Constantinople, the third of that name, had been\nraised to that dignity by the late emperor. Though, contrary to the\ndictates of his own conscience, he had conformed in some respects to the\nthen reigning heresy, he had however several good qualities; and was not\nonly singularly beloved by the people for his charity to the poor, but\nhighly esteemed by the empress and the whole court for his great\nprudence. Finding himself indisposed, and being touched with remorse for\nhis condescension to the Iconoclasts in the former reign, without\ncommunicating his design to any one, he quitted the patriarchal see, and\nput on a religious habit in the monastery of Florus, in Constantinople.\nThe empress was no sooner informed of it, but taking with her the young\nemperor, went to the monastery to dissuade a person so useful to her\nfrom persisting in such a resolution, but all in vain, for the patriarch\nassured them with tears, and bitter lamentations, that, in order to\nrepair the scandal he had given, he had taken an unalterable resolution\nto end his days in that monastery; so desired them to provide the church\nof Constantinople with a worthy pastor in his room. Being asked whom he\nthought equal to the charge, he immediately named Tarasius, and dying\nsoon after this declaration, Tarasius was accordingly chosen patriarch\nby the unanimous consent of the court, clergy, and people. Tarasius\nfinding it in vain to oppose his election, declared, however, that he\nthought he could not in conscience accept of the government of a see\nwhich had been cut off from the Catholic communion, but upon condition\nthat a general council should be called to compose the disputes which\ndivided the church at that time, in relation to holy images. This being\nagreed to, he was solemnly declared patriarch, and consecrated soon\nafter, on Christmas-day. He was no sooner installed, but he sent his\nsynodal letters to pope Adrian, to whom the empress also wrote in her\nown and her son's name on the subject of a general council; begging that\nhe would either come in person, or at least send some venerable and\nlearned men as his legates to Constantinople. Tarasius wrote likewise a\nletter to the patriarchs of Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem, wherein\nhe desires them to send their respective legates to the intended\ncouncil. His letter to the pope was to the same effect. The pope sent\nhis legates, as desired, and wrote by them to the emperor, the empress,\nand the patriarch; applauded their zeal, showing at large the impiety of\nthe Iconoclast heresy, insisting that the false council of the\nIconoclasts, held under Copronymus for the establishment of Iconoclasm,\nshould be first condemned in presence of his legates, and conjuring them\nbefore God to re-establish holy images at Constantinople, and in all\nGreece, on the footing they were before. He recommends to the emperor\nand empress his two legates to the council, who were Peter, archpriest\nof the Roman church, and Peter, priest and abbot of St. Sabas, in Rome.\nThe eastern patriarchs being under the Saracen yoke, could not come for\nfear of giving offence to their jealous masters, who prohibited, under\nthe strictest penalties, all commerce with the empire. However, with\nmuch difficulty and through many dangers, they sent their deputies.\n\nThe legates of the pope and the oriental patriarchs being arrived, as\nalso the bishops under their jurisdiction, the council was opened on the\n1st of August, in the church of the apostles at Constantinople, in 786.\nBut the assembly being disturbed by the violences of the Iconoclasts,\nand desired {465} by the empress to break up and withdraw for the\npresent, the council met again the year following in the church of St.\nSophia, at Nice. The two legates from the pope are named first in the\nActs, St. Tarasms next, and after him the legates of the Oriental\npatriarchs, namely, John, priest and monk, for the patriarchs of Antioch\nand Jerusalem; and Thomas, priest and monk, for the patriarch of\nAlexandria. The council consisted of three hundred and fifty bishops,\nbesides many abbots and other holy priests and confessors,[1] who having\ndeclared the sense of the present church, in relation to the matter in\ndebate, which was found to be the allowing to holy pictures and images a\nrelative honor, the council was closed with the usual acclamations and\nprayers for the prosperity of the emperor and empress. After which,\nsynodal letters were sent to all the churches, and in particular to the\npope, who approved the council.\n\nThe good patriarch, pursuant to the decrees of the synod, restored holy\nimages throughout the extent of his jurisdiction. He also labored\nzealously to abolish simony, and wrote a letter upon that subject to\npope Adrian, to which, by saying it was the glory of the Roman church to\npreserve the purity of the priesthood, he intimated that that church was\nfree from this reproach. The life of this holy patriarch was a model of\nperfection to his clergy and people. His table had nothing of the\nsuperfluity, nor his palace any thing of the magnificence, of several of\nhis predecessors. He allowed himself very little time for sleep, being\nalways up the first and last in his family. Reading and prayer filled\nall his leisure hours. It was his pleasure, in imitation of our blessed\nRedeemer, to serve others instead of being served by them;{466} on which\naccount he would scarce permit his own servants to do any thing for him.\nLoving humility in himself, he sought sweetly to induce all others to\nthe love of that virtue. He banished the use of gold and scarlet from\namong the clergy, and labored to extirpate all the irregularities among\nthe people. His charity and love for the poor seemed to surpass his\nother virtues. He often took the dishes of meat from his table to\ndistribute among them with his own hands: and he assigned them a large\nfixed revenue. And that none might be overlooked, he visited all the\nhouses and hospitals in Constantinople. In Lent, especially, his bounty\nto them was incredible. His discourses were powerful exhortations to the\nuniversal mortification of the senses, and he was particularly severe\nagainst all theatrical entertainments. Some time after, the emperor\nbecame enamored of Theodota, a maid of honor to his wife, the empress\nMary, whom he had always hated; and forgetting what he owed to God, he\nwas resolved to divorce her in 795, after seven years' cohabitation. He\nused all his efforts to gain the patriarch, and sent a principal officer\nto him for that purpose, accusing his wife of a plot to poison him. St.\nTarasius answered the messenger, saying: \"I know not how the emperor can\nbear the infamy of so scandalous an action in the sight of the universe:\nnor how he will be able to hinder or punish adulteries and debaucheries,\nif he himself set such an example. Tell him that I will rather suffer\ndeath and all manner of torments than consent to his design.\" The\nemperor hoping to prevail with him by flattery, sent for him to the\npalace, and said to him: \"I can conceal nothing from you, whom I regard\nas my father. No one can deny but I may divorce one who has attempted my\nlife. She deserves death or perpetual penance.\" He then produced a\nvessel, as he pretended, full of the poison prepared for him. The\npatriarch, with good reason, judging the whole to be only an artful\ncontrivance to impose upon him, answered: that he was too well convinced\nthat his passion for Theodota was at the bottom of all his complaints\nagainst the empress. He added, that, though she were guilty of the crime\nhe laid to her charge, his second marriage during her life, with any\nother, would still be contrary to the law of God, and that he would draw\nupon himself the censures of the church by attempting it. The monk John,\nwho had been legate of the eastern patriarchs in the seventh council,\nbeing present, spoke also very resolutely to the emperor on the subject,\nso that the pretors and patricians threatened to stab him on the spot:\nand the emperor, boiling with rage, drove them both from his presence.\nAs soon as they were gone, he turned the empress Mary out of his palace,\nand obliged her to put on a religious veil. Tarasius persisting in his\nrefusal to marry him to Theodota, the ceremony was performed by Joseph,\ntreasurer of the church of Constantinople. This scandalous example was\nthe occasion of several governors and other powerful men divorcing their\nwives, or taking more than one at the same time, and gave great\nencouragement to public lewdness. SS. Plato and Theodorus separated\nthemselves from the emperor's communion to show their abhorrence of his\ncrime. But Tarasius did not think it prudent to proceed to\nexcommunication, as he had threatened, apprehensive that the violence of\nhis temper, when further provoked, might carry him still greater\nlengths, and prompt him to re-establish the heresy which he had taken\nsuch effectual measures to suppress. Thus the patriarch, by his\nmoderation, prevented the ruin of religion, but drew upon himself the\nemperor's resentment, who persecuted him many ways during the remainder\nof his reign. Not content to set spies and guards over him under the\nname of Syncelli, who watched all his actions, and suffered no one to\nspeak to him without their leave, he banished many of his domestics and\nrelations. This confinement gave the saint the more leisure for\ncontemplation, and he {467} never ceased in it to recommend his flock to\nGod. The ambitious Irene, finding that all her contrivances to render\nher son odious to his subjects had proved ineffectual to her design,\nwhich was to engross the whole power to herself, having gained over to\nher party the principal officers of the court and army, she made him\nprisoner, and caused his eyes to be plucked out; this was executed with\nso much violence that the unhappy prince died of it in 797. After this\nshe reigned alone five years, during which she recalled all the\nbanished; but at length met with the deserved reward of her ambition and\ncruelty from Nicephorus, a patrician, and the treasurer general; who, in\n802, usurped the empire, and having deposed her, banished her into the\nisle of Lesbos, where she soon after died with grief.\n\nSt. Tarasius, on the death of the late emperor, having interdicted and\ndeposed the treasurer Joseph, who had married and crowned Theodota, St.\nPlato, and others, who had censured his lenity, became thoroughly\nreconciled to him. The saint, under his successor Nicephorus, persevered\npeaceably in his practices of penance, and in the functions of his\npastoral charge. In his last sickness he still continued to offer daily\nthe holy sacrifice as long as he was able to move. A little before his\ndeath he fell into a kind of trance, as the author of his life, who was\nan eye-witness, relates, wherein he was heard to dispute and argue with\na number of accusers, very busy in sifting his whole life, and objecting\nall they could to it. He seemed in a great fright and agitation on this\naccount, and, defending himself, answered every thing laid to his\ncharge. This filled all present with fear, seeing the endeavors of the\nenemy of man to find something to condemn even in the life of so holy\nand so irreprehensible a bishop. But a great serenity succeeded, and the\nholy man gave up his soul to God in peace, on the 25th of February, 806,\nhaving sat twenty-one years and two months. God honored his memory with\nmiracles, some of which are related by the author of his life. His\nfestival began to be celebrated under his successor. The Latin and Greek\nchurches both honor his memory on this day. Fourteen years after his\ndecease, Leo, the Armenian, the Iconoclast emperor, dreamed a little\nbefore his own death, that he saw St. Tarasius highly incensed against\nhim, and heard him command one Michael to stab him. Leo, judging this\nMichael to be a monk in the saint's monastery, ordered him the next\nmorning to be sought for, and even tortured some of the religious to\noblige them to a discovery of the person: but it happened there was none\nof that name among them; and Leo was killed six days after by Michael\nBalbus.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe virtue of St. Tarasius was truly great, because constant and crowned\nwith perseverance, though exposed to continual dangers of illusion or\nseduction, amidst the artifices of hypocrites and a wicked court. St.\nChrysostom observes,[2] that the path of virtue is narrow, and lies\nbetween precipices, in which it is easier for the traveller to be seized\nwith giddiness even near the end of his course, and fall. Hence this\nfather most grievously laments the misfortune of king Ozias, who, after\nlong practising the most heroic virtues, fell, and perished through\npride; and he strenuously exhorts all who walk in the service of God,\nconstantly to live in fear, watchfulness, humility, and compunction. \"A\nsoul,\" says he, \"often wants not so much spurring in the beginning of\nher conversion; her own fervor and cheerfulness make her run vigorously.\nBut this fervor, unless it be continually nourished, cools by degrees:\nthen the devil assails her with all his might. Pirates wait for and\nprincipally attack ships when they are upon the return home laden with\n{468} riches, rather than empty vessels going out of the port. Just so\nthe devil, when he sees a soul has gathered great spiritual riches, by\nfasts, prayer, alms, chastity, and all other virtues, when he sees our\nvessel fraught with rich commodities, then he falls upon her, and seeks\non all sides to break in. What exceedingly aggravates the evil, is the\nextreme difficulty of ever rising again after such a fall. To err in the\nbeginning may be in part a want of experience; but to fall after a long\ncourse is mere negligence, and can deserve no excuse or pardon.\"\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  In the third session the letters of the patriarchs of Alexandria,\n    Antioch, and Jerusalem were read, all teaching the same doctrine of\n    paying a relative honor to sacred images, no less than the letters\n    of pope Adrian. Their deputies, John and Thomas, then added, that\n    the absence of those patriarchs should not affect the authority of\n    the council, because the tyranny under which they lived made their\n    presence impossible, and because they had sent their deputies and\n    professions of faith by letter: that none of the oriental patriarchs\n    had been at the sixth general Council, laboring then under the yoke\n    of the barbarians, yet it was not less an [oe]cumenical synod,\n    especially \"as the apostolic Roman pope agreed to it, and presided\n    in it by his legates.\" This is a clear testimony of the eastern\n    churches in favor of the authority of the holy see in general\n    councils, and it cannot in the least be suspected of fluttery. In\n    the fourth session were read many passages of the fathers in favor\n    of the relative honor due to holy images. After which, all cried\n    out, they were sons of obedience, who placed their glory in\n    following the tradition of their holy mother the church; and they\n    pronounced many anathemas against all image-breakers, that is, those\n    who do not honor holy images, or those who call them Idols. In the\n    end they add a confession of filth, in which they declare, that they\n    honor the mother of God, who is above all the heavenly powers: then\n    the angels, apostles, prophets, martyrs, doctors, and all the\n    saints; as also their pictures: for though the angels are\n    incorporeal, they have appeared like men. This profession of faith\n    was subscribed by the pope's legates, St. Turasius, the legates of\n    the three other patriarchs, and three hundred and one bishops\n    present, besides a great many priests and deacons, deputies of\n    absent bishops, and by one hundred and thirty abbots. In the fifth\n    session were read many passages of fathers falsified and corrupted\n    by the Iconoclasts, as was clearly shown. The archpriest, the pope's\n    legate, demanded that an image should be then set up in the midst of\n    the assembly, and honored by all, which was done; and that the books\n    written against holy images night be condemned and burned, which the\n    council also ratified. In the sixth session the sham council of the\n    Iconoclasts under Copronymus was condemned and refuted as to every\n    article: as first, that it falsely styled itself a _general_\n    council; for it was not received but anathematized by the other\n    bishops of the church. Secondly, because the pope of Rome had no\n    ways concurred to it, neither by himself nor by his legates, nor by\n    a circular letter, according to the custom of councils: nor had the\n    western bishops assisted at it. Thirdly, there had not been obtained\n    any consent of the patriarchs of Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem,\n    nor of the bishops of their respective districts. These are\n    conditions necessary to a general council, which were all wanting to\n    that sham synod. The council goes on refuting it, because it accused\n    the church of idolatry; which is giving the lie to Christ, whose\n    kingdom, according to scripture, is everlasting, and whose power\n    over hell can never be wrested from him. To accuse the whole church\n    is to do fill injury to Christ. They added, that the sham synod had\n    contradicted itself by admitting that the six general councils had\n    preserved the faith entire, and yet condemned the use of images,\n    which it must allow to be more ancient than the sixth council, and\n    which is of as great antiquity as the apostolic age. And that\n    whereas the same synod had advanced that the clergy having fallen\n    Into Idolatry, God had raised faithful emperors to destroy the\n    fortresses of the devil; the council of Nice vehemently condemns\n    this, because the bishops are the depositaries of tradition, and not\n    the emperors. It adds, that the Iconoclasts falsely called the\n    blessed Eucharist the only image, for it is not an image nor a\n    figure, but the true body and blood of Christ. In the seventh\n    session was read the definition of filth, declaring, that images\n    ought to be set up in churches as well as crosses, (which last the\n    Iconoclasts allowed of,) also to be figured on the sacred vessels\n    and ornaments, on the walls, ceilings, houses, &c. For the oftener\n    people behold holy images or pictures, the oftener are they excited\n    to the remembrance of what they represent: that these images are to\n    be honored, but not with the worship called Latria, which can only\n    be given to God: that they shall be honored with incense and\n    candles, as the cross, the gospels, and other holy things are, all\n    according to the pious customs of the ancients. For the honor paid\n    to images, passes to the archetypes, or things represented, and he\n    who reveres the image reveres the person it represents. This the\n    council declared to be the doctrine of the fathers, and tradition of\n    the Catholic church.\n2.  Chrysos. Hom. 3. de Ozia, t. 6, p. 14. ed Ben.\n\nST. VICTORINUS, AND SIX COMPANIONS, MARTYRS.\n\nFrom their genuine acts published from the Chaldaic by Monsignor Steph.\nAssemani. Act. Mart. Occid. t. 2. p. 60. See also Henschenius on this\nday.\n\nA.D. 284.\n\nTHESE seven martyrs were citizens of Corinth, and confessed their faith\nbefore Tertius the proconsul, in their own country, in 249, in the\nbeginning of the reign of Decius. After their torments they passed into\nEgypt, whether by compulsion or by voluntary banishment is not known,\nand there finished their martyrdom at Diospolis, capital of Thebais, in\nthe reign of Numerian, in 284, under the governor Sabinus. After the\ngovernor had tried the constancy of the martyrs by racks, scourges, and\nvarious inventions of cruelty, he caused Victorinus to be thrown into a\ngreat mortar, (the Greek Menology says, of marble.) The executioners\nbegan by pounding his feet and legs, saying to him at every stroke:\n\"Spare yourself, wretch. It depends upon you to escape this death, if\nyou will only renounce your new God.\" The prefect grew furious at his\nconstancy, and at length commanded his head to be beat to pieces. The\nsight of this mortar, so far from casting a damp on his companions,\nseemed to inspire them with the greater ardor to be treated in the like\nmanner. So that when the tyrant threatened Victor with the same death,\nhe only desired him to hasten the execution; and, pointing to the\nmortar, said: \"In that is salvation and true felicity prepared for me!\"\nHe was immediately cast into it and beaten to death. Nicephorus, the\nthird martyr, was impatient of delay, and leaped of his own accord into\nthe bloody mortar. The judge, enraged at his boldness, commanded not\none, but many executioners at once to pound him in the same manner. He\ncaused Claudian, the fourth, to be chopped in pieces, and his bleeding\njoints to be thrown at the feet of those that were yet living. He\nexpired after his feet, hands, arms, legs, and thighs were cut off. The\ntyrant, pointing to his mangled limbs and scattered bones, said to the\nother three: \"It concerns you to avoid this punishment; I do not compel\nyou to suffer.\" The martyrs answered with one voice: \"On the contrary,\nwe rather pray that if you have any other more exquisite torment you\nwould inflict it on us. We are determined never to violate the fidelity\nwhich we owe to God, or to deny Jesus Christ our Saviour, for he is our\nGod, from whom we have our being, and to whom alone we aspire.\" The\ntyrant became almost distracted with fury, and commanded Diodorus to be\nburned alive, Serapion to be beheaded, and Papias to be drowned. This\nhappened on the 25th of February; on which day the Roman and other\nwestern Martyrologies name them; but the Greek Menaea, and the Menology\nof the emperor Basil Porphyrogenitus, honor them on the 21st of January,\nthe day of their confession at Corinth.\n\n{469}\n\nST. WALBURGE,[1] V. ABBESS.\n\nSHE was daughter to the holy king St. Richard, and sister to SS.\nWillibald and Winebald; was born in the kingdom of the West-Saxons in\nEngland, and educated in the monastery of Winburn in Dorsetshire, where\nshe took the religious veil. After having passed twenty-seven years in\nthis holy nunnery, she was sent by the abbess Tetta, under the conduct\nof St. Lioba, with several others, into Germany, at the request of her\ncousin, St. Boniface.[2] Her first settlement in that country was under\nSt. Lioba, in the monastery of Bischofsheim, in the diocese of Mentz.\nTwo years after she was appointed abbess of a nunnery founded by her two\nbrothers, at Heidenheim in Suabia, (now subject to the duke of\nWirtemberg,) where her brother, St. Winebald, took upon him at the same\ntime the government of an abbey of monks. This town is situated in the\ndiocese of Aichstadt, in Franconia, upon the borders of Bavaria, of\nwhich St. Willibald, our saint's other brother, had been consecrated\nbishop by St. Boniface. So eminent was the spirit of evangelical\ncharity, meekness, and piety, which all the words and actions of St.\nWalburge breathed, and so remarkable was the fruit which her zeal and\nexample produced in others, that when St. Winebald died, in 760, she was\ncharged with a superintendency also over the abbey of monks till her\ndeath. St. Willibald caused the remains of their brother Winebald to be\nremoved to Aichstadt, sixteen years after his death; at which ceremony\nSt. Walburge assisted. Two years after she passed herself to eternal\nrest; on the 25th of February, in 779, having lived twenty-five years at\nHeidenheim. Her relics were translated, in the year 870, to Aichstadt,\non the 21st of September, and the principal part still remains there in\nthe church anciently called of the Holy Cross, but since that time of\nSt. Walburge. A considerable portion is venerated with singular devotion\nat Furnes, where, by the pious zeal of Baldwin, surnamed of Iron, it was\nreceived on the 25th of April, and enshrined on the 1st of May, on which\nday her chief festival is placed in the Belgic Martyrologies, imitated\nby Baronius in the Roman. From Furnes certain small parts have been\ndistributed in several other towns in the Low Countries, especially at\nAntwerp, Brussels, Tiel, Arnhem, Groningue, and Zutphen; also Cologne,\nWirtemberg, Ausberg, Christ Church at Canterbury, and other places, were\nenriched with particles of this treasure from Aichstadt. St. Walburge is\ntitular saint of many other great churches in Germany, Brabant,\nFlanders, and several provinces of France, especially in Poitou, Perche,\nNormandy, Burgundy, Lorraine, Alsace, &c. Her festival, on account of\nvarious translations of her relics, is marked on several days of the\nyear, but the principal is kept in most places on the day of her death.\nA portion of her relics was preserved in a rich shrine in the repository\nof relics in the electoral palace of Hanover, as appears from the\ncatalogue printed in folio at Hanover in 1713. See her life written by\nWolfhard, a devout priest of Aichstadt, in the following century, about\nthe year {470} 890, again by Adelbold, nineteenth bishop of Utrecht, (of\nwhich diocese Heda calls her patroness;) thirdly, by an anonymous\nauthor; fourthly, by the poet Medibard; fifthly, by Philip, bishop of\nAichstadt; sixthly, by an anonymous author, at the request of the nuns\nof St. Walburge of Aichstadt. All these six lives are published by\nHenschenius. See also Raderus, in Bavaria Sancta, t. 3, p. 4. Gretser,\nde Sanctis Eystettensibus, &c.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  This saint is corruptly called, in Perche, St. Gauburge, in Normandy\n    and Champagne, St. Vaubourg, about Luzon, St. Falbourg, in ether\n    parts of Poitou, St. Avougourg, in Germany, Walburge, Waltpurde,\n    Walpourc, and in some places Warpurg. Her English-Saxon name\n    Walburge, is the same with the Greek Eucharia, and signifies\n    gracious. See Camden's Remains.\n2.  St. Boniface being sensible of how great importance it is for the\n    public advantage of the church, and the general advancement of the\n    kingdom of Christ in the souls of men, called over from England into\n    Germany many holy nuns whom he judged best qualified to instruct and\n    train up others in the maxims and spirit of the Gospel. Among these\n    he placed St. Tecla in the monastery of Kitzingen, founded by\n    Alheide, daughter of king Pepin; St. Lioba was appointed by him\n    abbess at Bischofsheim; St. Cunihilt, aunt of St. Lulius, and her\n    daughter Berathgit, called also Bergitis, were mistresses of\n    religious schools in Thuringia, and were honored in that country\n    among the saints. Cunihildls is also called Gunthildis and\n    Bilhildis. See Thuringia Sacra, printed at Frankfort, an. 1737.\n\nSAINT CAESARIUS, C.\n\nHE was a physician, and brother to St. Gregory Nazianzen. When the\nlatter repaired to Caesarea, in Palestine, where the sacred studies\nflourished, Caesarius went to Alexandria, and with incredible success ran\nthrough the circle of the sciences, among which oratory, philosophy, and\nespecially medicine, fixed his attention. In this last he became the\nfirst man of his age. He perfected himself in this profession at\nConstantinople, but excused himself from settling there, as the city and\nthe emperor Constantius earnestly requested him to do. He was afterwards\nrecalled thither, singularly honored by Julian the Apostate, nominated\nhis first physician, and excepted in several edicts which that prince\npublished against the Christians. He resisted strenuously the\ninsinuating discourses and artifices with which that prince endeavored\nto seduce him, and was prevailed upon by the remonstrances of his father\nand brother to resign his places at court, and prefer a retreat,\nwhatever solicitations Julian could use to detain him. Jovian honorably\nrestored him, and Valens, moreover, created him treasurer of his own\nprivate purse, and of Bithynia. A narrow escape in an earthquake at\nNice, in Bithynia, in 368, worked so powerfully on his mind, that he\nrenounced the world, and died shortly after, in the beginning of the\nyear 369, leaving the poor his heirs. The Greeks honor his memory on the\n9th of March, as Nicephorus testifies, (Hist. l. 11, c. 19,) and as\nappears from the Menaea: in the Roman Martyrology he is named on the 25th\nof February.\n\n\nFEBRUARY XXVI.\n\nST. ALEXANDER, CONFESSOR,\n\nPATRIARCH OF ALEXANDRIA.\n\nFrom Theodoret, St. Athanasius, &c. See Hennant, Tillemont, t. 6, pp.\n213, 240. Ceillier, t. 4.\n\nA.D. 326.\n\nST. ALEXANDER succeeded St. Achillas in the see of Alexandria, in 313.\nHe was a man of apostolic doctrine and life, mild, affable, exceeding\ncharitable to the poor, and full of faith, zeal, and fervor. He assumed\nto the sacred ministry chiefly those who had first sanctified themselves\nin holy solitude, and was happy in the choice of bishops throughout all\nEgypt. The devil, enraged to see the havoc made in his usurped empire\nover mankind, by the disrepute idolatry was generally fallen into, used\nhis utmost endeavors to repair the loss to his infernal kingdom, by\nprocuring the establishment of a most impious heresy. Arius, a priest of\nAlexandria, was his {471} principal instrument for that purpose. This\nheresiarch was well versed in profane literature, was a subtle\ndialectician, had an exterior show of virtue, and an insinuating\nbehavior; but was a monster of pride, vain-glory, ambition, envy, and\njealousy. Under an affected modesty he concealed a soul full of deceit,\nand capable of all crimes. He joined Meletius, the bishop of Lycopolis,\nin the beginning of his schism against St. Peter, our saint's\npredecessor, in 300; but quitting that party after some time, St. Peter\nwas so well satisfied of the sincerity of his repentance, that he\nordained him deacon. Soon after Arius discovered his turbulent spirit,\nin accusing his archbishop, and raising disturbances in favor of the\nMeletians. This obliged St. Peter to excommunicate him, nor could he\never be induced to revoke that sentence. But his successor, St.\nAchillas, upon his repentance, admitted him to his communion, ordained\nhim priest, and made him curate of the church of Baucales, one of the\nquarters of Alexandria. Giving way to spite and envy, on seeing St.\nAlexander preferred before him to the see of Alexandria,[1] he became\nhis mortal enemy: and as the saint's life and conduct were\nirreproachable, all his endeavors to oppose him were levelled at his\ndoctrine, in opposition to which the heresiarch denied the divinity of\nChrist. This error he at first taught only in private; but having, about\nthe year 319, gained followers to support him, he boldly advanced his\nblasphemies in his sermons, affirming, with Ebion, Artemas, and\nTheodotus, that Christ was not truly God; adding, what no heretic had\nbefore asserted in such a manner, that the Son was a creature, and made\nout of nothing; that there was a time when he did not exist, and that he\nwas capable of sinning, with other such impieties. St. Athanasius\ninforms us,[2] that he also held that Christ had no other soul than his\ncreated divinity, or spiritual substance, made before the world:\nconsequently, that it truly suffered on the cross, descended into hell,\nand rose again from the dead. Arius engaged in his errors two other\ncurates of the city, a great many virgins, twelve deacons, seven\npriests, and two bishops.\n\nOne Colluthus, another curate of Alexandria, and many others, declaimed\nloudly against these blasphemies. The heretics were called Arians, and\nthese called the Catholics Colluthians. St. Alexander, who was one of\nthe mildest of men, first made use of soft and gentle methods to recover\nArius to the truth, and endeavored to gain him by sweetness and\nexhortations. Several were offended at his lenity, and Colluthus carried\nhis resentment so far as to commence a schism; but this was soon at an\nend, and the author of it returned to the Catholic communion. But St.\nAlexander, finding Arius's party increase, and all his endeavors to\nreclaim him ineffectual, he summoned him to appear in an assembly of his\nclergy, where, being found obstinate and incorrigible, he was\nexcommunicated, together with his adherents. This sentence of\nexcommunication the saint confirmed soon after, about the end of the\nyear 320, in a council at Alexandria, at the head of near one hundred\nbishops, at which Arius was also present, who, repeating his former\nblasphemies, and adding still more horrible ones was unanimously\ncondemned by the synod, which loaded him and all his followers with\nanathemas. Arius lay hid for some time after this in Alexandria, but\nbeing discovered, went into Palestine, and found means to gain over to\nhis party Eusebius, bishop of Caesarea, also Theognis of Nice, and\nEusebius of Nicomedia, which last was, of all others, his most declared\nprotector, and had great authority with the emperor Constantine, who\nresided even at Nicomedia, or rather with his sister Constantia. Yet it\nis clear, from Constantine himself, that he was a wicked, proud,\nambitious, intriguing man. {472} It is no wonder, after his other\ncrimes, that he became an heresiarch, and that he should have an\nascendant over many weak, but well-meaning men, on account of his high\ncredit and reputation at court. After several letters that had passed\nbetween these two serpents, Arius retired to him at Nicomedia, and there\ncomposed his Thalia, a poem stuffed with his own praises, and his\nimpious heresies.\n\nAlexander wrote to the pope, St. Sylvester, and, in a circular letter,\nto the other bishops of the church, giving them an account of Arius's\nheresy and condemnation. Arius, Eusebius, and many others, wrote to our\nsaint, begging that he would take off his censures. The emperor\nConstantine also exhorted him by letter to a reconciliation with Arius,\nand sent it by the great Osius to Alexandria, with express orders to\nprocure information of the state of the affair. The deputy returned to\nthe emperor better informed of the heresiarch's impiety and malice, and\nthe zeal, virtue, and prudence of St. Alexander: and having given him a\njust and faithful account of the matter, convinced him of the necessity\nof a general council, as the only remedy adequate to the growing evil,\nand capable of restoring peace to the church. St. Alexander had already\nsent him the same advice in several letters.[3] That prince,\naccordingly, by letters of respect, invited the bishops to Nice, in\nBithynia, and defrayed their expenses. They assembled in the imperial\npalace of Nice, on the 19th of June, in 325, being three hundred and\neighteen in number, the most illustrious prelates of the church, among\nwhom were many glorious confessors of the faith. The principal were our\nsaint, St. Eustathius, patriarch of Antioch, St. Macarius of Jerusalem,\nCecilian, archbishop of Carthage, St. Paphnutius, St. Potamon, St. Paul\nof Neocesarea, St. James of Nisibis, &c. St. Sylvester could not come in\nperson, by reason of his great age; but he sent his legates, who\npresided in his name.[4] The emperor Constantine entered the council\nwithout guards, nor would he sit till he was desired by the bishops,\nsays Eusebius.[5] Theodoret says,[6] that he asked the bishops' leave\nbefore he would enter.\n\nThe blasphemies of Arius, who was himself present, were canvassed for\nseveral days. Marcellus of Ancyra, and St. Athanasius, whom St.\nAlexander had brought with him, and whom he treated with the greatest\nesteem, discovered all the impiety they contained, and confuted the\nArians with invincible strength. The heretics, fearing the indignation\nof the council, used a great deal of dissimulation in admitting the\nCatholic terms. The fathers, to exclude all their subtleties, declared\nthe Son consubstantial to the {473} Father, which they inserted in the\nprofession of their faith, called the Nicene creed, which was drawn up\nby Osius, and to which all subscribed, except a small number of Arians.\nAt first they were seventeen, but Eusebius of Caesarea received the creed\nthe day following, as did all the others except five, namely, Eusebius\nof Nicomedia, Theognis of Nice, Marie of Chalcedon, Theonas and Secundus\nof Lybia, the two bishops who had first joined Arius. Of these also\nEusebius, Marie, and Theognis conformed through fear of banishment. The\nArian historian Philostorgius[7] pretends to excuse his heroes, Eusebius\nof Nicomedia and Theognis, by saying they inserted an iota, and\nsigned[8] like in substance, instead of of the same substance;[9] a\nfraud in religion which would no way have excused their hypocrisy.\nArius, Theonas, and Secundus, with some Egyptian priests, were banished\nby the order of Constantine, and Illyricum was the place of their exile.\nThe council received Meletius and his schismatical adherents upon their\nrepentance; but they afterwards relapsed into their schism, and part of\nthem joined the Arians. The council added twenty canons of discipline,\nand was closed about the 25th of August.[10] Constantine gave all the\nprelates a magnificent entertainment, and dismissed them with great\npresents to their respective sees. St. Alexander, after this triumph of\nthe faith, returned to Alexandria; where, after having recommended St.\nAthanasius for his successor, he died in 326, on the 26th of February,\non which day he is mentioned in the Roman Martyrology.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nA true disciple of Christ, by a sincere spirit of humility and distrust\nin himself, is, as it were, naturally inclined to submission to all\nauthority appointed by God, in which he finds his peace, security, and\njoy. This happy disposition of his soul is his secure fence against the\nillusions of self-sufficiency and blind pride, which easily betrays men\ninto the most fatal errors. On the contrary, pride is a spirit of revolt\nand independence: he who is possessed with this devil is fond of his own\nconceits, self-confident, and obstinate. However strong the daylight of\nevidence may be in itself, such a one will endeavor to shut up all the\navenues of light, though some beams force themselves into his soul to\ndisturb his repose, and strike deep the sting of remorse: jealousy and a\nlove of opposition foster the disorder, and render it incurable. This is\nthe true portraiture of Arius, and other heresiarchs and firebrands of\nthe universe. Can we sufficiently detest jealousy and pride, the fatal\nsource of so great evils? Do we not discover, by fatal symptoms, that we\nourselves harbor this monster in our breasts? Should the eye be jealous\nthat the ear hears, and disturb the functions of this or the other\nsenses, instead of regarding them as its own and enjoying their mutual\nadvantage and comfort, what confusion would ensue!\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  Theodoret, l. 1, c. {}. Socrates, l. 1, c. 5.\n2.  L. de Adv. Chr., p. 635.\n3.  Rufinus (l. 1, Hist. c. 1) says, that the council was assembled by\n    the advice of the priests. Ex sacerdotum sententia. And the third\n    council of Constantinople attributes convocation to St. Sylvester as\n    much as to the emperor. Constantinus et Sylvester magnam in Nicea\n    synodum congregabant. Conc. Constantinopolitanum tertium, Act. 18,\n    p. 1049, t. 6. Conc.\n4.  This is acknowledged by the oriental bishops, assembled at\n    Constantinople, in 552, (t. 5, Conc. pp. 337, 338.) The legates were\n    Vito, or Victor, and Vincent, two Roman priests, to whom the pope\n    joined Osius, bishop of Cordova, as being the most renowned prelate\n    of the West, and highly esteemed by the emperor. Ipse etiam Osius ex\n    Hispanis nominis et famae celebritate insignis, qui Sylvestri\n    episcoli maximae Romae locum obtinebat, una cum Romanis presbyteris\n    Vitone et Vincentio adfuit; says Gelasius of Cyzicus. (Hist. Conc.\n    Nicen. l. 2, c. 5, t. 2. Conc, p. 155.) The same is affirmed by pope\n    Adrian, (t. 6, Conc. p. 1810.) In all the editions of this council,\n    Osius with the two priests. Vito and Vincent, is first named among\n    the subscribers. Socrates also names them first, and before the\n    patriarchs. Osius Episc. Cordubae, ita credo, ut sup. dictum est.\n    Vito et Vincentius presbyteri urbis Romae. Egypti Alexander Episc.\n    Antiochiae Eustathius, &c. (Socr. l. 1, c.13.) It is then false what\n    Blondel (de la primante de l'Eglise, p. 1195) pretends, that St.\n    Eustathius of Antioch presided. He is indeed called, by Facundus,\n    (l. 8, c. 1, & l. 11, c. 1.) the first of the council; and by\n    Nicephorus, (Chronol. p. 146,) the chief of the bishops, because he\n    was the first among the orientals; for St. Alexander of Egypt was\n    certainly before him in rank. Theodoret (l. 1, c. 6) says, he sat\n    the first on the right hand in the assembly. And it appears from\n    Eusebius, that the pope's legates and the patriarch of Alexandria\n    sat at the head on the left side. This might be the more honorable\n    on several accounts, as being on the right to those that came in. It\n    is certain that the pope's legate presided in the council of\n    Chalcedon where they, in the same manner, sat first on the left\n    above the patriarch of Alexandria, and the patriarch of Antioch was\n    placed on the right.\n5.  L. 3. de vit. Constant. c. 10.\n6.  L. 1, c. 7.\n7.  L. 1, c. 9.\n8.  [Greek: Homoiusios].\n9.  [Greek: Homousious].\n10. The Arabic canons are falsely ascribed to the Nicene council, being\n    collected out of other ancient synods.\n\nST. PORPHYRIUS, BISHOP OF GAZA, CONFESSOR\n\nFrom his life, written with great accuracy by his faithful disciple\nMark. See Fleury, t. 5. Tillemont, t. 10. Chatelain, p. 777. In the\nking's library at Paris is a Greek MS. life Of St. Porphyrius, (abridged\nfrom that of Mark,) which has never been translated.\n\nA.D. 420.\n\nPORPHYRIUS, a native of Thessalonica in Macedonia, was of a noble and\nwealthy family. The desire of renouncing the world made him leave his\n{474} friends and country at twenty-five years of age, in 378, to pass\ninto Egypt, where he consecrated himself to God in a famous monastery in\nthe desert of Scete. After five years spent there in the penitential\nexercises of a monastic life, he went into Palestine to visit the holy\nplaces of Jerusalem. After this he took up his abode in a cave near the\nJordan, where he passed other five years in great austerity, till he\nfell sick, when a complication of disorders obliged him to leave that\nplace and return to Jerusalem. There he never failed daily to visit\ndevoutly all the holy places, leaning on a staff, for he was too weak to\nstand upright. It happened about the same time that Mark, an Asiatic,\nand the author of his life, came to Jerusalem with the same intent,\nwhere he made some stay. He was much edified at the devotion with which\nPorphyrius continually visited the place of our Lord's resurrection, and\nthe other oratories. And seeing him one day labor with great pain in\ngetting up the stairs in the chapel built by Constantine, he ran to him\nto offer him his assistance, which Porphyrius refused, saying: \"It is\nnot just that I who am come hither to beg pardon for my sins, should be\neased by any one: rather let me undergo some labor and inconvenience\nthat God, beholding it, may have compassion on me.\" He, in this\ncondition, never omitted his usual visits of piety to the holy places,\nand daily partook of the mystical table, that is, of the holy sacrament.\nAnd as to his distemper, so much did he contemn it, that he seemed to be\nsick in another's body and not in his own. His confidence in God always\nsupported him. The only thing which afflicted him was, that his fortune\nhad not been sold before this for the use of the poor. This he\ncommissioned Mark to do for him, who accordingly set out for\nThessalonica, and in three months' time returned to Jerusalem with money\nand effects to the value of four thousand five hundred pieces of gold.\nWhen the blessed man saw him, he embraced him with tears of joy for his\nsafe and speedy return. But Porphyrius was now so well recovered, that\nMark scarce knew him to be the same person; for his body had no signs of\nits former decay, and his face looked full, fresh, and painted with a\nhealthy red. He, perceiving his friend's amazement at his healthy looks,\nsaid to him with a smile, \"Be not surprised, Mark, to see me in perfect\nhealth and strength, but admire the unspeakable goodness of Christ, who\ncan easily cure what is despaired of by men.\" Mark asked him by what\nmeans he had recovered. He replied: \"Forty days ago, being in extreme\npain, I made a shift to reach Mount Calvary, where, fainting away, I\nfell into a kind of trance or ecstasy, during which I seemed to see our\nSaviour on the cross, and the good thief in the same condition near him.\nI said to Christ,_ Lord, Remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom_:\nwhereupon he ordered the thief to come to my assistance, who, raising me\noff the ground on which I lay, bade me go to Christ. I ran to him, and\nhe, coming off his cross, said to me: _Take this wood_ (meaning his\ncross) _into thy custody_. In obedience to him, methought I laid it on\nmy shoulders, and carried it some way. I awaked soon after, and have\nbeen free from pain ever since, and without the least appearance of my\nhaving ever ailed any thing.\" Mark was so edified with the holy man's\ndiscourse and good example, that he became more penetrated with esteem\nand affection for him than ever, which made him desirous of living\nalways with him in order to his own improvement; for he seemed to have\nattained to a perfect mastery over all his passions: he was endued at\nthe same time with a divine prudence, an eminent spirit of prayer, and\nthe gift of tears. Being also well versed in the holy scriptures and\nspiritual knowledge, and no stranger to profane learning, he confounded\nall the infidels and heretics who attempted to dispute with him. As to\nthe money and effects which Mark had brought him, he distributed all\namong the necessitous in Palestine and Egypt, so {475} that, in a very\nshort time, he had reduced himself to the necessity of laboring for his\ndaily food. He therefore learned to make shoes and dress leather, while\nMark, being well skilled in writing, got a handsome livelihood by\ncopying books, and to spare. He therefore desired the saint to partake\nof his earnings. But Porphyrius replied, in the words of St. Paul: _He\nthat doth not work let him not eat_. He led this laborious and\npenitential life till he was forty years of age, when the bishop of\nJerusalem ordained him priest, though much against his will, and\ncommitted to him the keeping of the holy cross: this was in 393. The\nsaint changed nothing in his austere penitential life, feeding only upon\nroots and the coarsest bread, and not eating till after sunset, except\non Sundays and holidays, when he ate at noon, and added a little oil and\ncheese: and on account of a great weakness of stomach, he mingled a very\nsmall quantity of wine in the water he drank. This was his method of\nliving till his death. Being elected bishop of Gaza, in 396, John, the\nmetropolitan and archbishop of Caesarea, wrote to the patriarch of\nJerusalem to desire him to send over Porphyrius, that he might consult\nhim on certain difficult passages of scripture. He was sent accordingly,\nbut charged to be back in seven days. Porphyrius, receiving this order,\nseemed at first disturbed, but said: \"God's will be done.\" That evening\nhe called Mark, and said to him: \"Brother Mark, let us go and venerate\nthe holy places and the sacred cross, for it will be long before we\nshall do it again.\" Mark asked him why he said so. He answered: Our\nSaviour had appeared to him the night before, and said: \"Give up the\ntreasure of the cross which you have in custody, for I will marry you to\na wife, poor indeed and despicable, but of great piety and virtue. Take\ncare to adorn her well; for, however contemptible she may appear, she is\nmy sister.\" \"This,\" said he, \"Christ signified to me last night: and I\nfear, in consequence, my being charged with the sins of others, while I\nlabor to expiate my own; but the will of God must be obeyed.\" When they\nhad venerated the holy places and the sacred cross, and Porphyrius had\nprayed long before it, and with many tears, he shut up the cross in its\ngolden case, and delivered the keys to the bishop; and having obtained\nhis blessing, he and his disciple Mark set out the next day, with three\nothers, among whom was one Barochas, a person whom the saint had found\nlying in the street almost dead, and had taken care of, cured, and\ninstructed; who ever after served him with Mark. They arrived the next\nday, which was Saturday, at Caesarea. The archbishop obliged them to sup\nwith him. After spiritual discourses they took a little sleep, and then\nrose to assist at the night service. Next morning the archbishop bid the\nGazaeans lay hold on St. Porphyrius, and, while they held him, ordained\nhim bishop. The holy man wept bitterly, and was inconsolable for being\npromoted to a dignity he judged himself so unfit for. The Gazaeans,\nhowever, performed their part in endeavoring to comfort him, and, having\nassisted at the Sunday office, and stayed one day more at Caesarea, they\nset out for Gaza, lay at Diospolis, and, late on Wednesday night,\narrived at Gaza, much harassed and fatigued. For the heathens living in\nthe villages near Gaza, having notice of their coming, had so damaged\nthe roads in several places, and clogged them with thorns and logs of\nwood, that they were scarce passable. They also contrived to raise such\na smoke and stench, that the holy men were in danger of being blinded or\nsuffocated.\n\nThere happened that year a very great drought, which the pagans ascribed\nto the coming of the new Christian bishop, saying that their god Marnas\nhad foretold that Porphyrius would bring public calamities and disasters\non their city. In Gaza stood a famous temple of that idol, which the\nemperor Theodosius the Elder had commanded to be shut up, but not\ndemolished, {476} on account of its beautiful structure. The governor\nafterwards had permitted the heathens to open it again. As no rain fell\nthe two first months after St. Porphyrius's arrival, the idolaters, in\ngreat affliction, assembled in this temple to offer sacrifices, and make\nsupplications to their god Marnas, whom they called the Lord of rains.\nThese they repeated for seven days, going also to a place of prayer out\nof the town; but seeing all their endeavors ineffectual, they lost all\nhopes of a supply of what they so much wanted. A dearth ensuing, the\nChristians, to the number of two hundred and eighty, women and children\nincluded, after a day's fast, and watching the following night in\nprayer, by the order of their holy bishop, went out in procession to St.\nTimothy's church, in which lay the relics of the holy martyr St. Meuris,\nand of the confessor St. Thees, singing hymns of divine praise. But at\ntheir return to the city they found the gates shut against them, which\nthe heathens refused to open. In this situation the Christians, and St.\nPorphyrius above the rest, addressed almighty God with redoubled fervor\nfor the blessing so much wanted; when in a short time, the clouds\ngathering, as at the prayers of Elias, there fell such a quantity of\nrain that the heathens opened their gates, and, joining them, cried out\n\"Christ alone is God: He alone has overcome.\" They accompanied the\nChristians to the church to thank God for the benefit received, which\nwas attended with the conversion of one hundred and seventy-six persons,\nwhom the saint instructed, baptized, and confirmed, as he did one\nhundred and five more before the end of that year. The miraculous\npreservation of the life of a pagan woman in labor, who had been\ndespaired of, occasioned the conversion of that family and others, to\nthe number of sixty-four.\n\nThe heathens, perceiving their number decrease, grew very troublesome to\nthe Christians, whom they excluded from commerce and all public offices,\nand injured them all manner of ways. St. Porphyrius, to screen himself\nand his flock from their outrages and vexations, had recourse to the\nemperor's protection. On this errand he sent Mark, his disciple, to\nConstantinople, and went afterwards himself in company with John, his\nmetropolitan, archbishop of Caesarea. Here they applied themselves to St.\nJohn Chrysostom, who joyfully received them, and recommended them to the\neunuch Amantius, who had great credit with the empress, and was a\nzealous servant of God. Amantius having introduced them to the empress,\nshe received them with great distinction, assured them of her\nprotection, and begged their prayers for her safe delivery, a favor she\nreceived a few days after. She desired them in another visit to sign her\nand her newborn son, Theodosius the Younger, with the sign of the cross,\nwhich they did. The young prince was baptized with great solemnity, and\non that occasion the empress obtained from the emperor all that the\nbishops had requested, and in particular that the temples of Gaza should\nbe demolished; an imperial edict being drawn up for this purpose and\ndelivered to Cynegius, a virtuous patrician, and one full of zeal, to\nsee it executed. They stayed at Constantinople during the feast of\nEaster, and at their departure the emperor and empress bestowed on them\ngreat presents. When they landed in Palestine, near Gaza, the Christians\ncame out to meet them with a cross carried before them, singing hymns.\nIn the place called Tetramphodos, or Four-ways-end, stood a marble\nstatue of Venus, on a marble altar, which was in great reputation for\ngiving oracles to young women about the choice of husbands, but had\noften grossly deceived them, engaging them to most unhappy marriages; so\nthat many heathens detested its lying impostures. As the two bishops,\nwith the procession of the Christians, and the cross borne before them,\npassed through that square, this idol fell down of itself, and was {477}\nbroken to pieces: whereupon thirty-two men and seven women were\nconverted.\n\nTen days after arrived Cynegius, having with him a consular man and a\nduke, or general, with a strong guard of soldiers, besides the civil\nmagistrates of the country. He assembled the citizens and read to them\nthe emperor's edict, commanding their idols and temples to be destroyed,\nwhich was accordingly executed, and no less than eight public temples in\nthe city were burnt; namely, those of the Sun, Venus, Apollo,\nProserpine, Hecate, the Hierion, or of the priests, Tycheon, or of\nFortune, and Marnion of Marnas, their Jupiter. The Marnion, in which men\nhad been often sacrificed, burned for many days. After this, the private\nhouses and courts were all searched; the idols were everywhere burned or\nthrown into the common sewers, and all books of magic and superstition\nwere cast into the flames. Many idolaters desired baptism; but the saint\ntook a long time to make trial of them, and to prepare them for that\nsacrament by daily instructions. On the spot where the temple of Marnas\nhad stood, was built the church of Eudoxia in the figure of a cross. She\nsent for this purpose precious pillars and rich marble from\nConstantinople. Of the marble taken out of the Marnion, St. Porphyrius\nmade steps and a road to the church, that it might be trampled upon by\nmen, dogs, swine, and other beasts, whence many heathens would never\nwalk thereon. Before he would suffer the church to be begun, he\nproclaimed a fast, and the next morning, being attended by his clergy\nand all the Christians in the city, they went in a body to the place\nfrom the church Irene, singing the Venite exultemus Domino, and other\npsalms, and answering to every verse Alleluia, Barochas carrying a cross\nbefore them. They all set to work, carrying stones and other materials,\nand digging the foundations according to the plan marked out and\ndirected by Rufinus, a celebrated architect, singing psalms and saying\nprayers during their work. It was begun in 403, when thirty high pillars\narrived from Constantinople, two of which, called Carostiae, shone like\nemeralds when placed in the church. It was five years a building, and\nwhen finished in 408, the holy bishop performed the consecration of it\non Easter-Day with the greatest pomp and solemnity. His alms to the poor\non that occasion seemed boundless, though they were always exceeding\ngreat. The good bishop spent the remainder of his life in the zealous\ndischarge of all pastoral duties; and though he lived to see the city\nclear for the most part of the remains of paganism, superstition, and\nidolatry, he had always enough to suffer from such as continued\nobstinate in their errors. Falling sick, he made his pious will, in\nwhich he recommended all his dear flock to God. He died in 420, being\nabout sixty years of age, on the 26th of February, on which day both the\nGreeks and Latins make mention of him. The pious author of his life\nconcludes it, saying: \"He is now in the paradise of delight, interceding\nfor us with all the saints, by whose prayers may God have mercy on us.\"\n\nST. VICTOR, OR VITTRE, OF ARCIES, OR ARCIS,\n\nIN CHAMPAGNE, ANCHORET AND CONFESSOR, IN THE SEVENTH AGE.\n\nHE was of noble parentage in the diocese of Troyes in Champagne educated\nunder strict discipline in learning and piety, and a saint from his\ncradle. In his youth, prayer, fasting, and alms-deeds were his chief\ndelight, and, embracing an ecclesiastical state, he took orders; but the\nlove of heavenly contemplation being always the prevalent inclination in\nhis soul he {478} preferred close retirement to the mixed life of the\ncare of souls. In this choice the Holy Ghost was his director, for he\nlived in continual union with God by prayer and contemplation, and\nseemed raised above the condition of this mortal life, and almost as if\nhe lived without a body. God glorified him by many miracles; but the\ngreatest seems to have been the powerful example of his life. We have\ntwo pious panegyrics made upon this saint by St. Bernard, who says:[1]\n\"Now placed in heaven, he beholds God clearly revealed to him, swallowed\nup in joy, but not forgetting us. It is not a land of oblivion in which\nVictor dwells. Heaven doth not harden or straiten hearts, but it maketh\nthem more tender and compassionate it doth not distract minds, nor\nalienate them from us: it doth not diminish, but it increaseth affection\nand charity: it augmenteth bowels of pity. The angels, although they\nbehold the face of their Father, visit, run, and continually assist us;\nand shall they now forget us who were once among us, and who once\nsuffered themselves what they see us at present laboring under? No: _I\nknow the just expect me till thou renderest to me my reward_.[2] Victor\nis not like that cupbearer of Pharaoh, who could forget his\nfellow-captive. He hath not so put on the stole of glory himself, as to\nlay aside his pity, or the remembrance of our misery.\" St. Victor died\nat Saturniac, now called Saint-Vittre, two leagues from Arcies in the\ndiocese of Troyes. A church was built over his tomb at Saturniac; but in\n837 his relics were translated thence to the neighboring monastery of\nMontier-Ramey, or Montirame, so called from Arremar, by whom it was\nfounded in 837. It is situated four leagues from Troyes, of the\nBenedictin Order, and is still possessed of this sacred treasure. At the\nrequest of these monks, St. Bernard composed an office of St. Victor,\nextant in his works, (ep. 312, vet. ed. seu 398, nov. edit.) See the two\nsermons of St. Bernard on St. Victor, and his ancient life in\nHenschenius and others: from which it appears that this saint never was\na monk, never having professed any monastic Order, though he led an\neremitical life.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  Serm. 2, p. 966.\n2.  Ps. cxii. 8.\n\n\nFEBRUARY XXVII.\n\nST. LEANDER, BISHOP OF SEVILLE, CONFESSOR.\n\nFrom St. Isidore of Seville, St. Gregory the Great, and St. Gregory of\nTours, hist l. 5. See Fleury, b. 34, 35, 38. Mabillon, Saec. Ben. 1.\nCeillier, t. 17.\n\nA.D. 596.\n\nST. LEANDER was of an illustrious family, and born at Carthagena in\nSpain. He had two brothers, St. Fulgentius, bishop of Ecija and\nCarthagena, and St. Isidore, our saint's successor in the see of\nSeville. He had also one sister, Florentia by name, who had consecrated\nherself to God in the state of virginity. He set them an example of that\npiety which they faithfully imitated. He entered into a monastery very\nyoung, where he lived many years, and attained to an eminent degree of\nvirtue and sacred learning. These qualities occasioned his being\npromoted to the see of Seville: but his change of condition made little\nor no alteration in his method {479} of life, though it brought on him a\ngreat increase of care and solicitude for the salvation of those whom\nGod had put under his care, as well as for the necessities of the whole\nchurch, that of Spain in particular. This kingdom was then possessed by\nthe Visigoths, or Western-Goths; who, while Theodoric settled the\nOstrogoths, or Eastern-Goths, in Italy, had passed the Alps, and founded\ntheir kingdom, first in Languedoc, and soon after, about the year 470,\nin Spain. These Goths, being for the generality all infected with\nArianism, established this heresy wherever they came; so that when St.\nLeander was made bishop, it had reigned in Spain a hundred years. This\nwas his great affliction: however, by his tears and prayers to God, and\nby his most zealous and unwearied endeavors, both at home and abroad, he\nbecame the happy instrument of the conversion of that nation to the\nCatholic faith. But he suffered much from king Leovigild on this\naccount, and was at length forced into banishment; the saint having\nconverted, among others, Hermenegild, the king's eldest son and heir\napparent. This pious prince his unnatural father put to death the year\nfollowing, for refusing to receive the communion from the hands of an\nArian bishop. But, touched with remorse not long after, he recalled our\nsaint, and falling sick, and finding himself past hopes of recovery, he\nsent for St. Leander, whom he had so much persecuted, and recommended to\nhim his son Recared, whom he left his successor, to be instructed in the\ntrue faith; though out of fear of his people, as St. Gregory laments, he\ndurst not embrace it himself. His son Recared, by listening to St.\nLeander, soon became a Catholic. The king also spoke with so much wisdom\non the controverted points to the Arian bishops, that by the force of\nhis reasoning, rather than by his authority, he brought them over to own\nthe truth of the Catholic doctrine; and thus he converted the whole\nnation of the Visigoths. He was no less successful in the like pious\nendeavors with respect to the Suevi, a people of Spain, whom his father\nLeovigild had perverted. It was a subject of great joy to the whole\nchurch to behold the wonderful blessing bestowed by Almighty God on the\nlabors of our saint, but to none more than St. Gregory the Great, who\nwrote to St. Leander to congratulate him on the subject.\n\nThis holy prelate was no less zealous in the reformation of manners,\nthan in restoring the purity of faith; and he planted the seeds of that\nzeal and fervor which afterwards produced so many martyrs and saints.\nHis zeal in this regard appeared in the good regulations set on foot\nwith this intent in the council of Seville, which was called by him, and\nof which he was, as it were, the soul. In 589, he assisted at the third\ncouncil of Toledo, of seventy-two bishops, or their deputies, in which\nwere drawn up twenty-three canons, relating to discipline, to repair the\nbreaches the Arian heresy had made in fomenting disorders of several\nkinds. One of these was, that the Arian clergy cohabited with their\nwives; but the council forbade such of them as were converted to do so,\nenjoining them a separation from the same chamber, and, if possible,\nfrom the same house.[1] This council commanded also the rigorous\nexecution of all penitential canons without any abatement. The pious\ncardinal D'Aguirre has written a learned dissertation ton this\nsubject.[2]\n\nSt. Leander, sensible of the importance of prayer, which is in a devout\nlife what a spring is in a watch, or the main wheel in an engine,\nlabored particularly to encourage true devotion in all persons, but\nparticularly those of the monastic profession, of which state it is the\nvery essence and constituent. His letter to his sister Florentina, a\nholy virgin, is called his Rule of a Monastic Life. It turns chiefly on\nthe contempt of the world, and on {480} the exercises of prayer. This\nsaint also reformed the Spanish liturgy.[3] In this liturgy, and in the\nthird council of Toledo, in conformity to the eastern churches, the\nNicene creed was appointed to be read at mass, to express a detestation\nof the Arian heresy. Other western churches, with the Roman, soon\nimitated this devotion. St. Leander was visited by frequent distempers,\nparticularly the gout, which St. Gregory, who was often afflicted with\nthe same, writing to him, calls a favor and mercy of heaven. This holy\ndoctor of Spain died about the year 596, on the 27th of February, as\nMabillon proves from his epitaph. The church of Seville has been a\nmetropolitan see ever since the third century. The cathedral is the most\nmagnificent, both as to structure and ornament, of any in all Spain.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe contempt of the world which the gospel so strongly inculcates, and\nwhich St. Leander so eminently practised and taught, it the foundation\nof a spiritual life; but is of far greater extent than most Christians\nconceive, for it requires no less than a total disengagement of the\naffections from earthly things. Those whom God raises to perfect virtue,\nand closely unites to himself, must cut off and put away every thing\nthat can be an obstacle to this perfect union. Their will must be\nthoroughly purified from all dross of inordinate affections before it\ncan be perfectly absorbed in his. This they who are particularly devoted\nto the divine service, are especially to take notice of. If this truth\nwas imprinted in the manner that it ought, in the hearts of those who\nenrol themselves in the service of the church, or who live in cloisters,\nthey would be replenished with heavenly blessings, and the church would\nhave the comfort of seeing apostles of nations revive among her clergy,\nand the monasteries again filled with Antonies, Bennets, and Bernards;\nwhose sanctity, prayers, and example, would even infuse into many others\nthe true spirit of Christ, amid the desolation and general blindness of\nthis unhappy age.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  Conc. t. 5, p. 998.\n2.  Diss. 3. in Conc. Hisp.\n3.  The church of Spain first received the faith from Rome, as pope\n    Innocent I. Informs us. (Ep. ad. Decent.) Whence St. Isidore says\n    their divine office was instituted by St. Peter, (l. l, c. 15, Eccl.\n    Offic.) Their ceremonies and discipline, as of fasting on Saturdays,\n    and other rites mentioned in their councils, are Roman. And the\n    Roman liturgy was used in Africa beyond Spain. But the Goths used a\n    liturgy formed by Ulphilas from the Orientals. St. Leander is said\n    to have compiled a liturgy from both, and also from the Gaulish and\n    oriental liturgies: St. Isidore and St. Ildefonse perfected it. When\n    the Saracens or Arabians became masters of Spain, the Christians of\n    that country were called Mixt-Arabs, and their liturgy, Mozarabic.\n    In the eleventh and twelfth centuries this liturgy gave place to the\n    Roman. Cardinal Ximenes re-established the daily use of the\n    Mozarabic in a chapel of the cathedral of Toledo: it is also used in\n    the same city by seven old Mozarabic churches, but on the days of\n    their patrons only. See Le Brun, liturg. t. 2, p. 272. F. Flores\n    thinks the Mozarabic liturgy was that of the Roman and African\n    churches retained by St. Leander, without any alteration or mixture\n    from the Orientals, except certain very inconsiderable rites. See\n    his Spans. Sagrada, t. 3, Diss. de la Missa Antigua de Espagna,\n    pp.187, 198, &c. But though it much resembles it, we are assured by\n    F. Burriel, the learned Jesuit, in his letter on the literary\n    monuments found in Spain, that in some parts there are considerable\n    differences. We shall be fully informed of this, also what masses\n    were added by St. Ildefonse, and of other curious particulars, when\n    we are favored with the collections he has made from the Gothic MSS.\n    in Spain on this subject, and the new edition of all the liturgies\n    of Christian churches which the Assemani are preparing at Rome in\n    fifteen volumes folio. The Mozarabic liturgy has been printed at\n    Rome in folio, by the care of F. Leeley, a Scotch Jesuit.\n\nSS. JULIAN, CHRONION, AND BESAS, MM.\n\nWHEN the persecution of Decius filled the city of Alexandria with dread\nand terror, many, especially among the nobles, the rich, and those who\nheld any places in the state, sacrificed to idols, but pale and\ntrembling, so as to show they had neither courage to die, nor heart to\nsacrifice. Several generous soldiers repaired the scandal given by these\ncowards. Julian, who was grievously afflicted with the gout, and one of\nhis servants, called Chronion, were set on the backs of camels, and,\ncruelly scourged through the {481} whole city, and at length were\nconsumed by fire. Besas, a soldier, was beheaded. See St. Dionysius of\nAlex. in Eusebius, l, 6, c. 41, ed Val.\n\nST. THALILAEUS, A CILICIAN\n\nHE lived a recluse on a mountain in Syria, and shut himself up ten years\nin an open cage of wood. Theodoret asked him why he had chosen so\nsingular a practice. The penitent answered: \"I punish my criminal body,\nthat God, seeing my affliction for my sins, may be moved to pardon them,\nand to deliver me from, or at least to mitigate the excessive torments\nof the world to come, which I have deserved.\" See Theodoret, Phil. c.\n28. John Mosch in the Spiritual Meadow, c. 59, p. 872, relates that\nThalihaeus, the Cilician, spent sixty years in an ascetic life, weeping\nalmost without intermission; and that he used to say to those that came\nto him: \"Time is allowed us by the divine mercy for repentance and\nsatisfaction, and wo {sic} to us if we neglect it.\"\n\nST. GALMIER, IN LATIN, BALDOMERUS.\n\nHE was a locksmith in Lyons, who lived in great poverty and austerity,\nand spent all his leisure moments in holy reading and prayer. He gave\nhis gains to the poor, and sometimes even his tools. He repeated to\nevery one: \"In the name of the Lord let us always give thanks to God.\"\nVivencius, abbot of St. Justus, (afterwards archbishop of Lyons,)\nadmired his devotion in the church, but was more edified and astonished\nwhen he had conversed with him. He gave him a cell in his monastery, in\nwhich the servant of God sanctified himself still more and more by all\nthe exercises of holy solitude, and by his penitential labor. He died a\nsubdeacon about the year 650. His relics were very famous for miracles,\nand a celebrated pilgrimage, till they were scattered in the air by the\nHuguenots, in the sixteenth century. The Roman Martyrology names him on\nthe day of his death, the 27th of February.\n\nST. NESTOR, B.M.\n\nEPOLIUS, whom the emperor Decius had appointed governor of Lycia,\nPamphylia, and Phrygia, sought to make his court to that prince by\nsurpassing his colleagues in the rage and cruelty with which he\npersecuted the meek disciples of Christ. At that time Nestor, bishop of\nSida in Pamphylia, (as Le Quien demonstrates, not of Perge, or of\nMandis, or Madigis, as some by mistake affirm,) was distinguished in\nthose parts for his zeal in propagating the faith, and for the sanctity\nof his life. His reputation reached the governor, who sent an Irenarch\nto apprehend him. The martyr was conducted to Perge, and there\ncrucified, in imitation of the Redeemer of the world, whom he preached.\nHis triumph happened in 250. His Latin Acts, given by the Bollandists,\nare to be corrected by those in Greek, found among the manuscript acts\nof Saints, honored by the Greeks in the month of February in the king's\nlibrary at Paris, Cod. 1010, written in the tenth century.\n\n{482}\n\nST. ALNOTH, ANCHORET, M.\n\nWEDON, in Northamptonshire, was honored with a palace of Wulphere, king\nof Mercia, in the middle of England, and was bestowed by that prince\nupon his daughter St. Wereburge, who converted it into a monastery.\nAlnoth was the bailiff of St. Wereburge in that country, and the perfect\nimitator of her heroic virtues. After her retreat he led an anchoretical\nlife in that neighborhood, and was murdered by robbers in his solitude.\nHis relics were kept with veneration in the church of the village of\nStow, near Wedon. Wilson places his festival on the 27th of February, in\nthe first edition of his English Martyrology, and in the second on the\n25th of November. See the life of St. Wereburge, which Camden sent to F.\nRosweide, written, as it seems, by Jocelin. See also Harpsfield, Saec. 7,\nc. 23, and Bollandus, p. 684.\n\n\nFEBRUARY XXVIII.\n\nMARTYRS, WHO DIED IN THE GREAT PESTILENCE IN ALEXANDRIA.\n\nFrom Eusebius, Hist. l. 7, c. 21, 22, p. 268.\n\nA.D. 261, 262, 263.\n\nA VIOLENT pestilence laid waste the greatest part of the Roman empire\nduring twelve years, from 249 to 263. Five thousand persons died of it\nin one day in Rome, in 262. St. Dionysius of Alexandria relates, that a\ncruel sedition and civil war had filled that city with murders and\ntumults; so that it was safer to travel from the eastern to the western\nparts of the then known world, than to go from one street of Alexandria\nto another. The pestilence succeeded this first scourge, and with such\nviolence, that there was not a single house in that great city which\nentirely escaped it, or which had not some dead to mourn for. All places\nwere filled with groans, and the living appeared almost dead with fear.\nThe noisome exhalations of carcasses, and the very winds, which should\nhave purified the air, loaded with infection and pestilential vapors\nfrom the Nile, increased the evil. The fear of death rendered the\nheathens cruel towards their nearest relations. As soon as any of them\nhad caught the contagion, though their dearest friends, they avoided and\nfled from them as their greatest enemies. They threw them half dead into\nthe streets, and abandoned them without succor; they left their bodies\nwithout burial, so fearful were they of catching that mortal distemper,\nwhich, however, it was very difficult to avoid, notwithstanding all\ntheir precautions. This sickness, which was the greatest of calamities\nto the pagans, was but an exercise and trial to the Christians, who\nshowed, on that occasion, how contrary the spirit of charity is to the\ninterestedness of self love. During the persecutions of Decius, Gallus,\nand Valerian, they durst not appear, but were obliged to keep their\nassemblies in solitudes, or in ships tossed on the waves, or in infected\nprisons, or the like places, which the sanctity of our mysteries made\nvenerable. Yet in the {483} time of this public calamity, most of them,\nregardless of the danger of their own lives to assisting others,\nvisited, relieved, and attended the sick, and comforted the dying. They\nclosed their eyes, carried them on their shoulders, laid them out,\nwashed their bodies, and decently interred them, and soon after shared\nthe same fate themselves; but those who survived still succeeded to\ntheir charitable office, which they paid to the very pagans their\npersecutors. \"Thus,\" adds St. Dionysius, \"the best of our brethren have\ndeparted this life; some of the most valuable, both of priests, deacons,\nand laics; and it is thought that this kind of death is in nothing\ndifferent from martyrdom.\" And the Roman Martyrology says, the religious\nfaith of pious Christians honors them as martyrs.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nIn these happy victims of holy charity we admire how powerfully perfect\nvirtue, and the assured expectation of eternal bliss, raises the true\nChristian above all earthly views. He who has always before his eyes the\nincomprehensible happiness of enjoying God in his glory, and seriously\nconsiders the infinite advantage, peace, and honor annexed to his divine\nservice; he who is inflamed with ardent love of God, and zeal for his\nhonor, sets no value on any thing but in proportion as it affords him a\nmeans of improving his spiritual stock, advancing the divine honor, and\nmore perfectly uniting his soul to God by every heroic virtue:\ndisgraces, dangers, labor, pain, death, loss of goods or friends, and\nevery other sacrifice here become his gain and his greatest joy. That by\nwhich he most perfectly devotes himself to God, and most speedily and\nsecurely attains to the bliss of possessing him, he regards as his\ngreatest happiness.\n\nST. PROTERIUS, PATRIARCH OF ALEXANDRIA, M.\n\nHE was ordained priest by St. Cyril, but opposed Dioscorus, his\nsuccessor, on his patronizing Eutyches, and giving into his errors,\nnotwithstanding his endeavor to gain him to his interest, by making him\narchpriest, and entrusting him with the care of his church. Dioscorus\nbeing condemned and deposed by the council of Chalcedon, Proterius was\nelected in his room, and was accordingly ordained and installed in 552.\nThe people of Alexandria, famed for riots and tumults, then divided;\nsome demanding the return of Dioscorus, others supporting Proterius. The\nfactious party was headed by two vicious ecclesiastics, Timothy,\nsurnamed Elurus, and Peter Mongus, whom the saint had canonically\nexcommunicated. And so great and frequent were the tumults and seditions\nthey raised against him, that during the whole course of his pontificate\nhe was never out of danger of falling a sacrifice to the schismatical\nparty, regardless both of the imperial orders and decisions of the\ncouncil of Chalcedon. In the height of one of those tumults, Elurus,\nhaving caused himself to be ordained by two bishops of his faction, that\nhad been formerly deposed, took possession of the episcopal throne, and\nwas proclaimed by his party the sole lawful bishop of Alexandria. But\nbeing soon after driven out of the city by the imperial commander, this\nso inflamed the Eutychian party, that their barefaced attempts obliged\nthe holy patriarch to take sanctuary in the baptistery adjoining to the\nchurch of St. Quirinus, where the schismatical rabble breaking in, they\nstabbed him on Good-Friday, in the year 557. Not content with this, they\ndragged his dead body through the whole city, cut it in pieces, burnt it\nand scattered the ashes in the air. The bishops of Thrace, to a letter\nto the emperor Loo, soon after his death, declared that they placed him\namong {484} the martyrs, and hoped to find mercy through his\nintercession. Sanctissimum Proterium in ordine et choro sanctorum\nmartyrum ponimus, et ejus intercessionibus misericordem et propitium\nDeum nobis fieri postulamus. Conc. t. 4, p. 907. His name occurs in the\nGreek calendars on the 28th of February.--See Evagrius, Hist. Eccl. l.\n2, c. 4. Liberat. Disc. in Breviar. c. 15. Theophanes in Marciano et\nLeone. Theodor. Lect. l. 1 F. Cacciari, Diss. in Op. S. Leonia, t. 3.\nHenschenius, t. 3, Febr. p. 729.\n\nSS. ROMANUS AND LUPICINUS, ABBOTS.\n\nROMANUS at thirty-five years of age left his relations, and spent some\ntime in the monastery of Ainay, (called in Latin Athanacense,) at Lyons,\nat the great church at the conflux of the Saone and Rhone, which the\nfaithful had built over the ashes of the famous martyrs of that city;\nfor their bodies being burnt by the pagans, their ashes were thrown into\nthe Rhone, but a great part of them was gathered by the Christians, and\ndeposited in this place. Romanus, a short time after, took with him the\ninstitutions and conferences of Cassian, and retired into the forests of\nmount Iura, between France and Switzerland, and fixed his abode at a\nplace called Condate, at the conflux of the rivers Bienne and Aliere,\nwhere he found a spot of ground fit for culture, and some trees which\nfurnished him with a kind of wild fruit. Here he spent his time in\npraying, reading, and laboring for his subsistence. Lupicinus, his\nbrother, came to him some time after in company with others, who were\nfollowed by several more, drawn by the fame of the virtue and miracles\nof these two saints. Here they built the monastery of Condate, and,\ntheir numbers increasing, that of Leuconne, two miles distant to the\nnorth, and, on a rock, a nunnery called La Beaume, (now St. Remain de la\nRoche,) which no men were allowed ever to enter, and where St. Romanus\nchose his burial-place. The brothers governed the monks jointly and in\ngreat harmony, though Lupicinus was more inclined to severity of the\ntwo. He usually resided at Leuconne with one hundred and fifty monks.\nThe brethren at Condate, when they were enriched with many lands,\nchanged their diet, which was only bread made of barley and bran, and\npulse dressed often without salt or oil, and brought to table\nwheat-bread, fish, and variety of dishes. Lupicinus being informed\nhereof by Romanus, came to Condate on the sixth day after this\ninnovation, and corrected the abuse. The abstinence which he prescribed\nhis monks was milder than that practised by the oriental monks, and by\nthose of Lerins, partly because the Gauls were naturally great eaters,\nand partly because they were employed in very hard manual labor. But\nthey never touched fowls or any flesh-meat, and only were allowed milk\nand eggs in time of sickness. Lupicinus, for his own part, used no other\nbed than a chair or a hard board; never touched wine, and would scarce\never suffer a drop either of oil or milk to be poured on his pulse. In\nsummer his subsistence for many years was only hard bread moistened in\ncold water, so that he could eat it with a spoon. His tunic was made of\nvarious skins of beasts sewn together, with a cowl: he used wooden\nshoes, and wore no stockings unless when he was obliged to go out of the\nmonastery. St. Romanus died about the year 460, and is mentioned in the\nRoman Martyrology on the 28th of February. St. Lupicinus survived him\nalmost twenty years, and is honored in the Roman Martyrology on the 21st\nof March. He was succeeded in the abbacy of Condate by Minaucius, who,\nin 480, chose St. Eugendus his coadjutor. See the lives of the two\nbrothers, SS. Romanus and Lupicinus, and that of St. Eugendus or Oyend,\ncompile a by a monk of Condate of the same age; St. Gregory of Tours,\n{in} {485} de Vitis Patr. c. 1. Mabill. Annal. Ben. l. 1, ad an. 510, t.\n1, p. 23. Tillemont, t. 16, p. 142. Bulteau, l. 1.\n\n\nFEBRUARY XXIX.\n\nST. OSWALD,\n\nBISHOP OF WORCESTER AND ARCHBISHOP OF YORK.\n\nFrom his life written by Eadmer; also from Florence of Worcester,\nWilliam of Malmesbury, and, above all, the elegant and accurate author\nof the history of Ramsey, published by the learned Mr. Gale, p. 385. The\nlife of this saint, written by Fulcard, abbot of Thorney, in 1068,\nWharton thinks not extant. Mabillon doubts whether it is not that which\nwe have in Capgrave and Surius. See also Portiforium 8. Oswaldi Archiep.\nEborac. Codex MS. crassus in 8vo. exarates circa annum 1064, in Bennet\nCollege, Cambridge, mentioned by Waneley, Catal. p. 110.\n\nA.D. 992.\n\nST. OSWALD was nephew to St. Odo, archbishop of Canterbury, and to\nOskitell, bishop first of Dorcester, afterwards of York. He was educated\nby St. Odo, and made dean of Winchester; but passing into France, took\nthe monastic habit at Fleury. Being recalled to serve the church, he\nsucceeded St. Dunstan in the see of Worcester about the year 959. He\nshone as a bright star in this dignity, and established a monastery of\nmonks at Westberry, a village in his diocese. He was employed by duke\nAylwin in superintending his foundation of the great monastery of\nRamsey, in an island formed by marshes and the river Ouse in\nHuntingdonshire, in 972. St. Oswald was made archbishop of York in 974,\nand he dedicated the church of Ramsey under the names of the Blessed\nVirgin, St. Benedict, and all holy virgins. Nothing of this rich mitred\nabbey remains standing except an old gate-house, and a neglected statue\nof the founder, Aylwin, with keys and a ragged staff in his hand to\ndenote his office; for he was cousin to the glorious king Edgar, the\nvaliant general of his armies, and the chief judge and magistrate of the\nkingdom, with the title of alderman of England, and half king, as the\nhistorian of Ramsey usually styles him.[1] {486} St. Oswald was almost\nalways occupied in visiting his diocese, preaching without intermission\nand reforming abuses. He was a great encourager of learning and learned\nmen. St. Dunstan obliged him to retain the see of Worcester with that of\nYork. Whatever intermission his function allowed him he spent it at St.\nMary's, a church and monastery of Benedictins, which he had built at\nWorcester, where he joined with the monks in their monastic exercises.\nThis church from that time became the cathedral. The saint, to nourish\nin his heart the sentiments of humility and charity, had everywhere\ntwelve poor persons at his table, whom he served, and also washed and\nkissed their feet. After having sat thirty-three years he fell sick at\nSt. Mary's in Worcester, and having received the extreme unction and\nviaticum, continued in prayer, repeating often, \"Glory be to the\nFather,\" &c., with which words he expired amidst his monks, on the 29th\nof February, 992. His body was taken up ten years after and enshrined,\nby Adulph his successor, and was illustrated by miracles. It was\nafterwards translated to York, on the 15th of October, which day was\nappointed his principal festival.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nSt. Oswald made quick progress in the path of perfect virtue, because he\nstudied with the utmost earnestness to deny himself and his own will,\nlistening attentively to that fundamental maxim of the Eternal Truth,\nwhich St. Bennet, of whose holy order he became a bright light, repeats\nwith great energy. This holy founder declares in the close of his rule,\nthat, He who desires to give himself up to God, must trample all earthly\nthings under his feet, renounce every thing that is not God, and die to\nall earthly affections, so as to attain to a perfect disengagement and\nnakedness of heart, that God may fill and entirely possess it, in order\nto establish therein the kingdom of his grace and pure love forever. And\nin his prologue he cries out aloud, that he addresses himself only to\nhim who is firmly resolved in all things to deny his own will, and to\nhasten with all diligence to arrive at his heavenly kingdom.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  The titles of honor among our Saxon ancestors were, Etheling, prince\n    of the blond: chancellor, assistant to the king in giving judgments:\n    alderman, or ealderman, (not earldonnan, as Rapin Thoyras writes\n    this word in his first edition,) governor or viceroy. It is derived\n    from the word ald or old, like senator in Latin. Provinces, cities,\n    and sometimes wapentakes, had their alderman to govern them,\n    determine lawsuits, judge criminals, &c. That office gave place to\n    the title of earl, which was merely Danish, and introduced by\n    Canute. Sheriffe or she-reeve, was the deputy of the alderman,\n    chosen by him, sat judge in some courts, and saw sentence executed;\n    hence he was called vicecomes. Heartoghan signified, among our Saxon\n    ancestors, generals of armies, or dukes. Hengist, in the Saxon\n    chronicle, is heartogh; such were the dukes appointed by Constantine\n    the Great, to command the forces in the different provinces of the\n    Roman empire. These titles began to become hereditary with the\n    offices or command annexed under Pepin and Charlemagne, and grew\n    more frequent by the successors of these princes granting many\n    hereditary fiefs to noblemen, to which they annexed titular\n    dignities. Fiefs were an establishment of the Lombards, from whom\n    the emperors of Germany, and the kings of France, borrowed this\n    custom, and with it the feodal laws, of which no mention is made in\n    the Routun code. Titles began frequently to become merely honorary\n    about the time of Otho I. in Germany.\n\n    Reeve among the English Saxons was a steward. The bishop's reeve was\n    a bishop's steward for secular affairs, attending in his court.\n    Thanes, _i.e._, servants, were officers of the crown whom the king\n    recompensed with lands, sometimes to descend to their posterity, but\n    always to be held of him with some obligation of service, homage, or\n    acknowledgment. There were other lords of lands and vassals, who\n    enjoyed the title of thanes, and were distinguished from the king's\n    thanes. The ealdermen and dukes were all king's thanes, and all\n    others who held lands of the king by knight's service in chief, and\n    were immediately great tenants of the king's estates. These were the\n    greater thanes, and were succeeded by the barons, which title was\n    brought in by the Normans, and is rarely found before the Conqueror.\n    Mass thanes were those who held lands in fee of the church. Middle\n    thanes were such as held very small estates of the king, or parcels\n    of lands of the king's greater thanes. They were called by the\n    Normans vavassors, and their lands vavassories. They who held lands\n    of these, were thanes of the lowest class, and did not rank as\n    gentlemen. All thanes disposed of the lands which they held (and\n    which were called Blockland) to their heirs, but with the\n    obligations due to those of whom they were held. Ceorle (whence our\n    word churl) was a countryman or artisan who was a freeman. Those\n    ceorles who held lands in leases were called sockmen, and their land\n    sockland, of which they could not dispose, being barely tenants.\n    Those ceorles who acquired possession of five hides of land with a\n    large house, court, and bell to call together their servants, were\n    raised to the rank of thanes of the lowest class. A hide of land was\n    as much as one plough could till. The villains or slaves in the\n    country were laborers, bound to the service of particular persons;\n    were all capable of possessing money in property, consequently were\n    not strictly slaves in the sense of the Roman law.\n\n    Witan or Wites, (_i. e._ wisemen,) were the magistrates and lawyers.\n    Burghwitten signified the magistrates of cities. Some shires (or\n    counties) are mentioned before king Alfred; and Asserius speaks of\n    earls (or counts) of Somerset, and Devonshire, in the reign of\n    Ethelwolph. But Alfred first divided the whole kingdom into shires,\n    the shires into tithings, lathes, or wapentacks, the tithings into\n    hundreds, and the hundreds into tenths. Each division had a court\n    subordinate to those that were superior, the highest in each shire\n    being the shire-gemot, or folck-mote, which was held twice a year,\n    and in which the bishop or his deputy, and the ealderman, or his\n    viceregent, the sheriff, presided. See Seldon on the Titles of\n    Honor; Speman's Glossary, ad. noviss. Squires on the Government of\n    the English Saxons. Dr. William Howel, in his learned General\n    History, t. 5, p. 273, &c. N.B. The titles of earls and hersen were\n    first given by Ifwar Widfame, king of Sweden, to two ministers of\n    state in 824; on which see many remarks of Olof Delin, in his\n    excellent new history of Sweden, c. 5, t. {}, p. {}34.\n\n{487}\n\n_Only Complete and Unabridged Edition with nearly 100 pages of\nChronological and General Index, Alphabetical and Centenary Table, etc._\n\nTHE\nLIVES\nTHE FATHERS, MARTYRS,\nAND OTHER\nPRINCIPAL SAINTS;\nCOMPILED FROM\nORIGINAL MONUMENTS, AND OTHER AUTHENTIC RECORDS;\nILLUSTRATED WITH THE\nREMARKS OF JUDICIOUS MODERN CRITICS AND HISTORIANS\nBY THE REV. ALBAN BUTLER\n_With the approbation of\nMOST REV. M.A. CORRIGAN, D.D.,\nArchbishop of New York._\n\nVOL. III.\n\nNEW YORK:\nP.J. KENEDY,\nPUBLISHER TO THE HOLY SEE,\nEXCELSIOR CATHOLIC PUBLISHING HOUSE,\n5 BARCLAY STREET.\n1903\n\n{488 blank page}\n{489}\nCONTENTS\n\nMARCH.\n1.                                              PAGE\nST. DAVID, Archbishop, Patron of Wales.......... 491\nSt. Swidbert, or Swibert, the ancient, Bishop\n  and Confessor................................. 493\nSt. Albinus, Bishop of Angers, Confessor........ 494\nSt. Monan, Martyr............................... 495\n\n2.\nMartyrs under the Lombards...................... 496\nSt. Ceada, or Chad, Bishop and Confessor........ 497\nSt. Simplicius, Pope and Confessor.............. 498\nSt. Marnan, Bishop and Confessor................ 499\nSt. Charles the Good, Earl of Flanders, Martyr.. 500\nSt. Joavan, or Joevin, Bishop and Confessor..... 501\n\n3.\nSt. Cunegundes, Empress......................... 501\nSS. Marinus and Asterius, or Astyrius, Martyrs.. 503\nSS. Emeterius and Chelidonius, Martyrs.......... 503\nSt. Winwaloe, or Winwaloc, Abbot................ 504\nSt. Lamalisse, Confessor........................ 506\n\n4.\nSt. Casimir, Prince of Poland................... 506\nSt. Lucius, Pope and Martyr..................... 508\nSt. Adrian, Bishop of St. Andrew's, Martyr...... 509\n\n5.\nSS. Adrian and Eubulus, Martyrs................. 510\nSt. Kiaran, or Kenerin, Bishop and Confessor.... 511\nSt. Roger, Confessor............................ 512\nSt. John Joseph of the Cross.................... 512\n\n6.\nSt. Chrodegang, Bishop of Metz, Confessor....... 519\nB. Coleus, Virgin and Abbess.................... 520\nSt. Fridolin, Abbot............................. 522\nSt. Baldrede, Bishop of Glasgow, Confessor...... 522\nSS. Kyneburge, Kyneswide, and Tibba............. 522\nSt. Cadroe. Confessor........................... 523\n\n7.\nSt Thomas of Aquino, Doctor of the Church\n  and Confessor................................. 523\nSS. Perpetua and Felicitas, &c., Martyrs........ 533\nSt. Paul, Anchoret.............................. 540\n\n8.\nSt. John of God, Confessor...................... 541\nVenerable John of Avila, Apostle of Andalusia... 542\nSt. Felix, Bishop and Confessor................. 547\nSS. Apollonius, Philemon, &c., Martyrs.......... 548\nSt. Julian, Archbishop of Toledo, Confessor..... 548\nSt. Duthak, Bishop of Ross, in Scotland,\n  Confessor..................................... 549\nSt. Rosa, of Viterbo, Virgin.................... 549\nSt. Senan, Bishop and Confessor.. .............. 549\nSt. Psalmod, or Saumay, Anchoret................ 550\n\n\n9.\nSt. Frances, Widow ............................. 550\nGregory of Nyasa, Bishop and Confessor.......... 552\nOn the Writings of St. Gregory.................. 553\nSt. Pacian, Bishop of Barcelona, Confessor...... 557\nOn the Writings of St. Pacian................... 557\nSt. Catherine of Bologna, Virgin and Abbess..... 559\n\n10.\nSS. The Forty Martyrs of Sebaste................ 560\nSt. Droctovaeus, Abbot........................... 563\nSt. Mackessoge, or Kessoge, Confessor........... 564\n\n11.\nSt. Eulogius of Cordova, Priest and Martyr...... 564\nSt. Sophronius, Patriarch of Jerusalem,\n  Confessor..................................... 566\nSt. AEngus, Bishop and Confessor................. 567\nSt. Constantine, Martyr......................... 568\n\n12.\nSt. Gregory the Great, Pope and Confessor....... 568\nOn the Life of St. Gregory...................... 580\nSt. Maximilian, Martyr.......................... 581\nSt. Paul, Bishop of Leon, Confessor............. 581\n\n13.\nSt. Nicephorus, Patriarch of Constantinople,\n  Confessor..................................... 582\nSt. Euphrasia, Virgin........................... 585\nSt. Theophanes, Abbot and Confessor............. 587\nSt. Kennocha, Virgin in Scotland................ 588\nSt. Gerald, Bishop.............................. 588\nSt. Mochoemoc, in Latin Pulcherius, Abbot....... 588\n\n14.\nSt. Maud, or Mathildis, Queen of Germany........ 589\nSS. Acepsimas, Bishop, Joseph, Priest, and\n  Aithilahas, Deacon, Martyrs................... 591\nSt. Boniface, Bishop of Ross, Confessor......... 594\n\n15.\nSt. Abraham, Hermit............................. 594\nSt. Zachary, Pope and Confessor................. 596\n\n16.\nSt. Julian, of Cilicia, Martyr.................. 597\nSt. Finian, surnamed Lobhar, or the Leper....... 598\n\n17.\nSt. Patrick, Bishop and Confessor, Apostle of\n  Ireland....................................... 599\nSS. Martyrs of Alexandria....................... 604\nSt. Joseph of Arimathea......................... 605\nSt. Gertrude, Virgin and Abbess of Nivelle ..... 605\n\n18\nSt. Alexander, Bishop of Jerusalem, Martyr...... 606\nSt. Cyril, Archbishop of Jerusalem, Confessor... 607\n\n{490}\n\nOn the Writings of St. Cyril.................... 614\nSt. Edward, Ring and Martyr..................... 617\nSt. Anselm, Bishop of Lucca, Confessor.......... 618\nSt. Fridian, Bishop of Lucca, Confessor......... 619\n\n19.\nSt Joseph....................................... 620\nSt. Alcmund, Martyr............................. 624\n\n20.\nSt. Cuthbert, Bishop and Confessor.............. 625\nSt. Wulfran, Archbishop of Seas................. 629\n\n21.\nSt. Benedict, Abbot............................. 639\nSt. Serapion, the Sindonite..................... 638\nSt. Serapion, Abbot of Arsinoe.................. 639\nSt. Serapion, Bishop of Thmuis in Egypt......... 640\nSt. Enna, or Endeus, Abbot...................... 641\n\n22.\nSt. Basil of Ancyra, Priest and Martyr.......... 641\nSt. Paul, Bishop of Narbonne, Confessor......... 644\nSt. Lea, Widow.................................. 644\nSt. Deogratias, Bishop of Carthage, Confessor... 644\nSt. Catherine of Sweden, Virgin................. 644\n\n23.\nSt. Alphonsus Turibius, Bishop and Confessor.... 645\nSS. Victorian, Proconsul of Carthage. &c.,\n  Martyrs....................................... 649\nSt. Edelwald, Priest and Confessor.............. 650\n\n24.\nSt. Irenaeus, Bishop of Sirmium, Martyr.......... 651\nSt. Simon, an Infant, Martyr.................... 653\nSt. William of Norwich, Martyr.................. 653\n\n25.\nThe Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary..... 661\nSt. Cammin, Abbot............................... 666\n\n26.\nSt. Ludger, Bishop of Munster, Apostle of\n  Saxony........................................ 661\nSt. Braulio, Bishop of Saragossa, Confessor..... 663\n\n27.\nSt. John of Egypt, Hermit....................... 664\nSt. Rupert, or Robert, Bishop and Confessor..... 688\n\n28.\nSS. Priscus, Malchus, and Alexander, Martyrs.... 669\nSt. Sixtus III., Pope........................... 670\nSt. Gontran, King and Confessor................. 671\n\n29.\nSS. Jonas, Barachisius, &c., Martyrs............ 672\nSS. Armogastes, Archinimus, and Saturns,\n  Martyrs....................................... 674\nSt. Eustasius, or Eustachius, Abbot............. 675\nSt. Gundleus, Confessor......................... 673\nSt. Mark, Bishop and Confessor.................. 675\n\n30.\nSt. John Climacus, Abbot........................ 677\nSt. Zozimus, Bishop of Syracuse................. 681\nSt. Regulus, or Rieul........................... 681\n\n31.\nSt. Benjamin, Deacon, Martyr.................... 691\nSt. Acacias, or Achates, Bishop of Antioch in\n  Asia Minor, Confessor......................... 683\nSt. Guy, Confessor.............................. 685\n\n{491}\n\nMARCH I.\n\nSAINT DAVID, ARCHBISHOP,\n\nPATRON OF WALES.\n\nSee his life by Giralduc Cambrensis, in Wharton's Anglia Sacra, t. 2;\nalso Doctor Brown Willis, and Wilkins, Conc. Britain. & Hibern. t. 1.\n\nAbout the year 544.\n\nST. DAVID, in Welsh Dewid, was son of Xantus, prince of Ceretice, now\nCardiganshire. He was brought up in the service of God, and, being\nordained priest, retired into the Isle of Wight, and embraced an ascetic\nlife, under the direction of Paulinus, a learned and holy man, who had\nbeen a disciple of St. Germanus of Auxerre. He is said by the sign of\nthe cross to have restored sight to his master, which he had lost by old\nage, and excessive weeping in prayer. He studied a long time to prepare\nhimself for the functions of the holy ministry. At length, coming out of\nhis solitude, like the Baptist out of the desert, he preached the word\nof eternal life to the Britons. He built a chapel at Glastenbury, a\nplace which had been consecrated to the divine worship by the first\napostles of this island. He founded twelve monasteries, the principal of\nwhich was in the vale of Ross,[1] near Menevia, where he formed many\ngreat pastors and eminent servants of God. By his rule he obliged all\nhis monks to assiduous manual labor in the spirit of penance: he allowed\nthem the use of no cattle to ease them at their work in tilling the\nground. They were never suffered to speak but on occasions of absolute\nnecessity, and they never ceased to pray, at least mentally, during\ntheir labor. They returned late in the day to the monastery, to read,\nwrite, and pray. Their food was only bread and vegetables, with a little\nsalt, and they never drank any thing better than a little milk mingled\nwith water. After their repast they spent three hours in prayer and\nadoration; then took a little rest, rose at cock-crowing, and continued\nin prayer till they went out to work. Their habit was of the skins of\nbeasts. When any one petitioned to be admitted, he waited ten days at\nthe door, during which time he was tried by harsh words, repeated\nrefusals, and painful labors, that he might learn to die to himself.\nWhen he was admitted, he left all his worldly substance behind him, for\nthe monastery never received any thing on the score of admission. All\nthe monks discovered their most secret thoughts and temptations to their\nabbot.\n\nThe Pelagian heresy springing forth a second time in Britain, the\nbishops, in order to suppress it, held a synod at Brevy, in\nCardiganshire, in 512, or rather in 519.[2] St. David, being invited to\nit, went thither, and in that venerable assembly confuted and silenced\nthe infernal monster by his eloquence,{492} learning, and miracles. On\nthe spot where this council was held, a church was afterwards built\ncalled Llan-Devi Brevi, or the church of St. David near the river Brevi.\nAt the close of the synod, St. Dubritius, the archbishop of Caerleon,\nresigned his see to St. David, whose tears and opposition were only to\nbe overcome by the absolute command of the synod, which however allowed\nhim, at his request, the liberty to transfer his see from Caerleon, then\na populous city, to Menevia, now called St. David's, a retired place,\nformed by nature for solitude, being, as it were, almost cut off from\nthe rest of the island, though now an intercourse is opened to it from\nMilford-Haven. Soon after the former synod, another was assembled by St.\nDavid at a place called Victoria, in which the acts of the first were\nconfirmed, and several canons added relating to discipline which were\nafterwards confirmed by the authority of the Roman church; and these two\nsynods were, as it were, the rule and standard of the British churches.\nAs for St. David, Giraldus adds, that he was the great ornament and\npattern of his age. He spoke with great force and energy, but his\nexample was more powerful than his eloquence; and he has in all\nsucceeding ages been the glory of the British church. He continued in\nhis last see many years; and having founded several monasteries, and\nbeen the spiritual father of many saints, both British and Irish, died\nabout the year 544, in a very advanced age. St. Kentigtern saw his soul\nborne up by angels into heaven. He was buried in his church of St.\nAndrew, which hath since taken his name, with the town and the whole\ndiocese. Near the church stand several chapels, formerly resorted to\nwith great devotion: the principal is that of St. Nun, mother of St.\nDavid, near which is a beautiful well still frequented by pilgrims.\nAnother chapel is sacred to St. Lily, surnamed Gwas-Dewy, that is, St.\nDavid's man; for he was his beloved disciple and companion in his\nretirement. He is honored there on the 3d, and St. Nun, who lived and\ndied the spiritual mother of many religious women, on the 2d of March.\nThe three first days of March were formerly holidays in South Wales in\nhonor of these three saints; at present only the first is kept a\nfestival throughout all Wales. John of Glastenbury[3] informs us, that\nin the reign of king Edgar, in the year of Christ 962, the relics of St.\nDavid were translated with great solemnity from the vale of Ross to\nGlastenbury, together with a portion of the relics of St. Stephen the\nProtomartyr.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nBy singing assiduously the divine praises with pure and holy hearts,\ndead to the world and all inordinate passions, monks are styled angels\nof the earth. The divine praise is the primary act of the love of God;\nfor a soul enamored of his adorable goodness and perfections, summons up\nall her powers to express the complacency she takes in his infinite\ngreatness and bliss, and sounds forth his praises with all her strength.\nIn this entertainment she feels an insatiable delight and sweetness, and\nwith longing desires aspires after that bliss in which she will love and\npraise without intermission or impediment. By each act of divine praise,\nthe fervor of charity and its habit, and with it every spiritual good\nand every rich treasure, is increased in her: moreover, God in return\nheaps upon her the choicest blessings of his grace. Therefore, though\nthe acts of divine praise seem directly to be no more than a tribute or\nhomage of our affections, which we tender to God, the highest advantages\naccrue from these exercises to our souls. St. Stephen of Grandmont was\nonce asked by a disciple, why we are so frequently exhorted in the\nscriptures to bless and praise God, who, being infinite, can receive no\nincrease from our homages. {493} To which the saint replied: \"A man who\nblesses and praises God receives from thence the highest advantage\nimaginable; for God, in return, bestows on him all his blessings, and\nfor every word that he repeats in these acts, says: 'For the praises and\nblessings which you offer me, I bestow my blessings on you; what you\npresent to me returns to yourself with an increase which becomes my\nliberality and greatness.' It is the divine grace,\" goes on this holy\ndoctor, \"which first excites a man to praise God, and he only returns to\nGod his own gift: yet by his continually blessing God, the Lord pours\nforth his divine blessings upon him, which are so many new increases of\ncharity in his soul.\"\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  This denomination was given to the valley from the territory where\n    it was situated, which was called Ross. Frequent mention is made of\n    this monastery in the acts of several Irish saints, under the name\n    of Rosnat or Rosnant.\n2.  See Wilkins, Conc. t. 1.\n3.  Maximes de S. Etienne de Grandmort, ch. 105, p. 228. Item {}\n    Sententuarum S. Stephani Grand. c. {}05, p. 103.\n\nST. SWIDBERT, OR SWIBERT, THE ANCIENT, B.C.\n\nHe was an English monk, educated near the borders of Scotland, and lived\nsome time under the direction of the holy priest and monk, St. Egbert,\nwhom he accompanied into Ireland. St. Egbert was hindered himself from\npassing into Lower Germany, according to his zealous desire, to preach\nthe gospel to the infidels: and Wigbert, who first went into Friesland\nupon that errand, was thwarted in all his undertakings by Radbod, prince\nof that country, and returned home without success. St. Egbert, burning\nwith an insatiable zeal for the conversion of those souls, which he\nceased not with many tears to commend to God, stirred up others to\nundertake that mission. St. Swidbert was one of the twelve missionaries,\nwho, having St. Willibrord at their head, sailed into Friesland, in 690,\naccording to the direction of St. Egbert. They landed at the mouth of\nthe Rhine, as Alcuin assures us, and travelled as high as Utrecht, where\nthey began to announce to the people the great truths of eternal life.\nPepin of Herstal, mayor of the French palace, had conquered part of\nFriesland, eighteen months before, and compelled Radbod, who remained\nsovereign in the northern part, to pay an annual tribute. The former was\na great protector and benefactor to these missionaries, nor did the\nlatter oppose their preaching. St. Swidbert labored chiefly in Hither\nFriesland, which comprised the southern part of Holland, the northern\npart of Brabant, and the countries of Gueldres and Cleves: for in the\nmiddle age, Friesland was extended from the mouths of the Meuse and the\nRhine, as far as Denmark and ancient Saxony. An incredible number of\nsouls was drawn out of the sink of idolatry, and the most shameful\nvices, by the zeal of St. Swidbert. St. Willibrord was ordained\narchbishop of Utrecht by pope Sergius I., at Rome, in 696. St. Swidbert\nwas pressed by his numerous flock of converts, and by his\nfellow-laborers, to receive the episcopal consecration: for this purpose\nhe returned to England soon after the year 697, where he was consecrated\nregionary bishop to preach the gospel to infidels, without being\nattached to any see, by Wilfrid, bishop of York, who happened to be then\nbanished from his own see, and employed in preaching the faith in\nMercia. Either the see of Canterbury was still vacant after the death of\nSt. Theodorus, or Brithwald, his successor, was otherwise hindered from\nperforming that ceremony, and St. Swidbert had probably been formerly\nknown personally to St. Wilfrid, being both from the same kingdom of\nNorthumberland. Our saint invested with that sacred character, returned\nto his flock, and settled the churches which he had founded in good\norder: then leaving them to the care of St. Willibrord and his ten\ncompanions, he penetrated further into {494} the country, and converted\nto the faith a considerable part of the Boructuarians, who inhabited the\ncountries now called the duchy of Berg, and the county of La Marck. His\napostolic labors were obstructed by an invasion of the Saxons, who,\nafter horrible devastations, made themselves masters of the whole\ncountry of the Boructuarians. St. Swidbert, being at length desirous to\nprepare himself for his last hour, in retirement, by fervent works of\npenance, received of Pepin of Herstal the gift of a small island, formed\nby different channels of the Rhine, and another river, called\nKeiserswerdt, that is, island of the emperor; werdt, in the language of\nthat country, signifying an island. Here the saint built a great\nmonastery, which flourished for many ages, till it was converted into a\ncollegiate church of secular canons. A town, which was formed round this\nmonastery, bore long the name of St. Swidbert's Isle, but is now called\nby the old name, Keiserswerdt, and is fortified: it is situated on the\nRhine, six miles below Dusseldorp: a channel of the Rhine having changed\nits course, the place is no longer an island. St. Swidbert here died in\npeace, on the 1st of March, in 713. His feast was kept with great\nsolemnity in Holland and other parts where he had preached. Henschenius\nhas given us a panegyric on him, preached on this day by Radbod, bishop\nof Utrecht, who died in 917. His relics were found in 1626 at\nKeiserswerdt, in a silver shrine, together with those of St. Willeic,\nlikewise an Englishman, his successor in the government of this abbey;\nand are still venerated in the same place, except some small portions\ngiven to other churches by the archbishop of Cologne.[1] See Bede, Hist.\nl. 5, c. 10, 12, and the historical collection of Henschenius, l. Mart.\np. 84; Fleury, l. 40; Batavia Sacra; and the Roman Martyrology, in which\nhis name occurs on this day. His successor, St. Willeic, is commemorated\non the 2d of March, by Wilson, in his English Martyrology, in the first\nedition, an. 1608, (though omitted in the second edition, an. 1628,) and\nis mentioned among the English saints, by F. Edward Maihew, Trop{}ea\nCongregationis Anglicanae Bened. Rhemis, 1625; and F. Jerom Porter, in\nhis Flores Sanctorum Angliae, Scotiae, et Hiberniae. Duaci, 1632.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  The acts of St. Swidbert, under the name of Marcellinus, pretended\n    to be St. Marchelm, a disciple or colleague of the saint, extant in\n    Surius, are a notorious piece of forgery of the fifteenth century.\n    We must not, with these false acts and many others, confound St.\n    Swidbert of Keiserswerdt with a younger saint of the same name, also\n    an Englishman, first bishop of Verden or Ferden, in Westphaly, in\n    807, in the reign of Charlemagne; whose body was taken up at Verden,\n    together with those of seven bishops his successors, in 1630. St.\n    Swidbert the younger is mentioned in some Martyrologies on the 30th\n    of April, though many moderns have confounded him with our saint.\n    Another holy man, called Swidbert, forty years younger than our\n    saint, whom some have also mistaken for the same with him, is\n    mentioned by Bede, (l. 4, c. 32) and was abbot of a monastery in\n    Cumberland, upon the river Decors, which does not appear to hive\n    been standing since the Conquest. See Leland, Collect. t. 2, p. 152,\n    and Camden's Britannia; by Gibson, col. 831. Tanner's Notitia Mon.\n    p. 73.\n\nST. ALBINUS, BISHOP OF ANGERS, C.\n\nHE was of an ancient and noble family in Brittany,[1] and from his\nchildhood was fervent in every exercise of piety. He ardently sighed\nafter the happiness which a devout soul finds in being perfectly\ndisengaged from all earthly things. Having embraced the monastic state\nat Cincillac, called afterwards Tintillant, a place somewhere near\nAngers, he shone a perfect model of virtue, especially of prayer,\nwatching, universal mortification of the senses, and obedience, living\nas if in all things he had been without any will of his own, and his\nsoul seemed so perfectly governed by the Spirit of Christ as to live\nonly for him. At the age of thirty-five years, he was chosen {495}\nabbot, in 504, and twenty-five years afterwards, bishop of Angers. He\neverywhere restored discipline, being inflamed with a holy zeal for the\nhonor of God. His dignity seemed to make no alteration either in his\nmortifications, or in the constant recollection of his soul. Honored by\nall the world, even by kings, he was never affected with vanity.\nPowerful in works and miracles, he looked upon himself as the most\nunworthy and most unprofitable among the servants of God, and had no\nother ambition than to appear such in the eyes of others, as he was in\nthose of his own humility. By his courage in maintaining the law of God\nand the canons of the church, he showed that true greatness of soul is\nfounded in the most sincere humility. In the third council of Orleans,\nin 538, he procured the thirtieth canon of the council of Epaoue to be\nrevived, by which those are declared excommunicated who presume to\ncontract incestuous marriages in the first or second degree of\nconsanguinity or affinity. He died on the 1st of March, in 549. His\nrelics were taken up and enshrined by St. Germanus of Paris, and a\ncouncil of bishops, with Eutropius, the saint's successor, at Angers, in\n556; and the most considerable part still remains in the church of the\nfamous abbey of St. Albinus at Angers, built upon the spot where he was\nburied, by king Childebert, a little before his relics were enshrined.\nMany churches in France, and several monasteries and villages, bear his\nname. He was honored by many miracles, both in his life-time and after\nhis death. Several are related in his life written by Fortunatus, bishop\nof Poitiers, who came to Angers to celebrate his festival seven years\nafter his decease; also by St. Gregory of Tours, (l. de Glor. Confess.\nc. 96.) See the Notes of Henschenius on his life.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  It is proved by Leland in his Itinerary, published by Hearne, (t. 3,\n    p. 4,) that the ancestors of St. Albinus of Angers came from Great\n    Britain, and that two branches of his family flourished long after,\n    one in Cornwall, the other in Somersetshire.\n\nST. MONAN, IN SCOTLAND, M.\n\nST. ADRIAN, bishop of St. Andrews, trained up this holy man from his\nchildhood, and when he had ordained him priest, and long employed him in\nthe service of his own church, sent him to preach the gospel in the isle\nof May, lying to the bay of Forth. The saint exterminated superstition\nand many other crimes and abuses, and having settled the churches of\nthat island in good order, passed into the county of Fife, and was there\nmartyred; being slain with above 6000 other Christians, by an army of\ninfidels who ravaged that country in 874. His relics were held in great\nveneration at Innerny, in Fifeshire, the place of his martyrdom, and\nwere famous for miracles. King David II. having himself experienced the\neffect of his powerful intercession with God, rebuilt his church at\nInnerny of stone, to a stately manner, and founded a college of canons\nto serve it. See King's calendar, and the manuscript life of this martyr\nin the Scottish college at Paris and the Breviary of Aberdeen.\n\n{496}\n\n\nMARCH II.\n\nMARTYRS UNDER THE LOMBARDS.\n\nFrom St. Gregory, Dial. l. 3, c. 26, 27. t. 2, p. 337.\n\nSIXTH AGE.\n\nTHE Lombards, a barbarous idolatrous nation which swarmed out of\nScandinavia and Pomerania, settled first in the counties now called\nAustria and Bavaria; and a few years after, about the middle of the\nsixth century, broke into the north of Italy. In their ravages about the\nyear 597, they attempted to compel forty husbandmen, whom they had made\ncaptives, to eat meats which had been offered to idols. The faithful\nservants of Christ constantly refusing to comply, were all massacred.\nSuch meats might, in some circumstances, have been eaten without sin,\nbut not when this was exacted out of a motive of superstition. The same\nbarbarians endeavored to oblige another company of captives to adore the\nhead of a goat, which was their favorite idol, and about which they\nwalked, singing, and bending their knees before it; but the Christians\nchose rather to die than purchase their lives by offending God. They are\nsaid to have been about four hundred in number. St. Gregory the Great\nmentions, that these poor countrymen had prepared themselves for the\nglorious crown of martyrdom, by lives employed in the exercises of\ndevotion and voluntary penance, and by patience in bearing afflictions;\nalso, that they had the heroic courage to suffer joyfully the most cruel\ntorments and death, rather than offend God by sin, because his love\nreigned in their hearts. \"True love,\" says St. Peter Chrysologus,[1]\n\"makes a soul courageous and undaunted; it even finds nothing hard,\nnothing bitter, nothing grievous; it braves dangers, smiles at death,\nconquers all things.\" If we ask our own hearts, if we examine our lives\nby this test, whether we have yet begun to love God, we shall have\nreason to be confounded, and to tremble at our remissness and sloth. We\nsuffer much for the world, and we count labor light, that we may attain\nto the gratification of our avarice, ambition, or other passion in its\nservice, yet we have not fervor to undertake any thing to save our\nsouls, or to crucify our passions. Here penance, watchfulness over\nourselves, or the least restraint, seems intolerable. Let us begin\nsincerely to study to die to ourselves, to disengage our hearts from all\ninordinate love of creatures, to raise ourselves above the slavery of\nthe senses, above the appetites of the flesh and all temporal interest;\nand in order to excite ourselves to love God with fervor, let us\nseriously consider what God, infinite in goodness and in all\nperfections, and whose love for us is eternal and immense, deserves at\nour hands; what the joys of heaven are, how much we ought to do for such\na bliss, and what Christ has done to purchase it for us, and to testify\nthe excess of his love; also what the martyrs have suffered for his\nsake, and to attain to the happiness of reigning eternally with him. Let\nus animate ourselves with their fervor: \"Let us love Christ as they\ndid,\" said St. Jerom to the virgin Eustochium, \"and every thing that now\nappears difficult, will become easy to us.\" To find this {497} hidden\ntreasure of divine love we must seek it earnestly; we must sell all\nthings, that is, renounce in spirit all earthly objects; we must dig a\ndeep foundation of sincere humility in the very centre of our\nnothingness, and must without ceasing beg this most precious of all\ngifts, crying out to God in the vehement desire of our hearts. Lord,\nwhen shall I love thee!\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  St. Peter Chrysol. Serm. 4.\n\nST. CEADA OR CHAD, B.C.\n\nHE was brother to St. Cedd, bishop of London, and the two holy priests\nCelin and Cymbel, and had his education in the monastery of Lindisfarne,\nunder St. Aidan. For his greater improvement in sacred letters and\ndivine contemplation he passed into Ireland, and spent a considerable\ntime in the company of St. Egbert, till he was called back by his\nbrother St. Cedd to assist him in settling the monastery of Lestingay,\nwhich he had founded in the mountains of the Deiri, that is, the Woulds\nof Yorkshire. St. Cedd being made bishop of London, or of the East\nSaxons, left to him the entire government of this house. Oswi having\nyielded up Bernicia, or the northern part of his kingdom, to his son\nAlcfrid, this prince sent St. Wilfrid into France, that he might be\nconsecrated to the bishopric of the Northumbrian kingdom, or of York;\nbut he stayed so long abroad that Oswi himself nominated St. Chad to\nthat dignity, who was ordained by Wini, bishop of Winchester, assisted\nby two British prelates, in 666. Bede assures us that he zealously\ndevoted himself to all the laborious functions of his charge, visiting\nhis diocese on foot, preaching the gospel, and seeking out the poorest\nand most abandoned persons to instruct and comfort, in the meanest\ncottages, and in the fields. When St. Theodorus, archbishop of\nCanterbury, arrived in England, in his general visitation of all the\nEnglish churches, he adjudged the see of York to St. Wilfrid. St. Chad\nmade him this answer: \"If you judge that I have not duly received the\nepiscopal ordination, I willingly resign this charge, having never\nthought myself worthy of it: but which, however unworthy, I submitted to\nundertake in obedience.\" The archbishop was charmed with his candor and\nhumility, would not admit his abdication, but supplied certain rites\nwhich he judged defective in his ordination: and St. Chad, leaving the\nsee of York, retired to his monastery of Lestingay, but was not suffered\nto bury himself long in that solitude. Jaruman, bishop of the Mercians,\ndying, St. Chad was called upon to take upon him the charge of that most\nextensive diocese.[1] He was the fifth bishop of the Mercians, and first\nfixed that see at Litchfield, so called from a great number of martyrs\nslain and buried there under Maximianus Herculeus; the name signifying\nthe field of carcasses. Hence this city bears for its arms a landscape,\ncovered with the bodies of martyrs. St. Theodorus considering St. Chad's\nold age, and the great extent of his diocese, absolutely forbade him to\nmake his visitations on foot, as he used to do at York. When the\nlaborious duties of his charge allowed him to retire, he enjoyed God in\nsolitude with seven or eight monks, whom he had settled in a place near\nhis cathedral. Here he gained new strength and fresh graces for the\ndischarge of his functions; he was so strongly affected with the fear of\nthe divine judgments, that as often as it thundered he went to the\nchurch and prayed prostrate all the time the storm continued, in\nremembrance of the dreadful day in which Christ will come to judge the\nworld. By the bounty of king Wulfere, he founded a monastery at a place\ncalled Barrow, in the province {498} of Lindsay, (in the northern part\nof Lincolnshire,) where the footsteps of the regular life begun by him\nremained to the time of Bede. Carte conjectures that the foundation of\nthe great monastery of Bardney, in the same province, was begun by him.\nSt. Chad governed his diocese of Litchfield, two years and a half, and\ndied in the great pestilence on the 2d of March, in 673. Bede gives the\nfollowing relation of his passage. \"Among the eight monks whom he kept\nwith him at Litchfield, was one Owini, who came with queen Ethelred,\ncommonly called St. Audry, from the province of the East Angles, and was\nher major-domo, and the first officer of her court, till quitting the\nworld, clad in a mean garment, and carrying an axe and a hatchet in his\nhand, he went to the monastery of Lestingay, signifying that he came to\nwork, and not to be idle; which he made good by his behavior in the\nmonastic state. This monk declared, that he one day heard a joyful\nmelody of some persons sweetly singing, which descended from heaven into\nthe bishop's oratory, filled the same for about half an hour, then\nmounted again to heaven. After this, the bishop opening his window, and\nseeing him at his work, bade him call the other seven brethren. When the\neight monks were entered his oratory, he exhorted them to preserve peace\nand religiously observe the rules of regular discipline; adding, that\nthe amiable guest who was wont to visit their brethren, had vouchsafed\nto come to him that day, and to call him out of this world. Wherefore he\nearnestly recommended his passage to their prayers, and pressed them to\nprepare for their own, the hour of which is uncertain, by watching,\nprayer, and good works.\" The bishop fell presently into a languishing\ndistemper, which daily increased, till, on the seventh day, having\nreceived the body and blood of our Lord, he departed to bliss, to which\nhe was invited by the happy soul of his brother St. Cedd, and a company\nof angels with heavenly music. He was buried in the church of St. Mary,\nin Litchfield; but his body was soon after removed to that of St. Peter,\nin both places honored by miraculous cures, as Bede mentions. His relics\nwere afterwards translated into the great church which was built in\n1148, under the invocation of the B. Virgin and St. Chad, which is now\nthe cathedral, and they remained them till the change of religion. See\nBede, l. 3, c. 28, l. 4, c. 2 and 3.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  The first bishop of the Mercians was Diuma, a Scot; the second,\n    Keollach, of the same nation: the third, Trumhere, who had been\n    abbot of Gethling in the kingdom of the Northumbrians: the fourth\n    Jaruruan.\n\nST. SIMPLICIUS, POPE, C.\n\nHE was the ornament of the Roman clergy under SS. Leo and Hilarius, and\nsucceeded the latter in the pontificate in 497. He was raised by God to\ncomfort and support his church amidst the greatest storms. All the\nprovinces of the Western empire, out of Italy, were fallen into the\nhands of barbarians, infected for the greatest part with idolatry or\nArianism. The ten last emperors, during twenty years, were rather\nshadows of power than sovereigns, and in the eighth year of the\npontificate of Simplicius, Rome itself fell a prey to foreigners.\nSalvian, a learned priest of Marseilles in 440, wrote an elegant book On\nDivine Providence, in which he shows that these calamities were a just\nchastisement of the sins of the Christians; saying, that if the Goths\nwere perfidious, and the Saxons cruel, they were however both remarkable\nfor their chastity; as the Franks were for humanity, though addicted to\nlying: and that though these barbarians were impious, they had not so\nperfect a knowledge of sin, nor consequently were so criminal as those\nwhom God chastised by them. The disorders of the Roman state paved the\nway for this revolution. Excessive taxes were levied in the most\narbitrary ways. The governors oppressed the people at discretion, and\nmany were obliged to take shelter among the barbarians: for the Bagaude,\n{499} Franks, Huns, Vandals, and Goths raised no taxes upon their\nsubjects: on which account nations once conquered by them were afraid of\nfalling again under the Roman yoke, preferring what was called slavery,\nto the empty name of liberty. Italy, by oppressions and the ravages of\nbarbarians, was left almost a desert without inhabitants; and the\nimperial armies consisted chiefly of barbarians, hired under the name of\nauxiliaries, as the Suevi, Alans, Heruli, Goths, and others. Those soon\nsaw their masters were in their power. The Heruli demanded one third of\nthe lands of Italy, and, upon refusal, chose for their leader Odoacer,\none of the lowest extraction, but a tall, resolute, and intrepid man,\nthen an officer in the guards, and an Arian heretic, who was proclaimed\nking at Rome in 476. He put to death Orestes, who was regent of the\nempire for his son Augustulus, whom the senate had advanced to the\nimperial throne. The young prince had only reigned eight months, and his\ngreat beauty is the only thing mentioned of him. Odoacer spared his\nlife, and appointed him a salary of six thousand pounds of gold, and\npermitted him to live at full liberty near Naples. Pope Simplicius was\nwholly taken up in comforting and relieving the afflicted, and in sowing\nthe seeds of the Catholic faith among the barbarians. The East gave his\nzeal no less employment and concern. Zeno, son and successor to Leo the\nThracian, favored the Eutychians. Basiliscus his admiral, who, on\nexpelling him, usurped the imperial throne in 476, and held it two\nyears, was a most furious stickler for that heresy. Zeno was no\nCatholic, though not a stanch Eutychian: and having recovered the\nempire, published, in 482, his famous decree of union, called the\nHenoticon, which explained the faith ambiguously, neither admitting nor\ncondemning the council of Chalcedon. Peter Cnapheus, (that is, the\nDyer,) a violent Eutychian, was made by the heretics patriarch of\nAntioch; and Peter Mongus, one of the most profligate of men, that of\nAlexandria. This latter published the Henoticon, but expressly refused\nto anathematize the council of Chalcedon; on which account the rigid\nEutychians separated themselves from his communion, and were called\nAcephali, or, without a head. Acacias, the patriarch of Constantinople,\nreceived the sentence of St. Simplicius against Cnapheus, but supported\nMongus against him and the Catholic church, promoted the Henoticon, and\nwas a notorious changeling, double-dealer, and artful hypocrite, who\noften made religion serve his own private ends. St. Simplicius at length\ndiscovered his artifices, and redoubled his zeal to maintain the holy\nfaith which he saw betrayed on every side, while the patriarchal sees of\nAlexandria and Antioch were occupied by furious wolves, and there was\nnot one Catholic king in the whole world. The emperor measured every\nthing by his passions and human views. St. Simplicius having sat fifteen\nyears, eleven months, and six days, went to receive the reward of his\nlabors, in 483. He was buried in St. Peter's on the 2d of March. See his\nletters: also the historians Evagrius, Theophanes, Liberatus, and\namongst the moderns, Baronius, Henschenius, Ceillier, t. 15, p. 123.\n\nST. MARNAN, B.C.\n\nTo his holy prayers Aidan, king of the Scots, ascribed a wonderful\nvictory which he gained over Ethelfrid, the pagan king of the\nNorthumbrian English; and by his councils Eugenius IV., who succeeded\nhis father Aidan in the kingdom soon after this battle, treated all the\nprisoners with the utmost humanity and generosity, by which they were\ngained to the Christian faith. The Northumbrian princes, Oswald and\nOswi, were instructed in our holy religion, and grounded in its spirit\nby St. Marnan, {500} who died in Annandale in the year 620. His head was\nkept with singular devotion at Moravia, and was carried in processions\nattended by the whole clan of the Innis's, which from the earliest times\nwas much devoted to this saint. See the Breviary of Aberdeen, Buchanan,\nl. 5, in Aidano et Eugenio Regibus, and MS. Memoirs in the Scottish\ncollege at Paris. St. Marnan is titular saint of the church of\nAberkerdure upon the river Duvern, formerly much frequented out of\ndevotion to his relics kept there.\n\nST. CHARLES THE GOOD, EARL OF FLANDERS, M.\n\nHE was the son of St. Canutus, king of Denmark, and of Alice of\nFlanders, who, after the death of his father, carried him, then an\ninfant, into Flanders, in 1086. His cousin-german Baldwin the Seventh,\nearl of Flanders, dying without issue in 1119, left him his heir by\nwill, on account of his extraordinary valor and merit. The young earl\nwas a perfect model of all virtues, especially devotion, charity, and\nhumility. Among his friends and courtiers, he loved those best who\nadmonished him of his faults the most freely. He frequently exhausted\nhis treasury on the poor, and often gave the clothes off his back to be\nsold for their relief. He served them with his own hands, and\ndistributed clothes and bread to them in all places where he came. It\nwas observed that in Ipres he gave away, in one day, no less than seven\nthousand eight hundred loaves. He took care for their sake to keep the\nprice of corn and provisions always low, and he made wholesome laws to\nprotect them from the oppressions of the great. This exasperated\nBertulf, who had tyrannically usurped the provostship of St. Donatian's\nin Bruges, to which dignity was annexed the chancellorship of Flanders,\nand his wicked relations, the great oppressors of their country. In this\nhorrible conspiracy they were joined by Erembald, castellan or chief\nmagistrate of the territory of Bruges, with his five sons, provoked\nagainst their sovereign because he had repressed their unjust violences\nagainst the noble family De Straten. The holy earl went every morning\nbarefoot to perform his devotions early before the altar of the Blessed\nVirgin in St. Donatian's church. Going thither one day, he was informed\nof a conspiracy, but answered; \"We are always surrounded by dangers, but\nwe belong to God. If it be his will, can we die in a better cause than\nthat of justice and truth?\" While he was reciting the penitential psalms\nbefore the altar, the conspirators rushing in, his head was cloven by\nFromold Borchard, nephew to Bertulf, in 1124. He was buried in St.\nChristopher's church at Bruges, not in that of St. Donatian, as\nPantoppidan proves. Borchard was broke alive on the wheel, and Bertulf\nwas hung on a rack at Ipres, and exposed on it to be torn by furious\ndogs, and at length was stoned to death by beggars while he remained on\nthat engine. St. Charles's shrine was placed by an order of Charles\nPhilip Rodoan, fourth bishop of Bruges, in 1606, in the chapel of the\nblessed Virgin, and ever since the year 1610 a high mass in honor of the\nTrinity is sung on his festival. See the life of this good earl by\nWalter, archdeacon of Terouenne, and more fully by Gualbert, syndic of\nBruges, and by AElnoth a monk of Canterbury and Danish missionary at that\ntime. See also Molanus and Miraeus in their martyrologies; Henschenius,\np. 158; Robertus de Monte a Append, ad. Chronicon Sigeberti ad an. 1127;\nJac. Maierus, Annal. Flandriae, l. 4, pp. 45, 46. Likewise Ericus\nPantoppidanus in his Gesta Danorum extra Daniam. Hafniae, 1740 t. 2, sec.\n1, c. 5, sec. 32, p. 398.\n\n{501}\n\nST. JOAVAN, OR JOEVIN, B.C.\n\nThis saint was a fervent disciple of St. Paul of Leon, in Great Britain,\nhis own country, accompanied him into Armorica, led an anchoretical life\nnear him in the country of Ack, and afterwards in the isle of Baz. That\ngreat saint chose him coadjutor in his bishopric, when he retired a\nlittle before his death. St. Joavan survived him only one year. He is\ntitular saint of two parish churches in the diocese of St. Paul of Leon,\n&c. See Lobineau, Vies des Saints de la Bretagne, p. 71, from the\nbreviary and tradition of that church, though the life of St. Jovian,\ncopied by Albert the Great. &c., deserves no regard.\n\nMARCH III.\n\nST. CUNEGUNDES, EMPRESS.\n\nFrom her life written by a canon of Bamberg, about the year 1152: also\nthe Dissertation of Henschenius, p. 267.\n\nA.D. 1040.\n\nST. CUNEGUNDES was the daughter of Sigefride, the first count of\nLuxemburgh, and Hadeswige his pious wife. They instilled into her from\nher cradle the most tender sentiments of piety, and married her to St.\nHenry, duke of Bavaria, who, upon the death of the emperor Otho III.,\nwas chosen king of the Romans, and crowned at Mentz on the 6th of June,\n1002. She was crowned at Paderborn on St. Laurence's day, on which\noccasion she made great presents to the churches of that city. In the\nyear 1014 she went with her husband to Rome, and received the imperial\ncrown with him from the hands of Pope Benedict VIII. She had, by St.\nHenry's consent before her marriage, made a vow of virginity.\nCalumniators afterwards accused her to him of freedoms with other men.\nThe holy empress, to remove the scandal of such a slander, trusting in\nGod the protector of innocence, in proof of hers, walked over red-hot\nploughshares without being hurt. The emperor condemned his too\nscrupulous fears and credulity, and made her ample amends. They lived\nfrom that time in the strictest union of hearts conspiring to promote in\nevery thing God's honor, and the advancement of piety.\n\nGoing once to make a retreat in Hesse, she fell dangerously ill, and\nmade a vow to found a monastery, if she recovered, in a place then\ncalled Capungen, now Kaffungen, near Cassel, in the diocese of\nPaderborn, which she executed in a stately manner, and gave it to nuns\nof the Order of St. Benedict. Before it was finished St. Henry died, in\n1024. She earnestly recommended his soul to the prayers of others,\nespecially to her dear nuns, and expressed her longing desire of joining\nthem. She had already exhausted her treasures and her patrimony in\nfounding bishoprics and monasteries, and in relieving the poor. Whatever\nwas rich or magnificent she thought better suited churches than her\npalace. She had therefore little now left to give. {502} But still\nthirsting to embrace perfect evangelical poverty, and to renounce all to\nserve God without obstacle, on the anniversary day of her busband's\ndeath, 1025, she assembled a great number of prelates to the dedication\nof her church of Kaffungen; and after the gospel was sung at mass,\noffered on the altar a piece of the true cross, and then put off her\nimperial robes, and clothed herself with a poor habit: her hair was cut\noff, and the bishop put on her a veil, and a ring as the pledge of her\nfidelity to her heavenly spouse. After she was consecrated to God in\nreligion, she seemed entirely to forget that she had been empress, and\nbehaved as the last in the house, being persuaded that she was so before\nGod. She feared nothing more than what ever could bring to her mind the\nremembrance of her former dignity. She prayed and read much, worked with\nher hands, abhorred the least appearance of worldly nicety, and took a\nsingular pleasure in visiting and comforting the sick. Thus she passed\nthe fifteen last years of her life, never suffering the least preference\nto be given her above anyone in the community. Her mortifications at\nlength reduced her to a very weak condition, and brought on her last\nsickness. Her monastery and the whole city of Cassel were grievously\nafflicted at the thought of their approaching loss; she alone appeared\nwithout concern, lying on a coarse hair-cloth, ready to give up the\nghost, while the prayers of the agonizing were read by her side.\nPerceiving they were preparing a cloth fringed with gold to cover her\ncorpse after her death, she changed color and ordered it to be taken\naway; nor could she be at rest till she was promised she should be\nburied as a poor religious in her habit. She died on the 3d of March,\n1040. Her body was carried to Bamberg, and buried near that of her\nhusband. The greatest part of her relics still remains in the same\nchurch. She was solemnly canonized by Innocent III. in 1200. The author\nof her life relates many miracles wrought at the tomb, or by the\nintercession of this holy virgin and widow.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nFew arrive at any degree of perfection amongst those who aspire after\nvirtue, because many behave as if they placed it barely in multiplying\nexercises of piety and good works. This costs little to self-love, which\nit rather feeds by entertaining a secret vanity, or self-complacency, in\nthose who are not very careful in watching over their hearts. It is a\ncommon thing to see persons who have passed forty or fifty years in the\nconstant practice of penance and all religious exercises, and the use of\nthe most holy sacraments, still subject to habitual imperfections, and\nvenial disorders, incompatible with a state of sanctity or perfection.\nThey give marks of sudden resentment, if they happen to be rebuked or\ndespised: are greedy of the esteem of others, take a secret satisfaction\nin applause, love too much their own ease and conveniences, and seek\nthose things which flatter self-love. How much are these souls their own\nenemies by not giving themselves to God without reserve, and taking a\nfirm resolution to labor diligently in watching over themselves, and\ncutting off all irregular attachments, and purifying their hearts! The\nneglect of this fosters many habitual little disorders and venial sins,\nwhich incredibly obstruct the work of our sanctification, and the\nadvancement of the kingdom of divine grace in our souls. These little\nenemies wilfully caressed, weaken our good desires, defile even our\nspiritual actions with a thousand imperfections, and stop the abundant\neffusion with which the Holy Ghost is infinitely desirous to communicate\nhimself to our souls, and to fill them with his light, grace, peace, and\nholy joy. The saints, by the victory over themselves, and by making it\ntheir principal study to live in the most perfect disengagement and\npurity of heart, offered to God, even in their smallest actions, pure\nand full sacrifices of love, praise, and obedience. If we desire to\ncultivate this purity of heart, we {503} must carefully endeavor to\ndiscover the imperfections and disorders of their souls, especially such\nas are habitual, and strenuously labor to root them out. Secondly, we\nmust keep our senses under a strict guard, and accustom them to\nrestraint by frequent denials. Thirdly, we must live as much as may be\nin a habit of recollection, and the practice of the divine presence,\nand, after any dissipating affairs, return eagerly to close retirement\nfor some short time. Fourthly, we must, with perfect simplicity, lay\nopen our whole interior to our spiritual director, and be most\nsolicitous to do this, with particular candor and courage, in things in\nwhich we are tempted to use any kind of duplicity or dissimulation.\nLastly, we must propose to ourselves, in all our thoughts and actions,\nthe most perfect accomplishment of the will of God, and study to square\nour whole lives by this great rule, watching in all we do with\nparticular care against motives of vanity, pride, sensuality, interest,\nand aversions, the great enemies to purity of intention.\n\nSS. MARINUS AND ASTERIUS, OR ASTYRIUS, 1131.\n\nST. MARINUS was a person remarkable both for his wealth and family at\nCaesarea in Palestine, about the year 272, and was in course to succeed\nto the place of a centurion, which was vacant, and about to obtain it;\nwhen another came up and said, that according to the laws Marinus could\nnot have that post, on account of his being a Christian. Achaeus, the\ngovernor of Palestine, asked Marinus if he was a Christian; who answered\nin the affirmative: whereupon the judge gave him three hours space to\nconsider whether he would abide by his answer, or recall it. Theotecnus,\nthe bishop of that city, being informed of the affair, came to him, when\nwithdrawn from the tribunal, and taking him by the hand led him to the\nchurch. Here, pointing to the sword which he wore, and then to a book of\nthe gospels, asked him which of the two he made his option. Marinus, in\nanswer to the query, without the least hesitation, stretched out his\nright hand, and laid hold of the sacred book. \"Adhere steadfastly then\nto God,\" says the bishop, \"and he will strengthen you, and you shall\nobtain what you have chosen. Depart in peace.\" Being summoned again\nbefore the judge, he professed his faith with greater resolution and\nalacrity than before, and was immediately led away just as he was, and\nbeheaded. St. Asterius, or Astyrius, a Roman senator, in great favor\nwith the emperor, and well known to all on account of his high birth and\ngreat estate, being present at the martyrdom of St. Marinus, though he\nwas richly dressed, took away the dead body on his shoulders, and having\nsumptuously adorned it, gave it a decent burial. Thus far the acts in\nRuinart. Rufinus adds, that he was beheaded for this action. See Eus.\nHist. l. 7, c. 15, 16, 17.\n\nSS. EMETERIUS, &c., MM.\n\nCOMMONLY CALLED MADIR, AND CHELIDONIUS\n\nTHEY were soldiers of distinguished merit in the Roman army in Spain,\nand suffered martyrdom at Calahorra, but it is not known in what\npersecution. Their courage and cheerfulness seemed to increase with\ntheir sharpest torments, and to them fires and swords seemed sweet and\nagreeable. Prudemius says, that the persecutors burned the acts of their\nmartyrdom, envying us the history of so glorious a triumph. He adds,\nthat their festival was kept in Spain with great devotion by all ranks\nof people; that strangers {504} came in devout pilgrimages to visit\ntheir relics, praying to these patrons of the world; and that none\npoured forth their pure prayers to them who were not heard and their\ntears dried up: \"For,\" says he, \"they immediately hear every petition,\nand carry it to the ear of the eternal king.\" See Prudentius, de Coro,\nhymn 1.\n\nST. WINWALOE, OF WINWALOC, ABBOT.\n\nFRAGAN or Fracan, father of this saint, was nearly related to Cathoun,\none of the kings or princes of Wales, and had by his wife Gwen three\nsons, Guethenoc, Jacut, and Winwaloe, whom they bound themselves by vow\nto consecrate to God from his birth, because he was their third son. The\ninvasions of the Saxons, and the storms which soon after overwhelmed his\nown country, obliged him to seek a harbor in which he might serve God in\npeace. Riwal had retired a little before, with many others, from Wales\ninto Armorica, and had been there kindly received; several Britons, who\nhad followed the tyrant Maximus, having settled in that country long\nbefore. Fragan therefore transported his whole family, about the middle\nof the fifth century, and fixed his habitation at a place called from\nhim to this day, Ploufragan, situated on the river Gouct, which ancient\nBritish and Gaulish word signifies blood. All accounts of our saint\nagree that his two elder brothers were born in Great Britain, but some\nplace the birth of St. Winwaloe, and of his sister Creirvie, much\nyounger than him, in Armorica. The pious parents brought up their\nchildren in the fear of God, but out of fondness delayed to place\nWinwaloe in a monastery, till he was now grown up. At length, touched by\nGod, the father conducted him to the monastery of St. Budoc, in the isle\nof Laurels,[1] now called Isleverte, or Green Island, not far from the\nisle of Brehat. St. Budoc was an abbot in Great Britain, eminent for\npiety and learning, and flying from the swords of the Saxons, took\nrefuge among his countrymen in Armorica, and in this little island\nassembled several monks, and opened a famous school for youth. Under his\ndiscipline Winwaloe made such progress, that the holy abbot appointed\nhim superior over eleven monks, whom he sent to lay the foundation of a\nnew monastery. They travelled through Domnonea, or the northern coast of\nBrittany, and finding a desert island near the mouth of the river Aven,\nnow called Chateaulin, they built themselves several little huts or\ncells. From these holy inhabitants the name of Tibidy, that is, House of\nPrayers, was given to that island, which it still retains. This place is\nexposed to so violent winds and storms, that after three years St.\nWinwaloe and his community abandoned it, and built themselves a\nmonastery on the continent, in a valley sheltered from the winds, called\nLandevenech, three leagues from Brest, on the opposite side of the bay.\nGrallo, count of Cornouailles, in which province this abbey is situated,\nin the diocese of Quimper-Corentin, gave the lands, and was at the\nexpense of the foundation of this famous monastery. St. Winwaloe, from\nthe time he left his father's house, never wore any other garments but\nwhat were made of the skins of goats, and under these a hair shirt; day\nand night, winter and summer, his clothing was the same. In his\nmonastery neither wheat-bread nor wine was used, but for the holy\nsacrifice of the mass. No other drink was allowed to the community but\nwater, which was sometimes boiled with a small decoction of certain wild\nherbs. The monks ate only coarse barley-bread, boiled herbs and roots,\nor barley-meal and herbs mixed, except on Saturdays and Sundays, on\nwhich {505} they were allowed cheese and shellfish, but of these the\nsaint never tasted himself. His coarse barley-bread he always mingled\nwith ashes, and their quantity he doubled in Lent, though even then it\nmust have been very small, only to serve for mortification, and an\nemblem of penance. In Lent he took his refreshment only twice a week;\nhis bed was composed of the rough bark of trees or of sand, with a stone\nfor his pillow. From the relaxation in the rule of abstinence on\nSaturdays, it is evident that this monastic rule, which was the same in\nsubstance with that received in other British, Scottish; and Irish\nmonasteries, was chiefly borrowed from Oriental rules, Saturday being a\nfast-day according to the discipline of the Roman church. This rule was\nobserved at Landevenech, till Louis le Debonnaire, for the sake of\nuniformity, caused that of St. Benedict to be introduced there in 818.\nThis house was adopted into the congregation of St. Maur, in 1636. St.\nWinwaloe was sensible that the spirit of prayer is the soul of a\nreligious state, and the comfort and support of all those who are\nengaged in it: as to himself, his prayer, either mental or vocal, was\nalmost continual, and so fervent, that he seemed to forget that he lived\nin a mortal body. From twenty years of age, till his death he never sat\nin the church, but always prayed either kneeling or standing unmoved, in\nthe same posture, with his hands lifted up to heaven, and his whole\nexterior bespoke the profound veneration with which he was penetrated.\nHe died on the 3d of March, about the year 529, in a very advanced age.\nHis body was buried in his own church, which he had built of wood, on\nthe spot upon which the abbatial house now stands. These relics were\ntranslated into the new church when it was built, but during the ravages\nof the Normans they were removed to several places in France, and at\nlength into Flanders. At present the chief portions are preserved at\nSaint Peter's, at Blaudinberg, at Ghent, and at Montreuil in Lower\nPicardy, of which he is titular patron. In Picardy, he is commonly\ncalled St. Vignevaley, and more commonly Walovay; in Brittany, Guignole,\nor more frequently Vennole; in other parts of France, Guingalois; in\nEngland, Winwaloe or Winwaloc. His name occurs in the English litany of\nthe seventh age, published by Mabillon.[2] He is titular saint of St.\nGuingualoe, a priory at Chateau du Loir, dependent on Marmoutier at\nTours, and of several churches and parishes in France. His father, St.\nFragan, is titular saint of a parish in the diocese of St. Brieuc,\ncalled Plou-Fragan, of which he is said to have been lord, and of\nanother in the diocese of Leon, called St. Frogan; also, St. Gwen his\nmother, of one in the same diocese called Ploe-Gwen, and of another in\nthat of Quimper. In France she is usually called St. Blanche, the\nBritish word Gwen signifying Blanche or White. His brothers are honored\nin Brittany, St. Guethenoc, on the 5th of November, and St. Jacut or\nJames, on the 8th of February and the 3d of March; the latter is patron\nof the abbey of St. Jagu, in the diocese of Dol. St. Balay, or Valay,\nchief patron of the parish of Plou-balai, in the diocese of St. Malo,\nand a St. Martin, are styled disciples of St. Winwaloe, and before their\nmonastic profession were lords of Rosmeur, and Ros-madeuc. Some other\ndisciples of our saint are placed in the calendars of several churches\nin Brittany, as St. Guenhael his successor, St. Idunet or Yonnet, St.\nDei, &c. See the ancient life of St. Winwaloe, the first of the three\ngiven by Bollandus and Henschenius; that in Surius and Cressy not being\ngenuine. See also Baillet and Lobineau, Lives of the Saints of Brittany,\npp. 43 and 48.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  Laureaca.\n2.  Mabil. in Analect.\n\n{506}\n\nST. LAMALISSE, C.\n\nHE flourished in great sanctity in the isle of Aran, on the west of\nScotland, in the seventh century, and from him a neighboring small\nisland is called to this day St. Lamalisse's Isle. See MS. memoirs in\nthe Scottish College at Paris.\n\n\nMARCH IV.\n\nST. CASIMIR, PRINCE OF POLAND.\n\nFrom his life compiled by Zachary Ferrier, legate of Leo X., in Poland,\nthirty-six years after his death; and an authentic relation of his\nmiracles, with many circumstances of his life, by Gregory Swiecicki,\ncanon of Vilna; also the commentary of Henschenius, p. 337.\n\nA D. 1483\n\nST. CASIMIR was the third among the thirteen children of Casimir III.,\nking of Poland, and of Elizabeth of Austria, daughter to the emperor\nAlbert II., a most virtuous woman, who died in 1505. He was born in\n1458, on the 5th of October. From his childhood he was remarkably pious\nand devout. His preceptor was John Dugloss, called Longinus, canon of\nCracow, a man of extraordinary learning and piety, who constantly\nrefused all bishoprics, and other dignities of the church and state,\nwhich were pressed upon him. Uladislas, the eldest son, was elected king\nof Bohemia, in 1471, and became king of Hungary in 1490. Our saint was\nthe second son: John Albert, the third son, succeeded the father in the\nkingdom of Poland in 1492; and Alexander, the fourth son, was called to\nthe same in 1501. Casimir and the other princes were so affectionately\nattached to the holy man who was their preceptor, that they could not\nbear to be separated from him. But Casimir profited most by his pious\nmaxims and example. He consecrated the flower of his age to the\nexercises of devotion and penance, and had a horror of that softness and\nmagnificence which reign in courts. His clothes were very plain, and\nunder them be wore a hair shirt. His bed was frequently the ground, and\nhe spent a considerable part of the night in prayer and meditation,\nchiefly on the passion of our Saviour. He often went out in the night to\npray before the church-doors; and in the morning waited before them till\nthey were opened to assist at matins. By living always under a sense of\nthe divine presence he remained perpetually united to, and absorbed in,\nhis Creator, maintained an uninterrupted cheerfulness of temper, and was\nmild and affable to all. He respected the least ceremonies of the\nchurch: every thing that tended to promote piety was dear to him. He was\nparticularly devout to the passion of our blessed Saviour, the very\nthought of which excited him to tears, and threw him into transports of\nlove. He was no less piously affected towards the sacrifice of the\naltar, at which he always assisted with such reverence and attention\nthat he seemed in raptures. And as a mark of his singular devotion to\nthe Blessed Virgin, he composed, or at least frequently recited, the\nlong hymn that bears his name, a copy of {507} which was, by his desire,\nburied with him. His love for Jesus Christ showed itself in his regard\nfor the poor, who are his members, to whose relief he applied whatever\nhe had, and employed his credit with his father, and his brother\nUladislas, king of Bohemia, to procure them succor. His compassion made\nhim feel in himself the afflictions of every one. The Palatines and\nother nobles of Hungary, dissatisfied with Matthias Corvin, their king,\nson of the great Huniades, begged the king of Poland to allow them to\nplace his son Casimir on the throne. The saint, not then quite fifteen\nyears of age, was very unwilling to consent; but in compliance with his\nfather's will he went, at the head of an army of twenty thousand men, to\nthe frontiers, in 1471. There, hearing that Matthias had formed an army\nof sixteen thousand men to defend him, and that all differences were\naccommodated between him and his people, and that pope Sixtus IV. had\nsent an embassy to divert his father from that expedition, he joyfully\nreturned, having with difficulty obtained his father's consent so to do.\nHowever, as his dropping this project was disagreeable to the king his\nfather, not to increase his affliction by appearing before him, he did\nnot go directly to Cracow, but retired to the castle of Dobzki, three\nmiles from that city, where he continued three months in the practice of\npenance. Having learned the injustice of the attempt against the king of\nHungary, in which obedience to his father's command prevailed upon him\nto embark when he was very young, he could never be engaged to resume it\nby a fresh pressing invitation of the Hungarians, or the iterated orders\nand entreaties of his father. The twelve years he lived after this, he\nspent in sanctifying himself in the same manner as he had done before.\nHe observed to the last an untainted chastity, notwithstanding the\nadvice of physicians who excited him to marry, imagining, upon some\nfalse principle, this to be a means necessary to preserve his life.\nBeing wasted with a lingering consumption, he foretold his last hour,\nand having prepared himself for it by redoubling his exercises of piety,\nand receiving the sacraments of the church, he made a happy end at\nVilna, the capital of Lithuania, on the 4th of March, 1482, being twenty\nthree years and five months old. He was buried in the church of St.\nStanislas. So many were the miracles wrought by his intercession, that\nSwiecicki, a canon of Vilna, wrought a whole volume of them from good\nmemoirs, in 1604. He was canonized by pope Leo X., whose legate in\nPoland, Zachary Ferrier, wrote the saint's life. His body and all the\nrich stuffs it was wrapped in, were found quite entire, and exhaling a\nsweet smell one hundred and twenty years after his death,\nnotwithstanding the excessive moisture of the vault. It is honored in a\nlarge rich chapel of marble, built on purpose in that church. St.\nCasimir is the patron of Poland, and several other places, and is\nproposed to youth as a particular pattern of purity. His original\npicture is to be seen in his chapel in St. Germain des Prez in Paris,\nbuilt by John Casimir, king of Poland, the last of the family of Waza,\nwho, renouncing his crown, retired to Paris, and died abbot of St.\nGermain's, in 1668.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nWhat is there on earth which can engage the affections of a Christian,\nor be the object of his ambition, in whose soul God desires to establish\nhis kingdom? Whoever has conceived a just idea of this immense happiness\nand dignity, must look upon all the glittering bubbles of this world as\nempty and vain, and consider every thing in this life barely as it can\nadvance or hinder the great object of all his desires. Few arrive at\nthis happy and glorious state, because scarce any one seeks it with his\nwhole heart, and has the courage sincerely to renounce all things and\ndie to himself: and this precious jewel cannot be purchased upon any\nother terms. The kingdom {508} of God can only be planted in a soul upon\nthe ruins of self-love: so long as this reigns, it raises insuperable\nobstacles to the perfect establishment of the empire of divine love. The\namiable Jesus lives in all souls which he animates by his sanctifying\ngrace, and the Holy Ghost dwells in all such. But in most of these how\nmany worldly maxims and inclinations diametrically opposite to those of\nour most holy heavenly king, hold their full sway! how many secret\ndisorders and irregular attachments are cherished! how much is found of\nself-love, with which sometimes their spiritual exercises themselves are\ninfected! The sovereign king of men and their merciful Redeemer is\nproperly said to reign only in those souls which study effectually, and\nwithout reserve, to destroy in their affections whatever is opposite to\nhis divine will, to subdue all their passions, and to subject all their\npowers to his holy love. Such fall not into any venial sins with full\ndeliberation, and wipe away those of frailty into which they are\nbetrayed, by the compunction and penance in which they constantly live,\nand by the constant attention with which they watch daily over\nthemselves. They pray with the utmost earnestness that God deliver them\nfrom all the power of the enemy, and establish in all their affections\nthe perfect empire of his grace and love; and to fulfil his will in the\nmost perfect manner in all their actions, is their most earnest desire\nand hearty endeavor. How bountifully does God reward, even in this life,\nthose who are thus liberal towards him! St. Casimir, who had tasted of\nthis happiness, and learned truly to value the heavenly grace, loathed\nall earthly pomp and delights. With what joy ought not all Christians,\nboth rich and poor, to be filled when they hear: The kingdom of God is\nwithin you! With what ardor ought they not to devote themselves to make\nGod reign perfectly in their hearts! How justly did St. Casimir prefer\nthis pursuit to earthly kingdoms!\n\nST. LUCIUS, POPE AND MARTYR.\n\nFrom Eus. l. 7. c. 2 and St. Cyprian's letters. See Tillem. t. 4. p.\n118. Pagi, Ceillier, t. 3, p. 118, and Pearson, Annal. Cyprian. pp. 31,\n33.\n\nA.D. 253.\n\nST. Lucius was a Roman by birth, and one of the clergy of that church\nunder SS. Fabian and Cornelius. This latter being crowned with\nmartyrdom, in 252, St. Lucius succeeded him in the pontificate. The\nemperor Gallus having renewed the persecution of his predecessor Decius,\nat least in Rome, this holy pope was no sooner placed in the chair of\nSt. Peter, but he was banished with several others, though to what place\nis uncertain. \"Thus,\" says St. Dionysius of Alexandria, \"did Gallus\ndeprive himself of the succor of heaven, by expelling those who every\nday prayed to God for his peace and prosperity.\" St. Cyprian wrote to\nSt. Lucius to congratulate him both on his promotion, and for the grace\nof suffering banishment for Christ. Our saint had been but a short time\nin exile, when he was recalled, with his companions, to the incredible\njoy of his people, who went out of Rome in crowds to meet him. St.\nCyprlan wrote him a second letter of congratulation on this occasion.[1]\nHe says, \"He had not lost the dignity of martyrdom because he had the\nwill, as the three children in the furnace, though preserved by God from\ndeath: this glory added a new dignity to his priesthood, that a bishop\nassisted at God's altar, who exhorted his flock to martyrdom by his own\nexample as well as by his words. By giving such graces to his pastors,\nGod showed where his true church was: for he denied {509} the like glory\nof suffering to the Novatian heretics. The enemy of Christ only attacks\nthe soldiers of Christ: heretics he knows to be already his own, and\npasses them by. He seeks to throw down those who stand against him.\" He\nadds, in his own name and that of his colleagues: \"We do not cease in\nour sacrifices and prayers (in sacrificiis et orationibus nostris) to\nGod the Father, and to Christ his Son, our Lord, giving thanks and\npraying together, that he who perfects all may consummate in you the\nglorioius crown of your confession, who perhaps has only recalled you\nthat your glory might not be hidden; for the victim, which owes his\nbrethren an example of virtue and faith, ought to be sacrificed in their\npresence.\"[2]\n\nSt. Cyprian, in his letter to pope Stephen, avails himself of the\nauthority of St. Lucius against the Novatian heretics, as having decreed\nagainst them, that those who were fallen were not to be denied\nreconciliation and communion, but to be absolved when they had done\npenance for their sin. Eusebius says, he did not sit in the pontifical\nchair above eight months; and he seems, from the chronology of St.\nCyprian's letters, to have sat only five or six, and to have died on the\n4th of March, in 253, under Gallus, though we know not in what manner.\nThe most ancient calendars mention him on the 5th of March, others, with\nthe Roman, on the 4th, which seems to have been the day of his death, as\nthe 5th that of his burial. His body was found in the Catacombs, and\nlaid in the church of St. Cecily in Rome, where it is now exposed to\npublic veneration by the order of Clement VIII.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  Ep. 58 Pamelio.--61. Fello, p. 272.\n2.  Ep. 67 Pamelio.--68. Fello, in Ed. Oxo.\n\nST. ADRIAN, BISHOP OF ST. ANDREWS M.,\n\nIN SCOTLAND.\n\nWHEN the Danes, in the ninth century, made frequent descents upon the\ncoast of Scotland, plundered several provinces, and massacred great part\nof the inhabitants, this holy pastor often softened their fury, and\nconverted several among them to Christ. In a most cruel invasion of\nthese pirates, he withdrew into the isle of May, in the bay of the river\nForth; but the barbarians plundering also that island, discovered him\nthere, and slew him with another bishop named Stalbrand, and a great\nnumber of others: the Aberdeen Breviary says six thousand six hundred.\nThis massacre happened in the reign of Constantine II., in the year 874.\nA great monastery was built of polished stone in honor of St. Adrian, in\nthe isle of May, the church of which, enriched with his relics, was a\nplace of great devotion. See bishop Lesley, Hist. l. 5. Breviar.\nAberdon. and Chronica Skonensia.\n\n{510}\n\nSS. ADRIAN. AND EUBULUS, OF PALESTINE.\n\nMARTYRS.\n\nFrom Eusebius's History of the Martyrs of Palestine, c. 11, p. 341.\n\nA.D. 309.\n\nIN the seventh year of Dioclesian's persecution, continued by Galerius\nMaximianus, when Firmilian, the most bloody governor of Palestine, had\nstained Caesarea with the blood of many illustrious martyrs, Adrian and\nEubulus came out of the country called Magantia to Caesarea, in order to\nvisit the holy confessors there. At the gates of the city they were\nasked, as others were, whither they were going, and upon what errand.\nThey ingenuously confessed the truth, and were brought before the\npresident, who ordered them to be tortured, and their sides to be torn\nwith iron hooks, and then condemned them to be exposed to wild beasts.\nTwo days after, when the pagans at Caesarea celebrated the festival of\nthe public Genius, Adrian was exposed to a lion, and not being\ndispatched by that beast, but only mangled, was at length killed by the\nsword. Eubulus was treated in the same manner, two days later. The judge\noffered him his liberty if he would sacrifice to idols; but the saint\npreferred a glorious death, and was the last that suffered in this\npersecution at Caesarea, which had now continued twelve years under three\nsuccessive governors, Flavian, Urban, and Firmilian. Divine vengeance\npursuing the cruel Firmilian, he was that same year beheaded for his\ncrimes, by the emperor's order, as his predecessor Urban had been two\nyears before.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nIt is in vain that we take the name of Christians, or pretend to follow\nChrist, unless we carry our crosses after him. It is in vain that we\nhope to share in his glory, and in his kingdom, if we accept not the\ncondition.[1] We cannot arrive at heaven by any other road but that\nwhich Christ held, who bequeathed his cross to all his elect as their\nportion and inheritance in this world. None can be exempted from this\nrule, without renouncing his title to heaven. Let us sound our own\nhearts, and see if our sentiments are conformable to these principles of\nthe holy religion which we profess. Are our lives a constant exercise of\npatience under all trials, and a continual renunciation of our senses\nand corrupt inclinations, by the practice of self-denial and penance?\nAre we not impatient under pain or sickness, fretful under\ndisappointments, disturbed and uneasy at the least accidents which are\ndisagreeable to our nature, harsh and peevish in reproving the faults of\nothers, and slothful and unmortified in endeavoring to correct our own?\nWhat a monstrous contradiction is it to call ourselves followers of\nChrist, yet to live irreconcilable enemies to his cross! We can never\nseparate Christ from his cross, on which he sacrificed himself for us,\nthat he might unite us on it eternally to himself. Let us courageously\nembrace it, and he will be our comfort and support, as he was of his\nmartyrs.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  Matt. xvi. 24. Luke xxiv. 26.\n\n{511}\n\nST. KIARAN, OR KENERIN, B.C.\n\nCALLED BY THE BRITONS, PIRAN.\n\nAMONG the Irish saints who were somewhat older than St. Patrick, the\nfirst and most celebrated is St. Kiaran, whom the Irish style the\nfirst-born of their saints. According to some he was a native of the\ncountry of Ossory, according to others, of Cork. Usher places his birth\nabout the year 352. Having received some imperfect information about the\nChristian faith, at thirty years of age he took a journey to Rome, that\nhe might be instructed in its heavenly doctrine, and learn faithfully to\npractise its precepts. He was accompanied home by four holy clerks, who\nwere all afterwards bishops; their names are, Lugacius, Columban, Lugad,\nand Cassan. The Irish writers suppose him to have been ordained bishop\nat Rome; but what John of Tinmouth affirms, seems far more probable,\nthat he was one of the twelve whom St. Patrick consecrated bishops in\nIreland to assist him in planting the gospel in that island. For his\nresidence, he built himself a cell in a place encompassed with woods,\nnear the water of Fuaran, which soon grew into a numerous monastery. A\ntown was afterwards built there called Saigar, now from the saint\nSier-keran. Here he converted to the faith his family, and whole clan,\nwhich was that of the Osraigs, with many others. Having given the\nreligious veil to his mother, whose name was Liadan, he appointed her a\ncell or monastery near his own, called by the Irish Ceall Lidain. In his\nold age, being desirous to prepare himself for his passage to eternity\nin close retirement., he passed into Cornwall, where he led an\neremitical life, near the Severn sea, fifteen miles from Padstow.\nCertain disciples joined him, and by his words and example formed\nthemselves to a true spirit of Christian piety and humility. In this\nplace he closed his mortal pilgrimage by a happy death: a town upon the\nspot is to this day called from him St. Piran's in the Sands, and a\nchurch is there dedicated to God in his memory, where was formerly a\nsanctuary near St. Mogun's church, upon St. Mogun's creek.[1] See John\nof Tinmouth, Usher, &c., collected by Henschenius: also Leland's\nCollections, published by Hearne, t. 3, pp. 10 and 174.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  A great number of other Irish saints retired to Cornwall, where many\n    towns and churches still retain their names. Thus St. Burian's is so\n    called from an Irish virgin called Buriana, to whose church and\n    college here king Athelstan, in 936, granted the privilege of\n    sanctuary. See Leland. Collect t. 3, pp. 7, 8.\n\nST. IA,\n\nWAS daughter to an Irish nobleman, and a disciple of St. Barricus; Iae\nand Erwine, and many others, came out of Ireland into Cornwall, and\nlanded at Pendinas, a stony rock and peninsula. At her request Dinan, a\nlord of the country, built there a church, since called St. Ies,\neighteen miles from St. Piran's in the Sands, on the Severn. St\nCarantoke's is two miles above St. Piran's. Ies stands two miles from\nLannant; St. Erth is a parish church two miles above Lannant. St. Cua and\nSt. Tedy's parishes are situated in the same part. St. Lide's island,\nwhere her tomb was formerly visited by the whole country, still retains\nher name. See the life of St. Ia quoted by Leland, Coll. t. 3, p. 11.\n\nST. BREACA, V.\n\nSHE was born in Ireland on the borders of Leinster and Ulster, and\nconsecrated herself to God in a religious state under the direction of\nSt. Bridget, who built for her a separate oratory, and afterwards a\nmonastery, in a place since called the field of Breaca. She afterwards\npassed into Cornwall in company with abbot Sinnin, a disciple of St.\nPatrick, Maruan, a monk, Germoch, or Gemoch, king Elwen, Crewenna, and\nHelen. St. Breaca landed at Revyer, otherwise called Theodore's castle,\nsituated on the eastern bank of the river Hayle, long since, as it\nseems, swallowed up by the sands on the coast of the northern sea of\nCornwall. Tewder, a Welshman, slew part of this holy company. St. Breaca\nproceeded to Pencair, a hill in Penibro parish, now commonly called St.\nBanka. She afterwards built two churches, one at Trene, with the other\nat Talmeneth, two mansion places in the parish of Pembro, as is related\nin the life of St. Elwin. See Leland's Itinerary, published by Hearne,\np. 5.\n\nST. GERMOKE'S church is three miles from St. Michael's Mount, by\neast-south-east, a mile from the sea. His tomb is yet seen there, and\nhis chair is shown in the churchyard, and his well a little without the\nChurchyard. Leland, ib. p. 6.\n\nST. MAWNOUN'S church stands at the point of the haven towards Falmouth,\nib. p. 13.\n\n{512}\n\nSAINT ROGER, C.\n\nA DISCIPLE Of St. Francis of Assisio, who received him into his Order in\n1216, and sent him into Spain, though Wading calls him a layman. The\nspirit of poverty which he professed, he inherited of his holy father in\nthe most perfect degree, and St. Francis commended his charity above all\nhis other disciples. The gifts of prophecy and miracles rendered him\nillustrious both living and after his death, which happened in 1236. His\nhead is kept at Villa Franca, in the diocese of Asturia, and his body at\nTodi in Italy, where he is honored with a particular office ratified by\nGregory IX. See Wading's Annals, published by Fonseca, at Rome, in 1732,\nt. 2, pp. 413, 414, also Henschenius, p. 418. Pope Benedict XIV. granted\nto the Franciscans for {his} festival the 5th of March.\n\nST. JOHN JOSEPH OF THE CROSS.\n\n(SUPPLEMENT _to Butler's Lives of the Saints_--SADLIERS' EDITION.)\n\nSt. John Joseph of the Cross was canonized on Trinity Sunday, May\n26th, 1839. His biography was written by the reverend postulator who\nconducted the process of his canonization, from authentic documents in\nhis possession, and published at Rome in 1838, in a work\nentitled--_Compendio della Vita di Giangiuseppe della Croce_. The\nfollowing account of the life of this eminent saint is compiled from\nthe English translation of the above work, and thought worthy of being\nincorporated in this edition of the \"Lives of the Saints.\"\n\nA.D. 1654-1734.\n\nHE was born on the Feast of the Assumption, in the year of our Lord\n1654, at the town of Ischia, in the island of that name, belonging to\nthe kingdom of Naples, of respectable parents, Joseph Calosirto and\nLaura Garguilo, and was upon the same day christened Charles Cajetan. He\nearly discovered the seeds of those virtues that in a special manner\nenriched his soul, and sanctified his life in the religious\nstate,--humility, sweetness, obedience, and an incomparable modesty; and\nat the same time manifested a marvellous inclination to silence,\nretirement, and prayer. Wherefore, even in childhood, he made choice of\na room in the most secluded quarter of the house, and therein fitting up\na little altar to Our blessed Lady, (on whose great festival he had the\nhappiness to be born, and towards whom, through life, he cherished a\ntender and filial devotion,) he spent his whole time in study and pious\nexercises. Here, too, he early manifested his attachment to the cross,\nsleeping upon a narrow hard bed, and fasting on appointed days during\nthe week; and as he mortified the flesh betimes, so also he checked all\npride, by wearing constantly mean clothes, notwithstanding his birth and\nstation, in despite of remonstrances and reproach. His horror of sin was\nequal to his love of virtue, so that his mind, from the first dawn of\nreason, shrunk like a delicate plant from the very shadow of guilt, and\nwas all-imbued with zeal for God's glory. Idleness, levity, vanity, and\nfalsehood, even in trivial matters, were censured by him as faults\nseverely reprehensible. And when his efforts to check sin drew upon him\nthe hostility of others, he was so far from losing patience, that he\ntherein only discovered a fresh opportunity of practising virtue.\nTowards the poor he overflowed with tenderness, reserving for them the\nchoicest portion of his meals, and devoting to their use the\npocket-money he received.\n\nThe sanctity of his boyhood merited for him the grace of a divine call\nto a state of holiness; and feeling an interior movement to quit the\nworld, he {513} sedulously sought counsel from the Father of lights, as\nto the manner in which he should obey this inspiration. For this end he\nredoubled his ordinary devotions and mortifications; performed a novena\nto the Holy Ghost, and threw himself upon the tender patronage and\npowerful intercession of Our Lady. God hearkened to his fervent appeal;\nfor his providence so disposed that at this period the renowned servant\nof God, Father John da San Bernardo, a Spanish Alcantarine, came into\nthe country of our saint, with the view of establishing his order in the\nkingdom of Naples. The mean habit and devout demeanor of this holy man\nand his companions, touched and won the heart of Joseph; he desired to\nimitate what he beheld, and doubted not but the desire came from God.\nWherefore he journeyed to Naples, that he might impart to the fathers of\nthe order his inclination; and they, having prudently considered his\nvocation, admitted him to the novitiate. He manifested so much ardor,\nthat the superiors deemed it fitting to clothe him with the habit before\nthe usual time had expired. This happy consummation of his wishes took\nplace before he had completed his sixteenth year. He adopted the name of\nJohn Joseph of the Cross, and on the feast of St. John the Baptist, in\nthe year of our Lord 1671, he completed his edifying novitiate, and took\nthe solemn vows of his order; whose holy founder, St. Francis of Asisi,\nand St. Peter of Alcantara, he proposed to himself as models.\n\nIn obedience to the express desire of his superior, our saint submitted\nto receive the dignity of the priesthood, and was appointed to hear\nconfessions; in which task he displayed a profound theological learning,\nwhich he had acquired solely at the foot of the cross. But, carried\nonward by an ardent love of the cross, whose treasures he more and more\ndiscovered as he advanced in the dignity and functions of the sacred\nministry, he resolved to establish in the wood adjoining his convent a\nkind of solitude, where, after the manner of the ancient Fathers of the\nDesert, he might devote himself entirely to grayer and penitential\nausterities, and give to the Church an illustrious and profitable\nexample of the sacerdotal spirit exercised in a perfect degree. There\nwas found in the wood a pleasant fountain, whose waters healed the sick;\nand hard by he erected a little church, and round about it, at\nintervals, five small hermitages, wherein, with his companions, he\nrenewed the austere and exalted life of the old anchorites, and advanced\ngreatly in spirituality. And in order that no care or worldly thought\nmight ruffle the sublime tranquillity of this contemplative life, the\nconvent had charge of daily supplying the holy solitary with food.\n\nBut the superiors, who knew the rich treasure they possessed in our\nsaint, when he had attained the age of twenty-four, chose him for master\nof the novices; in which new office, so far from allowing himself the\nsmallest dispensation, he was foremost in setting the example of a\nscrupulous observance of every rule; assiduous in his attendance in\nchoir, constant in silence, in prayer, and recollection. He was careful\nto instil into the hearts of those under his charge an ardent love of\nOur Lord Jesus, and a desire of imitating him; as also a special\nveneration for, and tender attachment to His blessed mother.\n\nFrom Naples, where he was employed as master of the novices, our saint\nwas transferred to Piedimonte, and invested with the office of guardian.\nThe zeal which this new and more responsible charge called for, was\nsurpassed only by the profound humility its exercise demanded. Ever a\nrigid enforcer of the rule, he was careful to make his enactments\nagreeable to others, by being the first to observe them himself. The\nbeneficial result of such conduct was soon made manifest, for he thereby\nwon the hearts of all the religious, who under him, advanced with rapid\nstrides towards the most heroic {514} perfection. Still his humble and\ngentle spirit sighed to be disburdened of so heavy a charge; and having,\nafter two years, obtained the desired release, turned its charitable\nenergies to the direction of souls, the assistance and alleviation of\nthe dying and distressed, and the conversion of sinners.\n\nWhen he was released from his post of guardian, it was only to reassume\nthat of master of the novices, which be held for four successive years,\nand exercised partly in Naples, and partly in Piedimonte. But now\nsucceeded the accustomed visitation of crosses, to be afterwards\nfollowed by an increase of grace and supernatural favors; an alternation\nwhich checkered the whole course of his life. He was summoned to his\nnative country, Ischia, to order to discharge the painful duty of filial\naffection, and receive the last sighs of his dying mother. Her death\nensued, full of hope, and calm, in the presence of her beloved; and,\nstifling the swelling emotions of sensible grief, this incomparable son\nfollowed her remains to the church, and offered up for her soul the\nsacrifice of propitiation. Who shall adequately conceive his feelings\nduring the celebration of that mass? Was his grief less filial, less\npoignant, because it was reasonable and Christian? and because, instead\nof breaking into wild laments and barren demonstrations, it remained\npent up in the recesses of his strong heart, and left free play and\nexercise to calm judgment and the salutary measures of Christian\ncharity? Christian fortitude requires that we should bear up against the\nstroke of death not despondingly, because inevitable, but firmly and\ncheerfully, because it is the season of better hope, whereby we plant\nthe ensign of salvation upon the grave. This will be no unnatural check\nto those emotions, which it is so great and yet so painful a consolation\nto indulge. They will flow no less freely, and far more profitably, when\nthe calls of religion have first been satisfied. Was St. Bernard a\nviolator of the sentiments of humanity, when he followed with tearless\neyes and calm countenance the body of his brother to the grave,\nassisting at all the offices of religion, and officiating thereat\nhimself? Was that great heart insensible, when its uncontrollable grief\nburst out in the midst of a discourse on other topics, into an\nimpassioned address to his departed brother, and a magnificent tribute\nto the virtues of this partner of his soul and affections? Or does not\nsuch an instance of Christian fortitude and magnanimity favorably\ncontrast with the pusillanimous and almost heathen despondency and\ndesolation which overwhelm many at the sight or news of death, even as\nthe Catholic faith--warm, generous, and confident--cheers beyond that\ncold and gloomy creed, that bids farewell to hope at the brink of the\ngrave?\n\nIn the provincial chapter of 1690, he was appointed to the office of\ndefinitor, in addition to that which he already held. The difficulties\nof these two functions, requiring a union of the virtues of the active\nand contemplative life, our saint marvellously and happily surmounted.\nBut now an event happened which well-nigh extinguished the institute to\nwhich he belonged, in Italy, and which gave occasion to an illustrious\nevidence of his exceeding utility to the order. The Spanish\nAlcantarines, having some differences with the Italian, procured from\nthe apostolic see their dismemberment from the latter, who, being thus\nabandoned, recurred to our saint for succor. Suffering himself to be\novercome by their entreaties, he undertook the advocacy of their cause\nwith the pontiff, and succeeded, in a congregation held in 1702, in\nchanging the sentiments of the cardinals and bishops, previously\ndisposed to their suppression; so that on the day after the feast of St.\nThomas the Apostle, a decree was issued by which the order was\nestablished in Italy under the form of a province. A chapter was\nconvoked, in which the arduous task of government was, by the unanimous\nvoice of {515} all, forced upon the humility of our saint, who,\nsurmounting incredible hardships and obstacles, had at length the\nsatisfaction of seeing the necessary means provided, and the order\nfirmly established. Before the chapter-general of the order met, he was\nnamed definitor by the provincial chapter; but on his remonstrances at\nbeing thus so often compelled to assume offices, in spite of his\nrepugnance, he at length obtained a papal brief, exempting him from all\ncharges, and annulling even his active and passive vote in the chapter.\nDuring the course of the year 1722, another brief made over to the\nAlcantarines the convent of St. Lucy, in Naples, and thither our saint\nretired, never afterwards to be brought out into the public light, which\nhe so much shunned, but left to edify his brethren during the remainder\nof his life, and to build up the fabric of those extraordinary virtues,\nof which we shall now proceed to give a sketch.\n\nFaith, like the keystone of the arch, is that which gives the fabric of\nChristian virtue solidity and stability. Of the attachment of our saint\nto this necessary virtue, it would be superfluous to say any thing, as\nhis whole life was a speaking evidence of that attachment, as well as of\nthe eminent degree in which it pleased God to enable him to appreciate\nits consoling mysteries. But he was content to thank God for having\nadmitted him to the truth, without rashly or profanely lifting the veil\nof the sanctuary, and scrutinizing that which is within. He was\npersuaded that the attempt to fathom the secrets of God, or to measure\nhis designs, would prove as hopeless as it would be impious, and\ntherefore he bowed to the truths of faith with implicit submission. From\nthis attachment of our saint to the virtue of faith, proceeded his zeal\nto instruct the ignorant in the mysteries of religion, as well as the\nforce, fervor, and clearness, with which he expounded the sublime dogmas\nof the Trinity and Incarnation, and even of predestination and grace;\nthe gift he possessed of quieting doubts respecting faith; and finally,\nthat constant exercise of the presence of God which he practised\nuninterruptedly, and constantly recommended, saying: \"Whoever walks\nalways in God's presence, will never commit sin, but will preserve his\ninnocence and become a great saint.\"\n\nHope in God rendered our saint of even temper in the midst of the\nvarious contradictions he experienced in establishing his order in\nItaly. He used to say to his companions, when they were dismayed by the\npersecutions they suffered, \"Let us hope in God, and doubtless we shall\nbe comforted:\" and to the distressed who flocked to him, \"God is a\ntender father, who loves and succors all;\" or, \"Doubt not; trust in God,\nHe will provide.\" Hence his heart enjoyed a peace which no sufferings\ncould molest, and which did not desert him even when he lay under the\nstroke of apoplexy that terminated in his death. For his hope was based\nupon the Catholic principle, that God, who destined him for an eternal\nkingdom, would not refuse the succors necessary to attain it. Still,\nthough his hopes, through the merits of our Lord's blessed passion, knew\nno bounds, yet was he tremblingly sensible of the guilt of sin, and the\nawful character of God's judgments; whence were derived that intense\ngrief with which sin inspired him, and that astonishing humility which\nled him to bewail unceasingly his want of correspondence to divine\ngrace, to proclaim himself everywhere a sinner, and implore the prayers\nof others.\n\nTo complete the crown of theological virtues, charity in both its\nbranches pre-eminently characterized our saint. This divine virtue\nburned so warmly in his heart, as to be transfused through his features,\nover which it spread a superhuman and celestial glow, and gave to his\ndiscourse a melting tenderness. \"Were there neither heaven nor hell,\" he\nwould say, \"still would I ever wish to love God, who is a father so\ndeserving of our love.\" Or: {516} \"Let us love our Lord, love him verily\nand indeed, for the love of God is a great treasure. Blessed is he that\nloveth God.\"\n\nOur saint, who so ardently loved God, whom he saw not, was not without\nbowels of tenderness for his neighbor, whom he beheld. It was the\nconstant practice of his life to feed the poor; and when he was\nsuperior, he ordered that no beggar should be dismissed from the convent\ngate without relief: in time of scarcity he devoted to their necessities\nhis own portion, and even that of the community, relying upon Providence\nto supply their wants; and when he was only a private monk, he earnestly\nrecommended this charity to the superiors.\n\nBut it was towards the sick that his charity displayed itself. He used\nto attend the infirm in his convent with unwearied assiduity; nor was he\nless anxious to serve those who were without, but generously sought them\nout, and visited them, even during the most inclement seasons. And as\nGod maketh his sun to shine upon the wicked as well as the good, so our\nsaint would not exclude even his enemies from the boundless range of his\ncharity. For one who had insulted him he once labored strenuously to\nprocure some advantageous post; and being warned that the man was his\nenemy, he replied, \"that therefore he was under the greater obligation\nof serving him.\" Besides these general virtues, he possessed in the\nhighest degree those which belonged to his religious state, especially a\nprompt and implicit obedience to all commands, however painful or\ndifficult. That obedience which he practised himself, he was careful to\nenforce upon others, which his office of superior made it his duty, for\nhe justly regarded this virtue as essential to a religious. Nor was his\nlove of poverty less remarkable. A rouge seat and a table, a bed,\nconsisting of two narrow planks, with two sheep-skins and a wretched\nwoollen coverlet, a stool to rest his wounded legs upon, these, with his\nbreviary, formed the whole furniture of his cell. And although the order\nallowed each one to possess two habits, yet during the forty-six years\nthat he was a member of it, he never had any other than that which he\nput on in the novitiate. But it was in his vigilant guard over chastity,\nthat our saint was most remarkable. His unremitting mortifications, his\nextreme modesty, and perpetual watchfulness over all his senses,\npreserved him from the slightest breath of contamination. Never during\nthe sixty years of his life was he known to look any one not of his own\nsex in the face. His every word and action bespoke purity, and inspired\nthe love thereof. Our saint, so solidly grounded in this virtue, was not\nwithout its only sure foundation,--humility. He delighted in performing\nmenial offices in the convent, and when the task allotted to him was\nfinished, he was anxious to fulfil that of others. Hence he also avoided\nall posts and honor, as much as was consistent with his vow of\nobedience. When he journeyed through Italy as provincial, he would not\nmake himself known at the inns, where he lodged, lest any distinction\nshould be paid him. To the same cause may be ascribed his unwillingness\nto revisit his native country, his aversion to being in company with the\ngreat, when their spiritual affairs did not require it, his not\naccepting the invitations of the viceroy and his consort to the palace;\nhis calling himself, as he was wont, the greatest sinner in the whole\nworld, ungrateful to God for his benefits, a worm on the face of the\nearth; his custom of frequently kissing the hands of priests; his\nunwillingness to declare his opinion in council; his care to break off\nevery discourse touching upon his birth or connections; his gratitude to\nGod for enlightening those who disparaged him; his never being\nscandalized at the sins of others, how great soever; and finally, his\nnever evincing the smallest resentment at any insult or injury. He was\nstudious to conceal and dissemble the great gifts of miracles and\nprophecy with which God favored {517} him; ascribing the miracles he\nperformed to the faith of those in whose behalf they were wrought, or to\nthe intercession of the saints. Not unfrequently he desired those whom\nhe restored to health, to take some certain medicine, that the cure\nmight be attributed to a mere natural remedy; and with regard to his\nprophecies, which were numerous, he affected to judge from analogy and\nexperience. To the numerous penitential austerities enjoined by his\norder, he added as many more as an ingenious self-denial could devise.\nSilent as long as possible, when he spoke, it was in a low voice.\nBareheaded in all seasons, he wore under his rough and heavy habit\ndivers hair-shirts and chains, which he was careful to vary to keep the\nsense of torment ever fresh. Besides, he used the discipline to a severe\ndegree; and when, at the age of forty, his superior obliged him to wear\nsandals, he placed between them and his feet a quantity of small nails;\nbut the most tremendous instrument of torture, which he devised against\nhimself, was a cross about a foot in length, set with rows of sharp\nnails, which he fastened tight over his shoulders, so as to open there a\nwound which never afterwards closed. In sooth, these things would appear\nincredible, did we not remember that St. John Joseph of the Cross had\ntaken up the instrument of our Lord Jesus's blessed passion, and was\nmiraculously supported under its weight. If we are not blessed with\nequal strength, still we are all capable of enduring much more than is\ndemanded of us for gaining heaven. Is not the life of a worldling more\nirksome and more painful than that of a mortified religious man? How\nmany heart-burnings, and aching heads, and palled appetites, and\ndisordered faculties, and diseased frames, could bear out this\nassertion,--that the way to heaven would be easy on the score of\nmortification, if men could consent to sacrifice to virtue but one half\nwhat they sacrifice to feed their passions?\n\nIt was usual for our saint to be absorbed and rapt in heavenly ecstasies\nand visions. In this state he was lost to all that passed around him;\nseeing, hearing, and feeling nothing, he stood like a statue of marble,\nand when he was awakened, his countenance glowed like a burning coal. In\na condition so closely resembling that of the blessed, he was, from time\nto time, made a partaker of their glories. Thus, during prayer a halo of\nlight often encircled his head; and, during mass, a supernatural\nbrightness overspread his countenance. In the practice of every virtue,\nand in the enjoyment of sublime graces, our saint passed the days of his\npilgrimage, glorifying God and giving alms and doing good, until it\npleased the Lord to close his career on earth, not without a previous\nforewarning as to the time and circumstances of his death. In the year\nwhen it occurred, his nephew writing to him from Vienna, that he would\nreturn home in May, he sent back answer that he would not then find him\nliving. And only a week before his departure, discoursing with his\nbrother. Francis, he said, \"I have never asked a boon of you till now;\ndo me the charity to pray to Almighty God for me, next Friday, do you\nhear? mind, do not forget.\" It was the very day he died. Two days before\nhis last mortal attack, accosting Vincent of Laines, \"We shall never,\"\nsaid he, \"meet on earth again.\" Now, upon the last day of February,\nafter hearing mass, and receiving communion with extraordinary fervor,\nhe betook himself to his room, to deliver to the crowds that resorted to\nhim his last paternal admonitions. He continued without interruption\ntill mid-day, and at that hour precisely, turning to the lay-brother\nthat assisted him, said, \"Shortly a thunderclap will lay me prostrate on\nthe ground, you will have to raise me thence, but this is the last I\nshall experience.\" Accordingly, at two hours and a half after sunset, an\napoplectic stroke threw him on the ground. At first the nature of his\ndisease was mistaken. It was thought that over-fatigue had brought on\ngiddiness but the next day {518} the symptoms manifested themselves\nalarmingly, and spread in defiance of remedies. Yet though he was thus,\nto all appearances, senseless during the five days that he survived,\ndoubtless his soul was occupied in interior ecstasies and profound\ncontemplation; as indeed his countenance, his lips, and gestures,\nexpressive of the tenderest devotion, indicated. His eyes, generally\nshut, opened frequently to rest upon the mild image of Our Lady, whose\npicture was opposite him. Sometimes, too, he turned them towards his\nconfessor, as if demanding absolution, according to what had been\npreviously concerted between them. A pressure of the eyes and an\ninclination of the head were also perceptible, and he was seen to strike\nhis breast when he received, for the last time, the sacramental\nabsolution from the hands of the superior. At length the morning dawned,\nwhich was to witness the passage of our saint from this vale of tears\nand land of sorrow to a better life. It was Friday, the 5th of March, a\nday yet unoccupied in the calendar, as if purposely left for him. He had\nspent the previous night in unceasing fervent acts of contrition,\nresignation, love, and gratitude, as his frequent beating of his breast,\nlifting his hands towards heaven, and blessing himself, testified.\nBefore the morning was far advanced, turning to the lay-brother that\nattended him, as if awoke out of an ecstasy, he said, \"I have but a few\nmoments to live.\" Hereupon the lay-brother ran in all speed to give\nnotice to the superior, who, with the whole community, at that moment in\nchoir, hastened to the cell of the dying man. The recommendation of a\ndeparting soul was recited with an abundance of tears. The\nfather-guardian perceiving he was in his agony, imparted to him the last\nsacramental absolution; which he, bowing his head to receive, instantly\nraised it again; opened, for the last time, his eyes, now swimming in\njoy, and inebriated with heavenly delight; fixed them, just as they were\nclosing, with a look of ineffable tenderness, upon the image of Out\nblessed Lady, and composing his lips to a sweet smile, without farther\nmovement or demonstration, ceased to breathe.\n\nThus expired, without a struggle, John Joseph of the Cross, the mirror\nof religious life, the father of the poor, the comforter of the\ndistressed, and the unconquerable Christian hero: but when death came to\npluck him from the tree he dropped like a ripe fruit, smiling, into his\nhands: or, even as a gentle stream steals unperceived into the ocean, so\ncalmly that its surface is not fretted with a ripple, his soul glided\ninto eternity. To die upon the field of battle, amidst the shouts of\nvictory, in presence of an admiring throng, surrounded by the badges of\nhonor and respect, bequeathing to history a celebrated name, may merit\nthe ambition of the world; or to perish in some noble cause, buoyed up\nby enthusiasm, conscious worth, and the certainty of having the sympathy\nand applause of all from whom meed is valuable, may make even\nselfishness generous, and cowardice heroic, but to suffer during life\nthe lingering martyrdom of the cross; and then to expire, not suddenly,\nbut like a taper, burnt out; to fall like a flower, not in its prime and\nbeauty but gradually shedding its leaves and perfume, and bearing its\nfibres to the last, till it droops and lies exhaled and prostrate in the\ndust; is a death too pure, too self-devoted, too sublime, for any but\nthe annals of Christian heroism to supply. And assuredly a day will come\nwhen the conqueror's crown shall not be brighter than the Christian's\nhalo, nor the patriot's laurel-branch bear richer foliage than the palms\nof Paradise, which the humblest denizen of heaven shall carry. A day\nwill come that will give to all their proper measure and dimensions; yet\neven before that day shall God glorify those who have died the peaceful\ndeath of the just, by embalming their memory and rendering their tombs\nand relics illustrious, so that, for the one who shall have heard of the\nhero, thousands shall bless and invoke the Saint.\n\n{519}\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nHe alone is a perfect Christian who is crucified to the world, and to\nwhom the world is crucified, and who glorieth in nothing save the cross\nof out Lord Jesus. Nor without embracing the cross at least in heart and\naffection, can any one belong to the religion of Christ. Upon entering\nlife we are marked with the cross; through the various vicissitudes\nthereof our every step is encountered by it--go whithersoever thou wilt\nand thou shalt find it impossible to escape the cross--and it\naccompanies us even unto death and the grave. For a Christian dieth\npressing the cross to his lips; and the cross is engraven upon his tomb\nthat it may bear witness of his faith and hope. But if Our Lord has\nsaid, in general terms, \"Whosoever will be my disciple, let him take up\nhis cross and follow me;\" and if it be true that through many\ntribulations it is necessary to enter into the kingdom of heaven, then\nare all without exception called upon to assume this burden. It is not\nstrange, then, that saints should have delighted to blend their names\nwith the cross wherewith their hearts were so closely entwined; or that\nmen, after their departure to glory, should have designated them by the\ntitle of that whereof they were so deeply enamored.\n\n\nMARCH VI.\n\nST. CHRODEGANG, BISHOP OF METZ, CONFESSOR.\n\nFrom Paul the Deacon, l. 2 de Gest. Longob. c. 16. Henschenius, p. 453.\nMabill. Annal. Ben. l. 22, t. 2, & Act. SS. Ord. Ben. t. 4, p. 184.\nCeillier, t. 18, p. 176. His life, published by George Von Eckart, Hist\nFrancie Orient. t. 1, p. 912. Also Meurisse, Hist. des Eveques de Metz,\nl. 2.\n\nA.D. 766.\n\nTHIS saint, nobly born in Brabant, then called Hasbain, was educated in\nthe abbey of St. Tron, and for his great learning and virtue was made\nreferendary, chancellor of France, and prime minister, by Charles\nMartel, mayor of the French palace, in 737. He was always meanly clad\nfrom his youth; he macerated his body by fasting, watching, and\nhair-cloths, and allowed his senses no superfluous gratifications of any\nkind. His charity to all in distress seemed to know no bounds; he\nsupported an incredible number of poor, and was the protector and father\nof orphans and widows. Soon after the death of Charles Martel, he was\nchosen bishop of Metz, in 742. Prince Pepin, the son and successor of\nCharles, uncle to our saint by his mother, Landrada, would not consent\nto his being ordained, but on the condition that he should still\ncontinue at the helm of the state. Chrodegang always retained the same\nsweetness, humility, recollection, and simplicity in his behavior and\ndress. He constantly wore a rough hair-shirt under his clothes, spent\ngood part of the night in watching, and usually at his devotions watered\nhis cheeks with tears. Pope Stephen III. being oppressed by the\nLombards, took refuge in France. Chrodegang went to conduct him over the\nAlps, and king Pepin was no sooner informed that he had passed these\nmountains in his way to France, but he sent Charles, his eldest son, to\naccompany him to Pont-yon, in Champagne, where the king was to receive\nhim. The pope being three miles distant from that city, the king came to\nmeet him, and having joined him, alighted from his horse, and prostrated\nhimself, as did the queen, his children, and the lords of his court; and\nthe king walked some time by the side of his horse to do him honor. The\npope {520} retired to the monastery of St. Deny's; and king Pepin, in\nthe year 754, sent St. Chrodegang on an embassy to Astulph, king of the\nLombards, praying him out of respect to the holy apostles not to commit\nany hostilities against Rome, nor to oblige the Romans to superstitions\ncontrary to their laws, and to restore the towns which he had taken from\nthe holy see; but this embassy was without effect. The saint, in 755,\nconverted the chapter of secular canons of his cathedral into a regular\ncommunity, in which he was imitated by many other churches. He composed\nfor his regular canons a rule, consisting of thirty-four articles. In\nthe first he lays down humility for the foundation of all the rest.[1]\nHe obliged the canons to confess at least twice a year to the bishop,\nbefore the beginning of Advent and Lent.[2] But these churches, even\nthat of Metz, have again secularized themselves. The saint built and\nendowed the monasteries of St. Peter, that of Gorze, and a third in the\ndiocese of Worms, called Lorsh or Laurisham. He died on the 6th of\nMarch. in 766, and was buried at Gorze, to which by his will, which is\nstill extant, he demised several estates. He is named in the French,\nGerman, and Belgic Martyrologies.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe zeal of St. Chrodegang in restoring the primitive and apostolic\nspirit in the clergy, particularly their fervor and devotion in the\nministry of the altar, is the best proof of his ardor to advance the\ndivine honor. To pay to Almighty God the public homage of praise and\nlove, in the name of the whole church, is a function truly angelical.\nThose, who by the divine appointment are honored with this sublime\ncharge, resemble those glorious heavenly spirits who always assist\nbefore the throne of God. What ought to be the sanctity of their lives!\nhow pure their affections, how perfectly disengaged from all inordinate\nattachments to creatures, particularly how free from the least filth of\navarice, and every other vice! All Christians have a part in this\nheavenly function.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  Ch. 14.\n2.  See the other regulations abridged in Fleury, &c., the entire rule\n    published genuine in {Le Cointe Amaise} t. 5, and in the later\n    editions of the councils{}.\n\nB. COLETTE, VIRGIN AND ABBESS.\n\nFrom her life, written by her confessor, Peter de Vaux. See Helyot,\nHist. des Ord. Relig. t. 7, p. 96. Miraeus and Barbaza, Vies des Saints\ndu Tiers Ordre de St. Francois, t. 2, p. 51.\n\nA.D. 1447.\n\nCOLETTE BOILET, a carpenter's daughter, was born at Corbie, in Picardy,\nin 1380. Her parents, out of devotion to St. Nicholas, gave her the name\nof Colette, the diminutive of Nicholas. She was brought up in the love\nof humiliations and austerities. Her desire to preserve her purity\nwithout the least blemish made her avoid as much as possible all\ncompany, even of persons of her own sex, unless it was sometimes to draw\nthem from the love of the world by her moving discourses, which were\nattended with a singular blessing from almighty God. Humility was her\ndarling virtue; and her greatest delight seemed to be in seeing herself\ncontemned. She was so full of confusion at her own miseries and\nbaseness, and was so contemptible in her own eyes, that she was ashamed\nto appear before any one, placed herself far below the greatest sinners,\nand studied by all sorts of humiliations to prevent the least motion of\nsecret pride or self-conceit in her heart. She served the poor and the\nsick with an affection that charmed and comforted them. She lived in\nstrict solitude in a small, poor, abandoned apartment in {521} her\nfather's house, and spent her time there in manual labor and prayer.\nBeing very beautiful, she begged of God to change her complexion, and\nher face became so pale and thin, that she could scarce be known for the\nsame person. Yet a certain majesty of virtue, shining in her\ncountenance, gave her charms conducive to the edification of others by\nthe sweetness, modesty, and air of piety and divine love discernible in\nher looks. Her parents, who, though poor, were virtuous, and exceeding\ncharitable, according to their abilities, and great peacemakers among\ntheir neighbors, seeing her directed by the Spirit of God, allowed her\nfull liberty in her devotions. After their death she distributed the\nlittle they left her among the poor, and retired among the Beguines,\ndevout societies of women, established in several parts of Flanders,\nPicardy, and Lorrain, who maintain themselves by the work of their\nhands, leading a middle kind of life between the secular and religious,\nbut make no solemn vows. Not finding this way of life austere enough,\nshe, by her confessor's advice, took the habit of the third order of St.\nFrancis, called the Penitents; and, three years after, that of the\nmitigated Clares or Urbanists, with the view of reforming that order,\nand reducing it to its primitive austerity. Having obtained of the abbot\nof Corbie a small hermitage, she spent in it three years in\nextraordinary austerity, near that abbey. After this, in order to\nexecute the project she had long formed of re-establishing the primitive\nspirit and practice of her order, she went to the convent at Amiens, and\nfrom thence to several others. To succeed in her undertaking, it was\nnecessary that she should be vested with proper authority: to procure\nwhich she made a journey to Nice in Provence, to wait on Peter de Luna,\nwho, in the great schism, was acknowledged pope by the French under the\nname of Benedict XIII., and happened then to be in that city. He\nconstituted her superioress-general of the whole order of St. Clare,\nwith full power to establish in it whatever regulations she thought\nconducive to God's honor and the salvation of others. She attempted to\nrevive the primitive rule and spirit of St. Francis in the convents of\nthe diocese of Paris, Beauvais, Noyon, and Amiens; but met with the most\nviolent opposition, and was treated as a fanatic. She received all\ninjuries with joy, and was not discouraged by human difficulties. Some\ntime after she met with a more favorable reception in Savoy, and her\nreformation began to take root there, and passed thence into Burgundy,\nFrance, Flanders, and Spain. Many ancient houses received it, that of\nBesanzon being the first, and she lived to erect seventeen new ones.\nSeveral houses of Franciscan friars received the same. But Leo X., in\n1517, by a special bull, united all the different reformations of the\nFranciscans under the name of Observantines: and thus the distinction of\nColettines is extinct. So great was her love for poverty, in imitation\nof that of Christ, that she never put on so much as sandals, going\nalways barefoot, and would have no churches or convents but what were\nsmall and mean. Her habit was not only of most coarse stuff, but made of\nabove a hundred patches sewed together. She continually inculcated to\nher nuns the denial of their own wills in all things, as Christ, from\nhis first to his last breath, did the will of his heavenly Father:\nsaying, that all self-will was the broad way to hell. The sacred passion\nof Christ was the subject of her constant meditation. On Fridays, from\nsix in the morning till six at night, she continued in this meditation,\nwithout eating or doing any other thing, but referring all her thoughts\nand affections to it with a flood of tears; also during the Holy-Week,\nand whenever she assisted at mass: she often fell into ecstasies when\nshe considered it. She showed a particular respect to the holy cross;\nbut, above all, to Christ present in the blessed eucharist, when she\nappeared in raptures of adoration and love. She often purified her\nconscience by sacramental confession before she heard mass, to {522}\nassist thereat with the greater purity of soul. Her zeal made her daily\nto pour forth many fervent prayers for the conversion of sinners, and\nalso for the souls in purgatory, often with many tears. Being seized\nwith her last sickness in her convent at Ghent, she received the\nsacraments of the church, foretold her death, and happily expired in her\nsixty-seventh year, on the 6th of March, in 1447. Her body is exposed to\nveneration in the church of that convent called Bethleem, in Ghent. She\nwas never canonized, nor is she named in the Roman Martyrology: but\nClement VIII., Paul V., Gregory XIII., and Urban VIII., have approved of\nan office in her honor for the whole Franciscan order, and certain\ncities. Her body was taken up at Ghent, in 1747, and several miracles\nwrought on the occasion were examined by the ordinary of the place, who\nsent the process and relation of them to Rome.\n\nST. FRIDOLIN, A.\n\nHE was an Irish or Scotch abbot, who, leaving his own country, founded\nseveral monasteries in Austria, Burgundy, and Switzerland: the last was\nthat of Sekingen, in an isle in the Rhine, now one of the four forest\ntowns belonging to the house of Austria. In this monastery he died, in\n538. He is the tutelar patron of the Swiss canton of Glaris, who carry\nin their coat of arms his picture in the Benedictin habit, though he was\nnot of that order. See Molanus, Addit. ad Usuard; Pantaleon,\nProsopographiae Vir. Illustr. German. ad an. 502; King in Calend Wion,\nLignum Vitae, l. 3.\n\nST. BALDREDE, BISHOP OF GLASGOW, C.\n\nHE was immediate successor of St. Mungo, in that see, established many\nnunneries in Scotland, and died in the province of Laudon, about the\nyear 608. His relics were very famous in many churches in Scotland. See\nAdam King, in Calend., and the historians Boetius, Major, Leslie, &c.\n\nSS. KYNEBURGE, KYNESWIDE, AND TIBBA.\n\nTHE two first were daughters of Penda, the cruel pagan king of Mercia,\nand sisters to three successive Christian kings, Peada, Wulfere, and\nEthelred, and to the pious prince Merowald. Kyneburge, as Bede informs\nus,[1] was married to Alefrid, eldest sort of Oswi, and in his father's\nlife-time king of Bernicia. They are said to have lived in perpetual\ncontinency. By his death she was left a widow in the bloom of life, and,\nrenouncing the world, governed a nunnery which she built; or, according\nto others, found built by her brother Wulfere, in a moist fenny place,\non the confines of the counties of Huntingdon and Northampton, then\ncalled Dormundcaster, afterwards, from her, Kyneburgecaster, now Caster.\nThe author of her life in Capgrave says, that she lived here a mirror of\nall sanctity, and that no words can express the bowels of charity with\nwhich she cherished the souls which served God under her care; and how\nwatchful she was over their comportment, and how zealous in instructing\nand exhorting them; and with what floods of tears she implored for them\nthe divine grace and mercy. She had a wonderful compassion for the poor,\nand strongly exhorted her royal brothers {523} to alms-giving and works\nof mercy. Kyneswide and Kynedride (though many confounded the latter\nwith St. Kyneburge) were also daughters of Penda, left very young at his\ndeath. By an early consecration of their virginity to God, they devoted\nthemselves to his service, and both embraced a religious state.\nKyneswide took the holy veil in the monastery of Dormundcaster.\n\nThe bodies of these saints were translated to Peterborough, where their\nfestival was kept on the 6th of March, together with that of Saint\nTibba, a holy virgin, their kinswoman, who, having spent many years in\nsolitude and devotion, passed to glory on the 13th of December. Camden\ninforms us, that she was honored with particular devotion at Rihal, a\ntown near the river Wash, in Rutlandshire. See Ingulphus, Hist. p. 850;\nWill. of Malmesbury l. 4, de Pontif. p. 29; Capgrave and Harpsfield,\nsaec. 7, c. 23.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  Bede Hist. l. 3, c. 21.\n2.  Camdem in Rutlandshire.\n\nST. CADROE, C.\n\nHE was a noble Scotsman, son of count (or rather laird) Fokerstrach, and\ntravelling into France, he took the monastic habit at Saint Bennet's on\nthe Loire. He afterwards reformed the monastery of St. Clement, at Metz,\nin 960, and died in a visit which he made to Adelaide, mother of the\nemperor Otho I., at Neristein, about the year 975. His relics are kept\nat St. Clement's, at Metz, and he is honored on the 6th of March. See\nMabillon, sec. 5, Ben. p. 480, and sec. 6, p. 28; Henschenius; and\nCalmet, Hist. de Lor. l. 19, n. 67, p. 1011.\n\n\nMARCH VII.\n\nST. THOMAS OF AQUINO,\n\nDOCTOR OF THE CHURCH AND CONFESSOR.\n\nFrom his life written by Bartholomew of Lucca, some time the saint's\nconfessor: also another life compiled for his canonization by William of\nTocco, prior of Benevento, who had been personally acquainted with the\nsaint, &c. See F. Touron, in his life of St. Thomas, in quarto, Paris,\n1737.\n\nA.D. 1274.\n\nTHE counts of Aquino, who have flourished in the kingdom of Naples these\nlast ten centuries, derive their pedigree from a certain Lombard prince.\nThey were allied to the kings of Sicily and Aragon, to St. Lewis of\nFrance, and many other sovereign houses of Europe. Our saint's\ngrandfather having married the sister of the emperor Frederick I., he\nwas himself grand nephew to that prince, and second cousin to the\nemperor Henry VI., and in the third degree to Frederick II.[1] His\nfather, Landulph, was count of Aquino, and lord of Loretto and\nBelcastro: his mother Theodora was daughter to the count of Theate. The\nsaint was born towards the end of the year 1226. St. Austin observes,[2]\nthat the most tender age is subject to various passions, {524} as of\nimpatience, choler, jealousy, spite, and the like, which appear to\nchildren: no such thing was seen in Thomas. The serenity of his\ncountenance, the constant evenness of his temper, his modesty and\nsweetness, were sensible marks that God prevented him with his early\ngraces. The count of Aquino conducted him to the abbey of Mount Cassino,\nwhen he was but five years old, to be instructed by those good monks in\nthe first principles of religion and learning; and his tutors soon saw\nwith joy the rapidity of his progress, his great talents, and his happy\ndispositions to virtue. He was but ten years of age when the abbot told\nhis father that it was time to send him to some university. The count,\nbefore he sent him to Naples, took him for some months to see his mother\nat his seat at Loretto, the place which, about the end of that century,\ngrew famous for devotion to our Lady. Thomas was the admiration of the\nwhole family. Amidst so much company, and so many servants, he appeared\nalways as much recollected, and occupied on God, as he had been in the\nmonastery; he spoke little, and always to the purpose: and he employed\nall his time in prayer, or serious and profitable exercises. His great\ndelight seemed to be to intercede for, and to distribute, his parents'\nplentiful alms among the poor at the gate, whom he studied by a hundred\ningenious contrivances to relieve. He robbed himself of his own victuals\nfor that purpose; which his father having discovered, he gave him leave\nto distribute things at discretion, which liberty he made good use of\nfor the little time he stayed. The countess, apprehensive of the dangers\nher son's innocence might be exposed to in an academy, desired that he\nshould perform his studies with a private preceptor under her own eyes;\nbut the father, knowing the great advantages of emulation and mutual\ncommunication in studies, was determined to send him to Naples, where\nthe emperor Frederick II., being exasperated against Bologna, had\nlately, in 1224, erected a university, forbidding students to resort to\nany other in Italy. This immediately drew thither great numbers of\nstudents, and with them disorder and licentiousness, like that described\nby St. Austin in the great schools of Carthage.[3] Thomas soon perceived\nthe dangers, and regretted the sanctuary of Mount Cassino: but by his\nextraordinary watchfulness, he lived here like the young Daniel in the\nmidst of Babylon; or Toby in the infidel Ninive. He guarded his eyes\nwith an extreme caution, shunned entirely all conversation with any\nwoman whatever, and with any young men whose steady virtue did not\nrender him perfectly secure as to their behavior. While others went to\nprofane diversions, he retired into some church or into his closet,\nmaking prayer and study his only pleasure. He learned rhetoric under\nPeter Martin and philosophy under Peter of Hibernia, one of the most\nlearned men of his age, and with such wonderful progress, that he\nrepeated the lessons more clearly than the master had explained them yet\nhis greater care was to advance daily in the science of the saints, by\nholy prayer, and all good works. His humility concealed them; but his\ncharity and fervor sometimes betrayed his modesty, and discovered them,\nespecially in his great alms, for which ne deprived himself of almost\nall things, and in which he was careful to hide from his left-hand what\nhis right did.\n\nThe Order of St. Dominick, who had been dead twenty-two years, then\nabounded with men full of the spirit of God. The frequent conversations\nThomas had with one of that body, a very interior holy man, filled his\nheart with heavenly devotion and comfort, and inflamed him daily with a\nmore ardent love of God, which so burned in his breast that at his\nprayers his countenance seemed one day, as it were, to dart rays of\nlight, and he conceived {525} a vehement desire to consecrate himself\nwholly to God in that Order. His tutor perceived his inclinations and\ninformed the count of the matter who omitted neither threats nor\npromises to defeat such a design. But the saint, not listening to flesh\nand blood in the call of heaven, demanded with earnestness to be\nadmitted into the Order, and accordingly received the habit in the\nconvent of Naples, in 1243, being then seventeen years old. The countess\nTheodora his mother, being informed of it, set out for Naples to\ndisengage him, if possible, from that state of life. Her son, on the\nfirst news of her journey, begged his superiors to remove him, as they\ndid first to the convent of St. Sabina in Rome, and soon after to Paris,\nout of the reach of his relations. Two of his brothers, Landulph and\nReynold, commanders in the emperor's army in Tuscany, by her direction\nso well guarded all the roads that he fell into their hands, near\nAcqua-pendente{?}. They endeavored to pull off his habit, but he\nresisted them so violently that they conducted him in it to the seat of\nhis parents, called Rocca-Secca. The mother, overjoyed at their success,\nmade no doubt of overcoming her son's resolution. She endeavored to\npersuade him that to embrace such an Order, against his parents' advice,\ncould not be the call of heaven; adding all manner of reasons, fond\ncaresses, entreaties, and tears. Nature made her eloquent and pathetic.\nHe appeared sensible of her affliction, but his constancy was not to be\nshaken. His answers were modest and respectful, but firm, in showing his\nresolution to be the call of God, and ought consequently to take place\nof all other views whatsoever, even for his service any other way. At\nlast, offended at his unexpected resistance, she expressed her\ndispleasure in very choleric words, and ordered him to be more closely\nconfined and guarded, and that no one should see him but his two\nsisters. The reiterated solicitations of the young ladies were a long\nand violent assault. They omitted nothing that flesh and blood could\ninspire on such an occasion, and represented to him the danger of\ncausing the death of his mother by grief. He on the contrary spoke to\nthem in so moving a manner, on the contempt of the world, and the love\nof virtue, that they both yielded to the force of his reasons for his\nquitting the world, and, by his persuasion, devoted themselves to a\nsincere practice of piety.\n\nThis solitude furnished him with the most happy opportunity for holy\ncontemplation and assiduous prayer. Some time after, his sisters\nconveyed to him some books, viz., a Bible, Aristotle's logics, and the\nworks of the Master of the Sentences. During this interval his two\nbrothers, Landulph and Reynold, returning home from the army, found\ntheir mother in the greatest affliction, and the young novice triumphant\nin his resolution. They would needs undertake to overcome him, and began\ntheir assault by shutting him up in a tower of the castle. They tore in\npieces his habit on his back, and after bitter reproaches and dreadful\nthreats they left him, hoping his confinement, and the mortifications\nevery one strove to give him, would shake his resolution. This not\nsucceeding, the devil suggested to these two young officers a new\nartifice for diverting him from pursuing his vocation. They secretly\nintroduced one of the most beautiful and most insinuating young\nstrumpets of the country into his chamber, promising her a considerable\nreward in case she could draw him into sin. She employed all the arms of\nSatan to succeed in so detestable a design. The saint, alarmed and\naffrighted at the danger, profoundly humbled himself, and cried out to\nGod most earnestly for his protection; then snatching up a firebrand\nstruck her with it, and drove her out of his chamber. After this\nvictory, not moved with pride, but blushing with confusion for having\nbeen so basely assaulted, he fell on his knees and thanked God for his\nmerciful preservation, consecrated to him anew his chastity, and\nredoubled his prayers, and the earnest cry of his {526} heart with sighs\nand tears, to obtain the grace of being always faithful to his promises.\nThen falling into a slumber, as the most ancient historians of his life\nrelate,[4] he was visited by two angels, who seemed to gird him round\nthe waist with a cord so tight that it awaked him, and made him to cry\nout. His guards ran in, but he kept his secret to himself. It was only a\nlittle before his death that he disclosed this incident to F. Reynold,\nhis confessor, adding that he had received this favor about thirty years\nbefore, from which time he had never been annoyed with temptations of\nthe flesh; yet he constantly used the utmost caution and watchfulness\nagainst that enemy, and he would otherwise have deserved to forfeit that\ngrace. One heroic victory sometimes obtains of God a recompense and\ntriumph of this kind. Our saint having suffered in silence this\nimprisonment and persecution upwards of a twelvemonth, some say two\nyears, at length, on the remonstrances of Pope Innocent IV. and the\nemperor Frederick, on account of so many acts of violence in his regard,\nboth the countess and his brothers began to relent. The Dominicans of\nNaples being informed of this, and that his mother was disposed to\nconnive at measures that might be taken to procure his escape, they\nhastened in disguise to Rocca-Secca, where his sister, knowing that the\ncountess no longer opposed his escape, contrived his being let down out\nof his tower in a basket. He was received by his brethren in their arms,\nand carried with joy to Naples. The year following he there made his\nprofession, looking on that day as the happiest of his whole life in\nwhich he made a sacrifice of his liberty that he might belong to God\nalone. But his mother and brothers renewed their complaints to Pope\nInnocent IV., who sent for Thomas to Rome, and examined him on the\nsubject of his vocation to the state of religion, in their presence; and\nhaving received entire satisfaction on this head, the pope admired his\nvirtue, and approved of his choice of that state of life, which from\nthat time he was suffered to pursue in peace. Albertus Magnus teaching\nthen at Cologne, the general, John the Teutonic, took the saint with him\nfrom Rome to Paris, and thence to Cologne. Thomas gave all his time,\nwhich was not employed in devotion and other duties, to his studies,\nretrenching part of that which was allowed for his meals and sleep, not\nout of a vain passion, or the desire of applause, but for the\nadvancement of God's honor and the interests of religion, according to\nwhat he himself teaches.[5] His humility made him conceal his progress\nand deep penetration, insomuch that his schoolfellows thought he learned\nnothing, and on account of his silence, called him The dumb Ox, and the\nGreat Sicilian Ox. One of them even offered to explain his lessons to\nhim, whom he thankfully listened to without speaking, though he was then\ncapable of teaching him. They who know how much scholars and masters\nusually seek to distinguish themselves, and display their science, will\ngive to so uncommon an humility its due praise. But the brightness of\nhis genius, his quick and deep penetration and learning were at last\ndiscovered, in spite of all his endeavors to conceal them: for his\nmaster Albertus, having propounded to him several questions on the most\nknotty and obscure points, his answers, which the duty of obedience\nextorted, astonished the audience; and Albertus, not able to contain his\njoy and admiration, said, \"We call him the dumb ox, but he will give\nsuch a bellow in learning as will be heard all over the world.\" This\napplause made no impression on the humble saint. He continued the same\nin simplicity, modesty, silence, and recollection, because his heart was\nthe same; equally insensible to praises and humiliations, full of\nnothing but of God and his own insufficiency, never reflecting on his\nown qualifications, or on what was the opinion of others concerning him.\nIn his first year, {527} under Albertus Magnus, he wrote comments on\nAristotle's Ethics. The general chapter of the Dominicans, held at\nCologne in 1245, deputed Albertus to teach at Paris, in their college of\nSt. James, which the university had given them; and it is from that\ncollege they are called in France Jacobins. St. Thomas was sent with him\nto continue his studies there. His school exercises did not interrupt\nhis prayer. By an habitual sense of the divine presence, and devout\naspirations, he kept his heart continually raised to God; and in\ndifficult points redoubled with more earnestness his fervor in his\nprayers than his application to study. This he found attended with such\nsuccess, that he often said that he had learned less by books than\nbefore his crucifix, or at the foot of the altar. His constant attention\nto God always filled his soul with joy, which appeared in his very\ncountenance, and made his conversation altogether heavenly. His humility\nand obedience were most remarkable in all things. One day while he read\nat table, the corrector, by mistake, bid him read a word with a false\nquantity, and he readily obeyed, though he knew the error. When others\ntold him he ought notwithstanding to have given it the right\npronunciation, his answer was, \"It matters not how a word is pronounced,\nbut to practise on all occasions humility and obedience is of the\ngreatest importance.\" He was so perfectly mortified, and dead to his\nsenses, that he ate without reflecting either on the kind or quality of\nhis food, so that after meals he often knew not what he had been eating.\n\nIn the year 1248, being twenty-two years of age, he was appointed by the\ngeneral chapter to teach at Cologne, together with his old master\nAlbertus, whose high reputation he equalled in his very first lessons.\nHe then also began to publish his first works, which consist of comments\non the Ethics, and other philosophical works of Aristotle. No one was\nmore courteous and affable, but it was his principle to shun all\nunnecessary visits. To prepare himself for holy orders he redoubled his\nwatchings, prayer, and other spiritual exercises. His devotion to the\nblessed Sacrament was extraordinary. He spent several hours of the day\nand part of the night before the altar, humbling himself in acts of\nprofound adoration, and melting with love in contemplation of the\nimmense charity of that Man-God, whom he there adored. In saying mass he\nseemed to be in raptures, and often quite dissolved in tears; a glowing\nfrequently appeared in his eyes and countenance which showed the ardor\nwith which his heart burned within him. His devotion was most frequent\nduring the precious moments after he had received the divine mysteries;\nand after saying mass he usually served at another, or at least heard\none. This fire and zeal appeared also in his sermons at Cologne, Paris,\nRome, and in other cities of Italy. He was everywhere heard as an angel;\neven the Jews ran of their own accord to hear him, and many of them were\nconverted. His zeal made him solicitous, in the first place, for the\nsalvation of his relations. His example and exhortations induced them to\nan heroic practice of piety. His eldest sister consecrated herself to\nGod in St. Mary's, at Capua, and died abbess of that monastery: the\nyounger, Theodora, married the count of Marsico, and lived and died in\ngreat virtue; as did his mother. His two brothers, Landulph and Reynold,\nbecame sincere penitents; and having some time after left the emperor's\nservice, he, in revenge, burnt Aquino, their seat, in 1250, and put\nReynold to death; the rest were obliged to save themselves by a\nvoluntary banishment, but were restored in 1268. St. Thomas, after\nteaching four years at Cologne, was sent, in 1252, to Paris. His\nreputation for perspicuity and solidity drew immediately to his school a\ngreat number of auditors.[6] St. Thomas, with great reluctancy,\ncompelled by holy obedience {528} consented to be admitted doctor, on\nthe 23d of October, in 1257, being then thirty-one years old. The\nprofessors of the university of Paris being divided about the question\nof the accidents remaining really, or only in appearance, in the blessed\nsacrament of the altar, they agreed, in 1258, to consult our saint. The\nyoung doctor, not puffed up by such an honor, applied himself first to\nGod by prayer, then he wrote upon that question the treatise still\nextant, and, carrying it to the church, laid it on the altar. The most\nancient author of his life assures us, that while the saint remained in\nprayer on that occasion, some of the brethren who were present, saw him\nraised a little above the ground.[7]\n\nThe holy king, St. Louis, had so great an esteem for St. Thomas, that he\nconsulted him in affairs of state, and ordinarily informed him, the\nevening before, of any affair of importance that was to be treated of in\ncouncil, that he might be the more ready to give advice on the point.\nThe saint avoided the honor of dining with the king as often as be could\nexcuse himself: and, when obliged to assist at court, appeared there as\nrecollected as in his convent. One day at the king's table, the saint\ncried out: \"The argument is conclusive against the Manichees.\"[8] His\nprior, being with him, bade him remember where he was. The saint would\nhave asked the king's pardon, but that good prince, fearing he should\nforget the argument that had occurred to his mind, caused his secretary\nto write it down for him. In the year 1259 St. Thomas assisted at the\nthirty-sixth general chapter of his order, held at Valenciennes, which\ndeputed him, in conjunction with Albertus Magnus and three others, to\ndraw up rules for studies, which are still extant in the acts of that\nchapter. Returning to Paris, he there continued his lectures. Nothing\nwas more remarkable than his meekness on all occasions. His temper was\nnever ruffled in the heat of any dispute, nor by any insult. It was\nowing to this sweetness, more than to his invincible force of reasoning,\nthat he brought a young doctor to retract on the spot a dangerous\nopinion, which he was maintaining a second time in his thesis. In 1261,\nUrban IV. called St. Thomas to Rome, and, by his order, the general\nappointed him to teach here. His holiness pressed him with great\nimportunity to accept of some ecclesiastical dignity,{529} but he knew\nhow much safer it is to refuse than to accept a bishopric. The pope,\nhowever, obliged him always to attend his person. Thus it happened that\nthe saint taught and preached in all the towns where that pope ever\nresided, as in Rome, Viterbo, Orvieto, Fondi, and Perugia. He also\ntaught at Bologna, Naples, &c.[9]\n\nThe fruits of his preaching were no less wonderful than those of his\npen. While he was preaching, on Good Friday, on the love of God for man,\nand our ingratitude to him, his whole auditory melted into tears to such\na degree that he was obliged to stop several times, that they might\nrecover themselves. His discourse on the following Sunday, concerning\nthe glory of Christ, and the happiness of those who rise with him by\ngrace, was no less pathetic and affecting. William of Tocco adds, that\nas the saint was coming out of St. Peter's church the same day, a woman\nwas cured of the bloody flux by touching the hem of his garment. The\nconversion of two considerable Rabbins seemed still a greater miracle.\nSt. Thomas had held a long conference with them at a casual meeting in\ncardinal Richard's villa, and they agreed to resume it the next day. The\nsaint spent the foregoing night in prayer, at the foot of the altar. The\nnext morning these two most obstinate Jews came to him of their own\naccord, not to dispute, but to embrace the faith, and were followed by\nmany others. In the year 1263, the Dominicans held their fortieth\ngeneral chapter in London; St. Thomas assisted at it, and obtained soon\nafter to be dismissed from teaching. He rejoiced to see himself reduced\nto the state of a private religious man. Pope Clement IV. had {530} such\na regard for him, that, in 1265, among other ecclesiastical preferments,\nhe made him an offer of the archbishopric of Naples, but could not\nprevail with him to accept of that or any other. The first part of his\ntheological Summ St. Thomas composed at Bologna: he was called thence to\nNaples. Here it was that, according to Tocco and others, Dominick\nCaserte beheld him, while in fervent prayer, raised from the ground, and\nheard a voice from the crucifix directed to him in these words: \"Thou\nhast written well of me, Thomas: what recompense dost thou desire?\" He\nanswered: \"No other than thyself, O Lord.\"[10]\n\nFrom the 6th of December, in 1273, to the 7th of March following, the\nday of his death, he neither dictated nor wrote any thing on theological\nmatters. He from that time laid aside his studies, to fix his thoughts\nand heart entirely on eternity, and to aspire with the greatest ardor\nand most languishing desires to the enjoyment of God in perfect love.\nPope Gregory X. had called a general council, the second of Lyons, with\nthe view of extinguishing the Greek schism, and raising succors to\ndefend the holy land against the Saracens. The ambassadors of the\nemperor Michael Palaeologus, together with the Greek prelates, were to\nassist at it. The council was to meet on the 1st of May, in 1274. His\nholiness, by brief directed to our saint, ordered him to repair thither,\nand to prepare himself to defend the Catholic cause against the Greek\nschismatics. Though indisposed, he set out from Naples about the end of\nJanuary. His dear friend, F. Reynold of Piperno, was appointed his\ncompanion, and ordered to take care that he did not neglect himself,\nwhich the saint was apt to do. St. Thomas on the road called at the\ncastle of Magenza, the seat of his niece, Francisca of Aquino, married\nto the count of Cecan. Here his distemper increased, which was attended\nwith a loss of appetite. One day he said, to be rid of their\nimportunities, that he thought he could eat a little of a certain fish\nwhich he had formerly eaten in France, but which was not easily to be\nfound in Italy. Search however was made, and the fish procured; but the\nsaint refused to touch it, in imitation of David on the like occasion.\nSoon after his appetite returned a little, and his strength with it; yet\nhe was assured that his last hour was at hand. This however did not\nhinder him from proceeding on his journey, till, his fever increasing,\nhe was forced to stop at Fossa-Nuova, a famous abbey of the Cistercians,\nin the diocese of Terracina, where formerly stood the city called Forum\nAppii. Entering the monastery, he went first to pray before the Blessed\nSacrament, according to his custom. He poured forth his soul with\nextraordinary fervor, in the presence of Him who noto called him to his\nkingdom. Passing thence into the cloister, which he never lived to go\nout of, he repeated these words:[11] _This is my rest for ages without\nend_. He was lodged in the abbot's apartment, where he lay ill for near\na month. The good monks treated him with uncommon veneration and esteem,\nand as if he had been an angel from heaven. They would not employ any of\ntheir servants about him, but chose to serve him themselves in the\nmeanest offices, as in cutting or carrying wood for him to burn, &c. His\npatience, humility, constant recollection, and prayer, were equally\ntheir astonishment and edification.\n\nThe nearer he saw himself to the term of all his desires, the entering\ninto the joy of his Lord, the more tender and inflamed were his longings\nafter death. He had continually in his mouth these words of St.\nAustin,[12] \"Then shall I truly live, when I shall be quite filled with\nyou alone, and your love; {531} now I am a burden to myself, because I\nam not entirely full of you.\" In such pious transports of heavenly love,\nhe never ceased sighing after the glorious day of eternity. The monks\nbegged he would dictate an exposition of the book of Canticles, in\nimitation of St. Bernard. He answered: \"Give me St. Bernard's spirit,\nand I will obey.\" But at last, to renounce perfectly his own will, he\ndictated the exposition of that most mysterious of all the divine books.\nIt begins: Solomon inspiratus: It is not what his erudition might have\nsuggested, but what love inspired him with in his last mordents, when\nhis pure soul was hastening to break the chains of mortality, and drown\nitself in the ocean of God's immensity, and in the delights of\neternity.[13] The holy doctor at last finding himself too weak to\ndictate any more, begged the religious to withdraw, recommending himself\nto their prayers, and desiring their leave to employ the few precious\nmoments he had to live with God alone. He accordingly spent them in\nfervent acts of adoration, praise, thanksgiving, humility, and\nrepentance. He made a general confession of his whole life to F.\nReynold, with abundance of tears for his imperfections and sins of\nfrailty; for in the judgment of those to whom he had manifested his\ninterior, he had never offended God by any mortal sin. And he said to F.\nReynold, before his death, that he thanked God with his whole heart for\nhaving prevented him with his grace, and always conducted him as it were\nby the hand, and preserved him from any known sin that destroys charity\nin the soul; adding, that this was purely God's mercy to which he was\nindebted for his preservation from every sin which he had not\ncommitted.[14] Having received absolution in the sentiments of the most\nperfect penitent, he desired the Viaticum. While the abbot and community\nwere preparing to bring it, he begged to be taken off his bed, and laid\nupon ashes spread upon the floor. Thus lying on the ground, weak in body\nbut vigorous in mind, he waited for the priest with tears of the most\ntender devotion. When he saw the host in the priest's hand, he said: \"I\nfirmly believe that Jesus Christ, true God and true Man, is present in\nthis august sacrament. I adore you, my God and my Redeemer: I receive\nYou, the price of my redemption, the Viaticum of my pilgrimage; for\nwhose honor I have studied, labored, preached, and taught. I hope I\nnever advanced any tenet as your word, which I had not learned from you.\nIf through ignorance I have done otherwise, I revoke every thing of that\nkind, and submit all my writing, to the judgment of the holy Roman\nchurch.\" Then recollecting himself, after other acts of faith,\nadoration, and love, he received the holy Viaticum; but remained on the\nashes till he had finished his thanksgiving. Growing still weaker, amid\nhis transports of love, he desired extreme unction, which he received,\nanswering himself to all the prayers. After this he lay in peace and\njoy, as appeared by the serenity of his countenance; and he was heard to\npronounce these aspirations: \"Soon, soon will the God of all comfort\ncomplete his mercies on me, and fill all my desires. I shall shortly be\nsatiated in him, and drink of the torrent of his delights: be inebriated\nfrom the abundance of his house, and in him who is the source of life, I\nshall behold the true light.\" Seeing all in tears about him, he\ncomforted them, saying: Death was his gain and his joy. F. Reynold said\nhe had hoped to see him triumph over the adversaries of the church in\nthe council of Lyons, and placed in a rank in which he might do it some\nsignal service. The saint answered: \"I have begged of God, as the\ngreatest favor, to die a simple religious man, and I now thank him for\nit. It is a {532} greater benefit than he has granted to many of his\nholy servants, that he is pleased to call me out of this world so early,\nto enter into his joy; wherefore grieve not for me, who am overwhelmed\nwith joy.\" He returned thanks to the abbot and monks of Fossa-Nuova for\ntheir charity to him. One of the community asked him by what means we\nmight live always faithful to God's grace. He answered: \"Be assured that\nhe who shall always walk faithfully in his presence, always ready to\ngive him an account of all his actions, shall never be separated from\nhim by consenting to sin.\" These were his last words to men, after which\nhe only spoke to God in prayer, and gave up the ghost, on the 7th of\nMarch, in 1274, a little after midnight: some say in the fiftieth year\nof his age. But Ptolemy of Lucca, and other contemporary authors, say\nexpressly in his forty-eighth, which also agrees with his whole history.\nHe was very tall, and every way proportioned.\n\nThe concourse of people at the saint's funeral was extraordinary:\nseveral monks of that house, and many other persons, were cured by his\nrelics and intercession, of which many instances, juridically proved,\nare mentioned by William of Tocco, in the bull of his canonization, and\nother authors. The Bollandists give us other long authentic relations of\nthe like miracles continued afterwards, especially in the translation of\nthose holy relics. The University of Paris sent to the general and\nprovincial of the Dominicans a letter of condolence upon his death,\ngiving the highest commendations to the saint's learning and sanctity,\nand begging the treasure of his holy body. Naples, Rome, and many other\nuniversities, princes, and Orders, contended no less for it. One of his\nhands, uncorrupt, was cut off in 1288, and given to his sister, the\ncountess Theodora, who kept it in her domestic chapel of San Severino.\nAfter her death it was given to the Dominicans' convent of Salerno.\nAfter several contestations, pope Urban V., many years after his death,\ngranted his body to the Dominicans to carry to Paris or Toulouse, as\nItaly already possessed the body of St. Dominick at Bologna. The sacred\ntreasure was carried privately into France, and received at Thoulouse in\nthe most honorable mariner: one hundred and fifty thousand people came\nto meet and conduct it into the city, having at their head Louis duke of\nAnjou, brother to king Charles V., the archbishops of Thoulouse and\nNarbonne, and many bishops, abbots, and noblemen. It rests now in the\nDominican's church at Thoulouse, in a rich shrine, with a stately\nmausoleum over it, which reaches almost up to the roof of the church,\nand hath four faces. An arm of the saint was at the same time sent to\nthe great convent of the Dominicans at Paris, and placed in St. Thomas's\nchapel in their church, which the king declared a royal chapel. The\nfaculty of theology meets to assist at a high mass there on the\nanniversary festival of the saint. The kingdom of Naples, after many\npressing solicitations, obtained, in 1372, from the general chapter held\nat Thoulouse, a bone of the other arm of St. Thomas. It was kept in the\nchurch of the Dominicans at Naples till 1603, when the city being\ndelivered from a public calamity by his intercession, it was placed in\nthe metropolitan church among the relics of the other patrons of the\ncountry. That kingdom, by the briefs of Pius V. in 1567, and of Clement\nVIII. in 1603, confirmed by Paul V., honors him as a principal patron.\nHe was solemnly canonized by pope John XXII. in 1323. Pope Pius V., in\n1567, commanded his festival and office to be kept equal with those of\nthe four doctors of the western church.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nMany in their studies, as in other occupations, take great pains to\nlittle purpose, often to draw from them the poison of vanity or error;\nor at least to drain their affections, and rather to nourish pride and\nother vices in the heart than to promote true virtue. Sincere humility\nand simplicity of heart {533} are essential conditions for the\nsanctification of studies, and for the improvement of virtue by them.\nPrayer must also both go before and accompany them. St. Thomas spoke\nmuch to God by prayer, that God might speak to him by enlightening his\nunderstanding in his reading and studies; and he received in this what\nhe asked in the other exercise. This prodigy of human wit, this\nunparalleled genius, which penetrated the most knotty difficulties in\nall the sciences, whether sacred or profane, to which he applied\nhimself, was accustomed to say that he learned more at the foot of the\ncrucifix than in books. We ought never to set ourselves to read or study\nany thing without having first made our morning meditation, and without\nimploring in particular the divine light in every thing we read; and\nseasoning our studies by frequent aspirations to God in them, and by\nkeeping our souls in an humble attention to his presence. In intricate\ndifficulties, we ought more earnestly, prostrate at the foot of a\ncrucifix, to ask of Christ the resolution of our doubts. We should thus\nreceive, in the school of so good a master, that science which makes\nsaints, by giving, with other sciences, the true knowledge of God and\nourselves, and purifying and kindling in the will the fire of divine\nlove with the sentiments of humility and other virtues. By a little use,\nfervent aspirations to God will arise from all subjects in the driest\nstudies, and it will become easy, and as it were natural in them, to\nraise our heart earnestly to God, either despising the vain pursuits, or\ndetesting the vanity, and deploring the blindness of the world, or\naspiring after heavenly gifts, or begging light, grace, or the divine\nlove. This is a maxim of the utmost importance in an interior or\nspiritual life, which otherwise, instead of being assisted, is entirely\noverwhelmed and extinguished by studies, whether profane or sacred, and\nin its place a spirit of self-sufficiency, vanity, and jealousy is\ncontracted, and the seeds of all other spiritual vices secretly sown.\nAgainst this danger St. Bonaventure warns all students strongly to be\nupon their guard, saying, \"If a person repeats often in his heart, Lord,\nwhen shall I love thee? he will feel a heavenly fire kindled in his soul\nmuch more than by a thousand bright thoughts or fine speculations on\ndivine secrets, on the eternal generation of the Word, or the procession\nof the Holy Ghost.\"[15] Prayer and true virtue even naturally conduce to\nthe perfection of learning, in every branch; for purity of the heart,\nand the disengagement of the affections from all irregular passions,\nrender the understanding clear, qualify the mind to judge impartially of\ntruth in its researches, divest it of many prejudices, the fatal sources\nof errors, and inspire a modest distrust to a person's own abilities and\nlights. Thus virtue and learning mutually assist and improve each other.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  St. Thomas was born at Belcastro: on his ancient illustrious\n    pedigree and its branches, which still flourish in Calabria, see\n    Barrius, de Antiquitate et Situ Calabriae, with the notes of Thomas\n    Aceti, l. 4, c. 2, p. 288, &c, where he refutes the Bollandists, who\n    place his birth at Aquino in Campania, on the border of that\n    province.\n2.  L. 1, Conf. c. 7.\n3.  Conf. l. 5, c. 3.\n4.  Gul. Tocco. Bern. Guid. Antonin. Malvend.\n5.  Footnote: 2. 2dae, q. 188, a. 5.\n6.  The manner of teaching then was not, as it is generally at present,\n    by dictating lessons, which the scholars write, but it was according\n    to the practice that still obtains in some public schools, as in\n    Padua, &c. The master delivered his explanation like an harangue;\n    the scholars retained what they could, and often privately took down\n    short notes to help their memory. Academical degrees were then also\n    very different from what they now are; being conferred on none but\n    those who taught. To be Master of Arts, a man must have studied six\n    years at least, and be twenty-one years old. And to be qualified for\n    teaching divinity, he must have studied eight years more, and be at\n    least thirty-five years old. Nevertheless, St. Thomas, by a\n    dispensation of the university, on account of his distinguished\n    merit, was allowed to teach at twenty-five. The usual way was for\n    one named bachelor to explain the Master of the Sentences for a year\n    in the school of some doctor, upon whose testimony, after certain\n    rigorous public examinations, and other formalities, the bachelor\n    was admitted in the degree of licentiate; which gave him the license\n    of a doctor, to teach or hold a school himself. Another year, which\n    was likewise employed in expounding the Master of the Sentences,\n    completed the degree of doctor, which the candidate received from\n    the chancel for of the university, and then opened a school in form,\n    with a bachelor to teach under him. In 1253, St. Thomas began to\n    teach as licentiate; but a stop was put to his degrees for some\n    time, by a violent disagreement between the regulars, principally\n    Dominicans and Franciscans, and the university which had at first\n    admitted them into their body, and even given the Dominicans a\n    college. In these disputes St. Thomas was not spared, but he for a\n    long time had recourse to no other vindication of himself than that\n    of modesty and silence. On Palm Sunday he was preaching in the\n    Dominican's church of St. James, when a beadle coming in commanded\n    silence, and read a long written invective against him and his\n    colleagues. When he had done, the saint, without speaking one word\n    to justify himself or his Order, continued his sermon with the\n    greatest tranquillity and unconcern of mind. William de Saint-Amour,\n    the most violent among the secular doctors, published a book, On the\n    dangers of the latter Times, a bitter invective against the\n    mendicant Orders, which St. Louis sent to pope Alexander IV. SS.\n    Thomas and Bonaventure were sent into Italy to defend their Orders.\n    And to confute that book, St. Thomas published his nineteenth\n    Opusculum, with an Apology for the mendicant Orders, showing they\n    lay under no precept that all should apply themselves to manual\n    labor, and that spiritual occupations were even preferable. The\n    pope, upon this apology, condemned the book, and also another,\n    called the Eternal Gospel, in defence of the error of the abbot\n    Joachim. who had advanced that the church was to have an end, and be\n    succeeded by a new church which should be formed perfectly according\n    to the Spirit: this heresy, and the errors of certain other\n    fanatics, were refuted by our saint at Rome. In his return to Paris,\n    a violent storm terrified all the mariners and passengers; only\n    Thomas appeared without the least fear, and continued in quiet\n    prayer till the tempest had ceased. William de Saint-Amour being\n    banished Paris, peace was restored in the university.\n7.  Gul. Tocco.\n8.  Conclusum est contra Manichaeos.\n9.  The works of St. Thomas are partly philosophical, partly\n    theological; with some comments on the holy scriptures, and several\n    treatises of piety. The elegance of Plato gave his philosophy the\n    greater vogue among the Gentiles; and the most learned of the\n    Christian fathers were educated is the maxims or his school. His\n    noble sentiments on the attributes of the Deity, particularly his\n    providence, and his doctrine on the rewards and punishments in a\n    future state, seemed favorable to religion. Nor can it be doubted\n    but he had learned, in his travels in Egypt and Phoenicia, many\n    traditional truths delivered down from the patriarchal ages, before\n    the corruptions of idolatry. On the other hand, the philosophy of\n    Aristotle was much less in request among the heathens, was silent as\n    to all traditional truths, and contained some glaring errors, which\n    several heretics of the first ages adopted against the gospel. On\n    which account he is called by Tertullian the patriarch of heretics,\n    and his works were procribed by a council of Paris, about the year\n    1209. Nevertheless it must be acknowledged, by all impartial judges,\n    that Aristotle was the greatest and most comprehensive genius of\n    antiquity, and perhaps of any age: and he was the only one that had\n    laid down complete rules, and explained the laws of reasoning, and\n    had given a thorough system of philosophy. Boetius had penetrated\n    the depth of his genius, and the usefulness of his logic; yet did\n    not redress his mistakes. Human reasoning is too weak without the\n    light of revelation; and Aristotle, by relying too much on it fell\n    into the same gross errors. Not only many ancient heretics, but also\n    several in the twelfth and thirteenth ages, as Peter Aballard, the\n    Albigenses, and other heretics, made a bad use of his philosophy.\n    But above all, the Saracens of Arabaia and Spain wrote with\n    incredible subtilty on his principles. St. Thomas opposed the\n    enemies of truth with their own weapons, and employed the philosophy\n    of Aristotle in defence of the faith, in which he succeeded to a\n    miracle. He discerned and confuted his errors, and set in a clear\n    and new light the great truths of reason which that philosopher had\n    often wrapt up in obscurity. Thus Aristotle, who had been called the\n    terror of Christians, in the hands of Thomas became orthodox, and\n    furnished faith with new arms against idolatry and atheism. For this\n    admirable doctor, though he had only a bad Latin translation of the\n    works of that philosopher, has corrected his errors, and shown that\n    his whole system of philosophy, as far as it is grounded in truth,\n    is subservient to divine revelation. This he has executed through\n    the nicest metaphysical speculations, in the five first volumes of\n    his works. He everywhere strikes out a new track for himself; and\n    enters into the most secret recesses of this shadowy region; so as\n    to appear new even on known and beaten subjects. For his writings\n    are original efforts of genius and reflection, and every point he\n    handles in a manner that makes it appear new. If his speculations\n    are sometimes spun fine, and his divisions run to niceties, this was\n    the fault of the age in which he lived, and of the speculative\n    refining geniuses of the Arabians, whom he had undertaken to pursue\n    and confute throughout their whole system. His comments on the four\n    books of the Master of the Sentences contain a methodical course of\n    theology, and make the sixth and seventh volumes of his works; the\n    tenth, eleventh, and twelfth give us his Summ, Or incomparable\n    abridged body of divinity, though this work he never lived to\n    finish. Among the fathers, St. Austin is principally his guide; so\n    that the learned cardinals, Norris and Aguirre, call St. Thomas his\n    most faithful Interpreter. He draws the rules of practical duties\n    and virtues principally from the morals of St. Gregory on Job. He\n    compassed his Summ against the Gentiles, at the request of St.\n    Raymund of Pennafort, to serve the preachers in Spain in converting\n    the Jews and Saracens to the faith. He wrote comments on most parts\n    of the holy scriptures, especially on the epistles of St. Paul, in\n    which latter he seemed to outdo himself. By the order of pope Urban\n    IV., he compiled the office of the blessed sacrament, which the\n    church uses to this day, on the feast and during the Octave of\n    Corpus-Christi. His Opuscula, or lesser treatises, have in view the\n    confutation of the Greek schismatics and several heresies; or\n    discuss various points of philosophy and theology; or are comments\n    on the creed, sacraments, decalogue, Lord's prayer, and Hail Mary.\n    In his treatises on piety he reduces the rules of an interior life\n    to these two gospel maxims: first. That we must strenuously labor by\n    self-denial and mortification to extinguish in our hearts all the\n    sparks of pride, and the inordinate love of creatures; secondly,\n    That by assiduous prayer, meditation, and doing the will of God in\n    all things, we must kindle his perfect love in our souls. (Opusc. 17\n    & 18; His works are printed in nineteen volumes folio.)\n10. Bene scripsisti de me, Thoma: quam mercedem addipies? Non aliam,\n    nisi te Domine.\n11. Psalm cxxxi. 14.\n12. Conf. l. 10, c. 28.\n13. There is another commentary on the same book which sometimes bears\n    his name, and begins: Sonet vox tua in auribus meis: which was not\n    the work of this saint, but of Hayme{}, bishop of Halberstadt. See\n    Echard, t. 1, p. 323. Touron, p. 714. Le Long. Bibl. Sacra. n. 766.\n14. Tibi debo et quod non feci. St. Au{}.\n15. St. Bonav. l. de Mystica Theol. a. ult.\n\nSS. PERPETUA, AND FELICITAS, MM.\n\nWITH THEIR COMPANIONS.\n\nFrom their most valuable genuine acts, quoted by Tertullian, l. de\nanima, c. 55, and by St. Austin, serm. {}, 283, 294. The first part of\nthese acts, which reaches to the eve of her martyrdom, was written by\nSt. Perpetua. The vision of St. Saturus was added by him. The rest was\nsubjoined by an eye-witness of their death. See Tillemont, t. 3, p. 139.\nCeillier, t. 2, p. 213. These acts have been often republished; but are\nextant, most ample and correct, in Ruinart. They were publicly read in\nthe churches of Africa, as appears from St. Austin, Serm. 180. See them\nvindicated from the suspicion of Montanism, by O{}, Vindicae Act. SS.\nPerpetuae et Felicitatis.\n\nA. D 203.\n\nA VIOLENT persecution being set on foot by the emperor Severus, in 202,\nreached Africa the following year; when, by order of Minutius\nTiminianus, {534} (or Firminianus,) five catechumens were apprehended at\nCarthage for the faith: namely, Rovocatus, and his fellow-slave\nFelicitas, Saturninus, and Secundulus, and Vibia Perpetua. Felicitas was\nseven months gone with child; and Perpetua had an infant at her breast,\nwas of a good family, twenty-two years of age, and married to a person\nof quality in the city. She had a father, a mother, and two brothers;\nthe third, Dinocrates, died about seven years old. These five martyrs\nwere joined by Saturus, probably brother to Saturninus, and who seems to\nhave been their instructor: he underwent a voluntary imprisonment,\nbecause he would not abandon them. The father of St. Perpetua, who was a\npagan, and advanced in years, loved her more than all his other\nchildren. Her mother was probably a Christian, as was one of her\nbrothers, the other a catechumen. The martyrs were for some days before\ntheir commitment kept under a strong guard in a private house: and the\naccount Perpetua gives of their sufferings to the eve of their death, is\nas follows: \"We were in the hands of our persecutors, when my father,\nout of the affection he bore me, made new efforts to shake my\nresolution. I said to him: 'Can that vessel, which you see, change its\nname?' He said: 'No.' I replied: 'Nor can I call myself any other than I\nam, that is to say, a Christian.' At that word my father in a rage fell\nupon me, as if he would have pulled my eyes out, and beat me: but went\naway in confusion, seeing me invincible: after this we enjoyed a little\nrepose, and in that interval received baptism. The Holy Ghost, on our\ncoming out of the water, inspired me to pray for nothing but patience\nunder corporal pains. A few days after this we were put into prison: I\nwas shocked at the horror and darkness of the place;[1] for till then I\nknew not what such sort of places were. We suffered much that day,\nchiefly on account of the great heat caused by the crowd, and the\nill-treatment we met with from the soldiers. I was moreover tortured\nwith concern, for that I had not my infant. But the deacons, Tertius and\nPomponius, who assisted us, obtained, by money, that we might pass some\nhours in a more commodious part of the prison to refresh ourselves. My\ninfant being brought to me almost famished, I gave it the breast. I\nrecommended him afterwards carefully to my mother, and encouraged my\nbrother; but was much afflicted to see their concern for me. After a few\ndays my sorrow was changed into comfort, and my prison itself seemed\nagreeable. One day my brother said to me: 'Sister, I am persuaded that\nyou are a peculiar favorite of Heaven: pray to God to reveal to you\nwhether this imprisonment will end in martyrdom or not, and acquaint me\nof it.' I, knowing God gave me daily tokens of his goodness, answered,\nfull of confidence, 'I will inform you to-morrow.' I therefore asked\nthat favor of God, and had this vision. I saw a golden ladder which\nreached from earth to the heavens; but so narrow, that only one could\nmount it at a time. To the two sides were fastened all sorts of iron\ninstruments, as swords, lances, hooks, and knives; so that if any one\nwent up carelessly he was in great danger of having his flesh torn by\nthose weapons. At the foot of the ladder lay a dragon of an enormous\nsize, who kept guard to turn back and terrify those that endeavored to\nmount it. The first that went up was Saturus, who was not apprehended\nwith us, but voluntarily surrendered himself afterwards on our account:\nwhen he was got to the top of the ladder, he turned towards me and said:\n'Perpetua, I wait for you; but take care lest the dragon bite you.' I\nanswered: 'In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, he shall not hurt me.'\nThen the dragon, as if afraid of me, gently lifted his head from under\nthe ladder, and I, having got upon the first step, set my foot upon his\nhead. Thus I mounted to the top, and there {535} I saw a garden of an\nimmense space, and in the middle of it a tall man sitting down dressed\nlike a shepherd, having white hair. He was milking his sheep, surrounded\nwith many thousands of persons clad in white. He called me by my name,\nbid me welcome, and gave me some curds made of the milk which he had\ndrawn: I put my hands together and took and ate them; and all that were\npresent said aloud, Amen. The noise awaked me, chewing something very\nsweet. As soon as I had related to my brother this vision, we both\nconcluded that we should suffer death.\n\n\"After some days, a rumor being spread that we were to be examined, my\nfather came from the city to the prison overwhelmed with grief:\n'Daughter,' said he, 'have pity on my gray hairs, have compassion on\nyour father, if I yet deserve to be called your father; if I myself have\nbrought you up to this age: if you consider that my extreme love of you,\nmade me always prefer you to all your brothers, make me not a reproach\nto mankind. Have respect for your mother and your aunt; have compassion\non your child that cannot survive you; lay aside this resolution, this\nobstinacy, lest you ruin us all: for not one of us will dare open his\nlips any more if any misfortune befall you.' He took me by the hands at\nthe same time and kissed them; he threw himself at my feet in tears, and\ncalled me no longer daughter, but, my lady. I confess, I was pierced\nwith sharp sorrow when I considered that my father was the only person\nof our family that would not rejoice at my martyrdom. I endeavored to\ncomfort him, saying: 'Father, grieve not; nothing will happen but what\npleases God; for we are not at our own disposal.' He then departed very\nmuch concerned. The next day, while we were at dinner, a person came all\non a sudden to summon us to examination. The report of this was soon\nspread, and brought together a vast crowd of people into the\naudience-chamber. We were placed on a sort of scaffold before the judge,\nwho was Hilarian, procurator of the province, the proconsul being lately\ndead. All who were interrogated before me confessed boldly Jesus Christ.\nWhen it came to my turn, my father instantly appeared with my infant. He\ndrew me a little aside, conjuring me in the most tender manner not to be\ninsensible to the misery I should bring on that innocent creature to\nwhich I had given life. The president Hilarian joined with my father and\nsaid: 'What! will neither the gray hairs of a father you are going to\nmake miserable, nor the tender innocence of a child, which your death\nwill leave an orphan, move you? Sacrifice for the prosperity of the\nemperor.' I replied, 'I will not do it.' 'Are you then a Christian?'\nsaid Hilarian. I answered: 'Yes, I am.' As my father attempted to draw\nme from the scaffold, Hilarian commanded him to be beaten off, and he\nhad a blow given him with a stick, which I felt as much as if I had been\nstruck myself, so much was I grieved to see my father thus treated in\nhis old age. Then the judge pronounced our sentence, by which we were\nall condemned to be exposed to wild beasts. We then joyfully returned to\nour prison; and as my infant had been used to the breast, I immediately\nsent Pomponius, the deacon, to demand him of my father, who refused to\nsend him. And God so ordered it that the child no longer required to\nsuck, nor did my milk incommode me.\" Secundulus, being no more\nmentioned, seems to have died in prison before this interrogatory.\nBefore Hilarian pronounced sentence, he had caused Saturus, Saturninus,\nand Revocatus, to be scourged; and Perpetua and Felicitas to be beaten\non the face. They were reserved for the shows which were to be exhibited\nfor the soldiers in the camp, on the festival of Geta, who had been made\nCaesar tour years before by his father Severus, when his brother\nCaracalla was created Augustus.\n\nSt. Perpetua relates another vision with which she was favored, as\nfollows: \"A few days after receiving sentence, when we were all together\nin {536} prayer, I happened to name Dinocrates, at which I was\nastonished, because I had not before had him in my thoughts; and I that\nmoment knew that I ought to pray for him. This I began to do with great\nfervor and sighing before God; and the same night I had the following\nvision: I saw Dinocrates coming out of a dark place, where there were\nmany others, exceeding hot and thirsty; his face was dirty, his\ncomplexion pale, with the ulcer in his face of which he died at seven\nyears of age, and it was for him that I had prayed. There seemed a great\ndistance between him and me, so that it was impossible for us to come to\neach other. Near him stood a vessel full of water, whose brim was higher\nthan the statue of an infant: he at tempted to drink, but though he had\nwater he could not reach it. This mightily grieved me, and I awoke. By\nthis I knew my brother was in pain, but I trusted I could by prayer\nrelieve him: so I began to pray fer him, beseeching God with tears, day\nand night, that he would grant me my request; as I continued to do till\nwe were removed to the damp prison: being destined for a public show on\nthe festival of Caesar Geta. The day we were in the stocks[2] I had this\nvision: I saw the place, which I had beheld dark before, now luminous;\nand Dinocrates, with his body very clean and well clad, refreshing\nhimself, and instead of his wound a scar only. I awoke, and I knew he\nwas relieved from his pain.[3]\n\n\"Some days after, Pudens, the officer who commanded the guards of the\nprison, seeing that God favored us with many gifts, had a great esteem\nof us, and admitted many people to visit us for our mutual comfort. On\nthe day of the public shows my father came to find me out, overwhelmed\nwith sorrow. He tore his beard, he threw himself prostrate on the\nground, cursed his years, and said enough to move any creature; and I\nwas ready to die with sorrow to see my father in so deplorable a\ncondition. On the eve of the shows I was favored with the following\nvision. The deacon Pomponius methought, knocked very hard at the\nprison-door, which I opened to him. He was clothed with a white robe,\nembroidered with innumerable pomegranates of gold. He said to me:\n'Perpetua, we wait for you, come along.' He then took me by the hand\nand, led me through very rough places into the middle of the\namphitheatre, and said: 'Fear not.' And, leaving me, said again: 'I will\nbe with you in a moment, and bear a part with you in your pains.' I was\nwondering the beasts were not let out against us, when there appeared a\nvery ill-favored Egyptian, who came to encounter me with others. But\nanother beautiful troop of young men declared for me, and anointed me\nwith oil for the combat. Then appeared a man of prodigious stature, in\nrich apparel, having a wand in his hand like the masters of the\ngladiators, and a green bough on which hung golden apples. Having\nordered silence, he said that the bough should be my prize, if I\nvanquished {537} the Egyptian--but that if he conquered me, he should\nkill me with a sword. After a long and obstinate engagement, I threw him\non his face, and trod upon his head. The people applauded my victory\nwith loud acclamations. I then approached the master of the\namphitheatre, who gave me the bough with a kiss, and said: 'Peace be\nwith you, my daughter.' After this I awoke, and found that I was not so\nmuch to combat with wild beasts as with the devils.\" Here ends the\nrelation of St. Perpetua.\n\nSt. Saturus had also a vision which he wrote himself. He and his\ncompanions were conducted by a bright angel into a most delightful\ngarden, in which they met some holy martyrs lately dead, namely,\nJocundus, Saturninus, and Artaxius, who had been burned alive for the\nfaith, and Quintus, who died in prison. They inquired after other\nmartyrs of their acquaintance, say the acts, and were conducted into a\nmost stately place, shining like the sun: and in it saw the king of this\nmost glorious place surrounded by his happy subjects, and heard a voice\ncomposed of many, which continually cried: \"Holy, holy, holy.\" Saturus,\nturning to Perpetua, said: \"You have here what you desired.\" She\nreplied: \"God be praised. I have more joy here than ever I had in the\nflesh.\" He adds, Going out of the garden they found before the gate, on\nthe right hand, their bishop of Carthage, Optatus, and on the left,\nAspasius, priest of the same church, both of them alone and sorrowful.\nThey fell at the martyr's feet, and begged they would reconcile them\ntogether, for a dissension had happened between them. The martyrs\nembraced them, saying: \"Are not you our bishop, and you a priest of our\nLord? It is our duty to prostrate ourselves before you.\" Perpetua was\ndiscoursing with them; but certain angels came and drove hence Optatus\nand Aspasius; and bade them not to disturb the martyrs, but be\nreconciled to each other. The bishop Optatus was also charged to heal\nthe divisions that reigned among several of his church. The angels,\nafter these reprimands, seemed ready to shut the gates of the garden.\n\"Here,\" says he, \"we saw many of our brethren and martyrs likewise. We\nwere fed with an ineffable odor, which delighted and satisfied us.\" Such\nwas the vision of Saturus. The rest of the acts were added by an\neye-witness. God had called to himself Secondulus in prison. Felicitas\nwas eight months gone with child, and as the day of the shows\napproached, she was inconsolable lest she should not be brought to bed\nbefore it came; fearing that her martyrdom would be deferred on that\naccount, because women with child were not allowed to be executed before\nthey were delivered: the rest also were sensibly afflicted on their part\nto leave her alone in the road to their common hope. Wherefore they\nunanimously joined in prayer to obtain of God that she might be\ndelivered against the shows. Scarce had they finished their prayer, when\nFelicitas found herself in labor. She cried out under the violence of\nher pain: one of the guards asked her, if she could not bear the throes\nof childbirth without crying out, what she would do when exposed to the\nwild beasts. She answered: \"It is I that suffer what I now suffer; but\nthen there will be another in me that will suffer for me, because I\nshall suffer for him.\" She was then delivered of a daughter, which a\ncertain Christian woman took care of, and brought up as her own child.\nThe tribune, who had the holy martyrs in custody, being informed by some\npersons of little credit, that the Christians would free themselves out\nof prison by some magic enchantments, used them the more cruelly on that\naccount, and forbade any to see them. Thereupon Perpetua said to him:\n\"Why do you not afford us some relief, since we are condemned by Caesar,\nand destined to combat at his festival? Will it not be to your honor\nthat we appear well fed?\" At this the tribune trembled and blushed, and\nordered them to be used with more humanity, and their friends to be\nadmitted to see them. Pudens, {538} the keeper of the prison, being\nalready converted, secretly did them all the good offices in his power.\nThe day before they suffered they gave them, according to custom, their\nlast meal, which was called a free supper, and they ate in public. But\nthe martyrs did their utmost to change it into an Agape, or Love-feast.\nTheir chamber was full of people, whom they talked to with their usual\nresolution, threatening them with the judgments of God, and extolling\nthe happiness of their own sufferings. Saturus, smiling at the curiosity\nof those that came to see them, said to them, \"Will not to-morrow\nsuffice to satisfy your inhuman curiosity in our regard? However you may\nseem now to pity us, to-morrow you will clap your hands at our death,\nand applaud our murderers. But observe well our faces, that you may know\nthem again at that terrible day when all men shall be judged.\" They\nspoke with such courage and intrepidity, as astonished the infidels, and\noccasioned the conversion of several among them.\n\nThe day of their triumph being come, they went out of the prison to go\nto the amphitheatre. Joy sparkled in their eyes, and appeared in all\ntheir gestures and words. Perpetua walked with a composed countenance\nand easy pace, as a woman cherished by Jesus Christ, with her eyes\nmodestly cast down: Felicitas went with her, following the men, not able\nto contain her joy. When they came to the gate of the amphitheatre the\nguards would have given them, according to custom, the superstitious\nhabits with which they adorned such as appeared at these sights. For the\nmen, a red mantle, which was the habit of the priests of Saturn: for the\nwomen, a little fillet round the head, by which the priestesses of Ceres\nwere known. The martyrs rejected those idolatrous ceremonies; and, by\nthe mouth of Perpetua, said, they came thither of their own accord on\nthe promise made them that they should not be forced to any thing\ncontrary to their religion. The tribune then consented that they might\nappear in the amphitheatre habited as they were. Perpetua sung, as being\nalready victorious; Revocatus, Saturninus, and Saturus threatened the\npeople that beheld them with the judgments of God: and as they passed\nover against the balcony of Hilarian, they said to him: \"You judge us in\nthis world, but God will judge you to the next.\" The people, enraged at\ntheir boldness, begged they might be scourged, which was granted. They\naccordingly passed before the Venatores,[4] or hunters, each of whom\ngave them a lash. They rejoiced exceedingly in being thought worthy to\nresemble our Saviour in his sufferings. God granted to each of them the\ndeath they desired; for when they were discoursing together about what\nkind of martyrdom would be agreeable to each, Saturninus declared that\nbe would choose to be exposed to beasts of several sorts in order to the\naggravation of his sufferings. Accordingly he and Revocatus, after\nhaving been attacked by a leopard, were also assaulted by a bear.\nSaturus dreaded nothing so much as a bear, and therefore hoped a leopard\nwould dispatch him at once with his teeth. He was then exposed to a wild\nboar, but the beast turned upon his keeper, who received such a wound\nfrom him that he died in a few days after, and Saturus was only dragged\nalong by him. Then they tied the martyr to the bridge near a bear, but\nthat beast came not out of his lodge, so that Saturus, being sound and\nnot hurt, was called upon for a second encounter. This gave him an\nopportunity of speaking to Pudens, the jailer that had been converted.\nThe martyr encouraged him to constancy in the faith, and said to him:\n\"You see I have not yet been hurt by any beast, as I desired and\nforetold; believe then steadfastly in Christ; I am going where you will\n{539} see a leopard with one bite take away my life.\" It happened so,\nfor a leopard being let out upon him, covered him all over with blood,\nwhereupon the people jeering, cried out, \"He is well baptized.\" The\nmartyr said to Pudens, \"Go, remember my faith, and let our sufferings\nrather strengthen than trouble you. Give me the ring you have on your\nfinger.\" Saturus, having dipped it in his wound, gave it him back to\nkeep as a pledge to animate him to a constancy in his faith, and fell\ndown dead soon after. Thus he went first to glory to wait for Perpetua,\naccording to her vision. Some with Mabillon,[5] think this Pudens is the\nmartyr honored in Africa, on the 29th of April.\n\nIn the mean time, Perpetua and Felicitas had been exposed to a wild cow;\nPerpetua was first attacked, and the cow having tossed her up, she fell\non her back. Then putting herself in a sitting posture, and perceiving\nher clothes were torn, she gathered them about her in the best manner\nshe could, to cover herself, thinking more of decency than her\nsufferings. Getting up, not to seem disconsolate, she tied up her hair,\nwhich was fallen loose, and perceiving Felicitas on the ground much hurt\nby a toss of the cow, she helped her to rise. They stood together,\nexpecting another assault from the beasts, but the people crying out\nthat it was enough, they were led to the gate Sanevivaria, where those\nthat were not killed by the beasts were dispatched at the end of the\nshows by the confectores. Perpetua was here received by Rusticus, a\ncatechumen, who attended her. This admirable woman seemed just returning\nto herself out of a long ecstasy, and asked when she was to fight the\nwild cow. Being told what had passed, she could not believe it till she\nsaw on her body and clothes the marks of what she had suffered, and knew\nthe catechumen. With regard to this circumstance of her acts, St. Austin\ncries out, \"Where was she when assaulted and torn by so furious a wild\nbeast, without feeling her wounds, and when, after that furious combat,\nshe asked when it would begin? What did she, not to see what all the\nworld saw? What did she enjoy who did not feel such pain. By what love,\nby what vision, by what potion was she so transported out of herself,\nand as it were divinely inebriated, to seem without feeling in a mortal\nbody?\" She called for her brother, and said to him and Rusticus,\n\"Continue firm in the faith, love one another, and be not scandalized at\nour sufferings.\" All the martyrs were now brought to the place of their\nbutchery. But the people, not yet satisfied with beholding blood, cried\nout to have them brought into the middle of the amphitheatre, that they\nmight have the pleasure of seeing them receive the last blow. Upon this,\nsome of the martyrs rose up, and having given one another the kiss of\npeace, went of their own accord into the middle of the arena; others\nwere dispatched without speaking, or stirring out of the place they were\nin. St. Perpetua fell into the hands of a very timorous and unskilful\napprentice of the gladiators, who, with a trembling hand, gave her many\nslight wounds, which made her languish a long time. Thus, says St.\nAustin, did two women, amidst fierce beasts and the swords of\ngladiators, vanquish the devil and all his fury. The day of their\nmartyrdom was the 7th of March, as it is marked in the most ancient\nmartyrologies, and in the Roman calendar as old as the year 354,\npublished by Bucherins. St. Prosper says they suffered at Carthage,\nwhich agrees with all the circumstances. Their bodies were in the great\nchurch of Carthage, in the fifth age, as St. Victor[6] informs us. Saint\nAustin says, their festival drew yearly more to honor their memory in\ntheir church, than curiosity had done to their martyrdom. They are\nmentioned in the canon of the Mass.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  The prisons of the ancient Romans, still to be seen in many old\n    amphitheatres, &c., are dismal holes: having at most one very small\n    aperture for light, just enough to show day.\n2.  These stocks, called Nervus, were a wooden machine with many holes,\n    in which the prisoners' feet were fastened and stretched to great\n    distances, as to the fourth or fifth holes, for the increase of\n    their torment. St. Perpatua remarks, they were chained, and also set\n    in this engine during their stay in the camp prison, which seems to\n    have been several days, in expectation of the day of the public\n    show.\n3.  By the conclusions which St. Perpetua was led to make from her two\n    visions, it evidently appears, that the church, in that early age,\n    believed the doctrine of the expiation of certain sins after death,\n    and prayed for the faithful departed. This must be allowed, even\n    though it should be pretended that her visions were not from God.\n    But neither St. Austin, nor any other ancient father, ever\n    entertained the least suspicion on that head. Nor can we presume\n    that the goodness of God would permit one full of such ardent love\n    at him to be imposed upon in a point of this nature. The Oxonian\n    editor of these acts knew not what other answer to make to this\n    ancient testimony, than that St. Perpetua seems to have been\n    Montanist (p. 14.) But this unjust censure Oodwell (Diss. Cypr. A.\n    n. 8, p. 15) and others have confuted. And could St. Austin, with\n    the whole Catholic church, have ranked a Montanist among the most\n    illustrious martyrs? That father himself, in many places of his\n    works, clearly explains the same doctrine of the Catholic faith,\n    concerning a state of temporary sufferings in the other world, and\n    conformably to it speaks of these visions. (L. de Orig. Animae, l. 1,\n    c. 10, p. 343, and l. 4, c. 18, p. 401, t. 10, &c.) He says, that\n    Dinocrates must have received baptism, but afterwards sinned,\n    perhaps by having been seduced by his pagan father into some act of\n    superstition, or by lying, or by some other faults of which children\n    in that tender age may be guilty. Illus aetatis pueri at mentiri et\n    verum iniqui, at confiteri et negare jam possum. Lib. 1. c. 10. See\n    Orsi Diss. de Actis SS. Perpetuae et Felicitatis. Florentiae 1738, {}.\n 4. Pro ordine venatorum. Venatores, is the name given to those that\n    were armed to encounter the beast; who put themselves in ranks, with\n    whips in their hands, and each of them gave a last to the Bestiarii,\n    or those condemned to the beasts, whom they obliged to pass naked\n    before them in the middle of the pit of arena.\n5.  Analect. t. 3, p. 403.\n6.  Victor, l. 1, p. 4.\n\n{540}\n\nST. PAUL. ANCHORET.\n\nFROM his ignorance of secular learning, and his extraordinary humility,\nhe was surnamed the Simple. He served God in the world to the age of\nsixty, in the toils of a poor and laborious country life. The\nincontinency of his wife contributed to wean his soul from all earthly\nties. Checks and crosses which men meet with in this life are great\ngraces. God's sweet providence sows our roads with thorns, that we may\nlearn to despise the vanity, and hate the treachery of the world. \"When\nmothers would wean their children,\" says St. Austin, \"they anoint their\nbreasts with aloes, that the babe, being offended at the bitterness, may\nno more seek the nipple.\" Thus has God in his mercy filled the world\nwith sorrow and vexation; but woe to those who still continue to love\nit! Even in this life miseries will be the wages of their sin and folly,\nand their eternal portion will be the second death. Paul found true\nhappiness because he converted his heart perfectly from the world to\nGod. Desiring to devote himself totally to his love, he determined to\nbetake himself to the great St. Antony. He went eight days' journey into\nthe desert, to the holy patriarch, and begged that he would admit him\namong his disciples, and teach him the way of salvation. Antony harshly\nrejected him, telling him he was too old to bear the austerities of that\nstate. He therefore bade him return home, and follow the business of his\ncalling, and sanctify it by the spirit of recollection and assiduous\nprayer. Having said this he shut his door: but Paul continued fasting\nand praying before his door, till Antony, seeing his fervor, on the\nfourth day opened it again, and going out to him, after several trials\nof his obedience, admitted him to the monastic state, and prescribed him\na rule of life; teaching him, by the most perfect obedience, to crucify\nin himself all attachment to his own will, the source of pride; by the\ndenial of his senses and assiduous hard labor, to subdue his flesh; and\nby continual prayer at his work, and at other times, to purify his\nheart, and inflame it with heavenly affections.[1] He instructed him how\nto pray, and ordered him never to eat before sunset, nor so much at a\nmeal as entirely to satisfy hunger. Paul, by obedience and humility,\nlaid the foundation of an eminent sanctity in his soul, which being dead\nto all self-will and to creatures, soared towards God with great fervor\nand purity of affections.\n\nAmong the examples of his ready obedience, it is recorded, that when he\nhad wrought with great diligence in making mats and hurdles, praying at\nthe same time without intermission, St. Antony disliked his work, and\nbade him undo it and make it over again. Paul did so, without any\ndejection in his countenance, or making the least reply, or even asking\nto eat a morsel of bread, though he had already passed seven days\nwithout taking any refreshment. After this, Antony ordered him to\nmoisten in water four loaves of six ounces each; for their bread in the\ndeserts was exceeding hard and dry. When their refection was prepared,\ninstead of eating, he bade Paul sing psalms with him, then to sit down\nby the loaves, and at night, after praying together, to take his rest.\nHe called him up at midnight to pray with him: this exercise the old man\ncontinued with great cheerfulness till three o'clock in the afternoon\nthe following day. After sunset, each ate one loaf, and Antony asked\nPaul if he would eat another. \"Yes, if you do,\" said Paul; \"I am a\nmonk,\" said Antony; \"And I desire to be one,\" replied the disciple;\nwhereupon they arose, sung twelve psalms, and recited twelve other {541}\nprayers. After a short repose, they both arose again to prayer at\nmidnight. The experienced director exercised his obedience by frequent\ntrials, bidding him one day, when many monks were come to visit him to\nreceive his spiritual advice, to spill a vessel of honey, and then to\ngather it up without any dust. At other times he ordered him to draw\nwater a whole day and pour it out again; to make baskets and pull them\nto pieces; to sew and unsew his garments, and the like.[2] What\nvictories over themselves and their passions might youth and others,\n&c., gain! what a treasure of virtue might they procure, by a ready and\nvoluntary obedience and conformity of their will to that of those whom\nProvidence bath placed over them! This they would find the effectual\nmeans to crush pride, and subdue their passions. But obedience is of\nlittle advantage, unless it bend the will itself, and repress all wilful\ninterior murmuring and repugnance. When Paul had been sufficiently\nexercised and instructed in the duties of a monastic life, St. Antony\nplaced him in a cell three miles from his own, where he visited him from\ntime to time. He usually preferred his virtue to that of all his other\ndisciples, and proposed him to them as a model. He frequently sent to\nPaul sick persons, or those possessed by the devil, whom he was not able\nto cure; as not having received the gift; and by the disciple's prayers\nthey never failed of a cure. St. Paul died some time after the year 330.\nHe is commemorated both by the Greeks and Latins, on the 7th of March.\nSee Palladius, Rufinus, and Sozomen, abridged by Tillemont, t. 7, p.\n144. Also by Henschenius, p. 645.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  Pallad. Lausiac. c. 28, p. 942. Rufin. Vit. Patr. c. 31. Sozom. l.\n    1, c. 13.\n2.  Rufin. & Pallad. loc. cit.\n\n\nMARCH VIII.\n\nST. JOHN OF GOD, C.\n\nFOUNDER OF THE ORDER OF CHARITY.\n\nFrom his life, written by Francis de Castro, twenty-five years after his\ndeath, abridged by Vaillet, p. 98, and F. Helyot, Hist. des Ordres\nRelig. t. 4. p. 131.\n\nA.D. 1550\n\nST. JOHN, surnamed of God, was born in Portugal, in 1495. His parents\nwere of the lowest rank in the country, but devout and charitable. John\nspent a considerable part of his youth in service, under the mayoral or\nchief shepherd of the count of Oropeusa in Castile, and in great\ninnocence and virtue. In 1522, he listed himself in a company of foot\nraised by the count, and served in the wars between the French and\nSpaniards; as he did afterwards in Hungary, against the Turks, while the\nemperor Charles V. was king of Spain. By the licentiousness of his\ncompanions, he by degrees lost his fear of offending God, and laid aside\nthe greatest part of his practices of devotion. The troop which he\nbelonged to being disbanded, he went into Andalusia in 1536, where he\nentered the service of a rich lady near Seville, in quality of shepherd.\nBeing now about forty years of age, stung with remorse for his past\nmisconduct, he began to entertain very serious thoughts of a change of\nlife, and doing penance for his sins. He accordingly employed the\ngreatest part of his time, both by day and night, in the exercises {542}\nof prayer and mortification, bewailing almost continually his\ningratitude towards God, and deliberating how he could dedicate himself\nin the most perfect manner to his service. His compassion for the\ndistressed moved him to take a resolution of leaving his place, and\npassing into Africa, that he might comfort and succor the poor slaves\nthere, not without hopes of meeting with the crown of martyrdom. At\nGibraltar he met with a Portuguese gentleman condemned to banishment,\nand whose estate had also been confiscated by king John III. He was then\nin the hands of the king's officers, together with his wife and\nchildren, and on his way to Ceuta, in Barbary, the place of his exile.\nJohn, out of charity and compassion, served him without any wages. At\nCeuta, the gentleman falling sick with grief and the change of air, was\nsoon reduced to such straits as to be obliged to dispose of the small\nremains of his shattered fortune for the family's support. John, not\ncontent to sell what little stock he was master of to relieve them, went\nto day-labor at the public works, to earn all he could for their\nsubsistence. The apostacy of one of his companions alarmed him; and his\nconfessor telling him that his going in quest of martyrdom was an\nillusion, he determined to return to Spain. Coming back to Gibraltar,\nhis piety suggested to him to turn pedler, and sell little pictures and\nbooks of devotion, which might furnish him with opportunities of\nexhorting his customers to virtue. His stock increasing considerably, he\nsettled in Granada, where he opened a shop, in 1538, being then\nforty-three years of age.\n\nThe great preacher and servant of God, John D'Avila, {543} Apostle of\nAndalusia, preached that year at Granada, on St. Sebastian's day, which\nis there kept as a great festival. John, having heard his sermon, was so\naffected with it, that, melting into tears, he filled the whole church\nwith his cries and lamentations; detesting his past life, beating his\nbreast, {544} and calling aloud for mercy. Not content with this, he ran\nabout the streets like a distracted person, tearing his hair, and\nbehaving in such a manner that he was followed everywhere by the rabble\nwith sticks and stones, and came home all besmeared with dirt and blood.\nHe then gave away all he had in the world, and having thus reduced\nhimself to absolute poverty, that he might die to himself, and crucify\nall the sentiments of the old man, he began again to counterfeit the\nmadman, running about the streets as before, till some had the charity\nto take him to the venerable John D'Avila, covered with dirt and blood.\nThe holy man, full of the Spirit of God, soon discovered in John the\nmotions of extraordinary graces, spoke to him in private, heard his\ngeneral confession, and gave him proper advice, and promised his\nassistance ever after. John, out of a desire of the greatest\nhumiliations, returned soon after to his apparent madness and\nextravagances. He was, thereupon, taken up and put into a madhouse, on\nsupposition of his being disordered in his senses, where the severest\nmethods were used to bring him to himself, all which he underwent in the\nspirit of penance, and by way of atonement for the sins of his past\nlife. D'Avila, being informed of his conduct, came to visit him, and\nfound him reduced almost to the grave by weakness, and his body covered\nwith wounds and sores; but his soul was still vigorous, and thirsting\nwith the greatest ardor after new sufferings and humiliations. D'Avila\nhowever told him, that having now been sufficiently exercised in that so\nsingular a method of penance and humiliation, he advised him to employ\nhimself for the time to come in something more conducive to his own and\nthe public good. His exhortation had its desired effect; and he grew\ninstantly calm and sedate, to the great astonishment of his keepers. He\ncontinued, however, some time longer in the hospital, serving the sick,\nbut left it entirely on St. Ursula's day, in 1539. This his\nextraordinary conduct is an object of our admiration, not of our\nimitation: in this saint it was the effect of the fervor of his\nconversion, his desire of humiliation, and a holy hatred of himself and\nhis past criminal life. By it he learned in a short time perfectly to\ndie to himself and the world; which prepared his soul for the graces\nwhich God afterwards bestowed on him. He then thought of executing his\ndesign of doing something for the relief of the poor; and, after a\npilgrimage to our Lady's in Guadaloupa, to recommend himself and his\nundertaking to her intercession, in a place celebrated for devotion to\nher, he began by selling wood in the market-place, to feed some poor by\nthe means of his labor. Soon after he hired a house to harbor poor sick\npersons in, whom he served and provided for with an ardor, prudence,\neconomy, and vigilance, that surprised the whole city. This was the\nfoundation of the order of charity, in 1540, which, by the benediction\nof heaven, has since been spread all over Christendom. John was occupied\nall day in serving his patients: in the night he went out to carry in\nnew objects of charity, rather than to seek out provisions for them; for\npeople, of their own accord, brought him in all necessaries for his\nlittle hospital. The archbishop of Granada, taking notice of so\nexcellent an establishment, and admiring the incomparable order observed\nin it, both for the spiritual and temporal care of the poor, furnished\nconsiderable sums to increase it, and favored it with his protection.\nThis excited all persons to vie with each other in contributing to it.\nIndeed the charity, patience, and modesty of St. John, and his wonderful\ncare and foresight, engaged every one to admire and favor the institute.\nThe bishop of Tuy, president of the royal court of judicature in\nGranada, having invited the holy man to dinner, put {545} several\nquestions to him, to all which he answered in such a manner, as gave the\nbishop the highest esteem of his person. It was this prelate that gave\nhim the name of John of God, and prescribed him a kind of habit, though\nSt. John never thought of founding a religious order: for the rules\nwhich bear his name were only drawn up in 1556, six years after his\ndeath; and religious vows were not introduced among his brethren before\nthe year 1570.\n\nTo make trial of the saint's disinterestedness, the marquis of Tarisa\ncame to him in disguise to beg an alms, on pretence of a necessary\nlawsuit, and he received from his hands twenty-five ducats, which was\nall he had. The marquis was so much edified by his charity, that,\nbesides returning the sum, he bestowed on him one hundred and fifty\ncrowns of gold, and sent to his bospital every day, during his stay at\nGranada, one hundred and fifty loaves, four sheep, and six pullets. But\nthe holy man gave a still more illustrious proof of his charity when the\nhospital was on fire; for he carried out most of the sick on his own\nback: and though he passed and repassed through the flames, and stayed\nin the midst of them a considerable time, he received no hurt. But his\ncharity was not confined to his own hospital: he looked upon it as his\nown misfortune if the necessities of any distressed person in the whole\ncountry had remained unrelieved. He therefore made strict inquiry into\nthe wants of the poor over the whole province, relieved many in their\nown houses, employed in a proper manner those that were able to work,\nand with wonderful sagacity laid himself out every way to comfort and\nassist all the afflicted members of Christ. He was particularly active\nand vigilant in settling and providing for young maidens in distress to\nprevent the danger to which they are often exposed, of taking bad\ncourses. He also reclaimed many who were already engaged in vice: for\nwhich purpose he sought out public sinners, and holding a crucifix in\nhis hand, with many tears exhorted them to repentance. Though his life\nseemed to be taken up in continual action, he accompanied it with\nperpetual prayer and incredible corporal austerities. And his tears of\ndevotion, his frequent raptures, and his eminent spirit of\ncontemplation, gave a lustre to his other virtues. But his sincere\nhumility appeared most admirable in all his actions, even amid the\nhonors which he received at the court of Valladolid, whither business\ncalled him. The king and princes seemed to vie with each other who\nshould show him the greatest courtesy, or put the largest alms in his\nhands; whose charitable contributions he employed with great prudence in\nValladolid itself, and the adjacent country. Only perfect virtue could\nstand the test of honors, amid which he appeared the most humble.\nHumiliations seemed to be his delight: these he courted and sought, and\nalways underwent them with great alacrity. One day, when a woman called\nhim hypocrite, and loaded him with invectives, he gave her privately a\npiece of money, and desired her to repeat all she had said in the\nmarket-place.\n\nWorn out at last by ten years' hard service in his hospital, he fell\nsick. The immediate occasion of his distemper seemed to be excess of\nfatigue in saving wood and other such things for the poor in a great\nflood, in which, seeing a person in danger of being drowned, he swam in\nhis long clothes to endeavor to rescue him, not without imminent hazard\nof his own life: but he could not see his Christian brother perish\nwithout endeavoring at all hazards to succor him. He at first concealed\nhis sickness, that he might not be obliged to diminish his labors and\nextraordinary austerities; but in the mean time he carefully revised the\ninventories of all things belonging to his hospital, and inspected all\nthe accounts. He also reviewed all the excellent regulations which he\nhad made for its administration, the distribution of {546} time, and the\nexercises of piety to be observed in it. Upon a complaint that he\nharbored idle strollers and bad women, the archbishop sent for him, and\nlaid open the charge against him. The man of God threw himself prostrate\nat his feet, and said: \"The Son of God came for sinners, and we are\nobliged to promote their conversion, to exhort them, and to sigh and\npray for them. I am unfaithful to my vocation because I neglect this;\nand I confess that I know no other bad person in my hospital but myself;\nwho, as I am obliged to own with extreme confusion, am a most base\nsinner, altogether unworthy to eat the bread of the poor.\" This he spoke\nwith so much feeling and humility that all present were much moved, and\nthe archbishop dismissed him with respect, leaving all things to his\ndiscretion. His illness increasing, the news of it was spread abroad.\nThe lady Anne Ossorio was no sooner informed of his condition, but she\ncame in her coach to the hospital to see him. The servant of God lay in\nhis habit in his little cell, covered with a piece of an old coat\ninstead of a blanket, and having under his head, not indeed a stone, as\nwas his custom, but a basket, in which he used to beg alms in the city\nfor his hospital. The poor and sick stood weeping round him. The lady,\nmoved with compassion, dispatched secretly a message to the archbishop,\nwho sent immediately an order to St. John to obey her as he would do\nhimself, during his illness. By virtue of this authority she obliged him\nto leave his hospital. He named Anthony Martin superior in his place,\nand gave moving instructions to his brethren, recommending to them, in\nparticular, obedience and charity. In going out he visited the blessed\nsacrament, and poured forth his heart before it with extraordinary\nfervor; remaining there absorbed in his devotions so long, that the lady\nAnne Ossorio caused him to be taken up and carried into her coach, in\nwhich she conveyed him to her own house. She herself prepared with the\nhelp of her maids, and gave him with her own hands, his broths and other\nthings, and often read to him the history of the passion of our\nRedeemer. He complained that while our Saviour, in his agony, drank\ngall, they gave him, a miserable sinner, broths. The whole city was in\ntears; all the nobility visited him; the magistrates came to beg he\nwould give his benediction to their city. He answered, that his sins\nrendered him the scandal and reproach of their country; but recommended\nto them his brethren, the poor, and his religious that served them. At\nlast, by order of the archbishop, he gave the city his dying\nbenediction. His exhortations to all were most pathetic. His prayer\nconsisted of most humble sentiments of compunction and inflamed\naspirations of divine love. The archbishop said mass in his chamber,\nheard his confession, gave him the viaticum and extreme unction, and\npromised to pay all his debts, and to provide for all his poor. The\nsaint expired on his knees, before the altar, on the 8th of March, in\n1550, being exactly fifty-five years old. He was buried by the\narchbishop at the head of all the clergy, both secular and regular,\naccompanied by all the court, noblesse, and city, with the utmost pomp.\nHe was honored by many miracles, beatified by Urban VIII. in 1630, and\ncanonized by Alexander VIII. in 1690. His relics were translated into\nthe church of his brethren in 1664. His order of charity to serve the\nsick was approved of by pope Pius V. The Spaniards have their own\ngeneral: but the religious in France and Italy obey a general who\nresides at Rome. They follow the rule of St. Austin.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nOne sermon perfectly converted one who had been long enslaved to the\nworld and his passions, and made him a saint. How comes it that so many\nsermons and pious books produce so little fruit in our souls? It is\naltogether owing to our sloth and wilful hardness of heart, that we\nreceive God's {547} omnipotent word in vain, and to our most grievous\ncondemnation. The heavenly seed can take no root in hearts which receive\nit with indifference and insensibility, or it is trodden upon and\ndestroyed by the dissipation and tumult of our disorderly affections, or\nit is choked by the briers and thorns of earthly concerns. To profit by\nit, we must listen to it with awe and respect, in the silence of all\ncreatures, in interior solitude and peace, and must carefully nourish it\nin our hearts. The holy law of God is comprised in the precept of divine\nlove; a precept so sweet, a virtue so glorious and so happy, as to carry\nalong with it its present incomparable reward. St. John, from the moment\nof his conversion, by the penitential austerities which he performed,\nwas his own greatest persecutor; but it was chiefly by heroic works of\ncharity that he endeavored to offer to God the most acceptable sacrifice\nof compunction, gratitude, and love. What encouragement has Christ given\nus in every practice of this virtue, by declaring, that whatever we do\nto others he esteems as done to himself! To animate ourselves to fervor,\nwe may often call to mind what St. John frequently repeated to his\ndisciples, \"Labor without intermission to do all the good works in your\npower, while time is allowed you.\" His spirit of penance, love, and\nfervor he inflamed by meditating assiduously on the sufferings of\nChrist, of which he often used to say: \"Lord, thy thorns are my roses,\nand thy sufferings my paradise.\"\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  The venerable John of Avila, or Avilla, who may be called the father\n    of the most eminent saints that flourished in Spain in the sixteenth\n    century, was a native of the diocese of Toledo. At fourteen years of\n    age he was sent to Salamanca, and trained up to the law. From his\n    infancy he applied himself with great earnestness to prayer, and all\n    the exercises of piety and religion; and he was yet very young when\n    he found his inclinations strongly bent towards an ecclesiastical\n    state in order to endeavor by his tears and labors to kindle the\n    fire of divine love in the hearts of men. From the university his\n    parents called him home, but were surprised and edified to see the\n    ardor with which he pursued the most heroic practices of Christian\n    perfection; which, as they both feared God, they were afraid in the\n    least to check, or damp his fervor. His diet was sparing, and as\n    coarse as he could choose, without an appearance of singularity or\n    affectation; he contrived to sleep on twigs, which he secretly laid\n    on his bed, wore a hair shirt, and used severe disciplines. What was\n    most admirable in his conduct, was the universal denial of his will,\n    by which he labored to die to himself, added to his perfect\n    humility, patience, obedience, and meekness, by which he subjected\n    his spirit to the holy law of Christ. All his spare time was devoted\n    to prayer, and he approached very frequently the holy sacraments. In\n    that of the blessed Eucharist he began to find a wonderful relish\n    and devotion, and he spent some hours in preparing himself to\n    receive it with the utmost purity of heart and fervor of love he was\n    able to bring to that divine banquet. In the commerce of the world\n    he appeared so much out of his element, that he was sent to the\n    university of Alcala, where he finished his studies in the same\n    manner he had began them, and bore the first prize in philosophy and\n    his other classes. F. Dominic Soto, the learned Dominican professor,\n    who was his master, conceived for him the warmest affection and the\n    highest esteem, and often declared how great a man he doubted not\n    this scholar would one day become. Peter Guerrera, who was\n    afterwards archbishop of Toledo, was also from that time his great\n    admirer, and constant friend. Both his parents dying about that\n    time, John entered into holy orders. On the same day on which he\n    said his first mass, instead of giving an entertainment according to\n    the custom, he provided a dinner for twelve poor persons, on whom he\n    waited at table, and whom he clothed at his own expense, and with\n    his own hands. When he returned into his own country, he sold his\n    whole estate, for he was the only child and heir of his parents: the\n    entire price he gave to the poor, reserving nothing for himself\n    besides an old suit of mean apparel, desiring to imitate the\n    apostles, whom Christ forbade to carry either purse or scrip. Taking\n    St. Paul for his patron and model, he entered upon the ministry of\n    preaching, in which sublime function his preparation consisted not\n    merely in the study and exercise of oratory, and in a consummate\n    knowledge of faith, and of the rules of Christian virtue, but much\n    more in a perfect victory over himself and his passions, the entire\n    disengagement of his heart and affections from the world and all\n    earthly things, an eminent spirit of humility, tender charity, and\n    inflamed zeal for the glory of God, and the sanctification of souls.\n    He once said to a young clergyman, who consulted him by what method\n    he could learn the art of preaching with fruit, that it was no other\n    than that of the most ardent love of God. Of this he was himself a\n    most illustrious example. Prayer, and an indefatigable application\n    to the duties of his ministry, divided his whole time; and such was\n    his thirst of the salvation of souls, that the greatest labors and\n    dangers were equally his greatest gain and pleasure; he seemed even\n    to gather strength from the former, and confidence and courage from\n    the latter. His inflamed sermons, supported by the admirable example\n    of his heroic virtue, and the most pure maxims of the gospel,\n    delivered with an eloquence and an unction altogether divine, from\n    the overflowings of a heart burning with the most ardent love of\n    God, and penetrated with the deepest sentiments of humility and\n    compunction, had a force which the most hardened hearts seemed not\n    able to withstand. Many sacred orators preach themselves rather than\n    the word of God, and speak with so much art and care, that their\n    hearers consider more how they speak than what they say. This true\n    minister of the gospel never preached or instructed others without\n    having first, for a considerable time, begged of God with great\n    earnestness to move both his tongue and the hearts of his hearers:\n    he mounted the pulpit full of the most sincere distrust in his own\n    abilities and endeavors, and contempt of himself; and with the most\n    ardent thirst of the salvation of the souls of all his hearers. He\n    cast his nets, or rather sowed the seed, of eternal life. The Holy\n    Ghost, who inspired and animated his soul, seemed to speak by the\n    organ of his voice; and gave so fruitful a blessing to his words,\n    that wonderful were the conversions he everywhere wrought. Whole\n    assemblies came from his sermons quite changed, and their change\n    appeared immediately in their countenances and behavior. He never\n    ceased to exhort those that were with him by his inflamed\n    discourses, and the absent by his letters. A collection of these,\n    extant in several languages, is a proof of his elo quence,\n    experimental science of virtue, and tender and affecting charity.\n    The ease with which he wrote them without study, shows how richly\n    his mind was stored with an inexhausted fund of excellent motives\n    and reflections on every subject matter of piety, with what\n    readiness he disposed those motives in an agreeable methodical\n    manner, and with what unction he expressed them, insomuch that his\n    style appears to be no other than the pure language of his heart,\n    always bleeding for his own sins and those of the world. So various\n    are the instructions contained in these letters, that any one may\n    find such as are excellently suited to his particular circumstances,\n    whatever virtue he desires to obtain, or vice to shun, and under\n    whatever affliction he seeks for holy advice and comfort. It was\n    from the school of an interior experienced virtue that he was\n    qualified to be so excellent a master. This spirit of all virtues he\n    cultivated in his soul by their continual exercise. Under the\n    greatest importunity of business, besides his office and mass, with\n    a long preparation and thanksgiving, he never failed to give to\n    private holy meditation two hours, when he first rose in the\n    morning, from three till five o'clock, and again two hours in the\n    evening before he took his rest, for which he never allowed himself\n    more than four hours of the night, from eleven till three o'clock.\n    During the time of his sickness, towards the latter end of his life,\n    almost his whole time was devoted to prayer, he being no longer able\n    to sustain the fatigue of his functions. His clothes were always\n    very mean, and usually old; his food was such as he bought in the\n    streets, which wanted no dressing, as herbs, fruit, or milk; for he\n    would never have a servant. At the tables of others he ate sparingly\n    of whatever was given him, or what was next at hand. He exceedingly\n    extolled, and was a true lover of holy poverty, not only as it is an\n    exercise of penance, and cuts off the root of many passions, but\n    also as a state dear to those who love our divine Redeemer, who was\n    born, lived, and died, in extreme poverty. Few persons ever appeared\n    to be more perfectly dead to the world than this holy man. A certain\n    nobleman, who was showing him his curious gardens, canals, and\n    buildings, expressed his surprise to see that no beauties and\n    wonders of art and nature could fix his attention or raise his\n    curiosity. The holy man replied, \"I trust confess that nothing of\n    this kind gives me any satisfaction because my heart takes no\n    pleasure in them.\" This holy man was so entirely possessed with God,\n    and filled with the love of invisible things, as to loathe all\n    earthly things, which seemed not to have a direct and immediate\n    tendency to them. He preached at Seville, Cordova, Granada, Baeza,\n    and over the whole country of Andalusia. By his discourses and\n    instructions, St. John of God, St. Francis of Borgia, St. Teresa,\n    Lewis of Granada, and many others, were moved, and assisted to lay\n    the deep foundation of perfect virtue to which the divine grace\n    raised them. Many noblemen and ladies were directed by him in the\n    paths of Christian perfection, particularly the Countess of Feria\n    and the Marchioness of Pliego, whose conduct, first in a married\n    state, and afterwards in holy widowhood, affords most edifying\n    instances of heroic practices and sentiments of all virtues. This\n    great servant of God taught souls to renounce and cast away that\n    false liberty by which they are the worst of slaves under the\n    tyranny of their passions, and to take up the sweet chains of the\n    divine love which gives men a true sovereignty, not only over all\n    other created things, but also over themselves. He lays down in his\n    works the rules by which he conducted so many to perfect virtue,\n    teaching us that we must learn to know both God and ourselves, not\n    by the lying glass of self-love, but by the clear beam of truth:\n    ourselves, that we may see the depth of our miseries, and fly with\n    all our might from the cause thereof, which is our pride, and other\n    sins: God, that we may always tremble before his infinite majesty,\n    may believe his unerring truth, may hope for a share in his\n    inexhausted mercy, and may vehemently love that incomprehensible\n    abyss of goodness and charity. These lessons he lays down with\n    particular advice how to subside our passions. In his treatise on\n    the Audi filia, or on those words of the Holy Ghost, Psa. xliv,\n    _Hear me, daughter, bend thine ear, forget thy house,_ &c. The\n    occasion upon which he composed this book was as follows: Donna\n    Soncha Carilla, daughter of Don Lewis Fernandez of Cordoba, lord of\n    Guadalcazar, a young lady of great beauty and accomplishments, was\n    called to court to serve in quality of lady of honor to the queen.\n    Her father furnished her with an equipage, and every thing suitable;\n    but before her journey, she went to cast herself at the feet of\n    Avila, and make her confession. She afterwards said he reproved her\n    sharply for coming to the sacred tribunal of penance too richly\n    attired, and in a manner not becoming a penitent whose heart was\n    broken with compunction. What else passed in their conference is\n    unknown; but coming from the church, she begged to be excused from\n    going to court, laid aside all sumptuous attire, and gave herself up\n    entirely to recollection and penance. Thus she led a retired most\n    holy life in her father's house till she died, most happily, about\n    ten years after. Her pious director wrote this book for her\n    instruction in the practice of an interior life, teaching her how\n    she ought to subdue her passions, and vanquish temptations,\n    especially that of pride; also by what means she was to labor to\n    obtain the love of God, and all virtues. He dwells at length on\n    assiduous meditation, on the passion of Christ, especially on the\n    excess of love with which he suffered so much for us. His other\n    works, and all the writers who speak of this holy man, bear\n    testimony to his extraordinary devotion towards the passion of\n    Christ. From this divine book he learned the perfect spirit of all\n    virtues, especially a desire of suffering with him and for him. Upon\n    this motive he exhorts us to give God many thanks when he sends us\n    an opportunity of enduring some little, that by our good use of this\n    little trial, our Lord nay be moved to give us strength to suffer\n    more, and may send us more to undergo. Envy raising him enemies, he\n    was accused of shutting heaven to the rich, and upon that senseless\n    slander thrown into the prison of the inquisition at Seville. This\n    sensible disgrace and persecution he bore with incredible sweetness\n    and patience, and after he was acquitted, returned only kindnesses\n    to his calumniators. In the fiftieth year of his age he began to be\n    afflicted with the stone, frequent fevers, and a complication of\n    other painful disorders: under the sharpest pains he used often to\n    repeat this prayer, \"Lord. increase my sufferings, but give me also\n    patience.\" Once, in a fit of exquisite pain, he begged our Redeemer\n    to assuage it: and that instant he found it totally removed, and he\n    fell into a gentle slumber. He afterwards reproached himself as\n    guilty of pusillanimity. It is not to be expressed how much he\n    suffered from sickness during the seventeen last years of his life.\n    He died with great tranquillity and devotion, on the 10th of May,\n    1569. The venerable John of Avila was a man powerful in words and\n    works, a prodigy of penance, the glory of the priesthood, the\n    edification of the church by his virtues, its support by his zeal,\n    its oracle by his doctrine. A profound and universal genius, a\n    prudent and upright director, a celebrated preacher, the apostle of\n    Andalusia, a man revered by all Spain, known to the whole Christian\n    world. A man of such sanctity and authority, that princes adopted\n    his decisions, the learned were improved by his enlightened\n    knowledge, and St. Teresa regarded him as her patron and protector,\n    consulted him as her master, and followed him as her guide and\n    model. See the edifying life of the venerable John of Avila, written\n    by F. Lewis of Granada; also by Lewis Munnoz: and the abstract\n    prefixed by Arnauld d' Andilly to the French edition of his works in\n    folio, at Paris, in 1673.\n\nST. FELIX, B.C.\n\nHE was a holy Burgundian priest, who converted and baptized Sigebert,\nprince of the East-Angles, during his exile in France, whither he was\nforced to retire, to secure himself from the insidious practices of his\nrelations. Sigebert being called home to the crown of his ancestors,\ninvited out of France his spiritual father St. Felix, to assist him in\nbringing over his idolatrous subjects to the Christian faith: these were\nthe inhabitants of Norfolk, Suffolk, and Cambridgeshire. Our saint being\nordained bishop by Honorius, archbishop of Canterbury, and deputed by\nhim to preach to the East-Angles, was surprisingly successful in his\nundertaking, and made almost a thorough conversion of that country. The\nmost learned and most Christian king, Sigebert, as he is styled by Bede,\nconcurred with him in all things, and founded churches, monasteries, and\nschools. From those words of Bede, that \"he set up a school for youth,\nin which Felix furnished him with masters,\" some have called him the\nfounder of the university of Cambridge. St. Felix established schools at\nFelixstow; Cressy adds at Flixton or Felixton. King Sigebert, after two\nyears, resigned his crown to Egric, his cousin, and became a monk at\nCnobersburgh, now Burgh-castle, in Suffolk, which monastery he had\nfounded for St. Fursey. Four years after this, the people dragged him\nout of his retirement by main force, and conveyed him into the army, to\ndefend them against the cruel king Penda, who had made war upon the\nEast-Angles. He refused to bear arms, as inconsistent with the monastic\nprofession; and would have nothing but a wand in his hand. Being slain\nwith Egric in 642, he was honored as a martyr in the English calendars,\non the 27th of September, and in the Gallican on the 7th of August.\nEgric was succeeded by the good king Annas, the father of many saints;\nas, SS. Erconwald, bishop; Ethelrede, Sexburge, Ethelburge, and\nEdilburge, abbesses; and Withburge. He was slain fighting against the\npagans, after a reign of nineteen years, and buried at Blitheburg: his\nremains were afterwards removed to St. Edmond's-bury. St. Felix\nestablished his see at Dumraoc, now Dunwich, in Suffolk, and governed it\nseventeen years, dying in {548} 646. He was buried at Dunwich; but his\nrelics were translated to the abbey of Ramsey, under king Canutus. See\nBede, l. 2, Malmesbury; Wharton, t. 1, p. 403.[1]\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  Dunwich was formerly a large city, with fifty-two religious houses\n    in it, but was gradually swallowed up by the sea. The remains of the\n    steeples are still discoverable, under water, about five miles from\n    the shore. See Mr. Gardiner's History and Antiquities of Dunwich.\n    4to. in 1754.\n\nSS. APOLLONIUS, PHILEMON, &c., MARTYRS.\n\nAPOLLONIUS was a zealous holy anchoret, and was apprehended by the\npersecutors at Antinous in Egypt. Many heathens came to insult and\naffront him while in chains; and among others one Philemon, a musician,\nvery famous, and much admired by the people. He treated the martyr as an\nimpious person and a seducer, and one that deserved the public hatred.\nTo his injuries the saint only answered, \"My son, may God have mercy on\nthee, and not lay these reproaches to thy charge.\" This his meekness\nwrought so powerfully on Philemon, that he forthwith confessed himself a\nChristian. Both were brought before the judge whom Metaphrastes and\nUsuard call Arian, and who had already put to death SS. Asclas, Timothy,\nPaphnutius, and several other martyrs: after making them suffer all\nmanner of tortures, he condemned them to be burnt alive. When the fire\nwas kindled about them, Apollonius prayed: \"Lord, deliver not to beasts\nthe souls who confess thee; but manifest thy power.\" At that instant a\ncloud of dew encompassed the martyrs, and put out the fire. The judge\nand people cried out at this miracle: \"The God of the Christians is the\ngreat and only God.\" The prefect of Egypt being informed of it, caused\nthe judge and the two confessors to be brought, loaded with irons, to\nAlexandria. During the journey, Apollonius, by his instructions,\nprevailed so far upon those who conducted him, that they presented\nthemselves also to the judge with their prisoners, and confessed\nthemselves likewise to be Christians. The prefect, finding their\nconstancy invincible, caused them all to be thrown into the sea, about\nthe year 311. Their bodies were afterwards found on the shore, and were\nall put into one sepulchre. \"By whom,\" says Rufinus, \"many miracles are\nwrought to the present time, and the vows and prayers of all are\nreceived, and are accomplished. Hither the Lord was pleased to bring me,\nand to fulfil my requests.\" See Rufinus, Vit. Patr l. 2, c. 19, p. 477.\nPalladius Lausiac. c. 65, 66.\n\nST. JULIAN, ARCHBISHOP OF TOLEDO, C.\n\nHE presided in the fourteenth and fifteenth councils of Toledo. King\nWemba, falling sick, received penance and the monastic habit from his\nhands, and recovering, lived afterwards a monk. St. Julian has left us a\nHistory of the Wars of king Wemba, a book against the Jews, and three\nbooks On Prognostics, or on death, and the state of souls after death.\nHe teaches that love, and a desire of being united to God, ought to\nextinguish in us the natural fear of death: that the saints in heaven\npray for us, earnestly desire our happiness, and know our actions,\neither in God whom they behold, and in whom they discover all truth\nwhich it concerns them to know; or by the angels, the messengers of God\non earth: but that the damned do not ordinarily know what passes on\nearth, because they neither see God nor converse with our angels. He\nsays that prayers for the dead are thanksgivings for the good, a\npropitiation for the souls in purgatory, but {549} no relief to the\ndamned. He was raised to the see of Toledo in 680, and died in 690. See\nIldefonse of Toledo, Append. Hom. Illustr.\n\nST. DUTHAK, BISHOP OF ROSS, IN SCOTLAND, C\n\nHIS zeal and labors in preaching the word of God, his contempt of\nhimself, his compassion for the poor and for sinners, his extreme love\nof poverty, never reserving any thing for himself, and the extraordinary\nausterity of his life, to which he had inured himself from his\nchildhood, are much extolled by the author of his life. The same writer\nassures us, that he was famous for several miracles and predictions, and\nthat he foretold an invasion of the Danes, which happened ten years\nafter his death, in 1263, in the reign of Alexander III., when, with\ntheir king Achol, they were defeated by Alexander Stuart,\ngreat-grandfather to Robert, the first king of that family. This victory\nwas ascribed to the intercession of St. Andrew and St. Duthak. Our\nsaint, after longing desires of being united to God, passed joyfully to\nbliss, in 1253. His relics, kept in the collegiate church of Thane, in\nthe county of Ross, were resorted to by pilgrims from all parts of\nScotland. Lesley, the pious bishop of Ross, (who, after remaining four\nyears in prison with queen Mary, passed into France, was chosen\nsuffragan of Rouen, by cardinal Bourbon, and died at Brussels, in 1591,)\nhad an extraordinary devotion to this saint, the chief patron of his\ndiocese. See Lesley, Descript. Scot. p. 27, and the MS. life of St.\nDuthak, compiled by a Scottish Jesuit, nephew by the mother to bishop\nLesley, and native of that diocese. See also King in Calend.\n\nST. ROSA, OF VITERBO, VIRGIN.\n\nFROM her childhood she addicted herself entirely to the practice of\nmortification and assiduous prayer; she was favored with the gift of\nmiracles, and an extraordinary talent of converting the most hardened\nsinners. She professed the third rule of St. Francis, living always in\nthe house of her father in Viterbo, where she died in 1261. See Wading's\nAnnals, and Barbaza, Vies des SS. du Tiers Ordre, t. 2, p. 77.\n\nST. SENAN, B.C.\n\nHE was born in the country of Hy-Conalls, in Ireland, in the latter part\nof the fifth century, was a disciple of the abbots Cassidus and Natal,\nor Naal: then travelled for spiritual improvement to Rome, and thence\ninto Britain. In this kingdom he contracted a close friendship with St.\nDavid. After his return he founded many churches in Ireland, and a great\nmonastery in Inis-Cathaig, an island lying at the mouth of the river\nShannon, which he governed, and in which he continued to reside after he\nwas advanced to the episcopal dignity. The abbots, his successors for\nseveral centuries, were all bishops, till this great diocese was divided\ninto three, namely, of Limerick, Killaloe, and Ardfert. St. Senan died\non the same day and year with St. David; but was honored in the Irish\nchurch on the 8th of March. A town in Cornwall bears the name of St.\nSenan. See his acts in Colgan, p. 602.\n\n{550}\n\nST. PSALMOD, OR SAUMAY, ANCRORET.\n\nHE was born in Ireland, and, retiring into France, led an eremitical\nlife at Limousin, where he acquired great reputation for his sanctity\nand miracles. He died about 589. See the Martyrology of Evreux.\n\n\nMARCH IX.\n\nST. FRANCES, WIDOW, FOUNDRESS OF THE COLLATINES.\n\nAbridged from her life by her confessor Canon. Mattiotti; and that by\nMagdalen Dell'A{}ara, superioress of the Oblates, or Coliatines. Helyot,\nHist. des Ordr. Mon. t. 6, p. 208.\n\nA.D. 1440.\n\nST. FRANCES was born at Rome in 1384. Her parents, Paul de Buxo and\nJacobella Rofredeschi, were both of illustrious families. She imbibed\nearly sentiments of piety, and such was her love of purity from her\ntender age, that she would not suffer her own father to touch even her\nhands, unless covered. She had always an aversion to the amusements of\nchildren, and loved solitude and prayer. At eleven years of age she\ndesired to enter a monastery, but, in obedience to her parents, was\nmarried to a rich young Roman nobleman, named Laurence Ponzani, in 1396.\nA grievous sickness showed how disagreeable this kind of life was to her\ninclinations. She joined with it her former spirit; kept herself as\nretired as she could, shunning feastings and public meetings. All her\ndelight was in prayer, meditation, and visiting churches. Above all, her\nobedience and condescension to her husband was inimitable, which engaged\nsuch a return of affection, that for forty years which they lived\ntogether, there never happened the least disagreement; and their whole\nlife was a constant strife and emulation to prevent each other in mutual\ncomplaisance and respect. While she was at her prayers or other\nexercises, if called away by her husband, or the meanest person of her\nfamily, she laid all aside to obey without delay, saying: \"A married\nwoman must, when called upon, quit her devotions to God at the altar, to\nfind him in her household affairs.\" God was pleased to show her the\nmerit of this her obedience; for the authors of her life relate, that\nbeing called away four times in beginning the same verse of a psalm in\nour Lady's office, returning the fifth time, she found that verse\nwritten in golden letters. She treated her domestics not as servants,\nbut as brothers and sisters, and future co-heirs in heaven; and studied\nby all means in her power to induce them seriously to labor for their\nsalvation. Her mortifications were extraordinary, especially when, some\nyears before her husband's death, she was permitted by him to inflict on\nher body what hardships she pleased. She from that time abstained from\nwine, fish, and dainty meats, with a total abstinence from flesh, unless\nin her greatest sicknesses. Her ordinary diet was hard and mouldy bread.\nShe would procure secretly, out of the pouches of the beggars, their dry\ncrusts in exchange for better bread. When she {551} fared the best, she\nonly added to bread a few unsavory herbs without oil, and drank nothing\nbut water, making use of a human skull for her cup. She ate but once a\nday, and by long abstinence had lost all relish of what she took. Her\ngarments were of coarse serge, and she never wore linen, not even in\nsickness. Her discipline was armed with rowels and sharp points. She\nwore continually a hair shirt, and a girdle of horse-hair. An iron\ngirdle had so galled her flesh, that her confessor obliged her to lay it\naside. If she inadvertently chanced to offend God in the least, she\nseverely that instant punished the part that had offended; as the\ntongue, by sharply biting it, &c. Her example was of such edification,\nthat many Roman ladies having renounced a life of idleness, pomp, and\nsoftness, joined her in pious exercises, and put themselves under the\ndirection of the Benedictin monks of the congregation of Monte-Oliveto,\nwithout leaving the world, making vows, or wearing any particular habit.\nSt. Frances prayed only for children that they might be citizens of\nheaven, and when she was blessed with them, it was her whole care to\nmake them saints.\n\nIt pleased God, for her sanctification, to make trial of her virtue by\nmany afflictions. During the troubles which ensued upon the invasion of\nRome by Ladislas, king of Naples, and the great schism under pope John\nXXIII. at the time of opening the council of Constance, in 1413, her\nhusband, with his brother-in-law Paulucci, was banished Rome, his estate\nconfiscated, his house pulled down, and his eldest son, John Baptist,\ndetained a hostage. Her soul remained calm amidst all those storms: she\nsaid with Job: \"_God hath given, and God hath taken away._ I rejoice in\nthese losses, because they are God's will. Whatever he sends I shall\ncontinually bless and praise his name for.\" The schism being\nextinguished by the council of Constance, and tranquillity restored at\nRome, her husband recovered his dignity and estate. Some time after,\nmoved by the great favors St. Frances received from heaven, and by her\neminent virtue, he gave her full leave to live as she pleased; and he\nhimself chose to serve God in a state of continency. He permitted her in\nhis own life-time to found a monastery of nuns, called Oblates, for the\nreception of such of her own sex as were disposed to embrace a religious\nlife. The foundation of this house was in 1425. She gave them the rule\nof St. Benedict, adding some particular constitutions of her own, and\nput them under the direction of the congregation of the Olivetans. The\nhouse being too small for the numbers that fled to this sanctuary from\nthe corruption of the world, she would gladly have removed her community\nto a larger house; but not finding one suitable, she enlarged it, in\n1433, from which year the founding of the Order is dated. It was\napproved by pope Eugenius IV. in 1437. They are called Collatines,\nperhaps from the quarter of Rome in which they are situated; and\nOblates, because they call their profession an oblation, and use in it\nthe word offero, not profiteer. St. Frances could not yet join her new\nfamily; but as soon as she had settled her domestic affairs, after the\ndeath of her husband, she went barefoot, with a cord about her neck, to\nthe monastery which she had founded, and there, prostrate on the ground,\nbefore the religious, her spiritual children, begged to be admitted. She\naccordingly took the habit on St. Benedict's day, in 1437. She always\nsought the meanest employments in the house, being fully persuaded she\nwas of all the most contemptible before God; and she labored to appear\nas mean in the eyes of the world as she was in her own. She continued\nthe same humiliations, and the same universal poverty, though soon after\nchosen superioress of her congregation. Almighty God bestowed on her\nhumility, extraordinary graces, and supernatural favors, as frequent\nvisions, raptures, and the gift of prophecy. She enjoyed the familiar\nconversation of her angel-guardian, as her life and the process of her\ncanonization {552} attest. She was extremely affected by meditating on\nour Saviour's passion, which she had always present to her mind. At mass\nshe was so absorbed in God as to seem immoveable, especially after holy\ncommunion: she often fell into ecstasies of love and devotion. She was\nparticularly devout to St. John the Evangelist, and above all to our\nLady, under whose singular protection she put her Order. Going out to\nsee her son John Baptist, who was dangerously sick, she fell so ill\nherself that she could not return to her monastery at night. After\nhaving foretold her death, and received the sacraments, she expired on\nthe 9th of March, in the year 1440, and of her age the fifty-sixth. God\nattested her sanctity by miracles: she was honored among the saints\nimmediately after her death, and solemnly canonized by Paul V. in 1608.\nHer shrine in Rome is most magnificent and rich: and her festival is\nkept as a holyday in the city, with great solemnity. The Oblates make no\nsolemn vows, only a promise of obedience to the mother-president, enjoy\npensions, inherit estates, and go abroad with leave. Their abbey in Rome\nis filled with ladies of the first rank.\n\nIn a religious life, in which a regular distribution of holy employments\nand duties takes up the whole day, and leaves no interstices of time for\nidleness, sloth, or the world, hours pass in these exercises with the\nrapidity of moments, and moments by fervor of the desires bear the value\nof years. There is not an instant in which a soul is not employed for\nGod, and studies not with her whole heart to please him. Every step,\nevery thought and desire, is a sacrifice of fidelity, obedience, and\nlove offered to him. Even meals, recreation, and rest, are sanctified by\nthis intention; and from the religious vows and habitual purpose of the\nsoul of consecrating herself entirely to God in time and eternity, every\naction, as St. Thomas teaches, renews and contains the fervor and merit\nof this entire consecration, of which it is a part. In a secular life, a\nperson by regularity in the employment of his time, and fervor in\ndevoting himself to God in all his actions and designs, may in some\ndegree enjoy the same happiness and advantage. This St. Frances\nperfectly practised, even before she renounced the world. She lived\nforty years with her husband without ever giving him the least occasion\nof offence; and by the fervor with which she conversed of heaven, she\nseemed already to have quitted the earth, and to have made paradise her\nordinary dwelling.\n\nST. GREGORY OF NYSSA, B.C.\n\nHE was younger brother to St. Basil the Great; was educated in polite\nand sacred studies, and married to a virtuous lady. He afterwards\nrenounced the world, and was ordained lector; but was overcome by his\nviolent passion for eloquence to teach rhetoric. St. Gregory Nazianzen\nwrote to him in the strongest terms, exhorting him to renounce that\npaltry or ignoble glory, as he elegantly calls it.[1] This letter\nproduced its desired effect. St. Gregory returned to the sacred ministry\nin the lower functions of the altar: after some time he was called by\nhis brother Basil to assist him in his pastoral duties, and in 372 was\nchosen bishop of Nyssa, a city of Cappadocia, near the Lesser Armenia.\nThe Arians, who trembled at his name, prevailed with Demosthenes, vicar\nor deputy-governor of the province, to banish him. Upon the death of the\nArian emperor, Valens, in 378, St. Gregory was restored to his see by\nthe emperor Gratian. Our holy prelate was chosen by his colleagues to\nredress the abuses and dissensions which heresy had introduced {553} in\nArabia and Palestine. He assisted at the council of Constantinople in\n381, and was always regarded as the centre of the Catholic communion in\nthe East. Those prelates only who joined themselves to him, were looked\nupon as orthodox. He died about the year 400, probably on the 10th of\nJanuary, on which the Greeks have always kept his festival: the Latins\nhonor his memory on the 9th of March. The high reputation of his\nlearning and virtue procured him the title of Father of the Fathers, as\nthe seventh general council testifies. His sermons are the monuments of\nhis piety; but his great penetration and learning appear more in his\npolemic works, especially in his twelve books against Eunomius. See his\nlife collected from his works, St. Greg. Nazianzen, Socrates, and\nTheodoret, by Hermant, Tillemont, t. 9, p. 561; Ceillier, t. 8, p. 200.\nDr. Cave imagines, that St. Gregory continued to cohabit with his wife\nafter he was bishop. But St. Jerom testifies that the custom of the\neastern churches did not suffer such a thing. She seems to have lived to\nsee him bishop, and to have died about the year 384; but she professed a\nstate of continency: hence St. Gregory Nazianzen, in his short eulogium\nof her, says, she rivalled her brothers-in-law who were in the\npriesthood, and calls her sacred, or one consecrated to God; probably\nshe was a deaconess.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  [Greek: {apstzen eaostzian}], Naz. {}.\n\n\nAPPENDIX\n\nON\n\nTHE WRITINGS OF ST. GREGORY OF NYSSA.\n\nST. GREGORY OF NYSSA wrote many learned works extant in three volumes in\nfolio, published by the learned Jesuit, Fronto le Duc, at Paris, an.\n1615 and 1638. They are eternal monuments of this father's great zeal,\npiety, and eloquence. Photius commends his diction, as surpassing that\nof all other rhetoricians, in perspicuity, elegance, and a pleasing turn\nof expression, and says, that in the beauty and sweetness of his\neloquence, and the copiousness of his arguments in his polemic works\nagainst Eunomius, he far outwent the rest who handled the same subjects.\nHe wrote many commentaries on holy scripture. The first is his\nHexaemeron, or book on the six days' work of the creation of the world.\nIt is a supplement to his brother Basil's work on the same subject, who\nhad omitted the obscurer questions, above the reach of the vulgar, to\nwhom he preached. Gregory filled up that deficiency, at the request of\nmany learned men, with an accuracy that became the brother of the great\nBasil. He shows in this work a great knowledge of philosophy. He\nfinishes it by saying, The widow that offered her two mites did not\nhinder the magnificent presents of the rich, nor did they who offered\nskins, wood, and goats' hair towards the tabernacle, hinder those who\ncould give gold, silver, and precious stones. \"I shall be happy,\" says\nhe, \"if I can present hairs; and shall rejoice to see others add\nornaments of purple, or gold tissue.\" His book, On the Workmanship of\nMan, may be looked upon as a continuation of the former, though it was\nwritten first. He shows it was suitable that man, being made to command\nin quality of king all this lower creation, should find his palace\nalready adorned, and that other things should be created before he\nappeared who was to be the spectator of the miracles of the Omnipotent.\nHis frame is so admirable, his nature so excellent, that the whole\nBlessed Trinity proceeds as it were by a council, to his formation. He\nis a king, by his superiority and command over all other creatures by\nhis gift of reason; is part spiritual, by which he can unite himself to\nGod; part material, by which he has it in his power to use and even\nenslave himself to creatures. Virtue is his purple garment, immortality\nhis sceptre, and eternal glory his crown. His resemblance to his Creator\nconsist in the soul only, that is, in its moral virtues and God's grace;\nwhich divine resemblance men most basely efface in themselves by sin. He\nspeaks of the dignity and spiritual nature of the soul, and the future\nresurrection of the body, and concludes with an anatomical description\nof it, which shows him to have been well skilled in medicine, and in\nthat branch of natural philosophy, for that age. The two homilies on the\nwords, _Let us make man_, are falsely ascribed to him. When {554}\ndesired by one Caesarius to prescribe him rules of a perfect virtue, he\ndid this by his Life of Moses, the pattern of virtue. He closes it with\nthis lesson, that perfection consists not in avoiding sin for fear of\ntorments, as slaves do, nor for the hope of recompense, as mercenaries\ndo; but in \"fearing, as the only thing to be dreaded, to lose the\nfriendship of God; and in having only one desire, viz., of God's\nfriendship, in which alone man's spiritual life consists. This is to be\nobtained by fixing the mind only on divine and heavenly things.\" We have\nnext his two treatises, On the Inscriptions of the Psalms, and An\nExposition of the sixth Psalm, full of allegorical and moral\ninstructions. In the first of these, extolling the divine sentiments and\ninstructions of those holy prayers, he says, that all Christians learned\nthem, and thought that time lost in which they had them not in their\nmouths: even little children and old men sung them; all in affliction\nfound them their comfort sent by God those who travelled by land or sea,\nthose who were employed in sedentary trades; and the faithful of all\nages, sexes, and conditions, sick and well, made the Psalms their\noccupation. These divine canticles were sung by them in all times of\njoy, in marriages and festivals; by day, and in the night vigils, &c.\nHis eight homilies, On the three first Chapters of Ecclesiastes, are an\nexcellent moral instruction and literal explication of that book. He\naddressed his fifteen homilies, On the Book of Canticles, which he had\npreached to his flock, to Olympias, a lady of Constantinople, who, after\ntwenty months' marriage, being left a widow, distributed a great estate\nto the church and poor, a great part by the hands of our saint, whom she\nhad settled an acquaintance with in a journey he had made to the\nimperial city. St. Gregory extols the excellency of that divine book,\nnot to be read but by pure hearts, disengaged from all love of\ncreatures, and free from all corporeal images. He says the Holy Ghost\ninstructs us by degrees; by the book of Proverbs to avoid sin; by\nEcclesiastes to draw our affections from creatures; by this of Canticles\nhe teaches perfection, which is pure charity. He explains it mystically.\nHe has five orations On the Lord's Prayer. In the first, he elegantly\nshows the universal, indispensable necessity of prayer, which alone\nunites the heart to God, and preserves it from the approach of sin.\nEvery breath we draw ought also to be accompanied with thanksgiving, as\nit brings us innumerable benefits from God, which we ought continually\nto acknowledge. But we must only pray for spiritual, not temporal\nthings. In the second, he shows that none can justly call God Father,\nwho remain in sin, without desires of repentance, and who consequently\nbear the ensigns of the devil. Resemblance with God is the mark of being\nhis son; that title further obliges us to have our minds and hearts\nalways in heaven. By the next we pray that God alone may reign in us,\nand his will be ever done by us; and that the devil or self-love never\nhave any share in our hearts or actions. By the fourth we ask bread,\n_i.e._, absolute necessaries, not dainties, not riches, or any thing\nsuperfluous, or for the world, and even bread only for today, without\nsolicitude for to-morrow, which perhaps will never come: all irregular\ndesires and all occasions of them must be excluded. \"The serpent is\nwatching at your heel, but do you watch his head: give him no admittance\ninto your mind: from the least entrance he will draw in after him the\nfoldings of his whole body. If Eve's counsellor persuades you that any\nthing looks beautiful and tastes sweet, if you listen you are soon drawn\ninto gluttony, and lust, and avarice, &c.\" The fifth petition he thus\nparaphrases, \"I have forgiven my debtors, do not reject your suppliant.\nI dismissed my debtor cheerful and free. I am your debtor, send me not\naway sorrowful. May my dispositions, my sentence prevail with you. I\nhave pardoned, pardon: I have showed compassion, imitate your servant's\nmercy. My offences are indeed far more grievous; but consider how much\nyou excel in all good. It is just that you manifest to sinners a mercy\nsuiting your infinite greatness. I have given proof of mercy in little\nthings, according to the capacity of my nature; but your bounty is not\nto be confined by the narrowness of my power, &c.\" His eight sermons, On\nthe Eight Beatitudes, are written in the same style. What he says in\nthem on the motives of humility, which he thinks is meant by the first\nbeatitude, of poverty of spirit, and on meekness, proves how much his\nheart was filled with those divine virtues.\n\nBesides what we have of St. Gregory on the holy scripture, time has\npreserved us many other works of piety of this father. His discourse\nentitled, On his Ordination, ought to be called, On the Dedication. It\nwas spoken by him in the consecration of a magnificent church, built by\nRufin, (praefect of the praetorium,) ann. 394, at the Borough of the Oak,\nnear Chalcedon. His sermon, On loving the Poor, is a pathetic\nexhortation to alms, from the last sentence on the wicked for a neglect\nof that duty. \"At which threat,\" he says, \"I am most vehemently\nterrified, and disturbed in mind.\" He excites to compassion for the\nlepers in particular, who, under their miseries, are our brethren, and\nit is only God's favor that has preserved us sound rather than them; and\nwho knows what we ourselves may become? His dialogue Against Fate was a\ndisputation with a heathen philosopher, who maintained a destiny or\noverruling fate in all things. His canonical epistle to Letoius, bishop\nof Melitine, metropolis of Armenia, has a place among the canons of\npenance in the Greek church, published by Beveridge. He condemns\napostacy to perpetual penance, deprived of the sacraments till the\narticle of death: if only extorted by torments, for nine years; the same\nlaw for witchcraft; nine years for simple fornication; eighteen for\nadultery; twenty-seven for {555} murder, or for rapine. But he permits\nthe terms to be abridged in cases of extraordinary fervor. Simple theft\nhe orders to be expiated by the sinner giving all his substance to the\npoor; if he has none, to work to relieve them.\n\nHis discourse against those who defer baptism, is an invitation to\nsinners to penance, and chiefly of catechumens to baptism, death being\nalways uncertain. He is surprised to see an earthquake or pestilence\ndrive all to penance and to the font: though an apoplexy or other sudden\ndeath may as easily surprise men any night of their lives. He relates\nthis frightful example. When the Nomades Scythians plundered those\nparts, Archias, a young nobleman of Comanes, whom he knew very well, and\nwho deferred his baptism, fell into their hands, and was shot to death\nby their arrows, crying out lamentably, \"Mountains and woods, baptize\nme; trees and rocks, give me the grace of the sacrament.\" Which\nmiserable death more afflicted the city than all the rest of the war.\nHis sermons, Against Fornication, On Penance, On Alms, On Pentecost, are\nin the same style. In that against Usurers, he exerts a more than\nordinary zeal, and tells them: \"Love the poor. In his necessity he has\nrecourse to you to assist his misery, but by lending him on usury you\nincrease it; you sow new miseries on his sorrows, and add to his\nafflictions. In appearance you do him a pleasure, but in reality ruin\nhim, like one who, overeome by a sick man's importunities, gives him\nwine, a present satisfaction, but a real poison. Usury gives no relief,\nbut makes your neighbor's want greater than it was. The usurer is no way\nprofitable to the republic, neither by tilling the ground, by trade,\n&c.; yet idle at home, would have all to produce to him; hates all he\ngains not by. But though you were to give alms of these unjust\nexactions, they would carry along with them the tears of others robbed\nby them. The beggar that receives, did he know it, would refuse to be\nfed with the flesh and blood of a brother; with bread extorted by\nrapine, from other poor. Give it back to him from whom you unjustly took\nit. But to hide their malice, they change the name usury into milder\nwords, calling it interest or moderate profit, like the heathens, who\ncalled their furies by the soft name Eumenides.\" He relates that a rich\nusurer of Nyssa, so covetous as to deny himself and children\nnecessaries, and not to use the bath to save three farthings, dying\nsuddenly, left his money all hid and buried where his children could\nnever find it, who by that means were all reduced to beggary. \"The\nusurers answer me,\" says he, \"then we will not lend; and what will the\npoor do? I bid them give, and exhort to lend, but without interest; for\nhe that refuses to lend, and he that lends at usury, are equally\ncriminal;\" viz. if the necessity of another be extreme. His sermon On\nthe Lent Fast displays the advantage of fasting for the health of both\nbody and soul; he demands these forty days' strenuous labor to cure all\ntheir vices, and insists on total abstinence from wine at large, and\nthat weakness of constitution and health is ordinarily a vain pretence.\nSaint Gregory's great Catechistical Discourse is commended by Theodoret,\n(dial. 2 & 3;) Leontius, (b. 3;) Enthymius, (Panopl. p. 215;) Germanus,\npatr. of Constantinople, (in Photius, cod. 233, &c.) The last lines are\nan addition. In the fortieth chapter he expounds to the catechumens the\nmysteries of the Unity and Trinity of God, and the Incarnation: also the\ntwo sacraments of baptism and the body of Christ, in which latter\nChrist's real body is mixed with our corruptible bodies, to bestow on us\nimmortality and grace.\n\nIn his book upon Virginity he extols its merit and dignity.\n\nSt. Gregory was much scandalized in his journey to Jerusalem to see\ncontentions reign in that holy place; yet he had the comfort to find\nthere several persons of great virtue, especially three very devout\nladies, to whom he afterwards wrote a letter, in which he says, (t. 3,\npp. 655, 656:) \"When I saw those holy places, I was filled with a joy\nand pleasure which no tongue can express.\" Soon after his return, he\nwrote a short treatise on those who go to Jerusalem, (t. 3. app. p. 72,)\nin which he condemns pilgrimages, when made an occasion of sloth,\ndissipation of mind, and other dangers; and observes that they are no\npart of the gospel precepts. Dr. Cave (p. 44) borrows the sophistry of\nDu Moulin to employ this piece against the practice of pilgrimages; but\nin part very unjustly, as Gretser (not. in Notas Molinei) demonstrates.\nSome set too great a value on pilgrimages, and made them an essential\npart of perfection: and by them even many monks and nuns exchanged their\nsolitude into a vagabond life. These abuses St. Gregory justly reproves.\nWhat he says, that he himself received no good by visiting the holy\nplaces, must be understood to be a Miosis, or extenuation to check the\nmonks' too ardent passion for pilgrimages, and only means, the presence\nof those holy places, barely of itself, contributes nothing to a man's\nsanctification: but he does not deny it to be profitable by many devout\npersons uniting together in prayer and mortification, and by exciting\nhearts more powerfully to devotion. \"Movemur locis ipsis in quibus eorum\nquos admiramur aut diligimus adsunt vestigia,\" said Atticas in Cicero.\n\"Me quidem illae ipsae nostrae Athenae, non tam operibus magnificis\nexquisitisque antiquorum artibus delectant, quam recordatione summorum\nvirorum, ubi quis habitare, ubi sedere, ubi disputare sit, solitus,\nstudiuseque eorum sepulchra contemplor.\" Much more must the sight of the\nplaces of Christ's mysteries stir up our sentiments and love. Why else\ndid St. Gregory go over Calvary, Golgotha, Olivet, Bethlehem? What was\nthe unspeakable (spiritual, certainly, not corporal) pleasure he was\nfilled with at their sight? a real spiritual {556} benefit, and that\nwhich is sought by true pilgrims. Does he not relate and approve the\npilgrimages of his friend, the monk Olympius? Nor could he be ignorant\nof the doctrice and practice of the church. He must know in the third\ncentury that his countryman Alexander, a bishop in Cappadocia,\nadmonished by divine oracle, went to Jerusalem to pray, and to visit the\nholy places, &c., as Eusebius relates; (Hist. lib. 6, cap. 11, p. 212,)\nand that this had been always the tradition and practice; \"Longum est\nnuns ab ascensu Domini usque ad praesentem diem per singulas aetates\ncurrere, qui episcoporum, qui martyrum, qui eloquentium in doctrine\necclesiastica, virorum venerint Hierosolymam, putantes se minus\nreligionis, minus habere scientiae, nec summam ut dicitur manum accepisse\nvirtutum, nisi in illis Christum adorassent locis de quibus primum\nEvangelium de patibulo coruscaverat.\" St. Jerom, in ep. Paulae et\nEustochii ad Marcellam, (T. 4, p. 550, ed. Ben) As for the abuses which\nSt. Gregory censures, they are condemned in the canon law, by all\ndivines and men of sound judgment. If with Benedict XIV. we grant this\nfather reprehended the abuses of pilgrimages, so as to think the\ndevotion itself not much to be recommended, this can only regard the\ncircumstances of many who abuse them, which all condemn. He could not\noppose the torrent of other fathers, and the practice of the whole\nchurch. And his devotion to holy places, relics, &c. is evident in his\nwritings, and in the practice of St. Macrina and his whole family.\n\nHis discourse On the Resurrection is the dialogue he had with his sister\nSt. Macrina the day before her death. His treatise On the Name and\nProfession of a Christian, was written to show no one ought to bear that\nname, who does not practise the rules of this profession, and who has\nnot its spirit, without which, a man may perform exterior duties, but\nwill upon occasions betray himself, and forget his obligation. When a\nmountebank at Alexandria had taught an ape dressed in woman's clothes to\ndance most ingeniously, the people took it for a woman, till one threw\nsome almonds on the stage; for then the beast could no longer contain,\nbut tearing off its clothes, went about the stage picking up its dainty\nfruit, and showed itself to be an ape. Occasions of vain-glory,\nambition, pleasure, &c., are the devil's baits and prove who are\nChristians, and who hypocrites and dissemblers under so great a name,\nwhose lives are an injury and blasphemy against Christ and his holy\nreligion. His book On Perfection teaches, that that life is most perfect\nwhich resembles nearest the life of Christ in humility and charity, and\nin dying to all passions and to the love of creatures that in which\nChrist most perfectly lives, and which is his best living image, which\nappears in a man's thoughts, words, and actions; for these show the\nimage which is imprinted on the soul. But there is no perfection which\nis not occupied in continually advancing higher. His book On the\nResolution of Perfection to the monks, shows perfection to consist in\nevery action being referred to God, and done perfectly conformable to\nhis will in the spirit of Christ. St. Gregory had excommunicated certain\npersons, who instead of repenting, fell to threats and violence. The\nsaint made against them his sermon, entitled, Against those who do not\nreceive chastisement submissively; in which, after exhorting them to\nsubmission, he offers himself to suffer torments and death, closing it\nthus: \"How can we murmur to suffer, who are the ministers of a God\ncrucified? yet under all you inflict, I receive your insolences and\npersecutions as a father and mother do from their dearest children, with\ntenderness.\" In the discourse On Children dying without Baptism, he\nshows that such can never enjoy God; yet feel not the severe torments of\nthe rest of the damned. We have his sermons On Pentecost, Christ's\nBirth, Baptism, Ascension, and On his Resurrection, (but of these last\nonly the first, third, and fourth are St. Gregory's) and two On St.\nStephen, three On the forty Martyrs: the lives of St. Gregory\nThaumaturgus, St. Theodorus, St. Ephrem, St. Meletius, and his sister,\nSt. Macrina: his panegyric on his brother St. Basil the Great, the\nfuneral oration of Pulcheria, daughter to the Emperor Theodosius, six\nyears old, and that of his mother, the empress Flaccilla, who died soon\nafter her at the waters in Thrace. St. Gregory was invited to make these\ntwo discourses, in 385, when he was at Constantinople. We have only five\nof St. Gregory's letters in his works. Zacagnius has published fourteen\nothers out of the Vatican library. Caraccioli of Pisa, in 1731, has\ngiven us seven more with tedious notes.\n\nSaint Gregory surpasses himself in perspicuity and strength of\nreasoning, in his polemic works against all the chief heretics of his\ntime. His twelve books against Eunomius, were ever most justly valued\nabove the rest. St. Basil had refuted that heresiarch's apology; nor\ndurst he publish any answer till after the death of that eloquent\nchampion of the faith. Then the Apology of his Apology began to creep\nprivately abroad. St. Gregory got at last a copy, and wrote his twelve\nexcellent books, in which he vindicates St. Basil's memory, and gives\nmany secret histories of the base Eunomius's life. He proves against him\nthe Divinity and Consubstantiality of God the Son. Though he employs the\nscripture with extraordinary sagacity, he says, tradition, by succession\nfrom the apostles, is alone sufficient to condemn heretics. (Or. 3,\ncontra Eunom. p. 123.) We have his treatise To Ablavius, that there are\nnot three gods. A treatise On Faith also against the Arians. That On\nCommon Notions is an explication of the terms used about the Blessed\nTrinity. We have his Ten Syllogisms against the Manichees, proving that\nevil cannot be a God. The heresy {557} of the Apollinarists beginning to\nbe broached, St. Gregory wrote to Theophilus patriarch of Alexandria,\nagainst them, showing there is but one Person in Christ. But his great\nwork against Apollinaris is his Antirretic, quoted by Leontius, the\nsixth general council, &c. Only a fragment was printed in the edition of\nthis father's works; but it was published from MSS. by Zacagnius,\nprefect of the Vatican Library, in 1698. He shows in it that the\nDivinity could not suffer, and that there must be two natures in Christ,\nwho was perfect God and perfect man. He proves also, against\nApollinaris, that Christ had a human soul with a human understanding.\nHis book of Testimonies against the Jews is another fruit of his zeal.\n\nSt. Gregory so clearly establishes the Procession of the Holy Ghost from\nthe Son, that some Greeks, obstinate in that heresy, erased out of his\nwritings the words _out of_, as they confessed in a council at\nConstantinople, in 1280. He expressly condemned Nestorianism before it\nwas broached, and says, \"No one dare call the holy Virgin and mother of\nGod, mother of man.\" (Ep. ad Eustath. p. 1093.) He asserts her virginity\nin and after the birth of Christ. (Or. contr. Ennom. p. 108, and Serm.\nin natale Christi, p. 776.) He is no less clear for transubstantiation\nin his great catechistical discourse (c. 37, pp. 534, 535,) for the\nsacrifice and the altar. Or in Bapt. Christi, p. 801. Private confession\nof sins is plain from his epistle to Letoius, (p. 954,) in which he\nwrites thus: \"Whoever secretly steals another man's goods, if he\nafterwards discovers his sins by declaration to the priest, his heart\nbeing changed, he will cure his wound, giving what he has to the poor.\"\nThis for occult theft, for which no canonical penance was prescribed. He\ninculcates the authority of priests of binding and loosing before God,\n(Serm. do Castig. 746, 747,) and calls St. Peter \"prince of the\napostolic choir,\" (Serm. 2, de Sancto Stephano edito a Zacagnio, p.\n339,) and (ib. p. 343,) \"the head of the apostles;\" and adds, \"In\nglorifying him all the members of the church are glorified, and that it\nis founded on him.\" He writes very expressly and at length on the\ninvocation of saints, and says they enjoy the beatific vision\nimmediately after death, in his sermons on St. Theodorus, on the Forty\nMartyrs, St. Ephrem, St. Meletius, &c.\n\nST. PACIAN, BISHOP OF BARCELONA, C.\n\nWAS a great ornament of the church in the fourth century. He was\nilluustrious by birth, and had been engaged in marriage in the world.\nHis son Dexter was raised to the first dignities in the empire, being\nhigh chamberlain to the emperor Theodosius, and praefectus-praetorio under\nHonorius. St. Pacian having renounced the world, was made bishop in 373.\nSt. Jerom, who dedicated to him his Catalogue of illustrious men, extols\nhis eloquence and learning, and more particularly the chastity and\nsanctity of his life. We have his Exhortation to Penance, and three\nletters to Sympronianus, a Novatian nobleman, on Penance, and on the\nname of Catholic; also a sermon on Baptism. See St. Jerom, Catal. Vir.\nIllust. c. 106, p. 195 t 4: Ceillier, t. 6; Tillem. t. 8.\n\nAPPENDIX\n\nON\n\nTHE WRITINGS OF ST. PACIAN OF BARCELONA.\n\nWHEN he was made bishop of Barcelona, in 373, there lived in the\nneighborhood of that city one Sympronian, a man of distinction, whom the\nbishop calls brother and lord, who was a Donatist, and also engaged in\nthe heresy of the Novatians, who, following the severity of the\nMontanists, denied penance and pardon for certain sins. He sent St.\nPacian a letter by a servant, in which he censured the church for\nallowing repentance to all crimes, and for taking the title of Catholic.\nSt. Pacian answers him in three learned letters.\n\nIn the first he sums up the principal heresies from Simon Magus to the\nNovatians and asks Sympronian, which he will choose to stand by:\nentreats him to examine the true church with docility and candor, laying\naside all obstinacy, the enemy to truth. He says {558} the name Catholic\ncomes from God, and is necessary to distinguish the dove, the undivided\nvirgin church, from all sects which are called from their particular\nfounders. This name we learned from the holy doctors, confessors, and\nmartyrs. \"My name,\" says he, \"is Christian, my surname Catholic: the one\ndistinguishes me, the other points me out to others.\" \"Christianus mihi\nnomen est; Catholicus veto cognomen: illud me nuncupat, istud ostendit;\nhoc probor, inde significor.\" He says that no name can be more proper to\nexpress the church, which is all obedient to Christ, and one and the\nsame through the whole world. \"As to penance,\" says he, \"God grant it be\nnecessary to none of the faithful; that none after baptism fall into the\npit of death--but accuse not God's mercy, who has provided a remedy even\nfor those that are sick. Does the infernal serpent continually carry\npoison, and has not Christ a remedy? Does the devil kill, and cannot\nChrist relieve? Fear sin, but not repentance. Be ashamed to be in\ndanger, not to be delivered out of it. Who will snatch a plank from one\nlost by shipwreck? Who will envy the healing of wounds?\" He mentions the\nparables of the lost drachma, the lost sheep, the prodigal son, the\nSamaritan, and God's threats, adding: \"God would never threaten the\nimpenitent, if he refused pardon. But you'll say, only God can do this.\nIt is true; but what he does by his priests, is his power. What is that\nhe says to his apostles? Whatsoever you shall bind, &c., Mat. xvi. Why\nthis, if it was not given to men to bind and to loosen? Is this given\nonly to the apostles? Then it is only given to them to baptize, to give\nthe Holy Ghost, (in confirmation,) to cleanse the sins of infidels,\nbecause all this was commanded to no other than to the apostles. If\ntherefore the power of baptism and of chrism, (confirmation,) which are\nfar greater gifts, descended from the apostles to bishops; the power of\nbinding and loosing also came to them.\" He concludes with these words:\n\"I know, brother, this pardon of repentance is not promiscuously to be\ngiven to all, nor to be granted before the signs of the divine will, or\nperchance the last sickness; with great severity and strict scrutiny,\nafter many groans, and shedding of tears; after the prayers of the whole\nchurch. But pardon is not denied to true repentance, that no one prevent\nor put by the judgment of Christ.\" St. Pacian answers his reply by a\nsecond letter, that remedies seem often bitter, and says, \"How can you\nbe offended at my catalogue of heresies, unless you was a heretic? I\ncongratulate with you for agreeing upon our name Catholic, which if you\ndenied, the thing itself would cry out against you.\" St. Pacian denies\nthat St. Cyprian's people were ever called Apostatics or Capitoline, or\nby any name but that of Catholics, which the Novatians, with all their\nambition for it, could never obtain, nor ever be known but by the name\nof Novatians. He says, the emperors persecuted the Novatians of their\nown authority, not at the instigation of the church. \"You say I am\nangry,\" says he, \"God forbid. I am like the bee which sometimes defends\nits honey with its sting.\" He vindicates the martyr St. Cyprian, and\ndenies that Novatian ever suffered for the faith; adding, that \"if he\nhad, he could not have been crowned, because he was out of the church,\nout of which, no one can be a martyr. Etsi occisus, non tamen coronatus:\nquidni? Extra Ecclesiae pacem, extra concordiam, extra eam matrem cujus\nportio debet esse, qui martyr est. Si charitatem non habeam, nihil sum.\n1 Cor. xiii.\" In his third letter he confutes the Novatian error: that\nthe church could not forgive mortal sin after baptism. \"Moses, St. Paul,\nChrist, express tender charity for sinners; who then broached this\ndoctrine? Novatian. But when? Immediately from Christ? No; almost three\nhundred years after him: since Decius's reign. Had he any prophets to\nlearn it from? any proof of his revelation? had he the gift of tongues?\ndid he prophesy? could he raise the dead? for he ought to have some of\nthese to introduce a new gospel. Nay, St. Paul (Gal. i.) forbids a\nnovelty in faith to be received from an angel. You will say, Let us\ndispute our point. But I am secure; content with the succession and\ntradition of the church, with the communion of the ancient body. I have\nsought no arguments.\" He assents that the church is holy, and more than\nSympronian had given it: but says it cannot perish by receiving sinners.\nThe good have always lived amidst the wicked. It is the heretic who\ndivides it, and tears it, which is Christ's garment, asunder. The church\nis diffused over the whole world, and cannot be reduced to one little\nportion, or as it were chained to a part, as the Novatians, whose\nhistory he touches upon. Sympronian objected, that Catholic bishops\nremitted sin. St. Pacian answers, \"Not I, but only God, who both blots\nout sin in baptism, and does not reject the tears of penitents. What I\ndo is not in my own name, but in the Lord's. Wherefore, whether we\nbaptize, or draw to penance, or give pardon to penitents, we do it by\nChrist's authority. You must see whether Christ can do it, and did\nit--Baptism is the sacrament of our Lord's passion; the pardon of\npenitents is the merit of confession. All can obtain that, because it is\nthe gratuitous gift of God, but this labor is but of a small number who\nrise after a fall, and recover by tears, and by destroying the flesh.\"\nThe saint shows the Novatians encourage sin by throwing men into\ndespair; whereas repentance heals and stops it. Christ does not die a\nsecond time indeed for the pardon of sinners, but he is a powerful\nAdvocate interceding still to his Father for sinners. Can he forsake\nthose he redeemed at so dear a rate? Can the devil enslave, and Christ\nnot absolve his servants? He alleges St. Peter denying Christ after he\nhad been baptized, St. {559} Thomas incredulous, even after the\nresurrection; yet pardoned by repentance. He answers his objections from\nscripture, and exhorts him to embrace the Catholic faith; for the true\nchurch cannot be confined to a few, nor be new. \"If she began before\nyou, if she believed before you, if she never left her foundation, and\nwas never divorced from her body, she must be the spouse; it is the\ngreat and rich house of all. God did not purchase with his blood so\nsmall a portion, nor is Christ so poor. The church of God dilates its\ntabernacles from the rising to the setting of the sun.\"\n\nNext to these three letters we have his excellent Paraenesis, or\nexhortation to penance. In the first part he reduces the sins subjected\nto courses of severe public penance by the canons to three, idolatry,\nmurder, and impurity; and shows the enormity of each. In the second he\naddresses himself to those sinners, who out of shame, or for fear of the\npenances to be enjoined, did not confess their crimes. He calls them\nshamefully timorous and bashful to do good, after having been bold and\nimpudent to sin, and says, \"And you do not tremble to touch the holy\nmysteries, and to thrust your defiled soul into the holy place, in the\nsight of the angels, and before God himself, as if you were innocent.\"\nHe mentions Oza lain for touching the ark, (2 Kings vi.,) and the words\nof the apostle, (1 Cor. xi.,) adding, \"Do not you tremble when you hear,\nhe shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord? One guilty of the\nblood of a man would not rest, and can he escape who has profaned the\nbody of the Lord? What do you do by deceiving the priest, or hiding part\nof your load? I beseech you no longer to cover your wounded conscience.\nRogo vos etiam pro periculo men, per illum Dominum quem occulta non\nfallunt, desinite vulneratam tegere conscientiam. Men sick are not\nbackward to show their sores to physicians, and shall the sinner be\nafraid or ashamed to purchase eternal life by a momentary confusion?\nWill he draw back his wounds from the Lord, who is offering his hand to\nheal them? Peccator timebit? peccator erubeseet perpetuam vitam praesenti\npudore mercari? et offerenti manus Domino vulnera male tecta subducet?\"\nIn his third part he speaks to those who confessed their sins entirely,\nbut feared the severity of the penance. He compares these to dying men\nwho should not have the courage to take a dose which would restore their\nhealth, and says, \"This is to cry out, behold I am sick, I am wounded;\nbut I will not he cured.\" He deplores their delicacy, and proposes to\nthem king David's austere penance. He describes thus the life of a\npenitent. \"He is to weep in the sight of the church, to go meanly clad,\nto mourn, to fast, to prostrate himself, to renounce the bath, and such\ndelights. If invited to a banquet, he is to say, such things are for\nthose who have not had the misfortune to have sinned; I have offended\nthe Lord, and am in danger of perishing forever: what have I to do with\nfeasts? Ista felicibus: ego deliqui in Dominum, et periclitor in aeternum\nperire: quo mihi epulas qui Dominum laesi? You must moreover sue for the\nprayers of the poor, of the widows, of the priest, prostrating yourself\nbefore them, and of the whole church; to do every thing rather than to\nperish. Omnia prius tentare ne pereas.\" He presses sinners to severe\npenance, for fear of hell, and paints a frightful image of it from the\nfires of Vesuvius and aetna. His treatise or Sermon On Baptism, is an\ninstruction on original sin, and the effects of this sacrament, by which\nwe are reborn, as by chrism or confirmation we receive the Holy Ghost by\nthe hands of the bishop. He adds a moving exhortation that, being\ndelivered from sin, and having renounced the devil, we no more return to\nsin; such a relapse after baptism being much worse. \"Hold, therefore,\nstrenuously,\" says he, \"what you have received, preserve it faithfully;\nsin no more; keep yourselves pure and spotless for the day of out Lord.\"\nBesides these three books, he wrote one against the play of the stag,\ncommended by St. Jerom, but now lost. The heathens had certain infamous\ndiversions with a little stag at the beginning of every year, mentioned\nby St. Ambrose, (in Ps. 141,) and by Nilus, (ep. 81.) It seems from the\nsermons, 129, 130, in the appendix to St. Augustine's, (t. 5,) that it\nconsisted of masquerades, dressed in the figures of wild beasts. Some\nChristians probably joined in them. St. Pacian's zeal dictated that book\nagainst it, but the effect it produced at that time, seemed chiefly to\nmake many more curious and more eager to see that wicked play, as St.\nPacian himself says in the beginning of his exhortation to penance. The\nbeauty of this holy doctor's writings can only be dis covered by reading\nthem. His diction is elegant, his reasoning just and close, and his\nthoughts beautiful: he is full of unction when he exhorts to virtue, and\nof strength when he attacks vice.\n\nST. CATHERINE OF BOLOGNA, VIRGIN,\n\nABBESS OF THE POOR CLARES IN THAT CITY.\n\nSHE was born of noble parentage at Bologna, in 1413. Early ardent\nsentiments of piety seemed to have prevented in her the use of reason.\n{560} At twelve years of age she was placed in quality of a young maid\nof honor in the family of the princess Margaret, daughter to Nicholas of\nEst, marquis of Ferrara. Two years after, upon the marriage of that\nprincess, she found means to recover her liberty, and entered herself in\na community of devout ladies of the Third Order of St. Francis, at\nFerrara, who soon after formed themselves into a regular monastery, and\nadopted the austere rule of St. Clare. A new nunnery of Poor Clares\nbeing founded at Bologna, St. Catherine was chosen first prioress, and\nsent thither by Leonarda, abbess of the monastery of Corpus Christi, in\nwhich she had made her religions profession at Ferrara. Catherine's\nincredible zeal and solitude for the souls of sinners made her pour\nforth prayers and tears, almost without intermission, for their\nsalvation. She always spoke to God, or of God, and bore the most severe\ninterior trials with an heroic patience and cheerfulness. She looked\nupon it as the greatest honor to be in any thing the servant of the\nspouses of Christ, and desired to be despised by all, and to serve all\nin the meanest employments. She was favored with the gifts of miracles\nand prophecy: but said she had been sometimes deceived by the devil. She\ndied on the 9th of March, 1453, in the fiftieth year of her age. Her\nbody is still entire, and shown in the church of her convent through\nbars and glass, sitting richly covered, but the hands, face, and feet\nnaked. It was seen and described by Henschenius, Lassels, and other\ntravellers. Her name was inserted in the Roman Martyrology by Clement\nVIII., in 1592. The solemnity of her canonization was performed by\nClement XI., though the bull was only published by Benedict XIII., in\n1724.[1] A book of her revelations was printed at Bologna, in 1511. She\nalso left notes in her prayer-book of certain singular favors which she\nhad received from God. These revelations were published and received\ntheir dress from another hand, which circumstance is often as great a\ndisadvantage in such works as if an illiterate and bold transcriber were\nto copy, from a single defective manuscript, Lycophron, or some other\nobscure author, which he did not understand. St. Catherine wrote some\ntreatises in Italian, others in Latin, in which language she was well\nskilled. The most famous of her works is the book entitled, On the Seven\nSpiritual Arms. See her life in Bollandus, written by F. Paleotti, fifty\nyears after her death.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  Bullar. Roman. t. 13, p. 87.\n\n\nMARCH X.\n\nTHE FORTY MARTYRS OF SEBASTE.\n\nFrom St. Basil's Homily on their festival, Hom. 20, t. 1, p. 453, and\nthree discourses of St. Gregory of Nyssa, t. 2, p. 203, t. 3, pp. 499,\n504, followed by St. Ephrem. ed. Vatic. Gr. and Let. t. 2, p. 341. St.\nGaudeatis, St. Chrysostom, quoted by Photius. See Tillemont, t. 5, p.\n518. Ruinart, p. 523. Ceillier, t. 4, l. 62 Jos. Assemani in Cal. Univ.\nad 11 Martii, t. 6, p. 172.\n\nA.D. 320.\n\nTHESE holy martyrs suffered at Sebaste, in the Lesser Armenia, under the\nemperor Licinius, in 320. They were of different countries, but enrolled\nin the same troop; all in the flower of their age, comely, brave, and\nrobust, and were become considerable for their services. St. Gregory of\nNyssa and Procopius say, they were of the thundering legion, so famous\n{561} under Marcus Aurelius for the miraculous rain and victory obtained\nby their prayers. This was the twelfth legion, and then quartered in\nArmenia. Lysias was duke or general of the forces, and Agricola the\ngovernor of the province. The latter having signified to the army the\norders of the emperor Licinius, for all to sacrifice, these forty went\nboldly up to him, and said they were Christians, and that no torments\nshould make them ever abandon their holy religion. The judge first\nendeavored to gain them by mild usage; as by representing to them the\ndishonor that would attend their refusal to do what was required, and by\nmaking them large promises of preferment and high favor with the emperor\nin case of compliance. Finding these methods of gentleness ineffectual,\nhe had recourse to threats, and these the most terrifying, if they\ncontinued disobedient to the emperor's order, but all in vain. To his\npromises they answered, that he could give them nothing equal to what he\nwould deprive them of: and to his threats, that his power only extended\nover their bodies, which they had learned to despise when heir souls\nwere at stake. The governor, finding them all resolute, caused them to\nbe torn with whips, and their sides to be rent with iron hooks. After\nwhich they were loaded with chains, and committed to jail.\n\nAfter some days, Lysias, their governor, coming from Caesarea to Sebaste,\nthey were re-examined, and no less generously rejected the large\npromises made them than they despised the torments they were threatened\nwith. The governor, highly offended at their courage, and that liberty\nof speech with which they accosted him, devised an extraordinary kind of\ndeath; which being slow and severe, he hoped would shake their\nconstancy. The cold in Armenia is very sharp, especially in March, and\ntowards the end of winter, when the wind is north, as it than was; it\nbeing also at that time a severe frost. Under the walls of the town\nstood a pond, which was frozen so hard that it would bear walking upon\nwith safety. The judge ordered the saints to be exposed quite naked on\nthe ice.[1] And in order to tempt them the more powerfully to renounce\ntheir faith, a warm bath was prepared at a small distance from the\nfrozen pond, for any of this company to go to, who were disposed to\npurchase their temporal ease and safety on that condition. The martyrs,\non hearing their sentence, ran joyfully to the place, and without\nwaiting to be stripped, undressed themselves, encouraging one another in\nthe same manner as is usual among soldiers in military expeditions\nattended with hardships and dangers; saying, that one bad night would\npurchase them a happy eternity.[2] They also made this their joint\nprayer: \"Lord, we are forty who are engaged in this combat; grant that\nwe may be forty crowned, and that not one be wanting to this sacred\nnumber.\" The guards in the mean time ceased not to persuade them to\nsacrifice, that by so doing they might be allowed to pass to the warm\nbath. But though it is not easy to form a just idea of the bitter pain\nthey must have undergone, of the whole number only one had the\nmisfortune to be overcome; who, losing courage, went off from the pond\nto seek the relief in readiness for such as were disposed to renounce\ntheir faith: but as the devil usually deceives his adorers, the apostate\nno sooner entered the warm water but he expired. This misfortune\nafflicted the martyrs; but they were quickly comforted by seeing his\nplace and their number miraculously filled up. A sentinel was warming\nhimself near the bath, having been posted there to observe if any of the\nmartyrs were inclined to submit. While he was attending, he had a vision\nof blessed spirits descending from heaven on the martyrs, and\ndistributing, {562} as from their king, rich presents, and precious\ngarments, St. Ephrem adds crowns, to all these generous soldiers, one\nonly excepted, who was their faint-hearted companion, already mentioned.\nThe guard, being struck with the celestial vision and the apostate's\ndesertion, was converted upon it; and by a particular motion of the Holy\nGhost, threw off his clothes, and placed himself in his stead among the\nthirty-nine martyrs. Thus God heard their request, though in another\nmanner than they imagined: \"Which, ought to make us adore the\nimpenetrable secrets of his mercy and justice,\" says St. Ephrem, \"in\nthis instance, no less than in the reprobation of Judas, and the\nelection of St. Matthias.\"\n\nIn the morning the judge ordered both those that were dead with the\ncold, and those that were still alive, to be laid on carriages, and cast\ninto a fire. When the rest were thrown into a wagon to be carried to the\npile, the youngest of them (whom the acts call Melito) was found alive;\nand the executioners, hoping he would change his resolution when he came\nto himself, left him behind. His mother, a woman of mean condition, and\na widow, but rich in faith, and worthy to have a son a martyr, observing\nthis false compassion, reproached the executioners; and when she came up\nto her son, whom she found quite frozen, not able to stir, and scarce\nbreathing, he looked on her with languishing eyes, and made a little\nsign with his weak hand to comfort her. She exhorted him to persevere to\nthe end, and, fortified by the Holy Ghost, took him up, and put him with\nher own hands into the wagon with the rest of the martyrs, not only\nwithout shedding a tear, but with a countenance full of joy, saying,\ncourageously: \"Go, go, son, proceed to the end of this happy journey\nwith thy companions, that thou mayest not be the last of them that shall\npresent themselves before God.\" Nothing can be more inflamed or more\npathetic than the discourse which St. Ephrem puts into her mouth, by\nwhich he expresses her contempt of life and all earthly things, and her\nardent love and desire of eternal life. This holy father earnestly\nentreats her to conjure this whole troop of martyrs to join in imploring\nthe divine mercy in favor of his sinful soul.[3] Their bodies were\nburned, and their ashes thrown into the river; but the Christians\nsecretly carried off, or purchased part of them with money. Some of\nthese precious relies were kept at Caesarea, and St. Basil says of them:\n\"Like bulwarks, they are our protection against the inroads of\nenemies.\"[4] He adds, that every one implored their succor, and that\nthey raised up those that had fallen, strengthened the weak, and\ninvigorated the fervor of the saints. SS. Basil and Emmelia, the holy\nparents of St. Basil the Great, St. Gregory of Nyssa, St. Peter of\nSebaste, and St. Macrina, procured a great share of these relics.[5] St.\nEmmelia put some of them in the church she built near Anneses, the\nvillage where they resided. The solemnity with which they were received\nwas extraordinary, and they were honored by miracles, as St. Gregory\nrelates. One of these was a miraculous cure wrought on a lame soldier,\nthe truth of which he attests from his own knowledge, both of the fact\nand the person, who published it everywhere. He adds: \"I buried the\nbodies of my parents by the relics of these holy martyrs, that in the\nresurrection they may rise with the encouragers of their faith; for I\nknow they have great power with God, of which I have seen clear proofs\nand undoubted testimonies.\" St. Gaudentius, bishop of Brescia, writes in\nhis sermon on these martyrs: \"God gave me a share of these venerable\nrelics and granted me to found this church in their honor.\"[6] He says,\nthat the two nieces of St. Basil, both abbesses, gave them to him as\n{563} he passed by Caesarea, in a journey to Jerusalem; which venerable\ntreasure they had received from their uncle. Portions of their relics\nwere also carried to Constantinople, and there honored with great\nveneration, as Sozomen[7] and Procopius[8] have recorded at large, with\nan account of several visions and miracles, which attended the\nveneration paid to them in that city.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThough we are not all called to the trial of martyrdom, we are all bound\ndaily to fight and to conquer too. By multiplied victories which we gain\nover our passions and spiritual enemies, by the exercise of meekness,\npatience, humility, purity, and all other virtues, we shall render our\ntriumph complete, and attain to the crown of bliss. But are we not\nconfounded at our sloth in our spiritual warfare, when we look on the\nconflicts of the martyrs? \"The eloquence of the greatest orators, and\nthe wisdom of the philosophers were struck dumb: the very tyrants and\njudges stood amazed, and were not able to find words to express their\nadmiration, when they beheld the faith, the cheerfulness and constancy\nof the holy martyrs in their sufferings. But what excuse shall we allege\nin the tremendous judgment, who, without meeting with such cruel\npersecution and torments, are so remiss and slothful in maintaining the\nspiritual life of our souls, and the charity of God! What shall we do in\nthat terrible day, when the holy martyrs, placed near the throne of God,\nwith great confidence shall display their glorious scars, the proofs of\ntheir fidelity? What shall we then show? shall we produce our love for\nGod? true faith? a disengagement of our affections from earthly things?\nsouls freed from the tyranny of the passions? retirement and peace of\nmind? meekness? alms-deeds and compassion? holy and pure prayer? sincere\ncompunction? watching and tears? Happy shall he be whom these works\nshall attend. He shall then be the companion of the martyrs, and shall\nappear with the same confidence before Christ and his angels. We beseech\nyou, O most holy martyrs, who cheerfully suffered torments and death for\nhis love, and are now more familiarly united to him, that you intercede\nwith God for us slothful and wretched sinners, that he bestow on us the\ngrace of Christ, by which we may be enlightened and enabled to love\nhim.\"[9]\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  The acts and the greater part of the writers of their lives, suppose\n    that they were to stand in the very water. But this is a\n    circumstance which Tillemont, Badlet, Ruinart, Ceillier and others,\n    correct from St. Basil and St. Gregory of Nyssa.\n2.  St. Gregory of Nyssa says, that they endured three days and three\n    nights, this lingering death, which carried off their limbs one\n    after another.\n3.  S. Ephrem, Or. in 40 Mart. t. 2, Op. Gr. and Lat. p. 354, ed. Nov.\n    Vatic. an. 1743.\n4.  St. Basil, Or. 20, 459.\n5.  St. Greg. Nyss. Or. 3, de 40 Mart. t. 2, pp. 212, 213.\n6.  S. Gaud. Bris. Serm. 17, de 40 Mart.\n7.  L. 9, c. 1, 2.\n8.  L. 1, de aedific. Justinian, c. 7.\n9.  S. Ephrem in Homil. in SS. Martyres, Op Gr. and Lat. ed. Vat. an\n    174{} t. 2, p. 341.\n\nST. DROCTOVAEUS, ABBOT.\n\nKING CHILDEBERT having built at Paris a famous abbey in honor of St.\nVincent; this saint, who was a native of the diocese of Autun, had been\neducated under St. Germanus, abbot of St. Symphorian's at Autun, and was\na person eminent for his learning and extraordinary spirit of\nmortification and prayer, was appointed the second, according to\nDuplessis, according to others, the first abbot of this house, since\ncalled St. Germain-des-Prez, in which he died about the year 580. His\nbody is kept in that abbey, and he is honored by the church on the 10th\nof March. His original life being lost, Gislemar, a Benedictin monk of\nthis house, in the ninth age, collected from tradition and scattered\nmemoirs that which we have in Bollandus and more accurately in Mabillon.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  Duplessis' Annales de Paris, pp. 60, 68.\n\n{564}\n\nST. MACKESSOGE, OR KESSOGE, C.\n\nBISHOP IN THE PROVINCES OF LEVIN AND BOIN, IN SCOTLAND.\n\nBY his instructions and counsels the pious king Congal II. governed with\nextraordinary prudence, zeal, and sanctity. This saint was illustrious\nfor miracles, and died in 560. A celebrated church in that country still\nbears the title of St. Kessoge-Kirk. The Scots, for their cry in battle,\nfor some time used his name, but afterwards changed it for that of St.\nAndrew. They sometimes painted St. Kessoge in a soldier's habit, holding\na bow bent with an arrow in it. See the Aberdeen Breviary, the chronicle\nof Pasley, (a great monastery of regular canons in the shire of\nRenfrew,) Florarium, and Buchanan, l. 5.\n\n\nMARCH XI.\n\nST. EULOGIUS OF CORDOVA, P.M.\n\nFrom his authentic life by Alvarus, his intimate friend, and from his\nworks, Bibl. Patr. t 9. See Acts Sanct. t. 7. Fleury, b. 48. p. 57.\n\nA.D. 859.\n\nST. EULOGIUS was of a senatorian family of Cordova, at that time the\ncapital of the Moors or Saracens, in Spain. Those infidels had till then\ntolerated the Christian religion among the Goths, exacting only a\ncertain tribute every new moon. Our saint was educated among the clergy\nof the church of St. Zoilus, a martyr, who suffered at Cordova, with\nnineteen others, under Dioclesian, and is honored on the 27th of June.\nHere he distinguished himself by his virtue and learning; and being made\npriest, was placed at the head of the chief ecclesiastical school in\nSpain, which then flourished at Cordova. He joined assiduous watchings,\nfasting, and prayer, to his studies: and his humility, mildness, and\ncharity, gained him the affection and respect of every one. He often\nvisited the monasteries for his further instruction in virtue, and\nprescribed rules of piety for the use of many fervent souls that desired\nto serve God. Some of the Christians were so indiscreet as openly to\ninveigh against Mahomet, and expose the religion established by him.\nThis occasioned a bloody persecution at Cordova, in the 29th year of\nAbderrama III., the eight hundred and fiftieth year of Christ.\nReccafred, an apostate bishop, declared against the martyrs: and, at his\nsolicitation, the bishop of Cordova, and some others, were imprisoned,\nand many priests, among whom was St. Eulogius, as one who encouraged the\nmartyrs by his instructions. It was then that he wrote his Exhortation\nto Martyrdom,[1] addressed to the virgins Flora and Mary, who were\nbeheaded the 24th of November, in 851. These virgins promised to pray as\nsoon as they should be with God, that their fellow-prisoners might be\nrestored to their liberty. Accordingly, St. Eulogius and the rest were\nenlarged six days after their death. In the year 852, several suffered\nthe like martyrdom, {565} namely, Gumisund and Servus-Dei: Aurelius and\nFelix, with their wives: Christopher and Levigild: Rogel and Servio-Deo.\nA council at Cordova, in 852, forbade any one to offer himself to\nmartyrdom. Mahomet succeeded his father upon his sudden death by an\napoplectic fit; but continued the persecution, and put to death, in 853,\nFandila, a monk, Anastasius, Felix, and three nuns, Digna, Columba, and\nPomposa. St. Eulogius encouraged all these martyrs to their triumphs,\nand was the support of that distressed flock. His writings still breathe\nan inflamed zeal and spirit of martyrdom. The chief are his history of\nthese martyrs, called the Memorial of the Saints, in three books; and\nhis Apology for them against calumniators, showing them to be true\nmartyrs, though without miracles.[2] His brother was deprived of his\nplace, one of the first dignities of the kingdom. St. Eulogius himself\nwas obliged by the persecutors to live always, after his releasement,\nwith the treacherous bishop Reccafred, that wolf in sheep's clothing.\nWherefore he refrained from saying mass, that he might not communicate\nwith that domestic enemy.\n\nThe archbishop of Toledo dying in 858, St. Eulogius was canonically\nelected to succeed him; but there was some obstacle that hindered him\nfrom being consecrated; though he did not outlive his election two\nmonths. A virgin, by name Leocritia, of a noble family among the Moors,\nhad been instructed from her infancy in the Christian religion by one of\nher relations, and privately baptized. Her father and mother perceiving\nthis, used her very ill, and scourged her day and night to compel her to\nrenounce the faith. Having made her condition known to St. Eulogius and\nhis sister Anulona, intimating that she desired to go where she might\nfreely exercise her religion, they secretly procured her the means of\ngetting away from her parents, and concealed her for some time among\nfaithful friends. But the matter was at length discovered, and they were\nall brought before the cadi. Eulogius offered to show the judge the true\nroad to heaven, and to demonstrate Mahomet to be an impostor. The cadi\nthreatened to have him scourged to death. The martyr told him his\ntorments would be to no purpose; for he would never change his religion.\nWhereupon the cadi gave orders that he should be carried to the palace,\nand presented before the king's council. One of the lords of the council\ntook the saint aside, and said to him: \"Though the ignorant unhappily\nrun headlong to death, a man of your learning and virtue ought not to\nimitate their folly. Be ruled by me, I entreat you: say but one word,\nsince necessity requires it: you may afterwards resume your own\nreligion, and we will promise that no inquiry shall be made after you.\"\nEulogius replied, smiling: \"Ah! if you could but conceive the reward\nwhich waits for those who persevere in the faith to the end, you would\nrenounce your temporal dignity in exchange for it.\" He then began boldly\nto propose the truths of the gospel to them. But to prevent their\nhearing him, the council condemned him immediately to lose his head. As\nthey were leading him to execution, one of the eunuchs of the palace\ngave him a blow on the face for having spoken against Mahomet: he turned\nthe other cheek, and patiently received a second. He received the stroke\nof death out of the city-gates, with great cheerfulness, on the 11th of\nMarch, 859. St. Leocritia was beheaded four days after him, and her body\nthrown into the river Boetis, or Guadalquivir, but taken out by the\nChristians. The Church honors both of them on the days of their\nmartyrdom.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nIf we consider the conduct of Christ towards his Church, which he\nplanted {566} at the price of his precious blood, and treats as his most\nbeloved spouse, we shall admire a wonderful secret in the adorable\ncouncils of his tender providence. This Church, so dear to him, and so\nprecious in his eyes, he formed and spread under a general, most severe,\nand dreadful persecution. He has exposed it in every age to frequent and\nviolent storms, and seems to delight in always holding at least some\npart or other of it in the fiery crucible. But the days of its severest\ntrials were those of its most glorious triumphs. Then it shone above all\nother periods of time with the brightest examples of sanctity, and\nexhibited both to heaven and to men on earth the most glorious\nspectacles and triumphs. Then were formed in its bosom innumerable most\nillustrious heroes of all perfect virtue, who eminently inherited, and\npropagated in the hearts of many others, the true spirit of our\ncrucified Redeemer. The same conduct God in his tender mercy holds with\nregard to those chosen souls which he destines to raise, by special\ngraces, highest in his favor. When the counsels of divine Providence\nshall be manifested to them in the next life, then they shall clearly\nsee that their trials were the most happy moments, and the most precious\ngraces of their whole lives. In sickness, humiliations, and other\ncrosses, the poison of self-love was expelled from their hearts, their\naffections weaned from the world, opportunities were afforded them of\npractising the most heroic virtues, by the fervent exercise of which\ntheir souls were formed in the school of Christ, and his perfect spirit\nof humility, meekness, disengagement, and purity of the affections,\nardent charity, and all other virtues, in which true Christian heroism\nconsists. The forming of the heart of one saint is a great and sublime\nwork, the masterpiece of divine grace, the end and the price of the\ndeath of the Son of God. It can only be finished by the cross on which\nwe were engendered in Christ, and the mystery of our predestination is\naccomplished.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  Documentum martyrii, t. 9. Bibl. Patr. p. 699.\n2.  Some objected to these martyrs, that they were not honored with\n    frequent miracles as those had been who suffered in the primitive\n    ages.\n\nST. SOPHRONIUS, PATRIARCH OF JERUSALEM, C.\n\nHE was a native of Damascus, and made such a progress in learning that\nhe obtained the name of the Sophist. He lived twenty years near\nJerusalem, under the direction of John Moschus, a holy hermit, without\nengaging himself in a religious state. These two great men visited\ntogether the monasteries of Egypt, and were detained by St. John the\nAlmoner, at Alexandria, about the year 610, and employed by him two\nyears in extirpating the Eutychians, and in reforming his diocese. John\nMoschus wrote there his Spiritual Meadow, which he dedicated to\nSophronius. He made a collection in that book of the edifying examples\nof virtue which he had seen or heard of among the monks, and died\nshortly after at Rome. Athanasius, patriarch of the Jacobites or\nEutychians, in Syria, acknowledged two distinct natures in Christ, the\ndivine and the human; but allowed only one will. This Demi-Eutychianism\nwas a glaring inconsistency; because the will is the property of the\nnature. Moreover, Christ sometimes speaks of his human will distinct\nfrom the divine, as in his prayer in his agony in the garden. This\nMonothelite heresy seemed an expedient whereby to compound with the\nEutychians. The emperor Heraclius confirmed it by an edict called\nEcthesis, or the Exposition, declaring that there is only one will in\nChrist, namely, that of the Divine Word: which was condemned by pope\nJohn IV. Cyrus, bishop of Phasis, a virulent Monothelite, was by\nHeraclius preferred to the patriarchate of Alexandria, in 629. St.\nSophronius, falling at his feet, conjured him not to publish his\nerroneous articles--but in vain. He therefore {567} left Egypt, and came\nto Constantinople, where he found Sergius, the crafty patriarch, sowing\nthe same error in conjunction with Theodorus of Pharan. Hereupon he\ntravelled into Syria, where, in 634, he was, against his will, elected\npatriarch of Jerusalem.\n\nHe was no sooner established in his see, than he assembled a council of\nall the bishops of his patriarchate, in 634, to condemn the Monothelite\nheresy, and composed a synodal letter to explain and prove the Catholic\nfaith This excellent piece was confirmed in the sixth general council.\nSt. Sophronius sent this learned epistle to pope Honorius and to\nSergius. This latter had, by a crafty letter and captious expressions,\npersuaded pope Honorius to tolerate a silence as to one or two wills in\nChrist. It is evident from the most authentic monuments, that Honorius\nnever assented to that error, but always adhered to the truth.[1]\nHowever, a silence was ill-timed, and though not so designed, might be\ndeemed by some a kind of connivance; for a rising heresy seeks to carry\non its work under ground without noise: it is a fire which spreads\nitself under cover. Sophronius, seeing the emperor and almost all the\nchief prelates of the East conspire against the truth, thought it his\nduty to defend it with the greater zeal. He took Stephen, bishop of\nDoria, the eldest of his suffragans, led him to Mount Calvary, and there\nadjured him by Him who was crucified on that place, and by the account\nwhich he should give him at the last day, \"to go to the apostolic see,\nwhere are the foundations of the holy doctrine, and not to cease to pray\ntill the holy persons there should examine and condemn the novelty.\"\nStephen did so, and stayed at Rome ten years, till he saw it condemned\nby pope Martin I. in the council of Lateran, in 649. Sophronius was\ndetained at home by the invasion of the Saracens. Mahomet had broached\nhis impostures at Mecca, in 608, but being rejected there, fled to\nMedina, in 622. Aboubeker succeeded him in 634 under the title of\nCaliph, or vicar of the prophet. He died after a reign of two years.\nOmar, his successor, took Damascus in 636, and after a siege of two\nyears, Jerusalem, in 638. He built a mosque in the place of Solomon's\ntemple, and because it fell in the night, the Jews told him it would not\nstand unless the cross of Christ, which stood on Mount Calvary, was\ntaken away: which the Caliph caused to be done.[2] Sophronius, in a\nsermon on the exaltation of the cross, mentions the custom of taking the\ncross out of its case at Mid-Lent to be venerated.[3] Photius takes\nnotice that his works breathe an affecting piety, but that the Greek is\nnot pure. They consist of his synodal letter, his letter to pope\nHonorius, and a small number of scattered sermons. He deplored the\nabomination of desolation set up by the Mahometans in the holy place.\nGod called him out of those evils to his kingdom on the 11th of March,\n639, or, as Papebroke thinks,[4] in 644. See the council of Lateran, t.\n6, Conc. Fleury, b. 37, 38, and Le Quien, Oriens Christ. t. 3, p. 264.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  See Nat. Alexander, Saec. 7. Wittasse and Tourneiy Tr. de Incarn.\n2.  Theophanes, p. 284.\n3.  In medio jejunii, adorationis gratia proponi solet vitale lignun\n    venerandae crucis. Sophr. Serro. in Excalt. Crucis. Bibl. Patr. t. 12\n    p. 214, e. apud Gretser, t. 2 de Cruce, p. 88.\n4.  Papebr. Tr. praelim. ad t. 3 Maii n. 144, p. 32\n\nST. AENGUS, B.C.\n\nTHIS saint is distinguished by the surname of Kele-De, that is,\nWorshipper of God; which began in his time to be the denomination of\nmonks to the Scottish language, commonly called Culdees. He was born in\nIreland, in the eighth century, of the race of the Dalaradians, kings of\nUlster. In his youth, renouncing all earthly pretensions, he chose\nChrist for his inheritance, {568} embracing a religious state in the\nfamous monastery of Cluain-Edneach in East-Meath. Here he became so\ngreat a proficient both in learning and sanctity, that no one in his\ntime could be found in Ireland that equalled him in reputation for every\nkind of virtue, and for sacred knowledge. To shun the esteem of the\nworld, he disguised himself, and going to the monastery of Tamlacht,\nthree miles from Dublin, lived there seven years unknown, in the quality\nof a lay brother, performing all the drudgery of the house, appearing\nfit for nothing but the vilest employs, while his interior by perfect\nlove and contemplation was absorbed in God. Being at length discovered,\nhe some time after returned to Cluain-Edneach, where the continual\nausterity of his life, and his constant application to God in prayer,\nmay be more easily admired than imitated. He was chosen abbot, and at\nlength raised to the episcopal dignity: for it was usual then in Ireland\nfor eminent abbots in the chief monasteries to be bishops. He was\nremarkable for his devotion to the saints, and he left both a longer and\na shorter Irish Martyrology, and five other books concerning the saints\nof his country, contained in what the Irish call Saltair-na-Rann. He\ndied about the year 824, not at Cluain-Edneach, but at Desert AEnguis,\nwhich became also a famous monastery, and took its name from him. See\nhis acts in Colgan, p. 579.\n\nST. CONSTANTINE, M.\n\nHE is said to have been a British king, who, after the death of his\nqueen, resigned the crown to his son, and became a monk in the monastery\nof St. David. It is added that he afterwards went into North Britain,\nand joined St. Columba in preaching the gospel among the Picts, who then\ninhabited a great part of what is now called Scotland. He founded a\nmonastery at Govane, near the river Cluyd, converted all the land of\nCantire to the faith of Christ, and died a martyr by the hands of\ninfidels, towards the end of the sixth century. He was buried in his\nmonastery of Govane, and divers churches were erected in Scotland, under\nhis invocation. But it seems most probable that the Scottish martyr is\nnot the same person with the British king. Colgan supposes him to have\nbeen an Irish monk, who had lived in the community of St. Carthag, at\nRathane.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  See the MS. Lives of Scottish Saints, compiled by a Jesuit, who was\n    nephew of bishop Lesley, kept in the Scottish College at Paris.\n    Several Scottish historians give the title of saint to Constantine\n    III. king of the Scots, who, forsaking his crown and the world,\n    entered himself among the Culdees, to religious ma at St. Andrew's,\n    in 946.\n\n\nMARCH XII.\n\nST. GREGORY THE GREAT, POPE, C.\n\nFrom his works, Bede, and Paul, deacon of Monte Cassino, towards the end\nof the eighth century. His life in four books, by John deacon of Rome in\nthe ninth age, is full of mistakes, as Baronius observes. See his\nhistory, compiled in French by Dom Dionysius of Sainte-Marthe,\nsuperior-general of the Maurist monks, printed at Rouen in 4to. 1697,\nand more accurately in Latin by the same author, in the 4to. tome of\nthis father's works, in 1705. See also Fleury, b. 34, 35, 36. Mabillon,\nAnnal. Bened. l. 6, t. 1. Ceillier, t. 17, p. 128. F. Wietrowski, S.J.\nHistoria de rebus in Pontificatu, S. Gregorii M. gestis, in fol.\nGradonici, S. Gregorius, M. Pontifex, a criminationibus Oudini\nvindicatus, and Hieron. Muzio in Coro Pontifcale.\n\nA.D. 604.\n\nST. GREGORY, from his illustrious actions and extraordinary virtues,\nsurnamed the Great, was born at Rome, about the year 540. Gordlanus, his\n{569} father, enjoyed the dignity of a senator, and was very wealthy;\nbut after the birth of our saint, renounced the world, and died\nRegionarius, that is, one of the seven cardinal deacons who took care of\nthe ecclesiastical districts of Rome. His mother, Sylvia, consecrated\nherself to God in a little oratory near St. Paul's. Our saint was called\nGregory, which in Greek implies a watchman, as Vigilius and Vigilantius\nin Latin. In his youth he applied himself, with unabated diligence, to\nthe studies of grammar, rhetoric, and philosophy; and after these first\naccomplishments, to the civil law and the canons of the church, in which\nhe was perfectly skilled. He was only thirty-four years old when, in\n574, he was made, by the emperor Justin the Younger, pretor, or governor\nand chief magistrate of Rome. By this dignity he was the chief judge of\nthe city; his pomp and state differed little from that of a consul, and\nhe was obliged to wear the Trabea, which was a rich robe of silk,\nmagnificently embroidered, and sparkling with precious stones: a garment\nonly allowed to the consuls and pretor. But he could say, with Esther,\nthat his heart always detested the pride of the world. From his infancy\nhe loved and esteemed only heavenly things, and it was his chief delight\nto converse with holy monks, or to be retired in his closet, or in the\nchurch at his devotions. After the death of his father, he built and\nendowed six monasteries in Sicily out of the estates which he had in\nthat island, and founded a seventh in his own house in Rome, which was\nthe famous monastery of St. Andrew, on the hill Scaurus,[1] now\npossessed by the Order of Camaldoli. The first abbot of this house was\nHilarion, the second Valentinus, under whom St. Gregory himself took the\nmonastic habit, in 575, he being thirty-five years old. In this\nretirement, Gregory applied himself with that vigor to fasting and the\nstudy of the sacred writings, that he thereby contracted a great\nweakness in his stomach, and used to fall into fits of swooning if he\ndid not frequently eat. What gave him the greatest affliction was his\nnot being able to fast on an Easter-Eve, a day on which, says John the\ndeacon, every one, not even excepting little children, are used to fast.\nHis great desire of conforming to the universal practice on that day\noccasioned his applying to a monk of eminent sanctity, named\nEleutherius, with whom having prayed, and besought God to enable him to\nfast at least on that sacred day, he found himself on a sudden so well\nrestored, that he not only fasted that day, but quite forgot his\nillness, as he himself relates.[2]\n\nIt was before his advancement to the see of Rome, or even to the\ngovernment of his monastery, that he first, as Paul the deacon\ntestifies, projected the conversion of the English nation. This great\nblessing took its rise from the following occasion.[3] Gregory happened\none day to walk through the market, and here taking notice that certain\nyouths of fine features and complexion were exposed to sale, he inquired\nwhat countrymen they were, and was answered, that they came from\nBritain. He asked if the people of that country were Christians or\nheathens, and was told they were still heathens. Then Gregory, fetching\na deep sigh, said: \"It was a lamentable consideration that the prince of\ndarkness should be master of so much beauty, and have so comely persons\nin his possession: and that so fine an outside should have nothing of\nGod's grace to furnish it within.\"[4] This incident {570} made so great\nan impression upon him, that he applied himself soon after to pope\nBenedict I., and earnestly requested that some persons might be sent to\npreach Christianity in Britain. And not finding any one disposed to\nundertake that mission, he made an offer of himself for the service,\nwith the pope's consent and approbation. Having obtained leave, he\nprivately set forward on his journey, in company with several monks of\nhis own monastery. But when his departure was known, the whole city was\nin an uproar, and the people ran in a body to the pope, whom they met\ngoing to St. Peter's church. They cried out to him in the utmost\nconsternation: \"Apostolical father, what have you done? In suffering\nGregory to go away, you have destroyed Rome: you have undone us, and\noffended St. Peter.\" At these pressing instances the pope dispatched\nmessengers to recall him and the saint being overtaken by them on the\nthird day, was obliged, though with great reluctance, to return to Rome.\nNot long after, the same pope, according to John the deacon, and the\nBenedictins, or, as Paul the deacon and Baronius say, his successor\nPelagius II., made him one of the seven deacons of the church at Rome,\nwho assisted the pope. Pelagius II. sent him to Constantinople in\nquality of Apocrisiarius, or Nuncio of the holy see, to the religious\nemperor Tiberius, by whom the saint was received and treated with the\nhighest distinction. This public employment did not make him lay aside\nthe practices of a monastic life, in order to which he had taken with\nhim certain monks of his house, with whom he might the better continue\nthem, and by their example excite himself to recollection and prayer. At\nthe request of St. Leander, bishop of Seville, whom he saw at\nConstantinople, he wrote in that city his thirty-five books of Morals\nupon Job, giving chiefly the moral and allegorical interpretations of\nthat sacred book, in such a manner as to reduce into one body the most\nexcellent principles of morality, and also of an interior life, of both\nwhich this admirable work hath been ever since regarded as the great\nstorehouse and armory. Out of it St. Isidore, St. Thomas, and other\nmasters of those holy sciences have chiefly drawn their sublime maxims.\nMauritius having married the daughter of Tiberius, in 582, who had the\nempire for her dowry, St. Gregory was pitched upon to stand godfather to\nhis eldest son. Eutychius was at that time patriarch of\nConstantinople.[5] This prelate, having suffered for the faith under\nJustinian, fell at length into an error, importing, that after the\ngeneral resurrection the glorified bodies of the elect will be no longer\npalpable, but of a more subtile texture than air. This error he couched\nin a certain book which he wrote. St. Gregory was alarmed, and held\nseveral conferences with the patriarch upon that subject, both in\nprivate and before the emperor, and clearly demonstrated from the\nscriptures, that the glorified bodies of the saints will be the same\nwhich they had on earth, only delivered from the appendices of\nmortality; and that they will be palpable as {571} that of Christ was\nafter his resurrection.[6] The good bishop being docile and humble,\nretracted his mistake and shortly after falling sick, in presence of the\nemperor, who had honored him with a visit, taking hold of his skin with\nhis hand, said: \"I profess the belief that we shall all rise in this\nvery flesh.\"[7]\n\nPope Pelagius recalled St. Gregory in 584. He brought with him to Rome\nan arm of St. Andrew, and the head of St. Luke, which the emperor had\ngiven him. He placed both these relics in his monastery of St. Andrew,\nwhere the former remains to this day; but the latter has been removed\nthence to St. Peter's, where it still continues. The saint with joy saw\nhimself restored to the tranquillity of his cell, where he eagerly\ndesired to bury himself with regard to the world, from which he had fled\nnaked into this secure harbor; because, as he signified to St. Leander,\nhe saw how difficult a thing it is to converse with the world without\ncontracting inordinate attachments.[8] Pope Pelagius also made him his\nsecretary. He still continued to govern his monastery, in which he\nshowed a remarkable instance of severity. Justus, one of his monks, had\nacquired and kept privately three pieces of gold, which he confessed on\nhis death-bed. St. Gregory forbade the community to attend and pray by\nhis bedside, according to custom; but could not refuse him the\nassistance of a priest, which the council of Nice ordained that no one\nshould be deprived of at the hour of death. Justus died in great\nsentiments of compunction; yet, in compliance with what the monastic\ndiscipline enjoins in such cases, in imitation of what St. Macarius had\nprescribed on the like occasion, he ordered his corpse to be buried\nunder the dunghill, and the three pieces of money to be thrown into the\ngrave with it. Nevertheless, as he died penitent, he ordered mass to be\ndaily offered up for him during thirty days.[9] St. Gregory says,[10]\nthat after the mass of the thirtieth day, Justus, appearing to his\nbrother Copiosus, assured him that he had been in torments, but was then\nreleased. Pope Pelagius II. dying in the beginning of the great\npestilence, in January, 590, the clergy, senate, and Roman people\nunanimously agreed to choose St. Gregory for their bishop, although he\nopposed his election with all his power. It was then the custom at the\nelection of a pope to consult the emperor as the head of the senate and\npeople. Our saint, trusting to his friendship with Mauritius, to whose\nson he stood godfather, wrote to him privately to conjure him not to\napprove of this choice. He wrote also with great earnestness to John,\npatriarch of Constantinople, and to other powerful friends in that city,\nbegging them to employ their interest with the emperor for that purpose:\nbut complains in several letters afterwards that they had all refused to\nserve him. The governor of Rome intercepted his letters to the emperor,\nand sent others to him, in the name of the senate and people, to the\ncontrary effect. In the mean time, the plague continued to rage at Rome\nwith great violence; and, while the people waited for the emperor's\nanswer, St. Gregory took occasion from their calamities to exhort them\nto repentance. Having made them a pathetic sermon on that subject,[11]\nhe appointed a solemn litany, or procession, in seven companies, with a\n{572} priest at the head of each, who were to march from different\nchurches, and all to meet in that of St. Mary Major; singing Kyrie\nEleison as they went along the streets. During this procession there\ndied in one hour's time fourscore of those who assisted at it. But St.\nGregory did not forbear to exhort the people, and to pray till such time\nas the distemper ceased.[12] During the public calamity, St. Gregory\nseemed to have forgot the danger he was in of being exalted to the\npontifical throne; for he feared as much to lose the security of his\npoverty as the most avaricious can do to lose their treasures. He had\nbeen informed that his letters to Constantinople had been intercepted;\nwherefore, not being able to go out of the gates of Rome, where guards\nwere placed, he prevailed with certain merchants to carry him off\ndisguised, and shut up in a wicker basket. Three days he lay concealed\nin the woods and caverns, during which time the people of Rome observed\nfasts and prayers. Being miraculously discovered,[13] and no longer\nable, as he says himself,[14] to resist, after the manifestations of the\ndivine will, he was taken, brought back to Rome with great acclamations,\nand consecrated on the 3d of September, in 590. In this ceremony he was\nconducted, according to custom, to the Confession of St. Peter, as his\ntomb is called; where he made a profession of his faith, which is still\nextant in his works. He sent also to the other patriarchs a synodal\nepistle, in which was contained the profession of his faith.[15] In it\nhe declares, that he received the four general councils as the four\ngospels. He received congratulatory letters upon his exaltation; to all\nwhich he returned for answer rather tears than words, in the most\nfeeling sentiments of profound humility. To Theoctista, the emperor's\nsister, he wrote thus:[16] \"I have lost the comfort of my calm, and,\nappearing to be outwardly exalted, I am inwardly and really fallen.--My\nendeavors were to banish corporeal objects from my mind, that I might\nspiritually behold heavenly joys. Neither desiring not fearing any thing\nin the world, I seemed raised above the earth, but the storm had cast me\non a sudden into alarms and fears: I am come into the depth of the sea,\nand the tempest hath drowned me.\" He adds: \"The emperor hath made an ape\nto be called a lion; but cannot make him become one.\" In his letter to\nNarses, the patrician, he says:[17] \"I am so overcome with grief, that I\nam scarce able to speak. My mind is encompassed with darkness. All that\nthe world thinks agreeable, brings to me trouble and affliction.\" To St.\nLeander he writes: \"I remember with tears that I have lost the calm\nharbor of my repose, and with many a sigh I look upon the firm land\nwhich I cannot reach. If you love me, assist me with your prayers.\" He\noften invites others to weep with him, and conjures them to pray for\nhim. John, archbishop of Ravenna, modestly reprehended his cowardice in\nendeavoring, by flight, to decline the burden of the pastoral charge. In\nanswer to his censure, and to instruct all pastors, soon after his\nexaltation, he wrote his incomparable book, On the Pastoral Care,\nsetting forth the dangers, duties, and obligations of that charge, which\nhe calls, from St. Gregory Nazianzen, the art of arts, and science of\nsciences. So great was the reputation of this performance, as soon as it\nappeared, that the emperor Mauritius sent to Rome for a copy; and\nAnastasius, the holy patriarch of Antioch, translated it into Greek.\nMany popes and councils have exhorted and commanded pastors of souls\nfrequently to read it, and {573} in it, as in a looking glass, to behold\nthemselves.[18] Our English saints made it always their rule, and king\nAlfred translated it into the Saxon tongue. In this book we read a\ntranscript of the sentiments and conduct of our excellent pastor. His\nzeal for the glory of God, and the angelic function of paying him the\nconstant tribute of praise in the church, moved him, in the beginning of\nhis pontificate, to reform the church music.[19] Preaching he regarded\nas the principal and most indispensable function of every pastor of\nsouls, as it is called by St. Thomas, and was most solicitous to feed\nhis flock with the word of God. His forty homilies on the gospels, which\nare extant, show that he spoke in a plain and familiar style, and\nwithout any pomp of words, but with a surprising eloquence of the heart.\nThe same may be said of his twenty-two homilies on Ezekiel, which he\npreached while Rome was besieged by the Lombards, in 592. In the\nnineteenth he, in profound humility, applies to himself, with tears,\nwhatever the prophet spoke against slothful mercenary pastors. Paul the\ndeacon relates, that after the saint's death, Peter the deacon, his most\nintimate friend, testified that he had seen in a vision, as an emblem of\nthe Holy Ghost, a dove appear on his head, applying his bill to his ear\nwhile he was writing on the latter part of Ezekiel.\n\nThis great pope always remembered, that, by his station, he was the\ncommon father of the poor. He relieved their necessities with so much\nsweetness and affability, as to spare them the confusion of receiving\nthe alms; and the old men among them he, out of deference, called his\nfathers. He often entertained several of them at his own table. He kept\nby him an exact catalogue of the poor, called by the ancients matriculae;\nand he liberally provided for the necessities of each. In the beginning\nof every month he {574} distributed to all the poor, corn, wine, pulse,\ncheese, fish, flesh, and oil: he appointed officers for every street to\nsend every day necessaries to all the needy sick; before he ate he\nalways sent off meats from his own table to some poor persons. One day a\nbeggar being found dead in a corner of a by-street, he is said to have\nabstained some days from the celebration of the divine mysteries,\ncondemning himself of a neglect in seeking the poor with sufficient\ncare. He entertained great numbers of strangers both at Rome and in\nother countries, and had every day twelve at his own table whom his\nsacristan invited. He was most liberal in redeeming captives taken by\nthe Lombards, for which he permitted the bishop of Fano to break and\nsell the sacred vessels,[20] and ordered the bishop of Messana to do the\nsame.[21] He extended his charity to the heretics, whom he sought to\ngain by mildness. He wrote to the bishop of Naples to receive and\nreconcile readily those who desired it, taking upon his own soul the\ndanger,[22] lest he should be charged with their perdition if they\nshould perish by too great severity. Yet he was careful not to give them\nan occasion of triumphing by any unreasonable condescension; and much\nmore not to relax the severity of the law of God in the least\ntittle.[23] He showed great moderation to the schismatics of Istria, and\nto the very Jews. When Peter, bishop of Terracina, had taken from the\nlatter their synagogue, St. Gregory ordered it to be restored to them,\nsaying, they are not to be compelled, but converted by meekness and\ncharity.[24] He repeated the same orders for the Jews of Sardinia, and\nfor those of Sicily.[25] In his letters to his vicar in Sicily, and to\nthe stewards of the patrimony of the Roman church in Africa, Italy, and\nother places, he recommends mildness and liberality towards his vassals\nand farmers; orders money to be advanced to those that were in distress,\nwhich they might repay by little and little, and most rigorously forbids\nany to be oppressed. He carefully computed and piously distributed the\nincome of his revenues at four terms in the year. In his epistles, we\nfind him continually providing for the necessities of all churches,\nespecially of those in Italy, which the wars of the Lombards and other\ncalamities had made desolate. Notwithstanding his meekness and\ncondescension, his courage was undaunted, and his confidence in the\ndivine assistance unshaken amidst the greatest difficulties. \"You know\nme,\" says he,[26] \"and that I tolerate a long while; but when I have once\ndetermined to bear no longer, I go with joy against all dangers.\" Out of\nsincere humility he styled himself \"the basest of men, devoured by sloth\nand laziness.\"[27] Writing to St. Leander, he says,[28] he always\ndesired to be the contempt of men and the outcast of the people. He\ndeclares,[29] \"I am ready to be corrected by all persons, and him only\ndo I look upon as my friend by whose tongue I learn to wash away the\nstains of my mind.\" He subscribed himself in all his letters, Servant of\nthe servants of God, which custom has been retained by his successors.\nIndeed, what is a pastor or superior but the servant of those for whom\nhe is to give a rigorous account to God? The works of St. Gregory were\neverywhere received with the greatest applause. Marinianus, archbishop\nof Ravenna, read his comments on Job to the people in the church. The\nsaint was afflicted and confounded that his writings should be thought\nto deserve a place among the approved works of the fathers; and wrote to\nthat prelate that his book was not proper for the church, admonishing\nhim rather to read St. Austin on the psalms.[30] He was no less dead to\nhimself in his great actions, {575} and all other things. He saw nothing\nin himself but imperfections; and subjects of confusion and humiliation.\nST. JOHN CALYBITE, RECLUSE.\n\nIt is incredible how much he wrote, and, during the thirteen years that\nhe governed the church, what great things he achieved for the glory of\nGod, the good of the church, the reformation of manners, the edification\nof the faithful, the relief of the poor, the comfort of the afflicted,\nthe establishment of ecclesiastical discipline, and the advancement of\npiety and religion. But our surprise redoubles upon us, when we remember\nhis continual bad state of health and frequent sicknesses, and his\nassiduity in prayer and holy contemplation; though this exercise it was\nthat gave always wings to his soul. In his own palace he would allow of\nno furniture but what was mean and simple, nor have any attendants near\nhis person but clergymen or monks of approved virtue, learning, and\nprudence. His household was a model of Christian perfection; and by his\ncare, arts, sciences, and the heroic practice of piety, flourished,\nespecially in the city of Rome. The state of Christendom was at that\ntime on every side miserably distracted, and stood in need of a pastor,\nwhose extraordinary sanctity, abilities, and courage should render him\nequal to every great enterprise. And such a one was Gregory. The eastern\nchurches were wretchedly divided and shattered by the Nestorians, and\nthe numerous spawn of the Eutychians, all which he repressed. In the\nwest, England was buried in idolatry, and Spain, under the Visigoths,\nwas overrun with the Arian heresy. These two flourishing countries owe\ntheir conversion, in a great measure, to his zeal, especially the\nformer. In Africa he extirpated the Donatists, converted many\nschismatics in Istria and the neighboring provinces; and reformed many\ngrievous abuses in Gaul, whence he banished simony, which had almost\nuniversally infected that church. A great part of Italy was become a\nprey to the Lombards,[31] who were partly Arians, partly idolaters. St.\nGregory often stopped the fury of their arms, and checked their\noppressions of the people: by his zeal he also brought over many to the\nCatholic faith, and had the comfort to see Agilulph, their king,\nrenounce the Arian heresy to embrace it. In 592, Romanus, exarch, or\ngovernor of Italy for the emperor, with a view to his own private\ninterest, perfidiously broke the solemn treaty which he had made with\nthe Lombards,[32] and took Perugia and several other towns. But the\nbarbarians, who were much the stronger, revenged this insult with great\ncruelty, and besieged Rome itself. St. Gregory neglected nothing to\nprotect the oppressed, and raised troops for the defence of several\nplaces. At length, by entreaties and great presents, he engaged the\nLombards to retire into their own territories. He reproved the exarch\nfor his breach of faith, but to no other effect than to draw upon\nhimself the indignation of the governor and his master. Such were the\nextortions and injustices of this and other imperial officers, that the\nyoke of the barbarians was lighter than the specious shadow of liberty\nunder the tyranny of the empire: and with such rigor were the heaviest\ntaxes levied, that to pay them, many poor inhabitants of Corsica were\nforced to sell their own children to the barbarians. These oppressions\ncried to heaven for vengeance: and St. Gregory wrote boldly to the {576}\nempress Constantina,[33] entreating that the emperor, though he should\nbe a loser by it, would not fill his exchequer by oppressing his people,\nnor suffer taxes to be levied by iniquitous methods, which would be an\nimpediment to his eternal salvation. He sent to this empress a brandeum,\nor veil, which had touched the bodies of the apostles, and assured her\nthat miracles had been wrought by such relics.[34] He promised to send\nher also some dust-filings of the chains of St. Paul; of which relics he\nmakes frequent mention in his epistles. At Cagliari, a curtain rich Jew,\nhaving been converted to the faith, had seized the synagogue in order to\nconvert it into a church, and had set up in it an image of the Virgin\nMary and a cross. Upon the complaint of the other Jews, St. Gregory\nordered[35] the synagogue to be restored to them, but that the image and\ncross should be first removed with due veneration and respect.[36]\nWriting to Theodelinda, queen of the Lombards, he mentions,[37] that he\nsent her son, the young king, a little cross, in which was a particle of\nthe wood of the true Cross, to carry about his neck. Secundinus, a holy\nhermit near Ravenna, godfather to this young king, begged of the pope\nsome devout pictures. St. Gregory, in his answer, says: \"We have sent\nyou two cloths, containing the picture of God our Saviour, and of Mary\nthe holy Mother of God, and of the blessed apostles Peter and Paul, and\none cross: also for a benediction, a key which hath been applied to the\nmost holy body of St. Peter, the prince of the apostles, that you may\nremain defended from the enemy.\"[38] But when Serenus, bishop of\nMarseilles, had broken certain sacred images which some persons lately\nconverted from idolatry honored with their former idolatrous\nsuperstitions, St. Gregory commended his zeal for suppressing this\nabuse, but reproved him for breaking the images.[39] When the archbishop\nof Ravenna used the pallium, not only at mass, but also in other\nfunctions, St. Gregory wrote him a severe reprimand, telling him that no\nornament shines so bright on the shoulders of a bishop as\nhumility.[40][41] He extended his pastoral zeal and solicitude over all\nchurches; and he frequently takes notice that the care of the churches\nof the whole world was intrusted to St. Peter, and his successors in the\nsee of Rome.[42] This authority he exerted in the oriental\npatriarchates. A certain monk having been accused of Manicheism, and\nbeaten by the order of John the patriarch of Constantinople, appealed to\npope Gregory, who sharply reprimanded the patriarch, exhorting him to\neject a certain wicked young man by whom he suffered himself to be\ngoverned, and to do penance, and telling him: \"If you do not keep the\ncanons, I know not who you are.\"[43] He absolved the monk, with his\ncolleague, a priest, re-established them in their monastery, and sent\nthem back into the East, having received their profession of faith. He\nalso absolved John, a priest of Chalcedon, who had been unjustly\ncondemned by the delegates of the Matriarch. This patriarch, John,\nsurnamed the Faster, usurped the arrogant title of [oe]cumenical, or\nuniversal patriarch. This epithet was only used of a general council\nwhich represents the whole church. In this sense an {577} ecumenical\nbishop should mean a bishop who represents the whole church, so that all\nother bishops are only his vicars. St. Gregory took the word in that\nsense: which would be blasphemy and heresy, and as such he condemned\nit.[44] John indeed only meant it in a limited sense for an archbishop\nover many, as we call him a general who commands many; but even so it\nsavored of arrogance and novelty. In opposition to this, St. Gregory\ntook no other titles than those of humility. Gregoria, a lady of the\nbedchamber to the empress, being troubled with scruples, wrote to St.\nGregory, that she should never be at ease till he should obtain of God,\nby a revelation, an assurance that her sins were forgiven her. To calm\nher disturbed mind, he sent her the following answer.[45] \"You ask what\nis both difficult and unprofitable. Difficult, because I am unworthy to\nreceive any revelation: unprofitable, because an absolute assurance of\nyour pardon does not suit your state till you can no longer weep for\nyour sins. You ought always to fear and tremble for them, and wash them\naway by daily tears. Paul had been taken up to the third heaven, yet\ntrembled lest he should become a reprobate.--Security is the mother of\nnegligence.\"\n\nThe emperor forbade any to be admitted in monasteries, who, having been\nin office, had not yet given up their accounts, or who were engaged in\nthe military service. This order he sent to each of the patriarchs, to\nbe by then notified to all the bishops of their respective districts.\nSt. Gregory, who was at that time sick, complied with the imperial\nmandate, so far as to order the edict to be signified to the western\nbishops,[46] as appears from a letter which he wrote to the emperor as\nsoon as his health was re-established. We learn from another letter,\nwhich he wrote some years after to the bishops of the empire, that, on\nthis occasion, he exhorted the bishops to comply with the first part,\nand as to the second, not to suffer persons engaged in the army to be\nadmitted among the clergy or to the monastic habit, unless their\nvocation had been thoroughly tried for the space of three years, that it\nmight be evident they were converted from the world, and sought not to\nchange one kind of secular life for another. He made to Mauritius the\nstrongest remonstrances against this edict, saying, \"It is not agreeable\nto God, seeing by it the way to heaven was shut to several; for many\ncannot be saved unless they forsake all things.\" He, therefore,\nentreated the emperor to mitigate this law, approving the first article\nas most just, unless the monastery made itself answerable for the debts\nof such a person received in it. As to the second, he allows that the\nmotives and sincerity of the conversion of such soldiers are to be\nnarrowly examined before they ought to be admitted to the monastic\nhabit. Mauritius, who had before conceived certain prejudices against\nSt. Gregory, was offended at his remonstrances, and showed his\nresentment against him for some years, but at length agreed to the\nmitigations of each article proposed by St. Gregory: which the holy\npope, with great pleasure, notified by a letter addressed to the bishops\nof the empire.[47]\n\nThe emperor Mauritius, having broken his league with the Avari, a\nScythian {578} nation, then settled on the banks of the Danube,[48] was\ndefeated, and obliged to purchase an ignominious peace. He also refused\nto ransom the prisoners they had taken, though they asked at first only\na golden penny a head, and at last only a sixth part, or four farthings;\nwhich refusal so enraged the barbarians, that they put them all to the\nsword. Mauritius began then to be stung with remorse, gave large alms,\nand prayed that God would rather punish him in this life than in the\nnext. His prayer was heard. His avarice and extortions had rendered him\nodious to all his subjects; and, in 602, he ordered the army to take\nwinter quarters in the enemy's country, and to subsist on freebooting,\nwithout pay. The soldiers, exasperated at this treatment, chose one\nPhocas, a daring ambitious man, to be their leader, and marched to\nConstantinople, where he was crowned emperor. Mauritius had made his\nescape, but was taken with his family thirty miles out of the city, and\nbrought back. His five sons were slain before his eyes at Chalcedon: he\nrepeated all the while as a true penitent these words: \"Thou art just, O\nLord, and thy judgments are righteous.\"[49] When the nurse offered her\nown child instead of his youngest, he would not suffer it. Last of all\nhe himself was massacred, after a reign of twenty years. His empress,\nConstantina, was confined with her three daughters, and murdered with\nthem a few months after. The tyrant was slain by Heraclius, governor of\nAfrica, after a tottering reign of eight years. When Phocas mounted the\nthrone, his images were received and set up at Rome: nor could St.\nGregory, for the sake of the public good, omit writing to him letters of\ncongratulation.[50] In them he makes some compliments to Phocas, which\nare not so much praises as respectful exhortations to a tyrant in power,\nand wishes of the public liberty, peace, and happiness.[51] The saint\nnowhere approved his injustices or tyranny, though he regarded him, like\nJehu, as the instrument of God to punish other sinners. He blamed\nMauritius, but in things truly blameable; and drew from his punishment a\nseasonable occasion of wholesome advice which he gave to Phocas, whom\nthe public safety of all Italy obliged him not to exasperate.\n\nThis holy pope had labored many years under a great weakness of his\nbreast and stomach, and was afflicted with slow fevers, and frequent\nfits of the gout, which once confined him to his bed two whole years. On\nthe 25th of January, 604, he gave to the church of St. Paul several\nparcels of land to furnish it with lights: the act of donation remains\nto this day engraved on a marble stone in the same church. God called\nhim to himself on the 12th of March, the same year, about the\nsixty-fourth of his age, after he had governed the church thirteen\nyears, six months, and ten days. His pallium, the reliquary which he\nwore about his neck, and his girdle, were preserved long after his\ndeath, when John the deacon wrote, who describes his picture drawn from\nthe life, then to be seen in the monastery of St. Andrew.[52] His holy\nremains rest in the Vatican church. Both the Greek and Latins honor his\nname. The council of Clif, or Cloveshove, under archbishop Cuthbert, in\n747, commanded his feast to be observed a holyday in all the monasteries\nin England; which the council of Oxford, in 1222, {579} extended to the\nwhole kingdom. This law subsisted till the change of religion.[53]\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nEvery superior, who is endued with the sincere spirit of humility and\ncharity, looks upon himself with this great hope, as the servant of all,\nbound to labor and watch night and day, to bear every kind of affront,\nto suffer all manner of pains, to do all in his power, to put on every\nshape, and sacrifice his own ease and life to procure the spiritual\nimprovement of the least of those who are committed to his charge. He is\nincapable of imperious haughtiness, which alienates the minds of\ninferiors, and renders their obedience barely exterior and a forced\nhypocrisy. His commands are tender entreaties, and if he is obliged to\nextend his authority, this he does with secret repugnance, losing sight\nof himself, intent only on God's honor and his neighbor's salvation,\nplacing himself in spirit beneath all his subjects, and all mankind, and\nesteeming himself the last of all creatures. St. Paul, though vested\nwith the most sublime authority, makes use of terms so mild and so\npowerfully ravishing, that they must melt the hardest heart. Instead of\ncommanding in the name of God, see how he usually expresses himself: \"I\nentreat you, O Timothy, by the love which you bear me. I conjure you, by\nthe bowels of Jesus Christ. I beseech you, by the meekness of Christ. If\nyou love me, do this.\" And see how he directs us to reprove those who\nsin: \"If any one should fall, do you who are spiritual remind him in\nthat spirit of meekness, remembering that you may also fall,\" and into a\nmore grievous crime. St. Peter, who had received the keys of the kingdom\nof heaven, shed more tears of tender charity than he speaks words. What\nheart can be so savage and unnatural, as to refuse to obey him who,\nhaving authority to lay injunctions, and thunder out anathemas, weeps\ninstead of commanding. If SS. Peter and Paul pour out the water of tears\nand mildness, St. John casts darts of fire into the hearts of those whom\nhe commands. \"My little children,\" says he, \"if you love Christ, do\nthis. I conjure you, by Christ, our good Master, love affectionately,\nand this is enough. Love will teach you what to do. The unction of the\nHoly Ghost will instruct you.\" This is the true spirit of governing; a\nmethod sure to gain the hearts of others, and to inspire them with a\nlove of the precept itself and of virtue. St. Macarius of Egypt was\nstyled the god of the monks, so affectionately and readily was he obeyed\nby them, because he never spoke a word with anger or impatience. Moses\nwas chosen by God to be the leader and legislator of his people, because\nhe was the meekest of men: and with what astonishing patience did he\nbear the murmurs and rebellions of an ungrateful and stiff-necked\npeople! David's meekness towards Saul and others purchased him the\ncrown, and was one of the principal virtues by which he was rendered a\nking according to God's own heart. Those who command with imperious\nauthority show they are puffed up with the empty wind of pride, which\nmakes them feel an inordinate pleasure in the exercise of power, the\nseed of tyranny, and the bane of virtue in their souls. Anger and\nimpatience, which are more dangerous, because usually canonized under\nthe name of zeal, demonstrate persons to be very ill-qualified for\ngoverning others, who are not masters of themselves or their own\npassions. How few are so crucified to themselves, and so perfectly\ngrounded in humility, {580} patience, meekness, and charity, that power\nand authority infect not their souls with the deadly poison of secret\npride, or in whom no hurry, importunity, or perverseness can extinguish\nthe spirit of meekness, in which, in all occurrences, they preserve the\nsame evenness of mind, and the same angelical sweetness of countenance.\nYet with this they are sons of thunder in resisting evil, and in\nwatching against all the artifices of the most subtle and flattering\npassions of sinners, and are firm and inflexible in opposing every step\ntowards any dangerous relaxation. St. Gregory, by his whole conduct,\nsets us an example of this perfect humility and meekness, which he\nrequires as an essential qualification in every pastor, and in all who\nare placed over others.[54] He no less excelled in learning, with which,\nhe says, that humility must be accompanied, lest the pastor should lead\nothers astray. But above all other qualities for the pastoral charge, he\nrequires an eminent gift of prayer and contemplation. Prae caeteris\ncontemplatione suspensus. Pastor. Cura, part 2, c. 5.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  See Annot. at the end of his life, p. 580 {original footnote has\n    incorrect page reference} infra.\n2.  Dial. l. 3, c. 33.\n3.  Hist. b. 2, c. 1.\n4.  Bede adds, that he again asked, what was the name of that nation,\n    and was answered, that they were called Angli or Angles. \"Right,\"\n    said he, \"for they have angelical faces, and it becomes such to be\n    companions with the angels in heaven. What is the name (proceeded\n    he) of the province from which they are brought?\" It was replied,\n    that the natives of that were called Deiri. \"Truly Deiri, because\n    withdrawn from wrath, and called to the mercy of Christ,\" said he,\n    alluding to the Latin, De ira Dei eruti. He asked further, \"How is\n    the king of that province called?\" They him that his name was All{}\n    and he making an allusion to the word, said: \"Alleluiah, the praise\n    of God the Creator, must be sung in those parts.\" Some censure this\n    conversation of St. Gregory as a piece of low punning. But the taste\n    of that age must be considered. St. Austin found it necessary to\n    play sometimes with words to please auditors whose ears had, by\n    custom, caught an itch to be sometimes tickled by quibbles to their\n    fancy. The ingenious author of the late life of the lord chancellor\n    Bacon, thought custom an apology for the most vicious style of that\n    great man, of whom he writes: \"His style has been objected to as\n    full of affectation, full of false eloquence. But that was the vice,\n    not of the man, but of the times he lived in; and particularly of a\n    court that delighted in the tinsel of wit and learning, in the poor\n    ingenuity of punning and quibbling.\" St. Gregory was a man of a fine\n    genius and of true learning: yet in familiar converse might confirm\n    to the taste of the age. Far from censuring his wit, or the judgment\n    of his historian, we ought to admire his piety, which, from every\n    circumstance, even from words, drew allusions to nourish devotion,\n    and turn the heart to God. This we observe in other saints, and if\n    it be a fault, we might more justly censure on this account the\n    elegant epistles of St. Paulinus, or Sulpitius Severus, than this\n    dialogue of St. Gregory.\n5.  Eutychius had formerly defended the Catholic faith with at zeal\n    against the Eutychians and the errors of the emperor Justinian, who,\n    though he condemned those heretics, yet adopted one part of their\n    blasphemies, asserting that Christ assumed a body which was by its\n    own nature incorruptible, not formed of the Blessed Virgin, and\n    subject to pain, hunger, or alteration only by a miracle. This was\n    called the heresy of the Incorrupticolae, of which Justinian declared\n    himself the abetter; and, after many great exploits to retrieve the\n    ancient glory of the empire, tarnished his reputation by persecuting\n    the Catholic Church and banishing Eutychius.\n6.  St. Greg. Moral. l. 14, c. 76, t. 1, p. 465.\n7.  He died in 582 and is ranked by the Greeks among the saints. See the\n    Bollandists in vita S. Eutychil ad 6 Apr.\n8.  Fleury thinks he was chosen abbot before his embassy to\n    Constantinople; but Ceillier and others prove, that this only\n    happened after his return.\n9.  It appears from the life of St. Theodosius the Cenobiarch, from St.\n    Ambrose's funeral oration on Valentinian, and other monuments, that\n    it was the custom, from the primitive ages, to keep the third,\n    seventh, and thirtieth, or sometimes fortieth day after the decease\n    of a Christian, with solemn prayers and sacrifices for the departed\n    soul. From this fact of St. Gregory, a trental of masses for a soul\n    departed are usually called the Gregorian masses, on which see\n    Gavant and others.\n10. Dial. l. 4, c. 55, p. 465, t. 2.\n11. It is inserted by St. Gregory of Tours in his history. Greg. Touron.\n    l. 10 c. 1.\n12. Some moderns say, an angel was seen sheathing his sword on the\n    stately pile of Adrian's sepulchre. But no such circumstance is\n    mentioned by St. Gregory of Tours, Bede, Paul, or John.\n13. Paul the deacon says, it was by a pillar of light appearing over the\n    place where he lay concealed.\n14. L. 1, ep. 21, l. 7, ep. 4.\n15. L. 1, ep. 25.\n16. L. 1, ep. 5, p. 491.\n17. L. 1, ep. 6, p. 498.\n18. Conc. 3, Touron. can. 3. See Dom Bulteau's Preface to his French\n    translation of S. Gregory's Pastoral, printed in 1629.\n19. He reformed the Sacramentary, or Missal and Ritual of the Roman\n    church. In the letters of SS. Innocent I., Celestine I., and St.\n    Leo, we find mention made of a written Roman Order of the mass: in\n    this the essential parts were always the same; but accidental\n    alterations in certain prayers have been made Pope Gelasius thus\n    augmented and revised the liturgy, in 490; his genuine Sacramentary\n    was published at Rome by Thomasi, in 1680. In it are mentioned the\n    public veneration of the cross on Good Friday, the solemn\n    benediction of the holy oils, the ceremonies of baptism, frequent\n    invocation of saints, veneration shown to their relics, the\n    benediction of holy water, votive masses for travellers, for the\n    sick and the dead, masses on festivals of saints, and the like. The\n    Sacramentary of St. Gregory, differs from that of Gelasius only in\n    some collects or prayers. The conformity between the present church\n    office and the ancient appears from this work, and the saint's\n    Antiphonarius and Responsorium. The like ceremonies and benedictions\n    are found in the apostolic constitutions, and all other ancient\n    liturgic writings; out of which Grabe, Hickes, Deacon, and others\n    have formed new liturgies very like the present Roman, and several\n    of them have restored the idea of a true sacrifice. Dom Menard has\n    enriched the Sacramentary of St. Gregory with most learned and\n    curious notes.\n\n    Besides his Comments or Morals on the book of Job, which he wrote at\n    Constantinople, about the year 582, in which we are not to look for\n    an exposition of the text, but an excellent compilation of the main\n    principles of morality, and an interior life, we have his exposition\n    of Ezekiel, in twenty-two homilies. These were taken in short hand\n    as he pronounced them, and were preached by him at Rome, in 592,\n    when Ag{}ulph the Lombard was laying waste the whole territory of\n    Rome. See l. 2, in Ezech. hom. 6, and Paul the deacon, l. 4, hist.\n    Longob. c. 8. The exposition of the text is allegorical, and only\n    intended for ushering in {} moral reflections, which are much\n    shorter than in the books on Job. His forty homilies on the gospels\n    he preached on several solemnities while he was pope. His\n    incomparable book, On the Pastoral Care, which is an excellent\n    instruction of pastors, and was drawn up by him when he saw himself\n    placed in the pontificate, consists of four parts. In the first he\n    treats of the dispositions requisite in one who is called to the\n    pastoral charge; in the second of duties of a pastor; in the third\n    on the instruction which he owes to his flock; and, in the fourth,\n    on his obligation of watching over his own heart, and of diligent\n    self-examination. In four books of dialogues, between himself and\n    his disciple Peter, he recounts the miracles of his own times, upon\n    the authority of vouchers, on whose veracity he thought he could\n    rely. He so closely adheres to their relations, that the style is\n    much lower than in his other writings. See the preface of the\n    Benedictin editor on this work. His letters are published in\n    fourteen books, and are a very interesting compilation. We have St.\n    Gregory's excellent exposition of the Book of Canticles, which\n    Ceillier proves to be genuine against Oudin, the apostate, and some\n    others. The six books on the first book of Kings are valuable work\n    but cannot be ascribed to St. Gregory the Great. The commentary on\n    the seven penitential psalms Ceillier thinks to be his work: but it\n    seems doubtful. Paterius, a notary, one of St. Gregory's auditors,\n    compiled, out of his writings and sermons, several comments on the\n    scriptures. Claudius, abbot of Classius, a disciple of our saint,\n    did the same. Alulphus, a monk at Tournay, in the eleventh and\n    twelfth centuries, made the like compilations from his writings. Dom\n    Dionysius of St. Marthe, a Maurist Benedictin monk, favored the world\n    with an accurate edition of the works of St. Gregory the Great,\n    published at Paris in four volumes folio, in 1705. This has been\n    reprinted at Verona and again at Ausburg, in 1758, with the addition\n    of the useful anonymous book, De formula Praelatorum.\n20. L. 6, Ep. 35.\n21. L. 7, Ep. 26.\n22. Animae nostra pericula, l. 1, Ep. 14.\n23. L. 1, Ep. 35, &c.\n24. L. 1, Ep. 35.\n25. L. 7, Ep. 5, l. 12, Ep. 30.\n26. L. 4, Ep. 47.\n27. Praef. in Dial.\n28. L. 9, Ep. 22.\n29. L. 2, Ep. 121.\n30. L. 12, Ep. 24.\n31. The Lombards came originally from Scandinavia, and settled first in\n    Pomerania, and afterwards with the Hunns in Pannonia, who had\n    remained there when they returned out of Italy under Attila. Narses,\n    the patrician, after having governed Italy sixteen years with great\n    glory, was recalled by the emperor Justin the Younger. But resenting\n    this treatment, he invited the Lombards into that country. Those\n    barbarians leaving Pannonia to the Hunns, entered Italy, easily made\n    themselves masters of Milan, under their king Alboinus, in 568; and\n    extending their dominions, often threatened Rome itself. In the reign\n    of Charles the Fat, the Hunns were expelled Pannonia by the Hongres,\n    another swarm from the same northern hive, akin to the Hunns, who\n    gave to that kingdom the name of Hungary. That the Lombards were so\n    called, not from their long swords, as some have pretended, but from\n    their long beards, see demonstrated from the express testimony of\n    Paul the Deacon, himself a Lombard of Constantine Porphyrogenetta,\n    by Jos. Assemani. Hist. Ital. scriptor. t. 1, c. 3, p. 33.\n32. Paul Diac. de Gest Longobard. l. 4, c. 8. S. Greg. l. 2, Ep. 46.\n33. L. 5. Ep. 41.\n34. L. 4, Ep. 30.\n35. Sublata exinde, qua par est veneratione, imagine et cruce. L. 9,\nEp. 6, p. 930.\n36. L. 9, Ep. 6, p. 930.\n37. L. 14, Ep. 12, p. 1270.\n38. These words are quoted by Paul the deacon, in the council of Rome,\nConc. t. 6, p. 1462, and pope Adrian I., in his letter to Charlemagne\nin defence of holy images.\n39. L. 11, Ep. 13.\n40. L. 3, Ep. 56; l. 3, Ep. 53; l. 9, Ep. 59; l. 6, Ep. 66; l. 7,\nEp. 19; l. 5, Ep. 20.\n41. St. Gregory was always a zealous asserter of the celibacy of the\n    clergy, which law he extended also to subdeacons, who had before\n    been ranked among the clergy of the Minor orders, (l. 1, ep. 44, l.\n    4, Ep. 34.) The Centuriators, Heylin, and others, mention a forged\n    letter, under the name of Udalrirus, said to be written to pope\n    Nicholas, concerning the heads of children found by St. Gregory in a\n    pond. But a smore ridiculous fable was never invented, as is\n    demonstrated from many inconsistencies of that forged letter: and\n    St. Gregory in his epistles everywhere mentions the law of the\n    celibacy of the clergy as ancient and inviolable. Nor was any pope\n    Nicholas contemporary with St. Udalricus. See Baronius and Dom de\n    {Sainte} Marthe, in his life of St. Gregory.\n42. L. 3, Ep. 29; l. 5, Ep. 13.\n43. L. 6, Ep. 15, 16, 17.\n44. L. 11, Ep. 28; olim 58, p. 1180, &c.\n45. L. 7, Ep. 25.\n46. Some Protestants slander St. Gregory, as if by this publication of\n    the imperial edict he had concurred to what he condemned as contrary\n    to the divine law. Dr. Mercier, in his letter in favor of a law\n    commanding silence, with regard to the constitution Unigenitus in\n    France, in 1759, pretends that this holy pope thought obedience to\n    the emperor a duty even in things of a like nature. But Dr. Launay,\n    Reponse a la Lettre d'un Docteur de Sorbunne, partie 2, p. 51, and\n    Dr. N., Examen de la Lettre d'un Docteur de Sorboune sur la\n    necessite de garder In silence sur la Constitution Unigenitus, p.\n    33, t. 1, demonstrate that St. Gregory regarded the matter, as it\n    really is, merely as a point of discipline, and nowhere says the\n    edict was contrary to the divine law, but only not agreeable to God,\n    and tending to prejudice the interest of his greater glory. In\n    matters of faith or essential obligation, he calls forth the zeal\n    and fortitude of prelates to stand upon their guard as opposing\n    unjust laws, even to martyrdom, as the same authors demonstrate.\n47. Ep. 55.\n48. Theophanes Chronogr.\n49. Ps. 118.\n50. L. 13, ep. 31, 38.\n51. We say the same of the compliments which he paid to the impious\n    French queen Brunehault, at which lord Bolingbroke takes offence;\n    but a respect is due to persons in power. St. Gregory nowhere\n    flatters their vices, but admonishes by compliments those who could\n    not be approached without them. Thus did St. Paul address Agrippa\n    and Festas, &c. In refusing the sacraments of the church to\n    impenitent wicked princes, and in checking their crimes by\n    seasonable remonstrances, St. Gregory was always ready to exert the\n    zeal of a Baptist: as he opposed the unjust projects of Mauritius,\n    so would he have done those of Phocas when in his power.\n52. The antiquarian will read with pleasure the curious notes of Angelus\n    Rocca, and the {}enedic{ons on} the pictures of St. Gregory and his\n    parents, and on this holy pope's pious donations.\n53. St. Gregory gave St. Austin a small library which was kept in his\n    monastery at Canterbury. Of it there still remain a book of the\n    gospels in the Bodleian library, and another in that of\n    Corpus-Christi in Cambridge. The other books were psalters, the\n    Pastorals, the Passionarium Sanctorium, and the like. See Mr.\n    Wauley, in his catalogue of S{} on manuscripts, at the end of Dr.\n    Hickes's Thesaurus, p. 172. Many rich vestments, vessels, relics,\n    and a pall given by St. Gregory to St. Austin, were kept in the same\n    monastery. Their original inventory, drawn up by Thomas of Elmham,\n    in the reign of Henry V., is preserved in the Harleian library, and\n    published by the learned lady, Mrs. E. Elstob, at the end of a Saxon\n    panegyric on St. Gregory.\n54. Gregor. M. in l. 1. Reg. c. 16, v. 3 and 9.\n\nANNOTATION\n\nON\n\nTHE LIFE OF ST. GREGORY.\n\nBARONIUS thinks that his monastery of Saint Andrew's followed the rule\nof St. Equitius, because its first abbots were drawn out of his\nprovince, Valeria. On another side, Dom Ma-billon (t. 1. Actor. Sanct. &\nt. 2, Analect. and Annal. Bened. l, 6,) maintains that it followed the\nrule of St. Benedict, which St. Gregory often commends and prefers to all\nother rules. His colleagues, in their life of St. Gregory, Natalis\nAlexander, in his Church History, and others, have written to support\nthe same opinion: who all, with Mabillon, borrow all their arguments\nfrom the learned English Benedictin, Clemens Reynerus, in his\nApostolatus Benedictinorum in Anglia. Others object that St. Gregory in\nhis epistles ordains many things contrary to the rule of St. Benedict,\nand think he who has written so much concerning St. Benedict, would have\nmentioned by some epithet the circumstance of being his disciple, and\nwould have called the rule of that patriarch his own. These antiquaries\njudge it most probable that the monastery of St. Andrew had its own rule\nprescribed by the first founders, and borrowed from different places:\nfor this was the ordinary method of most monasteries in the west, till\nafterwards the rule of St. Benedict was universally received for better\nuniformity and discipline: to which the just commendations of St.\nGregory doubtless contributed.\n\nF. Clement Reyner, in the above-mentioned book, printed at Doway, in\nfolio, in 1626, displays much erudition in endeavoring to prove that St.\nAustin, and the other monks sent by Saint Gregory to convert the\nEnglish, professed the order of St. Benedict. Mabillon borrows his\narguments on this subject in his preface to the Acts of the Benedictins,\nagainst the celebrated Sir John Marsham, who, in his long preface to the\nMonasticon, sets himself to show that the first English monks followed\nrules instituted by their own abbots, often gleaned out of many. Dr.\nHickes confirms this assertion against Mabillon with great erudition,\n(Diss. pp. 67, 68,) which is espoused by Dr. Tanner, bishop of St.\nAsaph's, in his preface to nis exact Notitia Monastica, by the author of\nBiographia Britannica, in the life of Bede, t. 1, p. 656, and by the\njudicious William Thomas, in his additions to the new edition of\nDugdale's Antiquities of Warwickshire, (t. 1, p. 157.) These authors\nthink that the rule of St. Benedict was not generally received by the\nEnglish monks before the regulations of St. Dunstan; nor perfectly till\nafter the Norman conquest. For pope Constantine, in 709, in the bull\nwherein he establishes the rule of St. Benedict to be followed in the\nabbey of Evesham, says of it: \"Which does not prevail in those parts.\"\n\"Quae minus in illis partibus habetur.\" In 747, Cuthbert archbishop of\nCanterbury, in a synod held in presence of Ethelbaid, king of the\nMercians, at Cloveshove, (which town some place in Kent, others more\nprobably in Mercia, about Reading,) published Monastic Constitutions,\nwhich were {581} followed by the English monks till the time of St.\nDunstan. In these we find no mention of the rule of Saint Benedict; nor\nin Bede. The charter of king Ethelbald which mentions the Black monks,\nis a manifest forgery. Even that name was not known before the\ninstitution of the Camaldulenses, in 1020, and the Carthusians, who\ndistinguished themselves by white habits. Dom Mege, in his commentary on\nthe rule of St. Benedict, shows that the first Benedictins wore white,\nnot black. John of Glastenbury, and others, published by Hearne, who\ncall the apostles of the English Black Monks, are too modern, unless\nthey produce some ancient vouchers. The monastery of Evesham adopted the\nrule of Saint Benedict, in 709. St. Bennet Biscop and St. Wilfrid both\nimproved the monastic order in the houses which they founded, from the\nrule of St. Benedict, at least borrowing some constitutions from it. The\ndevastations of the Danes scarce left a convent of monks standing in\nEngland, except those of Glastenbury and Abingdon, which was their state\nin the days of king Alfred, as Leland observes. St. Dunstan, St. Oswald,\nand St. Ethelwold, restored the monasteries, and propagated exceedingly\nthe monastic state. St. Oswald had professed the order of Saint Benedict\nin France, in the monastery of Fleury; and, together with the aforesaid\ntwo bishops, he established the same in a great measure in England. St.\nDunstan published a uniform rule for the monasteries of this nation,\nentitled, Regularis Concordiae Anglicae Nationis, extant in Reyner, and\nSpelman, (in Spicilegio ad Eadmerum, p. 145,) in which he adopts, in a\ngreat measure, the rule of St. Benedict, joining with it many ancient\nmonastic customs. Even after the Norman conquest, the synod of London,\nunder Lanfranc, in 1075, says the regulations of monks were drawn from\nthe rule of St. Bennet and the ancient custom of regular places, as\nBaronius takes notice, which seems to imply former distinct institutes.\nFrom that time down to the dissolution, all the cathedral priories,\nexcept that of Carlisle, and most of the rich abbeys in England, were\nheld by monks of the Benedictin order. See Dr. Brown Willis, in his\nseparate histories of Cathedral Priories, Mitred Abbeys, &c.\n\nST. MAXIMILIAN, M.\n\nHE was the son of Victor, a Christian soldier in Numidia. According to\nthe law which obliged the sons of soldiers to serve in the army at the\nage of twenty-one years, his measure was taken, that he might be\nenrolled in the troops, and he was found to be of due stature, being\nfive Roman feet and ten inches high,[1] that is, about five feet and a\nhalf of our measure. But Maximilian refused to receive the mark, which\nwas a print on the band, and a leaden collar about the neck, on which\nwere engraved the name and motto of the emperor. His plea was, that in\nthe Roman army superstitions, contrary to the Christian faith, were\noften practised, with which he could not defile his soul. Being\ncondemned by the proconsul to lose his head, he met death with joy in\nthe year 296. See his acts in Ruinart.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  See Tr. ur la Milice Romaine, t. 1.\n\nST. PAUL, BISHOP OF LEON, C.\n\nHE was a noble Briton, a native of Cornwall, cousin of St. Samson, and\nhis fellow-disciple under St. Iltutus. We need no other proof of his\nwonderful fervor and progress in virtue, and all the exercises of a\nmonastic life, than the testimony of St. Iltutus, by whose advice St.\nPaul left the monastery to embrace more perfect eremetical life in a\nretired place in the same country. Some time after, our saint sailing\nfrom Cornwall, passed into Armorica, and continued the same austere\neremitical life in a small island on the coast of the Osismians, a\nbarbarous idolatrous people in Armorica, or Little Britain. Prayer and\ncontemplation were his whole employment, and bread and water his only\nfood, except on great festivals, on which he took {582} with his bread a\nfew little fish. The saint, commiserating the blindness of the pagan\ninhabitants on the coast, passed over to the continent, and instructed\nthem in the faith. Withur, count or governor of Bas, and all that coast,\nseconded by king Childebert, procured his ordination to the episcopal\ndignity, notwithstanding his tears to prevent it. Count Withur, who\nresided in the Isle of Bas, bestowed his own house on the saint to be\nconverted into a monastery; and St. Paul placed in it certain fervent\nmonks, who had accompanied him from Wales and Cornwall. He was himself\nentirely taken up in his pastoral functions, and his diligence in\nacquitting himself of every branch of his obligations was equal to his\napprehension of their weight. When he had completed the conversion of\nthat country, he resigned his bishopric to a disciple, and retired into\nthe isle of Bas, where he died in holy solitude, on the 12th of March,\nabout the year 573, near one hundred years old.[1] During the inroads of\nthe Normans, his relics were removed to the abbey of Fleury, or St.\nBennet's on the Loire, but were lost when the Calvinists plundered that\nchurch. Leon, the ancient city of the Osismians, in which he fixed his\nsee, takes his name. His festival occurs in the ancient breviary of\nLeon, on the 10th of October, perhaps the day of the translation of his\nrelics. For in the ancient breviary of Nantes, and most others, he is\nhonored on the 12th of March. See Le Cointe's Annals, the Bollandists on\nthis day, and Lobineau in the Lives of the Saints of Brittany, from his\nacts compiled by a monk of Fleury, about the close of the tenth century.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  St. Paul was ordained priest before he left Great Britain, about the\n    year 530. The little island on the coast of Armorica, where he chose\n    his first abode in France, was called Medonia, and seems to the\n    present Molene, situated between the isle of Ushant and the coast.\n    The first oratory which he built on the continent, very near this\n    islands seems to be the church called from him Lan-Pol.\n\n\nMARCH XIII.\n\nST. NICEPHORUS, C.\n\nPATRIARCH OF CONSTANTINOPLE\n\nFrom his life by Ignatius, deacon of Constantinople, afterwards bishop\nof Nice, a contemporary author; and from the relation of his banishment\nby Theophanes. See Fleury, l. 45, 46, 47. Ceillier, t. 18, p. 487.\n\nA.D. 828.\n\nTHEODORUS, the father of our saint, was secretary to the emperor\nConstantine Copronymus: but when that tyrant declared himself a\npersecutor of the Catholic church, the faithful minister, remembering\nthat we are bound to obey God rather than man, maintained the honor due\nto holy images with so much zeal, that he was stripped of his honors,\nscourged, tortured, and banished. The young Nicephorus was from his\ncradle animated to the practice of virtue by the domestic example of his\nfather: and in his education, as his desires of improvement were great,\nand the instructions he had very good, the progress he made was as\nconsiderable; till, by the maturity of his age, and of his study, he\nmade his appearance in the world. When Constantine and Irene were placed\non the imperial throne, and restored the Catholic faith, our saint was\nquickly introduced to their notice, and by his merits attained a large\nshare in their favor. He was by them advanced to his father's {583}\ndignity, and, by the lustre of his sanctity, was the ornament of the\ncourt, and the support of the state. He distinguished himself by his\nzeal against the Iconoclasts, and was secretary to the second council of\nNice. After the death of St. Tarasius, patriarch of Constantinople, in\n806, no one was found more worthy to succeed him than Nicephorus. To\ngive an authentic testimony of his faith, during the time of his\nconsecration he held in his hand a treatise which he had written in\ndefence of holy images, and after the ceremony laid it up behind the\naltar, as a pledge that he would always maintain the tradition of the\nchurch. As soon as he was seated in the patriarchal chair, he began to\nconsider how a total reformation of manners might be wrought, and his\nprecepts from the pulpit received a double force from the example he set\nto others in an humble comportment, and steady uniform practice of\neminent piety.[1] He applied himself with unwearied diligence to all the\nduties of the ministry; and, by his zealous labors and invincible\nmeekness and patience, kept virtue in countenance, and stemmed the tide\nof iniquity. But these glorious successes rendered him not so\nconspicuous as the constancy with which he despised the frowns of\ntyrants, and suffered persecution for the sake of justice.\n\nThe government having changed hands, the patrician Leo the Armenian,\ngovernor of Natolia, became emperor in 813, and being himself an\nIconoclast, endeavored both by artifices and open violence to establish\nthat heresy. He studied in the first place, by crafty suggestions, to\ngain over the holy patriarch to favor his design. But St. Nicephorus\nanswered him: \"We cannot change the ancient traditions: we respect holy\nimages as we do the cross and the book of the gospels.\" For it must be\nobserved that the ancient Iconoclasts venerated the book of the gospels,\nand the figure of the cross, though by an inconsistency usual in error,\nthey condemned the like relative honor with regard to holy images. The\nsaint showed, that far from derogating from the supreme honor of God, we\nhonor him when for his sake we pay a subordinate respect to his angels,\nsaints, prophets, and ministers: also when we give a relative inferior\nhonor to inanimate things which belong to his service, as sacred\nvessels, churches, and images. But the tyrant was fixed in his errors,\nwhich he at first endeavored to propagate by stratagems. He therefore\nprivately encouraged soldiers to treat contemptuously an image of Christ\nwhich was on a great cross at the brazen gate of the city; and thence\ntook occasion to order the image to be taken off the cross, pretending\nhe did it to prevent a second profanation. Saint Nicephorus saw the\nstorm gathering, and spent most of his time in prayer with several holy\nbishops and abbots. Shortly after, the emperor, having assembled\ntogether certain Iconoclast bishops in his palace, sent for the\npatriarch and his fellow-bishops. They obeyed the summons, but entreated\nhis majesty to leave the government of the church to its pastors.\nEmilian, bishop of Cyzicus, one of their body, said: \"If this is an\necclesiastical affair, let it be discussed in the church, according to\ncustom, not in the palace.\" Euthymius, bishop of Sardes said: \"For these\neight hundred years past, since the coming of Christ, there have been\nalways pictures of him, and he has been honored in them. Who shall now\nhave the boldness to abolish so ancient a tradition?\" St. Theodorus, the\nStudite, spoke after the bishops, and said to the emperor: \"My Lord, do\nnot disturb the order of the church. God hath placed in it apostles,\nprophets, pastors, and teachers.[2] You he hath intrusted with the care\nof the state; but leave the church to its pastors.\" The emperor, {584}\nin a rage, drove them from his presence. Sometime after, the Iconoclast\nbishops held a pretended council in the imperial palace, and cited the\npatriarch to appear before them. To their summons he returned this\nanswer: \"Who gave you this authority? was it the pope, or any of the\npatriarchs? In my diocese you have no jurisdiction.\" He then read the\ncanon which declares those excommunicated who presume to exercise any\nact of jurisdiction in the diocese of another bishop. They, however,\nproceeded to pronounce against him a mock sentence of deposition; and\nthe holy pastor, after several attempts made secretly to take away his\nlife, was sent by the emperor into banishment. Michael the Stutterer,\nwho in 820 succeeded Leo in the imperial throne, was engaged in the same\nheresy, and also a persecutor of our saint, who died in his exile, on\nthe 2d of June, in the monastery of St. Theodorus, which he had built in\nthe year 828, the fourteenth of his banishment, being about seventy\nyears old. By the order of the empress Theodora, his body was brought to\nConstantinople with great pomp, in 848, on the 13th of March, on which\nday he is commemorated in the Roman Martyrology.[3]\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nIt is by a wonderful effect of his most gracious mercy and singular\nlove, that God is pleased to visit all his faithful servants with severe\ntrials, and to purify their virtue in the crucible, that by being\nexercised it may be made heroic and perfect. By suffering with patience,\nand in a Christian spirit, a soul makes higher and quicker advances in\npure love, than by any other means or by any other good works. Let no\none then repine, if by sickness, persecution, or disgraces, they are\nhindered from doing the good actions which they desire, or rendered\nincapable of discharging the duties of their station, or of laboring to\nconvert others. God always knows what is best for us and others: we may\nsafely commend to him his own cause, and all souls, which are dearer to\nhim than they can be to us. By this earnest prayer and perfect sacrifice\nof ourselves to God, we shall more effectually draw upon ourselves the\ndivine mercy than by any endeavors of our own. Let us leave to God the\nchoice of his instruments and means in the salvation of others. As to\nourselves, it is our duty to give him what he requires of us: nor can we\nglorify him by any sacrifice either greater or more honorable, and more\nagreeable to him, than that of a heart under the heaviest pressure, ever\nsubmissive to him, embracing with love and joy every order of his\nwisdom, and placing its entire happiness and comfort in the\naccomplishment of his adorable most holy will. The great care of a\nChristian in this state, in order to sanctify his sufferings, must be to\nbe constantly {585} united to God, and to employ his affections in the\nmost fervent interior exercises of entire sacrifice and resignation, of\nconfidence, love, praise, adoration, penance, and compunction, which he\nexcites by suitable aspirations.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  The Confession of Faith which, upon his promotion, he sent to pope\n    Leo III., is published by Baronius ad an. 811 and in the seventh\n    tome of Labbe's councils, &c. In it the saint gives a clear\n    exposition of the principal mysteries of faith, of the invocation of\n    saints, and the veneration due to relics and holy images.\n2.  Eph. iv. 11.\n3.  St. Nicephorus has left us a chronicle from the beginning of the\n    world: of which the best editions are that of F. Goar, with the\n    chronicle of George Syncellus at Paris, in 1652, and that of Venice\n    among the Byzantine historians, in 1729. Also a short history from\n    the reign of Mauritius to that of Constantine and Irene, published\n    at Paris, in 1616, by F. Petau; and reprinted among the Byzantine\n    historians, at Paris, in 1649, and again at Venice, in 1729. The\n    style is justly commended by Photius. (col. 66.) The seventeen\n    canons of St. Nicephorus are extant in the collection of the\n    councils, t. 7, p. 1297, &c. In the second he declares it unlawful\n    to travel on Sundays without necessity. Cotelier has published four\n    others of this saint, with five of the foregoing, and his letter to\n    Hilarion and Eustrasius, containing learned resolutions of several\n    cases. (Monum. Graec. t. 3, p. 451.) St. Nicephorus wrote several\n    learned tracts against the Iconoclasts, as three Antirrhetics or\n    Confutations, &c. Some of these are printed in the Library of the\n    Fathers, and F. Combefis's Supplement or Auctuarium, t. 1, in\n    Canisius's Lectiones Antiquae, republished by Basnage, part 2, &c.\n    But a great number are only found in MSS. in the libraries of\n    England, Paris, and Rome. The saint often urges that the Iconoclasts\n    condemned themselves by allowing veneration to the cross, for the\n    image of Christ upon the cross is more than the bare cross. In the\n    second Antirrhetic he most evidently establishes the real presence\n    of the Body of Christ in the Eucharist; which passage is quoted by\n    Leo Allatius. (l. 3, de Consens. Ecclesiae Occident. et Orient. c.\n    15, p. 1223.) He does the same almost in the same words, l. de\n    Cherubinis a Moyse Factis, c. 7, apud Canis. t. 2, ed. Basm. part 2,\n    p. 19, & t. 9, Bibl. Patr. Three Antirrhetics are entitled, against\n    Mamonas (i. e. Constantine Copronytnus) and the Iconoclasts. A\n    fourth was written by him against Eusebius and Epiphanides to prove\n    that Eusebius of Caesarea was an obstinate Arian, and Epiphanides a\n    favorer of Manicheism, and a very different person from St.\n    Epiphanius of Salamine. F. Anselm Bauduri, a Benedictin monk of\n    Ragusa, undertook at Paris a complete edition of the works of St.\n    Nicephorus, in two volumes in folio: but his death prevented the\n    publication. His learned Prospectus, dated in the monastery of St.\n    Germain-des-Prez, in 1785, is inserted by Fabricius in Biblioth. Gr.\n    t. 6, p. 640, and in part by Oudin, de Scrip. t. 2, p. 13.\n\nST. EUPHRASIA, V.\n\nANTIGONUS, the father of this saint, was a nobleman of the first rank\nand quality in the court of Theodosius the younger, nearly allied in\nblood to that emperor, and honored by him with several great employments\nin the state. He was married to Euphrasia, a ladv no less illustrious\nfor her birth and virtue, by whom he had one only daughter and heiress,\ncalled also Euphrasia, the saint of whom we treat. After her birth, her\npious parents, by mutual consent, engaged themselves by vow, to pass the\nremainder of their lives in perpetual continence, that they might more\nperfectly aspire to the invisible joys of the life to come; and from\nthat time they lived together as brother and sister, in the exercises of\ndevotion, alms-deeds, and penance. Antigonus died within a year, and the\nholy widow, to shun the importunate addresses of young suitors for\nmarriage, and the distraction of friends, not long after withdrew\nprivately, with her little daughter, into Egypt, where she was possessed\nof a very large estate. In that country she fixed her abode near a holy\nmonastery of one hundred and thirty nuns, who never used any other food\nthan herbs and pulse, which they took only after sunset, and some only\nonce in two or three days; they wore and slept on sackcloth, wrought\nwith their hands, and prayed almost without interruption. When sick,\nthey bore their pains with patience, esteeming them an effect of the\ndivine mercy, and thanking God for the same: nor did they seek relief\nfrom physicians, except in cases of absolute necessity, and then only\nallowed of ordinary general remedies, as the monks of La Trappe do at\nthis day. Delicate and excessive attention to health nourishes self-love\nand immortification,[1] and often destroys that health which it studies\nanxiously to preserve. By the example of these holy virgins, the devout\nmother animated herself to fervor in the exercises of religion and\ncharity, to which she totally dedicated herself. She frequently visited\nthese servants of God, and earnestly entreated them to accept a\nconsiderable annual revenue, with an obligation that they should always\nbe bound to pray for the soul of her deceased husband. But the abbess\nrefused the estate, saying: \"We have renounced all the conveniences of\nthe world, in order to purchase heaven. We are poor, and such we desire\nto remain.\" She could only be prevailed upon to accept a small matter to\nsupply the church-lamp with oil, and for incense to be burned on the\naltar.\n\nThe young Euphrasia, at seven years of age, made it her earnest request\nto her mother, that she might be permitted to serve God in this\nmonastery. The pious mother, on hearing this, wept for joy, and not long\nafter presented her to the abbess, who, taking up an image of Christ,\ngave it into her hands. The tender virgin kissed it, saying: \"By vow I\nconsecrate myself to Christ.\" Then the mother led her before an image of\nour Redeemer, and lifting up her hands to heaven, said: \"Lord Jesus\nChrist, receive this child under your special protection. You alone doth\nshe love and seek: to you doth she recommend herself.\"[2] Then turning\nto her dear daughter, she said: \"May God, who laid the foundations of\nthe mountains, strengthen you always in his holy fear.\" And leaving her\nin the hands of {586} the abbess, she went out of the monastery weeping.\nSome time after this she fell sick, and being forewarned of her death,\ngave her last instructions to her daughter, in these words: \"Fear God,\nhonor your sisters, and serve them with humility. Never think of what\nyou have been, nor say to yourself that you are of royal extraction. Be\nhumble and poor on earth, that you may be rich in heaven.\" The good\nmother soon after slept in peace. Upon the news of her death, the\nemperor Theodosius sent for the noble virgin to court, having promised\nher in marriage to a favorite young senator. But the virgin wrote him,\nwith her own hand, the following answer: \"Invincible emperor, having\nconsecrated myself to Christ in perpetual chastity, I cannot be false to\nmy engagement, and marry a mortal man, who will shortly be the food of\nworms. For the sake of my parents, be pleased to distribute their\nestates among the poor, the orphans, and the church. Set all my slaves\nat liberty, and discharge my vassals and servants, giving them whatever\nis their due. Order my father's stewards to acquit my farmers of all\nthey owe since his death, that I may serve God without let or\nhinderance, and may stand before him without the solicitude of temporal\naffairs. Pray for me, you and your empress, that I may be made worthy to\nserve Christ.\" The messengers returned with this letter to the emperor,\nwho shed many tears in reading it. The senators who heard it burst also\ninto tears, and said to his majesty: \"She is the worthy daughter of\nAntigonus and Euphrasia, of your royal blood, and the holy offspring of\na virtuous stock.\" The emperor punctually executed all she desired, a\nlittle before his death, in 395.\n\nSt. Euphrasia was to her pious sisters a perfect pattern of humility,\nmeekness, and charity. If she found herself assaulted by any temptation,\nshe immediately discovered it to the abbess, to drive away the devil by\nthat humiliation, and to seek a remedy. The discreet superioress often\nenjoined her, on such occasions, some humbling and painful penitential\nlabor; as sometimes to carry great stones from one place to another;\nwhich employment she once, under an obstinate assault, continued thirty\ndays together with wonderful simplicity, till the devil being vanquished\nby her humble obedience and chastisement of her body, he left her in\npeace. Her diet was only herbs or pulse, which she took after sunset, at\nfirst every day, but afterwards only once in two or three, or sometimes\nseven days. But her abstinence received its chief merit from her\nhumility; without which it would have been a fast of devils. She cleaned\nout the chambers of the other nuns, carried water to the kitchen, and,\nout of obedience, cheerfully employed herself in the meanest drudgery;\nmaking painful labor a part of her penance. To mention one instance of\nher extraordinary meekness and humility: it is related, that one day a\nmaid in the kitchen asked her why she fasted whole weeks, which no other\nattempted to do besides the abbess. Her answer was, that the abbess had\nenjoined her that penance. The other called her a hypocrite. Upon which\nEuphrasia fell at her feet, begging her to pardon and pray for her. In\nwhich action it is hard to say, whether we ought more to admire the\npatience with which she received so unjust a rebuke and slander, or the\nhumility with which she sincerely condemned herself; as if, by her\nhypocrisy and imperfections, she had been a scandal to others. She was\nfavored with miracles both before and after her death, which happened in\nthe year 410, and the thirtieth of her age. Her name is recorded on this\nday in the Roman Martyrology. See her ancient authentic life in\nRosweide, p. 351, D'Andilly, and most correct in the Acta Sanctorum, by\nthe Bollandists.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  It is severely condemned by St. Bernard, ep. 345, ol. 321, p. 318,\n    and serm. 50, in Cant. St. Ambrose serm. 22, in Ps. 118, and by\n    Abbot Rance, the reformer of La Trappe.\n2.  This passage is quoted by St. John Damascene, Or. 3, de Imagin.\n\n{587}\n\nST. THEOPHANES, ABBOT, C.\n\nHIS father, who was governor of the isles of the Archipelago, died when\nhe was only three years old, and left him heir to a very great estate,\nunder the guardianship of the Iconoclast emperor, Constantine\nCopronymus. Amidst the dangers of such an education, a faithful pious\nservant instilled into his tender mind the most generous sentiments of\nvirtue and religion. Being arrived at man's estate, he was compelled by\nhis friends to take a wife; but on the day of his marriage, he spoke in\nso moving a manner to his consort on the shortness and uncertainty of\nthis life, that they made a mutual vow of perpetual chastity. She\nafterwards became a nun, and he for his part built two monasteries in\nMysia; one of which, called Megal-Agre, near the Propontis, he governed\nhimself. He lived, as it were, dead to the world and the flesh, in the\ngreatest purity of life, and in the exercises of continual mortification\nand prayer. In 787, he assisted at the second council of Nice, where all\nadmired to see one, whom they had formerly known in so much worldly\ngrandeur, now so meanly clad, so modest, and so full of self-contempt as\nhe appeared to be. He never laid aside his hair shirt; his bed was a\nmat, and his pillow a stone; his sustenance was hard coarse bread and\nwater. At fifty years of age, he began to be grievously afflicted with\nthe stone and nephritic colic; but bore with cheerfulness the most\nexcruciating pains of his distemper. The emperor Leo, the Armenian, in\n814, renewed the persecution against the church, and abolished the use\nof holy images, which had been restored under Constantine and Irene.\nKnowing the great reputation and authority of Theophanes, he endeavored\nto gain him by civilities and crafty letters. The saint discovered the\nhook concealed under his alluring baits, which did not, however, hinder\nhim from obeying the emperor's summons to Constantinople, though at that\ntime under a violent fit of the stone; which distemper, for the\nremaining part of his life, allowed him very short intervals of ease.\nThe emperor sent him this message: \"From your mild and obliging\ndisposition, I flatter myself you are come to confirm my sentiments on\nthe point in question with your suffrage. It is your readiest way for\nobtaining my favor, and with that the greatest riches and honors for\nyourself, your monastery, and relations, which it is in the power of an\nemperor to bestow. But if you refuse to comply with my desires in this\naffair, you will incur my highest displeasure, and draw misery and\ndisgrace on yourself and friends.\" The holy man returned for answer:\n\"Being now far advanced in years, and much broken with pains and\ninfirmities, I have neither relish nor inclination for any of these\nthings which I despised fox Christ's sake in my youth, when I was in a\ncondition to enjoy the world. As to my monastery and my friends, I\nrecommend them to God. If you think to frighten me into a compliance by\nyour threats, as a child is awed by the rod, you only lose your labor.\nFor though unable to walk, and subject to many other corporeal\ninfirmities, I trust in Christ that he will enable me to undergo, in\ndefence of his cause, the sharpest tortures you can inflict on nay weak\nbody.\" The emperor employed several persons to endeavor to overcome his\nresolution, but in vain: so seeing himself vanquished by his constancy,\nhe confined him two years in a close stinking dungeon, where he suffered\nmuch from his distemper and want of necessaries. He was also cruelly\nscourged, having received three hundred stripes. In 818, he was, removed\nout of his dungeon, and banished into the isle of Samothracia, where he\ndied in seventeen days after his arrival, on the 12th of March. His\nrelics were honored by many miraculous cures. He has {588} left us his\nChronographia, or short history from the year 824, the first of\nDioclesian, where George Syncellus left off, to the year 813.[1] His\nimprisonment did not allow him leisure to polish the style. See his\ncontemporary life, and the notes of Goar and Combefis, two learned\nDominicans, on his works, printed at Paris, in 1655.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  George Syncellus, (i. e. secretary to the patriarch St. Tarasius,) a\n    holy monk, and zealous defender of holy images, was a close friend\n    of St. Theophanes, and died about the year 800. In his chronicle are\n    preserved excellent fragments of Manetho, the Egyptian, of Julius\n    Africanus, Eusebius, &c.\n\nSAINT KENNOCHA, VIRGIN IN SCOTLAND,\n\nIN THE REIGN OF KING MALCOLM II.\n\nFROM her infancy she was a model of humility, meekness, modesty, and\ndevotion. Though an only daughter, and the heiress of a rich and noble\nfamily, fearing lest the poison which lurks in the enjoyment of\nperishable goods should secretly steal into her affections, or the noise\nof the world should be a hinderance to her attention to heavenly things\nand spiritual exercises, she rejected all solicitations of suitors and\nworldly friends, and, in the bloom of life, made an entire sacrifice of\nherself to God, by making her religious profession in a great nunnery,\nin the county of Fife. In this holy state, by an extraordinary love of\npoverty and mortification, a wonderful gift of prayer, and purity or\nsingleness of heart, she attained to the perfection of all virtues.\nSeveral miracles which she wrought made her name famous among men, and\nshe passed to God in a good old age, in the year 1007. Several churches\nin Scotland bore her name, particularly one near Glasgow, still called\nSt. Kennoch's Kirk, and another called by an abbreviation of her name\nKyle, in which her relics were formerly kept with singular veneration.\nIn the Aberdeen Breviary she is honored with a particular prayer. She is\nmentioned by Adam King, in his calendar, and an account of her life is\ngiven us in the Chronicle of Scone.\n\nST. GERALD, BISHOP.\n\nHE was an Englishman, who, passing into Ireland, became a monk in the\nabbey of Megeo, or Mayo, founded by Colman of Lindisfarne, for the\nEnglish. Gerald was advanced successively to the dignity of abbot and\nbishop, and founded the abbey of Elytheria, or Tempul-Gerald in\nConnaught, that of Teagh-na-Saxon, and a nunnery which he put under the\ncare of his sister Segretia. He departed to our Lord in 732, and was\nburied at Mayo, where a church dedicated to God under his patronage\nremains to this day. See Colgan.\n\nST. MOCHOEMOC, IN LATIN, PULCHERIUS, ABBOT.\n\nHAVING been educated under St. Comgal, in the monastery of Benchor, he\nlaid the foundation of the great monastery of Liath-Mochoemoc, around\nwhich a large town was raised, which still bears that name. His happy\ndeath is placed by the chronologists on the 13th of March, in 635. See\nUsher's Antiquities in Tab. Chron. and Colgan.\n\n{589}\n\n\nMARCH XIV.\n\nST. MAUD, OR MATHILDIS, QUEEN OF GERMANY.\n\nFrom her life written forty years after her death, by the order of St.\nHenry; Acta Sanct. t. 7, p. 361.\n\nA.D. 968.\n\nTHIS princess was daughter of Theodoric, a powerful Saxon count. Her\nparents, being sensible that piety is the only true greatness, placed\nher very young in the monastery of Erford, of which her grandmother\nMaud, who had renounced the world in her widowhood, was then abbess.\nHere our saint acquired an extraordinary relish for prayer and spiritual\nreading; and learned to work at her needle, and to employ all the\nprecious moments of life in something serious and worthy the great end\nof her creation. She remained in that house an accomplished model of all\nvirtues, till her parents married her to Henry, son of Otho, duke of\nSaxony, in 913. Her husband, surnamed the Fowler, from his fondness for\nthe diversion of hawking, then much in vogue, became duke of Saxony by\nthe death of his father, in 916; and in 919, upon the death of Conrad,\nwas chosen king of Germany. He was a pious and victorious prince, and\nvery tender of his subjects. His solicitude in easing their taxes, made\nthem ready to serve their country in his wars at their own charges,\nthough he generously recompensed their zeal after his expeditions, which\nwere always attended with success. While he by his arms checked the\ninsolence of the Hungarians and Danes, and enlarged his dominions by\nadding to them Bavaria, Maud gained domestic victories over her\nspiritual enemies, more worthy of a Christian, and far greater in the\neyes of heaven. She nourished the precious seeds of devotion and\nhumility in her heart by assiduous prayer and meditation; and, not\ncontent with the time which the day afforded for these exercises,\nemployed part of the night the same way. The nearer the view was which\nshe took of worldly vanities, the more clearly she discovered their\nemptiness and dangers, and sighed to see men pursue such bubbles to the\nloss of their souls; for, under a fair outside, they contain nothing but\npoison and bitterness.\n\nIt was her delight to visit, comfort, and exhort the sick and the\nafflicted, to serve and instruct the poor, teaching them the advantages\nof their state from the benedictions and example of Christ; and to\nafford her charitable succors to prisoners, procuring them their liberty\nwhere motives of justice would permit it; or at least easing the weight\nof their chains by liberal alms; but her chief aim was to make them\nshake off their sins by sincere repentance. Her husband, edified by her\nexample, concurred with her in every pious undertaking which she\nprojected. After twenty-three years' marriage, God was pleased to call\nthe king to himself by an apoplectic fit, in 936. Maud, during his\nsickness, went to the church to pour forth her soul in prayer for him at\nthe foot of the altar. As soon as she understood, by the tears and cries\nof the people, that he had expired, she called for a priest that was\nfasting, to offer the holy sacrifice for his soul; and at the same time\ncut off the jewels which she wore, and gave them to the priest, as a\npledge that she renounced from that moment the pomp of the world. She\nhad three sons; Otho, afterwards emperor; Henry, duke of Bavaria, and\nSt. Bruno, archbishop of Cologne. Otho was crowned king of Germany in\n937, {590} and emperor at Rome in 962, after his victories over the\nBohemians and Lombards. Maud, in the contest between her two elder sons\nfor the crown, which was elective, favored Henry, who was the younger, a\nfault she expiated by severe afflictions and penance. These two sons\nconspired to strip her of her dowry, on the unjust pretence that she had\nsquandered away the revenues of the state on the poor. This persecution\nwas long and cruel, coming from all that was most dear to her in this\nworld. The unnatural princes at length repented of their injustice, were\nreconciled to her, and restored her all that had been taken from her.\nShe then became more liberal in her alms than ever, and founded many\nchurches, with five monasteries; of which the principal were that of\nPolden in the duchy of Brunswick, in which she maintained three thousand\nmonks; and that of Quedlinbourg in the duchy of Saxony.[1] She buried\nher husband in this place, and when she had finished the buildings, made\nit her usual retreat. She applied herself totally to her devotions, and\nto works of mercy. It was her greatest pleasure to teach the poor and\nignorant how to pray, as she had formerly taught her servants. In her\nlast sickness she made her confession to her grandson William, the\narchbishop of Mentz, who yet died twelve days before her, on his road\nhome. She again made a public confession before the priests and monks of\nthe place, received a second time the last sacraments, and lying on a\nsackcloth with ashes on her head, died on the 14th of March, in 968. Her\nbody remains at Quedlinbourg. Her name is recorded to the Roman\nMartyrology on this day.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe beginning of true virtue is most ardently to desire it, and to ask\nit of God with the utmost assiduity and earnestness,[2] preferring it\nwith all the saints to kingdoms and thrones, and considering riches as\nnothing in comparison of this our only and inestimable treasure. Fervent\nprayer, holy meditation, and reading pious books, are the principal\nmeans by which it is to be constantly improved, and the interior life of\nthe soul to be strength ened. These are so much the more necessary in\nthe world than in a religious state, as its poison and distractions\nthreaten her continually with the greatest danger. Amidst the pomp,\nhurry, and amusements of a court, St. Maud gave herself up to holy\ncontemplation with such earnestness, that though she was never wanting\nto any exterior or social duties, her soul was raised above all\nperishable goods, dwelt always in heaven, and sighed after that happy\nmoment which was to break the bonds of her slavery, and unite her to God\nin eternal bliss and perfect love. Is it possible that so many\nChristians, capable of finding in God their sovereign felicity, should\namuse themselves with pleasures which flatter the senses, with reading\nprofane books, and seeking an empty satisfaction in idle visits, vain\nconversation, news, and sloth, in which they pass those precious hours\nwhich they might employ in exercises of devotion, and in the duties and\nserious employments of their station! What trifles do they suffer to\nfill their minds and hearts, and to rob them of the greatest of all\ntreasures! Conversation and visits in the world must only be allowed as\nfar as they are social duties, must be regulated by charity and\nnecessity, sanctified by simplicity, prudence, and every virtue,\nanimated by the spirit of God, and seasoned with a holy unction which\ndivine grace gives to those whom it perfectly replenishes and possesses.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  The abbess of this latter is the first princess of the empire.\n2.  Sap. vii. 6.\n\n{591}\n\nSS. ACEPSIMAS, BISHOP, JOSEPH, PRIEST; AND AITHILAHAS, DEACON, MM.\n\nST. MARUTHAS closes, with the acts of these martyrs, his history of the\npersecution of king Sapor, which raged without intermission during forty\nyears. The venerable author assures us, that, living in the\nneighborhood, he had carefully informed himself of the several\ncircumstances of their combats from those who were eye-witnesses, and\nushers in his account with the following address: \"Be propitious to me,\nO Lord, through the prayers of these martyrs--Being assisted by the\ndivine grace, and strengthened by your protection, O ye incomparable\nmen, I presume to draw the outlines of your heroic virtue and incredible\ntorments. But the remembrance of your bitter sufferings covers me with\nshame, confusion, and tears, for myself and my sins. O! you who hear\nthis relation, count the days and the hours of three years and a half,\nwhich they spent in prison, and remember they passed no month without\nfrequent tortures, no day free from pain, no hour without the threat of\nimmediate death. The festivals and new moons were black to them by fresh\nracks, beatings, clubs, chains, hanging by their limbs, dislocations of\ntheir joints, &c.\" In the thirty-seventh year of this persecution, a\nfresh edict was published, commanding the governors and magistrates to\npunish all Christians with racks, scourges, stoning, and every sort of\ndeath, laying to their charge the following articles: \"They abolish our\ndoctrine; they teach men to worship one only God, and forbid them to\nadore the sun or fire; they use water for profane washing; they forbid\npersons to marry, to be soldiers in the king's armies, or to strike any\none; they permit all sorts of animals to be killed, and they suffer the\ndead to be buried; they say that serpents and scorpions were made, not\nby the devil, but by God himself.\"\n\nAcepsimas, bishop of Honita in Assyria, a man above fourscore years old,\nbut of a vigorous and strong constitution of body, was apprehended, and\nconducted in chains to Arbela, before the governor. This judge inquired\nhow he could deny the divinity of the sun, which all the East adored.\nThe martyr answered him, expressing his astonishment how men could\nprefer a creature to the Creator. By the orders of the governor he was\nlaid on the ground with his feet bound, and in that posture barbarously\nscourged, till his whole body was covered with blood; after which he was\nthrown into prison.\n\nIn the mean time one Joseph, a holy priest of Bethcatuba, and\nAithilahas, a deacon of Beth-nudra, famed for eloquence, sanctity, and\nlearning, were brought before the same governor. To his interrogatories,\nJoseph answered, that he was a Christian, and had always taught the sun\nto be an inanimate creature. The issue was, that he was stretched flat\non the ground, and beaten with thick twigs stripped of the thorns, by\nten executioners who succeeded one another, till his body seemed one\ncontinued wound. At the sight of himself in this condition the martyr\nwith joy said: \"I return you the greatest thanks I am able, Christ, the\nSon of God, who have granted me this mercy, and washed me with this\nsecond baptism of my blood, to wipe away my sins.\" His courage the\npersecutors deemed an insult, and redoubled their fury in tearing and\nbruising his blessed body. After he was loosened, loaded with heavy\nchains, and cast into the same dungeon with Acepsimas, Aithilahas was\ncalled upon. The governor said to him: \"Adore {592} the sun, which is a\ndivinity, eat blood, marry,[1] and obey the king, and you shall live.\"\nThe martyr answered: \"It is better to die, in order to live eternally.\"\nBy the judge's command, his hands were tied under his knees, and his\nbody fastened to a beam: in this posture it was squeezed and pulled many\nways, and afterwards scourged. His bones were in many places broken or\ndislocated, and his flesh mangled. At length, not being able to stand,\nhe was carried back to prison on men's shoulders. On the next day, they\nwere all three again brought forth and stretched on the ground, bound\nfast with cords, and their legs, thighs, and ribs so squeezed and\nstrained by stakes, that the noise of the bones breaking filled the\nplace with horror. Yet to every solicitation of the judge or officers,\ntheir answer was: \"We trust in one God, and we will not obey the king's\nedicts.\" Scarce a day passed in which some new torture or other was not\ninvented and tried upon them.\n\nAfter they had for three years suffered the hardships of imprisonment\nand daily torments, the king coming into Media, the martyrs were brought\nbefore Adarsapor, the chief of all the governors of the East, several\nother Satrapes and governors sitting with him in the palace. They were\ncarried thither, for they were not able to walk, and they scarce\nretained the figure of human bodies. The very sight of such spectacles\nmoved all who saw them to compassion, and many to tears. They\ncourageously professed themselves Christians, and declared that they\nwould never abandon their faith. Adarsapor said, he saw by their wounds\nwhat they had already suffered, and used both threats and entreaties to\nwork them into a compliance with the law. When they begged him to hasten\nthe execution of his threats, he told them: \"Death frees criminals from\npain: but I will render life to you as grievous as a continued death,\nthat others of your sect may tremble.\" Acepsimas said: \"In vain do you\nthreaten. God, in whom we trust, will give us courage and constancy.\" At\nthis answer, fury flashed in the eyes of Adarsapor, and he swore by the\nfortune of king Sapor, that if they did not that instant obey the\nedicts, he would sprinkle their gray hairs with their blood, would\ndestroy their bodies, and would cause their dead remains to be beaten to\npowder. Acepsimas said: \"To you we resign our bodies, and commend to God\nour souls. Execute what you threaten. It is what we desire.\" The tyrant,\nwith rage painted in every feature of his countenance, ordered the\nvenerable old man to be stretched on the ground, and thirty men, fifteen\non each side, to pull and haul him by cords tied to his arms, legs, and\nother limbs, so as to dislocate and almost tear them asunder; and two\nhangmen in the mean time to scourge his body with so much cruelty, as to\nmangle and tear off the flesh in many parts: under which torment the\nmartyr expired. His body was watched by guards appointed for that\npurpose, till after three days it was stolen away by the Christians, and\nburied by the care of a daughter of the king of Armenia, who was at that\ntime a hostage in Media.\n\nJoseph and Aithilahas underwent the same punishment, but came alive out\nof the hands of the executioners. The latter said to the judge under his\ntorments: \"Your tortures are too mild, increase them as you please.\"\nAdarsapor, struck with astonishment at their courage, said: \"These men\nare greedy of torments as if they were banquets, and are fond of a\nkingdom that is invisible.\" He then caused them to be tormented afresh,\nso that every part of their bodies was mangled, and their shoulders and\narms disjointed. Adarsapor gave an order that if they did not die of\ntheir torments, they should be carried back into their own country, to\nbe there put to death. {593} The two martyrs, being not able to sit,\nwere tied on the backs of beasts, and conveyed with great pain to\nArbela, their guards treating them on the way with no more compassion\nthan if they had been stones. Jazdundocta, an illustrious lady of the\ncity Arbela, for a great sum of money, obtained leave of the governor,\nthat they should be brought to her house, to take a short refreshment.\nShe dressed their wounds, bathed their bodies with her tears, and was\nexceedingly encouraged by their faith and exhortations. The blessed\nmartyrs were soon taken from her house to prison, where they languished\nsix months longer. A new governor at length came into that province, the\nmost savage of men, bringing an edict of the king, commanding that\nChristians who were condemned to death, should be stoned by those who\nprofessed the same religion. The news of his arrival drove the\nChristians into the woods and deserts, that they might not be compelled\nto imbrue their hands in the blood of martyrs. But soldiers there hunted\nthem like wild beasts, and many were taken. The two confessors were\npresented before this new judge. Joseph was hung up by the toes, and\nscourged during two hours, in the presence of the judge, who, hearing\nhim discourse on the resurrection, said: \"In that resurrection how do\nyou design to punish me?\" The martyr replied: \"We are taught meekness,\nto return good for evil, and to pray for enemies.\" \"Well,\" said the\njudge, \"then I shall meet with kindness from your hands for the evil\nwhich you here receive from me.\" To which the martyr answered: \"There\nwill be then no room for pardon or favor: nor will one be able to help\nanother. I will pray that God may bring you to the knowledge of himself\nin this life.\" The judge said: \"Consider these things in the next world,\nwhither I am going to send you: at present obey the king.\" The old man\nanswered: \"Death is our desire.\" The emperor then began to interrogate\nAithilahas, and caused him to be hung up by the heels a long time\ntogether. He was at length taken down, and to move him to a compliance,\nhe was shown a certain Manichaean heretic who had renounced his religion\nfor fear of torments, and was killing ants, which those heretics held\nunlawful, teaching that insects and beasts have rational souls. The\nsaint, lying on the ground, was scourged till he fell into a swoon, and\nthen was hauled aside like a dog. A certain Magian, out of pity, threw a\ncoat over his wounds to cover his naked body; for which act of\ncompassion he received two hundred lashes, till he fainted. Thamsapor\narriving at his castle of Beth-Thabala, in that country, the governor\ncaused the martyrs to be carried before him. They were ordered to eat\nthe blood of beasts: which they refused to do. One told them, that if\nthey would eat the juice of red grapes curdled, which the people might\nthink to be blood, this would satisfy the judges. They answered: \"God\nforbid we should dissemble our faith.\" We have elsewhere taken notice\nthat the Christians then observed in many places the positive temporary\nlaw of the apostles.[2] Thamsapor and the governor, after a short\nconsultation, condemned both to be stoned to death by the Christians.\nJoseph was executed at Arbela. He was put into the ground up to the\nneck. The guards had drawn together five hundred Christians to his\nexecution. The noble lady Jazdundocta was brought thither, and earnestly\npressed to throw but a feather at the martyr, that she might seem to\nobey the order of the king. But she resolutely resisted their entreaties\nand threats, desiring to die with the servant of God. Many, however,\nhaving the weakness to comply, a shower of stones fell upon the martyr,\nwhich put an end to his life. When he was dead, guards were set to watch\nhis body; but the Christians found means to steal it away on the third\nnight, during a {594} dark tempest. St. Aithilahas suffered in the\nprovince of Beth-Nubadra; the lord of that country, who had been a\nChristian, by a base apostasy, becoming one of his murderers. St.\nMaruthas adds, that angels were heard singing at the place of this\nmartyrdom, and many miracles wrought. These martyrs suffered in the year\n380, the seventieth and last of the reign of Sapor, and the fortieth of\nhis persecution. They are mentioned by Sozomen,[3] and are named in the\nRoman Martyrology on the 22d of April. See their genuine Chaldaic acts,\nby St. Maruthas in Assemani, t. 1, p. 171. Act. Martyr. Orient.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  From this, and many other passages, it is clear, that the obligation\n    of perpetual chastity was annexed to Holy Orders in the eastern\n    churches no less than in the western.\n2.  Acts xv. 29.\n3.  B. 2, ch. 13.\n\nST. BONIFACE, BISHOP OF ROSS, IN SCOTLAND, C.\n\nAN ardent zeal for the salvation of souls brought this servant of God\nfrom Italy to North-Britain. Near the mouth of the Tees, where he\nlanded, he built a church under the invocation of St. Peter, another at\nTellein, three miles from Alect, and a third at Restennet. This last was\nserved by a famous monastery of regular canons of the order of St.\nAustin, when religious houses were abolished in Scotland. St. Boniface,\nby preaching the word of God, reformed the manners of the people in the\nprovinces of Angus, Marris, Buchan, Elgin, Murray, and Ross. Being made\nbishop in this last country, he filled it with oratories and churches,\nand by planting the true spirit of Christ in the hearts of many, settled\nthat church in a most flourishing condition. He died about the year 630,\nand was buried at Rosmark, the capital of the county of Ross. The\nBreviary of Aberdeen mentions that he founded one hundred and fifty\nchurches and oratories in Scotland, and ascribes many miracles to his\nintercession after his death. See that Breviary, and King on this day,\nbishop Lesley, l. 4. Hist. Scot. and Hector Boetius, l. 9. Hist.\n\n\nMARCH XV.\n\nST. ABRAHAM, HERMIT,\n\nAND HIS NIECE ST. MARY, A PENITENT.\n\nFrom his life written by his friend, St. Ephrem, Op. t. 2, p. 1, Ed.\nnov. Vatic. See other acts of St. Abraham, given in Latin by Lipoman. 29\nOct., and by Surius, 16 March, mentioned in Greek by Lambecius, Bibl.\nVind. t. 8, pp. 255, 260, 266, and by Montfaucon, Bibl. Coislin. p. 211.\nTwo other kinds of Greek Acts are found among the MSS. at the ahbey of\nSt. Germain-des Prez, at Paris, Bibl. Coisl. ib. See also Jos. Assemani,\nBibl. Orient. t. 1, pp. 38 and 396, from the Chronicle of Edessa:\nlikewise Kohlius, Introductio in historiam et rem literariam Sclavorum,\np. 316. Aitonaviae, A.D. 1729.\n\nAbout the year 360.\n\nST. ABRAHAM was born at Chidana, in Mesopotamia, near Edessa, of wealthy\nand noble parents, who, after giving him a most virtuous education, were\ndesirous of engaging him in the married state. In compliance with their\ninclinations, Abraham took to wife a pious and noble virgin: but\nearnestly desiring to live and die in the state of holy virginity, as\nsoon as the marriage ceremony and feast were over, having made known his\nresolution {595} to his new bride, be secretly withdrew to a cell two\nmiles from the city Edessa; where his friends found him at prayer after\na search of seventeen days. By earnest entreaties he obtained their\nconsent, and after their departure walled up the door of his cell,\nleaving only a little window, through which he received what was\nnecessary for his subsistence. He spent his whole time in adoring and\npraising God, and imploring his mercy. He every day wept abundantly. He\nwas possessed of no other earthly goods but a cloak and a piece of\nsackcloth which he wore, and a little vessel out of which he both ate\nand drank. For fifty years he was never wearied with his austere penance\nand holy exercises, and seemed to draw from them every day fresh vigor.\nTen years after he had left the world, by the demise of his parents, he\ninherited their great estates, but commissioned a virtuous friend to\ndistribute the revenues in alms-deeds. Many resorted to him for\nspiritual advice, whom he exceedingly comforted and edified by his holy\ndiscourses.\n\nA large country town in the diocese of Edessa remained till that time\naddicted to idolatry, and its inhabitants had loaded with injuries and\noutrages, all the holy monks and others who had attempted to preach the\ngospel to them. The bishop at length cast his eye on Abraham, ordained\nhim priest, though much against his will, and sent him to preach the\nfaith to those obstinate infidels. He wept all the way as he went, and\nwith great earnestness repeated this prayer: \"Most merciful God, look\ndown on my weakness: assist me with thy grace, that thy name may be\nglorified. Despise not the works of thine own hands.\" At the sight of\nthe town, reeking with the impious rites of idolatry, he redoubled the\ntorrents of his tears: but found the citizens resolutely determined not\nto hear him speak. Nevertheless, he continued to pray and weep among\nthem without intermission, and though he was often beaten and\nill-treated, and thrice banished by them, he always returned with the\nsame zeal. After three years the infidels were overcome by his meekness\nand patience, and being touched by an extraordinary grace, all demanded\nbaptism. He stayed one year longer with them to instruct them in the\nfaith; and on their being supplied with priests and other ministers, he\nwent back to his cell.\n\nHis brother dying soon after his return thither, left an only daughter,\ncalled Mary, whom the saint undertook to train up in a religious life.\nFor this purpose he placed her in a cell near his own, where, by the\nhelp of his instructions, she became eminent for her piety and penance.\nAt the end of twenty years she was unhappily seduced by a wolf in\nsheep's clothing, a wicked monk, who resorted often to the place under\ncolor of receiving advice from her uncle. Hereupon falling into despair,\nshe went to a distant town, where she gave herself up to the most\ncriminal disorders. The saint ceased not for two years to weep and pray\nfor her conversion. Being then informed where she dwelt, he dressed\nhimself like a citizen of that town, and going to the inn where she\nlived in the pursuit of her evil courses, desired her company with him\nat supper. When he saw her alone, he took off his cap which disguised\nhim, and with many tears said to her: \"Daughter Mary, don't you know me?\nWhat is now become of your angelical habit, of your tears and watchings\nin the divine praises?\" &c.\n\nSeeing her struck and filled with horror and confusion, he tenderly\nencouraged her and comforted her, saying that he would take her sins\nupon himself if she would faithfully follow his advice, and that his\nfriend Ephrem also prayed and wept for her. She with many tears returned\nhim her most hearty thanks, and promised to obey in all things his\ninjunctions. He set her on his horse, and led the beast himself on foot.\nIn this manner he conducted her back to his desert, and shut her up in a\ncell behind his own. {596} There she spent the remaining fifteen years\nof her life in continual tears and the most perfect practices of penance\nand other virtues. Almighty God was pleased, within three years after\nher conversion, to favor her with the gift of working miracles by her\nprayers. And as soon as she was dead, \"her countenance appeared to us,\"\nsays St. Ephrem, \"so shining, that we understood that choirs of angels\nhad attended at her passage out of this life into a better.\" St. Abraham\ndied five years before her: at the news of whose sickness almost the\nwhole city and country flocked to receive his benediction. When he had\nexpired, every one strove to procure for themselves some part of his\nclothes, and St. Ephrem, who was an eye-witness, relates, that many sick\nwere cured by the touch of these relics. SS. Abraham and Mary were both\ndead when St. Ephrem wrote, who died himself in 378.[1] St. Abraham is\nnamed in the Latin, Greek, and Coptic calendars, and also St. Mary in\nthose of the Greeks.\n\nSt. Abraham converted his desert into a paradise, because he found in it\nhis God, whose presence makes Heaven. He wanted not the company of men,\nwho enjoyed that of God and his angels; nor could he ever be at a loss\nfor employment, to whom both the days and nights were too short for\nheavenly contemplation. While his body was employed in penitential\nmanual labor, his mind and heart were sweetly taken up in God, who was\nto him All in All, and the centre of all his desires and affections. His\nwatchings were but an uninterrupted sacrifice of divine love, and by the\nardor of his desire, and the disposition of his soul and its virtual\ntendency to God, his sleep itself was a continuation of his union with\nGod, and exercise of loving him. He could truly say with the spouse, _I\nsleep, but my heart watcheth_. Thus the Christians, who are placed in\ndistracting stations, may also do, if they accustom themselves to\nconverse interiorly with God in purity of heart, and in all their\nactions and desires have only his will in view. Such a life is a kind of\nimitation of the Seraphims, to whom to live and to love are one and the\nsame thing. \"The angels,\" says St. Gregory the Great, \"always carry\ntheir Heaven about with them wheresoever they are sent, because they\nnever depart from God, or cease to behold him; ever dwelling in the\nbosom of his immensity, living and moving in him, and exercising their\nministry in the sanctuary of his divinity.\" This is the happiness of\nevery Christian who makes a desert, by interior solitude, in his own\nheart.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  Bollandus, Papebroke, and Pagi, pretend that St. Abraham the hermit\n    lived near the Hellespont, and long after St. Ephrem: but are\n    clearly confuted by Jos. Assemani, Bibl. Orient. t, l, and Com. In\n    Calend. Univ. t. 5. p. 324, ad 29 Oct. The chronicle of Edessa\n    assures us that he was a native of Chidana, and was living in the\n    year of the Greeks, 667, of Christ, 356.\n\nST. ZACHARY, POPE, C.\n\nHE succeeded Gregory III., in 741, and was a man of singular meekness\nand goodness; and so far from any thought of revenge, that he heaped\nbenefits on those who had persecuted him before his promotion to the\npontificate. He loved the clergy and people of Rome to that degree, that\nhe hazarded his life for them on occasion of the troubles which Italy\nfell into by the rebellion of the dukes of Spoletto and Benevento\nagainst king Luitprand. Out of respect to his sanctity and dignity, that\nking restored to the church of Rome all the places which belonged to it:\nAmeria, Horta, Narni, Ossimo, Ancona, and the whole territory of Sabina,\nand sent back the captives without ransom. The Lombards were moved to\ntears at the devotion with which they heard him perform the divine\nservice. By a journey to Pavia, {597} he obtained also of Luitprand,\nthough with some difficulty, peace for the territory of Ravenna, and the\nrestitution of the places which he had taken from the exarchate. The\nzeal and prudence of this holy pope appeared in many wholesome\nregulations, which he had made to reform or settle the discipline and\npeace of several churches. St. Boniface, the apostle of Germany, wrote\nto him against a certain priest, named Virgilius; that he labored to sow\nthe seeds of discord between him and Odilo, duke of Bavaria, and taught,\nbesides other errors, that there were other men under the earth, another\nsun and moon, and another world.[1] Pope Zachary answered, that if he\ntaught such an error he ought to be deposed. This cannot be understood\nas a condemnation of the doctrine of Antipodes, or the spherical figure\nof the earth, as some writers have imagined by mistake. The error here\nspoken of is that of certain heretics, who maintained that there was\nanother race of men, who did not descend from Adam, and were not\nredeemed by Christ. Nor did Zachary pronounce any sentence in the case:\nfor in the same letter he ordered that Virgilius should be sent to Rome,\nthat this doctrine might be examined. It seems that he cleared himself:\nfor we find this same Virgilius soon after made bishop of Saltzburgh.[2]\nCertain Venetian merchants having bought at Rome many slaves to sell to\nthe Moors in Africa, St. Zachary forbade such an iniquitous traffic,\nand, paying the merchants their price, gave the slaves their liberty. He\nadorned Rome with sacred buildings, and with great foundations in favor\nof the poor and pilgrims, and gave every year a considerable sum to\nfurnish oil for the lamps in St. Peter's church. He died in 752, in the\nmonth of March, and is honored in the Roman Martyrology on this day. See\nhis letters and the Pontificals, t. 6, Conc., also Fleury, l. 42, t. 9,\np. 349.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  Quod alius mundus et alii homines sub terra sunt, seu alius sol et\n    luna. (Ep. 10, t 6, Conc. pp. 15, 21, et Bibl. Patr. Inter. Epist.\n    S. Bonif.) To imagine different worlds of men upon earth, some not\n    descending from Adam, nor redeemed by Christ, is contrary to the\n    holy scriptures, and therefore justly condemned as erroneous, as\n    Baronius observes, (add. ann. 784, n. 12.)\n2.  Many ancient philosophers thought the earth flat, not spherical, and\n    believed no Antipodes. Several fathers adopted this vulgar error in\n    philosophy, in which faith no way interferes, as St. Austin, (l. 16,\n    de Civ. Dei, c. 9,) Bede, (l. 4, de Principiis Philos.,) and Cosmas\n    the Egyptian, surnamed Indicopleustes. It is, however, a mistake to\n    imagine, with Montfaucon, in his preface to this last-mentioned\n    author, that this was the general opinion of Christian philosophers\n    down to the fifteenth century. For the learned Philophonus\n    demonstrated before the modern discoveries, (de Mundi Creat. l. 3,\n    c. 13,) that the greater part of the fathers teach the world to be a\n    sphere, as St. Basil, the two SS. Gregories, of Nazianzum and of\n    Nyssa, St. Athanasins, &c. And several among them mention Antipodes,\n    as St. Hilary, (in Ps. 2, n. 32,) Origen, (l. 2, de princip. c. 3,)\n    St. Clement, pope, &c.\n\n\nMARCH XVI.\n\nST. JULIAN, OF CILICIA, M.\n\nFrom the panegyric of St. Chrysostom, t. 2, p. 671. Ed. Ben. Tillem. t.\n5, p. 573.\n\nTHIS saint was a Cilician, of a senatorian family in Anazarbus, and a\nminister of the gospel. In the persecution of Dioclesian he fell into\nthe hands of a judge, who, by his brutal behavior, resembled more a wild\nbeast than a man. The president, seeing his constancy proof against the\nsharpest torments, hoped to overcome him by the long continuance of his\nmartyrdom. He caused him to be brought before his tribunal everyday;\nsometimes he caressed him, at other times threatened him with a thousand\ntortures. For a whole year together he caused him to be dragged as a\nmalefactor through all the towns of Cilicia, imagining that this shame\nand confusion might vanquish {598} him: but it served only to increase\nthe martyr's glory, and gave him an opportunity of encouraging in the\nfaith all the Christians of Cilicia by his example and exhortations. He\nsuffered every kind of torture. The bloody executioners had torn his\nflesh, furrowed his sides, laid his bones bare, and exposed his very\nbowels to view. Scourges, fire, and the sword, were employed various\nways to torment him with the utmost cruelty. The judge saw that to\ntorment him longer was laboring to shake a rock, and was forced at\nlength to own himself conquered by condemning him to death: in which,\nhowever, he studied to surpass his former cruelty. He was then at AEgea,\na town on the sea-coast; and he caused the martyr to be sewed up in a\nsack with scorpions, serpents, and vipers, and so thrown into the sea.\nThis was the Roman punishment for parricides, the worst of malefactors,\nyet seldom executed on them. Eusebius mentions, that St. Ulpian of Tyre\nsuffered a like martyrdom, being thrown into the sea in a leather sack,\ntogether with a dog and an aspick. The sea gave back the body of our\nholy martyr, which the faithful conveyed to Alexandria of Cilicia, and\nafterwards to Antioch, where St. Chrysostom pronounced his panegyric\nbefore his shrine. He eloquently sets forth how much these sacred relics\nwere honored; and affirms, that no devil could stand their presence, and\nthat men by them found a remedy for their bodlily distempers, and the\ncure of the evils of the soul.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe martyrs lost with joy their worldly honors, dignity, estates,\nfriends, liberty, and lives, rather than forfeit for one moment their\nfidelity to God. They courageously bade defiance to pleasures and\ntorments, to prosperity and adversity, to life and death, saying, with\nthe apostle: _Who shall separate us from the love of Jesus Christ?_\nCrowns, sceptres, worldly riches, and pleasures, you have no charms\nwhich shall ever tempt me to depart in the least tittle from the\nallegiance which I owe to God. Alarming fears of the most dreadful\nevils, prisons, racks, fire, and death, in every shape of cruelty, you\nshall never shake my constancy. Nothing shall ever separate me from the\nlove of Christ. This must be the sincere disposition of every Christian.\nLying protestations of fidelity to God cost us nothing: but he sounds\nthe heart. Is our constancy such as to bear evidence to our sincerity,\nthat rather than to fail in the least duty to God, we are ready to\nresist to blood? and that we are always upon our guard to keep our ears\nshut to the voices of those syrens which never cease to lay snares to\nour senses?\n\nST. FINIAN, SURNAMED LOBHAR, OR THE LEPER,\n\nWAS son of Conail, descended from Kian, the son of Alild, king of\nMunster. He was a disciple of St. Brendan, and flourished about the\nmiddle of the sixth century. He imitated the patience of Job, under a\nloathsome and tedious distemper, from which his surname was given him.\nThe famous abbey of Innis-fallen, which stood in an island of that name,\nin the great and beautiful lake of Lough-Lane in the county of Kerry,\nwas found ed by our saint.[1] A second, called from him Ardfinnan, he\nbuilt in Tipperary; and a third at Cluainmore Madoc, in Leinster, where\nhe was buried. He died on the 2d of February; but, says Colgan, his\nfestival is kept on the 16th of March at all the above-mentioned places.\nSir James Ware {599} speaks of two MS. histories of his life. See also\nUsher, (Antiq. c. 17,) Colgan, 17 Martii. Mr. Smith, in his natural and\ncivil history of the county of Kerry, in 1755, p. 127.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  In the monastery of Innis-fallen was formerly kept a chronicle\n    called the Annals of Innis-fallen. They contain a sketch of\n    universal history, from the creation to the year 430. From that time\n    the annalist amply enough prosecutes the affairs of Ireland down to\n    the year 1215, when he wrote. They were continued by another hand to\n    1320. They are often quoted by Bishop Usher and Sir James Ware. An\n    imperfect transcript is kept among the MSS. of the library of\n    Trinity college, Dublin. Bishop Nicholson, in his {}ian Historical\n    Library, informs us, that the late duke of Chandos had a complete\n    copy of them.\n\n\nMARCH XVII.\n\nSAINT PATRICK, B.C.\n\nAPOSTLE OF IRELAND.\n\nThe Irish have many lives of their great apostle, whereof the two\nprincipal are, that compiled by Jocelin, a Cistercian monk, in the\ntwelfth century, who quotes four lives written by disciples of the\nsaint; and that by Probus, who, according to Bollandus, lived in the\nseventh century. But in both are intermixed several injudicious popular\nreports. We, with Tillemont, chiefly confine ourselves to the saint's\nown writings, his Confession, and his letter to Corotic, which that\njudicious critic doubts not to be genuine. The style in both is the\nsame; he is expressed in them to be the author; the Confession is quoted\nby all the authors of his life, and the letter was written before the\nconversion of the Franks under king Clovis, in 496. See Tillemont, t.\n16, p. 455, and Brininnia Sancta.\n\nA.D. 464.\n\nIF the virtue of children reflects an honor on their parents, much more\njustly is the name of St. Patrick rendered illustrious by the\ninnumerable lights of sanctity with which the church of Ireland, planted\nby his labors in the most remote corner of the then known world, shone\nduring many ages; and by the colonies of saints with which it peopled\nmany foreign countries; for, under God, its inhabitants derived from\ntheir glorious apostle the streams of that eminent sanctity by which\nthey were long conspicuous to the whole world. St. Patrick was born in\nthe decline of the fourth century;[1] and, as he informs us in his\nConfession, in a village called Bonaven Taberniae, which seems to be the\ntown of Killpatrick, on the mouth of the river Cluyd, in Scotland,\nbetween Dunbriton and Glasgow. He calls himself both a Briton and a\nRoman, or of a mixed extraction, and says his father was of a good\nfamily, named Calphurnius, and a denizen of a neigh-boring city of the\nRomans, who, not long after, abandoned Britain, in 409. Some writers\ncall his mother Conchessa, and say she was niece to St. Martin of Tours.\nAt fifteen years of age he committed a fault, which appears not to have\nbeen a great crime, yet was to him a subject of tears during the\nremainder of his life. He says, that when he was sixteen, he lived still\nignorant of God, meaning of the devout knowledge and fervent love of\nGod, for he was always a Christian: he never ceased to bewail this\nneglect, and wept when he remembered that he had been one moment of his\nlife insensible to the divine love. In his sixteenth year he was carried\ninto captivity by certain barbarians, together with many of his father's\nvassals and slaves, taken upon his estate. They took him into Ireland,\nwhere he was obliged to keep cattle on the mountains and in the forests,\nin hunger and nakedness, amidst snows, rain, and ice. While he lived in\nthis suffering condition, God had pity on his soul, and quickened him to\na sense of his duty by the impulse of a strong interior grace. The young\nman had recourse to him with his whole heart in fervent prayer and\nfasting; and from that time, faith and the love of God acquired\ncontinually new strength in his {600} tender soul. He prayed often in\nthe day, and also many times in the night, breaking off his sleep to\nreturn to the divine praises. His afflictions were to him a source of\nheavenly benedictions, because he carried his cross with Christ, that\nis, with patience, resignation, and holy joy. St. Patrick, after six\nmonths spent in slavery under the same master, was admonished by God in\na dream to return to his own country, and informed that a ship was then\nready to sail thither. He repaired immediately to the sea-coast, though\nat a great distance, and found the vessel; but could not obtain his\npassage, probably for want of money. Thus new trials ever await the\nservants of God. The saint returned towards his hut, praying as he went,\nbut the sailors, though pagans, called him back, and took him on board.\nAfter three days' sail, they made land, probably in the north of\nScotland: but wandered twenty-seven days through deserts, and were a\nlong while distressed for want of provisions, finding nothing to eat.\nPatrick had often entertained the company on the infinite power of God:\nthey therefore asked him, why he did not pray for relief. Animated by a\nstrong faith, he assured them that if they would address themselves with\ntheir whole hearts to the true God, he would hear and succor them. They\ndid so, and on the same day met with a herd of swine. From that time\nprovisions never failed them till on the twenty-seventh day they came\ninto a country that was cultivated and inhabited. During their distress,\nPatrick refused to touch meats which had been offered to idols. One day\na great stone from a rock happened to fall upon him, and had like to\nhave crushed him to death, while he was laid down to take a little rest.\nBut he invoked Elias, and was delivered from the danger. Some years\nafterwards, he was again led captive; but recovered his liberty after\ntwo months. When he was at home with his parents, God manifested to him,\nby divers visions, that he destined him to the great work of the\nconversion of Ireland. He thought he saw all the children of that\ncountry from the wombs of their mothers, stretching out their hands, and\npiteously crying to him for relief.[2]\n\nSome think he had travelled into Gaul before be undertook his mission,\nand we find that, while he preached in Ireland, he had a great desire to\nvisit his brethren in Gaul, and to see those whom he calls the saints of\nGod, having been formerly acquainted with them. The authors of his life\nsay, that after his second captivity, he travelled into Gaul and Italy,\nand had seen St. Martin, St. Germanus of Auxerre, and pope Celestine,\nand that he received his mission, and the apostolical benediction, from\nthis pope, who died in 432. But it seems, from his Confession, that he\nwas ordained deacon, priest, and bishop, for his mission in his own\ncountry. It is certain that he spent many years in preparing himself for\nthose sacred functions. Great opposition was made against his episcopal\nconsecration and mission, both by his own relations and by the clergy.\nThese made him great offers in order to detain him among them, and\nendeavored to affright him by exaggerating the dangers to which he\nexposed himself amidst the enemies of the Romans and Britons, who did\nnot know God. Some objected, with the same view, the fault which he had\ncommitted thirty years before as an obstacle to his ordination. All\nthese temptations threw the saint into great perplexities, {601} and had\nlike to have made him abandon the work of God. But the Lord, whose will\nhe consulted by earnest prayer, supported him, and comforted him by a\nvision; so that he persevered in his resolution. He forsook his family,\nsold, as he says, his birthright and dignity, to serve strangers, and\nconsecrated his soul to God, to carry his name to the end of the earth.\nHe was determined to suffer all things for the accomplishment of his\nholy design, to receive in the same spirit both prosperity and\nadversity, and to return thanks to God equally for the one as for the\nother, desiring only that his name might be glorified, and his divine\nwill accomplished to his own honor. In this disposition he passed into\nIreland, to preach the gospel, where the worship of idols still\ngenerally reigned. He devoted himself entirely for the salvation of\nthese barbarians, to be regarded as a stranger, to be contemned as the\nlast of men, to suffer from the infidels imprisonment and all kinds of\npersecution, and to give his life with joy, if God should deem him\nworthy to shed his blood in his cause. He travelled over the whole\nisland, penetrating into the remotest corners, without fearing any\ndangers, and often visited each province. Such was the fruit of his\npreachings and sufferings, that he consecrated to God, by baptism, an\ninfinite number of people, and labored effectually that they might be\nperfected in his service by the practice of virtue. He ordained\neverywhere clergymen, induced women to live in holy widowhood and\ncontinence, consecrated virgins to Christ, and instituted monks. Great\nnumbers embraced these states of perfection with extreme ardor. Many\ndesired to confer earthly riches on him who had communicated to them the\ngoods of heaven; but he made it a capital duty to decline all\nself-interest, and whatever might dishonor his ministry. He took nothing\nfrom the many thousands whom he baptized, and often gave back the little\npresents which some laid on the altar, choosing rather to mortify the\nfervent than to scandalize the weak or the infidels. On the contrary, he\ngave freely of his own, both to pagans and Christians, distributed large\nalms to the poor in the provinces where he passed, made presents to the\nkings--judging that necessary for the progress of the gospel--and\nmaintained and educated many children, whom he trained up to serve at\nthe altar. He always gave till he had no more to bestow, and rejoiced to\nsee himself poor, with Jesus Christ, knowing poverty and afflictions to\nbe more profitable to him than riches and pleasures. The happy success\nof his labors cost him many persecutions.\n\nA certain prince named Corotick, a Christian, though in name only,\ndisturbed the peace of his flock. He seems to have reigned in some part\nof Wales, after the Britons had been abandoned by the Romans. This\ntyrant, as the saint calls him, having made a descent into Ireland,\nplundered the country where St. Patrick had been just conferring the\nholy chrism, that is, confirmation, on a great number of Neophytes, who\nwere yet in their white garments after baptism. Corotick, without paying\nany regard to justice, or to the holy sacrament, massacred many, and\ncarried away others, whom he sold to the infidel Picts or Scots. This\nprobably happened at Easter or Whitsuntide. The next day the saint sent\nthe barbarian a letter by a holy priest whom he had brought up from his\ninfancy, entreating him to restore the Christian captives, and at least\npart of the booty he had taken, that the poor people might not perish\nfor want; but was only answered by railleries, as if the Irish could not\nbe the same Christians with the Britons: which arrogance and pride sunk\nthose barbarous conquerors beneath the dignity of men, while by it they\nwere puffed up above others in their own hearts.. The saint, therefore,\nto prevent the scandal which such a flagrant enormity gave to his new\nconverts, wrote with his own hand a public circular letter. In it he\nstyles himself a sinner and an ignorant man; for such is the sincere\n{602} humility of the saints, (most of all when they are obliged to\nexercise any acts of authority,) contrary to the pompous titles which\nthe world affects. He declares, nevertheless, that he is established\nbishop of Ireland, and pronounces Corotick and the other parricides and\naccomplices separated from him and from Jesus Christ, whose place he\nholds, forbidding any to eat with them, or to receive their alms, till\nthey should have satisfied God by the tears of sincere penance, and\nrestored the servants of Jesus Christ to their liberty. This letter\nexpresses his most tender love for his flock and his grief for those who\nhad been slain, yet mingled with joy, because they reign with the\nprophets, apostles, and martyrs. Jocelin assures us, that Corotick was\novertaken by the divine vengeance. St. Patrick wrote his Confession as a\ntestimony of his mission, when he was old.[3] It is solid, full of good\nsense and piety, expresses an extraordinary humility and a great desire\nof martyrdom, and is written with spirit. The author was perfectly\nversed in the holy scriptures. He confesses everywhere his own faults\nwith a sincere humility, and extols the great mercies of God towards him\nin this world, who had exalted him, though the most undeserving of men:\nyet, to preserve him in humility, afforded him the advantage of meeting\nwith extreme contempt from others, that is, from the heathens. He\nconfesses, for his humiliation, that, among other temptations, he felt a\ngreat desire to see again his own country, and to visit the saints of\nhis acquaintance in Gaul; but durst not abandon his people; and says,\nthat the Holy Ghost had declared to him that to do it would be criminal.\nHe tells us, that a little before he wrote this, he himself and all his\ncompanions had been plundered and laid in irons for his having baptized\nthe son of a certain king against the will of his father: but were\nreleased after fourteen days. He lived in the daily expectation of such\naccidents, and of martyrdom; but feared nothing, having his hope as a\nfirm anchor fixed in heaven, and reposing himself with an entire\nconfidence in the arms of the Almighty. He says, that he had lately\nbaptized a very beautiful young lady of quality, who some days after\ncame to tell him that she had been admonished by an angel to consecrate\nher virginity to Jesus Christ, that she might render herself the more\nacceptable to God. He gave God thanks, and she made her vows with\nextraordinary fervor six days before he wrote this letter.\n\nSt. Patrick held several councils to settle the discipline of the church\nwhich he had planted. The first, the acts of which are extant under his\nname in the editions of the councils, is certainly genuine. Its canons\nregulate several points of discipline, especially relating to\npenance.[4] St. Bernard and the tradition of the country testify, that\nSt. Patrick fixed his metropolitan see at Armagh. He established some\nother bishops, as appears by his Council and other monuments. He not\nonly converted the whole country by his preaching and wonderful\nmiracles, but also cultivated this vineyard with so fruitful a\nbenediction and increase from heaven, as to render Ireland a most\nflourishing garden in the church of God, and a country of saints. And\nthose nations, which had for many ages esteemed all others barbarians,\ndid not blush to receive from the utmost extremity of {603} the\nuncivilized or barbarous world, their most renowned teachers and guides\nin the greatest of all sciences, that of the saints.\n\nMany particulars are related of the labors of St. Patrick, which we pass\nover. In the first year of his mission he attempted to preach Christ in\nthe general assembly of the kings and states of all Ireland, held yearly\nat Taraghe, or Themoria, in East-Meath, the residence of the chief king,\nstyled the monarch of the whole island, and the principal seat of the\nDruids or priests, and their paganish rites. The son of Neill, the chief\nmonarch, declared himself against the preacher: however, he converted\nseveral, and, on his road to that place, the father of St. Benen, or\nBenignus, his immediate successor in the see of Armagh. He afterwards\nconverted and baptized the kings of Dublin and Munster, and the seven\nsons of the king of Connaught, with the greatest part of their subjects,\nand before his death almost the whole island. He founded a monastery at\nArmagh; another called Domnach-Padraig, or Patrick's church; also a\nthird, named Sabhal-Padraig, and filled the country with churches and\nschools of piety and learning; the reputation of which, for the three\nsucceeding centuries, drew many foreigners into Ireland.[5] Nennius,\nabbot of Bangor, in 620, in his history of the Britons,[6] published by\nthe learned Thomas Gale, says, that St. Patrick took that name only when\nhe was ordained bishop, being before called Maun; that he continued his\nmissions over all the provinces of Ireland, during forty years; that he\nrestored sight to many blind, health to the sick, and raised nine dead\npersons to life.[7] He died and was buried at Down in Ulster. His body\nwas found there in a church of his name in 1185, and translated to\nanother part of the same church. His festival is marked on the 17th of\nMarch, in the Martyrology of Bede, &c.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe apostles of nations were all interior men, endowed with a sublime\nspirit of prayer. The salvation of souls being a supernatural end, the\ninstruments ought to bear a proportion to it, and preaching proceed from\na grace which is supernatural. To undertake this holy function, without\na competent stock of sacred learning, and without the necessary\nprecautions of human prudence and industry, would be to tempt God. But\nsanctity of life, and the union of the heart with God, are\nqualifications far more essential than science, eloquence, and human\ntalents. Many almost kill themselves with studying to compose elegant\nsermons, which flatter the ear yet reap very little fruit. Their hearers\napplaud their parts, but very few are converted. Most preachers,\nnow-a-days, have learning, but are not sufficiently grounded in true\nsanctity, and a spirit of devotion. Interior humility, purity of heart,\nrecollection, and the spirit and the assiduous practice of holy prayer,\nare the principal preparation for the ministry of the word, and the true\nmeans of acquiring the science of the saints. A short devout meditation\nand fervent prayer, which kindle a fire in the affections, furnish {604}\nmore thoughts proper to move the hearts of the hearers, and inspire them\nwith sentiments of truer virtue, than many years employed barely in\nreading and study. St. Patrick, and other apostolic men, were dead to\nthemselves and the world, and animated with the spirit of perfect\ncharity and humility, by which they were prepared by God to be such\npowerful instruments of his grace, as, by the miraculous change of so\nmany hearts, to plant in entire barbarous nations not only the faith,\nbut also the spirit of Christ. Preachers, who have not attained to a\ndisengagement and purity of heart, suffer the petty interests of\nself-love secretly to mingle themselves in their zeal and charity, and\nhave reason to suspect that they inflict deeper wounds in their own\nsouls than they are aware, and produce not in others the good which they\nimagine.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  According to Usher and Tillemont, in 372. The former places his\n    death in 493: but Tillemont, about the year 455. Nennius, published\n    by Mr. Gale, says he died fifty-seven years before the birth of St.\n    Columba, consequently in 464.\n2.  St. Prosper, in his chronicle, assures us that pope Celestine\n    ordained St. Palladius bishop of the Scots in 431, and by him\n    converted their country to the faith; this apostle seems to have\n    preached to this nation first in Ireland, and afterwards in\n    Scotland. Though Palladius be styled by St. Prosper and Bede their\n    first bishop, yet the light of the faith had diffused its rays from\n    Britain into Ireland before that time, as several monuments produced\n    by Usher demonstrate. But the general conversion of the inhabitants\n    of this Island was reserved for St. Patrick.\n\n    The Scot are distinguished from the native Irish in the works of St.\n    Patrick, and in other ancient monuments. As to their original, the\n    most probable conjecture seems to be, that they were a foreign\n    warlike nation, who made a settlement in Ireland before the arrival\n    of St. Patrick. We find them mentioned there in the fourth century.\n    Several colonies of them passed not long after into Scotland. But\n    the inhabitants of Ireland were promiscuously called Scots or Irish,\n    for many ages.\n3.  The style is not polished; but the Latin edition is perhaps only a\n    translation: or his captivities might have prevented his progress in\n    polite learning being equal to that which he made in the more\n    sublime and more necessary studies.\n4.  A second council, extant in the same collection, ought rather to be\n    ascribed to a nephew of this saint. Other Irish canons, published in\n    the ninth tome of D'Achery's Spicilege, and more by Martenne,\n    (Anecd. tome 4, part 2,) though they bear the name of St. Patrick,\n    are judged to have been framed by some of his successors. See\n    Wilkins, Conc. Britan. & Hibern. t. 1, p. 3.\n\n    The treatise, of the Twelve Abuses, published among the works of St.\n    Austin and St. Cyprian, is attributed to St. Patrick, in a\n    collection of ecclesiastical ordinances made in Ireland, in the\n    eighth age, by Arbedoc, and in other ancient monuments. The style is\n    elegant; but it may be a translation from an Irish original. Sir\n    James Ware published the works of St. Patrick at London, in 1658, in\n    octavo.\n5.  It seems demonstrated that the St. Patrick who flourished among the\n    hermits of Glastonbury, and was there buried, was distinct from our\n    saint, and somewhat older.\n6.  C. 55, 56, 57, 58, 61.\n7.  The popular tradition attributes the exemption of their country from\n    venomous creatures to the benediction of St. Patrick, given by his\n    staff, called the staff of Jesus, which was kept with great\n    veneration in Dublin, as is mentioned in the year 1360, by Ralph\n    Higden, in his Polychronicon, published by Mr. Gale and by others.\n    The isle of Malta is said to derive a like privilege from St. Paul,\n    who was there bit by a viper.\n\n    St. Patrick's purgatory is a cave in an island in the lake Dearg, in\n    the county of Donnegall, near the borders of Fermanagh. Bollandus\n    shows the falsehood of many things related concerning it. Upon\n    complaint of certain superstitious and false notions of the vulgar,\n    in 1497, it was stopped up by an order of the pope. See Bollandus,\n    Tillemont, p. 787, Alemand in his Monastic History of Ireland, and\n    Thiers, Hist. des Superst. t. 4. ed. Nov. It was soon after opened\n    again by the inhabitants; but only according to the original\n    institution, as Bollandus takes notice, as a penitential retirement\n    for those who voluntarily chose it, probably in imitation of St.\n    Patrick, or other saints, who had there dedicated themselves to a\n    penitential state. The penitents usually spend there several days,\n    living on bread and water, lying on rushes or furze, and praying\n    much, with daily stations which they perform barefoot.\n\nMANY MARTYRS AT ALEXANDRIA, IN 892.\n\nTHEOPHILIIS, patriarch of Alexandria, obtained a rescript of the emperor\nTheodosius, to convert an old deserted temple of Bacchus into a\nChristian church. In clearing this place, in the subterraneous secret\ncaverns, called by the Greeks Adyta, and held by the pagans as sacred,\nwere found infamous and ridiculous figures, which Theophilus caused to\nbe exposed in public, to show the extravagant superstitions of the\nidolaters. The heathens in tumults raised a sedition, killed many\nChristians in the streets, and then retired into the great temple of\nSerapis as their fortress. In sallies they seized many Christians, and\nupon their refusing to sacrifice to Serapis, put them to death by cruel\ntorments, crucifying them, breaking their legs, and throwing them into\nthe sinks and jakes of the temple with the blood of their victims. The\nprincipal ancient divinities of Egypt were Apis, called also Osiris,\nonce a great king and benefactor of that country, who was worshipped\nunder the figure of a bull, and the wife of Apis, named Isis, who is\nsaid to have taught or improved agriculture.[1]\n\nThe temple of Serapis, in Alexandria, was most stately and rich, built\non an eminence raised by art, in a beautiful spacious square, with an\nascent of one hundred steps, surrounded with lofty edifices for the\npriests and officers. The temple was built of marble, supported with\nprecious pillars, and the walls on the inside were covered with plates\nof brass, silver, and gold. The idol was of so enormous a size, that its\narms being extended, they reached to the opposite walls of the temple:\nits figure was that of a venerable old man, with a beard and long hair;\nbut with it was joined a monstrous figure of an animal, with three\nheads: the biggest, in the middle, was that of a lion; that of a dog\nfawning came out on the right side, and that of ravenous wolf on the\nleft: a serpent was represented twining round these three animals, and\nlaying its head on the right hand of Serapis: on the idol's head was\nplaced a bushel, an emblem of the fertility of the earth. The statue was\nmade of precious stones, wood, and all sorts of metal together; its\ncolor was at first blue, but the steams or moisture of the place had\nturned it black. A hole in the temple was contrived, to admit the sun's\nrays upon its mouth at the hour when the idol of the sun was brought in\nto visit it. Many other artifices were employed to deceive the people\ninto an opinion of its miracles. No idol was so much respected in Egypt;\nand on its account Alexandria was looked upon as a holy city.\n\nThe emperor, being informed of the sedition, called those happy who\n{605} had received by it the crown of martyrdom: and not to dishonor\ntheir triumph, he pardoned their murderers, but sent an order to\ndemolish the temples in Egypt. When this letter was read at Alexandria,\nthe pagans raised hideous cries; many left the city, and all withdrew\nfrom the temple of Serapis. The idol was cast down by pieces, and thrown\ninto a fire. The heathens were persuaded, that if any one should touch\nit the heavens would fall, and the world return into the state of its\nprimitive chaos. Seeing no such judgment threaten, they began themselves\nto deride a senseless trunk reduced to ashes. The standard of the Nile's\nincrease was kept in this temple, but it was on this occasion removed\ninto the cathedral. The idolaters expected the river would swell no\nmore: but finding the succeeding years very fertile, they condemned the\nvanity of their superstitions, and embraced the faith. Two churches were\nbuilt on the place where this temple stood, and its metal was converted\nto the use of churches. The busts of Serapis on the walls, doors, and\nwindows of the houses, were broken and taken away. The temples all over\nEgypt were demolished, during the two following years. In pulling down\nthose of Alexandria, the cruel mysteries of Mithra were discovered, and\nin the secret Adyta were found the heads of many infants cut off,\ncruelly mangled, and superstitiously painted. The artifices of the\npriests of the idols were likewise detected: there were hollow idols of\nwood and brass, placed against a wall, with subterraneous passages,\nthrough which the priests entered the hollow trunks of the idols, and\ngave answers as oracles, as is related by Theodoret,[2] and Rufinus.[3]\nWhere the idols were cast down, figures of the cross were set up in\ntheir places. These martyrs suffered in the year 392. See Theodoret,\nRufinus, Socrates, Sozomen, Fleury, b. 19. Tillemont in the history of\nTheodosius, art. 52-55.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  Those mistake the truth, who confound Serapis with Osiris, or who\n    imagine him to have been the patriarch Joseph. Serapis was a modern\n    divinity, raised by the Ptolemies. See Celmet, Banier on Mythology,\n    &c.\n2.  B. 5, c. 22.\n3.  Ib. 2, c. 25.\n\nST. JOSEPH OF ARIMATHEA.\n\nHE was a member of the Jewish Sanhedrim, but a faithful disciple of\nJesus. It was no small proof of his great piety, that, though he had\nriches and honors to lose, he feared not the malice of men, but at a\ntime when the apostles trembled, boldly declared himself a follower of\nJesus who was crucified; and with the greatest devotion embalmed and\nburied his sacred body. This saint was the patron of Glastenbury, where\na church and hermitage, very famous in the times of the ancient\nBritons,[1] were built by the first apostles of this island: among whom\nsome moderns have placed St. Joseph himself, and Aristobulus.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  See Matthew of Westminster, and John of Glastenbury in their\n    histories of that famous abbey published by Hearne; also Tanner's\n    Notitia Monastica.\n\nST. GERTRUDE, VIRGIN,\n\nABBESS OF NIVELLE.\n\nSHE was daughter of Pepin of Landen, mayor of the palace to the French\nkings of Austrasia, and younger sister to St. Begga. She was born in\n626. Her father's virtuous palace was the sanctuary of her innocence,\nand the school of her tender piety. Being pressed to marry, she declared\nin presence of king Dagobert: \"I have chosen for my spouse him from\n{606} whose eternal beauty all creatures derive their glory, whose\nriches are immense, and whom the angels adore.\" The king admired her\ngravity and wisdom in so tender an age, and would not suffer her to be\nany more disturbed on that account. Her mother, the blessed Itta,\nemployed St. Amand to direct the building of a great nunnery at Nivelle,\nin Brabant, for Gertrude. It is now a double chapter of canons and\ncanonesses. The virgin was appointed abbess when only twenty years of\nage. Her mother, the blessed Itta, lived five years under her conduct,\nand died in the twelfth year of her widowhood, in 652. She is honored in\nthe Belgic Martyrologies on the 8th of May. Gertrude governed her\nmonastery with a prudence, zeal, and virtue, that astonished the most\nadvanced in years and experience. She loved extreme holy poverty in her\nperson and house; but enriched the poor. By assiduous prayer and holy\nmeditation she obtained wonderful lights from heaven. At thirty years of\nage, she resigned her abbey to her niece Wilfe{t}rude, and spent the\nthree years which she survived, in preparing her soul for her passage to\neternity, which happened on the 17th of March, in 659. Her festival is a\nholyday at Louvain, and throughout the duchy of Brabant. It is mentioned\nin the true Martyrology of Bede, &c. See her life, written by one who\nwas present at her funeral, and an eye-witness to the miracles, of which\nthere is an account in Mabillon, and the Acts of the Saints. See also\nRivet, Hist. Litter. t. 4, p. 39. An anonymous author much enlarged this\nlife in the tenth century, but the additions are of small authority.\nThis work was printed by Ryckel, abbot of St. Gertrude's, at Louvain, in\n1632. See Hist. Litter. t. 6, p. 292. Also La Vie de S. Gertrude,\nabbesse de Nivelle, par Gul. Descoeuvres, in 12mo. at Paris, Ann. 1612.\nConsult likewise Dom Bouquet, Recueil des Hist. de France, t. 2, p. 603,\n&c.\n\n\nMARCH XVIII.\n\nSAINT ALEXANDER, B.M.\n\nBISHOP OF JERUSALEM.\n\nFrom St. Jerom, Catal. c. G. Euseb. Hist. b. 6, c. 8, 10, 14, 20. See\nTillemont, t. 3, p. 415, and Le Quien Oriens Christ. t. 3, p. 150.\n\nA.D. 251.\n\nST. ALEXANDER studied with Origen in the great Christian school of\nAlexandria, under St. Pantenus and his successor, St. Clement. He was\nchosen bishop of a certain city in Cappadocia. In the persecution of\nSeverus, in 204, he made a glorious confession of his faith, and though\nhe did not then seal it with his blood, he suffered several years'\nimprisonment, till the beginning of the reign of Caracalla, in 211, when\nhe wrote to congratulate the church of Antioch upon the election of St.\nAsclepias, a glorious confessor of Christ, to that patriarchate; the\nnews of which, he says, had softened and made light the irons with which\nhe was loaded. He sent that letter by the priest St. Clement of\nAlexandria, a man of great virtue, whom God had sent into Cappadocia to\ninstruct and govern his people during his confinement.\n\n{607}\n\nSt. Alexander being enlarged soon after, in 212, was commanded by a\nrevelation from God to go to Jerusalem to visit the holy places.[1] The\nnight before his arrival, St. Narcissus, bishop of Jerusalem, and some\nother saints of that church, had a revelation, in which they heard a\ndistinct voice commanding them to go out of the city and take for bishop\nhim whom God sent them. St. Narcissus was then very old and decrepit: he\nand his flock seized Alexander, and by the consent of all the bishops of\nPalestine, assembled in a council, made him his coadjutor and joint\nbishop of Jerusalem. SS. Narcissus and Alexander still governed this\nchurch together, when the latter wrote thus to the Antinoits: \"I salute\nyou in the name of Narcissus, who held here the place of bishop before\nme, and, being above one hundred and sixteen years old, is now united\nwith me by prayer. He conjures you with me to live in inviolable peace\nand union.\" St. Alexander collected at Jerusalem a great library,\nconsisting of the writings and letters of eminent men, which subsisted\nwhen Eusebius wrote. He excelled all other holy prelates and apostolic\nmen in mildness and in the sweetness of his discourses, as Origen\ntestifies. St. Alexander was seized by the persecutors under Decius,\nconfessed Christ a second time, and died in chains at Caesarea, about the\nend of the year 251, as Eusebius testifies. He is styled a martyr by St.\nEpiphanius, St. Jerom, and the Martyrologies, and honored in the Roman\nMartyrology on the 18th of March; by the Greeks on the 16th of May and\nthe 22d of December.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nA pastor must first acquire a solid degree of interior virtue, before he\ncan safely undertake to labor in procuring the salvation of others, or\nemploy himself in exterior functions of the ministry. He must have\nmortified the deeds of the flesh by compunction, and the habitual\npractice of self-denial; and the fruits of the spirit must daily more\nand more perfectly subdue his passions. These fruits of the spirit are\ncharity and humility, which stifle all the motions of anger, envy, and\npride: holy joy, which banishes carnal sadness, sloth, and all disrelish\nin spiritual exercises; peace, which crushes the seeds of discord, and\nthe love and relish of heavenly things, which extinguish the love of\nearthly goods and sensual pleasures. One whose soul is slothful,\nsensual, and earthly, deserves not to bear the name of a Christian, much\nless of a minister of the gospel. There never was a saint who did not\ncarry his cross, and walk in the steps of Christ crucified. St.\nAlexander would have thought a day lost in which he did not add\nsomething to the sacrifice of his penance in order to continue and\ncomplete it. By this he prepared himself to die a victim of fidelity and\ncharity. This is the continued martyrdom by which every true Christian\nearnestly labors to render himself every day more and more pleasing to\nGod, making his body a pure holocaust to him by mortification, and his\nsoul, by the fervor of his charity and compunction.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  Eus. b. 6, c. 14. S. Hieron. in Catal.\n\nSAINT CYRIL, CONFESSOR,\n\nARCHBISHOP OF JERUSALEM.\n\nFrom the church historians, and his works collected by Dom Touttee in\nhis excellent edition of them at Paris, in 1720.\n\nA.D. 386.\n\nCYRIL was born at or near the city of Jerusalem, about the year 315. So\nperfectly was he versed in the holy scriptures, that many of his\ndiscourses,{608} and some of these pronounced extempore, are only\npassages of the sacred writings connected and interwoven with each\nother. He had read diligently both the fathers and the pagan\nphilosophers. Maximus, bishop of Jerusalem, ordained him priest about\nthe year 345, and soon after appointed him his preacher to the people,\nlikewise his catechist to instruct and prepare the catechumens for\nbaptism; thus committing to his care the two principal functions of his\nown pastoral charge. St. Cyril mentions his sermons to the faithful\nevery Sunday.[1] Catechumens ordinarily remained two years in the course\nof instruction and prayer, and were not admitted to baptism till they\nhad given proof of their morals and conduct, as well as of their\nconstancy in the faith.[2] This office St. Cyril performed for several\nyears; but we have only the course of his catechetical sermons for the\nyear 348, or 347. Perhaps the others were never committed to writing. He\nsucceeded Maximus in the see of Jerusalem about the end of the year 350.\n\nThe beginning of his episcopacy was remarkable for a prodigy by which\nGod was pleased to honor the instrument of our redemption. It is related\nby Socrates,[3] Philostorgius,[4] the chronicle of Alexandria, &c. St.\nCyril, an eye-witness, wrote immediately to the emperor Constantius, an\nexact account of this miraculous phenomenon: and his letter is quoted as\na voucher for it by Sozomen,[5] Theophanes,[6] Eutychius,[7] John of\nNice,[8] Glycas, and others. Dr. Cave has inserted it at length in his\nlife of St. Cyril.[9] The relation he there gives of the miracle is as\nfollows: \"On the nones (or 7th) of May, about the third hour, (or nine\nin the morning,) a vast luminous body, in the form of a cross, appeared\nin the heavens, just over the holy Golgotha, reaching as far as the holy\nmount of Olivet, (that is, almost two English miles in length,) seen not\nby one or two persons, but clearly and evidently by the whole city. This\nwas not, as may be thought, a momentary transient phenomenon: for it\ncontinued several hours together visible to our eyes, and brighter than\nthe sun; the light of which would have eclipsed it, had not this been\nstronger. The whole city, struck with a reverential fear, tempered with\njoy, ran immediately to the church, young and old, Christians and\nheathens, citizens and strangers, all with one voice giving praise to\nour Lord Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, the worker of miracles;\nfinding by experience the truth of the Christian doctrine, to which the\nheavens bear witness.\" He concludes his letter with wishes that the\nemperor may always glorify the holy and consubstantial Trinity.[10]\nPhilostorgius and the Alexandrian chronicle affirm, that this cross of\nlight was encircled with a large rainbow.[11] The Greek church\ncommemorates this miracle on the 7th of May.\n\n{609}\n\nSome time after this memorable event, a difference happened between our\nsaint and Acacius, archbishop of Caesarea, first a warm Semi-Arian,\nafterwards a thorough Arian. It began on the subject of metropolitical\njurisdiction, which Acacius unjustly claimed over the Church of\nJerusalem; and what widened the breach between them was their difference\nof sentiments with regard to the consubstantiality of the Son, which St.\nCyril had always most zealously asserted.[12] This was sufficient to\nrender him odious in the eyes of Acacius, who in a council of Arian\nbishops convened by him, declared St. Cyril deposed for not appearing,\nafter two years' warning, to answer to the crimes alleged against him.\nOne of them was that he had lavished away the goods of the Church, and\nhad applied its sacred ornaments to profane uses. The ground of the\naccusation was, that, in time of a great famine at Jerusalem, he had\nsold some of the Church plate, and precious stuffs, to relieve the wants\nof the poor. St. Cyril, not looking upon the members of the council as\nqualified judges, appealed to higher powers,[13] but yielding to\nviolence withdrew to Antioch, and thence removed to Tarsus, were he was\nhonorably entertained by the bishop Sylvaims, and had in great respect,\nnotwithstanding the sentence of Acacius and his council against him.\nHere living in communion with Sylvanus, Eustathius of Sebaste, Basil of\nAncyra. and others, who soon after appeared at the head of the\nSemi-Arian faction, this gave rise to the calumny that St. Cyril himself\nhad espoused it. But nothing could be more falsely alleged against him,\nhe having always maintained the Catholic faith. He had accordingly, in\n349, together with his predecessor Maximus, received the decrees of the\ncouncil of Sardica, and consequently those of Nice. And we have already\nseen, in his letter to Constantius, that he made an undaunted profession\nof the Consubstantial Trinity. To which we may add, that in the council\nof Constantinople, in 381, he joined with the other bishops in\ncondemning the Semi-Arians and Macedonians. And the orthodox bishops\nassembled in the same city, in 382, writing to pope Damasus and to the\nwestern bishops, gave a most ample testimony to his faith, declaring,\n\"That the most reverend and beloved of God, Cyril, bishop of Jerusalem,\nhad been canonically elected by the bishops of the province, and had\nsuffered many persecutions-for the faith.\"[14] Upon the death of\nConstantius, in 361, Julian the apostate, partly out of aversion to his\nuncle, and partly in hopes to see the Christian sects and the orthodox\nmore at variance, suffered all the banished bishops to return to their\nchurches. Thus did God make use of the malice of his enemy to restore\nSt. Cyril to his see. He shortly after made him an eye-witness to the\nmiraculous manifestation of his power, by which he covered his\nblaspheming enemies with confusion. The following most authentic history\nof that remarkable event is gathered from the original records, and\nvindicated against the exceptions of certain skeptics by Tillemont,[15]\nand by our most learned Mr. Warburton, in his Julian. In vain had the\nmost furious tyrants exerted the utmost cruelty, and bent the whole\npower which the empire of the world put into their hands, to extirpate,\nif it had been possible, the Christian name. The faith increased under\naxes, and the blood of martyrs was a fruitful seed, which multiplied\n{610} the Church over all nations. The experience how weak and\nineffectual a means brute force was to this purpose, moved the emperor\nJulian, the most implacable, the most crafty, and the most dangerous\ninstrument which the devil ever employed in that design, to shift his\nground, and change his artillery and manner of assault. He affected a\nshow of great moderation, and in words disclaimed open persecution; but\nhe sought by every foul and indirect means to undermine the faith, and\nsap the foundations of the Christian religion. For this purpose he had\nrecourse to every base art of falsehood and dissimulation, in which he\nwas the most complete master. He had played off the round of his\nmachines to no purpose, and seemed reduced to his last expedient of the\npacific kind, the discrediting the Christian religion by bringing the\nscandal of imposture upon its divine author. This he attempted to do by\na project of rebuilding the Jewish temple--which, if he could have\ncompassed, it would have sufficiently answered his wicked design; Christ\nand the prophet Daniel having in express terms foretold not only its\ndestruction, which was effected by the Romans under Titus, but its final\nruin and desolation.\n\nThe Jewish religion was a temporary dispensation, intended by its divine\nauthor, God himself, to prefigure one more complete and perfect, and\nprepare men to embrace it. It not only essentially required bloody\nsacrifices, but it enjoined a fixed and certain place for them to be\nperformed in; this was the temple at Jerusalem. Hence the final\ndestruction of this temple was he abolition of the sacrifices, which\nannihilated the whole system of this religious institution. Whence St.\nChrysostom[16] shows that the destruction of Jerusalem is to be\nascribed, not to the power of the Romans, for God had often delivered it\nfrom no less dangers; but to a special providence, which was pleased to\nput it out of the power of human perversity to delay or respite the\nextinction of those ceremonial observances. \"As a physician,\" says that\nfather, \"by breaking the cup, prevents his patient from indulging his\nappetite in a noxious draught; so God withheld the Jews from their\nsacrifices by destroying the whole city itself, and making the place\ninaccessible to all of them.\" St. Gregory Nazianzen, Socrates,\nTheodoret, and other Christian writers, are unanimous in what they say\nof Julian's motive, ascribing to him the intention already mentioned, of\nfalsifying the scripture prophecies, those of Daniel and Christ, which\nhis actions sufficiently evidence. His historian, indeed, says, that he\nundertook this work out of a desire of rendering the glory of his reign\nimmortal by so great an achievement:[17] but this was only an\nafter-thought or secondary motive; and Sozomen in particular assures us\nthat not only Julian, but that the idolaters who assisted in it, pushed\nit forward upon that very motive, and for the sake thereof suspended\ntheir aversion to the Jewish nation. Julian himself wrote a letter to\nthe body or community of the Jews, extant among his works,[18] mentioned\nby Sozomen,[19] and translated by Dr. Cave, in his life of St. Cyril. In\nit he declares them free from all exactions and taxes, and orders Julus\nor Illus, (probably Hillel,) their most reverend patriarch, to abolish\nthe apostoli, or gatherers of the said taxes; begs their prayers, (such\nwas his hypocrisy,) and promises, after his Persian expedition, when\ntheir temple should be rebuilt, to make Jerusalem his residence, and to\noffer up his joint prayers together with them.\n\nAfter this he assembled the chief among the Jews, and asked them why\nthey offered no bloody sacrifices, since they were prescribed by their\nlaw. They replied, that they could not offer any but in the temple,\nwhich then lay in ruins. Whereupon he commanded them to repair to\nJerusalem, rebuild {611} their temple, and re-establish their ancient\nworship, promising them his concurrence towards carrying on the work.\nThe Jews received the warrant with inexpressible joy, and were so elated\nwith it, that, flocking from all parts to Jerusalem, they began\ninsolently to scorn and triumph over the Christians, threatening to make\nthem feel as fatal effects of their severity, as they themselves had\nheretofore from the Roman powers.[20] The news was no sooner spread\nabroad than contributions came in from all hands. The Jewish women\nstripped themselves of their most costly ornaments to contribute towards\nthe expense of the building. The emperor also, who was no less impatient\nto see it finished, in order to encourage them in the undertaking, told\nthem he had found in their mysterious sacred books that this was the\ntime in which they were to return to their country, and that their\ntemple and legal observances were to be restored.[21] He gave orders to\nhis treasurers to furnish money and every thing necessary for the\nbuilding, which would require immense sums: he drew together the most\nable workmen from all quarters, and appointed for overseers persons of\nthe highest rank, placing at their head his intimate friend Alypius, who\nhad formerly been Pro-prefect of Britain; charging him to make them\nlabor in this great work without ceasing, and to spare no expense. All\nthings were in readiness, workmen were assembled from all quarters;\nstone, brick, timber, and other materials, in immense quantities, were\nlaid in. The Jews of both sexes and of all degrees bore a share in the\nlabor; the very women helping to dig the ground and carry out the\nrubbish in their aprons and skirts of their gowns. It is even said that\nthe Jews appointed some pickaxes, spades, and baskets to be made of\nsilver for the honor of the work. But the good bishop St. Cyril, lately\nreturned from exile, beheld all these mighty preparations without any\nconcern, relying on the infallible truth of the scripture prophecies:\nas, that the desolation of the Jewish temple should last till the\nend;[22] and that one stone should not be left on another;[23] and being\nfull of the spirit of God, he foretold, with the greatest confidence,\nthat the Jews, so far from being able to rebuild their ruined temple,\nwould be the instruments whereby that prophecy of Christ would be still\nmore fully accomplished than it had been hitherto, and that they would\nnot be able to put one stone upon another,[24] and the event justified\nthe prediction.\n\nTill then the foundations and some ruins of the walls of the temple\nsubsisted, as appears from St. Cyril:[25] and Eusebius says,[26] the\ninhabitants still carried away the stones for their private buildings.\nThese ruins the Jews first demolished with their own hands, thus\nconcurring to the accomplishment of our Saviour's prediction. Then they\nbegan to dig the new foundation, in which work many thousands were\nemployed. But what they had thrown up in the day was, by repeated\nearthquakes, the night following cast back again into the trench. \"And\nwhen Alypius the next day earnestly pressed on the work, with the\nassistance of the governor of the province, there issued,\" says\nAmmianus, \"such horrible balls of fire out of the earth near the\nfoundations,[27] which rendered the place, from time to time,\ninaccessible to the scorched and blasted workmen. And the victorious\nelement continuing in this manner obstinately and resolutely bent as it\nwere to drive them to a distance, Alypius thought proper to give over\nthe enterprise.\"[28] {612} This is also recorded by the Christian\nauthors, who, besides the earthquake and fiery eruption, mention storms,\ntempests, and whirlwinds, lightning, crosses impressed on the bodies and\ngarments of the assistants, and a flaming cross in the heavens,\nsurrounded with a luminous circle. The order whereof seems to have been\nas follows. This judgment of the Almighty was ushered in by storms and\nwhirlwinds, by which prodigious heaps of lime and sand and other loose\nmaterials were carried away.[29] After these followed lightning, the\nusual consequence of collision of clouds in tempests. Its effects were,\nfirst the destroying the more solid materials, and melting down the iron\ninstruments;[30] and secondly, the impressing shining crosses on the\nbodies and garments of the assistants without distinction, in which\nthere was something that in art and elegance exceeded all painting or\nembroidery; which when the infidels perceived, they endeavored, but in\nvain, to wash them out.[31] In the third place came the earthquake which\ncast out the stones of the old foundations, and shook the earth into the\ntrench or cavity dug for the new; besides overthrowing the adjoining\nbuildings and porticoes wherein were lodged great numbers of Jews\ndesigned for the work, who were all either crushed to death, or at least\nmaimed or wounded. The number of the killed or hurt was increased by the\nfiery eruption in the fourth place, attended both with storms and\ntempests above, and with an earthquake below.[32] From this eruption,\nmany fled to a neighboring church for shelter, but could not obtain\nentrance; whether on account of its being closed by a secret invisible\nhand, as the fathers state the case, or at least by a special\nprovidence, through the entrance into the oratory being choked up by a\nfrighted crowd, all pressing to be foremost. \"This, however,\" says St.\nGregory Nazianzen,[33] \"is invariably affirmed and believed by all, that\nas they strove to force their way in by violence, the _Fire_, which\nburst from the foundations of the temple, met and stopped them, and one\npart it burnt and destroyed, and another it desperately maimed, leaving\nthem a living monument of God's commination and wrath against sinners.\"\nThis eruption was frequently renewed till it overcame the rashness of\nthe most obdurate, to use the words of Socrates; for it continued to be\nrepeated as often as the projectors ventured to renew their attempt,\ntill it had fairly tired them out. Lastly, on the same evening, there\nappeared over Jerusalem a lucid cross, shining very bright, as large as\nthat in the reign of Constantine, encompassed with a circle of light.\n\"And what could be so proper to close this tremendous scene, or to\ncelebrate this decisive victory, as the Cross triumphant, encircled with\nthe _Heroic_ symbol of conquest?\"\n\nThis miraculous event, with all its circumstances, is related by the\nwriters of that age; by St. Gregory Nazianzen in the year immediately\nfollowing it; by St. Chrysostom, in several parts of his works, who says\nthat it happened not twenty years before, appeals to eye-witnesses still\nliving and young, and to the present condition of those foundations, \"of\nwhich,\" says he, \"we are all witnesses;\" by St. Ambrose in his fortieth\nepistle, written in 388; Rufinus, who had long lived upon the spot;\nTheodoret, who lived in the neighborhood in Syria; Philostorgius, the\nArian; Sozomen, who says many were alive when he wrote who had it from\neye-witnesses, and mentions the visible marks still subsisting;\nSocrates, &c. The testimony of the heathens corroborates this evidence;\nas that of Ammianus Marcellinus above quoted, a nobleman of the first\nrank, who then lived in the court of Julian at Antioch and in an office\nof distinction, and who probably wrote his {613} account from the letter\nof Alypius to his master at the time when the miracle happened.\nLibanius, another pagan friend and admirer of Julian, both in the\nhistory of his own life, and in his funeral oration on Julian's death,\nmentions these earthquakes in Palestine, but with a shyness which\ndiscovers the disgrace of his hero and superstition. Julian himself\nspeaks of this event in the same covert manner. Socrates testifies, that\nat the sight of the miracles, the Jews at first cried out that Christ is\nGod; yet returned home as hardened as ever. St. Gregory Nazianzen says,\nthat many Gentiles were converted upon it, and went over to the Church.\nTheodoret and Sozomen say many were converted; but as to the Jews, they\nevidently mean a sudden flash of conviction, not a real and lasting\nconversion. The incredulous blinded themselves by various pretences: but\nthe evidence of the miracle leaves no room for the least cavil or\nsuspicion. The Christian writers of that age are unanimous in relating\nit with its complicated circumstances yet with a diversity which shows\ntheir agreement, though perfect, could not have been concerted. The same\nis confirmed by the testimony of the most obstinate adversaries. They\nwho, when the temple at Daphne was consumed about the same time, by\nlightning, pretended that it was set on fire by Christians, were not\nable to suspect any possibility of contrivance in this case: nor could\nthe event have been natural. Every such suspicion is removed by the\nconformity of the event with the prophecies: the importance of the\noccasion, the extreme eagerness of Jews and Gentiles in the enterprise,\nthe attention of the whole empire fixed on it, and the circumstances of\nthe fact. The eruption, contrary to its usual nature, was confined to\none small spot; it obstinately broke out by fits, and ceased with the\nproject, and this in such a manner, that Ammianus himself ascribes it to\nan intelligent cause. The phenomena of the cross in the air, and on the\ngarments, were admirably fitted, as moral emblems, to proclaim the\ntriumph of Christ over Julian, who had taken the cross out of the\nmilitary ensigns, which Constantine had put there to be a lasting\nmemorial of that cross which he had seen in the air that presaged his\nvictories. The same was again erected in the heavens to confound the\nvanity of its impotent persecutor. The earthquake was undoubtedly\nmiraculous; and though its effects were mostly such as might naturally\nfollow, they were directed by a special supernatural providence, as the\nburning of Sodom by fire from heaven. Whence Mr. Warburton concludes his\ndissertation on this subject with the following corollary. \"New light\ncontinually springing up from each circumstance as it passes in review,\nby such time as the whole event is considered, this illustrious miracle\ncomes out in one full blaze of evidence.\"[34] Even Jewish Rabbins, who\ndo not copy from Christian writers, relate this event in the same manner\nwith the fathers from their own traditions and records.[35] This great\nevent happened in the beginning of the year 363. St. Chrysostom admires\nthe wonderful conduct of divine providence in this prodigy, and\nobserves, that had not the Jews set about to rebuild their temple, they\nmight have pretended they could have done it: therefore did God permit\nthem thrice to attempt it; once under Adrian, when they brought a\ngreater desolation upon themselves; a second time under Constantine the\nGreat, who dispersed them, cut off their ears, and branded their bodies\nwith the marks of rebellion. He then relates this third attempt, \"in our\nown time,\" as he says, \"not above twenty years ago, in which God himself\nvisibly baffled their endeavors, to show that no human power could\nreverse his decree; and this at a time {614} when our religion was\noppressed, lay under the axes, and had not the liberty even to speak;\nthat impudence itself might not have the least shadow of pretence.\"\n\nSt. Cyril adored the divine power in this miracle, of which he had\nocular demonstration. Orosius says that Julian had destined him to\nslaughter after his Persian expedition, but the death of the tyrant\nprevented his martyrdom. He was again driven from his see by the Arian\nemperor, Valens, in 367, but recovered it in 378, when Gratian, mounting\nthe throne, commanded the churches to be restored to those who were in\ncommunion with pope Damasus. He found his flock miserably divided by\nheresies and schisms under the late wolves to whom they had fallen a\nprey; but he continued his labors and tears among them. In 381 he\nassisted at the general council of Constantinople, in which he condemned\nthe Semi-Arians and Macedonians, whose heresy he had always opposed,\nthough he had sometimes joined their prelates against the Arians before\ntheir separation from the church, as we have seen above; and as St.\nHilary, St. Meletius, and many others had done. He had governed his\nchurch eight years in peace from the death of Valens, when, in 386, he\npassed to a glorious immortality, in the seventieth year of his age. He\nis honored by the Greeks and Latins on this day, which was that of his\ndeath.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  Cat. 5, 10, 14.\n2.  See Fleury, Moeurs des Chretiens, p. 42.\n3.  B. 2, c. 28.\n4.  Ib. 3, c. 26.\n5.  Ib. 5, c. 5.\n6.  Ad an. 353.\n7.  Annal. p. 475.\n8.  Auetuar. Combefis, t. 2, p. 382.\n9.  T. 2, p. 344.\n10. [Greek: Ten homousion Triada]. This is an argument of his firm\n    adherence to the Nicene faith, and that by the praises which he\n    bestows on an Arlan emperor in this piece, he meant not to flatter\n    him in his heterodox sentiments; they being only compliments of\n    course in an address to an eastern emperor, and his own sovereign.\n11. Certain moderns imagine that the luminous crosses which appeared in\n    the air in the reigns of Constantine and Constantius were merely\n    natural solar halos; and that under Julian, which appeared in the\n    night, a lunar halo, or circle of colors, usually red, round those\n    celestial bodies. But in opposition to this hypothesis we must\n    observe that those natural phenomena do not ordinarily appear in the\n    figure of a cross, but of a ring or circle, as both experience and\n    the natural cause show. We ought also to take nonce, that this\n    prodigy appeared thrice in the same century, and always on\n    extraordinary occasions, in which many circumstances rendered a\n    miraculous manifestation of the divine power highly credible.\n    Moreover, how will these secretaries and confidents of the intrigues\n    of nature, as Mr. Warburton styles them, account for the\n    inscription, _In this conquer_, which was formed in bright letters\n    round the cross, which appeared in the air to Constantlne and his\n    whole army, as that emperor himself affirmed upon oath, and as\n    Eusebius assures us from his testimony, and that of other\n    eye-witnesses. (l. 1, de Vit. Constant., c. 28, olim 22.) Fabricius\n    very absurdly pretends that [Greek: graphen] may here signify an\n    emblem, not an inscription. Mr. Jor tin, after taking much pains on\n    this subject, is obliged to confess (vol. 3, p. 6) that, \"After all,\n    it seems more natural to interpret [Greek: graphen legousan] of a\n    writing than of a picture. It is an ugly circumstance,\" says this\n    author, \"and I wish we could fairly get rid of it.\" Those who can\n    explain the scripture account of the passage of the Israelites\n    through the Red Sea by a natural strong wind, and an extraordinary\n    ebbing of the waters, can find no knot too hard for them. To deny a\n    supernatural interposition they can swallow contradictions, and\n    build hypotheses far more wonderful than the greatest miracles.\n12. Sozomen indeed says, (b. 4, c. 24,) that Acacius fought for\n    Arianism, Cyril for Semi-Arianism: but this is altogether a mistake.\n    For Acacius himself was at that time a Semi-Arian, and in 341, in\n    the council of Antioch, affirmed Christ to be like, though not equal\n    to his Father. It was only in 358, that he closed in with Eudoxius,\n    and the other rigid Arians. And as to St. Cyril, it is also clear\n    from the facts above mentioned, and from his writings, that he\n    always professed the Catholic faith with regard to the article of\n    the Consubstantiality of the Son of God. This is demonstrated by Dom\n    Toutee, in his life of St. Cyril, and by his colleague Dom Mares, in\n    his dissertation on the Semi-Arians, printed at Paris, in 1721, to\n    vindicate this father against a certain author in the memoirs of\n    Trevoux, an 1721.\n13. Sozom. b. 4, c. 24.\n14. Apud Theod. Hist. b. 5, c. 9.\n15. Tillem. t. 7, p. 409.\n16. Hom. 6, adv. Judae, t. 1, p. 646, ed. Ben.\n17. Amm. Marcell. l. 3, c. 1.\n18. Ep. 25, p. 153.\n19. Soz. l. 5, c. 22.\n20. It was about this time that the Jews demolished the great church of\n    Alexandria, two more at Damascus, and others elsewhere.\n21. Naz. Or. 4, adv. Julian.\n22. Dan. ix. 27.\n23. Matt. xxiv. 2.\n24. Rufin. Hist. l. 10, c. 37.\n25. Catech. 15, n. 15.\n26. Dem. Evang. l. 8, p. 406.\n27. Out of the very foundations themselves, according to St. Chrysostom,\n    Sozomen, and Theodoret.\n28. Hocque modo elemento destinatius repellente. Amm. Marcel. l. xxiii.\n    c. 1. A very emphatical expression in the mouth of a pagan. He seems\n    by it to ascribe sense to the element, by which he discovers the\n    finger of God visibly detesting the obstinacy of the undertaking,\n    and a renewal of the eruption so often, till it overcame the\n    rashness of the most obstinate.\n29. Theod. Hist. l. 3, c. 20.\n30. Soc. lib. 3, c. 20.\n31. St. Greg. Naz Or. 4 adv. Julian. Theodoret, indeed, says that these\n    crosses were shaded with s dark color: but this without any real\n    contradiction to St. Gregory's relation of the matter, because, like\n    the phosphorus, they were {} a darkish hue by day, and lucid by\n    night.\n32. St. Greg. Naz. Or. 9.\n33. Or. 4. adv. Julian.\n34. This learned author demonstrates, lib. 2, ch. 4, that the exceptions\n    of Mr. Basnage are founded on glaring mistakes and\n    misrepresentations of his authorities.\n35. See Warburton, p. 88.\n\nAPPENDIX\n\nON\n\nTHE WRITINGS OF ST. CYRIL OF JERUSALEM\n\nST. MAXIMUS, bishop of Jerusalem, having appointed St. Cyril both his\npreacher and his catechist, our saint diligently acquitted himself of\nboth these functions, the most important of the episcopal charge. St.\nCyril mentions his sermons which he made to the people every Sunday.\n(Cat. 5, 10, 14.) One of these is extant in the new edition of his\nworks. It is a moral discourse against sin, as the source of all our\nmiseries, drawn from the gospel upon the sick man healed at the Probatic\npond. (John v.) He preached every year a course of catechetical sermons\nfor the instruction of the catechumens, to prepare them for baptism and\nthe holy communion. Only those which he preached in 347, or rather in\n348, seem to have been committed to writing. These consist of eighteen\nto the competentes, or Illuminati, that is, catechumens before baptism;\nand of five mystagogic catechetical discourses, so called either because\nthey were addressed to the catechumens immediately after they were\ninitiated in the holy mysteries of Baptism, Confirmation, and the\nEucharist, or because these sacraments are fully explained in them,\nwhich were never expounded to those who were not initiated, out of\nrespect, and for fear of giving occasion to their profanation by the\nblasphemies of infidels. In the first eighteen St. Cyril explains the\ndoctrine of the church concerning the pardon of sin, prayer, and all the\narticles of the Apostles' Creed. The style is clear, suitable to an\nexposition of doctrine such as is here given, and the work is one of the\nmost important of Christian antiquity. The Latin translation of\nGrodecius, canon of Warmia in Poland, printed first in 1563, though\noften corrected, was very inaccurate; and the Greek editions very\nincorrect and imperfect, before that given of Thomas Miller at Oxford,\nin 1703, which is very valuable, though the author in part of his notes,\nwhere he endeavors to maintain the principles of the Protestant church,\nis very inconsistent. Dom Tontee, a Maurist monk, who died in 1718,\nprepared an excellent and complete edition of the works of St. Cyril;\nwhich was published by Dom Maran, in 1720, in one volume in folio. The\njournalists of Trevoux, in their memoirs for December, in 1721,\ncriticised some of the notes concerning the Semi-Arians, and the\ntemporary neutrality of St. Cyril. Dom Maran answered them by a learned\nand curious dissertation, Sur le Semi-Ariens, printed by Vincent, in\n1722.\n\nThree French Calvinists, Aubertin, Rivet, (Critici Sacri, l. 3, c. 8, 9,\n10, and 11,) one the apostate Casimir Oudin, (De Ser. Eccl. t. {}, p.\n459,) deny these catecheses, at least the {615} mystagogics, to be the\nwork of St. Cyril. Oudin, to his usual inaccuracy, adds many affected\nblunders, and shows a dread of his unanswerable authority in favor of\nmany articles which he was unwilling to allow was his chief motive for\nraising such a contest about the author; though if this was not St.\nCyril, these critics must confess, from six hundred passages in the\ndiscourses, that they were delivered at Jerusalem, about the middle of\nthe fourth century. Other Protestants, especially the English, are more\nsincere, and prove them this father's most undoubted work, as Doctor\nCave, in St. Cyril's life, Thomas Milles, in his preface and notes to\nhis edition of St. Cyril, Whittaker, Vossius. Bull, &c. They were\npreached at Jerusalem, seventy years after Manes broached his heresy,\nwhom some then alive had seen, (Cat. 6,) which agrees only to the year\n347. They are mentioned by St. Jerom, in the same age, (Catal. c. 112,)\nquoted by Theodoret, (Dial. Inconfusus, p. 106,) and innumerable other\nfathers in every age downwards. As for the five mystagogics, they are\ninseparable from the rest, and as undoubted. The author promises them in\nhis eighteenth, and mentions his first eighteen in the first mystagogic.\n(n. 9.) They are quoted by Eustrasius, (under Justinian,) by Anastius\nthe Sinaite, Nico the monk, and other ancients produced by Dom Touttee.\n(Disc. 2, p. cv.)\n\nIn his first catechetic instructions, he commands the catechumens not to\ndivulge any part of our mysteries to any infidel, as unworthy, and\nexhorts them to the dispositions and preparation for holy baptism,\n_viz._ to a pure intention, assiduity in prayer, and at church devoutly\nreceiving the exorcisms, fasting, sincere repentance, confessing their\nsins, whatever they had committed. (Catceh. 1, n. 5.) In the fourth he\ngives a summary of the Christian faith, and reckons up the canonical\nbooks of scripture, in which he omits the Apocalypse, and some of the\ndeutero-canonical books, though he quotes these in other places as God's\nword. In the following discourses he explains very distinctly and\nclearly every article of our creed: he teaches Christ's descent into the\nsubterraneous dungeons ([Greek: eis ta katachthonia]) to deliver the\nancient just. (Cat. 4, n. 11, p. 57.) The porters of hell stood\nastonished to behold their conqueror, and fled: the prophets and saints,\nwith Moses, Abraham, David, &c., met him, now redeemed by him. (Cat. 14,\nn. 19, p. 214.) He extols exceedingly the state of virginity as equal to\nthat of the angels. (Cat. 4, n. 24; Cat. 12, n. 33, 34.) He says it will\nin the day of judgment, in the list of good works, carry off the first\ncrowns. (Cat. 15, n. 23.) He compares it to gold, and marriage, which is\nyet good and honorable, to silver; but prescribes times of continency to\nmarried persons for prayer. (Cat. 4, n. 26.) He calls Lent the greatest\ntime of fasting and penance, but says, \"Thou dost not abstain from wine\nand flesh as bad in themselves, as the Manichees, for so thou wilt have\nno reward; but thou retrenchest them, good indeed in themselves, for\nbetter spiritual recompenses which are promised.\" (Cat. 4, n. 27.) He\nmentions the fasts and watchings of superposition, _i.e._ of holy week\nbefore Easter, as most austere. (Cat. 18.) He expresses on all occasions\nthe tenderest devotion to the holy cross of Christ, and a great\nconfidence in it, with which he endeavors also to inspire others. \"Let\nus not be ashamed of the cross of Christ,\" says he: \"sign it openly on\nthy forehead, that the devils, seeing the royal standard, may fly far\ntrembling; make this sign when thou eatest or drinkest, sittest, liest,\nrisest, speakest, walkest, in a word, in every action [Greek: en\npantipragmati].\" (Cat. 4, p. 58.) And again, \"when thou art going to\ndispute against an infidel, make with thy hand the sign of the cross,\nand thy adversary will be struck dumb; be not ashamed to confess the\ncross. The angels glory in it, saying, Whom do you seek? Jesus, the\ncrucified, Mat. xxviii. 6. You could have said, O Angel, My Lord: but\nthe cross is his crown.\" (Cat. 13, n. 22, p. 194.) St. Porphyry of Gaza,\ninstructed by St. Cyril's successor, John, following this rule, by\nbeginning a disputation with a famous Manichean woman, struck her\nmiraculously dumb. St. Cyril, in his thirteenth catechesis, thus\naddresses his catechumen, (n. 36, p. 200:) \"Be careful to form with your\nfinger on your forehead boldly, the sign of the cross for a signet and\nstandard, and that before every thing,--while we eat our bread, or drink\nour cups, in coming in and going out, before sleep, and in rising, in\nwalking, and in standing still.\" He testifies, in his tenth catechesis,\n(n. 19,) that the holy wood of the cross kept at Jerusalem, had, in the\nfew years since its invention by St. Helena, already filled the whole\nworld, being carried everywhere by those who, full of devotion, cut of\nlittie chips, (p. 146.) We learn from Rufin, (Hist. b. 1, c. 10,) that\nthe holy cross was covered by St. Helena with a silver case; and from S.\nPaulinus, (Ep. 31, n. 6,) that it was kept in an inner treasury in the\nchurch, into which the passage lay through a portico or gallery, as\nappears from the Spiritual Meadow. (C. 105.) A lamp burned before the\ncross, by the oil whereof St. Sabas and St. Cyriacus wrought many\nmiracles, as we read in their lives. A priest was appointed by the\nbishop to be the guardian of this sacred treasury, which honor was\nconferred on St. Porphyry of Gaza, soon after St. Cyril's death; and\nthen the case of the cross was of gold. St. Paulmus rays, it was exposed\nto the public veneration of the people once a year, at Easter, which\nsome think to have been on Good Friday. St. Sophronius of Jerusalem,\n(Or. 1,) besides other days, in his time, says it was on Easter Monday.\nAt extraordinary times the bishop gave leave for it to be shown to\npilgrims to be venerated, and for them to cut off small chips, by which,\nmiraculously, the cross never diminished, as St. Paulinus wrote seventy\n{616} years after its invention. The devotion of St. Cyril to the holy\ncross, was doubtless more inflamed by the sacred place in which he made\nall his sermons, which was the church built by St. Helena and\nConstantine, sometimes called of the Holy Cross, which was kept in it;\nsometimes of the Resurrection, because it contained in it the sepulchre,\nout of which Christ arose from death. It is curiously described as it\nstood, before it was destroyed by the Saracens, in 1011, by Dom Touttee,\nin a particular dissertation in the end of St. Cyril's works, (p. 423.)\nIt was since rebuilt, but not exactly in the same place.\n\nSt. Cyril inculcates also an honor due to the relics of saints, which he\nproves (Cat. 17, n. 30, 31) from the Holy Ghost performing miracles by\nthe handkerchiefs of St. Paul, how much more by the saints' bodies? This\nhe shows (Cat. 18, n. 16, p. 293) by the man raised to life by touching\nthe dead body of Eliseus. (4 Reg. xiii. 21.) He gives the Blessed Virgin\nthe title of Mother of God, [Greek: theotokos]. (Cat. 10, n. 19, p.\n146.) He is very clear in explaining the eternity and consubstantiality\nof God the Son, (Cat. 4, 10, 11, 15,) which would alone justify him from\nall suspicion of semi-Arianism. He is no less explicit against the\nMacedonians, on the divinity of the Holy Ghost. On that article: _I\nbelieve in the Holy Ghost_, \"Believe of him,\" says he, \"the same as of\nthe Father and of the Son,\" &c. (Cat. 4, n. 16, pp. 59, 60.) On the\narticle of the holy Catholic Church, he observes that the very name of\nCatholic distinguishes it from all heresies, which labor in vain to\nusurp it; this always remains proper to the spouse of Christ, as we see,\nif a stranger ask in any city, Where is the Catholic Church? (Cat. 18,\nn. 26.) That it is catholic, or universal, because spread over the whole\nworld, from one end to the other; and because universally and without\nfailing or error, [Greek: katholikos kai anelleipos], it teaches all\ntruths of things visible and invisible, (ib. n. 23, p. 296,) which he\nproves from Matt. xvi. 18. _The gates of hell shall never prevail\nagainst it._ 1 Tim. iii. 15. _It is the pillar and ground of truth._\nMalach. i. 11. _From the rising of the sun to the setting, my name is\nglorified._ He is very earnest in admonishing, that no book is to be\nreceived as divine, but by the authority of the Church, and by tradition\nfrom the apostles, end the ancient bishops, the rulers of the Church.\n(Cat. 4, n. 23, 35, 36.) By the same channel of the tradition of tire\nChurch, he teaches the sign of the cross, the honoring of that holy wood\nof our Saviour's sepulchre, and of saints' relics, exorcisms, and their\nvirtue, insufflations, oil sanctified by exorcisms, (Cat. 20,) holy\nchrism, (Cat. 21,) blessing the baptismal water, (Cat. 3,) prayers, and\nsacrifices for the dead, (Cat. 23,) the perpetual virginity of the\nVirgin Mary, (Cat. 12,) &c. He made these eighteen catecheses to the\ncatechumens during Lent: the five following he spoke to them after they\nwere baptized during Easter week, to instruct them perfectly in the\nmysteries of the three sacraments they had received together--baptism,\nconfirmation, and the eucharist--which it was thought a profanation to\nexplain fully to any before baptism. Hence these five are called\nmystagogic catecheses. As to baptism, St. Cyril teaches (Procat. n. 16,\np. 12) that it imprints an indelible signet, or spiritual character in\nthe soul, which, he says, (Cat. 1, n. 2) is the mark by which we belong\nto Christ's flock: he adds, this is conferred by the regeneration, by\nand in the lotion with water. (Cat. 4 & 12; Cat. 16, n. 24.) He calls\nthe character given by confirmation the signet of the communication of\nthe Holy Ghost, (Cat. 18, n. 33,) and says (Cat. 22, n. 7) it is\nimprinted on the soul, while the forehead is anointed with chrism, (Cat.\n22, n. 7,) and after by baptism. (ib. n. 33,) by which he clearly\ndistinguishes the characters of these two different sacraments, though\nMr. Milles (not. in Procat.) has taken great pains to confound them. St.\nCyril teaches that baptism perfectly remits all sin; but penance, the\nremedy for sins after it, does not quite efface them, as wounds that are\nhealed leave still scars. (Cat. 18, n. 20.) He attributes great virtue\nto the exorcisms for purifying the soul, (Procat. n. 9,) and says, as\nincantations give a diabolical virtue to defile the soul, so does the\ninvocation of the Holy Ghost give a virtue to the water, and gives it\nthe power to sanctify. (Cat. 3, n. 3.) He says the same of the blessed\noil, (Cat. 20, n. 3, p. 3,) and establishes clearly confirmation to be a\ndistinct sacrament from baptism: he calls it the chrism and the mystical\nointment, (Cat. 21,) and says it is to arm and fortify us against the\nenemies of our salvation, (ib. p. 317, n. 4,) and that while the body is\nanointed with this visible ointment, the soul is sanctified by the holy\nand life-giving spirit. (ib. n. 3.) In his nineteenth catechesis, the\nfirst mystagogic, he explains the force of the baptismal renunciations\nof the devil and his pomps. In the twentieth, the other ceremonies of\nbaptism, and what they mean; in the twenty-first, the sacrament of\nconfirmation; in the twenty-second, that of the blessed eucharist; in\nthe twenty-third, or last, the liturgy or sacrifice of the mass and\ncommunion. As to the blessed eucharist, he says, by it we are made\n_concorporeal_ and _consanguineal_ with Christ by his body and blood\nbeing distributed through our bodies. (Cat. 22, n. 1, 3.) This same\nstrong expression, which wonderfully declares the strict union which is\nthe effect of this sacrament, is used by St. Chrysostom, (Horm. 6, in\nHebr. &c.,) St. Isidore of Pelusium, (l. 3, ep. 195,) St. Cyril of\nAlexandria, (l. 10, in Joan. p. 862, dial. de Trin. p. 407,) &c. Our\nholy doctor explains to his neophytes the doctrine of transubstantiation\nin so plain terms, that no one can doubt of its being the faith of the\nChurch in the fourth age. The learned Lutheran Ffaffius, (Dis. de\noblatione Euchar. c. 38, p. 327,) owns it cannot be denied that this is\nCyril's opinion. Grebe affirms the same, (not. in 1. 5, Irenae. c. 2, p.\n339.) {617} This twenty-second catechesis alone puts it out of dispute.\n\"Do not look apor the bread and wine as bare and common elements, for\nthey are the Body and Blood of Christ, as our Lord assures us. Although\nthy sense suggest this to thee, let faith make thee firm and sure. Judge\nnot of the thing by the taste, but be certain from faith that thou hast\nbeen honored with the gift of Christ's Body and Blood. (Cat. 22, n. 6,\np. 321.) When he has pronounced and said of the bread: 'This is my\nbody,' who will, after this, dare to doubt? and when he has assured and\nsaid, 'This is my blood,' who can ever hesitate, saying it is not his\nblood? (n. 1, p. 32.) He changed water into wine, which is akin to\nblood, in Cana; and shall we not think him worthy our belief, when he\nhas changed, [Greek: metaballon], wine into blood? (n. 2,) &c. Wherefore\nlet us receive them with an entire belief as Christ's Body and Blood,\nfor under the figure of bread is given to thee his Body, and under the\nfigure of wine his Blood, that when thou hast received Christ's Body and\nBlood, thou be made one body and blood with him: for so we carry him\nabout in us, his Body and Blood being distributed through our bodies.\"\n(n. 3, p. 320.) We learn the manner of receiving the blessed sacrament\nfrom his Catech. 23. \"Putting your left hand under your right,\" says he,\n\"form a throne of your right hand to receive the king; hold it hollow,\nreceiving on it the Body of Christ. Answer, Amen. Carefully sanctify\nyour eyes, by touching them with the holy Body, being very watchful that\nno part of it fall. Approach to the cup of the Blood, bowed in a posture\nof adoration and reverence; saying, Amen, take of the Blood of Christ.\nWhile yet something of the moisture sticks on your lips, touch them with\nyour hand, and by applying it then to your eyes, forehead, and other\nsenses, sanctify them.\"\n\nIn his twenty-third or last catechesis, he calls the mass an unbloody\nsacrifice, a victim of propitiation, a supreme worship, &c. (n. 8, p.\n327.) He explains the Preface, and the other principal parts of it,\nespecially the Communion, and mentions the priest from the altar crying\nout to the faithful, before they approached to receive, [Greek: Ta hagia\ntois hagiois]. He expounds the Lord's Prayer, and mentions the\ncommemorations for the living and the dead. Of the latter he writes\nthus: (n. 9, p. 328.) \"We also pray for the deceased holy fathers,\nbishops, and all in general who are dead, believing that this will be a\ngreat succor to those souls for which prayer is offered, while the holy\nand most tremendous victim lies present.\" And, (n. 10, ib.,) \"If a king,\nbeing offended at certain persons, had banished them, and their friends\noffer him a rich garland for them, will not he be moved to release their\npunishment? In like manner, we, offering prayers to God for the dead,\nthough they be sinners, do not make a garland, but we offer Christ\nsacrificed for our sins, striving to appease and make our merciful God\npropitious both to them and ourselves.\" This very passage is quoted out\nof St. Cyril, in the sixth century, by Eustratius, a priest of\nConstantinople, author of the life of the patriarch Eutychius, in his\nbook on praying for the dead, or on the state of the dead, published by\nLeo Allatius, l. De Consensu Eccl. Orient. et Occid. De Purgat., and in\nBibl. Patr. t. 27. It is also cited by Nicon the monk, in his Pandect.\n\nSt. Cyril's famous letter to Constantius, On the Apparition of the Cross\nin the Heavens, was written by him soon after he was raised to the\nepiscopal dignity, either in the same year, 350, or in the following.\n\nA sermon, On the Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin, and\nthe Presentation of Christ in the Temple, bears the name of St. Cyril of\nJerusalem, in almost all the MSS.; but the custom of carrying blessed\ncandles in procession that day, mentioned in this discourse, was only\nintroduced at Jerusalem at the suggestion of a devout lady named Icelia,\nabout the middle of the fifth century, about sixty years after the death\nof St. Cyril. Other passages in this discourse seem clearly levelled\nagainst the heresy of Nestorius. The style is also more pompous and\nadorned than that of St. Cyril, nor abounds with parenthesis like his.\nIt is a beautiful, eloquent, and solid piece, and was probably composed\nby some priest of the church of Jerusalem, whose name was Cyril, about\nthe sixth century, when either Sallust or Elias was patriarch. See Dom.\nTouttee, and Ceillier, t. 6, p. 544.\n\nST. EDWARD, KING AND MARTYR.\n\nHE was monarch of all England, and succeeded his father, the glorious\nking Edgar, in 975, being thirteen years old. He followed in all things\nthe counsels of St. Dunstan; and his ardor in the pursuit of all virtues\nis not to be expressed. His great love of purity of mind and body, and\nhis fervent devotion, rendered him the miracle of princes, while by his\nmodesty, clemency, prudence, charity, and compassion to the poor, he was\nthe blessing and the delight of his subjects.' His stepmother, Elfrida,\nhad attempted {618} to set him aside, that the crown might fall on her\nown son, Ethelred, then seven years old. Notwithstanding her treasonable\npractices, and the frequent proofs of her envy and jealousy, Edward\nalways paid her the most dutiful respect and deference, and treated his\nbrother with the most tender affection. But the fury of her ambition\nmade her insensible to all motives of religion, nature, and gratitude.\nThe young king had reigned three years and a half, when, being one day\nweary with hunting in a forest near Wareham, in Dorsetshire, he paid a\nvisit to his stepmother at Corfesgeate, now Corfe-castle, in the isle of\nPurbeck, and desired to see his young brother at the door. The\ntreacherous queen caused a servant to stab him in the belly while he was\nstooping, out of courtesy, after drinking. The king set spurs to his\nhorse, but fell off dead, on the 18th of March, 979, his bowels being\nripped open so as to fall out. His body was plunged deep into a marsh,\nbut discovered by a pillar of light, and honored by many miraculous\ncures of sick persons. It was taken up and buried in the church of our\nLady at Wareham; but found entire in three years after, and translated\nto the monastery at Shaftesbury. His lungs were kept at the village\ncalled Edwardstow, in 1001; but the chiefest part of his remains were\ndeposited at Wareham, as the Saxon Chronicle and Florence of Worcester\nsay: but part was afterwards removed to Shaftesbury, not Glastenbury, as\nCaxton mistakes. The long thin knife with which he was stabbed, was kept\nin the church at Faversham, before the suppression of the monasteries,\nas Hearne mentions. His name is placed in the Roman Martyrology. The\nimpious Elfrida, being awaked by the stings of conscience, and by the\nvoice of miracles, retired from the world, and built the monasteries of\nWherwell and Ambresbury, in the first of which she lived and died in the\npractice of penance. The reign of her son Ethelred was weak and\nunfortunate, and the source of the greatest miseries to the kingdom,\nespecially from the Danes. See Malmesbury, Brompton, abbot of Jorval, in\nYorkshire, and Ranulf Higden, in his Polychronicon, published by Gale.\nAlso an old MS. life of the saint, quoted by Hearne, on Langtoft's\nChronicle, t. 2, p. 628, and from the MS. lives of saints, in the hands\nof Mr. Sheldon, of Weston.\n\nST. ANSELM, BISHOP OF LUCCA, C.\n\nHE was a native of Mantua, and was educated there in grammer and\ndialectics. Having entered himself among the clergy, he spent some time\nin the study of theology and the canon law, and laid that foundation of\nlearning, which, joined with his natural genius and eminent virtue,\nqualified him to rise to the highest degree of excellence. Anselm\nBadagius, a Milanese, bishop of Lucca, was chosen pope in 1061, and took\nthe name of Alexander II. He nominated our saint his successor in the\nsee of Lucca; and he took a journey into Germany to the emperor, Henry\nIV., but out of a scruple refused to receive the investiture of the\nbishopric from that prince, so that the pope was obliged to keep in his\nown hands the administration of the see of Lucca. St. Gregory VII., who\nsucceeded Alexander II., in 1073, ordered Anselm to receive the\ninvestiture from Henry. This compliance gave our saint such remorse,\nthat he left his see, and took the monastic habit at Cluni. The pope\nobliged him to return to his bishopric, which he did. His zeal soon\nraised him enemies: by virtue of a decree of pope Gregory IX. he\nattempted to reform the canons of his cathedral, and to oblige them to\nlive in community: this they obstinately refused to do, though they were\ninterdicted by the pope, and afterwards excommunicated in a council, in\nwhich Peter Igneus, the famous bishop of Albano, presided in the name of\n{619} his holiness. The holy countess, Maud, undertook to expel the\nrefractory canons, but they raised a sedition, and, being supported by\nthe emperor Henry, drove the bishop out of the city, in 1079. St. Anselm\nretired to the countess Maud, whose director he was; for he was\neminently experienced in the paths of an interior life, and, in the\ngreatest hurry of business, he always reserved several hours in the day,\nwhich he consecrated to prayer, and attended only to God and himself.\nWhile he studied or conversed with others, his heart was virtually\nunited to God, and every object served as it were naturally to raise his\naffections afresh to his Creator. Pope Gregory suffered him not to bury\nhimself in his retreat, but, during his exile, appointed him apostolic\nlegate in Lombardy, charging him with the care of several dioceses in\nthose parts, which, through the iniquity of the times, had continued\nlong vacant. St. Anselm wrote an apology for Gregory VII., in which he\nshows that it belongs not to temporal princes to give pastors to the\nchurch of Christ, and to confute the pretensions of the antipope,\nGuibert.[1] In another work he proves, that temporal princes cannot\ndispose of the revenues of the church. St. Anselm died at Mantua on the\n18th of March, in 1086. His name occurs on this day in the Roman\nMartyrology, and he is honored at Mantua as patron of that city. Baldus,\nhis penitentiary, has written his life, in which he ascribes to him\nseveral miracles. See it in Canisius's Lect. Antiq. t. 3, p. 372.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  This work is published by Canisius, Lect. Antiq. t. 3, p. 389, and\n    Bibl. Patr. Lugdun, t. 18, Colon. t. 1{2}.\n\nST. FRIDIAN, ERIGDIAN, OR FRIGDIAN, C.\n\nBISHOP OF LUCCA.\n\nHE is said to have been son to a king of Ulster in Ireland, at least he\nis looked upon as of Irish extraction. Travelling into Italy, to improve\nhimself in ecclesiastical learning and virtue, he made such progress\nthat, upon the death of Geminian, bishop of Lucca, he was chosen bishop\nof that extensive diocese, the eleventh from St. Paulinus, founder of\nthat church, said to have been a disciple of St. Peter. St. Gregory the\nGreat assures us, that he miraculously checked an impetuous flood of the\nriver Auser, now called the Serchio, when it threatened to drown great\npart of the city. St. Fridian died in 578, and was buried in a place\nwhere the church now stands, which bears his name. Pope Alexander II.\nsent for some regular canons from this church to establish that order in\nthe churches of St. John Lateran, and of the cross of Jerusalem, at\nRome, but, in 1507, the congregation of St. Frigdian was united to that\nof St. John Lateran.[1] See St. Gregory the Great, l. 3, Dial. c. 9,\nBede, Notker, Raban, Usuard, and the Roman Martyrology, on the 18th of\nMarch. Also Innocent III. c. 34, de Testibus et Attestationibus. In\nDecreto Gregoriano. Rursus id c. 8, de Testibus cogendis. Ib. iterum, de\nVerborum Significatione. See also Dempster (of the family of the barons\nof Muresk, a Scotchman, public professor, first in several towns in\nFlanders, afterwards at Pisa, and lastly, at Bononia, where he died in\n1625) in his Etruria Regalis, t. 2, l. 5, c. 6, p. 299, which work was\nprinted with many cuts, in two volume, folio, at Florence, in 1723, at\nthe expense of Thomas Coke, late earl of Leicester, then on his travels.\nAnd principally, see the Ecclesiastical History of Lucca, printed in\nthat city, in 1736, and again in 1741, in 12mo.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  See F. Hebb{oi}, t. 2, p. 50.\n\n{620}\n\n\nMARCH XIX.\n\nST. JOSEPH.\n\nTHE glorious St. Joseph was lineally descended from the greatest kings\nof the tribe of Juda, and from the most illustrious of the ancient\npatriarchs; but his true glory consisted in his humility and virtue. The\nhistory of his life hath not been written by men; but his principal\nactions are recorded by the Holy Ghost himself. God intrusted him with\nthe education of his divine Son, manifested in the flesh. In this view\nhe was espoused to the Virgin Mary. It is an evident mistake of some\nwriters, that by a former wife he was the father of St. James the Less,\nand of the rest who are styled in the gospels the brothers of our Lord;\nfor these were only cousin-germans to Christ, the sons of Mary, sister\nto the Blessed Virgin, wife of Alphaeus, who was living at the time of\nour Redeemer's crucifixion. St. Jerom assures us,[1] that St. Joseph\nalways preserved his virgin chastity; and it is of faith that nothing\ncontrary thereto ever took place with regard to his chaste spouse, the\nblessed Virgin Mary. He was given her by heaven to be the protector of\nher chastity, to secure her from calumnies in the birth of the Son of\nGod, and to assist her in his education, and in her journeys, fatigues,\nand persecutions. How great was the purity and sanctity of him who was\nchosen the guardian of the most spotless Virgin! This holy man seems,\nfor a considerable time, to have been unacquainted that the great\nmystery of the Incarnation had been wrought in her by the Holy Ghost.\nConscious therefore of his own chaste behavior towards her, it could not\nbut raise a great concern in his breast, to find that, notwithstanding\nthe sanctity of her deportment, yet he might be well assured that she\nwas with child. But being _a just man_, as the scripture calls him, and\nconsequently possessed of all virtues, especially of charity and\nmildness towards his neighbor, he was determined to leave her privately,\nwithout either condemning or accusing her, committing the whole cause to\nGod. These his perfect dispositions were so acceptable to God, the lover\nof justice, charity, and peace, that before he put his design in\nexecution, he sent an angel from heaven not to reprehend any thing in\nhis holy conduct, but to dissipate all his doubts and fears, by\nrevealing to him this adorable mystery. How happy should we be if we\nwere as tender in all that regards the reputation of our neighbor; as\nfree from entertaining any injurious thought or suspicion, whatever\ncertainty our conjectures or our senses may seem to rely on; and as\nguarded in our tongue! We commit these faults only because in our hearts\nwe are devoid of that true charity and simplicity, whereof St. Joseph\nsets us so eminent an example on this occasion.\n\nIn the next place we may admire in secret contemplation, with what\ndevotion, respect, and tenderness, he beheld and adored the first of all\nmen, the new-born Saviour of the world, and with what fidelity he\nacquitted himself of his double charge, the education of Jesus, and the\nguardianship of his blessed mother. \"He was truly the faithful and\nprudent servant,\" says St. Bernard,[2] \"whom our Lord appointed the\nmaster of his household, the comfort and support of his mother, his\nfosterfather, and most faithful co-operator to the execution of his\ndeepest counsels on earth.\" \"What a happiness,\" {621} says the same\nfather, \"not only to see Jesus Christ, but also to hear him, to carry\nhim in his arms, to lead him from place to place, to embrace and caress\nhim, to feed him, and to be privy to all the great secrets which were\nconcealed from the princes of this world!\"\n\n\"O astonishing elevation! O unparalleled dignity!\" cries out the pious\nGerson,[3] in a devout address to St. Joseph, \"that the mother of God,\nqueen of heaven, should call you her lord; that God himself, made man,\nshould call you father, and obey your commands. O glorious Triad on\nearth, Jesus, Mary, Joseph, how dear a family to the glorious Trinity in\nheaven, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost! Nothing is on earth so great, so\ngood, so excellent.\" Amidst these his extraordinary graces, what more\nwonderful than his humility! He conceals his privileges, lives as the\nmost obscure of men, publishes nothing of God's great mysteries, makes\nno further inquiries into them, leaving it to God to manifest them at\nhis own time, seeks to fulfil the order of providence in his regard,\nwithout interfering with any thing but what concerns himself. Though\ndescended from the royal family which had long been in possession of the\nthrone of Judaea, he is content with his condition, that of a mechanic\nor handicraftsman,[4] and makes it his business, by laboring in it, to\nmaintain himself, his spouse, and the divine Child.\n\nWe should be ungrateful to this great saint, if we did not remember that\nit is to him, as the instrument under God, that we are indebted for the\npreservation of the infant Jesus from Herod's jealousy and malice,\nmanifested in the slaughter of the Innocents. An angel appearing to him\nin his sleep, bade him arise, take the child Jesus, and fly with him\ninto Egypt, and remain there till he should again have notice from him\nto return. This sudden and unexpected flight must have exposed Joseph to\nmany inconveniences and sufferings in so long a journey, with a little\nbabe and a tender virgin, the greater part of the way being through\ndeserts, and among strangers; yet he alleges no excuses, nor inquires at\nwhat time they were to return. St. Chrysostom observes that God treats\nthus all his servants, sending them frequent trials, to clear their\nhearts from the rust of self-love, but intermixing seasons of\nconsolation.[5] \"Joseph,\" says he, \"is anxious on seeing the Virgin with\nchild; an angel removes that fear; he rejoices at the child's birth, but\na great fear succeeds; the furious king seeks to destroy the child, and\nthe whole city is in an uproar to take away his life. This is followed\nby another joy, the adoration of the Magi; a new sorrow then arises; he\nis ordered to fly into a foreign unknown country, without help or\nacquaintance.\" It is the opinion of the fathers, that upon their\nentering Egypt, at the presence of the child Jesus, all the oracles of\nthat superstitions country were struck dumb, and the statues of their\ngods trembled, and in many places fell to the ground, according to that\nof Isaiah xix. _And the statues of the Egyptians shall be shaken in his\npresence._[6] The fathers also attribute to this holy visit the\nspiritual benediction poured on that country, which made it for many\nages most fruitful in saints.[7]\n\nAfter the death of king Herod, which was notified to St. Joseph by a\nvision, God ordered him to return with the child and his mother into the\nland of Israel, which our saint readily obeyed. But when he arrived in\nJudaea, {622} hearing that Archelaus succeeded Herod in that part of the\ncountry, apprehensive he might be infected with his father's\nvices--cruelty and ambition--he feared on that account to settle there,\nas he would otherwise probably have done, for the more commodious\neducation of the child. And, therefore, being directed by God in another\nvision, he retired into the dominions of his brother, Herod Antipas, in\nGalilee, to his former habitation in Nazareth, where the wonderful\noccurrences of our Lord's birth were less known. St. Joseph being a\nstrict observer of the Mosaic law, in conformity to its direction,\nannually repaired to Jerusalem to celebrate the passover. Archelaus\nbeing banished by Augustus, and Judaea made a Roman province, he had now\nnothing more to fear at Jerusalem. Our Saviour being advanced to the\ntwelfth year of his age, accompanied his parents thither; who having\nperformed the usual ceremonies of the feast, were now returning with\nmany of their neighbors and acquaintance towards Galilee, and never\ndoubting but that Jesus had joined himself with some of the company,\nthey travelled on for a whole day's journey without further inquiry\nafter him, before they discovered that he was not with them. But when\nnight came on, and they could hear no tidings of him among their kindred\nand acquaintance, they, in the deepest affliction, returned with the\nutmost speed to Jerusalem: where, after an anxious search of three days,\nthey found him in the temple, sitting among the learned doctors of the\nlaw, hearing them discourse, and asking them such questions as raised\nthe admiration of all that heard him, and made them astonished at the\nripeness of his understanding: nor were his parents less surprised on\nthis occasion. And when his mother told him with what grief and\nearnestness they had sought him, and to express her sorrow for that,\nthough short, privation of his presence, said to him: \"Son, why hast\nthou thus dealt with us? Behold, thy father and I sought thee in great\naffliction of mind;\" she received for answer, that being the Messias and\nSon of God, sent by his Father into the world in order to redeem it, he\nmust be about his Father's business, the same for which he had been sent\ninto the world; and therefore that it was most likely for them to find\nhim in his Father's house: intimating that his appearing in public on\nthis occasion was to advance his Father's honor, and to prepare the\nprinces of the Jews to receive him for their Messias; pointing out to\nthem from the prophets the time of his coming. But though in thus\nstaying in the temple, unknown to his parents, he did something without\ntheir leave, in obedience to his heavenly Father, yet in all other\nthings he was obedient to them, returning with them to Nazareth, and\nthere living in all dutiful subjection to them.\n\nAelred, our countryman, abbot of Rieval, in his sermon on losing the\nchild Jesus in the temple, observes that this his conduct to his parents\nis a true representation of that which he shows us, while he often\nwithdraws himself for a short time from us to make us seek him the more\nearnestly. He thus describes the sentiments of his holy parents on this\noccasion.[8] \"Let us consider what was the happiness of that blessed\ncompany, in the way to Jerusalem, to whom it was granted to behold his\nface, to hear his sweet words, to see in him the signs of divine wisdom\nand virtue; and in their mutual discourse to receive the influence of\nhis saving truths and example. The old and young admire him. I believe\nboys of his age were struck with astonishment at the gravity of his\nmanners and words. I believe such rays of grace darted from his blessed\ncountenance as drew on him the eyes, ears, and hearts of every one. And\nwhat tears do they shed when he is not with them.\" He goes on\nconsidering what must be the grief of his parents when they had lost\nhim; what their sentiments, and how earnest their {623} search: but what\ntheir joy when they found him again. \"Discover to me,\" says he, \"O my\nLady, Mother of my God, what were your sentiments, what your\nastonishment and your joy when you saw him again, and sitting, not among\nboys, but amidst the doctors of the law: when you saw every one's eyes\nfixed on aim, every one's ears listening to him, great and small,\nlearned and unlearned, intent only on his words and motions. You now\nsay: I have found him whom I love. I will hold him, and will no more let\nhim part from me. Hold him, sweet Lady, hold him fast; rush on his neck,\ndwell on his embraces, and compensate the three days' absence by\nmultiplied delights in your present enjoyment of him. You tell him that\nyou and his father sought him in grief. For what did you grieve? not for\nfear of hunger or want in him whom you knew to be God: but I believe you\ngrieved to see yourself deprived of the delights of his presence even\nfor a short time; for the Lord Jesus is so sweet to those who taste him,\nthat his shortest absence is a subject of the greatest grief to them.\"\nThis mystery is an emblem of the devout soul, and Jesus sometimes\nwithdrawing himself, and leaving her to dryness, that she may be more\nearnest in seeking him. But, above all, how eagerly ought the soul which\nhas lost God by sin, to seek him again, and how bitterly ought she to\ndeplore her extreme misfortune!\n\nAs no further mention is made of St. Joseph, he must have died before\nthe marriage of Cana, and the beginning of our divine Saviour's\nministry. We cannot doubt but he had the happiness of Jesus and Mary\nattending at his death, praying by him, assisting and comforting him in\nhis last moments. Whence he is particularly invoked for the great grace\nof a happy death, and the spiritual presence of Jesus in that tremendous\nhour. The church reads the history of the patriarch Joseph on his\nfestival, who was styled the saviour of Egypt, which he delivered from\nperishing by famine; and was appointed the faithful master of the\nhousehold of Potiphar, and of that of Pharaoh and his kingdom. But our\ngreat saint was chosen by God the saviour of the life of him who was the\ntrue Saviour of the souls of men, rescuing him from the tyranny of\nHerod. He is now glorified in heaven, as the guardian and keeper of his\nLord on earth. As Pharaoh said to the Egyptians in their distress: \"Go\nto Joseph;\" so may we confidently address ourselves to the mediation of\nhim to whom God, made man, was subject and obedient on earth.\n\nThe devout Gerson expressed the warmest devotion to St. Joseph, which he\nendeavored by letters and sermons to promote. He composed an office in\nhis honor, and wrote his life in twelve poems, called Josephina. He\nenlarged on all the circumstances of his life by pious affection, and\nmeditations. St. Teresa chose him the chief patron of her order. In the\nsixth chapter of her life she writes thus: \"I chose the glorious St.\nJoseph for my patron, and I commend myself in all things singularly to\nhis intercession. I do not remember ever to have asked of God any thing\nby him which I did not obtain. I never knew any one, who, by invoking\nhim, did not advance exceedingly in virtue: for he assists in a\nwonderful manner all who address themselves to him.\" St. Francis of\nSales, throughout his whole nineteenth entertainment, extremely\nrecommends devotion to him, and extols his merits, principally his\nvirginity, humility, constancy, and courage. The Syrians and other\neastern churches celebrate his festival on the 20th of July; the western\nchurch, on the 19th of March. Pope Gregory XV., in 1621, and Urban\nVIII., in 1642, commanded it to be kept a holyday of obligation.\n\nThe holy family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, presents to us the most\nperfect model of heavenly conversation on earth. How did those two\nseraphims, Mary and Joseph, live in their poor cottage! They always\nenjoyed {624} the presence of Jesus, always burning with the most ardent\nlove for him: inviolably attached to his sacred person, always employed\nand living only for him. What were their transports in beholding him,\ntheir devotion it, listening to him, and their joy in possessing him!\nheavenly life! anticipation of the heavenly bliss! divine conversation!\nWe may imitate them, and share some degree of this advantage, by\nconversing often with Jesus, and by the contemplation of his most\namiable goodness, kindling the fire of his holy love in our breasts. The\neffects of this love, if it be sincere, will necessarily appear in our\nputting on his spirit, and imitating his example and virtues; and in our\nstudying to walk continually in the divine presence, finding God\neverywhere, and esteeming all the time lost which we do not spend with\nGod, or for his honor.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  L. adv. Helvid. c. 9.\n2.  Hom. 2. super missus est, n. 16, p. 742.\n3.  Serm. de Nativ.\n4.  This appears from Mat. xiii. 55. St. Justin, (Dial. n. 89, ed. Ben.\n    p. 186,) St. Ambrose, (in Luc. p. 3,) and Theodoret (b. 3, Hist. c.\n    18) say he worked in wood, as a carpenter. St. Hilary (in Mat. c.\n    14, p. 17) and St. Peter Chrysologus (Serm. 48) say he wrought in\n    iron as a smith; probably he wrought both in iron and in wood; which\n    opinion St. Justin favors, by saying: \"He and Jesus made ploughs and\n    yokes for oxen.\"\n5.  Hom. 8, in Mat. t. 7, p. 123, ed. Ben.\n6.  This is affirmed by St. Athanasius, (l. de Incarn.) Eusebius,\n    (Demonstrat. Evang. l. 6, c. 20.) St. Cyril (Cat. 10,) St. Ambrose,\n    (in Ps. 118, Octon. 5,) St. Jerom, (in Isai. 19,) St. Chrysostom, St.\n    Cyril of Alexandria, (in Isai.) Sozomen, (l. 5. c. 20,) &c.\n7.  See the Lives of the Fathers of the desert.\n8.  Bibl. Patr. t. 13.\n\nST. ALCMUND, M.\n\nHE was son of Eldred, and brother of Osred, kings of the Northumbrians.\nDuring his temporal prosperity, the greater he was in power, so much the\nmore meek and humble was he in his heart, and so much the more affable\nto others. He was poor amidst riches, because he knew no greater\npleasure than to strip himself for the relief of the distressed. Being\ndriven from his kingdom, together with his father, by rebellious\nsubjects, in league with Danish plunderers, he lived among the Picts\nabove twenty years in banishment; learning more heartily to despise\nearthly vanities, and making it his whole study to serve the King of\nkings. His subjects, groaning under the yoke of an insupportable\ntyranny, took up arms against their oppressors, and induced the royal\nprince, upon motives of compassion for their distress and a holy zeal\nfor religion, to put themselves at their head. Several battles were\nprosperousiy fought; but at length the pious prince was murdered by the\ncontrivance of king Eardulf, the usurper, as Matthew of Westminster,\nSimeon of Durham, and Florence of Worcester, say. Dr. Brown Willis, in\nhis Notitia of parliamentary boroughs, writes, with some ancients, that\nhe was slain by the Danes, about the year 819. His body was interred at\nLilleshult, in Shropshire; but afterwards translated to Derby, where he\nwas honored with great devotion as patron of the town, on the 19th of\nMarch. An old manuscript sermon preached in his church at Derby, about\nthe year 1140, extant in a manuscript collection of sermons of that age\nin my hands, folio 138, gives a particular history of this translation\nof his relies to Derby, where his church became famous for miracles, and\nfor the resort of pilgrims. See on this saint the history of John of\nGlastonbury, Matthew of Westminster, the manuscript sermon above\nmentioned, and Henschenius t. 3, Mart. p. 47.\n\n{625}\n\n\nMARCH XX.\n\nST. CUTHBERT, CONFESSOR.\n\nBISHOP OF LINDISFARNE.\n\nFrom his life written by Bede, and from that author's Church-History, b.\n4 c. 27 to c. 32. Simeon Dunelm, or rather Turgot, Hist. Dunelm,\npublished by Bedford: the old Latin hymn On St. Cuthbert, MS. in Bibl.\nCotton. n. 41, spud Wanley, p. 184, and four Latin prayers, in honor of\nSt. Cuthbert, MS. n. 190 in the library of Durham church. Warmley,\nCatal. t. 2, p. 297. Harpsiald, saec. 7, c. 34. Hearne on Langtoft, t. 2,\np. 687. N.B. The history of Durham, which is here quoted, was compiled\nby Turgot, prior of Durham, down to the year 1104, and continued to the\nyear 1161 by Simeon.\n\nA.D. 687.\n\nWHEN the Northumbrians, under the pious king Oswald, had, with great\nfervor, embraced the Christian faith, the holy bishop St. Aidan founded\ntwo monasteries, that of Mailros, on the bank of the Tweed, and another\nin the isle of Lindisfarne, afterwards called Holy Island, four miles\ndistant from Berwick. In both he established the rule of St. Columba;\nand usually resided himself in the latter. St. Cuthbert[1] was born not\nvery far from Mailros, and in his youth was much edified by the devout\ndeportment of the holy inhabitants of that house, whose fervor in the\nservice of God, and the discharge of the duties of a monastic life, he\npiously endeavored to imitate on the mountains where he kept his\nfather's sheep. It happened one night, that, while he was watching in\nprayer, near his flock, according to his custom, he saw the soul of St.\nAidan carried up to heaven by angels, at the very instant that holy man\ndeparted this life in the isle of Lindisfarne. Serious reflections on\nthe happiness of such a death determined the pious young man to repair,\nwithout delay, to Mailros, where he put on the monastic habit, while\nEata was abbot, and St. Boisil prior. He studied the holy scriptures\nunder the latter, and in fervor surpassed all his brethren in every\nmonastic exercise. Eata being called to govern the new monastery of\nRippon, founded by king Alcfrid, he took with him St. Cuthbert, and\ncommitted to him the care of entertaining strangers; which charge is\nusually the most dangerous in a religious state. Cuthbert washed the\nfeet of others and served them with wonderful humility and meekness,\nalways remembering that Christ himself is served in his members. And he\nwas most careful that the functions of Martha should never impair his\nspirit of recollection. When St. Wilfred was made abbot of Rippon, St.\nCuthbert returned with Eata to Mailros; and St. Boisil dying of the\ngreat pestilence, in 664, he was chosen provost or prior in his place.\n\nIn this station, not content by word and example to form his monks to\nperfect piety, be labored assiduously among the people to bring them off\nfrom several heathenish customs and superstitious practices which still\nobtained among them. For this purpose, says our venerable historian, he\noften went out, sometimes on horseback, but oftener on foot, to preach\nthe way of life to such as were gone astray. Parochial churches being at\nthis time very scarce in the country, it was the custom for the country\npeople to flock about a priest or ecclesiastical person when he came\ninto any village, for the sake of his instructions; hearkening willingly\nto his words, and more willingly practising the good lessons he taught\nthem. St. Cuthbert {626} excelled all others by a most persuasive and\nmoving eloquence; and such a brightness appeared in his angelical face\nin delivering the word of God to the people, that none of them durst\nconceal from him any part of their misbehavior, but all laid their\nconscience open before him, and endeavored by his injunctions and\ncounsels to expiate the sins they had confessed, by worthy fruits of\npenance. He chiefly visited those villages and hamlets at a distance,\nwhich, being situate among high and craggy mountains, and inhabited by\nthe most rustic, ignorant, and savage people, were the less frequented\nby other teachers. After St. Cuthbert had lived many years at Mailros,\nSt. Eata, abbot also of Lindisfarne, removed him thither, and appointed\nhim prior of that larger monastery. By the perfect habit of\nmortification and prayer the saint had attained to so eminent a spirit\nof contemplation, that he seemed rather an angel than a man. He often\nspent whole nights in prayer, and sometimes, to resist sleep, worked or\nwalked about the island while he prayed. If he heard others complain\nthat they had been disturbed in their sleep, he used to say, that he\nshould think himself obliged to any one that awaked him out of his\nsleep, that he might sing the praises of his Creator, and labor for his\nhonor. His very countenance excited those who saw him to a love of\nvirtue. He was so much addicted to compunction, and inflamed with\nheavenly desires, that he could never say mass without tears. He often\nmoved penitents, who confessed to him their sins, to abundant tears, by\nthe torrents of his own, which he shed for them. His zeal in correcting\nsinners was always sweetened with tender charity and meekness. The saint\nhad governed the monastery of Lindisfarne, under his abbot, several\nyears, when earnestly aspiring to a closer union with God, he retired,\nwith his abbot's consent, into the little isle of Farne, nine miles from\nLindisfarne, there to lead an austere eremitical life. The place was\nthen uninhabited, and afforded him neither water, tree, nor corn.\nCuthbert built himself a hut with a wall and trench about it, and, by\nhis prayers, obtained a well of freshwater in his own cell. Having\nbrought with him instruments of husbandry, he sowed first wheat, which\nfailed; then barley, which, though sowed out of season, yielded a\nplentiful crop. He built a house at the entry of the island from\nLindisfarne, to lodge the brethren that came to see him, whom he there\nmet and entertained with heavenly conferences. Afterwards he confined\nhimself within his own wall and trench, and gave spiritual advice only\nthrough a window, without ever stirring out of his cell. He could not,\nhowever, refuse an interview with the holy abbess and royal virgin\nElfleda, whom her father, king Oswi, had dedicated to God from her\nbirth, and who, in 680, succeeded St. Hilda in the government of the\nabbey of Whitby. This was held in the isle of Cocket, then filled with\nholy anchorets. This close solitude was to our saint an uninterrupted\nexercise of divine love, praise, and compunction; in which he enjoyed a\nparadise of heavenly delights, unknown to the world.\n\nIn a synod of bishops, held by St. Theodorus at Twiford, on the river\nAlne, in the kingdom of Northumberland, it was resolved that Cuthbert\nshould be raised to the episcopal see of Lindisfarne. But as neither\nletters nor messengers were of force to obtain his consent to undertake\nthe charge, king Egfrid, who had been present at the council, and the\nholy bishop Trumwin, with many others, sailed over to his island, and\nconjured him, on their knees, not to refuse his labors, which might be\nattended with so much advantage to souls. Their remonstrances were so\npressing, that the saint could not refuse going with them, at least to\nthe council, but weeping most bitterly. He received the episcopal\nconsecration at York, the Easter following, from the hands of St.\nTheodorus, assisted by six other bishops. In {627} this new dignity the\nsaint continued the practice of his former austerities; but remembering\nwhat he owed to his neighbor, he went about preaching and instructing\nwith incredible fruit, and without any intermission. He made it\neverywhere his particular care to exhort, feed, and protect the poor. By\ndivine revelation he saw and mentioned to others, at the very instant it\nhappened, the overthrow and death of king Egfrid, by the Picts, in 685.\nHe cured, by water which he had blessed, the wife of a noble Thane, who\nlay speechless and senseless at the point of death, and many others. For\nhis miracles he was called the Thaumaturgus of Britain. But the most\nwonderful of his miracles was that which grace wrought in him by the\nperfect victory which it gave him over his passions. His zeal for\njustice was most ardent; but nothing seemed ever to disturb the peace\nand serenity of his mind. By the close union of his soul with God, whose\nwill alone he sought and considered in all things, he overlooked all\ntemporal events, and under all accidents his countenance was always\ncheerful, always the same; particularly in bearing all bodily pains, and\nevery kind of adversity with joy, he was invincible. His attention to,\nand pure view of God in all events, and in all his actions, arose from\nthe most tender and sweet love, which was in his soul a constant source\nof overflowing joy. Prayer was his centre. His brethren discovered\nsometimes that he spent three or four nights together in that heavenly\nexercise, allowing himself very little or no sleep. When St. Ebba, the\nroyal virgin, sister to the kings St. Oswald and Oswi, abbess of the\ndouble monastery of Coldingham, invited him to edify that house by his\nexhortations, he complied, and stayed there some days. In the night,\nwhile others were asleep, he stole out to his devotions according to his\ncustom in other places. One of the monks who watched and followed him\none night, found that the saint, going down to the seashore, went into\nthe water up to the armpits, and there sung praises to God. In this\nmanner he passed the silent time of the night. Before the break of day\nhe came out, and having prayed awhile on the sands, returned to the\nmonastery, and was ready to join in morning lauds.\n\nSt. Cuthbert, foreseeing his death to approach, resigned his bishopric,\nwhich he had held two years, and retired to his solitude in Farne\nIsland, to prepare himself for his last passage. Two months after he\nfell sick, and permitted Herefrid, the abbot of Lindisfarne, who came to\nvisit him, to leave two of his monks to attend him in his last moments.\nHe received the viaticum of the body and blood of Christ from the hands\nof the abbot Herefrid, at the hour of midnight prayer, and immediately\nlifting up his eyes, and stretching out his hands, sweetly slept in\nChrist on the 20th day of March, 687. He died in the island of Farne:\nbut, according to his desire, his body was buried in the monastery of\nSt. Peter in Lindisfarne, on the right side of the high altar. Bede\nrelates many miracles performed at his tomb; and adds, that eleven years\nafter his death, the monks taking up his body, instead of dust which\nthey expected, found it unputrefied, with the joints pliable, and the\nclothes fresh and entire.[2] They put it into a new coffin, placed above\nthe pavement, over the former grave: and several miracles were there\nwrought, even by touching the clothes which covered the coffin. William\nof Malmesbury[3] writes, that the body was again found incorrupt four\nhundred and fifteen years afterwards at Durham, and publicly shown. In\nthe Danish invasions, the monks carried it away from Lindisfarne; and,\nafter several removals on the continent, settled with their treasure on\na woody hill almost surrounded by the river Were, formed by nature for a\nplace of, defence. They built there a church of stone, which {628}\nAldhune, bishop of Lindisfarne, dedicated in 995, and placed in it the\nbody of St. Cuthbert with great solemnity, transferring hither his\nepiscopal see.[4] Many princes enriched exceedingly the new monastery\nand cathedral, in honor of St. Cuthbert. Succeeding kings, out of\ndevotion to this saint, declared the bishop a count palatine, with an\nextensive civil jurisdiction.[5] The great king Alfred, who honored St.\nCuthbert as his particular patron, and ascribed to his intercession some\nof his greatest victories, and other blessings which he received, was a\nspecial benefactor to this church.[6] The present cathedral was built in\n1080. When the shrine of the saint was plundered and demolished by the\norder of king Henry VIII., the body of St. Cuthbert, which was found\nstill entire, as Harpsfield testifies, met with greater regard than many\nothers; for it was not burnt, as were those of St. Edmund, king and\nmartyr, St. Thomas, and others. After the king's officers had carried\naway the plunder of his shrine, it was privately buried under the place\nwhere the shrine before stood, though the spot is now unknown. His ring,\nin which a sapphire is enchased, was given by lord viscount Montaigne to\nthe bishop of Chalcedon,[7] who had long been sheltered from the\npersecution in the house of that nobleman,[8] and was by him left in the\nmonastery of English canonesses at Paris, which is also possessed of a\ntooth of St. Cuthbert. A copy of St. John's gospel, which, after the\nexample of his master St. Poisil, he often read to nourish the fire of\ndivine love in his soul, was put into his coffin when he was buried, and\nfound in his tomb. It is now in the possession of Mr. Thomas Philips,\ncanon of, Tongres, on whom the present earl of Litchfield bestowed it.\nThe copy is judged undoubtedly genuine by our ablest Protestant\nantiquaries, who carefully examined it.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe life of St. Cuthbert was almost a continual prayer. There was no\nbusiness, no company, no place, how public soever, which did not afford\nhim an opportunity, and even a fresh motive to pray. Not content to pass\nthe day in this exercise, he continued it constantly for several hours\nof the night, which was to him a time of light and interior delights.\nWhatever he saw seemed to speak to him of God, and to invite him to his\nlove. His conversation was on God or heavenly things, and he would have\nregretted a single moment, which had not been employed with God or for\nhis honor, as utterly lost. The inestimable riches which he found in\nGod, showed him how precious every moment is, in which he had it in his\npower to enjoy the divine converse. The immensity of God, who is present\nin us and in all creatures, and whom millions of worlds cannot confine\nor contain; his eternity, to which all time coexists, and which has\nneither beginning, end, nor succession; the unfathomed abyss of his\njudgments; the sweetness of his providence; his adorable sanctity; his\njustice, wisdom, goodness, mercy, and love, especially as displayed in\nthe wonderful mystery of the Incarnation, and in the doctrine, actions,\nand sufferings of our Blessed Redeemer, in a word, all the\nincomprehensible attributes of the Divinity, and the mysteries of his\ngrace and mercy, successively filled his mind and heart, and kindled in\nhis soul the most sweet and ardent affections, in which his thirst {629}\nand his delight, which were always fresh and always insatiable, gave him\na kind of anticipated taste of paradise. For holy contemplation\ndiscovers to a soul a new and most wonderful world, whose beauty,\nriches, and pure delights, astonish and transport her out of herself.\nSt. Teresa, coming from prayer, said she came from a world greater and\nmore beautiful beyond comparison, than a thousand worlds, like that\nwhich we behold with our corporal eyes, could be. St. Bernard was always\ntorn from this holy exercise with regret, when obliged to converse with\nmen in the world, in which he trembled, lest he should contract some\nattachment to creatures, which would separate him from the chaste\nembraces of his heavenly spouse. The venerable priest, John of Avila,\nwhen he came from the altar, always found commerce with men insipid and\ninsupportable.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  Cuthbert signifies Illustrious for skill: or G{}bbertus, Worthy of\n    God.\n2.  Bede, Hist. b. 4, c. 30.\n3.  L. 4, Pontif. Angl.\n4.  Dunelm, or Durham, signifies a hill upon waters, from the Saxon\n    words Dun, a bill, and Holme, a place situate in or among the\n    waters.\n5.  See Dugdale's history of the cathedral of Durham; and Dr. Brown\n    Willis on the same.\n6.  See Hickes, Thes. Ling. Septentr. Praef. p. 8.\n7.  Bp. Smith, Flores Hist. Eccles. p. 120.\n8.  Dr. Richard Smith, bishop of Chalcedon, relates in his life of\n    Margaret lady Montaigne, that queen Elizabeth, out of her singular\n    regard for this lady, from the time she had been lady of honor in\n    the court of queen Mary and king Philip, tacitly granted her house a\n    kind of privilege, by never, allowing it to be searched on account\n    of religious persecution; so that sometimes sixty priests at once\n    lay hid in it.\n\nST. WULFRAN, ARCHBISHOP OF SENS.\n\nAND APOSTOLIC MISSIONARY IN FRISELAND.\n\nHIS father was an officer in the armies of king Dagobert, and the saint\nspent some years in the court of king Clotaire III., and of his mother\nSt. Bathildes, but occupied his heart only on God, despising worldly\ngreatness as empty and dangerous, and daily advancing in virtue in a\nplace where virtue is often little known. His estate of Maurilly he\nbestowed on the abbey of Fontenelle, or St. Vandrille, in Normandy. He\nwas chosen and consecrated archbishop of Sens, in 682, which diocese he\ngoverned during two years and a half with great zeal and sanctity. A\ntender compassion for the blindness of the idolaters of Friseland, and\nthe example of the English zealous preachers in those parts, moved him\nto resign his bishopric with proper advice, and, after a retreat at\nFontenelle, to enter Friseland in quality of a poor missionary priest.\nHe baptized great multitudes, with a son of king Radbod, and drew the\npeople from the barbarous custom of sacrificing men to idols. The lot\nherein decided, on great festivals, who should be the victim; and the\nperson was instantly hanged, or cut in pieces. The lot having fallen on\none Ovon, St. Wulfran earnestly begged his life of king Radbod: but the\npeople ran tumultuously to the palace, and would not suffer what they\ncalled a sacrilege. After many words, they consented that if the God of\nWulfran should save Ovon's life, he should ever serve him, and be\nWulfran's slave. The saint betook himself to prayer, and the man, after\nhanging on the gibbet two hours, being left for dead, by the cord\nbreaking, fell to the ground; and being found alive was given to the\nsaint, and became a monk and priest at Fontenelle. Wulfran also\nmiraculously rescued two children from being drowned in the sea, in\nhonor of the idols. Radbod, who had been an eye-witness to this last\nmiracle, promised to become a Christian, and was instructed among the\ncatechumens. But his criminal delays rendered him unworthy such a mercy.\nAs he was going to step into the baptismal font, he asked where the\ngreat number of his ancestors and nobles were in the next world. The\nsaint replied, that hell is the portion of all who die guilty of\nidolatry. At which the prince drew back, and refused to be baptized,\nsaying, he would go with the greater number. This tyrant sent afterwards\nto St. Willebrord, to treat with him about his conversion; but before\nthe arrival of the saint, was found dead. St. Wulfran retired to\nFontenelle, that he might prepare himself for death, and died there on\nthe 20th of April, in 720. His relies were removed to Abbeville, where\nhe is honored as patron. See his life, written by Jonas, monk of\nFoutenelle, eleven years after his death, purged from spurious additions\nby Mabillon, {630} saec. 3, Ben. Fleury, b. 41, t. 9, p. 190. See also\nthe history of the discovery of his relics at St. Vandrille's,\naccompanied with miracles, and their translation to Rouen in 1062, well\nwritten by an anonymous author who assisted at that ceremony, several\nparts of which work are published by D'Achery, Spicil. t. 3, p. 248, the\nBollandists, and Mabillon. The Bollandists have added a relation of\ncertain miracles, said to have been performed by the relics of this\nsaint at Abbeville.\n\n\nMARCH XXI.\n\nST. BENEDICT, ABBOT,\n\nPATRIARCH OF THE WESTERN MONKS.\n\nFrom St. Gregory, (Dial. l. 2, c. 1,) who assures us that he received\nhis account of this saint from four abbots, the saint's disciples;\nnamely, Constantine, his successor at Monte Cassino, Simplicius, third\nabbot of that house, Valentinian, the first abbot of the monastery of\nLateran, and Honoratus, who succeeded St. Benedict at Subiaco. See the\nremarks of Mabillon, Annal. Ben. l. 1, p. 3, and l. 2, p. 38. and Act.\nSanct. Bened. t. 1, p. 80. Also Dom. Mege, Vie de St. Benoit, avec one\nHistoire Abregee de son Ordre, in 4to. An. 1690. Haeften's Disquisitions,\nand abbot Steingelt's abridgment of the same, and Ziegelbauer and\nLegipont, Historia Literaria Ord. S. Benedicti, Ann. 1754, t. 1, p. 3,\nand principally t. 3, p. 2.\n\nA.D. 543.\n\nST. BENEDICT, or KENNET, was a native of Norcia, formerly an episcopal\nsee in Umbria, and was descended from a family of note, and born about\nthe year 480. The name of his father was Eutropius, and that of his\ngrandfather, Justinian. When he was fit for the higher studies, he was\nsent by his parents to Rome, and there placed in the public schools. He,\nwho till that time knew not what vice was, and trembled at the shadow of\nsin, was not a little shocked at the licentiousness which he observed in\nthe conduct of some of the Roman youth, with whom he was obliged to\nconverse; and he was no sooner come into the world, but he resolved to\nbid an eternal farewell to it, not to be entangled in its snares. He\ntherefore left the city privately, and made the best of his way towards\nthe deserts. His nurse, Cyrilla, who loved him tenderly, followed him as\nfar as Afilum, thirty miles from Rome, where he found means to get rid\nof her, and pursued his journey alone to the desert mountains of\nSublacum,[1] near forty miles from Rome. It is a barren, hideous chain\nof rocks, with a river and lake in the valley. Near this place the saint\nmet a monk of a neighboring monastery, called Romanus, who gave him the\nmonastic habit, with suitable instructions, and conducted him to a deep\nnarrow cave in the midst of these mountains, almost inaccessible to men.\nIn this cavern, now called the Holy Grotto, the young hermit chose his\nabode: and Romanus, who kept his secret, brought him hither, from time\nto time, bread and the like slender provisions, which he retrenched from\nhis own meals, and let them down to the holy recluse with a line,\nhanging a bell to the cord to give him notice. Bennet seems to have been\nabout fourteen or fifteen years old when he came to Sublacum; St.\nGregory says, he was yet a child. He lived three years in this manner,\nknown only to Romanus. But God was pleased to manifest his servant to\nmen, that he might shine forth as a light to many. In 497, a certain\npious priest in that country, while he was preparing a dinner for {631}\nhimself on Easter-Sunday, heard a voice which said: \"You are preparing\nfor yourself a banquet, while my servant Bennet, at Sublacum, is\ndistressed with hunger.\" The priest immediately set out in quest of the\nhermit, and with much difficulty found him out. Bennet was surprised to\nsee a man come to him; but before he would enter into conversation with\nhim, he desired they might pray together. They then discoursed for some\ntime on God and heavenly things. At length the priest invited the saint\nto eat, saying it was Easter-day, on which it is not reasonable to fast;\nthough St. Bennet answered him, that he knew not that it was the day of\nso great a solemnity, nor is it to be wondered at, that one so young\nshould not be acquainted with the day of a festival, which was not then\nobserved by all on the same day, or that he should not understand the\nLunar Cycle, which at that time was known by very few. After their\nrepast the priest returned home. Soon after certain shepherds discovered\nthe saint near his cave, but at first took him for a wild beast; for he\nwas clad with the skins of beasts, and they imagined no human creature\ncould live among those rocks. When they found him to be a servant of\nGod, they respected him exceedingly, and many of them were moved by his\nheavenly discourses to embrace with fervor a course of perfection. From\nthat time he began to be known, and many visited him, and brought him\nsuch sustenance as he would accept: in requital for which he nourished\ntheir souls with spiritual instructions. Though he lived sequestered\nfrom the world, he was not yet secure from the assaults of the tempter.\nWherever we fly the devil still pursues us, and we carry a domestic\nenemy within our own breasts. St. Gregory relates, that while St. Bennet\nwas employed in divine contemplation, the fiend endeavored to withdraw\nhis mind from heavenly objects, by appearing in the shape of a little\nblack-bird; but that, upon his making the sign of the cross, the phantom\nvanished. After this, by the artifices of this restless enemy, the\nremembrance of a woman whom the saint had formerly seen at Rome,\noccurred to his mind, and so strongly affected his imagination, that he\nwas tempted to leave his desert. But blushing at so base a suggestion of\nthe enemy, he threw himself upon some briers and nettles which grew in\nthe place where he was, and rolled himself a long time in them, till his\nbody was covered with blood. The wounds of his body stifled all\ninordinate inclinations, and their smart extinguished the flame of\nconcupiscence. This complete victory seemed to have perfectly subdued\nthat enemy; for he found himself no more molested with its stings.\n\nThe fame of his sanctity being spread abroad, it occasioned several to\nforsake the world, and imitate his penitential manner of life. Some time\nafter, the monks of Vicovara,[2] on the death of their abbot, pitched\nupon him to succeed him. He was very unwilling to take upon him that\ncharge, which he declined in the spirit of sincere humility, the beloved\nvirtue which he had practised from his infancy, and which was the\npleasure of his heart, and is the delight of a God humbled even to the\ncross, for the love of us. The saint soon found by experience that their\nmanners did not square with his just idea of a monastic state. Certain\nsons of Belial among them carried their aversion so far as to mingle\npoison with his wine: but when, according to his custom, before he drank\nof it he made the sign of the cross over the glass, it broke as if a\nstone had fallen upon it. \"God forgive you, brethren,\" said the saint,\nwith his usual meekness and tranquillity of soul, \"you now see I was not\nmistaken when I told you that your manners and mine would not agree.\" He\ntherefore returned to Sublacum; which desert he soon peopled with monks,\nfor whom be built twelve monasteries, {632} placing in each twelve monks\nwith a superior.[3] In one of these twelve monasteries there lived a\nmonk, who, out of sloth, neglected and loathed the holy exercise of\nmental prayer, insomuch that after the psalmody or divine office was\nfinished, he every day left the church to go to work, while his brethren\nwere employed in that holy exercise; for by this private prayer in the\nchurch, after the divine office, St. Gregory means pious meditation, as\nDom. Mege demonstrates. This slothful monk began to correct his fault\nupon the charitable admonition of Pompeian, his superior; but, after\nthree days, relapsed into his former sloth. Pompeian acquainted St.\nBenedict, who said, \"I will go and correct him myself.\" Such indeed was\nthe danger and enormity of this fault, as to require the most effectual\nand speedy remedy. For it is only by assiduous prayer that the soul is\nenriched with the abundance of the heavenly water of divine graces,\nwhich produces in her the plentiful fruit of all virtues. If we consider\nthe example of all the saints, we shall see that prayer was the\nprincipal means by which the Holy Ghost sanctified their souls, and that\nthey advanced in perfection in proportion to their progress in the holy\nspirit of prayer. If this be neglected, the soul becomes spiritually\nbarren, as a garden loses all its fruitfulness, and all its beauty, if\nthe pump raises not up a continual supply of water, the principle of\nboth. St. Benedict, deploring the misfortune and blindness of this monk,\nhastened to his monastery, and coming to him at the end of the divine\noffice, saw a little black boy leading him by the sleeve out of the\nchurch. After two days' prayer, St. Maurus saw the same, but Pompeian\ncould not see this vision, by which was represented that the devil\nstudies to withdraw men from prayer, in order that, being disarmed and\ndefenceless, they may easily be made a prey. On the third day, St.\nBenedict finding the monk still absent from church in the time of\nprayer, struck him with a wand, and by that correction the sinner was\nfreed from the temptation. Dom. German Millet[4] tells us, from the\ntradition and archives of the monastery of St. Scholastica, that this\nhappened in St. Jerom's. In the monastery of St. John, a fountain sprung\nup at the prayers of the saint; this, and two other monasteries, which\nwere built on the summit of the mountain, being before much distressed\nfor want of water. In that of St. Clement, situate on the bank of a\nlake, a Goth, who was a monk, let fall the head of a sickle into the\nwater as he was cutting down thistles and weeds in order to make a\ngarden; but St. Maur, who with St. Placidus lived in that house, holding\nthe wooden handle in the water, the iron of its own accord swam, and\njoined it again, as St. Gregory relates. St. Benedict's reputation drew\nthe most illustrious personages from Rome and other remote parts to see\nhim. Many, who came clad in purple, sparkling with gold and precious\nstones, charmed with the admirable sanctity of the servant of God, {633}\nprostrated themselves at his feet to beg his blessing and prayers, and\nsome imitating the sacrifice of Abraham, placed their sons under his\nconduct in their most tender age, that they might be formed to perfect\nvirtue from their childhood. Among others, two rich and most illustrious\nsenators, Eutychius, or rather Equitius, and Tertullus, committed to his\ncare their two sons Maurus, then twelve years old, and Placidus, also a\nchild, in 522.[5] The devil, envying so much good, stirred up his wicked\ninstruments to disturb the tranquillity of the servant of God.\nFlorentius, a priest in the neighboring country, though unworthy to bear\nthat sacred character, moved by a secret jealousy, persecuted the saint,\nand aspersed his reputation with grievous slanders. Bennet, being a true\ndisciple of Christ, knew no revenge but that of meekness and silence:\nand not to inflame the envy of his adversary, left Sublacum, and\nrepaired to Mount Cassino. He had not got far on his journey, when he\nheard that Florentius was killed by the fall of a gallery in which he\nwas. The saint was much afflicted at his sudden and unhappy death, and\nenjoined Maurus a penance for calling it a deliverance from persecution.\n\nCassino is a small town, now in the kingdom of Naples, built on the brow\nof a very high mountain, on the top of which stood an old temple of\nApollo, surrounded with a grove in which certain idolaters still\ncontinued to offer their abominable sacrifices. The man of God having,\nby his preaching and miracles, converted many of them to the faith,\nbroke the idol to pieces, overthrew the altar, demolished the temple,\nand cut down the grove. Upon the ruins of which temple and altar he\nerected two oratories or chapels; one bore the name of St. John the\nBaptist, the other of St. Martin. This was the origin of the celebrated\nabbey of Mount Cassino, the foundation of which the saint laid in 529,\nthe forty-eighth year of his age, the third of the emperor Justinian:\nFelix IV. being pope, and Athalaric king of the Goths in Italy. The\npatrician, Tertullus, came about that time to pay a visit to the saint,\nand to see his son Placidus; and made over to this monastery several\nlands which he possessed in that neighborhood, and also a considerable\nestate in Sicily. St. Bennet met on Mount Cassino one Martin, a\nvenerable old hermit, who, to confine himself to a more austere\nsolitude, had chained himself to the ground in his cell, with a long\niron chain. The holy abbot, fearing this singularity might be a mark of\naffectation, said to him: \"If you are a servant of Jesus Christ, let the\nchain of his love, not one of iron, hold you fixed in your resolution.\"\nMartin gave proof of his humility by his obedience, and immediately laid\naside his chain. St. Bennet governed also a monastery of nuns, situate\nnear Mount Cassino, as is mentioned by St. Gregory: he founded an abbey\nof men at Terracina, and sent St. Placidus into Sicily to establish\nanother in that island. Though ignorant of secular learning, he was\neminently replenished with the Spirit of God, and an experimental\nscience of spiritual things: on which account he is said by St. Gregory\nthe Great to have been \"learnedly ignorant and wisely unlettered.\"[6]\nFor the alphabet of this great man is infinitely more desirable than all\nthe empty science of the world, as St. Arsenius said of St. Antony. From\ncertain very ancient pictures of St. Benedict, and old inscriptions,\n{634} Mabillon proves this saint to have been in holy orders, and a\ndeacon. Several moderns say he was a priest; but, as Muratori observes,\nwithout grounds.[7] By the account which St. Gregory has given us of his\nlife, it appears that he preached sometimes in neighboring places, and\nthat a boundless charity opening his hand, he distributed among the\nneedy all that he had on earth, to lay up his whole treasure in heaven.\nSt. Bennet, possessing perfectly the science of the saints, and being\nenabled by the Holy Ghost to be the guide of innumerable souls in the\nmost sublime paths of Christian perfection, compiled a monastic rule,\nwhich, for wisdom and discretion, St. Gregory the Great preferred to all\nother rules; and which was afterwards adopted, for some time, by all the\nmonks of the West. It is principally founded on silence, solitude,\nprayer, humility, and obedience.[8]\n\nSt. Bennet calls his Order a school in which men learn how to serve God:\nand his life was to his disciples a perfect model for their imitation,\nand a transcript of his rule. Being chosen by God, like another Moses,\nto conduct faithful souls into the true promised land, the kingdom of\nheaven, he was enriched with eminent supernatural gifts, even those of\nmiracles and prophecy. He seemed, like another Eliseus, endued by God\nwith an extraordinary power, commanding all nature; and like the ancient\nprophets, foreseeing future events. He often raised the sinking courage\nof his monks, and baffled the various artifices of the devil with the\nsign of the cross, rendered the heaviest stone light in building his\nmonastery by a short prayer, and, in presence of a multitude of people,\nraised to life a novice who had been crushed by the fall of a wall at\nMount Cassino. He foretold, with {635} many tears, that this monastery\nshould be profaned and destroyed; which happened forty years after, when\nthe Lombards demolished it about the year 580. He added, that he had\nscarce been able to obtain of God that the inhabitants should be\nsaved.[9] It was strictly forbid by the rule of St. Benedict, for any\nmonk to eat out of his monastery, unless he was at such a distance {636}\nthat he could not return home that day, and this rule, says Saint\nGregory, was inviolably observed. Indeed, nothing more dangerously\nengages monks in the commerce of the world; nothing more enervates in\nthem the discipline of abstinence and mortification, than for them to\neat and drink with seculars abroad. St. Gregory tells us, that St.\nBennet knew by revelation the fault of one of his monks who had accepted\nof an invitation to take some refreshment when he was abroad on\nbusiness.[10] A messenger who brought the saint a present of two bottles\nof wine, and had hid one of them, was put in mind by him to beware of\ndrinking of the other, in which he afterwards found a serpent. One of\nthe monks, after preaching to the nuns, had accepted of some\nhandkerchiefs from them, which he hid in his bosom; but the saint, upon\nhis return, reproved him for his secret sin against the rule of holy\npoverty. A novice, standing before him, was tempted with thoughts of\npride on account of his birth: the saint discovered what passed in his\nsoul, and bid him make the sign of the cross on his breast.\n\nWhen Belisarius, the emperor's general, was recalled to Constantinople,\nTotila, the Arian king of the Goths, invaded and plundered Italy. Having\nheard wonders of the sanctity of St. Bennet, and of his predictions and\nmiracles, he resolved to try whether he was really that wonderful man\nwhich he was reported to be. Therefore, as he marched through Campania,\nin 542, he sent the man of God word that he would pay him a visit. But\ninstead of going in person, he dressed one of his courtiers, named\nRiggo, in his royal purple robes, and sent him to the monastery,\nattended by the three principal lords of his court, and a numerous train\nof pages. St. Bennet, who was then sitting, saw him coming to his cell,\nand cried out to him at some distance: \"Put off, my son, those robes\nwhich you wear, and which belong not to you.\" The mock king, being\nstruck with a panic for having attempted to impose upon the man of God,\nfell prostrate at his feet, together with all his attendants. The saint,\ncoming up, raised him with his hand; and the officer returning to his\nmaster, related trembling what had befallen him. The king then went\nhimself, but was no sooner come into the presence of the holy abbot, but\nhe threw himself on the ground and continued prostrate till the saint,\ngoing to him, obliged him to rise. The holy man severely reproved him\nfor the outrages he had committed, and said: \"You do a great deal of\nmischief, and I foresee you will do more. You will take Rome: you will\ncross the sea, and will reign nine years longer: but death will overtake\nyou in the tenth, when you shall be arraigned before a just God to give\nan account of your conduct.\" All which came to pass as St. Benedict had\nforetold him. Totila was seized with fear, and recommended himself to\nhis prayers. From that day the tyrant became more humane; and when he\ntook Naples, shortly after, treated the captives with greater lenity\nthan could be expected from an enemy and a barbarian.[11] When the\nbishop of Canusa afterwards said to that saint, that Totila would leave\nRome a heap of stones, and that it would be no longer inhabited, he\nanswered \"No: but it shall be beaten with storms and earthquakes, and\nshall be like a tree which withers by the decay of its root.\" Which\nprediction St. Gregory observes to have been accomplished.\n\nThe death of this great saint seems to have happened soon after that of\nhis sister St. Scholastica, and in the year after his interview with\nTotila. He foretold it his disciples, and caused his grave to be opened\nsix days before. When this was done he fell ill of a fever, and on the\nsixth day would be carried into the chapel, where he received the body\nand blood of our {637} Lord,[12] and having given his last instructions\nto his sorrowful disciples, standing and leaning on one of them, with\nhis hands lifted up, he calmly expired, in prayer, on Saturday, the 21st\nof March, probably in the year 543, and of his age the sixty-third;\nhaving spent fourteen years at Mount Cassino. The greatest part of his\nrelics remains still in that abbey; though, some of his bones were\nbrought into France, about the close of the seventh century, and\ndeposited in the famous abbey of Fleury, which, on that account, has\nlong borne the name of St. Bennet's on the Loire.[13] It was founded in\nthe reign of Clovis II., about the year 640, and belongs at present to\nthe congregation of St. Maur.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nSt. Gregory, in two words, expresses the characteristical virtue of this\nglorious patriarch of the monastic order, when he says, that, returning\nfrom Vicovara to Sublaco, he dwelt alone with himself;[14] which words\ncomprise a great and rare perfection, in which consists the essence of\nholy retirement. A soul dwells not in true solitude, unless this be\ninterior as well as exterior, and unless she cultivates no acquaintance\nbut with God and herself, admitting no other company. Many dwell in\nmonasteries, or alone, without possessing the secret of living with\nthemselves. Though they are removed from the conversation of the world,\ntheir minds still rove abroad, wandering from the consideration of God\nand themselves, and dissipated amid a thousand exterior objects which\ntheir imagination presents to them, and which they suffer to captivate\ntheir hearts, and miserably entangle their will with vain attachments\nand foolish desires. Interior solitude requires the silence of the\ninterior faculties of the soul, no less than of the tongue and exterior\nsenses: without this, the enclosure of walls is a very weak fence. In\nthis interior solitude, the soul collects all her faculties within\nherself, employs all her thoughts on herself and on God, and all her\nstrength and affections in aspiring after him. Thus, St. Benedict dwelt\nwith himself, being always busied in the presence of his Creator, in\nbewailing the spiritual miseries of {638} his soul and past sins, in\nexamining into the disorders of his affections, in watching over his\nsenses, and the motions of his heart, and in a constant attention to the\nperfection of his state, and the contemplation of divine things. This\nlast occupied his soul in the sweet exercises of divine love and praise;\nbut the first-mentioned exercises, or the consideration of himself, and\nof his own nothingness and miseries, laid the foundation by improving in\nhim continually the most profound spirit of humility and compunction.\nThe twelve degrees of humility, which he lays down in his Rule,[15] are\ncommended by St. Thomas Aquinas.[16] The first is a deep compunction of\nheart, and holy fear of God and his judgments, with a constant attention\nto walk in the divine presence, sunk under the weight of this confusion\nand fear. 2. The perfect renunciation of our own will. 3. Ready\nobedience. 4. Patience under all sufferings and injuries. 5. The\nmanifestation of our thoughts and designs to our superior or director.\n6. To be content, and to rejoice, in all humiliations; to be pleased\nwith mean employments, poor clothes, &c., to love simplicity and\npoverty, (which he will have among monks, to be extended even to the\nornaments of the altar,) and to judge ourselves unworthy, and bad\nservants in every thing that is enjoined us. 7. Sincerely to esteem\nourselves baser and more unworthy than every one, even the greatest\nsinners.[17] 8. To avoid all love of singularity in words or actions. 9.\nTo love and practise silence. 10. To avoid dissolute mirth and loud\nlaughter. 11. Never to speak with a loud voice, and to be modest in our\nwords. 12. To be humble in all our exterior actions, by keeping our eyes\nhumbly cast down with the publican,[18] and the penitent Manasses.[19]\nSt. Benedict adds, that divine love is the sublime recompense of sincere\nhumility, and promises, upon the warrant of the divine word, that God\nwill raise that soul to perfect charity, which, faithfully walking in\nthese twelve degrees, shall have happily learned true humility.\nElsewhere he calls obedience with delay the first degree of\nhumility,[20] but means the first among the exterior degrees; for he\nplaces before it interior compunction of soul, and the renunciation of\nour own will.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  Called by the Italians, who frequently soften _l_ into _i_, Subiaco.\n2.  Vicovara, anciently Varronis Vicus, a village between Subiaco and\n    Tivoli.\n3.  These twelve monasteries were situated in the same neighborhood, in\n    the province Valeria. Moderns disagree in their names and\n    description; according to the account of Dom. Mege, which appears\n    most accurate, the first was called Columbaria, now St. Clement's,\n    and stood within sixty paces from the saint's cave, called the Holy\n    Grotto; the second was named of SS. Cosmos and Damian, now St.\n    Scholastica's; the third, St. Michael's; the fourth, of St. Donatus,\n    bishop and martyr; the fifth, St. Mary's, now St. Laurence's; the\n    sixth, St. John Baptist's, situated on the highest part of the rock,\n    but from a fountain which St. Bennet produced there by his prayers,\n    and which still subsists, it is at present called St. John dell'\n    Acqua; the seventh, St. Jerom's; the eighth, Vita AEterna; the ninth,\n    St. Victorian or Victorin's, called from a martyr of that name, who\n    is patron of the province of Valeria; the tenth, at the neighboring\n    village Trebare; the eleventh, at St. Angelus's; the twelfth, at a\n    fountain near the ancient castle, called Roca de Bore. These\n    monasteries have been all united in that of St. Scholastica, which\n    remains in a very flourishing condition, and is regarded as the\n    mother-house of the whole Order, being certainly more ancient than\n    that of Mount Cassino. It is a member of the Congregation of St.\n    Justina, and though it is usually given in commendam, by a peculiar\n    distinction, it is governed by a regular abbot chosen by the General\n    Chapter. Of the rest of these twelve monasteries, only some cells or\n    ruins remain. Besides the hundred and forty-four monks which were\n    distributed in these twelve monasteries, St. Gregory tells us that\n    the holy patriarch retained a small number with himself, by which it\n    appears that he continued to live ordinarily in a distinct little\n    monastery or hermitage about his grotto, though he always\n    superintended and governed all these houses.\n4.  See Dom. Mege, p. 84.\n5.  It has been related in the life of St. Maurus, how he walked on the\n    water to save the life of Placidus, then a child, who, going to the\n    lake to fetch water, had fallen in; for to monasteries no\n    distinction was shown to noblemen or their children, nor were they\n    exempted from their share in manual labor, or other severities of\n    the Rule. Such exemptions and privileges granted to many on pretence\n    of health, first opened the door to a relaxation of monastic\n    discipline. Placidus said, that when he was drawn by Maurus out of\n    the water, he saw over his head the melotes of the abbot, and seemed\n    to be saved by it, whence the miracle was by the disciples ascribed\n    to St. Benedict. Dom Haeften thinks by the melotes is meant a cowl,\n    to which that name is given by Paul the deacon, and the Roman Order\n    or Ceremonial. But most understand a habit made of skins of goats,\n    such as the Eastern monks wore, in imitation of the ancient\n    prophets, as Cassian describes. (Instit. l. 1, c. 8.)\n6.  Scienter nesciens, et sapienter indoctus.\n7.  {Footnote not in text} Annal. Bened. t. 5, p. 122, ad an. 543. See\n    also Muratori, Script. Ital. t. 4, p. 217.\n8.  By it the abbot is charged with the entire government of the\n    monastery. Seven hours a day are allotted the monks for manual\n    labor, and two for pious reading, besides meditation from matins\n    till break or day. But manual labor has been exchanged in most\n    places for sacred studies and spiritual functions. The rule commands\n    perpetual abstinence from flesh-meat, not only of four-footed\n    animals, but also of fowls, which at that time were only served at\n    the tables of princes as most exquisite dainties, as Mabillon shows\n    from the testimony of St. Gregory of Tours. This law of abstinence\n    is restored in the reformed congregation of St. Maur, and others.\n    The hemina of wine allowed by St. Bennet per day, in countries where\n    wine and water are only drunk, has been the subject of many\n    dissertations, this measure having not been the same at all times,\n    nor in all countries. The Roman hemina, which was half a sextarius,\n    contained ten ounces, as Montfaucon demonstrates, (Antiqu. expl. t.\n    3, l. 4, c. 7, pp. 149, 152,) and as Mabillon allows. (Praef. in Saec.\n    4.) Lancelot endeavors to show, in a dissertation on this subject,\n    that St. Bennet is to be understood of this Roman hemina. Menard\n    takes it to have been only seven ounces and a half. Mabillon (Pr. in\n    Saec. 4, p. cxv.) and Martenne (in c. 40, Reg.) think the holy\n    founder speaks not of the ordinary of Roman hemina, and understand\n    him of the Grecian, which contained a pound and a half, or eighteen\n    ounces. Calmet looks upon Lancelot's opinion as most probable. He\n    shows from the clear tradition of Benedictin writers and monuments,\n    that St. Benedict's hemina contained three glasses or draughts. See\n    Calmet, (in c. 40, Reg. t. 2, p. 62.) But St. Benedict allows and\n    commends a total abstinence from wine. The portion of bread allowed\n    by this holy patriarch to each monk, was a pound and a half, or\n    eighteen ounces a day, as it is explained by the famous council held\n    at Aix-la-Chapelle in the reign of Charlemagne.\n\n    The holy rule of St. Benedict, which the great Cosmus of Medicis,\n    and other wise legislators read frequently, in order to learn the\n    maxims of perfect government, has been explained by a great number\n    of learned and pious commentators, of whom Calmet gives a list, (t.\n    1. p. 1.) The principal among the moderns are Haeften, prior of\n    Affligem, in twelve books of monastic disquisitions, &c. Steingelt,\n    abbot of Anhusen, gave a judicious abridgment of this work. Dom.\n    Menard has written upon this rule in his Comments on the Concord of\n    Rules of St. Benedict of Anian. Dom. Mege's Commentaires sur le Rege\n    de St. Benoit, in 4to. printed at Paris in 1687, have been much\n    blamed by his brethren for laxity. Dom. Martenne published with more\n    applause his Commentarius in Regulam S. Benedicti, in 4to., in 1690.\n    Son edition de la Regle est la plus exacte qu'on nous a donne; et\n    son Commentaire egalement judicieux et scavant. Il ne parle pas de\n    celui de Dom. Mege, qui avoit parut trois ans avant le sien;\n    parceque ses sentiments relaches ses confreres, de sorte qu'en\n    plusiers monasteres reformes de cet ordre on ne le met pas entre les\n    mains des jeunes religieux Voyez le Cerf, Bibl. des Ecr. de la\n    Congr. de St. Maur, p. 348. Hist. Literaria Ord. St. Bened. t. 3, p.\n    21. Dom. Calmet printed in 1734, in two volumes, in 4to.,\n    Commentaire Literal Historique et Moral sur la Regle de St. Benoit,\n    a work which, both for edification and erudition, is far superior to\n    all the former, and is the masterpiece of this laborious writer,\n    though not entirely exempt from little slips of memory, as when St.\n    Cuthbert is called in it the founder of the monastery of\n    Lindisfarne, (p. 18, t. 1.) The chief modern ascetical treatise on\n    this subject is, La Regle de St. Benoit, traduite et expliquee par M.\n    de Rance, abbe de la Trappe, 2 vols. 4to. 1690, an excellent work\n    for those who are, bound to study, and imbibe the spirit of this\n    holy rule. It is reduced into meditations; which, as Calmet was\n    informed by Mabillon, was done by a Benedictin nun. We have also\n    Meditations on the Rule of St. Benedict, compiled by Dom. Morelle,\n    author of many other works of piety and devotion. We have also very\n    devout reflections on the prayers used in the religious profession\n    of this order, under the following title: Sentiments de Piete sur la\n    Profession religieuse, par un religieux Benedictin de la\n    Congregation de St. Maur. Dom. Berthelet, of the congregation of St.\n    Vannes, proves abstinence from flesh to have been anciently an\n    essential duty of the monastic state, by an express book, entitled,\n    Traite Historique et Moral de l'Abstinence de la Viande, 1731.\n9.  When the Lombards destroyed this famous abbey, in 580, St. Bennet,\n    the abbot, escaped with all his monks to Rome, carrying with him\n    only a copy of the Rule, written by St. Benedict himself, some of\n    the habits which he and his sister St. Scholastica had worn, and the\n    weight of the bread and measure of the wine which were the daily\n    allowance for every monk. Pope Pelagius II. lodged these fathers\n    near the Lateran church, where they built a monastery. In the\n    pontificate of Gregory II., about the year 720, they were conducted\n    back by abbot Petronax to Mount Cassino. This abbey was again ruined\n    by the Saracens in 884: also by the Normans in 1046, and by the\n    emperor Frederick II. in 1239. But was as often rebuilt. It is at\n    this day very stately, and the abbot exercises an eplscopal\n    jurisdiction over the town of San Germano, three little miles\n    distant, and over twenty-one other parishes. The regular abbot of\n    Saint Scholastica at Subiaco, is temporal and spiritual lord of\n    twenty-five villages. The Benedictins reckon in their order,\n    comprising all its branches and filiations, thirty-seven thousand\n    houses. As to the number of emperors, kings, queens, princes, and\n    princesses, who embraced this order, and that of saints, popes, and\n    writers of note, which it has given the church, see F. Helyot, Dom.\n    Mege, Calmet, and especially F. Ziegellaver, Hist. Liter. Ord. S.\n    Bened., 4 vol. folio, Aug. Vindel. An. 1754.\n\n    The monastic order settled by St. Athanasius at Milan and Triers,\n    during his banishment into the West; by St. Eusebius of Vercelli, in\n    his diocese, and by St. Hilary and St. Martin in Gaul, was founded\n    upon the plan of the Oriental monasteries: being brought by those\n    holy prelates from Egypt and Syria. The same is to be said of the\n    first monasteries founded in Great Britain and Ireland. After the\n    coming of St. Columban from Ireland into France, his Rule continued\n    long most in vogue, and was adopted by the greater part of the\n    monasteries that flourished in that kingdom. But it was customary in\n    those ages, for founders of great monasteries frequently to choose\n    out of different rules such religious practices and regulations, and\n    to add such others as they judged most expedient: and the Benedictin\n    Rule was sometimes blended with that of St. Columban, or others. In\n    the reigns of Charlemagne and Louis the Debonnaire. for the sake of\n    uniformity, it was enacted by the council of Aix-la-Chapelle in 802,\n    and several other decrees, that the Rule of St. Benedict should\n    alone be followed in all the monasteries in the dominions of those\n    princes. F. Reyner, a most learned English Benedictin, in his\n    Apostolatus Benedictinorum in Anglia, has, with profound erudition,\n    produced all the monuments and authorities by which it can be made\n    to appear that St. Gregory the Great established the Rule of St.\n    Benedict in his monastery of St. Andrew at Rome, and was settled by\n    St. Austin and the other monks who were sent by St. Gregory to\n    convert the English in all the monasteries which they founded in\n    this island. These proofs were abridged by Mabillon, Natalia\n    Alexander, and others, who have judged that they amount to\n    demonstration. Some, however, still maintain that the monastic rule\n    brought hither by St. Austin, was a compilation from several\n    different rules: that St. Bennet Biscop, and soon after St. Wilfrid,\n    introduced several new regulations borrowed from the Rule of St.\n    Benedict; that St. Dunstan established it in England more perfectly,\n    still retaining several of the ancient constitutions of the English\n    monasteries, and that it was not entirely adopted in England before\n    Lanfranc's time. This opinion is warmly abetted by Dr. Lay, in his\n    additions to Dugdale's Antiquities of Warwickshire, and Tanner's\n    Pref. to Notitia Monastica, in folio.\n\n    The Order of St. Benedict has branched out, since the year 900, into\n    several independent congregations, and the Orders of Camaldoly,\n    Vallis Umrosa, Fontevrault, the Gilbertins, Silvestrins,\n    Cistercians, and some others, are no more than reformations of the\n    same, with certain particular additional constitutions.\n\n    Among the Reformations or distinct Congregations of Benedictins, the\n    first is that of Cluni, so called from the great monastery of that\n    name, in the diocese of Macon, founded by William the Pious, duke of\n    Aquitaine, about the year 910. St. Berno, the first abbot, his\n    successor St. Odo, afterwards St. Hugh, St. Odilo, St. Mayeul, Peter\n    the Venerable, and other excellent abbots, exceedingly raised the\n    reputation of this reform, and propagated the same. A second\n    Reformation was established in this Congregation in 1621, by the\n    Grand Prior de Veni, resembling those of St. Vanne and St. Maur.\n    Those monks who would not adopt it in their houses, are called\n    Ancient monks of Cluni. The Congregation of Cava was called from the\n    great monastery of that name in the province of Salerno, founded in\n    980, under the observance of Cluni: it was the head of a\n    Congregation of twenty-nine other abbeys, and ninety-one conventual\n    priories; but a bishopric being erected in the town of Cava, by\n    Boniface IX. in 1394, and the abbot's revenue and temporal\n    jurisdiction being united to it by Leo X. in 1514, the monastery of\n    the Blessed Trinity of Cava was much diminished, but is still\n    governed by a regular abbot. In 1485, it was united, with all its\n    dependencies, to the Congregation of St. Justina and Mount Cassino.\n    The church of St. Justina at Padua, was founded by the Consul\n    Opilius, in the fifth century, and the great monastery of Benedictin\n    monks was built there in the ninth. The Reformation which was\n    established in this house by Lewis Barbus, a patrician of Venice, in\n    1409, was soon adopted by a great number of monasteries in Italy:\n    but when in 1504 the abbey of Mount Cassino joined this\n    Congregation, it took the name of this mother-house. The\n    Congregation of Savigni, founded by St. Vitalis, a disciple of B.\n    Robert of Arbrissel, in the forest of Savigni, in Normandy in 1112,\n    was united to the Cistercians in 1153. The Congregation of Tiron,\n    founded by B. Bernard of Abbeville, another disciple of B. Robert of\n    Arbrissel, in 1109, in the forest of Tiron, in Le Perche. It parsed\n    into the Congregation of St. Maur, in 1629. These of Savigni and\n    Tiron had formerly several houses in England. The Congregation of\n    Bursfield in Germany, was established by a Reformation in 1461: that\n    of Molck, vulgarly Mock, in Austria, in the diocese of Passaw, in\n    1418: that of Hirsauge, in the diocese of Spire, was instituted by\n    St. William, abbot of S. Aurel, in 1080. The history of this abbey\n    was written by Trithemius. After the change of religion it was\n    secularized, and, by the treaty of Westphalia, ceded to the duke of\n    Wirtemberg. The independent great Benedictin abbeys in Flanders,\n    form a Congregation subject only to the Pope, but the abbots hold\n    assemblies to judge appeals, in which the abbot of St. Vaast of Arms\n    is president. The Congregation of Monte-Virgine, in Italy, was\n    instituted by St. William, in 1119. That of St. Benedict's of\n    Valladolid, in Spain, dates its establishment in 1390. In England,\n    archbishop Lanfranc united the Benedictin monasteries in one\n    Congregation, which began from that time to hold regular general\n    chapters, and for some time bore his name. This union was made\n    stricter by many new regulations in 1335, under the name of the\n    Black Monks. It is one of the most illustrious of all the orders, or\n    bodies of religious men, that have ever adorned the Church, and, in\n    spite of the most grievous persecutions, still subsists. The\n    congregation of Benedictin nuns of Mount Calvary owes it original to\n    a Reformation, according to the primitive austerity of this order,\n    introduced first in the nunnery at Poitiers, in 1614, by the abbess\n    Antoinette of Orleans, with the assistance of the famous F. Joseph,\n    the Capuchin. It has two houses at Paris, and eighteen others in\n    several parts of France. See Helyot, t. {} and 6. Calmet, Comment.\n    sur la Regle de St. Benoit, t. 2, p. 525. Hermant Schoonbeck, &c.\n10. St. Greg. Dial. l. 2, c. 12; Dom. Mege, p. 180.\n11. Procop. l. 3, de Bello Gothico. Baronius, &c.\n12. Exitum suum Dominici corporis et sanguinis perceptione communivit.\n    St. Greg. Dial. b. 2, c.37.\n13. Some have related that Aigulph, a monk of Fleury, and certain\n    citizens from Mans, going to Mount Cassino in 653, when that\n    monastery lay in ruins, brought thence the remains of St. Benedict\n    and St. Scholastics, and placed those of the former at Fleury, and\n    those of the latter at Mans. The author of this relation is either\n    Adrevald or rather Adalbert, a monk of Fleury, whom some imagined\n    contemporary with Aigulph, but he certainly lived at least two\n    hundred years later, as he himself declares, and his account is in\n    many capital circumstances inconsistent with those of the life of\n    Aigulph, and with the authentic and certain history of that age, as\n    is demonstrated by F. Stilting, the Bollandist, in the life of St.\n    Aigulph, (t. 1, Sept. p. 744,) and by others. It is printed in the\n    Bibliotheca Floriacensis, (or of Fleury,) t. 1, p. 1, and more\n    correctly in Mabillon's Acta Ben. t. 2, p. 337, and the Bollandists,\n    21 Martij, p. 300. Soon after this relation was compiled by\n    Adalbert, we find it quoted by Adrevald, a monk of the same house,\n    in his history of several miracles wrought by the relics of this\n    holy patriarch. (See Dom. Clemencez, Hist. Liter. t. 5, p. 516.)\n    This Adrevald wrote also the life of St. Aigulph, who, passing from\n    Fleury to Lerins, and being made abbot of that house, established\n    there an austere reformation of the order: but by the contrivance of\n    certain rebellious monks, joined in a conspiracy with the count of\n    Usez, and some other powerful men, was seized by violence, and\n    carried to the isle Caprasia, (now called Capraia,) situated between\n    Corsica and the coast of Tuscany, where he was murdered, with three\n    companions, about the year 679, on the 3rd day of September, on\n    which he is honored as a martyr at Lerins. The relics of these\n    martyrs were honorably conveyed thither soon after their death. F.\n    Vincent Barrali, in his History of Lerins, affirms that they still\n    remain there; but this can be only true of part, for the body of St.\n    Aigulph was translated to the Benedictin priory at Provins, in the\n    diocese of Sens, and is to this day honored there, as Mabillon (Saec.\n    2 Ben. pp. 666 and 742) and Stilting (t. 1. Sept.) demonstrate, from\n    the constant tradition of that monastery, and the authority of Peter\n    Cellensis and several other irrefragable vouchers.\n\n    That the greatest part at least of the relics of St. Benedict and\n    St. Scholastica still remain at Mount Casino, is demonstrated by\n    Angelus de Nuce, in his dissertation on this subject, by F.\n    Stilting, in his comments on the life of St. Aigulph, t. 1. Sept.,\n    by pope Benedict XIV., De Servor. Dei Beatif. and Canoniz. l. 4,\n    part 2, c. 24, n. 53, t. 5, p. 245, and Macchiarelli, the monk of\n    Camaldoli. Soon after Mount Cassino was restored, pope Zachary\n    visited that monastery and devoutly venerated the relics of St.\n    Benedict and St. Scholastica in 746, as he testifies in his Bull.\n    When pope Alexander II. consecrated the new church of that abbey in\n    1071, these sacred bones were inspected and found all to remain\n    there, as we learn from his Bull, and by Leo of Ostia, and Peter the\n    deacon. The same is affirmed in the acts of two visitations made of\n    them in 1545 and 1650. Nevertheless, Angelus de Nuce (who relates in\n    his Chronicle of Mount Cassino, that, in 1650, he saw these relics,\n    with all the monks of that house, in the visitation then made) and\n    Stilting allow that some of the bones of this saint were conveyed\n    into France, not by St. Aigulph, but soon after his time, and this\n    is expressly affirmed by Paul the Deacon, in his History of the\n    Lombards, l. 6, c. 2.\n14. Habitavit secum.\n15. S. Bened. Reg. c. 7.\n16. S. Thos. 2. 2. qu. 161. a. 6.\n17. No one can, without presumption, pride, and sin, prefer himself\n    before the worst of sinners; first, because the judgments of God are\n    always secret and unknown to us. (See St. Aug. de Virginit. St. Thos\n    2.2. qu. 161. ad 1. Cassian, St. Bern., &c.) Secondly, the greatest\n    sinners, had they received the graces with which we have been\n    favored, would not have been so ungrateful; and if we had been in\n    their circumstances, into what precipices should not we have fallen?\n    Thirdly, instead of looking upon notorious sinners, we ought to turn\n    our eyes towards those who serve God with fervor, full of confusion\n    to see how far so many thousands are superior to us in every virtue.\n    Thus we must practise the lesson laid down by St. Paul, never to\n    measure ourselves with any one so as to prefer ourselves to another;\n    but to look upon all others as superior to us, and less ungrateful\n    and base than ourselves. Our own wretchedness and sinfulness we are\n    acquainted with; but charity inclines us to judge the best of\n    others.\n18. Luke xviii. 18.\n19. Orat. ejus inter Apocryph.\n20. St. Bened. Reg. p. 210.\n\nST. SERAPION,\n\nCALLED the Sindonite, from a single garment of coarse linen which he\nalways wore. He was a native of Egypt. Exceeding great was the austerity\nof his penitential life. Though he travelled into several countries, he\nalways lived in the same poverty, mortification, and recollection. In a\ncertain town, commiserating the spiritual blindness of an idolater, who\nwas also a comedian, he sold himself to him for twenty pieces of money.\nHis only sustenance in this servitude was bread and water. He acquitted\nhimself at the same time of every duty belonging to his condition with\nthe utmost diligence and fidelity, joining with his labor assiduous\nprayer and meditation. Having converted his master and the whole family\nto the faith, and induced him to quit the stage, he was made free by\nhim, but could not be {639} prevailed upon to keep for his own use, or\neven to distribute to the poor, the twenty pieces of coin he had\nreceived as the price of his liberty. Soon after this he sold himself a\nsecond time, to relieve a distressed widow. Having spent some time with\nhis new master, in recompense of signal spiritual services, besides his\nliberty, he also received a cloak, a tunic, or undergarment, and a book\nof the gospels. He was scarce gone out of doors, when, meeting a poor\nman, he bestowed on him his cloak; and shortly after, to another\nstarving with cold, he gave his tunic; and was thus reduced again to his\nsingle linen garment. Being asked by a stranger who it was that had\nstripped him and left him in that naked condition, showing his book of\nthe gospels, he said: \"This it is that hath stripped me.\" Not long\nafter, he sold the book itself for the relief of a person in extreme\ndistress. Being met by an old acquaintance, and asked what was become of\nit, he said \"Could you believe it? this gospel seemed continually to cry\nto me: Go, sell all thou hast, and give it to the poor. Wherefore I have\nalso sold it, and given the price to the indigent members of Christ.\"\nHaving nothing now left but his own person, he disposed of that again on\nseveral other occasions, where the corporal or spiritual necessities of\nhis neighbor called for relief: once to a certain Manichee at Lacedaemon,\nwhom he served for two years, and before they were expired, brought both\nhim and his whole family over to the true faith. St. John the Almoner\nhaving read the particulars of this history, called for his steward, and\nsaid to him, weeping: \"Can we flatter ourselves that we do any great\nmatters because we give our estates to the poor? Here is a man who could\nfind means to give himself to them, and so many times over.\" St.\nSerapion went from Lacedaemon to Rome, there to study the most perfect,\nmodels of virtue, and, returning afterwards into Egypt, died in the\ndesert, being sixty years old, some time before Palladius visited Egypt\nin 388. Henschenius, in his Notes on the Life of St. Auxentius,[1] and\nBollandus[2] take notice that in certain Menaea he is honored on the 21st\nof March; yet they have not given his acts on that day. Baronius\nconfounds him with St. Serapion, the Sidonian martyr. See Pallad.\nLausiac. ch. 83, and Leontius in the Life of St. John the Almoner.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  Henschen. Not. in Vit. S. Auxentii, ad 24 Feb {} 3 Febr.\n2.  Bolland ad 23 Jan. p. 508, t. 2, Jan.\n\nST. SERAPION,\n\nABBOT of Arsinoe, in Upper Egypt. He governed ten thousand monks,\ndispersed in the deserts and monasteries near that town. These religious\nmen hired themselves to the farmers of the country to till their lands\nand reap their corn; joining assiduous prayer and other exercises of\ntheir state with their labor. Each man received for his wages twelve\nartabes, or about forty Roman bushels or modii, says Palladius: all\nwhich they put into the hands of their holy abbot. He gave to every one\na sufficient allowance for his subsistence during the ensuing year,\naccording to their abstemious manner of living. The remainder was all\ndistributed among the poor. By this economy, all the necessities of the\nindigent in that country were supplied, and several barges loaded with\ncorn were sent yearly by the river to Alexandria, for the relief of the\npoor of that great city. St. Serapion was honored with the priesthood,\nand with admirable sanctity applied himself to the sacred functions of\nthe ministry: yet found time to join his brethren in their penitential\nlabor, not to lose his share in their charity. His name is inserted by\nCanisius in his Germanic Martyrology on this day, from certain copies of\nthe Greek Menaea. See Palladius, c. 76, p. 760; Rufin. Vit. Patr. l. 2,\nc. 18; Sozomen, l. 6, c. 28.\n\n{640}\n\nST. SERAPION, BISHOP OF THMUIS IN EGYPT, C.\n\nTHE surname of the Scholastic, which was given him, is a proof of the\nreputation which he acquired, by his penetrating genius, and by his\nextensive learning, both sacred and profane. He presided for some time\nin the catechetical school of Alexandria, but, to apply himself more\nperfectly to the science of the saints, to which he had always\nconsecrated himself, his studies, and his other actions, he retired into\nthe desert, and became a bright light in the monastic state. St.\nAthanasius assures us, in his life of St. Antony, that in the visits\nwhich Serapion paid to that illustrious patriarch, St. Antony often told\non his mountain things which passed in Egypt at a distance; and that at\nhis death, he left him one of his tunics of hair. St. Serapion was drawn\nout of his retreat, to be placed in the episcopal see of Thmuis, a\nfamous city of Lower Egypt, near Diospolis, to which Stephanus and\nPtolemy give the title of a metropolis. The name in the Egyptian tongue\nsignified a goat, which animal was anciently worshipped there, as St.\nJerom informs us. St. Serapion was closely linked with St. Athanasius in\nthe defence of the Catholic faith, for which he was banished by the\nemperor Constantius; whence St. Jerom styles him a confessor. Certain\npersons, who confessed God the Son consubstantial to the Father, denied\nthe divinity of the Holy Ghost. This error was no sooner broached, but\nour saint strenuously opposed it, and informed St. Athanasius of this\nnew inconsistent blasphemy; and that zealous defender of the adorable\nmystery of the Trinity, the fundamental article of the Christian faith,\nwrote against this rising monster. The four letters which St. Athanasius\nwrote to Serapion, in 359, out of the desert, in which at that time he\nlay concealed, were the first express confutation of the Macedonian\nheresy that was published. St. Serapion ceased not to employ his labors\nto great advantage, against both the Arians and Macedonians. He also\ncompiled an excellent book against the Manichees, in which he shows that\nour bodies may be made the instruments of good, and that our souls may\nbe perverted by sin; that there is no creature of which a good use may\nnot be made; and that both just and wicked men are often changed, the\nformer by falling into sin, the latter by becoming virtuous. It is,\ntherefore, a self-contradiction to pretend with the Manichees that our\nsouls are the work of God, but our bodies of the devil, or the evil\nprinciple.[1] St..Serapion wrote several learned letters, and a treatise\non the Titles of the Psalms, quoted by St. Jerom, which are now lost. At\nhis request, St. Athanasius composed several of his works against the\nArians; and so great was his opinion of our saint, that he desired him\nto correct, or add to them what he thought wanting. Socrates relates[2]\nthat St. Serapion gave an abstract of his own life, and an abridged rule\nof Christian perfection, in very few words, which he would often repeat,\nsaying: \"The mind is purified by spiritual knowledge, (or by holy\nmeditation and prayer,) the spiritual passions of the soul by charity,\nand the irregular appetites by abstinence and penance.\" This saint died\nin his banishment in the fourth age, and is commemorated on this day in\nthe Roman Martyrology. See his works, those of St. Athanasius in several\nplaces, St. Jerom, Catall. c. 99; Socrates {641}, l. 4, c. 23; Sozom. l.\n4, c. 9; Photius, Col. 85; Tillem. t. 8; Ceillier, t. 6, p. 36.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  A Latin translation of St. Serapion's book against the Manichees,\n    given F. Turrianus the Jesuit, is published in the Bibliotheca\n    Patrum, printed at Lyons. and in F. Canisius's Lectiones Antiquae, t.\n    5, part 1, p. 35. The learned James Basnage, who republished this\n    work of Canisius with curios additions and {notes}, has added the\n    Greek text, t. 1, p. 37.\n2.  Socrat. Hist. l. 4, c. 23.\n\nST. ENNA, OR ENDEUS, ABBOT\n\nHIS father, Conall Deyre, was lord of Ergall, a large territory in\nUlster, in which principality Enna succeeded him; but by the pious\nexhortations of his sister, St. Fanchea, abbess of Kill-Aine, at the\nfoot of mount Bregh, in the confines of Meath, he left the world, and\nbecame a monk. Going abroad, by her advice, he lived some time in the\nabbey of Rosnal, or the vale of Ross, under the abbot Mansenus. At\nlength returning home, he obtained of AEngus, king of Munster, a grant of\nthe isle of Arra, or Arn, wherein he founded a great monastery, in which\nhe trained up many disciples, illustrious for sanctity, insomuch that\nthe island was called Arran of the Saints. His death must have happened\nin the beginning of the sixth century. The chief church of the island is\ndedicated to God in his name, and called Kill-Enda. His tomb is shown in\nthe churchyard of another church, in the same island, named\nTeglach-Enda. See F. Colgan, March 21.\n\n\nMARCH XXII.\n\nST. BASIL OF ANCYRA, PRIEST, M.\n\nFrom the authentic acts of his martyrdom in Ruinart, Henschenius, and\nTillemont, t. 7, p. 375.\n\nA.D. 362.\n\nMARCELLUS, bishop of Ancyra, distinguished himself by his zeal against\nthe Arians, on which account he was banished by Constantius in 336.[1]\nBasil, a ringleader of the Semi-Arians, was intruded into that see, but\nwas himself deposed by the stanch Arians, in 360; and is mentioned by\nSocrates to have survived our saint, though he continued still in\nbanishment under Jovian. The holy martyr of whom we speak was also\ncalled Basil. He was priest of Ancyra under the bishop Marcellus, and a\nman of a most holy life, and unblemished conversation, and had been\ntrained up by saints in the practices of perfect piety. He preached the\nword of God with great assiduity, and when the Arian wolf, who bore his\nname, attempted to plant his heresy in that city, he never ceased to cry\nout to the people, with the zeal and intrepidity of a prophet, exhorting\ntheir to beware of the snares which {642} were laid for them, and to\nremain steadfast in the Catholic faith. He was forbidden by the Arian\nbishops, in 360, to hold ecclesiastical assemblies: but he despised the\nunjust order; and as boldly defended the Catholic faith before\nConstantius himself. When Julian the Apostate re-established idolatry,\nand left no means untried to pervert the faithful, Basil ran through the\nwhole city, exhorting the Christians to continue steadfast, and not\npollute themselves with the sacrifices and libations of the heathens,\nbut fight manfully in the cause of God. The heathens laid violent hands\non him; and dragged him before Saturninus the proconsul, accusing him of\nsedition, of having overturned altars, that he stirred up the people\nagainst the gods, and had spoken irreverently of the emperor and his\nreligion. The proconsul asked him if the religion which the emperor had\nestablished was not the truth? The martyr answered: \"Can you yourself\nbelieve it? Can any man endued with reason persuade himself that dumb\nstatues are gods?\" The proconsul commanded him to be tortured on the\nrack, and scoffing, said to him, under his torments: \"Do not you believe\nthe power of the emperor to be great, who can punish those who disobey\nhim? Experience is an excellent master, and will inform you better. Obey\nthe emperor, worship the gods, and offer sacrifice.\" The martyr, who\nprayed during his torments with great earnestness, replied: \"It is what\nI never will do.\" The proconsul remanded him to prison, and informed his\nmaster Julian of what he had done. The emperor approved of his\nproceedings, and dispatched Elpidius and Pegasus, two apostate\ncourtiers, in quality of commissaries, to assist the proconsul in the\ntrial of the prisoner. They took with them from Nicomedia one Aslepius,\na wicked priest of Esculapius, and arrived at Ancyra. Basil did not\ncease to praise and glorify God in his dungeon, and Pegasus repaired\nthither to him in hopes, by promises and entreaties, to work him into\ncompliance: but came back to the proconsul highly offended at the\nliberty with which the martyr had reproached him with his apostacy. At\nthe request of the commissaries, the proconsul ordered him to be again\nbrought before them, and tormented on the rack with greater cruelty than\nbefore; and afterwards to be loaded with the heaviest irons, and lodged\nin the deepest dungeon.\n\nIn the mean time Julian set out from Constantinople for Antioch, in\norder to prepare for his Persian expedition. From Chalcedon he turned\nout of his road to Pessinunte, a town in Galatia, there to offer\nsacrifice in a famous temple of Cibele. In that town he condemned a\ncertain Christian to be beheaded for the faith, and the martyr went to\nexecution with as much joy as if he had been called to a banquet. When\nJulian arrived at Ancyra, St. Basil was presented before him, and the\ncrafty emperor, putting on an air of compassion, said to him: \"I myself\nam well skilled in your mysteries; and I can inform you, that Christ, in\nwhom you place your trust, died under Pilate, and remains among the\ndead.\" The martyr answered: \"You are deceived; you have renounced Christ\nat a time when he conferred on you the empire. But he will deprive you\nof it, together with your life. As you have thrown down his altars, so\nwill he overturn your throne: and as you have violated his holy law,\nwhich you had so often announced to the people, (when a reader in the\nchurch,) and have trodden it under your feet, your body shall be cast\nforth without the honor of a burial, and shall be trampled upon by men.\"\nJulian replied: \"I designed to dismiss thee: but thy impudent manner of\nrejecting my advice, and uttering reproaches against me, force me to use\nthee ill. It is therefore my command, that every day thy skin be torn\noff thee in seven different places, till thou hast no more left.\" He\nthen gave it in charge to count Frumentinus, the captain of his guards,\nto see this barbarous sentence executed. The saint, after having\nsuffered with wonderful patience the first incisions, desired to speak\nto the emperor. {643} Frumentinus would be himself the bearer of this\nmessage to Julian, not doubting but Basil intended to comply and offer\nsacrifice. Julian instantly ordered that the confessor should meet him\nin the temple of Esculapius. He there pressed him to join him in making\nsacrifices. But the martyr replied, that he could never adore blind and\ndeaf idols. And taking a piece of his flesh which had been cut out of\nhis body that day, and still hung to it by a bit of skin, he threw it\nupon Julian. The emperor went out in great indignation: and count\nFrumentinus, fearing his displeasure, studied how to revenge an insult,\nfor which he seemed responsible to his master. He therefore mounted his\ntribunal, and ordered the torments of the martyr to be redoubled; and so\ndeep were the incisions made in his flesh, that his bowels were exposed\nto view, and the spectators wept for compassion. The martyr prayed aloud\nall the time, and at evening was carried back to prison. Next morning\nJulian set out for Antioch, and would not see Frumentinus. The count\nresolved to repair his disgrace, or at least to discharge his resentment\nby exerting his rage upon the servant of Christ. But to his thundering\nthreats Basil answered: \"You know how many pieces of flesh have been\ntorn from my body: yet look on my shoulders and sides; see if any wounds\nappear? Know that Jesus Christ this night hath healed me. Send this news\nto your master Julian, that he may know the power of God whom he hath\nforsaken. He hath overturned his altars, who was himself concealed under\nthem when he was sought by Constantius to be put to death. But God hath\ndiscovered to me that his tyranny shall be shortly extinguished with his\nlife.\" Frumentinus seemed no longer able to contain his rage, and\ncommanded the saint to be laid upon his belly, and his back to be\npierced with red-hot iron spikes. The martyr expired under these\ntorments on the 29th of June, in 362. But his name is honored both by\nthe Latins and Greeks on the 22d of March.\n\nThe love of God, which triumphed in the breasts of the martyrs, made\nthem regard as nothing whatever labors, losses, or torments they\nsuffered for its sake, according to that of the Canticles: _If a man\nshall have given all that he possesses, he will despise it as nothing._\nIf the sacrifice of worldly honors, goods, friends, and life be required\nof such a one, he makes it with joy, saying with the royal prophet,\n_What have I desired in heaven, or on earth, besides thee, O God! Thou\nart my portion forever._ If he lives deprived of consolation and joy, in\ninterior desolation and spiritual dryness, he is content to bear his\ncross, provided he be united to his God by love, and says, My God and my\nall, if I possess you, I have all things in you alone: whatever happens\nto me, with the treasure of your love I am rich and sovereignly happy.\nThis he repeats in poverty, disgraces, afflictions, and persecutions. He\nrejoices in them, as by them he is more closely united to his God, gives\nthe strongest proof of his fidelity to him, and perfect submission to\nhis divine appointments, and adores the accomplishment of his will. If\nit be the property of true love to receive crosses with content and joy,\nto sustain great labors, and think them small, or rather not to think of\nthem at all, as they bear no proportion to the prize, to what we owe to\nGod, or to what his love deserves: to suffer much, and think all\nnothing, and the longest and severest trials short: is it not a mark of\na want of this love, to complain of prayer, fasts, and every Christian\nduty? How far is this disposition from the fervor and resolution of all\nthe saints, and from the heroin courage of the martyrs!\n\nFootnotes:\n1. Marcellus wrote a famous book against the Arians, which Eusebius of\nCaesarea and all the Arians condemned, as reviving the exploded heresy\nof Sabellius. But Sabellianism was a general slander with which they\naspersed all orthodox pastors. It is indeed true, that St. Hilary, St.\nBasil, St. Chrysostom, and Sulpicius Severus charge Marcellus with\nthat error; but were deceived by the clamors of the Arians. For\nMarcellus appealing to pope Julius, and repairing to Rome, was\nacquitted, and his book declared orthodox by that pope in 341, and\nalso by the council of Sardica in 347; as St. Hilary (fragm. 3,\npp. 1308, 1311) and St. Athanasins (Apol. contra Arianos, p. 165)\ntestify. It was a calumny of the Arians, though believed by\nSt. Hilary, that St. Athanasius at length abandoned and condemned him.\nIt is demonstrated by Dom Montfaucon from the works of St. Athanasius,\nthat he ever defended the innocence of Marcellus, (t. 2 Collect Patr.)\nMoreover, Marcellus being informed that St. Basil had suggested to St.\nAthanasius certain suspicions of his faith, in 372, towards the end of\nhis life, sent St. Athanasius his most orthodox confession of faith,\nin which he explicitly condemns Sabellianism; which authentic monument\nwas published by Montfaucon, (t. 2, Collect Patr. p. 55.) If Patavius,\nBull, and others, who censure Marcellus, had seen this confession,\nthey would have cleared him of the imputation of Sabellianism, and\nexpounded favorably certain ambiguous expressions which occurred in\nhis book against the Arises, which is now lost, and was compiled\nagainst a work of Asterius the Sophist, surnamed the advocate of the\nArians.\n\n{644}\n\nST. PAUL, BISHOP OF NARBONNE, C.\n\nST. GREGORY of Tours informs us,[1] that he was sent with other\npreachers from Rome to plant the faith in Gaul. St. Saturninus of\nThoulouse, and St. Dionysius of Paris, were crowned with martyrdom:\nbut St. Paul of Narbonne, St. Trophimus of Arles, St. Martial of\nLimoges, and St. Gatian of Tours, after having founded those churches,\namidst many dangers, departed in peace. Prudentius says,[2] that the\nname of Paul had rendered the city of Narbonne illustrious.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  Hist. Franc. l. 1, c. 30.\n2.  Hymn. 4.\n\nST. LEA. WIDOW.\n\nSHE was a rich Roman lady; after the death of her husband she mortified\nher flesh by wearing rough sackcloth, passed whole nights in prayer, and\nby humility seemed every one's menial servant. She died in 384, and is\nhonored on this day in the Roman Martyrology. St. Jerom makes an elegant\ncomparison between her death and that of Praetextatus, a heathen, who was\nthat year appointed consul, but snatched away by death at the same time.\nSee St. Jerom, Ep. 20, (olim 24,) to Marcella, t. 4, p. 51, Ed. Ben.\n\nST. DEOGRATIAS, BISHOP OF CARTHAGE, C.\n\nGENSERIC, the Arian king of the Vandals, took Carthage in 439, filled\nthe city with cruelties, and caused Quodvultdeus, the bishop, and many\nothers, to be put on board an old leaky vessel, who, notwithstanding,\narrived safe at Naples. After a vacancy of fourteen years, in 454, St.\nDeogratias was consecrated archbishop. Two years after, Genseric\nplundered Rome, and brought innumerable captives from Italy, Sicily,\nSardinia, and Corsica, into Africa, whom the Moors and Vandals shared\namong them on the shore, separating without any regard or compassion\nweeping wives from their husbands, and children from their parents.\nDeogratias sold every thing, even the gold and silver vessels of the\nchurch, to redeem as many as possible; he provided them with lodgings\nand beds, and furnished them with all succors, and though in a decrepit\nold age, visited those that were sick every day, and often in the night.\nWorn out by these fatigues, he died in 457, to the inexpressible grief\nof the prisoners, and of his own flock. The ancient calendar of\nCarthage, written in the fifth age, commemorates him on the 5th of\nJanuary; but the Roman on the 22d of March. See St. Victor Vitensis, l.\n1, c. 3.\n\nST. CATHARINE OF SWEDEN, VIRGIN.\n\nSHE was daughter of Ulpho, prince of Nericia, in Sweden, and of St.\nBridget. The love of God seemed almost to prevent in her the use of her\nreason. At seven years of age she was placed in the nunnery of Risburgh,\nand educated in piety under the care of the holy abbess of that house.\nBeing very beautiful, she was, by her father, contracted in marriage to\nEgard {645} a young nobleman of great virtue: but the virgin persuaded\nhim to join with her in making a mutual vow of perpetual chastity. By\nher discourses he became desirous only of heavenly graces, and, to draw\nthem down upon his soul more abundantly, he readily acquiesced in the\nproposal. The happy couple, having but one heart and one desire, by a\nholy emulation excited each other to prayer, mortification, and works of\ncharity. After the death of her father, St. Catharine, out of devotion\nto the passion of Christ, and to the relies of the martyrs, accompanied\nher mother in her pilgrimages and practices of devotion and penance.\nAfter her death at Rome, in 1373, Catherine returned to Sweden, and died\nabbess of Vadzstena, or Vatzen,[1] on the 24th of March, in 1381.[2] For\nthe last twenty-five years of her life she every day purified her soul\nby a sacramental confession of her sins. Her name stands in the Roman\nMartyrology on the 22d of March. See her life written by Ulpho, a\nBrigittine friar, thirty years after her death, with the remarks of\nHenschenius.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  The great monastery of our Saviour at Wasten, or Vatzen, in the\n    diocese of Lincopen, was first founded by St. Bridget, in 1344; but\n    rebuilt in a more convenient situation in 1384, when the nuns and\n    friars were introduced with great solemnity by the bishop of\n    Lincopen. This is called its foundation in the exact chronicle of\n    Sweden, published by Benzelius, Monum. Suec. p. 94.\n2.  St. Catharine of Sweden compiled a pious book, entitled, Sielinna\n    Troest, that is, Consolation to the Soul, which fills one hundred\n    and sixty-five leaves in folio, in a MS., on vellum, mentioned by\n    Starnman, Sur l'Etat des Sciences en Suede, dans les temps recules.\n    The saint modestly says in her preface, that as a bee gathers honey\n    out of various flowers, and a physician makes choice of medicinal\n    roots for the composition of his remedies, and a virgin makes up a\n    garland out of a variety of flowers, so she has collected from the\n    holy scriptures and other good books, chosen rules and maxims of\n    virtue.\n\n\nMARCH XXIII.\n\nST. ALPHONSUS TURIBIUS, ARCHBISHOP OF LIMA,\n\nCONFESSOR.\n\nFrom his life by F. Cyprian de Herrera, dedicated to pope Clement X.,\nand the acts of his canonization.\n\nA.D. 1606.\n\nST. TORIBIO, or TIIRIBIUS ALPHONSUS MOGROBEJO, was second son to the\nlord of Mogrobejo, and born in the kingdom of Leon, on the 16th of\nNovember, in 1538. From his infancy he discovered a strong inclination\nto piety; and, in his childhood, it was his delight, at times of\nrecreation, to erect and adorn altars, and to serve the poor. He\ntrembled at the very shadow of sin. One day, seeing a poor pedler-woman\nangry because she had lost something out of her pack, he most movingly\nentreated and exhorted her, that she would not offend God by passion;\nand, in order to appease her, gave her the value of her loss, which he\nhad begged of his mother for that purpose. He was very devout to the\nBlessed Virgin, said every day her Office and Rosary, and fasted every\nSaturday in her honor. While at school, he usually gave part of his\nslender dinner to the poor, and was so much addicted to fasting, that\nhis superiors were obliged, by strict commands, to compel him to\nmoderate his austerities. He began his higher studies at Valladolid, but\ncompleted them at Salamanca. He was introduced early to the notice of\nking Philip II., honored by him with several dignities, and made\npresident or chief judge at Granada. This office he discharged during\nfive years with so much integrity, prudence, and virtue, that the eyes\nof the whole kingdom were fixed on him, and his life in the world {646}\nwas a holy noviceship to the pastoral charge. The pressing necessities\nof the infant church of Peru required a prelate who inherited, in a\ndistinguished manner, the spirit of the apostles; and the archbishopric\nof Lima falling vacant, Turibius was unanimously judged the person of\nall others the best qualified to be an apostle of so large a country,\nand to remedy the scandals which obstructed the conversion of the\ninfidels. The king readily nominated him to that dignity, and all\nparties concerned applauded the choice. Turibius was thunderstruck at\nthis unexpected news, and had no sooner received the message, but he\ncast himself on the ground at the foot of his crucifix, praying with\nmany tears that God would deliver him from so heavy a burden, which he\nthought absolutely above his strength. He wrote the most urgent letters\nto the king's council, in which he pleaded his incapacity, and other\nimpediments, and laid great stress on the canons, which forbid laymen to\nbe promoted to such dignities in the church. This humility it was that\nobtained the succor of heaven by which he performed wonders in the\nservice of souls. Being compelled by obedience to acquiesce, he at\nlength testified his submission by falling on his knees and kissing the\nground.\n\nAfter a suitable preparation, he received the four minor orders on four\nsuccessive Sundays, the better to dispose himself for the functions of\neach; and after passing through the other orders, he was consecrated\nbishop. Immediately after which he set out for Peru, and landed at Lima,\nin the year 1581, of his age the forty-third. That diocese is extended\none hundred and thirty leagues along the coast, comprising three cities,\nand many towns and villages, with innumerable cottages scattered over\ntwo ridges of the mountains of the Andes, esteemed the highest and the\nmost rugged in the whole world. Some of the European generals, who first\ninvaded that country, were men who seemed to measure every thing by\ntheir insatiable avarice and ambition, and had so far lost all\nsentiments of humanity towards the poor savages, that they deserved the\nname rather of tyrants and plunderers than of conquerors. Civil wars and\ndissensions completed the misfortune of that country; and covetousness,\ncruelty, treachery, fraud, and debauchery, seemed triumphant. Nor were\nthe repeated orders of the Spanish court able to redress these evils.\nThe sight of these disorders moved the good pastor often to tears, but\nhis prudence and zeal overcame all difficulties, extirpated public\nscandals, and made that kingdom a flourishing portion of the Christian\nchurch. Upon his arrival he immediately began a visitation of his vast\ndiocese: an undertaking of incredible fatigue, and attended with many\ndangers. He often crept over the steepest and most rugged mountains,\ncovered with ice or snow, to visit some poor hut of Indians, and give\nthem suitable comfort and instruction. He travelled often on foot, and\nsometimes barefoot, and by fasting and prayer never ceased to implore\nthe divine mercy for the salvation of the souls committed to his charge.\nHe placed everywhere able and zealous pastors, and took care that no one\nin the most remote corners of the rocks should be left destitute of the\nmeans of instruction and of the benefit of the sacraments. To settle and\nmaintain discipline, he appointed diocesan synods to be held every two\nyears, and provincial synods every seven; and was vigilant and severe in\nchastising the least scandal, especially of avarice, in the clergy.\nWithout respect of persons, he reproved injustice and vice, and made use\nof all the means which his authority put into his hands, to check the\ninsolence of public sinners, and to protect the poor from oppression.\nMany of the first conquerors and governors of Peru, before the arrival\nof the most virtuous viceroy Francis of Toledo, were men who often\nsacrificed every thing to their passions, and for their private ends.\nFrom some of these saint suffered many persecutions, and was {647} often\nthwarted by them in the discharge of his duty. But by the arms of\nmeekness and patience he overcame all affronts and injuries, and with an\ninvincible constancy he maintained the rights of justice and truth. He\nshowed that many sinners misconstrued the law of God to make it favor\ntheir passions; but that, as Tertullian observes, \"Christ calls himself\nthe truth, not custom,\" and will weigh our actions not in the false\nbalance of the world, but in the true scales of the sanctuary. Thus he\nextirpated the most inveterate abuses,[1] and established with so great\nfervor the pure maxims of the gospel, as to revive in many the primitive\nspirit of Christianity. To extend and perpetuate the advantages of\nreligion, which by his zeal he had procured, he filled this country with\nseminaries, churches, and many hospitals; but would never suffer his own\nname to be recorded in any of his munificent charities or foundations.\nWhen he was at Lima, he every day visited several hospitals, comforted\nand exhorted the sick, and administered the sacraments. When a\npestilence, though that calamity is seldom known in Peru, raged in some\nparts of his diocese, Turibius distributed his own necessaries in\nrelieving the afflicted: he preached penance, because sins are the cause\nof chastisements, and infinitely the worst of evils. He walked in the\nprocessions, bathed in tears, with his eyes always fixed on a crucifix,\nand offering himself to God for his flock; fasted, watched, and prayed\nfor them, without intermission, till God was pleased to remove his\nscourge.\n\nNothing gave the saint so much pleasure as the greatest labors and\ndangers, to procure the least spiritual advantage to one soul. Burning\nwith the most vehement desire of laying down his life for his flock, and\nof suffering all things for him who died for us, he feared no dangers.\nWhen he heard that poor Indians wandered in the mountains and deserts,\nhe sought them out; and to comfort, instruct, or gain one of them, he\noften suffered incredible fatigues, and dangers in the wildernesses, and\nboldly travelled through the haunts of lions and tigers. He spent seven\nyears in performing his first visitation: his second employed him four\nyears, but the third was shorter. He converted innumerable infidels, and\nleft everywhere monuments of his charity. In travelling, he either\nprayed or discoursed on heavenly things. On his arrival at a place, it\nwas his custom to repair first to the church to pray before the altar.\nTo catechise the poor, he would sometimes stay two or three days in\nplaces where he had neither bed nor any kind of food. He visited every\npart of his vast diocese: and when others suggested to him the dangers\nthat threatened him from rocks, precipices, marshes, rivers, robbers,\n{648} and savages, his answer was that Christ came from heaven to save\nman, we ought not therefore to fear dangers for the sake of immortal\nglory. He preached and catechised without intermission, having for this\npurpose learned, in his old age, all the various languages of the\nbarbarous nations of that country. Even on his journeys he said mass\nevery day with wonderful fervor and devotion. He always made a long\nmeditation before and after it, and usually went to confession every\nmorning; though they who best knew his interior, testified, that they\nwere persuaded he had never in his whole life forfeited his baptismal\ninnocence by any mortal sin. He seemed to have God and the divine honor\nalone before his eyes in all his words and actions, so as to give little\nor no attention to any thing else; by which means his prayer was\nperpetual. He retired in private to that exercise often in the day, and\nfor a long time together. In it his countenance seemed often to shine\nwith a divine light. The care with which he studied to disguise and\nconceal his great mortifications and works of piety, was the proof of\nhis sincere humility. His munificence in relieving the poor of every\nclass, especially those who were too bashful to make their necessities\npublicly known, always exhausted his revenues. The decrees of his\nprovincial councils are monuments of his zeal, piety, learning, and\ndiscretion: they have been ever since esteemed, not only in the new\nworld, but also in Europe, and at Rome itself, as oracles. The\nflourishing state of the church of Peru, the great number of saints and\neminent pastors with which it abounded, and the establishment of\ninnumerable seminaries of piety and learning, and hospitals for the\npoor, were the fruit of his zeal. If he did not originally plant the\nfaith, he was at least the great propagator of it, and the chief\ninstrument of God in removing scandals and advancing true piety in that\nvast country, which till then had been a land of abominations; while\nFrancis of Toledo, the great viceroy, first settled the civil government\nin peace and tranquillity by salutary laws, which have procured him the\ntitle of the Legislator of Peru. St. Turibius, in the sixty-eighth year\nof his age, in 1606, during the visitation of his diocese, fell sick at\nSanta, a town one hundred and ten leagues distant from Lima. He foretold\nhis death, and ordered him to be rewarded who should bring him the first\naccount from his physician, that his recovery was despaired of. The\nardor of his faith, his hope, his love of his Creator and Redeemer, his\nresignation and perfect sacrifice of himself, gathered strength in the\nfervent exercises and aspirations which he repeated almost without\nceasing in his illness. By his last will he ordered what he had about\nhim to be distributed among his servants, and whatever else he otherwise\npossessed to be given to the poor. He would be carried to the church,\nthere to receive the holy viaticum: but received extreme unction in his\nsick bed. He often repeated those words of St. Paul: _I desire to be\ndissolved, and to be with Christ._ And in his last moments he ordered to\nbe sung, by his bedside, those of the Psalmist: _I rejoiced in the ibwgs\nthat were said to me: We shall go into the house of the Lord._ He died\non the 23d of March, repeating those other words of the same prophet:\n_Into thy hands I commend my spirit._ His body being translated the year\nafter to Lima, was found incorrupt, the joints flexible, and the skin\nsoft. His historian, and the acts of the canonization, mention many sick\nrestored to their health, and a girl raised to life by him while he was\nliving: also many miracles wrought through his intercession after his\ndeath. He was beatified by Innocent XI. in 1679,[2] and solemnly\ncanonized by pope Benedict XIII. in 1726. On the miracles wrought by his\nintercession, see Benedict XIV.,[3] and especially the acts of his\ncanonization.\n\n{649}\n\nA pastor of souls must be careful to animate all his exterior actions\nand labors in the service of his neighbor, with the interior spirit of\ncompunction, humility, zeal, charity, and tender devotion. Without this\nhe loses the fruit of all the pains he takes, and by them will often\ndeserve only chastisements in the world to come; so much will his\nintention and the affections of his heart be infected with self-love,\nand depraved by various imperfections, and secret sinister desires even\nin the most holy functions. Therefore, a fervent novitiate, employed in\nthe exercises of an interior life, ought to be a part of the preparation\nfor this state; and in the discharge of his duties, a person ought\nalways to unite contemplation with action, and reserve to himself\nsufficient time for conversing with God and his own soul, and taking a\nfrequent review of his own interior. From his labors he must return\nfrequently to prayer, and constantly nourish in his soul a spirit of\nfervent devotion, which will thus accompany all his exterior actions,\nand keep his thoughts and affections always united to God. Those who are\nnot faithful in thus maintaining and improving in themselves an interior\nspirit of piety, and in watching with fear and compunction over the\nmotions of their own hearts, will generally advance very little the\nkingdom of Christ in the souls of others, and are in great danger of\nlosing their own. This is what St. Bernard feared in his disciple pope\nEugeuius III., whom he conjured with tears never to give himself up\nentirely to the care of others, so as not to live also for himself; so\nto communicate a spirit of piety to others, as not to suffer it to be\ndrained in his own heart; to be a basin to hold it, not a pipe for it to\nrun through.[4] This lesson is applicable, with due proportion, to other\nstates, especially that of teaching the sciences, in which the exercises\nof an interior life are so much the more necessary, as the employment is\nmore distracting, more tumultuous, and more exposed to the waves of\nvanity, jealousy, and other secret petty passions.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  The Indians were infamous for their debaucheries, and became so fond\n    of the Spanish wines, after having once tasted them, that to\n    purchase a small quantity they would give all their gold, and were\n    never sober as long as they had wine to drink. But their crimes,\n    which justly provoked the anger of heaven, could not justify the\n    cruelty of their European enemies, in whom avarice seemed to have\n    extinguished the sentiments both of humanity and religion. The\n    missionary priests endeavored in vain to put a stop to the outrages\n    of their countrymen; and the Dominicans carried repeated complaints\n    against them to the kings of Spain. At their remonstrances,\n    Ferdinand, king of Castile, declared the Indians free, and forbade\n    the Spaniards to employ them in carrying burdens, or to use a stick\n    or whip in chastising them. The emperor, Charles V., was prevailed\n    upon to send into America severe orders and regulations in their\n    favor, but to very little effect. The officers, who assumed the\n    haughty titles of conquerors of Mexico and Peru, would not be\n    controlled. Bartholomew de las Casas, a Dominican, and bishop of\n    Chiapa, in New Spain, made four fruitless voyages into Castile to\n    plead the cause of the poor Indians; he obtained ample rescripts\n    from the king, and was constituted by him protector-general of the\n    Indians in America. But these expedients proved too weak against men\n    that were armed. He therefore resigned his bishopric into the hands\n    of the pope, in 1551, and returned into the convent of his order at\n    Valhutolid; where he wrote his books, On the Destruction of the\n    Indians by the Spaniards, and On the Tyranny of the Spaniards in the\n    Indies, both dedicated to king Philip II. The archbishop of Seville,\n    and the universities of Salamanca and Alcala, forbade the impression\n    of the answers which some wrote to defend the Spanish governors, on\n    principles repugnant to the law of nature and of nations. These\n    books of las Casas, being translated into French, were scattered\n    among the people in the Low Countries, who had taken up arms against\n    the Spaniards, and animated them exceedingly in their revolt. But\n    the crimes of some ought not to be imputed to a nation: and the same\n    country which gave birth to some monsters was most fruitful in\n    saints, and produced the most zealous apostles and defenders of the\n    Indians. The great principle which las Casas defended in the\n    emperor's council, and in his writings, was, that the conquered\n    Indians could not, without injustice, be made slaves to the\n    Spaniards, which the king's council and the divines agreed to with\n    regard to those who had not been taken armed in just wars. See the\n    history of the Isle of St. Domingo, by {} Charlevoix.\n2.  Bened. XIV. De Beatif. et Canoniz. {} 1. Append. p. 496.\n3.  De Servor. Dei Canoniz. Roma. 1728. {}4. Tr. de Miraculis, c. 16, p.\n    196.\n4.  Tuus esto ubique: concha esto non canalis. S. Bern. l. d. Consid.\n\nSS. VICTORIAN, PROCONSUL OF CARTHAGE,\n\nAND OTHERS, MARTYRS UNDER THE VANDALS.\n\nHUNERIC, the Arian king of the Vandals in Africa, succeeded his father\nGenseric in 477. He behaved himself at first with moderation towards the\nCatholics, so that they began to hold their assemblies in those places\nwhere they had been prohibited by Genseric: but in 480, he began a\ngrievous persecution of the clergy and holy virgins, which, in 484,\nbecame general, and occasioned vast numbers of the Catholics to be put\nto death. Victorian, a citizen of Adrumetum, one of the principal lords\nof the kingdom, had been made by him governor of Carthage with the Roman\ntitle of proconsul. He was the wealthiest subject the king had, who\nplaced great confidence in him, and he had ever behaved with an\ninviolable fidelity. The king, after he had published his cruel edicts,\nsent a message to the proconsul in the most obliging terms, promising,\nif he would conform to his religion, and execute his orders, to heap on\nhim the greatest wealth and the highest honors which it was in the power\nof a prince to bestow. The proconsul, who amidst the glittering pomp of\nthe world perfectly understood its emptiness, made on the spot this\ngenerous answer: \"Tell the king that I trust in Christ. If his majesty\npleases, he may condemn me to the flames, or to wild beasts, or to any\ntorments: but I shall never consent to renounce the Catholic church in\nwhich I have been baptized. Even if, there were no other life after\nthis, I would never be ungrateful and perfidious to God, who hath\ngranted me the {650} happiness of knowing him, and who hath bestowed on\nme his most precious graces.\" The tyrant became furious at this answer:\nnor can the tortures be imagined which he caused the saint to endure.\nVictorian suffered them with joy, and amidst them finished his glorious\nmartyrdom. The Roman Martyrology joins with him on this day four others\nwho were crowned in the same persecution. Two brothers of the city of\nAquae-regiae, in the province of Byzacena, were apprehended for the faith,\nand conducted to Tabaia in the same province. They had promised each\nother, if possible, to die together; and they begged it of God, as a\nfavor, that they might both suffer the same torments. The persecutors\nhung them in the air with great weights at their feet. One of them,\nunder the excess of pain, begged to be taken down for a little ease. His\nbrother, fearing this desire of ease might by degrees move him to deny\nhis faith, cried out from the rack on which he was hanging: \"God forbid,\ndear brother, that you should ask such a thing. Is this what we promised\nto Jesus Christ? Should not I accuse you at his terrible tribunal? Have\nyou forgotten what we have sworn upon his body and blood, to suffer\ndeath together for his holy name?\" By these words the other was so\nwonderfully encouraged that he cried out: \"No, no; I ask not to be\nreleased: on the contrary, add new weights, if you please, increase my\ntortures, exert all your cruelties till they are exhausted upon me.\"\nThey were then burnt with red-hot plates of iron, and tormented so long,\nand by so many new engines of torture, that the executioners at last\nleft them, saying: \"Everybody follows their example, no one now embraces\nour religion.\" This they said, chiefly because, notwithstanding they had\nbeen so long and so grievously tormented, there were no scars or bruises\nto be seen upon them. Two merchants of Carthage, who both bore the name\nof Frumentius, suffered martyrdom about the same time, and are joined\nwith St. Victorian in the martyrologies. Among many glorious confessors\nat that time, one Liberatus, an eminent physician, was sent into\nbanishment with his wife. He only grieved to see his infant children\ntorn from him. His wife checked his tears by these generous words:\n\"Think no more of them, Jesus Christ himself will have care of them, and\nprotect their souls.\" While in prison, she was told by the heretics that\nher husband had conformed: accordingly, when she met him at the bar\nbefore the judge she upbraided him in open court for having basely\nabandoned God: but discovered by his answer that a cheat had been put\nupon her, to deceive her into her ruin. Twelve young children, when\ndragged away by the persecutors, held their companions by the knees till\nthey were torn away by violence. They were most cruelly beaten and\nscourged every day for a long time; yet by God's grace every one of them\npersevered to the end of the persecution firm in the faith. See St.\nVictor, De Persec. Vandal. l. 5, n. 4.\n\nST. EDELWALD,[1] PRIEST, C.\n\nHE was, for his eminent sanctity, honored with the priesthood while he\nlived in the monastery of Rippon. Afterwards he led an eremitical life\nin the isle of Farne, where he died in 669, about eleven years after St.\nCuthbert. His body was translated to Lindisfarne, afterwards to Durham.\nSee Bede in vita S. Cuthberti, n. 68.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  Edelwald, or Ethelwald. signifies _noble, potent_.\n\n{651}\n\n\nMARCH XXIV.\n\nST. IRENAEUS, BISHOP OF SIRMIUM, M\n\nFrom the original authentic acts of his trial in Henschenius, Ruinart,\np. 403. Tillemont. t. 4, p. 248. Ceillier, t. 3, p. 497.\n\nA.D. 304.\n\nST. IRENAEUS, bishop of Sirmium, capital of part of Pannonia, (now\nSirmisch, a village in Hungary, twenty-two leagues from Buda to the\nsouth,) in the persecution of Dioclesian was apprehended and conducted\nbefore Probus, the governor of Pannonia, who said to him: \"The divine\nlaws oblige all men to sacrifice to the gods.\" Irenaeus answered: \"Into\nhell fire shall be thrown, whoever shall sacrifice to the gods.\" PROBUS.\n\"The edicts of the most clement emperors ordain that all sacrifice to\nthe gods, or suffer according to law.\" IRENAEUS. \"But the law of my God\ncommands me rather to suffer all torments than to sacrifice to the\ngods.\" PROBU.. \"Either sacrifice, or I will put you to the torture.\"\nIRENAEUS. \"You cannot do me a greater pleasure; for by that means you\nwill make the partake of the sufferings of my Saviour.\" The proconsul\ncommanded him to be put on the rack; and while he was tortured, he said\nto him: \"What do you say now, Irenaeus? Will you sacrifice?\" IRENAEUS. \"I\nsacrifice to my God, by confessing his holy name, and so have I always\nsacrificed to him.\" All Irenaeus's family was in the utmost concern for\nhim. His mother, his wife, and his children surrounded him. His children\nembraced his feet, crying out: \"Father, dear father, have pity on\nyourself and on us.\" His wife, dissolved in tears, cast herself about\nhis neck, and, tenderly embracing him, conjured him to preserve himself\nfor her, and his innocent children, the pledges of their mutual love.\nHis mother, with a voice broken with sobs, sent forth lamentable cries\nand sighs, which were accompanied with those of their servants,\nneighbors, and friends; so that all round the rack on which the martyr\nwas hanging, nothing was heard but sobs, groans, and lamentations.\nIrenaeus resisted all these violent assaults, opposing those words of our\nLord: _If any one renounce me before men, I will renounce him before my\nFather who is to Heaven_. He made no answer to their pressing\nsolicitations, but raised his soul above all considerations of flesh and\nblood to him who was looking down on his conflict from above, waiting to\ncrown his victory with immortal glory; and who seemed to cry out to him\nfrom his lofty throne in heaven: \"Come, make haste to enjoy me.\" The\ngovernor said to him: \"Will you be insensible to such marks of\ntenderness and affection? can you see so many tears shed for you without\nbeing moved? It is not beneath a great courage to be touched with\ncompassion. Sacrifice, and do not destroy yourself in the flower of your\nage.\" Irenaeus said: \"It is that I may not destroy myself that I refuse\nto sacrifice.\" The governor sent him to prison, where he remained a long\ntime, suffering divers torments. At the second time of examination, the\ngovernor, after having pressed him to sacrifice, asked him if he had a\nwife, parents, or children, alive. The saint answered all these\nquestions in the negative. \"Who then were those that wept for you at\nyour first examination?\" Irenaeus made answer: \"Our Lord Jesus Christ\nhath said: _He that loveth father or mother, wife or children, brothers\nor relations more than me, is not worthy of {652} me_. So, when I lift\nup my eyes to contemplate that God whom I adore, and the joys he hath\npromised to those who faithfully serve him, I forget that I am a father,\na husband, a son, a master, a friend.\" Probus said: \"But you do not\ntherefore cease to be so. Sacrifice at least for their sakes.\" Irenmus\nreplied: \"My children will not lose much by my death; for I leave them\nfor father that same God whom they adore with me; so let nothing hinder\nyou from executing the orders of your emperor upon me.\" PROBUS. \"Throw\nnot yourself away. I cannot avoid condemning you.\" IRENAEUS. \"You cannot\ndo me a greater favor, or give me a more agreeable pleasure.\" Then\nProbus passed sentence after this manner: \"I order that Irenaeus, for\ndisobeying the emperor's commands, be cast into the river.\"[1] Irenaeus\nreplied: \"After so many threats, I expected something extraordinary, and\nyou content yourself with drowning me. How comes this? You do me an\ninjury; for you deprive me of the means of showing the world how much\nChristians, who have a lively faith, despise death, though attended with\nthe most cruel torments.\" Probus, enraged at this, added to the sentence\nthat he should be first beheaded. Irenaeus returned thanks to God as for\na second victory. When arrived on the bridge of Diana, from which he was\nto be thrown, stripping off his clothes, and lifting up his hands to\nheaven, he prayed thus: \"Lord Jesus Christ, who condescendedst to suffer\nfor the salvation of the world, command the heavens to open, that the\nangels may receive the soul of thy servant Irenaeus, who suffers for thy\nname, and for thy people of the Catholic church of Sirmium.\" Then, his\nhead being struck off, he was thrown into the river, on the 25th of\nMarch, on which day his name occurs in the Roman Martyrology. He\nsuffered in the year 304. He was married before he was ordained bishop;\nbut lived continent from that time, as the laws of the church required.\n\nThe martyrs most perfectly accomplished the precept of renouncing all\nthings for Christ; but all who desire truly to become his disciples, are\nbound to do it in spirit. Many aspire to perfection by austere practices\nof exterior mortification and long exercises of devotion; yet make\nlittle progress, and, after many years, remain always subject to many\nimperfections and errors in a spiritual life. The reason is, because\nthey neglected to lay the foundation by renouncing themselves. This\nrequires constant watchfulness, courageous self-denial, a perfect spirit\nof humility, meekness and obedience, and sincere compunction, in which a\nsoul examines and detects her vices, bewails her past sins and those of\nthe whole world, sighs at the consideration of its vanity and slavery,\nand of her distance from heaven, labors daily to cleanse her mind from\nall idle thoughts, and her heart from all sin, all irregular\nattachments, and superfluous desires, flies the vain joys of the world,\nand often entertains herself on the bloody passion of Christ. If the\naffections are thus purified, and this cleanness of heart daily more and\nmore cultivated, the rest costs very little, and the soul makes quick\nprogress in the paths of holy love, by the assiduous exercises of\ncontemplation and prayer, a constant fidelity in all her actions, and\nthe most fervent and pure attention to the divine will and presence.\nVoluntary imperfections and failings, especially if habitual, both blind\nand defile the soul, disquiet her, extremely weaken her, and damp the\nfervor of her good desires and resolutions. They must therefore be\nretrenched with the utmost resolution and vigilance, especially those\nwhich arise from any secret vanity, sensuality, or want of the most\nperfect sincerity, candor, and simplicity. An habitual attachment to any\nfailing, how trifling soever it may appear, how subtle and secret {653}\nsoever it may be, and under whatever pretences it may be disguised,\nexceedingly obstructs the operations of the Holy Ghost, and the effusion\nof divine grace in a soul.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  Meaning the Boswethe, which runs through Sirmisch, and falls into\n    the sea five leagues lower.\n\nST. SIMON, AN INFANT, MARTYR AT TRENT.\n\nIN the year 1472, when the Jews of Trent (famous for the last general\ncouncil held there) met in their synagogue on Tuesday in Holy Week, to\ndeliberate on the preparations for the approaching festival of the\nPassover, which fell that year on the Thursday following, they came to a\nresolution of sacrificing to their inveterate hatred of the Christian\nname, some Christian infant on the Friday following, or Good Friday. A\nJewish physician undertook to procure such an infant for the horrid\npurpose. And while the Christians were at the office of Tenebrae on\nWednesday evening, he found a child called Simon, about two years old,\nwhom, by caresses, and by showing him a piece of money, he decoyed from\nthe door of a house, the master and mistress whereof were gone to\nchurch, and carried him off. On Thursday evening the principal Jews shut\nthemselves up in a chamber adjoining to their synagogue, and at midnight\nbegan their cruel butchery of this innocent victim. Having stopped his\nmouth with an apron, to prevent his crying out, they made several\nincisions in his body, gathering his blood in a basin. Some, all this\nwhile, held his arms stretched out in the form of a cross: others held\nhis legs. The child being half dead, they raised him on his feet, and\nwhile two of them held him by the arms, the rest pierced his body on all\nsides with their awls and bodkins. When they saw the child had expired,\nthey sung round it: \"In the same manner did we treat Jesus, the God of\nthe Christians: thus may our enemies be confounded forever.\" The\nmagistrates and parents making strict search after the lost child, the\nJews hid it first in a barn of hay, then in a cellar, and at last threw\nit into the river. But God confounded all their endeavors to prevent the\ndiscovery of the fact, which being fully proved upon them, with its\nseveral circumstances, they were put to death: the principal actors in\nthe tragedy being broke upon the wheel and burnt. The synagogue was\ndestroyed, and a chapel was erected on the spot where the child was\nmartyred. God honored this innocent victim with many miracles. The\nrelics lie in a stately tomb in St. Peter's church at Trent: and his\nname occurs in the Roman Martyrology. See the authentic account of\nTiberinus, the physician who inspected the child's body; and the\njuridical acts in Surius and the Bollandists, with Henschenius's notes\non this day: also Martenne, Ampl. Collectio Vet. t. 2, p. 1516, and\nBened. XIV. de Canoniz. l. 1, c. 14, p. 105.\n\nST. WILLIAM OF NORWICH, M.\n\nTHIS martyr was another victim of the implacable rage of the Jews\nagainst our holy religion. He suffered in the twelfth year of his age.\nHaving been not long bound an apprentice to a tanner in Norwich, a\nlittle before Easter, in 1137, the Jews of that city having enticed him\ninto their houses, seized and gagged him: then they bound, mocked, and\ncrucified him, in derision of Christ: they also pierced his left side.\nOn Easter-day they put the body into a sack, and carried it into\nThorp-wood, now a heath, near the gates of the city, there to bury it;\nbut being discovered, left it hinging on a tree. The body was honored\nwith miracles, and, in 1144, {654} removed into the churchyard of the\ncathedral of the Holy Trinity, by the monks of that abbey; and in 1150,\ninto the choir. On the place in Thorpwood, where the body of the\nmartyred child was found, a chapel was built, called St. William in the\nwood. Mr. Weever writes, that \"the Jews in the principal cities of the\nkingdom, did use sometimes to steal away, circumcise, crown with thorns,\nwhip, torture, and crucify some neighbor's male-child, in mockery and\nscorn of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. St. Richard of Pontoise, in\nFrance, was martyred by them in that manner. As also St. Hugh,\n(according to Matthew Paris and John Capgrave,) a child crucified at\nLincoln, in 1255.\" Nevertheless, it is a notorious slander of some\nauthors, who, from these singular and extraordinary instances, infer\nthis to have been at any time the custom or maxim of that people. The\nEnglish calendars commemorated St. William on the 24th of March. See the\nhistory of his martyrdom and miracles by Thomas of Monmouth, a\ncontemporary monk; also the Saxon Chronicle of the same age, and\nBloomfield's History of Norfolk.[1]\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  Pope Benedict XIV., l. 1, de Canon. c. 14, p. 103, shows that\n    children who die after baptism before the use of reason, though\n    saints, ought not to be canonized, because they never practised any\n    heroic degree of virtue; and because this was never authorized by\n    tradition in the church. Martyrs only, or infants, whether baptized\n    or not, which were slain out of hatred to the name of Christ, are to\n    be accepted, as is clear from the example of the Holy Innocents, who\n    are styled martyrs by St. Irenaeus, Origen, and other fathers; and\n    the most ancient missals and homilies of fathers on their festival,\n    prove them to have been honored as such from the primitive ages.\n    Hence infants murdered by Jews, out of hatred to Christ, have been\n    ranked among the martyrs, as St. Simon of Trent, by the authority of\n    the bishop of that city, afterwards confirmed by the decrees of the\n    popes Sixtus V. and Gregory XIII.; also St. William of Norwich in\n    England, (though this child having attained to the use of reason, is\n    rather to be called an adult martyr.) And St. Richard of Pontoise,\n    also about twelve years old, murdered in 1182 by certain Jews in the\n    reign of Philip Augustus, who for this and other crimes banished the\n    Jews out of France, in April, that same year. The body of St.\n    Richard was translated to Paris, and enshrined in the parish church\n    of the Holy Innocents, where his feast is kept on the 30th of March,\n    but at Pontoise on the 25th. The celebrated F. Gaguin has written\n    the history of his martyrdom, with an account of several miracles\n    wrought at his shrine. His head is still shown in that church; the\n    rest of his relics are said to have been carried off by the English,\n    when they were masters of Paris.\n\n\nMARCH XXV.\n\nTHE ANNUNCIATION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY.\n\nTHIS great festival takes its name from the happy tidings brought by the\nangel Gabriel to the Blessed Virgin Mary, concerning the incarnation of\nthe Son of God. It commemorates the most important embassy that was ever\nknown: an embassy sent by the King of kings, performed by one of the\nchief princes of his heavenly court; directed, not to the kings or\nemperors of the earth, but to a poor, unknown, retired virgin, who,\nbeing endowed with the most angelic purity of soul and body, being\nwithal perfectly humble and devoted to God, was greater in his eyes than\nall the sceptres in the world could make a universal monarch. Indeed\nGod, by the choice which he is pleased to make of a poor virgin, for the\naccomplishment of the greatest of all mysteries and graces, clearly\ndemonstrates that earthly diadems, dignities, and treasures are of no\nconsideration with him; and that perfect humility and sanctity alone\nconstitute true greatness. God, who is almighty, can do all things by\nhimself, without making use of the concurrence of creatures Nevertheless\nhe vouchsafes, in his exterior works, {655} most frequently to use their\nco-operation. If he reveals his will and speaks to men, it is by the\nintervention of his prophets, and these he then enlightens by the\nministry of angels. Many of the ancient patriarchs were honored by him\nwith the most sublime commissions. By Moses he delivered his people from\nthe Egyptian slavery, by him he gave them his law, and he appointed him\nmediator in his alliance with them. When the Son of God became man, he\ncould have taken upon him our nature without the co-operation of any\ncreature; but was pleased to be born of a woman. In the choice of her\nwhom he raised to this most sublime of all dignities to which any pure\ncreature could be exalted, he pitched upon her who, by the riches of his\ngrace and virtues, was of all others the most holy and the most perfect.\nThe design of this embassy of the archangel is as extraordinary as the\npersons concerned in it. It is to give a Saviour to the world, a victim\nof propitiation to the sinner, a model to the just, a son to this\nVirgin, remaining still a virgin, and a new nature to the Son of God,\nthe nature of man, capable of suffering pain and anguish in order to the\nsatisfaction of God's justice for our transgressions. And the Son of God\nbeing to take a human body formed of her substance, the Holy Ghost, who,\nby a power all-divine, was to her in place of a spouse, was not content\nto render her body capable of giving life to a Man-God, but likewise\nenriched her soul with a fulness of grace, that there might be a sort of\nproportion between the cause and the effect, and she the better\nqualified to co-operate towards this mystery of sanctity.\n\nThe angel begins his address to her with _Hail! full of grace_.[1] This\nis not the first time that angels appeared to women. But we find not\nthat they were ever treated with that respect which the angel Gabriel\nshows to Mary. Sarah and Agar were visited by these celestial spirits,\nbut not with an honor like that wherewith the angel on this occasion\naddresses the Blessed Virgin, saying, _Hail! full of grace_. He\nconsiders her as the greatest object among creatures of God's favor,\naffection, and complacency. He admires in her those wonderful effects of\nthe divine liberality, those magnificent gifts and graces, those exalted\nvirtues, which have placed the very foundation of her spiritual edifice\non the holy mountains,[2] in a degree of perfection surpassing that of\nall pure creatures. He admires that perfect gratitude with which she\nalways received God's grace, and her perfect fidelity in corresponding\nwith it, and advancing in sanctity by the help thereof, with a\nsolicitude answerable to her love and gratitude for the preservation and\nincrease of so inestimable a treasure. _Full of grace_. The first\nencomium which St. John gives us of the glory of the Word made flesh is,\nthat he was _full of grace and truth_.[3] God forbid that we should say\nthat Mary was full of grace in the same manner as her Son; for he is the\nvery source and origin of it, _from whose fulness all_ the saints, Mary\nnot excepted, _have received_[4] whatever degree they possess of grace\nand sanctity. St. Luke assures us also, that St. Stephen was full of\ngrace and the Holy Ghost,[5] but it was a fulness in regard to a less\ncapacity, and in relation to a lower function. Moreover, to St. Stephen\nand other saints, who have received large portions of heavenly grace, we\nmay say, in those other words of the angel, _You have found favor with\nGod_; but those very favors, though very great in themselves, were not\nto be compared with that which from all eternity was reserved for Mary.\nGod made the saints the object of his gratuitous election, and he\nqualified them with his graces to be the messengers of his Son, the\npreachers and witnesses of his gospel; but Mary, was his choice, and was\nfurnished with his graces to bear the most illustrious, {656} the most\nexalted title of honor that heaven could bestow on a pure creature to\nconceive of her proper substance the divine Word made man. If then the\ngrace of God so raises a person in worth and merit, that there is not\nany prince on earth who deserves to be compared with a soul that is\ndignified with the lowest degree of sanctifying grace; what shall we say\nor think of Mary, in whom the fulness of grace was only a preparation to\nher maternity? What shall we think of ourselves, (but in an opposite\nlight,) who wilfully expose this greatest of all treasures on so many\noccasions to be lost, whereas we ought wilfully to forego and renounce\nall the advantages and pleasures of this world, rather than hazard the\nloss of the least degree of it, and be most fervent in our supplications\nto God for the gaining, preserving, and increasing so great a treasure:\nforasmuch as it is a pledge of God's love, a participation of his\nSpirit, and a title to the possession of his heavenly kingdom.\n\nBut who can be surprised at those inestimable treasures which God, on\nthis occasion, with so liberal a hand, bestows on Mary, if he considers\nthe purport of the following words of the angel to her: _The Lord is\nwith thee_. He is with her in a manner more intimate, more perfect, and\nmore divine, than he ever was or will be with any other creature. He is\nwith her, not only by his essence, by his presence, by his power; for he\nis thus with all his creatures: He is with her, not only by his actual\ngrace touching her heart and enlightening her understanding; he is thus\nmany times with the sinner: He is with her, not only with his\nsanctifying grace, making her agreeable in his sight, and placing her in\nthe number of his children; he is present in this manner with all the\njust: He is with her, not only by a special protection guiding her in\nhis ways, and leading her securely to the term of salvation; this he\ndoes for the elect: but he is also with her by a substantial and\ncorporeal presence, residing personally and really in her. In her, and\nof her substance, is this day formed his adorable body; in her he\nreposes for nine months, with his whole divinity and humanity. It is in\nthis ineffable manner that he is with Mary, and with none but Mary. O\nglorious Virgin, thrice happy Mother, from this source and ocean of all\ngrace what heavenly blessings in so long a space of time must have\nflowed upon you! and what honors must be due to one so nearly allied to\nour great Creator! What intercession so prevalent as that of the _Mother\nof divine grace!_\n\nThe angel concludes his address with these words: _Blessed art thou\namong women_.[6] _Blessed_, as being chosen preferably to all of her\nsex, to be the glorious instrument, in the hand of God, for removing the\nmaledictions laid on mankind in punishment of their sins, and in\ncommunicating to them the source of all good. And on this account it\nwas, that _all_ succeeding _generations_, as she foretold of herself,\n_should call her Blessed_;[7] regarding her as the centre in which all\nthe blessings of the Old and New Testament are drawn together.\n\nThough we are obliged to consider the eminent quality of Mother of God\nas the source of all other graces bestowed on the Blessed Virgin, it\nmust yet be owned it is not the greatest, and that she was happier in\nloving Jesus Christ, than in having conceived him and brought him forth.\nShe is blessed among women and above the rest of creatures, not\nprecisely on account of her maternity, but because she received a\nfulness of grace proportioned to the dignity to which she was chosen. So\nthat, according to the remark of the holy fathers, she was happier for\nher sanctity than for her dignity: for her virtues, than for her\nprivileges. Among her virtues, that of purity seems particularly\ndeserving of notice on this solemnity, as the epistle for this festival\n{657} records that memorable prophecy of Isaias, _That a Virgin should\nconceive and bring forth a son_;[8] the most remarkable of all the signs\nGod had promised the world for making known the accomplishment of the\nmystery of man's redemption. And, indeed, right reason seemed to require\nthat she, who was to be the mother of God, should be of an integrity\nabove reproach, and incapable of yielding to any solicitation: it was\nhighly fit her virginity should be perfectly pure, and removed as far as\npossible from the least suspicion of blemish. For this reason, the\nmoment God had chosen her to be his mother, he exacted from her the most\nauthentic proofs of an inviolable attachment to purity. Thus, it is not\nin a crowd, or in idle conversation, but in a retreat, that the angel\nfinds her. It is not from the distraction of diversions and\nentertainments that he calls her aside to deliver his message: no; she\nis alone in her house, with the door shut; \"and,\" as St. Ambrose says,\n\"he must be an angel that gets entrance there.\"[9] Hence, according to\nthe same holy father, it was not the angel's appearance that gave her\ntrouble, for he will not have it to be doubted but heavenly visions and\na commerce with the blessed spirits had been familiar to her. But what\nalarmed her, he says, was the angel's appearing in human form, in the\nshape of a young man. What might add to her fright on the occasion, was\nhis addressing her in the strain of praise, which kind of words flattery\noften puts in the mouths of ill-designing men. And how few, alas! are\nable to withstand such dangers? But Mary, guarded by her modesty, is in\nconfusion at expressions of this sort, and dreads the least appearance\nof deluding flattery. Such high commendations make her cautious how she\nanswers, till in silence she has more fully considered of the matter:\n_She revolved in her mind_, says St. Luke, _what manner of salutation\nthis should be_.[10] Ah! what numbers of innocent souls have been\ncorrupted for want of using the like precautions! Mary is retired, but\nhow seldom now-a-days are young virgins content to stay at home! Mary is\nsilent when commended, and answered not a word till she had well\nconsidered what she ought to say: but now it is to be feared that young\nwomen never think so little as when they are entertained with flattery.\nEvery soothing word is but too apt to slide from the ear to the heart;\nand who can tell what multitudes, by their unwary methods, suffer\nshipwreck of their modesty, and then of their purity. For how can this\nbe long-lived after having lost all its guardians? No, it cannot be.\nUnless a virgin be assiduous in prayer and spiritual reading, modest in\nher dress, prudent and wary in her choice of company, and extremely\ncareful in the government of her eyes and tongue when she happens to be\nin conversation with the other sex, there is but too much reason to\napprehend that either her heart is already betrayed, or in danger of\nbeing vanquished by the next assault of her spiritual enemy. A dread of,\nand a speedy flight from all dangerous occasions is the only security of\nvirtue and innocence. Presumption wants no other tempter. Even Mary,\nthough confirmed in grace, was only secure by this fear and distrust in\nherself.\n\nA second cause why Mary was disturbed at the words of the angel was,\nbecause they contained her praises. Humble souls always tremble and sink\nwith confusion in their own minds when they hear themselves commended;\nbecause they are deeply penetrated with a sense of their own weakness\nand insufficiency, and they consider contempt as their due. They know\nthat the glory of all gifts belongs solely to God, and they justly fear\nlest the poison of praise should insinuate itself into their minds;\nbeing sensible how infinitely dangerous honors and flattery are to\nhumility. Are {658} these our sentiments? Do we never speak of ourselves\nto our own advantage? Do we never artfully praise ourselves, or\nwillingly lend an ear to what flatterers say to applaud us? Are we\ntroubled when we hear ourselves praised? What gives trouble but to too\nmany is, that men give them not what they take to be their right; and\nthat their praises equal not the notion they have framed of their\nmerits. The high eulogiums bestowed on Mary by the angel she answers no\notherwise than by a profound silence, by a saintly trouble of mind,\nwhich, with a modest blush, appears in her countenance. The angel, to\ncalm her disquiets, says to her: _Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found\nfavor before God_. He then informs her that she is to conceive and bring\nforth a son whose name shall be Jesus, who shall be great, and the son\nof the Most High, and possessed of the throne of David, her illustrious\nancestor. Mary, who, according to St. Austin,[11] had consecrated her\nvirginity to God by vow, is not at all weakened by the prospect of such\na dignity, in her resolution of living a virgin: but, on the contrary,\nout of a just concern to know how she may comply with the will of God\nwithout prejudice to her vow, neither moved by curiosity, nor doubting\nof the miracle or its possibility, she inquires, _How shall this be_?\nNor does she give her consent till the heavenly messenger acquaints her\nthat it is to be a work of the Holy Ghost, who, in making her fruitful,\nwill not intrench in the least upon her virginal purity, but cause her\nto be a mother, still remaining, as she desires, a pure virgin.\n\nMoreover, had not Mary been deep-rooted in humility, what impression\nmust not these great promises have made in her heart, at a time\nespecially when the first transports are so apt to overflow the soul on\nthe sudden news of an unexpected glory. The world knows, from too\nfrequent experience, how strongly the promise and expectation of new\ndignities raise the spirits, and alter the words, the looks, and the\nwhole carriage of proud men. But Mary is still the same, or rather much\nmore lowly and meek in spirit upon the accession of this unparalleled\ndignity. She sees no cause to pride herself in her virtues, graces, and\nprivileges, knowing that the glory of all these are due only to the\ndivine Author and Bestower of them. In submission, therefore, to God's\nwill, without any further inquiries, she expresses her assent in these\nhumble but powerful words: _Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it done\nto me according to thy word_. What faith and confidence does her answer\nexpress! What profound humility and perfect obedience! She was saluted\nmother of God, yet uses no word of dignity, but styles herself nothing\nmore than his handmaid, to be commanded and employed by him as he shall\nthink fittest. The world, as heaven had decreed, was not to have a\nSaviour till she had given her consent to the angel's proposal; she\ngives it, and behold the power and efficacy of her submissive Fiat. That\nmoment, the mystery of love and mercy promised to mankind four thousand\nyears before, foretold by so many prophets, desired by so many saints,\nis wrought on earth. That moment, the Word of God is forever united to\nhumanity: the soul of Jesus Christ, produced from nothing, begins to\nenjoy God, and to know all things past, present, and to come: that\nmoment, God begins to have an adorer, who is infinite, and the world a\nmediator, who is omnipotent; and, to the working of this great mystery,\nMary alone is chosen to co-operate by her free assent. The prophets\nrepresent the earth as moved out of its place, and the mountains as\nmelting away before the very countenance of God looking down upon the\nworld. Now that he descends in person, who would not expect that the\nwhole heavens should be moved? But another kind of appearance best\nsuited his coming on this occasion, which was with {659} the view of\ncuring our pride by his wonderful humiliations, and thereby repair the\ninjury the Godhead had suffered from our unjust usurpation; and not to\nshow forth his grandeur, and display his all-glorious majesty. How far\nare the ways of God above those of men! how greatly does divine wisdom\ndiffer from human folly! how does every circumstance in this mystery\nconfound the pride, the pomp, and the vain titles of worldly grandeur,\nand recommend to us the love of silence and sincere humility! Shall the\ndisciples of Christ have other sentiments?\n\nBut what tongue can express the inward feelings and affections which\nthen filled the glowing heart of the most pure Mother of God? What light\nshone in her understanding to penetrate the mysteries and the excess of\nthe unfathomed goodness of God! what ardors of holy love inflamed her\nwill! what jubilee filled her soul! Let men redeemed exult and praise,\nreturning to God their best homages of adoration, thanksgiving, and\nlove. It is for this duty that the church has appointed this present\nfestival, which we ought chiefly to consecrate to the contemplation of\nthis adorable mystery with hymns of love, praise, and thanksgiving. It\nwas the hope and comfort of all the ancient saints, and the great object\nof all their earnest prayers, tears, and sighs. The prophets had a view\nto it in all their predictions, this being the principal point in all\nthe wonderful revelations of God made to his church since the fall of\nAdam in Paradise, whom he immediately comforted with a promise and\nglimpse of this glorious mercy. Every ordinance in the law which he gave\nthe Jews was typical, and had either an immediate, or at least an\nindirect relation to Christ, and our redemption by him. Among the\nnumberless religious rites and sacrifices which were prescribed them,\nthere was not one which did not in some manner represent or allude to\nthis mystery. How high an idea ought this circumstance to give us of its\nincomprehensible greatness, which its nature and wonderful effects and\nfruits must enhance beyond the power of words! We are lost in\nastonishment when we contemplate this prodigy of omnipotence, and\ninfinite wisdom and mercy, and adore it in raptures and silence.\n\nGerson cries out on this mystery: \"What ought every heart to say or\nthink! every religious, every loving and faithful heart? It ought to\nrejoice exceedingly in this singular comfort, and to salute you with\nGabriel: _O blessed among women_. On this day is accomplished the great\ndesire of the holy ancient patriarchs and prophets, who often languished\nto hasten it, in their sighs, prayers, and writings, crying out aloud to\n_the desire of the eternal hills_. On this day is the Saviour of\nmankind, true God and man, conceived in the womb of Mary. This day our\nLady received a name more sublime than can be understood, and the most\nnoble of all names possible after that of her Son, by which she is\ncalled the Mother of God. On this day the greatest of miracles is\nwrought. Hear the wonders of love and mercy on this festival: God is\nmade man; and man, in the divine person, God: he that is immortal is\nbecome mortal, and the Eternal is born in time. A virgin is a mother, a\nwoman the mother of God; a creature has conceived her Creator!\" St.\nPeter Chrysologus expresses the fruits of this mystery as follows: \"One\nvirgin so receives and contains God in the lodging of her breast as to\nprocure peace for the earth, glory for heaven, salvation for the lost,\nlife for the dead, an alliance of those on earth with the blessed in\nheaven, and the commerce of God with the flesh.\"[12]\n\nFrom the example of the Virgin Mary in this mystery, how ardent a love\nought we to conceive of purity and humility! According to St. Gregory of\nNyssa, and St. Jerom,[13] she would rather be the spouse of God in\nspirit, by {660} spotless virginity, than his mother in the flesh; and\nso acceptable was this her disposition to God, that she deserved\nimmediately to hear, that she should bring forth the Son of the Most\nHigh, still remaining a most pure virgin: nor would God have otherwise\nraised her to this astonishing honor. The Holy Ghost is invited by\npurity to dwell in souls, but is chased away by the filth of the\ncontrary vice. The dreadful havoc which it now-a-days makes among\nChristian souls, calls for torrents of tears, and is the source of the\ninfidelity and universal desolation which spreads on every side.\nHumility is the foundation of a spiritual life. By it Mary was prepared\nfor the extraordinary graces, and all virtues with which she was\nenriched, and for the eminent dignity of Mother of God.\n\nSt. Austin says, that according to an ancient tradition, this mystery\nwas completed on the 25th of March.[14] Both eastern and western\nchurches celebrate it on this day, and have done so at least ever since\nthe fifth century. This festival is mentioned by pope Gelasius I., in\n492. The council of Constantinople, in 692, orders the missa\npraesanctificatorum, as on Good-Friday, to be said on all days in Lent,\nexcept Saturdays, Sundays, and the feast of the Annunciation.[15] The\ntenth council of Toledo, in 656, calls this solemnity, The festival of\nthe Mother of God,[16] by way of excellence. To praise the divine\ngoodness for this incomprehensible mystery of the incarnation, Urban\nII., in the council of Clermont, in 1095, ordered the bell to be rung\nevery day for the triple Angelical Salutation, called Angelus Domini, at\nmorning, noon, and night. Which practice of devotion several popes have\nrecommended by indulgences; as John XXII., Calixtus III., Paul III.,\nAlexander VII., and Clement X. The late Benedict XIII. has augmented\nthem to those who at the aforesaid hours shall devoutly recite this\nprayer kneeling.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  Luke i. 28.\n2.  Ps. lxxxvi.\n3.  John 1. 14.\n4.  Ibid. 16.\n5.  Acts iv. 8.\n6.  Luke i. 22.\n7.  Ibid. 48.\n8.  Isai. vii. 14.\n9.  O hospitium solis angelis pervium: S. Amb. in Luc.\n10. Luke i. 29.\n11. Quid profecto non diceret nisi se virginem ante vovisset. L. de\n    Virg. c. 4, t. 6, p. 343.\n12. Serm. 146.\n13. St. Greg. Nyss. Tr. de Nativ.\n14. L. 4. de Trin. c. 5.\n15. See Thomasin des Fetes, p. 229.\n16. Festum Sanctae Virginis Genitricis dies, festivitas matris--nam quod\n    festum est matris nisi incarnatio Verbi? Conc. Folet X.\n\nST. CAMMIN, ABBOT.\n\nAMONG the most celebrated saints of Ireland, published by Usher, is\nplaced St. Cammin, who in his youth retired from the noise of the world\ninto the island of Irish-Kealtair, in the lake of Derg-Derch, or Dergid,\nin the confines of Thomond and Galway. Here several disciples resorting\nto him, he built a monastery, which, out of veneration for his\nextraordinary sanctity, was long very famous among the Irish. The church\nof that place still retains, from him, the name of Tempul-Cammin. His\nhappy death is placed in the Inis-Fallen annals, about the year 653. See\nUsher's Antiqu. p. 503.\n\n{661}\n\n\nMARCH XXVI.\n\nST. LUDGER, BISHOP OF MUNSTER,\n\nAPOSTLE OF SAXONY.\n\nFrom his life, written by Altfrid, one of his successors, and another\ncompiled by a monk of Werden, about sixty years after the death of St.\nLudger, of inferior authority to the former, both extant in Mabillon,\nAct. Bened. t. 4, p. 489: also a third life in Surius and the\nBollandists, written by the monks of Werden perhaps twenty years after\nthe latter. See Hist. Litter. Fr. t. 5, p. 660.\n\nA.D. 809.\n\nST. LUDGER was born in Friseland, about the year 743. His father, who\nwas a nobleman of the first rank in that country, at the child's own\nrequest, committed him very young to the care of St. Gregory, the\ndisciple of St. Boniface, and his successor in the government of the see\nof Utrecht. Ludger had the happiness to have seen that holy martyr, and\nreceived from him strong impressions of virtue. Gregory educated him in\nhis monastery, and admiring his progress in learning and piety, gave him\nthe clerical tonsure. Ludger, desirous of further improvement, passed\nover into England, and spent four years and a half under Alcuin, who was\nrector of a famous school at York. He was careful to employ his whole\ntime in the exercises of piety, and the study of the holy scriptures and\nfathers. In 773 he returned home, and St. Gregory dying in 776, his\nsuccessor, Alberic, compelled our saint to receive the holy order of\npriesthood, and employed him for several years in preaching the word of\nGod in Friseland, where he converted great numbers, both among the\npagans and vicious Christians, founded several monasteries, and built\nmany churches. This was the state of affairs, when the pagan Saxons,\nravaging the country, obliged him to leave Friseland. Whereupon he\ntravelled to Rome, to consult pope Adrian II. what course to take, and\nwhat he thought God required of him. He then retired for three years and\na half to Mount Cassino, where he wore the habit of the Order, and\nconformed to the practice of the rule during his stay, but made no\nreligious vows. In 787, Charlemagne overcame the Saxons and conquered\nFriseland, and the coast of the Germanic ocean as far as Denmark. Ludger\nhearing that by this revolution the mission was again opened, returned\ninto east Friseland, where he converted the Saxons to the faith; as he\nalso did the province of Sudergou, now called Westphalia. He founded the\nmonastery of Werden,[1] in the county of La Mark, twenty-nine miles from\nCologne. His old master Alcuin being come into France, made his merit\nknown to the emperor Charlemagne. In 802, Hildebald, archbishop of\nCologne, not regarding his strenuous resistance, ordained him bishop of\nMimigardeford, (or ford of the river Mimigard,) a city which afterwards\nchanged this name for that of Munster, from the great monastery of\nregular canons which St. Ludger built there, to serve for his cathedral.\nHe joined to his diocese five cantons of Friseland, which he had\nconverted, and also founded the monastery of Helmstad, afterwards called\nLodger-Clooster, or Ludger's cloister, in the duchy of Brunswick.\n\nHe was very learned in the holy scriptures, and read daily lectures\nthereon to his disciples. He fasted and watched much, and always wore a\nhair shirt, but secretly, se that no one knew of it till a little before\nhis death. {662} He ate some flesh at certain times, chiefly to conform\nto others, but always observing a strict temperance. When invited to any\nentertainment, his discourse the whole time was on religious subjects,\nand he withdrew immediately after. To the poor he was affable and\ncourteous, but firm and resolute to the proud rich. He exerted an\nepiscopal vigor against impenitent sinners, and refused all manner of\npresents from an incestuous lady, and at length excommunicated her.\nExcept what was absolutely necessary for his subsistence, he employed\nthe revenues of his own estate, and those of his bishopric, in\ncharities. He was accused to the emperor Charlemagne, among other\nthings, of wasting his income, and neglecting the embellishment of\nchurches within his jurisdiction. And this prince, who loved to see\nchurches magnificent, giving ear to the information, ordered him to\nappear at court. The morning after his arrival, the emperor's\nchamberlain brought him word that his attendance was required. The\nsaint, being then at his prayers, told the officer that he would follow\nhim as soon as he had finished them. He was sent for three several times\nbefore he was ready, which the courtiers represented as a contempt of\nhis majesty; and the emperor, with some emotion, asked him why he had\nmade him wait so long, though he had sent for him so often. The bishop\nanswered, that though he had the most profound respect for his majesty,\nyet God was infinitely above him; that while we are occupied with him,\nit is our duty to forget every thing else; and that in this he judged he\nhad rather obeyed than neglected his majesty's orders, who, when he was\nchosen bishop, had recommended to him ever to prefer the service of God\nto that of men. This answer made such an impression on the emperor, in\nfavor of the saint, that he looked upon it as a complete justification\nof his conduct as to every particular that had been laid to his charge:\nhe accordingly dismissed him with honor, and disgraced his accusers. The\nsaint took this liberty with a religious prince, that he might condemn\nthe sloth of many who suffer distractions or earthly trifles to\ninterrupt their commerce with God; but they who leave prayer for\nnecessary works of charity or obedience, find God still in the exercises\nof those virtues. St. Ludger required so devout an attention at divine\nservice, that being at prayers one night with his clergy, and one of\nthem stooping down to mend the fire and hinder it from smoking, the\nsaint after prayer severely rebuked him for it, and inflicted on him a\npenance for some days. St. Ludger was favored with the gift of miracles\nand prophecy. He foretold the invasions of the Normans from Denmark and\nNorway, and what ravages they would make in the French empire, and this\nat a time when there was not the least apprehension of any such thing.\nHis great zeal inclined him to go and preach the faith to these northern\nnations, but the king would not allow of it. His last sickness, though\nviolent did not hinder him from continuing his functions to the very\nlast day of his life, which was Passion-Sunday, on which day he preached\nvery early in the morning, said mass towards nine, and preached again\nbefore night, foretelling withal to those that were about him, that he\nshould die the following night; and fixing upon a place in his monastery\nof Werden where he chose to be interred. He died accordingly on the 26th\nof March, at midnight. His relics are still kept at Werden. Joseph, an\nEnglishman, a disciple of Alcuin, whom he attended into France, wrote,\nin sixteen verses, an eulogium of St. Ludger, published by Vossius[2]\nand Mabillon, as a specimen of good poetry for that age.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nNothing so much scandalizes the very infidels, or shows the decay of\npiety, and loss of all sense of religion among Christians, as their\ndisrespectful {663} behavior in the house of God and at the time of\nprayer. An awful, strict silence, the most profound exterior respect,\nand penetrating inward devotion of heart, must essentially accompany our\nhomages when we present them before the throne of God, in whose presence\nthe highest seraphims annihilate themselves. This silence we must\nobserve not only with our tongues, but also with our bodies and all our\nlimbs, both out of respect to the presence of God and his altar, and\nalso not to give the least occasion of distraction to others. Prayer is\nan action so sublime and supernatural, that the church in her canonical\nhours teaches us to begin it by a fervent petition of grace to perform\nit well. What an insolence and mockery is it to join with this petition\nan open disrespect and a neglect of all necessary precautions against\ndistractions! We ought never to appear before God, to tender him our\nhomages or supplications, without trembling, and without being deaf to\nall creatures, and shutting all our senses to every object that can\ndistract our minds from God. In the life of F. Simon Gourdan, a regular\ncanon of St. Victor's at Paris, who died in the odor of sanctity, in the\nyear 1729, the eighty-fifth of his age, it is related that king Louis\nXIV. came to see him, and to recommend himself to his prayers. The\nservant of God made him wait till he had finished his thanksgiving after\nmass, which edified that great prince, who said, \"he does well; for he\nis employed in attending on a much greater king.\" Though St. Francis of\nSales on the like occasions chose rather to forego or defer his own\nprivate devotions, than not to be ready immediately to wait on others,\nin order to give them all the spiritual advice they desired; yet at\nprayer at least he and all truly religious persons seemed in some degree\nto rival the heavenly spirits in their awe and reverence. Silence at\nthat holy time, or place, has always been esteemed a thing so sacred,\nthat when the temple of Solomon was building, God commanded that there\nshould not be heard so much as the sound of a hamster, or any other\ninstrument. Even when we come from conversing with God, we ought to\nappear all penetrated with the divine presence, and rather as angels\nthan men. Sanctity, modesty, and the marks of a heavenly spirit, ought\nto shine in our exterior, and to inspire others by our very sight with\nreligious awe and devotion.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  Some have, by mistake, confounded this place with Ferden, or Werden,\n    beyond the Weser.\n2.  Voss. de histor. lat. l. 2, c. 3.\n\nST. BRAULIO, BISHOP OF SARAGOSSA, C.\n\nHE was the great assistant of St. Isidore of Seville in settling the\ndiscipline of the church of Spain, and is one of those holy pastors to\nwhose zeal, learning, and labors it has always professed itself much\nindebted. He died in 646, in the twentieth year of his episcopacy. He\nhas left us two letters to St. Isidore, an eulogium of that saint, and a\ncatalogue of his works; also a hymn in Iambic verse in honor of St.\nEmilian, and the life of that servant of God, who, after living long a\nhermit, was called to serve a parish in the diocese of Tarragon, where a\nfamous monastery now bears his name.\n\n{664}\n\n\nMARCH XXVII.\n\nST. JOHN OF EGYPT, HERMIT.\n\nFrom Rufinus, in the second book of the lives of the fathers; and from\nPallaudius in his Lausiaca; the last had often seen him. Also St. Jerom,\nSt. Austin, Cassian, &c. See Tillemont, t. 10, p. 9. See also the\nWonders of God in the Wilderness, p. 160.\n\nA.D. 394.\n\nST. JOHN was born about the year 305, was of a mean extraction, and\nbrought up to the trade of a carpenter. At twenty-five years of age he\nforsook the world, and put himself under the guidance and direction of\nan ancient holy anchoret with such an extraordinary humility and\nsimplicity as struck the venerable old man with admiration; who inured\nhim to obedience by making him water a dry stick for a whole year as if\nit were a live plant, and perform several other things as seemingly\nridiculous, all which he executed with the utmost fidelity. To the\nsaint's humility and ready obedience, Cassian[1] attributes the\nextraordinary gifts he afterwards received from God. He seems to have\nlived about twelve years with this old man, till his death, and about\nfour more in different neighboring monasteries.\n\nBeing about forty years of age, he retired alone to the top of a rock of\nvery difficult ascent, near Lycopolis.[2] His cell he walled up, leaving\nonly a little window through which he received all necessaries, and\nspoke to those who visited him what might be for their spiritual comfort\nand edification. During five days in the week he conversed only with\nGod: but on Saturdays and Sundays all but women had free access to him\nfor his instructions and spiritual advice. He never ate till after\nsunset, and then very sparingly; but never any thing that had been\ndressed by fire, not so much as bread. In this manner did he live from\nthe fortieth or forty-second to the ninetieth year of his age. For the\nreception of such as came to him from remote parts, he permitted a kind\nof hospital to be built near his cell or grotto, where some of his\ndisciples took care of them. He was illustrious for miracles, and a\nwonderful spirit of prophecy, with the power of discovering to those\nthat came to see him, their most secret thoughts and hidden sins. And\nsuch was the fame of his predictions, and the lustre of his miracles\nwhich he wrought on the sick, by sending them some oil which he had\nblessed, that they drew the admiration of the whole world upon him.\n\nTheodosius the Elder was then emperor, and was attacked by the tyrant\nMaximus, become formidable by the success of his arms, having slain the\nemperor Gratian in 383, and dethroned Valentinian in 387. The pious\nemperor, finding his army much inferior to that of his adversary, caused\nthis servant of God to be consulted concerning the success of the war\nagainst Maximus. Our saint foretold him that he should be victorious\nalmost without blood. The emperor, full of confidence in the prediction,\nmarched into the West, defeated the more numerous armies of Maximus\ntwice in Pannonia; crossed the Alps, took the tyrant in Aquileia, and\nsuffered {665} his soldiers to cut off his head. He returned triumphant\nto Constantinople, and attributed his victories very much to the prayers\nof St. John, who also foretold him the events of his other wars, the\nincursions of barbarians, and all that was to befall his empire. Four\nyears after, in 392, Eugenius, by the assistance of Arbogastes, who had\nmurdered the emperor Valentinian the Younger, usurped the empire of the\nWest. Theodosius sent Eutropius the Eunuch into Egypt, with instructions\nto bring St. John with him to Constantinople, if it was possible; but\nthat if he could not prevail with him to undertake the journey, to\nconsult whether it was God's will that he should march against Eugenius,\nor wait his arrival in the East. The man of God excused himself as to\nhis journey to court, but assured Eutropius that his prince should be\nvictorious, but not without loss and blood: as also that he would die in\nItaly, and leave the empire of the West to his son; all which happened\naccordingly. Theodosius marched against Eugenius, and in the first\nengagement lost ten thousand men, and was almost defeated: but renewing\nthe battle on the next day, the 6th of September, in 394, he gained an\nentire victory by the miraculous interposition of heaven, as even\nClaudian, the heathen poet, acknowledges. Theodosius died in the West,\non the 17th of January, in 395, leaving his two sons emperors, Arcadius\nin the East, and Honorius in the West.\n\nThis saint restored sight to a senator's wife by some of the oil he had\nblessed for healing the sick. It being his inviolable custom never to\nadmit any woman to speak to him, this gave occasion to a remarkable\nincident related by Evagrius, Palladius, and St. Austin in his treatise\nof Care for the Dead. A certain general officer in the emperor's service\nvisiting the saint, conjured him to permit his wife to speak to him; for\nshe was come to Lycopolis, and had gone through many dangers and\ndifficulties to enjoy that happiness. The holy man answered, that during\nhis stricter enclosure for the last forty years since he had shut\nhimself up in that rock, he had imposed on himself an inviolable rule\nnot to see or converse with women; so he desired to be excused the\ngranting her request. The officer returned to Lycopolis very melancholy.\nHis wife, who was a person of great virtue, was not to be satisfied. The\nhusband went back to the blessed man, told him that she would die of\ngrief if he refused her request. The saint said to him: \"Go to your\nwife, and tell her that she shall see me tonight, without coming hither\nor stirring out of her house.\" This answer he carried to her, and both\nwere very earnest to know in what manner the saint would perform his\npromise. When she was asleep in the night, the man of God appeared to\nher in her dream, and said: \"Your great faith, woman, obliged me to come\nto visit you; but I must admonish you to curb the like desires of seeing\nGod's servants on earth. Contemplate only their life, and imitate their\nactions. As for me, why did you desire to see me? Am I a saint, or a\nprophet like God's true servants? I am a sinful and weak man. It is\ntherefore only in virtue of your faith that I have had recourse to our\nLord, who grants you the cure of the corporal diseases with which you\nare afflicted. Live always in the fear of God, apd never forget his\nbenefits.\" He added several proper instructions for her conduct, any\ndisappeared. The woman awaking, described to her husband the person she\nhad seen in her dream, with all his features, in such a manner as to\nleave no room to doubt but it was the blessed man that had appeared to\nher. Whereupon he returned the next day to give him thanks for the\nsatisfaction he had vouchsafed his wife. But the saint on his arrival\nprevented him, saying: \"I have fulfilled your desire, I have seen your\nwife, and satisfied her in all things she had asked: go in peace.\" The\nofficer received his benediction, and continued his journey to Seyne.\nWhat the man of God foretold happened to him, as, {666} among other\nthings, that he should receive particular honors from the emperor.\nBesides the authors of the saint's life, St. Austin relates this history\nwhich he received from a nobleman of great integrity and credit, who had\nit from the very persons to whom it happened. St. Austin adds, had he\nseen St. John, he would have inquired of him, whether he himself really\nappeared to this woman, or whether it was an angel in his shape, or\nwhether the vision only passed in her imagination.[3]\n\nIn the year 394, a little before the saint's death, he was visited by\nPalladius, afterwards bishop of Helenopolis, who is one of the authors\nof his life. Several anchorets of the deserts of Nitria, all strangers,\nthe principal of whom were Evagrius, Albinus, Ammonius, had a great\ndesire to see the saint. Palladius, one of this number, being young, set\nout first in July, when the flood of the Nile was high. Being arrived at\nthis mountain, he found the door of his porch shut, and that it would\nnot be open till the Saturday following. He waited that time in the\nlodgings of strangers. On Saturday, at eight o'clock, Palladius entered\nthe porch, and saw the saint sitting before his window, and giving\nadvice to those who applied to him for it. Having saluted Palladius by\nan interpreter, he asked him of what country he was, and what was his\nbusiness, and if he was not of the company or monastery of Evagrius:\nPalladius owned he was. In the mean time arrived Alypius, governor of\nthe province, in great haste. The saint, on the arrival of Alypius,\nbroke off his discourse with Palladius, who withdrew to make room for\nthe governor to discourse with the saint. Their conversation was very\nlong, and Palladius being, weary, murmured within himself against the\nvenerable old man, as guilty of exception of persons. He was even just\ngoing away, when the saint, knowing his secret thoughts, sent Theodorus,\nhis interpreter, to him, saying: \"Go, bid that brother not to be\nimpatient: I am going to dismiss the governor, and then will speak to\nhim.\" Palladius, astonished that his thoughts should be known to him,\nwaited with patience. As soon as Alypius was gone, St. John called\nPalladius, and said to him: \"Why was {sic} you angry, imputing to me in\nyour mind what I was no way guilty of? To you I can speak at any other\ntime, and you have many fathers and brethren to comfort and direct you\nin the paths of salvation. But this governor being involved in the hurry\nof temporal affairs, and being come to receive some wholesome advice\nduring the short time his affairs will allow him time to breathe in, how\ncould I give you the preference?\" He then told Palladius what passed in\nhis heart, and his secret temptations to quit his solitude; for which\nend the devil represented to him his father's regret for his absence,\nand that he might induce his brother and sister to embrace a solitary\nlife. The holy man bade him despise such suggestions; for they had both\nalready renounced the world, and his father would yet live seven years.\nHe foretold him that he should meet with great persecutions and\nsufferings, and should be a bishop, but with many afflictions: all which\ncame to pass, though at that time extremely improbable.\n\nThe same year, St. Petronius, with six other monks, made a long journey\nto pay St. John a visit. He asked them if any among them was in holy\norders. They said: No. One, however, the youngest in the company, was a\ndeacon, though this was unknown to the rest. The saint, by divine\ninstinct, knew this circumstance, and that the deacon had concealed his\norders out of a false humility, not to seem superior to the others, but\ntheir inferior, as he was in age. Therefore, pointing to him, he said:\n\"This man is a deacon.\" The other denied it, upon the false persuasion\nthat to lie with a view to one's own humiliation was no sin. St. John\ntook him by {667} the hand, and kissing it, said to him: \"My son, take\ncare never to deny the grace you have received from God, lest humility\nbetray you into a lie. We must never lie, under any pretence of good\nwhatever, because no untruth can be from God.\" The deacon received this\nrebuke with great respect. After their prayer together, one of the\ncompany begged of the saint to be cured of the tertian ague. He\nanswered: \"You desire to be freed from a sickness which is beneficial to\nyou. As nitre cleanses the body, so distempers and other chastisements\npurify the soul.\" However, he blessed some oil and gave it to him: he\nvomited plentifully after it, and was from that moment perfectly cured.\nThey returned to their lodgings, where, by his orders, they were treated\nwith all proper civility, and cordial hospitality. When they went to him\nagain, he received them with joyfulness in his countenance, which\nevidenced the interior spiritual joy of his soul; he bade them sit down,\nand asked them whence they came. They said, from Jerusalem. He then made\nthem a long discourse, in which he first endeavored to show his own\nbaseness; after which he explained the means by which pride and vanity\nare to be banished out of the heart, and all virtues to be acquired. He\nrelated to them the examples of many monks, who, by suffering their\nhearts to be secretly corrupted by vanity, at last fell also into\nscandalous irregularities; as of one, who, after a most holy and austere\nlife, by this means fell into fornication, and then by despair into all\nmanner of disorders: also of another, who, from vanity, fell into a\ndesire of leaving his solitude; but by a sermon he preached to others,\nin a monastery on his road, was mercifully converted, and became an\neminent penitent. The blessed John thus entertained Petronius and his\ncompany for three days, till the hour of None. When they were leaving\nhim, he gave them his blessing, and said: \"Go in peace, my children; and\nknow that the news of the victory which the religious prince Theodosius\nhas gained over the tyrant Eugenius, is this day come to Alexandria: but\nthis excellent emperor will soon end his life by a natural death.\" Some\ndays after their leaving him to return home, they were informed he had\ndeparted this life. Having been favored by a foresight of his death, he\nwould see nobody for the last three days. At the end of this term he\nsweetly expired, being on his knees at prayer, towards the close of the\nyear 394, of the beginning of 395. It might probably be on the 17th of\nOctober, on which day the Copths, or Egyptian Christians, keep his\nfestival: the Roman and other Latin Martyrologies mark it on the 27th of\nMarch.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe solitude which the Holy Ghost recommends, and which the saints\nembraced, resembled that of Jesus Christ, being founded in the same\nmotive or principle, and having the same exercises and employments, and\nthe same end. Christ was conducted by the Holy Ghost into the desert,\nand he there spent his time in prayer and fasting. Woe to those whom\nhumor or passion leads into solitude, or who consecrate it not to God by\nmortification, sighs of penance, and hymns of divine praise. To those\nwho thus sanctify their desert, or cell, it will be an anticipated\nparadise, an abyss of spiritual advantages and comforts, known only to\nsuch as have enjoyed them. _The Lord will change the desert into a place\nof delights, and will make the solitude a paradise and a garden worthy\nof himself._[4] In it only joy and jubilee shall be seen, nothing shall\nbe heard but thanksgiving and praise. It is the dwelling of a\nterrestrial seraph, whose sole employment is to labor to know, and\ncorrect, all secret disorders of his own soul, to forget the world, and\nall objects of vanity which could distract or entangle him; to subdue\nhis senses, to purify the faculties of his soul, and entertain in his\n{668} heart a constant fire of devotion, by occupying it assiduously on\nGod, Jesus Christ, and heavenly things, and banishing all superfluous\ndesires and thoughts; lastly, to make daily progress in purity of\nconscience, humility, mortification, recollection, and prayer, and to\nfind all his joy in the most fervent and assiduous adoration, love, and\npraise of his sovereign Creator and Redeemer.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  Coll. b. 4, c. 21, p. 81.\n2.  A city in the north of Thebais, in Egypt.\n3.  S. Aug. l. pro cura de mortuis, c. 17, p. 294.\n4.  Isa. lxiii.\n\nST. RUPERT, OR ROBERT, C.\n\nBISHOP OF SALTZBOURG.\n\nHE was by birth a Frenchman, and of royal blood; but still more\nillustrious for his learning, and the extraordinary virtues he practised\nfrom his youth. He exercised himself is austere fasting, watching, and\nother mortifications; was a great lover of chastity and temperance; and\nso charitable as always to impoverish himself to enrich the poor. His\nreputation drew persons from remote provinces to receive his advice and\ninstructions. He removed all their doubts and scruples, comforted the\nafflicted, cured the sick, and healed the disorders of souls. So\ndistinguished a merit raised him to the episcopal see of Worms. But that\npeople, being for the most part idolaters, could not bear the lustre of\nsuch a sanctity, which condemned their irregularities and superstitions.\nThey beat him with rods, loaded him with all manner of outrages, and\nexpelled him the city. But God prepared for him another harvest.\nTheodon, duke of Bavaria, hearing of his reputation and miracles, sent\nmessengers to him, earnestly beseeching him to come and preach the\ngospel to the Baioarians, or Bavarians. This happened two years after\nhis expulsion from Worms: during which interval he had made a journey to\nRome. He was received at Ratisbon by Theodon and his court with all\npossible distinction, in 697, and found the hearts both of the nobles\nand people docile to the word of God. The Christian faith had been\nplanted in that country two hundred years before, by St. Severinus, the\napostle of Noricum. After his death, heresies and heathenish\nsuperstitions had entirely extinguished the light of the gospel.\nBagintrude, sister of duke Theodon, being a Christian, disposed her\nbrother and the whole country to receive the faith. Rupert, with the\nhelp of other zealous priests, whom he had brought with him, instructed,\nand, after a general fast, baptized, the duke Theodon and the lords and\npeople of the whole country. God confirmed his preaching by many\nmiracles. He converted also to Christianity the neighboring nations.\nAfter Ratisbon, the capital, the second chief seat of his labors was\nLaureacum, now called Lorch,[1] where he healed several diseases by\nprayer, and made many converts. However, it was not Lorch, nor the old\nReginum, thence called Regensbourg, now Ratisbon, the capital of all\nthose provinces, that was pitched upon to be the seat of the saint's\nbishopric, but old Juvavia, then almost in ruins, since rebuilt and\ncalled Saltzbourg. The duke Theodon adorned and enriched it with many\nmagnificent donations, which enabled St. Rupert to found there several\nrich churches and monasteries. After the prince's death, his son\nTheodebert, or Diotper, inheriting his zeal and piety, augmented\nconsiderably the revenues of this church. St. Rupert took a journey into\nFrance to procure a new supply of able laborers, and brought back to\nSaltzbourg twelve holy missionaries, with his niece St. Erentrude, a\nvirgin consecrated to God, for whom he built a great monastery, called\nNunberg, of which {669} she was the first abbess.[2] St. Rupert labored\nseveral years in this see, and died happily on Easter-day, which fell\nthat year on the 27th of March, after he had said mass and preached; on\nwhich day the Roman and other Martyrologies mention him. His principal\nfestival is kept with the greatest solemnity in Austria and Bavaria on\nthe 25th of September, the day of one of the translations of his relics,\nwhich are kept in the church under his name in Saltzbourg. Mabillon and\nBulteau, upon no slight grounds, think this saint to have lived a whole\ncentury later than is commonly supposed, and that he founded the church\nof Saltzbourg about the year 700. See his life, published by Canisius,\nHenschenius, and Mabillon, with the notes of the last-mentioned editor.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  A village on the Danube in the midway between Ratisbon and Vienna,\n    the capital of eastern Bavaria, at present Austria.\n2.  The bishop of Saltzbourg was, under Charlemagne, made an archbishop\n    and metropolitan of Bavaria, Austria, and its hereditary\n    territories. He is one of the first ecclesiastical princes of the\n    empire, and is elected by the canons of the cathedral, who are all\n    of noble extraction.\n\n\nMARCH XXVIII.\n\nPRISCUS, MALCHUS, AND ALEXANDER, MARTYRS.\n\nFrom Eus. Hist. b. 7, c. 12, p. 262.\n\nA.D. 260.\n\nTHESE eminent Christians, Priscus, Malchus, and Alexander, led a retired\nholy life in the country near Caesarea, in Palestine. During the fury of\nthe persecution under Valerian, they often called to mind the triumphs\nof the martyrs, and secretly reproached themselves with cowardice, as\nliving like soldiers who passed their time in softness and ease, while\ntheir brethren and fellow-warriors bore all the heat of the battle. They\ncould not long smother these warm sentiments in their breast; but\nexpressed them to one another. \"What,\" said they, \"while the secure gate\nof heaven is open, shall we shut it against ourselves? Shall we be so\nfaint-hearted as not to suffer for the name of Christ, who died for us?\nOur brethren invite us by their example: their blood is a loud voice,\nwhich presses us to tread in their steps. Shall we be deaf to a cry\ncalling us to the combat, and to a glorious victory?\" Full of this holy\nardor, they all, with one mind, repaired to Caesarea, and of their own\naccord, by a particular instinct of grace, presented themselves before\nthe governor, declaring themselves Christians. While all others were\nstruck with admiration at the sight of their generous courage, the\nbarbarous judge appeared not able to contain his rage. After having\ntried on them all the tortures which he employed on other martyrs, he\ncondemned them to be exposed to wild beasts. They are honored on this\nday in the Roman Martyrology.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nIn consecrating ourselves to the service of God, and to his pure love,\nthe first and most essential condition is that we do it without reserve,\nwith an earnest desire of attaining to the perfection of our state, and\na firm resolution of sparing nothing, and being deterred by no\ndifficulties from pursuing this end with our whole strength; and it must\nbe our chief care constantly to maintain, and always increase this\ndesire in our souls. Upon this condition {670} depends all out spiritual\nprogress. This is more essential in a religious state than the vows\nthemselves; and it is this which makes the difference betwixt the\nfervent and the lukewarm Christian. Many deceive themselves in this\nparticular, and flatter themselves their resolution of aspiring after\nperfection, with all their strength, is sincere, whereas it is very\nimperfect. Of this we can best judge by their earnestness to advance in\na spirit of prayer, and in becoming truly spiritual; in crucifying\nself-love, overcoming their failings, and cutting off all occasions of\ndissipation, and all impediments of their spiritual advancement.\nMortification and prayer, which are the principal means, present usually\nthe greatest difficulties: but these, as St. Terasa observes, are better\nthan half vanquished and removed by a firm resolution of not being\ndiscouraged by any obstacles, but of gathering from them fresh vigor and\nstrength. Patience and fortitude crown in the saints what this fervent\nresolution began.\n\nST. SIXTUS III., POPE.\n\nHE was a priest among the Roman clergy in 418, when pope Zozimus\ncondemned the Pelagian heretics. Sixtus was the first, after this\nsentence, who pronounced publicly anathema against them, to stop their\nslander in Africa that he favored their doctrine, as we are assured by\nSt. Austin and St. Prosper in his chronicle. The former sent him two\ncongratulatory letters the same year, in which he applauds this\ntestimony of his zeal, and in the first of these letters professes a\nhigh esteem of a treatise written by him in defence of the grace of God\nagainst its enemies. It was that calumny of the Pelagian heretics that\nled Garnier into the mistake that our saint at first favored their\nerrors. But a change of this kind would not have been buried in silence.\nAfter the death of St. Celestine, Sixtus was chosen pope in 432. He\nwrote to Nestorius to endeavor to reclaim him after his condemnation at\nEphesus, in 431: but his heart was hardened, and he stopped his ears\nagainst all wholesome admonitions. The pope had the comfort to see a\nhappy reconciliation made, by his endeavors, between the Orientals and\nSt. Cyril: in which he much commended the humility and pacific\ndispositions of the latter. He says \"that he was charged with the care\nand solicitude of all the churches in the world,[1] and that it is\nunlawful for any one to abandon the faith of the apostolic Roman church,\nin which St. Peter teaches in his successors what he received from\nChrist.\"[2] When Bassus, a nobleman of Rome, had been condemned by the\nemperor, and excommunicated by a synod of bishops for raising a grievous\nslander against the good pope, the meek servant of Christ visited and\nassisted him in person, administered him the viaticum in his last\nsickness; and buried him with his own hands. Julian of Eclanum or\nEculanum, the famous Pelagian, earnestly desiring to recover his see,\nmade great efforts to be admitted to the communion of the church,\npretending that he was become a convert, and used several artifices to\nconvince our saint that he really was so: but he was too well acquainted\nwith them to be imposed on. This holy pope died soon after, on the 28th\nof March, in 440, having sat in the see near eight years. See his\nletters, Anastasius's Pontifical, with the notes of Bianchini, &c.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  Ep. 1, ad Episc. Orient. p. 1236. Ep. decret. t. 1.\n2.  Ep. 6, and Joan. Antioch. contra Nestor.\n\n{671}\n\nST. GONTRAN, KING AND CONFESSOR.\n\nHE was son of king Clotaire, and grandson of Clovis I. and St.\nClotildis. Being the second son, while his brothers Charibert reigned at\nParis, and Sigebert in Austrasia, residing at Metz, he was crowned king\nof Orleans and Burgundy in 561, making Challons on the Saone his\ncapital. When compelled to take up arms against his ambitious brothers\nand the Lombards, he made no other use of his victories under the\nconduct of a brave general called Mommol, than to give peace to his\ndominions. He protected his nephews against the practices of the wicked\ndowager queens, Brunehault of Sigebert, and Fredegonde of Chilperic, the\nfirebrands of France. The putting to death the physicians of the queen,\nat her request, on her death-bed, and the divorcing his wife Mercatrude,\nare crimes laid to his charge, in which the barbarous manners of his\nnation involved him: but these he effaced by tears of repentance. He\ngoverned his kingdom, studying rather to promote the temporal happiness\nof others than his own, a stranger to the passions of pride, jealousy,\nand ambition, and making piety the only rule of his policy. The\nprosperity of his reign, both in peace and war, condemn those who think\nthat human policy cannot be modelled by the maxims of the gospel,\nwhereas nothing can render a government more flourishing. He always\ntreated the pastors of the church with respect and veneration, regarding\nthem as his fathers, and honoring and consulting them as his masters. He\nwas the protector of the oppressed, and the tender parent of his\nsubjects, whom he treated as his children. He poured out his treasures\namong them with a holy profusion; especially in the time of a pestilence\nand famine. He gave the greatest attention to the care of the sick. He\nfasted, prayed, wept, and offered himself to God night and day, as a\nvictim ready to be sacrificed on the altar of his justice, to avert his\nindignation, which he believed he himself had provoked, and drawn down\nupon his innocent people. He was a severe punisher of crimes in his\nofficers and others, and, by many wholesome regulations, restrained the\nbarbarous licentiousness of his troops, but no man was more ready to\nforgive offences against his own person. He contented himself with\nimprisoning a man who, through the instigation of queen Fredegonde, had\nattempted to stab him, and he spared another assassin sent by the same\nwicked woman, because he had taken shelter in a church. With royal\nmagnificence he built and endowed many churches and monasteries. St.\nGregory of Tours relates many miracles performed by him both before and\nafter his death, to some of which he was an eye-witness. This good king,\nlike another penitent David, having spent his life after his conversion,\nthough on the throne, in the retirement and penance of a recluse, (as\nSt. Hugh of Cluny says of him, exhorting king Philip I. to imitate his\nexample,) died on the 28th of March, in 593, in the sixty-eighth year of\nhis age, having reigned thirty-one and some months. He was buried in the\nchurch of St. Marcellus, which he had founded. The Huguenots scattered\nhis ashes in the sixteenth century: only his skull escaped their fury,\nand is now kept there in a silver case. He is mentioned in the Roman\nMartyrology. See St. Gregory of Tours, Fredegarius, and Baillet.\n\n{672}\n\n\nMARCH XXIX.\n\nSS. JONAS, BARACHISIUS, AND THEIR COMPANIONS,\n\nMARTYRS.\n\nFrom their genuine acts compiled by Esalas, a noble Armenian knight in\nthe troops of king Sapor, an eye witness; published in the original\nChaldaic, by Stephen Assemani, Act. Mart. Orient. t. 1, p. 211. They\nwere much adulterated by the Greeks in Metaphrastes. Ruinart and\nTillemont think Sapor raised no persecution before his fortieth year:\nbut Assemani proves from these acts, and several other monuments, a\npersecution in his eighteenth year. See Praef. Gen. and p. 214, app.\n\nA.D. 327.\n\nKING SAPOR, in the eighteenth year of his reign, raised a bloody\npersecution against the Christians, and demolished their churches and\nmonasteries. Jonas and Barachisius, two brothers of the city Beth-Asa,\nhearing that several Christians lay under sentence of death at Hubaham,\nwent thither to encourage and serve them. Nine of that number received\nthe crown of martyrdom. After their execution, Jonas and Barachisius\nwere apprehended for having exhorted them to die. The president mildly\nentreated the two brothers to obey the king of kings, meaning the king\nof Persia, and to worship the sun, moon, fire, and water. Their answer\nwas, that it was more reasonable to obey the immortal King of heaven and\nearth than a mortal prince. The Magians were much offended to hear their\nking called mortal. By their advice the martyrs were separated, and\nBarachisius was cast into a very narrow close dungeon. Jonas they\ndetained with them, endeavoring to persuade him to sacrifice to fire,\nthe sun, and water. The prince of the Magians, seeing him inflexible,\ncaused him to be laid fiat on his belly with a stake under his navel,\nand to be beaten both with knotty clubs and with rods. The martyr all\nthe time continued in prayer, saying: \"I thank you, O God of our father\nAbraham. Enable me, I beseech you, to offer to you acceptable\nholocausts. _One thing I have asked of the Lord: this will I seek\nafter_.[1] The sun, moon, fire, and water I renounce: I believe and\nconfess the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.\" The judge ordered him next to\nbe set in a frozen pond, with a cord tied to his foot. After supper, and\na short nap, he sent for Barachisius, and told him his brother had\nsacrificed. The martyr said it was impossible that he should have paid\ndivine honors to fire, a vile creature, and spoke much on the immensity\nand power of God, and with such, eloquence and force that the Magians\nwere astonished to hear him, and said one to another, that if he were\npermitted to speak in public, he would draw over many from their\nreligion. Whereupon they concluded for the future to hold his\ninterrogatories in the night. In the mean time they caused two red-hot\niron plates, and two red-hot hammers, to be applied under each arm, and\nsaid to him: \"If you shake off either of these, by the king's fortune,\nyou deny Christ.\" He meekly replied: \"I fear not your fire; nor shall I\nthrow off your instruments of torture. I beg you to try without delay\nall your torments on me. He who is engaged in combat for God is full of\ncourage.\" They ordered melted lead to be dropped into his nostrils and\neyes; and that he should then be carried to prison, and there hung up by\none foot. Jonas, after this, being brought out of his pool, the Magians\nsaid to him: \"How do you find yourself this morning? We imagine you\npassed the {673} last night out very uncomfortably.\" \"No,\" replied\nJonas; \"from the day I came into the world, I never remember a night\nmore sweet and agreeable: for I was wonderfully refreshed by the\nremembrance of Christ's sufferings.\" The Magians said: \"Your companion\nhath renounced.\" The martyr, interrupting them, answered: \"I know that\nhe hath long ago renounced the devil and his angels.\" The Magians urged:\n\"Take care lest you perish, abandoned both by God and man.\" Jonas\nreplied: \"If you are really wise, as you boast, judge if it be not\nbetter to sow the corn than to keep it hoarded up. Our life is a seed\nsown to rise again in the world to come, when it will be renewed by\nChrist in immortal light.\" The Magians said: \"Your books have drawn many\naside.\" Jonas answered: \"They have indeed drawn many from worldly\npleasures. When a servant of Christ is in his sufferings inebriated with\nlove from the passion of his Lord, he forgets the transitory state of\nthis short life, its riches, estates, gold, and honors; regardless of\nkings and princes, lords and noblemen, where an eternity is at stake, he\ndesires nothing but the sight of the only true King, whose empire is\neverlasting, and whose power reaches to all ages.\" The judges commanded\nall his fingers and toes to be cut off, joint by joint, and scattered\nabout. Then they said to him: \"Now wait the harvest to reap other hands\nfrom this seed.\" To whom he said: \"Other hands I do not ask. God is\npresent, who first framed me, and who will give me new strength.\" After\nthis, the skin was torn off the martyr's head, his tongue was cut out,\nand he was thrown into a vessel of boiling pitch; but the pitch by a\nsudden ebullition running over, the servant of God was not hurt by it.\nThe judges next ordered him to be squeezed in a wooden press till his\nveins, sinews, and fibres burst. Lastly, his body was sawn with an iron\nsaw, and, by pieces, thrown into a dry cistern. Guards were appointed to\nwatch the sacred relics, lest Christians should steal them away. The\njudges then called upon Barachisius to spare his own body. To whom he\nsaid: \"This body I did not frame, neither will I destroy it. God its\nmaker will again restore it and will judge you and your king.\"\nHormisdatscirus, turning to Maharnarsces, said: \"By our delays we\naffront the king. These men regard neither words nor torments.\" They\ntherefore agreed that he should be beaten with sharp-pointed rushes;\nthen that splinters of reeds should be applied to his body, and by cords\nstrait drawn and pulled, should be pressed deep into his flesh, and that\nin this condition his body, pierced all over with sharp spikes, armed\nlike a porcupine, should be rolled on the ground. After these tortures,\nhe was put into the screw or press, and boiling pitch and brimstone were\npoured into his mouth. By this last torment he obtained a crown equal to\nthat of his brother. Under their most exquisite tortures they thought\nthey bought heaven too cheap. Upon the news of their death, Abtusciatus,\nan old friend, came and purchased their bodies for five hundred drachms\nand three silk garments, binding himself also by oath never to divulge\nthe sale. The acts are closed by these words: \"This book was written\nfrom the mouths of witnesses, and contains the acts of the saints,\nJonas, Barachisius, and others, martyrs of Christ, who by his succor\nfought, triumphed, and were crowned, in whose prayers we beg place may\nbe found, by Esaias, son of Adabus of Arzun, in Armenia, of the troop of\nroyal horsemen, who was present at their interrogatories and tortures,\nand who wrote the history of their conflicts.\" They were crowned on the\n29th of the moon of December. This was the 24th of that month, in the\nyear of Christ 327, of Sopar II. the 18th. The Roman Martyrology\nmentions them on the 29th of March.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThose powerful motives which supported the martyrs under the sharpest\n{674} torments, ought to inspire us with patience, resignation, and holy\njoy, under sickness and all crosses or trials. These are the times of\nthe greatest spiritual harvest, by the exercise of the most perfect\nvirtues. For nothing is more heroic in the practice of Christian virtue,\nnothing more precious in the sight of God, than the sacrifice of\npatience, submission, constant fidelity and charity in a state of\nsuffering. Under sickness we are too apt eagerly to desire health, that\nwe may be able to do something for God, and to discharge the obligations\nof our profession, as we persuade ourselves. This is a mere invention of\nself-love, which is impatient under the weight of humiliation. Nothing,\nindeed, is more severe to nature than such a state of death, and there\nis nothing which it is not desirous of doing, to recover that active\nlife, which carries an air of importance by making an appearance in the\ntumultuous scene of the world. But how much does the soul generally lose\nby such an exchange! Ah! did we but truly know how great are the\nspiritual advantages and riches, and how great the glory of patience\nfounded upon motives of true charity, and how precious the victories and\ntriumphs are which it gains over self-love, we should rejoice too much\nin a state of suffering and humiliation ever to entertain any inordinate\ndesires of changing it. We should only ask for health in sickness under\nthis condition, if it be more expedient for God's honor and our\nspiritual advancement. With St. Paul, we should find a joy and delight\nin a state of privation and suffering, in which we enter into a true\nsense of our absolute weakness, feel that we are nothing, and have no\nreliance but on God alone.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  Psa. xxvi 4.\n\nSS. ARMOGASTES, ARCHINIMUS, AND SATURUS,\n\nMARTYRS.\n\nGENSERIC, the Arian king of the Vandals, to Africa, having, on his\nreturn out of Italy, in 457, enacted new penal laws, and severer than\nany he had till then put in force against Catholics, count Armogastes\nwas on that occasion deprived of his honors and dignities at court, and\nmost cruelly tortured. But no sooner had the jailers bound him with\ncords, but they broke of themselves, as the martyr lifted up his eyes to\nheaven; and this happened several times. And though they afterwards hung\nhim up by one foot with his head downwards for a considerable time, the\nsaint was no more affected by this torment than if he had lain all the\nwhile at his ease on a feather-bed. Theodoric, the king's son, thereupon\nordered his head to be struck off: but one of his Arian priests diverted\nhim from it, advising him to take other measures with him to prevent his\nbeing looked upon as a martyr by those of his party, which would be of\ndisservice to the opposite cause. He was therefore sent into Byzacena to\nwork in the mines; and some time after, for his greater disgrace, he was\nremoved thence into the neighborhood of Carthage, and employed in\nkeeping cows. But he looked upon it as his glory to be dishonored before\nmen in the cause of God. It was not long before he had a revelation that\nhis end drew near. So having foretold the time of his death, and given\norders to a devout Christian about the place where he desired to be\ninterred, the holy confessor, a few days after, went to receive the\nrewards of those that suffer in the cause of truth.\n\nArchinimus, of the city Mascula, in Numidia, resisted all the artifices\nwhich the king could use to overcome his faith, and was condemned to be\nbeheaded, but was reprieved while he stood under the axe. Satur, or\nSaturus, was master of the household to Huneric, by whom he was\nthreatened to be deprived of his estate, goods, slaves, wife, and\nchildren for his faith. {675} His own wife omitted nothing in her power\nto prevail with him to purchase his pardon at the expense of his\nconscience. But he courageously answered her in the words of Job: \"_You\nhave spoken like one of the foolish women_.[1] If you loved me, you\nwould give me different advice, and not push me on to a second death.\nLet them do their worst: I will always remember our Lord's words: _If\nany man come to me, and hate not his father and mother, his wife and\nchildren, his brethren and sisters, and his own life also, he cannot be\nmy disciple_.\"[2] He suffered many torments, was stripped of all his\nsubstance, forbid ever to appear in public, and reduced to great\ndistress. But God enriched him with his graces, and called him to\nhimself. See St. Victor Vitensis, Hist. Persec. Vandal, l. 1, n. 14.\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  Job ii. 9.\n2.  Luke xiv. 26.\n\nST. EUSTASIUS, OR EUSTACHIUS,\n\nABBOT OF LUXEU,\n\nSUCCEEDED his master St. Columban in that charge, in 611. He sanctified\nhimself by humility, continual prayer, watching, and fasting; was the\nspiritual father of six hundred monks, and of many holy bishops and\nsaints, and died in 625. He is named in the Martyrologies of Ado, and in\nthe Roman. See his life by Jonas, his colleague, in the Bollandists, and\nin Mabillon.\n\nST. GUNDLEUS, CONFESSOR.\n\nTHIS saint, who was formerly honored with great devotion in Wales, was\nson to the king of the Dimetians in South-Wales. After the death of his\nfather, though the eldest son, he divided the kingdom with his six\nbrothers who nevertheless respected and obeyed him as if he had been\ntheir sovereign. He married Gladusa, daughter of Braghan, prince of that\ncountry, which is called from him Brecknockshire, and was father of St.\nCanoe and St. Keyna. St. Gundleus had by her the great St. Cadoc, who\nafterwards founded the famous monastery of Llancarvan, three miles from\nCowbridge, in Glamorganshire. Gundleus lived so as to have always in\nview the heavenly kingdom for which we are created by God. To secure\nthis, he retired wholly from the world long before his death, and passed\nhis time in a solitary little dwelling near a church which he had built.\nHis clothing was sackcloth, his food barley-bread, upon which he usually\nstrewed ashes, and his drink was water. Prayer and contemplation were\nhis constant occupation, to which he rose at midnight, and he subsisted\nby the labor of his hands: thus he lived many years. Some days before\nhis death he sent for St. Dubritius and his son St. Cadoc, and by their\nassistance, and the holy rites of the church, prepared himself for his\npassage to eternity. He departed to our Lord towards the end of the\nfifth century, and was glorified by miracles. See his life in Capgrave\nand Henschenius, from the collection of John of Tinmouth. See also\nbishop Usher.\n\nST. MARK, BISHOP AND CONFESSOR.\n\nSOME Greeks rank among the saints on this day, Mark, bishop of Arethusa,\nin Syria, in the fourth age. When Constantius put to death his uncle,\n{676} Julius Constantius, brother of Constantine the Great, with his\neldest son; the two younger, Gallus and Julian, narrowly escaped the\nsword. In that danger Mark concealed Julian, and secretly supplied him\nwith necessaries for his subsistence. When Julian became emperor, he\ncommanded that the temples which had been demolished by Christians,\nduring the two preceding reigns, should be rebuilt at their expense.\nMark had, by the authority of Constantius, demolished a very magnificent\ntemple which was held in great veneration by the idolaters: he had also\nbuilt a church, and converted a great number of infidels. Authorized by\nthe law of Julian, the heathens of Arethusa, when they saw themselves\nuppermost, fell on the Christians; and Mark, finding that they were\nready to show their resentment against him in particular, which they had\nlong concealed, he at first, pursuant to the gospel precept, betook\nhimself to flight to escape their fury. But understanding that they had\napprehended some of his flock instead of him, he returned and delivered\nhimself up to the persecutors, to animate others in the same cause by\nhis example and instructions. They seized him soon after his return,\ndragged him through the streets by the hair, or any part they could lay\nhold of, without the least compassion for his age, or regard for his\nvirtue and learning. Having stripped him, and scourged him all over his\nbody, joining ignominy and insults with cruelty, they threw him into the\nstinking public jakes. Having taken him from thence, they left him to\nthe children, ordering them to prick and pierce him, without mercy, with\ntheir writing-styles, or steel pencils. They bound his legs with cords\nso tight as to cut and bruise his flesh to the very bone; they wrung off\nhis ears with small strong threads; and in this maimed, bloody\ncondition, they pushed him from one to another. After this they rubbed\nhim over with honey and fat broth; and shutting him up in a kind of\ncage, hung him up in the air where the sun was most scorching, at\nnoonday, in the midst of summer, in order to draw the wasps and gnats\nupon him, whose stings are exceeding sharp and piercing in those hot\ncountries. He was so calm in the midst of his sufferings, that, though\nso sorely wounded and covered with flies and wasps, he bantered them as\nhe hung in the air; telling them, that while they were grovelling on the\nearth, he was raised by them towards heaven. They frequently solicited\nhim to rebuild their temple, but though they reduced their demands by\ndegrees to a trifling sum, he constantly answered, that it would be an\nimpiety to give them one farthing towards such a work. This indeed would\nbe to concur to idolatrous worship; but his demolishing the temple would\nhave been against the order of law and justice, had he done it without\npublic authority. At length the fury of the people was turned into\nadmiration of his patience, and they set him at liberty; and several of\nthem afterwards begged of him to instruct them in the principles of a\nreligion which was capable of inspiring such a resolution. Having spent\nthe remainder of his life in the faithful discharge of the duties of his\nstation, he died in peace under Jovian or Valens. He is not named in the\nRoman Martyrology, nor venerated by the church among the saints. He had\nbeen long engaged in the errors and intrigues of the Semi-Arians; but\nthe encomiums given him by St. Gregory Nazianzen, Theodoret, and\nSozomen, when they relate his sufferings, show that towards the end of\nthe reign of Constantius, he joined in the orthodox communion.\n\n{677}\n\n\nMARCH XXX.\n\nST. JOHN CLIMACUS, ABBOT.\n\nFrom his life written by Daniel, a monk of Raithu, soon after his death,\nand from his own works. See Bulteau, Hist Monast. d'Orient, and\nd'Andilly, or rather his nephew, Le Maitre, in his life prefixed to the\nFrench translation of his works. See also Jos. Assemani, in Cal. Univ.\nad 30 Martii, t. 6, p. 213.\n\nA.D. 605.\n\nST. JOHN, generally distinguished by the appellation of Climacus, from\nhis excellent book entitled Climax, or the Ladder to Perfection, was\nborn about the year 525, probably in Palestine. By his extraordinary\nprogress in the arts and sciences, he obtained very young the surname of\nthe Scholastic. But at sixteen years of age he renounced all the\nadvantages which the world promised him, to dedicate himself to God in a\nreligious state, in 547. He retired to Mount Sinai, which, from the time\nof the disciples of St. Antony and St. Hilarion, had been always peopled\nby holy men, who, in imitation of Moses, when he received the law on\nthat mountain, lived in the perpetual contemplation of heavenly things.\nOur novice, fearing the danger of dissipation and relaxation, to which\nnumerous communities are generally more exposed than others, chose not\nto live in the great monastery on the summit, but in a hermitage on the\ndescent of the mountain, under the discipline of Martyrius, a holy\nancient anchoret. By silence, he curbed the insolent itch of talking\nabout every thing, an ordinary vice in learned men, but usually a mark\nof pride and self-sufficiency. By perfect humility and obedience, he\nbanished the dangerous desire of self-complacency in his actions. He\nnever contradicted, never disputed with any one. So perfect was his\nsubmission, that he seemed to have no self-will. He undertook to sail\nthrough the deep sea of this mortal life securely, under the direction\nof a prudent guide, and shunned those rocks which he could not have\nescaped, had he presumed to steer alone, as he tells us.[1] From the\nvisible mountain he raised his heart, without interruption, in all his\nactions, to God, who is invisible; and, attentive to all the motions of\nhis grace, studied only to do his will. Four years he spent in the trial\nof his own strength, and in learning the obligations of his state,\nbefore he made his religious profession, which was in the twentieth year\nof his age. In his writings, he severely condemns engagements made by\npersons too young, or before a sufficient probation. By fervent prayer\nand fasting he prepared himself for the solemn consecration of himself\nto God, that the most intense fervor might make his holocaust the more\nperfect: and from that moment he seemed to be renewed in spirit; and his\nmaster admired the strides with which, like a mighty giant, the young\ndisciple advanced, daily more and more, towards God by self-denial,\nobedience, humility, and the uninterrupted exercises of divine love and\nprayer.\n\nIn the year 560, and the thirty-fifth of his age, he lost Martyrius by\ndeath, having then spent nineteen years in that place in penance and\nholy contemplation. By the advice of a prudent director, he then\nembraced an eremitical life in a plain called Thole, near the foot of\nMount Sinai. His cell was five miles from the church, probably the same\nwhich had been built a little {678} before, by order of the emperor\nJustinian, for the use of the monks, at the bottom of this mountain, in\nhonor of the Blessed Virgin, as Procopius mentions.[2] Thither he went\nevery Saturday and Sunday to assist, with all the other anchorets and\nmonks of that desert, at the holy office and at the celebration of the\ndivine mysteries, when they all communicated. His diet was very sparing,\nthough, to shun ostentation and the danger of vain-glory, he ate of\nevery thing that was allowed among the monks of Egypt, who universally\nabstained from flesh, fish, &c. Prayer was his principal employment; and\nhe practised what he earnestly recommends to all Christians, that in all\ntheir actions, thoughts, and words, they should keep themselves with\ngreat fervor in the presence of God, and direct all they do to his holy\nwill.[3] By habitual contemplation he acquired an extraordinary purity\nof heart, and such a facility of lovingly beholding God in all his\nworks, that this practice seemed in him a second nature. Thus he\naccompanied his studies with perpetual prayer. He assiduously read the\nholy scriptures, and fathers, and was one of the most learned doctors of\nthe church. But, to preserve the treasure of humility, he concealed, as\nmuch as possible, both his natural and acquired talents, and the\nextraordinary graces with which the Holy Ghost enriched his soul. By\nthis secrecy he fled from the danger of vain-glory, which, like a leech,\nsticks to our best actions, and sucking from them its nourishment, robs\nus of their fruit. As if this cell had not been sufficiently remote from\nthe eyes of men, St. John frequently retired into a neighboring cavern,\nwhich he had made in the rock, where no one could come to disturb his\ndevotions, or interrupt his tears. So ardent were his charity and\ncompunction, that his eyes seemed two fountains, which scarce ever\nceased to flow; and his continual sighs and groans to heaven, under the\nweight of the miseries inseparable from his moral pilgrimage, were not\nto be equalled by the vehemency of the cries of those who suffer from\nknives and fire. Overcome by importunities, he admitted a holy anchoret\nnamed Moyses to live with him as his disciple.\n\nGod bestowed on St. John an extraordinary grace of healing the spiritual\ndisorders of souls. Among others, a monk called Isaac, was brought\nalmost to the brink of despair by most violent temptations of the flesh.\nHe addressed himself to St. John; who perceived by his tears how much he\nunderwent from that conflict and struggle which he felt within himself.\nThe servant of God commended his faith, and said: \"My son, let us have\nrecourse to God by prayer.\" They accordingly prostrated themselves\ntogether on the ground in fervent supplication for a deliverance, and\nfrom that time the infernal serpent left Isaac to peace. Many others\nresorted to St. John for spiritual advice: but the devil excited some to\njealousy, who censured him as one who, out of vanity, lost much time in\nunprofitable discourse. The saint took this accusation, which was a mere\ncalumny, in good part, and as a charitable admonition; he therefore\nimposed on himself a rigorous silence for near a twelvemonth. This his\nhumility and modesty so much astonished his calumniators, that they\njoined the rest of the monks in beseeching him to reassume his former\nfunction of giving charitable advice to all that resorted to him for it,\nand not to bury that talent of science which he had received for the\nbenefit of many. He who knew not what it was to contradict others, with\nthe same humility and deference again opened his mouth to instruct his\nneighbor in the rules of perfect virtue: in which office, such was the\nreputation of his wisdom and experience, that he was regarded as another\nMoses in that holy place.\n\nSt. John was now seventy-five years old, and had spent forty of them in\n{679} his hermitage, when, in the year six hundred, he was unanimously\nchosen abbot of Mount Sinai, and superior-general of all the monks and\nhermits in that country. Soon after he was raised to this dignity, the\npeople of Palestine and Arabia, in the time of a great drought and\nfamine, made their application to him as to another Elias, begging him\nto intercede with God in their behalf. The saint failed not with great\nearnestness to recommend their distress to the Father of mercies, and\nhis prayer was immediately recompensed with abundant rains. St. Gregory\nthe Great., who then sat in St. Peter's chair, wrote to our holy\nabbot,[4] recommending himself to his prayers, and sent him beds, with\nother furniture and money, for his hospital, for the use of pilgrims\nnear Mount Sinai. John, who had used his utmost endeavors to decline the\npastoral charge, when he saw it laid upon him, neglected no means which\nmight promote the sanctification of all those who were entrusted to his\ncare. That posterity might receive some share in the benefit of his holy\ninstructions, John, the learned and virtuous abbot of Raithu, a\nmonastery-situate towards the Red Sea, entreated him by that obedience\nhe had ever practised, even with regard to his inferiors, that he would\ndraw up the most necessary rules by which fervent souls might arrive at\nChristian perfection. The saint answered him, that nothing but extreme\nhumility could have moved him to write to so miserable a sinner,\ndestitute of every sort of virtue; but that he received his commands\nwith respect, though far above his strength, never considering his own\ninsufficiency. Wherefore, apprehensive of falling into death by\ndisobedience, he took up his pen in haste, with great eagerness mixed\nwith fear, and set himself to draw some imperfect outlines as an\nunskilful painter, leaving them to receive from him, as a great master,\nthe finishing strokes. This produced the excellent work which he called\nClimax, or the ladder of religious perfection. This book being written\nin sentences, almost in the manner of aphorisms, abounds more in sense\nthan words. A certain majestic simplicity, an inexpressible unction and\nspirit of humility, joined with conciseness and perspicuity, very much\nenhance the value of this performance: but its chief merit consists in\nthe sublime sentiments, and perfect description of all Christian\nvirtues, which it contains. The author confirms his precepts by several\nedifying examples, as of obedience and penance.[5] In describing a\nmonastery of three hundred and thirty monks, which he had visited near\nAlexandria in Egypt, he mentions one of the principal citizens of that\ncity, named Isidore, who, petitioning to be admitted into the house,\nsaid to the abbot: \"As iron is in the hands of the smith, so am I in\nyour hands.\" The abbot ordered him to remain without the gate, and to\nprostrate himself at the feet of everyone that passed by, begging their\nprayers for his soul struck with a leprosy. Thus he passed seven years\nin profound humility and patience. He told St. John, that during the\nfirst year he always considered himself as a slave condemned for his\nsins, and sustained violent conflicts. The second year he passed in\ntranquillity and confidence; and the third with relish and pleasure in\nhis humiliations. So great was his virtue, that the abbot determined to\npresent him to the bishop in order to be promoted to the priesthood, but\nthe humility of the holy penitent prevented the execution of that\ndesign; for having begged at least a respite, he died within ten days.\nSt. John could not help admiring the cook of this numerous community,\nwho seemed always recollected, and generally bathed in tears amidst his\ncontinual occupation, and asked him by what means he nourished so\nperfect a spirit of compunction, in the midst of such a dissipating\nlaborious employment. He said, that serving the monks, he represented to\nhimself that he was serving not men, but God in his servants {680} and\nthat the fire he always had before his eyes, reminded him of that fire\nwhich will burn souls for all eternity. The moving description which our\nauthor gives of the monastery of penitents called the Prison, above a\nmile from the former, hath been already abridged in our language. John\nthe Sabaite told our saint, as of a third person, that seeing himself\nrespected in his monastery, he considered that this was not the way to\nsatisfy for his sins. Wherefore, with the leave of his abbot, he\nrepaired to a severe monastery in Pontus, and after three years saw in a\ndream a schedule of his debts, to the amount in appearance of one\nhundred pounds of gold, of which only ten were cancelled. He therefore\nrepeated often to himself: \"Poor Antiochus, thou hast still great debt\nto satisfy.\" After passing over thirteen years in contempt and the most\nfervent practices of penance, he deserved to see in a vision his whole\ndebt blotted out. Another monk, in a grievous fit of illness, fell into\na trance, in which he lay as if he had been dead for the space of an\nhour: but recovering, he shut himself up in his cell, and lived a\nrecluse twelve years, almost continually weeping, in the perpetual\nmeditation of death. When he was near death, his brethren could only\nextort from him these words of edification: \"He who hath death always\nbefore his eyes, will never sin.\" John, abbot of Raithu, explained this\nbook of our saint by judicious comments, which are also extant. We have\nlikewise a letter of St. John Climacus to the same person, concerning\nthe duties of a pastor, in which he exhorts him in correcting others to\ntemper severity with mildness, and encourages him zealously to fulfil\nthe obligations of his charge; for nothing is greater or more acceptable\nto God than to offer him the sacrifice of rational souls sanctified by\npenance and charity.\n\nSt. John sighed continually under the weight of his dignity, during the\nfour years that he governed the monks of Mount Sinai: and as he had\ntaken upon him that burden with fear and reluctance, he with joy found\nmeans to resign the same a little before his death. Heavenly\ncontemplation, and the continual exercise of divine love and praise,\nwere his delight and comfort in his earthly pilgrimage: and in this\nimitation of the functions of the blessed spirits in heaven he placeth\nthe essence of the monastic state.[6] In his excellent maxims concerning\nthe gift of holy tears, the fruit of charity,[7] we seem to behold a\nlively portraiture of his most pure soul. He died in his hermitage on\nthe 30th day of March, in 605, being fourscore years old. His spiritual\nson George, who had succeeded him in the abbacy, earnestly begged of God\nthat he might not be separated from his dear master and guide, and\nfollowed him by a happy death within a few days. On several Greek\ncommentaries on St. John Climacus's ladder, see Montfaucon, Biblioth.\nCoisliana, pp. 305, 306.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nSt. John Climacus, speaking of the excellence and the effects of\ncharity, does it with a feeling and energy worthy of such a subject. \"A\nmother,\" says he,[8] \"feels less pleasure when she folds within her arms\nthe dear infant whom she nourishes with her own milk, than the true\nchild of charity does, when united, as he incessantly is, to his God,\nand folded as if were in the arms of his heavenly Father.[9]--Charity\noperates in some persons so as to carry them almost entirely out of\nthemselves. It illuminates others, and fills them with such sentiments\nof joy, that they cannot help crying out: _The Lord is my helper and my\nprotector: in him hath my heart confided, and I have been helped. And my\nflesh hath flourished again, and with my will I will give praise to\nhim_.[10] This joy which they feel in their hearts, is reflected on\ntheir countenances; and when once God has united, or, as we may say,\n{681} incorporated them with his charity, he displays in their exterior,\nas in the reflection of a mirror, the brightness and serenity of their\nsouls: even as Moses, being honored with a sight of God, was encompassed\nround by his glory.\" St. John Climacus composed the following prayer to\nobtain the gift of charity: \"My God, I pretend to nothing upon this\nearth, except to be so firmly united to you by prayer, that to be\nseparated from you may be impossible: let others desire riches and\nglory; for my part, I desire but one thing, and that is, to be\ninseparably united to you, and to place in you alone all my hopes of\nhappiness and repose.\"\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  Gr. l.\n2.  Procop. l. 5 de aedif. Justin.\n3.  S. Jo. Clim. gr. 27, n. 67.\n4.  St. Greg. l. 11; Ep. 1, l. 12; Ep. 16, t. 2, p. 1091.\n5.  Gr. 4 and 5.\n6.  Gr. 1.\n7.  Gr. 7, 27, 30.\n8.  Grad. 30, n. 12.\n9.  Gr {} n. 14.\n10. Ps. xxvii.\n\nS. ZOZIMUS, BISHOP OF SYRACUSE,\n\nWAS successor to the holy bishop Peter; and faithfully discharged all\nthe duties of a worthy pastor until his death, which happened in 660.\nHis, name is mentioned in the Roman and Sicilian Martyrologies. See the\nBollandists and Baillet.\n\nST. REGULUS, OR RIEUL,\n\nWHO having converted the country of Senlis to the faith, about the same\ntime that St. Dionysius preached in France, was made first bishop of\nSenlis, and died in peace in the midst of his flock. See the Bollandists\nand Tillem. t. 4, p. 719.\n\n\nMARCH XXXI.\n\nSAINT BENJAMIN, DEACON, M.\n\nFrom Theodoret, Hist. Eccles. l. 5, c. 39, &c.\n\nA.D. 429.\n\nISDEGERDES, son of Sapor III., put a stop to the crael persecutions\nagainst the Christians in Persia, which had been begun by Sapor II., and\nthe Church had enjoyed twelve years' peace in that kingdom, when, in\n420, it was disturbed by the indiscreet zeal of one Abdas, a Christian\nbishop, who burned down the Pyraeum, or temple of fire, the great\ndivinity of the Persians. King Isdegerdes threatened to demolish all the\nchurches of the Christians, unless he would rebuild it. Abdas had done\nill in destroying the temple, but did well in refusing to rebuild it;\nfor nothing can make it lawful to contribute to any act of idolatry, or\nto the building a temple, as Theodoret observes. Isdegerdes therefore\ndemolished all the Christian churches in Persia, put to death Abdas, and\nraised a general persecution against the Church, which continued forty\nyears with great fury. Isdegerdes died the year following, in 421. But\nhis son and successor, Varanes, carried on the persecution with greater\ninhumanity. The very description which Theodoret, a contemporary writer,\nand one that lived in the neighborhood gives of the cruelties he\nexercised on the Christians, strikes us with {682} horror: some were\nflayed alive in different parts of the body, and suffered all kinds of\ntorture that could be invented: others, being stuck all over with sharp\nreeds, were hauled and rolled about in that condition; others were\ntormented divers other ways, such as nothing but the most hellish malice\nwas capable of suggesting. Among these glorious champions of Christ was\nSt. Benjamin, a deacon. The tyrant caused him to be beaten and\nimprisoned. He had lain a year in the dungeon, when an ambassador from\nthe emperor obtained his enlargement, on condition he should never speak\nto any of the courtiers about religion. The ambassador passed his word\nin his behalf that he would not: but Benjamin, who was a minister of the\ngospel, declared that he could not detain the truth in captivity,\nconscious to himself of the condemnation of the slothful servant for\nhaving hid his talent. He therefore neglected no opportunity of\nannouncing Christ. The king, being informed that he still preached the\nfaith in his kingdom, ordered him to be apprehended; but the martyr made\nno other reply to his threats than by putting this question to the king:\nWhat opinion he would have of any of his subjects who should renounce\nhis allegiance to him, and join in war against him. The enraged tyrant\ncaused reeds to be run in between the nails and the flesh both of his\nhands and feet, and the same to be thrust into other most tender parts,\nand drawn out again, and this to be frequently repeated with violence.\nHe lastly ordered a knotty stake to be thrust into his bowels to rend\nand tear them, in which torment he expired in the year 424. The Roman\nMartyrology places his name on the 31st of March.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nSt. Ephrem, considering the heroic constancy of the martyrs, makes on\nthem the following pious reflections: \"The wisdom of philosophers, and\nthe eloquence of the greatest orators, are dumb through amazement, when\nthey contemplate the wonderful spectacle and glorious actions of the\nmartyrs: the tyrants and judges were not able to express their\nastonishment when they beheld the faith, the constancy, and the\ncheerfulness of these holy champions. What excuse shall we have in the\ndreadful day of judgment, if we who have never been exposed to any cruel\npersecutions, or to the violence of such torments, shall have neglected\nthe love of God and the care of a spiritual life? No temptations, no\ntorments, were able to draw them from that love which they bore to God:\nbut we, living in rest and delights, refuse to love our most merciful\nand gracious Lord. What shall we do in that day of terror, when the\nmartyrs of Christ, standing with confidence near his throne, shall show\nthe marks of their wounds? What shall we then show? Shall we present a\nlively faith? true charity towards God? a perfect disengagement of our\naffections from earthly things? souls freed from the tyranny of the\npassions? silence and recollection? meekness? alms-deeds? prayers poured\nforth with clean hearts? compunction, watchings, tears? Happy shall he\nbe whom such good works shall attend. He will be the partner of the\nmartyrs, and, supported by the treasure of these virtues, shall appear\nwith equal confidence before Christ and his angels. We entreat you, O\nmost holy martyrs, who cheerfully suffered most cruel torments for God\nour Saviour and his love, on which account you are now most intimately\nand familiarly united to him, that you pray to the Lord for us miserable\nsinners, covered with filth, that he infuse into us the grace of Christ,\nthat it may enlighten our souls that we may love him, &c.\"[1]\n\nFootnotes:\n1.  St. Ephrem. Hom. In SS. Martyres. t. 3. Op. Gr. et Lat. p. 251. ed\n    Vatic. an. 1746.\n\n{683}\n\nST. ACACIUS, OR ACHATES, BISHOP OF ANTIOCH IN ASIA MINOR, C.\n\nST. ACACIUS was bishop of Antioch, probably the town of that name in\nPhrygia, where the Marcionites were numerous. He was surnamed\nAgathangel, or Good-angel, and extremely respected by the people for his\nsanctity. It was owing to his zeal that not one of his flock renounced\nChrist by sacrificing to idols during the persecution of Decius, a\nweakness which several of the Marcionite heretics had betrayed. Our\nsaint himself made a glorious confession of his faith; of which the\nfollowing relation, transcribed from the public register, is a voucher.\n\nMartian, a man of consular dignity, arriving at Antioch, a small town of\nhis government, ordered the bishop to be brought before him. His name\nwas Acacius, and he was styled the buckler and refuge of that country\nfor his universal charity and episcopal zeal. Martian said to him: \"As\nyou have the happiness to live under the Roman laws, you are bound to\nlove and honor our princes, who are our protectors.\" Acacius answered:\n\"Of all the subjects of the empire, none love and honor the emperor more\nthan the Christians. We pray without intermission for his person, and\nthat it may please God to grant him long life, prosperity, success, and\nall benedictions; that he may be endowed by him with the spirit of\njustice and wisdom to govern his people; that his reign be auspicious,\nand prosperous, blessed with joy, peace, and plenty, throughout all the\nprovinces that obey him.\" MARTIAN.-\"All this I commend; but that the\nemperor may be the better convinced of your submission and fidelity,\ncome now and offer him a sacrifice with me.\" ACACIUS.-\"I have already\ntold you that I pray to the great and true God for the emperor; but he\nought not to require a sacrifice from us, nor is there any due to him or\nto any man whatsoever.\" MARTIAN.-\"Tell us what God you adore, that we\nmay also pay him our offerings and homages.\" ACACIUS.-\"I wish from my\nheart you did but know him to your advantage.\" MARTIAN.-\"Tell me his\nname.\" ACACIUS.-\"He is called the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of\nJacob.\" MARTIAN.-\"Are these the names of gods?\" ACACIUS.-\"By no means,\nbut of men to whom the true God spoke; he is the only God, and he alone\nis to be adored, feared, and loved.\" MARTIAN.-\"What is this God?\"\nACACIUS.-\"He is the most high Adonia, who is seated above the cherubims\nand seraphims.\" MARTIAN.-\"What is a seraph?\" ACACIUS.-\"A ministering\nspirit of the most high God, and one of the principal lords of the\nheavenly court.\" MARTIAN.-\"What chimeras are these? Lay aside these\nwhims of invisible beings, and adore such gods as you can see.\"\nACACIUS.-\"Tell me who are those gods to whom you would have me\nsacrifice?\" MARTIAN.-\"Apollo, the saviour of men, who preserves us from\npestilence and famine, who enlightens, preserves, and governs the\nuniverse.\" ACACIUS.-\"Do you mean that wretch that could not preserve his\nown life: who, being in love with a young woman, (Daphne,) ran about\ndistracted in pursuit of her, not knowing that he was never to possess\nthe object of his desires? It is therefore evident that he could not\nforesee things to come, since he was in the dark as to his own fate: and\nas clear that he could be no god, who was thus cheated by a creature.\nAll know likewise that he had a base passion for Hyacinth, a beautiful\nboy, and was so awkward as to break the head of that minion, the fond\nobject of his criminal passion, with a quoit. Is not he also that god\nwho, with Neptune, turned mason, hired himself to a king, (Laomedon of\nTroy,) and built the walls of a city? Would you {684} oblige me to\nsacrifice to such a divinity, or to Esculapius, thunderstruck by\nJupiter? or to Venus, whose life was infamous, and to a hundred such\nmonsters, to whom you offer sacrifice? No, though my life itself\ndepended on it, ought I to pay divine honors to those whom I should\nblush to imitate, and of whom I can entertain no other sentiments than\nthose of contempt and execration? You adore gods, the imitators of whom\nyou yourselves would punish.\" MARTIAN.-\"It is usual for you Christians\nto raise several calumnies against our gods; for which reason I command\nyou to come now with me to a banquet in honor of Jupiter and Juno, and\nacknowledge and perform what is due to their majesty.\" ACACIUS.-\"How can\nI sacrifice to a man whose sepulchre is unquestionably in Crete? What!\nIs he risen again?\" MARTIAN.-\"You must either sacrifice or die.\"\nACACIUS.-\"This is the custom of the Dalmatian robbers; when they have\ntaken a passenger in a narrow way, they leave him no other choice but to\nsurrender his money or his life. But, for my part, I declare to you that\nI fear nothing that you call do to me. The laws punish adulterers,\nthieves, and murderers. Were I guilty of any of those things, I should\nbe the first man to condemn myself. But if my whole crime be the adoring\nof the true God, and I am on this account to be put to death, it is no\nlonger a law but an injustice.\" MARTIAN.-\"I have no order to judge but\nto counsel you to obey. If you refuse, I know how to force you to a\ncompliance.\" ACACIUS.-\"I have a law which I will obey: this commands me\nnot to renounce my God. If you think yourself bound to execute the\norders of a man who in a little time hence must leave the world, and his\nbody become the food of worms, much more strictly am I bound to obey the\nomnipotent God, who is infinite and eternal, and who hath declared,\n_Whoever shall deny me before men, him will I deny before my Father_.\"\nMARTIAN.-\"You now mention the error of your sect which I have long\ndesired to be informed of: you say then that God hath a son?\"\nACACIUS.-\"Doubtless he hath one.\" MARTIAN.-\"Who is this son of God?\"\nACACIUS.-\"The Word of truth and grace.\" MARTIAN.-\"Is that his name?\"\nACACIUS.-\"You did not ask me his name, but what he is.\" MARTIAN.-\"What\nthen is his name?\" ACACIUS.-\"Jesus Christ.\" Martian having inquired of\nthe saint by what woman God had this son, he replied, that the divine\ngeneration of the Word is of a different nature from human generation,\nand proved it from the language the royal prophet makes use of in the\nforty-fourth psalm. MARTIAN.-\"Is God then corporeal?\" ACACIUS.-\"He is\nknown only to himself. We cannot describe him; he is invisible to us in\nthis mortal state, but we are sufficiently acquainted with his\nperfections to confess and adore him.\" MARTIAN.-\"If God hath no body,\nhow can he have a heart or mind?\" ACACIUS.-\"Wisdom hath no dependence or\nconnection with an organized body. What hath body to do with\nunderstanding?\" He then pressed him to sacrifice from the example of the\nCataphrygians, or Montanists, and engage all under his care to do the\nsame. Acacius replied: \"It is not me these people obey, but God. Let\nthem hear me when I advise them to what is right; but let them despise\nme, if I offer them the contrary and endeavor to pervert them.\"\nMARTIAN.-\"Give me all their names.\" ACACIUS.-\"They are written in\nheaven, in God's invisible registers.\" MARTIAN.-\"Where are the\nmagicians, your companions, and the teachers of this cunningly devised\nerror?\" by which he probably meant the priests. ACACIUS.-\"No one in the\nworld abhors magic more than we Christians.\" MARTIAN.-\"Magic is the new\nreligion which you introduce.\" ACACIUS.-\"We destroy those gods whom you\nfear, though you made them yourselves. We, on the contrary, fear not him\nwhom we have made with our hands, but him who created us, and who is the\nLord and Master of all nature: who {685} loved us as our good father,\nand redeemed us from death and hell as the careful and affectionate\nshepherd of our souls.\" MARTIAN.-\"Give the names I require, if you would\navoid the torture.\" ACACIUS.-\"I am before the tribunal, and do you ask\nme my name, and, not satisfied with that, you must also know those of\nthe other ministers? Do you hope to conquer many; you, whom I alone am\nable thus to confound? If you desire to know our names, mine is Acacius.\nIf you would know more, they call me Agathangelus, and my two companions\nare Piso, bishop of the Trojans, and Menander, a priest. Do now what you\nplease.\" MARTIAN.-\"You shall remain in prison till the emperor is\nacquainted with what has passed on this subject, and sends his orders\nconcerning you.\"\n\nThe emperor Decius having read the interrogatory, recompensed Martian by\nmaking him governor of Pamphilia, but admired so much the prudence and\nconstancy of Acacius, that he ordered him to be discharged, and suffered\nhim to profess the Christian religion.\n\nThis his glorious confession is dated on the 29th of March, and happened\nunder Decius in 250, or 251. How long St. Acacius survived does not\nappear. The Greeks, Egyptians, and other oriental churches, honor his\nname on the 31st of March; though his name occurs not in the Roman\nMartyrology. See his authentic acts in Ruinart, p. 152; Tillemont, t. 2,\np. 357; Fleury, t. 2; Ceillier, t. 3, p. 560.\n\nST. GUY, C.\n\nHE is called by the Germans Witen, and was forty years abbot of Pomposa,\nin the dutchy of Ferrara, in Italy, a man eminent in all virtues,\nespecially patience, the love of solitude, and prayer. He died in 1046.\nThe emperor, Henry III., caused his relics to be translated to Spire,\nwhich city honors him as its principal patron. See his life, by a\ndisciple, in the Acta Sanctorium of Henschenius, and another, shorter,\nof the same age.\n\nEND OF VOLUME ONE.","title":"The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Other Principal Saints. January, February, March","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":472891}