Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Other Principal Saints — April

The unabridged April volume of Alban Butler’s Lives, from the P. J. Kenedy 1903 reprint of the twelve-volume edition. Public domain.

APRIL 1 — SAINT HUGH, BISHOP OF GRENOBLE, C

From his life, written two years after his decease, by his Intimate friend Guigo, fifth prior of the great Chartreuse, by the order of pope Innocent II. Bollandus ad Apr. 1, p. 36. Mabillon, Anna.1. 66. n 34 Pagi ad An. 1080. Hist. Litter. de la France, t. 11, p. 149.

A. D. 1132.

THE first tincture of the mind is of the utmost importance to virtue; and it was the happiness of this saint to receive from his cradle the strongest impressions of piety by the example and care of his illustrious and holy parents. He was born at Chateau-neuf, in the territory of Valence, in Dauphiné, in 1053. His father, Odilo, served his country in an honorable post in the army, in which he acquitted himself of his duty to his prince with so much the greater fidelity and valor, as he most ardently endeavored to sanctify his profession and all his actions by a motive of religion. Being sensible that all authority which men receive over others is derived from God, with an obligation that they employ it, in the first place, for the advancement of the divine honor, he labored, by all the means in his power, to make his soldiers faithful servants of their Creator, and by severe punishments to restrain vices, those especially of impurity and lying. By the advice of his son, St. Hugh, he afterwards became a Carthusian monk, when he was upwards of fourscore years old, and lived eighteen years in great humility and austerity, under St. Bruno and his successors, in the great Chartreuse, where he died, one hundred years old, having received extreme-unction and the viaticum from the hands of his son. Our saint likewise assisted, in her last moments, his mother, who had for many years, under his direction, served God in her own house, by prayer, fasting, and plenteous almsdeeds. Hugh, from the cradle, appeared to be a child of benediction. He went through his studies with great applause, and his progress in piety always kept pace with his advancement in learning. Having chosen to serve God in an ecclesiastical state, that he might always dwell in his house and be occupied in his praises, he accepted a canonry in the cathedral of Valence. In this station, the sanctity of his life, and his extraordinary talents, rendered him the ornament of that church; and the gentleness and affability of his deportment won him the affection of all his colleagues. He was tall, and very comely, but naturally exceeding bashful; and such was his modesty, that for some time he found means to conceal his learning and eloquence: nevertheless, his humility served only to show afterwards those talents to more advantage and with greater lustre. For no virtue shines brighter with learning than modesty, as nothing renders scholars more odious or despicable than haughtiness and pride, which they discover by their obstinacy and clamors, by the contempt with which they treat those who dissent from them in opinion, and by their ostentatious pedantry in embracing every occasion of exhibiting their supposed superior wit and extraordinary parts.

Hugh, then bishop of Die, but soon after archbishop of Lyons, and also cardinal legate of the holy see, was so charmed at first sight of the saint when he happened to come to Valence, that he would not be contented till he had taken the good man into his household. He employed him in extirpating simony and in many other affairs of importance. In 1080, the legate Hugh held a synod at Avignon, in which he took under consideration the desolate condition and the grievous disorders into which the church of Grenoble was sunk, through the sloth and bad example of its late mercenary pastor. The eyes of the legate and of the whole council were fixed on St. Hugh as the person best qualified, by his virtue and prudence, to reform these abuses, and restore the ancient glory of that church; and with them the voice of the whole city conspired. But his reluctance and fears were not to be overcome, till he was compelled by the repeated commands of the legate and council. The legate took our newly-appointed bishop with him to Rome, in order to his receiving the episcopal consecration from the hands of Gregory VII., who then sat in the chair of St. Peter. The servant of God was glad of this opportunity of consulting the vicar of Christ concerning his own conscience; for during a great part of his life he had been extremely molested with troublesome temptations of importunate blasphemous thoughts against the divine providence. Pope Gregory, who was a man very well versed in the interior trials of souls assured him that this angel of Satan was permitted by God, in his sweet mercy, to buffet him only for his trial and crown: which words exceedingly comforted the saint, and encouraged him to bear his cross with patience and joy. A devout soul, under this trial, which finds these suggestions always painful and disagreeable, ought not to lose courage; for by patience and perseverance she exceedingly multiplies her crowns, and glorifies God, who has laid it upon her shoulders, and who will, when he sees fit, scatter these mists, and on a sudden translate her from this state of bitterness and darkness into the region of light, joy, and the sweetest peace. St. Hugh prayed earnestly to be freed from this enemy, but received for a long time the same answer with St Pau1.1 In the mean while, his patience and constancy were his victory and his crown: and assiduous meditation on the sufferings of our divine Redeemer, who was made for us a man of sorrows, was his comfort and support.

The pious countess Maud would needs be at the whole charge of the ceremony of his consecration: she also gave him a crosier and other episcopa ornaments, with a small library of suitable books, earnestly desiring to be instructed by his good counsels, and assisted by his prayers. St. Hugh, after his ordination, hastened to his flock; but, being arrived at Grenoble, could not refrain his tears, and was exceedingly afflicted and terrified when he saw the diocese overrun with tares which the enemy had sown while the pastor slept. He found the people in general immersed in a profound ignorance of several essential duties of religion, and plunged in vice and immorality. Some sins seemed by custom to have lost their name, and men committed them without any scruple or sign of remorse. The negligence and backwardness of many in frequenting the sacraments, indicated a total decay of piety, and could not fail introducing many spiritual disorders in their souls, especially a great lukewarmness in prayer and other religious duties. Simony and usury seemed, under specious disguises, to be accounted innocent, and to reign almost without control. Many lands belonging of the church were usurped by laymen; and the revenues of the bishopric were dissipated, so that the saint, upon his arrival, found nothing either to enable him to assist the poor, or to supply his own necessities, unless he would have had recourse to unlawful contracts, as had been the common practice of many others, but which he justly deemed iniquitous; nor would he by any means defile his soul with them. He set himself in earnest to reprove vice, and reform abuses. To this purpose he endeavored by rigorous fasts, watchings, tears, sighs, and prayer, to draw down the divine mercy on his flock. And so plentiful was the benediction of heaven upon his labors, that he had the comfort to see the face of his diocese in a short time exceedingly changed. After two years, imitating therein the humility of some other saints, he privately resigned his bishopric, presuming on the tacit consent of the holy see. And putting on the habit of St. Bennet, he entered upon a novitiate in the austere abbey of Chaise-Dieu, or Casa-Dei, in Auvergne, of the reformation of Cluni. There he lived a year a perfect model of all virtues to that house of saints, till pope Gregory VII. commanded him, in virtue of holy obedience, to resume his pastoral charge. Coming out of his solitude, like another Moses descending from the conversation of God on the mountain, he announced the divine law with greater zeal and success than ever. The author of his life assures us that he was an excellent and assiduous preacher.

St. Bruno and his six companions addressed themselves to him for his advice in their pious design of forsaking the world, and he appointed their a desert which was in his diocese, whither he conducted them in 1084. It is a frightful solitude, called the Chartreuse, or Carthusian mountains, in Dauphiné, which place gave name to the famous order St. Bruno founded there. The meek and pious behavior of these servants of God took deep root in the heart of our holy pastor; and it was his delight frequently to visit them in their solitude, to join them in their exercises and austerities, and perform the meanest offices amongst them, as an outcast and one unworthy to bear them company. Sometimes the charms of contemplation detained him so long in his hermitage, that St. Bruno was obliged to order him to go to his flock, and acquit himself of the duties which he owed them. He being determined to sell his horses for the benefit of the poor, thinking himself able to perform the visitation of his diocese on foot, St. Bruno, to whose advice he paid an implicit deference, opposed his design, urging that he had not strength for such an undertaking. For the last forty years of his life he was afflicted with almost continual headaches, and pains in the stomach; he also suffered the most severe interior temptations. Yet God did not leave him entirely destitute of comfort; but frequently visited his soul with heavenly sweetness and sensible spiritual consolations, which filled his heart under his afflictions with interior joy. The remembrance of the divine love, or of his own and others’ spiritual miseries, frequently produced a flood of tears from his eyes, which way soever he turned them; nor was he able sometimes to check them in company or at table, especially while he heard the holy scriptures read. In hearing confessions, he frequently mingled his tears with those of his penitents, or first excited theirs by his own. At his sermons it was not unusual to see the whole audience melt into tears together; and some were so strongly affected, that they confessed their sins publicly on the spot. After sermon, he was detained very long in hearing confessions. He often cast himself at the feet of others, to entreat them to pardon injuries, or to make some necessary satisfaction to their neighbors. His love of heavenly things made all temporal affairs seem to him burdensome and tedious. Women he would never look in the face, so that he knew not the features of his own mother. He never loved to hear or relate public news or reports, for fear of detraction, or at least of dissipation. His constant pensioners and occasional alms (in the latter of which he was extremely bountiful) were very expensive to him: insomuch, that though, in order to relieve the poor, he had long denied himself every thing that seemed to have the least appearance of superfluity, still, for the extending his beneficent inclination, he even sold, in the time of famine, a gold chalice, and part of his episcopal ornaments, as gold rings and precious stones. And the happy consequence of St. Hugh’s example this way was, that the rich were moved by it to bestow of their treasures to the necessitous, whereby the wants of all the poor of his diocese were supplied.

He earnestly solicited pope Innocent II. for leave to resign his bishopric, that he might die in solitude; but was never able to obtain his request.* God was pleased to purify his soul by a lingering illness before he called him to himself. Some time before his death, he lost his memory for every thing but his prayers: the psalter and the Lord’s prayer he recited with great devotion, almost without intermission: and he was said to have repeated the last three hundred times in one night. Being told that so constant an attention would increase his distemper, he said: “It is quite otherwise: by prayer I always find myself stronger.” In the time of sickness, a certain frowardness and peevishness of disposition is what the best of us are too apt to give way to, through weakness of nature and a temptation of the enemy, who seeks to deprive a dying person of the most favorable advantages of penance and patience, and to feed and strengthen self-love in the soul while upon the very cross itself, and in the crucible into which she is thrown by a singular mercy, in order to her coming forth refined and pure. In this fiery trial, the virtue of the saints shows itself genuine, and endued with a fortitude which renders it worthy its crown. By the same test is pretended virtue discovered: self-love can no longer disguise itself: it cries out, murmurs, frets, and repines: the mask which the hypocrite wore is here pulled off: saints, on the contrary, under every degree of torture cruelty can invent, preserve a happy patience and serenity of soul. Hence the devil would not allow the virtue of Job to be sincere before it had been approved under sickness and bodily pain.2 St. Hugh left us by his invincible patience a proof of the fervor of his charity. Under the sharpest pains, he never let fall one word of complaint, nor mentioned what he suffered: his whole concern seemed only to be for others. When any assisted him, he expressed the greatest confusion and thankfulness: if he had given the least trouble to any one, he would beg to receive the discipline, and because no one would give it him, would confess his fault, as he called it, and implore the divine mercy with tears. The like sentiments we read in the relation of the deaths of many holy monks of La Trappe. Dom. Bennet, under the most racking pains, when turned in his bed, said: “You lay me too much at my ease.” Dom. Charles would not cool his mouth with a little water in the raging heat of a violent fever. Such examples teach us at least to blush at and condemn our murmurs and impatience under sickness. The humility of St. Hugh was the more surprising, because every one approached him with the greatest reverence and affection, and thought it a happiness if they were allowed in any thing to serve him. It was his constant prayer, in which he begged his dear Carthusians and all others to join him, that God would extinguish in his heart all attachment to creatures, that his pure love might reign in all his affections. One said to him: “Why do you weep so bitterly, who never offended God by any wilful crime?” He replied: “Vanity and inordinate affections suffice to damn a soul. It is only through the divine mercy that we can hope to be saved, and shall we ever cease to implore it?” If any one spoke of news in his presence, he checked them, saying: “This life is all given us for weeping and penance, not for idle discourses.” He closed his penitential course on the 1st of April, in 1132, wanting only two months of being eighty years old, of which he had been fifty-two years bishop. Miracles attested the sanctity of his happy death; and he was canonized by Innocent II., in 1134.

There is no saint who was not a lover of retirement and penance. Shall we not learn from them to shun the tumult of the world, as much as our circumstances will allow, and give ourselves up to the exercises of holy solitude, prayer, and pious reading. Holy solitude is the school of heavenly doctrine, where fervent souls study a divine science, which is learned by experience, not by the discourses of others. Here they learn to know God and themselves; they disengage their affections from the world, and burn and reduce to ashes all that can fasten their hearts to it. Here they give earthly things for those of heaven, and goods of small value for those of inestimable price. In blessed solitude, a man repairs in his soul the image of his Creator, which was effaced by sin, and, by the victory which he gains over his passions, is in some degree freed from the corruption of his nature, and restored in some measure to the state of its integrity and innocence by the ruin of vice, and the establishment of all virtues in his affections; so that, by a wonderful change wrought in his soul, he becomes a new creature, and a terrestrial angel. His sweet repose and his employments are also angelical, being of the same nature with those of the blessed in heaven. By the earnest occupation of the powers of his soul on God and in God, or in doing his will, he is continually employed in a manner infinitely more excellent and more noble than he could be in governing all the empires of the world; and in a manner which is far preferable to all the vain occupations of the greatest men of the world during the whole course of their lives. Moreover, in the interior exercises of this state, a soul receives certain antepasts of eternal felicity, by which she intimately feels how sweet God is, and learns to have no relish for any thing but for him alone. O my friends, cried out a certain pious contemplative, I take leave of you with these words, and this feeling invitation of the Psalmist: Come, taste your selves, and see by your own experience how sweet the Lord is. But these and other privileges and precious advantages only belong to the true solitary, who joins interior to exterior solitude, is never warped by sloth or remissness, gives no moments to idleness, uses continual violence to himself, in order perfectly to subdue his passions, watches constantly over his senses, is penetrated to the heart with the wholesome sadness of penance, has death always before his eyes, is always taken up in the exercises of compunction the divine praises, love, adoration, and thanksgiving, and is raised above the earth and all created things by the ardor of his desires of being united to God, he sovereign good.

APRIL 1 — ST. MELITO, BISHOP OF SARDES IN LYDIA, C. IN THE REIGN OF MARCUS AURELIUS

To that emperor, in 175, he addressed an elegant and modest apology for the faith. From an eminent spirit of prophecy with which he was endued by God, he was surnamed The Prophet, as St. Jerom1 and Eusebius testify.2

APRIL 1 — ST. GILBERT, BISHOP OF CAITHNESS IN SCOTLAND

Having administered that see with great sanctity for twenty years, he died on the 1st of April, 1240. See the Aberdeen Breviary.

April II

APRIL 2 — ST. FRANCIS OF PAULA, CONFESSOR FOUNDER OF THE ORDER OF MINIMS

From the bull of his canonization, and the memoirs relating to it, with the notes of Papebroke, t. 1, Apr. p. 103, also Philip Commines, b. 6, c. 8. See Le Fevre, Cont. of Fleury, b. 115, n. 111, 120, 144. Helyot, Hist. des Ord. Relig. t. 9, p. 426. Giry, a provincial of his order, in his Lives of Saints, and in a particular dissertation: and De Coste, of the same order, in his judicious and accurate life of this saint in quarto.

A. D. 1508.

THIS saint was born about the year 1416, at Paula, a small city near the Tyrrhenian sea, in Calabria, the midway from Naples to Reggio. His parents were very poor, but industrious, and happy in their condition, making the will and love of God the sole object of all their desires and endeavors. Their whole conduct was, as it were, one straight line directed to this point. Having lived together several years without issue, they earnestly begged of God, through the intercession of St. Francis of Assisium, a son who might faithfully and assiduously serve him, and become an instrument to glorify his name, to whose service they solemnly devoted him. A son some time after this was born, whom they considered as the fruit of their prayers, named him after their patron, St. Francis, and made it their chief care to inspire him with pious sentiments, and give him an education suitable to his holy destination. Francis, while yet a child, made abstinence, solitude, and prayer his delight. In the thirteenth year of his age, his father, whose name was James Martotille, placed him in the convent of Franciscan friars at St. Mark’s, an episcopal town of that province, where he learned to read, and laid the foundation of the austere life which he ever after led. He, from that time, denied himself all use of linen and flesh meat; and though he had not professed the rule of that order, he seemed, even in that tender age, to surpass all the religious in a scrupulous observance of every thing prescribed by it. Having spent one year here, he performed, with his parents, a pilgrimage to Assisium, the Portiuncula, and Rome. When he was returned to Paula, with their consent, he retired to a lonesome solitude about half a mile from the town: and, to avoid the distraction of visits, he shortly after chose a more remote retreat in the corner of a rock upon the seacoast, where he made himself a cave. He was scarce fifteen years old when he shut himself up in this hermitage, in 1432. He had no other bed than the rock itself, nor other food than the herbs which he gathered in the neighboring wood, or what was sometimes brought him by his friends. Before he was quite twenty years old, two other devoutly inclined persons joined him, imitating his holy exercises. The neighbors built them three cells and 2 chapel, in which they sung the divine praises, and a certain priest from the parish church came, and said mass for them. This is reputed the first foundation of his religious order, in 1436. Near seventeen years after, their number being much increased, with the approbation of the archbishop of Cosenza, a large church and monastery were built for them in the same place, towards the year 1454. So great was the devotion of the people, that the whole country joined, and all hands were set to this work; even noblemen would share in carrying burdens. During the erection of this building, our saint performed several miracles. Among others, a person deposed upon oath, in the process of the saint’s canonization, that he himself was healed in an instant of a painful lameness in his thigh, by the prayer of the servant of God. When the house was completed, he applied himself to establish regularity and uniformity in his community, not abating in the least of his former severity with regard to himself. His bed was no longer indeed the rock, but it was a board, or the bare floor, with a stone or log of wood for his pillow, till, in his old age, he made use of a mat. He allowed himself no more sleep than was absolutely necessary to refresh weary nature, and to enable him to resume his devout exercises with greater vigor. He took but one repast a day, in the evening, and usually nothing but bread and water. Sometimes he passed two days without taking any food, especially before great festivals.

Penance, charity, and humility he laid down for the groundwork and basis of his rule. He obliged his followers to observe a perpetual Lent, and always to abstain not only from flesh, but also from all white meats, or food made of milk, such as cheese, butter, &c., also from eggs, all which the ancient canons forbid in Lent. In order more effectually to enforce obedience to this injunction, he prescribed a fourth vow, by which every religious of his order binds himself to observe it. His intention in enjoining this perpetual abstinence was to repair, in some sort, the abuses of Lent among Christians. He always lamented to see that holy fast so much relaxed by the mitigations which the church has been obliged to tolerate, in condescension to the lukewarmness of the generality of her children. He hoped also, by example, to open the eyes of the rest of the faithful, to whom the sight of such a perpetual Lent, compared to their remissness in one of only forty days, might be a continual reproach and silent preaching, perhaps more effectual than by words. The saint took charity for the motto and symbol of his order, to show it was to be its soul, and its most distinguishing characteristic, whereby to signify the intimate union of all its members, not only with one another, but with all the faithful, by their ardent love of God, that divine flame which glowed so warmly in his own breast, and which he eagerly endeavored to kindle in all others. Humility, however, was his darling virtue. The greater he was before God, and the more he was distinguished in the sight of heaven, the less he appeared in his own eyes; and the more he was exalted among men, honored and reverenced by popes and kings, the more earnestly did he study to live concealed and to debase himself beneath all creatures. It was his fondness for living concealed, unknown, and entirely forgotten by all men, that inspired him with the design in his earliest years of burying himself in a desert: in which part of his life, we know nothing of his sublime contemplations and his heavenly raptures, or of his severe penance, emulating the Eliases and the Baptists, because he sought to live hidden from the eyes of men, according to that maxim of true humility, Love to be unknown; nor did he only seek to conceal himself and draw a veil over his other virtues, but also over his humility itself. An humility which sets itself forth with an exterior show of piety, which draws respect, and receives honor, is generally false; only the shadow of that virtue, and in reality a subtle, refined pride. At least it is always dangerous, and much to be suspected. But the humility of Francis was both true and secure, because hidden. When God discovered him to the world, the saint conversed with it so as always to retain the same spirit. Not yet twenty years old, he was the legislator and oracle of all who approached him: yet he was no ways elated on this account; he assumed nothing to himself, and professed that he knew nothing save Jesus Christ crucified, and that there is no virtue, no happiness, but in knowing our own littleness, and in being humble of heart with our divine Master. By this humility he was filled with the spirit of God, and by a wonderful prodigy of grace, at nineteen years of age, became the founder of an eminent religious order. Other orders have their principal end and distinguishing characters; some being remarkable for their poverty, others for austerity, others for prayer, holy zeal, &c. That of St. Francis of Paula eminently includes all the above-mentioned; but to show his value for humility, which he most earnestly recommended to his followers as the ground of all Christian virtues, he gave them a name that might express it, and begged of the pope, as a singular privilege, that his religious might be called Minims, to signify that they were the least in the house of God. Moreover, as in every community there must be a supreme, St. Francis would have the superior of each house in his order called Corrector, to put him in continual remembrance that he is only the servant of all the rest, according to that of Luke 22, He who is greater among you, let him be as the least. But the more this saint humbled himself, the more did God exalt him.

The archbishop of Cosenza approved the rule and order of this holy man, in 1471. Pope Sixtus IV. confirmed it by a bull, dated the 23d of May, in 1474, and established Francis superior-general. This order was then chiefly composed of laymen, with a few clerks, and only one priest Balthasar de Spino, doctor of laws, afterwards confessor to Innocent VIII. About the year 1476, the saint founded another convent at Paterno, on the gulf of Tarentum; and a third at Spezza, in the diocese of Cosenza. In the year 1479, being invited into Sicily, he was received there as an angel from heaven, wrought miracles, and built several monasteries in that island, where he continued a whole year. Being returned into Calabria, in 1480, he built another at Corigliano, in the diocese of Rossano. Ferdinand, king of Naples, provoked at some wholesome advice the saint had given him and his two sons, Alphonsus, duke of Calabria, and John, cardinal of Aragon, persecuted him: but his third son, Frederick, prince of Tarentum, was his friend. The king, alleging that he had built monasteries without the royal assent, ordered a messenger to apprehend him at Paterno, and bring him prisoner to Naples. But the officer, approaching to seize his person, was so moved at his humility, and the readiness with which he disposed himself to follow him, that, struck with awe, he returned to Naples, and dissuaded the king from attempting any thing against the servant of God. The holy man was favored with an eminent spirit of prophecy. He foretold to several persons, in the years 1447, 1448, and 1449, the taking of Constantinople by the Turks, which happened on the 29th of May, in 1453, under the command of Mahomet II., when Constantine Palæologus, the last Christian emperor, was slain, fighting tumultuously in the streets. He also foretold that Otranto, one of the most important places and keys of the kingdom of Naples, would fall into the hands of the same infidels, three months before Achmat Bacha surprised it on the last day of August, 1480, to the great consternation of Italy and all Europe. But the servant of God promised the Christians, especially the pious John, count of Arena, one of the generals of Ferdinand I., king of Naples, certain success the year following, when they recovered that city, and drove the infidels out of Italy, their victory being facilitated by the death of the Turkish emperor, and a civil war between the two brothers, Bajazet II. and Zizimes. The authentic depositions of many unexceptionable witnesses, given with all the formalities which both the civil and canon law require, prove these and many other illustrious predictions of the holy man, on several public and private occasions,* with regard to the kings of Naples, Ferdinand I., and Alphonsus II., and Louisa of Savoy, countess, afterwards duchess of Angouleme, mother of king Francis I. in France, and many others. Lawrence, bishop of Grenoble, of the most noble house of Alemans, in Dauphiné, uncle to the most valiant and pious captain De Bayard,† in his letter to pope Leo X. for the canonization of St. Francis, writes: “Most holy Father, he revealed to me many things which were known only to God and myself.” In 1469, pope Paul II. sent one of his chamberlains, an ecclesiastic of the noble family of Adorno in Genoa, into Calabria, to inform himself of the truth of the wonderful things that were related of the saint. The chamberlain addressed himself to the vigilant archbishop of Cosenza, who assured him, from his own intimacy with the saint, of his sincere virtue and extraordinary sanctity, and sent one of his ecclesiastics, named Charles Pyrrho, a canon of Cosenza, a man of great learning and probity, to attend him to Paula. This Pyrrho had been himself healed, ten years before, of a violent toothache by the man of God touching his cheek with his hand, (of which the authentic depositions are extant,) and had from that time frequently visited him. The saint was at work, according to his custom, among the masons who were laying the foundation of his church; but seeing two strangers coming towards him, left his work, and came to meet them. He made them a low obeisance; and when the chamberlain offered to kiss his hand, according to the Italian custom of saluting priests and religious men, he would by no means allow it, and falling on his knees, said he was bound to kiss his hands, which God had consecrated for the thirty years he had said mass. The chamberlain was exceedingly struck at his answer, hearing him, who was an entire stranger to his person, tell him so exactly how long he had been a priest; but concealing himself and his commission, desired to converse with him in his convent. The chamberlain, who was a very eloquent man, made him a long discourse, in which, to try his virtue, he censured his institute as too austere, spoke much on the illusions and dangers to which extraordinary and miraculous gifts are liable, and exhorted him to walk in ordinary paths, trodden by eminent servants of God. The saint answered his objections with great modesty and humility; but seeing him not yet satisfied, he went to the fire, and taking out some burning coals, held them a considerable time in his hand without receiving any harm, saying: “All creatures obey those who serve God with a perfect heart.” Which golden words are inserted by Leo X. in the bull of his canonization. The chamberlain returned to Cosenza full of veneration for the holy man, and told both the archbishop and his holiness at his return to Rome, that the sanctity of Francis was greater than his reputation in the world. A youth, nephew to the saint, being dead, his mother, the saint’s own sister, applied to him for comfort, and filled his apartment with lamentations. After the mass and divine office had been said for the repose of his soul, St. Francis ordered the corpse to be carried from the church into his cell, where he ceased not to pray till, to her great astonishment, he had restored him to life and presented him to her in perfect health. The young man entered his order, and is the celebrated Nicholas Alesso who afterwards followed his uncle into France, and was famous for sanctity and many great actions.*

Louis XI., king of France, a prince perhaps the most absolute, the most tenacious of his authority, jealous of his prerogative, and impatient of control, that ever wore that crown, after an apoplectic fit fell into a lingering decay.1 Never had any man a stronger passion for life, or a greater dread of the very thoughts of death. Such was his frowardness and impatience, that every one trembled to approach him: nor durst any ask him a favor. He gave his physician ten thousand crowns a month, as long as he should prolong his life, and stood in the greatest awe of him. He shut himself up in his palace or castle of Plessis-les-Tours, near the city of Tours. Jesters, buffoons, and dancers were employed to divert his melancholy and peevishness, but in vain. He ordered prayers, processions, and pilgrimages for his health, and even against the north-wind, which he found injurious to him, and he caused holy relics from the remotest places to be brought to Plessis, into his chamber. His distemper still increasing, he sent an ambassador to our holy hermit in Calabria, begging he would come to see him, and restore his health, making the greatest promises to serve both him and his order. Hearing that the man of God would not be prevailed on by his promises to comply with his request, he entreated Ferdinand king of Naples to send him. Francis answered positively, that he could not tempt God, or undertake a voyage of a thousand miles to work a miracle, which was asked upon low and merely human motives. Louis did not yet desist, but desired the pope to interpose in favor of his request. Sixtus IV., by two briefs, commanded Francis immediately to repair to the king. Hereupon the obedient saint, without delay, set out and passed through Naples, where he was exceedingly honored by king Ferdinand. He took also Rome in his way, where he was treated with the highest distinction by the pope and cardinals. Embarking at Ostia, he landed in France, and cured many sick of the plague, in Provence, as he passed. Louis, in great joy, gave a purse of ten thousand crowns to him who brought the first news of the saint’s arrival in his dominions, and sent the dauphin, with the principal lords of his court, to meet him at Amboise, and to conduct him to his palace. The saint arrived at Plessis on the 24th of April in 1482. The king went out to meet him, attended with all his court, and falling on his knees, conjured him to obtain of God the prolongation of his life. St. Francis told him, no wise man ought to entertain such a desire. To which he added this useful lesson, that the lives of kings had their appointed limits no less than those of his meanest subjects, that God’s decree was unchangeable, and that there remained nothing to be done but for his majesty to resign himself to the divine will, and prepare for a happy death. The king gave orders that he should be lodged in an apartment in his palace, near the chapel, and assigned him an interpreter. St. Francis often spoke to his majesty both in private and before his courtiers, and always with such wisdom, though a man without learning, that Philip Commines, who frequently heard him, says that all present were persuaded the Holy Ghost spoke by his mouth. By his prayers and exhortations he effected a perfect change in the king’s heart who, having recommended to him his three children, and the repose of his soul, died in his arms, perfectly resigned, on the 30th of August, in 1483.

King Charles VIII. honored the saint even more than his father Louis had done; would do nothing in the affairs of his conscience, or even in those of the state, without his advice; visited him every day as long as he stayed at Plessis, standing before him as a disciple, and engaged him to stand godfather to his son the dauphin, to whom he gave the name of our saint. He built for him a beautiful convent in the park of Plessis, in a place called Montils: and another at Amboise, and upon the very spot where he met him when he was dauphin: and going to Rome in 1495, where he made a triumphant entry, and was saluted emperor of Constantinople by pope Alexander VI., he built there, on Mount Pincio, a stately monastery for this order, under the name of the Blessed Trinity, in which none but Frenchmen can be admitted. In his reign the saint founded the convent of Nigeon, near Paris, on which occasion two doctors, who had violently opposed the institute before the bishop of Paris, were so moved by the sight of the saint at Plessis, that they entered his order in 1506. Pope Julius II. again approved the rule, in which the saint had made some alterations. King Charles VIII. dying in 1498, Louis XII. succeeded him. He at first gave the saint leave to return to Italy; but quickly recalled it, and heaped honors and benefactions on all his relations. St. Francis spent the three last months of his life within his cell, to prepare himself for a happy death, denying himself all communication with mankind, that nothing might divert his thoughts from death and eternity. He fell sick of a fever on Palm-Sunday, in 1506. On Maundy Thursday he assembled all his religious in the sacristy, and exhorted them to the love of God, charity with one another and with all men, and to a punctual observance of all the duties of their rule. After having made his confession, he communicated barefoot, and with a cord about his neck, which is the custom of his order. He died on the 2d of April, in 1508, being ninety-one years old.* He was canonized by Leo X. in 1519. His body remained uncorrupted in the church of Plessis-les-Tours, till the year 1562, when the Huguenots broke open the shrine and found it entire, fifty-five years after his death. They dragged it about the streets, and burned it in a fire which they had made with the wood of a great crucifix.2 Some of his bones were recovered by the Catholics, and are kept in several churches of his order at Plessis, Nigeon, Paris, Aix, Naples, Paula, and Madrid. In Tours the same Calvinists burned the body of St. Martin, Alcuin, and many others. But Louis of Bourbon, duke of Montpensier, governor of Anjou, Touraine, and Maine, a virtuous and valiant prince, soon gave chase to those sacrilegious plunderers, and restored the churches and religious places to their former possessors.† St. Francis wrote two rules for his friars, with a Correctorium, or method of enjoining penances, and a third rule for nuns; all approved by pope Julius II. in 1506.

Vanity and the love of the world make men fond of producing themselves in public, and by having never cultivated an acquaintance with themselves, they shun the very means, look upon retirement as intolerable, and pass their life in wandering always from home, and in a studied series of dissipation, in which they secretly seek the gratification of their vanity, sloth, and other passions, but meet only with emptiness, trouble, and vexation. Man can find happiness only in God and in his own heart. This he flies who cannot bear to converse with God and his own heart. On the contrary, he who is endued with the spirit of prayer, finds the greatest relish in the interior exercises of compunction and contemplation, and in conversing with heaven. Solitude is his chief delight, and his centre: here he lives sequestered from creatures, and as if there were only God and himself in the world, except that he ceases not to recommend all men to God. In paying the debts of charity, and other exterior duties to his neighbors, his heart is fixed on God, and he has purely his divine will in view. So that even in his public actions, he deposites his intention and sentiments in the bosom of his God and Redeemer, and has no regard to creatures but as he considers God and his holy will in them. You are dead, says the apostle,3 and your life is hid with God in Jesus Christ.

APRIL 2 — SAINT APIAN, M

Called by the Greeks and Latins Aphian, and sometimes Amphian. He was born of rich and illustrious parents, in Lycia, and by them sent in his youth to study eloquence, philosophy, and the Roman laws, in the famous schools of Berytus, in Phœnicia. He made a most rapid progress in learning: but it was his greatest happiness that, having embraced the Christian faith, he, by the means of prayer and retirement, preserved his innocence and virtue untainted in the midst of vice and lewdness. Returning home after his studies, he found his parents yet idolaters; and therefore withdrew to Cæsarea in Palestine, being at that time eighteen years of age. St. Pamphilius there expounded the holy scriptures with great piety and learning, and Apian became one of his auditors. Such was his conduct in that school of martyrs, as prepared him to take the lead among them, and set the rest an example. Dioclesian having abdicated the empire at Nicomedia, on the 1st of May, in 305, Galerius Maximianus, the chief promoter of his bloody persecution, was declared emperor of the East, which Maximinus Daia governed under him, as Cæsar. There came letters to Cæsarea from the last-mentioned, containing orders to the governor to compel all persons whatever to attend the public solemn sacrifices. Then Apian, without having communicated his design to any person, “Not even to us,” says the historian Eusebius, with whom he dwelt, went to find out the governor Urbanus, as he was sacrificing, and came near to him without being perceived by the guards that surrounded him; and taking hold of his right hand, with which he was performing the ceremony, stopped him, saying: it was an impious thing to neglect the worship of the true God, and to sacrifice to idols and demons God inspired this generous youth, not yet twenty years of age, by this daring and extraordinary action, to confound the impiety of the persecutors, and to show them the courage of his servants. The guards instantly fell upon him, like so many wild beasts, cruelly buffeted his face, beat him down to the ground, kicked him unmercifully, hideously tore his mouth and lips, and wounded him in every part of his body. He was then thrown into a dark dungeon, where he remained a day and a night with his feet stretched very wide in the stocks. The next he was brought before the governor, who commanded he should suffer the most exquisite tortures. He had his sides torn so that his bones and entrails appeared: and his face was so swollen with the blows he had received, that he could not be known by his most intimate acquaintance. His only answer to all questions was: “I am a servant of Christ.” His constancy having thrown the tyrant into a transport of rage, he ordered the executioners to apply to his feet lighted matches of flax dipped in oil. The fire burned up his flesh, and penetrated even to the very bones, and the juice of his body dropped from him like melted wax, but he still continued resolute. His patience struck the persecutors with astonishment: and when pressed by his tormentors to sacrifice and obey the judge, fixing his eyes upon them, he only replied: “I confess Christ the only God, and the same God with the Father.” He was then remanded to prison, where he continued three days. Being then brought before the judge, he persisted in his confession, and, though half dead, was by his order cast into the sea. A prodigy ensued, of which there were as many witnesses, says Eusebius, as citizens of Cæsarea. He was no sooner thrown into the water, with stones tied to his feet, but both the sea and the city were shook with an earthquake, accompanied with a dreadful noise; and the sea, as if it was not able to endure the corpse of the martyr, threw it up before the gates of the city: all the inhabitants went out to see this prodigy, and gave glory to the God of the Christians, confessing aloud the name of Jesus Christ. The triumph of St. Apian happened on the 2d of April, 306, in the nineteenth year of his age. See Eusebius, an eye-witness, De Martyr. Palæst. c. 4, and his genuine acts in Chaldaic, given to the public by Stephen Assemani, t. 2, p. 188.

APRIL 2 — ST. THEODOSIA, V. M

She was a native of Tyre. Having been educated in the Christian faith, she had, by vow, consecrated her virginity to God. She was not eighteen years of age when, in 308, being at Cæsarea, and beholding there the cruelties exercised by the barbarous governor upon the servants of God, her zeal prompted her to address the confessors who stood bound in the square before the governor’s court to be interrogated. She congratulated them on their happiness, and besought them to remember her in their prayers when they should be with God, and earnestly exhorted them to patience and perseverance. The guards apprehended her as if guilty of a crime on account of this action, and presented her to the governor, who for three years and a half had sought in vain, by every invention of cruelty, to extirpate the Christian name out of his province; but finding the blood of martyrs to be a seed which served to further the propagation of Christianity, he was no longer master of his fury. Seeing the undaunted air with which this tender virgin appeared before him, he took it for an insult of his power, and caused her to be stretched on the rack in the most cruel manner; and her sides and breasts to be torn with iron hooks and pincers, and at length her breasts to be cut off with the utmost barbarity. Nothing could draw from her the least complaint or sigh; but she suffered these tortures with an amiable cheerfulness painted on her face, and sweetly said to the judge: “By your cruelty you procure me that great happiness which it was my grief to see deferred. I rejoice to see myself called to this crown, and return hearty thanks to God for vouchsafing me such a favor.” She was yet alive, when the governor, finding it impossible to add to his cruelty, ordered her to be thrown into the sea. The other confessors he condemned to the mines in Palestine; but was himself shortly after beheaded by his master for his crimes. St. Theodosia received her crown on the 2d of April, on which day her name occurs in the Roman, Greek, Russian, and other calendars. Her memory is honored with particular devotion at Venice, and in many other places. Concerning her martyrdom, see Eusebius, an eye-witness, in his History of the Martyrs of Palestine, c. 7, and her Acts, published from the Chaldaic, by Assemani, t. 2, p. 204.*

APRIL 2 — ST. NICETUS, ARCHBISHOP OF LYONS, CONFESSOR, CALLED BY THE FRENCH NIZIER

He was descended from an ancient noble Gaulish family in Burgundy, and, by the care of virtuous parents, received a learned and pious education. Humility and assiduous prayer were his favorite virtues from the cradle. In his father’s house he always chose to appear the lowest in the family, though by birth he had a right to claim the highest place next his parents. He readily gave a preference in all things to his brethren, and took a singular delight, during his hours of recreation, in performing the most servile offices. He instructed, with the utmost diligence, the servants and children in all Christian duties, and taught them the psalter and church office. He succeeded his uncle, St. Serdot, in the see of Lyons, in 551, which he governed with indefatigable zeal during twenty-two years, till his happy death on the 2d day of April, in 577. Great miracles confirmed the opinion of his sanctity: his relics are preserved in the parish church of his name, in Lyons: his memory is famous in France, and recorded in the Roman Martyrology.

APRIL 2 — ST. EBBA, ABBESS, AND HER COMPANIONS, MM

In the ninth century St. Ebba governed the great monastery of Coldingham, situated in Merch, or the Marshes, a province in the shire of Berwick, which was for some time subject to the English, at other times to the Scots This was at that time the largest monastery in all Scotland, and had been founded by another St. Ebba, who was sister to St. Oswald and Oswi, kings of Northumberland.† In the year 870, according to Matthew of Westminster, or rather in 874, according to the Scottish historians, in an incursion of the cruel Danish pirates, Hinguar and Hubba, this abbess was anxious, not for her life, but for her chastity, to preserve which she had recourse to the following stratagem. Having assembled her nuns in the Chapter-house, after making a moving discourse to her sisters, she, with a razor, cut off her nose and upper-lip, and was courageously imitated by all the holy community. The frightful spectacle which they exhibited in this condition protected their virginity. But the infidels, enraged at their disappointment, set fire to the monastery, and these holy virgins died in the flames spotless victims to their heavenly spouse, the lover and rewarder of chaste souls. See Matthew of Westminster, Baronius ad an. 870, Cressy, &c.

APRIL 2 — B. CONSTANTINE II., KING OF SCOTLAND

Marched against the infidels who advanced to plunder his dominions, and, intercepting the forces of Hubba, cut off from the army of his brother, king Hinguar, by a sudden flood of the river Lenin, easily put them to flight; but was afterwards vanquished by Hinguar, near the town Cararia, and slain. In his last moments he repeated those words of the (Psalm 77:19), Lord Jesus, abandon not to beasts the souls which serve thee. His death is placed by bishop Lesley and Buchanan in 874. He was buried in the isle of Iona, or Y-Colm-kill, and his tomb is said to have been honored with miracles. The title of martyr is given him by King, in his Calendar, on the 11th of March, the day on which he was honored under that quality at St. Andrew’s. See Lesley, Hist.1. 5; Buchanan,1. 6.

APRIL 2 — ST. BRONACHA, OR BRONANNA, V

Abbess of Gleannsechis, or Kill-sechis, in Ireland: titular saint of the parish of Kill-Bruncha in the diocese of Dromore. See Colgan in MSS. Con. SS. Hibern. ad 2 Apr.

April III

APRIL 3 — SS. AGAPE, CHIONIA, AND IRENE, SISTERS AND THEIR COMPANIONS, MARTYRS

From their original acts, abridged out of the presidial court registers of Thessalonica, in Surius Ruinart, p. 421. Tillemont, t. 5, pp. 240 and 680. Ceillier, t. 3, p. 490.

A. D. 304.

THESE three sisters lived at Thessalonica, and their parents were heathens when they suffered martyrdom. In the year 303, the emperor Dioclesian published an edict forbidding, under pain of death, any persons to keep the holy scriptures. These saints concealed many volumes of these sacred books, but were not discovered or apprehended till the year following; when, as their acts relate, Dulcetius, the governor, being seated in his tribunal, Artemesius, the secretary, said: “If you please, I will read an information given in by the Stationary,* concerning several persons here present.” Dulcetius said: “Let the information be read.” The solicitor read as follows: “The Pensioner Cassander to Dulcetius, president of Macedonia, greeting. I send to your highness six Christian women, with a man, who have refused to eat meats sacrificed to the gods. They are called Agape, Chionia, Irene, Casia, Philippa, Eutychia, and the man’s name is Agatho; therefore I have caused them to be brought before you.” The president, turning to the women, said: “Wretches, what madness is this of yours, that you will not obey the pious commands of the emperors and Cæsars?” He then said to Agatho: “Why will you not eat of the meats offered to the gods, like other subjects of the empire?” He answered: “Because I am a Christian.” DULCETIUS.—“Do you still persist in that resolution?” “Certainly,” replied Agatho. Dulcetius next addressed himself to Agape, saying: “What are your sentiments?” Agape answered: “I believe in the living God, and will not by an evil action lose all the merit of my past life.” Then the president said: “What say you, Chionia?” She answered: “I believe in the living God, and for that reason did not obey your orders.” The president, turning to Irene, said: “Why did not you obey the most pious command of our emperors and Cæsars?” Irene said: “For fear of offending God.” PRESIDENT.—“But what say you, Casia?” She said: “I desire to save my soul.” PRESIDENT.—“Will not you partake of the sacred offerings?” CASIA.—“By no means.” PRESIDENT.—“But you, Philippa, what do you say?” She answered: “I say the same thing.” PRESIDENT.—“What is that?” PHILIPPA.—“That I had rather die than eat of your sacrifices.” PRESIDENT.—“And you, Eutychia, what do you say?” “I say the same thing,” said she, “that I had rather die than do what you command.” PRESIDENT.—“Are you married?” EUTYCHIA.—“My husband has been dead almost these seven months.” “By whom are you with child?” She answered: “By him whom God gave me for my husband.” PRESIDENT.—“I advise you, Eutychia, to leave this folly, and resume a reasonable way of thinking; what do you say? will you obey the imperial edict?” EUTYCHIA.—“No: for I am a Christian, and serve the Almighty God.” PRESIDENT.—“Eutychia being big with child, let her be kept in prison.” Afterwards Dulcetius added: “Agape, what is your resolution? will you do as we do, who are obedient and dutiful to the emperors?” AGAPE.—“It is not proper to obey Satan; my soul is not to be overcome by these discourses.” PRESIDENT.—“And you, Chionia, what is your final answer?” “Nothing can change me,” said she. PRESIDENT.—“Have you not some books, papers, or other writings, relating to the religion of the impious Christians?” Chionia said: “We have none: the emperors now reigning have taken them all from us.” PRESIDENT.—“Who drew you into this persuasion?” She said, “Almighty God.” PRESIDENT.—“Who induced you to embrace this folly?” Chionia repeated again, “Almighty God, and his only Son our Lord Jesus Christ.” DULCETIUS.—“You are all bound to obey our most puissant emperors and Cæsars. But because you have so long obstinately despised their just commands, and so many edicts, admonitions, and threats, and have had the boldness and rashness to despise our orders, retaining the impious name of Christians; and since to this very time you have not obeyed the stationaries and officers who solicited you to renounce Jesus Christ in writing, you shall receive the punishment you deserve.” Then he read their sentence, which was worded as follows: “I condemn Agape and Chionia to be burnt alive, for having out of malice and obstinacy acted in contradiction to the divine edicts of our lords the emperors and Cæsars, and who at present profess the rash and false religion of Christians, which all pious persons abhor.” He added: “As for the other four, let them be confined in close prison during my pleasure.”

After these two had been consumed in the fire, Irene was a third time brought before the president. Dulcetius said to her: “Your madness is plain, since you have kept to this day so many books, parchments, codicils and papers of the scriptures of the impious Christians. You was forced to acknowledge them when they were produced before you, though you had before denied you had any.* You will not take warning from the punishment of your sisters, neither have you the fear of death before your eyes your punishment therefore is unavoidable. In the mean time I do not refuse even now to make some condescension in your behalf. Notwithstanding your crime, you may find pardon and be freed from punishment, if you will yet worship the gods. What say you then? will you obey the orders of the emperors? are you ready to sacrifice to the gods, and eat of the victims?” IRENE.—“By no means: for those that renounce Jesus Christ, the Son of God, are threatened with eternal fire.” DULCETIUS.—“Who persuaded you to conceal those books and papers so long?” IRENE.—“Almighty God, who has commanded us to love him even unto death; on which account we dare not betray him, but rather choose to be burnt alive, or suffer anything whatsoever than discover such writings.” PRESIDENT.—“Who knew that those writings were in the house?” “Nobody,” said she, “but the Almighty, from whom nothing is hid: for we concealed them even from our own domestics, lest they should accuse us.” PRESIDENT.—“Where did you hide yourselves last year, when the pious edict of our emperors was first published?” IRENE.—“Where it pleased God, in the mountains.” PRESIDENT.—“With whom did you live?” IRENE.—“We were in the open air, sometimes on one mountain, sometimes on another.” PRESIDENT.—“Who supplied you with bread?” IRENE.—“God, who gives food to all flesh.” PRESIDENT.—“Was your father privy to it?” IRENE.—“No; he had not the least knowledge of it.” PRESIDENT.—“Which of your neighbors knew it?” IRENE.—“Inquire in the neighborhood, and make your search.” PRESIDENT.—“After you returned from the mountains, as you say, did you read those books to anybody?” IRENE.—“They were hid at our own house, and we durst not produce them; and we were in great trouble, because we could not read them night and day, as we had been accustomed to do.” DULCETIUS.—“Your sisters have already suffered the punishments to which they were condemned. As for you, Irene, though you were condemned to death before your flight for having hid these writings, I will not have you die so suddenly; but I order that you be exposed naked in a brothel, and be allowed one loaf a day, to be sent you from the palace; and that the guards do not suffer you to stir out of it one moment, under pain of death to them.” The infamous sentence was rigorously executed; but God protecting her, no man durst approach her, nor say or do any indecency to her. The president caused her to be brought again before him, and said to her: “Do you still persist in your rashness?” “Not in rashness,” said Irene, “but in piety towards God.” DULCETIUS.—“You shall suffer the just punishment of your insolence and obstinacy.” And having called for paper, he wrote this sentence: “Since Irene will not obey the emperor’s orders and sacrifice to the gods, but, on the contrary, persists still in the religion of the Christians, I order her to be immediately burnt alive, as her sisters have been.” Dulcetius had no sooner pronounced this sentence but the soldiers seized Irene, and brought her to a rising ground where her sisters had suffered martyrdom, and having lighted a large pile, ordered her to mount thereon. Irene, singing psalms, and celebrating the glory of God, threw herself on the pile, and was there consumed in the ninth consulship of Dioclesian, and the eighth of Maximian, on the 1st day of April; but Ado, Usuard, and the Roman Martyrology name St. Agape and Chionia on the 3d, and St. Irene on the 5th of April.

These saints suffered a glorious martyrdom, rather than to offend God by an action which several Christians at that time on various foolish pretexts excused to themselves. How many continually form to themselves a false conscience to palliate the enormity of gross sins, in spite of the light of reason and the gospel; in which their case is far more deplorable and desperate than that of the most flagrant sinners. These are often awakened to sincere repentance: but what hopes can we have of those who, wilfully blinding themselves, imagine all goes right with them, even while they are running headlong into perdition? How many excuse to themselves notorious usuries and a thousand frauds, detractions, slanders, revenge, antipathies, sensual fondnesses, and criminal familiarities, envy, jealousy, hypocrisy, pride, and numberless other crimes! How often do men canonize the grossest vices under the glorious names of charity, zeal, prudence, constancy, and other virtues! The principal sources of this fatal misfortune of a false conscience are, first, the passions. These so strangely blind the understanding and pervert the judgment, that men fail not to extenuate the enormity of their crimes, and even to justify to themselves many violations of the divine law, where any passion hath a strong bias. Whatever men are eagerly bent to commit, they easily find pretences to call lawful. A second cause of our practical errors are the example and false maxims of the world. We flatter ourselves that what everybody does must be lawful, as if the multitude of sinners could authorize any crime, or as if the rule by which Christ will judge us, was the custom or example of others; or lastly, as if the world had not framed a false system of morals very opposite to the gospel. A third source of this dreadful and common evil is an affected ignorance. Parents, magistrates, priests, and others, are frequently unacquainted with several essential obligations of their state. How ofter are Christians ignorant of many practical duties which they owe to God, their neighbors, and themselves!

APRIL 3 — ST. RICHARD, B. C

From his life by Ralph Bocking, some time his Confessarius, in two books, dedicated to Isabel, countess of Arundel; extant in the Acta Sanctorum. The same is abridged in Surius. See another life of this saint in Capgrave, written also soon after his death; and F. Papebroke, t. 1, April. p. 277.

A. D. 1253.

ST. RICHARD was born at the manor of Wiche, famous for its salt wells, four miles from Worcester, being second son to Richard and Alice de Wiche. In order to keep faithfully his baptismal vows, he from his infancy always manifested the utmost dislike to gay diversions, and ever held in the highest contempt all worldly pomp: instead of which his attention was wholly employed in establishing for himself a solid foundation of virtue and learning. Every opportunity of serving others he regarded as his happiness and gain. The unfortunate situation of his eldest brother’s affairs gave him an occasion of exercising his benevolent disposition. Richard condescended to become his brother’s servant, undertook the management of his farms, and by his industry and generosity effectually retrieved his brother’s before distressed circumstances. Having completed this good work, he resumed at Paris those studies he had begun at Oxford, leading with two select companions, a life of piety and mortification, generally contenting himself with coarse bread and simple water for his diet; except that on Sundays and on particular festivals he would, in condescendence to some visitors, allow himself a little meat or fish. Upon his return to England, he proceeded master of arts at Oxford, from whence he went to Bologna, in Italy, where he applied himself to the study of the canon law, and was appointed public professor of that science. After having taught there a short time, he returned to Oxford, and, on account of his merit, was soon promoted to the dignity of chancellor in that university. St. Edmund, archbishop of Canterbury, having the happiness of gaining him for his diocese, appointed him his chancellor, and intrusted him with the chief direction of his archbishopric; and Richard was the faithful imitator of his patron’s piety and devotions. The principal use he made of his revenues was to employ them to charitable purposes, nor would he on any terms be prevailed on to accept the least present in the execution of his office as ecclesiastical judge. He accompanied his holy prelate in his banishment into France, and after his blessed death at Pontigni, retired into a convent of Dominican friars in Orleans. Having in that solitude employed his time in the improving himself in theological studies, and received the order of priesthood, he returned to England to serve a private curacy, in the diocese of Canterbury. Boniface, who had succeeded St. Edmund in that metropolitan see, compelled him to resume his office of chancellor, with the care of his whole diocese. Ralph Nevil, bishop of Chichester, dying in 1244, king Henry III. recommended to that see an unworthy court favorite, called Robert Passelew: the archbishop and other prelates declared the person not qualified, and the presentation void: and preferred Richard de Wiche to that dignity. He was consecrated in 1245. But the king seized his temporalities, and the saint suffered many hardships and persecutions from him and his officers, during two years, till his majesty granted him a replevin: upon which he recovered his revenues, but much impaired. And as, after having pleaded his cause at Rome before pope Innocent IV. against the king’s deputies, and obtained a sentence confirming his election, he had permitted no persecution, fatigue, or difficulty to excuse him to himself for the omission of any part of his duty to his flock: so now, the chief obstacles being removed, he redoubled his fervor and attention. He, in person, visited the sick, buried the dead, and sought out and relieved the poor. When his steward complained that his alms exceeded his income: “then,” said he, “sell my plate and my horse.” Having suffered a great loss by fire, instead of being more sparing in his charities, he said, “Perhaps God sent us this loss to punish our covetousness;” and ordered upon the spot more abundant alms to be given than usual. Such was the ardor of his devotion, that he lived as it were in the perpetual contemplation of heavenly things. He preached the word of God to his flock with that unction and success which only an eminent spirit of prayer could produce. The affronts which he received, he always repaid with favors, and enmity with singular marks of charity. In maintaining discipline he was inflexible, especially in chastising crimes in the clergy: no intercession of the king, archbishop, and several other prelates could prevail with him to mitigate the punishment of a priest who had sinned against chastity. Yet penitent sinners he received with inexpressible tenderness and charity. While he was employed in preaching a holy war against the Saracens, being commissioned thereto by the pope, he fell sick of a fever, foretold his own death, and prepared himself for it by the most melting ejaculations of divine love and thanksgiving. He died in an hospital at Dover, called God’s House, on the 3d of April, in the year of our Lord 1253, of his episcopal dignity the ninth, of his age the fifty-sixth. His body was conveyed to Chichester, and interred before the altar which he himself had consecrated in his cathedral to the memory of St. Edmund. It was removed to a more honorable place in 1276, on the 16th of June, on which day our ancestors commemorated his translation. The fame of miraculous cures of paralytic and other distempers, and of three persons raised to life at his tomb, moved the pope to appoint commissaries to inquire into the truth of these reports, before whom many of these miracles were authentically proved upon the spot; and the saint was solemnly canonized by Urban IV., in 1262.

APRIL 3 — ST. ULPIAN, M

He was a young zealous Christian of Tyre, who, being encouraged by the example of St. Apian and other martyrs at Cæsarea, boldly confessed Christ before the cruel judge Urbanus. The enraged governor ordered him to be first severely scourged, and then tortured on the rack; his joints being thereby dislocated, his bones broke, and his body so universally sore that the slightest touch occasioned excessive pain. He was sewed up after this in a leather bag, with a dog and an aspic, laid on a cart drawn by black bulls, carried to the sea-side, and cast into the waves. See Eusebius on the Martyrs of Palestine, ch. 5.

APRIL 3 — ST. NICETAS, ABBOT

He was a native of Bithynia, and from his infancy was brought up in austere monasteries by the care of his pious father Philaretus, who, after the loss of his wife, had himself embraced a monastic state. Nicetas emulated the most perfect examples of virtue: his mind was wholly occupied in prayer and pious reading, and his body was so extenuated by the severity of his fasts and watching, that it nearly resembled a walking skeleton. But his soul grew the more vigorous and active in proportion as it was more disengaged from the flesh, and by contemplation approached nearer to the angels. St. Nicephorus appointed him his coadjutor, and afterwards recommended him to be his successor in the abbey of Medicion, which he had founded on mount Olympus, under the rule of the Acæmetes. In this calm and amiable retreat the saint, and a hundred holy monks under his direction, led the lives of terrestrial angels, when the devil found means to disturb their tranquillity, though in the end his attempts only served to furnish their virtue with more distinguished occasions of triumph. In 813, the emperor Leo the Armenian renewed the war against holy images, and in 814, banished the patriarch St. Nicephorus, and intruded into his see one Theodosius, an impious officer of the court. The zeal of Nicetas for the Catholic faith was recompensed by two banishments, a rigid imprisonment, and other severe sufferings. Theodosius, having pronounced anathema against all who did not honor the image of Jesus Christ, our abbot, regarding him as orthodox, consented, with many other confessors, to receive the communion from his hands; but was immediately stung with remorse, fearing lest he had been drawn into a conformity which some might interpret to the prejudice of the truth. Hereupon he openly protested that he would never abandon the faith of his ancestors, or obey the false patriarch. He rejected the offers of preferment at court, and chose rather to suffer a cruel banishment into the island of St. Glyceria, in the extremities of the Propontis, under the guard of Anthimus, a court eunuch, who confined him in a dark dungeon, the key of which he always kept in his own custody. A little food, merely what seemed necessary to preserve him alive, was carelessly thrown in to him through a little window. In this martyrdom he lingered six years, till the death of Leo the Armenian, who was murdered on Christmas-day, in 820 Michael the Stutterer, who then ascended the throne, released the prisoners. St. Nicetas chose, out of humility, neither to return to his monastery, nor to live at Constantinople, but, shutting himself up in a small hermitage near that city, prepared himself for death, which he met with joy on the 3d of April, 824. Many miracles rendered his name illustrious on earth. See his life, by an intimate acquaintance, in Surius, d’Andilly, Papebroke, Fleury b. 46.

APRIL 4 — ST. ISIDORE, BISHOP OF SEVILLE

From his works and those of SS. Braulio and Ildefonse, his disciples. His life, compiled by Luke, bishop of Tuy, in Galicia, in 1236, extant in Mabillon, Sæc. Ben. 2, shows not that accuracy and judgment which we admire in the books of that author against the Albigenses: nor is it here made use of.

A. D. 606.

ST. ISIDORE is honored in Spain as the most illustrious doctor of that church, in which God raised him, says St. Brauli0,1 to stem the torrent of barbarism and ferocity which everywhere followed the arms of the Goths, who had settled themselves in that kingdom, in 412. The eighth great council of Toledo, fourteen years after his death, styles him “the excellent doctor, the late ornament of the Catholic church, the most learned man, given to enlighten the latter ages, always to be named with reverence.” The city Carthagena was the place of his birth, which his parents, Severian and Theodora, persons of the first quality in the kingdom, edified by the example of their extraordinary piety. His two brothers, Leander and Fulgentius, bishops,* and his sister Florentina, are also honored among the saints. Isidore having qualified himself in his youth for the service of the church by an uncommon stock of virtue and learning, assisted his brother Leander, archbishop of Seville, in the conversion of the Visigoths from the Arian heresy. This great work he had the happiness to see perfectly accomplished by his indefatigable zeal and labors, which he continued during the successive reigns of the kings Reccared, Liuba, Witeric, Gundemar, Sisebut, and Sisemund. Upon the decease of St. Leander, in 600, or 601, he succeeded him in the see of Seville.† He restored and settled the discipline of the church of Spain in several councils, of all which he was the oracle and the soul. The purity of their doctrine, and the severity of the canons enacted in them, drawn up chiefly by him, are incontestable monuments of his great learning and zeal.‡ In the council of Seville, in 619, in which he presided, he, in a public disputation, convinced Gregory (a bishop of the Acephali) of his error, who was come over from Syria; and so evidently did he confute the Eutychian heresy, that Gregory, upon the spot, embraced the Catholic faith. In 610, the bishops of Spain, in a council held at Toledo, agreed to declare the archbishop of that city primate of all Spain, as they say, he had always been acknowledged; which decree king Gundemar confirmed by a law the same year; and St. Isidore subscribed the same Yet we find that in the fourth council of Toledo, in 633, the most famous of all the synods of Spain, though Justus, the archbishop of Toledo, was present, St. Isidore presided, not by the privilege of his see, but on the bare consideration of his extraordinary merit; for he was regarded as the eminent doctor of the churches of Spain. The city of Toledo was honored with the residence of the Visigoth kings.

St. Isidore, to extend to posterity the advantages which his labors had procured to the church, compiled many useful works: in which he takes in the whole circle of the sciences, and discovers a most extensive reading, and a general acquaintance with the ancient writers, both sacred and profane. In the moral parts his style is pathetic and moving, being the language of a heart overflowing with sentiments of religion and piety: and though elegance and politeness of style were not the advantage of that age, the diction of this father is agreeable and clear.* The saint was well versed in the Latin, Greek, and Hebrew languages.

St. Ildefonse says, that this saint governed his church near forty years, but cannot mean above thirty-six or thirty-seven. When he was almost fourscore years old, though age and fatigues had undermined and broken into his health, he never interrupted his usual exercises and labors. During the last six months of his life, he increased his charities with such profusion, that the poor of the whole country crowded his house from morning till night. Perceiving his end to draw near, he entreated two bishops to come to see him. With them he went to the church, where one of them covered him with sackcloth, the other put ashes on his head. Clothed with the habit of penance, he stretched his hands towards heaven, prayed with great earnestness, and begged aloud the pardon of his sins. He then received from the hands of the bishops the body and blood of our Lord, recommended himself to the prayers of all that were present, remitted the bonds of all his debtors, exhorted the people to charity, and caused all the money which he had not as yet disposed of to be distributed among the poor. This done, he returned to his own house, and calmly departed this life on the fourth day after, which was the 4th of April, in the year 636, as is expressly testified by Ædemptus, his disciple, who was present at his death. His body was interred in his cathedral, between those of his brother, St. Leander, and his sister, St. Florentina. Ferdinand, king of Castile and Leon, recovered his relics from the Moors, and placed them in the church of St. John Baptist, at Leon, where they still remain.

All who are employed in the functions of Martha, or of an exterior active life, must always remember that action and contemplation ought to be so constantly intermingled, that the former be always animated and directed by the latter, and amid the exterior labors of the active life, we constantly enjoy the interior repose of the contemplative, and that no employments entirely interrupt the union of our souls to God; but those that are most distracting serve to make us more closely, more eagerly, and more amorously, plunge our hearts in Him, embracing him in himself by contemplation, and in our neighbor by our actions.

APRIL 4 — ST. PLATO, ABBOT

He was born about the year 734. A pestilence that raged at Constantinople depriving him of his parents when he was no more than thirteen years of age, the care of his education devolved upon an uncle, who was high treasurer. Plato, while yet young, dispatched the business of that high office for his uncle with surprising readiness and assiduity. His remarkable dexterity in writing shorthand, may be reckoned among his inferior accomplishments, seeing by the daily progress he made in the more sublime parts of knowledge and religion, he far outstripped all his equals in age, and went beyond the greatest expectation of his masters. These eminent qualifications, joined to his elevated birth, extensive wealth, and unblemished probity, introduced him to the notice of the great, and opened to him the highest preferments in the state. Persons in the highest stations at court wished to make him their son-in-law: but his whole heart being attached to heavenly things, he looked with contempt on the pomps and vanities of this world. Prayer and retirement were the chief objects of his delight, nor was he fond of paying any visits except to churches and monasteries. He prevailed on his three brothers to devote themselves to God, and live in a state of celibacy: he made all his slaves free, and having sold his large estates, he portioned his two sisters, who, marrying, became the mothers of saints: the remainder of the purchase-money he distributed among the poor. Being thus disengaged, he bid adieu to his friends and country at twenty-four years of age. He took with him one servant as far as Bithynia, but there sent him also back, having given him all his clothes, except one coarse black suit; and in this manner he walked alone to the monastery of Symboleon, upon mount Olympus, in that country. From the moment he was admitted into that house, no one was more humble, more devout, more exact in every duty, or more obedient and mortified. The holy abbot Theoctistus, to furnish him with opportunities of heroic acts of virtue, often reproved and punished him for faults of which he was not guilty: which treatment St. Plato received with silence and joy, in patience and humility. Prayer and pious reading were the delight of his soul. In the hours allotted to labor he rejoiced to see the meanest employments assigned to him, as to make bread water the ground, and carry dung, though his most usual province was to copy books of piety. Theoctistus dying in 770, St. Plato was chosen abbot of Symboleon, being only thirty-six years old. He had opposed his exaltation to the utmost of his power, but seeing himself compelled to take upon him that burden, he became the more humble and the more austere penitent. He never drank any thing but water; and this sometimes only once in two days: his diet was bread, beans, or herbs without oil: and this refection he never took even on Sundays before None. He would never eat or wear any thing which was not purchased by the labor of his own hands; by which he also maintained several poor. His retreat protected him from the persecution of Constantine Copronymus. The year after the death of that tyrant, in 775, St. Plato took a journey to Constantinople on business, where it is incredible with what esteem he was received, and how much he promoted piety in all ranks, states, and conditions; how successful he was in banishing habits of swearing and other vices, and inspiring both the rich and poor with the love of virtue. The patriarch, not Tarasius, as Fleury mistakes, but his predecessor, Paul, endeavored to make him bishop of Nicomedia; but such was the saint’s humility, that he made all haste back to his desert of Symboleon. He would never take holy orders; and indeed at that time the generality of monks were laymen. The whole family of his sister Theoctista, embracing a religious state, and founding the monastery of Saccudion, near Constantinople, St. Plato was with difficulty prevailed upon to leave Symboleon, and to take upon him the direction of this new abbey, in 782; but when he had governed it twelve years, he resigned the same to his nephew, St. Theodorus. The emperor Constantine repudiated his empress, Mary, and took to his bed Theodota, a relation of St. Plato. The patriarch, St. Tarasius, endeavored to reclaim him by exhortations and threats; but SS. Plato and Theodorus proceeded to publish among the monks a kind of sentence of excommunication against him. Joseph, the treasurer of the church, and several other mercenary priests and monks, endeavored to draw over St. Plato to approve the emperor’s divorce; but he resisted their solicitations, and the emperor himself to his face, and courageously suffered imprisonment and other hardships till the death of that unhappy prince, in 797. The Saracens making excursions as far as the walls of Constantinople, the monks of Saccudion abandoned their settlement, and chose that of Studius, which abbey had been almost destroyed by the persecution of Constantine Copronymus. There St. Plato vowed obedience to his nephew Theodorus, living himself a recluse in a narrow cell, in perpetual prayer and manual labor, having one foot fastened to the ground with a heavy iron chain, which he carefully hid with his cloak when any one came to see him. In 806, St. Nicephorus, a layman, though a person of great virtue, was preferred to the patriarchal dignity by the emperor of the same name. St. Plato judged the election of a neophyte irregular, and on that account opposed it. In 807 he fell under a new persecution. Joseph, the priest who had married the adulteress to the emperor Constantine, was restored to his functions and dignity of treasurer of the church, by an order of the emperor Nicephorus. St. Plato considered this indulgence as a scandalous enervation of the discipline of the church, and a seeming connivance at his past crimes; and loudly condemned it. The emperor, provoked at his zeal, caused him to be guarded a whole year by a troop of insolent soldiers and false monks; after which he obliged him to appear before a council of court bishops, by which he was unjustly condemned, and treated with many indignities, and at length, with the most flagrant injustice, pronounced guilty of the fictitious crimes laid to his charge; in consequence of which sentence the emperor banished him, and commanded that he should be ignominiously conducted from place to place in the isles of Bosphorus for the space of four years. Notwithstanding he was at the same time afflicted with many distempers, the saint endured the fatigues of his exile with an extraordinary degree of constancy and courage which had such an effect on Nicephorus, that he had resolved to recall him with honor, and pay him the respect such distinguished piety merited, but, unhappily, the emperor’s being surprised and murdered by the Bulgarians, in 811, frustrated those good intentions. But his successor, Michael I., a lover of justice and virtue, immediately gave orders that St. Plato should be honorably discharged. The saint was received at Constantinople with all possible marks of respect and distinction: but privately retired to his cell. After some time, perceiving himself near his end, he directed his grave to be dug, and himself to be carried to it and laid down by it. Here he was visited by the chief persons of the city, especially by the holy patriarch, St Nicephorus, who had satisfied him as to his conduct in receiving the priest Joseph, and who came to recommend himself to his prayers. St. Plato happily expired on the 19th of March, in 813, near the close of the seventy-ninth year of his age. His funeral obsequies were performed by the patriarch St. Nicephorus. His memory is honored both by the Latins and Greeks on the 4th of April. Fortitude in suffering for the sake of justice, is the true test of virtue and courage; and the persecution of the saints is the glorious triumph of the cross of Christ. Humility, patience, and constancy, shine principally on such occasions. Their distresses are like the shades in a fine picture, which throw a graceful light on the brighter parts of the piece, and heighten its beauties. See the life of St. Plato, by his nephew St. Theodorus the Studite. Also the Commentary and Notes of Papebroke, t. 1. Apr. p. 364; Fleury,1. 45.

April V

APRIL 5 — ST. VINCENT FERRER, C

From his life, written by Ranzano, bishop of Lucera, in order to his canonization, in Henschenius, with the notes of Papebroke. See Touron, Hommes Illustres de l’Ordre de St. Dominique, t. 3; Fleury, b. 110.

A. D. 1419.

ST. VINCENT FERRER was born at Valentia; in Spain, on the 23d of January, 1357. His parents were persons distinguished for their virtue and almsdeeds. They made it their rule to distribute in alms whatever they could save out of the necessary expenses of their family at the end of every year. Two of their sons became eminent in the church—Beniface, who died general of the Carthusians, and St. Vincent, who brought with him into the world a happy disposition for learning and piety, which were improved from his cradle by study and a good education. In order to subdue his passions, he fasted rigorously from his childhood every Wednesday and Friday. The passion of Christ was always the object of his most tender devotion. The blessed Virgin he ever honored as his spiritual mother. Looking on the poor as the members of Christ, he treated them with the greatest affection and charity, which being observed by his parents, they made him the dispenser of their bountiful alms. They gave him for his portion the third part of their possessions, all which he in four days’ time distributed among the poor. He began his course of philosophy at twelve years of age, and his theology at the end of his fourteenth year. His progress was such that he seemed a master in both studies at the age of seventeen, and by his affectionate piety he had obtained an eminent gift of tears in that tender age. His father having proposed to him the choice of a religious, an ecclesiastical, or a secular state, Vincent, without hesitation, said, it was his earnest desire to consecrate himself to the service of God in the order of St. Dominick. His good parents with joy conducted him to a covenant of that order in Valentia, and he put on the habit in 1374, in the beginning of his eighteenth year.

He made a surprisingly rapid progress in the paths of perfection, taking St. Dominick for his model. To the exercises of prayer and penance he joined the study and meditation of the holy scriptures, and the reading of the fathers. Soon after his solemn profession, he was deputed to read lectures of philosophy, and at the end of his course, published a treatise on Dialectic Suppositions, being not quite twenty-four years old. He was then sent to Barcelona, where he continued his scholastic exercises, and at the same time preached the word of God with great fruit, especially during a great famine, when he foretold the arrival of two vessels loaded with corn, the same evening, to relieve the city; which happened, contrary to all expectation. From thence he was sent to Lerida, the most famous university of Catalonia. There continuing his apostolic functions and scholastic disputations, he commenced doctor, receiving the cap from the hands of cardinal Peter de Luna, legate of pope Clement VII., in 1384, being twenty-eight years of age. At the earnest importunities of the bishop, clergy, and people of Valentia, he was recalled to his own country, and pursued there both his lectures and his preaching with such extraordinary reputation, and so manifestly attended with the benediction of the Almighty, that he was honored in the whole country above what can be expressed. As a humiliation, God permitted an angel of Satan to molest him with violent temptations of the flesh, and to fill his imagination with filthy ideas, the fiend rather hoping to disturb than seduce him. Also a wicked woman who entertained a criminal passion for our saint, feigned herself sick, and sending for him, on pretence of hearing her confession, took that occasion to declare to him her vicious inclinations, and did all in her power to pervert him. The saint, like another Joseph, in the utmost horror, and in an humble distrust of himself, without staying to answer her one word, betook himself to flight. The unhappy woman, enraged at his conduct, acted the part of Potiphar’s wife in calumniating him. But her complaints meeting with little or no credit, she, upon reflection, became sensible of her fault: and being stung with remorse, made him public amends to the best of her power. The saint most readily pardoned her, and cured a disturbance of mind into which she was fallen. The arms which the saint employed against the devil were prayer, penance, and a perpetual watchfulness over every impulse of his passions. His heart was always fixed on God, and he made his studies, labor, and all his other actions, a continued prayer. The same practice he proposes to all Christians, in his book entitled: A Treatise on a Spiritual Life, in which he writes thus: “Do you desire to study to your advantage? Let devotion accompany all your studies, and study less to make yourself learned than to become a saint. Consult God more than your books, and ask him, with humility, to make you understand what you read. Study fatigues and drains the mind and heart. Go from time to time to refresh them at the feet of Jesus Christ under his cross. Some moments of repose in his sacred wounds give fresh vigor and new lights. Interrupt your application by short, but fervent and ejaculatory prayers: never begin or end your study but by prayer. Science is a gift of the Father of lights: do not therefore consider it as barely the work of your own mind or industry.” He always composed his sermons at the foot of a crucifix, both to beg light from Christ crucified, and to draw from that object sentiments wherewith to animate his auditors to penance and the love of God.

St. Vincent had lived thus six years at Valentia, assiduously pursuing his apostolical labors, under great persecutions from the devils and carnal men, out in high esteem among the virtuous, when cardinal Peter de Luna, legate of Clement VII. in Spain, was appointed to go from thence in the same capacity to Charles IV., king of France. Arriving at Valentia in 1390, he obliged the saint to accompany him into France. While the cardinal, who had too much of the spirit of the world, was occupied in politics, Vincent had no other employ or concern than that of the conversion of souls, and of the interests of Jesus Christ: and the fruits of his labors in Paris were not less than they had been in Spain. In the beginning of the year 1394, the legate returned to Avignon, and St. Vincent, refusing his invitations to the court of Clement VII., went to Valentia. Clement VII. dying at Avignon, in 1394, during the great schism. Peter de Luna was chosen pope by the French and Spaniards, and took the name of Benedict XIII. He commanded Vincent to repair to Avignon, and made him Master of the Sacred Palace. The saint labored to persuade Benedict to put an end to the schism, but obtained only promises, which the ambitious man often renewed, but always artfully eluded. Vincent in the mean time applied himself to his usual functions, and by his preaching reformed the city of Avignon; but, to breath a free air of solitude, he retired from court to a convent of his order. Benedict offered him bishoprics and a cardinal’s hat; but he steadfastly refused all dignities; and, after eighteen months, earnestly entreated to be appointed apostolical missionary; and so much did the opinion of his sanctity prevail, that the opposing his desire was deemed an opposition to the will of heaven. Benedict therefore granted his request, gave him his benediction, and invested him with the power of apostolical missionary, constituting him also his legate and vicar.

Before the end of the year 1398, St. Vincent being forty-two years old, set out from Avignon towards Valentia. He preached in every town with wonderful efficacy, and the people having heard him in one place, followed him in crowds to others. Public usurers, blasphemers, debauched women, and other hardened sinners, everywhere were induced by his discourses to embrace a life of penance. He converted a prodigious number of Jews and Mahometans, heretics, and schismatics. He visited every province of Spain in this manner, except Galicia. He returned thence into France, and made some stay in Languedoc, Provence, and Dauphiné. He went thence into Italy, preaching on the coasts of Genoa, in Lombardy, Piedmont, and Savoy: as he did in part of Germany, about the Upper Rhine, and through Flanders. Such was the fame of his missions, that Henry IV., king of England, wrote to him in the most respectful terms, and sent his letter by a gentleman of his court, entreating him to preach also in his dominions. He accordingly sent one of his own ships to fetch him from the coast of France, and received him with the greatest honors. The saint having employed some time in giving the king wholesome advice both for himself and his subjects, preached in the chief towns of England, Scotland, and Ireland. Returning into France, he did the same, from Gascony to Picardy. Numerous wars, and the unhappy great schism in the church, had been productive of a multitude of disorders in Christendom; gross ignorance, and a shocking corruption of manners, prevailed in many places; whereby the teaching of this zealous apostle, who, like another Boanerges, preached in a voice of thunder, became not only useful, but even absolutely necessary, to assist the weak and alarm the sinner. The ordinary subjects of his sermons were sin death, God’s judgments, hell, and eternity. He delivered his discourses with so much energy, that he filled the most insensible with terror. While he was preaching one day at Thoulouse, his whole auditory was seized with trembling. At his sermons persons often fainted away, and he was frequently obliged to stop, to give leisure for the venting of the sobs and sighs of the congregation. His sermons were not only pathetic, but were also addressed to the understanding, and supported with a wonderful strength of reasoning, and the authorities of scriptures and fathers, which he perfectly understood and employed as occasion required. His gift of miracles, and the sanctity of his penitential life, gave to his words the greatest weight. Amidst these journeys and fatigues he never ate flesh, fasted every day, except Sundays, and on Wednesdays and Fridays he lived on bread and water, which course he held for forty years: he lay on straw or small twigs. He spent a great part of the day in the confessional with incredible patience, and there finished what he had begun in the pulpit. He had with him five friars of his order, and some other priests to assist him. Though by his sermons thousands were moved to give their possessions to the poor, he never accepted any thing himself; and was no less scrupulous in cultivating in his heart the virtue and spirit of obedience, than that of poverty; for which reason he declined accepting any dignity in the church or superiority in his order. He labored thus near twenty years, till 1417, in Spain, Majorca, Italy, and France. During this time preaching in Catalonia, among other miracles, he restored to the use of his limbs John Soler, a crippled boy, judged by the physicians incurable, who afterwards became a very eminent man, and bishop of Barcelona. In the year 1400, he was at Aix, in Provence: in 1401, in Piedmont, and the neighboring parts of Italy, being honorably received in the Obedience* of each pope Returning into Savoy and Dauphiné, he found there a valley called Vaupute, or Valley of Corruption, in which the inhabitants were abandoned to cruelty and shameful lusts. After long experience of their savage manners, no minister of the gospel durst hazard himself among them. Vincent was ready to suffer all things to gain souls, and to snatch from the devil a prey which he had already seemingly devoured. He joyfully exposed his life among these abandoned wretches, converted them all from their errors and vices, and changed the name of the valley into Valpure, or Valley of Purity, which name it ever after retained.

Being at Geneva in 1403, he wrote a letter to his general, still extant, in which, among other things, he informed him, that after singing mass he preached twice or thrice every day, preparing his sermons while he was on the road: that he had employed three months in travelling from village to village, and from town to town, in Dauphiné, announcing the word of God; making a longer stay in three valleys in the diocese of Embrun, namely, Lucerna, Argenteya, and Vaupute, having converted almost all the heretics which peopled those parts: that being invited in the most pressing manner into Piedmont, he for thirteen months preached and instructed the people there, in Montserrat, and the valleys, and brought to the faith a multitude of Vaudois and other heretics. He says the general source of their heresy was ignorance and want of an instructor, and cries out: “I blush and tremble when I consider the terrible judgment impending on ecclesiastical superiors, who live at their ease in rich palaces, &c., while so many souls redeemed by the blood of Christ are perishing. I pray without ceasing the Lord of the harvest that he send good workmen into his harvest.”1 He adds that he had in the valley of Luferia converted an heretical bishop by a conference; and extirpated a certain infamous heresy in the valley Pontia; converted the country into which the murderers of St. Peter, the martyr, had fled; had reconciled the Guelphs and Ghibelins, and settled a general peace in Lombardy. Being called back into Piedmont by the bishops and lords of that country, he stayed five months in the dioceses of Aoust, Tarentaise, St John of Morienne, and Grenoble. He says he was then at Geneva, where he had abolished a very inveterate superstitions festival, a thing the bishop durst not attempt; and was going to Lausanne, being called by the bishop to preach to many idolaters who adored the sun, and to heretics who were obstinate, daring, and very numerous on the frontiers of Germany. Thus in his letter. Spondanus,2 and many others say, the saint was honored with the gift of tongues, and that, preaching in his own, he was understood by men of different languages; which is also affirmed by Lanzano, who says that Greeks, Germans, Sardes, Hungarians, and people of other nations, declared they understood every word he spoke, though he preached in Latin, or in his mother tongue, as spoken at Valentia.* Peter de Luna, called Benedict XIII., sent for him out of Lorraine to Genoa, promising to lay aside all claim to the papacy. The saint obeyed, and represented to him the evils of the schism, which would be all laid to his charge; but he spoke to one that was deaf to such counsels. He preached with more success to the people of Genoa for a month, and travelled again through France and Flanders, and from thence, in 1406, over all the dominions of Henry VI., king of England. The years 1407 and 1408, he employed in reforming the manners of the people of Poitou, Gascony, Languedoc, Provence, and Auvergne: at Clermont is still shown the pulpit in which he preached in 1407. An inscription in a church at Nevers testifies the same of that city: he was again at Aix in October, 1408. Benedict XIII. being returned from Genoa, stopped at Marseilles, and came no more to Avignon, but in 1408 went to Perpignan. In the same year the Mahometan king of the Moors, at Granada in Spain, hearing the reputation of St. Vincent, invited him to his court The saint took shipping at Marseilles, and preached to the Mahometans the gospel with great success at Granada, and converted many; till some of the nobles, fearing the total subversion of their religion, obliged the king to dismiss him. He then labored in the kingdom of Aragon, and again in Catalonia, especially in the diocese of Gironne and Vich; in a borough of the latter he renewed the miracle of the multiplication of loaves, related at length in his life.3 At Barcelona, in 1409, he foretold to Martin, king of Aragon, the death of his son Martin, the king of Sicily, who was snatched away amidst his triumphs in the month of July. Vincent comforted the afflicted father, and persuaded him to a second marriage to secure the public peace by an heir to the crown.

He cured innumerable sick everywhere, and at Valentia made a dumb woman speak, but told her she should ever after remain dumb, and that this was for the good of her soul; charging her always to praise and thank God in spirit, to which instructions she promised obedience. He converted the Jews in great numbers in the diocese of Palencia, in the kingdom of Leon, as Mariana relates. He was invited to Pisa, Sienna, Florence, and Lucca, in 1410, whence, after having reconciled the dissensions that prevailed in those parts, he was recalled by John II., king of Castile. In 1411 he visited the kingdoms of Castile, Leon, Murcia, Andalusia, Asturias, and other countries; in all which places the power of God was manifested in his enabling him to work miracles, and effect the conversion of an incredible number of Jews and sinners. The Jews of Toledo embracing the faith, changed their synagogue into a church, under the name of Our Lady’s. From Valladolid, the saint went to Salamanca, in the beginning of the year 1412, where, meeting the corpse of a man who had been murdered, and was carrying on a bier, he, in the presence of a great multitude, commanded the deceased to arise, when the dead man instantly revived; for a moment of which a wooden cross was erected, and is yet to be seen on the spot. In the same city the saint entered the Jewish synagogue with a cross in his hand, and, replenished with the Holy Ghost, made so moving a sermon, that the Jews, who were at first surprised, at the end of his discourse all desired baptism, and changed their synagogue into a church, to which they gave the title of the Holy Cross. But St. Vincent was called away to settle the disputes which had for two years disturbed the tranquillity of the kingdom of Aragon, concerning a successor to the crown. The states of Aragon, Catalonia, and Valentia were divided. The most powerful among the Catalonians were for choosing count Urgel, but the bishop of Saragossa, who opposed his election, being murdered, so impious and inhuman a crime occasioned a general detestation of that candidate, destroyed his interest, and was an alarm to a civil war. At last the states of the three kingdoms agreed to choose nine commissaries, three for each kingdom, who were to assemble in the castle of Caspé in Aragon, on the river Ebro, to decide the contest, which was to be determined by the concurrence of not less than six of the commissaries appointed for this purpose. St. Vincent, his brother, Boniface the Carthusian, and Don Peter Bertrand, were the three commissaries for the kingdom of Valentia. The saint therefore left Castile to repair to Caspé. Ferdinand of Castile was declared the next heir in blood, and lawful king, by the unanimous consent of the commissaries. St. Vincent on that occasion made an harangue to the foreign ambassadors and people present, and when he had named Ferdinand king, a prince highly esteemed for his valor, virtue, and moderation, the acclamations of all present testified their approbation. Ferdinand hastened to Saragossa, and was proclaimed on the 3d of September, 1412. He made the saint his preacher and confessor; yet the holy man continued his usual labors throughout Spain and the adjacent isles, and seemed to take more pleasure in teaching an ignorant shepherd on the mountains, than in preaching to the court. After having long endeavored to move Peter de Luna to resign his pretensions to the papacy, but finding him obstinate, he advised king Ferdinand to renounce his obedience, in case he refused to acknowledge the council of Constance; which that prince did by a solemn edict, dated the 6th of January in 1416, by the advice of the saint, as Oderic Raynold, Mariana, and Spondanus most accurately relate.* The saint labored zealously to bring all Spain to this union, and was sent by king Ferdinand to assist at the council of Constance. He preached through Spain, Languedoc, and Burgundy in his way thither. The fathers of the council pressed his arrival, and deputed Hannibaldi, cardinal of St. Angelus, to consult him at Dijon, in 1417. Gerson wrote to him also an earnest letter expressing a high esteem for his person.4 But it does not appear that St. Vincent ever arrived at Constance, notwithstanding Dupin and some others think he did. The saint’s occupations made him leave few writings to posterity. The chief of his works now extant, are, A Treatise on a Spiritual Life, or, On the Interior Man, A Treatise on the Lord’s Prayer, A Consolation under Temptations, Against Faith, and Seven Epistles.*

St. Vincent having labored some time in Burgundy, went from Dijon to Bourges, where he continued his apostolical functions with equal zeal. In that city he received pressing letters from John 5, duke of Brittany, inviting him to visit his dominions. The saint, convinced it was a call from God, passed by Tours, Angers, and Nantz, in his way thither, being everywhere received as an angel from heaven, and in all places curing the sick, and converting sinners. The duke resided at Vannes: in which city the saint was received by the clergy, nobility, and people in bodies, and the sovereign thought no honors sufficient to testify his esteem of his merit. St. Vincent preached there from the fourth Sunday of Lent till Easter Tuesday, of the year 1417, and foretold the duchess that the child she then bore in her womb would one day be duke of Brittany, which came to pass for the eldest son then alive died without issue. All the dioceses, towns, and countries of Brittany heard this apostle with great fruit, and were witnesses of his miracles. His age and infirmities were far from abating any thing of his zeal and labors; he rooted out vices, superstitions, and all manner of abuses, and had the satisfaction to see a general reformation of manners throughout the whole province. Out of Brittany he wrote letters into Castile, by which he engaged the bishops, nobility, and Don Alphonsus, regent of that kingdom for king John the Second, yet a minor, to renounce Peter de Luna as an antipope, and acknowledge the council of Constance, to which they accordingly sent ambassadors, who were received with joy at Constance, on the 3d of April, 1417. Pope Martin V., elected by the council in November, wrote to the saint, and deputed to him Montanus, an eminent theologian, confirming all his missionary faculties and authority. Henry V., king of England, being then at Caen in Normandy, entreated the saint to extend his zeal to that province. He did so; and Normandy and Brittany were the theatre of the apostle’s labors the two last years of his life. He was then sixty years old, and so worn out and weak that he was scarce able to walk a step without help; yet no sooner was he in the pulpit, but he spoke with as much strength, ardor, eloquence, and unction, as he had done in the vigor of his youth. He restored to health on the spot one that had been bedrid eighteen years, in the presence of a great multitude, and wrought innumerable other miracles; among which we may reckon as the greatest the conversions of an incredible number of souls He inculcated everywhere a detestation of lawsuits, swearing, lying, and other sins, especially of blasphemy.

Falling at last into a perfect decay, his companions persuaded him to return to his own country. Accordingly he set out with that view, riding on an ass, as was his ordinary manner of travelling in long journeys. But after they were gone, as they imagined, a considerable distance, they found themselves again near the city of Vannes. Wherefore the saint, perceiving his illness increase, determined to return into the town, saying to his companions, that God had chosen that city for the place of his burial. The joy of the city was incredible when he appeared again, but it was allayed when he told them he was come, not to continue his ministry among them, but to look for his grave. These words, joined with a short exhortation which he made to impress on the people’s minds their duty to God, made many to shed tears, and threw all into an excess of grief. His fever increasing, he prepared himself for death by exercises of piety, and devoutly receiving the sacraments. On the third day the bishop, clergy, magistrates, and part of the nobility, made him a visit. He conjured them to maintain zealously what he had labored to establish among them, exhorted them to perseverance in virtue, and promised to pray for them when he should be before the throne of God, saying he should go to the Lord after ten days. During that interval, under the pains of his distemper, he never opened his mouth about his sufferings only to thank almighty God for making him, by a share in the cross, to resemble his crucified Son: for he suffered the sharpest agonies not only with resignation and patience, but with exultation and joy. His prayer and union with God he never interrupted. The magistrates sent a deputation to him, desiring he would choose the place of his burial. They were afraid his order, which had then no convent in Vannes, would deprive the city of his remains. The saint answered, that being an unprofitable servant, and a poor religious man, it did not become him to direct any thing concerning his burial; however, he begged they would preserve peace after his death, as he had always inculcated to them in his sermons, and that they would be pleased to allow the prior of the convent of his order, which was the nearest to that town, to have the disposal of the place of his burial. He continued his aspirations of love, contrition, and penance; and often wished the departure of his soul from its fleshy prison, that it might the more speedily be swallowed up in the ocean of all good. On the tenth day of his illness, he caused the passion of our Saviour to be read to him, and after that recited the penitential psalms, often stopping totally absorbed in God. It was on Wednesday in Passion-Week, the 5th of April, that he slept in the Lord, in the year 1419, having lived, according to the most exact computation, sixty-two years, two months, and thirteen days. Joan of France, daughter of King Charles VI., duchess of Brittany, washed his corpse with her own hands. God showed innumerable miracles by that water and by the saint’s habit, girdle, instruments of penance, and other relics, of which the detail may be read in the Bollandists. The duke and bishop appointed the cathedral for the place of his burial. He was canonized by pope Calixtus III. in 1455. But the bull was only published in 1458, by pope Pius II. His relics were taken up in 1456. The Spaniards solicited to have them translated to Valentia, and at last resolved to steal them, thinking them their own property, to prevent which the canons hid the shrine in 1590. It was found again in 1637, and a second translation was made on the 6th of September, when the shrine was placed on the altar of a new chapel in the same cathedral, where it is still exposed to veneration.

The great humility of this saint appeared amidst the honors and applause which followed him. He wrote thus, from the sincere sentiments of his heart, in his treatise On a Spiritual Life, c. 16: “My whole life is nothing but stench: I am all infection both in soul and body; every thing in me exhales a smell of corruption, caused by the abominations of my sins and injustices and what is worse, I feel the stench increasing daily in me, and renewed always more insupportably.” He lays down this principle as the preliminary to all virtue, that a person be deeply grounded in humility; “For whosoever will proudly dispute or contradict, will always stand without the door. Christ, the master of humility, manifests his truth only to the humble, and hides himself from the proud,” c. 1, p. 70. He reduces the rules of perfection to the avoiding three things: First, the exterior distraction of superfluous employs. Secondly, all interior secret elation of heart. Thirdly all immoderate attachment to created things. Also to the practising of three things: First, the sincere desire of contempt and abjection. Secondly, the most affective devotion to Christ crucified. Thirdly, patience in bearing all things for the love of Christ, c. ult.

APRIL 5 — ST. GERALD ABBOT

of Seauve, or Sylva-major, near Bordeaux, who died on the 5th of April, 1095, and was canonized by Celestine II. in 1197. Papebroke, t. 1, Apr. p. 409.

APRIL 5 — ST. TIGERNACH, B. C., IN IRELAND

His father, Corbre, was a famous general, and his mother, Dearfraych, was daughter of an Irish king named Eochod. Tigernach was baptized by Conlathe, bishop of Kildare, St. Brigide being his godmother. In his youth he was carried away by pirates into Britain, and fell into the hands of a British king, who being taken with his virtue, placed him in the monastery of Rosnat. In the school of affliction he learned the emptiness of all earthly enjoyments, and devoted himself with his whole heart to the pursuit of true happiness in the service of God. When he returned into Ireland, he was compelled to receive episcopal consecration, but declined the administration of the see of Clogher, to which he was chosen upon the death of bishop Mac-karten, in 506. He founded the abbey of Cluanois, or Clones, in the county of Monaghan, where he fixed his episcopal see, now united to that of Clogher. He taught a great multitude to serve God in primitive purity and simplicity. In his old age he lost his sight, and spent his time in a lonesome cell in continual prayer and contemplation, by which he in some measure anticipated the bliss of heaven, to which he passed in 550, according to bishop Usher. See his Acts in Henschenius

APRIL 5 — ST. BECAN, ABBOT

Son of Murchade and Cula, of the regal family of Munster, contemporary with king Dermitius and St. Columb-Kille. In building his church, he worked frequently on his knees, and while his hands were employed at his work, he ceased not praying with his lips, his eyes at the same time streaming with tears of devotion. In the life of St. Molossus he is named among the twelve apostles of Ireland: and in the Festilogium of Ængus, on the 21st of March, he is said to be, with St. Endeus and St. Mochua, one of the three greatest champions of virtue, and leaders of saints in that fruitful age of holy men. See Colgan, MSS. ad 5 Apr.

APRIL 6 — ST. SIXTUS, OR XISTUS I., POPE AND MARTYR

See Eus. b. 4, c. 4, 5. Tiltemont, t. 2, p. 262.

Second Age

THIS holy pope succeeded St. Alexander about the end of the reign of Trajan, and governed the church ten years, at a time when that dignity was the common step to martyrdom; and in all martyrologies he is honored with the title of martyr. But it seems to be Sixtus II. who is mentioned in the canon of the mass, whose martyrdom was more famous in the church. A portion of the relics of St. Sixtus I., given by pope Clement X. to cardinal de Retz, was by him placed with great solemnity in the abbey of St. Michael in Lorraine.1

Those primitive pastors who were chosen by God to be his great instruments in propagating his holy faith, were men eminently endued with the spirit of the most heroic Christian charity, so that we wonder not so much that their words and example were so powerful in converting the world, as that any could be so obstinate as to resist the spirit with which they delivered the divine oracles, and the miracles and sanctity of their lives, with which they confirmed their mission. What veneration must not the morality of the gospel command, when set off with all its lustre in the lives and spirit of those who profess it, seeing its bare precepts are allowed by deists and infidels themselves to be most admirable, and evidently divine! Only the maxims of the gospel teach true and pure virtue, and are such as extort applause from its enemies. The religion of a God crucified is the triumph over self-love; it commands us to tame our rebellious flesh, and subject it to the spirit; to divest ourselves of the old man, and to clothe ourselves with the new; to forget injuries and to pardon enemies. In these virtues, in this sublime disposition of soul, consists true greatness; not in vain titles and empty names. Religion, barely for the maxims which it lays down, and in which it is founded, claims the highest respect. The morality of the wisest pagan philosophers was mingled with several shocking errors and extravagances, and their virtues were generally defective in their motives. Worldly heroism is founded in vice or human weaknesses. It is at the bottom no better than a base ambition, avarice, or revenge, which makes many despise death, though they gild over their courage with the glorious name of zeal for their prince or country. Worldly actions spring not from those noble motives which appear, but from some base disorder of the soul or secret passion. Among the heathen philosophers, the Stoic led an austere life; but for the sake of a vain reputation. Thus he only sacrificed one passion to another; and while he insulted the Epicurean for his voluptuousness was himself the dupe of his own illusion.

APRIL 6 — A HUNDRED AND TWENTY MARTYRS OF HADIAB, OR HADIABENA, IN PERSIA

From their genuine acts in Syriac, published by Assemani, t. I, p. 105.

A. D. 345.

IN the fifth year of our persecution, say the acts, Sapor being at Seleucia, caused to be apprehended in the neighboring places one hundred and twenty Christians, of which nine were virgins, consecrated to God; the others were priests, deacons, or of the inferior clergy. They lay six months in filthy stinking dungeons, till the end of winter: during all which space Jazdundocta, a very rich virtuous lady of Arbela, the capital city of Hadiabena supported them by her charities, not admitting of a partner in that good work. During this interval they were often tortured, but always courageously answered the president that they would never adore the sun, a mere creature, for God; and begged he would finish speedily their triumph by death, which would free them from dangers and insults. Jazdundocta, hearing from the court one day that they were to suffer the next morning, flew to the prison, gave to every one of them a fine white long robe, as to chosen spouses of the heavenly bridegroom; prepared for them a sumptuous supper, served and waited on them herself at table, gave them wholesome exhortations, and read the holy scriptures to them. They were surprised at her behavior, but could not prevail on her to tell them the reason. The next morning she returned to the prison, and told them she had been informed that that was the happy morning in which they were to receive their crown, and be joined to the blessed spirits. She earnestly recommended herself to their prayers for the pardon of her sins, and that she might meet them at the last day, and live eternally with them. Soon after, the king’s order for their immediate execution was brought to the prison. As they went out of it Jazdundocta met them at the door, fell at their feet, took hold of their hands, and kissed them. The guards hastened them on, with great precipitation, to the place of execution; where the judge who presided at their tortures asked them again if any of them would adore the sun, and receive a pardon. They answered, that their countenance must show him they met death with joy, and contemned this world and its light, being perfectly assured of receiving an immortal crown in the kingdom of heaven. He then dictated the sentence of death, whereupon their heads were struck off Jazdundocta, in the dusk of the evening, brought out of the city two undertakers, or embalmers for each body, caused them to wrap the bodies in fine linen, and carry them in coffins, for fear of the Magians, to a place at a considerable distance from the town. There she buried them in deep graves, with monuments, five and five in a grave. They were of the province called Hadiabena, which contained the greatest part of the ancient Assyria, and was in a manner peopled by Christians. Helena, queen of the Hadiabenians, seems to have embraced Christianity in the second century.1 Her son Izates, and his successors, much promoted the faith; so that Sozomen says2 the country was almost entirely Christian. These one hundred and twenty martyrs suffered at Seleucia, in the year of Christ 345, of king Sapor the thirty-sixth, and the sixth of his great persecution, on the 6th day of the moon of April, which was the 21st of that month. They are mentioned in the Roman Martyrology on the 6th.

APRIL 6 — ST. CELESTINE, POPE, C

He was a native of Rome, and held a distinguished place in the clergy of that city, when, upon the demise of pope Boniface, he was chosen to succeed him, in September, 422, by the wonderful consent of the whole city, as St. Austin writes. That father congratulated him upon his exaltation, and conjured him, by the memory of St. Peter, who abhorred all violence and tyranny, not to patronize Antony, bishop of Fussala, who had been convicted of those crimes, and on that account condemned, in a council of Numidia, to make satisfaction to those whom he had oppressed by rapine and extortion. This Antony was a young man, and was formerly a disciple of St. Austin, by whom he had been recommended to the episcopal dignity This promotion made him soon forget himself, and lay aside his virtuous dispositions: and falling, first by pride, he abandoned himself to covetousness and other passions. St. Austin, fearing lest by the share he had in his promotion his crimes would be laid to his own charge, was of all others the most zealous and active to see them checked. Antony had gained his primate, the metropolitan of Numidia, who presided in the council by which he was condemned. Hoping also to surprise the pope by his artful pretences, he appealed to Rome. Boniface seeing the recommendation of his primate, wrote to the bishops of Numidia, requiring them to reinstate him in his see, provided he had represented matters as they truly were. Antony returning to Fussala, threatened the inhabitants that, unless they consented to receive him as their lawful bishop, in compliance with the orders of the apostolic see, he would call in the imperial troops and commissaries to compel them. Pope Boniface dying, St. Austin informed St. Celestine of these proceedings, who finding Antony fully convicted of the crimes with which he was charged, confirmed the sentence of the council of Numidia, and deposed him. “From these letters, that were written by the Africans on this occasion,” says Mr. Bower,1 “it appears, that the bishops of Rome used in those days to send some of their ecclesiastics into Africa, to see the sentences which they had given executed there; and that those ecclesiastics came with orders from the court for the civil magistrates to assist them, where assistance should be required.” Saint Celestine wrote to the bishops of Illyricum, confirming the archbishop of Thessalonica vicar of the apostolic see in those parts. To the bishops of the provinces of Vienne and Narbonne in Gaul, he wrote, to correct several abuses, and ordered, among other things, that absolution or reconciliation should never be refused to any dying sinner, who sincerely asked it; for repentance depends not so much on time, as on the heart. In the beginning of this letter he says: “By no limits of place is my pastoral vigilance confined: it extendeth itself to all places where Christ is adored.” He received two letters from Nestorius, bishop of Constantinople, in which his heresy was artfully couched; also an information from St. Cyril, patriarch of Alexandria, concerning his errors. Wherefore he assembled a synod at Rome, in 430, in which the writings of that heresiarch were examined, and his blasphemies in maintaining in Christ a divine and a human person were condemned. The pope denounced an excommunication against him, if he did not repent of his errors within ten days after the sentence should be notified to him, and wrote to St. Cyril, commissioning him, in his name, and by the authority of his see, to execute the same.* Nestorius remaining obstinate, a general council was convened at Ephesus, to which St Celestine sent three legates from Rome, Arcadius and Projectus, bishops, and Philip, priest, with instructions to join themselves to St. Cyril. He also sent a letter to the council, in which he said that he had commissioned his legates to see executed what had been already decreed by him in his council at Rome. He exhorts the fathers to charity, so much recommended by the apostle St. John, “whose relics,” as he writes, “were there the object of their veneration.”* This letter was read in the council with great acclamations. The synod was held in the great church of the Blessed Virgin, on the 22d of June, 431: in the first session one hundred and ninety-eight bishops were present. St. Cyril sat first as president,2 in the name of St. Celestine.3 Nestorius refused to appear, though in the city, and showing an excess of madness and obstinacy, was excommunicated and deposed. It cost the zeal of the good pope much more pains to reconcile the Oriental bishops with St. Cyril: which, however, was at length effected. Certain priests in Gaul continued still to cavil at the doctrine of St. Austin, concerning the necessity of divine grace. St. Celestine therefore wrote to the bishops of Gaul, ordering such scandalous novelties to be repressed; highly extolling the piety and learning of St. Austin, whom his predecessors had honored among the most deserving and eminent doctors of the church, and whose character rumor could never asperse nor suspicion tarnish.4 Being informed that one Agricola, the son of a British bishop called Severianus, who had been married before he was raised to the priesthood, had spread the seeds of the Pelagian heresy in Britain, he sent thither, in quality of his vicar, St. Germanus of Auxerre, whose zeal and conduct happily prevented the threatening danger.† He also sent St. Palladius, a Roman, to preach the faith to the Scots, both in North-Britain and in Ireland. Many authors of the life of St. Patrick say that apostle likewise received his commission to preach to the Irish from St. Celestine, in 431. This holy pope died on the 1st of August, in 432, having sat almost ten years. He was buried in the cemetery of Priscilla, which, to testify his respect for the council of Ephesus, he had ornamented with paintings, in which that synod was represented. His remains were afterwards translated into the church of St. Praxedes. His ancient original epitaph testifies that he was an excellent bishop, honored and beloved of every one, who for the sanctity of his life now enjoys the sight of Jesus Christ, and the eternal honors of the saints. The same is the testimony of the Roman Martyrology on this day. See Tillemont, t. 14, p. 148; Ceillier, t. 13, p. 1.

APRIL 6 — ST. WILLIAM, ABBOT OF ESKILLE, CONFESSOR

He was born of an illustrious family in Paris, about the year 1105, and received his education in the abbey of St. Germain-des-Prez, under his uncle Hugh, the abbot. By the regularity of his conduct, and the sanctity of his manners, he was the admiration of the whole community. Having finished his studies, he was ordained sub-deacon, and installed canon in the church of St. Genevieve-du-Mont. His assiduity in prayer, love of retirement and mortification, and exemplary life, seemed a troublesome censure of the slothful and worldly life of his colleagues; and what ought to have gained him their esteem and affection, served to provoke their envy and malice against him. Having in vain endeavored to prevail on this reformer of their chapter, as they called him, to resign his canonry, in order to remove him at a distance, they presented him to the curacy of Epinay, a church five leagues from Paris, depending on their chapter. But not long after, pope Eugenius III. coming to Paris, in 1147, and being informed of the irregular conduct of these canons, he commissioned the celebrated Suger, abbot of St. Denys, and prime minister to King Louis the Young, to expel them, and introduce in their room regular canons from the abbey of St. Victor: which was happily carried into execution, Eudo of St. Victor’s being made the first abbot. St. William with joy embraced this institute, and was by his fervor and devotion a pattern to the most perfect. He was in a short time chosen sub-prior. The perfect spirit of religion and regularity which he established in that community, was an illustrious proof of the incredible influence which the example of a prudent superior has over docile religious minds. His zeal for regular discipline he tempered with so much sweetness and modesty in his injunctions, that made all to love the precept itself, and to practise with cheerfulness whatever was prescribed them. The reputation of his wisdom and sanctity reached the ears of Absalon, bishop of Roschild, in Denmark, who, being one of the most holy prelates of his age, earnestly sought to allure him into his diocese. He sent the provost of his church, who seems to have been the learned historian Saxo the Grammarian, to Paris on this errand. A prospect of labors and dangers for the glory of God was a powerful motive with the saint, and he cheerfully undertook the voyage. The bishop appointed him abbot of Eskille, a monastery of regular canons which he had reformed. Here St. William sanctified himself by a life of prayer and austere mortification; but had much to suffer from the persecutions of powerful men, from the extreme poverty of his house in a severe climate, and, above all, from a long succession of interior trials: but the most perfect victory over himself was the fruit of his constancy, patience, and meekness. On prayer was his chief dependence, and it proved his constant support. During the thirty years of his abbacy, he had the comfort to see many walk with fervor in his steps. He never left off wearing his hair-shirt, lay on straw, and fasted every day. Penetrated with a deep sense of the greatness and sanctity of our mysteries, he never approached the altar without watering it with his tears, making himself a victim to God in the spirit of adoration and sacrifice, together with, and through the merits of the holy victim offered thereon: the dispositions in which every Christian ought to assist at it. He died on the 6th of April, 1203, and was canonized by Honorius III. in 1224. See his life by a disciple in Surius, and at large in Papebroke’s Continuation of Bollandus, t. 1, Apr. p. 620. Also M. Gourdan in his MSS. Lives of Illustrious Men among the regular Canons at St. Victor’s, in Paris, kept in the library of MSS. in that house, in fol. t. 2, pp. 324 and 814.

APRIL 6 — ST. PRUDENTIUS, BISHOP OF TROYES, C

He was by birth a Spaniard; but fled from the swords of the infidels into France, where in 840, or 845, he was chosen bishop of Troyes. He was one of the most learned prelates of the Gallican church, and was consulted as an oracle. By his sermon on the Virgin St. Maura, we are informed that, besides his other functions and assiduity in preaching, he employed himself in hearing confessions, and in administering the sacraments of the holy eucharist and extreme unction. In his time Gotescalc, a wandering monk of the abbey of Orbasis, in the dioceso of Soissons, advanced, in his travels, the errors of predestinarianism, blasphemously asserting that reprobates were doomed by God to sin and hell, without the power of avoiding either. Nottinge, bishop either of Brescia or Verona, sent an information of these blasphemies to Rabanus Maurus, archbishop of Mentz, one of the most learned and holy men of that age, and who had, while abbot of Fulde, made that house the greatest nursery of science in Europe.* Rabanus examined Gotescalc in a synod at Mentz in 848, condemned his errors, and sent him to his own metropolitan Hincmar, archbishop of Rheims, a prelate also of great learning and abilities.1 By him and Wenilo, archbishop of Sens, with several other prelates, the monk was again examined in a synod held at Quiercy on the Oise, in the diocese of Soissons, a royal palace of king Charles the Bald, in 849. Gotescalc being refractory, was condemned to be degraded from the priesthood, and imprisoned in the abbey of Haut-villiers in the diocese of Hincmar. By the advice of St. Prudentius, whom Hincmar consulted, he was not deprived of the lay-communion till after some time Hincmar, seeing his obstinacy invincible, fulminated against him a sentence of excommunication, under which this unhappy author of much scandal and disturbance died, after twenty-one years of rigorous confinement, in 870. Some suspected Hincmar to lean towards the contrary Semipelagian error against the necessity of divine grace; and Ratramnus of Corbie took up his pen against him. St. Prudentius wrote to clear up the point, which seemed perplexed by much disputing, and to set the Catholic doctrine in a true light, showing on one side a free will in man, and that Christ died for the salvation of all men; and on the other, proving the necessity of divine grace, and that Christ offered up his death in a special manner for the salvation of the elect. When parties are once stirred up in disputes, it is not an easy matter to dispel the mist which prejudices and heat raise before their eyes. This was never more evident than on that occasion. Both sides agreed in doctrine, yet did not understand one another. Lupus Servatus, the famous abbot of Ferrieres, in Gatinois, Amolan, archbishop of Lyons, and his successor St. Remigius, wrote against Rabanus and Hincmar, in defence of the necessity of divine grace, though they condemned the blasphemies of the predestinarians. Even Amolan of Lyons and his church, who seem to have excused Gotescalc in the beginning, because they had never examined him, always censured the errors condemned in him: for the divine predestination of the elect is an article of faith; but such a grace and predestination as destroy free-will in the creature, are a monstrous heresy. Neither did St Remigius of Lyons, nor St. Prudentius, interest themselves in the defence of Gotescalc, which shows the inconsistency of those moderns, who, in our time, have undertaken his justification* In 853, Hincmar and other bishops published, in a second assembly at Quiercy, four Capitula, or assertions, to establish the doctrines of free-will, and of the death of Christ for all men. To these St. Prudentius subscribed, as Hincmar and the annals of. St. Bertin testify. The church of Lyons was alarmed at these assertions, fearing they excluded the necessity of grace: and the council of Valence, in 855, in which St. Remigius of Lyons presided, published six canons, explaining, in very strong terms, the articles of the necessity of grace, and of the predestination of God’s elect. St. Prudentius procured the confirmation of these canons by pope Nicholas I. in 859. Moreover, fearing the articles of Quiercy might be abused in favor of Pelagianism, though he had before approved them, he wrote his Tractatoria to confute the erroneous sense which they might bear in a Pelagian mouth, and to give a full exposition of the doctrine of divine grace. He had the greater reason to be upon his guard, seeing some, on the occasion of those disputes, openly renewed the Pelagian errors. John Scotus Erigena, an Irishman in the court of Charles the Bald, a subtle sophist, infamous for many absurd errors, both in faith and in philosophy,† published a book against Gotescalc, On Predestination, in which he openly advanced the Semipelagian errors against grace, besides other monstrous heresies. Wenilo, archbishop of Sens, having extracted nineteen articles out of this book, sent them to his oracle St. Prudentius, who refuted the entire book of Scotus by a treatise which is still extant. This saint, having exerted his zeal also for the discipline of the church, and the reformation of manners among the faithful, was named with Lupus, abbot of Ferrieres, to superintend and reform all the monasteries of France; of which commission he acquitted himself with great vigor and prudence. He died on the 6th of April, 861, and is named in the Gallican martyrologies, though not in the Roman.‡ At Troyes he is honored with an office of nine lessons, and his relics are exposed in a shine.§ See Ceillier, t. 19, p. 27, Clemencez, Hist. Littér, de la France, t. 5, p. 240; also Les Vies de S. Prudence de Troyes, et de S. Maure, Vierge, à Troyes, 1725; with an ample justification of this holy prelate: and Nicolas Antonio, Bibliotheca Hispanica Vetus, 1. 6, c. 1, an. 259, ad 279, which work was published at Rome by the care of Card. D’Aguirre, in 1696.

APRIL 6 — ST. CELSUS, IN IRISH, CEALLACH

Archbishop of Armagh, is commemorated in the Roman Martyrology on this day. He died on the 1st of April in 1129, at Ard-Patrick, (that is, Patrick’s Mount,) in Munster. See the life of St. Malachy, his successor, and Sir James Ware.

April VII

APRIL 7 — ST. APHRAATES, ANCHORET

From Theodoret, Philoth. c. 8, and Hist. b. 4, c. 26. See Tillemont, t. 10, and Henschenius, t. 1, Apr. p 604.

Fourth Age

THIS saint was descended from an illustrious family in Persia, but infected with the superstitions of idolatry. He had the happiness of attaining to an early knowledge of the truth, which he embraced with his whole heart. Grieving to see it so little known and loved in his own country, regardless of honors and worldly advantages, he renounced all pretensions to them; and, leaving his friends and country, came to Edessa, in Mesopotamia where Christianity flourished. There he diligently informed himself what was the best manner of serving God perfectly, and securing his only affair, the eternal salvation of his soul. After some deliberation, he shut himself up in a little cell without the walls of that city, applying himself entirely to the exercises of penance and heavenly contemplation. After some time he removed into a cell near a monastery in the neighborhood of Antioch, in Syria, where, many resorting to him for spiritual advice, he became a great advocate for virtue and truth against vice and the reigning Arian heresy, by whomsoever professed. He ate nothing but a little bread after sunset, to which, when he was grown extremely old, he added a few herbs. He made use of no other bed than a mat laid on the bare ground. His clothing was one coarse garment. Anthemius, who was some time after appointed governor of the East, and consul, returning from an embassy in Persia, pressed Aphraates to accept of a robe he had brought with him, because the product of his own country. Aphraates made answer: “Do you think it reasonable to exchange an old faithful servant for a new one, merely because he is a countryman?” “By no means,” replied Anthemius. “Then,” said the hermit, “take back your garment; for I have one that I have worn these sixteen years; and I am not willing to have two at the same time.” Hitherto the saint had lived retired in his cell; but seeing the Arian persecution under Valens make great havoc in the flock of Christ, he left his retreat to come to the assistance of the distressed Catholics of Antioch: where he omitted nothing in his power to comfort the faithful, and to assuage the fury of their heretical persecutors. Valens had banished the holy bishop Meletius: but Aphraates joined Flavian and Diodorus; who governed St. Meletius’s flock during his absence. His reputation for sanctity and miracles gave the greatest weight to his actions and words. The emperor Valens being at Antioch, looking one day out of a window of his palace upon the high road which parted it from the river Orontes, and led into the country, saw the saint passing by, and asked who that old man was, so meanly clad, and making such haste; and being told it was Aphraates, for whom the whole city had the greatest veneration, asked him whither he was going in so great a hurry? The man of God replied, “To pray for the prosperity of your reign.” For the Catholics, not being allowed a church in the city, held their assemblies of devotion in a field where martial exercises were performed. The emperor said, “How comes it that you, who are by profession a monk, leave your cell thus to ramble abroad?” Aphraates answered, “I lived retired so long as the flock of the heavenly Shepherd enjoyed peace; but now I see it torn to pieces, how can I sit quiet in my cell? Were I a virgin confined in my father’s house, and should see it take fire, would you advise me to sit still and let the house be burned, in which I should also perish; or leave my room to run and procure help, carry water, and exert my utmost endeavors to put out the fire? Reprove me not, O emperor, if I do the like; rather blame yourself, who have kindled the fire, not me for laboring to quench it.” The emperor made not the least reply; but one of his eunuchs, then in waiting, reviled the aged saint, and threatened him with death. But God chastised his insolence: for soon after, going to see if the emperor’s warm bath was ready, being taken with giddiness, he fell into the caldron of boiling water, and nobody being there to give him assistance, was scalded to death. This example so terrified the emperor, that he durst not listen to the suggestions of the Arians, who endeavored to persuade him to banish the saint. He was also much moved by the miraculous cures which the holy man wrought by the application of oil or water, upon which he had made the sign of the cross. Aphraates would never speak to a woman but at a distance, and always in as few words as possible. After the miserable death of Valens, when peace was restored to the church, our saint returned to his solitude, and there happily departed this life to possess God, “with whom,” says Theodoret, “I believe he has greater power than while he was on earth: on which account I pray also to obtain his intercession.” The whole church has imitated his example. St. Aphraates is honored in the Synaxary of the Greeks, and in the calendars of other oriental churches, on the 29th of January; but in the Roman Martyrology his name is placed on the 7th of April.

Every saint is eminently a man of prayer; but this is the peculiar perfection of holy hermits and monks. This was the means by which so many in that state have been raised to such wonderful heights in heroic virtue, so as to seem seraphim rather than men on earth. As a vessel at sea is carried by a favorable wind with incredible ease and swiftness, so a soul which is borne upon the wings of a true spirit of prayer, makes sweetly, and without experiencing either difficulty or pain, quick and extraordinary progress in the paths of all interior virtues, particularly those of a close union of her affections and powers with God, and those of divine charity, the queen and form of all perfect Christian virtue. In this spirit of prayer a simple idiot has outstripped the most subtle philosopher, because its foundation is laid by profound humility, and perfect simplicity and purity of heart; and compunction and love require neither penetration nor depth of genius, nor elegance of words, to express or raise their most tender affections. St. Bruno was an eloquent and learned man; yet in his most sublime contemplation he expressed to God all the burning sentiments of his soul by a single word, which he wished never to cease repeating, but to continue actually to pronounce it for all eternity with fresh ardor and jubilation: “O goodness! O goodness! O infinite goodness!” But by this word his heart said more than discourses could express in many years or ages.

APRIL 7 — ST. HEGESIPPUS, A PRIMITIVE FATHER,

Near the Times of the Apostles

HE was by birth a Jew, and belonged to the church of Jerusalem, but travelling to Rome, he lived there near twenty years, from the pontificate of Anicetus to that of Eleutherius, in 177, when he returned into the East where he died very old, probably at Jerusalem, in the year of Christ 180 according to the chronicle of Alexandria. He wrote in the year 133 a History of the Church, in five books, from the passion of Christ down to his own time, the loss of which work is extremely regretted. In it he gave illustrious proofs of his faith, and showed the apostolical tradition, and that though certain men had disturbed the church by broaching heresies, yet down to his time no episcopal see or particular church had fallen into error, but had in all places preserved inviolably the truths delivered by Christ, as he assures us.1 This testimony he gave after having personally visited all the principal churches both of the East and West. He was a man replenished with the spirit of the apostles, and a love of Christian humility, which, says Jerom, he expressed by the simplicity of his style. The five books on the destruction of Jerusalem, compiled chiefly from the history of Josephus, are not the work of this father, as some have imagined; but of a younger Hegesippus, who wrote before the destruction of the Western empire, but after Constantine the Great. See Mabillon, Musæum Italicum, t. 1, p. 14, and Cave, Hist. Liter. t. 1, p. 265.

APRIL 7 — ST. AIBERT, RECLUSE

He was born at Espain, a village in the diocese of Tournay, in 1060 From his infancy he so earnestly applied himself to prayer, that he spent in that holy exercise the greatest part of his time, being always careful in it to shun, as much as possible, the eyes of men. The earnestness with which he always attended all public devotions in his parish church, and listened to the sermons of his curate, is not to be expressed; much less the deep impressions which every instruction of piety made upon his tender heart. He was discovered to watch a great part of the night upon his knees, and when he was no longer able to support himself upright, to pray prostrate on the ground. When he could not pray in his chamber, without danger of being surprised by others, he retired into the stable or sheepcot for many hours together. His commerce with God in his heart was uninterrupted while he was abroad in the fields with the cattle. He was no less private in his fasts; and at the time of meals he usually took an apple, or a morsel of bread, that he might tell his parents or the servants that he had ate. Happening one day to hear a poor man at his father’s door sing a hymn on the virtues and death of St. Theobald, a hermit, lately dead, he found himself vehemently inflamed with a desire of imitating his solitary penitential life, and without delay addressed himself to a priest of the monastery of Crepin or Crespin, named John, who lived a recluse in a separate cell, with the leave of his abbot. Being admitted by him as a companion, he soon surpassed his master in the exercise and spirit of virtue. Bread they seldom tasted; wild herbs were their ordinary food; they never saw any fire, not ate any thing that had been dressed by it. The church of Crepin, ever since its foundation by St. Landelin, in the seventh century, had been served by secular canons: in the eleventh it had passed into the hands of monks of the order of St. Benedict: and under the first abbot, Rainer, St. Aibert took the monastic habit. He still practised his former austerities, slept on the ground, and in the night recited the whole psalter privately before matins He was chosen provost and cellerer: but the exterior occupations of these offices did not interrupt his tears, or hinder the perpetual attention of his soul to God. After twenty-five years spent in this community, with a fervor which was always uniform and constant, he obtained leave of Lambert, the second abbot, to return to an eremitical life, in 1115. He then built himself a cell in the midst of a barren wilderness, contenting himself for his food with bread and herbs, and after the first three years with herbs alone. Many flocking to him for spiritual advice, Burchard, bishop of Cambray, his diocesan, promoted him to the priesthood, and erected for him a chapel in his cell, giving him power to hear confessions and administer the holy eucharist: which was confirmed to him by two popes, Paschal II. and Innocent II. He said every day two masses,* one for the living, and a second for the dead. God crowned his long penance with a happy death about the year 1140, the eightieth of his age, on the 7th of April; on which he is honored in the Belgic and Gallican Martyrologies. See his life, by Robert the archdeacon, his intimate friend, in Surius, Bollandus, &c.

APRIL 7 — B. HERMAN JOSEPH, C

He was born at Cologne, and at twelve years of age entered the monastery of Steinfeldt of regular canons of the Premonstratensian Order in the dutchy of Juliers, and diocese of Cologne. His incredible fasts and other austerities, and his extraordinary humility, joined with assiduous prayer and meditation, raised him to an eminent gift of contemplation, which replenished his soul with the most profound sentiments of all virtues, and was attended with many heavenly favors: but, as it is usual, this grace was often accompanied with severe interior trials. He was singularly devoted to the Blessed Virgin. At the very remembrance of the mystery of the incarnation, his soul seemed to melt in tender love; and he seemed in raptures whenever he recited the canticle Benedictus at Lauds. Such was his desire of contempt, that he one day desired a peasant to strike him on the face. The other in surprise asked the reason: “On account,” said he, “of my being a most filthy and abominable creature, and because I cannot meet with so much contempt as I deserve.” He died on the 7th of April in 1226. He wrote a commentary on the book of Canticles, or Song of Solomon, and some other treatises on sublime contemplation, which may be ranked with those of other great masters in the contemplative way, as Thomas à Kempis, St. Theresa, Thauler, Harphius, Blosius, Lanspergius, Hilton, &c. B. Herman is honored among the saints in his order, and in some churches in the Low Countries. In the abbey church of Steinfeldt he is titular saint of an altar, at which the priests who visit that church out of devotion to him, say a votive mass in his honor before his relics, with proper prayers of the saint used in that abbey from time immemorial. Small portions of his relics have been given to several other churches. Some are enshrined and exposed to public veneration in the abbey of Premontré at Antwerp; a portion is kept in the abbey of Parc, at Louvain; another in the parish church of St. Christopher, at Cologne, and another at the Chartreuse in the same city. The emperor Ferdinand II. solicited his canonization at Rome, and several proofs of miracles and other particulars have been given in for that purpose. His name is inserted on the 7th of April, in the martyrology of the regular canons of St. Austin, approved by Benedict XIV., p. 275. See his life by a fellow canon of great virtue, in the Bollandists on the 7th of April, t. 1, p. 682; also two other lives, and several acts, collected in order to pursue the process for his canonization.

APRIL 7 — ST. FINAN OF KEANN-ETHICH

He was a native of Munster, and a disciple of St. Brendan, with whose blessing he founded the monastery of Cean-e-thich, on the confines of Munster and Meath, and afterwards some others. See Colgan, in MSS. ad 7 Apr.

APRIL 8 — ST. DIONYSIUS OF CORINTH, B. C

From Eusebius, b. 4, c. 23. St. Jerom, Cat. c. 30.

Second Age

ST. DIONYSIUS, bishop of Corinth, flourished under the emperor Marcus Aurelius, and was one of the most holy and eloquent pastors of the church in the second age. Not content assiduously to instruct his own flock with the word of life, he comforted and exhorted others at a distance. Eusebius mentions several of his instructive letters to other churches, and one of thanks to the church of Rome, under the pontificate of St. Soter, for the alms received from them according to custom. “From the beginning,” says he, “it is your custom to bestow your alms in all places, and to furnish subsistence to many churches. You send relief to the needy, especially to those who work in the mines; in which you follow the example of your fathers. Your blessed bishop Soter is so far from degenerating from your ancestors in that respect, that he goes beyond them; not to mention the comfort and advice he, with the bowels of a tender father towards his children, affords all that come to him. On this day we celebrated together the Lord’s day, and read your letter, as we do that which was heretofore written to us by Clement.” He means that they read these letters of instruction in the church after the reading of the holy scriptures, and the celebration of the divine mysteries. This primitive father says that SS. Peter and Paul, after planting the faith at Corinth, went both into Italy, and there sealed their testimony with their blood. He in another place complains that the ministers of the devil, that is, the heretics, had adulterated his works, and corrupted them by their poison. The monstrous heresies of the first three centuries sprang mostly, not from any perverse interpretation of the scriptures, but from erroneous principles of the heathenish schools of philosophy; whence it happened that those heresies generally bordered on some superstitious notions of idolatry. St. Dionysius, to point out the source of the heretical errors, showed from what sect of philosophers each heresy took its rise. The Greeks honor St. Dionysius as a martyr on the 29th of November, because he suffered much for the faith, though he seems to have died in peace: the Latins keep his festival on this day, and style him only Confessor. Pope Innocent III. sent to the abbey of St. Denys, near Paris, the body of a saint of that name brought from Greece. The monks, who were persuaded that they were before possessed of the body of the Areopagite, take this second to be the body of St. Dionysius of Corinth, whose festival they also celebrate.

We adore the inscrutable judgments of God, and praise the excess of his mercy in calling us to his holy faith, when we see many to whom it was announced with all the reasonable proofs of conviction, reject its bright light, and resist the voice of heaven: also others who had so far despised all worldly considerations as to have embraced this divine religion, afterwards fall from this grace, and become the authors or abettors of monstrous heresies, by which they drew upon themselves the most dreadful curses. The source of their errors was originally in the disorder of their hearts, by which their understanding was misled. All those who have made shipwreck of their faith, fell because they wanted true simplicity of heart This virtue has no affinity with worldly simplicity, which is a vice and defect, implying a want of prudence and understanding. But Christian simplicity is true wisdom and a most sublime virtue. It is a singleness of heart, by which a person both in his intention and all his desires and affections has no other object but the pure holy will of God. This is grounded in self-knowledge, and in sincere humility and ardent charity. The three main enemies which destroy it, are, an attachment to creatures without us, an inordinate love of ourselves, and dissimulation or double-dealing. This last, though most infamous and base, is a much more common vice than is generally imagined, for there are very few who are thoroughly sincere in their whole conduct towards God, their neighbor, and themselves. Perfect sincerity and an invariable uprightness is an essential part, yet only one ingredient of Christian simplicity. Nor is it enough to be also disengaged from all inordinate attachments to exterior objects: many who are free from the hurry and disturbance of things without them, nevertheless are strangers to simplicity and purity of heart, being full of themselves, and referring their thoughts and actions to themselves, taking an inordinate complacency in what concerns them, and full of anxieties and fear about what befalls, or may befall them. Simplicity of the heart, on the contrary, settles the soul in perfect interior peace: as a child is secure in the mother’s arms, so is such a soul at rest in the bosom of her God, resigned to his will, and desiring only to accomplish it in all things. The inexpressible happiness and advantages of this simplicity can only be discovered by experience. This virtue disposes the heart to embrace the divine revelation when duly manifested, and removes those clouds which the passions raise, and which so darken the understanding, that it is not able to discern the light of faith

APRIL 8 — ST. ÆDESIUS, M

He was brother to St. Apian, who received his crown at Cæsarea, on the 2d of April, and a native of Lycia, had been a professed philosopher, and continued to wear the cloak after his conversion to the faith. He was long a scholar of St. Pamphilus at Cæsarea. In the persecution of Galerius Maximianus he often confessed his faith before magistrates, had sanctified several dungeons, and been condemned to the mines in Palestine. Being released from thence, he went into Egypt, but there found the persecution more violent than in Palestine itself, under Hierocles, the most barbarous prefect of Egypt, for Maximinus Daia, Cæsar. This governor had also employed his pen against the faith, presuming to put the sorceries of Apollonius of Tyana upon a level with the miracles of Christ, whom Eusebius confuted by a book entitled, Against Hierocles. Ædesius being at Alexandria, and observing how outrageously the judge proceeded against the Christians, by tormenting grave men, and delivering women of singular piety, and even virgins, to the infamous purchasers of slaves, he boldly presented himself before this savage monster, rather than a man, and reproached him with his crying inhumanity, especially in exposing holy virgins to lewdness. He endured courageously the scourge, and the greatest torments which the rage of such a tyrant was capable of inventing, and was at length cast into the sea, in 306, after the same manner as his brother, who obtained his crown a little while before, as the Chaldaic acts expressly inform us, though Henschenius is of the contrary opinion. See Eusebius on the martyrs of Palestine, ch. 5, and the martyr’s Chaldaic acts in Assemani, t. 2, p. 195.

APRIL 8 — ST. PERPETUUS, B. C

He was the eighth bishop of Tours from St. Gatian, and governed that see above thirty years, from 461 to 491, when he deceased on the 8th of April. During all which time he labored by zealous sermons, many synods, and wholesome regulations, to lead souls to virtue. St. Gregory of Tours mentions his prudent ordinances, prescribing the manner of celebrating vigils before great festivals in the different churches in the city. All Fridays and Wednesdays he commanded to be observed fasts of precept, except during Easter time, from Christmas to St. Hilary’s day, that is, the 14th day of January, and from St. John Baptist’s day to the end of August. He added a third fast day every week, probably Monday, from St. Martin’s to Christmas, which proves the antiquity of Advent. These regulations were all religiously observed one hundred and twenty years after, when St. Gregory of Tours wrote his history. St. Perpetuus had a great veneration for the saints, and respect for their relics; adorned their shrines, and enriched their churches. As there was a continual succession of miracles at the tomb of St. Martin, Perpetuus finding the church built by St. Bricius too small for the concourse of people that resorted thither, directed its enlargement, causing it to be built one hundred and fifty-five feet in length, sixty broad, and forty-five in height. When the building was finished, the good bishop solemnized the dedication of this new church, and performed the translation of the body of St. Martin, on the 4th of July, in 473. Our saint was of a senatorian family, and possessed very large estates in several provinces; but consecrated the revenues to the service of the church, and the relief of the necessitous. He made and signed his last will, which is still extant, on the 1st of March, 475 fifteen years before his death. By it he remits all debts that were owing to him; and having bequeathed to his church his library and several farms, and settled a fund for the maintenance of lamps, and the purchase of sacred vessels, as occasion might require, he declares the poor his heirs. It begins thus: “In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen I, Perpetuus, a sinner, priest of the church of Tours, would not depart without a last will and testament, lest the poor should be neglected. . . . You, my bowels, my most beloved brethren, my crown, my joy, my lords, my children, O poor of Christ, needy, beggars, sick, widows, orphans; you I declare, name, and make my heirs. Excepting what is above disposed of whatever I am possessed of in goods, in fields, in pasturage, in meadows, in groves, in vineyards, in dwellings, in gardens, in waters, in mills, or in gold silver, and garments, and other things, I appoint you my heirs. It is my will that as soon as possible, after my departure, they be sold, and the money divided into three parts; of which two shall be distributed among poor men, at the discretion of the priest Agrarius and count Agilo: and the third among widows and poor women, at the discretion of the virgin Dadolena,” &c. He adds most pathetic exhortations to concord and piety; and bequeaths to his sister, Fidia Julia Perpetua, a little gold cross, with relics; he leaves legacies to several other friends and priests, to one a silver case of relics of saints, to others gold or silver crosses or chalices, begging of each a remembrance of him in their prayers. His ancient epitaph equals him to the great St. Martin: St. Apollinaris Sidonius calls him the true copy of the virtues of that wonderful saint. St. Perpetuus died either on the 30th of December, in 490, or on the 8th of April, 491. In the martyrologies of Florus, and some others, his festival is placed on the first of these days: but in that of Usuard, and in the Roman, on the second. See his testament published by D’Achery, Spicileg. t. 5, p. 105; also St. Gregory of Tours, Hist. b. 10, ch. 31, and De Mirac. S. Martini, b. 1, c. 6; Tillemont, 16, p. 393; Dom. Rivet. t. 2, p. 619.

APRIL 8 — ST. WALTER, ABBOT OF ST. MARTIN’S, NEAR PONTOISE

He was a native of Picardy, and took the habit of St. Bennet at Rebais in the diocese of Meaux. The counts of Amiens and Pontoise having lately founded the rich abbey of St. German, now called St. Martin’s, adjoining to the walls of Pontoise, king Philip I., after a diligent search for a person equal to so important a charge, obliged Walter to take upon him the government of that house, and he was appointed the first abbot in 1060. He was always highly honored by the king, and by other great personages; but this was what his humility could not bear. To escape from the dangers of vain-glory, he often fled secretly from his monastery, but was always found and brought oack again, and, to prevent his escaping, the pope sent him a strict order not to leave his abbey. There he lived in a retired small cell in great austerity, and in assiduous prayer and contemplation, never stirring out but to duties of charity or regularity, or to perform some of the meanest offices of the house. His zeal, in opposing the practice of simony, drew on him grievous persecutions: all which he bore not only with patience, but even with joy. His death happened on the 8th of April, in 1099. The bishops of Rouen, Paris, and Senlis, after a diligent scrutiny, declared several miracles wrought at his tomb authentic; and performed the translation of his relics on the 4th of May. The abbot Walter Montague made a second translation in 1655, and richly decorated his chapel. St. Walter, from the first day of his conversion to his death, made it a rule every day to add some new practice of penance to his former austerities; thus to remind himself of the obligation of continually advancing in spirit towards God. His life, written by a disciple, may be read in the Bollandists, with the remarks of Henschenius, t. 1, Apr. p. 753.

APRIL 8 — B. ALBERT, PATRIARCH OF JERUSALEM, COMPILER OF THE RULE OF THE CARMELITES

He was born at Castro di Gualtieri, in the diocese of Parma, and of a noble Italian family. After having laid a solid foundation of learning and piety, and acquired a great reputation by his skill in the canon and civil laws, he put on the habit of a canon regular in the monastery of Mortura in the Milanese, and, though very young, was in a short time after his profession chosen prior, and, three years after, bishop of Bobio. While his humility found excuses to decline this dignity, the church of Vercelli falling also vacant, that city had the happiness to carry him off, and see him by compulsion placed in its episcopal chair. For twenty years he never ceased to procure the advantage of the flock committed to his charge, and by humility and sanctity raised to the highest degree the splendor of the see which he adorned. He was chosen by pope Clement III., and the emperor Frederick I., surnamed Barbarossa, umpire of their differences. Henry VI., successor to Frederick, created him prince of the empire, and granted many favors to his church He was employed by the pope in several commissions of the highest importance. In 1204 died Monachus, the eleventh Latin patriarch of Jerusalem: and the Christians in Palestine, who in their desolate condition stood extremely in need of a person whose consummate prudence, patience, and zeal, might be to them both a comfort and a support, moved by the great reputation of Albert, earnestly besought him to fill the vacant chair. Pope Innocent III. expressed great joy at their choice, being full of compassion for their situation and dangers, and called Albert to Rome, that he might receive the confirmation of his election, and the pall. The holy man obeyed the more readily, because this dignity at that time exposed him only to persecutions and afflictions, not without a prospect of martyrdom. He embarked in a Genoese vessel in 1206, and landed at Acon, in which city he resided, Jerusalem itself being in the hands of the Saracens. To his labors and persecutions he added the practice of assiduous mortification, and made prayer the chief employment of all his retired hours. His sanctity procured him the respect and veneration of the infidels themselves. Besides many other pious establishments and holy works of which he was the author, he became the legislator of the Carmelites, or White Friars. On mount Carmel lived certain anchorets, who regarded the prophet Elias as their founder and model, because he made that mountain the place of his retreat,1 as did also Eliseus.2 One Bertheld formed these anchorets into a community: and Brocard, superior of these hermits in 1205, or rather, as Papebroke proves, in 1209, addressed himself to the patriarch Albert, beseeching him to prescribe them a rule.* The holy man drew up a constitution of this order, in which the friars are enjoined to abide in their cells day and night in assiduous prayer, as it becomes hermits, unless they are otherwise lawfully occupied: to fast from the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross till Easter, except on Sundays: perpetual abstinence from flesh: to employ themselves in manual labor: keep silence from Vespers till Tierce the next day, &c. But several additions were made to this rule, and mitigations introduced by commissioners appointed by Innocent IV., in 1246. The White Friars did not wear a scapular before St. Simon Stock, in 1285, and began to use a mantle and hood in 1288. This order being in its origin eremitical, hence among the barefooted Carmelites every province has a desert or solitude, usually for three or four hermits, who lead there very austere lives, but after one year return again to their convent, or go to some other desert, with the leave of superiors.

Albert was called into the West by pope Innocent III., that he might be present at the general council of Lateran which met in 1215: but before he left Palestine, he was assassinated while he assisted at a procession of the holy cross, on the feast of its Exaltation, September 14th, 1214, at Acon, by an impious wretch whom he had reproved and threatened for his crimes. He is honored among the saints by his order on this 8th day of April. See the memoirs collected by Papebroke, t. 1, p. 769. Also Exhibitio Errorum quos Dan. Papebrochius suis in notis ad Acta Sanctorum commisit, per Sebast. a S. Paulo. Coloniæ Agrippinæ, 1693, 4to. Item, Examen Juridico-Theologicum Præambul. Sebastiani a S. Paulo ad Exhibitionem Errorum Dan. Papebrochio ab illo Imputatorum, Auctore Nic. Rayæo, cum Responsionibus Dan. Papebrochii, Antwerpiæ, 1698, four vols. in 4to Helyot, Hist. des Ordres Relig. t. 1, and Stevens, Monast. Anglic. t. 1, p. 156.

APRIL 9 — ST. MARY OF EGYPT

From her life, commended in the seventh general council, and by St. Sophonius, but written one hundred and fifty years before him, by a grave author of the same age in which the saint lived. See Papebroke, ad diem 2. Apr. t. 1, p. 67, and Jos. Assemani Comm. in Calend. ad 1. Apr. t. 6, p. 218.

Fifth Age

IN the reign of Theodosius the Younger, there lived in Palestine a holy monk and priest named Zosimus, famed for the reputation of his sanctity, and resorted to as an oracle for the direction of souls in the most perfect rules of a religious life. He had served God from his youth with great fervor, in the same house, for the space of three-and-fifty years, when he was tempted to think that he had attained to a state of perfection, and that no one could teach him any thing more in regard to a monastic life. God, to discover the delusion and danger of this suggestion of the proud spirit, and to convince him that we may always advance in perfection, directed him by revelation to quit his monastery for one near the Josiah, where he might learn lessons of virtue he yet was unacquainted with. Being admitted among them, it was not long before he was undeceived, and convinced, from what he saw practised there, how much he had been mistaken in the judgment he had formed of himself and his advancement in virtue. The members of this community had no more communication with the rest of mankind than if they had belonged to another world. The whole employment of their lives was manual labor, which they accompanied with prayer, and the singing of psalms, (in which heavenly exercise they spent the whole night, relieving each other by turns,) and their chief subsistence was on bread and water. It was their yearly custom, after having assisted at the divine mysteries, and received the blessed Eucharist on the first Sunday in Lent, to cross the river, and disperse themselves over the vast deserts which lie towards Arabia, to pass in perfect solitude the interval between that and Palm-Sunday; against which time they all returned again to the monastery to join in celebrating the passion and resurrection of our Lord. Some subsisted during this time on a small parcel of provision they took with them, while others lived on the herbs which grew wild; but when they came back, they never communicated to each other what they did during that time.

About the year 430, the holy man Zosimus passed over the Jordan with the rest at the usual time, endeavoring to penetrate as far as he could into the wilderness, in hopes of meeting with some hermit of still greater perfection than he had hitherto seen or conversed with, praying with great fervor as he travelled. Having advanced thus for twenty days, as he one day stopped at noon to rest himself and recite a certain number of psalms, according to custom, he saw as it were the figure of a human body. He was at first seized with fright and astonishment; and imagining it might be an illusion of the enemy, he armed himself with the sign of the cross and continued in prayer. Having finished his devotions, he plainly perceived, on turning his eyes that way, that it was somebody that appeared naked, extremely sunburnt, and with short white hair, who walked very quick, and fled from him. Zosimus, judging it was some holy anchoret, ran that way with all his speed to overtake him. He drew nearer by degrees, and when he was within hearing, he cried out to the person to stop and bless him; who answered: “Abbot Zosimus, I am a woman; throw me your mantle to cover me, that you may come near me.” He, surprised to hear her call him by his name, which he was convinced she could have known only by revelation, readily complied with her request. Having covered herself with his garment she approached him, and they entered into conversation after mutual prayer: and on the holy man’s conjuring her by Jesus Christ to tell him who she was, and how long, and in what manner she had lived in that desert, she said: “I ought to die with confusion and shame in telling you what I am; so horrible is the very mention of it, that you will fly from me as from a serpent: your ears will not be able to bear the recital of the crimes of which I have been guilty. I will however relate to you my ignommy, begging of you to pray for me, that God may show me mercy in the day of his terrible judgment.

‘My country is Egypt. When my father and mother were still living, at twelve years of age I went without their consent to Alexandria: I cannot think, without trembling, on the first steps by which I fell into sin, nor my disorders which followed.” She then described how she lived a public prostitute seventeen years, not for interest, but to gratify an unbridled lust: she added: “I continued my wicked course till the twenty-ninth year of my age, when, perceiving several persons making towards the sea, I inquired whither they were going, and was told they were about to embark for the holy land, to celebrate at Jerusalem the feast of the Exaltation of the glorious Cross of our Saviour. I embarked with them, looking only for fresh opportunities to continue my debauches, which I repeated both during the voyage and after my arrival at Jerusalem. On the day appointed for the festival, all going to church, I mixed with the crowd to get into the church where the holy cross was shown and exposed to the veneration of the faithful; but found myself withheld from entering the place by some secret but invisible force. This happening to me three or four times, I retired into a corner of the court, and began to consider with myself what this might proceed from; and seriously reflecting that my criminal life might be the cause, I melted into tears. Beating therefore my sinful breast, with sighs and groans, I perceived above me a picture of the mother of God. Fixing my eyes upon it, I addressed myself to that holy virgin, begging of her, by her incomparable purity, to succor me, defiled with such a load of abominations, and to render my repentance the more acceptable to God. I besought her I might be suffered to enter the church doors to behold the sacred wood of my redemption; promising from that moment to consecrate myself to God by a life of penance, taking her for my surety in this change of my heart. After this ardent prayer, I perceived in my soul a secret consolation under my grief; and attempting again to enter the church, I went up with ease into the very middle of it, and had the comfort to venerate the precious wood of the glorious cross which brings life to man. Considering therefore the incomprehensible mercy of God, and his readiness to receive sinners to repentance, I cast myself on the ground, and after having kissed the pavement with tears, I arose and went to the picture of the mother of God, whom I had made the witness and surety of my engagements and resolutions. Falling there on my knees before her image, I addressed my prayers to her begging her intercession, and that she would be my guide. After my prayer, I seemed to hear this voice: ‘If thou goest beyond the Jordan, thou shalt there find rest and comfort.’ Then weeping, and looking on the image, I begged of the holy queen of the world that she would never abandon me. After these words, I went out in haste, bought three loaves, and asking the baker which was the gate of the city which led to the Jordan, I immediately took that road, and walked all the rest of the day, and at night arrived at the church of St. John Baptist, on the banks of the river. There I paid my devotions to God, and received the precious body of our Saviour Jesus Christ. Having eat the half of one of my loaves, I slept all night on the ground. Next morning, recommending myself to the holy Virgin, I passed the Jordan, and from that time I have carefully shunned the meeting of any human creature.”

Zosimus asked how long she had lived in that desert. “It is,” said she, “as near as I can judge, forty-seven years.” “And what have you subsisted upon all that time?” replied Zosimus. “The loaves I took with me,’ answered she, “lasted me some time: since that I have had no other food out what this wild and uncultivated solitude afforded me. My clothes being worn out, I suffered severely from the heat and the cold, with which I was often so afflicted that I was not able to stand.” “And have you passed so many years,” said the holy man, “without suffering much in your soul?” She answered: “Your question makes me tremble, by the very remembrance of my past dangers and conflicts, through the perverseness of my heart. Seventeen years I passed in most violent temptations, and almost perpetual conflicts with my inordinate desires. I was tempted to regret the flesh and fish of Egypt, and the wines which I drank in the world to excess; whereas here I often could not come at a drop of water to quench my thirst. Other desires made assaults on my mind, but, weeping and striking my breast on those occasions, I called to mind the vows I had made under the protection of the Blessed Virgin, and begged her to obtain my deliverance from the affliction and danger of such thoughts. After long weeping and bruising my body with blows, I found myself suddenly enlightened, and my mind restored to a perfect calm. Often the tyranny of my old passions seemed ready to drag me out of my desert: at those times I threw myself on the ground and watered it with my tears, raising my heart continually to the Blessed Virgin till she procured me comfort: and she has never failed to show herself my faithful protectress.” Zosimus taking notice that in her discourse with him she from time to time made use of scripture phrases, asked her if she had ever applied herself to the study of the sacred books. Her answer was that she could not even read, neither had she conversed nor seen any human creature since she came into the desert till that day, that could teach her to read the holy scripture or read it to her, but “it is God,” said she, “that teacheth man knowledge.1 Thus have I given you a full account of myself: keep what I have told you as an inviolable secret during my life, and allow me, the most miserable of sinners, a share in your prayers.” She concluded with desiring him not to pass over the Jordan next Lent, according to the custom of his monastery, but to bring with him on Maundy Thursday the body and blood of our Lord, and wait for her on the banks of the river on the side which is inhabited. Having spoken thus, and once more entreated him to pray for her, she left him. Zosimus hereupon fell on his knees, thanked God for what he had seen and heard, kissed the ground whereon she had stood, and returned by the usual time to his monastery.

The year following, on the first Sunday in Lent, he was detained at home on account of sickness, as indeed she had foretold him. On Maundy Thursday, taking the sacred body and blood of our Lord in a small chalice, and also a little basket of figs, dates, and lentils, he went to the banks of the Jordan. At night she appeared on the other side, and making the sign of the cross over the river she went forward, walking upon the surface of the water, as if it had been dry land, till she reached the opposite shore. Being now together, she craved his blessing, and desired him to recite the Creed and the Lord’s prayer. After which she received from his hands the holy sacrament. Then lifting up her hands to heaven, she said aloud with tears: Now thou dost dismiss thy servant. O Lord, according to thy word, in peace; because my eyes have seen my Saviour. She begged Zosimus to pardon the trouble she had given him, and desired him to return the following Lent, to the place where he first saw her. He begged of her on his side to accept the sustenance he had brought her. But she took only a few of the lentils; and conjuring him never to forget her miseries, left him, and then went over the river as she came. Zosimus returned home, and at the very time fixed by the saint, set out in quest of her, with the view of being still further edified by her holy conversation, and of learning also her name, which he had forgot to ask. But on his arrival at the place where he had first seen her, he found her corpse stretched out on the ground, with an in scription declaring her name, Mary, and the time of her death. Zosimus, being miraculously assisted by a lion, dug a grave, and buried her. And having recommended both himself and the whole church to the saint’s intercession, he returned to his monastery, where he recounted all that he had seen and heard of this holy penitent, and continued there to serve God till his happy death, which happened in the hundredth year of his age: and it is from a relation of the monks of that community, that an author of the same century wrote her life as above related: which history is mentioned soon after by many authors, both of the Eastern and Western church. Pape-broke places her conversion in 383, and her death in 421.

In the example of this holy woman, we admire the wonderful goodness and mercy of God, who raised her from the sink of the most criminal habits and the most abandoned state to the most sublime and heroic virtue. While we consider her severe penance, let us blush at the manner in which we pretend to do penance. Let her example rouse our sloth. The kingdom of heaven is only for those who do violence to themselves. Let us tremble with her at the remembrance of our baseness and sins, as often as we enter the sanctuary of the Lord, or venerate his holy cross, the instrument of our redemption. We insult him when we pretend exteriorly to pay him our homages, and at the same time dishonor him by our sloth and sinful life. God, by the miraculous visible repulse of this sinner, shows us what he does invisibly with regard to all obstinate and wilful sinners. We join the crowd of adorers at the foot of his altar; but he abhors our treacherous kisses like those of Judas. We honor his cross with our lips; but he sees our heart, and condemns its irregularities and its opposition to his holy spirit of perfect humility, meekness, self-denial, and charity. Shall we then so much fear to provoke his indignation by our unworthiness, as to keep at a distance from his holy places or mysteries? By no means. This would be irrecoverably to perish by cutting off the most essential means of salvation. Invited by the infinite goodness and mercy of God, and pressed by our own necessities and dangers, the more grievous these are, with so much greater earnestness and assiduity must we sue for pardon and grace, provided we do this in the most profound sentiments of compunction, fear, and confidence. It will be expedient often to pray with the publican at a distance from the altar, in a feeling sentiment that we ought to be treated as persons excommunicate before God and men. Sometimes we may in public prayers pronounce the words with a lower voice, as unworthy to unite our praises with others, as base sinners, whose homages ought rather to be offensive to God, who hates the sight of a heart filled with iniquity and self-love. We must at least never present ourselves before God without purifying our hearts by compunction, and, trembling, to say to ourselves, that God ought to drive us out of his holy presence with a voice of thunder: Let the wicked man be taken away, and let him not see the glory of God. But in these dispositions of fear and humility, we must not fail assiduously to pour forth our supplications, and sound the divine praises with our whole hearts.

APRIL 9 — THE MASSYLITAN MARTYRS IN AFRICA

Mentioned by Bede,1 and famous in ancient calendars. We have a sermon preached by St. Austin on their festivals.2 They suffered in Africa, and probably derived their name from Massyla, or the adjacent country, on the sea-coast.

APRIL 9 — ST. EUPSYCHIUS, M

Julian the Apostate, in his march to Antioch, arriving at Cæsarea, the capital of Cappadocia, was exceedingly irritated to find the greatest part of the city Christians, and that they had lately demolished a temple dedicated to Fortune, being the last pagan temple remaining there: wherefore he struck it out of the list of cities, and ordered that it should resume its ancient name of Mazaca, instead of that of Cæsarea, the name with which Tiberius had honored it. He deprived the churches in the city and its territory of all that they possessed in moveables or other goods, making use of torments to oblige them to a discovery of their wealth. He caused all the clergy to be enlisted among the train-bands, under the governor of the province, which was the most contemptible, and frequently the most burdensome service, and on the lay Christians he imposed a heavy tax. Many of them he put to death, the principal of which number was St. Eupsychius, a person of noble extraction, lately married. The tyrant left an order that the Christians should be compelled to rebuild the temples; but, instead of that, they erected a church to the true God, under the title of St. Eupsychius: in which, on the 8th of April, eight years after, St. Basil celebrated the feast of this martyr, to which he invited all the bishops of Pontus, in a letter yet extant.1

APRIL 9 — THE ROMAN CAPTIVES, MM. IN PERSIA, IN THE YEAR OF CHRIST 362, OF SAPOR 53

The Persians, in an incursion into the Christian territories, took by siege the castle Bethzarbe, on the Tigris, massacred the garrison, and led away nine thousand souls into captivity. Among these were Heliodorus, a bishop, Dausas and Mariabus, ancient priests, besides many other priests, monks, and nuns. The good bishop died on the road, but first ordained Dausas bishop in his place. The canons order a bishop not to be ordained but by three bishops: but this admits a dispensation in cases of necessity. Thus Theodoret says,1 that St. Eusebius of Samosata went about privately ordaining Catholic pastors to fill vacant sees: and St. Gregory allowed St. Austin to do the same in England.* The captives assembled daily with Dausas, who celebrated the divine mysteries. When they were arrived on the confines of Assyria, it was left to the option of three hundred of them either to adore the sun or to die. Twenty-five complied with the injunction, and were rewarded with portions of land for their apostacy. The other two hundred and seventy-five remained constant with the bishop Dausas, and were all massacred together. See the Greek Menæa, Sozomen,2 and their original Chaldaic acts, published by Assemani, t. 1, p. 134.

APRIL 9 — ST. WALTRUDE, OR VAUTRUDE, COMMONLY CALLED VAUDRU, WIDOW

She was daughter to the princess St. Bertille, elder sister to St. Aldegondes, and wife to Madelgaire, count of Hainault, and one of the principal lords of king Dagobert’s court. After bearing him two sons and two daughters, she induced him to embrace the monastic state at Haumont, near Maubeuge, taking the name of Vincent. He is honored in Flanders among the saints on the 20th of September, and called St. Vincent of Soignies. She remained two years longer in the world, devoting herself entirely to exercises of piety, under the direction of the holy abbot Saint Guislain. Being by that time disengaged from the encumbrances of the world, she received the religious veil at the hands of St. Aubert, bishop of Cambray, in 656, and lived in a little cell, adjoining to which was a chapel in a solitary place called Castriloc, or Castleplace, now Mons. Many other ladies resorting to her, she formed a religious community, which is at present a rich royal chapter of canonesses. From her reputation and from this community arose the city of Mons, now the capital of Hainault. While her sister Aldegondes governed her great monastery at Maubeuge, Vautrude sanctified herself in her little cell by holy poverty, meekness, patience, continual fasting, and prayer. She suffered much from the slanders of men, and from severe interior trials and temptations: but God, after some years, recompensed her idelity with a holy peace, and great spiritual consolations. On the 9th of April, 686, she went to receive the crown promised by God to those who serve him. Her relics are esteemed the most precious treasure of the great church which bears her name. She is titular patroness of Mons, and all Hainault. By the life of St. Vautrude, we should learn to despise the unjust censures of the world. It persecutes by its calumnies those by whose lives its false maxims are condemned: but it can only hurt a counterfeit virtue, as the fire consumes only the dross, but renders true gold brighter and more pure. Solid virtue is not only tried by humiliations, but gains the greatest advantage and improvement by making a good use of them. See her ancient life in Mabill. Sæc. 2. Bened. also Miræus.

APRIL 9 — ST. GAUCHER, OR GAUTIER, ABBOT IN LIMOUSIN

He was in strict friendship with St. Stephen of Grandmont, died the 9th of April, 1130, at the age of eighty, and was canonized by Celestine III. in 1194. See Labbe, Bibl. MS. t. 2; Henschenius, &c.

APRIL 9 — ST. DOTTO, ABBOT

One of the isles of Orkney, in which he founded and governed a great monastery in the sixth century, bears his name to this day. In the same island stood other monasteries and churches dedicated to God under the patronage of St. Brendan. Though all the isles of Orkney are recommended for the healthfulness of the air, and longevity of the inhabitants, this of St Dotto is remarkable above the rest on these accounts. Our saint lived near one hundred years, and with great joy repeated in his last moments: I have rejoiced in those things which have been told me: we will go into the house of the Lord. Ps. 121. See Donald Monroe, De Insulis, and bishop Lesley’s nephew, De Sanctis Scotiæ.

APRIL 10 — ST. BADEMUS, ABBOT, M

From his original Syriac acts, written by St. Maruthas, published by Assemani, t. 1, p. 165. The Greek from Metaphrastes were given us by Henschenius, p. 828, and Ruinart, p. 680.

A. D. 376.

BADEMUS was a rich and noble citizen of Bethlapeta, in Persia, who, desiring to devote himself to the service of God, out of his estates founded a monastery near that city, which he governed with great sanctity. The purity of his soul had never been sullied by any crime, and the sweet odor of his sanctity diffused a love of virtue in the hearts of those that approached him. He watched whole nights in prayer, and passed sometimes several days together without eating: bread and water were his usual fare. He conducted his religious in the paths of perfection with sweetness, prudence, and charity. In this amiable retreat he enjoyed a calmness and happiness which the great men of the world would view with envy, did they compare with it the unquiet scenes of vice and vanity in which they live. But, to crown his virtue, God permitted him, with seven of his monks, to be apprehended by the pursuivants of king Sapor, in the thirty-sixth year of his persecution. He lay four months in a dungeon, loaded with chains; during which lingering martyrdom he was every day called out to receive a certain number of stripes. But he triumphed over his torments by the patience and joy with which he suffered them for Christ. At the same time, a Christian lord of the Persian court, named Nersan, prince of Aria, was cast into prison, because he refused to adore the sun. At first he showed some resolution; but at the sight of tortures his constancy failed him, and he promised to conform. The king, to try if his change was sincere, ordered Bademus to be brought to Lapeta, with his chains struck off, and to be introduced into the prison of Nersan, which was a chamber in the royal palace. Then his majesty sent word to Nersan, by two lords, that if with his own hand he would dispatch Bademus, he should be restored to his liberty and former dignities. The wretch accepted the condition; a sword was put into his hand, and he advanced to plunge it into the breast of the abbot. But being seized with a sudden terror, he stopped short, and remained some time without being able to lift up his arm to strike. The servant of Christ stood undaunted, and, with his eyes fixed upon him, said: “Unhappy Nersan, to what a pitch of impiety do you carry your apostacy. With joy I run to meet death; but could wish to fall by some other hand than yours: why must you be my executioner?” Nersan had neither courage to repent, nor heart to accomplish his crime. He strove, however, to harden himself, and continued with a trembling hand to aim at the sides of the martyr. Fear, shame, remorse, and respect for the martyr, whose virtue he wanted courage to imitate, made his strokes forceless and unsteady; and so great was the number of the martyr’s wounds, that they stood in admiration at his invincible patience. At the same time they detested the cruelty, and despised the base cowardice of the murderer, who at last, aiming at his neck, after four strokes severed his head from the trunk. Neither did he escape the divine vengeance: for a short time after, falling into public disgrace, he perished by the sword, after tortures, and under the maledictions of the people. Such is the treachery of the world towards those who have sacrificed their all in courting it. Though again and again deceived by it, they still listen to its false promises, and continue to serve this hard master, till their fall becomes irretrievable. The body of St. Bademus was reproachfully cast out of the city by the infidels: but was secretly carried away and interred by the Christians. His disciples were released from their chains four years afterwards, upon the death of king Sapor. St. Bademus suffered on the 10th of the moon of April, in the year 376, of king Sapor the sixty-seventh.

Monks were called Mourners by the Syrians and Persians, because by their state they devoted themselves in a particular manner to the most perfect exercises of compunction and penance, which indeed are an indispensable duty of every Christian. The name of angels was often given them over all the East, during several ages,1 because by making heavenly contemplation and the singing of the divine praises their great and glorious employment, if they duly acquit themselves of it, they may justly be called the seraphim of the earth. The soul which loves God, is made a heaven which he inhabits, and in which she converses with him in the midst of her own substance. Though he is infinite, and the highest heavenly spirits tremble before him, and how poor and base soever we are, he invites us to converse with him, and declares that it is his delight to be with us. Shall not we look upon it as our greatest happiness and comfort to be with Him, and to enjoy the unspeakable sweetness of his presence. Oh! what ravishing delights does a soul taste which is accustomed, by a familiar habit, to converse in the heaven of her own interior with the three persons of the adorable Trinity! Dissipated worldlings wonder how holy solitaries can pass their whole time buried in the most profound solitude and silence of creatures. But those who have had any experience of this happiness, are surprised with far greater reason how it is possible that any souls which are created to converse eternally with God, should here live in constant dissipation, seldom entertaining a devout thought of Him, whose charms and sweet conversation eternally ravishes all the blessed.

APRIL 10 — B. MECHTILDES, VIRGIN AND ABBESS

The two holy sisters, SS. Gertrude and Mechtildes, were countesses of Hackuborn, cousins to the emperor Frederick II., and born at Islebe, in Upper Saxony. From seven years of age Mechtildes had her education in the Benedictin monastery of Redaresdorff, or Rodersdorff, in the bishopric of Halberstade, secularized and yielded to the elector of Brandenbourg at the peace of Westphalia in 1648. She lived always a stranger to the vices and vanities of the world, and from her infancy practised obedience with such cheerfulness, that she was always ready to perform every command of her superior. Though often sick, she denied herself the use of flesh-meat and wine, and studied to retrench every superfluity. She endeavored to conceal her virtues as industriously as others labor to hide their most heinous sins. She made her religious vows in the same house, and while yet young was removed to Diessen near the lake Ambre in Bavaria, where she was appointed superior of the monastery of that name, which seems to have been at that time of the order of St. Benedict, though it has long been a house of regular canonesses of St. Austin’s order. It was founded in 1132 by Bertkold, count of Andechs, and afterwards endowed with great revenues by St. Otho, bishop of Bamberg. This monastery Mechtildes rendered a perfect school of all virtues, and knowing that a strict discipline and a steady observance of rules are the means by which religious persons are to attain to the sanctification of their souls in their state, she taught all her sisters rather to anticipate by diligence every monastic duty, than by coming one moment too late to give signs of the least sloth in the service of their heavenly king. The noble monastery of Ottilsteten, or Edelstetin, in Suabia, situated between Ausburg and Ulm, being fallen into great remissness, in order to restore becoming discipline therein, Mechtildes was commanded by the bishops of the country to repair thither, and to take upon her the direction of that house. She urged that it was enough for her to stand arraigned at the bar of Christ for the neglect of her own vineyard. But neither her tears nor those of her dear sisters could prevail. In this new situation she labored to sanctify her own soul, as if she had hitherto done nothing towards the subduing of her body in order thereto: and the happy effects of her humble endeavors and sighs for others appeared by the perfect regularity and exemplary piety which began soon to be evident in that community. None could resist the charms of her sweetness and example; for her virtue was mild to others, though austere to herself. She neither screwed up the strings of government too high, nor let them drop too low. She did not mollify the severity of the maxims of the gospel, nor the obligations of a religious state: but the manner in which she inculcated them, rendered them light and easy by the charity with which she seasoned her commands. She prohibited the enclosure of her house to secular visitants, and by her abhorrence of worldly news and discourse, banished out of her community that dangerous spirit which introduces the world into the solitude of the recluse. Her bed was a little straw, her diet most austere and slender, and her employment manual labor, prayer, and pious reading. For one superfluous word which she spoke to a sister, she immediately burst into tears, condemning herself on account of an unnecessary breach of silence; for which she punished herself with fasts and watching for several days. The perpetual fountains of her tears were nourished by the deep compunction of her heart. In the court of the emperor, to which she happened to be called on account of the affairs of her monastery, she observed all the rules of her house. Once when confined to her bed by sickness, she complained to her Redeemer, that, like an excommunicated person and altogether unworthy, she was excluded from joining her voice with her sisters in singing his praises at the midnight office: but he in a vision assured her that he was more glorified by her desire and obedience to his will than by any other sacrifice she could offer him. Some time before her death, which she foresaw, she returned to her dear monastery of Diessen, in which she departed to our Lord on the 29th of March, some time after the year 1300, before her sister St. Gertrude, who in her writings mentions the death of St. Mechtildes. Her name has never been inserted in the Roman Martyrology; but occurs in several particular calendars both on this day, on the 30th of May, and on the 29th of March. See her life compiled by Engelhard, an abbot who was acquainted with her, in Canisius, Lect. Antiq. Chatelain’s Martyrologe Universel on the 30th of May.*

APRIL 11 — ST. LEO THE GREAT, POPE

From the councils, t. 4, this pope’s works in the late Roman edition, and the historians of that age. See Tillemont, t. 15, p. 141, and Ceillier, t. 14, p. 316, who chiefly follow Quesnel’s collection of memoirs for his life, Op. t. 2, Diss. 1, which must be compared with, and often corrected by, the remarks of F. Cacciari, in his Exercitationes in Opera S. Leonis, especially in those De Hæresi Petagianâ et De Hæresi Eutychianâ.

A. D. 461.

ST. LEO, surnamed the Great, was descended of a noble Tuscan family, but born at Rome, as he himself and St. Prosper assure us.1 The quickness of his parts, and the maturity of his judgment, appeared in the rapid progress which he made in his studies. Having rendered himself a great master in the different branches of polite literature, especially eloquence, he turned his thoughts entirely to the study of the holy scriptures and theology, to which he made the profane sciences only subservient. “God, who destined him to gain great victories over error, and to subject human wisdom to the true faith, had put into his hands the arms of science and truth,” as an ancient general council says.2 Being made archdeacon of the church of Rome, he had the chief direction of the most important affairs under pope Celestine, as appears from St. Prosper, a letter of St. Cyril to him, and Cassian’s book against Nestorius. To his penetration and zeal it was owing afterwards that Sextus III discovered the dissimulation of Julian the Pelagian, and rejected his false repentance. It happened that Aetius and Albinus, the two generals of the emperor Valentinian III., were at variance it. Gaul, and no one being so well qualified to compose their differences as the eloquent and virtuous archdeacon Leo, he was sent upon that important commission. During his absence, Sixtus III. died, in 440, and the Roman clergy cast their eyes on him for their pastor, judging that he, who for sanctity, learning, prudence, and eloquence, was the first man of his age, was the most worthy and fit to be seated in the first chair of the church. The qualifications and virtues which we admire when found single in others, were all united in him to a very great degree. This justly raised, throughout the Christian world, the highest expectations from his administration; which yet his great actions far surpassed. He was invited to Rome by a public embassy, and expected with impatience; but it was forty days before he could arrive. The joy with which he was received is not to be expressed, and he received the episcopal consecration on Sunday the 29th of September, in 440. We learn from himself what were his sentiments at the news of his exaltation. He considered a high dignity as a place where falls are most frequent, and always most dangerous; and he cried out:3 “Lord, I have heard your voice calling me, and I was afraid: I considered the work which was enjoined me, and I trembled. For what proportion is there between the burden assigned to me and my weakness, this elevation and my nothingness? What is more to be feared than exaltation without merit, the exercise of the most holy functions being intrusted to one who is buried in sin? O you who have laid upon me this heavy burden, bear it with me, I beseech you: be you my guide and my support: give me strength, you who have called me to the work; who have laid this heavy burden on my shoulders.”

A heart thus empty of itself could not fail to be supported and directed by the divine grace. He was called to the government of the church in the most difficult times, and he diligently applied himself without delay to cultivate the great field committed to his care, and especially to pluck up the weeds of errors, and to root out the thorns of vices wherever they appeared. He never intermitted to preach to his people with great zeal; which he often mentions as the most indispensable duty of pastors, and the constant practice of his predecessors.4 A hundred and one sermons preached by this pope on the principal festivals of the year, are still extant. He often inculcates in them the practice of holy fasting and almsdeeds, as good works which ought to be joined and support each other. We have among his works nine sermons on the fast of the tenth mouth, or of Ember-days in December. He says, the Church has instituted the Ember-days in the four seasons of the year to sanctify each season by a fast:5 also to pay to God a tribute of thanksgiving for the fruits and other blessings which we continually receive from his bounty:6 and to arm us constantly against the devil. He sets forth the obligation of alms, which is so great that for this alone God gives riches, and not to be hoarded up, or lavished in superfluities: and at the last day he seems in his sentence chiefly to recompense this virtue, and to punish the neglect of it, to show us how much almsdeeds are the key of heaven, and of all other graces.7 He says this obligation binds all persons, though it is not to be measured by what a man has, but by the heart; for all men are bound to have the same benevolence, and desire of relieving others.8 That the rich are obliged to seek out the bashful poor, who are to be assisted without being put to the blush in receiving.9 He shows the institution of Collects or gatherings for the poor, to be derived from the apostles, and ever to have been continued in the church for the relief of the indigent.10 He surpasses himself in sentiment and eloquence whenever he speaks of the sweetness of the divine love which is displayed to us in the mystery of the incarnation of the Son of God. His one hundred and forty-one epistles are wholly employed in treating on important subjects of discipline and faith, and alone suffice to show his pastoral vigilance and immense labors in every part of the Christian world, for the advancement of piety. He brought many infidels to the faith, and took great delight in instructing them himself. His signal victories over the Manichees, Arians, Apollinarists, Nestorians, Eutychians, Novatians, and Donatists, are standing proofs of his zeal for the purity of the faith. Carthage being taken by the Vandals in 439, a great number of Manichees fled out of Africa to Rome: but there, to escape the rigor of the imperial laws against their sect, feigned themselves Catholics. They called wine the gall of the dragon, produced by the devil or their evil god: on which account they always refrained from that liquor, which they regarded as, of its own nature, unclean. To conceal themselves, they received the holy communion from the Catholic priests, but under one kind alone, which it was left to every one’s discretion then to do This affectation of the heretics passed some time unobserved, as we learn from St. Le0,11 in the year 433* But he no sooner discovered this sacrilegious abuse, than he took the utmost care to prevent the contagion from infecting his flock. He detected several of these heretics, and among them one whom they called their bishop, and to manifest the impiety of this sect, he assembled several bishops and priests, and the most illustrious persons of the senate and empire, and caused the elect of the Manichees, that is, those that were initiated in their mysteries, to be introduced.12 They confessed publicly many impious tenets,* superstitions, and a crime which modesty forbids to be named.13 St. Prosper says their books were burnt; but many of them repented, and abjured their heresy. St. Leo, in receiving them into the church, exhorted his people to pray and sigh with him for them.14 Those that remained obstinate were banished. St. Leo, about the same time, crushed Pelagianism, which began again to show its head about Aquileia.15 His watchfulness put a stop to the growing evil, both in those parts and in Rome itself, where St. Prosper detected some remains of the same leaven. For this pope, who was a true judge of merit, and drew many learned men about his person, had chosen St. Prosper of Aquitaine his secretary, to write his letters and dispatch the like business. The Priscillianist heretics reigned almost uncontrolled in Spain: only St. Turibius, bishop of Astorga, zealously opposed them. St. Leo wrote to commend his zeal, and to awake the attention of the other bishops of that country, whom he ordered to convene a council for the extirpation of the spreading cancer.16 He examined the cause of Chelidonius, bishop of Besançon, deposed by St. Hilary of Arles, and restored him to his see.17 He transferred the dignity of primate from the see of Arles to that of Vienne in Gaul, which Zosimus had formerly adjudged to Arles,18 “Out of respect,” as he said, “for the blessed Trophimus, (first bishop of Arles,) from the fountain of whose preaching all the Gauls had received the streams of faith.”19 The learned De Marca thinks that St. Leo did not deny the jurisdiction of Hilary over Besançon before that time, but he judged Chelidonius not to have been guilty of that which had been laid to his charge, adding, “that the sentence would have stood firm, if the things objected had been true.”† St. Leo laid down this important maxim for the rule of his conduct, never to give any decision, especially to the prejudice of another, before he had examined into the affair with great caution and exactness, and most carefully taken all informations possible. He was very careful in the choice of persons whom he promoted to holy orders, as his writings show; yet the author of the Spiritual Meadow relates, that he heard Amos, patriarch of Jerusalem, say to several abbots: “Pray for me. The dreadful weight of the priesthood affrights me beyond measure, especially the charge of conferring orders. I have found it written, that the blessed pope Leo, equal to the angels, watched and prayed forty days at the tomb of St. Peter, begging through the intercession of that apostle to obtain of God the pardon of his sins. After this term, St. Peter, in a vision, said to him: Your sins are forgiven you by God, except those committed by you in conferring holy orders: of these you still remain charged to give a rigorous account.”20 St. Leo, with regard to those who are to be ordained ministers of the altar, lays down this rule, inserted in his words into the body of the canon law: “What is it not to lay hands upon any one suddenly, according to the precept of the apostle, but not to raise to the honor of the priesthood any who have not been thoroughly tried, or before a mature age, a competent time of trial, the merit of labor in the service of the church, and sufficient proofs given of their submission to rule, and their love of discipline and zeal for its observance.”21

Many affairs in the churches of the East furnished this great pope with much employment, as the intrusion of Bassian into the see of Ephesus,22 &c. But above all the rest, the rising heresy of Eutyches drew his attention on that side of the world. This heresiarch had been condemned by St. Flavian in 448; yet, by the intrigues of Chrysaphius, a powerful eunuch, he prevailed with the weak emperor Theodosius II. to assemble a packed council at Ephesus, in which Dioscorus, the wicked patriarch of Alexandria, an Eutychian, and general disturber of Christian peace, took upon him to preside. This pretended synod, commonly called the Latrocinale, or cabal of Ephesus, met on the 8th of August, 449, acquitted Eutyches, and condemned St. Flavian, with a degree of malice and violence unheard of among barbarians.* The legates of Leo, who were Julius, bishop of Puozzoli, the ancient Puteoli, Renatus, a priest, Hilarius, a deacon, and Dulcitius, a notary, refused to subscribe to the unjust sentence, and opposed it with a zeal and vigor that was admired by the whole world, says Theodoret.23 Upon the first advice of these proceedings, St. Leo declared them null and void,24 and at the same time he wrote St. Flavian to encourage him, and to the emperor himself, telling him that no sacrilegious cabal ever came up to the fury of this assembly,25 and conjuring him in these words: “Leave to the bishops the liberty of defending the faith: no powers or terrors of the world will ever be able to destroy it. Protect the Church, and seek to preserve its peace, that Christ may protect your empire.” He adds, that he trembles to see him draw down the divine vengeance upon his own head: which had the appearance of a prediction on account of the various misfortunes which befell that prince and his sudden death: though before the latter event his eyes began to be opened. Marcian and St. Pulcheria succeeding in the empire, vigorously supported the zealous endeavors of the pope. By his authority the general council of Chalcedon, consisting of six hundred or six hundred and thirty bishops, was opened on the 8th of October, in 451. St. Leo presided by his legates, Paschasinus, bishop of Lilybæum, Lucentius, bishop of Ascoli, and Boniface, priest of Rome. In this synod the memory of St. Flavian was vindicated, and Dioscorus was convicted of having maliciously suppressed the letters of St. Leo in the Latrocinale of Ephesus, and of having presumed to excommunicate St. Leo, which attempt was made the principal cause of his deposition: for which, besides other crimes, it was also urged against him, that he had pretended to hold a general council without the authority of the pope, a thing never lawful, and never done, as was observed by the pope’s legates.26 For these crimes and excesses, he was by the pope’s legates and the whole council declared excommunicated and deposed.27 St. Leo had written to St. Flavian on the 13th of June, in 449, a long and accurate doctrinal letter, in which he clearly expounded the Catholic faith concerning the mystery of the incarnation, against the errors both of Nestorius and Eutyches. This excellent letter had been suppressed by Dioscorus, but was read by the legates at Chalcedon, and declared by the voice of that general council to be dictated by the Holy Ghost, and to be a rule throughout the universal Church. The great Theodoret having read it, blessed God for having preserved his holy faith.28 St. Leo approved all things that had been done in this council relating to definitions of faith; but, being an enemy to innovations, vigorously opposed the twenty-eighth canon, framed in the absence of his legates, by which the archbishop of Constantinople was declared a patriarch,* and the first among the patriarchs of the East.29 However, the eastern bishops, who usually found access to the emperor through the bishop of Constantinople, allowed him that pre-eminence, which the law of custom confirmed.30 The same council declared the bishop of Jerusalem independent of Antioch, and primate of the three Palestines.31 In the synodal letter to St. Leo, the fathers beseech him to confirm their decrees, saying, “he had presided over them as the head over its members.”32 The pope restrained his confirmation to the decrees relating to matters of faith,33 which were received with the utmost respect imaginable by the whole Church. Theodoret was restored to his see in the council, after having anathematized Nestorius. Ibas, bishop of Edessa. who had been unjustly deposed with Theodoret in the Latrocinale of Ephesus, was likewise restored upon the same condition. The latter seems never to have been very solicitous about Nestorius, but was a warm defender of Theodorus of Mopsuestia, whom he regarded as an orthodox doctor, because he died in the communion of the Church. Ibas was accused of Nestorianism, but acquitted by Domnus, patriarch of Antioch, and a council held in that city in 448. But his letter to Maris, the Persian, was afterwards condemned in the fifth general council.

While the eastern empire was thus distracted by heretical factions, the western was harassed by barbarians. Attila, the Hunn, enriched with the plunder of many nations and cities, marched against Rome.* In the general consternation, Saint Leo, at the request of the whole city of Rome, went to meet Attila, in hopes of mollifying his rage, and averting the danger that threatened his country. Avienus, a man of consular dignity, and Trygetius, who had been prefect of the city, were deputed to accompany him in this embassy. They found the haughty tyrant at Ambuleium, near Ravenna, where the highway passes the river Menzo. Contrary to the expectation of every one, he received the pope with great honor, gave him a favorable audience, and, through his suggestion, concluded a treaty of peace with the empire on the condition of an annual tribute. Baronius, from a writer of the eighth century, relates, that Attila saw two venerable personages, supposed to be the apostles SS. Peter and Paul, standing on the side of the pope while he spoke. The king immediately commanded his army to forbear all hostilities, and soon after repassed the Alps, and retired beyond the Danube into Pannonia, but in his way home was seized with a violent vomiting of blood, of which he died in 453. Divisions among his children and princes destroyed the empire of the Huns.34 Thus fell the most haughty and furious of all the barbarian heathen kings, styled the terror of the world, and the scourge of God, whose instrument he was in punishing the sins of Christians. It was the glory of St. Leo to have checked his fury and protected Rome, when it was in no condition of defence. In 455, the friends of Aëtius (whose greatness and arrogance had given the emperor so much umbrage that he caused him to be assassinated) revenged the death of that general by the murder of Valentinian himself. His wife Eudoxia married by compulsion the tyrant Maximus who had usurped the throne: but, not brooking these affronts, she invited Genseric, the Arian Vandal king, from Africa, to come and revenge the murder of her husband. Maximus fled, but was slain by Valentinian’s servants on the 12th of June, in the twenty-seventh day of his reign, in 455. Three days after, Genseric arrived, and found the gates of Rome open to receive him. St. Leo went out to meet him, and prevailed with him to restrain his troops from slaughter and burning, and to content himself with the plunder of the city. The example of St. Leo shows, that even in the worst of times, a holy pastor is the greatest comfort and support of his flock. After the departure of the Vandals with their captives, and an immense booty, St. Leo sent zealous Catholic priests and alms for the relief of the captives in Africa. He repaired the Basilics, and replaced the rich plate and ornaments of the churches which had been plundered, though some part had escaped by being concealed, especially what belonged to the churches of SS. Peter and Paul, which Baronius thinks Genseric spared, and granted to them the privilege of sanctuaries, as was done at other times. This great pope, for his humility, mildness, and charity, was reverenced and beloved by emperors, princes, and all ranks of people, even infidels and barbarians. He filled the holy see twenty-one years, one month, and thirteen days, dying on the 10th of November, 461. His body was interred in the church of St. Peter, and afterwards translated to another place, in the same church, on the 11th of April; on which day his name is placed in the Roman calendar. His relics were again translated with great solemnity and devotion, enclosed in a case of lead, and placed in the altar dedicated to God under his invocation, in the Vatican church, in the year 1715, as is related at length by Pope Benedict XIV.35 A writer who delights in retailing slander, could not refuse this character of St. Leo: “He was,” says he, “without doubt, a man of extraordinary parts, far superior to all who had governed that church before him, and scarce equalled by any since.”36

The writings of this great pastor are the monuments of his extraordinary genius and piety.* His thoughts are true, bright, and strong; and in every sentiment and expression we find a loftiness which raises our admiration. By it we are dazzled and surprised in every period, and while we think it impossible that the style should not sink, we are astonished always to find it swelling in the same tenor, and with equal dignity and strength. His diction is pure and elegant; his style concise, clear, and pleasing. It would sometimes appear turgid in another; but in him, where it seems to swell the highest, a natural ease and delicacy remove all appearance of affectation and study, and show it to be the pure effort of a surprising genius and lofty natural eloquence. But the dress with which he clothes his thoughts, is much less to be considered than the subjects themselves of which he treats, in which the most consummate piety and skill in theology equally raise admiration, instruct and edify his readers in the learned and pious sermons, and doctrinal letters which compose his works. His unwearied zeal and unshaken steadiness against vice and error, though armed with all the power of a world leagued with the devils against the truth, procured the church infinite advantages and victories over the reigning novelties of that age; and his writings are an armory against all succeeding heresies. He fully and clearly explains the whole mystery of the incarnation; he proves,37 against the Eutychians, that Christ had a true body, because his body is really received in the holy eucharist. He laments as the greatest of spiritual evils, that at Alexandria, during the violences exercised by the Eutychians, the oblation of the sacrifice, and the benediction of chrism had been interrupted.38 He is very explicit on the supremacy of St. Peter,39 and on that of his successors.40 He often recommends himself to the prayers of the saints reigning in heaven, especially of St. Peter, and exhorts others to place great confidence in their powerful intercession.41 He honors their relics and festivals;42 and testifies that their churches were adorned with lights.43 He calls the fast of Lent an apostolical tradition, also that of the Ember-days, Whitsun-eve, &c.44 He adds, that the church retained the fast of Ember-days in December from the Jewish practice before Christ. Pope Benedict XIV., in a decree by which he commands St. Leo to be honored with the mass peculiar to doctors, dated in 1744, bestows on him due praises for his eminent learning and sanctity.45

According to the observation of this holy doctor46 it is a fundamental maxim of our holy religion, that the only true and valuable riches consist in that blessed poverty of spirit which Christ teaches us to look upon as the first and main step to all happiness. This is a profound and sincere humility of heart, and a perfect disengagement from all inordinate love of earthly goods. By this rule, those who are exalted above others by their rank, learning, or other abilities, differ not by these advantages from the poorest in the eyes of God: only poverty of spirit makes the distinction, and shows which is truly the greatest. Of this courageous poverty the apostles and primitive Christians set us the most illustrious example. “What is greater than this their humility? What is richer than this their poverty?” By imitating this spirit we enter into the possession of the riches of Christ. And we shall improve our share in all these spiritual treasures of grace, love, peace, and all virtues, in proportion as we shall advance in this spirit. St. Leo puts us in mind, in another place,47 that in putting on this spirit, which is no other than that of Christ, or the new man, consists that newness of life in which we are bound to walk according to the spirit of Christ; which delivers us from the power of darkness, and transfers us into the kingdom of the Son of God; which raises our love and desires of heavenly goods, and extinguishes in us the concupiscence of the flesh. We put on this spirit by baptism, and we strengthen ourselves in it by being fed with the body of Christ. ‘For what is the fruit of our partaking of the body and blood of Christ, but that we may pass into that which we receive; and that in whom we are dead, and buried, and raised again, (in the newness of our spirit and life,) we may bear him both in spirit and in our flesh through all things.” Next to frequent devout communion, the assiduous meditation on the life of Christ is the most powerful means of learning the true spirit of his divine virtues, particularly of that humility of which his whole life was the most astonishing model, and which is the summary of his holy precepts.48 St. Leo, by his tender devotion to our Redeemer, and the zeal with which he defended the mystery of his incarnation, was penetrated with his spirit of poverty and humility; from whence sprang that ardent charity, that admirable greatness of soul, and that invincible courage which were so conspicuous in all his actions.

APRIL 11 — ST. ANTIPAS, M

Called by Christ his faithful witness, (Apoc. 11:13). He suffered at Pergamus; where his tomb was famed for miracles in after ages. See Papebroke, p. 4; Tillemont, t. 2, p. 130.

APRIL 11 — ST. GUTHLAKE, HERMIT, AND PATRON OF THE ABBEY OF CROYLAND*

He was a nobleman, and in his youth served in the armies of Ethelred, king of Mercia: but the grace of God making daily stronger impressions on his heart, in the twenty-fourth year of his age he reflected how dangerous a thing it is to the soul to serve in wars which too often have no other motive than the passions of men and the vanities of the world, and resolved to consecrate the remainder of his life totally to the service of the King of kings. He passed two years in the monastery of Repandun, studying to transcribe the virtues and mortifications of all the brethren into the copy of his own life. After this novitiate in the exercises of an ascetic life, with the consent of his superior, in 699, with two companions, he passed in a fisher’s boat into the isle of Croyland, on the festival of St. Bartholomew, whom he chose for his patron, and, by having recourse to his intercession, he obtained of God many singular favors. Here he suffered violent temptations and assaults, not unlike those which St. Athanasius relates of St. Antony: he also met with severe interior trials, but likewise received frequent extraordinary favors and consolations from God. Hedda, bishop of Dorchester, visiting him, ordained him a priest. The prince Ethelbald, then an exile, often resorted to him, and the saint foretold him the crown of the Mercians, to which he was called after the death of king Coelred, in 719. The saint, foreknowing the time of his death, sent for his sister Pega,† who lived a recluse in another part of the fens, four leagues off to the west. He sickened of a fever, and on the seventh day of his illness, during which he had said mass every morning, and on that day by way of viaticum, he sweetly slept in our Lord, on the 11th of April, 714, being forty-seven years old, of which he had passed fifteen in this island. See his life written by Felix monk of Jarrow, a contemporary author, from the relation of Bertelin, the companion of the saint’s retirement, with the notes of Henschenius;* Mabillon, Acta Bened. t. 3, p. 263, n. 1. See also his short English-Saxon life, Bibl. Cotton. Julius, A. X.

APRIL 11 — ST. MACCAI, ABBOT

A Disciple of St. Patrick, who flourished in the isle of Bute, in Scotland, and was there honored after his death. See Bp. Lesley’s nephew, De Vitis Sanctor. Scot. p. 235.

APRIL 11 — ST. AID, OF EACHARAIDH

Abbot in Ireland, titular saint of a parish church, an ancient abbey, and a great number of chapels in that island. See Colgan MSS. ad 11 Apr.

APRIL 12 — ST. SABAS THE GOTH, M

From his authentic acts contained in a letter, written by the church of Gothla to that of Cappadocia, of which St. Basil was then the chief light; and penned, in all appearance, by St. Ascholius, bishop of Thessalonica, at that time subject to the Goths.

A. D. 372.

THE faith of Christ erected its trophies not only over the pride and sophistry of the heathen philosophers, and the united power of the Roman empire, but also over the kings of barbarous infidel nations; who, though it every other thing the contrast of the Romans, and enemies to their name, yet vied with them in the rage with which they sought, by every human stratagem, and every invention of cruelty, to depress the cross of Christ: by which the finger of God was more visible in the propagation of his faith. Even among the Goths, his name was glorified by the blood of martyrs. Athanaric, king of the Goths,* in the year 370, according to St. Jerom, raised a violent persecution against the Christians among them. The Greeks commemorate fifty-one martyrs who suffered in that nation. The two most illustrious are SS. Nicetas and Sabas. This latter was by birth a Goth, converted to the faith in his youth, and a faithful imitator of the obedience, mildness, humility, and other virtues of the apostles. He was affable to all men, yet with dignity; a lover of truth, an enemy to all dissimulation or disguise, intrepid, modest, of few words, and a lover of peace; yet zealous and active. To sing the divine praises in the church, and to adorn the altars was his great delight. He was so scrupulously chaste, that he shunned all conversation with women, except what was indispensable. He often spent whole days and nights in prayer, and devoted his whole life to the exercises of penance: flying vain-glory, and by words and example inducing others to a love of virtue, he burned with an ardent desire in all things to glorify Jesus Christ. The princes and magistrates of Gothia began, in 370, to persecute the Christians, by compelling them to eat meats which had been sacrificed to idols, out of a superstitious motive, as if they were sanctified. Some heathens who had Christian relations, desiring to save them, prevailed upon the king’s officers to present them common meats which had not been offered to the idols. Sabas condemned this impious collusion, and not only refused to eat such meats, but protested aloud that whoever should eat them would be no longer a Christian, having by that scandalous compliance renounced his faith. Thus he hindered many from falling into that snare of the devil, but displeased others, who banished him from his town, though they some time after recalled him home. The next year the persecution was renewed, and a commissary of the king arrived at St. Sabas’s town in search of Christians. Some of the inhabitants offered to swear on the victims that there were no Christians in the place. Sabas appeared, and step ping up to those who were going to take that oath, said: “Let no man swear for me: for I am a Christian.” Notwithstanding this, the commissary ordered the oath to be tendered. Therefore the principal men of the city hid the other Christians, and then swore there was but one Christian in their town. The commissary commanded that he should appear. Sabas boldly presented himself. The commissary asked the bystanders what wealth he had: and being told he had nothing besides the clothes on his back, the commissary despised him, saying: “Such a fellow can do us neither good nor harm.”

The persecution was renewed with much greater fury in 372, before Easter. Sabas considered how he could celebrate that solemnity, and for this purpose set out to go to a priest named Gouttica, in another city. Being on the road, he was admonished by God to return, and keep the festival with the priest Sansala. He did so, and on the third night after, Atharidus, son of one that enjoyed a petty sovereignty in that country, entered the town, and with an armed troop suddenly broke into the lodgings of Sansala, surprised him asleep, bound him, and threw him on a cart. They pulled Sabas out of bed without suffering him to put on his clothes, and dragged him, naked as he was, over thorns and briers, forcing him along with whips and staves. When it was day, Sabas said to his persecutors: “Have not you dragged me, quite naked, over rough and thorny grounds? Observe whether my feet are wounded, or whether the blows you gave me have made any impression on my body:” and indeed they could not perceive any the least marks. The persecutors being enraged, for want of a rack, took the axletree of a cart, laid it upon his neck, and stretching out his hands, fastened them to each end. They fastened another in like manner to his feet, and in this situation they tormented him a considerable part of the following night. When they were gone to rest, the woman of the house in which they lodged untied him: but he would not make his escape, and spent the remainder of that night in helping the woman to dress victuals for the family. The next day Atharidus commanded his hands to be tied, and caused him to be hung upon a beam of the house, and soon after ordered his servants to carry him and the priest certain meats that had been offered to idols, which they refused to eat, and Sabas said: “This pernicious meat is impure and profane, as is Atharidus himself who sent it.” One of the slaves of Atharidus, incensed at these words, struck the point of his javelin against the saint’s breast with such violence, that all present believed he had been killed. But St. Sabas said: “Do you think you have slain me? Know, that I felt no more pain than if the javelin had been a lock of wool.” Atharidus, being informed of these particulars, gave orders that he should be put to death Wherefore, having dismissed the priest Sansala, his companion, they carried away St. Sabas in order to throw him into the Musæus.* The martyr, filled with joy in the Holy Ghost, blessed and praised God without ceasing for thinking him worthy to suffer for his sake. Being come to the river side, the officers said one to another: “Why don’t we let this man go” He is innocent, and Atharidus will never know any thing of the matter.” St. Sabas, overhearing them, asked them why they trifled, and were so dilatory in obeying their orders? “I see,” said he, “what you cannot: I see persons on the other side of the river ready to receive my soul, and conduct it to the seat of glory: they only wait the moment in which it will leave my body.” Hereupon they threw him into the river, praising God to the last; and by the means of the axletree they had fastened about his neck, they strangled him in the water. He therefore suffered martyrdom, say the acts, by water and wood, the symbols of baptism and the cross; which happened on the 12th of April, Valentinian and Valens being emperors, in 372. After this the executioners drew his body out of the water, and left it unburied: but the Christians of the place guarded it from birds and beasts of prey. Junius Soranus, duke of Scythia, a man who feared God, carried off the body, which he sent into his own country, Cappadocia. With these relics was sent a letter from the church of Gothia to that of Cappadocia, which contains an account of the martyrdom of St. Sabas, and concludes thus: “Wherefore offering up the holy sacrifice on the day whereon the martyr was crowned, impart this to our brethren, that the Lord may be praised throughout the Catholic and Apostolic Church for thus glorifying his servants.” Thus the acts, which were sent to the church of Cappadocia, together with the relics of St. Sabas.† Both the Greek and Latin Martyrologies mention this martyr.

The martyrs despised torments and death, because the immense joys of heaven were always before their eyes. If they made a due impression upon our souls, we should never be slothful in the practice of virtue. When an ancient monk complained of being weary of living in close solitude, his abbot said to him: “This weariness clearly proves, that you have neither the joys of heaven nor the eternal torments of the damned before your eyes: otherwise, no sloth or discouragement could ever seize your soul.” St. Austin gives the following advice: “Not only think of the road through which thou art travelling, but take care never to lose sight of the blessed country in which thou art shortly to arrive. Thou meetest here with passing sufferings, but wilt soon enjoy everlasting rest. In order to labor with constancy and cheerfulness, consider the reward. The laborer would faint in the vineyard, if he was not cheered by the thought of what he is to receive. When thou lookest up at the recompense, every thing thou doest or sufferest will appear light, and no more than a shadow: it bears no manner of proportion with what thou art to receive for it. Thou wilt wonder that so much is given for such trifling pains.”1

APRIL 12 — ST. ZENO, BISHOP OF VERONA, CONFESSOR

From his life, compiled from his writings and other monuments, by Peter and Jerom Ballerini, two learned priests of Verona, and brothers, in their third dissertation in the excellent edition they gave of this father’s works, p. 109. Sec also the marquis Scipio Maffei, Historiæ Diplomaticæ Monumenta, at the end. p. 329. Also the same author, Veronæ Illustratæ, par. II. The history of the translation of his relics by an anonymous monk; and Serie Chronologica dei Vescov di Verona, par Biancolinl, a Verona 1761, 4to.

A. D. 380.

THIS holy prelate is styled a martyr by St. Gregory the Great,1 and in several martyrologies. But was honored only with the title of confessor, in the ancient missal of Verona, before the time of Lewis Lippoman, bishop of that city, in 1548:* and it appears, from the manner in which St. Ambrose, who was his contemporary, writing to Syagrius, our saint’s successor, speaks of his happy death, and extols his eminent sanctity, that he did not die by the sword.2 Living in the days of Constantius, Julian, and Valens, he might deserve the title of martyr, by sharing in the persecutions carried on by those princes. Hence, in some calendars he is styled martyr, in others confessor.

The marquis Scipio Maffei, and some others, pretend from his name that he was a Grecian: but the Ballerini show, from the natural easiness, and the sharpness and conciseness of his style, that he was by birth, or at least by education, a Latin, and an African; which is confirmed from his panegyric on St. Arcadius, a martyr of Mauritania. From the African martyr called Zeno, it is clear this name was there in use. Our saint seems to have been made bishop of Verona in the year 362, in the reign of Julian the Apostate. We learn, from several of his sermons, that he baptized every year a great number of idolaters, and that he exerted himself with great zeal and success against the Arians, whose party had been exceedingly strengthened in those parts by the favor of the emperor Constantius, and the artifices of the ringleaders of that sect, Ursacius and Valens, and particularly of Auxentius, who held the see of Milan, into which the heretics had intruded him, for twenty years, till 374. He also opposed himself, as a strong bulwark, against the errors of the Pelagians. The church of Verona was purged by his zealous labors and holy prayers, in a great measure, both of heresy and of idols. His flock being grown exceeding numerous, he found it necessary to build a great church, in which he was liberally assisted by the voluntary contributions of the rich citizens.3 In this church he mentions a cross of wood erected, as it were, to defend the doors.4 By the precepts and example of this good pastor, the people were so liberal in their alms, that their houses were always open to poor strangers, and none of their own country had occasion even to ask for relief, so plentiful were the necessities of all prevented.5 And he congratulates them upon the interest which they accumulate in heaven by money bestowed on the poor, by which they not only subdue avarice, but convert its treasures to the highest advantage, and without exciting envy. “For what can be richer than a man to whom God is pleased to acknowledge himself debtor?” After the battle of Adrianople, in 378, in which the Goths defeated Valens, with a greater slaughter of the Romans than had ever been known since the battle of Cannæ, the barbarians made in the neighboring provinces of Illyricum and Thrace an incredible number of captives.6 It seems to have been on this occasion, that the charities of the inhabitants of Verona were dispersed like fruitful seeds through the remotest provinces, and by them many were ransomed from slavery, many rescued from cruel deaths, many freed from hard labor.7 St. Zeno himself lived in great poverty.8 He makes frequent mention of the clergy which he trained up to the service of the altar, and the priests his fellow-laborers, to whom a retribution was allotted at Easter, according to every one’s necessities and functions.9 He speaks of the ordinations10 which he performed at Easter:* also the solemn reconciliation of penitents, which was another function of that holy time.11 St. Ambrose mentions,12 at Verona, virgins consecrated to God by St. Zeno, who wore the sacred veil, and lived in their own houses in the city; and others who lived in a monastery, of which he seems to have been both the founder and director, before any were established by St. Ambrose at Milan. Love-feasts, or agapes, were originally established on the festivals of martyrs in their cemeteries, which, by the degeneracy of manners, were at length converted into occasions of intemperance and vanity. St. Zeno inveighed warmly against this abuse.13 Nor can we doubt but he was one of the principal amongst the bishops of Italy, who, by their zeal and eloquence, entirely banished out of their dioceses a custom which gave occasion to such an abuse, for which St. Austin gave them due praise.14 St. Zeno extended his charity to the faithful departed, and condemned severely the intemperate grief of those who interrupted by their lamentations the divine sacrifices and public office of the church for their deceased friends,† which the priests performed by apostolic tradition at the death and funerals of those who slept in Christ. St. Zeno received the crown of his labors by a happy death, in 380, on the 12th of April, on which day he is commemorated in the Roman Martyrology. He is honored at Verona with two other festivals, that of the translation of his relics on the 21st of May, and that of his episcopal consecration, and also of the dedication of his new church in the reign of Pepin, king of Italy, on the 6th of December. The first church which bore his name was built over his tomb, on the banks of the river Adige, without the walls of the city. St. Gregory the Great relates the following miracle, which happened two centuries after the death of the saint, and which he learned from John the Patrician, who was an eye-witness, with king Autharis and count Pronulphus.15 In the year 589, at the same time that the Tiber overflowed a considerable quarter of Rome, and the flood overtopped the walls, the waters of the Adige, which falls from the mountains with excessive rapidity, threatened to drown great part of the city of Verona. The people flocked in crowds to the church of their holy patron Zeno: the waters seemed to respect its doors, they gradually swelled as high as the windows, yet the flood never broke into the church, but stood like a firm wall, as when the Israelites passed the Jordan; and the people remained there twenty-four hours in prayer, till the water subsided within the banks of the channel This prodigy had as many witnesses as there were inhabitants of Verona. The devotion of the people to St. Zeno was much increased by this and other miracles; and, in the reign of Pepin, king of Italy, son of Charlemagne, and brother of Louis Débonnaire, Rotaldus, bishop of Verona, translated his relics into a new spacious church, built under his invocation in 865, where they are kept with singular veneration in a subterraneous chapel.*

St. Zeno is chiefly known to us by his sufferings for the faith. Persecutions and humiliations for Christ are not a chastisement, but a recompense, and the portion of his most faithful servants. Happy are they who know their value, and bear them at least with patience and resignation; but more happy they who, with the martyrs and all the saints, suffer them with a holy joy and exultation. From his own feeling sentiments, and perfect practice of patience, St. Zeno composed his excellent sermon on that virtue, which he closes with this pathetic prayer and eulogium: “How earnestly do I desire, if I were able, to celebrate thee, O Patience, queen of all things! but by my life and manners more than by my words. For thou restest in thy own action and council more than in discourses, and in perfecting rather than in multiplying virtues. Thou art the support of virginity, the secure harbor of widowhood, the guide and directress of the married state, the unanimity of friendship, the comfort and joy of slavery, to which thou art often liberty. By thee, poverty enjoys all, because, content with itself, it bears all. By thee, the prophets were advanced in virtue, and the apostles united to Christ. Thou art the daily crown and mother of the martyrs. Thou art the bulwark of faith, the fruit of hope, and the friend of charity. Thou conductest all the people and all divine virtues, and dishevelled hairs bound up into one knot, for ornament and honor. Happy, eternally happy, is he who shall always possess thee in his soul.”16 In the following discourse, he speaks no less pathetically on humility: but surpasses himself in his sermon or charity, or divine love. “O Charity! how tender, how rich, how powerful art thou! He who possesseth not thee, hath nothing. Thou couldst change God into man. Thou hast overcome death, by teaching a God to die,”17 &c.

APRIL 12 — ST. JULIUS, POPE

He was a Roman, and chosen pope on the 6th of February, in 337. The Arian bishops in the East sent to him three deputies to accuse St Athanasius, the zealous patriarch of Alexandria. These informations, as the order of justice required, Julius imparted to Athanasius, who thereupon sent his deputies to Rome; when, upon an impartial hearing, the advocates of the heretics were confounded, and silenced, upon every article of their accusation. The Arians then demanded a council, and the pope assembled one in Rome, in 341, at which appeared St. Athanasius, Marcellus of Ancyra, and other orthodox prelates, who entreated the pope that he would cite their adversaries to appear. Julius accordingly sent them an order to repair to Rome within a limited time. They, instead of obeying, held a pretended council at Antioch, in 341, in which they presumed to appoint one Gregory, an impious Arian, bishop of Alexandria, detained the pope’s legates beyond the time mentioned for their appearance; and then wrote to his holiness, alleging a pretended impossibility of their appearing, on account of the Persian war and other impediments. The pope easily saw through these pretences, and, in a council at Rome, examined the cause of St. Athanasius, declared him innocent of the things laid to his charge by the Arians, and confirmed him in his see. He also acquitted Marcellus of Ancyra, upon his orthodox profession of faith. “Julius, by virtue of the prerogative of his see, sent the bishops into the East, with letters full of vigor, restoring to each of them his see,” says Socrates.1 “For, because the care of all belonged to him, by the dignity of his see, he restored to every one his church,” as Sozomen writes.2 He drew up and sent by count Gabian, to the Oriental Eusebian bishops, who had first demanded a council, and then refused to appear in it, an excellent letter, which Tillemont calls one of the finest monuments of ecclesiastical antiquity. In it we admire an extraordinary genius, and solid judgment, but far more an apostolic vigor and resolution, tempered with charity and meekness. “If,” says he, “they (Athanasius and Marcellus) had been guilty, ye should have written to us all, that judgment might have been given by all: for they were bishops and churches that suffered, and these not common churches, but the same that the apostles themselves had governed. Why did they not write to us especially concerning the church of Alexandria? Are you ignorant, that it is the custom to write to us immediately, and that the decision ought to come from hence? In case therefore that the bishop of that see lay under any suspicions, ye ought to have written to our church. But now, without having sent us any information on the subject, and having acted just as ye thought proper, ye require of us to approve your measures, without sending us any account of the reasons of your proceedings. These are not the ordinances of Paul, this is not the tradition of our fathers; this is an unprecedented sort of conduct. I declare to you what we have learned from the blessed apostle Peter, and I believe it so well known to everybody, that I should not have mentioned it, had not this happened.”3 Finding the Eusebians still obstinate, he moved Constans, emperor of the West, to demand the concurrence of his brother Constantius in the assembling of a general council at Sardica, in Illyricum. This was opened in May, 347,* and was a general synod, as Baronius and Natalis Alexander demonstrate; but is joined as an appendix to the council of Nice, because it only confirmed its decrees of faith. This council declared St. Athanasius and Marcellus of Ancyra orthodox and innocent, deposed certain Arian bishops, and framed twenty-one canons of discipline. The first of these forbids the translation of bishops; for, if frequently made, it opens a door to let ambition and covetousness into the sanctuary, of which Eusebius of Nicomedia was a scandalous instance. The third, fourth, and seventh agree, that any bishop deposed by a synod in his province, has a right to appeal to the bishop of Rome. St. Julius saw fifteen years, two months, and six days, dying on the 12th of April, 352. See St. Athanasius, Hist. Arianorum ad Monachos, t. 1, p. 349, et Apolog. contra Arianos, pp. 142, 199; Tillemont, t. 7, p. 278; Fleury, t. 3; Ceillier, t. 4, p. 484. See also the letter of Julius to Prosdocius, with remarks; and his letter to the church of Alexandria, with the notes of Muratori, &c., in the second tome of the new complete edition of the Councils, printed at Venice in 1759.

APRIL 12 — ST. VICTOR, OF BRAGA, M

This city was a populous resort of the Romans; on which account it was watered with the blood of many martyrs in the persecution of Dioclesian. The names only of SS. Victor, Sylvester, Cucufas, Susana, and Torquatus, have reached us. Their triumphs are honored in that church, and recorded by Vasæus in his chronicle, and other Spanish historians. St. Victor, who is mentioned in the Roman Martyrology on the 12th of April, was a catechumen, who, refusing to sacrifice to idols, was condemned to lose his head, and baptized in his own blood. See F. Thomas ab Incarnatione. Hist Portug. Sæc. 4, c. 6, p. 218.

APRIL 13 — ST. HERMENEGILD, MARTYR

From St. Gregory the Great, Dial. b. 3, c. 31. St. Gregory of Tours. Hist. b. 5, c. 39, and b. 9, c. 16. Mariana, Hist. b. 5, c. 12. Flores, Espana Sagrada, t. 5 c. 2, p. 200. Henschenius, t. 2, Apr. p. 134.

A. D. 586.

LEVIGILD, or LEOVIGILD, the Goth,* king of Spain, had two sons by his first wife, Theodosia, namely, Hermenegild and Recared. These he educated in the Arian heresy, which he himself professed, but married Hermenegild, the eldest, to Ingondes, a zealous Catholic, and daughter to Sigebert, king of Austrasia, in France. The grandees had hitherto disposed of their crown by election, but Levigild, to secure it to his posterity, associated his two sons with him in his sovereignty, and allotted to each a portion of his dominions to inure them to government, and Seville fell to the lot of the eldest. Ingondes had much to suffer from Gosvint, a bigoted Arian, whom Levigild had married after the death of Theodosia; but, in spite of all her cruel treatment, she adhered strictly to the Catholic faith. And such was the force of her example, and of the instructions and exhortations of St. Leander, bishop of Seville, that the prince became a convert; and, taking the opportunity of his father’s absence, abjured his heresy, and was received into the church by the imposition of hands, and the unction of chrism on the forehead. Levigild, who was already exasperated against his son, upon the first appearance of his change, being now informed of his open profession of the Catholic faith, in a transport of rage divested him of the title of king, and resolved to deprive him of his possessions, his princess, and even his life, unless he returned to his former sentiments. Hermenegild, looking upon himself as a sovereign prince, resolved to stand upon his defence, and was supported by all the Catholics in Spain; but they were by much too weak to defend him against the Arians. The prince therefore sent St. Leander to Constantinople, to solicit Tiberius for succors. But he dying soon after, and his successor, Maurice, being obliged to employ all his forces to defend his own dominions against the Persians, who had made many irruptions into the imperial territories, no succors were to be obtained. Hermenegild implored next the assistance of the Roman generals, who were with a small army in that part of Spain, on the coast of the Mediterranean, of which the empire of Constantinople still retained possession. They engaged themselves by oath to protect him, and received his wife Ingondes and infant son for hostages; but, being corrupted by Levigild’s money, they basely betrayed him. Levigild held his son besieged in Seville above a year, till Hermenegild, no longer able to defend himself in his capital, fled secretly to join the Roman camp; but being informed of their treachery, he went to Cordova, and thence to Osseto, a very strong place, in which there was a church, held in particular veneration over all Spain. He shut himself up in this fortress with three hundred chosen men; but the place was taken and burnt by Levigild. The prince sought a refuge in a church at the foot of the altar; and the Arian king, not presuming to violate that sacred place, permitted his second son, Recared, then an Arian, to go to him, and to promise him pardon, in case he submitted himself and asked forgiveness. Hermenegild believed his father sincere, and going out threw himself at his feet. Levigild embraced him, and renewed his fair promises, with a thousand caresses, till he had got him into his own camp. He then ordered him to be shipped of his royal robes, loaded with chains, and conducted prisoner to the tower of Seville, in 586, when the saint had reigned two years, as F. Flores proves from one of his coins, and other monuments.

There he again employed all manner of threats and promises to draw him back to his heresy, and hoping to overcome his constancy, caused him to be confined in a most frightful dungeon, and treated with all sorts of cruelty. The martyr repeated always what he had before written to his father: “I confess your goodness to me has been extreme. I will preserve to my dying breath the respect, duty, and tenderness which I owe you; but is it possible that you should desire me to prefer worldly greatness to my salvation? I value the crown as nothing; I am ready to lose sceptre and life too, rather than abandon the divine truth.” The prison was to him a school of virtue. He clothed himself in sackcloth, and added other voluntary austerities to the hardships of his confinement, and, with fervent prayers, begged of God to vouchsafe him the strength and assistance which was necessary to support him in his combat for the truth. The solemnity of Easter being come, the perfidious father sent to him an Arian bishop in the night, offering to take him into favor, if he received the communion from the hand of that prelate, but Hermenegild rejected the proposal with indignation, reproaching the messenger with the impiety of his sect, as if he had been at full liberty The bishop returning to the Arian king with this account, the furious father seeing the faith of his son proof against all his endeavors to pervert him, sent soldiers out of hand to dispatch him. They entered the prison, and found the saint fearless and ready to receive the stroke of death, which they instantly inflicted on him, cleaving his head with an axe, whereby his brains were scattered on the floor. St. Gregory the Great attributes to the merits of this martyr the conversion of his brother, king Recared, and of the whole kingdom of the Visigoths in Spain. Levigild was stung with remorse for his crime, and though by God’s secret but just judgment he was not himself converted, yet on his death-bed he recommended his son Recared to St. Leander, desiring him to instruct him in the same manner as he had done his brother Hermenegild, that is, to make him a Catholic. This saint received the crown of martyrdom on Easter Eve, the 13th of April. His body remains at Seville. St. Gregory of Tours observes, that whatever guilt this holy king and martyr incurred by taking up arms against his father, this at least was expiated by his heroic virtue and death. Before St. Hermenegild declared himself a Catholic, the persecution was raised with great violence against the Goths, who embraced the orthodox faith of the Trinity, and many lost their goods, many were banished, and several died of hunger, or by violence. St. Gregory of Tours ascribes not only the death of St. Hermenegild, but also this whole persecution, chiefly to the instigation of Gosvint.

St. Hermenegild began then to be truly a king, says St. Gregory the Great, when he became a martyr. From his first conversion to the true faith, it was his main study to square his life by the most holy maxims of the gospel. Yet, perhaps, while he lived amidst the hurry, flatteries, and pomp of a throne, his virtue was for some time imperfect, and his heart was not perfectly crucified to the world. But humiliations and sufferings for Christ, which the saint bore with the heroic courage, the fidelity, and perfect charity of the martyrs, entirely broke all secret ties of his affections to the earth, and rendered him already a martyr in the disposition of his soul, before he attained to that glorious crown. Christ founded all the glory of his humanity and that of his spiritual kingdom, the salvation of the universe, and all the other great designs of his sacred incarnation, upon the meanness of his poor and abject life, and his ignominious sufferings and death. This same conduct he held in his apostles and all his saints. Their highest exaltation in his grace and glory was built upon their most profound humility, and the most perfect crucifixion of their hearts to the world and themselves; the foundation of which was most frequently laid by the greatest exterior as well as interior humiliations. How sweet, how glorious were the advantages of which, by this means, they became possessed, even in this life! God making their souls his kingdom, and by his grace and holy charity reigning sovereignly in all their affections. Thou hast made us a kingdom to our God, and we shall reign, say all pious souls to Christ, penetrated with gratitude for his inexpressible mercy and goodness, with esteem for his grace and love alone, and with a contempt of all earthly things. They are truly kings, depending on God alone, being in all things, with inexpressible joy, subject to him only, and to all creatures, purely for his sake; enjoying a perfect liberty, despising equally the frowns and the flatteries of the world, ever united to God. The riches of this interior kingdom, which they possess in Christ are incomprehensible, as St. Paul assures us. They consist in his grace light, science of divine things, true wisdom, and sublime sentiments of his love and all virtues. In this kingdom, souls are so replenished with the fulness of God, as St. Paul expresses it, that they can desire no other goods This is to be truly rich. Joy and pleasure are possessed in this kingdom. The solid delight, sweetness, comfort, and peace, which a soul relishes in it, surpass all the heart can desire, or the understanding conceive. Lastly all worldly splendor is less than a dream or shadow, if compared to the dignity, glory, and honor of this happy state. Thus was St. Hermenegild a great king in his chains. We also are invited to the same kingdom.

APRIL 13 — ST. GUINOCH, B. C. IN SCOTLAND

By his prayers and counsels, he was many years the support both of the church and state, among the Scots, in the ninth century, in the reign of Kenneth II., &c. The Aberdeen breviary and Henschenius place him under king Enos. He died about the year 838. See Major,1. 2, c. 14. Camerarius in Menologio Scotico, King, &c.

APRIL 13 — SAINT CARADOC, PRIEST AND HERMIT

He was a Welsh nobleman, native of Brecknockshire, who after he had received a liberal education, enjoyed the confidence of Rees, or Resus, prince of South-Wales, and held an honorable place in his court. The prince one day, on account of two greyhounds which were lost, fell into such a fury against Caradoc as to threaten his life. Caradoc, from this disgrace and check, learned the inconstancy and uncertainty of worldly honors and the best founded hopes, and resolved to dedicate himself altogether to the service of the King of kings, whose promises can never fail, and whose rewards are eternal. Upon the spot he made the sacrifice of himself to God, by a vow of perpetual continency, and of embracing a religious life. Repairing to Landaff, he received from the bishop the clerical tonsure, and for some time served God in the church of St. Theliau. Being desirous of finding a closer solitude, he afterwards spent some years in a little hut, which he built himself, near an abandoned church of St. Kined, in the country in which he made his prayer. The reputation of his sanctity filled the whole country, and the archbishop of Menevia, or St. David’s, calling him to that town, promoted him to priestly orders. The saint hence retired, with certain devout companions, to the isle of Ary. Certain pirates from Norway, who often infested these coasts, carried them off prisoners, but, fearing the judgments of God, safely set them on shore again the next day. However, the archbishop of Menevia assigned the saint another habitation in the monastery of St. Hismael, commonly called Ysam, in the country of Ross, or Pembroke-shire. Henry I., king of England, having subdued the southern Welsh, sent a colony of Flemings into the country of Ross, who drove the old Britons out of their possessions. The saint and his monastery suffered much from the oppressions of these new inhabitants, especially of Richard Tankard, a powerful Englishman among them. This nobleman was, after some time, struck by God with a dangerous illness, and having recourse to St. Caradoc, was, by his prayers, restored to his health. From this time the saint and his monastery found him a benefactor and protector. St Caradoc died on Low-Sunday, the 13th of April, in the year 1124, and was buried with great honor in the church of St David’s. We are assured that his tomb was illustrated by miracles, and his body was found whole and incorrupt several years after, when it was translated with great solemnity. See his life, written by Giraldus Cambrensis, the famous bishop of St. David’s, near his time extant in Capgrave: also William of Malmesbury, &c.

APRIL 14 — SS. TIBURTIUS, VALERIAN, AND MAXIMUS, MM

See the acts of St. Cecily, and the remarks of Henschenius, ad 14 Aprills, t. 2, pp. 203, 220.

A. D. 229.

THESE holy martyrs have always been held in singular veneration in the church, as appears from the ancient calendar of Fronto, the sacramentary of St. Gregory, St. Jerom’s Martyrology, that of Thomasius, &c. Valerian was espoused to St. Cecily, and converted by her to the faith; and with her he became the instrument of the conversion of his brother Tiburtius. Maximus, the officer appointed to attend their execution, was brought to the faith by the example of their piety: and received with them the crown of martyrdom, in the year 229. The theatre of their triumph seems to have been Rome, though some have imagined they suffered in Sicily. They were interred in the burying-place of Prætextatus, which, from them, took the name of Tiburtius. It was contiguous to that of Calixtus. In that place pope Gregory III. repaired their monument in 740; and Adrian 1. built a church under their patronage. But pope Paschal translated the remains of these martyrs, of St. Cecily, and the popes SS. Urban and Lucius, into the city, where the celebrated church of St. Cecily stands. These relics were found in it in 1599, and visited by the order of Clement VIII., and approved genuine by the cardinals Baronius and Sfondrate. The Greeks vie with the Latins in their devotion to these martyrs.

Most agreeable to the holy angels was this pious family, converted to God by the zeal and example of St. Cecily, who frequently assembled to sing together, with heavenly purity and fervor, the divine praises. We shall also draw upon ourselves the protection, constant favor, and tender attention of the heavenly spirits, if we faithfully imitate the same angelical exercise. Mortification, temperance, humility, meekness, purity of mind and body, continual sighs toward heaven, prayer, accompanied with tears and vehement heavenly desires, disengagement of the heart from the world, a pure and assiduous attention to God and to his holy will, and a perfect union by the most sincere fraternal charity, are virtues and exercises infinitely pleasing to them. The angels of peace are infinitely delighted to see the same perfect intelligence and union, which makes an essential part of their bliss in heaven, reign among us on earth, and that we have all but one heart and one soul Happy are those holy souls which have renounced the world, in order more perfectly to form in their hearts the spirit of these virtues, in which they cease not, day and night, to attend to the divine praises, and consecrate themselves to Jesus Christ, by employing their whole life in this divine exercise. Their profession is a prelude to, or rather a kind of anticipation of, the bliss of heaven. The state of the blessed indeed surpasses it in certain high privileges and advantages. First, They praise God with far greater love and esteem, because they see and know him much more clearly and as he is in himself. Secondly, They praise him with more joy, because they possess him fully. Thirdly, Their praises have neither end nor interruption. Yet our present state has also its advantages. First, If our praises are mingled with tears, compunction, watchfulness, and conflicts, they merit a continual immense increase of grace, love, and bliss for eternity. Secondly, Our praises cost labor, difficulty, and pain they are a purgatory of love; those of the blessed the reward and the sovereign bliss. Thirdly, We praise God in a place where he is little loved and little known: we celebrate his glory in an enemy’s country, amidst the contradiction of sinners. This obliges us to acquit ourselves of this duty with the utmost fidelity and fervor. A second motive to excite us to assiduity in this exercise is, that it associates us already to the angels and saints, and makes the earth a paradise: it is also, next to the sacraments, the most powerful means of our sanctification and salvation. With what delight do the holy angels attend and join us in it! With what awe and fervor, with what purity of heart, ardent love, and profound sentiments of humility, adoration, and all virtues, ought we in such holy invisible company to perform this most sacred action! We should go to it penetrated with fear and respect, as if we were admitted into the sanctuary of heaven itself, and mingled in its glorious choirs. We ought to behave at it as if we were in paradise, with the utmost modesty, in silence, annihilating ourselves in profound adoration with the seraphim, and pronouncing every word with interior sentiment and relish. From prayer we must come as if we were just descended from heaven, with an earnest desire of speedily returning thither, bearing God in our souls, all animated and inflamed by him, and preserving that spirit of devotion with which his presence filled us at prayer.

APRIL 14 — SS. CARPUS, B. OF THYATIRA, IN ASIA MINOR, PAPYLUS HIS DEACON, AND AGATHODORUS THEIR SERVANT, MM

In the persecution of Decius, in 251, they were apprehended and brought before Valerius, governor of Lesser Asia, who resided sometimes at Thyatira, sometimes at Sardis. The martyrs suffered much in dungeons in both those cities, and underwent three severe examinations; in the third, to intimidate the masters, Agathodorus was, in their presence, scourged to death with bull’s sinews. When the proconsul went to Pergamus, which city was the birthplace both of the bishop and his deacon, the two saints were dragged thither, and first the bishop, then the deacon, was beaten with knotty clubs, their sides burnt with torches, and the wounds rubbed over with salt. Some days after they were laid on iron spikes, their sides were again torn, and at length both were consumed by the flames, together with Agathonice, a sister of Papylus. See their acts, quoted by Eusebius b. 4, c. 15; Tillemont, t. 3, p. 346.

APRIL 14 — SS. ANTONY, JOHN, AND EUSTACHIUS, MM

They were three noblemen of Lithuania, and the two first brothers, commonly called in that country, Kukley, Mihley, and Nizilo. They were all three chamberlains to Olgerd, the great duke of Lithuania, who governed that country from the year 1329 to 1381,1 and was father of the famous Jagello. They also attended on the great duchess, and were worshippers of fire, according to the idolatrous superstition of that country, till they had the happiness to be converted to the Christian faith, and baptized by a priest called Nestorius. For refusing to eat forbidden meats on fast-days, they were cast into prison, and, after many trials, put to death by order of Olgerd, the great duke; John, the eldest of them, on the 24th of April, his brother Antony on the 14th of June, Eustachius, who was then young, on the 13th of December. This last had suffered many other torments before his execution, having been beaten with clubs, had his legs broken, and the hair and skin of his head violently torn off, because he would not suffer his hair to be shaved, according to the custom of the heathens. They suffered at Vilna, about the year 1342, and were buried in the church of the Holy Trinity, of the Russian-Greek rite, united in communion to the Roman Catholic church. Their bodies still remain in that church, which is served by Basilian monks; but their heads were translated to the cathedral. The great oak tree on which they were hanged had long been the usual place of execution of malefactors; but, after their martyrdom, the Christians obtained a grant of it from the prince, and built a church upon the spot. These martyrs were ordered to be honored among the saints by Alexius, patriarch of Kiow, of the Catholic communion. Their feast is kept at Vilna on the 14th of April, and they are regarded as the particular patrons of that city. See Kulcimus, in Specim. p. 12, and Albertus Wijuk Kojalowicz, in his Miscellanea rerum ad statum Eccles. in magno Lithuaniæ Ducatu pertinentium. Henschenius, t. 2, Apr. p. 265. Jos. Assemani, in Kalend. Univ. t. 6, p. 254, ad 14 Apr.

APRIL 14 — ST. BENEZET, OR LITTLE BENNET, PATRON OF AVIGNON

He kept his mother’s sheep in the country, being devoted to the practices of piety beyond his age; when, moved by charity to save the lives of many poor persons, who were frequently drowned in passing the Rhone, and being inspired by God, he undertook to build a bridge over that rapid river at Avignon. He obtained the approbation of the bishop, proved his mission by miracles, and began the work in 1177, which he directed during seven years. He died when the difficulty of the undertaking was over, in 1184. This is attested by public monuments drawn up at that time, and still preserved at Avignon, where the story is in everybody’s mouth. His body was buried upon the bridge itself, which was not completely finished till four years after his decease, the structure whereof was attended with miracles, from the first laying the foundations till it was completed in 1188. Other miracles, wrought after this at his tomb, induced the city to build a chapel upon the bridge, in which his body lay near five hundred years: but, in 1669, a great part of the bridge falling down, through the impetuosity of the waters, the coffin was taken up, and being opened, in 1670, in presence of the grand vicar, during the vacancy of the archiepiscopal see, it was found entire, without the least sign of corruption; even the bowels were perfectly sound, and the color of the eyes lively and sprightly, though, through the dampness of the situation, the iron bars about it were much damaged with rust. The body was found in the same condition by the archbishop of Avignon, in 1674, when, accompanied by the bishop of Orange, and a great concourse of nobility, he performed the translation of it, with great pomp, into the church of the Celestines, (a house of royal foundation,) who had obtained of Louis XIV. the honor to be intrusted with the custody of his relics, till such time as the bridge and chapel should be rebuilt. See the description of this pompous translation in the Bollandists. April, t. 2, pp. 958, 959, and Papebroke’s remarks on his life, p. 255.

APRIL 14 — B. LIDWINA, COMMONLY CALLED LYDWID, V

Was born at Schiedham, or Squidam, in Holland, near the mouth of the Meuse, in 1380. From seven years of age, she conceived an extraordinary devotion to the Blessed Virgin; and, when she was sent abroad by her mother on an errand, would go to the church to salute the Mother of God, by a Hail Mary, before her image there. At twelve years of age she made a vow of virginity. At fifteen, amusing herself with skating with her companions, according to the custom of that country, she fell on rough broken pieces of ice, and broke a rib. From this hurt, accompanied with an inward bruise, and from a great imposthume which was formed in the womb, she suffered extremely, taking very little nourishment, and struggling night and day under great pains. An ulcer also consumed her lungs, and she sometimes vomited up great quantities of purulent matter. She had also three exterior ulcers, besides a complication of other distempers from the inward bruises, which brought on a dropsy, under which she labored nineteen years; for the last seven years, she was not able to stir herself in bed, nor even to move any part of her body, except her head and left arm. When moved by others, she was bound with cloths to keep the parts of her body together, so much was it torn and emaciated. She lived a considerable time almost without either nourishment or sleep, and had many sores on her face, legs, and other parts, like scorbutic inflammations and ulcers. For the thirty last years of her life, she never quitted her bed. The three or four first years of her sickness she was obliged to use violence, and to make continual efforts to maintain her soul constantly in the perfect sentiments of patience and resignation. After this term, by the advice of her confessarius, the devout John Pot, she employed herself continually in meditating on our Saviour’s sacred passion, which she divided into seven parts, to correspond to the seven canonical hours of prayer; in which she occupied herself day and night. By this practice and meditation, she soon found all her bitterness and affliction converted into sweetness and consolation, and her soul so much changed, that she prayed God would rather increase her pains, together with her patience, than suffer them to abate. She was even ingenious, by private mortifications, to add to her sufferings, in which she found a hidden manna. She lay on a poor straw bed, like a true sister of the suffering Lazarus, yet would strive to make it more uneasy to her under her other pains. Whatever was given her in alms, above the little which served for her own support, she distributed among the poor, not suffering any of her family, though indigent, to partake of it. After the death of her pious parents, she gave to the poor all the goods they bequeathed to her. Before she had, by constantly meditating on our Lord’s passion, by assiduous prayer and self-denial, acquired a love and relish of the cross, patience was more difficult to her, and less perfect: but when filled with the Spirit of Christ, she found a comfort in her pains, and it appeared how God had, in his tender mercy, visited her only to purify her heart to himself, and to fill it with his graces. She spoke of God with such unction, that her words softened and converted hardened sinners. Her patience was recompensed a hundredfold in this world by the extraordinary spiritual consolations with which she was often favored and by the grace of the Holy Ghost, accompanied with a wonderful gift of miracles, and many divine revelations. She sometimes had trials of spiritual dryness, but these served only more perfectly to purify her soul, and prepare her for sweeter visits of her heavenly Comforter. The holy sacrament of the eucharist was, above all other means, her principal strength, comfort, and happiness on earth; it renewed in her breast the burning flame of divine love, and nourished in her a continual source of tears and compunction. Her humility made her desire nothing so much as obscurity, and to be unknown and contemned by all men. After a severe martyrdom of thirty-eight years, in painful sickness, she was called to a crown of glory on Easter-Tuesday, the 14th of April, 1433, being fifty-three years old. God honored her by miracles, to some of which Thomas à Kempis was an eye-witness. The chapel in which her body lay, in a marble tomb, in the parish church of Schiedham, begun to bear her name in 1434; and her father’s house, in which she died, was, after her death, converted into a monastery of Gray Sisters, of the third order of St. Francis. The Calvinists demolished the above-mentioned chapel; but changed the monastery into a hospital for orphans. Her relics soon after were conveyed to Brussels, and enshrined in the collegiate church of St. Gudula. The infanta Isabella procured a partition of them to be made, and placed one moiety in the church of the Carmelite nuns, of which she was the foundress. She was never beatified; but a mass on the B. Trinity was sung in her chapel at Schiedham on her festival, with a panegyric on the holy virgin. See her life compiled by John Gerlac, her cousin, and John Walter, her confessor: and by John Brugman, provincial of the Franciscans, who were all personally acquainted with her. Also from her life, abridged by Thomas à Kempis. See Papebroke the Bollandist, 14th April, t. 2, p. 287; Molanus, &c.

APRIL 15 — ST. PETER GONZALES, C., COMMONLY CALLED ST. TELM, OR ELM, PATRON OF MARINERS

From Bzovius ad an. 1246; the monuments collected by the Bollandists on the 14th of April, t. 2, p. 389. See F. Touron, Hommes Illustr. t. 1, p. 49.

A. D. 1246.

THE best historians place the birth of St. Peter Gonzales, in Latin Gonsalvus, in the year 1190, at Astorga, in the kingdom of Leon, in Spain, where he was descended of an illustrious family. His wonderful progress in his studies showed him endowed with an extraordinary quickness of parts, and he embraced an ecclesiastical state, though at that time a stranger to the spirit of disengagement and humility which ought essentially to accompany it. His uncle, the bishop of Astorga, charmed with his capacity, preferred him to a canonry, and shortly after to the deanery of his chapter. The young dean, free indeed from vice, but full of the spirit of the world, took possession of his dignity with great pomp, but in the midst of his pride, happened, by a false step of his prancing horse, to fall into a sink. This was the moment in which God was pleased to strike his heart. This humiliation made the young gentleman enter into himself, and with remorse to condemn his own vanity, and fondness of applause, which deserved a much worse disgrace. Opening his heart to these sentiments of grace, without taking advice from flesh and blood, he retired to Palencia, to learn the will of God in solitude, fasting, and prayer. To fight against pride and self-love, he labored strenuously to put off the old man by mortification and humility and became quickly a new man in Christ, recollected, penitent, meek, and humble. The better to secure his victory over the world and himself, he entered the austere order of St. Dominick. The world pursued him into his retreat. Its wise men left no stone unturned to make him return to his dignity: but he was guided by better lights, and baffled all their suggestions. Having made his vows, and strengthened his soul in the spirit of humility and penance, by the exercises of holy retirement and obedience, he was ordered by his superiors to employ his talents in the ministry of the divine word, to which he consecrated the remainder of his life, to the great advantage of innumerable souls. After he had passed the best part of the night in holy meditations, or in singing the praises of God, he spent the whole day in instructing the faithful: his words, always animated with a burning charity, and supported by example, produced in his hearers the perfect sentiments with which he endeavored to inspire them. The greatest libertines melted into tears at his sermons, and cast themselves at his feet in a spirit of compunction and penance. The number of conversions which God wrought by his ministry in the kingdom of Leon and Castile, especially in the diocese of Palencia, made king Ferdinand III., though always taken up in his wars with the Saracens, desirous to see him; and so much was he taken with the man of God, that he would have him always near his person, both in the court and in the field. He would have him always be present at his discourses, whether made to the generals, courtiers, or soldiers; and the holy man, by his prayers and exhortations, reformed the corrupt manners both of the troops and court. His example gave the greatest weight to his words; for he lived in the court as he would have done in a cloister, with the same austerities, the same recollection, the same practices of humility, and other virtues. Yet some slaves of pleasure hardened themselves against his zeal, and occasioned him many sufferings. A courtesan was told by some of the nobility, that, if she heard Gonzales preach, she would change her life. She impudently answered: “If I had the liberty to speak to him in private, he could no more resist my charms than so many others.’ The lords, out of a malicious curiosity, promised her a great sum if she could draw him into sin. She went to the saint, and, that she might speak to him alone, said she wanted to consult him on a secret affair of importance. When others were gone out, she fell on her knees, and, shedding forced tears, pretended she desired to change her life, and began to make a sham confession to him of her sins, but had nothing else in view than to insnare the servant of God, and at last, throwing off all disguise, said all that the devil prompted her in order to seduce him. But her artifices only served to make his triumph the more glorious. Stepping into another room, where there was a fire, and wrapping himself in his cloak, he threw himself upon the burning coals, and then called upon her to come, and see where he waited for her. She, amazed to see him not burn, cast herself on the ground, confessing her crimes aloud, and suddenly became a true penitent, as they did also who had employed her. The saint accompanied Ferdinand, king of Leon and Castile, in all his expeditions against the Moors, particularly in the siege and taking of Cordova, in 1236, which, from the year 718, had ever been the chief seat of the Moorish dominions in Spain. Gonzales had a great share in the conquests and temporal advantages of this prince, by his prudent counsels and prayers, and by the good order which he prevailed with the officers and soldiers to observe The conquest of Cordova opened a new field to the zeal of Gonzales He moderated the ardor of the conquerors, saved he honor of the virgins and the lives of many enemies and purified the mosques, converting them into churches: in all which he was seconded by king Ferdinand III., surnamed the Saint. The great mosque of Cordova, the most famous of all Spain, became the cathedral church: and whereas the Moors, when they conquered Compostella, two hundred and sixty years before, had carried away the bells and ornaments on the backs of Christians, and placed them in this mosque, king Ferdinand compelled the infidels to carry them back themselves in the same manner to Compostella.

Gonzales burned with so ardent a desire to preach the great truths of our holy religion to the poor and the peasants, that no entreaties or solicitations could retain him any longer at court. Galicia, and the rest of the coast, were the chief theatres of his pious labors the latter years of his life. Neither mountains, nor places of the most difficult access in As uria, and other parts, nor the ignorance and brutality of the people, could daunt his courage. Under these fatigues, prayer was his refreshment. He appeared everywhere as a new apostle. But the success of his ministry was the most surprising in the diocese of Compostella and Tuy, in which also he wrought many miracles. At Bayona in Galicia, the number of his auditors having obliged him to preach in a great plain, in the open fields, and a violent storm arising with wind, thunder, and lightning, his whole audience began to be very uneasy, and thought to prevent the worst by flying. The holy preacher prevailed upon them to stay, and by prayer appeased the tempest. All places round about them were deluged; but not a drop fell on the auditory. The saint had a particular zeal to instruct the poor in the country, and the sailors, whom he sought on their vessels, and among whom he finished his mortal course. He foretold his death on Palm-Sunday, and desiring to die in the arms of his brethren at Compostella, set out from Tuy thither, but, growing worse on the road, returned to the former place on foot; so unwilling was he to remit any thing in his penitential life. Luke, the famous bishop of Tuy, his great admirer and friend, attended him to his las breath; buried him honorably in his cathedral, and in his last will gave directions for his own body to be laid near the remains of this servant of God. They are now exposed to public veneration, in the same church, in a magnificent silver shrine, and have been honored with many miracles. Some place his death on the 15th, and others on the 14th of April, in 1246. Pope Innocent IV. beatified him eight years after, in 1254, and granted an office to his order in Spain, which was extended to the city of Tuy, though he has not been solemnly canonized. Pope Benedict XIV. approved his office for the whole Order of St. Dominick. The Spanish and Portuguese mariners invoke his intercession in storms, and by it have often received sensible marks of the divine succor. They call him corruptly St. Telm, or Elmo, which Papebroke and Baillet derive originally from St. Erasmus, who was implored, anciently, as a patron by sailors, in the Mediterranean.

If we look into the lives of all holy preachers and pastors, especially that of our Divine model, the Prince of pastors and Saint of saints, we shall find that the essential spirit of this state is that of interior recollection and devotion, by which the soul is constantly united to God. This is only learned by an apprenticeship of retirement, and is founded in rooted habits of humility, compunction, and prayer. Great learning is indeed necessary for the discharge of the pastoral duties; but this, and all exterior talents, must be directed and made spiritual by the interior spirit and intention, or they will be pernicious to the pastor, if not also to those whom he ought to direct. For fear of the dangers and abuse of human qualifications, some have chose in some measure to despise them, hoping thus more securely to find God in solitude, penance, and contemplation. This cannot be allowed to those who are destined to share in pastoral functions But for such to place any confidence in human industry or abilities, would be still a far more fatal disorder. It is from true interior charity, zeal, compunction, devotion, and humility, that they must derive all their power, and be made instrumental in promoting the divine honor, and the sanctification of souls. The pastor must be interiorly filled with the spirit of God and his pure love, that this holy disposition may animate all he says or does exteriorly. To entertain this interior spirit, self-denial, humility, perfect obedience, a contempt of the world, assiduous prayer, and constant recollection, must be his perpetual study. Those clergymen who pass their lives in dissipation, and whose thoughts and hearts are always wandering abroad, are undoubtedly strangers to the essential spirit of their state.

APRIL 15 — SS. BASILISSA AND ANASTASIA, MM

These two noble women were disciples of the apostles SS. Peter and Paul at Rome, and were beheaded by the order of Nero, as the Roman and Greek Martyrologies testify.

APRIL 15 — ST. PATERNUS, BISHOP OF AVRANCHES, C. CALLED BY THE FRENCH PATIER, PAIR, AND FOIX

He was born at Poitiers, about the year 482. His father, Patranus, with the consent of his wife, went into Ireland, where he ended his days in holy solitude. Paternus, fired by his example, embraced young a monastic life in the abbey of Ansion, called, in succeeding ages, Marnes, and at present, from the name of a holy abbot of that house, St. Jovin des Marnes, in the diocese of Poitiers. After some time, burning with a desire of attaining to the perfection of Christian virtue, he passed over to Wales, and in Cardiganshire founded a monastery called Llan-patern-vaur, or the church of the great Paternus. He made a visit to his father in Ireland: but being called back to his monastery of Ansion, he soon after retired with St. Scubilion, a monk of that house, and embraced an austere anchoretical life in the forest of Scicy, in the diocese of Coutances, near the sea, having first obtained leave of the bishop and of the lord of the place. This desert, which was then of a great extent, but has been since gradually gained upon by the sea, was anciently in great request among the Druids. St. Pair converted to the faith the idolaters of that and many neighboring parts, as far as Bayeux, and prevailed with them to demolish a pagan temple in this desert, which was held in great veneration by the ancient Gauls. St. Senier, called in Latin Senator, St. Gaud, and St. Aroastes, holy priests, were his fellow hermits in this wilderness, and his fellow-laborers in these missions. St. Pair, in his old age, was consecrated bishop of Avranches by Germanus, bishop of Rouen. The church of Avranches was exceedingly propagated in the reign of Clovis or his children, by St. Severus, the second bishop of the see, who built the famous abbey which still bears his name, in the diocese of Coutances, and is honored at Rouen on the 1st of February, at Avranches on the 7th of July. St. Pair governed his diocese thirteen years, and died about the year 550, on the same day with St. Scubilion. Both were buried in the same monument, in the oratory of Scicy, now the parish church of St. Pair, a village much frequented by pilgrims, near Granville, on the seacoast. In the same oratory was interred St. Senator, or Senier, the successor of St. Pair in the see of Avranches, who died in 563, and is honored on the 18th of September. The church* is still enriched with the greatest part of these relics, and those of St. Gaud, except those of St. Severus and St. Senier, which have been translated to the cathedral at Rouen, and portions of St. Senier’s are at St. Magloire’s and St. Victor’s at Paris. St. Pair is titular saint of a great number of churches in those parts. See his life in Mabillon, sæc. 2, Ben. p. 1103; Gallia Christ. Nova, t. 11, p. 471; Fleury,1. 33, t. 7. The abridgment of his life by Rouault, curate of St. Pair’s, printed in 1734, stands in need of a critical hand.

APRIL 15 — ST. MUNDE, ABBOT

Several churches bear the name of this saint in Argvleshire in Scotland, in which he was formerly honored as principal patron, and which he edified by the shining light of his example, and by his zealous preaching in the tenth century. He governed there a great monastery, founded several others in that province, and left behind him many great models of Christian perfection. His excellent maxims, relating to the most tender and universal fraternal charity, meekness, the love of silence and retiredness, and a constant attention to the divine presence, were handed down to posterity as sacred oracles. St. Munde died in a happy old age, in 962. See King, Hunter the Dominican, De Viris Illustr. Scotiæ, &c.

APRIL 15 — ST. RUADHAN, ABBOT

This saint was born in the western part of Leinster. Having built the monastery of Lothraen, he assembled in it one hundred and fifty fervent monks, with whom he divided his time between the exercises of prayer and manual labor, which he also sanctified by prayer. He was advanced to the episcopal dignity, and was called one of the twelve apostles of Ireland. He died in 584. See the Register of Kilkenny, and Colgan, in MSS.

APRIL 16 — EIGHTEEN MARTYRS OF SARAGOSSA, AND ST. ENCRATIS, OR ENGRATIA, V. M

From Prudentlus de Cot hymn. 4. See Vasæus Belga in Chron. Hisp. Breviarium Eborense a Resendio recognitum, an. 1569.

A. D. 304.

ST. OPTATUS, and seventeen other holy men,† received the crown of martyrdom on the same day, at Saragossa, under the cruel governor Dacian, in the persecution of Dioclesian, in 804. Two others, Caius and Crementius, died of their torments after a second conflict, as Prudentius relates.

The same venerable author describes, in no less elegant verse, the triumph of St. Encratis, or Engratia, virgin. She was a native of Portugal. Her father had promised her in marriage to a man of quality in Rousillon, but, fearing the dangers, and despising the vanities of the world, and resolving to preserve her virginity, in order to appear more agreeable to her heavenly spouse, and serve him without hinderance, she fled privately to Saragossa, where the persecution was hottest, under the eyes of Dacian. She even reproached him with his barbarities, upon which he ordered her to be long tormented in the most inhuman manner: her sides were torn with iron hooks, and one of her breasts was cut off, so that the inner parts of her chest were exposed to view, and part of her liver pulled out. In this condition she was sent back to prison, being still alive, and died by the mortifying of her wounds, in 304. The relics of all these martyrs were found at Saragossa in 1389. Prudentius recommended himself to their intercession, and exhorts the city, through their prayers, to implore the pardon of their sins, with him, that they might follow them to glory.*

The martyrs, by a singular happiness and grace, were made perfect holocausts of divine love. Every Christian must offer himself a perpetual sacrifice to God, and by an active submission to his will, a constant fidelity to his law, and a total consecration of all his affections, devote to him all the faculties of his soul and body, all the motions of his heart, all the actions and moments of his life, and this with the most ardent, unabated love, and the most vehement desire of being altogether his. Can we consider that our most amiable and loving God, after having conferred upon us numberless other benefits, has, with infinite love, given us himself, by becoming man, making himself a bleeding victim for our redemption, and in the holy eucharist remaining always with us, to be our constant sacrifice of adoration and propitiation, and to be our spiritual food, comfort, and strength; lastly, by being the eternal spouse of our souls? Can we, I say, consider that our infinite God has so many ways, out of love, made himself all ours, and not be transported with admiration and love, and cry out with inexpressible ardor: My beloved is mine, and I am his. Yes, I will from this moment dedicate myself entirely to him. Why am not I ready to die of grief and compunction that I ever lived one moment not wholly to him! Oh! my soul, base, mean, sinful, and unworthy as thou art, the return which by thy love and sacrifice thou makest to thy infinite God, bears no proportion, and is on innumerable other titles a debt, and thy sovereign exaltation and happiness. It is an effect of his boundless mercy that he accepts thy oblation, and so earnestly sues for it by bidding thee give him thy heart. Set at least no bounds to the ardor with which thou makest it the only desire of thy heart, and thy only endeavor to be wholly his, by faithfully corresponding to his grace, and by making thy heart an altar on which thou never ceasest to offer all thy affections and powers to him, and to his greater glory, and to become a pure victim to burn and be entirely consumed with the fire of divine love. In union with the divine victim, the spotless lamb, who offers himself on our altars and in heaven for us, our sacrifice, however unworthy and imperfect, will find acceptance; but for it to be presented with, and by what is so holy, what is sanctity itself, with what purity, with what fervour ought it to be made!

APRIL 16 — ST. TURIBIUS, BISHOP OF ASTORGA

A Zealous maintainer of ecclesiastical discipline, and defender of the faith against the Priscillianist heresy in Spain; in which his endeavors were seconded by St. Leo the Great, as appears by his letter to St. Turibius.1 His predecessor, Dictinius, had the misfortune to fall into the heresy of the Priscillianists; but was never deposed, as Quesnel mistakes. His death happened about the year 420, as is clear from St. Austin.2 St. Turibius died about the year 460, and is named in the Roman Martyrology on this day. See Baronius, Gerves, and Cacciari, Exercitat. in Op. S. Leon. Diss. 2, de Hæresi Priscill. c. 13, 14, p. 250, &c.

APRIL 16 — ST. FRUCTUOSUS, ARCHBISHOP OF BRAGA, C

He was a prince of the royal blood of the Visigoth kings in Spain; but, from his youth, desired to consecrate his life to the divine service in a holy retreat beyond the reach of that whirlpool of business, faction, pleasure, and sin, called the world. After the death of his parents, he found himself at large, and at full liberty to dispose of himself according to his desire. He therefore procured himself to be instructed in the sacred sciences, in the great school which the bishop of Palencia had established for the education of his clergy. He sold the greatest part of his estate, and bestowed the whole price upon the poor, and with the rest founded several monasteries, especially a great one on his estate upon the mountains near Vierzo, under the title of SS. Justin and Pastor, martyrs of Complutum, or Alcala; whence he called this abbey Complutum. He put on the monastic habit, and governed this house as abbot till he saw it settled in good order. He then appointed another abbot, and retired into a wilderness, where he led a most austere life, clothed with the skins of beasts, in imitation of the ancient hermits. He afterwards founded several other monasteries, and a great nunnery called None, because nine miles from the sea. We have two monastic rules compiled by him, the one called Of Complutum, the other the common rule. He was consecrated bishop of Duma, near Braga, and, in 656, archbishop of Braga. His innocence and virtue were no security from the shafts of envy; but he overcame injuries by meekness and patience: and died laid on ashes before the altar, as he desired, on the 16th of April, 665. His body now rests at Compostella. See his life written by a contemporary author in Mabillon, sæc. 2; Ben. Bulteau, Hist. de l’Ordre de St. Benoit. t. 1, and Henschenius, Apr. t. 2, p. 430.

APRIL 16 — ST. DRUON, OR DRUGO, RECLUSE, PATRON OF SHEPHERDS

He was nobly born, at Epinoy in Flanders, but his father died before his birth, and his mother in childbed. From his infancy, he was remarkable for piety and devotion, and at twenty years of age distributed his money and goods among the poor, and renounced his estates in favor of the next heirs, that he might be at liberty to serve Christ in poverty and penance. Being thus disengaged from the world, clad in a ragged, poor garment, over a hair-shirt, he set out, like Abraham, leaving his friends and country, and, after having visited several holy places, hired himself shepherd to a virtuous lady, named Elizabeth de la Haire, at Sebourg, two leagues from Valen ciennes. The retirement and abjection of this state were most agreeable to him, on account of the opportunities with which they furnished him of perpetual prayer, and the exercises of penance and humility. Happy would servants be, did they consider and make use of the great advantages to virtue which Providence puts into their hands, by daily opportunities of most heroic acts of obedience, self-denial, humility, patience, meekness, penance, and all other virtues. The saints thought they purchased such opportunities cheap at any rate; yet many lose them, nay, by sloth, impatience, avarice, or other vices, pervert them into occasions of sin. Six years Druon kept sheep, in great obscurity, and as the last among the menial servants; but his humility, modesty, meekness, charity, and eminent spirit of devotion and prayer, in spite of his disguise, gained him the esteem and affection of everybody, particularly of his mistress. Many made him presents: but these he bestowed on the poor, with whatever he could privately retrench from himself. To fly the danger of applause, at length he left his place, and visited Rome nine times, and often many other places of devotion; making these pilgrimages not journeys of sloth, curiosity, and dissipation, but exercises of uninterrupted prayer and penance. He returned from time to time to Sebourg; where, when a rupture put an end to his pilgrimages, he at length pitched his tent for the remainder of his life. He built himself a narrow cell against the wall of the church, that he might at all times adore God as it were at the foot of his altars. Here he lived a recluse for the space of forty-five years, his food being barley-bread made with a lie of ashes, and his drink warm water. To disguise this part of his mortifications, he called this diet a medicine for his distemper. In this voluntary prison he lived in assiduous prayer and manual labor to the eighty-fourth year of his age, dying in 1186, on the 16th of April, on which day his name occurs in the Roman Martyrology. His relics remain in the church of St. Martin at Sebourg. See his life in Papebroke, p. 441, Miræus, &c.

APRIL 16 — ST. JOACHIM OF SIENNA, C. OF THE ORDER OF SERVITES

He was a native of Sienna, of the noble family of Pelacani. No sooner had he attained to the use of reason, than he discovered a happy inclination to piety. He seemed to have sucked in with his mother’s milk a singular devotion to the Blessed Virgin; and it was his greatest pleasure in his childhood to pray before her image or altar, and to repeat often, and in all places, the angelical salutation, Ave Maria. His charity for the poor was not less extraordinary than his devotion. He stripped himself to clothe and relieve them: whatever was given him for his pocket he bestowed in alms. Moreover, he never ceased to solicit his parents in favor of the distressed. His father one day checked him, and told him that prudence ought to set bounds to his liberality, or he would reduce his whole family to poverty. The compassionate youth modestly replied: “You have taught me that an alms is given to Jesus Christ, in the persons of the poor: can we refuse him any thing? And what is the advantage of riches, but that they be employed in purchasing treasures in heaven?” The father wept for joy to hear such generous sentiments of virtue from one of so tender an age, and so dear to him. He sometimes caught his little son at his devotions at midnight, for which he secretly rose from his bed while others slept. The saint, at fourteen years of age, received the religious habit from the hands of St. Philip Beniti, in 1272, and, out of devotion to the mother of God, took the name of Joachim. Such was his fervor, from the first day he entered the convent, that the most advanced looked upon him as a perfect model. All virtues were in him most conspicuous; but none more admirable than the spirit of prayer, and an extraordinary humility and love of abjection. He strenuously resisted the utmost endeavors that could be used to promote him to the priesthood: which dignity he always looked upon with trembling. To serve at mass was the height of his ambition: and he often assisted at that adorable sacrifice in raptures of devotion. The meanest and most painful offices and drudgery of the house were his great delight: for true humility is never more pleased than in humiliations and obscurity, as pride finds its pleasure in public and great actions, which attract the eyes of others. The whole life of this saint seemed a continual study to conceal himself from men, and to lie hid from the world: but the more he fled the esteem of others, the more it followed him. Seeing himself too much respected and honored at Sienna, he earnestly entreated his general to remove him to some remote house of the order, where he hoped to remain unknown. Arezzo was allotted him: but as soon as his departure was known, the whole city of Sienna was in a tumult, till, to appease the people, he was recalled into his own country, of which he continued to his death the glory, and, by his prayers and example, the support and comfort. God honored him with miracles both before and after his death, which happened on the 16th of April, in the year 1305, of his age the forty-seventh. The popes Paul V. and Urban VIII. granted to his order the license of celebrating his festival with an office. See his life written by Attavanti, a priest of the same order at Florence: also Giani’s Annals, &c.

APRIL 16 — ST. MANS, OR MAGNUS, B. M

In the reign of Duncan, king of Scotland, an army of savage pagan Norwegians, under Hacon, ravaged the isles of Orkney. To stop the butchery of the inhabitants, Mans, the zealous bishop, met the barbarians, and when they threatened him with death, boldly replied: “I am ready to die a thousand times over for the cause of God and his flock: but in his name I command you to spare his people.” Commending his soul to his Redeemer, through the intercession of the Virgin Mary, St. Palladius, and St. Servanus, patron of that diocese, he presented his head to be struck off by the executioner. He suffered in the year 1104, in the isle of Eglis, one of the Orcades, and was buried in the same. His tomb became famous for the reputation of miracles, and the devotion of pilgrims. See Hunter, de Viris Illustr. Scotiæ; Lesley, Descr Scot. p. 40; King the ancient hymn in his honor, &c.

APRIL 17 — ST. ANICETUS, POPE, MARTYR

See Eusebius, b. 5, c. 24. Tillemont, t. 2, p. 442

Second Age

HE succeeded St. Pius in the latter part of the reign of Antomnus Pius, sat about eight years, from 165 to 173, and is styled a martyr in the Roman and other Martyrologies: if he did not shed his blood for the faith, he at least purchased the title of martyr by great sufferings and dangers. He received a visit from St. Polycarp, and tolerated the custom of the Asiatics in celebrating Easter on the 14th day of the first moon after the vernal equinox, with the Jews. His vigilance protected his flock from the wiles of the heretics, Valentine and Marcion, instruments whom the devil sent to Rome, seeking to corrupt the faith in the capital of the world. Marcion, in Pontus, after having embraced a state of continency, fell into a crime with a young virgin; for which he was excommunicated by the bishop, who was his own father. He came to Rome, in hopes to be there received into the communion of the church, but was rejected, till he had made satisfaction, by penance, to his own bishop. Upon which he commenced heresiarch, as Tertullian and St. Epiphanius relate. He professed himself a Stoic philosopher, and seems to have been a priest. Joining the heresiarch Cerdo, who was come out of Syria to Rome, in the time of pope Hyginus, he established two gods, or first principles, the one, the author of all good; the other, of all evil: also of the Jewish law, and of the Old Testament: which he maintained to be contrary to the New. Tertullian informs us1 that he repented, and was promised at Rome to be again received into the church, on condition that he brought back all those souls which he had perverted. This he was laboring to effect when he died, though some understand this circumstance of his master Cerdo. He left many unhappy followers of his errors at Rome, in Egypt, Palestine, Syria, Persia, and Cyprus.*

The thirty-six first bishops of Rome, down to Liberius, and, this one excepted, all the popes to Symmachus, the fifty-second, in 498, are honored among the saints; and out of two hundred and forty-eight popes, from St. Peter to Clement XIII., seventy-eight are named in the Roman Martyrology. In the primitive ages, the spirit of fervor and perfect sanctity, which is now a-days so rarely to be found in the very sanctuaries of virtue, and in the world seems in most places scarce so much as known, was conspicuous in most of the faithful, and especially in their pastors. The whole tenor of their lives, both in retirement and in their public actions, breathed it in such a manner as to render them the miracles of the world, angels on earth, living copies of their divine Redeemer, the odor of whose virtues and holy law and religion they spread on every side. Indeed, what could be more amiable, what more admirable, than the perfect simplicity, candor, and sincerity; the profound humility, invincible patience and meekness; the tender charity, even toward their enemies and persecutors; the piety, compunction, and heavenly zeal, which animated all their words and their whole conduct, and which, by fervent exercise under sufferings and persecutions, were carried to the most heroic degree of perfection? By often repeating in our prayers sacred protestations of our love of God, we easily impose upon ourselves, and fancy that his love reigns in our affections. But by relapsing so frequently into impatience, vanity, pride, or other sins, we give the lie to ourselves. For it is impossible for the will to fall so easily and so suddenly from the sovereign degree of sincere love. If, after making the most solemn protestations of inviolable friendship and affection for a fellow-creature, we should have no sooner turned our backs, but should revile and contemn him, without having received any provocation or affront from him, and this habitually, would not the whole world justly call our protestations hypocrisy, and our pretended friendship a mockery? Let us by this rule judge if our love of God be sovereign, so long as our inconstancy betrays the insincerity of our hearts.

APRIL 17 — ST. STEPHEN, ABBOT OF CITEAUX, C

From the Exordium of Citeaux: the Annals of that Order by Manriquez: the short ancient Life of St. Stephen, published by Henriquez in his Fasciculus, printed at Brussels in 1624, and by Henschenius, 17 Apr. t. 2, p. 497; also from the Little Exordium of Citeaux, and the Exordium Magnum Cisterc, both in the first tome of Teissier’s Bibliotheca Patrum Cisterc. See De Visch’s Bibliotheca Cisterciensis, or History of the Writers of this Order, in 4to. printed in 1656. Le Nain, Hist. de l’Ordre de Citeaux, t. 1, Stephens, Monast. Anglic. t. 2; Britannia Sancta. and Hist. Littéraire de la France, t. 11, p. 213.

A. D. 1134.

ST. STEPHEN HARDING was an Englishman of an honorable family, and heir to a plentiful estate. He had his education in the monastery of Sherbourne, in Dorsetshire, and there laid a very solid foundation of literature and sincere piety. A cheerfulness in his countenance always showed the inward joy of his soul, and a calm which no passions seemed ever to disturb. Out of a desire of learning more perfectly the means of Christian perfection, he, with one devout companion, travelled into Scotland, and afterwards to Paris, and to Rome. They every day recited together the whole psalter, and passed the rest of their time on the road in strict silence, occupied in holy meditation and private prayer. Stephen, in his return, heard at Lyons of the great austerity and sanctity of the poor Benedictin monastery of Molesme, lately founded by St. Robert, in 1075, in the diocese of Langres. Charmed with the perpetual recollection and humility of this house, he made choice of it to accomplish there the sacrifice of himself to God. Such was the extreme poverty of this place, that the monks, for want of bread, were often obliged to live on the wild herbs of the wilderness. The compassion and veneration of the neighborhood at length supplied their wants to profusion: but, with plenty and riches, a spirit of relaxation and self-love crept in, and drew many aside from their duty. St. Robert, Alberic his prior, and Stephen, seeing the evil too obstinate to admit a cure, left the house; but upon the complaint of the monks, were called back again; Robert, by an order of the pope, the other two by the diocesan. Stephen was then made superior. The monks had promised a reformation of their sloth and irregularities; but their hearts not being changed, they soon relapsed. They would keep more clothes than the rule allowed; did not work so long as it prescribed, and did not prostrate to strangers, nor wash their feet when they came to their house. St. Stephen made frequent remonstrances to them on the subject of their remissness. He was sensible that as the public tranquillity and safety of the state depend on the ready observance and strict execution of the laws, so much more do the perfection and sanctification of a religious state consist in the most scrupulous fidelity in complying with all its rules. These are the pillars of the structure: he who shakes and undermines them throws down the whole edifice, and roots up the very foundations. Moreover, in the service of God, nothing is small true love is faithful, and never contemns or wilfully fails in the least circumstance or duty, in which the will of God is pointed out. Gerson observes, how difficult a matter it is to restore the spirit of discipline when it is once decayed, and that, of the two, it is more easy to found a new order. From whence arises his just remark, how grievous the scandal and crime must be of those who, by their example and tepidity, first open a gap to the least habitual irregularity in a religious order or house.

Seeing no hopes of a sufficient reformation, St. Robert appointed another abbot at Molesme, and with B. Alberic, St. Stephen, and other fervent monks, they being twenty-one in number, with the permission of Hugh, archbishop of Lyons, and legate of the holy see, retired to Citeaux, a marshy wilderness, five leagues from Dijon. The viscount of Beaune gave them the ground, and Eudes, afterwards duke of Burgundy, built them a little church, which was dedicated under the patronage of the Blessed Virgin, as all the churches of this order from that time have been. The monks with their own hands cut down trees, and built themselves a monastery of wood, and in it made a new profession of the rule of St. Bennet, which they bound themselves to observe in its utmost severity. This solemn act they performed on St. Bennet’s day, 1098: which is regarded as the date of the Cistercian order. After a year and some months St. Robert was recalled to Molesme, and B. Alberic chosen the second abbot of Citeaux These holy men, with their rigorous silence, recollection, and humility, appeared to strangers, by their very countenances, as angels on earth, particularly to two legates of pope Paschal II., who, paying them a visit, could not be satiated with fixing their eyes on their faces; which, though emaciated with extreme austerities, breathed an amiable peace and inward joy, with a heavenly air resulting from their assiduous humble conversation with God, by which they seemed transformed into citizens of heaven. Alberic obtained from Paschal II. the confirmation of his order, in 1100, and compiled several statutes to enforce the strict observance of the rule of Saint Bennet, according to the letter. Hugh, duke of Burgundy, after a reign of three years, becoming a monk at Cluni, resigned his principality to his brother Eudes, who was the founder of Citeaux, and who, charmed with the virtue of these monks, came to live in their neighborhood, and lies buried in their church will several of his successors. He was great-grandson to Robert, the first duke of Burgundy, son to Robert, king of France, and brother to king Henry I. The second son of duke Eudes, named Henry, made his religious profession under B. Alberic, and died holily at Citeaux. B. Alberic finished his course on sackcloth and ashes, on the 26th of January, 1109, and St. Stephen was chosen the third abbot.* The order seemed then in great danger of failing: it was the astonishment of the universe, but had appeared so austere, that hitherto scarce any had the courage to embrace that institute. St. Stephen, who had been the greatest assistant to his two predecessors in the foundation, carried its rule to the highest perfection, and propagated the order exceedingly, so as to be regarded as the principal among its founders, as Le Nam observes.

It was his first care to secure, by the best fences, the essential spirit of solitude and poverty. For this purpose, the frequent visits of strangers were prevented, and only the duke of Burgundy permitted to enter. He also was entreated not to keep his court in the monastery on holydays, as he had been accustomed to lo. Gold and silver crosses were banished out of the church, and a cross of painted wood, and iron candlesticks were made use of: no gold chalices were allowed, but only silver gilt; the vestments, stoles, and maniples, &c., were made of common cloth and fringes, without gold or silver. The intention of this rule was, that every object might serve to entertain the spirit of poverty in this austere order. The founder, with this holy view, would have poverty to reign even in the church, where yet he required the utmost neatness and decency, by which this plainness and simplicity appeared with a majesty well becoming religion and the house of God. If riches are to be displayed, this is to be done in the first place to the honor of Him who bestowed them, as God himself was pleased to show in the temple built by king Solomon. Upon this consideration, the monks of Cluni used rich ornaments in the service of the church. But a very contrary spirit moved some of that family afterwards to censure this rule of the Cistercians, which St. Bernard justified by his apology. Let not him that eateth, despise him that eateth not.1 And many saints have thought a neat simplicity and plainness, even in their churches, more suitable to that spirit of extraordinary austerity and poverty which they professed. The Cistercian monks allotted several hours in the day to manual labor, copying books, or sacred studies. St. Stephen, who was a most learned man, wrote in 1109, being assisted by his fellow monks, a very correct copy of the Latin Bible, which he made for the use of the monks, having collated it with innumerable manuscripts, and consulted many learned Jews on the Hebrew text.* But God was pleased to visit him with trials, that his virtue might be approved when put to the test. The duke of Burgundy and his court were much offended at being shut out of the monastery, and withdrew their charities and protection: by which means the monks, who were not able totally to subsist by their labor, in their barren woods and swampy ground, were reduced to extreme want: in which pressing necessity St. Stephen went out to beg a little bread from door to door: yet refused to receive any from a simoniacal priest. For though this order allows not begging abroad, as contrary to its essential retirement, such a case of extreme necessity must be excepted, as Le Nain observes. The saint and his holy monks rejoiced in this their poverty, and in the hardships and sufferings which they felt under it; but were comforted by frequent sensible marks of the divine protection. This trial was succeeded by another. In the two years 1111 and 1112, sickness swept away the greater part of this small community. St. Stephen feared he should leave no successors to inherit, not worldly riches, but his poverty and penance; and many presumed to infer that their institute was too severe, and not agreeable to heaven. St. Stephen, with many tears, recommended to God his little flock, and after repeated assurances of his protection, had the consolation to receive at once into his community, St. Bernard, with thirty gentlemen; whose example was followed by many others. St. Stephen then founded other monasteries, which he peopled with his monks; as La Ferté, in the diocese of Challons, in 1113; Poatigni, near Auxerre, in 1114; Clairvaux, in 1115, for several friends of St. Bernard, who was appointed the first abbot; and Morimond, in the diocese of Langres. St. Stephen held the first general chapter in 1116. Cardinal Guy, archbishop of Vienne, legate of the holy see, in 1117, made a visit to Citeaux, carried St. Stephen to his diocese, and founded there, in a valley, the abbey of Bonnevaux. He was afterwards pope, under the name of Calixtus II., and dying in 1124, ordered his heart to be carried to Citeaux, and put into the hands of St. Stephen. It lies behind the high altar, in the old church. St. Stephen lived to found himself thirteen abbeys, and to see above a hundred founded by monks of his order under his direction. In order to maintain strict discipline and perfect charity, he established frequent visitations to be made of every monastery, and instituted general chapters. The annalist of this order thinks he was the first author of general chapters; nor do we find any mention of them before his time. The assemblies of abbots, sometimes made in the reigns of Charlemagne and Louis le Débonnaire, &c., were kinds of extraordinary synods; not regular chapters. St. Stephen held the first general chapter of his order in 1116; the second in 1119. In this latter he published several statutes called the Charte of Charity, confirmed the same year by Calixtus II.* He caused afterwards a collection of sacred ceremonies and customs to be drawn up, under the name of the Usages of Citeaux, and a short history of the beginning of the order to be written, called the Exordium of Citeaux. The holy founder made a journey into Flanders in 1125; in which he visited the abbey of St. Vast, at Arras, where he was received by the abbot Henry and his community, as if he had been an angel from heaven; and the most sacred league of spiritual friendship was made between them, of which several monuments are preserved in the library of Citeaux, described by Mabillon. In 1128, he and St. Bernard assisted at the council of Troyes, being summoned to it by the bishop of Albano, legate of the apostolic see. In 1132, St. Stephen waited on pope Innocent II., who was come into France. The bishop of Paris, the archbishop of Sens, and other prelates, besought the mediation of St. Stephen with the king of France and with the pope, in affairs of the greatest importance. The Cistercian monks came over also into England in the time of St. Stephen. The extreme austerity and sanctity of the professors of this order, which did not admit any relaxation in its discipline for two hundred years after its institution, were a subject of astonishment and edification to the whole world, as is described at large by Oderic Vitalis, St. Peter, abbot of Cluni, William of St. Thierry, William of Malmesbury, Peter, abbot of Celles, Stephen, bishop of Tournay, cardinal James of Vitry, pope Innocent III., &c., who mention, with amazement, their rigorous silence, their abstinence from flesh-meat, and, for the most part, from fish, eggs, milk, and cheese; their lying on straw, long watchings from midnight till morning, and austere fasts; their bread as hard as the earth itself; their hard labor in cultivating desert lands to produce the pulse and herbs on which they subsisted; their piety, devotion, and tears, in singing the divine office; the cheerfulness of their countenances breathing a holy joy in pale and mortified faces; the poverty of their houses; the lowliness of their buildings, &c.

The saint having assembled the chapter of his order in 1133, when all the other business was dispatched, alleging his great age, infirmities, and incapacity, begged most earnestly to be discharged from his office of general, that he might in holy solitude have leisure to prepare himself to appear at the judgment-seat of Christ. All were afflicted, but durst not oppose his desire. The chapter chose one Guy; but the saint discovering him unworthy of such a charge, in a few days he was deposed, and Raynard, a holy disciple of St. Bernard, created general. St. Stephen did not long survive the election of Raynard. Twenty neighboring abbots of his order assembled at Citeaux, to attend at his death. While he was in his agony, he heard many whispering that, after so virtuous and penitential a life, he could have nothing to fear in dying: at this he said to them, trembling: “I assure you that I go to God in fear and trembling. If my baseness should be found to have ever done any good, even in this I fear, lest I should not have preserved that grace with the humility and care I ought.” He passed to immortal glory on the 28th of March, 1134, and was interred in the tomb of B. Alberic, in which also many of his successors lie buried, in the cloister, near the door of the church.* His order keeps his festival on the 15th of July, as of the first class, with an octave, and with greater solemnity than those of St. Robert or St. Bernard, having always looked upon him as the principal of its founders. The Roman Martyrology honors him on the 17th of April, supposed to be the day on which he was canonized, of which mention is made by Benedict XIV.2

APRIL 17 — ST. SIMEON, BISHOP OF CTESIPHON, AND HIS COMPANIONS, MARTYRS

From their genuine acts, published by Assemani, Acta Mart. Orient. t. 1, p. 1; Sozom. b. 2, c. 8, 9, 10. &c.

A. D. 341.

THIS holy primate of the church of Persia, was its most illustrious champion in the great persecution of Sapor II., surnamed the longlived.† The haughtiness of this prince appears from his letter to Constantine the Great, preserved by Ammianus Marcellinus, in which he styles himself king of kings, partner with the stars, brother of the sun and moon, and says,1 “That whereas in valor and virtue he surpassed all his predecessors, he ought to have demanded the largest extent of empire that any of them had possessed. Nevertheless, though their dominions had formerly reached as far as Macedonia, he contented himself with insisting only on the restitution of the eastern parts, which had been usurped by the Romans.” It was as much out of hatred of the Roman name, as of the faith, that this haughty tyrant vented his rage on the Christians of his empire in three bloody persecutions. The first he raised in the eighteenth year of his reign, of Christ 327, in which were crowned Jonas, Barachisius, and others, mentioned on the 29th of March: the second in his thirtieth year, in which died SS. Sapor, Isaac, &c., whom we commemorate on the 20th of November: and the third, of all others the most cruel, in his thirty-first year. This was continued with the utmost rage, during the last forty years of his reign. Sozomen writes,2 that the names of sixteen thousand who were crowned by it, were upon record; but adds, with St. Maruthas, that those whose names were not known on earth, were innumerable.* Of these glorious martyrs, St. Simeon and his companions were the most illustrious.

St. Simeon was surnamed Barsaboe, signifying the son of a fuller, from the trade of his father, according to the custom of the Orientals. He was a disciple of Papa, bishop of Ctesiphon, and by him made his coadjutor, in 314; from which time he sat twenty-six years and some months; some time with Papa, afterwards alone. The council of Nice declared the bishop of Ctesiphon metropolitan of all Persia, which happened in St. Simeon’s time: for he assisted at that council, not in person, but by his priest, who was afterwards his successor, and named Sciadhustes, as Ebedjesus and St. Maruthas testify.† The Chaldaic acts of the martyrdom of St. Simeon, written by St. Maruthas, give us the following account of his triumph.

In the hundred and seventeenth year of the kingdom of the Persians, the thirty-first of Sapor, the king of kings, of Christ the three hundred and fortieth, king Sapor, resolving to abolish the Christian religion, decreed, that whoever embraced it should be made a slave, and oppressed the Christians with insupportable taxes. St. Simeon wrote to him a letter, with that courage which nothing but a truly apostolic spirit could dictate. And to the threats of the king against him and his people, he answered: “As Jesus willingly offered himself to death for the whole world, and by dying redeemed it, why shall I be afraid to lay down my life for a people, with the care of whose salvation I am charged? I desire not to live, unless I may continue unspotted and undefiled. God forbid that I should purchase life at the hazard of those souls for which Jesus died. I am not so slothful as to fear to walk in his steps, to tread the path of his passion, and to share in the communion of his sacrifice. As to your threats against my people, they do not want for courage to die for their salvation.” The king, receiving this answer, trembled with wrath, and immediately dictated a decree, commanding all priests and deacons to be put to death, the churches to be levelled with the ground, and the sacred vessels to be converted to profane uses He added: “And let Simeon, the leader of wicked men, who despises my royal majesty, worships only the God of Cæsar, and despises my divinity, be brought and arraigned before me.” The Jews, naturally enemies to the Christians, seeing the circumstances favorable to their malice, said to the king: “If you, O king, write to Cæsar, he will take no notice of your letter: but at a poor line from Simeon he will arise, adore, and embrace it with both hands, and command all things contained in it to be instantly put in execution.” Simeon, pursuant to the king’s orders, was apprehended and bound in chains with two others of the twelve priests of his church, Abdhaicla and Hananias. As he was led through his native city Susan, he begged he might not pass by a great Christian church lately converted into a Jewish synagogue by the authority of the Magians,* lest the very sight should make him fall into a swoon. Being hurried on by the guards in great haste, they made a long journey in a very few days, and arrived at Ledan, the capital of the Huzites, or, as it is called by the Latins, the province of Uxia, upon the river Oxios, to the East, adjoining to the province of Susan. The governor had no sooner informed the king that the leader of the Christians was brought thither, than Simeon was ordered to appear before him. The holy bishop refusing to prostrate himself according to the Persian custom, the king asked why he did not adore him as he had formerly been accustomed to do. Simeon answered: “Because I was never before brought to you bound, and with the view of compelling me to deny the true God.” The Magians told the king that Simeon ought to be put to death as a conspirator against his throne. Simeon said to them: “Impious men, are not you content to have corrupted the kingdom? Must you endeavor to draw us Christians also into your wickedness?” The king, then putting on a milder countenance, said: “Take my advice, Simeon, who wish you well: adore the deity of the sun: nothing can be more for your own and your whole people’s advantage.” Simeon answered: “I would not adore you, O king; and you far excel the sun, being endued with reason. We Christians have no Lord but Christ, who was crucified.” “If you adored a living God,” said the king, “I would excuse your folly; but you give the title of God to a man who expired on an ignominious tree Lay aside that madness, and adore the sun, by whose divinity all things subsist. If you do this, riches, honors, and the greatest dignities of my kingdom shall be yours.” Simeon replied: “That sun mourned at the death of Christ its Lord and the Creator of men, who rose again glorious, and ascended into heaven. Your honors tempt not me, who know much greater are prepared for me in heaven, with which you are unacquainted.” The king said: “Spare your own life, and the lives of an infinite multitude, who, I am resolved, shall all die, if you are obstinate.” Simeon boldly answered: “Were you to commit such a crime, you would find cause to repent of it on the day when you will be called upon to give an account of all your actions; you will then know the heinousness of your offence. I resign to your pleasure this miserable short life.” Then the king said: “Though you have no compassion for yourself, I pity at least your followers, and will endeavor to cure them of their folly, by the severity of your punishment.” Simeon answered: “You will learn by experience that Christians will not lose their lives in God, for the sake of living here with you; nor would we exchange the eternal name we have received from Christ, for the diadem which you wear.” The king said: “If you will not honor me before my nobles, nor adore me with this sun, the deity of all the East, I will to-morrow cause the beauty of your face, and the venerable comeliness of your body, to be disfigured by blows, and stained with your blood.” Simeon replied: “You make the sun and yourself equally gods, but you are greater than the sun. If you disfigure this body, it has a repairer who will raise it again, and restore with interest this beauty which he created, and which is now despicable.” The king then commanded he should be kept in close confinement till the next day. It is remarked that St. Simeon was exceeding comely in his person, and venerable and graceful in his aspect.

There sat at the palace gate, as Simeon was led through it, an old eunuch, in the highest favor with the king, who had been trained up by him from his infancy. He was then the first nobleman in the whole kingdom, and the Arzabades, that is, the keeper of the king’s chamber, or the lord high chamberlain: his name was Guhsciatazades, which in Chaldaic signifies nobleman. Sozomen calls him Usthazanes. He was a Christian but fearing his master’s displeasure, had some time before publicly adored the sun. This minister seeing the saint pass by, as he was led back to prison, rose up and prostrated himself before him. But the bishop, having been informed that he had been guilty of an outward act of idolatry, reprimanded him sharply for it, and turned away from him. This touched the eunuch to the quick, who entering into a sense of the enormity of his crime, burst into loud cries and many tears, filling the court with his lamentations, saying to himself: “If Simeon’s aversion and rebuke be so grievous to me, how shall I be able to bear the anger and indignation of God, whom I have basely denied!” Whereupon, hastening home, he threw off his rich garments, and put on black for mourning, according to the Persian custom, still in use, under any affliction. In this dress he returned, and sat in grief at the palace gate in his usual place. The king being informed of it, sent to inquire why he mourned, while his sovereign enjoyed his crown and health. He answered, that it was for a double fault, the renouncing the true God by adoring the sun, and the imposing on the emperor by an insincere act of worship, acting therein contrary to the dictates of his reason and conscience. The king, enraged thereat, said: “I will soon rid you of this mad grief, if you continue obstinate in your present opinion.” Guhsciatazades replied: “I call to witness the Lord of heaven and earth, that I will never more obey you in this nor repeat that of which I heartily repent. I am a Christian, and will never more be guilty of so base a perfidy against the true God to please man.” The king said: “I pity your old age: I grieve to think you should lose the merit of your long services to my father and to myself. I beg you, lay aside the opinions of wicked men, that you may not perish together with them.” The eunuch answered: “Know, O king, that I will never abandon God, and pay divine worship to creatures.” “Do I then worship creatures?” said the king. “Yes,” said the nobleman, “even creatures destitute of reason and life.” Hereupon the king commanded him to be put to the torture, but at the request of the nobility changed his mind, and gave orders for his immediate execution. As he was led out to be beheaded he sent a faithful eunuch to the king, begging, as the last and only favor for all his past services, that a crier might proclaim before him, that he was not put to death for any crime, but purely for being a Christian. This he desired, that he might repair the scandal which his apostacy had given. The king the more readily assented to the proposal, because he thought it would the more effectually deter his subjects from a religion which he punished with death even in a faithful domestic, and a kind of foster-father: not considering how much so great an example would encourage them. The holy old man was beheaded on Maundy-Thursday, the thirteenth lunar day in April. St. Simeon being informed in his dungeon of the martyrdom of Guhsciatazades, gave most hearty thanks to God for his triumph, and earnestly begged his own might be hastened, crying out: “O happy day, which will call me to execution! It will free me from all dangers and miseries, and present me with my long desired crown: it will end all my sorrows, and wipe away all my tears.” While he poured forth his soul in languishing sighs and long prayer, with his hands lifted up to heaven, the two priests who had been apprehended with him, saw and admired his countenance most beautiful and shining, expressing the inward joy of his soul, and his longing hope and desires. Maundy Thursday night the saint spent in prayer, crying out: “Hear me, O Jesus, though most undeserving and unworthy, grant that I may drink this cup on this day, and at the hour of your passion. May all know that Simeon was obedient to his Lord, and was sacrificed with him.”

Simeon being brought to the bar the next day, it being Good-Friday, and refusing, as before, to adore the king, he said to him: “Simeon, what is the result of this night’s deliberation? Do you accept of my mercy, or do you persist in disobeying me, and choose death? Adore the sun but for once, and never adore it again, unless you please. On that condition, I promise you all liberty, security, and protection.” Simeon replied: “I will never be guilty of such a crime and scandal.” The king said: “I call to remembrance our former friendship: on which account I wished you well, and have given you signal proofs of my lenity: but you contemn my benevolence. Impute therefore all to yourself.” Simeon said: “Flatter me not: why am not I speedily sacrificed? The table is ready prepared for me, and the happy hour of my banquet calls me.” The king, turning to his nobles, said: “Behold the wonderful dignity of his countenance, and the venerable majesty of his person. I have seen many countries, but never beheld so graceful a face, and such comely limbs. Yet see the madness of the man, he is obstinately bent on dying for his error.” To this they all answered him: “O king, your wisdom cannot so much admire the beauty of his body, as not to regard more the minds which he has corrupted.” Then the king condemned him to be beheaded, and he was immediately conducted to execution. A hundred other Christians were led out to suffer with him: among whom were five bishops, some priests and deacons, the rest were of the inferior clergy. The chief judge said to them: “If any one of you will adore the sun, the great god, let him step forth: his life shall be granted him.’ But not one of them accepted life at this rate, all crying out: “Our faith in God teaches us to contemn your torments, your swords cannot cut off our firm hopes of our resurrection. Your pretended deity we will never adore.” The officers accordingly began to dispatch them, while St. Simeon, standing in the midst of them, continued exhorting them to constancy in the assured hope of a happy resurrection. After the hundred martyrs were executed, St. Simeon also received himself the stroke of the axe, together with his two companions, Abdhaicla and Hananias. The latter, as he was putting off his clothes, was seized with a violent but involuntary trembling; which being observed by Phusikius, or Phasic, who had been a few days before created by the king the Karugabarus, or prefect of the king’s workmen, cried out: “Hananias, banish all fear: shut your eyes one moment, and you will behold the light of Christ.” He had no sooner said this, than he was seized and carried before the king, who reproached him as ungrateful for the honor lately conferred upon him. Phusikius answered: “I could desire to exchange my life for their death. I renounce this your honor, full of cares and trouble, and beg their death, than which nothing can be more happy.” Then the king said: “Do you despise your dignity, and prefer death? Are you a lunatic?” Phusikius answered: “I am a Christian: and, by a most certain hope in God, I prefer their death to your honors.’ The king being enraged, said to his attendants: “This man must not die by any common death;” and commanded that the back of his neck should be cut through into his mouth, and his tongue plucked out by the roots through the wound. This was executed with extreme cruelty and Phusikius expired the same hour. He had a daughter who had consecrated her virginity to God, who was also apprehended, and crowned with a no less glorious martyrdom in 341. St. Simeon and all this troop are mentioned with most honorable encomiums in the Roman, and all the Eastern martyrologies. St. Maruthas translated the relics of St. Simeon, and deposited them in the church of his own episcopal city, which from thence took the name of Martyropolis. St. Simeon suffered on the 17th of April, in 341, the second year of the great persecution, and is named in the Roman Martyrology on the 21st of this month: but is honored in the Greek Menæa on the 17th, and in the menology of the emperor Basil on the 14th of this month.

APRIL 18 — SAINT APOLLONIUS THE APOLOGIST, M

From Eusebius, Hist. b. 5, c. 21; St Jerom. Cat. c. 42; Tertull. Apol.

A. D. 186.

MARCUS AURELIUS had persecuted the Christians from principle, being a bigoted pagan: but his son Commodus, who, in 180, succeeded him in the empire, after some time, though a vicious man, showed himself favorable to them out of regard to Marcia, a lady whom he had honored with the title of empress, and who was an admirer of the faith. During this calm, the number of the faithful was exceedingly increased, and many persons of the first rank enlisted themselves under the banner of the cross, of which number was Apollonius, a Roman senator. He was a person very well versed both in philosophy and the holy scripture. In the midst of the peace which the church enjoyed, he was publicly accused of Christianity by one of his own slaves, named Severus, before Perennis, prefect of the Prætorium. The slave was immediately condemned by the prefect to have his legs broke, and to be put to death, in consequence of an edict of Marcus Aurelius, who, without repealing the former laws against convicted Christians, ordered by it that their accusers should be put to death. The slave being executed, pursuant to the sentence already mentioned, the same judge sent an order to his master, St. Apollonius, to renounce his religion as he valued his life and fortune. The saint courageously rejected such ignominious terms of safety, wherefore Perennis referred him to the judgment of the Roman senate, commanding him to give an account of his faith to that body. The martyr hereupon composed an excellent discourse, but which has not reached our times, in vindication of the Christian religion, and spoke it in a full senate. St. Jerom, who had perused it, did not know whether more to admire the eloquence, or the profound learning, both sacred and profane, of its illustrious author: who, persisting in his refusal to comply with the condition, was condemned by a decree of the senate, and beheaded, about the year 186 of Commodus the sixth.*

It is the prerogative of the Christian religion to inspire men with such resolution, and form them to such heroism, that they rejoice to sacrifice their life to truth. This is not the bare force and exertion of nature, but the undoubted power of the Almighty, whose strength is thus made perfect in weakness. Every Christian ought to be an apologist for his religion by the sanctity of his manners. Such would be the force of universal good example, that no libertine or infidel could withstand it. But by the scandal and irregularity of our manners, we fight against Christ, and draw a reproach upon his most holy religion. Thus, through us, are his name and faith blasphemed among the Gentiles. The primitive Christians converted the world by the sanctity of their example; and, by the spirit of every heroic and divine virtue which their actions breathed, spread the good odor of Christ on all sides: but we, by a monstrous inconsistency between our lives and our faith, scandalize the weak among the faithful, strengthen the obstinacy of infidels, and furnish them with arms against that very religion which we profess. “Either change thy faith, or change thy manners,” said an ancient father.

APRIL 18 — SAINT GALDIN, ARCHBISHOP OF MILAN, C

He was born at Milan, of the most illustrious house of the Vavassors of La Scala, famous in the history of Italy. Innocence and virtue were the ornaments of his youth, and prepared him for the ministry of the altar. Being promoted to holy orders, he was, by the archbishop, made his chancellor and archdeacon, and from that time began to bear the chief weight of the episcopal charge, which was at no time more heavy or difficult. Pope Adrian IV., an Englishman, died in 1159, and Alexander III., a person eminent for his skill in theology and in the canon law, was chosen to succeed him; but five cardinals presumed to form a schism in favor of Octavian, under the name of Victor. The emperor Frederick I., surnamed from the color of his beard and hair, Ænobarbus, and by the Italians, Barbarossa, a prince who sullied the reputation which several victories and great natural parts had acquired him by many acts of tyranny, carried on an unjust quarrel with several popes successively; seizing the revenues of vacant ecclesiastical benefices, usurping the investiture and nomination of bishops, and openly making a simoniacal traffic of all that was sacred. It is not, therefore, strange, that such a prince should declare himself the patron and protector of a schism which had been raised only by his faction and interest in Rome. The city of Milan offended him in 1150, by claiming an exclusive right of choosing its own magistrates; and still more the year following, by openly acknowledging Alexander III. for true pope. The emperor, highly incensed, sat down before it with a great army, in 1161; and, after a siege of ten months, in 1162, compelled it to surrender at discretion. In revenge, he razed the town, filled up the ditches, levelled the walls and houses with the ground, and caused salt to be sown upon the place, as a mark that this city was condemned never more to be rebuilt. The bodies of the three kings which he found there in the church of St. Eustorgius, he ordered to be removed to Cologne on this occasion. The archbishop Hubert dying in 1166, Galdin, though absent, was pitched upon for his successor; and the pope, who consecrated him with his own hands, created him cardinal and legate of the holy see. The new pastor made it his first care to comfort and encourage his distressed flock; and, wherever he was able, to exert his influence to abolish the schism, in which he effectually succeeded throughout all Lombardy. The Lombard cities had unanimously entered into a common league to rebuild Milan. When the walls and moats were finished, the inhabitants, with great joy, returned into their city on the 27th of April, 1167. The emperor again marched against it, but was defeated by the Milanese; and seeing Lombardy, Venice, the kingdom of Sicily, and all Italy united in an obstinate league against him, he agreed to hold a conference with the pope at Venice, in which he abjured the schism, and made his peace with the church in 1177.* The distracted state of the commonwealth did not hinder our saint from attending diligently to his pastoral duties. He preached assiduously, assisted the poor, who had always the first place in his heart, and made it his study to prevent all their wants, spiritual and corporal. By humility, he always appeared as the last in his flock, and by charity he looked upon the burdens and miseries of every one as his own. He sought out the miserable amidst the most squalid scenes of wretchedness, and afforded them all necessary relief. But the spiritual necessities of the people, both general and particular, challenged his principal attention. He restored discipline, extinguished all the factions of the schismatics, and zealously confuted the heretics, called Cathari, a kind of Manichees, who had been left in Lombardy from the dregs of the impious army of the emperor Frederick. Assiduous prayer was the chief means by which the saint drew down the dew of the divine benediction, both upon his own soul and upon his labors. As Moses descended from the mountain, on which he had conversed with God, with his face shining, so that others were not able to fix their eyes upon it: so this holy man appeared in his public functions, and announced the divine word, inflamed by prayer, with an ardor and charity which seemed heavenly, and both struck and attracted the most obstinate. On the last day of his life, though too weak to say mass, he mounted the pulpit at the gospel, and preached with great vigor a long and pathetic sermon: but towards the close fell into a swoon, and about the end of the mass expired in the pulpit, on the 18th of April, 1176. All lamented in him the loss of a father, but found him still an advocate in heaven, as many miracles attested. He is honored in the ancient missals and breviaries of Milan, and in the Roman Martyrology. See his two authentic lives with the notes of Henschenius, Apr. t. 2, p. 593.

APRIL 18 — ST. LASERIAN, BY SOME CALLED MOLAISRE, BISHOP OF LEIGHLIN, IN IRELAND

Laserian was son of Cairel and Blitha, persons of great distinction, who intrusted his education, from his infancy, to the abbot St. Murin. He afterwards travelled to Rome in the days of pope Gregory the Great, by whom he is said to have been ordained priest. Soon after his return to Ireland, he visited Leighlin, a place situated a mile and a half westward of the river Barrow, where St. Goban was then abbot, who, resigning to him his abbacy, built a little cell for himself and a small number of monks. A great synod being soon after assembled there, in the White Fields, St. Laserian strenuously maintained the Catholic time of celebrating Easter against St. Munnu. This council was held in March, 630. But St. Laserian not being able to satisfy in it all his opponents, took another journey to Rome, where pope Honorius ordained him bishop, without allotting him any particular see, and made him his legate in Ireland. Nor was his commission fruitless: for, after his return, the time of observing Easter was reformed in the south parts of Ireland. St. Laserian died on the 18th of April, 638, and was buried in his own church which he had founded. In a synod held at Dublin, in 1330, the feasts of St. Patrick, St. Laserian, St. Bridget, St. Canic, and St. Edan, are enumerated among the double festivals through the province of Dublin. St. Laserian was the first bishop of Old Leighlin, now a village. New Leighlin stands on the eastern bank of the river Barrow. See Ware, p. 54, and Colgan’s MSS. on the 18th of April.

APRIL 19 — ST. LEO IX., POPE, C

From the councils, and his life written with great accuracy by Wibert his archdeacon, at Toul, published by F. Sirmond at Paris, in 1615, by Henschenius, 19 Apr. Mabillon, Act. Ben. t. 9, et Muratori Script Ital. t. 3, p. 278, ad p. 299: another life by the cardinal of Aragon, who flourished in 1356, apud Muratori, ib. p. 276. Also from a history of his death by an anonymous contemporary writer, ib., and from the history of the dedication of the church of St. Remigius at Rheims, by Anselm, a monk of that house, entitled, Itinerarium Leonis IX. in Mabillon. t. 8. See Hist. Littér. Fr. t. 7, p. 458; Mabillon, Anna1.1. 59, n. 61, 62; Calmet, Hist. de Lorr. t. 4, p. 176.

A. D. 1054.

THIS great pope received in baptism the name of Bruno. He was born in Alsace, in 1002, with his body marked all over with little red crosses: which was attributed to the intense meditation of his pious mother on the passion of Christ.* He was of the illustrious house of Dapsbourgh, or Asbourgh, in that province, being the son of Hugh, cousin-german to the mother of the pious emperor Conrad the Salic. He had his education under Berthold, the virtuous and learned bishop of Toul; and, after his first studies, was made a canon in that cathedra1.1 His time was principally divided betwixt prayer, pious reading, and his studies: and the hours of recreation he employed in visiting the hospitals and instructing the poor When he was deacon, he was called to the court of the emperor Conrad, and was much honored by that prince. The young clergyman displayed an extraordinary talent for business; but never omitted his long exercises of devotion, or his usual fasts and other austere mortifications. In 1026, he was chosen bishop of Toul. The emperor endeavored to persuade him to defer his consecration till the year following: but the saint hastened to the care of the church, of which he was to give an account to God, and was consecrated by his metropolitan, the archbishop of Triers; but refused to take an unjust and dangerous oath which he exacted of his suffragans, that they would do nothing but by his advice. Bruno began to discharge his pastoral office by the reformation of the clergy and monks, whom he considered as the most illustrious portion of the flock of Christ, and the salt of the earth. By his care the monastic discipline and spirit were revived in the great monasteries of Senones, Jointures, Estival, Bodonminster, Middle-Moutier, and St. Mansu, or Mansuet. He reformed the manner of celebrating the divine office, and performing the church music, in which he took great delight. A soul that truly loves God, makes the divine praises the comfort of her present exile. The saint was indefatigable in his labors to advance the service of God and the salvation of souls. Amidst his great actions, it was most admirable to see how little he was in his own eyes. He every day served and washed the feet of several poor persons. His life was an uninterrupted severe course of penance, by the practice of secre austerities, and a constant spirit of compunction. Patience and meekness were the arms by which he triumphed over envy and resentment, when many strove to bring him into disgrace with the emperor and others. On of devotion to St. Peter, he visited once a year the tombs of the apostles at Rome. After the death of pope Damasus II., in 1048, in a diet of prelates and noblemen, with legates and deputies of the church of Rome, held at Worms, and honored with the presence of the pious emperor, Henry III., surnamed the Black, Bruno, who had then governed the see of Toul twenty two years, was pitched upon as the most worthy person to be exalted to the papacy. He being present, used all his endeavors to avert the storm from falling on his head; and at length begged three days to deliberate upon the matter. This term he spent in tears and prayers, and in so rigorous a fast, that he neither ate nor drank during all that time. The term being expired, he returned to the assembly, and, hoping to convince his electors of his unworthiness, made a public general confession before them of the sins of his whole life, with abundance of tears, which drew also tears from all that were present: yet no man changed his opinion. He yielded at last only on condition that the whole clergy and people of Rome should agree to his promotion. After this declaration, he returned to Toul, and soon after Easter set out for Rome in the habit of a pilgrim; and alighting from his horse, some miles before he arrived at the city, walked to it, and entered it barefoot. He was received with universal acclamations, and his election ratified. He took possession of the see on the 12th of February, 1049, under the name of Leo IX., being about forty-seven years old. He held it only five years, but they were filled with good works. He labored strenuously in extirpating simony, and the incestuous marriages which many noblemen had presumed to contract. In a journey which he made into Germany, he signalized all his steps with religious actions, held a council to Rheims, and consecrated the new church of St. Remigius, belonging to the abbey, in 1049: and returned from Mentz, by mount Vosge and Ricbenow, to Rome. In 1050, in a council at Rome,2 he condemned the new heresy of Berengarius, archdeacon of Angers, a man full of self-conceit and a lover of novelty, who preached against the mystery of transubstantiation in the holy eucharist.*

St Leo held another council at Vercelli the same year, composed of prelates from several countries, who unanimously confirmed the censure passed at Rome on Berengarius and his tenets, and condemned a book of John Scotus Erigena to be cast into the fire.3 In 1051 the pope made a second visit to his ancient see of Toul, and favored the abbey of St. Mansu with great presents and exemptions. In 1052 he went again into Germany to reconcile the emperor Henry III. and Andrew, king of Hungary. In 1053 Michael Cerularius, patriarch of Constantinople, began to renew the schism of the Greek church, which had been formerly commenced by Photius, but again healed. Cerularius and Leo, bishop of Acrida, wrote a joint letter to John bishop of Trani, in Apulia, in which they objected to the Latins, that they celebrated the holy eucharist in unleavened bread, fasted on the Saturdays in Lent, refrained not from eating blood, omitted to sing halleluia in Lent, and other such like points of discipline.4 Malice must be to the last degree extravagant, which could pretend to ground a schism upon such exceptions. St. Leo answered him by an exhortation to peace, alleging for these practices of discipline the ancient law and tradition from St. Peter, especially for the use of unleavened bread in the holy eucharist. He sent cardinal Humbert, his legate, to Constantinople, to vindicate the Latin church against the exceptions of the Greeks, and preserve them in union with the Latins. He composed a learned and ample apology for this purpose;5 but was not able to overcome the obstinacy of Cerularius, whose artifices drew the greater part of the Oriental churches into his schism By his factious spirit he also embroiled the state: for which Isaac Comnenus himself, whom he had raised to the throne the year before, was preparing to chastise him, when his death prevented his punishment, in. 1058.6

The Normans, in the eleventh century, expelled the Saracens and Greeks out of the kingdom of Naples, but became themselves troublesome and enterprising neighbors to the holy see. Pope Leo implored against them the succors of the emperor Henry III., to whom he made over Fuld, Bamberg, and other lands, which the popes then possessed in Germany, receiving in exchange Benevento and its territory in Italy. With these succors his Holiness hoped to check the Normans, but his army was defeated by them, and himself taken prisoner in a certain village, and detained near a year, though always treated with great honor and respect. He spent his time in fasting and prayer, wore a hair-cloth next his skin, lay on a mat on the floor with a stone for his pillow, slept little, and gave large alms. Falling sick, he was honorably sent back to Rome, as he desired. Perceiving his end to draw nigh, he made moving exhortations to his prelates; then caused himself to be carried into the Vatican church, where he prayed long, and discoursed on the resurrection on the side of his grave. Having received extreme unction, he desired to be carried to the altar of St. Peter and set down before it; where he prayed an hour prostrate: then being lifted up again upon his couch he heard mass, received the Viaticum, and soon after calmly expired, on the 19th of April, 1054, being fifty years old, and having held the pontificate five years and two months.* Miracles which followed his death, proclaimed his glory with God. His name is inserted in the Roman Martyrology.

The devil has ever labored with so much the greater fury to rob the church and each particular Christian soul of the most holy sacrament of the altar, or at least of its fruits, as in this adorable mystery Christ has displayed in our favor all the riches of his mercy and love, and has bestowed on us the most powerful means of grace and spiritual strength. It therefore behooves every Christian to exert his zeal in maintaining the honor of this divine sacrament, and ensuring to himself and others such incomparable advantages. Besides the general sacred deposite of faith, here love and gratitude lay us under a particular obligation. St. John, the disciple of love, lays open the true characteristics of this adorable mystery of love by a short introduction to his account of the last supper, soaring above the other Evangelists, and penetrating into the divine sanctuary of our Lord’s breast to discover the infinite charity with which he was inflamed for us, and which prompted him to invent and institute it, saying, that Jesus, knowing the moment was come for his leaving us and returning to his Father, out of that love which he always bore us, and which he continued to bear us to the end, when it exerted itself in such a wonderful manner as to seem to cast forth all its flames, he bequeathed us this truly divine legacy. Love called him to heaven for our sake, that he might prepare us places there, and send us the holy Paraclete to perfect the great work of our sanctification. And the same boundless love engaged him to exhaust, as it were, his infinite wisdom and power to remain always corporally among us, and most intimately unite himself with us, to be our comfort and strength, and that we may most perfectly be animated by his spirit, and live by him. Shall we receive such a present with coldness and indifference? Shall we be so basely ungrateful to such a lover, as not to burn with zeal for the honor of this mystery of his love and grace, and unite ourselves to him in it by the most devout and frequent communion; and by our continual desire, and most frequent daily adoration of Jesus in this holy sacrament, endeavor to make him all the amends we are able for the insults he receives in it, and to appropriate to ourselves a greater share of its treasures, by a perpetual communion as it were with his Holy Spirit, and a participation of all his merits, graces, treasures, satisfaction, love, and other virtues?

APRIL 19 — ST. ELPHEGE, M. ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY

From his genuine life, written by Osbern, a monk of Canterbury, in 1070, but finished by Eadmer, as Mr. Wharton discovered, who has given us a more ample and correct edition of it than either the Bollandists or Mabillon had been able to furnish. See a short history of his martyrdom in a chronicle written in the reign of Henry I., in the Cottonian library. Vitellius, c. v. viii. Leland, Collect. t. 1, p. 22, and the history of the translation of his body from London to Canterbury, among the MSS. In the Harielan library, Cod. 624, fol. 136, in the British Museum.1

A. D. 1012.

ST. ELPHEGE was born of noble and virtuous parents, who gave him a good education. Fearing the snares of riches, he renounced the world while he was yet very young; and though most dutiful to his parents in all other things, he in this courageously overcame the tears of his tender mother. He served God first in the monastery of Derherste in Gloucestershire. His desire of greater perfection taught him always to think that he had not yet begun to live to God. After some years he left Derherste, and built himself a cell in a desert place of the abbey of Bath, where he shut himself up, unknown to men, but well known to God, for whose love he made himself a voluntary martyr of penance. His virtue, after some time, shone to men the brighter through the veils of his humility, and many noblemen and others addressed themselves to him for instructions in the paths of perfection, and he was at length obliged to take upon him the direction of the great abbey of Bath. Perfection is more difficultly maintained in numerous houses. St. Elphege lamented bitterly the irregularities of the tepid among the brethren, especially little junketings, from which he in a short time reclaimed them; and God, by the sudden death of one, opened the eyes of all the rest. The good abbot would not tolerate the least relaxation in his communion, being sensible how small a breach may totally destroy the regularity of a house. He used to say, that it would have been much better for a man to have stayed in the world, than to be an imperfect monk; and that to wear the habit of a saint, without having the spirit, was a perpetual lie, and an hypocrisy which insults, but can never impose upon Al mighty God. St. Ethelwold, bishop of Winchester, dying in 984, St. Dunstan being admonished by St. Andrew, in a vision, obliged our holy abbot to quit his solitude, and accept of episcopal consecration. The virtues of Elphege became more conspicuous in this high station, though he was no more than thirty years of age when he was first placed in it. In winter, how cold soever it was, he always rose at midnight, went out, and prayed a long time barefoot, and without his upper garment. He never ate flesh unless on extraordinary occasions. He was no less remarkable for charity to his neighbor, than severity to himself. He accordingly provided so liberally for the indigences of the poor, that during his time there were no beggars in the whole diocese of Winchester. The holy prelate had governed the see of Winchester twenty-two years with great edification, when, after the death of archbishop Alfric, in 1006, he was translated to that of Canterbury, being fifty-two years of age. He who trembled under his former burden, was much more terrified at the thought of the latter: but was compelled to acquiesce. Having been at Rome to receive his pall, he held at his return a great national council at Oenham, in 1009, in which thirty-two canons were published for the reformation of errors and abuses, and the establishment of discipline; and, among other things, the then ancient law, commanding the fast on Friday, was confirmed.

The Danes at that time made the most dreadful havoc in England. They landed where they pleased, and not only plundered the country, but committed excessive barbarities on the natives, with little or no opposition from the weak king Ethelred. Their army being joined by the traitorous earl Edric, they marched out of the West into Kent, and sat down before Canterbury. But before it was invested, the English nobility, perceiving the danger the place was in, desired the archbishop, then in the city, to provide for his security by flight, which he refused to do, saying, that it was the part only of a hireling to abandon his flock in the time of danger. During the siege, he often sent out to the enemies to desire them to spare his innocent sheep, whom he endeavored to animate against the worst that could happen. And having prepared them, by his zealous exhortations, rather to suffer the utmost than renounce their faith, he gave them the blessed eucharist, and recommended them to the divine protection. While he was thus employed in assisting and encouraging his people, Canterbury was taken by storm. The infidels on entering the city made a dreadful slaughter of all that came in their way, without distinction of sex or age. The holy prelate was no sooner apprized of the barbarity of the enemy, but breaking from the monks, who would have detained him in the church, where they thought he might be safe, he pressed through the Danish troops, and made his way to the place of slaughter. Then turning to the enemy, he desired them to forbear the massacre of his people, and rather discharge their fury upon him, crying out to the murderers: “Spare these innocent persons. There is no glory in spilling their blood. Turn your indignation rather against me. I have reproached you for your cruelties: I have fed, clothed, and ransomed these your captives.” The archbishop, talking with this freedom, was immediately seized, and used by the Danes with all manner of barbarity. Not content with making him the spectator of the burning of his cathedral, and the decimation of his monks, and of the citizens, having torn his face, beat and kicked him unmercifully, they laid him in irons, and confined him several months in a filthy dungeon. But being afflicted with an epidemical mortal colic in their army, and attributing this scourge to their cruel usage of the saint, they drew him out of prison. He prayed for them, and gave to their sick bread which he had blessed; by eating this their sick recovered, and the calamity ceased. Their chiefs returned thanks to the servant of God, and deliberated about setting him at liberty, but covetousness prevailing in their council, they exacted for his ransom three thousand marks of gold. He said that the country was all laid waste; moreover, that the patrimony of the poor was not to be squandered away. He therefore was bound again, and on Easter Sunday was brought before the commanders of their fleet, which then lay at Greenwich, and threatened with torments and death unless he paid the ransom demanded. He answered, that he had no other gold to offer them than that of true wisdom, which consists in the knowledge and worship of the living God: which if they refused to listen to, they would one day fare worse than Sodom; adding, that their empire would not long subsist in England. The barbarians, enraged at this answer, knocked him down with the backs of their battle-axes, and then stoned him. The saint, like St. Stephen, prayed our Lord to forgive them, and to receive his soul. In the end, raising himself up a little, he said, “O good Shepherd! O incomparable Shepherd! look with compassion on the children of thy church, which1, dying, recommend to thee.” And here a Dane, that had been lately baptized by the saint, perceiving him agonizing and under torture, grieved to see him suffer in so slow and painful a manner, to put an end to his pain, clove his head with his battle-axe, and gave the finishing stroke to his martyrdom Thus died St. Elphege, on the 19th of April, 1012, in the fifty-ninth year of his age. He was solemnly interred in the cathedral of St. Paul’s, in London. In 1023, his body was found entire, and translated with honor to Canterbury: Knut, the Danish king, and Agelnoth, the archbishop, went with it from St. Paul’s to the river: it was carried by monks down a narrow street to the water side, and put on board a vessel; the king held the stern. Queen Emma also attended with great presents, and an incredible multitude of people followed the procession from London. The church of Canterbury, on the occasion, was most magnificently adorned. This translation was made on the 8th of June, on which it was annually commemorated. His relics lay near the high altar till the dispersion of relics under Henry VIII. Hacon, Turkill, and the other Danish commanders, perished miserably soon after, and their numerous fleet of above two hundred sail was almost all lost in violent storms. St. Elphege is named in the Roman Martyrology.

Our English Martyrology commemorates on the 1st of September another St. Elphege, surnamed the Bald, bishop of Winchester, which see he governed from the death of St. Brynstan, in 935 to 953. He is celebrated for his sanctity, and a singular spirit of prophecy, of which Malmesbury gives some instances.

APRIL 19 — ST. URSMAR, BISHOP AND ABBOT OF LAUBES, OR LOBES

He was born near Avesne, in Haynault, and grew up from his cradle a model of all virtues, in which he made a continual progress by a life of humility, patience, and penance, and by an assiduous application to prayer, in which he usually shed abundance of tears. What he most earnestly asked of God was the gift of an ardent charity, that all his thoughts and actions, and those of all men, might, with the most pure and fervent intention, and in the most perfect manner, be directed in all things to fulfil his holy and adorable will. In his conversation it was his earnest desire and drift to induce persons of a secular life to fix their thoughts, as much as the condition of their state would allow, on heavenly things; and to accompany even their worldly business with such aspirations and thoughts, and to study to withdraw their hearts from all attachment to creatures. St. Landelin had then lately founded the abbey of Lobes, on the Sambre, in a territory which is now subject to the prince of Liege, though in the diocese of Cambray. Ursmar here put on the monastic habit. When St. Landelin retired into a closer solitude, where he soon after built the monastery of Crespin, he left Ursmar abbot of Lobes, in 686. Our saint redoubled his fervor in all the exercises of penance in this dignity. He never tasted any flesh-meat or fish, and for ten years never once touched bread, not even in a dangerous sickness. He finished the building of his abbey and church, and founded Aune and several other monasteries. He often left his dear cell to preach the faith to idolaters and sinners. He became the apostle of several districts in the dioceses of Cambray, Arras, Tournay, Noyon, Terouanne, Laon, Metz, Triers, Cologne, and Maestricht. By virtue of a commission from the holy see, he exercised the functions of a bishop: his predecessor, St. Landelin, and his two successors, SS. Ermin and Theodulph, were invested with the same character. In his old age he resigned his abbacy to St. Ermin, and died in retirement in 713, being almost sixty-nine years old, on the 18th day of April, on which he is honored as principal patron at Binche, Lobes, and Luxembourg; but is named on the 19th, which was the day of his burial, in the Roman and several other Martyrologies. His relics are venerated at Binche, four leagues from Mons. See his original life by a disciple, with the notes of Henschenius: also Folcuin, abbot of Laubes, in 980, in his accurate history of The Gests of the Abbots of Laubes, published by D’Achery, Spicileg. t. 6, p. 541. See also Folcuin’s appendix on the miracles wrought at the shrine of St. Ursmar, under the author’s own eyes, ib., and in the Bollandists, 18 Apr. p. 564, and another life of this saint composed in heroic verse by Heriger, abbot of Laubes, in the year 1000.

APRIL 20 — ST. AGNES, OF MONTE PULCIANO, VIRGIN AND ABBESS

From her life, written by F. Raymund of Capua, general of the Dominicans, thirty years after her death, with the remarks of F. Papebroke, Apr. t. 2, p. 791. Also her life, compiled from authentic Instruments, by F. Laurence Surdini Mariani, in 1606; and in French, by F. Roux, at Paris, in 1728.

A. D. 1317.

THIS holy virgin was a native of Monte Pulciano, in Tuscany. She had scarce attained to the use of reason, when she conceived an extraordinary relish and ardor for prayer, and in her infancy often spent whole hours in reciting the Our Father and Hail Mary, on her knees, in some private corner of a chamber. At nine years of age she was placed by her parents in a convent of Sackins, of the order of St. Francis, so called from their habit, or at least their scapular, being made of sackcloth. Agnes, in so tender an age, was a model of all virtues to this austere community: and she renounced the world, though of a plentiful fortune, being sensible of its dangers before she knew what it was to enjoy it. At fifteen years of age she was removed to a new foundation of the order of St. Dominic, at Proceno, in the county of Orvieto, and appointed abbess by pope Nicholas IV. She slept on the ground, with a stone under her head in lieu of a pillow; and for fifteen years she fasted always on bread and water, till she was obliged by her directors, on account of sickness, to mitigate her austerities. Her townsmen, earnestly desiring to be possessed of her again, demolished a lewd house, and erected upon the spot a nunnery, which they bestowed on her. This prevailed on her to return, and she established in this house nuns of the order of St. Dominic, which rule she herself professed. The gifts of miracles and prophecy rendered her famous among men, though humility, charity, and patience under her long sicknesses, were the graces which recommended her to God. She died at Monte Pulciano, on the 20th of April, 1317, being forty-three years old. Her body was removed to the Dominicans’ church of Orvieto, in 1435, where it remains. Clement VIII. approved her office for the use of the order of St. Dominic, and inserted her name in the Roman Martyrology. She was solemnly canonized by Benedict XIII. in 1726.

APRIL 20 — ST. SERF, OR SERVANUS

First bishop and apostle of the isles of Orkney, and disciple of St. Palladius, whose apostolic spirit he inherited. He flourished in the fifth century. See Lesley,1. 4; Hist. Scot. Arnoldus, in Theatro Conversionis Gentium; King, &c.

APRIL 20 — ST. JAMES OF SCLAVONIA, OR ILLYRICUM, C

Though a native of Dalmatia, from which country he received his surname, he spent the chief part of his life on the opposite coast of the Adriatic Sea, in Italy, where he embraced with great fervor the humble and penitential state of a lay-brother among the Observantin Franciscan friars at Bitecto, a small town nine miles from Bari. By an eminent spirit of compunction, humility, self-denial, and heavenly contemplation, he seemed not to fall short in fervor of the greatest lights of his order. He was seen by a fellow-friar, whose testimony is produced in the process for his canonization, raised in body from the ground at prayer, and many predictions, authentically proved, show him to have been often favored by God with a prophetic spirit. He was sometimes removed to other neighboring convents of his order, and he was for some years employed in quality of cook in that of Conversano, eighteen miles from Bari. In this office, from the presence and sight of a temporal fire, he took occasion sometimes to contemplate the everlasting fire of hell, and at other times to soar in spirit above the highest heavens, to the source of infinite love which burns through all eternity, begging some spark to be kindled in his breast from this divine flame, which darts its rays on all creatures, though many unhappily shut their hearts to them, and receive not their influence. In such contemplation he often fell into ecstasies in the midst of his work, and stood for some time motionless and entirely absorbed in God. One morning while he was making ready a mess of beans for his community’s dinner, he happened to be thus ravished in spirit, and stood for a considerable time with his hand in the beans, having his mind absorbed in God, and tears streaming from his eyes, fell into the vessel of beans before him. The duke of Adria, or Atria, in whose estate Conversano was comprised, and who often retired from the court of king Ferdinand I. to pass some months in the country, coming to this convent, passed through the kitchen, and saw the holy brother in this wonderful rapture. He stood some time in great surprise, and said, “Blessed are the religious brethren whose meals are seasoned with such tears.” After he was gone from the place, James came to himself, and being informed that so great a guest was come, he went to ask the duke what he was pleased to order to be dressed for his dinner. “I will eat nothing,” said the duke, “but some of the beans which have been seasoned with your tears.” Which answer gave the saint extreme confusion. The duke took every occasion of testifying his extraordinary veneration for his sanctity. St. James was sent back by his superiors to Bitecto, and there closed a holy life by a most happy death, in 1485, on the 27th of April: but his festival occurs on the 20th in the Martyrology published by pope Benedict XIV. for the use of his order. His body remains uncorrupted at Bitecto, and an account of many miracles wrought through his intercession, is collected from authentic vouchers by Papebroke an April, t. 3, p. 527.

APRIL 21 — ST. ANSELM, C. ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY

From his life, written by Eadmer his disciple, in two books, also the same author’s history of Novelties, in six books, from the year 1066 to 1122; and a poem on the miracles of St. Anselm, probably by the same writer, published by Martenne. Ampliss. Collectio, t. 6, p. 983, 987. The principal memorials relating to St. Anselm are collected in the Benedictin edition of his works; from which a short abstract is here given. See Gallia Christ. Nova. t. 11, p. 223; Ceillier, t. 21, p. 267.

A. D. 1109.

IF the Norman conquerors stripped the English nation of its liberty, and many temporal advantages, it must be owned that by their valor they raised the reputation of its arms, and deprived their own country of its greatest men, both in church and state, with whom they adorned this kingdom: of which this great doctor, and his master, Lanfranc, are instances. St. Anselm was born of noble parents, at Aoust, in Piedmont, about the year 1033. His pious mother took care to give him an early tincture of piety, and the impressions her instructions made upon him were as lasting as his life. At the age of fifteen, desirous of serving God in the monastic state, he petitioned an abbot to admit him into his house: but was refused out of apprehension of his father’s displeasure. Neglecting, during the course of his studies, to cultivate the divine seed in his heart, he lost this inclination, and, his mother being dead, he fell into tepidity; and, without being sensible of the fatal tendency of vanity and pleasure, began to walk in the broad way of the world: so dangerous a thing is it to neglect the inspirations of grace! The saint, in his genuine meditations, expresses the deepest sentiments of compunction for these disorders, which his perfect spirit of penance exceedingly exaggerated to him, and which, like another David, he never ceased most bitterly to bewail to the end of his days. The ill usage he met with from his father, induced him, after his mother’s death, to leave his own country, where he had made a successful beginning in his studies; and, after a diligent application to them for three years in Burgundy, (then a distinct government,) and in France, invited by the great fame of Lanfranc. prior of Bec, in Normandy, under the abbot Herluin, he went thither and became his scholar.* On his father’s death, Anselm advised with him about the state of life he was to embrace; as whether he should live upon his estate to employ its produce in alms, or should renounce it at once and embrace a monastic and eremitical life. Lanfranc, feeling an overbearing affection for so promising a disciple, durst not advise him in his vocation, fearing the bias of his own inclination; but he sent him to Maurillus, the holy archbishop of Rouen. By him Anselm, after he had laid open to him his interior, was determined to enter the monastic state at Bec. and accordingly became a member of that house, at the age of twenty-seven, in 1060, under the abbot Herluin. Three years after, Lanfranc was made abbot of St. Stephen’s, at Caen, and Anselm prior of Bec.* At this promotion several of the monks murmured on account of his youth; but, by patience and sweetness, he won the affections of them all, and by little condescensions at first so worked upon an irregular young monk, called Osbern, as to perfect his conversion, and make him one of the most fervent. He had indeed so great a knowledge of the hearts and passions of men, that he seemed to read their interior in their actions; by which he discovered the sources of virtues and vices, and knew how to adapt to each proper advice and instructions; which were rendered most powerful by the mildness and charity with which he applied them. And in regard to the management and tutoring of youth, he looked upon excessive severity as highly pernicious. Eadmer has recorded a conversation he had on this subject with a neighboring abbot,1 who, by a conformity to our saint’s practice and advice in this regard, experienced that success in his labors which he had till then aspired to in vain, by harshness and severity.

St. Anselm applied himself diligently to the study of every part of theology, by the clear light of scripture and tradition. While he was prior at Bec, he wrote his Monologium, so called, because in this work he speaks alone, explaining the metaphysical proofs of the existence and nature of God Also his Proslogium, or contemplation of God’s attributes, in which he addresses his discourse to God, or himself. The Meditations, commonly called the Manual of St. Austin, are chiefly extracted out of this book. It was censured by a neighboring monk, which occasioned the saint’s Apology. These and other the like works, show the author to have excelled in metaphysics all the doctors of the church since St. Austin. He likewise wrote, while prior, On Truth, On Freewill, and On the Fall of the Devil, or, On the Origin of Evil: also his Grammarian, which is, in reality, a treatise on Dialectics, or the art of reasoning.

Anselm’s reputation drew to Bec great numbers from all the neighboring kingdoms. Herluin dying in 1078, he was chosen abbot of Bec. being forty-five years old, of which he had been prior fifteen. The abbey of Bec being possessed at that time of some lands in England, this obliged the abbot to make his appearance there in person, at certain times. This occasioned our saint’s first journeys thither, which his tender regard for his old friend Lanfranc, at that time archbishop of Canterbury, made the more agreeable. He was received with great honor and esteem by all ranks of people, both in church and state; and there was no one who did not think at a real misfortune, if he had not been able to serve him in something or other. King William himself, whose title of Conqueror rendered him haughty and inaccessible to his subjects, was so affable to the good abbot of Bec, that he seemed to be another man in his presence. The saint, on his side, was all to all, by courtesy and charity, that he might find occasions of giving every one some suitable instructions to promote their salvation; which were so much the more effectual, as he communicated them, not as some do with the dictatorial air of a master, but in a simple familiar manner, or by indirect, though sensible examples. In the year 1092, Hugh, the great earl of Chester, by three pressing messages, entreated Anselm to come again into England, to assist him, then dangerously sick, and to give his advice about the foundation of a monastery which that nobleman had undertaken at St. Wereburge’s church at Chester. A report that he would be made archbishop of Canterbury, in the room of Lanfranc, deceased, made him stand off for some time; but he could not forsake his old friend in his distress, and at last came over. He found him recovered, but the affairs of his own abbey, and of that which the earl was erecting, detained him five months in England. The metropolitan see of Canterbury had been vacant ever since the death of Lanfranc, in 1089. The sacrilegious and tyrannical king, William Rufus, who succeeded his father in 1087, by an injustice unknown till his time, usurped the revenues of vacant benefices, and deferred his permission, or Congé d’élire, in order to the filling the episcopal sees, that he might the longer enjoy their income. Having thus seized into his hands the revenues of the archbishopric, he reduced the monks of Canterbury to a scanty allowance: oppressing them moreover by his officers with continual insults, threats, and vexations. He had been much solicited, by the most virtuous among the nobility, to supply the see of Canterbury, in particular, with a person proper for that station; but continued deaf to all their remonstrances, and answered them at Christmas, 1093, that neither Anselm nor any other should have that bishopric while he lived; and this he swore to by the holy face of Lucca, meaning a great crucifix in the cathedral of that city, held in singular veneration, his usual oath. He was seized soon after with a violent fit of sickness, which in a few days brought him to extremity. He was then at Gloucester, and seeing himself in this condition, signed a proclamation, which was published, to release all those that had been taken prisoners in the field, to discharge all debts owing to the crown, and to grant a general pardon. promising likewise to govern according to law, and to punish the instruments of injustice with exemplary severity. He moreover nominated Anselm to the see of Canterbury, at which all were extremely satisfied but the good abbot himself, who made all the decent opposition imaginable; alleging his age, his want of health and vigor enough for so weighty a charge, his unfitness for the management of public and secular affairs, which he had always declined to the best of his power. The king was extremely concerned at his opposition, and asked him why he endeavored to ruin him in the other world, being convinced that he should lose his soul in case he died before the archbishopric was filled. The king was seconded by the bishops and others present, who not only told him they were scandalized at his refusal, but added, that, if he persisted in it, all the grievances of the church and nation would be placed to his account. Thereupon they forced a pastoral staff into his hands, in the king’s presence, carried him into the church, and sung Te Deum on the occasion. This was on the 6th of March, 1093. He still declined the charge, till the king had promised him the restitution of all the lands that were in the possession of that see in Lanfranc’s time. Anselm also insisted that he should acknowledge Urban II. for lawful pope. Things being thus adjusted, Anselm was consecrated with great solemnity on the 4th of December, 1093.

Anselm had not been long in possession of the see of Canterbury, when the king, intending to wrest the duchy of Normandy out of the hands of his brother Robert, made large demands on his subjects for supplies. On this occasion, not content with the five hundred pounds (a very large sum in those days) offered him by the archbishop, the king insisted, at the instigation of some of his courtiers, on a thousand, for his nomination to the archbishopric, which Anselm constantly refused to pay: pressing him also to fill vacant abbeys, and to consent that the bishops should hold councils as formerly, and be allowed by canons to repress crimes and abuses, which were multiplied, and passed into custom, for want of such a remedy, especially incestuous marriages and other abominable debaucheries. The king was extremely provoked, and declared no one should extort from him his abbeys any more than his crown.* And from that day he sought to deprive Anselm of his see. William, bishop of Durham, and the other prelates, acquiesced readily in the king’s orders, by which he forbade them to obey him as their primate, or treat him as archbishop, alleging for reason that he obeyed pope Urban, during the schism, whom the English nation had not acknowledged. The king, having brought over most of the bishops to his measures, applied to the temporal nobility, and bid them disclaim the archbishop: but they resolutely answered, that since he was their archbishop, and had a right to superintend the affairs of religion, it was not in their power to disengage themselves from his authority, especially as there was no crime or misdemeanor proved against him. King William then, by his ambassador, acknowledged Urban for true pope, and promised him a yearly pension from England, if he would depose Anselm; but the legate, whom his holiness sent, told the king that it was what could not be done. St. Anselm wrote to the pope to thank him for the pall he had sent him by that legate, complaining of the affliction in which he lived under a burden too heavy for him to bear, and regretting the tranquillity of his solitude which he had lost.2 Finding the king always seeking occasions to oppress his church, unless he fed him with its treasures, which he regarded as the patrimony of the poor, (though he readily furnished his contingent in money and troops to his expeditions and to all public burdens,) the holy prelate earnestly desired to leave England, that he might apply, in person, to the pope for his counsel and assistance. The king refused him twice: and, on his applying to him a third time, he assured the saint that, if he left that kingdom, he would seize upon the whole revenue of the see of Canterbury, and that he should never more be acknowledged metropolitan. But the saint, being persuaded he could not in conscience abide any longer in the realm, to be a witness of the oppression of the church, and not have it in his power to remedy it, set out from Canterbury, in October, 1097, in the habit of a pilgrim; took shipping at Dover, and landed at Witsan, having with him two monks, Eadmer, who wrote his life, and Baldwin. He made some stay at Cluni with St. Hugh, the abbot, and at Lyons with the good archbishop Hugh. It not being safe travelling any further towards Rome at that time, on account of the antipope’s party lying in the way; and Anselm falling sick soon after, this made it necessary for him to stay longer at Lyons than he had designed. However, he left that city the March following, in 1098, on the pope’s invitation, and was honorably received by him. His holiness, having heard his cause, assured him of his protection, and wrote to the king of England for his re-establishment in his rights and possessions. Anselm also wrote to the king at the same time; and, after ten days’ stay in the pope’s palace, retired to the monastery of St. Saviour in Calabria, the air of Rome not agreeing with his health. Here he finished his work entitled, Why God was made Man; in two books, showing, against infidels, the wisdom, justice, and expediency of the mystery of the incarnation for man’s redemption. He had begun this work in England, where he also wrote his book On the Faith of the Trinity and Incarnation, dedicated to pope Urban II., in which he refuted Roscelin, the master, Peter Abailard, who maintained an erroneous opinion in regard to the Trinity. Anselm, charmed with the sweets of his retirement, and despairing of doing any good at Canterbury, hearing by new instances that the king was still governed by his passions, in open defiance to justice and religion, earnestly entreated the pope, whom he met at Aversa, to discharge him of his bishopric; believing he might be more serviceable to the world in a private station. The pope would by no means consent, but charged him upon his obedience not to quit his station: adding, that it was not the part of a man of piety and courage to be frightened from his post purely by the dint of browbeating and threats, that being all the harm he had hitherto received. Anselm replied, that he was not afraid of suffering, or even losing his life in the cause of God; but that he saw there was nothing to be done in a country where justice was so overruled as it was in England. However, Anselm submitted, and in the mean time returned to his retirement, which was a cell called Slavia, situated on a mountain, depending on the monastery of St. Saviour. That he might live in the merit of obedience, he prevailed with the pope to appoint the monk Eadmer, his inseparable companion, to be his superior, nor did he do the least thing without his leave.

The pope having called a council, which was to meet at Bari, in October, 1098, in order to effect a reconciliation of the Greeks with the Catholic church, ordered the saint to be present at it. It consisted of one hundred and twenty-three bishops. The Greeks having proposed the question about the procession of the Holy Ghost, whether this was from the Father only, or from the Father and the Son; the disputation being protracted, the pope called aloud for Anselm, saying, “Anselm, our father and our master, where are you?” And causing him to sit next to him, told him that the present occasion required his learning and elocution to defend the church against her enennes, and that he thought God had brought him thither for that purpose. Anselm spoke to the point with so much learning, judgment, and penetration, that he silenced the Greeks, and gave such a general satisfaction, that all presen joined in pronouncing anathema against those that should afterwards deny the procession of the Holy Ghost from both the Father and the Son. This affair being at an end, the proceedings of the king of England fell next under debate. And on this occasion his simony, his oppressions of the church, his persecution of Anselm, and his incorrigibleness, after frequent admonitions, were so strongly represented, that the pope, at the instance of the council, was just going to pronounce him excommunicated. Anselm had hitherto sat silent, but at this he rose up, and casting himself on his knees before the pope, entreated him to stop the censure. And now the council, who had admired our saint for his parts and learning, were further charmed with him on account of his humane and Christian disposition, in behalf of one that had used him so roughly. The saint’s petition in behalf of his sovereign was granted; and, on the council breaking up, the pope and Anselm returned to Rome. The pope, however, sent to the king a threat of excommunication, to be issued in a council to be shortly after held at Rome, unless he made satisfaction: but the king, by his ambassador, obtained a long delay. Anselm stayed some time at Rome with the pope, who always placed him next in rank to himself. All persons, even the schismatics, loved and honored him, and he assisted with distinction at the council of Rome, held after Easter, in 1099. Immediately after the Roman council he returned to Lyons, where he was entertained by the archbishop Hugh, with all the cordiality and regard imaginable; but saw no hopes of recovering his see so long as king William lived. Here he wrote his book On the Conception of the Virgin, and On Original Sin, resolving many questions relating to that sin. The archbishop of Lyons gave him in all functions the precedence, and all thought themselves happy who could receive any sacrament from his hands. Upon the death of Urban II., he wrote an account of his case to his successor, Pascal II. King William Rufus being snatched away by sudden death, without the sacraments, on the 2d of August, 1100, St. Anselm, who was then in the abbey of Chaize-Dieu, in Auvergne, lamented bitterly his unhappy end, and made haste to England, whither he was invited by king Henry I. He landed at Dover on the 23d of September, and was received with great joy and extraordinary respect. And having in a few days recovered the fatigue of his journey, he went to wait on the king, who received him very graciously. But this harmony was of no long continuance. The new king required of Anselm to be reinvested by him, and do the customary homage of his predecessors for his see; but the saint absolutely refused to comply, and made a report of the proceedings of the late synod at Rome, in which the laity that gave investitures for abbeys or cathedrals were excommunicated; and those that received such investitures were put under the same censure. But this not satisfying the king, it was agreed between them to consult the pope upon the subject. The court in the mean time was very much alarmed at the preparations making by the king’s elder brother, Robert, duke of Normandy; who, being returned from the holy war in Palestine, claimed the crown of England, and threatened to invade the land. The nobles, though they had sworn allegiance to Henry, were ready enough to join him; and, on his landing with a formidable army at Portsmouth, several declared for the duke. The king being in great danger of losing his crown, was very liberal in promises to Anselm on this occasion; assuring him that he would henceforward leave the business of religion wholly to him, and be always governed by the advice and orders of the apostolic see. Anselm omitted nothing on his side to prevent a revolt from the king. Not content with sending his quota of armed men, be strongly represented to the disaffected nobles the heinousness of their crime of perjury, and that they ought rather lose their lives than break through their oaths, and fail in their sworn allegiance to their prince. He also published an excommunication against Robert, as an invader, who thereupon came to an accommodation with Henry, and left England. And thus, as Eadmer relates, the archbishop, strengthening the king’s party, kept the crown upon his head. Amidst his troubles and public distractions, he retired often in the day to his devotions, and watched long in them in the night. At his meals, and at all times, he conversed interiorly in heaven. One day as he was riding to his manor of Herse, a hare, pursued by the dogs, rat under his horse for refuge: at which the saint stopped, and the hounds stood at bay. The hunters laughed, but the saint said, weeping, “This hare puts me in mind of a poor sinner just upon the point of departing this life, surrounded with devils, waiting to carry away their prey.” The hare going off, he forbade her to be pursued, and was obeyed, not a hound stirring after her. In like manner, every object served to raise his mind to God, with whom he always conversed in his heart, and, in the midst of noise and tumult, he enjoyed the tranquillity of holy contemplation; so strongly was his soul sequestered from, and raised above the world.

King Henry, though so much indebted to Anselm, still persisted in his claim of the right of giving the investitures of benefices. Anselm, in 1102, held a national council in St. Peter’s church at Westminster, in which, among other things, it was forbid to sell men like cattle, which had till then been practised in England; and many canons relating to discipline were drawn up. He persisted to refuse to ordain bishops, named by the king, without a canonical election. The contest became every day more serious. At last, the king and nobles persuaded Anselm to go in person, and consult the pope about the matter: the king also sent a deputy to his holiness. The saint embarked on the 27th of April, in 1103. Pope Paschal II. condemned the king’s pretensions to the investitures, and excommunicated those who should receive church dignities from him. St. Anselm being advanced, on his return to England, as far as Lyons, received there an intimation of an order from king Henry, forbidding him to proceed on his journey home, unless he would conform to his will. He therefore remained at Lyons, where he was much honored by his old friend, the archbishop Hugh. From thence he retired to his abbey of Bec, where he received from the pope a commission to judge the cause of the archbishop of Rouen, accused of several crimes. He was also allowed to receive into communion such as had accepted investitures from the crown, which, though still disallowed of, the bishops and abbots were so far dispensed with as to do homage for their temporalities. The king was so pleased with this condescension of the pope, that he sent immediately to Bec, to invite St. Anselm home in the most obliging manner, but a grievous sickness detained him. The king coming over into Normandy in 1106, articles of agreement were drawn up between him and the archbishop, at Bec, pursuant to the letter St. Anselm had received from Rome a few months before: and the pope very readily confirmed the agreement. In this expedition, Henry defeated his brother Robert, and sent him prisoner into England, where he died. St. Anselm hereupon returned to England, in 1106, and was received by the queen Maud, who came to meet him, and by the whole kingdom of England, as it were, in triumph.*

The last years of his life, his health was entirely broken. Having for six months labored under a hectic decay, with an entire loss of appetite under which disorder he would be carried every day to assist at holy mass. he happily expired, laid on sackcloth and ashes, at Canterbury, on the 21st of April, 1109, in the sixteenth year of his episcopal dignity, and of his age the seventy-sixth. He was buried in his cathedral. By a decree of Clement XI., 1720,3 he is honored among the doctors of the church. We have authentic accounts of many miracles wrought by this saint in the histories of Eadmer and others.

St. Anselm had a most lively faith of all the mysteries and great truths of our holy religion; and by the purity of his heart, and an interior divine light, he discovered great secrets in the holy scriptures, and had a wonderful talent in explaining difficulties which occur in them. His hope for heavenly things gave him a wonderful contempt and disgust of the vanities of the world, and he could truly say with the apostle, he was crucified to the world, and all its desires. By an habitual mortification of his appetite in eating and drinking, he seemed to have lost all relish in the nourishment which he took. His fortitude was such, that no human respects, or other considerations, could ever turn him out of the way of justice and truth; and his charity for his neighbor seemed confined by no bounds: his words, his writings, his whole life breathed forth this heavenly fire. He seemed to live, says his faithful disciple and historian, not for himself, but for others; or rather so much the more for himself by how much the more profitable his life was to his neighbors, and faithful to his God. The divine love and law were the continual subjects of his meditations day and night. He had a singular devotion to the passion of our Lord, and to his Virgin mother. Her image at Bec, before which, at her altar, he daily made long prayers while he lived in that monastery, is religiously kept in the new sumptuous church. His horror of the least sin is not to be expressed. In his Proslogium, meditations, and other ascetic works, the most heroic and inflamed sentiments of all these virtues, especially of compunction, fear of the divine judgments, and charity, are expressed in that language of the heart which is peculiar to the saints.

APRIL 21 — ST. ANASTASIUS THE SINAITE, ANCHORET

He testifies of himself, that in his tender years he listened to the gospel with no less respect than if he had heard Christ himself speak; and received the blessed eucharist with the same love and tenderness as if he embraced him visibly present. After visiting the holy places at Jerusalem, he went to mount Sinai, and was so much edified by the sight of the angelical lives of the hermits who inhabited it, that he built himself a cell among them. Here, perfectly dead to all earthly things and to himself, he deserved, by prayer and obedience, to receive from God the double talent of wisdom and spiritual science, the treasures of which are only communicated to the humble. He often left his desert to defend the church. At Alexandria he publicly convicted certain chiefs of the Acephali heretics, that, in condemning St. Flavian, they had condemned all the fathers of the church, insomuch that the people could scarce be contained from stoning them. He confuted them by an excellent work entitled Ordegus, or the Guide; in which, besides refuting the Eutychian errors, he lays down rules against all heresies. He has also left several ascetic works, full of piety and devotion. In his discourse on the Synaxis, or mass, he urges the duties of the confession of sins to a priest, respect at mass, and pardon of injuries, in so pathetic a manner, that Canisius and Combefis recommended this piece to the diligent perusal of all preachers. This saint was living in 678, as Ceillier demonstrates from certain passages in his Odegus.1 See Henschenius, t. 2, Apr. p. 850; Ceillier, t. 17.

APRIL 21 — ST. ANASTASIUS I., PATRIARCH OF ANTIOCH

Whom Nicephorus and many moderns confound with the Sinaite, (which last certainly lived sixty years after the death of the patriarch,) was a man of singular learning and piety. When any persons in his company spoke of temporal affairs, he seemed to have neither ears to hear, nor tongue to give any answer, observing a perpetual silence, as Evagrius reports of him, except when charity or necessity compelled him to speak. He had an extraordinary talent in comforting the afflicted. He vigorously opposed the heresy which the emperor Justinian maintained in his dotage, that the body of Christ, during his mortal life, was not liable to corruption and pain; and wrote upon that subject with propriety, elegance, and choice of sentiments. The emperor resolved to banish him, but was prevented by death. However, his successor, Justin the Younger, a man corrupted in his morals, expelled him from his see; which he recovered again twenty-three years after, in 593. He held it five years longer, and, dying in 598, left us several letters and very pious sermons. See Henschenius, t. 2, Apr. p. 853; Evagr. Hist1. 4, c. 38, 39, &c.

APRIL 21 — ST. ANASTASIUS, SURNAMED THE YOUNGER PATRIARCH OF ANTIOCH

Who succeeded the above-mentioned. In 610, he was slain by the Jews, in a sedition, on the 21st of December, and in the Roman Martyrology is honored on that day as a martyr.

APRIL 21 — ST. BEUNO, OR BEUNOR, ABBOT OF CLYNNOG, IN CAERNARVONSHIRE, C

He was a native of Powis-land,* and son of Beugi, or, as the Welsh write it, Hywgi, grandson to the prince of Powis-land, or at least part of it, called Glewisig. For the sake of his education he was sent into Arvon, the territory opposite to Anglesey, from which island it is separated by the river, or rather arm of the sea, called Menai. This country was also called Snowdon forest, from its hills, the highest in Britain, which derive their name from the snow which covers them, being called in Welsh, Craig Eriry, words of the same import with their English name Snowdon. These mountains afford such an impregnable retreat, and so much good pasture, that the usual style of the sovereigns was, Princes of North-Wales, and Lords of Snowdon. Sejont, called by the Romans Segontium, was the capital city, situated on the river Sejont. Its ruins are still visible near the town and castle of Caernarvon, (or city of Arvon,) built by Edward I., on the mouth of the river, at the great ferry over to Anglesey. That island had been, under the pagan Britons, the chief seat of the Druids, and was afterwards illustrious for many holy monks and hermits. On the coast opposite to this island, in the county of Caernarvon, stood three great monasteries: that of Clynnog Fawr, near Sejont, or Caernarvon; that of Conway, on the extremity of this county, towards Denbighshire, on the river Conway, which separates the two counties; from which it is called Aberconway, that is, mouth of the Conway. It was the burying-place of the princes of North-Wales. Edward I. built there a strong castle and town facing Beaumaris, the capital of Anglesey, though the passage here is much broader than from Caernarvon. Bangor, or Banchor, i. e. White Choir, or Place of the Choir, was on the same coast, in the midway between Caernarvon and Aberconway. This monastery and bishopric were founded by St. Daniel, about the year 525. The very town was formerly called Bangor Fawr, or the Great Bangor: but the monastery and city were destroyed by the Danes; and, though the bishopric still subsists, the town is scarce better than a village. St. Beuno seems to have had his education in the monastery of Bangor: he afterwards became the father and founder of several great nurseries of saints. Two monasteries he built in the isle of Anglesey, Aberffraw and Trefdraeth, of both which churches he is to this day titular saint. On the continent, he founded Clynnog, or Clynnoc fechan, i. e. Little Clynnog; and Clynnog Fawr, or Vawr, i. e. Great Clynnog. This last was situated near the river Sejont, and the present Caernarvon. Cadvan was at that time king of North-Wales, and had lately gained a great victory over Ethelred, king of the pagan English Saxons of Northumberland, who had barbarously massacred the poor monks of Bangor, in the year 607, or somewhat later. St. Beuno made the king a present of a golden sceptre, and the prince assigned a spot to build his monastery upon, near Fynnon Beuno, or Beuno’s well, in the parish of Llanwunda, of which he is titular saint. But when he was beginning to lay the foundation, a certain woman came to him with a child in her arms, saying, that the ground was this infant’s inheritance. The holy man, much troubled hereat, took the woman with him to the king, who kept his court at Caer Sejont, and told him, with a great deal of zeal and concern, that he could not devote to God another’s patrimony. The king refusing to pay any regard to his remonstrances, the saint went away. But one Gwyddeiant, cousin-german to the king, immediately went after him, and bestowed on him the township of Clynnog-Fawr, his undoubted patrimony, where Beuno built his church about the year 616. King Cadvan died about that time; but his son and successor Cadwallon surpassed him in his liberality to the saint and his monastery. It is related, among other miracles, that when a certain man had lost his eyebrow by some hurt, St. Beuno healed it by applying the iron point of his staff: and that from this circumstance a church four miles from Clynnog, perhaps built by the person so healed, retains to this day the name of Llanael hayarn, i. e. church of the iron brow: though popular tradition is not perhaps a sufficient evidence of such a miracle; and some other circumstance might give occasion to the name. Some further account of St. Beuno will be given in the life of St. Wenefride. The year of his death is nowhere recorded. He is commemorated on the 14th of January and 21st of April. And on Trinity Sunday great numbers resort to the wakes at Clynnog, and formerly brought offerings to the church.

This monastery passed afterwards into the hands of Benedictins of the congregation of Clugni: whence it had the name of Clynnog, or Clunnoc, being formerly known only by hat of its founder. The church, built at beautiful stone, is so large and magnificent as to remain to this day the greatest ornament and wonder of the whole country, especially Saint Beuno’s chapel, which is joined to the church by a portico. In this chapel, the fine painted or stained glass in the large windows is much effaced and destroyed, except a large figure of our blessed Saviour extended on the cross Opposite to this crucifix, about three yards from the east window, is Saint Beuno’s tomb, raised above the ground, and covered with a large stone, up on which people still lay sick children, in hopes of being cured. This great building, though very strong, is in danger of decaying for want of revenues to keep it in repair. Those of the monastery were chiefly settled on the Principal of Jesus College in Oxford, except what was reserved for the maintenance of a vicar to serve the parish. Some still bring offerings of some little piece of silver, or chiefly of lambs, which are sold by the church wardens, and the money put into St. Beuno’s box, to be employed in repairing the chapel. From an ancient custom, farmers in that country continue to print on the foreheads of their sheep what they call St. Beuno’s mark. Mr. Robert Vaughan of Hengwrt, the great Welsh antiquarian, has given us an ample list of benefactions bestowed upon Clynnoc, by princes and others. On St. Beuno see his MS. life, Howel’s History of Wales, pp. 11 and 12, and a long, curious letter, concerning him and this church, which the compiler received from the Rev. Mr. Farrington the ingenious vicar of Clynnog-Fawr, or Vawr, as the Welsh adjective Mawr, great, is written in several parts of Wales.

APRIL 21 — ST. EINGAN, OR ENEON, C

Eneon Bhrenin, called, by the Latin writers of the Scottish history, Anianus, was a king of the Scots, in a considerable part of North-Britain, and son of Owen Danwyn, the son of Eneon Yrth, son of Cunedha Wlegin, king of Cambria, a very powerful prince in the southern parts of Scotland, in which Cumberland and the neighboring parts of England were then comprised. Eingan was cousin-german to the great Maelgwn Gwyneth, king of Britain in North-Wales, whose father was Caswallon lawhir, the brother of Owen Danwyn; and his mother Medif, daughter of Voilda ap Talu Traws, of Nanconwey, near Bangor. Eingan, or Eigan, leaving his royalty in the North, went into Gwyneth, the old name of North-Wales, probably from the great prince of that name. There he retired to Lhyn, or Lheyn, now a deanery in the diocese and archdeaconry of Bangor. In that part he built a church, and spent the remainder of his days in the fear and service of God. He seems to have died about the year 590. St. Eingan is titular saint of this church, called to this day Llanengan. See Powel’s History of Wales, p. 12, and Brown-Willis’s Survey of Bangor.

APRIL 21 — ST. MALRUBIUS, MARTYR

Led an austere monastic life in the mountainous country of Abur-Crossain, in the county of Ross in Ireland, when certain Norway pirates landing there in 721, for attempting to preach Christ to them, he was massacred by them with many wounds, in the eightieth year of his age, probably on the 21st of April, his festival in Connaught. See Colgan’s MSS.

APRIL 22 — SS. SOTER AND CAIUS, POPES, MARTYRS

St. Soter was raised to the papacy upon the death of St. Anicetus. in 173. By the sweetness of his discourses, he comforted all persons with the tenderness of a father, and assisted the indigent with liberal alms, especially those who suffered for the faith. He liberally extended his charities, according to the custom of his predecessors, to remote churches, particularly to that of Corinth, to which he addressed an excellent letter, as St. Dionysius of Corinth testifies in his letter of thanks, who adds that his letter was found worthy to be read for their edification on Sundays at their assemblies to celebrate the divine mysteries, together with the letter of St. Clement, pope. St. Soter vigorously opposed the heresy of Montanus, and governed the church to the year 177. See Eusebius, from whose ecclesiastical history these few circumstances are gleaned. In the Martyrologies this pope is styled a martyr

APRIL 22 — ST. CAIUS, POPE

Succeeded St. Eutychian in the apostolic see, in 283. The church then enjoyed a calm, but was soon after disturbed by a tumultuous persecution for two years, on the death of Carinus. St. Caius encouraged St. Sebastian and the other martyrs and confessors. However, to preserve himself for his flock, he withdrew for a time to avoid the fury of the storm. The ancient pontificals say he was of Dalmatia, and related to the emperor Dioclesian. Having sat twelve years, four months, and seven days, he died on the 21st of April, 296, and was interred on the 22d, on which day his name is honored in the Liberian Calendar. His sufferings obtained him the title of martyr, as Orsi takes notice.1

What had not these primitive saints to suffer not only from the persecutions of infidel princes and magistrates, but also from the ignorance, stupidity, jealousy, and malice of many whom they labored daily to gain to Christ, and from the manifold trials and dangers of so many souls in their dear flock whom they bore in their hearts, and whose sufferings they felt much more severely than their own! We are not to be surprised.—These were so many special effects of a most tender love and mercy in Him by whose providence these trials were sent them: they were the steps by which their souls were raised to the summit of perfect virtue. We perhaps daily meet with domestic persecutions and contradictions, and look upon them as obstacles to our progress in the way of perfection, as thorns in our road. They may, indeed, be called thorns, but they produce and guard the sweetest and most beautiful flowers of virtue. It is owing to our sloth, cowardice, and impatience; it is our fault if they are hinderances of what they are designed by God to advance and perfect in our souls. Virtues exercised in prosperity, which are fair to the eye, and applauded by men, are usually false or superficial. A perpetual spring would produce only leaves and flowers, and bring no fruit to maturity. To understand the incomparable value and merit of the little crosses of which we are so apt to complain, we must not lose sight of the saints. Those Christian heroes, of whom the world was not worthy, all suffered, and were persecuted many ways. These crosses both purchased and ensured to them their greatest crowns.

APRIL 22 — SS. AZADES, THARBA, AND MANY OTHERS, MARTYRS IN PERSIA

From their genuine acts, by St. Maruthas, in Assemani’s Acta Martyrum, t. 1, p. 42.

A. D. 341.

IN the thirty-second year of king Sapor II., (which Sozomen and others from him call, by an evident mistake, the thirty-third,) on Good Friday, which fell that year on the 17th day of April, according to our solar year, the same day on which St. Simeon and his companions suffered, a most cruel edict was published in Persia, inflicting on all Christians the punishment of instant death or slavery, without any trial or form of judicature. The swords of the furious were everywhere unsheathed; and Christians looked upon slaughter as their glory, and courageously went out to meet it. They had even in this life the advantage of their enemies, who often trembled or were fatigued, while the persecuted professors of the truth stood unshaken. “The cross grew and budded upon rivers of blood,” says St. Maruthas; “the troops of the saints exulted with joy, and, being refreshed by the sight of that saving sign, were themselves animated with fresh vigor, and inspired others continually with new courage. They were inebriated by drinking the waters of divine love, and produced a new offspring to succeed them.” From the sixth hour on Good Friday to the second Sunday of Pentecost, that is, Low Sunday, (the Syrians and Chaldeans calling all the space from Easter-day to Whitsun-day Pentecost,) the slaughter was continued without interruption. The report of this edict no sooner reached distant cities, than the governors threw all the Christians into prisons, to be butchered as soon as the edict itself should be sent them: and upon its arrival in any place, whoever confessed themselves Christians were stabbed, or had their throats cut upon the spot. The eunuch Azades, a very great favorite with the king, was slain on this occasion; but the king was so afflicted at his death, that he thereupon published another edict, which restrained the persecution from that time to the bishops, priests, monks, and nuns. Great numbers also of the soldiery were crowned with martyrdom, besides innumerable others throughout the whole kingdom. Sozomen computes the number at sixteen thousand; but an ancient Persian writer, published by Renaudot, makes it amount to two hundred thousand.*

The queen, in the mean time, fell dangerously ill. The Jews, to whom she was very favorable, easily persuaded her that her sickness was the effect of a magical charm or spell, employed by the sisters of the blessed Simeon, to be revenged for their brother’s death. One was a virgin, called Tharba, whom Henschenius and Ruinart corruptly call, with the Greeks, Pherbuta. Her sister was a widow, and both had consecrated themselves by vow to God in a state of continency.† Hereupon the two sisters were apprehended, and with them Tharba’s servant, who was also a virgin. Being accused of bewitching the queen, Tharba replied that the law of God allowed no more of enchantment than of idolatry. And being told they had done it out of revenge, she made answer, that they had no reason to revenge their brother’s death, by which he had obtained eternal life in the kingdom of heaven: revenge being, moreover, strictly forbidden by the law of God. After this they were remanded to prison. Tharba, being extremely beautiful, one of her judges was enamored of her. He therefore sent her word the next day, that if she would consent to marry him, he would obtain her pardon and liberty of the king. But she refused the offer with indignation, saying, that she was the spouse of Jesus Christ, to whom she had consecrated her virginity, and committed her life; and that she feared not death, which would open to her the way to her dear brother, and to eternal rest from pain. The other two judges privately made her the like proposals, but were rejected in the same manner. They hereupon made their report to the king, as if they had been convicted of the crime; but he, not believing them guilty, was willing their lives should be spared, and their liberty restored to them, on condition they would offer sacrifice to the sun. They declared nothing should ever prevail on them to give to a creature the honor due to God alone; whereupon the Magians cried out, “They are unworthy to live by whose spells the queen is wasting in sickness.” And it being left to the Magians to assign their punishments, and determine what death they should be put to, they, out of regard to the queen’s recovery, as they pretended, ordered their bodies to be sawn in two, and half of each to be placed on each side of a road, that the queen might pass between them, which, they said, would cure her. Even after this sentence, Tharba’s admirer found means to let her know, that it was still in her power to prevent her death, by consenting to marry him. But she cried out with indignation: “Most impudent of men, how could you again entertain such a dishonest thought! For me courageously to die is to live; but life, purchased by baseness, is worse than any death.” When they were come to the place of execution, each person was tied to two stakes, and with a saw sawn in two, each half, thus separated, was cut into six parts, and being thrown into so many baskets, were hung on two forked stakes, placed in the figure of half crosses, leaving an open path between them; through which the queen superstitiously passed the same day. St. Maruthas adds, that no sight could be more shocking or barbarous than this spectacle of the martyrs’ limbs cruelly mangled, and exposed to scorn. They suffered in the year 341

APRIL 22 — SS. EPIPODIUS AND ALEXANDER, MARTYRS AT LYONS

They were two gentlemen of that city, though the latter a Grecian by birth, both in the flower of their age, and from the time of their first studies together in the same school, linked by the bands of the strictest friendship, which grew up with them, and was strengthened and spiritualized by their mutual profession of Christianity. This happy union occasioned a mutual assistance and encouragement of each other in piety and all Christian virtues; especially purity, sobriety, and the love of God and their neighbor, by which they prepared themselves for martyrdom. They were both in their prime, but neither of them married when the persecution began, in the seventeenth year of Marcus Aurelius, and 177th of Jesus Christ, which, raging at Lyons, had already swept off St. Pothinus and his companions. Pursuant to our Saviour’s advice, they endeavored to hide themselves. They accordingly went secretly out of the city by themselves, to a neighboring town, where they lay concealed for some time in the house of a poor Christian widow. The woman’s fidelity and the meanness of the place secured them for awhile; but at length they were so diligently sought after, that they were discovered, and, in endeavoring to escape once more, Epipodius lost one of his shoes, which was found by a Christian woman, who, as the acts say, kept it as a treasure. They were no sooner apprehended, than, contrary to the custom of the Romans, they were, without any previous examination, sent to prison. Three days after, they were brought, with their hands tied behind them, before the governor’s tribunal; where, having owned themselves Christians, the people made a great outcry, and the judge in a passion said: “What purpose have all the preceding tortures and executions served, if there still remain any who dare profess the name of Christ.” To prevent their mutual encouragement of each other by signs, he caused them to be separated. And calling first for Epipodius, the younger of the two, whom he had looked upon as the weaker on this account, he endeavored to conquer his resolution by caresses, promises, and motives of pleasure. Epipodius replied: “I shall not suffer myself to be prevailed upon by this pretended and cruel compassion. Are you so ignorant as not to know that man is composed of two substances, a soul and a body? With us the soul commands, and the body obeys. The abominations you are guilty of in honor of your pretended deities, afford pleasure to the body, but kill the soul. We are engaged in a war against the body for the advantage of the soul. You, after having defiled yourselves with pleasures like brute beasts, find nothing at last but a sorrowful death; whereas we, when you destroy us, enter into eternal life.” The judge, being exasperated at this modest reply, caused him to be struck on the mouth. The martyr, though his teeth were all over blood, continued to proclaim his faith, saying, “I confess that Jesus Christ is God, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit. It is but reasonable that I should resign my soul to him who has created me and redeemed me. This is not losing my life, but changing it into a better.” While he spake thus, the governor ordered him to be stretched on the rack, and his sides to be torn with iron hooks. The people were so enraged to see the courage and tranquillity with which he suffered all these torments, that they required to have him given up to them to be crushed to death or torn in pieces: for the judge seemed not to proceed fast enough for them. Afraid, therefore, lest they should come to any open sedition, he gave orders that his head should be immediately struck off, which was accordingly done.

Two days after, he called Alexander to the bar, and laid before him the torments of Epipodius and of other Christians, hoping to terrify him into compliance. The martyr answered by thanking God for setting before his eyes such glorious examples for his encouragement, and expressing his desire of joining his dear Epipodius. The judge, no longer containing his rage, caused his legs to be extended wide, and ordered him to be beaten by three executioners, who succeeded each other by turns. This torment lasted a long time; yet the martyr never let fall the least word of complaint. At length the judge asked him if he still persisted in his profession of Christianity. “I do,” says Alexander, “for the idols of the Gentiles are devils; and the God whom I adore, and who alone is the almighty and eternal God, I trust will give me grace to confess him to my last breath, as the guardian of my faith and resolution.” The governor, finding him immoveable, and envying him the glory of a longer trial, sentenced him to be crucified. The instrument of his death was immediately made ready, and no sooner was the martyr fastened on it than he gave up his soul to Christ, whom he invoked with the last efforts of his voice. For by his torments he had been already quite exhausted; his entrails were visible through his uncovered ribs, and his bones hung as if they were all broken or dislocated. The Christians privately carried off the bodies of these two saints, and buried them on a hill near the city; which place became famous afterwards for the piety of the faithful, and venerable by a great number of miracles which were wrought there, according to the author of their acts in Ruinart, who lived in the fourth century, and attests several of these miracles as an eye-witness. He relates, that the city of Lyons being visited by a pestilence, a young man of quality who was seized with it, recovered his health by a draught to which the devout poor widow had given a benediction with the martyr’s shoe. Upon the report of which miracle, innumerable other persons were cured by the like means, and many brought to the light of faith. At their tomb the devils were cast cut, and the sick restored to their health, in so evident and miraculous a manner, that incredulity itself could not refuse its assent, as the author of these acts moreover testifies. Their tomb was without the walls of the city when he wrote, but enclosed within them in the middle of the fifth century, when St. Eucherius, archbishop of Lyons, wrote the panegyric of these saints, in which he says that the dust of their tomb was distributed over the whole country for the benefit of the sick. St. Gregory of Tours writes,1 that this dust did many miracles. He says, that their bodies, in the sixth century, lay deposited with that of St. Irenæus, in the church of St. John, now called of St. Irenæus, under the altar, where the relics of these two holy martyrs were found, and respect fully translated in 1410. See Ruinart, p. 61.

APRIL 22 — ST. THEODORUS OF SICEON, BISHOP AND CONFESSOR

He was a native of Siceon, in Galatia, and from his infancy so much given to prayer, that, when at school, he often deprived himself of his dinner, to spend the time allowed for it in the church. All his leisure hours he consecrated to the exercises of prayer and pious reading. He very early shut himself up in a cell in the house of his mother, afterwards in a cave under a retired chapel; and flying at length from thence, to avoid applause, lived on a desert mountain. He was ordained priest by the bishop of Anastasiopolis, and near an ancient chapel built in honor of St. George, to which holy martyr he was exceedingly devoted, he founded a great monastery. In a second pilgrimage to Jerusalem, like another Elias, he, by his prayers, obtained rain from heaven in a great drought in Palestine. He formed many eminent disciples, and built a large monastery at Siceon, which town was situated in the diocese of Anastasiopolis; but still made his chief abode in a little remote cell. Count Mauritius, general of the armies of he emperor Tiberius, when he returned triumphant from Persia, paid a visit to this saint, who foretold him the empire, by a revelation which he had received through the merits of St. George the martyr. Mauritius being advanced to the imperial throne, in 582, sent to recommend himself and his empire to the prayers of this humble servant of God. Theodorus was, by main force, consecrated bishop of Anastasiopolis, and having held that see ten years, he obtained an order from Cyriacus, patriarch of Constantinople, and the emperor Mauritius, to the archbishop of Ancyra, his metropolitan, to accept his resignation, which he had till then refused. Theodorus returned with joy to Siceon, but was called to Constantinople to give his blessing to the emperor and senate. He healed one of the emperor’s sons, afflicted with a leprosy. And being returned to his solitude at Siceon, he died there, in 613, on the 22d of April, on which day his name occurs in the Roman Martyrology. See his life, compiled by his disciple, George Eleusius, with the notes of Henschenius, t. 3, Apr. p. 32.

APRIL 22 — ST. OPPORTUNA

Virgin and abbess of Montreuil, three miles from Seez, an episcopal see in Normandy, of which her brother, St. Chrodegang, was bishop. This holy prelate, returning from a pilgrimage of devotion which he had made to Rome and other holy places, went to pay a visit to his cousin, St. Lantildis abbess of Almanesches, in his diocese; but was murdered in the way, at Normant, on the 3d of September, 769, by the contrivance of Chrodobert, a powerful relation, to whom he had intrusted the administration of his temporalities during his absence. He is honored in the Breviary of Seez on the day of his death: his head is enshrined in the abbey of St. Martin in the Fields, at Paris, and his body in the priory of Isle-Adam upon the Oise, near Pontoise. St. Opportuna did not long survive him, dying in 770, on the 22d of April, having lived an accomplished model of humility, obedience, mortification, and prayer. Her relics were carried from Seez during the incursions of the Normans, in the reign of Charles the Bald, to the priory of Moussy, between Paris and Senlis, in 1009: and some time after to Senlis. In the reign of Charles V., in 1374, her right arm was translated to Paris with great devotion and pomp, and deposited in the church which was built in her honor, in the reign of Charles the Bald, to receive a former portion of her relics then brought from Moussy. It was then a small church, built at the entrance of a wood, near a hermitage, called before, Notre Dames des Bois Paris. The town being since extended much beyond this church, it was made parochial and a collegiate of canons. Great part of the head of St. Opportuna remains at Moussy; her left arm, with part of her skull, at Almenesches: one jaw in the priory of St. Chrodegang, at l’Isle-Adam, and a rib, with her right arm, in her church at Paris. In processions, when the shrine of St. Genevieve is taken down, and carried, the ancient portion of the relics of St. Opportuna, kept in a large shrine, is also carried next the shrine of St. Honoratus. She is commemorated in the Paris Breviary, and is the titular saint of a parish in that city. See her life, written by Adelham, bishop of Seez, in 811, in Mabillon, sæc 3, Ben. part 2, and Henschenius, t. 3, Apr. p. 462; Le Beuf, Hist. du Diocèse de Paris t. 1, p. 65: La Vie de St. Opportune, par Nic. Gosset, 1655.

APRIL 22 — ST. LEONIDES, M

The emperor Severus, in the year 202, which was the tenth of his reign raised a bloody persecution, which filled the whole empire with martyrs, but especially Egypt. The most illustrious of those, who by their triumphs ennobled and edified the city of Alexandria, was Leonides, father of the great Origen. He was a Christian philosopher, and excellently versed both in the profane and sacred sciences. He had seven sons, the eldest of whom was Origen,* whom he brought up with abundance of care, returning God thanks for having blessed him with a son of such an excellent disposition for learning, and a very great zeal for piety. These qualifications endeared him greatly to his father, who, after his son was baptized, would come to his bedside while he was asleep, and, opening his bosom, kiss it respectfully, as being the temple of the Holy Ghost. When the persecution raged at Alexandria under Lætus, governor of Egypt, in the tenth year of Severus Leonides was cast into prison. Origen, who was then only seventeen years of age, burned with an incredible desire of martyrdom, and sought every opportunity of meeting with it. But his mother conjured him not to forsake her: and seeing his ardor redoubled at the sight of his father’s chains, was forced to lock up all his clothes to oblige him to stay at home. So, not being able to do any more, he wrote a letter to his father in very moving terms, strongly exhorting him to look on the crown that was offered him with courage and joy; adding this clause: “Take heed, sir, that for our sakes you do not change your mind.” Leonides was accordingly beheaded for the faith, in 202. His estates and goods being all confiscated and seized for the emperor’s use, his widow was left with seven children to maintain, in the poorest condition imaginable; but divine providence was both her comfort and support. Suidas informs us, that St. Leonides was honored with the episcopal character; which Dom. Vincent de la Rue confirms by the authority of two Vatican MS. copies of St. Jerom’s catalogue of illustrious writers. See Euseb. Hist.1. 6, c. 12, and Chron. ad an. 10, Severi. Also St. Jerom, Catal. c. 54.

APRIL 22 — SAINT RUFUS, OR RUFIN, ANCHORET, AT GLENDALOCH, NEAR DUBLIN, IN IRELAND

Engus invokes him among the principal saints who lay buried in the famous church of Glendaloch. Colgan says he was ordained bishop before his death. See his MS. continuation, 22 Apr.

APRIL 23 — SAINT GEORGE, MARTYR

About the Year 303

ST. GEORGE is honored in the Catholic church as one of the most illustrious martyrs of Christ. The Greeks have long distinguished him by the title of The Great Martyr, and keep his festival a holiday of obligation. There stood formerly in Constantinople five or six churches dedicated in his honor; the oldest of which was always said to have been built by Constantine the Great; who seems also to have been the founder of the church of St. George, which stood over his tomb in Palestine. Both these churches were certainly built under the first Christian emperors. In the middle of the sixth age the emperor Justinian erected a new church, in honor of this saint, in Bizanes, in Lesser Armenia: the emperor Mauritius founded one in Constantinople. It is related in the life of St. Theodorus of Siceon, that he served God a long while in a chapel which bore the name of St. George. had a particular devotion to this glorious martyr, and strongly recommended the same to Mauritius, when he foretold him the empire. One of the churches of St. George in Constantinople, called Manganes, with a monastery adjoining, gave to the Hellespont the name of the Arm of St. George. To this day is St. George honored as principal patron or tutelar saint by several eastern nations, particularly the Georgians. The Byzantine historians relate several battles to have been gained, and other miracles wrought through his intercession. From frequent pilgrimages to his church and tomb in Palestine, performed by those who visited the Holy Land, his veneration was much propagated over the West. St. Gregory of Tours mentions him as highly celebrated in France in the sixth century.1 St. Gregory the Great ordered an old church of St. George, which was fallen to decay, to be repaired.2 His office is found in the sacramentary of that pope, and many others.3 St. Clotildis, wife of Clovis, the first Christian king of France, erected altars under his name; and the church of Chelles, built by her, was originally dedicated in his honor. The ancient life of Droctovæus mentions, that certain relics of St. George were placed in the church of St. Vincent, now called St. Germaris, in Paris, when it was first consecrated. Fortunatus of Poitiers wrote an epigram on a church of St. George, in Mentz. The intercession of this saint was implored especially in battles, and by warriors, as appears by several instances in the Byzantine history, and he is said to have been himself a great soldier. He is at this day the tutelar saint of the republic of Genoa, and was chosen by our ancestors in the same quality under our first Norman kings. The great national council, held at Oxford in 1222, commanded his feast to be kept a holiday of the lesser rank throughout all England.4 Under his name and ensign was instituted by our victorious king Edward III., in 1330, the most noble order of knighthood in Europe, consisting of twenty-five knights, beside the sovereign. Its establishment is dated fifty years before the knights of St. Michael were instituted in France, by Louis XI.: eighty years before the order of the Golden Fleece, established by Philip the Good, duke of Burgundy; and one hundred and ninety before the order of St. Andrew was set up in Scotland by James V. The emperor Frederick IV, instituted, in 1470, an order of knights in honor of St. George; and an honorable military order in Venice bears his name.5

The extraordinary devotion of all Christendom to this saint,* is an authentic proof how glorious his triumph and name have always been in the church. All his acts relate, that he suffered under Dioclesian, at Nicomedia. Joseph Assemani6 shows, from the unanimous consent of all churches, that he was crowned on the 23d of April. According to the account given us by Metaphrastes, he was born in Cappadocia, of noble Christian parents. After the death of his father, he went with his mother into Palestine, she being a native of that country, and having there a considerable estate, which fell to her son George. He was strong and robust in body, and having embraced the profession of a soldier, was made a tribune, or colonel in the army. By his courage and conduct, he was soon preferred to higher stations by the emperor Dioclesian. When that prince waged war against the Christian religion, St. George laid aside the marks of his dignity, threw up his commission and posts, and complained to the emperor himself of his severities and bloody edicts. He was immediately cast into prison, and tried, first by promises, and afterwards put to the question, and tortured with great cruelty: but nothing could shake his constancy. The next day he was led through the city and beheaded. Some think him to have been the same illustrious young man who tore down the edicts when they were first fixed up at Nicomedia,† as Lactantius relates in his book, On the Death of the Persecutors, and Eusebius in his history.7 The reason why St. George has been regarded as the patron of military men, is partly upon the score of his profession, and partly upon the credit of a relation of his appearing to the Christian army in the holy war, before the battle of Antioch. The success of this battle proving fortunate to the Christians, under Godfrey of Bouillon, made the name of St. George more famous in Europe, and disposed the military men to implore more particularly his intercession. This devotion was confirmed, as it is said, by an apparition of St. George to our king, Richard I., in his expedition against the Saracens: which vision, being declared to the troops, was to them a great encouragement, and they soon after defeated the enemy.8 St. George is usually painted on horseback, and tilting at a dragon, under his feet: but this representation is no more than an emblematical figure, purporting, that, by his faith and Christian fortitude, he conquered the devil, called the dragon in the Apocalypse.

Though many dishonor the profession of arms by a licentiousness of manners, yet, to show us that perfect sanctity is attainable in all states, we find the names of more soldiers recorded in the martyrologies than almost of any other profession. Every true disciple of Christ must be a martyr in the disposition of his heart, as he must be ready to lose all, and to suffer any thing, rather than to offend God. Every good Christian is also a martyr, by the patience and courage with which he bears all trials. There is no virtue more necessary, nor of which the exercise ought to be more frequent, than patience. In this mortal life we have continually something to suffer from disappointments in affairs, from the severity of the seasons from the injustice, caprice, peevishness jealousy, or antipathy of others; and from ourselves, in pains either of mind or body. Even our own weaknesses and faults are to us subjects of patience. And as we have continually many burdens, both of our own and others, to bear, it is only in patience that we are to possess our souls. This affords us comfort in all our sufferings, and maintains our souls in unshaken tranquillity and peace. This is true greatness of mind, and the virtue of heroic souls. But alas every accident ruffles and disturbs us: and we are insupportable even to ourselves. What comfort should we find, what peace should we enjoy, what treasures of virtue should we heap up what a harvest of merits should we reap, if we had learned the true spirit of Christian patience! This is the martyrdom, and the crown of every faithful disciple of Christ.

APRIL 23 — ST. ADALBERT, BISHOP OF PRAGUE, MARTYR

He was born of noble parentage in Bohemia, in 956, and received a baptism the name of Woytiech, which, in the Sclavonian tongue, signifies, Help of the Army. In his childhood his parents saw themselves in great danger of losing him by sickness, and in that extremity, consecrated him to God by vow, before the altar of the Blessed Virgin, saying: “O Lord, let not this son live to us, but to you, among the clergy, and under the patronage of your Mother.” The child, hereupon recovering, was sent by them, without delay, to Adalbert, archbishop of Magdebourg, to be educated in piety and learning. The archbishop provided him with the ablest masters, and, at confirmation, gave him his own name, Adalbert, or Albert. The noble pupil, in his progress in learning, outdid the highest expectations of his spiritual father and master: but made piety his principal study. The hours of recreation he spent chiefly in prayer, and in secretly visiting and relieving the poor and the sick. After nine years the archbishop died, in 981, and our saint returned into Bohemia, with a useful library which he had collected. In 983, he was promoted to holy orders by Diethmar, bishop of Prague. That prelate fell sick soon after, and drawing near his end, cried out, in a manner that terrified all the bystanders, that the devils were ready to seize his soul on account of his having neglected the duties of his charge, and pursued with eagerness the riches, honors, and pleasures of the world. Adalbert, who had been present at that prelate’s death in these sentiments, was not only terrified with the rest, but being touched with the liveliest sentiments of compunction for whatever he had done amiss in the former part of his life, put on a hair-shirt, went from church to church in the habit of a penitent to implore God’s mercy, and dealt out his alms with a very liberal hand. An assembly was held a few days after for the choice of a successor, and Adalbert’s opposition proving ineffectual to prevent his election to the vacant bishopric, he received episcopal ordination at the hands of the archbishop of Mentz, in 983. From that day he was never seen to smile, and being asked the reason, made this answer: “It is an easy thing to wear the mitre and a cross; but it is a most dreadful circumstance to have an account to give of a bishopric to the Judge of the living and the dead.” He entered Prague barefoot, and was received by Boleslas prince of Bohemia, and all the people, with great joy. His first care was to divide the revenues of his see into four parts, allotting the first to the support of the fabric and ornaments of his church; the second to the maintenance of his canons; and the third to the relief of the poor: reserving the fourth for himself and his household, in which he constantly maintained twelve poor men, in honor of the twelve apostles, and allowed provisions to a much greater number on festivals, besides employing his own patrimony in alms. He had in his chamber a good bed, but on which he never lay; taking his short rest on a sackcloth, or on the bare floor. His fasts were frequent, and his whole life most austere. He preached almost every day, and visited the poor in their cottages, and the prisoners in their dungeons. A great part of his diocese had continued till then involved in the shades of idolatry, and the rest mere barbarians in their manners, slaves to their passions, and Christians only in name. Finding them, by inveterate habits and long connivance, incorrigibly fixed in their evil courses, he made a journey to Rome, and obtained of pope John XV. leave to retire, in 989. He visited mount Cassino, and put on the monastic habit, together with his brother Gaudentius, at St. Boniface’s in Rome. He took the last place in the monastery, and preferred always the meanest offices in the house. After five years, the archbishop of Mentz, in 994, urged the pope to send him back to his bishopric. His Holiness, upon mature deliberation on the affair, ordered him to return; but declared him at full liberty to withdraw a second time, in case the people continued disobedient and incorrigible as before. At his arrival in Prague, the inhabitants received him with great acclamations, and readily promised an exact obedience to his directions, but proved as deaf to his admonitions as ever. Seeing himself useless here, and only in danger of losing his own soul, he left them, pursuant to the license he had received, and preached the gospel in Hungary; where, among others, he instructed their king, Stephen, famous afterwards for his sanctity. Though this event more probably happened on his former departure from Prague, about six years before. At his return to his monastery, in Rome, his abbot, Leo, made him prior, in which station he behaved with his usual humility and condescension to the meanest officers of the house. The emperor, Otho III., was so much delighted with his conversation, that he could scarce bear him out of his sight. At the repeated solicitations of the archbishop of Mentz, pope Gregory V. sent him once more to his diocese. On the news of his approach, the barbarous citizens, having at their head Boleslas, the wicked prince of Bohemia, massacred several of his relations, and burnt their castles and towns. The bishop, being informed of these outrageous measures, instead of proceeding on his journey to Prague, went to his friend, Boleslas, then duke, and afterwards the first king of Poland, who, after some time, advised him to send deputies to the people of Prague, to know if they would admit him as their bishop, and obey his directions, or not. The message was received with scorn, and they returned for answer, that there was too great an opposition between his ways and theirs, for him to expect to live in peace among them: that they were convinced it was not a zeal to reform them, but a desire to revenge the death of his relations, that promp ed him to seek a readmission; which, if he attempted, he might be assured of meeting with a very indifferent reception. The saint took this refusal of his people for a sufficient discharge for the present, which made him direct his thoughts to the conversion of infidels, with which Poland and Prussia then abounded. Having converted great numbers in Poland, he, with his two companions, Bennet and Gaudentius, went into Prussia, which had not as yet received the light of the gospel, and made many converts at Dantzic. Being conveyed thence into a small island, they were presently surrounded by the savage inhabitants, who loaded them with injuries; and one of them coming behind the saint, as he was reciting the psalter, knocked him down with the oar of a boat, upon which he returned thanks to God, for thinking him worthy to suffer for the sake of his crucified Redeemer. St. Adalbert and his companions attempted after this to preach the gospel in another place in the neighborhood, but with no better success; being told on their arrival that if they did not depart the next day, it should cost them their lives. They accordingly withdrew, in order to provide for their safety, and had laid themselves down to take a little rest after their fatigues; when, being pursued, they were overtaken by a party of the infidels, by whom they were seized and bound, as victims destined for a sacrifice. St. Adalbert offered his life to God by an ardent prayer, in which he begged of him the pardon and salvation of his murderers. The priest of the idols first pierced him in the breast with his lance, saying: “You ought now to rejoice; for you had it always in your mouth that it was your desire to die for Christ.” Six others gave him each a stab with their lances; of which seven wounds he died on the 23d of April, 997. The heathens cut off his head, and fixed it on a pole: his two companions they carried away captives. Boleslas, duke of Poland, bought the corpse of the martyr at a great price, and translated it to the abbey of Tremezno, with great solemnity, and from thence, in 998, to Gnesna, where it is kept with great honor in the cathedral, and has been rendered famous by many miracles. In the catalogue of the rich treasury of relics, kept in the electoral palace of Hanover, printed at Hanover, in folio, in 1713, is mentioned a portion of those of St. Adalbert in a precious shrine.

St. Adalbert is styled the apostle of Prussia, though he only planted the faith at Dantzic. The present king of Prussia, in his elegant memoirs of the house of Brandenburgh,1 tells us that the conversion of the country of Brandenburgh was begun by the conquests and zeal of Charlemagne, and completed in 928, under Henry the Fowler, who again subdued that territory: that the Prussians were originally Sarmatians, the most savage of all the northern idolaters; that they adored their idols under oak trees, being strangers to the elegance of temples: and that they sacrificed prisoners taken from their enemies, to their false gods. After the martyrdom of St. Edalbert, three kings of Poland, all named Boleslas, attempted in vain to subdue them. The Teutonic knights, in 1239, conquered that country, and planted Christianity in it. See the two lives of St. Adalbert, written soon after his death, with remarks of Henschenius, Apr. t. 3, p. 174. Also John Dlugloss, alias Longinus, Hist. Polonicâ, p. 112; Dithmar Chronici,1. 4, and Chronicon Hildesheimense.

APRIL 23 — ST. GERARD, BISHOP OF TOUL, C

Gerard was descended of a noble family, and born at Cologne. His father’s name was Ingranne: his mother, who was called Emma, was struck dead with lightning. Gerard, then in his youth, was much afflicted at this accident, and from that time consecrated himself entirely to a life of penance and devotion. Some time after he took the clerical tonsure, and entered himself in a community of clergy, who performed the divine office in the church of St. Peter, which was the cathedral, and followed the institute of the regular canons, probably either of St. Chrodegang or of Aix-la-Chapelle. The reputation of Gerard’s fervent piety reached the imperial court, and while he was cellarer in this community he was promoted to the bishopric of Toul, vacant by the death of St. Gauzlin, in the beginning of the year 963. Bruno, archbishop of Cologne and duke of Lorraine, prime minister or general lieutenant of the empire to his brother Otho I., advanced him to that dignity, which the saint accepted only by compulsion and in obedience to his superiors. He recited every day thirteen canonical hours by joining the office of the monks with that of the canons, of which we have several other examples in that age. The holy scriptures and the lives of the saints he read daily, and meditated on them good part of the night. He had an extraordinary talent at preaching, which he exercised with great assiduity, often sending zealous clergymen to preach in country parishes. He rebuilt his cathedral, dedicated to St. Stephen, in 981, though the structure which we now see was only raised in 1447. The monastery of St. Evre, or Aper, (which had been founded by that holy bishop of Toul towards the end of the fifth century,) was enriched by our saint, in which his predecessor, St. Gauzlin, had settled the rule of St. Bennet, till then unknown in that province, says Widric. Le Cointe, and F. Benoit, the Capuchin,1 think the rule of Agaunum, or rather that of St. Columban, was before observed in that house. St. Gauzlin had founded in another suburb of Toul, a new monastery in honor of St. Mansuy or Mansuet, the first apostle of that country. This St. Gerard took particularly under his protection, and became its principal and most munificent founder. The church of St. Gengou and Toul, and some others, were also founded by St. Gerard, who, out of devotion to St. Martin, whom he regarded as his principal patron and model, was a particular benefactor to the monastery of St. Martin, on the Meuse, near Sorcy, in his diocese. In 981 he made a pilgrimage to Rome, and in 982 exerted his charity in a wonderful manner in relieving the poor in his diocese in the time of a great famine, and afterwards under a dreadful pestilence. All the abbeys of the country were recommended to his care by the emperor Otho II., in 974, and he founded the great hospital at Toul: also a community of Scottish (or Irish) and Greek monks. The reputation of the Scottish monks, whom St. Cadroe had lately placed at St. Clement’s, at Metz, and in other parts, was such, that St. Gerard thought something wanting to his diocese till he had procured a settlement for some of these servants of God in it. These Greek monks established schools in their language, which were very useful and remarkable, as appears by the great progress which cardinal Humbert, in his youth a monk at Moien-Moutier in Lorraine, and many others, made in that literature. The Scots also taught the sciences. For, by the great encouragement which St. Gauzlin and St. Gerard gave to learned men and to useful studies, during the sixty years which they successively governed the diocese of Toul, it became one of the most flourishing provinces in the church for learning and piety.2 St. Gerard dreaded that learning, which makes not men more humble and more virtuous. To shun this fatal rock, upon which so many students split, he took great care that all scholars, especially those who were destined to the church, applied themselves still with greater solicitude and assiduity to all the exercises of an interior life than to their studies. By making this the constant rule of his own conduct, he had not the regret which a certain great man3 is said to have expressed in his last moments, for having taken more pains to cultivate his understanding with science than to correct and improve his will by virtue. By mortification, compunction, and heavenly contemplation, he nourished in his soul a constant spirit of devotion, which is the spring of a spiritual life, and which consists in a close, uninterrupted union of the heart to God. By this he daily forgot the world, and banished its love more and more perfectly out of his heart, purified more and more its affections, and raised his soul continually to higher degrees of perfection in the divine love, and in all other virtues. In his heavenly contemplations he found, by his own experience, in a manner which words can never teach, that in the lowest degree of this exercise God often communicates himself to a soul with such excess of sweetness, that a thousand years spent in all the pleasures which the world can afford, bear no proportion to what a soul tastes in one minute with her God. His conversation had such charms to him, and his divine love filled his soul with such inexpressible chaste delights, that it seemed as it were impossible to him for his soul to love any other thing but God, or to find any satisfaction but in him, and in his love and holy will. St. Gerard passed from these exercises and labors to the full possession of God in the eternal kingdom of his glory, on the night between the 22d and 23d of April, in the year 994, having been bishop thirty-one years. Widric, the learned and pious abbot of St. Aper’s, or Evre’s, at Toul, and reformer of that and several other great abbeys in those parts, by order of Bruno, who was made bishop of Toul in 1026, wrote the life of St. Gerard. Bruno being raised to the popedom in 1048, under the name of Leo IX., canonized St. Gerard with great pomp in a council which he held at Rome, in 1050.4 Being at Toul the same year, he caused his body to be taken up and enshrined on the 30th of October.5 After this ceremony Widric added a second book to the life of St. Gerard, on his canonization; and afterwards a third, on the translation of his relics, with an account of some miracles. This work, which is edifying, and well written, is given imperfect by Henschenius,6 but entire by Dom. Martenne,7 and by Dom. Calmet, in his proofs of his history of Lorraine.8 It had been before published in French, with long notes, by F. Benedict Picard, the Capuchin, in 1700, in 12mo. That author reprinted the same in his Ecclesiastical and Civil History of Toul, which he published in that city in 1707.

APRIL 23 — ST. IBAR, OR IVOR, BISHOP IN IRELAND

The acts of St. Ibar, and some other monuments say, that he was ordained bishop at Rome, and preached in Ireland with St. Kiaran, St. Ailbeus, and St. Declan, a little before St. Patrick arrived there; but others, quoted by Usher, tell us that St. Ibar was consecrated bishop by St. Patrick. He preached in Meath and Leinster, and built a monastery in Begerin, or Little Ireland, a small island on the coast of Kenselach, (which was anciently a considerable province of Leinster.) In this monastery he trained up, with many others, St. Abban, his nephew by his sister Mella, married to Cormac, king of Leinster. St. Abban was afterwards abbot of the monastery of Magarnoide, in Kenselach. St. Ibar divided his time between the labors of his apostolic mission in the country, and the sweet repose of contemplation in his monastery, where he died about the year 500, according to the Ulster annals. His relics were kept with singular veneration in this monastery of Beg-erin. See Usher’s Antiq. c. 16, p. 414, and Chron. ib. p. 515. Also Colgan’s MSS. 22 Apr.

APRIL 24 — ST. FIDELIS, OF SIGMARENGEN, MARTYR

From the process of his canonization, and other memoirs, collected by F. Theodore of Paris, of the same order of Capuchin friars. See the acts of the canonization of SS. Fidelis of Sigmarengen, Camillus de Lellis, Peter Regalati, Joseph of Leonissa and Catharine Ricci, by Benedict XIV., printed in 1749, folio. On St. Fidelis, pp. 101, 179, and the bull for his canonization, p. 516.

A. D. 1622.

HE was born in 1577, at Sigmarengen, a town in Germany, in the principality of Hoinvenzollen. The name of his father was John Rey. The saint was christened Mark, performed his studies in the university of Fribourg in Switzerland, and while he taught philosophy, commenced doctor of laws. He at that time never drank wine, and wore a hair-shirt. His modesty, meekness, chastity, and all other virtues, charmed all that had the happiness of his acquaintance. In 1604, he accompanied three young gentlemen of that country on their travels through the principal parts of Europe. During six years, which he continued in this employment, he never ceased to instil into them the most heroic and tender sentiments of piety. He received the holy sacrament very frequently, particularly on all the principal holidays: in every town where he came, he visited the hospitals and churches, passed several hours on his knees in the presence of the blessed sacrament, and gave to the poor sometimes the very clothes off his back. After this he practised the law in quality of counsellor or advocate, at Colmar, in Alsace, with great reputation, but with greater virtue. Justice and religion directed all his actions. He scrupulously forbore all invectives, detractions, and whatever might affect the reputation of any adversary. His charity procured him the surname of counsellor and advocate for the poor: but the injustices of a colleague in protracting lawsuits for gain, and his finding fault with our saint for producing all his proofs for his clients in the beginning, in order to the quicker dispatch, gave him a disgust of a profession which was to many an occasion of sin, and determined him to enter among the Capuchin friars.* He first received holy orders, and having said his first mass in their convent at Fribourg, on the feast of St. Francis, in 1612, he consecrated himself to God by taking the habit. The guardian gave him, in religion, the name of Fidelis, or Faithful, alluding to that text of the Apocalypse which promises a crown of life to him who shall continue faithful to the end. From that moment humiliations, macerations, and implicit obedience were his delight. He overcame temptations by discovering them to his director, and submitting to his advice with regard to his conduct under them. By his last will, he bequeathed his patrimony to the bishop’s seminary, for the establishment of a fund for the support of poor students, to whom he also left his library; and gave the remainder of his substance to the poor. In regard to dress and furniture, he always chose that for his own use which was the least valuable and convenient. He fasted Advent, Lent, and Vigils, on bread and water, with dried fruits, tasting nothing which had been dressed by fire. His life was a continued prayer and recollection, and at his devotions he seemed rather like an angel than a man. His earnest and perpetual petition to God was, that he would always preserve him from sin, and from falling into tepidity or sloth in his service. He sought the most abject and most painful employments even when superior; knowing that God exalts those highest who have here humbled themselves the lowest and the nearest to their own nothingness. He had no sooner finished his course of theology, than he was employed in preaching and in hearing confessions; and being sent superior to the convent of Weltkirchen, that town and many neighboring places were totally reformed by his zealous labors, and several Calvinists converted. The congregation de propagandâ fide, sent to father Fidelis a commission to go and preach among the Grisons; and he was the first missionary that was sent into those parts after that people had embraced Calvinism. Eight other fathers of his order were his assistants, and labored in this mission under his direction. The Calvinists of that territory, being incensed at his attempt, loudly threatened his life, and he prepared himself for martyrdom on entering upon this new harvest. Ralph de Salis, and another Calvinist gentleman, were converted by his first conferences. The missionary penetrated into Pretigout, a small district of the Grisons, in 1622, on the feast of the Epiphany, and gained every day new conquests to Christ; the conversion of which souls ought to be regarded as more the fruit of the ardent prayers in which he passed great part of the nights, than of his sermons and conferences in the day. These wonderful effects of his apostolic zeal, whereof the bishop of Coire sent a large and full account to the congregation de propagandâ, so enraged the Calvinists in that province, who had lately rebelled against the emperor, their sovereign, that they were determined to bear with them no longer. The holy father having notice of it, thought of nothing but preparing himself for his conflict, passing whole nights in fervent prayer before the blessed sacrament, or before his crucifix, and often prostrate on the ground. On the 24th of April, 1622, he made his confession to his companion with great compunction, said mass, and then preached at Gruch, a considerable borough. At the end of his sermon, which he delivered with more than ordinary fire, he stood silent on a sudden, with his eyes fixed on heaven, in an ecstasy, during some time. He foretold his death to several persons in the clearest terms, and subscribed his last letters in this manner: “Brother Fidelis, who will be shortly the food of worms.” From Gruch he went to preach at Sevis, where, with great energy, he exhorted the Catholics to constancy in the faith. A Calvinist having discharged his musket at him in the church, the Catholics entreated him to leave the place. He answered, that death was his gain and his joy, and that he was ready to lay down his life in God’s cause. On his road back to Gruch, he met twenty Calvinist soldiers with a minister at their head. They called him false prophet, and urged him to embrace their sect. He answered: “I am sent to you to confute, not to embrace your heresy. The Catholic religion is the faith of all ages, I fear not death.” One of them beat him down to the ground by a stroke on the head with his backsword. The martyr rose again on his knees, and stretching out his arms in the form of a cross, said with a feeble voice: “Pardon my enemies, O Lord: blinded by passion they know not what they do. Lord Jesus, have pity on me. Mary, mother of Jesus, assist me.” Another stroke clove his skull, and he fell to the ground and lay weltering in his blood. The soldiers, not content with this, added many stabs in his body, and hacked his left leg, as they said, to punish him for his many journeys into those parts to preach to them. A Catholic woman lay concealed near the place during this butchery; and after the soldiers were gone, coming out to see the effects of it, found the martyr’s eyes open, and fixed on the heavens. He died in 1622, the forty-fifth year of his age, and the tenth of his religious profession. He was buried by the Catholics the next day. The rebels were soon after defeated by the imperialists, an event which the martyr had foretold them. The minister was converted by this circumstance, and made a public abjuration of his heresy. After six months, the martyr’s body was found incorrupt, but the head and left arm separate from the trunk. These being put into two cases, were translated from thence to the cathedral of Coire, at the earnest suit of the bishop, and laid under the high altar with great pomp; the remainder of the corpse was deposited in the Capuchin’s church at Weltkirchen. Three miracles performed by his relics and intercession, out of three hundred and five produced, are inserted in the decree of his beatification, published by pope Benedict XIII., in 1729. Other miracles were proved, and the decree of his canonization was published by Benedict XIV., in 1746. The 24th of April is appointed the day of his festival, and his name is inserted in the Roman Martyrology. See the acts of his canonization: also his life, written by Dom. Placid, abbot of Weissenau, or Augia Brigantina, published by Dom. Bernard Pez, librarian in the famous abbey of Melch, in Austria, in his Bibliotheca Ascetica, t. 10, p. 403.

To contribute to the conversion of a soul from sin is something far more excellent than to raise a dead body to life. This must soon fall again a prey to death; and only recovers by such a miracle the enjoyment of the frail and empty goods of this world. But the soul, which, from the death of sin, is raised to the life of grace, is immortal, and, from a slave of the devil and a firebrand of hell, passes to the inestimable dignity and privileges of a child of God; by which divine adoption she is rescued out of the abyss of infinite misery, and exalted to the most sublime state of glory and happiness, in which all the treasures of grace and of heaven are her portion forever. Hunger, thirst, watchings, labors, and a thousand martyrdoms, ought to seem nothing to one employed in the sacred ministry, with the hopes of gaining but one sinner to Christ. Moreover, God himself will be his recompense, who is witness, and keeps a faithful account of all his fatigues and least sufferings.

APRIL 24 — ST. MELLITUS, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY, C

He was a Roman abbot, whom St. Gregory sent over hither in 601, at the head of a second colony of missioners to assist St. Austin, by whom he was ordained the first bishop of London, or of the East-Saxons, baptized Sebert the king, with a great part of his nation: and by his liberality, in 604, laid the foundation of the cathedral church of St. Paul’s, and, in 609, of the monastery of St. Peter, at Thorney, which was rebuilt by king Edgar, and again most sumptuously by St. Edward the Confessor, and is now called Westminster. This Christian and learned prince, dying about 616, left his dominions to his three sons, Sexred, Seward, and Sigebert, whom he had not been so happy as to recover from their idolatry, though they had kept their heathenism private during their father’s life. After his death they declared themselves pagans, and gave their subjects the liberty of returning to their former idolatrous worship. Yet when they saw our holy bishop at the altar, and giving the blessed eucharist to the people, they would not be satisfied unless he would give them some of that fine white bread, as they called it, he was used to give their father. He told them their request should be granted, on condition they would be baptized, as their father was; but this they would not hear of, alleging they had no need of baptism, but still insisted on receiving the consecrated bread; and on the bishop’s refusal to gratify them in their unreasonable request, they banished him their dominions. These three princes, after a reign of six years, going on an expedition against the West-Saxons, were all three slain in battle. But though the chief promoters of paganism were taken off, their people, being inured again to idolatry, did not return to the faith before the year 628, according to the Saxon annals. St. Mellitus passed over to France, but soon returned, and upon the death of St. Laurence, in 619, was translated to the see of Canterbury, being the third archbishop of that see. While sick of the gout, he, by his prayers, stopped a furious conflagration which had already laid no small part of that city in ashes, and which no hands had been able to get under. He died April the 24th, 624. See Bede, Le Neve’s Fasti, Goscelin, and Capgrave.

APRIL 24 — SS. BONA, OR BEUVE, AND DODA, VIRGINS AND ABBESSES

St. Beuve was of the royal blood of France, nearly related to king Dagobert, and one of the principal ladies of the court. She edified the whole kingdom by her virtues in the world above thirty years, but rejected all solicitations to marry, desiring to devote herself entirely to the service of God. Her brother, St. Baudry, or Balderic, who had some years before founded the monastery of Montfaucon, which he governed in quality of abbot, built a nunnery in honor of the Blessed Virgin, in the suburbs of Rheims, in 639: St. Beuve there took the religious habit, and, notwithstanding her tears and opposition, was chosen the first abbess of this house. By her example she conducted her religious sisters in the perfect spirit of humility, poverty, mortification, and prayer, and died in 673, leaving behind her a sweet odor of her sanctity and virtues to all France. She was succeeded by her niece, St. Doda, a faithful imitator of her spirit and virtues. The bodies of SS. Beuve and Doda were afterwards removed to St. Peter’s abbey, within the city. The ancient history of their lives having been lost in a great fire, an anonymous author compiled another from the tradition of the nuns in the tenth century: a piece not much esteemed, omitted by Mabillon, but published by the Bollandists, 24 Apr. See, on these holy virgins, Flodoard, the learned canon of Rheims, who died in 966, in his curious History of the Church of Rheims,1. 4, c. 38.

APRIL 24 — B. ROBERT, FIRST ABBOT AND FOUNDER OF THE GREAT BENEDICTIN MONASTERY OF CHAISE DIEU

In Latin Casa Dei, in the Diocese of Clermont, in Auvergne.

HE was brought up among the clergy of St. Julian’s, at Brioude, and made canon and treasurer of that church. He built a hospital in that town, rebuilt about fifty churches, and, out of a love of solitude and penance, retired with two companions to the spot where, three years after, he founded his abbey in which he governed three hundred monks. It became the head of a congregation of several Benedictin monasteries, and in 1640, was aggregated to that of St. Maur. B. Robert died in 1067, on the 17th of April, and was interred on the 24th, on which he is honored at Chaise-Dieu, and in other places in Auvergne. See Mabillon, Chatelain, &c.

APRIL 25 — ST. MARK, EVANGELIST

From Eusebius, St. Jerom, &c., collected by Tillemont, t. 2. p. 89; Calmet, t. 7, &c.

ST. MARK was of Jewish extraction. The style of his gospel, abounding with Hebraisms, shows that he was by birth a Jew, and that the Hebrew language was more natural to him than the Greek. His acts say he was of Cyrenaica, and Bede from them adds, of the race of Aaron. Papias, quoted by Eusebius,1 St. Austin,2 Theodoret, and Bede, say he was converted by the apostles after Christ’s resurrection.* St. Irenæus3 calls him the disciple and interpreter of St. Peter, and, according to Origen and St. Jerom, he is the same Mark whom St. Peter calls his son.4 By his office of interpreter to St. Peter, some understood that St. Mark was the author of the style of his epistles; others, that he was employed as a translator into Greek or Latin, of what the apostle had written in his own tongue, as occasion might require it. St. Jerom and some others take him to be the same with that John, surnamed Mark, son to the sister of St. Barnabas: but it is generally believed they were different persons: and that the latter was with St. Paul in the East, at the same time that the Evangelist was at Rome, or at Alexandria. According to Papias, and St. Clement of Alexandria, he wrote his gospel at the request of the Romans; who, as they relate,5 desired to have that committed to writing which St. Peter had taught them by word of mouth. Mark, to whom this request was made, did accordingly set himself to recollect what he had by long conversation learned from St. Peter; for it is affirmed by some, that he had never seen our Saviour in the flesh. St. Peter rejoiced at the affection of the faithful; and having revised the work, approved of it, and authorized it to be read in the religious assemblies of the faithful. Hence it might be, that, as we learn from Tertullian,6 some attributed this gospel to St. Peter himself.† Many judge, by comparing the two gospels, that St. Mark abridged that of St. Matthew; for he relates the same things, and often uses the same words; but he adds several particular circumstances, and changes the order of the narration, in which he agrees with St. Luke and St. John. He relates two histories not mentioned by St. Matthew, namely, that of the widow giving two mites,7 and that of Christ’s appearing to the two disciples going to Emmaus. St. Austin8 calls him the Abridger of St. Matthew. But Ceillier, and some others, think nothing clearly proves that he made use of St. Matthew’s gospel. This evangelist is concise in his narrations, and writes with a most pleasing simplicity and elegance. St. Chrysostom9 admires the humility of St. Peter, (we may add also of his disciple St. Mark,) when he observes, that this evangelist makes no mention of the high commendations which Christ gave that apostle on his making that explicit confession of his being the Son of God; neither does he mention his walking on the water; but gives at full length the history of St. Peter’s denying his Master, with all its circumstances. He wrote his gospel in Italy, and, in all appearance, before the year of Christ, 49.

St. Peter sent his disciples from Rome to found other churches. Some moderns say St. Mark founded that of Aquileia. It is certain at least that he was sent by St. Peter into Egypt, and was by him appointed bishop of Alexandria, (which, after Rome, was accounted the second city of the world,) as Eusebius, St. Epiphanius, St. Jerom, and others assure us. Pope Gelasius, in his Roman council, Palladius, and the Greeks, universally add, that he finished his course at Alexandria, by a glorious martyrdom. St. Peter left Rome, and returned into the East in the ninth year of Claudius, and forty-ninth of Christ. About that time St. Mark went first into Egypt, according to the Greeks. The Oriental Chronicle, published by Abraham Eckellensis, places his arrival at Alexandria only in the seventh year of Nero, and sixtieth of Christ. Both which accounts agree with the relation of his martyrdom, contained in the ancient acts published by the Bollandists, which were made use of by Bede and the Oriental Chronicle, and seem to have been extant in Egypt in the fourth and fifth centuries. By them we are told that St. Mark landed at Cyrene, in Pentapolis, a part of Lybia bordering on Egypt, and, by innumerable miracles, brought many over to the faith, and demolished several temples of the idols. He likewise carried the gospel into other provinces of Lybia, into Thebais, and other parts of Egypt. This country was heretofore, of all others, the most superstitious: but the benediction of God, promised to it by the prophets, was plentifully showered down upon it during the ministry of this apostle. He employed twelve years in preaching in these parts, before he, by a particular call of God, entered Alexandria, where he soon assembled a very numerous church,10 of which it is thought, says Fleury, that the Jewish converts then made up the greatest part. And it is the opinion of St. Jerom and Eusebius, that these were the Therapeutes described by Phil0,11 and the first founders of the ascetic life in Egypt.*

The prodigious progress of the faith in Alexandria stirred up the heathens against this Galilæan. The apostle therefore left the city, having ordained St. Anianus bishop, in the eighth year of Nero, of Christ the sixty-second, and returned to Pentapolis, where he preached two years, and then visited his church of Alexandria, which he found increased in faith and grace, as well as in numbers. He encouraged the faithful and again withdrew; the Oriental Chronicle says to Rome. On his return to Alexandria, the heathens called him a magician, on account of his miracles, and resolved upon his death. God, however, concealed him long from them. At last, on the pagan feast of the idol Serapis, some that were employed to discover the holy man, found him offering to God the prayer of the oblation, or the mass. Overjoyed to find him in their power, they seized him, tied his feet with cords, and dragged him about the streets, crying out, that the ox must be led to Bucoles, a place near the sea, full of rocks and precipices, where probably oxen were fed. This happened on Sunday, the 24th of April, in the year of Christ 68, of Nero the fourteenth, about three years after the death of SS. Peter and Paul. The saint was thus dragged the whole day, staining the stones with his blood, and leaving the ground strewed with pieces of his flesh; all the while he ceased not to praise and thank God for his sufferings. At night he was thrown into prison, in which God comforted him by two visions, which Bede has also mentioned in his true martyrology. The next day the infidels dragged him, as before, till he happily expired on the 25th of April, on which day the Oriental and Western churches keep his festival. The Christians gathered up the remains of his mangled body, and buried them at Bucoles, where they afterwards usually assembled for prayer. His body was honorably kept there, in a church built on the spot, in 310; and towards the end of the fourth age, the holy priest Philoromus made a pilgrimage thither from Galatia to visit this saint’s tomb, as Palladius recounts. His body was still honored at Alexandria, under the Mahometans, in the eighth age, in a marble tomb.12 It is said to have been conveyed by stealth to Venice, in 815. Bernard, a French monk, who travelled over the East in 870, writes, that the body of St. Mark was not then at Alexandria, because the Venetians had carried it to their isles.13 It is said to be deposited in the Doge’s stately rich chapel of St. Mark, in a secret place, that it may not be stolen, under one of the great pillars. This saint is honored by that republic with extraordinary devotion as principal patron.

The great litany is sung on this day to beg that God would be pleased to avert from us the scourges which our sins deserve. The origin of this custom is usually ascribed to St. Gregory the Great, who, by public supplication, or litany, with a procession of the whole city of Rome, divided into seven bands, or companies, obtained of God the extinction of a dreadful pestilence.† This St. Gregory of Tours learned from a deacon, who had assisted at this ceremony at Rome.14 The station was at St. Mary Major’s, and this procession and litany were made in the year 590. St. Gregory the Great speaks of a like procession and litany which he made thirteen years after on the 29th of August, in the year 603, in which the station was at St. Sabinas.15 Whence it is inferred that St. Gregory performed this ceremony every year, though not on the 25th of April, on which day we find it settled, in the close of the seventh century, long before the same was appointed for the feast of St. Mark.16 The great litany was received in France, and commanded in the council of Aix-la-Chapelle in 836, and in the Capitulars of Charles the Bald.17 St. Gregory the Great observed the great litany with a strict fast. On account of the Paschal time, on the 25th of April, it is kept in several dioceses only with abstinence; in some with a fast of the Stations, or till None.18

Nothing is more tender and more moving than the instructions which several councils, fathers, and holy pastors, have given on the manner of performing public supplications and processions. The first council of Orleans orders masters to excuse their servants from work and attendance, that all the faithful may be assembled together to unite their prayers and sighs. A council at Mentz19 commanded that all should assist barefoot, and covered with sackcloth: which was for some time observed in that church. St. Charles Borromæo endeavored, by pathetic instructions and pastoral letters, to revive the ancient piety of the faithful, on the great litany and rogation days. According to the regulations which he made, the supplications and processions began before break of day, and continued till three or four o’clock in the afternoon. On them he fasted himself on bread and water, and preached several times, exhorting the people to sincere penance. A neglect to assist at the public supplications of the church, is a grievous disorder, and perhaps one of the principal causes of the little piety and sanctity which are left, and of the scandals which reign among Christians. They cannot seek the kingdom of God as they ought, who deprive themselves of so powerful a means of drawing down his graces upon their souls. We must join this procession with hearts penetrated with humility, and spend some time in prayer, pious reading, and the exercises of compunction. What we are chiefly to ask of God on these days is the remission of our sins, which are the only true evil, and the cause of all the chastisements which we suffer, or have reason to fear. We must secondly beg that God avert from us all scourges and calamities which our crimes deserve, and that he bestow his blessing on the fruits of the earth.

APRIL 25 — ST. MACULL, IN LATIN, MACALLIUS, CONFESSOR, CALLED BY THE COMMON PEOPLE MAUGHOLD

He was an Irish prince, and captain of robbers, or freebooters, whom St. Patrick converted to the faith. By baptism he was so changed into a new man, as to appear at once to have put on perfectly the spirit of Christ. To cut off all dangerous occasions and commerce, he renounced the world, and retired into the Isle of Man, about thirty English miles long, and nine broad, situated towards the coast of Lancashire, in England. In the acts of this saint, and in Gildas, it is called Eubonia, by Ptolemy Monoëda, from the British Moneitha, i. e. the further or more northern Mona, to distinguish it from the Isle of Anglesey, on the coast of Wales, called by the ancients Mona. St. Patrick had before sent to this island St. Germanus, whom he had ordained bishop, that he might plant a church there. He is honored as the apostle of this island, and in his name is the cathedral church in Pellcastle dedicated. Upon the death of St. Germanus, St. Patrick sent thither two other preachers, named Conindrius and Romulus. In their time, St. Macull arrived there in an open boat, and, after their death, he is said to have been chosen bishop in 498, by the unanimous consent of the Manks nation. He had till then led an austere penitential life, in the mountainous tract, which, from him, is called St. Maughold, and where a city was afterwards built, which bears the same name, though now scarce a village, Ramsey being the only town within this tract or parish. The saint, by his labors and example, exceedingly enlarged the kingdom of Christ in this island In what year he died is uncertain. He is honored in the British and Irish Calendars.

A famous monastery formerly flourished in this island, at Russin, now, from its wonderful castle, called Castletown, the present capital of the island, and residence of the governor. In Peeling, the ancient capital, besides the cathedral, there is a parish church, of which St. Patrick is titular, and the old palace of the bishop. Out of the eighteen parishes of the island, St. Maughold gives name to that of the part about Ramsey. In the churchyard is St. Maughold’s well of very clear water, received in a large stone coffin. The saint’s chair, as it is called, is placed above, in which a person was formerly seated to drink a glass of the water for the cure of several disorders, especially from poison. His shrine was formerly shown there, but was dispersed since the change of religion. See his life in Colgan’s MS. Lives of Irish Saints, on the 25th of April. Also the Description of the Isle of Man, given by Sacheverell, the governor, pp. 11 and 110.

APRIL 25 — ST. ANIANUS, BY EUSEBIUS CALLED ANNIANUS, SECOND BISHOP OF ALEXANDRIA

The acts of St. Mark tell us, that he was a shoemaker in that city, whose hand, wounded with an awl, St. Mark healed when he first entered the city. Such was his fervor and progress in virtue and learning, that St. Mark constituted him bishop of Alexandria, during his absence; and Anianus governed that great church four years with him, and eighteen years and seven months after his death, according to the Oriental Chronicle. He died in the year 86, on the 26th of November; but is named in the Roman Martyrology on the same day with St. Mark. “He was a man,” says Eusebius,1 “well-pleasing to God, and admirable in all things.” St. Epiphanius mentions a church in Alexandria built in his honor.2

APRIL 25 — ST. PHÆBADIUS, CALLED IN GASCONY FIARI, C. BISHOP OF AGEN, IN GAUL

When the second Arian confession of faith was drawn up at Sirmium and subscribed to by Osius, in 358, St. Phæbadius wrote against it with great success, and by his zeal put a check to that spreading evil, so that in Aquitaine it was universally rejected. His book against the Arians, which is extant,1 is written in so masterly a manner, with such solidity, justness, and close reasoning, as to make us regret the loss of his other works. In it he confutes this heretical confession of faith, and even in the more innocent parts discovers the secret wiles and subtle equivocations of its authors. In the council of Rimini, in 359, he zealously opposed the Arians, together with St. Servatius of Tongres. These two prelates were at length imposed upon by the artful practices of Ursacius and Valens, to admit a captious proposition, without perceiving the poison which it contained. But, discovering afterwards the snare, they declared they had been deceived, and condemned what they had done at Rimini.2 St. Phæbadius, to repair this evil, redoubled his zeal in the council of Paris, in 360, and in the council of Saragossa, in Spain, in 380, and joined St. Delphinus, archbishop of Bordeaux, his metropolitan, in all his labors for the faith. We have a learned, elegant, and solid treatise, in which the council of Rimini is confuted, and Ursacius and Valens attacked, of which Dom. Rivet proves3 St. Phæbadius to have been the author. A Greek translation of this piece is published among the discourses of St. Gregory Nazianzen, it being the forty-ninth St. Phæbadius was alive in a very decrepit old age, in 392, when St. Jerom wrote his catalogue of illustrious men. The church of Agen places his festival on the 25th of April. See Tillemont, t. 6, p. 427, and Rivet, Hist. Liter. p. 266, and p. 30, t. 1, part 2.

APRIL 25 — ST. IVIA, OR IVO*

Was a Persian bishop, who preached the faith in England about the same time with St. Austin, in the seventh century; and having for some time prepared himself for his last passage, by solitude, watching, prayer, and fasting, at Slepe, now St. lve’s, in Huntingdonshire, he there died and was buried. His body was found by a ploughman, in a pontifical habit and entire, in 1001, on the 24th of April. By the fame of miracles performed at his relics, many resorted to the place, and a Benedictin priory was there built, though the saint’s body was soon after translated to the great abbey of Ramsey. Whitman, the third abbot at Ramsey, wrote a book of the miracles wrought at his tomb, which was afterwards augmented by Goscelin, a monk of Canterbury, about the year 1096. Pope Alexander V. granted a license to build a church to his honor in Cornwall, where his name was famous, and is given to a parliamentary borough. See Dr. Brown Willis, in his History of Parliamentary Boroughs, t. 1, p. 543; Camden, Harpsfield, (sæc. 9,) and William of Malmesbury, 1. 4, de Pontific.; Bolland. 10 Jun. Hist. Littér. de la Fr. t. 8, p. 667.

APRIL 25 — ST. KEBIUS, A NATIVE OF CORNWALL

Was ordained bishop by St. Hilary of Poitiers, and, returning into his own country, preached penance in Cornwall, in the fourth century. See Borlase, Ant. of Cornwall, Leland, &c.

APRIL 26 — SS. CLETUS AND MARCELLINUS, POPES, MARTYRS

St. Cletus was the third bishop of Rome, and succeeded St. Linus, which circumstance alone shows his eminent virtue among the first disciples of St. Peter in the West. He sat twelve years, from 76 to 89. The canon of the Roman mass, (which Bossuet1 and all others agree to be of primitive antiquity,) Bede, and other Martyrologists, style him a martyr. He was buried near St. Linus, on the Vatican, and his relics still remain in that church.*

St. Marcellinus, Pope, M.

HE succeeded St. Caius in the bishopric of Rome, in 296, about the time that Dioclesian set himself up for a deity, and impiously claimed divine honors. Theodoret says,1 that in those stormy times of persecution. Marcellinus acquired great glory. He sat in St. Peter’s chair eight years three months, and twenty-five days, dying in 304, a year after the cruel persecution broke out, in which he gained much honor. He has been styled a martyr, though his blood was not shed in the cause of religion, as appears from the Liberian calendar, which places him among those popes that were not put to death for the faith.†

It. is a fundamental maxim of the Christian morality, and a truth which Christ has established in the clearest terms, and in innumerable passages of the gospe1,2 that the cross, or sufferings and mortification, are the road to eternal bliss. They, therefore, who lead not here a crucified and mortified life, are unworthy ever to possess the unspeakable joys of his kingdom. Our Lord himself, our model and our head, walked in this path, and his great apostle puts us in mind3 that he entered into bliss only by his blood and by the cross. Nevertheless, this is a truth which the world can never understand, how clearly soever it be preached by Christ, and recommended by his powerful example, and that of his martyrs and of all the saints. Christians still pretend, by the joys and pleasures of this world, to attain to the bliss of heaven, and shudder at the very mention of mortification, penance, or sufferings. So prevalent is this fatal error, which self-love and the example and false maxims of the world strongly fortify in the minds of many, that those who have given themselves to God with the greatest fervor, are bound always to stand upon their guard against it, and daily to renew their fervor in the love and practice of penance, and to arm themselves with patience against sufferings, lest the weight of the corruption of our nature, the pleasures of sense, and flattering blandishments of the world, draw them aside, and make them leave the path of mortification, or lose courage under its labors, and under the afflictions with which God is pleased to purify them, and afford them means of sanctifying themselves.

APRIL 26 — ST. RICHARIUS, OR RIQUIER, ABBOT

He was born in the village of Centula, in Ponthieu. His pious parents had no worldly riches to leave him; but he was sensible how great an inheritance that of grace and virtue is. His youth was spent in the laborious occupations of a country life, which he sanctified by the motives of religion, and the practice of moral virtues: but God, by the following occasion, taught him its most perfect lessons. Two pious Irish priests, named Cadoc and Frichor, passing through that country, and being ill-treated by the people, Riquier entertained them and did them all the good offices in his power. They in requital taught him the maxims of perfect virtue; and God, in recompense of his charity, spoke, at the same time, inwardly to his heart in sentiments with which he had been unacquainted while he did not so seriously consider the great truths of religion. From that time he began to fast on barley-bread strewed with ashes, drinking only water, which he often mingled with his tears, which he shed abundantly. He joined watchings to manual labor, and passed both the nights and days in prayer and holy meditation. Having prepared himself for holy orders, he was promoted to the priesthood. From that moment he considered himself as bound to live no longer to himself; and began to preach and to instruct the faithful with extraordinary zeal. He came over into England to perfect himself in the science of the saints; but returned to preach the word of God in his own country. God everywhere crowned his zeal with wonderful success. King Dagobert I. desired to hear him preach; and the saint spoke so pathetically on the vanities of the world, that the king was exceedingly moved, and bestowed on him many presents. The saint employed them in the relief of the poor, and in founding the monastery of Centula, in the diocese of Amiens, which he began in 638. He some time after built a second, called to this day Forest-Montier, three leagues and a half from Abbeville. He lived an anchoret in the forest of Cressy, with one only companion, in perpetual contemplation and prayer; and in so great austerity, that he seemed almost to forget that he had a body. He died about the year 645. His relics are the chief treasure of his great monastery of Centula, now called St. Riquier. His name is famous in the French and Roman Calendars. See his life by Alcuin: likewise other memoirs in Mabillon and Henschenius.

APRIL 26 — ST. PASCHASIUS RADBERT, ABBOT, CONFESSOR

Radbert, pronounced Rabert, was horn in the territory of Soissons. The death of his mother having left him an orphan in his infancy, the nuns of our Lady’s at Soissons took care of his education, which they committed to the monks of St. Peter’s, in the same town. Having made some progress in his studies and in piety, he received the clerical tonsure; but soon after returned into the world, and led some years a secular life, till, powerfully touched by divine grace, he retired to the monastery of Corbie, and made his monastic profession under St. Adalhard, the founder and first abbot of that house. This state he looked upon as the school of perfect virtue, and all its exercises as the means by which he was to attain to it: he therefore dreaded the least sloth or remissness in any of the regular observances of his vocation. By the fervor and exactitude with which he acquitted himself of them, he made his whole life in every action and every moment a continued holocaust to the divine glory and love. Having in his youth made a considerable progress in his studies, particularly by reading Terence and Cicero, in the monastery he applied himself, with wonderful success, to sacred studies. St. Adalhard and Wala, his brother and successor in the abbacy, made him their companion in their journeys, and their counsellor in all affairs of importance. In 822 they took him with them into Saxony, when they finished the establishment of Corwei, or New Corbie, there. The emperor, Louis Débonnaire, employed him in several public affairs; and he discharged all these commissions with honor. In his own monastery he preached to the monks on Sundays and holidays, and gave every day public lectures on the sacred sciences. Under his direction the schools of Corbie became very famous. Among his scholars were Adalhard the Younger, (who governed the abbey in quality of vicar during the absence of St. Adalhard the Elder,) St. Anscharius, Hildeman, and Odo, successively bishops of Beauvais, and Warin, abbot of New Corbie, in Saxony. These occupations and studies never seemed to him a sufficient reason to exempt him from assisting at the public office in the choir, and all other general observances of the rule. In subscribing the council of Paris, in 846, he took only his own name, Radbert; but in the works which he composed after that time, he always prefixed to it that of Paschasius. This he took according to the custom which then prevailed among men of letters in France, for every one to adopt some Roman or scriptural name. Thus in his epitaph or panegyric on his abbot, Wala, he styles him Arsenius.

St. Adalhard died in 826, and Wala, the second abbot, in 836. Isaac succeeded him, and upon his demise, in 844, Radbert was chosen the fourth abbot. The distractions of this station made him earnestly endeavor to resign his dignity: which however he could not effect till seven years after, in 851. Being restored to his liberty, he retired to the abbey of St. Riquier to finish some of his works; but after some time he returned to Corbie. In all his writings he takes those of the fathers, in which he was extremely well versed, for his guide.1 His long commentary on St. Matthew’s gospel, a learned and useful work, he began before he was chosen abbot, as appears from his dedication of the four first books to Gontland, a monk of St. Riquier’s; but in the latter he speaks of himself as very old, so that Mabillon thinks he only finished his twelfth or last book about the year 858. The errors of Felix of Urgel and Claudius of Turin, those of Gothescale,2 whom he had condemned with the prelates assembled at Quiercy, in 849, and especially those of John Scotus Erigena, against the mystery of the real presence of the body of Christ in the Eucharist,3 are solidly confuted in this commentary. Radbert dedicated to Emma, abbess of our Lady’s at Soissons, about the year 856, his prolix commentary on the forty-fourth Psalm.4 To stir himself up to compunction, he wrote an exposition of the Lamentations of Jeremy, which he applies both to the two destructions of Jerusalem, by Nabuchodonosor and Titus, and to the fall of a soul into sin. The mention he here makes of the sacking of Paris, shows that he wrote this book after the plunder of that city by the Normans, in 857. The most famous work of Radbert was his book. On the Sacrament of the Altar, or On the Body and Blood of Christ, which he dedicated to Warin, abbot of New Corbie; to which dignity he was only raised in 826. He mentions in it the banishment of Arsenius, that is, of the abbot Wala, which happened in 831, not of St. Adalhard, as some mistake, who thence imagine that he first published this book in 818. Fifteen or twenty years after this first edition, the author, when he was abbot, consequently after the year 844, gave a second more ample than the former, and dedicated it to king Charles the Bald, who had desired to see it. During this interval no one had raised any clamors about it. But some afterwards took offence at certain expressions, chiefly taken from St. Ambrose, in which the author affirmed the body of Christ present in the eucharist to be the same flesh which was born of the Virgin Mary, and nailed to the cross, in terms so strong, that these writers imagined that he taught it to be in the eucharist in the same mortal state in which he suffered, and that he understood this sacred mystery in the carnal sense of the Capharnaits.* Radbert defends the manner in which he had expressed himself, in a letter to Frudegard, a monk of New Corbie. He wrote the life of St. Adalhard soon after his death: also that of the abbot Wala, under the title of his epitaph,5 and the acts of the martyrs Rufinus and Valerius, who suffered in the territory of Soissons. The foregoing works of St. Radbert were published in one volume by F. Sirmond, in 1618, and in the Library of the Fathers. His treatise to defend the perpetual virginity of Mary, in bringing forth the Son of God, was printed by the care of D’Achery.6 His book On Faith, Hope, and Charity, was first published by Dom. Bernard Pez,7 and soon after much more correctly by Dom. Martenne,8 who in the same place has favored us with a much more correct and complete edition of Radbert’s book, On the Body and Blood of the Lord, than that of F. Sirmond, with a collection of various readings compiled by Dom. Sabbatier.

St. Paschasius Radbert has given us several remarkable instances of his modesty and humility, styling himself frequently in his writings, The Our cast of the Monastic Order.† He died at Corbie on the 26th of April, about the year 865. He was buried in St. John’s chapel, but his body was translated into the great church, in 1073, by authority of the holy see, under the pontificate of Gregory VII., the ceremony being performed by Wido, bishop of Amiens;9 from which time he is honored at Corbie, and in the Gallican and Benedictin Martyrologies, among the saints. In his last sickness, he laid so strict at injunction on all his disciples and brethren, forbidding any one to write his life, that his humility has robbed us of the edification which such a history would have afforded us. See his short life compiled by F. Sirmond, and prefixed to his edition of this holy man’s works: also another collected from the archives of Corbie, by Hugh Menard, in his notes on the Benedictin Martyrology: also Ceillier, t. 19, p. 87, and Legipont; Hist Liter. Bened. t. 3, p. 77.

APRIL 27 — ST. ANTHIMUS, BISHOP, AND MANY OTHER MARTYRS AT NICOMEDIA

From Lactantius, 1 De Mortibus Persecut. ed. nov. t. 2, p. 197; Eusebius, Hist. b 8, c. 4, 6; see Title mont, t. 5.

A. D. 303.

THESE martyrs were the first victims offered to God in the most bloody persecution raised by Dioclesian. That prince was a native of Dalmatia, of the basest extraction, and a soldier of fortune. After the death of the emperor Numerian, son of Carus, slain by a conspiracy in 284, he was proclaimed emperor by the army at Chalcedon. The year following he defeated Carinus, the other son of Carus, who reigned in the West: but finding the empire too unwieldy a body to govern alone, and secure himself at the same time against the continual treasons of the soldiery, especially the Pretorian guards, who during the last three hundred years had murdered their emperors almost at pleasure; having moreover no issue male, and reposing an entire confidence in Maximian Herculeus, Dioclesian chose him for his partner in the empire, and honored him with the title of Augustus. He was a barbarian, born of obscure parents, at a village near Sirmium in Pannonia of a cruel and savage temper, and addicted to all manner of wickedness; but was reckoned one of the best commanders of his time. The two emperors, alarmed at the dangers which threatened the empire on every side, and not thinking themselves alone able to oppose so many enemies at once, in 292 named each of them a Cæsar, or emperor of an inferior rank, who should succeed them respectively in the empire, and jointly with them defend the Roman dominions against foreign invaders and domestic usurpers. Dioclesian chose Maximian Galerius for the East, who, before he entered the Roman army, was a peasant of Dacia; a man of a brutal ferocity, whose very aspect, gesture, voice, and discourse were all terrifying; and who, besides his cruel disposition, was extremely bigoted to idolatry. Maximian Herculeus chose Constantius, surnamed Chlorus, for the West, an excellent prince, and nobly born.

The first years of the reign of Dioclesian were tolerably favorable to the Christians, though several even then suffered martyrdom by virtue of former edicts. But Galerius began to persecute them in the provinces within his jurisdiction, by his own authority; and never ceased to stir up Dioclesian to do the like, especially in 302, when he passed the winter with him at Nicomedia. Dioclesiar however, appeared unwilling to come into all his violent measures, foreseeing that so much blood could not be spilled without disturbing the peace of the empire to a high degree. The oracle of Apollo at Miletus was therefore consulted, and gave such an answer as might have been expected from an enemy to the Christian religion.1 The same author in two places2 relates another accident which contributed to provoke the emperor against the faith. While Dioclesian was offering victims at Antioch, in 302, in order to consult the entrails for the discovery of future events, certain Christian officers, who stood near his person, “made on their foreheads the immortal sign of the cross.” This disturbed the sacrifices and confounded the aruspices, or diviners, who could not find the ordinary marks they looked for in the entrails of the victims, though they offered up many, one after another, pretending that the divinity was not yet appeased. But all their sacrifices were to no purpose, for no signs appeared. Upon which the person set over the diviners declared, that their rites did not succeed, because some profane persons, meaning the Christians, had thrust themselves into their assembly. Hereupon Dioclesian, in a rage, commanded that not only those who were present, but all the rest of his courtiers should come and sacrifice to their gods; and ordered those to be scourged who should refuse to do it. He also sent orders to his military officers to require all the soldiers to sacrifice, or, in case of refusal, to be disbanded. Another thing determined Dioclesian to follow these impressions, which one would have imagined should have had a quite contrary effect; it is mentioned by Constantine the Great, who thus speaks in an edict directed to the whole empire, preserved by Eusebius.3 “A report was spread that Apollo out of his dark cavern had declared, that certain just men on earth hindered him from delivering true oracles, and were the cause that he had uttered falsehood. For this reason he let his hair grow, as a token of his sorrow, and lamented this evil among men, having hereby lost his art of divination. Thee I attest, most high God. Thou knowest how I, being then very young, heard the emperor Dioclesian inquiring of his officers who these just men were: when one of his priests made answer, that they were the Christians; which answer moved Dioclesian to draw his bloody sword, not to punish the guilty, but to exterminate the righteous, whose innocence stood confessed by the divinities he adored.”

For beginning this work, choice was made of the festival of the god Terminos, six days before the end of February, that month closing the Roman year before the correction of Julius Cæsar, and when that feast was instituted. By this they implied that an end was to be put to our religion. Early in the morning the prefect, accompanied with some officers and others, went to the church; and having forced open the door, all the books of the scriptures that were there found were burned, and the spoil that was made on that occasion was divided among all that were present. The two princes, who from a balcony viewed all that was done, (the church which stood upon an eminence being within the prospect of the palace,) were long in debate whether they should order fire to be set to it. But in this Dioclesian’s opinion prevailed, who was afraid that if the church was set on fire, the flames might spread themselves into the other parts of the city; so that a considerable body of the guards were sent thither with mattocks and pickaxes, who in a few hours levelled that lofty building with the ground. The next day an edict was published, by which it was commanded that all the churches should be demolished, the scriptures burnt, and the Christians declared incapable of all honors and employments, and that they should be liable to torture, whatever should be their rank and dignity. All actions were to be received against them, while they were put out of the protection of the law, and might not sue either upon injuries done them, or debts owing to them; deprived moreover of their liberties and their right of voting. This edict was not published in other places till a month later. But it had not been long set up, before a certain Christian of quality and eminence in that city, whom some have conjectured to be St. George, had the boldness publicly to pull down his edict, out of a zeal which Lactantius justly censures as indiscreet, but which Eusebius, considering his intention, styles divine. He was immediately apprehended, and after having endured the most cruel tortures, was broiled to death on a gridiron, upon a very slow fire. All which he suffered with admirable patience. The first edict was quickly followed by another, enjoining that the bishops should be seized in all places, loaded with chains, and compelled by torments to sacrifice to the idols. St. Anthimus was, in all appearance, taken up on this occasion; and Nicomedia, then the residence of the emperor, was filled with slaughter and desolation.

But Galerius was not satisfied with the severity of this edict. Wherefore, in order to stir up Dioclesian to still greater rigors, he procured some of his own creatures to set fire to the imperial palace, some parts of which were burnt down; and the Christians, according to the usual perverseness of the heathens, being accused of it, as Galerius desired and expected, this raised a most implacable rage against them. For it was given out, that they had entered into consultation with some of the eunuchs, for the destruction of their princes, and that the two emperors were well-nigh burnt alive in their own palace. Dioclesian, not in the least suspecting the imposture, gave orders that all his domestics and dependents should be cruelly tortured in his presence, to oblige them to confess the supposed guilt, but all to no purpose; for the criminals lay concealed among the domestics of Galerius, none of whose family were put to the torture. A fortnight after the first burning, the palace was set on fire a second time, without any discovery of the author; and Galerius, though in the midst of winter, left Nicomedia the same day, protesting that he went away through fear of being burnt alive by the Christians. The fire was stopped before it had done any great mischief, but it had the effect intended by the author of it. For Dioclesian, ascribing it to the Christians, resolved to keep no measures with them; and his rage and resentment being now at the highest pitch, he vented them with the utmost cruelty upon the innocent Christians, beginning with his daughter Valeria, married to Galerius, and his own wife, the empress Prisca, whom, being both Christians, he compelled to sacrifice to idols. The reward of their apostacy was, that after an uninterrupted series of grievous afflictions, they were both publicly beheaded, by the order of Licinius, in 313, when he extirpated the families of Dioclesian and Maximian. Some of the eunuchs that were in the highest credit, and by whose directions the affairs of the palace had been conducted before this edict, having long presided in his courts and councils, were the first victims of his rage: and they bravely suffered the most cruel torments and death for the faith. Among these were SS. Peter, Gorgonius, Dorotheus, Indus, Migdonius, Mardonius and others. The persecution, which began in the palace, fell next on the clergy of Nicomedia. St. Anthimus, the good bishop of that city, was cut off the first, being beheaded for the faith. He was followed by all the priests and inferior ministers of his church, with all those persons that belonged to their families. From the altar the sword was turned against the laity. Judges were appointed in the temples to condemn to death all who refused to sacrifice, and torments till then unheard of were invented. And that no man might have the benefit of the law that was not a heathen, altars were erected in the very courts of justice, and in the public offices, that all might be obliged to offer sacrifice, before they could be admitted to plead.4 Eusebius adds, that the people were not suffered to buy or sell any thing, to draw water, grind their corn, or transact any business, without first offering up incense to certain idols set up in market-places, at the corners of the streets, at the public fountains, &c. But the tortures which were invented, and the courage with which the holy martyrs laid down their lives for Christ, no words can express. Persons of every age and sex were burnt, not singly one by one, but, on account of their numbers, whole companies of them were burnt together, by setting fire round about them: while others, being tied together in great numbers, were cast into the sea. The Roman Martyrology commemorates, on the 27th of April, all that suffered on this occasion at Nicomedia.

The month following, these edicts were published in the other parts of the empire; and in April two new ones were added, chiefly regarding the clergy. In the beginning of the year 304, a fourth edict was issued out, commanding all Christians to be put to death who should refuse to renounce their faith. Lactantius describes5 how much the governors made it their glory to overcome one Christian by all sorts of artifice and cruelty. For the devil, by his instruments, sought not so much to destroy the bodies of the servants of God by death, as their souls by sin. Almost the whole empire seemed a deluge of blood, in such abundance did its streams water, or rather drown the provinces. Constantius himself, though a just prince, and a favorer of the Christians, was not able to protect Britain, where he commanded, from the first fury of this storm. The persecutors flattered themselves they had extinguished the Christian name, and boasted as much in public inscriptions, two of which are still extant. But God by this very means increased his church, and the persecutors’ s word fell upon their own heads. Dioclesian, intimidated by the power and threats of this very favorite Galerius, resigned to him the purple at Nicomedia, on the first of April, in 304. Herculeus made the like abdication at Milan. But the persecution was carried on in the East by their successors ten years longer, till, in 313, Licinius having defeated Maximinus Daia, the nephew and successor of Galerius, joined with Constantine in a league in favor of Christianity. Dioclesian had led a private life in his own country, Dalmatia, near Salone, where now Spalatro stands, in which city stately ruins of his palace are pretended to be shown. When Herculeus exhorted him to reassume the purple, he answered: “If you had seen the herbs, which with my own hands I have planted at Salone, you would not talk to me of empires.” But this philosophic temper was only the effect of cowardice and fear. He lived to see his wife and daughter put to death by Licinius, and the Christian religion protected by law, in 313. Having received a threatening letter from Constantine and Licinius, in which he was accused of having favored Maxentius and Maximums against them, he put an end to his miserable life by poison, as Victor writes. Lactantius says, that seeing himself despised by, he whole world, he was in a perpetual uneasiness, and could neither eat nor sleep. He was heard to sigh and groan continually, and was seen often to weep, and to be tumbling sometimes on his bed, and sometimes on the ground. His colleague, Maximinian Herculeus, thrice attempted to resume the purple, and even snatched it from his own son Maxentius, and at length in despair hanged himself, in 310. Miserable also was the end of all their persecuting successors, Maxentius, the son of Herculeus, in the West, and of Galerius and his nephew Maximums Daia, in the East. No less visible was the hand of God in punishing the authors of the foregoing genera persecutions, as is set forth by Lactantius, in a valuable treatise entitled, On the Death of the Persecutors.*

Thus, while the martyrs gained immortal crowns, and virtue triumphed by the means of malice itself, God usually, even in this world, began to avenge his injured justice in the chastisement of his enemies. Though it is in eternity that the distinction of real happiness and misery will appear. There all men will clearly see that the only advantage in life is to die well all other things are of very small importance. Prosperity or adversity honor or disgrace, pleasure or pain, disappear and are lost in eternity. Then will men entirely lose sight of those vicissitudes which here so often alarmed, or so strongly affected them. Worldly greatness and abjection, riches and poverty, health and sickness, will then seem equal, or the same thing. The use which every one has made of all these things will make the only difference. The martyrs having eternity always present, and placing all their joy and all their glory in the divine will and love, ran cheerfully to their crowns, contemning the blandishments of the world, and regardless even of torments and death.

APRIL 27 — ST. ANASTASIUS, POPE, C

He was by birth a Roman, and had, by many combats and labors, acquired a high reputation for his virtues and abilities. He succeeded Siricius in the papacy, in 398. St. Jerom calls him1 a man of a holy life, of a most rich poverty, and endued with an apostolic solicitude and zeal. He exerted himself in stopping the progress of Origenism. When Rufinus had translated the dangerous books of Origen, On the Principles, he condemned hat translation as tending to weaken our faith, built on the tradition of the apostles and our fathers, as he says in his letter on this subject, to John bishop of Jerusalem.2 As to Rufinus, he leaves to God his intention in translating this work.* In this epistle he calls all people and nations scattered over the earth, the parts of his body.† He sat three years and ten days, dying on the 14th of December, 401. St. Jerom says,3 that God took him out of this world lest Rome should be plundered under such a head: for in 410, it fell into the hands of Alaric the Goth. The remains of this holy pope have been often translated: the greatest part now rest in the church of St. Praxedes. The Roman Martyrology commemorates his name on this day, which is probably that of one of these translations. See Ceillier, t. 8, p. 556, &c.

APRIL 27 — ST. ZITA, V

She was born in the beginning of the thirteenth century, at Montsegradi, a village near Lucca, in Italy. She was brought up with the greatest care, in the fear of God, by her poor virtuous mother, whose early and constant attention to inspire the tender heart of her daughter with religious sentiments seemed to find no obstacles, either from private passions or the general corruption of nature; so easily were they prevented or overcome. Zita had no sooner attained the use of reason, and was capable of knowing and loving God, than her heart was no longer able to relish any other object, and she seemed never to lose sight of him in her actions. Her mother reduced all her instructions to two short heads, and never had occasion to use any further remonstrance to enforce her lessons than to say: “This is most pleasing to God; this is the divine will,” or, “That would displease God.” The sweetness and modesty of the young child charmed every one who saw her She spoke little, and was most assiduous at her work, but her business never seemed to interrupt her prayers. At twelve years of age she was put to service in the family of a citizen of Lucca, called Fatinelli, whose house was contiguous to the church of St. Frigidian. She was thoroughly persuaded that labor is enjoined all men as a punishment of sin, and as a remedy for the spiritual disorders of their souls: and, far from ever harboring in her breast the least uneasiness, or expressing any sort of complaint under contradictions, poverty, and hardships, and, still more from ever entertaining the least idle, inordinate, or worldly desire, she blessed God for placing her in a station in which she was supplied with the most effectual means to promote her sanctification, by the necessity of employing herself in penitential labor, and of living in a perpetual conformity and submission of her will to others. She was also very sensible of the advantages of her state, which afforded all necessaries of life, without engaging her in the anxious cares and violent passions by which worldly persons, who enjoy most plentifully the goods of fortune, are often disturbed; whereby their souls resemble a troubled sea, always agitated by impetuous storms, without knowing the sweetness of a true calm. She considered her work as an employment assigned her by God, and as part of her penance; and obeyed her master and mistress in all things, as being placed over her by God. She always rose several hours before the rest of the family, and employed in prayer a considerable part of the time which others gave to sleep. She took care to hear mass every morning with great devotion, before she was called upon by the duties of her station, in which she employed the whole day with such diligence and fidelity that she seemed to be carried to them on wings, and studied when possible to anticipate them. Notwithstanding her extreme attention to her exterior employments, she acquired a wonderful facility of joining with them almost continual mental prayer, and of keeping her soul constantly attentive to the divine presence Who would not imagine that such a person should have been esteemed and beloved by all who knew her? Nevertheless, by the appointment of divine providence, for her great spiritual advantage, it fell out quite otherwise, and for several years she suffered the harshest trials. Her modesty was called by her fellow-servants simplicity, and want of spirit and sense; and her diligence was judged to have no other spring than affectation and secret pride. Her mistress was a long time extremely prepossessed against her, and her passionate master could not bear her in his sight without transports of rage. It is not to be conceived how much the saint had continually to suffer in this situation. So unjustly despised, overburdened, reviled, and often beaten, she never repined nor lost her patience; but always preserved the same sweetness in her countenance, and the same meekness and charity in her heart and words, and abated nothing of her application to her duties. A virtue so constant and so admirable, at length overcame jealousy, antipathy, prepossession, and malice. Her master and mistress discovered the treasure which their family possessed in the fidelity and example of the humble saint, and the other servants gave due praise to her virtue. Zita feared this prosperity more than adversity, and trembled lest it should be a snare to her soul. But sincere humility preserved her from its dangers; and her behavior, amidst the caresses and respect shown her, continued the same as when she was ill-treated and held in derision; she was no less affable, meek, and modest; no less devout, nor less diligent or ready to serve every one. Being made housekeeper, and seeing her master and mistress commit to her, with an entire confidence, the government of their family and management of all their affairs, she was most scrupulously careful in point of economy, remembering that she was to give to God an account of the least farthing of what was intrusted as a depositum in her hands; and, though head-servant, she never allowed herself the least privilege of exemption in her work on that account. She used often to say to others, that devotion is false if slothful. Hearing a man-servant speak one immodest word, she was filled with horror, and procured him to be immediately discharged from the family. With David, she desired to see it composed only of such whose approved piety might draw down a benediction of God upon the whole house, and be a security to the master for their fidelity and good example. She kept fast the whole year, and often on bread and water; and took her rest on the bare floor, or on a board. Whenever business allowed her a little leisure, she spent it in holy prayer and contemplation in a little retired room in the garret; and at her work repeated frequently ardent ejaculations of divine love, with which her soul appeared always inflamed. She respected her fellow-servants as her superiors. If she was sent on commissions a mile or two in the greatest storms, she set out without delay, executed them punctually, and returned often almost drowned without showing any sign of reluctance or murmuring. By her virtue she gained so great an ascendant over her master, that a single word would often suffice to check the greatest transports of his rage; and she would sometimes cast herself at his feet to appease him in favor of others. She never kept any thing for herself but the poor garments which she wore; every thing else she gave to the poor. Her master, seeing his goods multiply, as it were, in her hands, gave her ample leave to bestow liberal alms on the poor; which she made use of with discretion, but was scrupulous to do nothing without his express authority. If she heard others spoken ill of, she zealously took upon her their defence, and excused their faults. Always when she communicated, and often when she heard mass, and on other occasions, she melted in sweet tears of divine love: she was often favored with ecstasies during her prayers. In her last sickness, she clearly foretold her death, and having prepared herself for her passage by receiving the last sacraments, and by ardent sighs of love, she happily expired on the 27th of April, in 1272, being sixty years old: one hundred and fifty miracles wrought in the behalf of such as had recourse to her intercession have been juridically proved. Her body was found entire in 1580, and is kept with great respect in St. Frigidian’s church, richly enshrined; her face and hands are exposed naked to view through a crystal glass. Pope Leo X. granted an office in her honor. The city of Lucca pays a singular veneration to her memory. The solemn decree of her beatification was published by Innocent XII. in 1696, with the confirmation of her immemorial veneration. See her life compiled by a contemporary writer, and published by Papebroke the Bollandist, on the 27th of April, p. 497, and Benedict XIV. De Canoniz.1. 2, c. 24, p. 245.

APRIL 28 — ST. VITALIS, MARTYR

From Fortunatus,1.1, carm. 2, p. 33. His acts and the supposititious letter under the name of St. Ambrose were written only in the ninth age.

About the Year 62.

ST. VITALIS is honored as the principal patron of the city of Ravenna, in which he glorified God by martyrdom in the persecution of Nero. He was a citizen of Milan, and is said in his acts to have been the father of SS. Gervasius and Protasius. The divine providence conducted him to Ravenna, where he saw a Christian named Ursicinus, who was condemned to lose his head for his faith, standing aghast at the sight of death, and seeming ready to yield. Happy is he who, by a perfect diffidence in himself and a sincere humility, obtains strength and comfort from above in the fiery trials of his last conflicts; when the devil rages with the greatest fury, knowing that he has only a little time to compass the ruin of a soul forever. Vitalis was extremely moved at this spectacle. The honor of God, which was in danger of being insulted by sin, and the soul of a brother in Christ which appeared to be upon the very brink of apostacy, were alarming objects to awake his zeal. He who dreaded the presumption of rashly seeking the combat, knew his double obligation of preferring the glory of God, and the eternal salvation of his neighbor to his own corporeal life: he therefore boldly and successfully encouraged Ursicinus to triumph over death, and after his martyrdom carried off his body, and respectfully interred it. The judge, whose name was Paulinus, being informed of what he had done, caused him to be apprehended, stretched on the rack, and, after other torments, to be buried alive in a place called the Palm-tree, in Ravenna, as Fortunatus and his acts relate. These acts add that his wife, Valeria, returning from Ravenna to Milan, was beaten to death by certain peasants, because she refused to join them in an idolatrous festival and riot. The relics of St. Vitalis are deposited in the great church which bears his name in Ravenna, and was magnificently built by the emperor Justinian, in 547. It belongs to a noble Benedictin abbey, where in a ruinous private chapel are shown the tombs of the emperor Honorius, and of the princes and princesses of his family.

We are not all called to the sacrifice of martyrdom; but all are bound to make their whole lives a continued sacrifice of themselves to God, and to perform every action in this perfect spirit of sacrifice. An ardent desire of devoting ourselves totally to God in life and in death, and a cheerful readiness to do and to suffer whatever he requires of us, in order constantly to accomplish his divine will, is a disposition which ought to accompany and to animate all our actions. The perfection of our sacrifice depends on the purity, fervor, and constancy of this desire. We must in particular make our bodies and our souls, with all their faculties, continual victims to God our bodies by patient suffering, voluntary mortification, chastity, temperance, and penitential labor: our souls by a continual spirit of compunction, adoration, love, and praise. Thus we shall both live and die to God, perfectly resigned to his holy will in all his appointments.

APRIL 28 — SS. DIDYMUS AND THEODORA, MARTYRS

From their beautiful acts, copied in part from the presidial registers, the rest being added by an eye-witness, extant in Ruinart and the Bollandists, t. 3, Apr. in Append, p. lxiii. See also St. Ambrose de Virgin. 2, c. 4.

A. D. 304.

EUSTRATIUS PROCULUS, imperial prefect of Alexandria, being seated on his tribunal, said: “Call hither the virgin Theodora.” A sergeant of the court answered: “She is here.” The prefect said to her: “Of what condition are you?” Theodora replied: “I am a Christian.” PREFECT. “Are you a slave or a free woman?” THEODORA. “I am a Christian, and made free by Christ; I am also born of what the world calls free parents.” PREFECT. “Call hither the bailiff* of the city.” When he was come, the prefect asked him what he knew of the virgin Theodora. Lucius, the bailift, answered: “I know her to be a free woman, and of a very good family in the city.” “What is the reason, then,” said the judge to Theodora, “that you are not married?” THEODORA. “That I may render myself the more pleasing and acceptable to Jesus Christ, who being become man, hath withdrawn us from corruption; and as long as I continue faithful to him, will, I hope, preserve me from all defilement.” PREFECT. “The emperors have ordered that you virgins shall either sacrifice to the gods, or be exposed in infamous places.” THEODORA. “I believe you are not ignorant that it is the will which God regards in every action; and that if my soul continue chaste and pure, it can receive no prejudice from outward violence.” PREFECT. “Your birth and beauty make me pity you: but this compassion shall not save you unless you obey. I swear by the gods, you shall either sacrifice or be made the disgrace of your family, and the scorn of all virtuous and honorable persons.” He then repeated the ordinance of the emperors, to which Theodora made the same reply as before, and added: “If you cut off unjustly my arm or head, will the guilt be charged to me, or to him that commits the outrage? I am united to God by the vow I have made to him of my virginity; he is the master of my body and my soul, and into his hands I commit the protection of both my faith and chastity.” PREFECT. “Remember your birth: will you dishonor your family by an eternal infamy?” THEODORA. “The source of true honor is Jesus Christ: my soul draws all its lustre from him. He will preserve his dove from falling into the power of the hawk.” PREFECT. “Alas, silly woman! do you place your confidence in a crucified man? do you imagine it will be in his power to protect your virtue if you expose it to the trial?” THEODORA. “Yes, I most firmly believe that Jesus, who suffered under Pilate, will deliver me from all who have conspired my ruin, and will preserve me pure and spotless. Judge, then, if I can renounce him.” PREFECT. “I bear with you a long time, and do not yet put you to the torture. But if you continue thus obstinate, I will have no more regard for you than for the most despicable slave.” THEODORA. “You are master of my body: the law has left that at your disposal; but my soul you cannot touch, it is in the power of God alone.” PREFECT. “Give her two great buffets to cure her of her folly, and teach her to sacrifice.” THEODORA. “Through the assistance of Jesus Christ, I will never sacrifice to, nor adore devils. He is my protector.” PREFECT. “You compel me, notwithstanding your quality, to affront you before all the people. This is a degree of madness.” THEODORA. “This holy madness is true wisdom; and what you call an affront will be my eternal glory.” PREFECT. “I am out of patience; I will execute the edict. I should myself be guilty of disobeying the emperors, were I to dally any longer.” THEODORA. “You are afraid of displeasing a man, and can you reproach me because I refuse to offend God, because I stand in awe of the emperor of heaven and earth, and seek to obey his will.” PREFECT. “In the mean time you make no scruple of slighting the commands of the emperors, and abusing my patience. I will, notwithstanding, allow you three days to consider what to do; if within that term you do not comply with what I require, by the gods, you shall be exposed, that all other women may take warning from your example.” THEODORA. “Look on these three days as already expired. You will find me the same then as now. There is a God who will not forsake me. Do what you please. My only request is, that I may be screened in the mean time from insults on my chastity.” PREFECT. “That is but just. I therefore ordain that Theodora be under guard for three days, and that no violence be offered her during that time, nor rudeness shown her, out of regard to her birth and quality.” The three days being elapsed, Procuius ordered Theodora to be brought before him: and seeing she persisted in her resolution, said: “The just fear of incurring the indignation of the emperors obliges me to execute their commands: wherefore sacrifice to the gods, or I pronounce the threatened sentence. We shall see if your Christ, for whose sake you continue thus obstinate, will deliver you from the infamy to which the edict of the emperors condemns you.” THEODORA. “Be in no pain about that.” Sentence hereupon being pronounced, the saint was conducted to the infamous place. On entering it, she lifted up her eyes to God, and said: “Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, assist me and take me hence: Thou, who deliveredst Saint Peter from prison without his sustaining any hurt, guard and protect my chastity here, that all may know I am thy servant.” A troop of debauchees quickly surrounded the house, and looked on this innocent beauty as their prey. But Jesus Christ watched over his spouse, and sent one of his servants to deliver her. Among the Christians of Alexandria, there was a zealous young man, named Didymus, who, desiring earnestly to rescue the virgin out of her danger habited himself like a soldier, and went boldly into the room where she was. Theodora, seeing him approach her, was at first much troubled, and fled from him into the several corners of the room. He, overtaking her, said to her: “Sister, fear nothing from me. I am not such a one as you take me to be. I am your brother in Christ, and have thus disguised myself on purpose to deliver you. Come, let us change habits: take you my clothes and go out, and I will remain here in yours: thus disguised, save yourself.” Theodora did as she was desired: she also put on his armor, and he pulled down the hat over her eyes, and charged her in going out to cast them on the ground, and not stop to speak to any one, but walk fast, in imitation of a person seeming ashamed, and fearing to be known after the perpetration of an infamous action. When Theodora was by this stratagem out of danger, her soul took its flight towards heaven, in ardent ejaculations to God her deliverer.

A short time after, came in one of the lewd crew on a wicked intent, but was extremely surprised to find a man there instead of the virgin: and hearing from him the history of what had passed, went out, and published it abroad. The judge, being informed of the affair, sent for the voluntary prisoner, and asked him his name. He answered: “I am called Didymus.” The prefect then asked him who put him upon this extraordinary adventure. Didymus told him it was God that had inspired him with this method to rescue his handmaid. The prefect then said: “Before I put you to the torture, declare where Theodora is.” DIDYMUS. “By Christ, the Son of God, I know not. All that I certainly know of her is, that she is a servant of God, and that He has preserved her spotless: God hath done to her according to her faith in him.” PREFECT. “Of what condition are you?” DIDYMUS. “I am a Christian, and delivered by Jesus Christ.” PREFECT. “Put him to the torture doubly to what is usual, as the excess of his insolence deserves.” DIDYMUS. “I beg you to execute speedily on me the orders of your masters, whatever they may be.” PREFECT. “By the gods, the torture doubled is your immediate lot, unless you sacrifice: if you do this your first crime shall be forgiven you.” DIDYMUS. “I have already given proof that I am a champion of Christ, and fear not to suffer in his cause. My intention in this matter was twofold, to prevent the virgin’s being defloured, and to give an instance of my steady faith and hope in Christ; being assured I shall survive all the torments you can inflict upon me. The dread of the cruelest death you can devise will not prevail on me to sacrifice to devils.” PREFECT. “For your bold rashness, and because you have contemned the commands of our lords the emperors, you shall be beheaded, and your corpse shall be burnt.” DIDYMUS. “Blessed be God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath not despised my offering, and hath preserved spotless his handmaid Theodora. He crowns me doubly.” Didymus was, according to this sentence, beheaded, and his body burnt. Thus far the acts.

St. Ambrose,1 who relates this history of Theodora, (whom he calls by mistake a virgin of Antioch,) adds, that she ran to the place of execution to Didymus, and would needs die in his place, and that she was also beheaded; which the Greeks say happened shortly after his martyrdom. St. Ambrose most beautifully paints the strife of these holy martyrs, at the place of execution, which of the two should bear away the palm of martyrdom. The virgin urged, that she owed indeed to him the preservation of her corporal integrity; but would not yield to him the privilege of carrying away her crown. “You was bail,” said she, “for my modesty, not for my life. If my virginity be in danger, your bond holds good: if my life be required, this debt I myself can discharge. The sentence of condemnation was passed upon me: I am further obnoxious, not only by my flight, but by giving occasion to the death of another. I fled, not from death, but from an injury to my virtue. This body, which is not to be exposed to an insult against its integrity, is capable of suffering for Christ. If you rob me of my crown, you have not saved, but deceived me.” The two saints, thus contending for the palm, both conquered: the crown was not divided, but given to each St. Didymus is looked upon to have suffered under Dioclesian, in 304, and at Alexandria. The Roman Martyrology commemorates these two saints on this day.

APRIL 28 — ST. POLLIO, LECTOR, AND HIS COMPANIONS IN PANNONIA, MARTYRS

From his genuine acts, probably extracted from the court register, though collected under the emperor Valentinian: extant at Ruinart.

A. D. 304.

PROBUS, governor of Pannonia, under Dioclesian, in 304, having put to death St. Montanus, priest at Singidon, St. Irenæus, bishop of Sirmium, and others, arrived at Cibales, a great town between the rivers Save and Drave afterwards the birthplace of the emperor Valentinian, but now destroyed. The very same day on which he arrived, Pollio, the first of the readers of that church, was apprehended; a person of great virtue and a lively faith, of which he had already given signal proofs. He was presented to the governor as he was coming out of his chariot, and accused as the most impious of the Christians, and one who spoke disrespectfully of the gods. Probus having asked his name, and if he were a Christian, inquired of him what office he bore. “I am,” said Pollio, “the chief of the readers.” PROBUS. “Of what readers?” POLLIO. “Why, of those who read the word of God to the people.” PROBUS. “I suppose you mean by that name a set of men who find ways and means to impose on the credulity of fickle and silly women, and persuade them to observe chastity, and refrain from marriage.” POLLIO. “Those are the fickle and foolish who abandon their Creator to follow your superstitions; while our hearers are so steady in the profession of the truths they have imbibed from our lectures, that no torments prevail with them to transgress the precepts of the eternal King.” PROBUS. “Of what king, and of what precepts do you speak?” POLLIO. “I mean the holy precepts of the eternal King, Jesus Christ.” PROBUS. “What do those precepts teach?” POLLIO. “They inculcate the belief and adoration of one only God, who causeth thunder in the heavens; and they teach that what is made of wood or stone, deserves not to be called God. They correct sinners, animate and strengthen the good in virtue: teach virgins to attain to the perfection of their state, and the married to live up to the rules of conjugal chastity: they teach masters to command with mildness and moderation, slaves to submit with love and affection, subjects to obey all in power in all things that are just; in a word, they teach us to honor parents, requite our friends, forgive our enemies, exercise hospitality to strangers, assist the poor, to be just, kind, and charitable to all men; to believe a happy immortality prepared for those who despise the momentary death which you have power to inflict.” PROBUS. “Of what felicity is a man capable after death?” POLLIO. “There is no comparison between the happiness of this and the next life. The fleeting comforts of this mortal state deserve not the name of goods, when compared with the permanent joys of eternity.” PROBUS. “This is foreign to our purpose; let us come to the point of the edict.” POLLIO. “What is the purport of it?” PROBUS. “That you must sacrifice to the gods.” POLLIO. “Sacrifice I will not, let what will be the consequence; for it is written: He that shall sacrifice to devils, and not to God, shall be exterminated.” PROBUS. “Then you must resolve to die.” POLLIO. “My resolution is fixed: do what you are commanded.” Probus thereupon condemned him to be burnt alive; and the sentence was immediately executed, at the distance of a mile from the town. Thus the acts. He suffered on the 27th of April, in 304, the same day on which, according to the acts of Pollio, St. Eusebius, bishop of the same city, had suffered several years before, perhaps under Valerian.

APRIL 28 — ST. CRONAN, ABBOT OF ROSCREA

A Monastery which he founded in the county of Tipperary, in Ireland; which afterwards became a bishop’s see, long since united to that of Killaloe. St. Cronan died about the year 640, and was honored as titular saint of the church of Roscrea, which was possessed of his relics. See Usher’s Antiq., p. 502.

APRIL 28 — ST. PATRICIUS, BISHOP OF PRUSA, IN BITHYNIA, MARTYR

From his authentic acts in Ruinart. In the Chronicon of George Hamartolus, of which a MS. copy is extant in the Coislinian library at S. Germain-des Prez, in Paris, (Cod. 305,) is inserted fol. 200. Patricll Episcopi Prusæ responsio ad Judicem. See the acts of this holy martyr most accurately given by Mazochio, with five learned disquisitions on his see, age, &c., in the commentary which he published in Marmor Neapolitanum, seu Vetus Kalendarium SS. Neapolit. Ecclesiæ, t. 2, p. 301, ad 19 Maii.

THERE were anciently, in Bithynia, three cities known by the name of Prusa; that whereof St. Patricius was bishop, was famous for its hot baths, near which stood a temple wherein sacrifices were offered to Esculapius and to Health: the latter being adored as a goddess by the Romans, had a temple in Rome itself, as is mentioned by Livy.1 His acts give the following account of his martyrdom. Julius, proconsul of Bithynia, being at Prusa, after bathing in the hot baths and sacrificing to Esculapius and Health, found himself fresh, vigorous, and in good health, for which he imagined himself indebted to those divinities. With a view, therefore, to make a grateful return to these imaginary deities, he was determined to oblige Patricius to offer sacrifice to them. Wherefore, being seated on his tribunal, and having caused Patricius to be brought before him, he said to him: “You, who being led away by silly tales, are weak enough to invoke Christ, deny if you can the power of our gods, and their providential care over us, in granting us these mineral waters, endued by them with salutary virtues. I therefore insist on your sacrificing to Esculapius, as you hope to avoid being severely tormented for your non-compliance.” PATRICIUS. “How many wicked things are contained in the few words you have been uttering!” PROCONSUL. “What wickedness can you discover in my discourse, who have advanced nothing in it but what is plain matter of fact? Are not the daily cures, wrought by these waters, clear and manifest? Don’t we see and experience them?” Patricius did not deny the salutary virtues of the waters, nor the cures wrought by them upon human bodies, but endeavored to convince the governor, and a numerous audience, that these waters, and all other things, had received their being and perfections from the one only true God, and his Son Jesus Christ.* And while he was endeavoring to account for their heat and ebullition, from secondary causes, he was interrupted by the proconsul’s crying out: “You pretend, then, that Christ made these waters, and gave them their virtue?” PATRICIUS. “Yes; without all doubt he did.” PROCONSUL. “If I throw you into these waters to punish you for your contempt of the gods, do you imagine your Christ, whom you suppose the maker of them, will preserve your life in the midst of them?” PATRICIUS. “I do not contemn your gods, for no one can contemn what does not exist: I would have you convinced that Jesus Christ can preserve my life, when I am thrown into these waters, as easily as he can permit them to take it away: and that whatever relates to me, or is to befall me, is perfectly known to him, as he is present everywhere; for not a bird falls to the ground, nor a hair from our heads, but by his good will and pleasure. This I would have all look upon as an oracle of truth itself; and that an eternal punishment in hell awaits all such as, like you, adore idols.” These words so enraged the proconsul, that he commanded the holy bishop to be immediately stripped and cast into the scalding water. While they were throwing him in, he prayed thus: “Lord Jesus Christ, assist thy servant.” Several of the guards were scalded by the dashing of the water. But it had no such effect upon the martyr, who, like the three children in the Babylonian furnace, continued in it a considerable time without hurt, being affected no more by it than if it had been an agreeable temperate bath. The enraged proconsul ordered him thereupon to be taken out and beheaded. The martyr, having recommended his soul to God by a short prayer, knelt down, and had his head struck off pursuant to the sentence. The faithful that were present at the execution carried off his body, and gave it a decent interment near the high road. His martyrdom happened on the 19th of May. Thus his acts. It does not appear in what persecution he suffered. He is commemorated in the Greek Menæa on the 19th of May; in the Menology published by Canisius on the 28th of April and on the 19th of May, and in the Roman Martyrology on the 28th of April, probably the day of the translation of his relics. Both the Greek and Roman calendars join SS Acacius, Menander, and Polyænus, who were beheaded with him for the faith. Le Quien2 reckons St. Alexander, who is honored with the title of bishop of Prusa, and martyr on the 10th of June, in the Greek Menæa, the first bishop of that city whose name has reached us, and St. Patricius the second, George, who was present in the council of Nice, the third, and St. Timothy the fourth, who was crowned with martyrdom under Julian the Apostate, according to the several Greek calendars both in their Menæa, Menologies, and Synaxaries, which mention him on the 10th of June. Some name Constantinople as the chief place of his veneration. Perhaps he suffered in that city: at least his relies were preserved there in a famous church which bore his name: on which see Du Cange.3

APRIL 29 — ST. PETER, MARTYR

From his life, by Thomas of Leontino, a Dominican friar, who had resider long with him at Verona, and was afterwards patriarch of Jerusalem, &c., collected by Touron, in his life of St. Dominic, p. 480. See also the remarks of Papebroke, t. 3, Apr. p. 679.

A. D. 1252.

ST. PETER the martyr was born at Verona, in 1205, of parents infected with the heresy of the Cathari, a sort of Manichees, who had insensibly made their way into the northern parts of Italy during the quarrel between the emperor Frederick Barbarossa and the holy see.* God preserved him from the danger which attended his birth, of being infected with heretical sentiments. His father being desirous of giving him an early tincture of learning, sent him, while very young, to a Catholic schoolmaster; not questioning but by his own instruction afterwards, and by the child’s conversing with his heretical relations, he should be able to efface whatever impressions he might receive at school to the contrary. One of the first things he learned there was the apostle’s creed, which the Manichees held in abhorrence. His uncle one day, out of curiosity, asked him his lesson. The boy recited to him the creed, and explained it in the Catholic sense, especially in those words: Creator of heaven and earth. In vain did his uncle long endeavor to persuade him it was false, and that it was not God, but the evil principle that made all things that are visible; pretending many things in the world to be ugly and bad, which he thought inconsistent with the idea we ought to entertain of an infinitely perfect being. The resolute steadiness which the boy showed on the occasion, his uncle looked upon as a bad omen for their sect: but the father laughed at his fears, and sent Peter to the university of Bologna, in which city there then reigned a licentious corruption of manners among the youth. God, however, who had before protected him from heresy, preserved the purity of his heart and the innocence of his manners amidst these dangers. Nevertheless he continually deplored his melancholy situation, and fortified himself every day anew in the sovereign horror of sin, and in all precautions against it. To fly it more effectually, he addressed himself to St. Dominick, and though but fifteen years of age, received at his hands the habit of his order. But he soon lost that holy director, whom God called to glory. Peter continued with no less fervor to square his life by the maxims and spirit of his holy founder, and to practise his rule with the most scrupulous exactness and fidelity. He went beyond it even in those times of its primitive fervor. He was assiduous in prayer; his watchings and fasts were such, that even in his novitiate they considerably impaired his health; but a mitigation in them restored it before he made his solemn vows. When by them he had happily deprived himself of his liberty, to make the more perfect sacrifice of his life to God, he drew upon him the eyes of all his brethren by his profound humility, incessant prayer, exact silence, and general mortification of his senses and inclinations. He was a professed enemy of idleness, which he knew to be the bane of all virtues. Every hour of the day had its employment allotted to it; he being always either studying, reading, praying, serving the sick, of occupying himself in the most mean and abject offices, such as sweeping the house, &c., which, to entertain himself in sentiments of humility, he undertook with wonderful alacrity and satisfaction, even when he was senior in religion. But prayer was, as it were, the seasoning both of his sacred studies (in which he made great progress) and of all his other actions. The awakening dangers of salvation he had been exposed to, from which the divine mercy had delivered him in his childhood, served to make him always fearful, cautious, and watchful against the snares of his spiritual enemies. By this means, and by the most profound humility, he was so happy as, in the judgment of his superiors and directors, to have preserved his baptismal innocence unsullied to his death by the guilt of any mortal sin. Gratitude to his Redeemer for the graces he had received, a holy zeal for his honor, and a tender compassion for sinners, moved him to apply himself with great zeal and diligence to procure the conversion of souls to God. This was the subject of his daily tears and prayers; and for this end, after he was promoted to the holy order of priesthood, he entirely devoted himself to the function of preaching, for which his superiors found him excellently qualified by the gifts both of nature and grace. He converted an incredible number of heretics and sinners in the Romagna, the marquisate of Ancona, Tuscany, the Bolognese, and the Milanese. And it was by many tribulations, which befell him during the course of his ministry, that God prepared him for the crown of martyrdom. He was accused by some of his own brethren of admitting strangers, and even women, into his cell. He did not own the calumny, because this would have been a lie, but he defended himself, without positively denying it, and with trembling in such a manner as to be believed guilty, not of any thing criminal, but of a breach of his rule: and his superiors imposed on him a claustral punishment, banished him to the remote little Dominican convent of Jesi, in the marquisate of Ancona, and removed him from the office of preaching. Peter received this humiliation with great interior joy, on seeing himself suffer something in imitation of Him, who, being infinite sanctity, bore with patience and silence the most grievous slanders, afflictions, and torments for our sake. But after some months his innocence was cleared, and he was commanded to return and resume his former functions with honor. He appeared everywhere in the pulpits with greater zeal and success than ever, and his humility drew on his labors an increase of graces and benedictions. The fame of his public miracles attested in his life and of the numberless wonderful conversions wrought by him, procured him universal respect: as often as he appeared in public, he was almost pressed to death by the crowds that flocked to him, some to ask his blessing, others to offer the sick to him to be cured, others to receive his holy instructions. He declared war in all places against vice. In the Milanese he was met in every place with a cross, banner, trumpets, and drums; and was often carried on a litter on men’s shoulders, to pass the crowd. He was made superior of several houses of his order, and in the year 1232 was constituted by the pope inquisitor-general of the faith. He had ever been the terror of the new Manichee heretics, a sect whose principles and practice tended to the destruction of civil society and Christian morals. Now they saw him invested with this dignity, they conceived a greater hatred than ever against him. They bore it however under the popedom of Gregory IX., but seeing him continued in his office, and discharging it with still greater zeal under pope Innocent IV., they conspired his death, and hired two assassins to murder him in his return from Come to Milan. The ruffians lay in ambush for him on his road, and one of them Carinus by name, gave him two cuts on the head with an axe, and then stabbed his companion, called Dominic. Seeing Peter rise on his knees, and hearing him recommend himself to God by those words: Into thy hands, O Lord, I commend my soul, and recite the creed, he dispatched him by a wound in the side with his cuttle-axe, on the 6th of April, in 1252, the saint being forty-six years and some days old. His body was pompously buried in the Dominicans’ church dedicated to St. Eustorgius, in Milan, where it still rests: his head is kept apart in a case of crystal and gold. The heretics were confounded at his heroic death, and at the wonderful miracles God wrought at his shrine; and in great numbers desired to be admitted into the bosom of the Catholic church. Carinus, the murderer of the martyr, fled out of the territory of Milan to the city of Forli, where, being struck with remorse, he renounced his heresy, put on the habit of a lay-brother among the Dominicans, and persevered in penance to the edification of many. St. Peter was canonized the year after his death by Innocent IV., who appointed his festival to be kept on the 29th of April. The history of miracles, performed by his relies and intercession, fills twenty-two pages in folio in the Acta Sanctorum, by the Bollandists, Apr. t. 3, p. 697 to 719.

Our divine Redeemer was pleased to represent himself to us, both for a model to all who should exercise the pastoral charge in his church, and for the encouragement of sinners, under the figure of the good shepherd, who, having sought and found his lost sheep, with joy carried it back to the fold on his shoulders. The primitive Christians were so delighted with this emblem of his tender love and mercy, that they engraved the figure of the good shepherd, loaded with the lost sheep on his shoulders, on the sacred chalices which they used for the holy mysteries or at mass, as we learn from Tertullian.1 This figure is found frequently represented in the tombs of the primitive Christians in the ancient Christian cemeteries at Rome.2 All pastors of souls ought to have continually before their eyes this example of the good shepherd and prince of pastors. The aumusses, or furs, which most canons, both secular and regular, wear, are a remnant of the skins or furs worn by many primitive pastors for their garments. They wore them not only as badges of a penitential life, in imitation of those saints in the Old Law who wandered about in poverty, clad with skins, as St. Paul describes them,3 and of St. Antony and many other primitive Christian anchorets, but chiefly to put them in mind of their obligation of imitating the great pastor of souls in seeking the lost sheep, and carrying it back on his shoulders: also of putting on his meekness, humility, and obedience, represented under his adorable title of Lamb of God, and that of sheep devoted to be immolated by death. Every Christian in conforming himself spiritually to this divine model, must study daily to die more and more to himself and to the world. In the disposition of his soul, he must also be ready to make the sacrifice of his life.

APRIL 29 — ST. ROBERT, ABBOT OF MOLESME, FOUNDER OF THE CISTERCIANS

From his life by Guy, abbot of Molesme, his immediate successor, and other monuments collected in the History of Religious Orders, t. 5. p. 341. M. Stevens, Monas. t. 2. p. 22. See also Le Nain, t. 1, p. 1 Hist. Littér. de la France, t. 10, pp. 1, 11; Gallia Christ. Nov. t. 4, pp. 729, 730.

A. D. 1110.

ST. ROBERT was born in Champagne, about the year 1018. His parents, Theodoric and Ermegarde, were no less noble than virtuous, and brought him up in learning and piety. At the age of fifteen, he became a Benedictin monk in the abbey of Montier-la-celle, where he made such progress in perfection, that, though he was the youngest in that house, he was chosen prior, and some time after made abbot of St. Michael de Tonnerre. But not finding the monks of this place disposed to second his good intentions and labors to establish regular discipline among them, but rather of a refractory temper and obstinate behavior, he left them on the following occasion. There dwelt at that time in a neighboring desert called Colan, certain anchorets, who, not having any regular superior over them, besought him to undertake that office. After several impediments he complied with their request, and was received by them as another Moses to conduct them through the desert of this world to the heavenly Canaan. Colan being unhealthily situated, Robert removed them thence into the forest of Molesme, where they built themselves little cells made of boughs of trees, and a small oratory in honor of the Holy Trinity, in 1075. The poverty of those religious, and the severity of their lives being known, several persons of quality in the neighborhood, stirred up by the example of the bishop of Troyes, vied with one another in supplying them with necessaries, which introduced by degrees such a plenty as occasioned them to fall into great relaxation and tepidity,* insomuch, that the holy Robert, having tried in vain all means to reduce them to the regular observance of their profession, thought proper to leave them, and retired to a desert called Hauz, where certain religious men lived in great simplicity and fervor. Among these he worked for his subsistence, and employed as much of his time as possible in prayer and meditation. These religions men, seeing his edifying life, chose him for their abbot. But the monks of Molesme, finding they had not prospered since his absence, obtained of the pope and the bishop of Langres an order for his return to Molesme, on their promising that Robert should find them perfectly submissive to his directions. He accordingly came back. But as their desire of his return was only grounded on temporal views, it produced no change in their conduct after the first year. Some of them, however, seeing their lives were not conformable to St. Bennet’s rule, which was daily read in their chapter, were desirous of a reformation, which the rest ridiculed. Yet the more zealous, seeing that it was impossible faithfully to comply with their duties in the company of those who would not be re formed, recommended the matter to God by ardent prayers, and then re paired to Robert, begging his leave to retire to some solitary place, where they might be able to perform what they had undertaken, and were engaged by vow to practise.1 St. Robert promised to bear them company, and went with six of the most fervent of these monks to Lyons, to the archbishop Hugh, legate of the holy see, who granted them letters patent to that effect; wherein he not only advised, but even enjoined them to leave Molesme, and to persist in their holy resolution of living up to the rigor of the rule of St. Bennet. Returning to Molesme, they were joined by the rest that were zealous, and, being twenty-one in number, went and settled in a place called Cistercium, or Citeaux, an uninhabited forest covered with woods and brambles, watered by a little river, at five leagues distance from Dijon, in the diocese of Challons. Here these religious men began to grub up the shrubs and roots, and built themselves cells of wood, with the consent of Walter, bishop of Challons, and of Renaud, viscount of Beaune, lords of the territory. They settled there on St. Bennet’s day, the 21st of March, in 1098. From this epoch is dated the origin of the Cistercian order. The archbishop of Lyons, being persuaded that they could not subsist there without the assistance of some powerful persons, wrote in their favor to Eudo, duke of Burgundy. That prince, at his own cost, finished the building of the monastery they had begun, furnished them for a long time with all necessaries, and gave them much land and cattle. The bishop of Challons invested Robert with the dignity of abbot, erecting that new monastery into an abbey.* The first rule established by St. Robert, at Citeaux, allotted the monks four hours every night for sleep, and four for singing the divine praises in the choir: four hours were assigned on working days for manual lasor in the morning, after which the monks read till None: their diet was roots and herbs.2

The year following, 1099, the monks of Molesme sent deputies to Rome to solicit an order for their abbot St. Robert’s return to Molesme, alleging that religious observance had suffered greatly by his absence; and that on his presence both the prosperity of their house, and the security of their souls depended; assuring his Holiness that they would use their best endeavors to give him no further reason to complain of them. Urban II. therefore wrote to the archbishop of Lyons, to procure St. Robert’s return to Molesme, if it could be conveniently compassed. The legate sent his orders to that effect, and Robert immediately obeyed, remitting his pastoral staff for Citeaux to the bishop of Challons, who absolved him from the promise of obedience he had made him. He was installed anew by the bishop of Langres, abbot of Molesme, which he governed till his happy death, which happened not in 1100, as Manriquez imagined, but in 1110; for in that year he reconciled together two abbots, who had chosen him umpire in a quarre1.3 The ancient chronicle of Molesme says that St. Robert was born in 1018, and died in 1110: consequently he lived ninety-two or ninety-three years, and survived St. Alberic, who died in 1109. Upon proof of many miracles wrought at his tomb, pope Honorius III, enrolled his name among the saints. Martenne has published the information of several of these miracles taken by an order of that pope.4 Mention is made of this his canonization by Manriquez,5 the Younger Pagi,6 and Benedict XIV.7

APRIL 29 — ST. HUGH, ABBOT OF CLUNI, C

He was a prince related to the sovereign house of the dukes of Burgundy and had his education under the tuition of his pious mother, and under the care of Hugh, bishop of Auxerre, his great uncle. From his infancy he was exceedingly given to prayer and meditation, and his life was remarkably innocent and holy. The world he always looked upon as a tempestuous sea, worked up by the storms of human passions, and concealing rocks and shelves everywhere under its boisterous waves. In obedience to the will of his father, he learned the exercises of fencing and riding. But one day hearing an account of the wonderful sanctity of the monks of Cluni, under St. Odilo, he was so moved, that he set out that moment, and going thither, humbly begged the monastic habit. After a rigid novitiate, he made his profession in 1039, being sixteen years old. His extraordinary virtue, especially his admirable humility, obedience, charity, sweetness, prudence, and zeal, gained him the respect of the whole community; and, upon the death of St. Odilo, in 1049, though only twenty-five years old, he succeeded to the government of that great abbey, which he held sixty-two years. He received to the religious profession Hugh, duke of Burgundy, and died on the 29th of April, in 1109, aged eighty-five.* He was canonized twelve years after his death by pope Calixtus II. See his life written in the same age, by Hildebert, bishop of Mans, afterwards archbishop of Tours, among his works published by Dom. Beaugendre, in 1705, also in Papebroke, 29 Apr. pp. 628 and 658. See likewise Ceillier, t. 21, p. 353; Mabi1.1. 71 Annal. Bened. and t. 9, Actor.

APRIL 29 — ST. FIACHNA, C

Was a native of Desies, in Munster, a monk of Lismore, and disciple of St. Carthagh the younger, in 630. By the most perfect spirit of obedience he laid the foundation of a most sublime gift of prayer and all virtue. He is titular saint of the parish of Kill-Fiachna, in the diocese of Ardfert. See Engus in Chron, and Colgan, MSS. ad 29 Apr.

APRIL 30 — ST. CATHARINE OF SIENNA, VIRGIN

From her life by Raymund of Capua, her confessor, afterwards general of the Dominicans; also by Stephen, prior of the Carthusians, near Pavia, who had intimately known the saint, and from other contemporary authors. Likewise Divæ Catharinæ Senensis Vita per Joan. Pinum, Tolosanum, Bononiæ, 4to, 1505. See her history judiciously and elegantly compiled by F. Touron, t. 2, a writer justly extolled in the Journal de Scavants, and honored with great encomiums by pope Benedict XIV. Her life by her confessor, containing things omitted in other editions, is printed in Italian at Florence, in 1477, 4to., in a Gothic character; yet this is a translation from the Latin: also another printed at Sienna, in 1524, 4to. See also Papebroke’s Remarks, Apr. t. 3, p. 851.

A. D. 1380.

ST. CATHARINE was born at Sienna, in 1347. Her father, James Benincasa, by trade a dyer, was a virtuous man; and though blessed with temporal prosperity, always chiefly solicitous to leave to his children a solid inheritance of virtue, by his example, and by deeply instilling into them lessons of piety. Her mother, Lapa, had a particular affection for this daughter above her other children; and the accomplishments of mind and body with which she was adorned made her the darling and delight of all that knew her, and procured her the name of Euphrosyna. She was favored by God with extraordinary graces as soon as she was capable of knowing him. She withdrew very young to a solitude a little out of the town, to imitate the lives of the fathers of the desert. Returning after some time to her father’s house, she continued to be guided by the same spirit. In her childhood she consecrated her virginity to God by a private vow. Her love of mortification and prayer, and her sentiments of virtue, were such as are not usually found in so tender an age. But God was pleased to put her resolution to a great trial. At twelve years of age, her parents thought of engaging her in a married state. Catharine found them deaf to her entreaties that she might live single; and therefore redoubled her prayers, watching, and austerities, knowing her protection must be from God alone. Her parents, regarding her inclination to solitude as unsuitable to the life for which they designed her, endeavored to divert her from it, and began to thwart her devotions, depriving her in this view of the little chamber or cell they had till then allowed her. They loaded her with the most distracting employments, and laid on her all the drudgery of the house, as if she had been a person hired into the family for that purpose. The hardest labor, humiliations, contempt, and the insults of her sisters, were to the saint a subject of joy; and such was her ardent love of crosses, that she embraced them in all shapes with a holy eagerness, and received all railleries with an admirable sweetness and heroic patience. If any thing grieved her, it was the loss of her dear solitude. But the Holy Ghost, that interior faithful master, to whom she listened, taught her to make herself another solitude in her heart; where, amidst all her occupations, she considered herself always as alone with God; to whose presence she kept herself no less attentive than if she had no exterior employment to distract her. In that admirable Treatise of God’s Providence, which she wrote, she saith, “That our Lord had taught her to build in her soul a private closet, strongly vaulted with the divine providence, and to keep herself always close and retired there; he assured her that by this means she should find peace and perpetual repose in her soul, which no storm or tribulation could disturb or interrupt.” Her sisters and other friends persuaded her to join with them in the diversions of the world, alleging, that virtue is not an enemy to neatness in dress, or to cheerfulness; under which soft names they endeavored to recommend the dangerous liberties of worldly pastimes and vanities. Catharine was accordingly prevailed upon by her sister to dress in a manner something more genteel; but she soon repented of her compliance, and wept for it during the remainder of her life, as the greatest infidelity she had ever been guilty of to her heavenly spouse. The death of her eldest sister, Bonaventura, soon after confirmed her in those sentiments. Her father, edified at her patience and virtue, at length approved and seconded her devotion, and all her pious desires. She liberally assisted the poor, served the sick, and comforted the afflicted and prisoners. Her chief subsistence was on boiled herbs, without either sauce or bread, which last she seldom tasted. She wore a very rough hair-cloth, and a large iron girdle armed with sharp points, lay on the ground, and watched much. Humility, obedience, and a denial of her own will, even in her penitential austerities, gave them their true value. She began this course of life when under fifteen years of age. She was moreover visited with many painful distempers, which she underwent with incredible patience; she had also suffered much from the use of hot baths prescribed her by physicians. Amidst her pains, it was her constant prayer that they might serve for the expiation of her offences, and the purifying her heart. She long desired, and in 1365, the eighteenth year of her age, (but two years later, according to some writers,) she received the habit of the third order of St. Dominic, in a nunnery contiguous to the Dominicans’ convent. From that time her cell became her paradise, prayer her element, and her mortifications had no longer any restraint. For three years she never spoke to any one but to God and her confessor. Her days and nights were employed in the delightful exercises of contemplation: the fruits whereof were supernatural lights, a most ardent love of God, and zeal for the conversion of sinners. The old serpent, seeing her angelical life, set all his engines at work to assault her virtue. He first filled her imagination with the most filthy representations, and assailed her heart with the basest and most humbling temptations. Afterwards, he spread in her soul such a cloud and darkness that it was the severest trial imaginable. She saw herself a hundred times on the brink of the precipice, but was always supported by an invisible hand. Her arms were fervent prayer, humility, resignation, and confidence in God. By these she persevered victorious, and was at last delivered from those trials which had only served to purify her heart. Our Saviour visiting her after this bitter conflict, she said to him: “Where wast thou, my divine Spouse, while I lay in such an abandoned, frightful condition.” “I was with thee,” he seemed to reply. “What!” said she, “amidst the filthy abominations with which my soul was infested!” He answered: “They were displeasing and most painful to thee. This conflict therefore was thy merit, and the victory over them was owing to my presence.” Her ghostly enemy also solicited her to pride, omitting neither violence nor stratagem to seduce her into this vice; but invincible humility was a buckler to cover her from all his fiery darts. God recompensed her charity to the poor by many miracles, often multiplying provisions in her hands, and enabling her to carry loads of corn, oil, and other necessaries to the poor, which her natural strength could not otherwise have borne. The greatest miracle seemed her patience in bearing the murmurs, and even the reproaches, of these ungrateful and importunate people. Catharine dressed, and served an old woman named Tocca, infected to that degree with a leprosy, that the magistrates had ordered her to be removed out of the city, and separated from all others. This poor wretch nevertheless made no other return to the tender charity of the saint, but continual bitter complaints and reproaches: which, instead of wearying out her constancy, only moved the saint to show her still greater marks of sweetness and humility. Another, whose infectious cancer the saint for a long time sucked and dressed, published against her the most infamous calumnies; in which she was seconded by a sister of the convent. Catharine bore in silence the violent persecution they brought upon her, and continued her affectionate services till, by her patience and prayers, she had obtained of God the conversion of both these enemies, which was followed by a retraction of their slanders.

The ardent charity of this holy virgin made her indefatigable in laboring for the conversion of sinners, offering for that end continual tears, prayers, fasts, and other austerities, and thinking nothing difficult or above her strength. All her discourses, actions, and her very silence, powerfully induced men to the love of virtue, so that no one, according to pope Pius II., ever approached her who went not away better. Nannes, a powerful turbulent citizen, being brought to our saint to be reclaimed, all she could say to him to bring him to a right sense of his duty was of no effect; upon which she made a sudden pause in her discourse, to offer up her prayers for him: they were heard that very instant, and an entire change was wrought in the man, to which his tears and other tokens bore evidence. He accordingly reconciled himself to all his enemies, and embraced a most penitential life. When he afterwards fell into many temporal calamities, the saint rejoiced at his spiritual advantage under them, saying, God purged his heart from the poison with which it was infected by its inveterate attachment to creatures Nannes gave to the saint a stately house which he possessed within two miles of the city. This, by the pope’s authority, she converted into a nunnery. We omit the miraculous conversion of James Tholomei and his sisters, of Nicholas Tuldo, and many others; particularly of two famous assassins going to die with blasphemies in their mouths, and in transports of rage and despair, who were suddenly converted in their last moments, on the saint’s praying for them, confessed their crimes to a priest with great signs of repentance, and appeared thoroughly resigned to the punishment about to be inflicted on them. A pestilence laying waste the country in 1374, Catharine devoted herself to serve the infected, and obtained of God the cure of several; amongst others, of two holy Dominicans, Raymund of Capua, and Bartholomew of Sienna. The most hardened sinners could not withstand the force of her exhortations to a change of life. Thousands flocked from places at a distance in the country to hear or only to see her, and were brought over by her words or example to the true dispositions of sincere repentance. She undertook a journey to Monte Pulciano to consecrate to God two of her nieces, who there took the religious veil of Saint Dominic: and another journey to Pisa, by order of her superiors, at the earnest suit of the citizens. She there restored health to many in body, but to a far greater number in soul. Raymund of Capua and two other Dominicans were commissioned by pope Gregory XI., then residing at Avignon, to hear the confessions at Sienna, of those who were induced by the saint to enter upon a change of life; these priests were occupied, day and night, in hearing the confessions of many who had never confessed before; besides those of others who had acquitted themselves but superficially of that duty. While she was at Pisa, in 1375, the people of Florence and Perugia, with a great part of Tuscany, and even of the Ecclesiastical State, entered into a league against the holy see. The news of this disturbance was delivered to Catharine by Raymund of Capua, and her heart was pierced with the most bitter sorrow on account of those evils, which she had foretold three years before they came to their height. The two furious factions of the Guelphs and Ghibellines, who had so disturbed and divided the state of Florence, then a powerful commonwealth, united at last against the pope, to strip the holy see of the lands it possessed in Italy. The disturbance was begun in June, 1373, and a numerous army was set on foot: the word Libertas, written on the banner of the league, was the signal. Perugia, Bologna, Viterbo, Ancona, and other strongholds, soon declared for them. The inhabitants of Arezzo, Lucca, Sienna, and other places, were kept within the bounds of duty by the prayers, letters, and exhortations of St. Catharine, and generously contemned the threats of the Florentines. Pope Gregory XI., residing at Avignon, wrote to the city of Florence, but without success. He therefore sent the cardinal Robert of Geneva, his legate, with an army, and laid the diocese of Florence under an interdict. Internal divisions, murders, and all other domestic miseries amongst the Florentines, joined with the conspiracy of the neighboring states, concurred to open their eyes, and made them sue for pardon. The magistrates sent to Sienna to beg St. Catharine would become their mediatrix. She could not resist their pressing entreaties. Before she arrived at Florence, she was met by the priors or chiefs of the magistrates; and the city left the management of the whole affair to her discretion, with a promise that she should be followed to Avignon by their ambassadors, who should sign and ratify the conditions of reconciliation between the parties at variance, and confirm every thing she had done. The saint arrived at Avignon on the 18th of June, 1376, and was received by the pope and cardinals with great marks of distinction. His holiness, after a conference with her, in admiration of her prudence and sanctity, said to her: “I desire nothing but peace. I put the affair entirely into your hands; only I recommend to you the honor of the church.” But the Florentines sought not peace sincerely, and they continued to carry on secret intrigues to draw all Italy from its obedience to the holy see. Their ambassadors arrived very late at Avignon, and spoke with so great insolence, that they showed peace was far from being the subject of their errand. God suffered the conclusion of this work to be deferred in punishment of the sins of the Florentines, by which means St. Catharine sanctified herself still more by suffering longer amidst a seditious people.

The saint had another point no less at heart in her journey to Avignon. Pope John XXII., a Frenchman, born at Cahors, bishop, first of Frejus, then of Avignon, lastly of Porto, being made pope in 1314, fixed his residence at Avignon, where John’s successors, Benedict XII., Clement VI., Innocent VI., and Urban V., also resided. The then pope Gregory XI., elected in 1370, continued also there. The Romans complained that their bishops had for seventy-four years past forsaken their church, and threatened a schism. Gregory XI. had made a secret vow to return to Rome; but not finding this design agreeable to his court, he consulted the holy virgin on this subject, who answered: “Fulfil what you have promised to God.” The pope, surprised she should know by revelation what he had never discovered to any person on earth, was immediately determined to carry his good design into execution. The saint soon after left Avignon. We have several letters written by her to him, to press him to hasten his return; and he shortly after followed her, leaving Avignon on the 13th of September, in 1376. He overtook the saint at Genoa, where she made a short stay. At Sienna, she continued her former way of life, serving and often curing the sick, converting the most obstinate sinners, and reconciling the most inveterate enemies, more still by her prayers than by her words. Such was her knowledge of heavenly things, that certain Italian doctors, out of envy, and with the intent to expose her ignorance, being come to hold a conference with her, departed in confusion and admiration at her interior lights. The same had happened at Avignon, some time before, where three prelates, envying her credit with the pope, put to her the most intricate questions on an interior life, and many other subjects; but admiring her answers to all their difficulties, confessed to the pope they had never seen a soul so enlightened, and so profoundly humble as Catharine. She had many disciples: among others, Stephen, son of Conrad, a senator of Sienna. This nobleman was reduced by enemies to the last extremity. Seeing himself on the brink of ruin, he addressed himself to the saint, who, having first made a thorough convert of him from the world and its vanities, by her prayers miraculously, on a sudden, pacified all his persecutors, and calmed their fury. Stephen, from that time, looked upon as dust all that he had formerly most passionately loved and pursued; and he testified of himself, that by her presence, and much more by her zealous discourses, he always found the divine love vehemently kindled in his breast, and his contempt of all earthly things increased. He became the most fervent among her disciples, made a collection of all her words as oracles, would be her secretary to write her letters, and her companion in her journeys to Avignon, Florence, and Rome; and at length, by her advice, professed himself a Carthusian monk. He assisted at her death, and wrote her life at the request of several princes having been witness of her great miracles and virtues, and having experienced often in himself her spirit of prophecy, her knowledge of the consciences of others, and her extraordinary light in spiritual things.

St. Catharine wrote to pope Gregory XI., at Rome, strongly exhorting him to contribute by all means possible to the general peace of Italy. His holiness commissioned her to go to Florence, still divided and obstinate in its disobedience. She lived some time in that factious place, amidst daily murders and confiscations, in frequent dangers of her own life many ways; in which she always showed herself most undaunted, even when swords were drawn against her. At length she overcame that obstinate people, and brought them to submission, obedience, and peace, though not under Gregory XI., as Baillet mistakes, but his successor, Urban VI., as her contemporary historian informs us. This memorable reconciliation was effected in 1378; after which Catharine hastened to her solitary abode at Sienna, where her occupation, and, we may say, her very nourishment, was holy prayer: in which intercourse with the Almighty, he discovered to her very wonderful mysteries, and bestowed on her a spirit which delivered the truths of salvation in a manner that astonished her hearers. Some of her discourses were collected, and compose the treatise On Providence, under her name. Her whole life seemed one continual miracle; but what the servants of God admired most in her, was the perpetual strict union of her soul with God. For, though obliged often to converse with different persons on so many different affairs, and transact business of the greatest moment, she was always occupied on God, and absorbed in him. For many years she had accustomed herself to so rigorous an abstinence, that the blessed eucharist might be said to be almost the only nourishment which supported her. Once she fasted from Ash-Wednesday till Ascension-day, receiving only the blessed eucharist during that whole time. Many treated her as a hypocrite, and invented all manner of calumnies against her; but she rejoiced at humiliations, and gloried in the cross of Christ as much as she dreaded and abhorred praise and applause. In a vision, our Saviour is said one day to have presented her with two crowns, one of gold and the other of thorns, bidding her choose which of the two she pleased. She answered: “I desire, O Lord, to live here always conformed to your passion, and to find pain and suffering my repose and delight.” Then eagerly taking up the crown of thorns, she forcibly pressed it upon her head. The earnest desire and love of humiliations and crosses was nourished in her soul by assiduous meditation on the sufferings of our divine Redeemer. What, above all things, pierced her heart was scandal, chiefly that of the unhappy great schism which followed the death of Gregory XI. in 1378, when Urban VI. was chosen at Rome, and acknowledged there by all the cardinals, though his election was in the beginning overawed by the Roman people, who demanded an Italian pope. Urban’s harsh and austere temper alienated from him the affections of the cardinals, several of whom withdrew; and having declared the late election null, chose Clement VII., with whom they retired out of Italy, and resided at Avignon. Our saint, not content to spend herself in floods of tears, weeping before God for these evils of his church, wrote the strongest and most pathetic letters to those cardinals who had first acknowledged Urban, and afterwards elected another; pressing them to return to their lawful pastor, and acknowledge Urban’s title. She wrote also to several countries and princes in his favor, and to Urban himself, exhorting him to bear up cheerfully under the troubles he found himself involved in, and to abate somewhat of a temper that had made him so many enemies, and mollify that rigidness of disposition which had driven the world from him, and still kept a very considerable part of Christendom from acknowledging him. The pope listened to her, sent for her to Rome, followed her directions, and designed to send her, with St. Catharine of Sweden, to Joan, queen of Sicily, who had sided with Clement. Our saint grieved to see this occasion of martyrdom snatched from her, when the journey was laid aside on account of the dangers that were foreseen to attend it. She wrote however to queen Joan: likewise two letters full of holy fire to the king of France, also to the king of Hungary, and others, to exhort them to renounce the schism.

We pass over the ecstasies and other wonderful favors this virgin received from heaven, and the innumerable miracles God wrought by her means. She has left us, besides the example of her life, six Treatises in form of a dialogue, a Discourse on the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin, and three hundred and sixty-four Letters, which show that she had a superior genius, and wrote perfectly well. While she was laboring to extend the obedience of the true pope, Urban VI., her infirmities and pains increasing, she died at Rome on the 29th of April, in 1380, being thirty-three years old. She was buried in the church of the Minerva, where her body is still kept under an altar. Her skull is in the Dominicans’ church at Sienna, in which city are shown her house, her instruments of penance, and other relics. She was canonized by pope Pius II. in 1461. Urban VIII. transferred her festival to the 30th of this month.

When we read the lives of the saints, and consider the wonderful graces with which God enriched them, we admire their happiness in being so highly favored by him, and say to ourselves that their labors and sufferings bore no proportion to the sweetness of heavenly peace and love with which their souls were replenished, and the spiritual joy and consolations which were a present superabundant recompense and support. But it was in the victory over their passions, in the fervor of their charity, and in the perfection of their humility, patience, and meekness, that their virtue and their happiness chiefly consisted. Nor are we to imagine that God raised them to these sublime graces without their assiduous application to the practice both of exterior and interior mortification, especially of the latter. Self-denial prepared them for this state of perfect virtue, and supported them in it. What pity is it to hear persons talk of sublime virtue, and to see them pretend to aspire after it, without having studied in earnest to die to themselves. With out this condition, all their fine discourses are mere speculation, and their endeavors fruitless.

APRIL 30 — ST. MAXIMUS, MARTYR

From his original acts in Surius, Baronius, Henschenius, Ruinart, Fleury, Tillemont &c.

A. D. 251.

MAXIMUS was an inhabitant of Asia, and a merchant by profession. De eius having formed an impious but vain design of extirpating the Christian religion, published edicts over the whole empire to enforce idolatry, commanding all to adore idols. Maximus having openly declared himself a Christian, he was immediately apprehended and brought before Optimus, the proconsul of Asia, who, after asking him his name, inquired also after his condition. He replied: “I am born free, but am the slave of Jesus Christ.” PROCONSUL. “What is your profession?” MAXIMUS. “I am a plebeian, and live by my dealings.” PROCONSUL. “Are you a Christian?” MAXIMUS. “Yes, I am, though a sinner.” PROCONSUL. “Have not you been informed of the edicts that are lately arrived?” MAXIMUS. “What edicts, and what are their contents?” PROCONSUL. “That all the Christians forsake their superstition, acknowledge the true prince whom all obey, and adore his gods.” MAXIMUS. “I have been told of that impious edict, and it is the occasion of my appearing abroad.” PROCONSUL. “As then you are apprized of the edicts, sacrifice to the gods.” MAXIMUS. “I sacrifice to none but that God to whom alone I have sacrificed from my youth, the remembrance of which affords me great comfort.” PROCONSUL. “Sacrifice. as you value your life: if you refuse to obey, you shall expire in torments.” MAXIMUS. “This has ever been the object of my desires: it was on this very account that I appeared in public, to have an opportunity offered me of being speedily delivered out of this miserable life, to possess that which is eternal.” Then the proconsul commanded him to be bastinadoed, and in the mean time said to him, “Sacrifice, Maximus, and thou shalt be no longer tormented.” MAXIMUS. “Sufferings for the name of Christ are not torments, but comfortable unctions:* but if I depart from his precepts contained in the gospel, then real and eternal torments would be my portion.” The proconsul then ordered him to be stretched on the rack, and while he was tortured, said to him, “Renounce, wretch, thy obstinate folly, and sacrifice to save thy life.” MAXIMUS. “I shall save it if I do not sacrifice; I shall lose it if I do. Neither your clubs, nor your iron hooks, nor your fire, give me any pain, because the grace of Jesus Christ dwelleth in me, which will deliver me out of your hands to put me in possession of the happiness of the saints, who have already, in this same conflict, triumphed over your cruelty.† It is by their prayers I obtain this courage and strength which you see in me.” The preconsul then pronounced this sentence on him: “I command that Maximus, for refusing to obey the sacred edicts, be stoned to death, to serve for an example of terror to all Christians.” Saint Maximus was immediately seized by the executioners and carried without the city walls, where they stoned him on the 14th of May. Thus his acts. The Greeks honor him on the day of his death: the Roman Martyrology on the 30th of April. He suffered in 250 or 251.

APRIL 30 — ST. SOPHIA, V. M

She suffered for the faith in the third age, at Firmo, in Italy, where her festival is kept on the 30th of April with great devotion. Her head is shown in a rich case in the cathedral. See Ughelli, (in Episc. Firmanis,) who places her martyrdom under Decius: also Ferrarius, in Catal. Sanctor. Ital. and the Roman Martyrology.

APRIL 30 — SS. JAMES, MARIAN, AND COMPANIONS, MARTYRS IN NUMIDIA

From their authentic acts, written by a bishop, their companion, and commended by St. Austin, Serm. 284, t. 5, p. 1140.

A. D. 259.

THE persecution of Valerian raged nowhere with so much cruelty as in Numidia, in 259. At Lambesa, the greatest city of the province, next to Cirtha, great numbers, both of the laity and clergy, suffered martyrdom. St. James was a deacon of that place, and remarkable for his singular chastity and austerity of life. St. Marian was only reader, but endued with a particular eminence of grace. He had an excellent mother, called Mary, as we learn from St. Austin. They were companions, and probably relations, and came from some remote province of Africa into Numidia. James received on the road a vision, that gave them previous notice of their martyrdom. They arrived at a place called Muguas, near Cirtha, the capital, where the persecution was very violent. Two bishops, named Agapius and Secundinus, who had been banished for their faith, were at the same time brought thither, from the place of their exile, to stand a second trial for their lives. This was a new and unprecedented injustice, practised only against Christians, for persons already condemned to banishment to be again tried and condemned to death. As they were detained here for some days, James and Marian enjoyed their conversation, which excited them to an eager desire of martyrdom: insomuch that, when the two bishops left Muguas to continue their journey, James and Marian were fully determined to follow them. Two days after their departure, pursuivants arrived at Muguas, which was looked upon as the retreat of Christians, and by an order from the governor, apprehended James and Marian, and conducted them to Cirtha, together with a bishop, the author of the acts of their martyrdom, and presented them to the city magistrates, who put them to the most cruel tortures. James confessed boldly that he was not only a Christian, but also a deacon; though the law of Valerian, in 258, condemned to death, without hopes of pardon, even though they should deny their faith, all deacons, priests, and bishops. They were both put to the torture; and Marian in particular was hung up, not by the hands, which was the usual method of torture, but by his thumbs, which was far more painful, weights being also hung to his feet. Amidst his torments, the more his body suffered, the more was his soul strengthened by God. The martyrs having undergone the torture as long as the persecutors thought proper, were sent to prison, with several other Christians. Some were daily called out of this blessed company and crowned with martyrdom; and among others, the two holy bishops, Agapius and Secundinus, honored on the 29th of April. The survivors passed some time in the darkness and honor of the dungeons of Cirtha tormented also with hunger; but the word of God, say the acts, was a spiritual food that supported them. God was pleased, moreover, to comfort them in their prison, by a vision vouchsafed to Marian, to whom St. Cyprian appeared sitting at the right hand of a great judge, who was Christ, and presenting Marian to drink of a fountain of which that holy bishop had first drunk himself: giving Marian thereby to understand that he was also to suffer martyrdom. God gave an assurance of the same favor to this whole company of prisoners, by a second vision, with which he favored another of these confessors, called Emilian, of the Equestrian Order, near fifty years old, who had lived till that age in strict continency. His occupation in prison was chiefly prayer. He fasted much, and often abstained from food by choice for two days successively. He acquainted this blessed company with what he had also seen in his vision; namely, that his heathen brother asked him how they liked the dark dungeons and hunger. He answered, that the word of God served both for light and nourishment to the soldiers of Jesus Christ. His brother said: “You know that as many of you as continue obstinate can expect nothing but death. But do you all hope for equal rewards?” Emilian* said: “Lift up your eyes to heaven: have all the stars you see there the same lustre? Don’t they differ in brightness, though they have all the same light? Those in like manner who shall have suffered most, and have had the greatest difficulties to struggle with, shall receive the most glorious crown.” All these visions contributed not a little to keep up the spirits of the Christian prisoners. The magistrates of Cirtha, seeing the confessors invincible, sent James, Marian, and a great part of the prisoners to Lambesa, to the governor of the province. They suffered much on the way, it being twenty-four miles distant from Cirtha, and the roads very rough. They were lodged in the dungeons of Lambesa, and every day some were called out to martyrdom; the laity first, whom the pagans hoped more easily to vanquish. Among them a woman and her two little children, twins, were martyred on the 2d or 3d of May. Also Tertulla and Antonia, two holy virgins, whom St. Agapius had a singular regard for. He prayed long in prison that they might not be deprived of the glory of shedding their blood for Christ, and at length received from heaven this answer: “You need not ask by so many prayers what you have obtained by the first.” St. James and the other clergy were grieved to see their victory retarded; but it was not long before he saw in his sleep the bishop Agapius preparing a great feast, and expressing much joy, and cheerfully inviting him and Marian to it, as to one of the ancient Agapæ, or love-feasts. Here they met an infant who was one of the twins that had suffered with their mother three days before. He had round his neck a crown of roses, and a very green palm in his right hand; and he bade them rejoice, for they should all sup together the day following, the same on which James, Marian, and several others of the clergy were condemned to die. They were accordingly brought to the place of execution, which was a valley, through which ran the river Pagydus, with hills on each side convenient for the spectators. The martyrs were placed in rows on the banks of the river, that the executioner might pass conveniently from one to the other in cutting off their heads. While they had their eyes bound, they had most of them some token given them by God of their approaching felicity. Marian also foretold the wars, and other evils which threatened the empire in revenge of the innocent blood of the just This was verified,—the persecuting emperor Valerian being taken and most barbarously treated by the Persians, in 260; not to mention the thirty tyrants, a dreadful pestilence, and other calamities which afflicted the empire. Mary, the mother of this blessed martyr, like the mother of the Maccabees says St. Austin, followed her son to the place of execution to encourage him: on seeing him dead, she embraced his corpse, and oftentimes kissed his neck, and blessed God for having made her the mother of such a son. Their triumph happened in 259, or 260, probably on the 6th of May, on which the ancient calendar of Carthage, drawn up in the close of the fifth century, mentions them. The other Latins honor them on the 30th of April. SS. James and Marian are patrons of Eugubio, in the duchy of Urbino, the ancient Umbria, and their bodies are said to be kept in the cathedral there The names of these martyrs are consecrated in the Roman Martyrology.

APRIL 30 — ST. ERKONWALD, BISHOP OF LONDON, C

He was a prince of the royal blood, son of Annas, the holy king of the East-Angles, or, as some say, of a certain prince named Offa. The better to disengage himself from the ties and encumbrances of the world, he forsook his own country, and retired into the kingdom of the East-Saxons, where he employed his large estate in founding two great monasteries, one at Chertsey, in Surrey, near the Thames,* the other for nuns, at Barking, in Essex;† of this latter he appointed his sister, Edilburga, abbess. The former he, governed with great sanctity, till he was forced out of his dear solitude by king Sebba, in 675, and consecrated bishop of London by St. Theodorus. He much augmented the buildings and revenues of St. Paul’s, and obtained for that church great privileges from the king. Dugdale, in his history of that cathedral, proves that it had originally been a temple of Diana, from many heads of oxen dug up when the east part of it was rebuilt, and from the structure of the chambers of Diana, near that place. Bede bears witness that God honored St. Erkonwald with a great gift of miracles, and that his horse-litter, or chips cut off from it, cured distempers to his own time: and his sanctity has been most renowned through all succeeding ages. He sat eleven years, according to his old epitaph, which Mr. Weever has preserved.1 His tomb, in the cathedral of St. Paul’s, was famous for frequent miracles, as is mentioned by Bede, Malmesbury, &c. His body was removed from the middle of the church, by a solemn translation, on the 14th of November, in 1148,2 and deposited above the high altar, on the east wall. Dugdale3 describes the riches and numerous oblations which adorned his shrine, and laments4 that they had lately seen the destruction of this magnificent church, which was the glory of our nation; the monuments of so many famous men torn to pieces, and their bones and dust pulled out of their graves. In which barbarous search the body of the holy king Sebba was found embalmed with perfumes, and clothed with rich robes: also several bishops in their proper habits. But, says that diligent author, I could never hear that they found more than a ring or two with rubies, and a chalice of no great value. He adds: Under part of the choir was the subterraneous parish church of St. Faith, called S. Fides in Cryptis. At the change of religion, the body of St. Erkonwald disappeared, in 1533, says Weever.5 F. Jerom Porter, in his lives of the English saints, testifies, that it was then buried at the upper end of the choir, near the wall. No mention is made of it in any accounts since the new fabric was erected. See Wharton, Hist. Episcoporum Londin. p. 16, and Maitland, Hist. of London, b. 2, p. 486; also the notes of Papebroke upon the life of St. Erkonwald in Capgrave, Apr. t. 3, p. 780, and Leland, Collect. t. 1, pp. 22 and 23.

APRIL 30 — SAINT AJUTRE, OR ADJOUTR, C. RECLUSE, AT VERNON IN NORMANDY

He was a Norman gentleman, who, upon motives of holy zeal and piety, followed the Christian standards in the holy war in the East. Being taken by the Saracens, he suffered great hardships and torments, nothing being able to shake his constancy in the confession of his faith, and in the exercises of his religious duties. Having recovered his liberty, he returned home, where, having consecrated himself and his estate to God, he led an anchoretical life at Vernon upon the Seine, in the assiduous practices of penance and fervent prayer. He consummated his sacrifice by a happy death on the 30th of April, in 1131, and is commemorated on this day in the new accurate Martyrology of Evreux, and in the calendars of many other churches in Normandy.