From their genuine acts published from the Chaldaic by Monsignor Steph. Assemani. Act. Mart. Occid. t. 2. p. 60. See also Henschenius on this day.
A.D. 284.
THESE seven martyrs were citizens of Corinth, and confessed their faith before Tertius the proconsul, in their own country, in 249, in the beginning of the reign of Decius. After their torments they passed into Egypt, whether by compulsion or by voluntary banishment is not known, and there finished their martyrdom at Diospolis, capital of Thebais, in the reign of Numerian, in 284, under the governor Sabinus. After the governor had tried the constancy of the martyrs by racks, scourges, and various inventions of cruelty, he caused Victorinus to be thrown into a great mortar, (the Greek Menology says, of marble.) The executioners began by pounding his feet and legs, saying to him at every stroke: "Spare yourself, wretch. It depends upon you to escape this death, if you will only renounce your new God." The prefect grew furious at his constancy, and at length commanded his head to be beat to pieces. The sight of this mortar, so far from casting a damp on his companions, seemed to inspire them with the greater ardor to be treated in the like manner. So that when the tyrant threatened Victor with the same death, he only desired him to hasten the execution; and, pointing to the mortar, said: "In that is salvation and true felicity prepared for me!" He was immediately cast into it and beaten to death. Nicephorus, the third martyr, was impatient of delay, and leaped of his own accord into the bloody mortar. The judge, enraged at his boldness, commanded not one, but many executioners at once to pound him in the same manner. He caused Claudian, the fourth, to be chopped in pieces, and his bleeding joints to be thrown at the feet of those that were yet living. He expired after his feet, hands, arms, legs, and thighs were cut off. The tyrant, pointing to his mangled limbs and scattered bones, said to the other three: "It concerns you to avoid this punishment; I do not compel you to suffer." The martyrs answered with one voice: "On the contrary, we rather pray that if you have any other more exquisite torment you would inflict it on us. We are determined never to violate the fidelity which we owe to God, or to deny Jesus Christ our Saviour, for he is our God, from whom we have our being, and to whom alone we aspire." The tyrant became almost distracted with fury, and commanded Diodorus to be burned alive, Serapion to be beheaded, and Papias to be drowned. This happened on the 25th of February; on which day the Roman and other western Martyrologies name them; but the Greek Menaea, and the Menology of the emperor Basil Porphyrogenitus, honor them on the 21st of January, the day of their confession at Corinth.
{469}
ST. WALBURGE,[1] V. ABBESS.
SHE was daughter to the holy king St. Richard, and sister to SS. Willibald and Winebald; was born in the kingdom of the West-Saxons in England, and educated in the monastery of Winburn in Dorsetshire, where she took the religious veil. After having passed twenty-seven years in this holy nunnery, she was sent by the abbess Tetta, under the conduct of St. Lioba, with several others, into Germany, at the request of her cousin, St. Boniface.[2] Her first settlement in that country was under St. Lioba, in the monastery of Bischofsheim, in the diocese of Mentz. Two years after she was appointed abbess of a nunnery founded by her two brothers, at Heidenheim in Suabia, (now subject to the duke of Wirtemberg,) where her brother, St. Winebald, took upon him at the same time the government of an abbey of monks. This town is situated in the diocese of Aichstadt, in Franconia, upon the borders of Bavaria, of which St. Willibald, our saint's other brother, had been consecrated bishop by St. Boniface. So eminent was the spirit of evangelical charity, meekness, and piety, which all the words and actions of St. Walburge breathed, and so remarkable was the fruit which her zeal and example produced in others, that when St. Winebald died, in 760, she was charged with a superintendency also over the abbey of monks till her death. St. Willibald caused the remains of their brother Winebald to be removed to Aichstadt, sixteen years after his death; at which ceremony St. Walburge assisted. Two years after she passed herself to eternal rest; on the 25th of February, in 779, having lived twenty-five years at Heidenheim. Her relics were translated, in the year 870, to Aichstadt, on the 21st of September, and the principal part still remains there in the church anciently called of the Holy Cross, but since that time of St. Walburge. A considerable portion is venerated with singular devotion at Furnes, where, by the pious zeal of Baldwin, surnamed of Iron, it was received on the 25th of April, and enshrined on the 1st of May, on which day her chief festival is placed in the Belgic Martyrologies, imitated by Baronius in the Roman. From Furnes certain small parts have been distributed in several other towns in the Low Countries, especially at Antwerp, Brussels, Tiel, Arnhem, Groningue, and Zutphen; also Cologne, Wirtemberg, Ausberg, Christ Church at Canterbury, and other places, were enriched with particles of this treasure from Aichstadt. St. Walburge is titular saint of many other great churches in Germany, Brabant, Flanders, and several provinces of France, especially in Poitou, Perche, Normandy, Burgundy, Lorraine, Alsace, &c. Her festival, on account of various translations of her relics, is marked on several days of the year, but the principal is kept in most places on the day of her death. A portion of her relics was preserved in a rich shrine in the repository of relics in the electoral palace of Hanover, as appears from the catalogue printed in folio at Hanover in 1713. See her life written by Wolfhard, a devout priest of Aichstadt, in the following century, about the year {470} 890, again by Adelbold, nineteenth bishop of Utrecht, (of which diocese Heda calls her patroness;) thirdly, by an anonymous author; fourthly, by the poet Medibard; fifthly, by Philip, bishop of Aichstadt; sixthly, by an anonymous author, at the request of the nuns of St. Walburge of Aichstadt. All these six lives are published by Henschenius. See also Raderus, in Bavaria Sancta, t. 3, p. 4. Gretser, de Sanctis Eystettensibus, &c.
Footnotes:
1. This saint is corruptly called, in Perche, St. Gauburge, in Normandy
and Champagne, St. Vaubourg, about Luzon, St. Falbourg, in ether
parts of Poitou, St. Avougourg, in Germany, Walburge, Waltpurde,
Walpourc, and in some places Warpurg. Her English-Saxon name
Walburge, is the same with the Greek Eucharia, and signifies
gracious. See Camden's Remains.
2. St. Boniface being sensible of how great importance it is for the
public advantage of the church, and the general advancement of the
kingdom of Christ in the souls of men, called over from England into
Germany many holy nuns whom he judged best qualified to instruct and
train up others in the maxims and spirit of the Gospel. Among these
he placed St. Tecla in the monastery of Kitzingen, founded by
Alheide, daughter of king Pepin; St. Lioba was appointed by him
abbess at Bischofsheim; St. Cunihilt, aunt of St. Lulius, and her
daughter Berathgit, called also Bergitis, were mistresses of
religious schools in Thuringia, and were honored in that country
among the saints. Cunihildls is also called Gunthildis and
Bilhildis. See Thuringia Sacra, printed at Frankfort, an. 1737.
SAINT CAESARIUS, C.
HE was a physician, and brother to St. Gregory Nazianzen. When the latter repaired to Caesarea, in Palestine, where the sacred studies flourished, Caesarius went to Alexandria, and with incredible success ran through the circle of the sciences, among which oratory, philosophy, and especially medicine, fixed his attention. In this last he became the first man of his age. He perfected himself in this profession at Constantinople, but excused himself from settling there, as the city and the emperor Constantius earnestly requested him to do. He was afterwards recalled thither, singularly honored by Julian the Apostate, nominated his first physician, and excepted in several edicts which that prince published against the Christians. He resisted strenuously the insinuating discourses and artifices with which that prince endeavored to seduce him, and was prevailed upon by the remonstrances of his father and brother to resign his places at court, and prefer a retreat, whatever solicitations Julian could use to detain him. Jovian honorably restored him, and Valens, moreover, created him treasurer of his own private purse, and of Bithynia. A narrow escape in an earthquake at Nice, in Bithynia, in 368, worked so powerfully on his mind, that he renounced the world, and died shortly after, in the beginning of the year 369, leaving the poor his heirs. The Greeks honor his memory on the 9th of March, as Nicephorus testifies, (Hist. l. 11, c. 19,) and as appears from the Menaea: in the Roman Martyrology he is named on the 25th of February.
FEBRUARY XXVI.
ST. ALEXANDER, CONFESSOR,
PATRIARCH OF ALEXANDRIA.
From Theodoret, St. Athanasius, &c. See Hennant, Tillemont, t. 6, pp. 213, 240. Ceillier, t. 4.
A.D. 326.
ST. ALEXANDER succeeded St. Achillas in the see of Alexandria, in 313. He was a man of apostolic doctrine and life, mild, affable, exceeding charitable to the poor, and full of faith, zeal, and fervor. He assumed to the sacred ministry chiefly those who had first sanctified themselves in holy solitude, and was happy in the choice of bishops throughout all Egypt. The devil, enraged to see the havoc made in his usurped empire over mankind, by the disrepute idolatry was generally fallen into, used his utmost endeavors to repair the loss to his infernal kingdom, by procuring the establishment of a most impious heresy. Arius, a priest of Alexandria, was his {471} principal instrument for that purpose. This heresiarch was well versed in profane literature, was a subtle dialectician, had an exterior show of virtue, and an insinuating behavior; but was a monster of pride, vain-glory, ambition, envy, and jealousy. Under an affected modesty he concealed a soul full of deceit, and capable of all crimes. He joined Meletius, the bishop of Lycopolis, in the beginning of his schism against St. Peter, our saint's predecessor, in 300; but quitting that party after some time, St. Peter was so well satisfied of the sincerity of his repentance, that he ordained him deacon. Soon after Arius discovered his turbulent spirit, in accusing his archbishop, and raising disturbances in favor of the Meletians. This obliged St. Peter to excommunicate him, nor could he ever be induced to revoke that sentence. But his successor, St. Achillas, upon his repentance, admitted him to his communion, ordained him priest, and made him curate of the church of Baucales, one of the quarters of Alexandria. Giving way to spite and envy, on seeing St. Alexander preferred before him to the see of Alexandria,[1] he became his mortal enemy: and as the saint's life and conduct were irreproachable, all his endeavors to oppose him were levelled at his doctrine, in opposition to which the heresiarch denied the divinity of Christ. This error he at first taught only in private; but having, about the year 319, gained followers to support him, he boldly advanced his blasphemies in his sermons, affirming, with Ebion, Artemas, and Theodotus, that Christ was not truly God; adding, what no heretic had before asserted in such a manner, that the Son was a creature, and made out of nothing; that there was a time when he did not exist, and that he was capable of sinning, with other such impieties. St. Athanasius informs us,[2] that he also held that Christ had no other soul than his created divinity, or spiritual substance, made before the world: consequently, that it truly suffered on the cross, descended into hell, and rose again from the dead. Arius engaged in his errors two other curates of the city, a great many virgins, twelve deacons, seven priests, and two bishops.
One Colluthus, another curate of Alexandria, and many others, declaimed loudly against these blasphemies. The heretics were called Arians, and these called the Catholics Colluthians. St. Alexander, who was one of the mildest of men, first made use of soft and gentle methods to recover Arius to the truth, and endeavored to gain him by sweetness and exhortations. Several were offended at his lenity, and Colluthus carried his resentment so far as to commence a schism; but this was soon at an end, and the author of it returned to the Catholic communion. But St. Alexander, finding Arius's party increase, and all his endeavors to reclaim him ineffectual, he summoned him to appear in an assembly of his clergy, where, being found obstinate and incorrigible, he was excommunicated, together with his adherents. This sentence of excommunication the saint confirmed soon after, about the end of the year 320, in a council at Alexandria, at the head of near one hundred bishops, at which Arius was also present, who, repeating his former blasphemies, and adding still more horrible ones was unanimously condemned by the synod, which loaded him and all his followers with anathemas. Arius lay hid for some time after this in Alexandria, but being discovered, went into Palestine, and found means to gain over to his party Eusebius, bishop of Caesarea, also Theognis of Nice, and Eusebius of Nicomedia, which last was, of all others, his most declared protector, and had great authority with the emperor Constantine, who resided even at Nicomedia, or rather with his sister Constantia. Yet it is clear, from Constantine himself, that he was a wicked, proud, ambitious, intriguing man. {472} It is no wonder, after his other crimes, that he became an heresiarch, and that he should have an ascendant over many weak, but well-meaning men, on account of his high credit and reputation at court. After several letters that had passed between these two serpents, Arius retired to him at Nicomedia, and there composed his Thalia, a poem stuffed with his own praises, and his impious heresies.
Alexander wrote to the pope, St. Sylvester, and, in a circular letter, to the other bishops of the church, giving them an account of Arius's heresy and condemnation. Arius, Eusebius, and many others, wrote to our saint, begging that he would take off his censures. The emperor Constantine also exhorted him by letter to a reconciliation with Arius, and sent it by the great Osius to Alexandria, with express orders to procure information of the state of the affair. The deputy returned to the emperor better informed of the heresiarch's impiety and malice, and the zeal, virtue, and prudence of St. Alexander: and having given him a just and faithful account of the matter, convinced him of the necessity of a general council, as the only remedy adequate to the growing evil, and capable of restoring peace to the church. St. Alexander had already sent him the same advice in several letters.[3] That prince, accordingly, by letters of respect, invited the bishops to Nice, in Bithynia, and defrayed their expenses. They assembled in the imperial palace of Nice, on the 19th of June, in 325, being three hundred and eighteen in number, the most illustrious prelates of the church, among whom were many glorious confessors of the faith. The principal were our saint, St. Eustathius, patriarch of Antioch, St. Macarius of Jerusalem, Cecilian, archbishop of Carthage, St. Paphnutius, St. Potamon, St. Paul of Neocesarea, St. James of Nisibis, &c. St. Sylvester could not come in person, by reason of his great age; but he sent his legates, who presided in his name.[4] The emperor Constantine entered the council without guards, nor would he sit till he was desired by the bishops, says Eusebius.[5] Theodoret says,[6] that he asked the bishops' leave before he would enter.
The blasphemies of Arius, who was himself present, were canvassed for several days. Marcellus of Ancyra, and St. Athanasius, whom St. Alexander had brought with him, and whom he treated with the greatest esteem, discovered all the impiety they contained, and confuted the Arians with invincible strength. The heretics, fearing the indignation of the council, used a great deal of dissimulation in admitting the Catholic terms. The fathers, to exclude all their subtleties, declared the Son consubstantial to the {473} Father, which they inserted in the profession of their faith, called the Nicene creed, which was drawn up by Osius, and to which all subscribed, except a small number of Arians. At first they were seventeen, but Eusebius of Caesarea received the creed the day following, as did all the others except five, namely, Eusebius of Nicomedia, Theognis of Nice, Marie of Chalcedon, Theonas and Secundus of Lybia, the two bishops who had first joined Arius. Of these also Eusebius, Marie, and Theognis conformed through fear of banishment. The Arian historian Philostorgius[7] pretends to excuse his heroes, Eusebius of Nicomedia and Theognis, by saying they inserted an iota, and signed[8] like in substance, instead of of the same substance;[9] a fraud in religion which would no way have excused their hypocrisy. Arius, Theonas, and Secundus, with some Egyptian priests, were banished by the order of Constantine, and Illyricum was the place of their exile. The council received Meletius and his schismatical adherents upon their repentance; but they afterwards relapsed into their schism, and part of them joined the Arians. The council added twenty canons of discipline, and was closed about the 25th of August.[10] Constantine gave all the prelates a magnificent entertainment, and dismissed them with great presents to their respective sees. St. Alexander, after this triumph of the faith, returned to Alexandria; where, after having recommended St. Athanasius for his successor, he died in 326, on the 26th of February, on which day he is mentioned in the Roman Martyrology.
* * * * *
A true disciple of Christ, by a sincere spirit of humility and distrust in himself, is, as it were, naturally inclined to submission to all authority appointed by God, in which he finds his peace, security, and joy. This happy disposition of his soul is his secure fence against the illusions of self-sufficiency and blind pride, which easily betrays men into the most fatal errors. On the contrary, pride is a spirit of revolt and independence: he who is possessed with this devil is fond of his own conceits, self-confident, and obstinate. However strong the daylight of evidence may be in itself, such a one will endeavor to shut up all the avenues of light, though some beams force themselves into his soul to disturb his repose, and strike deep the sting of remorse: jealousy and a love of opposition foster the disorder, and render it incurable. This is the true portraiture of Arius, and other heresiarchs and firebrands of the universe. Can we sufficiently detest jealousy and pride, the fatal source of so great evils? Do we not discover, by fatal symptoms, that we ourselves harbor this monster in our breasts? Should the eye be jealous that the ear hears, and disturb the functions of this or the other senses, instead of regarding them as its own and enjoying their mutual advantage and comfort, what confusion would ensue!
Footnotes:
1. Theodoret, l. 1, c. {}. Socrates, l. 1, c. 5.
2. L. de Adv. Chr., p. 635.
3. Rufinus (l. 1, Hist. c. 1) says, that the council was assembled by
the advice of the priests. Ex sacerdotum sententia. And the third
council of Constantinople attributes convocation to St. Sylvester as
much as to the emperor. Constantinus et Sylvester magnam in Nicea
synodum congregabant. Conc. Constantinopolitanum tertium, Act. 18,
p. 1049, t. 6. Conc.
4. This is acknowledged by the oriental bishops, assembled at
Constantinople, in 552, (t. 5, Conc. pp. 337, 338.) The legates were
Vito, or Victor, and Vincent, two Roman priests, to whom the pope
joined Osius, bishop of Cordova, as being the most renowned prelate
of the West, and highly esteemed by the emperor. Ipse etiam Osius ex
Hispanis nominis et famae celebritate insignis, qui Sylvestri
episcoli maximae Romae locum obtinebat, una cum Romanis presbyteris
Vitone et Vincentio adfuit; says Gelasius of Cyzicus. (Hist. Conc.
Nicen. l. 2, c. 5, t. 2. Conc, p. 155.) The same is affirmed by pope
Adrian, (t. 6, Conc. p. 1810.) In all the editions of this council,
Osius with the two priests. Vito and Vincent, is first named among
the subscribers. Socrates also names them first, and before the
patriarchs. Osius Episc. Cordubae, ita credo, ut sup. dictum est.
Vito et Vincentius presbyteri urbis Romae. Egypti Alexander Episc.
Antiochiae Eustathius, &c. (Socr. l. 1, c.13.) It is then false what
Blondel (de la primante de l'Eglise, p. 1195) pretends, that St.
Eustathius of Antioch presided. He is indeed called, by Facundus,
(l. 8, c. 1, & l. 11, c. 1.) the first of the council; and by
Nicephorus, (Chronol. p. 146,) the chief of the bishops, because he
was the first among the orientals; for St. Alexander of Egypt was
certainly before him in rank. Theodoret (l. 1, c. 6) says, he sat
the first on the right hand in the assembly. And it appears from
Eusebius, that the pope's legates and the patriarch of Alexandria
sat at the head on the left side. This might be the more honorable
on several accounts, as being on the right to those that came in. It
is certain that the pope's legate presided in the council of
Chalcedon where they, in the same manner, sat first on the left
above the patriarch of Alexandria, and the patriarch of Antioch was
placed on the right.
5. L. 3. de vit. Constant. c. 10.
6. L. 1, c. 7.
7. L. 1, c. 9.
8. [Greek: Homoiusios].
9. [Greek: Homousious].
10. The Arabic canons are falsely ascribed to the Nicene council, being
collected out of other ancient synods.
ST. PORPHYRIUS, BISHOP OF GAZA, CONFESSOR
From his life, written with great accuracy by his faithful disciple Mark. See Fleury, t. 5. Tillemont, t. 10. Chatelain, p. 777. In the king's library at Paris is a Greek MS. life Of St. Porphyrius, (abridged from that of Mark,) which has never been translated.
A.D. 420.
PORPHYRIUS, a native of Thessalonica in Macedonia, was of a noble and wealthy family. The desire of renouncing the world made him leave his {474} friends and country at twenty-five years of age, in 378, to pass into Egypt, where he consecrated himself to God in a famous monastery in the desert of Scete. After five years spent there in the penitential exercises of a monastic life, he went into Palestine to visit the holy places of Jerusalem. After this he took up his abode in a cave near the Jordan, where he passed other five years in great austerity, till he fell sick, when a complication of disorders obliged him to leave that place and return to Jerusalem. There he never failed daily to visit devoutly all the holy places, leaning on a staff, for he was too weak to stand upright. It happened about the same time that Mark, an Asiatic, and the author of his life, came to Jerusalem with the same intent, where he made some stay. He was much edified at the devotion with which Porphyrius continually visited the place of our Lord's resurrection, and the other oratories. And seeing him one day labor with great pain in getting up the stairs in the chapel built by Constantine, he ran to him to offer him his assistance, which Porphyrius refused, saying: "It is not just that I who am come hither to beg pardon for my sins, should be eased by any one: rather let me undergo some labor and inconvenience that God, beholding it, may have compassion on me." He, in this condition, never omitted his usual visits of piety to the holy places, and daily partook of the mystical table, that is, of the holy sacrament. And as to his distemper, so much did he contemn it, that he seemed to be sick in another's body and not in his own. His confidence in God always supported him. The only thing which afflicted him was, that his fortune had not been sold before this for the use of the poor. This he commissioned Mark to do for him, who accordingly set out for Thessalonica, and in three months' time returned to Jerusalem with money and effects to the value of four thousand five hundred pieces of gold. When the blessed man saw him, he embraced him with tears of joy for his safe and speedy return. But Porphyrius was now so well recovered, that Mark scarce knew him to be the same person; for his body had no signs of its former decay, and his face looked full, fresh, and painted with a healthy red. He, perceiving his friend's amazement at his healthy looks, said to him with a smile, "Be not surprised, Mark, to see me in perfect health and strength, but admire the unspeakable goodness of Christ, who can easily cure what is despaired of by men." Mark asked him by what means he had recovered. He replied: "Forty days ago, being in extreme pain, I made a shift to reach Mount Calvary, where, fainting away, I fell into a kind of trance or ecstasy, during which I seemed to see our Saviour on the cross, and the good thief in the same condition near him. I said to Christ, Lord, Remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom: whereupon he ordered the thief to come to my assistance, who, raising me off the ground on which I lay, bade me go to Christ. I ran to him, and he, coming off his cross, said to me: Take this wood (meaning his cross) into thy custody. In obedience to him, methought I laid it on my shoulders, and carried it some way. I awaked soon after, and have been free from pain ever since, and without the least appearance of my having ever ailed any thing." Mark was so edified with the holy man's discourse and good example, that he became more penetrated with esteem and affection for him than ever, which made him desirous of living always with him in order to his own improvement; for he seemed to have attained to a perfect mastery over all his passions: he was endued at the same time with a divine prudence, an eminent spirit of prayer, and the gift of tears. Being also well versed in the holy scriptures and spiritual knowledge, and no stranger to profane learning, he confounded all the infidels and heretics who attempted to dispute with him. As to the money and effects which Mark had brought him, he distributed all among the necessitous in Palestine and Egypt, so {475} that, in a very short time, he had reduced himself to the necessity of laboring for his daily food. He therefore learned to make shoes and dress leather, while Mark, being well skilled in writing, got a handsome livelihood by copying books, and to spare. He therefore desired the saint to partake of his earnings. But Porphyrius replied, in the words of St. Paul: He that doth not work let him not eat. He led this laborious and penitential life till he was forty years of age, when the bishop of Jerusalem ordained him priest, though much against his will, and committed to him the keeping of the holy cross: this was in 393. The saint changed nothing in his austere penitential life, feeding only upon roots and the coarsest bread, and not eating till after sunset, except on Sundays and holidays, when he ate at noon, and added a little oil and cheese: and on account of a great weakness of stomach, he mingled a very small quantity of wine in the water he drank. This was his method of living till his death. Being elected bishop of Gaza, in 396, John, the metropolitan and archbishop of Caesarea, wrote to the patriarch of Jerusalem to desire him to send over Porphyrius, that he might consult him on certain difficult passages of scripture. He was sent accordingly, but charged to be back in seven days. Porphyrius, receiving this order, seemed at first disturbed, but said: "God's will be done." That evening he called Mark, and said to him: "Brother Mark, let us go and venerate the holy places and the sacred cross, for it will be long before we shall do it again." Mark asked him why he said so. He answered: Our Saviour had appeared to him the night before, and said: "Give up the treasure of the cross which you have in custody, for I will marry you to a wife, poor indeed and despicable, but of great piety and virtue. Take care to adorn her well; for, however contemptible she may appear, she is my sister." "This," said he, "Christ signified to me last night: and I fear, in consequence, my being charged with the sins of others, while I labor to expiate my own; but the will of God must be obeyed." When they had venerated the holy places and the sacred cross, and Porphyrius had prayed long before it, and with many tears, he shut up the cross in its golden case, and delivered the keys to the bishop; and having obtained his blessing, he and his disciple Mark set out the next day, with three others, among whom was one Barochas, a person whom the saint had found lying in the street almost dead, and had taken care of, cured, and instructed; who ever after served him with Mark. They arrived the next day, which was Saturday, at Caesarea. The archbishop obliged them to sup with him. After spiritual discourses they took a little sleep, and then rose to assist at the night service. Next morning the archbishop bid the Gazaeans lay hold on St. Porphyrius, and, while they held him, ordained him bishop. The holy man wept bitterly, and was inconsolable for being promoted to a dignity he judged himself so unfit for. The Gazaeans, however, performed their part in endeavoring to comfort him, and, having assisted at the Sunday office, and stayed one day more at Caesarea, they set out for Gaza, lay at Diospolis, and, late on Wednesday night, arrived at Gaza, much harassed and fatigued. For the heathens living in the villages near Gaza, having notice of their coming, had so damaged the roads in several places, and clogged them with thorns and logs of wood, that they were scarce passable. They also contrived to raise such a smoke and stench, that the holy men were in danger of being blinded or suffocated.
There happened that year a very great drought, which the pagans ascribed to the coming of the new Christian bishop, saying that their god Marnas had foretold that Porphyrius would bring public calamities and disasters on their city. In Gaza stood a famous temple of that idol, which the emperor Theodosius the Elder had commanded to be shut up, but not demolished, {476} on account of its beautiful structure. The governor afterwards had permitted the heathens to open it again. As no rain fell the two first months after St. Porphyrius's arrival, the idolaters, in great affliction, assembled in this temple to offer sacrifices, and make supplications to their god Marnas, whom they called the Lord of rains. These they repeated for seven days, going also to a place of prayer out of the town; but seeing all their endeavors ineffectual, they lost all hopes of a supply of what they so much wanted. A dearth ensuing, the Christians, to the number of two hundred and eighty, women and children included, after a day's fast, and watching the following night in prayer, by the order of their holy bishop, went out in procession to St. Timothy's church, in which lay the relics of the holy martyr St. Meuris, and of the confessor St. Thees, singing hymns of divine praise. But at their return to the city they found the gates shut against them, which the heathens refused to open. In this situation the Christians, and St. Porphyrius above the rest, addressed almighty God with redoubled fervor for the blessing so much wanted; when in a short time, the clouds gathering, as at the prayers of Elias, there fell such a quantity of rain that the heathens opened their gates, and, joining them, cried out "Christ alone is God: He alone has overcome." They accompanied the Christians to the church to thank God for the benefit received, which was attended with the conversion of one hundred and seventy-six persons, whom the saint instructed, baptized, and confirmed, as he did one hundred and five more before the end of that year. The miraculous preservation of the life of a pagan woman in labor, who had been despaired of, occasioned the conversion of that family and others, to the number of sixty-four.
The heathens, perceiving their number decrease, grew very troublesome to the Christians, whom they excluded from commerce and all public offices, and injured them all manner of ways. St. Porphyrius, to screen himself and his flock from their outrages and vexations, had recourse to the emperor's protection. On this errand he sent Mark, his disciple, to Constantinople, and went afterwards himself in company with John, his metropolitan, archbishop of Caesarea. Here they applied themselves to St. John Chrysostom, who joyfully received them, and recommended them to the eunuch Amantius, who had great credit with the empress, and was a zealous servant of God. Amantius having introduced them to the empress, she received them with great distinction, assured them of her protection, and begged their prayers for her safe delivery, a favor she received a few days after. She desired them in another visit to sign her and her newborn son, Theodosius the Younger, with the sign of the cross, which they did. The young prince was baptized with great solemnity, and on that occasion the empress obtained from the emperor all that the bishops had requested, and in particular that the temples of Gaza should be demolished; an imperial edict being drawn up for this purpose and delivered to Cynegius, a virtuous patrician, and one full of zeal, to see it executed. They stayed at Constantinople during the feast of Easter, and at their departure the emperor and empress bestowed on them great presents. When they landed in Palestine, near Gaza, the Christians came out to meet them with a cross carried before them, singing hymns. In the place called Tetramphodos, or Four-ways-end, stood a marble statue of Venus, on a marble altar, which was in great reputation for giving oracles to young women about the choice of husbands, but had often grossly deceived them, engaging them to most unhappy marriages; so that many heathens detested its lying impostures. As the two bishops, with the procession of the Christians, and the cross borne before them, passed through that square, this idol fell down of itself, and was {477} broken to pieces: whereupon thirty-two men and seven women were converted.
Ten days after arrived Cynegius, having with him a consular man and a duke, or general, with a strong guard of soldiers, besides the civil magistrates of the country. He assembled the citizens and read to them the emperor's edict, commanding their idols and temples to be destroyed, which was accordingly executed, and no less than eight public temples in the city were burnt; namely, those of the Sun, Venus, Apollo, Proserpine, Hecate, the Hierion, or of the priests, Tycheon, or of Fortune, and Marnion of Marnas, their Jupiter. The Marnion, in which men had been often sacrificed, burned for many days. After this, the private houses and courts were all searched; the idols were everywhere burned or thrown into the common sewers, and all books of magic and superstition were cast into the flames. Many idolaters desired baptism; but the saint took a long time to make trial of them, and to prepare them for that sacrament by daily instructions. On the spot where the temple of Marnas had stood, was built the church of Eudoxia in the figure of a cross. She sent for this purpose precious pillars and rich marble from Constantinople. Of the marble taken out of the Marnion, St. Porphyrius made steps and a road to the church, that it might be trampled upon by men, dogs, swine, and other beasts, whence many heathens would never walk thereon. Before he would suffer the church to be begun, he proclaimed a fast, and the next morning, being attended by his clergy and all the Christians in the city, they went in a body to the place from the church Irene, singing the Venite exultemus Domino, and other psalms, and answering to every verse Alleluia, Barochas carrying a cross before them. They all set to work, carrying stones and other materials, and digging the foundations according to the plan marked out and directed by Rufinus, a celebrated architect, singing psalms and saying prayers during their work. It was begun in 403, when thirty high pillars arrived from Constantinople, two of which, called Carostiae, shone like emeralds when placed in the church. It was five years a building, and when finished in 408, the holy bishop performed the consecration of it on Easter-Day with the greatest pomp and solemnity. His alms to the poor on that occasion seemed boundless, though they were always exceeding great. The good bishop spent the remainder of his life in the zealous discharge of all pastoral duties; and though he lived to see the city clear for the most part of the remains of paganism, superstition, and idolatry, he had always enough to suffer from such as continued obstinate in their errors. Falling sick, he made his pious will, in which he recommended all his dear flock to God. He died in 420, being about sixty years of age, on the 26th of February, on which day both the Greeks and Latins make mention of him. The pious author of his life concludes it, saying: "He is now in the paradise of delight, interceding for us with all the saints, by whose prayers may God have mercy on us."
ST. VICTOR, OR VITTRE, OF ARCIES, OR ARCIS,
IN CHAMPAGNE, ANCHORET AND CONFESSOR, IN THE SEVENTH AGE.
HE was of noble parentage in the diocese of Troyes in Champagne educated under strict discipline in learning and piety, and a saint from his cradle. In his youth, prayer, fasting, and alms-deeds were his chief delight, and, embracing an ecclesiastical state, he took orders; but the love of heavenly contemplation being always the prevalent inclination in his soul he {478} preferred close retirement to the mixed life of the care of souls. In this choice the Holy Ghost was his director, for he lived in continual union with God by prayer and contemplation, and seemed raised above the condition of this mortal life, and almost as if he lived without a body. God glorified him by many miracles; but the greatest seems to have been the powerful example of his life. We have two pious panegyrics made upon this saint by St. Bernard, who says:[1] "Now placed in heaven, he beholds God clearly revealed to him, swallowed up in joy, but not forgetting us. It is not a land of oblivion in which Victor dwells. Heaven doth not harden or straiten hearts, but it maketh them more tender and compassionate it doth not distract minds, nor alienate them from us: it doth not diminish, but it increaseth affection and charity: it augmenteth bowels of pity. The angels, although they behold the face of their Father, visit, run, and continually assist us; and shall they now forget us who were once among us, and who once suffered themselves what they see us at present laboring under? No: I know the just expect me till thou renderest to me my reward.[2] Victor is not like that cupbearer of Pharaoh, who could forget his fellow-captive. He hath not so put on the stole of glory himself, as to lay aside his pity, or the remembrance of our misery." St. Victor died at Saturniac, now called Saint-Vittre, two leagues from Arcies in the diocese of Troyes. A church was built over his tomb at Saturniac; but in 837 his relics were translated thence to the neighboring monastery of Montier-Ramey, or Montirame, so called from Arremar, by whom it was founded in 837. It is situated four leagues from Troyes, of the Benedictin Order, and is still possessed of this sacred treasure. At the request of these monks, St. Bernard composed an office of St. Victor, extant in his works, (ep. 312, vet. ed. seu 398, nov. edit.) See the two sermons of St. Bernard on St. Victor, and his ancient life in Henschenius and others: from which it appears that this saint never was a monk, never having professed any monastic Order, though he led an eremitical life.
Footnotes: 1. Serm. 2, p. 966. 2. Ps. cxii. 8.
FEBRUARY XXVII.
ST. LEANDER, BISHOP OF SEVILLE, CONFESSOR.
From St. Isidore of Seville, St. Gregory the Great, and St. Gregory of
Tours, hist l. 5. See Fleury, b. 34, 35, 38. Mabillon, Saec. Ben. 1.
Ceillier, t. 17.
A.D. 596.
ST. LEANDER was of an illustrious family, and born at Carthagena in Spain. He had two brothers, St. Fulgentius, bishop of Ecija and Carthagena, and St. Isidore, our saint's successor in the see of Seville. He had also one sister, Florentia by name, who had consecrated herself to God in the state of virginity. He set them an example of that piety which they faithfully imitated. He entered into a monastery very young, where he lived many years, and attained to an eminent degree of virtue and sacred learning. These qualities occasioned his being promoted to the see of Seville: but his change of condition made little or no alteration in his method {479} of life, though it brought on him a great increase of care and solicitude for the salvation of those whom God had put under his care, as well as for the necessities of the whole church, that of Spain in particular. This kingdom was then possessed by the Visigoths, or Western-Goths; who, while Theodoric settled the Ostrogoths, or Eastern-Goths, in Italy, had passed the Alps, and founded their kingdom, first in Languedoc, and soon after, about the year 470, in Spain. These Goths, being for the generality all infected with Arianism, established this heresy wherever they came; so that when St. Leander was made bishop, it had reigned in Spain a hundred years. This was his great affliction: however, by his tears and prayers to God, and by his most zealous and unwearied endeavors, both at home and abroad, he became the happy instrument of the conversion of that nation to the Catholic faith. But he suffered much from king Leovigild on this account, and was at length forced into banishment; the saint having converted, among others, Hermenegild, the king's eldest son and heir apparent. This pious prince his unnatural father put to death the year following, for refusing to receive the communion from the hands of an Arian bishop. But, touched with remorse not long after, he recalled our saint, and falling sick, and finding himself past hopes of recovery, he sent for St. Leander, whom he had so much persecuted, and recommended to him his son Recared, whom he left his successor, to be instructed in the true faith; though out of fear of his people, as St. Gregory laments, he durst not embrace it himself. His son Recared, by listening to St. Leander, soon became a Catholic. The king also spoke with so much wisdom on the controverted points to the Arian bishops, that by the force of his reasoning, rather than by his authority, he brought them over to own the truth of the Catholic doctrine; and thus he converted the whole nation of the Visigoths. He was no less successful in the like pious endeavors with respect to the Suevi, a people of Spain, whom his father Leovigild had perverted. It was a subject of great joy to the whole church to behold the wonderful blessing bestowed by Almighty God on the labors of our saint, but to none more than St. Gregory the Great, who wrote to St. Leander to congratulate him on the subject.
This holy prelate was no less zealous in the reformation of manners, than in restoring the purity of faith; and he planted the seeds of that zeal and fervor which afterwards produced so many martyrs and saints. His zeal in this regard appeared in the good regulations set on foot with this intent in the council of Seville, which was called by him, and of which he was, as it were, the soul. In 589, he assisted at the third council of Toledo, of seventy-two bishops, or their deputies, in which were drawn up twenty-three canons, relating to discipline, to repair the breaches the Arian heresy had made in fomenting disorders of several kinds. One of these was, that the Arian clergy cohabited with their wives; but the council forbade such of them as were converted to do so, enjoining them a separation from the same chamber, and, if possible, from the same house.[1] This council commanded also the rigorous execution of all penitential canons without any abatement. The pious cardinal D'Aguirre has written a learned dissertation ton this subject.[2]
St. Leander, sensible of the importance of prayer, which is in a devout life what a spring is in a watch, or the main wheel in an engine, labored particularly to encourage true devotion in all persons, but particularly those of the monastic profession, of which state it is the very essence and constituent. His letter to his sister Florentina, a holy virgin, is called his Rule of a Monastic Life. It turns chiefly on the contempt of the world, and on {480} the exercises of prayer. This saint also reformed the Spanish liturgy.[3] In this liturgy, and in the third council of Toledo, in conformity to the eastern churches, the Nicene creed was appointed to be read at mass, to express a detestation of the Arian heresy. Other western churches, with the Roman, soon imitated this devotion. St. Leander was visited by frequent distempers, particularly the gout, which St. Gregory, who was often afflicted with the same, writing to him, calls a favor and mercy of heaven. This holy doctor of Spain died about the year 596, on the 27th of February, as Mabillon proves from his epitaph. The church of Seville has been a metropolitan see ever since the third century. The cathedral is the most magnificent, both as to structure and ornament, of any in all Spain.
* * * * *
The contempt of the world which the gospel so strongly inculcates, and which St. Leander so eminently practised and taught, it the foundation of a spiritual life; but is of far greater extent than most Christians conceive, for it requires no less than a total disengagement of the affections from earthly things. Those whom God raises to perfect virtue, and closely unites to himself, must cut off and put away every thing that can be an obstacle to this perfect union. Their will must be thoroughly purified from all dross of inordinate affections before it can be perfectly absorbed in his. This they who are particularly devoted to the divine service, are especially to take notice of. If this truth was imprinted in the manner that it ought, in the hearts of those who enrol themselves in the service of the church, or who live in cloisters, they would be replenished with heavenly blessings, and the church would have the comfort of seeing apostles of nations revive among her clergy, and the monasteries again filled with Antonies, Bennets, and Bernards; whose sanctity, prayers, and example, would even infuse into many others the true spirit of Christ, amid the desolation and general blindness of this unhappy age.
Footnotes:
1. Conc. t. 5, p. 998.
2. Diss. 3. in Conc. Hisp.
3. The church of Spain first received the faith from Rome, as pope
Innocent I. Informs us. (Ep. ad. Decent.) Whence St. Isidore says
their divine office was instituted by St. Peter, (l. l, c. 15, Eccl.
Offic.) Their ceremonies and discipline, as of fasting on Saturdays,
and other rites mentioned in their councils, are Roman. And the
Roman liturgy was used in Africa beyond Spain. But the Goths used a
liturgy formed by Ulphilas from the Orientals. St. Leander is said
to have compiled a liturgy from both, and also from the Gaulish and
oriental liturgies: St. Isidore and St. Ildefonse perfected it. When
the Saracens or Arabians became masters of Spain, the Christians of
that country were called Mixt-Arabs, and their liturgy, Mozarabic.
In the eleventh and twelfth centuries this liturgy gave place to the
Roman. Cardinal Ximenes re-established the daily use of the
Mozarabic in a chapel of the cathedral of Toledo: it is also used in
the same city by seven old Mozarabic churches, but on the days of
their patrons only. See Le Brun, liturg. t. 2, p. 272. F. Flores
thinks the Mozarabic liturgy was that of the Roman and African
churches retained by St. Leander, without any alteration or mixture
from the Orientals, except certain very inconsiderable rites. See
his Spans. Sagrada, t. 3, Diss. de la Missa Antigua de Espagna,
pp.187, 198, &c. But though it much resembles it, we are assured by
F. Burriel, the learned Jesuit, in his letter on the literary
monuments found in Spain, that in some parts there are considerable
differences. We shall be fully informed of this, also what masses
were added by St. Ildefonse, and of other curious particulars, when
we are favored with the collections he has made from the Gothic MSS.
in Spain on this subject, and the new edition of all the liturgies
of Christian churches which the Assemani are preparing at Rome in
fifteen volumes folio. The Mozarabic liturgy has been printed at
Rome in folio, by the care of F. Leeley, a Scotch Jesuit.
SS. JULIAN, CHRONION, AND BESAS, MM.
WHEN the persecution of Decius filled the city of Alexandria with dread and terror, many, especially among the nobles, the rich, and those who held any places in the state, sacrificed to idols, but pale and trembling, so as to show they had neither courage to die, nor heart to sacrifice. Several generous soldiers repaired the scandal given by these cowards. Julian, who was grievously afflicted with the gout, and one of his servants, called Chronion, were set on the backs of camels, and, cruelly scourged through the {481} whole city, and at length were consumed by fire. Besas, a soldier, was beheaded. See St. Dionysius of Alex. in Eusebius, l, 6, c. 41, ed Val.
ST. THALILAEUS, A CILICIAN
HE lived a recluse on a mountain in Syria, and shut himself up ten years in an open cage of wood. Theodoret asked him why he had chosen so singular a practice. The penitent answered: "I punish my criminal body, that God, seeing my affliction for my sins, may be moved to pardon them, and to deliver me from, or at least to mitigate the excessive torments of the world to come, which I have deserved." See Theodoret, Phil. c. 28. John Mosch in the Spiritual Meadow, c. 59, p. 872, relates that Thalihaeus, the Cilician, spent sixty years in an ascetic life, weeping almost without intermission; and that he used to say to those that came to him: "Time is allowed us by the divine mercy for repentance and satisfaction, and wo {sic} to us if we neglect it."
ST. GALMIER, IN LATIN, BALDOMERUS.
HE was a locksmith in Lyons, who lived in great poverty and austerity, and spent all his leisure moments in holy reading and prayer. He gave his gains to the poor, and sometimes even his tools. He repeated to every one: "In the name of the Lord let us always give thanks to God." Vivencius, abbot of St. Justus, (afterwards archbishop of Lyons,) admired his devotion in the church, but was more edified and astonished when he had conversed with him. He gave him a cell in his monastery, in which the servant of God sanctified himself still more and more by all the exercises of holy solitude, and by his penitential labor. He died a subdeacon about the year 650. His relics were very famous for miracles, and a celebrated pilgrimage, till they were scattered in the air by the Huguenots, in the sixteenth century. The Roman Martyrology names him on the day of his death, the 27th of February.
ST. NESTOR, B.M.
EPOLIUS, whom the emperor Decius had appointed governor of Lycia, Pamphylia, and Phrygia, sought to make his court to that prince by surpassing his colleagues in the rage and cruelty with which he persecuted the meek disciples of Christ. At that time Nestor, bishop of Sida in Pamphylia, (as Le Quien demonstrates, not of Perge, or of Mandis, or Madigis, as some by mistake affirm,) was distinguished in those parts for his zeal in propagating the faith, and for the sanctity of his life. His reputation reached the governor, who sent an Irenarch to apprehend him. The martyr was conducted to Perge, and there crucified, in imitation of the Redeemer of the world, whom he preached. His triumph happened in 250. His Latin Acts, given by the Bollandists, are to be corrected by those in Greek, found among the manuscript acts of Saints, honored by the Greeks in the month of February in the king's library at Paris, Cod. 1010, written in the tenth century.
{482}
ST. ALNOTH, ANCHORET, M.
WEDON, in Northamptonshire, was honored with a palace of Wulphere, king of Mercia, in the middle of England, and was bestowed by that prince upon his daughter St. Wereburge, who converted it into a monastery. Alnoth was the bailiff of St. Wereburge in that country, and the perfect imitator of her heroic virtues. After her retreat he led an anchoretical life in that neighborhood, and was murdered by robbers in his solitude. His relics were kept with veneration in the church of the village of Stow, near Wedon. Wilson places his festival on the 27th of February, in the first edition of his English Martyrology, and in the second on the 25th of November. See the life of St. Wereburge, which Camden sent to F. Rosweide, written, as it seems, by Jocelin. See also Harpsfield, Saec. 7, c. 23, and Bollandus, p. 684.
FEBRUARY XXVIII.
MARTYRS, WHO DIED IN THE GREAT PESTILENCE IN ALEXANDRIA.
From Eusebius, Hist. l. 7, c. 21, 22, p. 268.
A.D. 261, 262, 263.
A VIOLENT pestilence laid waste the greatest part of the Roman empire during twelve years, from 249 to 263. Five thousand persons died of it in one day in Rome, in 262. St. Dionysius of Alexandria relates, that a cruel sedition and civil war had filled that city with murders and tumults; so that it was safer to travel from the eastern to the western parts of the then known world, than to go from one street of Alexandria to another. The pestilence succeeded this first scourge, and with such violence, that there was not a single house in that great city which entirely escaped it, or which had not some dead to mourn for. All places were filled with groans, and the living appeared almost dead with fear. The noisome exhalations of carcasses, and the very winds, which should have purified the air, loaded with infection and pestilential vapors from the Nile, increased the evil. The fear of death rendered the heathens cruel towards their nearest relations. As soon as any of them had caught the contagion, though their dearest friends, they avoided and fled from them as their greatest enemies. They threw them half dead into the streets, and abandoned them without succor; they left their bodies without burial, so fearful were they of catching that mortal distemper, which, however, it was very difficult to avoid, notwithstanding all their precautions. This sickness, which was the greatest of calamities to the pagans, was but an exercise and trial to the Christians, who showed, on that occasion, how contrary the spirit of charity is to the interestedness of self love. During the persecutions of Decius, Gallus, and Valerian, they durst not appear, but were obliged to keep their assemblies in solitudes, or in ships tossed on the waves, or in infected prisons, or the like places, which the sanctity of our mysteries made venerable. Yet in the {483} time of this public calamity, most of them, regardless of the danger of their own lives to assisting others, visited, relieved, and attended the sick, and comforted the dying. They closed their eyes, carried them on their shoulders, laid them out, washed their bodies, and decently interred them, and soon after shared the same fate themselves; but those who survived still succeeded to their charitable office, which they paid to the very pagans their persecutors. "Thus," adds St. Dionysius, "the best of our brethren have departed this life; some of the most valuable, both of priests, deacons, and laics; and it is thought that this kind of death is in nothing different from martyrdom." And the Roman Martyrology says, the religious faith of pious Christians honors them as martyrs.
* * * * *
In these happy victims of holy charity we admire how powerfully perfect virtue, and the assured expectation of eternal bliss, raises the true Christian above all earthly views. He who has always before his eyes the incomprehensible happiness of enjoying God in his glory, and seriously considers the infinite advantage, peace, and honor annexed to his divine service; he who is inflamed with ardent love of God, and zeal for his honor, sets no value on any thing but in proportion as it affords him a means of improving his spiritual stock, advancing the divine honor, and more perfectly uniting his soul to God by every heroic virtue: disgraces, dangers, labor, pain, death, loss of goods or friends, and every other sacrifice here become his gain and his greatest joy. That by which he most perfectly devotes himself to God, and most speedily and securely attains to the bliss of possessing him, he regards as his greatest happiness.
ST. PROTERIUS, PATRIARCH OF ALEXANDRIA, M.
HE was ordained priest by St. Cyril, but opposed Dioscorus, his successor, on his patronizing Eutyches, and giving into his errors, notwithstanding his endeavor to gain him to his interest, by making him archpriest, and entrusting him with the care of his church. Dioscorus being condemned and deposed by the council of Chalcedon, Proterius was elected in his room, and was accordingly ordained and installed in 552. The people of Alexandria, famed for riots and tumults, then divided; some demanding the return of Dioscorus, others supporting Proterius. The factious party was headed by two vicious ecclesiastics, Timothy, surnamed Elurus, and Peter Mongus, whom the saint had canonically excommunicated. And so great and frequent were the tumults and seditions they raised against him, that during the whole course of his pontificate he was never out of danger of falling a sacrifice to the schismatical party, regardless both of the imperial orders and decisions of the council of Chalcedon. In the height of one of those tumults, Elurus, having caused himself to be ordained by two bishops of his faction, that had been formerly deposed, took possession of the episcopal throne, and was proclaimed by his party the sole lawful bishop of Alexandria. But being soon after driven out of the city by the imperial commander, this so inflamed the Eutychian party, that their barefaced attempts obliged the holy patriarch to take sanctuary in the baptistery adjoining to the church of St. Quirinus, where the schismatical rabble breaking in, they stabbed him on Good-Friday, in the year 557. Not content with this, they dragged his dead body through the whole city, cut it in pieces, burnt it and scattered the ashes in the air. The bishops of Thrace, to a letter to the emperor Loo, soon after his death, declared that they placed him among {484} the martyrs, and hoped to find mercy through his intercession. Sanctissimum Proterium in ordine et choro sanctorum martyrum ponimus, et ejus intercessionibus misericordem et propitium Deum nobis fieri postulamus. Conc. t. 4, p. 907. His name occurs in the Greek calendars on the 28th of February.—See Evagrius, Hist. Eccl. l. 2, c. 4. Liberat. Disc. in Breviar. c. 15. Theophanes in Marciano et Leone. Theodor. Lect. l. 1 F. Cacciari, Diss. in Op. S. Leonia, t. 3. Henschenius, t. 3, Febr. p. 729.
SS. ROMANUS AND LUPICINUS, ABBOTS.
ROMANUS at thirty-five years of age left his relations, and spent some time in the monastery of Ainay, (called in Latin Athanacense,) at Lyons, at the great church at the conflux of the Saone and Rhone, which the faithful had built over the ashes of the famous martyrs of that city; for their bodies being burnt by the pagans, their ashes were thrown into the Rhone, but a great part of them was gathered by the Christians, and deposited in this place. Romanus, a short time after, took with him the institutions and conferences of Cassian, and retired into the forests of mount Iura, between France and Switzerland, and fixed his abode at a place called Condate, at the conflux of the rivers Bienne and Aliere, where he found a spot of ground fit for culture, and some trees which furnished him with a kind of wild fruit. Here he spent his time in praying, reading, and laboring for his subsistence. Lupicinus, his brother, came to him some time after in company with others, who were followed by several more, drawn by the fame of the virtue and miracles of these two saints. Here they built the monastery of Condate, and, their numbers increasing, that of Leuconne, two miles distant to the north, and, on a rock, a nunnery called La Beaume, (now St. Remain de la Roche,) which no men were allowed ever to enter, and where St. Romanus chose his burial-place. The brothers governed the monks jointly and in great harmony, though Lupicinus was more inclined to severity of the two. He usually resided at Leuconne with one hundred and fifty monks. The brethren at Condate, when they were enriched with many lands, changed their diet, which was only bread made of barley and bran, and pulse dressed often without salt or oil, and brought to table wheat-bread, fish, and variety of dishes. Lupicinus being informed hereof by Romanus, came to Condate on the sixth day after this innovation, and corrected the abuse. The abstinence which he prescribed his monks was milder than that practised by the oriental monks, and by those of Lerins, partly because the Gauls were naturally great eaters, and partly because they were employed in very hard manual labor. But they never touched fowls or any flesh-meat, and only were allowed milk and eggs in time of sickness. Lupicinus, for his own part, used no other bed than a chair or a hard board; never touched wine, and would scarce ever suffer a drop either of oil or milk to be poured on his pulse. In summer his subsistence for many years was only hard bread moistened in cold water, so that he could eat it with a spoon. His tunic was made of various skins of beasts sewn together, with a cowl: he used wooden shoes, and wore no stockings unless when he was obliged to go out of the monastery. St. Romanus died about the year 460, and is mentioned in the Roman Martyrology on the 28th of February. St. Lupicinus survived him almost twenty years, and is honored in the Roman Martyrology on the 21st of March. He was succeeded in the abbacy of Condate by Minaucius, who, in 480, chose St. Eugendus his coadjutor. See the lives of the two brothers, SS. Romanus and Lupicinus, and that of St. Eugendus or Oyend, compile a by a monk of Condate of the same age; St. Gregory of Tours, {in} {485} de Vitis Patr. c. 1. Mabill. Annal. Ben. l. 1, ad an. 510, t. 1, p. 23. Tillemont, t. 16, p. 142. Bulteau, l. 1.
FEBRUARY XXIX.
ST. OSWALD,
BISHOP OF WORCESTER AND ARCHBISHOP OF YORK.
From his life written by Eadmer; also from Florence of Worcester, William of Malmesbury, and, above all, the elegant and accurate author of the history of Ramsey, published by the learned Mr. Gale, p. 385. The life of this saint, written by Fulcard, abbot of Thorney, in 1068, Wharton thinks not extant. Mabillon doubts whether it is not that which we have in Capgrave and Surius. See also Portiforium 8. Oswaldi Archiep. Eborac. Codex MS. crassus in 8vo. exarates circa annum 1064, in Bennet College, Cambridge, mentioned by Waneley, Catal. p. 110.
A.D. 992.
ST. OSWALD was nephew to St. Odo, archbishop of Canterbury, and to Oskitell, bishop first of Dorcester, afterwards of York. He was educated by St. Odo, and made dean of Winchester; but passing into France, took the monastic habit at Fleury. Being recalled to serve the church, he succeeded St. Dunstan in the see of Worcester about the year 959. He shone as a bright star in this dignity, and established a monastery of monks at Westberry, a village in his diocese. He was employed by duke Aylwin in superintending his foundation of the great monastery of Ramsey, in an island formed by marshes and the river Ouse in Huntingdonshire, in 972. St. Oswald was made archbishop of York in 974, and he dedicated the church of Ramsey under the names of the Blessed Virgin, St. Benedict, and all holy virgins. Nothing of this rich mitred abbey remains standing except an old gate-house, and a neglected statue of the founder, Aylwin, with keys and a ragged staff in his hand to denote his office; for he was cousin to the glorious king Edgar, the valiant general of his armies, and the chief judge and magistrate of the kingdom, with the title of alderman of England, and half king, as the historian of Ramsey usually styles him.[1] {486} St. Oswald was almost always occupied in visiting his diocese, preaching without intermission and reforming abuses. He was a great encourager of learning and learned men. St. Dunstan obliged him to retain the see of Worcester with that of York. Whatever intermission his function allowed him he spent it at St. Mary's, a church and monastery of Benedictins, which he had built at Worcester, where he joined with the monks in their monastic exercises. This church from that time became the cathedral. The saint, to nourish in his heart the sentiments of humility and charity, had everywhere twelve poor persons at his table, whom he served, and also washed and kissed their feet. After having sat thirty-three years he fell sick at St. Mary's in Worcester, and having received the extreme unction and viaticum, continued in prayer, repeating often, "Glory be to the Father," &c., with which words he expired amidst his monks, on the 29th of February, 992. His body was taken up ten years after and enshrined, by Adulph his successor, and was illustrated by miracles. It was afterwards translated to York, on the 15th of October, which day was appointed his principal festival.
* * * * *
St. Oswald made quick progress in the path of perfect virtue, because he studied with the utmost earnestness to deny himself and his own will, listening attentively to that fundamental maxim of the Eternal Truth, which St. Bennet, of whose holy order he became a bright light, repeats with great energy. This holy founder declares in the close of his rule, that, He who desires to give himself up to God, must trample all earthly things under his feet, renounce every thing that is not God, and die to all earthly affections, so as to attain to a perfect disengagement and nakedness of heart, that God may fill and entirely possess it, in order to establish therein the kingdom of his grace and pure love forever. And in his prologue he cries out aloud, that he addresses himself only to him who is firmly resolved in all things to deny his own will, and to hasten with all diligence to arrive at his heavenly kingdom.
Footnotes:
1. The titles of honor among our Saxon ancestors were, Etheling, prince
of the blond: chancellor, assistant to the king in giving judgments:
alderman, or ealderman, (not earldonnan, as Rapin Thoyras writes
this word in his first edition,) governor or viceroy. It is derived
from the word ald or old, like senator in Latin. Provinces, cities,
and sometimes wapentakes, had their alderman to govern them,
determine lawsuits, judge criminals, &c. That office gave place to
the title of earl, which was merely Danish, and introduced by
Canute. Sheriffe or she-reeve, was the deputy of the alderman,
chosen by him, sat judge in some courts, and saw sentence executed;
hence he was called vicecomes. Heartoghan signified, among our Saxon
ancestors, generals of armies, or dukes. Hengist, in the Saxon
chronicle, is heartogh; such were the dukes appointed by Constantine
the Great, to command the forces in the different provinces of the
Roman empire. These titles began to become hereditary with the
offices or command annexed under Pepin and Charlemagne, and grew
more frequent by the successors of these princes granting many
hereditary fiefs to noblemen, to which they annexed titular
dignities. Fiefs were an establishment of the Lombards, from whom
the emperors of Germany, and the kings of France, borrowed this
custom, and with it the feodal laws, of which no mention is made in
the Routun code. Titles began frequently to become merely honorary
about the time of Otho I. in Germany.
Reeve among the English Saxons was a steward. The bishop's reeve was a bishop's steward for secular affairs, attending in his court. Thanes, i.e., servants, were officers of the crown whom the king recompensed with lands, sometimes to descend to their posterity, but always to be held of him with some obligation of service, homage, or acknowledgment. There were other lords of lands and vassals, who enjoyed the title of thanes, and were distinguished from the king's thanes. The ealdermen and dukes were all king's thanes, and all others who held lands of the king by knight's service in chief, and were immediately great tenants of the king's estates. These were the greater thanes, and were succeeded by the barons, which title was brought in by the Normans, and is rarely found before the Conqueror. Mass thanes were those who held lands in fee of the church. Middle thanes were such as held very small estates of the king, or parcels of lands of the king's greater thanes. They were called by the Normans vavassors, and their lands vavassories. They who held lands of these, were thanes of the lowest class, and did not rank as gentlemen. All thanes disposed of the lands which they held (and which were called Blockland) to their heirs, but with the obligations due to those of whom they were held. Ceorle (whence our word churl) was a countryman or artisan who was a freeman. Those ceorles who held lands in leases were called sockmen, and their land sockland, of which they could not dispose, being barely tenants. Those ceorles who acquired possession of five hides of land with a large house, court, and bell to call together their servants, were raised to the rank of thanes of the lowest class. A hide of land was as much as one plough could till. The villains or slaves in the country were laborers, bound to the service of particular persons; were all capable of possessing money in property, consequently were not strictly slaves in the sense of the Roman law.
Witan or Wites, (i. e. wisemen,) were the magistrates and lawyers. Burghwitten signified the magistrates of cities. Some shires (or counties) are mentioned before king Alfred; and Asserius speaks of earls (or counts) of Somerset, and Devonshire, in the reign of Ethelwolph. But Alfred first divided the whole kingdom into shires, the shires into tithings, lathes, or wapentacks, the tithings into hundreds, and the hundreds into tenths. Each division had a court subordinate to those that were superior, the highest in each shire being the shire-gemot, or folck-mote, which was held twice a year, and in which the bishop or his deputy, and the ealderman, or his viceregent, the sheriff, presided. See Seldon on the Titles of Honor; Speman's Glossary, ad. noviss. Squires on the Government of the English Saxons. Dr. William Howel, in his learned General History, t. 5, p. 273, &c. N.B. The titles of earls and hersen were first given by Ifwar Widfame, king of Sweden, to two ministers of state in 824; on which see many remarks of Olof Delin, in his excellent new history of Sweden, c. 5, t. {}, p. {}34.
{487}
Only Complete and Unabridged Edition with nearly 100 pages of Chronological and General Index, Alphabetical and Centenary Table, etc.
THE
LIVES
THE FATHERS, MARTYRS,
AND OTHER
PRINCIPAL SAINTS;
COMPILED FROM
ORIGINAL MONUMENTS, AND OTHER AUTHENTIC RECORDS;
ILLUSTRATED WITH THE
REMARKS OF JUDICIOUS MODERN CRITICS AND HISTORIANS
BY THE REV. ALBAN BUTLER
With the approbation of
MOST REV. M.A. CORRIGAN, D.D.,
Archbishop of New York.
VOL. III.
NEW YORK: P.J. KENEDY, PUBLISHER TO THE HOLY SEE, EXCELSIOR CATHOLIC PUBLISHING HOUSE, 5 BARCLAY STREET. 1903
{488 blank page} {489} CONTENTS
MARCH. 1. PAGE ST. DAVID, Archbishop, Patron of Wales………. 491 St. Swidbert, or Swibert, the ancient, Bishop and Confessor…………………………… 493 St. Albinus, Bishop of Angers, Confessor…….. 494 St. Monan, Martyr…………………………. 495
2.
Martyrs under the Lombards…………………. 496
St. Ceada, or Chad, Bishop and Confessor…….. 497
St. Simplicius, Pope and Confessor………….. 498
St. Marnan, Bishop and Confessor……………. 499
St. Charles the Good, Earl of Flanders, Martyr.. 500
St. Joavan, or Joevin, Bishop and Confessor….. 501
3.
St. Cunegundes, Empress……………………. 501
SS. Marinus and Asterius, or Astyrius, Martyrs.. 503
SS. Emeterius and Chelidonius, Martyrs………. 503
St. Winwaloe, or Winwaloc, Abbot……………. 504
St. Lamalisse, Confessor…………………… 506
4.
St. Casimir, Prince of Poland………………. 506
St. Lucius, Pope and Martyr………………… 508
St. Adrian, Bishop of St. Andrew's, Martyr…… 509
5.
SS. Adrian and Eubulus, Martyrs…………….. 510
St. Kiaran, or Kenerin, Bishop and Confessor…. 511
St. Roger, Confessor………………………. 512
St. John Joseph of the Cross……………….. 512
6.
St. Chrodegang, Bishop of Metz, Confessor……. 519
B. Coleus, Virgin and Abbess……………….. 520
St. Fridolin, Abbot……………………….. 522
St. Baldrede, Bishop of Glasgow, Confessor…… 522
SS. Kyneburge, Kyneswide, and Tibba…………. 522
St. Cadroe. Confessor……………………… 523
7.
St Thomas of Aquino, Doctor of the Church
and Confessor…………………………… 523
SS. Perpetua and Felicitas, &c., Martyrs…….. 533
St. Paul, Anchoret………………………… 540
8.
St. John of God, Confessor…………………. 541
Venerable John of Avila, Apostle of Andalusia… 542
St. Felix, Bishop and Confessor…………….. 547
SS. Apollonius, Philemon, &c., Martyrs………. 548
St. Julian, Archbishop of Toledo, Confessor….. 548
St. Duthak, Bishop of Ross, in Scotland,
Confessor………………………………. 549
St. Rosa, of Viterbo, Virgin……………….. 549
St. Senan, Bishop and Confessor.. ………….. 549
St. Psalmod, or Saumay, Anchoret……………. 550