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THE LIBRARY
OF

THE UNIVERSITY

OF CALIFORNIA

LOS ANGELES

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SOUTHERN BPANcm

UNIVERSITY ")IA,

LLBKAi

«-OS ANBELES, CALl*

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T II E

3U*es of tt)e £>atnt0

REV. S. BARING-GOULD

SIXTEEN VOLUMES

VOLUME THE THIRTEENTH

* ■ *

First Edition published rS~2

Second Edition .... ,, jSgj

JVeiv and Revised Edition, 16 vols, ,, 1914

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THE

BLtoea of tf)t faints

BY THE

REV. S. BARING-GOULD, M.A.

With Introduction and Additional Lives of English

Martyrs, Cornish, Scottish, and Welsh Saints,

and a full Index to the Entire Work

New and Revised Edition

ILLUSTRATED BY 473 ENGRAVINGS
VOLUME THE THIRTEENTH

jliobemluc— part i

EDINBURGH: JOHN GRANT

31 GEORGE IV BRIDGE
1914

l{i «

■ -j 4 \ '.\

Printed by Ballantynk, Hanson iV Co.
at the Ballantyne Press, Edinburgh

CONTENTS

PAGE

SS. Abibus and comp. . 334

„ Abrosimus & comp. 230

S. Achillas . . . .168

„ vEmilian .... 292

SS. Agricola and Vitalis 107

All Saints 1

All Souls 42

S. Andrew Avellino
SS. Antoninus & comp.
S. Austremonius

S. Begha 27

„ Benignus, Abp. of

Armagh . . .222
„ Benignus of Dijon . 12

„ Bertilla 156

„ Brice, B. of Tours . 312

PAGE

SS. Cassarius and Julian 10
S. Charles Borromeo . 1 1 1

Clair 108

Columba . . . .314
Crucifix at Berytus . 223

Cuby 186

Cummian Fada . . 304
Cunibert, Abp. of
Cologne . . , 306
Commemoration of All

Souls .... 42

Dedicationof the Church

of Our Saviour . 219
S. Deusdedit, Pope . 197
„ Devinic . , . - 3 r7
,, Uubricius .... 327

■*

Contents

S. Edmund, Abp. of

Canterbury . . 349

„ Efflam 161

SS. Elpidius and comp. 344
,, Elizabeth and

Zacharias . . .147
S. Emilian .... 347
„ Engelbert, Abp. of

Cologne . . .179

„ Englat 85

SS. Episteme&Galactio 149
S. Ere, B. of Slane . . 59
„ Eucherius, B. of

Lyons .... 345

S. Felix 159

„ Florus, B. of Lodeve 65

SS. Galactio and Epis-

teme 149

S. Gerald, B. of Beziers 1 57

„ Gernad 201

„ Gertrude .... 342
,, Gobrian .... 346
„ Godfrid, B. of

Amiens .... 203
„ Gregory, Ab. of Ein-

siedeln .... 202

SS. Gurias and comp. . 334

S. Gwenael . . „ . 67

S. Harold Bluetooth . 28

„ Herculanus . . . 169

„ Hubert, B. of Liege 72

„ Hypatius .... 326

S. IddaofToggenburg 96

PAGK

S. Joannicus .... 109
„ John the Dwarf . . 219
„ Jonas, Abp. of Nov-
gorod . . . .158
SS. Julian and Caesarius 10
S. Justus, Abp. of

Canterbury . . 232

K
S. Kenan 153

Laurence O'Toole 328
Lebuinus .... 307
Leonard of Limoges 1 59
Leonard of Reresby 166
Leopold .... 340
Livinus 300

S. Machar . . . .315
„ Maclovius or Malo . 336
„ Malachy, Abp. of

Armagh . . .85
„ Marcellus, B. of

Paris .... 23
„ Marcian .... 54
,, Martin, B. of Tours 241
„ Martin, Pope . . . 293
„ Mary of Rome . . 18

SS. Maura and Baya . 60
S. Maxellend . . .318
„ Mennas .... 239

SS. Milles and comp. . 230
S. Modesta .... 108

S. Nicolas I., Pope . 319
„ Nilus 290

SS. Olympas & Tertius 225

Contents

S. Papulus ....

SS. Patrobas and Philo-

logus . . .

106

B. Paul of the Cross .

S6a

S. Perpetua . . . .

105

SS. Philologus and

Patrobas . . . .

106

„ Pirminus . . . .

„ Prosdochimus . .

168

S. Quartus .... 64
SS. Quatuor Coronati . 185

SS. Respicius & Trypho 227
S. Romulus . . . .152

40
334

SS.

Samonas and comp

Serapion

326

Severus

164

SS.

Sina and

comp. .

2 so

Stanislas

Kotska

^22

Stephen

af Servia

287

I9S

PAGE

SS. Tertius & Olympas 225
S. Theodore of Ama-

sea 216

„ Theodore of the

Studium . . . 262
„ Theodotus, B. of

Laodicea ... 48
SS. Tryphena and Try-

phosa .... 226
„ Trypho & Respicius 227

S. Victorinus .... 47

S. Vigor 25

SS. Vitalis and Agricola 107

Willebold . .

. . 61

Willehad . .

• • 197

Willibrord . .

. . 170

Winefred .

. . 69

Winnoc

. . 164

Wulgan . .

• • 59

SS. Zacharias and Eliza-
beth 147

„ Zebinas and comp. . 311

* *

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

S. John the Baptist, with SS. Francis,
Lawrence, Cosmas, Damianus, Antony,
and Peter Martyr .... Frontispiece

From a Painting on wood, in tempera, by Fra
Filippo LlPPI, in the National Gallery.

The Last Judgment to face p. 42

From l/ie Vienna Missal.

Delivery from Hades ,,44

From the Vienna Missal.

From the Office for the Dead . ,,46

Vienna Missal.

S. Winefred „ 70

S. Hubert ■■ „ 72

After Cahier.

Bishop's Pastoral Staff, with the Effigy

of S. Hubert „ 80

S. Idda of Toggenburg .... ,,96

S. Leonard of Limoges . „ 160

After Cahier.
VOL. XIII. ix b

% — •#

x List of Illustrations

S. WlNNOC ....... to face p. 164

After Cahier.

Shrine of the Three Kings at Cologne „ 180

The Tourangeois carrying off the Body

of S. Martin on p. 215

A Canon and his Patron Saints . . to face p. 224

From the Painting by GHEERAEKT David, in
the National Gallery, formerly the right
wing of the reredos in the Collegiate Church
of S. Donatian at Bruges.

S. Martin dividing his Cloak with the

Beggar „ 242

After a Picture by Rubens, in the possession of
the Queen.

Baptism of S. Martin .by S. Hilary —
The Devil appearing to S. Martin
in Human Form „ 244

From a Window, dated 1528, in the Church of
S. Florentin ( Yonne).

The Consecration of S. Martin as Bishop

— S. Martin healing a Paralytic . ,. 248

From a Tapestry at Montpezat, 16th Century.

The Tourangeois carrying off the Body

of S. Martin ,, 252

Design for a Window by M. Claudius
Lavergne.

Church of S. Martin at Tours, restored „ 256

Restored Tomb of S. Martin at Tours . ,, 258

£, %

List of Illustrations xi

Church of Rumilly, les Vaudes . . to face p. 258

S. JOSAPHAT KONCEVITCH, ABP., M. . . „ 310

S. Brice „ 312

After CAHIER.

S. Malo, alias Machutus and Maclovius „ 336

After Cahier.

S. Edmund, Archbishop of Canterbury . „ 352

From a Drawing by A. Weeby Pugin.

Ciborium of S. Martin at Tours . . on p. 370

— *

*— >i«

Lives of the Saints

November i.

Feast of All Saints.

SS. Gssarius, Deac. M., and Julian, P.M. at Terracina; isl

cent.
S. Benignus, P.M. at Dijon ; circ. a.d. 180.
S. Mary, V.M. at Rome ; circ. a.d. 303.
SS. Cyrenia and Juliana, MM. at Tarsus; circ. a.d. 304.
SS. Cesarius, Dacius, and Others, MM. at Damascus.
S. Austremonius, B.M. of Clermont ; circ. a.d. 330.
SS. John, B.M., and James, P.M. in Persia; a.d. 343.
S. Marcellus, B. oj Paris; a.d. 436.
SS. Gwenfyl and Callwen, VV. at Llanddewi Brefi, and Defynog

in Brecknockshire ; $tk cent.
S. Vigor, B. of Bayeux ; a.d. 537.
S. Begha, V. in Cumberland; a.d. 660.
S. Harold VI., K.M. at Roskilde in Denmark ; a.d. 986.
S. Salaun, C. at Follcoat in Brittany ; a.d. 1358.

ALL SAINTS.

[All Latin Martyrologies, Anglican Reformed Kalendar. By the
Greeks the Octave of Pentecost is observed in commemoration of All
Martyrs.]

S early as the 4th century we have evidence that
the Eastern Church celebrated on the Sunday
which is the Octave of Pentecost, and now in the
West is dedicated to the Holy Trinity, a festival
in commemoration of all the Martyrs throughout the world.
We have a homily of S. John Chrysostom preached on this
day (Horn. 74). The idea of holding this festival on the
Octave of Pentecost is striking. The descent of the Holy
Ghost is recorded on Whitsun Day, and on the Sunday
following is exhibited the work of the Holy Ghost, out of
weakness making men and women and children strong to
endure the loss of all things. The association of the two

VOL. XIII. 1

2 Lives of the Saints. ^Qy% t

festivals is so close and so instructive, that we may, perhaps,
regret it was not maintained in the West.

In 6io, Pope Boniface IV. obtained the Pantheon at Rome
from the Emperor Phocas. The Pantheon had been rebuilt
or restored by Marcus Agrippa, and was dedicated to all the
gods and goddesses of the heathen heaven. Boniface cleansed
the building and consecrated it to S. Mary the Virgin and All
Martyrs. The feast of this dedication was kept on the 13th of
May.

Pope Gregory III. consecrated a chapel in the basilica of
S. Peter in honour of all the Saints in 731, and appointed
the feast of All Saints thenceforth to be observed on Novem-
ber 1 st ; but it came into common observance only about the
middle of the 9th century. The " Officium " for the festival
was drawn up under Gregory IV., but was recast by Pius V.

The Christian Church is but " one body." All its mem-
bers are styled " saints ;" because they are either so in reality,
or, having been sanctified by baptism, are called to be saints.
All these members, throughout the whole Church, are united
together by a mutual interchange of good offices, which is
called " the Communion of Saints."

The Church consists of three parts — viz., the Church trium
phant, militant, and quiescent or suffering. All these partake
in the Communion of Saints, and are united : —

1. By being all under the same Head, Jesus Christ, as His
members.

2. By the promise of the same good ; which some already
possess, some are secure of possessing, and the rest, in a state
of uncertainty, are labouring to possess.

3. By partaking in the prayers and good works of each
other. For prayers, good works, sacraments, and sacrifice
are common goods of the Church ; in which all in the body
and out of the body participate as far as they are capable

The threefold division of the Catholic Church is sym-

•£ -*

* ; -^

Nov. i.] All Saints. 3

bolized in many ancient cathedrals and minsters by the
clerestory windows being rilled with painted representations
of saints and angels : so that the upper part of the church re-
presents heaven ; below kneels the congregation, the living,
militant Church on earth ; and underneath the feet of the
worshippers repose the dead in Christ, awaiting the con-
summation of all things.

When we speak of the saints, we ordinarily mean those
who have finished their course, have kept the faith, and have
won the crown laid up in heaven for those that fear and
serve God. We believe that they have entered into bliss,
behold the face of Christ, and continue the work of praise
to God and of intercession for their brethren which they
initiated on earth.

The saints are commonly divided into ranks and classes,
not that these are marked off clearly from one another, but
intersect and overlap. The classification is not like that of
the angels, of degrees, but is to some extent arbitrary : —

1. Patriarchs: those who were the fathers of the old
covenant, as Adam, Noah, Abraham.

2. Prophets : those who foretold the coming of Christ, and
the setting up of His kingdom, as David, Isaiah, Jeremiah.

3. Apostles : the heralds of Christ's kingdom, who first
bore the light of the Gospel into lands that lay in darkness.
These are not merely the Twelve, with S. Paul and S. Bar-
nabas, but also the founders of the Church in other lands ;
thus S. Augustine is regarded as the Apostle of the English,
S. Aidan of the Northumbrians, and S. Patrick of the Irish.

4. Evangelists : of these there are but four, S. Matthew,
S. Mark, S. Luke, and S. John.

5. Martyrs : those who shed their blood for Christ. Of
these there are three classes — those who are martyrs, 1, in will
only, as S. John the Divine, and S. Mary the slave girl,
commemorated on this day ; 2, in deed only, as the Holy

* *

4 Lives of the Saints. [Nov. i.

Innocents ; 3, in will and in deed, as S. Laurence, S. Catha-
rine, S. Stephen, and S. Maurice.

6. Confessors : those who suffered bonds, or persecutions,
or afflictions for Christ ; this is a class which embraces most
of those included in 10, n, and 12. Such are S. Martin,
S. Brice, S. Edward of England, and S. Dominic.

7. Virgins: those holy maidens who, for the sake of Christ,
have lived celibate lives, or who have died unmarried ; these
follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth. Such are S. Mar-
garet, who is also a martyr ; S. Hilda, also an abbess ; S. Lyd-
winna, who was neither martyr nor abbess.

8. Widows : those who, on the death of their husbands,
have retired from the world and devoted the rest of their lives
to the sole service of God. Such are S. Bridget of Sweden,
S. Hedwig of Silesia, and S. Elizabeth of Hungary.

9. Penitents : those who, having fallen into grievous carnal
sin, have turned to God, and striven to expiate their offences
by deep contrition and self-punishment. Such are S. Pelagia,
S. Mary Magdalene, and of men S. James (Jan. 28).

10. Prelates: those who have been called to offices of
authority in the Church, and have diligently ruled aright the
Church of God. Such are almost always included in the
classes of martyrs or confessors. " They that will live godly in
Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution."1 Such areS. Cyprian,
bishop and martyr ; S. Dunstan, bishop and confessor.

11. Doctors : such are those who, having seen deeply into
the mysteries of God, are enabled to teach the Church the
things of God. Such are S. Augustine of Hippo, bishop, con-
fessor, and doctor; S. Thomas Aquinas, doctor and confessor.

12. Monks and hermits: who have given up father and
mother, and wife and lands, and all that the earth holds
most precious, that they may live in solitude in prayer and
contemplation, yet not without hard labour. Those who

' 3 Tim. iii. la.

tft — >J4

Nor. ,.] All Saints. 5

were heads of communities are styled abbots. Such are S.
Giles, abbot and confessor; S. Antony, hermit and confessor ;
S. Moyses the Egyptian, abbot and martyr.

13. Holy men and women living in the world, yet not of
the world : as S. Stephen, King of Hungary ; S. Frances of
Rome, matron ; and S. Hildegard, Queen.

" We honour and love the saints because we honour and
love God. For we cannot truly love and honour God with-
out venerating and feeling affection for those who have striven
to set forth His glory, advance His kingdom, and serve Him
with all their hearts.

" To honour and love the saints is not in any way to de-
tract from the honour and love which is due to God, for we
honour and love the true servants of God only because they
served God faithfully, and because the grace of God was
manifested in them. Thus the reverence we show to them
is really honour shown to God, the Author and Finisher of
their faith, and as such cannot but be well-pleasing to Him.

" We do not only show to the servants of God love and
reverence so long as they live in the body, but also after
death, if they have held fast the profession of their faith
without wavering unto the end ; for if they have been faithful
unto death, and have fulfilled the will of God on earth, then
they attain to a condition from which they cannot fall, but
are the friends of God, united to Him for eternity in closest
ties of love. Whereas of those who are on earth we cannot
predicate that they will persevere to the end. We may hope
it, but we cannot feel certain of it. Of the saints in light we
know that their condition is fixed for all eternity, and there-
fore we owe *to them higher honour and love than to those
still in warfare and uncertainty on earth.

" We honour them accordingly — 1, because they remained
true to God whilst on earth, and resisted all the allurements
of the Evil One, and conquered the evil inclinations of the

*b *

»£ $?

6 Lives of the Saints, [Nov.i.

flesh, and triumphed over the vanities of the world ; 2,
because in eternal felicity they are united to God in friend-
ship, and enjoy the favour of God ; 3, because, whilst
enjoying this favour and friendship of God, they still
think, love, and pray to God for us their brethren striving
on earth.

" The Council of Trent laid down — 1, that the saints in the
heavenly kingdom of Jesus Christ offer the prayers of their
brethren to God,1 that they also pray to God for our welfare
in soul and body ; 2, that it is of use to ask the saints for
their prayers, and to entreat their assistance as intercessors,
in order that we may obtain from God, by their prayers
united to ours, those blessings which are given through
Jesus Christ, our only Redeemer and Saviour. For if we
may ask the intercession of those who are on earth, we may
also entreat that of those who stand before the throne and
serve God day and night in His heavenly temple.

" But the Catholic Church does not teach or allow that
the saints can ask for, or obtain, anything for us by their
own merits, or give anything apart from God.

"Nor that they should be invoked as though they of
themselves could help or do good to us; so to invoke them
would be to commit idolatry. We may only ask them to
pray to God for us.

" Nor, again, is it the teaching of the Catholic Church that
it is needful for us to invoke the saints, so that without such
invocation we cannot obtain what is necessary for our salva-
tion. The Catholic Church only declares that it is good and
useful to ask the assistance of the prayers of the saints, not
that it is necessary.

"Nor, again, does the Catholic Church teach that we
receive benefits from the saints themselves, when we ask

1 Rev. viii. 3, 4. In this passage an angel offers the prayers of those on earth in a
golden censer.

— — — tjf

-+ 4

Nov. i.] All Saints.

their intercession with God; on the contrary, she declares
emphatically that we only entreat their prayers in order to
obtain benefits from God through His only-begotten Son
Jesus Christ, our sole Redeemer and Saviour.

" This belief and teaching of the Catholic Church on the
invocation of Saints, and on their intercession, in no way
militates against the doctrine that we are redeemed by Jesus
Christ alone, and that we receive from God help towards the
attainment of our salvation only through the merits of Jesus
Christ. The intercession of the saints in light no more
interferes with the sole mediation of Christ, than does the
intercession of a mother for her child when both are on
earth. Nor does the invocation of a saint in heaven con-
tradict that doctrine any more than the request of a child
in temptation or danger made to living father or mother to
pray for him.

" Nor do Catholics put the saints in the place of Christ
when they act in accordance with the teaching of the Church.
For — i, we do not subject ourselves to the saints, nor place
ourselves in the relation to them in which we stand to God,
on Whom alone we depend, and before Him alone we acknow-
ledge our littleness, weakness, and unworthiness. But we
esteem and value the saints, as aforesaid, on account of their
true struggles after virtue, and of their having wrought deeds
well-pleasing to God, and as standing in close favour with
Him in eternal felicity. 2. We do not desire or expect of the
saints that they shall communicate anything to us of their
own, nor that they shall give us good or drive away evil ; but
we call on their co-operation with us in prayer to God, that
God may give us what we wish for and desire, if it be useful
and good for us, through the merits of Jesus Christ. 3. We
also do not expect that God will grant us that for which we
pray through the merits of the saints, but through the merits
of Jesus Christ His Son, our Lord. And, lastly, we pray, 4,

* *

^ _ — *

8 Lives of the Saints. [Nov. ,

as we ought, with resignation to the will of God, and in the
name of Jesus Christ.

"We may best honour the saints in three ways: — i. By
considering the virtues displayed by them on earth, and
their constancy unto the end, and how they pleased God in
their generation. 2. By stimulating ourselves to virtue by
their example. 3. By asking the saints to entreat God to
give us His grace to follow their virtuous and godly living.

" By this means the saints will be rightly honoured, for —
1, we are taking them as patterns in those matters which
concern our salvation ; and, 2, we are doing this in order to
serve God truly ; and in this striving after perfection consists
the true service of God, and in this way can He best be
honoured." l

This lengthy quotation will explain a doctrine and prac-
tice which has grown out of the belief in the communion of
saints, and place it in a light very different from that in
which it is viewed by many who neither embrace the doc-
trine nor follow the practice.

" Yonder in the spangled heavens,

In the blessed glory-land,
Midst the cherubs wing'd and burning,

Holding branches in their hand,
Stoled in robes of dazzling whiteness

Round about the em'rald throne,
Stand the Blessed, full rewarded

For the deeds that they have done.

" Here in earthly tabernacles,

Pilgrims in a vale of tears,
Felt they bitter want, bereavement,

Desolation, anguish, fears ;

1 Quoted, somewhat condensed, from the admirable Catechism of the diocese of
Ermland, published with the approbation of Joseph von Hohenzollern, Prince Bishop
Df Ermland. Lehrbuch der Christkatholischen Glaubens und Sittenlehre, &c, von
J. H. Achterfeldt, firaunsberg, 1825. I have recast the sentences, which are given in
the original in question and answer.

— *

Nwr-1.j All Saints. 9

Bowed beneath the cross of Jesus,

Toiling on in sweat and pain,
Fighting in the lifelong battle,

Running on, the crown to gain.

"Who for God and Truth contendeth,

Who for Holiness and Right,
Lo ! he dies not, but ascendeth

Evermore from light to light.
What of good we think, accomplish,

What of noble we design,
Seed it is that shall be gamer'd

In the land for which we pine.

" Deeds of mercy here accomplish'd

Tears we've wiped from weeping eyes,
Staunched wounds, and cups of water,

Meet us once more in the skies.
Peaceful spirits, peace ensuing,

Spirits poor to earth down-trod,
Spotless souls unstain'd by passion,

Gaze upon the face of God.

" O the smoke that fills the Temple,

Wafted prayers of Saints above,
Vials by the Blessed offered,

Brimming o'er with flaming love !
Up a fragrant smoke ascendeth

From the struggling Church below,
Mingled spices — blood, devotion,

Grains of love and drops of woe.

" O the Saints in sunlight walking,

Wearing each his amaranth crown,
Rapture flowing like a river,

Can they, do they, e'er look down ?
Yea ! earth's strife is not forgotten,

For their brethren still they care,
How they labour in their running,

In the battle how they fare.

" Look they on us from their glory,

Lifting holy hands on high,
Waving branches green, extending

Rosy wreaths that never die.

»{<- >f<

io Lives of the Saints. [Noy ti

Beckon us to share their triumph,
As we share their conflict sore,

Plead for us in tempest tossing,
That we gain the peaceful shore.'"

SS. CjESARIUS, DEAC. M. AND JULIAN, P.M.

(1ST CENT.)

[Roman Martyrology. Usuardus, Bede, Ado, Notker, Wandelbert.
Authority : — The Acts, not original, of more than questionable au-
thority.]

No reliance can be placed in the Acts of these martyrs,
which are a fabrication, possibly based on tradition. But
the fact of the names of these martyrs occurring in the
oldest martyrologies shows that there were such martyrs.
S. Caesarius is moreover mentioned with distinction in the
Sacramentary of S. Gregory. This great pope also speaks
of an ancient church dedicated to the saint at Rome.

In the reign of Claudius there arrived at Terracina from
Africa a certain deacon named Caesarius, inspired with zeal
to preach the Gospel in Campania. Now it was the custom
in Terracina for a youth to be fattened up during seven or
eight months, and pampered on every delicacy, and on the
ist of January he was brought forth before all the people,
and he slew a pig to Apollo, and afterwards was himself pre-
cipitated from a rock, and then burnt as a sacrifice, to obtain
prosperity for the commonwealth, and long life for the em-
peror. The priest of Terracina was named Firminus, and
the governor of the city was called Luxurius. Now Caesarius
arrived at Terracina precisely when this abominable sacrifice
was about to take place. He lifted up his voice in con-

1 Published separately with music from " Katholische Melodien Sammlung,"
Munchen, 1812, by G. J. Talmer, Little Queen Street, London.

Nov. i.] •S^- Cczsarius and Julian. 1 1

demnation, and was at once arrested by Luxurius and
handed over to Leontius, pro-consul of Campania. Leon-
tius bade him be stripped and brought to the Temple of
Apollo. Then Csesarius prayed, and the temple fell with
a crash, and killed the priest Firminus, who was inside. The
people raised an outcry, and Leontius sent him to prison,
and kept him in it, stark naked, for twenty-two months.
When, at the end of this time, he was led forth, his hair had
grown so as completely to clothe his body. He asked per-
mission to be allowed to pray. While thus engaged a sudden
light blazed down on him from heaven, and Leontius was
thereupon converted and sought baptism, which was ad-
ministered by the priest Julian. He was given the Holy
Mysteries, and died shortly after. He is commemorated in
the martyrologies on October 30th. On the death of Leon
tius, Luxurius took charge of Caesarius, and arrested forth-
with the priest Julian as well. He tied them up together in
a sack, and flung them into the sea. Their bodies were
washed ashore, and recovered by one named Eusebius on
November 1st. A few days after Luxurius was bitten by a
serpent, and died.

It is perhaps as well to remark that human sacrifices were
not tolerated in the time of Claudius or after. Human sacri-
fices were forbidden by decree of the Roman senate, b.c.
97 ;l and again by Augustus and Tiberius.2 Alban Butler
and some others make Csesarius and Julian martyrs under
Diocletian in 300 ; if so, it is still less likely that such a
sacrifice would have been permitted. Hadrian had re-issued
the decrees of former emperors against human sacrifices.
The martyrologists, however, state that Caesarius suffered in
the reign of Claudius.

1 Pliny, xxxi. i. * Sueton. Claud. 25.

tfl >J<

1 2 Lives of the Saints. [Nov u

S. BENIGNUS, P.M.
(about a.d. 180.)

[Roman Martyrology. Martyrology of Jerome, Usuardus, Bede, &c.
Gallican Martyrologies. Authority : — S. Gregory of Tours, De Gloria
Mart. c. 51 ; Hist. Franc, x. 31. The Passion of S. Benignus is worth-
less ; the first edition of it is of the 6th cent. ; another, somewhat ampli-
fied, is of the 7th cent.; a third version, combined with the stories of
S. Andochus, S. Thyrsus, S. Symphorian, the Holy Twins, and S.
Andeolus, are in the collection of Acts attributed to Wolfhardt of
Haseren, in the 9th cent. M. l'abbe Bougaud's " Etude hist, et crit.
sur la mission, les actes, et le culte de Saint Benigne " is a laborious but
vain endeavour to establish some claims of respect for the Acts of the
Saint. A glance at the Acts themselves is sufficient to demolish the
house of cards he has set up.]

In the days of Gregory, bishop of Langres (507-539),
there stood in the neighbourhood of Dijon, amongst other
ruins of the old Roman city, a dilapidated vault, under
which stood a sarcophagus of great size, which was generally
regarded as the tomb of some heathen. Many curious rites
connected with it survived among the peasants of the neigh-
bourhood. They brought offerings and laid them on the
tomb, and even burnt candles around it.

Gregory, bishop of Langres, during a visitation of his
diocese, came to Dijon, and heard of these strange customs.
He was also told of a child trying to steal a candle which
was on the sarcophagus, when a serpent issued from it, rolled
itself round the candle, and defended it, threatening the
child with erect head and vibrating tongue.

Gregory did not know what to think. There was not the
slightest mark to indicate that the tomb belonged to a Chris-
tian, and it was generally regarded as that of a pagan. How-
ever, it was true that Dijon honoured a certain Benignus as
its apostle and martyr, and it was possible, the bishop thought,

Nov. i.]

S. Benignus. 13

that this curious devotion of the country-folk might be a
relic of former veneration to the resting-place of a saint.

In the meantime he forbade the making of oblations at
the tomb. One night, whilst his mind was occupied with
this question, Gregory saw in a dream a venerable figure,
which thus addressed him : " What are you about ? You not
only neglect me, but forbid others honouring me. Go and
rebuild promptly the ruins of my tomb."

This dream quite satisfied the easily convinced bishop
that the mausoleum was that of S. Benignus.

But the church of Dijon had preserved no records of the
martyrdom of its apostle, or, at all events, had lost them.
Gregory sent to Rome for them, thinking that very possi-
bly a copy of them might be preserved there, as it was
the custom of one church to send a record of the martyr-
doms of its members to another, and especially to that of
Rome.

Soon after, he was brought a copy of what pretended to be
the Acts of S. Benignus by the hands of some pilgrims.
There can be no question that they are not the original
ones ; and, secondly, there is little doubt that they are
a fabrication from beginning to end. At best there may
be a substratum of truth overlaid with fable, and the facts
sadly transformed by the hands of those who, in the 5th
century and afterwards, could not endure a simple narrative
unadorned with prodigies, and without a tissue of revolting
and monstrous horrors. The Acts of S. Benignus give
the weary round of those tortures and miracles which are
common to hosts of other manufactured or interpolated Acts,
and so materially discredit them, that it is difficult to say
whether they are even based on original Acts. In the pos-
sibility that they may not be pure fiction, the following out-
line of them is given.

S. Irenasus appeared in a dream one night to S. Polycarp

<fr

>p 1%H

14 Lives of the Saints. [Nor. 1.

at Smyrna, and bade him send into Gaul the holy priests
Benignus and Andochus, and the deacon Thyrsus. These
three saints sailed for Gaul, but were wrecked on the coast
of Corsica, where they met S. Andeolus, and with him con-
tinued their journey to Marseilles.

S. Andeolus remained to become the apostle of Carpentras,
but the other three pushed forward towards Autun, where
they were received with honour by a noble named Faustus,
whose son, Symphorian, Benignus baptized.1 At this time
the emperor Aurelian issued an edict to the effect that all
who would not honour the gods and do sacrifice to them
should be put to death.

Then S. Benignus and his comrades parted ; S. Andochus
and the deacon Thyrsus took refuge at Saulieu, a villa
belonging to Faustus, and Benignus went to Langres, to
Leonilla, the sister of Faustus.

At Langres S. Benignus converted and baptized the
grandsons of Leonilla, SS. Speusippus, Eleosippus, and
Meleosippus, afterwards martyrs, and venerated in France
as " Les Saints Jumeaux," the Holy Twins. From thence
Benignus made his way to Dijon, where, at the time, a castle
was being erected. There he preached with such vigour,
and wrought so many miracles, that many of the inhabitants
were led to embrace the doctrines of Christ.

Not long after, Aurelian came to Dijon, and ordered the
Christians to be brought before him. Then the Count
Terentius said to him : " Most illustrious emperor, there has
come among us a man with a shaven head, whose dress and
manner of life differs from ours. He rejects the ceremonies
of the gods, he baptizes the people with water, and anoints
them with balsam, and promises another life to those who
believe in his God."

1 The Acts of S. Symphorian are genuine, though added to in the 5th cent They
do not mention S. Benignus.

Nov. i.]

S. Benignus. 15

" Evidently," said the emperor, " this man is a cross-
worshipper. Send for him.5'

Benignus was taken by the lictors whilst preaching in the
village of Epagny, near Dijon, and was brought before the
emperor.

By his orders Benignus was scourged till his bowels were
exposed, and all his back and the front of his body were raw
and bleeding. In this condition he was shut up in the
innermost barathrum along with several corpses which were
a prey to worms and stank horribly. The darkness of this
abyss was unillumined by a single ray. When Benignus was
shut in here, an angel illumined the darkness and deodorized
the prison. In a minute Benignus was healed of his wounds,
so that even the traces of the stripes disappeared.

Next day Aurelian appeared on his tribunal supported by
Terentius, and the minister of Christ was brought before him.
He was petrified at seeing the martyr restored to his former
rude health, after the fearful scourging of the previous day.
He ordered him to be led to a neighbouring temple, and
meat offered to idols to be forced down his throat. But
when the sacrificial food was brought before Benignus he
made the sign of the cross, the bowl broke into a thousand
particles, and the meat evaporated into thin air. Instantly all
the idols in the temple precipitated themselves headlong
from their pedestals, and were broken.

Next, Aurelian ordered a large block of stone to be brought
in, two holes to be bored in it, and the feet of Benignus to
be soldered into the holes with melted lead. Sharp points
of red-hot iron were at the same time driven into the fingers
of the saint. Aurelian sent him back to his black and fetid
dungeon, and forbade the jailor to give him water for six
days. A dozen famishing dogs were turned into the prison,
in the expectation that they would tear him to pieces. But
again an angel shone into the dungeon, controlled the dogs,

A_ A

1 6 Lives of the Saints. [Nov< fc

released Benignus from the stone block and from the chains
that bound his hands, and fed the saint with fine white bread
brought from Paradise. For six days he was satisfied with
this heavenly food, the dogs were also probably supplied
with something to satisfy their hunger, for they became quite
docile, and licked the hands and feet of the martyr. On the
sixth day Benignus was brought forth before his judges, and
they saw him, to their amazement, with fresh pale coun-
tenance, bearing no indications of famine, and all his wounds
healed.

The august emperor foamed at the mouth and howled like
a maniac in his disappointment, and ordered the martyr to
be despatched in prison, his heart to be transfixed with two
spits, and his head simultaneously to be broken with an iron
bar.

The order was put into execution, and Benignus surren-
dered his soul to his Maker.

As soon as the emperor had departed, Leonilla carried oft
the body of the saint, and after having embalmed it, buried
it carefully in a monument which was studiously made in
heathen style to deceive the idolaters into believing it was
not a Christian mausoleum.

A few observations on this document will suffice. In the
first place it will be observed that Benignus is sent from
Smyrna to Gaul by S. Polycarp, who died in 169, and suffered
under Aurelian, who reigned between 270 and 275, conse-
quently he must have been martyred at the advanced age of
at least one hundred and forty-five. Moreover, Aurelian was
not a persecutor, at least in 271, when he was in Gaul,
though he was meditating a persecution when he died, and
the Christians had perhaps begun to feel his anger at Rome
in the year in which he died. So far from his being re-
garded as a persecutor in the early part of his reign, he was
referred to as umpire to resolve the rival claims of Domnus

and Paul to the bishopric of Antioch.
t%< — 4*

Nov. i.]

S. Benignus. 17

But if there be any truth in the statement that Benignus
baptized Symphorian, then we must fix the advent in Gaul
of the Oriental priest — with, however, no Eastern but a
purely Latin name — in 168, or thereabouts.

S. Symphorian suffered under Marcus Aurelius.1 It is
probable that the blundering biographers called the emperor
Aurelian instead of Aurelius ; and if this be conceded, then
the discrepancy in dates disappears. This is an exceedingly
probable solution of the difficulty.

The Acts are clearly, as we have them, the work of some-
one living at Dijon, and not such as were received by the
hands of pilgrims from Rome. Gregory of Langres seems
to have been a conscientious man, and he would not
willingly have countenanced a fraud. He may have received
certain Acts, purporting to be those of S. Benignus, from
Rome ; but if so, they were evidently dressed up by some
one at Dijon. The mention of the village of Spaniacum
(Epagny), of the new walls at Dijon,2 and of Leonilla and
her monument, are certainly contributed by some hand at
Dijon. The miracles and tortures may be dismissed from
consideration.

Marcus Aurelius was in Gaul. There were troubles in
Sequania and Helvetia in his reign, and he went in person
to suppress the revolt ; and to him are attributed several
monuments marking his progress.

S. Gregory of Langres, who was so easily persuaded that
the mysterious old pagan-looking tomb contained the body
of S. Benignus, set to work at once to surround the sarco-
phagus with more decent buildings, and to erect a church

1 His Acts say Aurelian, but the Bollandists, Ruinart and Tillemont, agree in
regarding this as a mistake for Aurelius.

°J The walls of Dijon were certainly more ancient than Aurelian's time. However,
this mention of new walls built by his order is suspicious, as Aurelian was famous for
the new walls he built round Rome, magnified by popular estimation to an extent of
fifty miles in circumference. Aurelius did some building, but Aurelian was famous
for his city-wall building.

VOL. XIII. 2

1 8 Lives of the Saints. [NoT_ 1#

over it. Whilst the workmen were engaged on the con-
struction, an old woman, with grey hair, came one day out
of an adjoining church and encouraged the labourers to go
on steadily with their work. S. Gregory came precipitately
to the conclusion that this must have been S. Pascasia, a
virgin to whom the church was dedicated from which the
old woman issued.

At the French Revolution the church of S. Benignus at
Dijon was destroyed, and the relics dispersed. The sarco-
phagus lay buried under the ruins of the crypt till Novem-
ber 30th, 1858, when it was excavated in presence of the
Bishop of Dijon. No sooner was it brought to light than the
bishop exclaimed, " Let us not regard these stones with the
eyes of antiquaries, but as Christians, and honour the martyr
whose sacred bones rested here." Saying which he knelt down,
the workmen arrested their labour, and took off their caps.
Some passers by came over the heaps of rubbish to see the
discovery. In a few minutes the news had spread through
Dijon that the tomb of its apostle had been re-discovered.
On the morrow, the whole town crowded to the spot, and
prayed around it.

S. Benignus, who was formerly patron of the cathedral
only, has been elevated to the office of patron of the dio-
cese. In art the saint is represented with two spears or
spits transfixing his heart, and holding an iron bar.

S. MARY, V.M.

(about a.d. 303.)

[Roman Martyrology. Bede, Usuardus, &c. Authority : — The
ancient and apparently trustworthy Acts in Baluze : Misc. t. ii.]

Mary was a slave in the house of Tertullus, a Roman
senator. She was the only Christian in his household. Her

tfr — ►{<

Nov. i.]

S. Mary. 19

refusal to associate with the other slaves in heathen rites
attracted attention, and caused her much annoyance from
her fellow-servants. Her mistress was also angry with her,
and ill-treated her, but Tertullus was much attached to her
on account of her fidelity, and the promptitude which dis-
tinguished her from the other slaves in the execution of her
duties. When the bloody edicts of Diocletian appeared,
Tertullus entreated her to submit to necessity, and do sacri-
fice with the rest of his slaves. But Mary could not be
moved. Her master, fearing lest he should lose her alto-
gether if it came to the ears of the prefect that he harboured
a Christian slave, had her beaten and shut up in a dark
room, partly in hopes of overcoming her resistance, and
partly to keep her concealed. She was scantily fed with
bread and water. But the report of what Tertullus had
done reached the ears of the prefect, and he sent for Ter-
tullus, and rebuked him for concealing a Christian in his
house. Tertullus explained the circumstances, and the
magistrate dismissed him with the order that Mary should
be sent to him forthwith. Tertullus was therefore reluctantly
obliged to deliver her up into the hands of the officers.

The magistrate questioned her, and as she persisted in
her assertion that she was a Christian, the people clamoured
that she should be burned alive. Then she said, "The God
whom I serve is with me. I fear not your tortures, which
can only rob me of that life which I am willing to offer in
sacrifice for Jesus Christ."

The poor woman was then tortured with such cruelty that
the spectators, who had before clamoured for her punish-
ment, now entreated that her sufferings might be terminated.

She was accordingly given over to a soldier, who was
required to take charge of her. The man connived at her
making her escape, and she hid herself among rocks till the
persecution of Diocletian was over. She died a natural

* *

20 Lives of the Saints. [Nov It

death, but is reckoned among the martyrs because she
endured the agonies of martyrdom without the final con-
summation of it ; and it is probable that her death was
accelerated by the treatment she had received.

S. AUSTREMONIUS, B.M.
(about a.d. 330.)

[Roman and Gallican Martyrologies. Authority :— A Life written
apparently by S. Prasjectus, Bishop of Clermont, d. 674, in Labbe,
Bibl. Nova, ii. pp. 482-505.]

If we were to believe what S. Praejectus, or the 7th cen-
tury author of the Life of S. Austremonius states, this saint
was one of the seventy- two disciples of our Lord ; of these
Gratian went to Tours, Trophimus to Aries, Paul to Nar-
bonne, Saturninus to Toulouse, and Martial to Limoges. Of
these only Saturninus and Austremonius received the grace
of martyrdom. Austremonius came to Gaul with the others
mentioned, and betook himself to Auvergne, of which dis-
trict he became the apostle. Once a year he, Martial, and
Saturninus met to take counsel together on the conduct of
their dioceses, and the means they should adopt to advance
the faith and overthrow heresy.

After having laboured some while among the volcanic
cones of Auvergne, Austremonius went to Bourges, and
ordained his disciple Ursinus to the episcopal throne of that
city. He preached in the Nivernais and Limousin. In
Clermont, the capital of Auvergne, and throughout the pro-
vince, he founded many churches, and ordained priests to
them. After having been bishop of Clermont for thirty-six
years, he resigned his pastoral crook into the hands of his
disciple Urbicius, and retired into the monastery of Issoire
that he had founded, and which was crowded with monks.

Nov- ,.j S. Austremonius. 2 1

There were many Jews in Auvergne, and Austremonius
greatly incensed them by converting and baptizing the son
of one of their principal rabbis. The father, in a rage, killed
his son, and flung the body down a well. S. Austremonius
went in procession to the well with incense and lights, and
recovered the body of the Jewish youth, who is venerated
under the title of S. Lucius. At this time he was called to
the deathbed of his disciple S. Marius, who was living in the
valley of Jornens. He went to see him, accompanied by
his priest Nectarius and his archdeacon Mammetus. He
buried S. Marius, and raised a church over his tomb at the
cost of the faithful of the neighbourhood, and consecrated
it with great pomp. He received also from the nobles of
the neighbourhood estates, which they gave for the endow-
ment of this church.

From thence he went to Compendiac, where he dedicated
a church to S. Michael, and enriched it with representa-
tions of the whole celestial hierarchy.

On his way back to Issoire he was waylaid by the Jew
whose son he had baptized, and his head was struck off by
the Jew, and thrown down a well. Mammetus, his arch-
deacon, ran away and hid in a cave.

S. Urbicius came with great pomp and buried the saint's
body. His head was traced to the well by the drops of
blood that had fallen from it, and was recovered. The
people shouted for the " cutting off of the Jews from among
the Christians," but the author of the Life fails to tell us if
this led to a massacre of them.

In considering this Life, we are struck at once with the
incongruity of the events recorded with the date given to
S. Austremonius. In the 1st century, long before the perse-
cutions of Decius and Diocletian, at the time, however, of
that of Marcus Aurelius, S. Austremonius is building churches,
endowing monasteries, conducting solemn processions, with

22 Lives of the Saints.

[Not.

lights and incense. Such things could not have taken place
before the end of the 4th century. His life is that of a bishop
of the 5th or 6th century. He dedicates a church to S.
Michael, and such dedications are not known before 492.

The history of the early bishops of Gaul has suffered so
much from being written from uncertain tradition, under
the influence of a mistaken zeal to thrust their dates back to
the 1 st century, so as to make them disciples of Christ, or
specially commissioned by S. Peter, that we are left to con-
jecture to establish their real dates.

S. Austremonius is represented as the master of Urbicius,
first bishop of Bourges. He was immediately succeeded by
S. Sevitian, who is thought to have sat between 280 and 296;
but the dates of the eleven first bishops of Bourges cannot be
fixed with certainty, till Leo, who assisted at the Councils of
Angers and Tours; he sat between 453 and 461. Some of
the bishops inserted in the lists before him are very doubtful.
The first bishop of Clermont whose date can be fixed approxi-
mately is S. Nepotian, who died in 388. He was preceded
by S. Illidius, between whom and S. Urbicius was only one
occupant of the see. If there be any truth in the statement
that S. Austremonius founded churches and monasteries, his
date cannot by any possibility be thrust further back than
310.

He is called in French S. Stremoine.

The relics of S. Austremonius are exhibited to the venera-
tion of the faithful at Mauzac, whither they were translated
by Adebert, Bishop of Clermont

Nov. ,.j S. Marcellus. 23

S. MARCELLUS, B. OF PARIS.
(a.d. 436-)

[Usuardus. Gallican and Roman Martyrologies. Authority : — A
Life by Venantius Fortunatus, d. 600, in Surius, Vit. Sanct. Nov. 1.]

The parents of S. Marcellus of Paris were persons of the
middle class. They placed him at school, and Prudentius,
Bishop of Paris, ordained him reader. Fortunatus tells a
story of him, as handed down with all the exaggerations of
detail a story acquires in passing from one to another through
more than a century. One day he went into a locksmith's
shop, and the man in rude jest gave him a red-hot bar of
iron, and bade him guess its weight. Marcellus took the
glowing bar in his palm, and said that it weighed nine pounds.
Probably some day he gave a rough guess at the weight of an
iron bar, which proved to be near enough to be thought
marvellous, and when the story came to be told, its marvel-
lousness was enhanced by the iron being said to be red-hot.
Prudentius after a while ordained him subdeacon. A
miracle is related of him at this stage of his career. On the
feast of the Epiphany Marcellus poured water over the hands
of the bishop during the celebration of the Mysteries, when
it was found that the water was changed into wine. Pruden-
tius used some of this wine for the Eucharist, and afterwards
distributed some from the cruet among the sick, who believed
themselves to be greatly benefited by this miraculous wine.
In this case it is quite possible that a mistake, made uninten-
tionally, may have given rise to the idea of a miracle having
been wrought. It was the duty of the sacristan to fill the
cruets before Mass, one with water, the other with wine. He
probably took up the empty one, and, without looking too
curiously which it was — the water vessel, or that for wine —

24 Lives of the Saints. [Nov.*.

filled it with the juice of the grape. And as the vessels were
not of glass, the mistake was not discovered till Marcellus
poured the contents over the fingers of the bishop at the
" Lotio manuum."

On another occasion he poured chrism over the bishop's
hands, so that he or the sacristan must have been given to
making blunders.

There was in the cathedral a chorister boy named Minu-
tius, aged ten, who had a sweet voice like a bird. The arch-
deacon gave him the antiphon to sing one day, not knowing
that the bishop had ordered another boy to sing it. Minutius
chanted the antiphon, and the bishop was furious. He sent
for the boy, and had him whipped. The child began to
scream. Prudentius shortly after lost his voice, the east wind
was probably blowing ; and S. Marcellus took occasion to
lecture the prelate on his injustice to the little choir-boy.
Prudentius was penitent, and found his voice to acknowledge
that he had acted out of temper, and had dealt unmercifully
by the poor child. Prudentius died about the year 400, and
was buried in the chapel of SS. Peter and Paul, where after-
wards rose the church of S. Genevieve. The clergy and
people of Paris elected Marcellus in his room.

He applied himself at once with fervour to discharge all
the functions of his office : to the conversion of sinners, the
instruction of the ignorant, the reconciliation of enemies, to
the visiting of the sick, the relief of the necessitous, the suc-
cour of prisoners, and the ministration of the sacraments. He
laboured to bring about a good understanding between him-
self and his people ; so that they came not only to speak of
him as a pastor, but to love him as a father,

Venantius Fortunatus tells us another story, which makes
us hesitate to accept his other accounts of miracles without
qualification.

A lady of rank and wealth, who had led a disorderly life,

died, and was buried in the cemetery outside the town. Her
character was pretty well known, but as she had not been ex-
communicated, she was not denied Christian burial. But no
sooner was she in her grave than a great black serpent was
seen to glide out of the wood, approach her tomb and burrow
into it, throw out the earth, expose her mouldering corpse,
and pasture on the ghastly remains.

This created a sensation in Paris, and the news reached
the ears of the bishop. Marcellus went in full pontificals
against the serpent, and coming to the grave, the hideous
creature stood up and threatened him ; he hit it thrice on the
head with his pastoral staff, knocked it over, and then loop-
ing his stole round the dead beast, trailed it after him through
Paris.

He died on November ist, 436; but as this day is the
Feast of All Saints, S. Marcellus is commemorated in the
diocese of Paris on November 3rd.

His relics were dispersed at the Revolution, but some
particles of bone are said to be preserved at Longpont, a
parish formerly in the diocese of Paris, but now in that of
Versailles.

S. Marcellus is represented in art with a dragon, the neck
surrounded by his stole.

S. VIGOR, B. OF BAYEUX.
(a.d. 537.)

[Roman and Gallican Martyrologies, Usuardus, &c. At Coutances and
Arras on Nov. 3 ; but at Bayeux on Nov. 5. Authority : — A Life by
an anonymous author, in Surius, Vit. Sanctorum, Nov. 1.]

S. Vigor was born in Artois. His parents, illustrious by
their birth, were more ennobled by their sanctity of life.
They gave their son Vigor to S. Vedast, Bishop of Arras, to

26 Lives of the Saints.

Nov.

be by him educated ; but not for the ministry. Vigorf fear-
ing lest his father should insist on his marrying, and continu-
ing the family honours, ran away with one companion named
Theodemir, and concealed himself at Raviere, a little village
near Bayeux. There he preached, and having received priests'
orders, ministered the sacraments to the people. He is said
to have restored a child to life whom he had baptized, and who
died shortly after his baptism. He healed the sick, opened
the ears of the deaf and the eyes of the blind. Of course, of
him, as of most other bishops of an early age, the story is told
that he killed a monstrous serpent or dragon.

On the death ofS. Contestus, in 513, Vigor was elected in
his place to the vacant see of Bayeux. Near the city stood
a hill called Phaunus, on which was a stone figure of a woman
to which the peasants offered religious rites.1 It stood on a
royal domain. S. Vigor obtained the property from King
Childebert, destroyed the idol, erected a church on the spot,
and called the hill Mons Chrismatis, the Mount of Unction.

Count Bertulf invaded the domain given to the bishop.
Vigor entered the church, prayed, and received the satisfac-
tory information that the Count had fallen off his horse, and
broken his neck. S. Vigor founded the monastery of Cerare,
which was afterwards destroyed by the Normans. He died
at an advanced age, full of merits, on the 1st of November.
His relics were translated to the cathedral of Bayeux, but
afterwards were carried to the monastery of S. Riquier, in
Ponthieu. A. portion was given in 1671 to the monastery of
S. Vigor, near Bayeux, and this is still preserved in the mon-
astery church, now converted into a parish church.

1 Like the so-called Venus of Quiniply.

S. BEGHA, V.
(a.d. 660.)

[Variously commemorated on Oct. 31 and Nov. 1. Benedictine
Martyrologies of Menardus, Wyon, &c. Dempster's Scottish Menology
on Sept. 6. ' Aberdeen Breviary on Oct. 31. Camerarius on Sept. 8.
There is, however, great confusion between Baya and Begha. The
Anglican Martyrology of Wilson on Sept. 6.]

The life of S. Begha, or Bega, or Beez, has been already
given on September 6th. But it seems probable that there
were three of that name — one, the virgin on the Cumberland
coast; another, abbess in Yorkshire; a third, a virgin at
Kilbeg, in Scotland. It is impossible to unravel the confu-
sion. The two days, September 6th and November 1st, dedi-
cated to Begha, Virgin, seem to indicate two distinct saints.

One settled where S. Bee's Head looks towards Ireland.
She was daughter of an Irish prince ; and according to her
Life, published by Mr. Tomlinson, came across to Britain on
a green grass sod, which she cut in Ireland, cast into the sea,
and on which she stood to be wafted over.

The second Begha received the veil from the hands of
S. Aidan, in the reign of King Oswald. She ruled a commu-
nity in a cell constructed by him in a certain desert island,
certainly in Northumbria, and not in Cumberland, where
Aidan exercised no jurisdiction.

When S. Hilda returned from Gaul,2 S. Begha prayed to be
freed from the burden of government, and that S. Hilda
should be consecrated abbess in her stead, which accordingly
took place. It is probably this Begha, living in the monas-
tery of Hacanes, thirteen miles from Whitby, that Bede

1 See SS. Maura and Baya, Nov. 2. Dempster and Adam King commemorate
S. Baya (Kegha) on Nov. 1, but this is quite a different saint, who lived under
K. Donald.

'' Bede, Hist. lib. iv. c. 23.

* *

28 Lives of the Saints. [Nov.i.

mentions as having had the death of S. Hilda revealed to her
in vision.1

The Aberdeen Breviary says that she died in the odour of
sanctity, attested by many miracles wrought at her tomb,
especially the cure of the two sons of a Frenchman from
Chartres. But this was no doubt the Cumberland, and not
the Yorkshire S. Begha.

S. HAROLD BLUETOOTH, K.M.
(a.d. 986.)

[Necrologium Islando-Norvegicum, in Langebek, Script. Rer.
Dan. ii. p. 517 ; Alban Butler. Not in the Roman Martyrology.
Authorities : — Adam of Bremen, ii. ; Heimskringla Sagas, iv. v. vi. ;
Knytlinga Saga, 1-4 ; Jomsvikinga Saga; Sdgubrot, ii. xi. ; the Olafs
Tryggvasonar Saga; Agrip af Noregs Konunga-Sogum ; Saxo Gram-
maticus, lib. ix. x. &c]

The results of the missions of S. Anskar and Rembert in
Denmark were not very abiding. The converts left to them-
selves, without priests, either fell away, or did nothing to
propagate their faith. Small communities of Christians in
Denmark and Sweden, which had been founded with great
labour, degenerated in their belief into a mixed superstition,
which retained some elements of Christianity, united to a
large body of heathen myth and practice. Unni of Ham-
burg (918-936) renewed the efforts of his predecessors to
advance the kingdom of Christ in Denmark and Sweden,
and political circumstances opened to him exceptional
advantages.

In the interval between the missions of Anskar and Rem-
bert, and the renewed efforts of Unni, important changes
had taken place in the political constitution of Denmark.
We have evidence that Denmark in the earliest period formed

1 H. E. lib. iv. c. 23.

*£t — — —

Nov.ij & Harold Bluetooth. 29

one kingdom as little as did Sweden or Norway. Nume-
rous small sovereignties, extending over an island, or a cluster
of settlements, composed Denmark. Each petty king was
independent of his neighbour, and often at war with him.
Intermarriages, conquest, the necessity of association,
gradually absorbed the smaller principalities, till Gorm the
Old succeeded, like Harald Haarfager in Norway, and Eg-
bert in England, in reducing the whole of these petty sove-
reignties under his own sway. Of the manner in which this
was done we know nothing for certain; all that the old
chroniclers say is that Gorm was the first sole king of Den-
mark, and that he crushed a King Gnupa in Jutland, and
another called Silfraskalli, whose land reached to the Schlei.
Some of these petty kings had befriended Christianity ; and
the acquisition of the supremacy by Gorm marked a reaction
against the new religion, and against the influence of Germany
on the politics as well as the faith of the nation. Gorm attacked
with fury the Sclavonic peoples who occupied Prussia, Meck-
lenburg, and Pomerania, and swept over portions of Saxony
and Friesland with sword and fire.1 Gorm married Thyra,
daughter of Ethelred of England. She was a Christian, but
her influence was not sufficient to prevent Gorm putting to
death some priests he found in Jutland, and destroying a
Christian church in Schleswig. Perhaps it was the hostility
of Gorm to Christianity which furnished Henry I. of Germany
with an excuse for invading Denmark in 934. We have few
particulars of this campaign ; but we know that it was con-
ducted by the Emperor in person, and that it ended in a
complete triumph. Denmark was subjected to the German
empire ; Gorm was obliged to do homage, pay tribute, and
promise to admit German missionaries into his realm.

Unni, Archbishop of Hamburg, at once took advantage of

1 Adam of Bremen confounds him sometimes with his father HSrdaknut ; Witti-
kind of Corbei calls him Chnuba, perhaps mistaking him for Gnupa whom he
conquered.

30 Lives of the Saints. pjor If

the opportunity. He went himself into Denmark, accom-
panied by several of his clergy and monks. He tried in vain
to bring the wild Gorm to Christian baptism, but he suc-
ceeded in securing the good wishes of Harold, the king's
son, who, however, would not take the irrevocable step of
being baptized. We may suppose that his mother's influence
counted for much with him. Favoured by Harold, who had
been associated by his father with him in the sovereignty,
Unni was able not only to restore some churches in Jutland,
and supply them with priests, but to do what no missionary
had previously attempted, viz., cross to the Danish isles,
to console there Christian prisoners, and preach the Word of
God to the heathen.1 If we may trust the Scandinavian
authorities, he baptized Froda, under-king of Jutland, and
founded the churches of Heidaby, Ripum, and Aross.2 Froda
afterwards, in 948, sent a deputation to Pope Agapetus, and
at his recommendation raised these three churches into
bishoprics. Unni went forward, crossed to Birka, where he
planted a church, and died in the midst of his apostolic
labours, in Sweden (a.d. 936).

The strengthening and establishment of the newly-founded
Church in Denmark was the work of the successors of
Henry I., the two Othos, and of Adaldag, Archbishop of
Hamburg (936-988).

Harold Bluetooth, the second son of Gorm and Thyra, had
been raised, as already said, to share the throne with his
father. Knut, the eldest son, died fighting in Ireland. He
had been called Dansaast (Beloved of the Danes). Knut, who
had inherited the land of his grandfather, Harold, had been
defeated in Friesland by Henry I., and forced to adopt, in
profession at least, the religion of Christ. The old king,
Gorm, was blind with age, but had lost none of his fire and
fury. He was passionately attached to Knut, and died of

1 Adam of Bremen, i. c. 64. a The younger Olafs S. Tryggv. i. c. 67.

Nov>1-] S. Harold Bluetooth. 31

grief when he heard of his death. He had, says the story,
threatened death to anyone who should bring him fatal news
of his son. When Queen Thyna heard of the fall of Knut,
she went to the old king, removed his royal apparel, and
habited him in the deepest mourning. " What is this for?"
asked Gorm; "my son, Knut, is dead!" "Thou hast
brought the news to thyself," said the queen. "And it is
my death-warrant," answered the old man. He bowed his
head, and died.1

Harold Bluetooth, otherwise called Nidski, or the " mean
in gifts," favoured the advance of Christianity in his realm.
From his mother he had derived a regard for the Church ;
and his friendly associations with the Norman ducal house 2
tended to draw him nearer to the Christian religion. He
allowed churches to be built, encouraged missionaries, and
was regarded by the grateful clergy, after his fall in battle
with his son and the Jomsborg pirates, as a saint and a
martyr. But his heart and his conscience were but little
affected by the religion he encouraged and afterwards pro-
fessed. From early youth to extreme old age he was an in-
veterate sea-rover, harrying, robbing, butchering, burning
without compunction. His ambition was boundless, and for
the satisfaction of this passion he stuck at no means, how-
ever infamous. He was as false and treacherous as he was
daring and fearless. He sought to improve his people, to
bring them to better order, to have them instructed in
Christian morals ; but of the laws which he promulgated to
this effect he himself observed scarce one.

The continual incursions of the Danes forced the Emperor

1 The Icelandic Annal gives 936 as the date ; but Suhm thinks that the date
should be 941. But if Harold died in 986, as is probable, and according to the Knytlinga
Saga he reigned fifty years, then 936 was the vear when his father died. The Annals
give 985 as the date of Harold's death. K. Maurer, in a special article on the expedi-
tions of Otho I. and II. against King Harold, accepts 936 as the date of Gorm's death.

3 In 945 he assisted the Duke of Normandy against the King of France.

# *

32 Lives of the Saints. tNoy. fc

Otho I. to take the field in 941, to chastise them. He gained
such successes that King Harold was obliged to conclude a
peace with him, one of the stipulations of which was, that he
should recognize the Emperor as his liege lord, and another
that he should afford every facility for the spread of the
Christian faith in his lands.

In 965 he consented to be baptized, moved to a public
profession of the Christian faith by a miracle which was per-
formed in his presence. Widukind gives the particulars, and
he was a contemporary (919-973): "A ceitain clerk," he
wrote, " named Poppo, a bishop, now, however, leading a
monastic life, testified in a conclave before the king that
there was one Father, and His only begotten Son Jesus
Christ, and the Holy Ghost, and that the idols were demons
not gods. The Danes present denied this, saying that Christ
was indeed God, but that their deities were far superior —
able to work much greater signs. Then Harold, the king,
who was fond of listening, but not much of a speaker, asked
if Poppo were disposed to put this to the proof. He readily
replied in the affirmative. The king, therefore, ordered him
to be put in safe keeping till the morrow. Next day he
ordered a great piece of iron to be heated red, and bade the
clerk carry the glowing iron in proof of the Catholic faith.
The confessor of Christ unhesitatingly took up the iron, and
carried it till the king was satisfied, and so gave proof before
all of the Catholic faith. By this the king was convinced.
He decreed that Christ alone should be adored as God ;
ordered all idols in his realm to be cast away, and that
thenceforth people's honour should be rendered to the priests
and ministers of God."1

Eric Bloodyaxe, the favourite son of Harald Haarfager,
was invested by his father with full sovereignty in Norway,

1 Widukind, Res gest. Saxon, iii. c. 65. Ruotger, in his Life of Bruno of
Cologne, says the same, a.d. 966. Dietmar of Mcrseburg copies Widukind.

* — «

Nov. x] 6*. Harold Bluetooth. 33

a.d. 933. The old king died three years after; and then
Hakon, Athelstan's foster-son, the son of Harald Haarfager
by a servant girl, gathered an army at Drontheim, and drove
Eric Bloodyaxe out of the country. He went to Orkney,
plundered the coast of England, and fell in battle in 944,
with three of his sons. His queen, Gunhild, and the rest of
her sons, then fled in their ships to Denmark, and took
refuge with King Harold Bluetooth, who was then highly in-
censed against King Hakon, Athelstan's foster-son, for having
ravaged the Danish coast.

"When Gunhild and her sons came from the West to
Denmark, they were well received by King Harold. He
gave them fiefs in his kingdom, so that they could maintain
themselves and their men very well. He also took Harald,
Eric's son, to be his foster-son, set him on his knee,1 and had
him brought up at his court. Some of Eric's sons went out
on viking expeditions as soon as they were old enough, and
gathered property, ravaging all around in the Baltic. They
grew up quickly to be handsome men, far beyond their years
in strength and perfection."2

King Harold gave Gunhild's sons considerable forces, and
they invaded Norway. A battle was fought at Fraedarborg,
and Gamle, Eric and Gunhild's eldest son, fell.

In 963 Harald, now the eldest of the remaining sons of
Eric Bloodyaxe, made another attack on the coasts of Nor-
way, assisted by the King of Denmark's men. Hakon again
defeated the invaders ; but an arrow, shot, it is thought, by
Queen Gunhild's shoe-boy, pierced an artery in his arm, and
he bled to death. Harald Greyskin, son of Eric Bloodyaxe,
then assumed the sovereignty of Norway.

Sigurd, Earl of Lade, who governed all the region of Dron-
theim, and was the most powerful noble in Norway, incurred
the jealousy of Gunhild's sons, because he had been faithful

1 A symbol of adoption. * Olafs S. Tryggv. c. 19 ; Heimskringla, S. iv. c. 10.

VOL. XIII. 3

* #

*— *

34 Lives of the Saints. [Nov. 1#

to King Hakon. He had married Bergliot, daughter of Earl
Thorer the Silent, by Aolf, daughter of Harald Haarfager.
Queen Gunhild and her sons devised a wicked plan. They
bribed the brother of Sigurd to let them know when the earl
could be fallen on unawares, promising the earldom if he
would assist them in compassing the murder of his brother.
One starry night, at a signal given by this traitor to his own
flesh and blood, King Harald Greyskin surrounded the
wooden house in which Earl Sigurd was sleeping, and burned
it, with him and all his men in it. The son of the earl,
named Hakon, was fortunately not within. He placed him-
self at the head of the Drontheim men, and for three years
defied King Harald Greyskin, but was finally obliged to take
refuge in Denmark with King Harold Bluetooth. That same
winter there was at the court of the king, his nephew, called
Gold Harald, son of his elder brother, Knut, who had died in
Ireland.

Gold Harald fairly thought that he had a right to a part, at
least, of the kingdom, and with astonishing simplicity he went
to King Harold, and asked him to give him a share of Den-
mark, as he was the son of his elder brother.

Harold Bluetooth was furious, and went to Earl Hakon to
consult with him what was to be done, saying, " If Gold
Harald persists in his demand, I shall not hesitate to have
him put to death." Hakon advised the king not to murder
his nephew, but to get possession of Norway, kill Harald
Greyskin, and place Gold Harald on the throne. By this
means Hakon would be restored to his earldom, and would
serve the king, and pay him tribute. King Harold Bluetooth
hesitated. The King of Norway was his adopted son ; he
had taken him on his knee, and had brought him up. But
it was not the wickedness of the plot which made him recoil
from it, he shrank only from what people would say about
him. The plot contrived between the king and the earl was

* — *

*— — *

Nov. i.] S- Harold Bluetooth. 35

indeed infamous enough to cause talk. Harold Bluetooth
was to invite his foster-son to visit him in Denmark, to re-
ceive from him the lands and fiefs which had before been
given to the sons of Gunhild and Eric. Then, when the Nor-
wegian king came unsuspectingly, he was to be fallen upon
and put to death. " What will the people say to my deceiv-
ing to his death my own foster-son ? " asked the king.

" The Danes," answered the earl, " will rather say that it
is better to kill a Norwegian pirate than a Danish one, who
is your own brother's son."

The king consented; but the execution of the deed was to
be committed to Gold Harald, who was to be incited to it
with the prospect of receiving the crown of the man he was
commissioned to kill.

But this was not the worst. It was arranged between the
king and Earl Hakon that as soon as Gold Harald had killed
the Norwegian king, Hakon, whom Gold Harald would not
suspect, as being his intimate friend, was to turn suddenly
on him, and murder him.

Thus this old king, aged about seventy-five, connived
at the murder of his own nephew and his foster-son, after
that nephew had first been set to take the life of the
other.

The invitation was sent to Harald Greyskin to come to
Denmark, and receive investiture of the fiefs he and his
brothers before him had formerly held in Denmark, and ap-
pointing a meeting in Jutland. Harald agreed to go, though
some sort of suspicion seems to have entered his mother's
brain that mischief might be meant. However, she accom-
panied him, in the spring of 975, to the place appointed — a
spit of land between the Lymfjord and the sea. Gold Harald
was there to meet him. The king was absent on some
excuse. The men of Gold Harald at once attacked those ot
King Harald Greyskin, and the king was cut down on the

* *

*. *

36 Lives of the Saints. [Nov x

sea-shore. A little later Earl Hakon arrived, seized on the
person of Gold Harald, and hung him on a gallows, as though
punishing him, by the king's orders, for having slain Harald
Greyskin.

King Harold of Denmark then equipped a fleet of 600
ships, and sailed for Norway. He established Earl Hakon
at Drontheim, dividing the rest of the land among others,
and returned to Denmark.

No sooner was Earl Hakon established than he cast off
the Christianity which he had been forced by King Harold
to adopt, refused to pay tribute to Denmark, and began to
harry the coasts of Harold's realm. The Danish king sailed
at once for Norway, and wasted the whole of the country
over which Earl Hakon held rule, burning houses, carrying
off cattle, and massacring the people.

He was highly incensed at some lines which the Ice-
landers had made on him, likening him to a pony who kicks
a shield — the point of which is not very clear. However, it
was sharp enough to sting Harold to fury, and he wanted to
sail to Iceland, and chastise the islanders for the lampoon
they had made ; but the length of the voyage, the dangers of
the coast, and his own advanced age, obliged him reluctantly
to abandon his design.

He had another war with the Germans in 974. He re-
fused to pay tribute to the Emperor, and Otho II. collected
an army, marched into Sleswik, and a furious battle was
waged on the Danevirke, a wall he had thrown up from the
head of the Flensborg fjord to the North Sea. The Danes
succeeded in repelling the Germans, but Otho put his troops
on board ship, landed in Jutland above the Danevirke, and
routed the forces of Harold. The Danes were obliged to
come to terms, and the Emperor Otho stood sponsor to a
bastard son of King Harold at the font. The boy was called
Otto Sweyn, but the Danes speedily forgot the first name,

* *

not. i.] ■£ Harold Bluetooth. 37

and called him instead, in later years, Sweyn tjuguskegg
(Forkbeard).

This son, Sweyn, was the son of a farmer's daughter named
^Esa, in Fyeen. The king had been driven by stress of
weather ashore, and had accepted the hospitality of a farmer
there, named Atli. He seduced his daughter, and departed
next day to a banquet, at which he was to meet a man
famous in Saga, named Palnatoki.

^Esa in due time became the mother of a boy, whom she
called Sweyn. Three years after, the king came again to a
banquet in Fyeen with Palnatoki. During the banquet, the
girl came forward, leading her child, and showed it to Harold.
He had forgotten her face, and did not know her again. But
the publicity of the affair obliged him to own the child, after
a vain attempt to drive the girl out with brutal insults. Pal-
natoki rose, and said, " She is indeed a poor man's daughter,
and of no family, but a good woman, and not what you
charge her with being." The king, in a rage, refused to do
more for the child than was absolutely necessary. Palnatoki
took the little boy, and became his foster-father.1 He was
grown up to man's estate when baptized.

His foster-father was determined that Sweyn should be
recognized, and he sent the youth repeatedly to his father to
ask for ships and men, with which he could go on piratical
expeditions. Harold reluctantly supplied him with them.
He never liked the boy, and saw as little of him as he could.

At last, in 986, Sweyn, when aged eighteen, had the
audacity to ask his father to associate him with him in the
kingdom, as Gorm the Old had associated Harold. The
king was furious, and drove him away. Sweyn determined
to gain by force of arms what was denied him as a favour.
He collected ships of war, and gave out that he was going on
a viking cruise. But when all his men were assembled, he

1 Jomsvikinga Saga, c. 17-20.
*- *

v 4. ? » 1

* *

38 Lives of the Saints. [Nov. u

ran into Sealand, up the Isafjord, and there lighted on the
king's fleet.1 A battle ensued ; but the king had fifty ships,
and Sweyn probably not more than half that number. Ten
of Harold's vessels were sunk, and twelve of those of Sweyn.
Sweyn fled in his ship up a creek as the night fell, and the
king's ships blocked the entrance, so as to prevent the possi-
bility of escape, intending next morning to attack the vessel,
and kill the young pretender and all his men.

That night Palnatoki came up with twenty-four ships, and
ran behind the ness on the other side of the fjord, so that he
was not observed. The king, confident of taking his son in
the morning, went ashore for the night into the pine wood
with some of his men, Fjolner, the brother of Palnatoki,
being of the number. They lighted a fire, as it was very dark
in the wood. Palnatoki left his ship, and came up through
the trees in the direction of the fire, till he came within ear-
shot, and then stole unobserved to where he could see what
was going on. The king being old was chilly, and he stood
first with his back to the fire, and then knelt down and spread
his arms out to warm his chest. The party were talking over
the success of the day, and of the certainty of capturing the
lad on the morrow, and cutting short his pretensions. Pal-
natoki drew an arrow from the quiver at his back, placed it
on the string, stretched his bow, and struck the king in the
mouth. He sank on the ground and died. Fjolner ran to
the king, and drew out the arrow, and recognized his brother's
marks on the shaft.

Palnatoki returned to his vessel, and, without saying what
he had done, went to the assistance of Sweyn, from whom
also he concealed that he had killed his father, freed him from
the embarrassing situation in which he found himself, and

1 This is the account in the Saga of Olaf Tryggvason, but the Jorasvikinga Saga
says that the king, moved by suspicion that the young man would rise in insurrection
against him, collected a fleet with intent to disperse his followers, take and kill him.

4n *

■©

Nov. t-] 5. Harold Bluetooth. 39

waited till morning, when the news spread that the king was
dead. Palnatoki summoned a gathering of the people, and
proposed Sweyn to be king in his father's room. He was
elected without opposition.1

King Harold Bluetooth was buried at Roskilde, and was
the first Danish king to be laid in consecrated earth. Miracles
were said to be wrought at his tomb, and he came to be
regarded as a saint.

He had founded the church of Roskilde, dedicated to the
Holy Trinity, and erected it of wood. The second Sogubrot
says that Sweyn was joined in his rebellion by all the chiefs
whom Harold had forced to receive Christian baptism, and
in their hearts turned to idols. But this testimony is late,
and not to be trusted implicitly. Harold advanced Chris-
tianity only because, by the terms of his agreement with
Otho I., and again with Otho II., he was obliged to do so.
He was a bad Christian himself, and not very enthusiastic
that others should become good ones. The revolt was or-
ganized by the powerful Palnatoki, in hopes of gaining power
through his influence with the young Sweyn, his foster-son :
the motive was private ambition, not religious fanaticism.

Harold's claims to be regarded as a martyr for the faith are
about on a level with those for reverence as a saint. One
may feel thankful that he has not got into the Martyrology.

1 I have followed the minute narrative in the Jomsvikinga Saga. Snorro Sturlason
only says that " Harold received a wound which ended in his death ; and Sweyn was
chosen king of Denmark," s. vi. c. 38. The Knytlinga Saga, " In that battle
Harold received his death wound from an arrow," c. 4. Sogubrot II., " Harold fled
from the battle wounded to Wendland, and died at Jomsborg on All Saints' Day ;"
but this is certainly wrong. He died either on the spot or directly after at Roskilde,
where he was buried. The Saga of Olaf Tryggv. c. 84, says that the king got his
wound in the fight, and that Palnatoki is said to have dealt it him.

■*

* _ *

40 Lives of the Saints. [Nov< 1#

S. SALAUN, C.
(a.d. 1358.)

[Venerated in Brittany at N. D. de Folgoat. He died on Nov. I.
The feast of the Foundation of Follcoat is celebrated on March 8.
Authority : — A Life by Jean de Langoueznou, Benedictine monk,
abbot of Landevenec, a contemporary. The original existed in 1562,
when the Bishop of Leon , R. de Neufville, gave it to Rene Benoist and
Pascal Robin, who translated it into French and added portions of their
own relating the later history of Follcoat, which is historically incor-
rect. How far they amplified the original cannot be told, as that
original is now lost. Their paraphrase is given by Albert le Grand.]

Salaun, or Solomon, was a poor idiot, who begged his
livelihood from door to door, in the neighbourhood of Les-
neven in Brittany. He had been sent to school, but had
learned nothing there but reverence for the Blessed Virgin.
The poor fool used to knock at doors, and cry, " O itroun
guerhez Vari ! Salaun a deppre bara ! " (O Lady Virgin Mary !
Solomon would have some bread to eat !) He heard Mass
every day at Lesneven. If he met anyone in the roads, he
pleaded for alms with his invariable cry, " O itroun guerhez
Vari \" He slept up in a tree. When cold he swung him-
self from one of the branches, uttering his wonted call. Once
some soldiers fell on him during the contests between Charles
of Blois and the Count of Montfort, and asked him to which
side he belonged. " Neither to Blois nor to Montfort, but
to Mary," he replied. Being regarded as an idiot, he was
called Ar foil, or the fool ; and the little wood in which he
sheltered, Ar foil goat (the Fool's Wood). He died about
1358, on All Saints' Day, and was buried in the churchyard
of Guic-Elleaw. But a pure white lily grew out of his grave.
Popular tradition adds that the petals were inscribed with his
appeal, " O itroun guerhez Vari ! " It remained in flower six
weeks. The people of the neighbourhood thought this was

* - «

Nov. i.J

S. Salaun.

a testimony by Mary to the sanctity of her worshipper.
They dug into the grave, and found the lily growing out of
the dead fool's mouth.

The fame spread, and popular veneration grew for the
memory of the poor idiot; and now Notre Dame de Folgoat
is one of the most popular places of pilgrimage in Lower
Brittany.

42 Lives of the Saints. rNov. 9

November 2.

Commemoration of All Souls.

S. Victorinus, B.M. of Pettau in Stytia; a.d. 303.

S. Justus, M. at Trieste; a.d. 303.

SS. Carterius, Styriachus, Tobias, and Comt., MM. atSebaste ;

circ. a.d. 320.
S. Tiieodotus, B. of Laodicca in Syria; a.d. 334.
S. Eustochia, V.M. at Tarsus; A.D. 363.
S. Marcian, H. at Cyrus in Syria; 4th cent.
S. Erc, B. of S lane in Ireland; a.d. 513.
S. Naamachus, C. at Rhodes; 5th cent.
S. Ambrose, Ab. of Saint Maurice in Valais; 6th cent.
S. George, B. of Vienne in Gaul; jth cent.
S. Wulgan, B.C. at Arras; jth cent.
SS. Maura and Baya, W. in Scotland; \oth cent.
S. Willebold, Count of Calw, C. at Berkheim in WUrtembetg ;

A.D. 1230.

COMMEMORATION OF ALL SOULS.

[Roman Martyrology, and all later Kalendars since the 10th cent.]

OR long no especial day was appointed for the
commemoration of all those who have departed
this life, but have not attained to perfect light.
Among the early Christians the names of the de-
parted were entered on the diptychs, or lists, used at the
altar, from which the priest, after the consecration, read the
names of those for whom he was required to pray, that God
might give them "a place of refreshment, light, and peace."
In the 6th century it was customary in Benedictine
monasteries for a commemoration of all the departed brethren
of the Order to be held in Whitsuntide. In Spain the Memo-
rial of All Souls was celebrated in the time of S. Isidore on
the Octave of Pentecost.1 This seems a Western echo of

1 Cap. ult. Regulae S. Isidon Ilisp.

THE LAST JUDGMENT.
From the Vienna Missal.

Nov., Part I. p. 42.]

[Nov. 2.

t& _,£

Nov. 2.] Commemoration of All Souls. 43

the Oriental custom of commemorating All Saints on that
day, and All Souls on the Saturday before Whitsunday.

S. Odilo of Clugny, in 998, ordered that in all the monas-
teries affiliated to Clugny, the commemoration of All Souls
should take place on the morrow of the Feast of All Saints.
Thence the observance of November 2nd as All Souls' Day
spread throughout the West.

" The Christian year is closing. Many are the festivals
which the Church has celebrated in her annual course, most
sacred the mysteries of faith and love to which they have
been dedicated. And every feast day has held up to us
a mirror of life, in which we might see something shadow-
ing forth our own course.

" And now, after she has finished this her loving duty with
great benefit to souls, the Church leads her children once more
to the threshold of Eternity, and with finger points twice,
significantly, into the space beyond the world.

"At the first indication, the eyes of the faithful look into
the open heaven in all its glory and beauty. They see Christ
seated in the midst of His Saints and chosen ones, triumph-
ing in them, and they in Him : celebrating that eternal feast-
day, of which All Hallows, in which the Church yearly calls
her children to rejoice, is but a dull reflection for the earthly
pilgrim.

" But on account of the glory that will be, the Feast of All
Saints here on earth is dear, and looked forward to by the
weary pilgrim. It is to him a day of home-sickness, of yearn-
ing for his true Home : it recalls to him the fact that he is one
of a mighty communion which embraces Christ and all His
elect. It establishes his faith, strengthens his courage, stimu-
lates his watchfulness, blows his love to an intenser ardour.
It is a worthy close to all the festivals of the Church year.
The Christian festivals begin with the Babe in the manger,
and end with the triumph of the same in Heaven in the midst

# *

* . — _ *

44 Lives of the Saints. [Noy< fc

of His ransomed people, of those whom His flesh-taking has
won for glory.

" But the pulse of the Church throbs with provident love
and active pity. Whilst gazing, as on All Hallows, into the
splendour of the elect and perfected, who are enthroned with
Christ in ineffable light, she does not forget herself in dumb
ecstasy. She wonders, and prays, and praises, and thanks;
but with the uneasiness of love she turns to look for those of
her children who did, indeed, pass into eternity with faith and
love, but who yet were full of human infirmity : halting,
wavering, imperfect souls, who cannot be counted with the
saints ; who have much to learn, much to forget, powers to
acquire, habits to cast off, before they can see God face to
face and live. She finds them elsewhere in a state of puri-
fication; this is why she points once more. Her com-
passionate heart turns to them in pity and with longing, and
for the sake of these souls, she cuts short, she hastens over
the festival of the saints in Heaven, and already, on the
afternoon of All Saints' Day, begins the octave of supplica-
tion for the souls that are being purged. Verily love has in
its precipitancy something unreasonable to casual eyes.
Love is drawn nearer to those that suffer than to those that
rejoice."1

The soul after parting from the body has necessarily to go
through a condition of purification before it is meet to be-
hold God in His glory. The time of growth is not cut
short by death, it continues till the soul has disengaged
itself from those aims which debased and restrained it whilst
on earth. Here it was distracted from its true aim, its
hidden powers had not scope for expansion, or were arrested
by circumstances, or by want of will or knowledge to direct
and discipline them aright. When the soul wakes to the
sight of God as He is, it is filled with a sense of its imper-

1 Nickel, " Die heiligen Zeiten und Feste," Mainz, 1838, v. p. 89.
& -*

# *

Nov.».] Commemoration of All Souls. 45

fections, its lost opportunities, its miserable short comings,
its incapacity for enjoyment of God in His glory, goodness,
and beauty. Consequently it has to overcome its ignorance,
which obscures the sight of Him in His splendour ; its gross-
ness, which has entangled it in the pursuit of carnal aims,
so that it has lost appetite for holiness ; and its vitiated taste,
which interferes with its loving that which is beautiful from
a sense of the perfection of what is lovely. The soul has
much to unlearn, much to cast off, much to acquire. The
realization of its imperfections causes it distress and pain,
the yearning for perfection is the travail of the soul to its
new birth. Thus its condition after death is one of waiting,
watching, groaning, suffering.

" Lo, the soul in contemplation

Utters earnest prayers and deep,
Watching as the streaks of daylight

Nearer creep.

" Eye untrain'd to gaze on glory,

Dimm'd and feeble, short of sight,
Now is growing stronger, straining

T'wards the light.

" Thoughts that trail'd on earth as flowers

Sodden with the soil and rain,
Now are lifting, spreading, shaking

Off their stain.

" Powers that dormant lay, unquicken'd,

Crush'd by daily toil and strife —
Needs now over — wake, develop,

Gather life.

" Conscience contemplates Perfection,

What God is, and where man fails,

Hungers anguish' d, faints, yet stretches,

Hopes, yet quails.

" Self-assurance dies in torture,

Writhing on a bed of flame,
Whilst from out its ashes riseth

Holy Shame.

* *

*- *

46 Lives of the Saints. [Nov> a

" Earth's horizon slowly fading,

Wider grows the heavenly span,
Care assumes another centre,

God, not man.

" Transformation in the furnace !

Dross is driven from the ore,
Sordid passion, human meanness,

Vex no more.

" Fancies yield to great ideas,

Thoughts are travailing to the birth.
Deep the plough-share seeks the harvest
In the earth."

It is when the soul is in this condition that the prayers of
the Church assist it. Real deep compassion, that human
sympathy which binds every member of the body mystical
together, comes into action, and when one member suffers
all the members suffer sympathetically with it, and the
prayers of men on earth and of saints in heaven assist the
poor fainting, yearning spirit in its upward course.

" The Scriptures give us plain directions to pray one for
another, to make prayers, supplications and giving of thanks
for all men, to pray for all saints, &c. And if all belong to
the same society, if there be one body and one spirit ; if
that one body be Christ Himself, from whom no faithful
soul can be separated by life or death, it does not appear
how any one soul, united to the head, can be excluded from
the prayers which the Church offers for the whole body, or
from participation in the virtues of that sacrifice, without
which no human soul can live. If it is the duty of all
Christians to pray one for another, our prayers will neces-
sarily comprehend all who can derive benefit from them ;
that is, all who are united with us in the household of God.
Wherever they are they are in the one kingdom of the Re-
deemer, and have their life from the same body and blood
which are the nourishment of ours. No distance can divide

* *

FROM THE OFFICE FOR THE DEAD.

Vienna Missal.

Nov., Part I. p. 46.]

[Nov. 2.

Nov-a>] S. Victorinus. 47

them from our charity or from the life of Christ ; for whether
near or afar off all are made nigh by the blood of Christ :
nigh to God, nigh to each other, nigh to all the saints." l

S. VICTORINUS, B.M.
(a.d. 303.)

[Roman Martyrology. Usuardus. Authority : — S. Jerome, De vixis
ill. c. 18, 74; Epist. 13 ; Cassiodorus, De div. Sect. c. 5, 7, 9.]

Very little is known of this saint, except that S. Jerome
calls him one of the pillars of the Church. He studied
oratory in Greece, being a Greek by birth, but abandoned
all prospect of advancement in the world for the cause of
Christ, and was made bishop of Pettau, in Upper Pannonia,
or Styria. He wrote in Latin, but his style was not good,
as Greek was his native tongue, and he never acquired com-
plete facility in the use of Latin. He commented on Holy
Scriptures, and combated several of the prevailing heresies.
But all his works have been lost save a treatise on the
Apocalypse, and another on the Creation of the World, which
has been published by Cave.2 The treatise on the Apoca-
lypse is, however, either wrongly attributed to him, or has
suffered alteration and interpolation ; for S. Jerome says
that Victorinus favoured Millennarian views, whereas the
author of this tract combats these doctrines. His commen-
taries on Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Habak-
kuk, Ecclesiastes, the Canticles, and on S. Matthew are lost.

S. Jerome says that he was a martyr, probably in the
persecution of 303.

1 Rev P. Cheyne, in " The Church and the World," Longmans, 1868.
' Scriptor. Eccl. Hist. Literaria. Lond. 16S8, pp. 103-4.

* *

Lives of the Saints.

[Nov. ».

S. THEODOTUS, B. OF LAODICEA.

(a.d. 334.)

[Roman Martyrology. Ado, Usuardus. Authority : — Eusebius, II. E.
vii. c. 32.]

Theodotus was made bishop of Laodicea after Stephen,
who gave way in the persecution of Diocletian. " The
affairs of the Church," says Eusebius, " were not likely to
be ruined by this, for these were corrected and restored by
Theodotus, who, under a special providence of God, the
Saviour of all, was ordained bishop of the Church there ; and
by his deeds proved the reality of his name (given of God)
and of his office as bishop. For he excelled in his know-
ledge of the medical art, as applied to the body, and was
skilled also in that healing science which ministers to the
soul. No one was ever his equal in kindness, sincerity,
sympathy, and a zeal to benefit those that needed his aid.
He was, also, much exercised in the study of divine things."
To him Eusebius is supposed to have dedicated his great
work on the "Evangelic Demonstration;" for Eusebius begins
his " Evangelic Preparation" with the words, " Having con-
ceived the design of setting forth before the eyes of those
who are ignorant the substance which constitutes Christianity,
in a book having for its title ' The Evangelic Demonstration,'
I brought it out under the auspices of your name, O Theo-
dotus, honour of the Episcopate, head precious and conse-
crated to God, with the prayer that you would assist me,
and support me also with the holy sacrifices which you would
offer for me to the Saviour."

After Arius had been condemned at Alexandria, and ex-
communicated by his bishop, S. Alexander, the heresiarch
appealed to the bishops in the East.

* ■ *

Nov. 2-] S. Theodotus. 49

Caesarea was the first place to afford him a retreat from
Alexandrian orthodoxy, where he received a cordial recep-
tion from the learned Eusebius, Metropolitan of Palestine;
whilst Athanasius, bishop of Anazarbus in Cilicia, Theodotus
of Laodicea, and others, did not hesitate, by letters on his
behalf, to declare their concurrence with him in the full ex-
tent of his heresy. Eusebius even declared that Christ was
not very or true God ; and his associate Athanasius asserted,
that He was in the number of the hundred sheep of the
parable — that is, one of the creatures of God.

A letter of Arius to Eusebius of Nicomedia has been pre-
served.

" To his most dear Lord, Eusebius, a man of God, faithful
and orthodox, Arius, the man unjustly persecuted by the
Pope Alexander for the all-conquering truth's sake, of which
thou art a champion, sends health in the Lord. As Ammo-
nius, my father, was going to Nicomedia, it seemed becoming
to address this through him ; and withal to represent to
that deep-seated affection which thou bearest towards the
brethren for the sake of God and His Christ, how fiercely
the bishop assaults and drives us, leaving no means untried
in his opposition. At length he has driven us out of the
city, as men without God, for dissenting from his public
declarations, that ' As God is eternal, so is His Son ; where
the Father, there the Son ; the Son co-exists in God without
a beginning ; ever generate, an ingenerately-generate ; that
neither in idea, nor by an instant of time, does God precede
the Son ; an eternal God, an eternal Son ; the Son is from
God Himself/ Since then Eusebius, thy brother of Csesarea,
Theodotus (of Laodicea), Paulinus (of Tyre), Athanasius
(of Anazarbus), Gregory (of Berytus), Aetius (of Lydda), and
all the bishops of the East declare that God exists without
origin before the Son, they are made anathema by Alexander's
sentence; all but Philogonius (of Antioch), Hellanicus (of
vol. xiii. 4
* ■ *

Lives of the Saints.

[Nov. a

Tripoli in Phoenicia), and Macarius (of Jerusalem), heretical,
ill-grounded men, who say, one that he is an utterance,
another an offspring, another co-ingenerate. These blas-
phemies we cannot bear," &c.'

Eusebius of Nicomedia, the ecclesiastical adviser of Con-
stantia, the Emperor's sister, declared in favour of Arius, and
offered him a refuge, which he readily accepted, from the
growing unpopularity which attended him in Palestine. The
Council of Nicaea met in 325. Arius appeared with several
bishops of his party, variously reckoned as twenty-two or
seventeen. Seven — amongst these, some reckon Theodotus
— Arius believed he could thoroughly rely upon. Philostor-
gius, however, does not reckon Theodotus among the twenty-
two of the party of Arius, but he is given as one by Theodoret.
It is certain that he subscribed the Creed, and that without
a struggle, such as that made by Eusebius of Nicomedia,
Theognis of Nicaea, Maris of Chalcedon, and the Libyan
bishops Theonas and Secundus. Finally all yielded, fearing
the banishment with which they were threatened by the
Emperor, except the two Libyans, who were condemned
with Arius. Yet no sooner were Eusebius and Theognis
returned to their dioceses, than they began to teach the Arian
heresy with increased vehemence, harboured the heretics
who had been driven out of Alexandria, and protested that
their subscription had not been given to the Nicene Creed.
They had succeeded, it is said, by bribery, in getting at the
document and effacing their names. These two bishops
openly communicated with the Arians. Theodotus seems
also to have shown his antagonism to the Nicene faith,
though he probably did not go to the same extremes as
Eusebius and Theognis ; for whereas Constantine banished
these bishops, he contented himself with writing to Theodotus
to caution him to be more circumspect, and to take warning

1 Theod. H. E. lib. i. c. 5.

*- — *

Nov.2.] »S. Theodotus, 51

by the punishment inflicted on Eusebius and Theognis, and
rid himself of the evil influence they had exerted on his
mind.

But in 328 Constantine fell under the influence of his
sister Constantia, and this led to the recall of Eusebius of
Nicomedia, of Theognis, and of Arius.

But though Arius had returned to Alexandria, S. Athana-
sius, now bishop of that important see in the room of his
friend and patron, Alexander, refused to receive him to com-
munion. The Arian party, which now had the ear of the
Emperor, resolved to effect his ruin, as well as that of other
most zealous champions of the Catholic faith. Various
calumnies were circulated about Athanasius, and he was
summoned before the Emperor to answer to the charges
made against him. Constantine speedily detected their
emptiness, and discharged him.

In the meantime a more successful attack had been made
against Eustathius of Antioch — a confessor, very learned and
eloquent, a writer, and a zealous opponent of Arianism.
Eusebius of Nicomedia, a crafty, unprincipled man, accom-
plished his purpose by means most discreditable. He feigned
a burning desire to see the magnificent church of the holy
sepulchre, which Constantine had built at Jerusalem. The
Emperor was so pleased at the expression of this wish, that
he furnished him with funds to make the journey, and placed
the state conveyances at his disposal. Eusebius took with
him Theognis of Nicsea, and they arrived together at Antioch.
S. Eustathius received them in a friendly manner, and with-
out suspicion, and saw them on their way to Jerusalem.
There they met other Arian bishops whom they had secretly
summoned to assemble there, under one pretext or another,
Theodotus of Laodicea, Eusebius of Csesarea, Patrophilus
of Scythopolis, Aetius of Lydda, &c. When all were
gathered, they set off together to Antioch, and invited

*- — »i<

52 Lives of the Saints. [Nov.2.

Eustathius to hold a council. He was still unsuspicious, and
called together some of his suffragans. Then, suddenly the
Arian party introduced a woman with a baby in her arms,
and charged Eustathius with being its father. The wretched
woman had been suborned to make this accusation by Euse-
bius and those acting in concert with him. The bishop of
Antioch, taken with surprise, indignantly demanded some
evidence against him other than the word of this woman.
But the Arians were in the majority. They put the woman
on her oath, took down her deposition, and in spite of the
outcries and remonstrances of the other bishops present,
condemned and deposed Eustathius. Eusebius and Theog-
nis at once posted off to the Emperor, leaving Theodotus
and the rest of their party in Antioch. Eusebius told the
Emperor that the patriarch of Antioch had been convicted
of having seduced a woman, before a Council held in his
own city, that his flock were indignant, and demanded
Eusebius of Csesarea in his place, and that on account of his
profligacy and sabellianism, the Council had deposed Eusta-
thius. He hinted also that the bishop of Antioch had grossly
insulted Helena, the mother of Constantine, to her face.
Constantine had only just lost his mother, and he took fire
at once at the insidious suggestion. He sent orders that
Eustathius should be brought before him.

In the meantime Antioch was in an uproar. Part of the
population sided with Eustathius, part believed the charges
made against him. The excitement was intense ; soldiers
and magistrates, the very heathen, took part in the con-
test, and came to blows. The armed hand of the Em-
peror was obliged to restore tranquillity. He banished
Eustathius to Trajanopolis, and the unfortunate bishop
died in exile.

Shortly after, the woman who had accused him fell ill,
and confessed before many bishops and clergy that she

* *

*- *

not. aj S . Theodotus . 53

had been bribed to make the charge, and assured that she
would not be committing perjury, for the father of the
child was indeed named Eustathius, but was a coppersmith
in Antioch.

Eusebius of Csesarea, however, did not think fit to leave
his see for that of Antioch, and wrote to the Emperor to
state his reasons.

Constantine sent a letter to Theodotus, Aetius, and others
of the Arian bishops assembled at Antioch, which Eusebius
has reported,1 in which he approved of what had been done.

Nothing more is known of Theodotus, except one cir-
cumstance of no great importance. There were at Laodicea
a priest named Apollinaris and his son, a lector, bearing the
same name. There was at that time in Laodicea a pagan
sophist of some note, named Epiphanius, a great friend of
the two Apollinares, and he gave instructions to the younger.
One day Epiphanius recited a hymn in praise of Bacchus,
in presence of several persons, amongst others of these two
men. Before doing so, he repeated the formula, " Let those
who are uninitiated or profane depart," but neither Apolli-
naris, father or son, nor any of the Christians present, left
the room. When Theodotus heard of this he was indignant.
After rebuking the laymen, he pardoned them; but he pub-
licly blamed the father and son, because they were in holy
orders, and excommunicated them. Only after they had
done penance with fasting and tears did he readmit them to
communion.

Theodotus has only crept into the Roman Martyrology
through an oversight. Ado, Usuardus, and other early
martyrologists, seeing the high praise accorded him in the
"Ecclesiastical History of Eusebius," and knowing nothing of
his Arianism, and his association with Eusebius of Nicomedia
in the scandalous transaction at Antioch, rashly placed him

' Vit. Const, c. 6a.

,£- *

Lives of the Saints.

[Nor. a.

in their Sacred Kalendars. It is much to be regretted that
Baronius did not cancel his name when he revised the
Martyrology.

S. MARCIAN, H.
(a.d. 388.)

[Roman Martyrology, inserted by Baronius. By the Greeks on Jan.
18, and on Nov. 2. Authority :— Theodoret, Philotheus, c. 2.]

The desert of Chalcis was in the borders of Syria, and
extended to the Euphrates. In the fourth century it was in-
habited by anchorites, of whom the most famous are S.
Avitus and S. Marcian. " Avitus," says Theodoret, " was
a holy man endowed with great wisdom. He was older than
S. Marcian, and had entered before him into the exercises
of the monastic life. His desert, which formed part of that
of Chalcis, was more northerly than that of this saint, bending
towards the east, and much exposed to the north-east winds.
He had built there a little cabin, where he lived a very austere
life, to which he had inured himself by long habit of morti-
fication. Having heard of the virtues of S. Marcian, he
thought it would greatly profit his soul to visit him." Such
was Avitus, who has not found a place in any sacred
kalendar. Marcian has been more fortunate. " This latter,"
says Theodoret, " had three countries, the town of Cyrus, the
desert, and Heaven. Cyrus saw his birth, the desert
nourished him in piety, and Heaven clothed him with virtues.
He was of patrician race, and consequently of a noble and
wealthy family. His form was comely, his face handsome,
and he was regarded, before he quitted the world, as one of
the most engaging and finest looking men of his city and
time. He figured at Court with distinction, and a career in
the profession of arms or in politics seemed to open before
him, when he cast aside all the advantages of his birth,

* ■ _ — £

Nov. 2.] S. Martian. 55

station, and education, and flying to the desert of Chalcis,
built himself a little cell in which he could scarce lie at length
or stand up, surrounded it with a little yard, and gave him-
self up to heavenly meditation, reading, and prayer." " The
chanting of psalms," says Theodoret, "succeeded prayer;
and prayer followed psalm-chanting, and the reading of the
Divine Scriptures succeeded both." The consolation he
drew from reading took the place of human consolation.
He seemed to hear the voice of God speaking to him from
the inspired page, and when he prayed, he was answering
and appealing to the God who had addressed his soul. He
ate only in the evening, and then but a quarter of a pound
of bread daily. He thought it better to eat a little daily than
to fast for several days. " For," said he, " when one eats
nothing for some days, the body is so exhausted, that the
soul participates in its exhaustion, and is not able to acquit
its duty before God ; and when one eats, it is with avidity
and to excess, so that the stomach is overcharged, and the
spirit is weighed down by slumber."

He had two disciples, Eusebius and Agapetus ; the saint
did not lodge them in his cell, where indeed there was not
room for them, but made them build cells for themselves
near it, and they performed together their service of prayer
and praise.

One night Eusebius, curious to know what Marcian was
doing in his hovel, peeped through the little window and
saw him praying, and a light, mysterious and unearthly,
playing round his head. Marcian was very humble, and
indignantly refused to be regarded as a miracle-worker. This
was so well known that few dared to importune him to
attempt to heal the sick. He never would speak with lay
persons except at Easter; and even then, should they assail
him with requests to exert miraculous powers to relieve the
sick, he withdrew in annoyance and shame.

* fc

Lives of the Saints.

[Nov. 2.

There was a person of distinction at Bercea, five days'
journey from where Marcian lived, who had a daughter
deranged. He came all the way to the desert of Chalcis
to entreat the hermit to bless a vial of oil with which he
might anoint and heal his daughter. But he was speedily
informed that Marcian saw laymen only at Easter, and as
this was not the favoured season, the father went to an aged
solitary whom Marcian greatly respected, and told him his
desire. After much hesitation the solitary engaged to take
the bottle to Marcian and get him to give his benediction to
the oil. The old man accordingly went to the saint, was
admitted into his cell, and conversed with him. But his
heart failed him, knowing how much Marcian objected to
the request he had it in his mind to make, and he went away
without obtaining the desired blessing. A few days after
he visited the saint again, taking with him the bottle as
before. Marcian suspected that there was something which
made the old solitary pay him two visits with so small an
interval of time between them, and asked him what the real
object of his visit was. Then the old man produced the vial
and told the tale. Marcian indignantly dismissed him, and
peremptorily refused to bless the oil. So the officer was
obliged to return disappointed to Bercea. But on his
arriving there, he learned to his great joy, that his daughter
had recovered the use of her reason on the very day that
Marcian had refused his benediction to the vial.

One day Flacius, bishop of Antioch ; Acacius, bishop of
Bercea; Isidore of Cyrus, and Theodore of Hierapolis, came
to visit him. He received the bishops with the respect due
to their rank, and all sat down and waited in silence, till he
should open his mouth and give them some spiritual in-
struction. But he said nothing. Then one of the company
said, " My father, these illustrious prelates have come to
receive a word of edification from thy lips."

% . . *

not. a.] S. Marcian. 57

Marcian rose, looked round and said, as he swept the
horizon with his outstretched hand, " God speaks to us from
all Creation, through every creature. And look here," he
pointed to his copy of the Sacred Scriptures, " He speaks to
us also from the holy books. What more can you want
from a poor learner like Marcian?"

Not long after this visit, Avitus, the aged hermit, came
to see him. Marcian opened the gate to him, and received
him with tokens of profound regard. Seeing that the old
man was faint with his journey, he bade Agapetus at once
cook herbs and vegetables, and prepare their meal. Whilst
the two hermits were conversing together, after saying
nones, Agapetus entered with the table, laid on it bread
and the cooked herbs, and Marcian said to his guest, " My
father, let us eat together." It was then three o'clock in
the afternoon, and the solitaries did not usually break their
fast till sunset. Avitus hesitated, and said that he never ate
till evening.

" We have the same custom," said Marcian, " and keep
the same rules. We prefer work to ease, and fasting to plenty ;
and if you only take nourishment after sunset I do the same.
But," he added, "charity is dearer to God than fasting.
Charity He commands us, and fasting is what we impose on
ourselves. Sit down and eat with me." So they sat down
together and partook of the humble repast with thankful
hearts. Avitus remained three days with Marcian, and then
they separated, never again to meet in the flesh.

The sister of Marcian came from Cyrus with her son to
see him. He received the young man, but refused to hold
converse with his sister, as he would not hold any com-
munication with women. The young man told him that he
had brought a convoy of provisions, and begged his uncle to
accept it.

" Did you give any of the food to the solitaries, and to the

ij< ■ — *

58 Lives of the Saints. [Nov. 2.

monasteries on your way hither?" asked Marcian. The
young man said he had not done so.

" Then," said the hermit, " I will have none of your gift,
for you have followed the instincts of flesh and blood, and
not the dictates of tender charity."

S. Marcian was a staunch upholder of the Catholic faith
against the Arianism which flourished under the favour of
the Emperors Constantius and Valens. He equally opposed
Sabellianism and Apollinarism. There was a hermit in his
neighbourhood named Abrames, who followed the Quarto-
deciman schism, that is, notwithstanding the decision of the
Council of Nicsea, persisted in celebrating Easter on the
fourteenth day of the moon, after the Jewish mode of
reckoning the Passover. S. Marcian sought him out, and
succeeded, though with difficulty, in bringing him round to
the Nicene usage.

When he was very old, many were impatient to appro-
priate his relics. The proprietor of the land where his cell
was, reared a tomb to receive the body, some time before he
died. His nephew Alipius, thinking that he had a right to
his uncle's body as nearest of kin, erected a chapel to con-
tain it. A rich lady named Zenobiana built another chapel in
Chalciris, and several other persons erected similar chapels.

The poor old man, becoming nervous and distressed lest
he should be pulled to pieces after death by these eager relic
worshippers, made his disciple Eusebius swear solemnly to
bury him secretly as soon as he died, and not to confide the
situation of his grave to any save two of his disciples in
whom he had confidence. Eusebius did as he was required,
and for many years it was not known what had become of
the body of the hermit Marcian. Fifty years after his death,
the only surviving disciple of the three who had known the
place where he was buried, finding that the chapels had all
been supplied with relics of other saints, revealed the spot ;

^ — — >£<

and the body was solemnly translated. This took place
only two years before Theodoret wrote his " Philotheus,"
which was in 440. Consequently the translation took place
in 438, and the death of Marcian fifty years before, in 388.

S. ERC, B. OF SLANE.
(a.d. 513.)

[Irish Martyrologies on this day and on Oct. 2. On this day the
Drummond Kalendar. Authority : — Mention in the Lives of S. Patrick
and S. Bridget, &c]

Erc, bishop of Slane, was consecrated about the year 465.
He was a friend of S. Patrick and of S. Bridget. Little more
is known of him. He died at the advanced age of ninety,
in 513-

S. WULGAN, B.C.

(7TH CENT.)

[Belgian and Gallican Martyrologies; also May 21. Molanus and
Saussaye. Authority : — A late Life of no interest, published in the
Acta SS. Belgii. v. p. 253.]

The town of Lens in Artois honours with special devotion
S. Wulgan, said to have been an Irishman, who preached
the Gospel in Belgic-Gaul. In Picardy a Wulgan is also
honoured, and it is possible that there was but one Wulgan,
the apostle of both Artois and Picardy ; but there are no
details which allow either of their identification or of their
separation. Wulgan of Lens passed many years preaching
to the Atrebati and Morini, and he seems to have been a
regionary bishop, his orders having been given him in Ireland
before he left the country on his apostolic mission.

4, -#

60 Lives of the Saints. [Nov.*.

Later he received permission from the abbot of the monas-
tery of S. Vedast at Arras to live in a little cell as a recluse.
On his death he was buried at a place called the " Terminus
hominum bonorum;" and which was probably the ceme-
tery of the monastery. Afterwards the inhabitants of Lens
asked for his body, over which miracles of healing had been
wrought, and they buried it in their church dedicated to the
Blessed Virgin. The date of this elevation and translation
of the body of S. Wulgan to Lens is not known, but it took
place certainly before 1050, as Baldcric in his Chronicle
speaks of it as having been made long before.

SS. MAURA AND BAY A, VV.

(IOTH CENT.)

[The Aberdeen Breviary on Nov. 3. Adam King's Kalendar gives
Maura on Nov. 2, and " Baye, virgin in Scotland under King Donald,"
on Nov. I. It is probable that Baya has been confounded with Begha
or Bees, Nov. 1. There were two S. Beghas, and Baya — only another
form of Begha— is a third, distinct from the other two. Dempster, in his
Scottish Menology, gives Bay, virgin, friend to Donald VI., on Nov. I,
and Maura, V. in Cuninghame, on Nov. 2.]

S. Maura (Maur) was a solitary who lived at Killmaur
in Ayrshire, in the reign of Donald VI. (893-904). S. Baya
(Begha), who was intimate with the King, is said to have in-
habited the island of Cumbrae, where she lived in solitude,
surrounded by beasts and birds, and where she received the
visits of S. Maura. What S. Maura learnt from this holy
woman she taught to the virgins associated with her in the
religious life. Nothing could exceed the austerity of these
saints. S. Maura finished her life at Killmaur where she
had lived. S. Baya died in her island, where a chapel was
raised over her remains. The love of solitude that dis-

* ■

I* *

Nov. 2j •S* Willebold of Berkheim. 61

tinguished her in life was attested by miracles after death :
for the rector of the church of Dunbar, attempting to carry
off her relics, encountered so great a storm that he was
obliged to desist. The chapel still exists in Little Cumbrae,
near the top of the hill, a little north of the castle. It is
thirty-three feet long by eighteen feet wide.

S. WILLEBOLD OF BERKHEIM, C.
(a.d. 1230.)

[Venerated in the diocese of Constance. Authority : — A Life in
Werfer u. Steck. Heiligen Legende, Ulm, 1864, pp. 1006-9.]

On November 2nd, All Souls' Day, in the year 1230, a
faint, sick youth of scarce twenty-three years, in ragged pil-
grim habit, came into the little village of Berkheim, in the Iller-
thal, on the high road between Memmingen and Biberach.
He had crept, with a death sickness on him, over the pass
from the Inn valley into Bavaria, by Nassereit, Lermos, and
Reutte. With failing strength he had made his way past
Fiissen, along the more level hop-grown fields to Memmingen.
Then he had crossed the bright Iller, foaming from its not
very distant seven sources in the glorious Algau Alps above
Oberstdorf. And as night fell, without money to pay for a
room in the little inn of the Crown, he crawled into the hay-
loft of the hostelry, and lay down to die on the sweet hay
of the past summer, dead clover, hare-bells, and golden-balls.

No one in the village gave a thought to the poor young
pilgrim. No kind hand ministered to the boy as he struggled
in his last agony. Here and there, throughout the night,
some widow or orphan sobbed and prayed in the last hours
of All Souls' Day for the dear ones recalled to mind by
the solemnities of the Church at that season. Suddenly, at

% _____ — — -%

* ; *

62 Lives of the Saints. [Nov.2<

midnight, the church-bells began to peal joyfully. The
people started from their beds, hurried out into the one street
of the village, thinking that there must be a fire, and that the
bells sounded the alarm. But no light was in the belfry,
and still, rung by unseen hands, the bells pealed loudly. The
whole village was speedily out of doors, wondering and
alarmed. Then a strange light was seen to issue from the
hayloft of the Crown inn, and the villagers hastened to it,
fearing lest the fresh hay might have caught fire by spon-
taneous combustion. There they found the pilgrim lying
dead, with a mysterious glow-worm light surrounding the
emaciated form. The body was raised and carried forth :
the sweet scent of the new hay hung about it, and the
wondering people heard, soft and inexpressibly sweet, a
distant unearthly strain of music. Nothing further was
needed to satisfy them that the poor pilgrim was a saint ;
but this growing conviction became firmly established when
they discovered who he was.

He was, in fact, Albert von Calw, son of the noble house
oi Beutelsbach, which had given two popes to the Church,
Leo II. and Gerard Count of Calw, bishop of Aichstadt in
1040, and sovereign pontiff in 1054, under the title of
Victor II. The history of the young count gradually be-
came known. His name was Albert, he had been brought up
in wealth, but had gone forth in 1229 from the family castle
and his parents, on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, under the
name of Willebold. No details of his adventures on this
pilgrimage have reached us. We know nothing more of
him till he died in the hayloft of the Crown at Berkheim.

His noble parents erected a monument over him, repre-
senting him in his pilgrim's habit, staff in hand, treading on a
dragon, and the inscription, " Here rests Willebold, pure in
body, who lived so that he is made associate with the saints."
Forty-three years after, Berchthold, conventual of Miinch-

* — — *

gl >J<

Nov. 3.] & Willebold of Berkheim. 63

Roth, and pastor of Berkheim, in consequence of a vision,
took the body up. Miracles attended the elevation. A
shrivelled hand stretched to touch it was healed, a boy born
deaf and dumb obtained his speech and hearing, a maniac
came to his right senses.

In 1703 Abbot Martus, vicar-general, built a new and
larger church at Berkheim, and placed the sacred body before
the altar of the Five Wounds. The bishop-rural, Ferdinand
Conrad Geist of Constance, came in 1705 to Berkheim, to
consecrate the new church, and sanctioned the veneration
of S. Willebold, in accordance with the directions of the bull
of Urban VIII. of May 12th, 1625, which permits venera-
tion of a holy person not enrolled in the Martyrology, if it
can be proved that this has been customary for over a
century. In 1731, by permission of Bishop John Frank,
the five hundredth anniversary of S. Willebold was celebrated
with an imposing procession, in which the relics of the
saint in a costly shrine were carried by the canons of Miinch-
Roth. The body was then enclosed in a shrine of tin, and laid
under the altar. On this occasion S. Willebold was chosen
as second patron of Berkheim. To this day crowds of
pilgrims visit the church and shrine,, and many miracles
of healing are wrought by the intercession of the pilgrim-
saint.

gi — *

64 Lives of the Saints. rNov, 3

November 3.

S. Quartus, Disciple of the Apostles ; ist cent.

SS. Germanus, Theophilus, C«sarius, and Vitalis, MM. at

Casarea in Cappadocia ; a.d. 250.
S. Papulus, P.M. at Toulouse; circ. a.d. 250.
S. Valentine, P.M., and Hilary, Deac. M. at Viterbo a.d.

304.
S. Florus, B. of Lodive in France ; sth cent.
S. Domninus, B. of Vienne ; circ. A.D. 536.
S. GwENyHL, Ab. of Lamlevenec in Brittany ; circ. a.d. 570.
S. Sylvia, Mair. at Rome ; end of 6th cent.
S. Winefred, V.M. at Holywell in Flint ; jtA cent.
S. Hubert, B. of Liege; a.d. 727.
S. Pirminus, Ab. B. in Germany ; a.d. 758.

S. Odrada, V. at A lent, near Bois-le-Duc in Holland; Zth cent.
S. Englat, Ab. at Tames in Scotland; 10th cent.
S. Ermengold, B. of Urgel in Spain; a.d. 1035.
S. Malachv, Abp. of Armagh; a.d. 1148.
S. Idda, Countess of Toggenburg, at Fischeit in Switzerland ;

a.d. 1226.

S. QUARTUS.
(ist cent.)

[Roman Martyrology. Usuardus, Notker, &c. Greek Menoea ar.d
Menologies, that of Basil on Nov. 10, along with Olympias, Herodms,
Sosipater, Erastus, and Tertius. So also the Glagolithic Kalendar and
the Russian. But the Greek Mensea, published at Venice in 1585, also on
Sept. 3. Authority : — Rom. xvi. 23.]

UARTUS, a Christian of Corinth, " a brother," is

said to have been one of the Seventy disciples ;

and there is a tradition that he also became

eventually bishop of Berytus, but this rests on

the uncertain testimony of the pseudo-Hippolytus.

* *

*- *

Nov. 3.}

S. Papulus. 65

S. PAPULUS, P.M.

(a.d. 250.)

[Gallican Martyrology of Saussaye. Breviaries of Carcassonne and
Toulouse. Authority : — The Lections in the Carcassonne Breviary, of
no historical value.]

S. Papulus is said to have been a priest in company
with S. Saturninus, whose not altogether untrustworthy Acts
we have. Papulus followed Saturninus into Gaul. On
reaching Carcassonne, the magistrate Ruffinus shut them up
in a tower, but they were delivered by the Most High, and
went on their way to Toulouse. There their preaching met
with great success. When S. Saturninus went into Spain,
he confided the care of his converts in Toulouse to S.
Papulus. His miracles, and success in converting people to
the faith so exasperated the heathens, that they laid hold of
Papulus, and after having subjected him to insult and tor-
ture, they cut off his head at Lauraguais, where in after times
a church, and then a monastery, were erected. The body of
S. Papulus was translated to the church of S. Saturninus at
Toulouse, where it is still religiously guarded and honoured.
In French he is called Saint Popoule.

S. FLORUS, B. OF LODEVE.

(5TH CENT.)

[Saussaye's Gallican Martyrology. But at Saint-Flour the festival of
this saint is celebrated on June I. Authority :— An untrustworthy Life
from MSS. published by Joannes de Plantavit tie la Pause, Bishop of
Lodeve, in his "Chronologia praesulum Ludovensium," 1634.]

After the received fashion in France, the founders of the
several churches are thrust back into Apostolic times.

VOL. XIII. c

* __ ? _*

66 Lives of the Saints. ^^ 3

Accordingly S. Floras, first bishop of Lodeve in Auvergne,
is said to have been one of the seventy-two disciples of our
Lord, and to have been baptized by Christ Himself, and
therefore to have become His special spiritual child. Aftei
the Ascension and the descent of the Holy Ghost, he
attached himself to S. Peter, and followed him to Rome.
The holy apostle sent Floras into Aquitain, and he settled
at Lodeve, where he laboured to bring the idolatrous Volcae
to the religion of Christ. His preaching had such success
that his converts cut down the trees they had previously
venerated. From Lodeve he went among the Arverni,
taking with him Gennadius, a priest, and Justus, a deacon.
When near Bolesmes his companions were so oppressed
with the heat and with thirst, that the saint had compassion
on them, and driving his staff into the earth, produced for
their relief a fountain of refreshing water. This spring, now
covered with a little building, and surmounted by a cross,
in the midst of a little wood, bears the name of " La
Fontaine de Saint-Flour," and is now-a-days regarded as
miraculous.

Thence Floras and his companions pursued their way by
the roots of Mont Cantal, through the ravine of Planese,
and ascending a little basaltic hill called Mons Indiciacus,
he planted on it a little chapel which he dedicated to S.
Peter, and made this the centre of his mission. This became
the origin of the church and town of Saint Flour. How
long he lived there, and when he died, is not known. A
grotto is shown at the base of the hill to which he is said to
have retired for prayer.

Such is the legendary Life. But as the successor of S.
Floras, named Maternus, sat in 506, we are probably not
wrong in placing Florus in the fifth century.

*- *

Nov. 30 S. Gwenal 67

S. GWENAEL, AB.

(ABOUT A.D. 534.)

[Gallican Martyrology. Vannes Breviary ; those also of Saint-Pol-
de-Leon and Quimper. Authority : — A Life given by Albert le Grand
from the old legendaries of Landevenec, Vannes, and Quimper. Also a
Life, written about 818 by an unknown author, inserted by Menardus
in his Benedictine Martyrology, 1629, p. 365, &c]

Gwen/el or Gwen-ail, which means " the White Angel,"
was the son of Runelin, a noble in Western Brittany, and
his wife Levenez. They lived at Quimper. When he was
a child, S. Winwaloe happening to pass that way, Gwenael
ran to the abbot and knelt to him for his blessing. The
holy man was pleased with the boy, and asked him if he
would come to him in his monastery of Landevenec. The
child readily replied that he would do so. " You are too
young now," said the abbot ; " when come to years of dis-
cretion, you will find your way to me." The boy was, how-
ever, so earnest in his desire to follow him at once, that
Winwaloe asked his parents if they would allow him to fol-
low his vocation, and when they consented, he took Gwenael
with him to Landevenec. There he surprised all by his
fervour. He adopted a system of mortification which was
much in vogue among the Irish and Scottish saints. On
winter nights he plunged himself up to the shoulders in the
abbey fish-pond, and remained in the water till he had re-
cited the seven penitential psalms. After having spent
forty-three years in the abbey, S. Winwaloe died, and S.
Gwenael was elected abbot in his room. Gwenael remained
abbot for seven years and then resigned, that he might visit
the saintly abbots of Britain. He took with him eleven
monks, and crossed the sea to Cornwall and Wales, and
spent four years in Britain. Then, warned by an angel to

4 — &

. *

68 Lives of tJie Saints. [n0t.3.

return to Brittany, he set sail and reached the islet of Groix,
when the bells of the monastery rang of their own accord
on his landing. He did not remain there long, but came
to the mainland, and revisited Landevenec, but could not
be persuaded to resume the abbatial authority for longer
than three years. Then, desiring retirement, he went to an
islet with two companions only, and built three cells in a
wild and lonely spoi. As there was a deficiency of water,
he made the sign of the cross on the ground, plunged his
staff into the soil, and a fountain gushed forth as he with-
drew it. As he was one day visiting a hermit named
Caradoc on the mainland, a deer, pursued by the hunters of
Hoel I., took refuge under his mantle. The huntsmen told
their prince what had occurred, and he sent for the saint.
Gwenael went to him, and Hoel endeavoured to persuade
him to remain with him. But Gwenael sought solitude, and
no promises of favours could induce him to leave his loved
isolation for the noise and distraction of a Court.

The chief having reluctantly permitted him to depart, he
retired to Vannes, where he died shortly after. The date of
his death must be fixed by that of S. Winwaloe, which took
place some sixteen years before that of S. Gwenael. S. Win-
waloe died on Saturday, the 3rd of March, in the first week in
Lent; a date which may be either 507, 518, or 529. Pro-
bably it was in one of the latter years. If so, Gwenael died
in 534 or 545. It is impossible to say in which. Albert Le
Grand fixes his death in 467, but his dates are not in the
least to be relied on. Lobineau gives 580 ; the Paris Bre-
viary 570 ; Dom Morice, in the notes appended to his History
of Brittany, gives 518. He was aged seventy-five when he
died. The body of S. Gwenael was taken to Vannes and
buried in the cathedral, where his tomb is still shown, near
an altar that bears his name. In 956, for fear of the Danes,
his relics were transported to Paris. They were afterwards

*— *

not. 3.] •$"• Winefred. 69

taken to Corbeil. The cathedral of Vannes possesses a
portion of the relics. Those at Corbeil were lost at the
Revolution. A chapel dedicated to the saint exists at
Ploneis near Quimper ; another near Saint-Pol-de-Ldon ; a
third near Landivizian, and a fourth half-way between
Landernau and Plougastel, where there is an ancient statue
of the saint.

S. WINEFRED, V. M.

(7TH CENT.)

[Roman Martyrology. Sarum and Hereford Kalendars, not that of
York. Authority : — A Latin Life, the MS. of which is in characters of
the middle of the nth cent., published by Rees, " Lives of the Cambro-
British .Saints," p. 198-209. The MS. has the superscription in a
much more modern hand, "Per Elerium Britannum monachum, anno
660, aut Robertum Salopiensem, anno 11 90." It is by neither. This
MS. is among the Cottonian MSS. in the British Museum. There is
another, however, in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, which is probably
that written by Robert, Prior of Shrewsbury. Of this latter an English
translation was published by Dr. Fleetwood, bishop of S. Asaph, in
1713, with the following title, "The Life and Miracles of St. Winefred,
together with her Litanies, and some Historical Observations made
thereon." See also Leland, Itin. iv. p. 128, ed. Nov. Also the Welsh
Life of S. Beuno, published by Rees.]

S. Winefred, or more properly Gwenfrewi, cannot have
belonged to a royal family, for her name does not occur in
any of the Welsh pedigrees of saints ; and this agrees with
the account in her Life, which certainly represents her as the
daughter of a man of some means, but not as wealthy and
noble. The date at which she lived can only be fixed by
the names mentioned in her legend. Her father was named
Teuyth ap Eylud, and lived in Tegengle ; he is described as
a " valiant soldier." Winefred was his only daughter, a very
modest, beautiful, girl. S. Beuno came to Tegengle, and
lodged with Teuyth, who asked him to train his daughter

* *

* ___ — %

70 Lives of the Saints. [Nor.3.

for heaven. S. Beuno obtained from the king a piece of
land at Belaye, and there he built a cell and a chapel, where
he said mass daily.

One Sunday whilst Teuyth and his wife were at mass,
Caradoc ap Alauc, a youth of royal blood, was out hunting,
and feeling hot and thirsty, he halted at the cottage of Teuyth,
hitched up his horse, and went in to ask for something to
drink. He found the beautiful Winefred alone there, and
being a young man of ungovernable passions, and without
scruples, attempted insolent familiarities. Winefred ran
from him through the door into the inner room, pretending
she was going to put on her Sunday gown, and opening the
back door of the house, fled down the valley to the little
chapel of S. Beuno. Caradoc, finding the girl did not re-
turn, jumped on his horse and pursued her. He caught her
up at the chapel door, and then in his anger he struck her
with his dagger on the throat so as to wound her. Where
the blood flowed the rock opened, and a spring bubbled up.
S. Beuno rushed to the chapel door and cursed the young
man, who at once disappeared after other game.

Under the hands of her parents and S. Beuno, Winefred
rapidly recovered, and when Beuno left, she promised to
send him a cloak of her own weaving every year, in gratitude
for the instructions he had given her, and this she always
did.

During the life of Winefred a Council of the abbots and
bishops of Wales was held, and it was decided that some
discipline should be introduced among the solitaries who were
scattered over the country, and that they should be brought
into communities under proper heads. Thus eleven virgins
were united under the control of S. Winefred, who lived on
the spot where Beuno had built his cell, and her fountain
had gushed up.

Leland says that Elerius, the British monk, built a double

* *

S. WINEFRED.

Nov., Part I. p. 70.]

[Nov. 3.

* *

Nov. 3.] S. Winefred. 71

monastery in the vale of Clvvyd, for both sexes, and that
S. Winefred was placed in this.1

Such is probably the real story of the virgin Winefred,
but it is much more marvellous in her Legend. In that
Caradoc with a sweep of his sword cuts her head clean oft,
and Beuno puts it on again, and the head adheres to the
trunk, leaving only a small red line where the gash had
been. As for Caradoc, when cursed, " he melted like wax."
Perhaps this is a poetical way of saying that he cried.

When Winefred desired to send the cloak to Beuno, she
put it on a stone in her well, and the stone floated it down
the stream and river out to sea, and away to the spot where
Beuno was.

" The stones of the well appear bloody at present as they
did at first, and the moss smells as frankincense, and cures
divers diseases."

It is very improbable that Caradoc should have cut oft
her head ; it is not improbable that, in a fit of anger, or by
accident, he may have wounded her in the throat. Some
pebbles streaked with red veins, which look bright as blood
under the clear water, are still shown as marked with Wine-
fred's blood. The red is caused by iron in the stone. The
moss still grows at the margin of the water, but has lost its
scent of frankincense. The spring is an exceedingly beau-
tiful and copious one, it pours forth in great abundance from
under a singularly beautiful vaulted Gothic edifice. Near
at hand is the old chapel of S. Beuno, now converted into a
Grammar School. M. de Montalembert says : " At the spot
where the head of this martyr of modesty struck the soil,
there sprung up an abundant fountain, which is still fre-
quented, and even venerated, by a population divided into
twenty different sects, but animated by one common hatred
for Catholic truth. This fountain has given its name to the

1 De Scriptor. Brit, c 49, Ed. Hearn.

* -*

7 2 Lives of the Saints. [Nov. ^

town of Holywell. Its source is covered by a fine Gothic
porch of three arches, under which it forms a vast basin,
where from morning to evening, the sick and infirm of a
region ravaged by heresy, come to bathe, with a strange con-
fidence in the miraculous virtue of these icy waters."

The explanation of the marvellous tale as given above is
the most probable, viz., that Winefred was only hurt by her
angry admirer, and that a little wound on the throat was
magnified by legend into her head being cut off. But there
is another solution, according to which there were two Wine-
freds : one a real martyr in defence of her chastity, the other
a nun who lived somewhat later ; and perhaps these two have
been run together, and the later existence of a Winefred
accounted for by making the first Winefred restored to life.
It is remarkable that in the survey of " Domesday Book,"
which includes the County of Flint, neither church, chapel,
nor well of S. Winefred is mentioned, affording the presump-
tion that the story and celebrity of the saint are of later date
than the Norman conquest.

S. HUBERT, B. OF LIEGE.

(A.D. 727.)

[Ado, Usuardus, Notker, &c. Roman Martyrology. Sarum and
York Kalendars as Eustace, but Hubert is meant. Authorities : — A
Life by an anonymous contemporary writer in Surius Vit. SS. 3 Novr.
vi. p. 50. From c. 21, is an addition by a later hand, Jonas (830). Con-
versio S. Huberti ap. Duchesne, Hist. Franc, sc. i. p. 678.]

S. Hubert, the patron of hunters, was the son of Bertrand,
Duke of Aquitain, descended from Clothair I.1 His mother,
Hugbern, was granddaughter of Blithild, daughter of the

1 Clothair I. had a son named Chramne, Duke of Aquitain, whose son was Bogis,
father of Bertram. Blithild, daughter of Clothair I., married her cousin Childeric,
and by him had Arnoald and Bogis, and Bogis was the father of Hugbern and
S. Oda.

* *

S. HUBERT. After Cahier.

Nov., Part I. p. 72.]

[Nov. 3.

Nov. 3.] S. Hubert. 73

same Clothair, and sister of S. Oda. He was born in 656.
Bertrand was engaged in contest with Ebroin, mayor of the
palace, and Hubert for safety was sent to his aunt, S. Oda, in
Austrasia. She placed him with Pepin of Herstal, mayor of
the palace in Austrasia, as Ebroin was mayor in Neustria.
The last years of the Merovingian line of kings were full of
struggles between the rival mayors. Gallo-Roman feeling
was more prevalent in Neustria, Germanic in Austrasia. The
majority of the Neustrian mayors, especially Ebroin, sup-
ported the interests of royalty and a policy of centraliza-
tion, the Austrasians those of the landholders, and a policy
of disintegration. When the Merovingians were indisputably
nothing but sluggard kings, and when Ebroin, the last great
mayor of the palace of Neustria, had been assassinated (in
681), and the army of the Neustrians destroyed at the
battle of Testry, in 687, the ascendency in the heart of the
whole of Frankish Gaul passed to the Franks of Austrasia.

It was in the Court of Pepin, during the time that he was
engaged in this long struggle, that Hubert grew up. At the
age of six -and -twenty he married Floriban, daughter of
Dagobert, Count of Louvain. He was fond of hunting, and
followed the wild boar and the stag in the vast forest of
the Ardennes.

Here follows the curious story of the conversion of S.
Hubert, which has been taken from the story of S. Eustace
(Sept. 20), and appropriated, by what means is not clear, to
the northern saint. The story is to this effect : his love of
hunting took such possession of his soul, that he even went
in pursuit of game on Good Friday, in the Ardennes. On
that day he got separated from his companions, and in the
midst of a dense wood he came suddenly on a great stag,
which bore a crucifix between its horns, and Hubert heard
a voice issue from it, saying, " Turn to the Lord, or thou wilt
fall into the abyss of hell ! " Hubert jumped off his horse,

g, -*

* — — >J,

74 Lives of the Saints. [Nor. 33

and fell on his knees before the miraculous cross, and prayed
to be told what he should do.

The figure on the cross replied, " Go to Maestricht to
my servant Lambert, and he will tell thee what thou must
do." Then the stag withdrew into the depths of the forest,
and was seen no more.

The fact of S. Hubert being buried in the heart of the
great forest of the Ardennes caused him to be invoked by
the hunters therein, and thence his name came to be gene-
rally associated with huntsmen, and he to be regarded as their
patron. To account for this patronage, however, the story of
the miraculous conversion of S. Eustace was foisted into the
history of S. Hubert. The story of S. Eustace was probably
composed for polemical purposes in the struggles against the
Iconoclasts. It was originally written in Greek, and pertains
to that period. The trace of the importation remains in the
fact that S. Hubert is frequently called S. Eustace ; thus in
the York and Sarum Kalendar he is entered on November 3
under this name.

The real turning point of his life was the death of his
wife Floriban, after only three years of happy married life.
She died in her confinement (685), leaving a child, Floribert,
the pledge of her love to the disconsolate Hubert.

Weary of the world, which was now a blank to him,
Hubert resigned to the king his military baldric and collar,
and went into Guienne to see his father, who was dying.
He was in time to receive his last sigh. Then having aban-
doned his pretensions to the duchy,1 which was his by right
of seniority, to his brother, Eudes, he returned to the neigh-
bourhood of the Meuse, and casting himself at the feet of S.
Lambert, bishop of Tongern, placed himself and his son
Floribert, at the disposal of the saint. He was sent to learn

1 So it is said, but it is most improbable, Eudes was almost certainly the eldest son
of Bertrand.

* *

*- *

Nor. 30 S.Hubert. 75

to conquer himself in the solitude of the Ardennes, the
forest land he had so loved as the scene of exciting sport.

He spent about ten years in these wilds, living as a hermit,
tasting the joys and hardships of that wonderful life. Then
he went to Rome.

A strange story is told by late writers of his visit there.
Whilst Hubert was in the Holy City, S. Lambert was mur-
dered. At the same hour an angel appeared to Pope Ser-
gius I., and gave into his hand the pastoral staff of the
martyred bishop, bidding him ordain in the room of Lambert
a man whom he would see in the basilica of S. Peter, and
whom he described to him. When Sergius awoke he found
the pastoral staff in his hand ; he went to S. Peter's, and
seeing there a man such as was described, put the staff of
Lambert into his hands, and forthwith consecrated him to
the vacant see of Tongern. During the ceremony an angel
brought from Belgic Gaul the pontifical habits of 3. Lambert,
and placed them at the disposal of S. Hubert. But as there
was a stole wanting, the Blessed Virgin sent him one of
white silk, embroidered by her in heaven with gold thread.
Moreover, S. Peter himself appeared to the saint whilst he
was saying his first mass, and gave him a gold key in sign
that he communicated to him some of his authority to bind
and to loose. This fantastic story rests, as may be supposed,
on no evidence worth consideration. It is the growth of
legend in the mouths of the people. The key was one of
the daves confessionis S. Petri, which the popes were wont
to bestow as marks of special favour.1 The stole was pro-
bably embroidered by some lady of the name of Mary, who
has been exalted by popular fancy into the Queen of
Heaven. It is still preserved religiously in the church of
the abbey of S. Hubert, and is used to- this day in cases of

1 One of silver was given to S. Servatus of Tongern ; it is now at Maestricht, and a
very similar story is told of it. See S. Servatus, May 13, p. 184.

■*

76 Lives of the Saints. [Nor. 3.

hydrophobia, which it is supposed to cure. The contem-
porary biographer of S. Hubert says not a word about all
these marvels. He simply states the fact that S. Hubert
was elected in a very ordinary and unromantic way by the
clergy and people of the diocese to fill the room of Lambert.
It only took a century for this nonsense to grow up and be
believed, for it is related by Jonas, who dedicated to Wal-
kend, bishop of Liege, about a.d. 830, his narrative of
the translation of S. Hubert's relics. As soon as the new
bishop had entered into the administration of his diocese,
he took care to bury honourably the body of his predecessor
on the spot where he had been murdered ; and he trans-
ferred thither at the same time the seat of the bishopric,
thus the cathedra of the bishop which had been planted at
Maestricht, and then at Tongern was finally fixed at Liege.
The translation of the body of S. Lambert from Maestricht
to Liege took place in 711. S. Hubert built chapels at
Nivelle-sur-Meuse, Hernial, and Herstal, where the body had
reposed on the occasion of its transport to Liege. Pepin
of Herstal, at his death, December 16th, 714, did an act of
justice, which, however, led to fatal results. He had two
wives, Plectrudis and Alpheid ; he had repudiated the
former to espouse the latter, and the Church, considering
the latter marriage unlawful, had constantly urged him to
take back Plectrudis. He had by her a son, Grimoald,
whom, either from a father's blind fondness, or through
the influence of Plectrudis, he appointed to succeed him
to the detriment of his two sons by Alpheid, Charles
and Childebrand. Charles, at that time twenty-five years
of age, had already a name for capacity and valour.
Grimoald, however, was the legitimate son of Pepin, and
the Church never regarded Charles in any other light than
a bastard. As Grimoald was on his way to see his father,
who was dying at Herstal, he was waylaid by the agents

# *r

Nor. 3.] S' Hubert' 77

of Alpheid and Charles. He took refuge in the church of
S. Lambert at Liege and was there assassinated. Plectrudis
lost no time in arresting and imprisoning at Cologne the
son of her rival Alpheid ; but some months afterwards, in
715, the Austrasians, having risen against Plectrudis, took
Charles out of prison, and set him at their head, proclaiming
him Duke of Austrasia. He was destined to become Charles
Martel. He first of all took care to extend and secure his
own authority over all the Franks. At the death of Pepin
of Herstal, the Neustrians, vexed at the long domination of
the Austrasians, had taken one of themselves, Ragnfried,
as mayor of the palace, and had placed at his side a Mero-
vingian sluggard king, Chilperic II., whom they had dragged
from a monastery. Charles, at the head of the Austrasians,
twice succeeded in beating, first near Cambrai and then near
Soissons, the Neustrian king and mayor of the palace, pur-
sued them to Paris, returned to Cologne, got himself
accepted by his old enemy, Queen Plectrudis, and remaining
temperate amidst the triumph of his ambition, he, too, took
from amongst the surviving Merovingians, a sluggard king,
whom he installed under the name of Clothair IV., himself
becoming, with the simple title of Duke of Austrasia, master
of the Frankish dominions.

In this war against the Neustrians, at the battle of Sois-
sons in 719, Charles had encountered in their ranks Eudes,
Duke of Aquitain and Gascony, that beautiful portion of
Southern Gaul situated between the Pyrenees, the ocean,
the Garonne, and the Rhone, which had been for a long time
trying to shake off the dominion of the barbarians, Visigoths
and Franks. At the death of Pepin of Herstal the Neus-
trians had drawn this Duke Eudes, brother of S. Hubert,
into alliance with them, for their war against the Austrasians,
and gave him, it seems, the title of king. His father Ber-
trand had been in like manner in revolt against Ebroin, as

# — *

— _ *

78 Lives of the Saints. [Noy.3.

has been already said. After the defeat of Neustrians and
the troops of Eudes, the Aquitanian prince withdrew pre-
cipitately to his own country, taking with him the slug-
gard king of the Neustrians, Chilperic II. Charles pur-
sued him to the Loire, and sent word to him that he would
enter into friendship with him if he would deliver up Chil-
peric and his treasures ; otherwise he would invade and
ravage Aquitain. Eudes delivered up Chilperic and his
treasures ; and Charles, satisfied with having in his power
this Merovingian phantom, treated him generously, kept up
his royal rank, and at his death, which happened soon after,
set up another phantom of the same line, Theodoric or
Thierry IV., whom he dragged from the abbey of Chelles,
and who for seventeen years bore the title of king, whilst
Charles Martel was ruling gloriously, and was perhaps the
saviour of the Frankish dominions.

Charles Martel was wise and prudent. He had at his
back S. Hubert, brother of the powerful duke of Aquitain,
and the experience of Ebroin was not forgotten, how
powerful and dangerous bishops might become unless con-
ciliated. Charles eased his conscience and pacified the
Bishop of Liege, by giving large estates to his church, under
the pretence that he was thereby expiating the murder of
Grimoald in the church of S. Lambert — really, no doubt, that
he might win the favour of the brother of Eudes of Aqui-
tain. Hubert was invested by him with the territorial juris-
diction of Liege, and the church he ruled might, from the
amount of its possessions, now be considered as one of the
most wealthy and powerful in the realm. Hubert surrounded
the city with walls, established laws, fixed the weights and
measures for the citizens, endowed the church of Our
Lady and S. Lambert with twenty canonries, instituted six
minor canons, built a monastery which he dedicated to
the Prince of the Apostles, and in which he established

fifteen monks. He appointed fourteen magistrates and a
gi *

Nov. 3.]

■S*. Hubert. 79

superior judge called the grand major, to administer justice
in the province of Liege.

In 710 he convoked a provincial council or synod at
Liege, which passed ten canons, one of which fixes seven as
the age at which the Sacrament of Confirmation should be
administered, one that parishioners should confess to their
parish priests — probably because vagrant priests and monks
disturbed the well working of a parish.

In 726, a second synod was held at Liege, on the subject
of images, some conflict of opinion on the reverence due to
them having arisen. Details are wanting. The synod is
said to have come to the same decision as a Roman synod
held by Gregory II., but the existence of which is very
doubtful. Two other councils are said to have been held
by S. Hubert at Tongern, but all four were certainly nothing
more than diocesan synods, for S. Boniface explicitly de-
clares in a letter to Pope Zacharias (Ep. 50), that no pro-
vincial synod had been held for eighty years among the
Franks ; and this has led Hefele and others to doubt the
fact of these synods having been held at all. S. Hubert
followed the steps of his predecessors in carrying the light
of the Gospel into the districts of Taxandria and the Cam-
pine, where the country people stubbornly clung to their
pagan traditions. He laboured diligently among these rude
peasants, and succeeded in achieving a real change in their
sentiments. Then he turned his face towards the green
woodland ridges and vales of his beloved Ardennes, where
he had hunted the wild boar in his youth, and had fasted
and tamed the flesh in full manhood. He knew that the
scattered population there were scarce Christian by name.
He therefore returned to these dear forest scenes, and
ministered to the souls of the wild wood-dwellers, so that
he may fairly bear the name which has been given to him
of Apostle of the Ardennes.

His biographer says that a little before his death he was
* *

So Lives of the Saints. [Nov3

invited to consecrate a church built in Brabant, and that he
went there accompanied by some of his domestics. During
the consecration he felt ill, but he finished the rite, and
then, as his fever increased, he determined to make the
utmost haste to a house he possessed at Fure. He ac-
cordingly took a boat, and lying down in it fell asleep.
He was roused by hearing some of his people engaged in
an altercation. He calmed them, and then leaving the boat
mounted on horseback, and rode to Fure, which he reached,
stayed up by the hands of his servants, late on in the night.
He went to bed and lay there four days, but not before, sick
and fevered, and weary as he was, he had gone into his
chapel, kissed the altar, and said some prayers.

He could not sleep, and through the long hours of the
night he repeated psalms. Want of sleep and fever made him
a prey to delusions, and he fancied he saw strange and
hideous forms, and heard them mutter and howl about his bed.

On Friday, the 30th of May, 727, at daybreak, as his dis-
ciples and his son Floribert surrounded him, he bade them
bring a napkin to cover his face, and then recited the Creed.
As he began the Lord's Prayer, he died, without pain, and
the angels received his holy spirit.

He was succeeded in the see of Lidgebyhis son Floribert.
There is some uncertainty as to the place where he died.
Some think that the place was Freux in the Ardennes,
a village belonging to the monastery of S. Hubert, but his
biographer says that the church he consecrated was in Bra-
bant. It is believed to have been Hevesle, near Louvain ;
and that the mansion belonging to him when he died was
Tervueren, near Brussels, an estate which had belonged to
his wife Floriban. This is far the most probable opinion. His
body was transported to Lie'ge, and was buried before the
altar of S. Albinus in the collegiate church of S. Peter ; but
sixteen years after it was taken up by the clergy of Liege, in

Nov., Part I. p. 80.]

BISHOP'S PASTORAL STAFF.
With the effigy of S. Hubert.

[Nov. 3.

Not. 3.]

S. Hubert. 81

the presence of King Carloman, and was found to be perfectly
sound and incorrupt. This exaltation took place on Nov.
3rd, 743, the day on which the festival of S. Hubert is cele-
brated in the Catholic Church.

His bones were afterwards translated to Andain in the Ar-
dennes, where the monastery and town of S. Hubert have
arisen around his precious relics. This translation took place
in 825.

No one knows what has become of the body of S. Hubert.
.It is, however, believed to have disappeared in the conflagra-
tion of 1560.

The stole, embroidered by the Virgin Mary and woven in
the looms of heaven, is still shown. It is of white silk, the
extremities, ornamented with a rich lace, ending in fringes of
six balls of gilt silk. The design of the silver tissue is varied,
and is traversed by gold threads.

When a person bitten by a mad dog comes to be operated
on, a gash is made in his forehead, and a minute particle of
silk or gold is inserted under the skin. This operation is
called "la taille." The patient who undergoes it is bound
likewise to observe several rules. For nine days he has to
confess and communicate, sleep alone in a bed between white
sheets, or with a white coverlet over it, drink out of one glass
during the nine consecutive days, and never stoop to drink
of a spring or stream ; red wine and water is permitted ; only
pork and bacon from a boar-pig is to be eaten, and pullets,
hard-boiled eggs, fish in the scales — all cold ; salt is not for-
bidden. The hands and face are to be wiped with a clean
towel. The idea of ablutions extending further never entered
into consideration. The beard must not be clipped for nine
days, nor — horrible to think of — the hair combed for forty
days.

On the tenth day the bandage over the forehead covering
the incision must be removed by a priest, burned, and the
vol. xm. 6

82 Lives of the Saints. cn0t.3.

ashes placed in the piscina.1 These wonderful regulations,
hung up in the church of S. Hubert, and enforced by the
clergy on those who seek the cure, have this advantage. The
patient, if in a state of hydrophobia, cannot keep the rules,
and therefore, necessarily, is not cured. The person who
has been bitten by a dog which is not mad is so convinced
of his cure by the lengthy operations and ceremonies he
has gone through that there is no chance of his allowing his
fancy to make him ill.

In 167 1, the Sorbonne condemned these ceremonies as
superstitious, but the bishop of Liege and his synodal ex-
aminers in 1690 formally approved them. Between the 12th
October, 1806, and January 1st, 1835, more than 4,800 per-
sons submitted to the " taille," and since that date the clergy
of S. Hubert perform the same ceremony on a great number
of persons.

Much fuller information on this superstition will be found
in Reinsberg-Diiringsfeld, "Traditions et Legendes de la
Belgique," T. H., p. 254 sq.

A horn which S. Hubert used when hunting before his
conversion is shown in the church of Tervueren. The golden
key given him by S. Peter is lost. One of his slippers is at
S. Hubert, also a bit of a comb, and an ivory staff. Ramber-
villers, in the diocese of Saint-Did, possesses a bone of hand
or foot of S. Hubert. Limd, near Braine, possesses some
other relics. S. Hubert is represented in episcopal vestments
with the stag bearing a crucifix between his horns. When
represented in lay costume as a hunter, he cannot be distin-
guished from S. Eustace.

1 " Ces pratiques .... ont (\6 justifiees par d'habiles theologiens, l'autorite
ecclesiastique ne les a pas condaninee*."— Uu«nu il Giry, ' ' Viei de* Saint.,' Nov. j,
p. 60.

*■

ft ft

Nor. 3.]

S. Pirminus. 83

S. PIRMINUS, AB. B.

(ad. 758)

[Hrahanus Maurus, not Floras, Usuardus, nor Ado. Roman Mar-
tyrology. Gallican and Benedictine Martyrologies. Authorities : —
A Life written in the 9th cent., published by Mone, Quellensammlung,
i. p. 30-36, utterly unhistorical. Another Life attributed by Mabillon
to Bishop Warmann of Constance (d. 1034), and by Surius to Othlo of
Freising(fl. 1065) ; Mabillon, Acta SS. O. S. B. saec. ciii. 2, p. 140-153 ;
Surius, Vit. SS. Nov. 3, p. 140-153. "Rather a dangerous will-o'-the-
wisp for the historical student than a true source of historical facts,"
Potthast. A third, metrical Life, probably by Abbot Heinrich of
Reichenau (d. 1234), in Mone, Quellensammlung, i. p. 39-45.]

The biographers of S. Pirminus say that he placed his seat
at Meltis. Accordingly the Roman Breviary commemorates
him this day as bishop of Meaux (Meldae). But he is also
reckoned among the bishops of Metz (Metae). The Gallican
Martyrology says : — " At Metz, S. Pirminus, bishop, who was
raised to this seat after having rendered himself illustrious in
Germany, with S. Boniface, by the exercise of all apostolic
functions. His miracles still render his tomb famous, and
his green dalmatic and the cord with which he was girded for
the sacred mysteries, are of great help in the pains of partu-
rition. It is thought that S. Pirminus, bishop of Meaux, is
not different from this one." There never was, however, a
Pirminus, bishop of Metz, any more than there was one of
this name at Meaux. Paul Warnefried composed a book on
the succession of the bishops of Metz in 783, and he makes
no mention of Pirminus. Had he been bishop twenty-five years
before, he certainly would not have been excluded. More-
over, the see of Metz was filled between 743 and 766 by the
illustrious Chrodegang, who was preceded by S. Sigibald.
The name of Pirminus does not occur in any correct list of
the bishops of Meaux.

ft ft

84 Lives of the Saints. [Nor. 3.

Hermann the Cripple, a good authority, who wrote in the
middle of the nth century, says, under date 724: "Saint
Pirminus, abbot and bishop-rural, was led by the princes
Berchthold and Vehi to Charles (Martel), and by him ap-
pointed to the island of Reichenau, whence he expelled the
serpents, and instituted therein during three years the mo-
nastic life."

He seems to have been regionary bishop, without fixed
see, and it was only the ignorance of his biographer which
planted him among the bishops of Metz, if Metz were in-
tended by Meldis. Chastelain, however, thinks Medlin, on
the confines of the diocese of Treves, is meant; others
suppose some spot now unknown.

Sintlaz, a chief in the neighbourhood of the Lake of Con-
stance, gave him the lovely green island of Reichenau, lying
in the lower arm of the Lake or Zeller See, and there he
founded the abbey of Reichenau. The story goes that he
paid a visit of devotion to Rome, but was treated with con-
tempt by the Pope. Pirminus went to the tomb of the
apostles, and set his staff on the pavement at his side, and
it remained balanced on its point without falling. The Pope,
seeing this marvel, regretted his discourteous reception of
the stranger.

The lives of this saint are so untrustworthy that it is not
advisable to state much concerning him, except that he is said
to have founded a host of monasteries. Altaich, Pfeffers, Mur-
bach, Schutterau on the Rhine, in the diocese of Strassburg,
Gegenbach, Schwarzheim, Weissenburg, Neuwyler, Maur-
munster, Mansee, Pfaffenmunster, and Horenbach, all claim
Pirminus as their founder. It is exceedingly improbable that
this should be so. Horenbach is on the confines of the dio-
ceses of Treves and Metz, and there he died and was buried.

A book of his, " Libellum de singulis libris canonicis,"
contains some curious notices of the superstitions of his day.

* *

Nov. 3.]

S. Englat. 85

S. ENGLAT, AB.

(iOTH CENT.)

[Adam King's Scottish Kalendar, Aberdeen Breviary, Dempster's
Menology.]

No details of the life of this saint are known. The Aber-
deen Breviary styles him an abbot, but Adam King calls him
bishop, and says he lived in the reign of Kenneth III.
(970-994). Dempster calls him a bishop, and adds, "who
saw a Pictish herring and wept before the war," an allusion
to some legend now lost. The collect in the Aberdeen Bre-
viary prays that by his intercession we may be saved from
the concupiscence of the world, and neither be corrupted by
its blandishments nor crushed by its powers. The place
where he lived was Tarves, where his local name is Tanglan.
His well is shown in the village, and his ford on the Ythan.
Bishop Forbes, in his " Kalendar of Scottish Saints," gives
966 as the date of his death.

S. MALACHY, ABP. OF ARMAGH.
(a.d. 1 148.)

[Roman, Benedictine, and Irish Martyrologies. By the Cistercians
on Nov. 4. Authority: — A Life of the Saint, written by his friend S.
Bernard, not long after his death.]

This great saint belonged to the ancient and noble family
of the O'Morgairs, supposed to be the same as the O'Dog-
hertys, and his true Irish name was Malcmaodhog, or servant
of S. Madoc (of Ferns). It is highly probable that he was
born at Armagh. This much is certain, that it was there he
was reared from his earliest age. His birth must, in all pro-

* *

86 Lives of the Saints. [No*. *

bability, be assigned to the year 1095. The mother of S.
Malachy was a God-fearing woman ; she sent him early to
school, and used her best efforts to instil the love of God and
desire of perfection into his dawning mind and conscience.
He was a grave, thoughtful boy, with a great love of praying
in churches and meditating on divine things. His master
was in the habit of taking a walk to a village near Armagh,
and was wont to associate Malachy with him on these excur-
sions. The boy took opportunities of tarrying a little behind
his master, so as to pray, which he did with arms outspread
towards heaven.

When boyhood was past, Malachy placed himself as dis-
ciple with an ascetic named Imar O'Hagan, who lived in a
cell near a church in Armagh. This displeased his friends,
who thought him too young to adopt so severe a life, which
must, they thought, injure his constitution. Others con-
temptuously remarked that a boy would soon tire of praying
seven times a day, and going without two meals. But Malachy,
in spite of opposition and derision, persevered in his resolu-
tions, and inured himself to a life of austerity.

S. Celsus was then bishop of Armagh. He kept an eye on
the promising young ascetic, and on his attaining the age of
twenty-three he ordained him deacon. He executed the
ministerial office imposed on him with the utmost enthusiasm
and charity, and was so assiduous in burying the dead poor
folk that his sister was offended, and strongly reprimanded
him for thus demeaning himself. His birth, his position,
was one which lifted him above caring for the poor. He,
however, paid no attention to his sister's remonstrances.
Celsus, with the consent of Imar, ordained Malachy priest
at the age of five-and-twenty. He then appointed him his
vicar, and urged him to assist him in extirpating the peculiar
features of the Irish Church, and bringing it to Roman uni-
formity. The greatest confusion reigned in Ireland from each

^. *

Nw.3.) & Malachy. 87

diocese, and perhaps also each monastery, having a different
use. Gilbert of Limerick complains ' that a man accustomed
to the offices of the Church in one diocese on going into
another found himself like an idiot in the church, not under-
standing what was being said or done. In the diocese of
Armagh the public recital of the canonical hours had ceased,
probably through the disorders introduced into that church
by the archbishopric having fallen during a century into the
hands of laymen, who drew the revenues and exercised
authority without — if we may trust S. Bernard — being real
bishops. It is certain that they were married men, and that
the archbishopric became hereditary in one family. S. Mala-
chy restored the public recitation of the offices, and established
the Roman usage throughout the diocese. The practice of
confession was not habitual. It was urged by the saint as of
the utmost importance on the indifferent and semi-barbarous
people. He also took care that the sacrament of confirmation
should be regularly administered. Under the lay archbishops
it had been omitted altogether. Next he remodelled the
contract of matrimony.

The famous abbey of Bangor on Carrickfergus Bay had
been destroyed by the Danes in 956, when the abbot,
Tanaidh Maguire, had been killed. The lands belonging to
it were then in the possession of its erenachs, or church-
farmers. These were the heads of the respective clans in
which the abbey lands had been originally vested under the
old Brehon laws. Generally speaking, the erenachs were
the descendants of the persons who had giyen the lands to
the church. They were bound to pay certain rents to the
abbey, and to perform other specified duties. The erenach
who was in possession of Bangor in the time of S. Malachy,
was a maternal uncle of the saint. In 1 1 20, when S. Malachy
was only twenty-five years old, he was made abbot of the

1 De usu Ecclesiastico.
*

88 Lives of the Saints. [Nov 3.

desolate abbey, and drew its revenues, or some part of them.
But as there were no monks at Bangor, his office was a
sinecure.

Doubting of his being sufficiently acquainted with the dis-
cipline of the Church, S. Malachy placed himself under the
instruction of the venerable Malchus, bishop of Lismore,
and having received the blessing of his master Imar, and a
letter from his bishop Celsus, he went to Lismore about the
year 1123. During his stay there he became acquainted with
Cormac MacCarthy, the pious prince of Desmond, who was
deprived of his principality in 1127.

While S. Malachy was at Lismore his sister died. He was
so displeased with her on account of her worldly manner ol
life that he had determined not to see her again. One night
he heard a voice in his dream tell him that his sister stood
outside the house in the court, fainting for want of food, of
which she had been deprived for thirty days. Malachy, on
awakening, thought over this dream, and conjectured that it
had reference to his omission of her name, when he prayed
for the dead at his daily mass. He now began again to pray
for her, and after some days he saw her in a dream standing
near the church door in a dark penitential robe. As he
continued to offer the sacrifice for her, she appeared to him
a second time, in a whitish dress, within the church, strain-
ing to reach and touch the altar, but unable to do so. At
length he saw her again, now united with the great assembly
of the saints, clothed in the shining white garment which
had been washed in the blood of the Lamb. He had pleaded
daily for her.

Meanwhile S. Celsus and Imar O'Hagan had been wishing
for his return, and they wrote to recall him. He obeyed
their summons, and came back to Armagh in 1127. During
his absence Celsus had repaired and re-roofed the cathedral,
which had remained partly uncovered since 1020, in which

4 — *

Nov. 3.]

S. Malachy. 89

year the city had been laid waste by the Danes, who had
burned the greater part of the town. In n 26 he had con-
secrated the church of SS. Peter and Paul in Armagh, erected
by I mar, the master of Malachy.

When S. Malachy returned to Ulster it was with the reso-
lution of restoring the abbey of Bangor, of which he was
titular abbot. His uncle, the erenach, offered to surrender
the lands and the site of the monastery to S. Malachy, but
the saint was satisfied with the site, for he had a great horror
of the monastery being wealthy, and lapsing into ease and
luxury. The uncle of the saint then resigned his office, and
became a monk at Bangor under his nephew, and the lands
passed to another erenach. S. Malachy took with him ten
brethren from Armagh, disciples of the abbot Imar, and set
about erecting the necessary buildings of wood, and an ora-
tory of boards. After awhile he proposed to build a stone
church, beautiful in design and ornament ; but the son of the
new erenach, probably fearing that a large portion of the
expenses must devolve on his father, in accordance with the
recognized code that then regulated the reciprocal duties of
erenach and abbot, excited the people against the under-
taking, and proceeding at their head to the building, thus
addressed the saint : — " O, good man ! what hath induced
you to introduce such a novelty into our country ? We are
not Gauls, but Scots. Whence this levity? What need
have we of a building so useless and so splendid ? " Shortly
after this, various misfortunes befel the family of the erenach.
His son died, and he himself becoming afflicted with epilepsy,
acknowledged the chastizing hand of God, and embraced the
monastic state under S. Malachy.

A little later the adjoining see of Connor fell vacant, and
S. Malachy was chosen to fill it, but declined accepting it
until ordered to do so by his master Imar, and his metro-
politan Celsus. He is said to have been about thirty years

% _ >j<

90 Lives of the Saints, [Nor. 3.

old when he became bishop, but if he were made abbot of
Bangor at the age of twenty -five, in 1 1 20, and he did not return
to Armagh till 1127, this cannot have been the case. There
is some difficulty in arranging the order of events at this
period of his life.

He found the diocese of Connor in disorder, having been
much neglected, and the people were rude and immoral ; at
least, he regarded them as such, because they did not observe
the Roman impediments to marriage. The Irish were in the
habit of marrying within the forbidden degrees, or at least
some of them ; and he and Gilbert of Limerick in vain
laboured to enforce the illegality of marriage within the
seven degrees. The Irish were so accustomed to marry
within their septs that it was impossible to carry out this
rule among them, and, after a brief struggle, the reforming
bishops were obliged to abandon the attempt, and confine
themselves to forbidding marriage within the fourth degree of
consanguinity. He found that the people did not make
offerings to the Church, and neglected confession. There
was neither preaching nor singing in the churches, and the
clergy were few.

S. Malachy, finding his utmost exertions necessary, made
use of all possible means to reclaim the people. He ad-
monished them, preaching in the streets, and he prayed for
them whole nights long in the churches. Attended by his
faithful monks of Bangor, some of whom he had brought
with him, he visited the smaller towns and villages of his
diocese, constantly on foot, and labouring with unflagging
zeal. He rebuilt the fallen churches, provided them with
priests, abolished everywhere old Irish uses, and substituted
Roman ones in their room; and, after awhile, succeeded in
bringing the people round to a sense of their duty, and to
some sort of rough conformity to his institutions.

After a while a hostile prince destroyed Connor, and drove

& >fr

*— *

Nov. 3.] S. Malachy. 91

S. Malachy out of his see. He fled with 120 brethren to
Munster, where he was cordially received by his friend
Cormac MacCarthy, who had been restored to his throne of
Desmond.

Whilst S. Malachy was at Connor his archbishop died. S.
Celsus left the see of Armagh to S. Malachy by will in that
curious and mischievous fashion which had long prevailed of
regarding the archbishopric as private property. He gave
his will to the two kings of Munster, whom he appointed his
executors to carry out his intention. Celsus died in 1129,
on the 1 st of April, in the fiftieth year of his age. Neverthe-
less, as soon as the breath was out of the old man's body,
Murchertach, son of Domnald, the predecessor of Celsus,
took possession of the family archbishopric, and retained it for
five years, until his death. During his incumbency or usur-
pation S. Malachy went to Munster, where, with the assistance
of Cormac MacCarthy, he constructed a monastery at Ibrach,
probably Iveragh in Kerry. There he and the brethren were
provided with everything necessary, and the king often
visited them, considering himself as a disciple of S. Malachy.
Malchus of Lismore, Gilbert of Limerick, the apostolic le-
gate, and several other bishops and chiefs, determined to
put an end to the scandal of lay occupation of the arch-
bishopric, went to S. Malachy in 1131, and insisted on his
undertaking the supervision of the archdiocese to which S.
Celsus had called him. For Malachy had seen in a dream a
woman come to him with the pastoral staff of Celsus, and put
it into his hands, saying that it was the office of Celsus which
was made over to him, and when he inquired who the
woman was, she answered she was the wife of Celsus — that
is, the Church of Armagh.

Accordingly S. Malachy went (1132) into the neighbour-
hood of Armagh, and executed, as best he might, the
episcopal duties incumbent on him who held the see, whilst

* •#

$ *

92 Lives of the Saints. [NoY

Murchertach ruled and drew the revenues. The saint did
not venture into the city, or within reach of the titular arch-
bishop, lest he should fall a victim to his jealousy and anger.
Two years after, in 1134, Murchertach died, leaving the see
to his kinsman Niel, apparently the brother of Celsus, with
the intention of keeping the archbishopric still in the same
family. Niel, at the head of his retainers and clansmen, pre-
pared to take forcible possession of the see, but a king, the
papal legate, and several influential bishops and chiefs, inter-
fered, and surrounding S. Malachy, prepared to force their
way to Armagh. The hostile parties came within sight of
one another, at Tullyhog, in Tirone, the party of Niel being
drawn up on a hill to oppose the passage of the saint and
his friends. When Malachy saw that there was a prospect of
bloodshed, he retired into a church and prayed. Then a
furious thunderstorm burst over the hill on which the
followers of Niel were assembled, and a stroke of lightning
killed their leader and eleven others of the party. This so
scared the rest that they allowed the friends of Malachy to
pass and take possession of the city and see of Armagh.
Niel fled, carrying with him two of the treasures of the
cathedral, the text of the Gospels, which had belonged to S.
Patrick, and the famous " Staff of Jesus." Invested with
these insignia of his right to the archbishopric, Niel was
everywhere received by the people as the rightful possessor
of the see, except in the city of Armagh itself, where S.
Malachy was hailed as a reformer of gross abuses.

iNiel organized a plan to obtain possession of, and assassi-
nate, Malachy, but was overcome by the courage and con-
fidence of the bishop, who presented himself unarmed and
without followers before the men commissioned to kill him,
and quailed them by his look of command and sanctity.
By degrees the good sense of the country rallied numbers
round Malachy, and Niel, finding himself deserted, sur-
rendered the Gospels and the staff.

Nov. 3J S. Malachy. 93

Some time after S. Malachy was firmly seated on the
archiepiscopal throne of Armagh, he made a visitation of
Munster. After having held the see for three years, reformed
abuses, and broken through the tradition of hereditary hold-
ing of the archbishopric, he resigned it into the hands of
Gilla Maclieg, abbot of the great Columban monastery of
Deny, and was appointed bishop of Down, to which his old
see of Connor was united.

Not long after his being stationed at Down, he lost his
brother, Gilla Criost, bishop of Clogher, who died in 1138,
and was buried in the church of SS. Peter and Paul at
Armagh.

S. Malachy had long had a desire to visit Rome, as such
devotional pilgrimages were usual with the Irish from the
earliest period ; and he was specially anxious to obtain a
formal recognition of the archiepiscopal sees in Ireland, by
the granting of palliums. On his way to Rome he visited
England, arrived at York, and made the acquaintance of
Waltheof of Kirkham.

A story told of their meeting, and the gift by Waltheof to
the bishop of a grey horse, is told elsewhere (August 3, p. 3 1).
In traversing France, he visited S. Bernard at Clairvaux, and
thus commenced and cemented the friendship which forms
so interesting a feature in the lives of these two saints. It is
probable that his account of the state of the Irish Church
took a tinge of gloom from the heavy trials he had endured
in his efforts to remove its temporary abuses S. Bernard's
ardent and impetuous character, even his very affection for
Malachy, would lead him to look darkly on the picture;
hence the somewhat overcoloured accounts he has given of
its state at that eventful period.

On reaching Rome, the first favour S. Malachy asked of
Pope Innocent II. was that he might be allowed to retire to
Clairvaux for the rest of his days ; but this the Pope would not

* *

94 Lives of the Saints. ^^ ^

permit. Malachy then asked for the palliums for the archbishops
of Ireland, but the Pope declined to give them until they had
been formally demanded by the Irish prelates assembled in
council. Then taking the mitre off his own head he placed
it on that of Malachy, and gave him the stole and mantle
which he used to wear when officiating ; then, saluting him
with the kiss of peace, he dismissed him, having invested him
with legatine power to the Irish Church.

On his return to Ireland the saint rebuilt and restored many
churches, and in 1142 he built the famous Cistercian abbey
of Mellifont near Drogheda. This monastery was liberally
endowed by Donogh O'Carrol, King of Oriel, and was
peopled by Irish monks, whom S. Malachy had sent to
Clairvaux, to be trained in the Benedictine rule and
observances.

But his great act was the convocation of the synod of Inis
Padraig (Holmpatrick), held in the year 1148. S. Malachy
presided as legate of the Holy See; fifteen bishops, two
hundred priests, and some religious were present at the
deliberations, which lasted four days. The members of the
synod were unwilling that Malachy should leave Ireland
again to ask for the palls ; but Eugenius III., who had been
a Cistercian monk, was visiting Clairvaux, and it was hoped
that he might grant the favour there.

S. Malachy immediately set out, and was accompanied as
far as the sea shore by some brethren. Just as he was enter-
ing the ship two of them told him that they wanted to ask
a favour of him, but that they would not name it unless,
beforehand, he would premise to grant them their request;
he did so, and then they told him what weighed on their
loving hearts, his welfare, and that they might see his face
again. " Your reverence will please to give us your word that
you will return safe to Ireland."

The promise had been made, and could not be recalled.

not.,.] S.Malachy. 95

The sail was spread and he departed; but a contrary wind
sprang up, blew a gale, and the ship was obliged to put back
into port, and so the promise was very speedily and unex-
pectedly fulfilled.

On reaching England he found that King Stephen was
engaged in some dispute with the Pope, and would not allow
any bishops to pass over into France. This delayed Mala-
chy, and consequently he lost the opportunity of seeing Pope
Eugenius III. at Clairvaux, for the Pope had returned to
Italy before Malachy had obtained leave to sail. He arrived
at Clairvaux in October, 1148, and was received with the
utmost joy by S. Bernard and his holy monks.

Having spent with them four or five of the happiest days
in his life, he was seized with a fever, after having celebrated
mass on S. Luke's day, and obliged to take to his bed. At
first it was thought to be of little consequence, but he knew
better. " Malachy," said he, " must die this year. Behold
the day is approaching which I always desired should be my
last." He asked for extreme unction, but would not allow
the priest to come upstairs to where he lay to administer it,
but crept down the ladder out of the loft where he slept to
meet him. After having been anointed, he received the holy
Viaticum, and recommending himself to the prayers of the
brethren, he returned to bed. When his last night on earth
drew on, he was filled with great joy, and said to those about
him : " Take care of me ; I shall not forget you, if it be per-
mitted. I have believed in God, and believe now that all
things are possible. I have loved God ; I have loved you ;
and charity never faileth." Then looking up to heaven, he
said : " O, God, preserve them in Thy name, and not them
only, but likewise all those who, through my words and
ministry, have bound themselves to Thy service." Then
placing his hands on the heads of each of his brethren, he
bade them go to rest, as his hour was not yet come.

•*

Lives of the Saints,

[Nov. 3.

About midnight the whole community assembled, and
several abbots were in attendance with S. Bernard and the
brethren to watch his departure. Not long after he expired,
on the 2nd of November, n 48, in the place, Clairvaux, and
at the time, All Souls' Day, which he had wished for and
foretold. His death was like a falling asleep, so gentle and
painless was it, and so placid and sweet did his face appear
when the spirit was fled. His body was carried to the oratory,
where the holy sacrifice was offered for him. S. Bernard,
having observed a boy in the chapel with a dead arm,
beckoned him to come forward. The boy did so, and ap-
plied the dead arm to the hand of Malachy. He recovered
at once the use of his arm. This fact is told us by S. Bernard
himself, and cannot be disputed.

S. Malachy was canonized not many years after his death,
by Pope Clement III. His festival is observed on Nov. 3,
the day of his death being All Souls' Day.

S. IDDA OF TOGGENBURG, R.

(a.d. 1226.)

[German Martyrologies. Venerated in Swabia. Authority: — "Vita
S. Iddae comitissae Tockenburgi et confraternitas ; accessit origo
monaster. Fischiugensis, ex idiomate germanico in latinum traducta,
Constantise, 1685."]

Ida or Idda, Countess of Toggenburg, was the daughter
of Count Hartmann of Kirchberg in Swabia. As a child she
was brought up by her pious parents in the fear of God and
care for the poor. They had founded the Benedictine
monastery of Wiblingen, and were generally respected in
their county as the patrons of religion, merciful rulers, and
lovers of peace. Ida found her chief delight in relieving
the necessities of the poor and sick, and when Count Henry

S. IDDA OF TOGGENBERG. After Cahier.
Nov. Part I. p. 96.]

[Nov. 3.

tj* — — >|<

Nov. 3.] & Idda °f Toggenburg. 97

of Toggenburg was on his way home in 1197 from a tourna-
ment in Cologne, and passed near, he heard of the beauty
and virtues of the young countess. He had not seen her,
but when he heard the way in which she was spoken of, the
love that attached to her, the admiration which surrounded
her, he felt in his heart that he could not desire a better or
more suitable wife. He therefore rode at once to Kirch-
berg, and was hospitably received. The sight of the fair
Swabian girl, slender, with pale blue eyes, and light brown
hair ; so modest, gentle, and yet so earnest in doing good,
won his love completely. He allowed only a few days to
elapse before he declared his passion. The parents con-
sented to the union, and she, no doubt, readily gave her
hand and heart to the young and handsome count, already
famous for his courage, and lord of an extensive county.
But, though her heart was drawn to him, a shadow of
approaching sorrow hung over her soul, and she could not
escape from the presentiment of coming evil. Perhaps she
had already had occasion to mark the violence of the un-
disciplined spirit of her young husband, the readiness with
which he gave way to violent tempests of passion on the
smallest provocation, and raged like one of the wild moun-
tain torrents of his native mountain land. She left her
father's castle amid the weeping and good wishes of the poor,
and with tears filling her own blue eyes. She rode south
beside Count Henry, who showed her the tenderest devo-
tion on their way. The Black Forest was passed, the Lake
of Constance burst on their eyes, and beyond, almost lost
in vapour, yet gleaming out above the blue haze that hid
their bases, the snowy Alps.

The violence of the character of Henry of Toggenburg
was to her a source of constant alarm and distress. After
one of his outbursts of rage, when cool, he repented and was
vol. xin. 7

98 Lives of the Saints. [Nov 3.

contrite. But though she could forgive him, his passion
cast a chill on her heart; she loved, but she dreaded him.

With gentleness she bowed before the storm, and pitied
her husband the infirmity which he seemed unable to over-
come. She went daily to the convent of Fishching, or the
chapel of the Mother of God, "in der Au," there to pray for
grace to bear her trouble, and for help for her husband to
resist his besetting sin.

Their marriage was not blessed with children, and this
filled the count with discontent. It chafed his spirit to
think that the rich valley of Toggenburg would pass at his
death to a relative, and not to a son of his own. His dis-
satisfaction found its vent in unjust reproaches heaped on
his much-enduring wife. She passed as an angel of light
among his servants and subjects, remedying, as far as lay in
her power, the wrongs he had done them, or the accidents
that had befallen them, winning everywhere their love, as
she had before won the love of the poor in her father's
home.

There was an Italian in the retinue of the count who was
moved by the beauty of Idda to a guilty passion. She
noticed his offensive attentions, and avoided meeting him
as much as possible. She did not like to speak to her hus-
band, lest he should blaze forth in one of his paroxysms of
passion and kill the Italian Dominic.

One day, as Idda was on her way through the wood to the
chapel of Our Lady, Dominic rushed out of the bushes,
and flinging his arms round her, poured forth the burning
words of his lawless passion. She cried for help, and a ser-
vant, Cuno, hearing her call, ran up and delivered her from
the Italian. To save the man's life, she forbade Cuno to
mention the circumstance to his master, and she maintained
silence thereon herself. Dominic, instead of feeling grateful
for this, sought an opportunity of revenging himself.

Nov. 3j S. Idda of Toggenburg. 99

That opportunity presented itself in an unexpected man-
ner. After her delivery from Dominic by Cuno, the countess
manifested her gratitude to the faithful retainer in many
ways. Dominic pointed this out to his master, and in-
sinuated that the countess had conceived an affection for
the man-at-arms. Henry of Toggenburg was a ready prey
to jealousy, the hint rankled in his breast, but he saw
nothing that could satisfy him that there was anything
guilty in this regard of his wife for Cuno. The jealousy
that brooded made the count more harsh and capricious
than usual to his patient wife. She felt it and suffered ;
but poured forth her sorrows before the compassionate
Mother of Sorrows beneath the Cross.

Often she stood at her window and looked in sad dreams
over the dark forest towards the north, the direction of her
happy home in childhood, and thought of her dearly-loved
parents so distant, and so desolate without her. The tears
ran down her pale cheeks, and moistened the needlework
on which her fingers were engaged. One sunny spring-day,
the fancy took her to draw out all her bridal apparel from
the chest in which it was preserved, to place it in the sun in
her window, and brush it, so as to free it from dust and
from moth. At the same time she took the jewelled be-
trothal ring which Henry had given her, and after sadly
contemplating it, she laid it also in the window, intending
in the evening to polish it. She was then called away to
her household occupations. When she returned some hours
later, the ring was gone. A raven had seen the sparkling
jewel and had carried it off to its nest.

She searched her chamber in vain, and not being able
to find the ring, she thought it best to say nothing about
its loss, and to replace her bridal dress in its chest as be-
fore.

Some days after, Cuno was out in the forest hunting. He

ioo Lives of the Saints, [No*.3.

met with no success. As he was returning home he saw a
raven's nest in an old pine-tree. He thought he would like
to have a young raven to train up in the castle, and to hop
about the courtyard and hall with clipped wings. He
therefore climbed the tree, reached the nest, and on re-
moving one of the young birds, observed something sparkling
among the twigs that composed the nest. To his surprise
and delight he found a costly jewelled ring. He put it on
his finger, and returned to the castle with the young raven,
little aware that he was rushing on his ruin.

It was not long before the count noticed the ring on his
man's finger. He looked closer at it, and at once recog-
nized the ring he had given Idda when he betrothed her to
himself. Filled with ungovernable fury, and not waiting to
listen to an explanation, or wholly disbelieving the story the
frightened man stammered forth, he ordered him at once to
be attached by the feet to the tail of an unbroken horse, and
driven down the rocky path that led from the castle. The
trembling servants obeyed their lord, and the horse, plunging
away, drew the unfortunate Cuno over rock and stumps of
trees till the life was dashed out of him.

Henry did not wait to see the sentence carried out to the
end ; no sooner was the horse let go, than he rushed upstairs
to his wife's room, and seizing her in his arms, cursing her
as an adulteress, the dishonour of his house, he flung her
from the castle window down the precipitous rock into the
ravine at the bottom.

But God protected His servant. Bushes growing out of
the clefts in the rock broke her fall, so that when she
reached the bottom, though stunned, she was not killed.
When she came to her senses, she got up, and after con-
sidering what to do, resolved to conceal herself in the
depths of the forest-covered mountain land, and spend her
days in devotion, nourishing herself on what she could find.

-*v

nov.j] S. Idda of Toggenburg. 101

She wandered away under the pines for a considerable dis-
tance, searching for a commodious place of refuge. At last
she found a rock which overhung, and which with a little
artificial assistance would serve her as a shelter. She set to
work adapting the place to her needs, and in collecting roots.
During the summer and autumn she laid in a store of edible
roots, and wild berries and fruit. She ripped off the bark of
the birch, plaited it, and made herself bedding. Winter
came on, and the winds howled through the forest. Icicles
formed from the eaves of her cave. She suffered extremely
from cold, and had to shelter herself under piles of dry moss
she had collected. Whether she had succeeded in ob-
taining fire does not appear. If not, her condition must
have been pitiable in the extreme. Thus, neglected and
alone, she passed several years, and made a vow to live the
rest of her days to God only. And, after all, there was
strange charm and peace in this life. No fierce moods of
a husband to keep her in constant alarm, no wrongs to be
righted, taxing her discretion to the utmost. The wood and
alps yielded food, if poor, yet sufficient to sustain life. As
her clothes wore out, the birch gave its fibrous bark, which
was easily plaited into a coarse but warm covering. And
there was a charm ineffable in this life: the spring flowers,
the blue gentian on the sunny slope, the pale pink primula
in the meadow, the soldanella and butterwort about the
spring, the purple clematis that tangled the yellow flower-
ing berberry — they had never seemed so lovely to her
before.

In the meantime the count had repented of his act. He
hovered in uncertainty of mind between belief in the guilt and
the innocence of his countess. Knowing her perfect purity
of character, he could not believe her guilty. Having seen
the betrothal ring on the finger of Cuno, he could not but
doubt her innocence. He wished he had made inquiries

* !*"

I02

Lives of the Saints,

[Nov. 3.

before dealing with both with such precipitation. The
body of his wife had not been found. He thought some
loving hands of the poor whom she had tended had com-
mitted it to the ground. He did not venture to inquire
closely. He sent word to the Count of Kirchberg that his
daughter, having been convicted of adultery, had been exe-
cuted. The news filled the old people with dismay. They
were too remote to institute an inquiry, too inferior in
power to take revenge. Henry of Toggenburg tried to
stifle the remorse which gnawed at his heart by engaging
in war. Frederick II. was emperor, and there was fighting
on all sides. The Count of Toggenburg was ever ready
with his sword. His furious charges scattered the foe
like chaff before a whirlwind. But nothing could appease
the anguish of his heart. He was haunted by the thoughts
of his loved Idda, the sweet Swabian blue-eyed girl with her
long light plaits of hair, and modest blushing cheeks, as he had
seen and loved her first at Kirchberg ; and then the horror
of the thought that he had taken her in his arms, and had
dashed her to pieces on the rocks, filled him with a despair
which made him old and grey before his time. He sought
refuge from his remorse in the repeated assurances of Do-
minic, whom he retained by him, that the countess was guilty,
and that he had but executed on her a judgment merited
by her conduct. Yet this was a miserable comfort. Almost
better to be assured that she was innocent, and bear him-
self the burden of crime. Though he had been rough and
unjust to her, he had idolized her ; and the thought that she
whom he had reverenced and loved was false and foul, was
a thought he could not endure.

Seventeen years had passed, when one day, as a huntsman
of Toggenburg Castle was pursuing game in a remote part
of the forest, he discovered the cave, and looking in, saw

Nov. 3.] S. Idda of Toggenburg. 103

a pale woman, clothed in old rags and a rough garment of
birch-bark. She looked up at his exclamation, and he recog-
nized the countess. He fell at her feet in profound agitation.
She raised him and asked after her husband. The hunts-
man told her of his remorse, of the gloom which had settled
over him. Then she bade him go to the count and tell him
she was, still alive.

No sooner did Henry of Toggenburg hear this than he
hastened with the man to the cave where his long-lost wife
lived. Who can describe the meeting, the tears of shame
and self-reproach, when he heard the story of the loss of his
ring, and the innocence of Idda? Readily did she forgive
him ; but she would not return with him to the castle. No !
that life was now over for ever. Seventeen years had weaned
her wholly from the world. She was unfit to resume the
broken thread of a courtly life as countess, and, moreover,
she had vowed to God to spend the rest of her days alone.
All she asked was a little cell near the chapel of the Mother
of God, in the meadow below the castle, where she could
once more listen to the church bell, assist at the Holy Sacri-
fice, and receive the Bread of Life.

He sorrowfully consented. She was given what she asked
for, and took possession of it, bringing away with her from
the cave only the wooden cross she had made for herself. She
spent some years there, tending the flowers in a little garden,
but at last was driven from it by the crowds who came to her
as to a saint, and she took refuge in the privacy of a cell in the
convent of Fisching. There she died, about the year 1226,
and there her body rests in the church, once monastic, but
now parochial.

It is said that when Dominic heard of the countess having
been discovered he destroyed himself, fearing the terrible
punishment which would have been inflicted on him by the
count.

► «-

-*p

104

Lives of the Saints.

[Nov. 3.

In art S. Idda is often represented with a stag at her side,
from whose horns issue flames of fire, as popular tradition
asserts that a stag served her as a candlestick. By this means
she was able to read her offices at night

Nov.4j S.Perpetua. 105

November 4.

S. Pertbtua, M., the wife ofS. Peter; xst cent

SS. Philologus and Patrobas, BB. ofSinope and Puteoli ; ist

cent.
S. Porphyrius, M. at Ephesus; a.d. 972.
S. Pierius, P. at Rome ; circ. A.D. 312.
SS. Vitalis and Agricola, MM. at Bologna ; i,th cent.
S. Amantus, B. of Rkodez in France.
S. Proculus, B.M. of Autun ; circ. a.d. 530.
S. Perpetuus, B. of Maestnchl ; a.d. 63a
S. Modesta, V. Abss. at Treves; circ. a.d. 68a
S. Clair, P.M. near Rouen ; gth cent.
S. Joannicus, Ab. at Mount Antides; a.d. 846.
S. Brinstan, B. of Winchester ; a.d. 934.
S. Emeric, C. at Alba Regia in Hungary ; a.d. 1032.
S. Thomas Lauder, B. of Dunkeld ; a.d. 1476.
B. Frances, IV. at Amboise ; a.d. 1485.
S. Charles Borromeo, Abp. of Milan; a.d. 1584.

S. PERPETUA, M.
(ist cent.)

[Some Latin Martyrologies. Not commemorated by the Greeks.
Authority : — S. Clement's Stromata, quoted by Eusebius, H. E. lib. iii.
c 30.]

LEMENT of Rome, in his Stromata, relates: "The
Blessed Peter, seeing his own wife led away to
execution, was delighted, on account of her call
and return to her country, and he cried to her
in a consolatory and encouraging voice, addressing her by
name, ' Oh, thou, remember the Lord ! ' " She was the
mother of S. Petronilla, who is commemorated on May 31.

106 Lives of the Saints. [Nov. 4.

SS. PHILOLOGUS AND PATROBAS, B.B.

(1ST CENT.)

[Roman Martyrology. By the Greeks on this day, along with Linus,
Gaius, and Hernias. Authority : — Romans xvi. 14, 15.]

Philologus and Patrobas were Christians of Rome, to
whom S. Paul sent his salutations. Philologus, according to
Pseudo-Hippolytus, was one of the seventy disciples, and
bishops of Sinope. Pseudo-Dorotheus says the same. Pa-
trobas, according to these two authorities, was also one of
the seventy, and bishop of Puteoli. They call him Patrobulus.

S. PIERIUS, P.

(about a.d. 312.)

[Roman Martyrology. Usuardus, Ado, &c. Authorities : — Euse-
bius, H. E. vii. c. 32, S.Jerome, De Vir. illust. c. 86.]

S. Pierius of Alexandria, whom Eusebius reckons among
the most remarkable men who lived just before his time, was
greatly celebrated for his voluntary poverty and his philo-
sophical knowledge. He was great in expounding the Scrip-
tures, and in discoursing before the congregation in the
church. He was called, from his learning and depth of
teaching, the Younger Origen. S. Jerome says that he went
to Rome, having survived the persecution of Diocletian and
Maximian. Photius,1 however, says that he and his brother
Isidore received the crown of martyrdom; and S. Epi-
phanius mentions a church in Alexandria dedicated to
Pierius; and at that date this would not have been the case if

1 Cod. 118, ng.

Nov. 4.] ■S^' Vitalis and Agricola. 107

he had not died a martyr's death. But the statement of S.
Jerome, and the silence of Eusebius are sufficient to show
that the Pierius who was a martyr cannot have been the
same as the philosophic teacher. S. Pierius wrote a tractate
on Easter, and a commentary on Hosea the prophet, together
with other works. Photius commends his easy and fluent
style.

SS. VITALIS AND AGRICOLA, MM.

(4TH CENT.)

[Usuardus, Roman Martyrology. Authorities : — S. Ambrose, Ad
Virgin., and Gregory of Tours, De Gloria Martyr, c. 43.]

Agricola was a member of a noble family at Bologna.
Having embraced Christianity, he converted S. Vitalis, his
servant. The gentleness of his character, his amiable quali-
ties, and his virtues, made him to be generally beloved, even
among the heathen. He was arrested, along with his slave,
Vitalis, probably in 304, and he had the pain as well as satis-
faction of seeing his servant martyred before his eyes. It was
hoped that he would be intimidated by the sight of the
sufferings of Vitalis, but, on the contrary, he was nerved to
follow him. He was attached to a cross and pierced with
several nails. When dead he was buried with S. Vitalis in
the Jews' cemetery. S. Ambrose having discovered their
place of sepulture in 393, obtained from it some of the nails
and blood. He placed them in a church which he dedicated
at Florence.

4, *

->«

108 Lives of the Saints. [Nov.4.

S. MODESTA, V. ABSS.
(about a.d. 680.)

[Roman, Gallican, and Benedictine Martyrologies. At Treves on
Oct. 6. Authority : — Mention in the Life of S. Gertrude.]

S. Modesta was the niece of S. Modoald, bishop of
Treves, and of the blessed Itta, wife of Pepin of Landen.
She took the veil in the monastery of Saint Mont, and spent
about twenty years in it. She was then placed at the head
of a swarm of holy virgins whom the abbess of Saint Mont
sent from the hive, to settle at Treves in the monastery of
Horren, so called because Dagobert, king of Austrasia, gave
to the new community as their quarters the old Roman
public granary, called in Latin Horreum. S. Irmina,
daughter of Dagobert, received the veil from the hands of
S. Modesta. The holy abbess was favoured with extraordi-
nary graces; she knew, by revelation, the hour when S.
Gertrude of Nivelles, her cousin, died. On the morrow she
spoke of it to Clodulf, bishop of Treves, who verified it. She
died about a.d. 680, and was succeeded by S. Irmina.

S. CLAIR, RM.

(OTH CENT.)

[Usuardus, Gallican and Roman Martyrologies. — Authority : — Men-
tion in the Lessons of the Rouen and Beauvais Breviaries.]

S. Clarius, or Clair, was a native of Rochester, who, in
the 9th century, quitted his country, after having been raised
to the priesthood, and passed into Normandy. He fixed his
residence in Le Vexin, in the diocese of Rouen, and lived
there for several years a life of great seclusion and severity,

Nov.40 6". Joannicus. 109

imitating the Fathers of the Egyptian deserts. A woman of
rank in the neighbourhood cast eyes of passion on him, and
as he indignantly repulsed her advances, in a fit of revenge
she sent two of her servants to murder him. His head was
cut off. He is represented as carrying it. As he kept a
watch on his eyes, and bashfully covered them with his
hands when the lady cast her warm glances on him, he is
often represented with one hand covering the eyes of the
head he holds with the other hand. The place where he was
assassinated bears his name, and has become a place of
pilgrimage.

S. Clair is invoked by those affected with inflamed eyes.
He is sometimes by error represented as a bishop, being
mistaken for his namesake, a bishop of Nantes.

S. JOANNICUS, AB.
(a.d. 846.)

[Roman Martyrology, inserted by Baronius from the Greek Mensea
and Menology. Russian Kalendars. Authority : — A Life in Surius,
Nov. 4.]

This saint was born at Maricat, a village in Bithynia, near
the Apollonian lake, in 765. His parents were poor, and he
was employed in his early youth as a pig-driver. He afterwards
became a soldier, led a careless and disorderly life, and fell
into the heresy of the Iconoclasts ; but in the reign of Con-
stantine and Irene he returned, at the exhortation of a soli-
tary, to a belief in the reverence due to images, and was moved
also, undoubtedly, by the fact that his present masters were
diligent promoters of the cultus of images. He began at the
same time to be sensible of his sins, and t6 desire a life to
God. He began at once a penitential course, fasting and

no Lives of the Saints. [Nov. 4.

praying, and lying on the bare earth, though he did not leave
the army for six years longer. But after returning from a
campaign against the Bulgarians, in which he had distin-
guished himself, he quitted the service of arms and the vani-
ties of the world, entered several monasteries in succession,
so as to learn to read, and to conduct himself in the new
service he was about to enter, and then retired to the side
of Mount Olympus, on which he spent several years exposed
to the cold of winter and the heat of summer, without a
shelter for his head. Then he entered a cavern and lived
therein on bread and water alone.

After twelve years of this stern life he entered the monas-
tery of Eristae, and took the habit. He had the gift of
prophecy, and many miracles are related of him. His repu-
tation extended throughout the empire, and his authority
was of great avail to sustain the orthodox in the perse-
cutions of Leo the Armenian, and Michael the Stammerer.
Peace having been at length restored to the Church, under
the government of the Empress Theodora, S. Joannicus,
already at an advanced age, enclosed himself in a narrow
cell of the monastery of Mount Antides.

His prudence and moderation were of great advantage in
guiding the impetuous Methodius, patriarch of Constanti-
nople, in the reaction against Iconoclasm. Some fiery con-
fessors were for denying the orders of all the bishops and
priests who had been consecrated by Iconoclastic prelates.
Methodius wavered, and applied to Joannicus for advice.
The holy abbot advised him to treat them as erring brethren,
and not to reject those who returned to Catholic usages, but
only those who had been open and defiant Iconoclasts.

This advice was followed, and the bishops and abbots who
took the extreme view, and refused to acknowledge the
reconciled clergy, were banished by the Emperor as mischief-
makers and disturbers of harmony.

Nov 4 3 5. Charles Borromeo. 1 1 1

In 845 Methodius, hearing that S. Joannicus was dying, went
to see the old man, and recommended himself to his prayers.
Joannicus felt himself honoured by this visit, and foretold
that the patriarch would speedily follow him. The saintly
anchorite died af. the age of eighty-one, on the 4th of
November, in the sixth year of the Emperor Michael, 846,
and S. Methodius died of dropsy, eight months after, on the
14th of June, 847.

S. CHARLES BORROMEO, ABP.

(a.d. 1584.)

[Roman Martyrology. Canonized by Paul V., Nov. I, 1610. Au-
thorities : — A Life by Augustino Valerio, Cardinal Bishop of Verona,
pub. in 1586, at Verona. " Vita et Obitus S. Caroli Borromaei, auct.
Joanne Franc. Bononi, Vercellensi Episc." Colon. 1587. A Life in
Italian by J. P. Giussano, Rome, 1610. " De Vita et rebus gestis Caroli
Borromaei. . . . lib. septem ; Carolo A. Basilicopetri auctore,"
Ingolst. 1592. These biographers knew him personally. Bononi has
also " Borromaeidos libri quatuor," Mediol. 1589, a Latin poem on the
life of S. Charles. Also the letters of S . Charles, and his other writings.
"Vie de S. Charles Borromee, par Antoine Godeau," Paris, 1663.
"La Vie et l'Esprit de S. Charles Borromee, par le Pere Touron,"
Paris, 1 761, &c]

Charles, or Carlo Borromeo, was born in the castle of
Arona, on the Lago Maggiore, on October 2nd, 1538. His
father was Gilberto Borromeo, Count of Arona, of ancient
illustrious family. His mother was of a family which had
recently raised itself to notice, she was named Margharita
di Medici. The story of her family is curious.

Bernardino di Medici was an industrious, but poor, tax-
collector in Milan.1 His sons were Giangiacomo and
Giovani Angelo. The former adopted the trade of arms, the

1 Hieron. Soranzo, Relatione di Roma.

>ff

112 Lives of the Saints. [Nov> ^

latter devoted himself to study. Giangiacomo, naturally
reckless and enterprising, had rendered himself useful to the
then rulers of Milan, by ridding them of one of the Visconti
family, called Monsignorino, who was their rival ; but no
sooner was this murder accomplished than those who had
desired it were anxious to be delivered of the tool they had
employed. To this end they sent the young man to the
castle of Mus, on the Lake of Como, with a letter to the
governor, containing orders for the immediate death of the
bearer. Giangiacomo, suspicious of evil, opened the letter,
saw what was prepared for him, and at once resolved on the
measures to be taken. He gathered a number of trusty com-
rades, gained admission to the castle by means of the letter
he bore, and succeeded in taking possession of it. From
that time he assumed the position of an independent prince.
Secure in his fortress, he kept the Milanese, Swiss, and
Venetians, who were his neighbours, in perpetual activity by
his ceaseless incursions. After a time he took the white
cross, and entered the Imperial service. He received the
title of Marchese di Marignano, served as chief of artillery in
the war against the Lutherans, and commanded the Em-
peror's forces at Siena. His shrewdness was not inferior to
his daring ; his undertakings were invariably successful, but
he was altogether without pity ; many a wretched peasant,
who was attempting to carry provisions into Siena, he de-
stroyed with his iron staff. Scarcely was there a tree far and
near on which he had not caused some one of them to be
hanged. It was computed that he had put to death at least
five thousand men.

The advance of his brother Giovani Angelo had kept pace
with his own. This last took the degree of doctor-of-laws,
and gained some reputation as a jurist ; he then purchased
an office in Rome, and rapidly acquired the confidence of
Paul III. When the Marchese di Marignano, his brother,

4< — — <i*

Nov. 4>] S. Charles Borromeo. 113

was married to an Orsini, the sister of Pier Luigi Farnese's l
wife, he was himself made cardinal.

The sister of these adventurers made a fortunate match
when she won the hand of the Count of Arona. They had
two sons,2 Frederick, destined to succeed to his father's title
and estates, and Charles, early devoted to the clerical pro-
fession, both by the tastes of the child and the judgment of
his parents, who knew that they had sufficient interest to
advance him in the Church. Indeed, whilst still a child, he
was given the Abbey of SS. Gratinian and Felinus, which was
vacated for him by his uncle, Julius Caesar Borromeo, that
he might enjoy the revenues, and exercise authority as its
titular abbot.

When he had attained the age of twelve he assumed com-
plete control over the revenues of his benefice, and, greatly
to his credit, he used them, not on his pleasures, but in reliev-
ing the necessities of the poor. His father was an exceed-
ingly pious, generous man, and his influence told on the
young boy, and directed him in the path of duty, instead of
that of pleasure.

Charles studied in Milan, and thence betook himself to
Pavia, where he studied canon law under Francesco Alciati,
and from him received the doctor's cap. It is said that the
day was cloudy when Charles was given his degree, but at the
moment when the bonnet of doctor was given him a gleam
of sun poured in at the windows and illumined the whole hall :
a beautiful figure of the light which the teaching of this saintly
man would spread throughout the Church he should be called
to govern. The university of Pavia was known for the dis-
orderly and immoral conduct of the students in it ; but Charles

1 The illegitimate son of Pope Paul III., when Cardinal Alexander Farnese.

' The four daughters were— Isabella, a nun ; Camilla, who married Casar Gon-
zaga. Prince of Malfetto ; Geronima, who married Fabricio Gesualdi, eldest son of
the Prince of Venossa ; and Anna, who married Fabricio, eldest son of Prince Marc-
Amonio Colonna, Viceroy of Sicily.

VOL. XIII. 8

U4 Lives of the Saints. rNov ^

passed through his academical course there unstained, and
issued from it as guileless as he had entered it.

Cardinal de' Medici, the uncle of S. Charles, had in the
meantime undergone the alternatives of favour and disfavour.
Under Paul III. he had obtained the administration of the
papal cities, had been charged with the conduct of political
negotiations, and more than once intrusted with the commis-
sariat of papal armies. Paul IV. hated him, and on one
occasion burst into violent invective against him in full con-
sistory. Medici then thought it best to leave Rome, and
resided sometimes at the baths of Pisa, and sometimes in
Milan, till, on the death of Paul IV., in 1559, the year that
his nephew was made doctor of laws, he was called to assume
the triple crown, under the title of Pius IV. He was a dis-
creet, intelligent, and kindly-disposed man, of a joyous, but
also of a worldly, temperament. He had made his way in
the Church, and his brother had made his in the world, and
he was not disposed to distress himself about reforms, and
make for himself a bed of nettles where he hoped to rest on
one of roses. He at once summoned to Rome his nephew
Charles Borromeo, then aged twenty-one, and invested him
forthwith with the office of protonotary, conferred on him the
cardinal's hat, with the title of SS. Guido and Modesta, and
next year, 1560, having forced Hippolytus d'Este to resign
the administration of the see of Milan, gave to Charles, then
aged twenty-two, and not yet in deacon's orders, the arch
bishopric of the most important see in North Italy.

Frederick, brother of Charles, was also at Rome, and the
Pope was prepared to invest him with all the honours that he
could confer on a layman. He had married the daughter of
the Duke of Urbino, and had succeeded his father in the
county of Arona.1 But he died in 1563, leaving no children.

1 Gilbert Borromeo II. was married thrice. First to Margaret di Medici, thf
mother of Frederick and Charles ; next to Thaddxa del Vermi, sister of John, Count

* : 4«

Nov. 4] 6*. Charles Borromeo. 1 1 5

It was then thought that Charles would resign his prospects
of advancement in the Church, marry, and return to lay life.
And, indeed, his uncle, the Pope, urged him to this. But
Charles had made up his mind, and nothing could shake
him. He resigned the family honours and estate to Julius
Caesar Borromeo, his uncle, and son of Frederick Borromeo
and Veronica Visconti, reserving for himself an annuity on
the estate. He placed himself under an irrevocable vow,
and received the sacred orders up to priesthood. Before
celebrating his first mass he went through the religious exer-
cises of S. Ignatius under the conduct of Ribera, the Jesuit,
and learned the practice of mental prayer, which thenceforth
he never failed to perform twice a day. The Pope then
changed his title to that of Cardinal of S. Praxedes, made
him Grand Penitentiary, Arch-Priest of S. Maria Maggiore,
Protector of Lower Germany, the kingdom of Portugal, the
provinces of Flanders, the Swiss Catholic cantons, and of
several religious orders, Legate of Bologna, of Romagna, and
of the Marches of Ancona.

These honours did not dazzle him, nor did he neglect the
duties involved in them. By his connection with the Pope,
and the responsibilities brought by these dignities, he was
drawn into contact with the most weighty affairs of the pon-
tifical government. To these he devoted his most assiduous
attention with equal modesty and conscientiousness ; his best
energies were applied to the administration of the State ; he
gave audience with unwearied patience. For the more
effectual performance of his duties he called around him a
" collegium " of eight learned men, which afterwards formed
the important institution of the "Consulta." He lent
valuable aid to the Pope by his advice, and by his steady
regard for the welfare of the Church. " In so far as we

of Bobbio, by whom he had one child, Hortensia, married to Annibal, Count of
Altemps ; lastly to Aurelia Vestorina, by whom he had no family.

1 1 6 Lives of the Saints. [Nov. 4.

know," says Geronimo Soranzo, "he is without spot or
blemish ; so religious a life, and so pure an example, leave
the most exacting nothing to demand. It is greatly to his
praise that, in the bloom of youth, nephew to a Pope whose
favour he entirely possessed, and living in a court where
every kind of pleasure invites to its enjoyment, he yet leads
so exemplary a life." His recreation consisted in gathering
around him in the evenings a few learned men, with whom
he might discuss profane literature. But Borromeo, who
though young and devout, did not despise heathen philoso-
phy, would soon turn the conversation to theological subjects.
In the meantime his archdiocese was not neglected. He
sent Nicholas Ormanete to Milan as his grand-vicar. He
would willingly have gone to it himself, but the Pope could
not be persuaded to allow him to leave Rome. The grand-
vicar found the diocese in the greatest disorder. It had
been the portion of non-resident archbishops for some while.
Octavian Archimboldi, appointed in 1494, died unconse-
crated the same year, and was succeeded by Hippolytus
d'Este, son of Hercules d'Este, Duke of Ferrara, and Eleanor
of Aragon. Hippolytus had been given the archbishopric of
Strigonia when eight years old. In 1493, when seventeen,
he was given a cardinal's hat by Pope Alexander VI. He
received also the archbishopric of Capua,1 and the bishoprics
of Ferrara,2 Agria,3 and Gran.4 He resided the greater part
of his time in Hungary. He is reproached by historians with
having had the eyes of his brother Julius plucked out because
he had succeeded in obtaining the affections of a lady of
whom he was himself enamoured. In 1497, when trans-
lated from Gran, he was given the archbishopric of Milan,
along with the bishopric of Agria. He was then only twenty-

1 In 1502, when aged twenty-six. 3 In 1503, when aged twenty-seven.

3 In 1497, when aged twenty-one.

* In 1487, when aged eleven ; he held it till 1497. when he was translated to Agria.

Nov. 4-] S. Charles Borromeo. 117

one years old. He died in 1520, without having ever re-
sided in Milan or attended to its spiritual welfare. He was
succeeded in the archbishopric by Hippolytus d'Este, son ot
Alphonso I., Duke of Ferrara, and Lucrezia Borgia. He was
nephew to his predecessor. Born in 1509, he was there-
fore eleven years old when promoted to the archbishopric.
He was made a cardinal by Pope Paul III. in 1538, he
was also archbishop of Auch, of Narbonne, of Aries, and
ot Lyons, and bishop of Autun,1 &c. He held, either in suc-
cession or together, as many as eight bishoprics, and was
also abbot of Flavigny and several other abbeys. He tried
for the Papacy on the death of Julius III., and again on the
death of Marcellus II., and again when Paul IV. died. An
ambitious, worldly man, fond of letters, and of surrounding
himself with men of science, and devoted to political in-
trigue, he paid no attention to his dioceses, from which he
drew his revenues. During thirty years that he was arch-
bishop of Milan he never entered the city. In 1550 he was
forced by Julius III., his rival and successful competitor for
the triple crown, to give up the crozier ot S. Ambrose to
Cardinal Archimboldi. On the death of Paul III., Cardinal
Monte gained the majority of votes in the conclave by
promise of future favours. " Take me," said he, " and the
next day I will choose you for my favourites and intimates
out of the whole college." He kept his word ; no sooner
was he invested with the Papacy than he installed Cardinal
Archimboldi, a partisan, in the seat of Cardinal d'Este, who
had been his rival. On the death of Pope Julius III. in
1555, Hippolytus again put in his claim. Archimboldi died
the same year ; but he did not enter Milan, and Marcellus
II., whom he had also opposed, filled the see of S. Ambrose
with Philip Archinto, bishop of Saluzzo, who also never

1 Milan, 1520-50, 1555-56, 1559-60 ; Autun, 1546-50 ; Lyons, 1539-50 ; Auch, 1551-54 :
Aries, 1562-67; Narbonne, 1550-51.

1 1 8 Lives of the Saints. tNov. 4-

entered Milan. On his death, in 1558, Hippolytus again as-
sumed the archbishopric, and held it till 1560, when he was
obliged to resign it in favour of Carlo Borromeo, and content
himself instead with the office of Legate in France.

It has been necessary to give this sketch of the arch-
bishops of Milan for seventy-three years before the appoint-
ment of S. Charles, to explain the deplorable condition of
disorder and licence which prevailed in the archdiocese when
S. Charles took the administration of it into his hands.
Nicolas Ormanete, the vicar-general, found that the con-
dition of affairs was so bad, that he was unable himself to
remedy it. He wrote to Carlo Borromeo, giving him a
picture of the state of the diocese, and entreated him to
come to it himself and attempt to reduce it to order, and
requesting permission to resign an office he was not com-
petent to discharge. Charles, moved by this letter, spoke so
urgently to his uncle, that the Pope gave way, and allowed him
to go to his see ; and he entered his cathedral city in pomp,
on September 23rd, 1565, five years after his appointment.

He at once assembled a provincial council, which was
attended by Jerome Vida, bishop of Alba, Maurice Pietra,
bishop of Vigevano, Caesar Gambra, of Tortona, Scipio
d'Este, of Casal, Nicolas Sfondrati, of Cremona, and others.
The first session was opened with a solemn procession.
After mass, the decrees of the Council of Trent were pub-
lished, and the bishops were enjoined to see to the execution
of them in their several dioceses. The council then pro-
ceeded to pass rules for the reformation of the morals of the
clergy, and for the proper observance of religious ceremonies.
It forbade the faithful to have any dealings with the Jews,
and pronounced excommunication against parents who re-
fused to allow their daughters to take the veil.

S. Charles was recalled to Rome in December by the
news that the Pope was dangerously ill. He hastened to

Nov. 4.] S. Charles Borromeo. 119

the bedside of his uncle, administered to him the last sacra-
ment, and was with him when he died, on the night of
December 8th, 1565.

On the following day the cardinals met in conclave to
elect a successor. It is unnecessary here to relate the intrigues
which agitated the conclave, and which upset the Cardinal
Moroni, a Milanese, whom S. Charles favoured, and after-
wards Buon-Compagno and Sirlette, rival claimants for the
tiara. When Borromeo saw that the election of Moroni was
impossible, he threw himself into the party in favour of the
Cardinal of Alexandria, grand inquisitor, a man of low ex-
traction, religious, and hating heresy. We have a letter from
Charles Borromeo on his motives. " I was determined," he
says, " to consider nothing so much as religion and purity
of faith. I was well acquainted with the piety, irreproach-
able life, and devout spirit of the Cardinal of Alexandria,
afterwards Pius V. ; I thought none could more fitly ad-
minister the Christian Commonwealth, and used my best
efforts in his favour." Philip of Spain, who had been won
over to the interest of the same cardinal by his ambassador,
sent his express thanks to Borromeo for having promoted the
election. Pius V. was precisely the man then believed to
be required. The adherents of Paul IV., who had kept
themselves retired during the pontificate of Pius IV., con-
sidered themselves most fortunate : " To Rome; to Rome!"
writes one of them to another, " come confidently and at
once, but with all modesty ; God has awakened for us our
fourth Paul again ! " Paul IV. had been a Neapolitan, highly
born, of the anti- Austrian faction, a zealot, a monk, and an
inquisitor ; Pius IV. was the son of a Milanese tax-gatherer,
devotedly attached to the house of Austria, a man of the world,
and fond of its pleasures. Paul IV. had advanced his kin-
dred, theCaraffas; Pius IV. put the nephews of his predecessor
to death. One of the first acts of Pius V. was to review the

"rr

120 Lives of the Saints* [Nov. 4.

case of the Caraffas, and to pronounce that they had been
unjustly judged by his predecessor, and that the confiscated
goods of the family were to be restored.

He was a stern guardian of public morals. He ordered
that women of bad character in his dominions should be
whipped till they married or left the country. But when he
found it impossible to carry this decision into execution,
he forbade them leaving their houses, thereby condemning
them to a cloistered life without its virtues. He denied
them the presence of a confessor on their death-beds, and
burial in consecrated ground.

Charles Borromeo was satisfied that the zealous Pope
would support him in his efforts to reform the demoralized
Church in his archdiocese ; indeed, Pius V. himself urged
him to this work, by writing to him, in 1568, that there were
heretics in the north of his diocese, and advising him to seek
them out and bring them to a right faith. He required him
to restore the inquisition to its ancient activity and rigour
throughout the diocese of Milan. S. Charles went about
the matter. The valleys of Leventina and Blegno belonged at
that time to the Swiss Cantons of Uri and Schwytz. The
Ticino, which flows through the Val Leventina, unites with
the Mant, and the united streams flow through the Riviera
by Bellinzona into the Lago Maggiore. The Riviera belonged
to the Canton of Unterwalden.

The biographers of S. Charles, supposing that these valleys
must have been on the northern side of the S. Gothard, give
a harrowing account of the labours and fatigues of the saintly
archbishop as he traversed the Alps to reach these Swiss
valleys, of his scrambling over glaciers with iron spikes in
his shoes. Unfortunately for the story, the valleys of Riviera,
Leventina, and Blegno are easily reached from Bellinzona
without any alpine scrambling. Before visiting these valleys
he wrote to the bailiffs who ruled in them on behalf of

Nov. 4. j S. Charles Borromeo. 121

the three Swiss cantons, and requested them to meet him
and assist him in restoring order in that portion of his diocese.

The officers accordingly received him with courtesy, and
assured him that if they had exercised their authority to
punish some of the clergy, it was not from any wish to invade
the jurisdiction of the archbishop, but because their licentious-
ness and turbulent conduct was so gross, and the archiepis-
copal supervision was so neglected, that they were constrained
to do so for the sake of common decency and the public
peace. S. Charles assembled the clergy of the three valleys
and exhorted them to mend their morals, and to set an
example of virtue and not of dissolute life to their flocks; but,
from what he saw of the clergy, he felt that it was hopeless
to amend them, and, therefore, when he returned to Milan, he
sent among them some clergy whom he could trust, to preach
to the people, and report on the parochial priests, and
settled also some Capuchin friars in their midst. As for the
heretics, such as had been infected with Lutheran or Cal-
vinistic errors, he delivered them over to the secular arm
to be made short work of.

The Saint next proceeded to reform the Frati Umiliati, an
Order founded at Milan in 1134, and which followed, or
pretended to follow, the rule of S. Benedict. They had
ninety monasteries, but only 170 religious in them. The
provosts enjoyed great revenues, they received among their
number only sons of good families, who were forced to adopt
the ecclesiastical or religious life for family reasons, and who
had no wish to renounce the pleasures and luxury of a
worldly life. Provosts of the Frati Umiliati had arrived at a
scandalous stage of demoralization : " They lived such a
licentious life, that they denied their sensuality nothing.
They went abroad only in grand equipages, they followed
the chase, were constantly seen in houses of gambling and
pleasure, qared little for the conduct of their monasteries,

122 Lives of the Saints. [Nov. 4-

where the monks, following the example of their superiors,
shamed even the most debauched laymen by surpassing them
in their excesses."

S. Charles obtained two briefs from the Pope, one gave
him power to levy a tithe on the property of the Frati, the
other appointed him apostolic commissary to reform them.
In virtue of these briefs, the archbishop assembled the Order
in several chapters at Cremona, published rules for restoring
discipline among them, and judged that the provosts should
be changed every three years.

The friars were exasperated at this interference, and left
no stone unturned to get the Pope to reverse the decision of
S. Charles and revoke his brief constituting him apostolic
commissary. When all these attempts failed, several of
the provosts and other malcontents determined to get rid of
the archbishop by assassination. The ringleaders of this plot
were the provosts of Vercelli, Caravagio, and Verona. They
communicated their design to others of the same Order, and
it was approved. A priest of the society, named Jerome
Donate, surnamed Farina, offered for the sum of forty gold
crowns to do the deed. The conspirators, unwilling to pay
the money out of their own pockets, sold the silver ornaments
of the church of Brera, their head establishment in Milan,
for the purpose. Farina, after having spent the money in
taverns, on the 25th October, 1569, introduced himself into
the chapel of the archbishop, and fired an arquebuse at him
whilst he was saying the evening prayers along with his
servants. As they were saying " Let not your heart be
troubled," the ball struck him on the spine, but was arrested
by his rochet, and scarcely wounded him. Farina escaped
in the consternation and confusion which ensued. The Pope
sent the bishop of Lodi to Milan to investigate the matter.
Two provosts of the Umiliati were arrested, one an accom-
plice, the other had been informed that the assassination was

tf* -*fr

Nov. 4.] S.Charles Borromeo. 123

planned. By their confession the rest of the conspirators
were taken. The provosts of Vercelli and Caravagio, and
those of the friars who were gentlemen, were executed with
the sword, on July 28th, 1570, and Farina and those who
were not of noble birth were hung on the same day. After
which Pius V. by bull suppressed the Order, and the friars
were dispersed among the Carthusians, Franciscans, and
Dominicans.

In 1569 S. Charles held a second council at Milan, in
which fresh decrees were passed. In conformity with the
harsh rule laid down in Rome by the Pope, in Milan also phy-
sicians were forbidden to continue their attendance on sick
persons who, after having been ill for three days, had not con-
fessed. Those who lived on the confines of heretical cantons of
Switzerland were not to be suffered to marry till the bishop
had been communicated with, and an inquiry into their faith
had proved satisfactory. Marriages were not to be cele-
brated, except in churches, without licence, and those who
lived with concubines were to be excommunicated. Priests
were forbidden singing indecent songs, and having dances
and theatrical representations in their parsonages ; churches
were not to be used for profane entertainments, and as pro-
menading places. All indecent pictures were to be banished
from churches, and the church ornaments were not to be
used for profane purposes. The church bells were to be
rung every Friday at three o'clock in the afternoon, to an-
nounce the hour when Jesus died, and an indulgence of
forty days was promised to all who should, on hearing the
bell, recite twice the Pater Noster and Ave Maria. Every
contract of usury was annulled ; those whose infirmities for-
bade them to observe Lent were required to eat meat in
secret.

There was at Milan a collegiate church called Santa Maria
de la Scala, founded by a lady of the Scala family, who had

124 Lives of the Saints. [Nov> 4,

married Barnabas Visconti. The right of patronage was in
the hands of the King of Spain as Duke of Milan. The
king presented to the archbishop, who conferred the bene-
fice on his nominee. Francis Sforza II. had obtained from
Pope Clement VII. a bull exempting the canons of La Scala
from the jurisdiction of the ordinary, subject to the consent
of the archbishop.

The canons lived a licentious, scandalous life, and S.
Charles was determined to reform them. He served them
a notice that he would visit them on a certain day. They
answered that they were not subject to episcopal visita-
tion, and would not open their doors to him. The arch-
bishop sent a special courier to Rome, and obtained from
Pius V. full authority to visit the recalcitrant canons. S.
Charles, however, gave them two months' respite to prepare
for his visit. But as the archbishop's court had proceeded
against a priest of their chapter for some breach of discipline
or morals, the chapter elected a certain Pietro Barbesta as
guardian of their privileges, and pronounced excommunica-
tion against the officer of the archbishop who had condemned
the priest. The cardinal archbishop thereupon ordered them
to receive him in person on the 30th August, 1569. They
refused, and when he arrived on his mule in pontifical
habits they barred his way at the head of a party of armed
retainers, and one, catching the bridle of his mule, thrust the
archbishop back, whilst the rest clamoured that they were
subject to the jurisdiction of the King of Spain, and free
from episcopal supervision. S. Charles was obliged to de-
scend from his mule, and seizing his archiepiscopal crozier,
he advanced against the insolent canons, firmly resolved to
enter the church. He was rudely jostled, firearms were dis-
charged, and the bullets struck his crozier. The church
gates were slammed in his face, and when his grand-vicar
attached the sentence of excommunication against the door,

Nov.4.J S. Charles Borromeo. 125

the canons tore it down contemptuously. Barbesta had the
further audacity to declare the archbishop excommunicate,
and suspended from his functions for having violated the
apostolic privileges accorded to the chapter of S. Maria de
la Scala. The sentence of excommunication on S. Charles
was nailed up in all public places of Milan. It only served
to make the canons ridiculous. The archbishop at once
ratified the excommunication pronounced against the canons
by his grand-vicar, and served an interdict on their church.
At the same time he despatched a trusty messenger to the
Pope to tell him what had occurred, and to entreat him to
support his authority. Pius accordingly annulled the sen-
tence of Barbesta, and cited some of the canons to Rome.

The chapter in the meantime had written to the King of
Spain. S. Charles wrote to Castanea, archbishop of Rosano,
who was nuncio at the Spanish court, to use his influence
against the chapter. Philip II. was not disposed to quarrel
with the Pope for the sake of the canons, and refused to
support them in their contumacy. He even wrote to the
governor of Milan to force the canons to submit to the Ordi-
nary, and to accept the reforms he was about to introduce
among them. Those who had fired at the archiepiscopal
cross were to be arrested, and punished with the utmost
rigour. The canons had wholly disregarded the interdict,
and had defiantly celebrated their religious offices in the
church with unusual splendour. But the royal letter showed
them that they could not hope for support against the
cardinal archbishop, and they, therefore, with bad grace,
made their submission, and their excommunication was
raised. They were, however, required annually, on the feast
of the nativity of Our Lady, to come in procession to the
cathedral, prostrate themselves at the feet of the archbishop,
and acknowledge publicly that they recognized his juris-
diction.

»}< »i<

126 Lives of the Saints. [Nov. 4.

In 1570 the holy cardinal revisited the three valleys be-
longing to the Swiss cantons that lay in his diocese, and
afterwards, with the ostensible purpose of paying a visit to
his sister, the Countess Hortensia, at Altaems, he crossed
the S. Gothard. After having stayed a short while with his
sister, he visited the Catholic cantons of Switzerland, one
after another, and set to work to restore clerical discipline
among them. He found the clergy living in great disorder,
and in some of the monasteries scarce a vestige of religious
observance remained. The monks were served, even in their
cells, by women ; most of the convents were turned into
hostelries, and were full of drunkenness, riot, and immoralities.
S. Charles acted with much gentleness and wisdom, and suc-
ceeded in persuading the monks and priests to adopt a more
edifying life.

In this expedition he is said to have won the respect of the
Zwinglians, and was treated with hospitality and veneration
by the simple-minded peasants wherever he passed, whether
Catholic or heretical.

During the year 1570, Northern Italy was afflicted by a
great scarcity, and the people suffered severely. The holy
bishop laid up a provision of corn, and rice, and beans, and
caused distribution to be made to all the necessitous. The
result was the concourse of an immense number of poor in
Milan ; and, during the months that the famine lasted, the
archbishop fed three thousand persons daily. So large an
outlay exhausted his means, and involved him in debt ; but
his example and exhortations induced many of the rich
families in Milan to contribute large sums to the relief of the
hungry, and enabled him to continue providing them with
food till the harvest relieved him of anxiety for the future.

Pius V. died in Eastertide, 1572 ; and S. Charles, though ill
at the time, hastened to Rome to be present at and influ-
ence the election of a successor. Buoncompagno of Bologna

41 ^

Nov. 4.] S. Charles Borromeo. 127

was elected without much opposition, and took the title of
Gregory XIII.

The journey to Rome had obliged S. Charles to suspend
the third provincial council, which he had appointed for 1572.
After the election of Gregory XIII. he was obliged to spend
six months in Rome on affairs of the Church. He took the
opportunity to resign the office of grand penitentiary, and
other offices, which distracted his attention, and diverted him
from the exclusive care of his flock at Milan. He left Rome in
October, and employed the winter in carrying out the orders
passed by his former councils, and especially in bringing the
convents of women to an exact observance of their rules.

His third council was held in April, 1573, and was con-
cerned chiefly in the regulation of minor ritual matters, all
the weightier concerns of ecclesiastical discipline having been
considered in the two earlier councils.

He had a trifling dispute about the same time with Don
Alvarez, governor of Milan. Alvarez, on his appointment
in the room of the Duke of Albuquerque, announced a bull
and bear bait in the square before the cathedral. The arch-
bishop threatened him with excommunication if he held it
there, and the governor was obliged to transfer the bull-fight
to the square in front of the castle. Alvarez died shortly
after, and was succeeded by Requesens, grand commander
of Castile. Requesens had a high idea of the royal pre-
rogative, and he let it be understood that he intended to act
upon letters of authority given him by the King of Spain, and
not to let the jurisdiction of the place fall unopposed into
the hands of the archbishop. He informed the grand-vicar
that, according to his letters of instruction, the extent of
jurisdiction claimed by the court of the archbishop would be
curtailed. S. Charles at once pronounced excommunication
against him. Requesens published a manifesto in reply,
stating that he was acting only according to written instruc-

128 Lives of the Saints. [Nov 4

tions, and that he was determined to resist " the encroach-
ments of Cardinal Borromeo " on the secular authority. In
revenge for his excommunication he forbade the public
assembly of penitents with veiled faces, and gathering of
guilds without an officer of the king being present to see
that the ecclesiastics did not make use of them for encourag-
ing factions against the Spanish king. King Philip II. cut
short the mutual recriminations by appointing Requesens
governor of the Low Countries in the room of the Duke of
Alva, whom he deemed it expedient to remove.

The greater part of 1574 was spent by S. Charles in visit-
ing the various parishes of his diocese. There was not a
village, however remote, that he did not visit two or three
times whilst he occupied the see. The highest mountain-
hamlets, the most secluded villages, all were alike known
and cared for. He was usually preceded by a " visitator,"
whose report he then took with him, examining and verifying
all with his own eyes ; all punishments were adjudged by
himself, all improvements proceeded under his own direc-
tions. To the poor he distributed alms ; those of better
station were invited to his table. He was prepared, on the
other hand, with measures suitable to the refractory.

Passing on a certain occasion through the Val Camonica,
the peasantry stationed themselves along the road to receive
his blessing ; but they had not for a long time paid their
tithes, and the archbishop passed along without moving a
hand or turning his eyes on one of them. The people,
shocked and terrified at this privation, were glad to return to
their accustomed duty. Hearing, whilst he was at Varese,
that Henry III. of France was to pass through the duchy,
he determined to meet him and offer him his congratulations
on obtaining the throne of France. They met at Monza.
Charles sent a messenger to ask the king when he could
receive him. Henry asked what the archbishop was then

*r~

* -*

Nov. 4] S. Charles Borromeo. 129

going to do. The messenger said that he was about to say-
mass. " What ! " exclaimed the king, " he, an archbishop,
condescend to say mass himself ! By all means I must assist
at it"

When S. Charles heard that the king was coming, he
hastened to meet him and accompany him to the church.
He gave him excellent advice, which Henry received with
respe>. t, but did not follow. Then he presented to him a
gold crucifix and some relics, which the king accepted with
many expressions of satisfaction.

In 1575 Gregory XIII. proclaimed a jubilee, S. Charles
published it in Milan, and resolved to visit Rome in person,
and obtain the indulgences promised. He reached it on the
festival of S. Thomas the Apostle, and was warmly received
by the Holy Father. After making a general confession, he
went the round of the churches on foot, his servants fol-
lowing him two and two, reciting prayers. Before he left
Rome he obtained permission from the Pope to hold a
jubilee, with indulgences attached to it, at Milan the fol-
lowing year. Baronius the historian obtained possession of
one of the old shoes worn by the cardinal archbishop
when he visited the stations in Rome. When this old shoe
was applied to an hysterical girl who was supposed to be
possessed by a devil — but who was probably possessed
only with the passion common to hysterical girls, of making
herself conspicuous — she shrieked and writhed. It is a pity
that the shoe was not applied more vigorously to her person,
when probably she would have been completely cured of
her possession.

In 1578 S. Charles founded the congregation of Oblates

of S. Ambrose. The spirit of the institution is intimated

by its name. It was that of perfect oblation. Its members,

although secular priests, were to possess the abnegation of

monks and friars. They were to be united to their arch-

vol. xm. 9
* t*

130 Lives of the Saints. [Nov.4.

bishop by a vow of obedience, and their special charge was
to assist him in the government of the Church of Milan, to
be at his disposal for every pastoral, educational, or mis-
sionary labour, in which he might need their assistance.
Laymen were affiliated to this congregation, with special
rules appropriate to their state, and special duties which
they were required to undertake. The foundation was
one of great importance, and proved of the utmost assis-
tance. He had in his Oblates always at hand a band of
zealous men whom he could despatch where he desired to
remedy the deficiencies of the ill-educated, and somewhat
demoralized, parochial clergy.

The jubilee at Rome in 1575 had drawn together a swarm
of pilgrims, and some of them brought with them the plague.
As they dispersed over Italy they carried the infection with
them. But no sooner was the jubilee over at Rome than
S. Charles held another with Papal sanction, largely en-
riched with indulgences, at Milan. The natural result was,
that the people who thronged into the great city brought
with them the seeds of the disease, and made Milan one
vast pest-house. S. Charles is said to have predicted that
it would be so, but it required no great knowledge of the
future to be sure that to crowd into the city thousands of
pilgrims bearing about among them the germs of the plague
which had already manifested itself in Rome would be sure
to lead to fatal results in Milan. No sooner had the pest
firm hold of the city than he appointed public processions
through the streets to invoke the aid of heaven to stay the
plague. The magistrates and physicians remonstrated :
thus to crowd people together was to increase liability to
infection ; but the archbishop was resolute, and the dismal
processions trailed with their piteous litanies through all the
thoroughfares. Most of the rich had retired to their country
houses. The magistrates were in consternation. Some of the
clergy shrank from visiting infected houses. The cardinal
* #

* -*

Nov. 4>] S. Charles Borromeo. 1 3 1

did everything he could think of to arrest or mitigate
the evil. His efforts if directed awrong were well meant.
Physical evils need physical rather than spiritual remedies.
The plague, he felt convinced, was not due to neglect of
sanitary precautions, but was a manifestation of the wrath
of God against a wicked people. The people, it is true,
had been making abundant use of the jubilee, had accu-
mulated indulgences in profusion, and had crowded the
tribunals of penance and the altar steps, but then, at the
conclusion of the jubilee, they had prepared to relieve the
strain by making merry over the entry of a prince into their
city. Not a century had elapsed since the plague had swept
away 130,000 souls in that city, and in 1524, and again in
1550, half the population had perished from a like calamity.
We cannot but doubt that the drainage must have been utterly
bad. But at that time drains were not thought of as disease
nests. S. Charles, for the purpose of removing the plague,
began at once to redouble his penances. He fasted daily, and
used the hardest of pallets. He then made his will, leaving
to his relatives only what the law required, and constituted
the hospital of Milan his residuary legatee. Prostrate at the
foot of the altar he offered himself as a voluntary victim to
Divine justice, to receive in his own person the chastisement
hanging over his people. Having thus made the oblation
of his life, he resolved to devote himself to the service of the
plague-stricken. The contagion rapidly spread. A panic
pervaded the city. Charles assembled the trembling clergy,
and animated them to stand at their posts, to fulfil their
duties, and leave the care of themselves to their Great Master.
His example, his enthusiasm, his entire unselfishness com-
municated courage to the clergy, and they nobly stood by
their chief pastor in the terrible time that ensued. The
cardinal went from house to house visiting the sick, the
poor, the dying. The large hospital of San Gregorio outside
the walls was given up to the plague-struck. It consisted
* *

132

Lives of the Saints.

[Nov. 4.

of a spacious square surrounded by cells, with a chapel in
the centre open on all sides, so that the patients in their cells
could see the priest at the altar. The hospital was moated,
and only accessible through a gate. But slender provision
had been made by the magistrates for the sick who were
conveyed to it. They were left there without sufficient beds,
furniture, or food. As soon as the magistrates heard that a
family was attacked, they were immediately conveyed to
San Gregorio. There they were huddled together in a
squalid famishing crowd. There they expired, without a
priest to minister the sacrament to them when dying.

S. Charles, on hearing the miserable condition of the in-
mates, hastened to the spot, and as he passed round the
interior of the court, the hollow-eyed, death-struck prisoners
rushed to their windows, and stretching out their hands to
him, with tears and groans clamoured for relief from their
miseries. Some, in their mad despair and horror, were tearing
their flesh with their teeth and nails, others were rolling
sobbing on the pavement. They were without sufficient
food, in a condition of filth, the air infected with plague
poison, and sickening to breathe. Charles extended his
hands to the poor wretches to bless them, and burst into
tears over their sorrows. He hastened home and despatched
to the hospital furniture from his own palace, and waggon-
loads of provisions. He sent all his plate to the mint to be
converted into coin, and then he urged on his Milanese
clergy to undertake the ministration of the last sacraments
to the poor wretches. They all refused, and he was obliged
to send for a priest and lay assistants from the Swiss valleys,
to perform the last rites to the pest-struck in San Gregorio.

He then drew up rules for the avoidance of infection, and
showed so unmistakably his resolution to minister, himself,
to the sick and dying, that eight of the clergy in shame
gathered round him, and consented to accompany him.

Nov. 4.] S.Charles Borromeo. 133

From the day that he began his holy work he enjoined
every one to keep aloof from him ; and to hold the people
at a proper distance, he had a wand borne before him, that
none might come near him or those who accompanied him
on his visits. To the horrors of plague those of famine
were shortly added. The principal citizens had broken up
their households and fled, the shopkeepers had closed their
shops, dismissed their apprentices and servants, and escaped
for their lives. The price of provisions was very high, and
Milan was full of discharged artisans and servants without
money to buy food. Nor could they now leave the city, as
the neighbouring villages would hold no communication
with wandering beggars from the town. S. Charles visited
the remaining noble and burgher families, and entreated them
to stay and assist in relieving the growing distress. His
powerful appeal prevailed. The city, divided into districts,
was placed under the supervision of several gentlemen who,
assisted by charitable tradesmen, visited every house, reported
on the necessities of its inmates, and saw to their relief. A
difference unfortunately arose between the magistrates and
the governor for the Spanish king, as to which should pay
the expenses thus incurred. The governor, on the outbreak
of the plague, had fled ; but he was obliged on business to
return to the city, intending to leave it again directly. S.
Charles wrote to him remonstrating with him for deserting his
post in the time of danger, and sent one of his household
to read the letter aloud before the governor and the senate.
Don Antonio de Guzman, the governor, was so shamed by
this rebuke, that he remained to concert with the magistrates
the means of supplying the most pressing wants of the poor;
and it was decided that the magistrates should discharge the
costs.

But these wants multiplied faster than help could be pro-
vided, and crowds of servants and workmen out of place

K -*

* *

134 Lives of the Saints. tNov. 4.

roamed through the streets in a state of utter destitution.
One morning, moved by a common impulse, they assembled
in a body, and directed their steps to the archbishop's palace.
He was the father of the forsaken, they would throw themselves
on his compassion. As two by two the long procession of
misery streamed into the palace, with famine painted in every
haggard face, the heart of the charitable pastor was moved to
its depths. Considering what was to be done, he devised a
plan for enlisting the able-bodied men and women as nurses
to the sick, as scavengers of the streets and houses, and as
bearers of the dead to their last resting places. This scheme
was at once organized and put into execution ; but about
four hundred remained on his hands, and these he sent to
the Castle of Vittoria, on the road to Marignano, and borrowed
sums of money to pay for their support. These four hundred
paupers he confided to the care of the Capuchin fathers.

As winter approached he began to feel embarrassed as to
how to clothe the poor who depended wholly upon him.
He had nothing wherewith to meet this new necessity.
His purse, his granaries, his cellars were empty. He there-
fore emptied his palace of everything it contained which could
be made serviceable for clothing. His fur dresses, the bed
curtains, tapestry, carpets, counterpanes, were all swept off,
with the exception of a pair of sheets for each of his servants'
beds, and a bit of carpet to cover his own table. There was
a great deal of scarlet and violet cloth used for hanging in the
streets from the cathedral to the palace, on festival or peni-
tential processions. All this he confiscated, to the amount
of 800 yards of scarlet cloth and 700 yards of violet. There
were in addition several large pieces of yellow, green, and
blue. All these he had cut up and made into tunics with
hoods for the poor, and the streets of Milan suddenly blazed
like a flower garden. It must have been a curious sight —
that multitude of poor, old and young, clad in every colour

* — *

* . j$l

Nov. 4j S.Charles Borromeo. 135

of the rainbow, some arrayed in tapestry, some in damask
curtains, others in silk embroidered seats of chairs, others
again in floor-carpets.

Of the destitute state of the city we may form some idea,
when we are told that the number of poor fed daily amounted
sometimes to sixty or seventy thousand.

The plague showed no signs of abating, and the hospital
of San Gregorio could not contain the numbers who were
struck down with the disease. The magistrates, by the
advice of S. Charles, erected huts outside the city in six
places, for the sick. Temporary chapels were built in the
centre of each cluster, which grew into large villages of pest-
stricken wretches. To obtain the requisite number of priests
to attend to their spiritual needs, the cardinal applied to
the religious Orders.

The Pope, at his request, had already empowered him to
avail himself of the services of such as should offer themselves
to the work, even in the event of their superiors withholding
their permission. Nevertheless, that all might proceed in
harmony, he called together the religious communities in
Milan, and urged them to shake off their apathy and lend
their hands to the practical work crying out for labourers.
Twenty-eight religious at once offered themselves, and every
day afterwards others poured in. The Capuchins were
forward in their readiness to devote themselves. To all
these religious S. Charles committed the care of the booths,
where they were to administer the sacraments to the dying,
and say daily mass for the dead. Many seculars also, men
and women, offered their services, which were gladly accepted.
He gave them a brown robe and badge of their office, and
sent them to nurse the sick.

S. Charles next ordered processions to be made on the
Wednesday, Friday and Saturday of the first week in October,
and exhorted the people to confess and communicate on the

* __ %

136 Lives of the Saints. [Nov. 4.

Sunday following. The magistrates in vain remonstrated,
and pointed out how injudicious such an order was. But
the archbishop was deaf to their remonstrances. On the
first day he distributed ashes in the cathedral to the crowds
assembled, and then all walked to San Ambrogio, S. Charles
with a rope round his neck, and bearing in his hands a large
crucifix. He was bare-footed, and his feet were cut by flints
and nails. As he knelt before the altar at San Ambrogio the
server behind him observed blood trickle down the altar steps,
and raising the Cardinal's robe, saw that his foot was deeply
gashed and bleeding. Milan pretends to be in possession
of one of the holy nails wherewith the Saviour was attached
to the Cross. Other churches make similiar claims. There
is one at Treves ; a third in the basilica of S. Croce in
Gerusalemme at Rome ; a fourth at Torno, on the Lake of
Como ; a fifth in the patriarchal church of the Clares at
Venice ; a sixth at Toricelli in the church of S. Antony ; a
seventh in the church of the Redeemer at Spoleto ; an eighth
at Siena ; a ninth at Colle, in Tuscany ; a tenth at Naples in
the church of S. Patricius ; an eleventh at Catanea ; a twelfth
in the church of S. Laurence in the Escorial ; a thirteenth at
Carpentras. Four are at Cologne, but one of these does not
claim to be an original. A seventeenth at Andechs, an
eighteenth at Toul, a nineteenth at Cracow, a twentieth at
Vienna. The Crown of Monza is made of a twenty-first.
Constantinople boasted of possessing at least one, and in
the Middle Ages before the wars of Religion there were many
more. So that we may put down the number of holy nails
at about thirty-five. S. Charles exhibited the nail possessed
by the Church of Milan with great pomp, and honoured it
with forty hours' prayer, during which period the religious
and more devout of the people remained prostrate in adora-
tion before the stumpy piece of old iron which is believed to
have been found by S. Helena along with the true cross, and

* *

* #

Nov. 4.] S. Charles B or romeo. 137

afterwards used by Constantine as a bit for his horse. The
nail was carried by a long streaming procession round the
whole town, and it caused special satisfaction that no one
fell out of his rank smitten by the plague. It was confidently
expected that the exposition of the holy nail would arrest the
plague, but to the surprise of the believers, and the disturbance
of the faith of some in the authenticity of a relic which had
so many counterparts, the plague continued to rage with
unabated fury.

When the time of winter frosts drew on, which usually
arrest the progress of disease of this description, the cardinal
was inspired with the happy thought to announce to the people
that if they would truly repent of their sins, the pest would
be at an end at Christmas. The holy nail having failed to
produce any effect, at the recommendation of S. Charles, the
city looked elsewhere for succour, and turned its eyes to
S. Sebastian. The Milanese, at the suggestion of their arch-
bishop, made a solemn vow to rebuild his dilapidated church ;
and they gave him a silver reliquary to contain his bones,
and went in procession to offer it him. Either S. Sebastian,
or the frost of winter, was propitious, and with the cold
weather the plague began to lose its malignity.

Charles went round his diocese, visiting every town and
village. The plague had not wholly ceased at Christmas,
as the Saint had predicted, but probably this was because
the people had not sufficiently repented of their sins. How-
ever, it was sufficiently abated for the magistrates to insist
on the purification of all the houses in Milan and the cleansing
or destruction of all articles of clothing worn by those who
had contracted the disorder. The Pope granted a jubilee,
and Charles preached, and began to celebrate it in Milan,
but as with the returning spring the pest began to break out
again in various quarters, the magistrates again ordered a
strict quarantine. The attractions of the jubilee and of the

* *

138 Lives of the Saints. [Nov.4.

animated devotions of Lent in the churches were, however,
too great for the people to listen to the commands of the
magistrates. On the 3rd of May the holy nail was again
carried in solemn procession about the town, and again re-
ceived a forty hours' adoration and ovation. During all these
forty hours the archbishop remained in prayer before the
relic, occasionally relieving the monotony of worship by the
excitement of preaching.

Providentially, the plague, after a few expiring efforts to
obtain ascendency once more, succumbed to the virtues of
the holy nail and the intercession of S. Sebastian, powerfully
seconded by the merit and self-devotion of S. Charles.

Though the archbishop had been most devoted in his
ministrations to the sick, and care for the famishing, it was
hardly to be expected that the magistrates could endure,
without remonstrance, the setting at naught of their
authority, and the disturbance he had introduced into their
sanitary arrangements by the exercise of his independent
judgment. When they had ordered a quarantine, the arch-
bishop had set their orders at naught by summoning the
people to a jubilee. When they had sought to isolate the
inhabitants to prevent the spread of infection, he had
gathered hale and sick together in procession. The magis-
trates had issued injunctions that none who had been plague-
struck were to leave the town, or mingle freely with those in
health, without certificates of recovery, signed by the medical
men and countersigned by themselves. The archbishop had
allowed his grand-vicar to issue these certificates. With
these charges were mixed up others utterly frivolous, accumu-
lated out of the resentment which the magistrates felt at
his interference with their arrangements. The catalogue of
the offences of the cardinal archbishop was laid before the
Pope, but, as might have been expected, was rejected by
him. He was not likely to listen to an accusation of the

sort.
* *

Nov.4j S. Charles B or romeo. 139

In 1578 S. Charles was able to accomplish what he had
long ardently desired — a pilgrimage to the Holy Winding-
sheet of our Lord. Of these there are at least half-a-dozen
in existence. The two most famous are that at Compiegne,
and that at Turin. S. Charles either had not heard of the
others, or with ultramontane patriotism chose to regard that
which belongs to the royal house of Savoy as the most
genuine. Habited as a pilgrim, staff in hand, and with the
Jesuit Adorno to direct his devotions, S. Charles set off on
his pilgrimage. He was met by Philibert Emanuel, Duke of
Savoy, with the greatest respect, and offered his splendid hos-
pitality. Crowds of persons had flocked to Turin, both to see
the cardinal and to honour the relic ; and so great was the
concourse, that, to satisfy their devotions, the Holy Winding-
sheet was exposed upon a raised scaffold in the square in
front of the castle. The sight so excited the enthusiastic
multitude that they addressed the relic with penitential cries
of " Misericordia ! " The cardinal is said to have remained
in an ecstasy of devotion for some hours before the soiled
sheet, undisturbed by the slightest cloud of suspicion that
the Compiegne relic had equal, if not better, claims to
be regarded as genuine. He was very particular not to
allow fraud to be used to incite popular devotion. When
at Liano, on the Lago di Garda, he heard that some bones
of a supposed saint were miraculous, and that during
the night preceding the festival of S. Peter ad Vincula
water flowed from the vault where they lay in a copious
stream, and was applied by crowds of pilgrim's for the pur-
pose of healing. Whether he had his suspicions roused by a
hint that trickery was employed, or whether he mistrusted
the clergy of Liano from his own observation of them, does
not appear; but he stationed trusty watchmen about the
relics on the eve of the festival, and it was found that, under
the circumstances, the water did not flow. He thereupon

had the vault walled up.
j, _ *

>$« — *

140 Lives of the Saints. [Nov 4>

In 1579 he was again in antagonism with the governor of
Milan. The celebration of the carnival was customary
throughout Italy. The mad frolics of the season were not
conducive to piety, and S. Charles forbade them. The
governor was indignant, and remonstrated, but the arch-
bishop was inflexible. The governor determined to defy the
saint, and have a spectacle — a ludicrous, masked joust in
the cathedral square. The foremost citizens of Milan, though
regretting the frolics to which they were accustomed, saw the
unseemliness of this proceeding, and regarded it as an insult
to their prelate, whom they venerated. They accordingly
attended the cathedral and slighted the joust. Charles, in-
dignant at the outrage, excommunicated all who had per-
formed in the buffoonery, those who had organized the spec-
tacle, and those who had looked on at it. The saint certainly
showed great want of discretion in attempting thus, at one
stroke, to root out a custom which was immensely popular
and common all over the Catholic world. His personal
influence succeeded in controlling the carnival in his own
city for awhile, but, when it was removed, the masquerading
and merry-making broke out as of old. The Pope, while
supporting S. Charles in the matter, tolerated the carnival in
Rome. At the present day Milan is famous for its carnivals
as the maddest, most extravagant, and most carefully pre-
pared for in all Italy, surpassing even those at Rome. But
the cardinal archbishop's singleness of aim, his earnest en-
thusiasm for the glory of God, and the spiritual welfare of his
flock, impressed every one with respect, even those who
opposed what they regarded as encroachments on the
authority of the municipal authority.

It was this sincerity, and the great simplicity of his cha-
racter in the midst of luxurious, careless living, and secular-
minded prelates, which astonished and commanded the
reverence of his time. When he went to Venice, the fact of

« *

Nov. 4.] S. Charles B or romeo. 141

his presence there caused sixteen bishops and a great number
of beneficed priests, who were living there dressed as laymen,
and conducting themselves as laymen, to assume for the
nonce their ecclesiastical garbs. And Venice was astonished
to see that there were so many idle and luxurious bishops
and priests living in her.

As he passed through Siena, Francesco Bandini, the arch-
bishop, received him sumptuously. The table was spread
with the utmost splendour and profusion. When the first
course had been removed, and a second of confectionery of
great delicacy had been brought on, S. Charles started up
and left the room, took his stick, and proceeded on his way,
in spite of a heavy downpour of rain. The archbishop in
vain urged him to stay. " No, my lord, no," said S. Charles.
" I cannot help thinking of the poor and famishing in Siena,
who might have been fed at the cost of such sumptuous diet
as you have this day provided for me. "

One day he was dining with one of his suffragan bishops,
and was treated to a concert during the repast. He thought
this also a most unseemly luxury for a bishop. Cardinal
Gambara conducted him through the magnificent gardens of
his palace at Bagneia. He was then bishop of Viterbo, of
Alba, and also of Preneste. The cardinal was proud of his
palace and gardens. The lavish expenditure roused the in-
dignation of S. Charles. " My lord," he said, " the money
spent on your pleasures here would have erected and endowed
a convent."

At the close of the year 1583 S. Charles set out as apos-
tolic delegate to visit the valleys belonging to the dioceses
of Coire and Como. He found that Zwinglian error had
penetrated into these districts ; the Grissons had in part
fallen away. The Catholic priests who remained commanded
no respect, from their ignorance and the dissoluteness of their
morals.

The Val di Miesocco, which is traversed by the traveller
descending from the Bernina into Italy, is enclosed by lofty
mountains with precipices, down which brooklets leap in
their spray like the Staubbach ; and there are at least eight
waterfalls, of which the volume is great, and which are
remarkable for their beauty. It is a rich valley, enjoying an
Italian climate, indicated by the luxurious growth of mul-
berries, chestnuts, vines, and rich crops of maize. The
witch madness, so prevalent in the 16th century, had found
its way even into this lovely and retired nook of the world.
When S. Charles visited the valley he found the poor goitrous
and cretinized inhabitants jabbering strange tales of their
intercourse with demons. The cardinal archbishop listened
to these silly fancies, and believed them. The priest of Rove-
redo was accused as leader of those who had sold themselves
to the devil. He indignantly denied the accusation. A hun-
dred and fifty idiots and hysterical women accused themselves
of having seen the devil and attended his assemblies. The
poor creatures had dreamed after eating too voraciously of
polenta, and were absolved and communicated by the saint
in person. As the priest of Roveredo persisted in denying
his participation in these imaginary crimes, he was degraded
by S. Charles from his office, and delivered over to the
secular authorities to be burnt alive. We must not expect
to find the saint rising superior to the superstitions of his
times. Men of far greater abilities than he believed then in
witchcraft, and committed harmless old crones to the stake.
It was not till long after that the Jesuit Frederick von Spee
dared to lift up his voice against the burning of witches, and
to persuade John Philip von Schonborn, archbishop of
Mainz, for ever to prohibit the execution of those charged
with witchcraft in his principality. Spee had been confessor
to the criminals condemned to death at Wiirzburg, when the
witch mania had raged with fury. His hair turned white,

* *

Nov. 4.]

S. Charles Borromeo.

143

though he was a young man. When asked why, he said it
was through the agony he had felt in having to prepare for
a death in flames so many innocent persons. Among the
numbers he had seen burned, he could not convince himself
that one was guilty.

But to return to S. Charles. Some pretty anecdotes are
told of him during his mountain visitations. How he
patiently sat with a little stupid boy who was watching a
flock of goats, and would not leave him till the child had
learned his Paternoster and Ave. How he listened with
attention and forbearance to the arguments of some old
Zwinglian women, and answered them, and endured, without
vexation, the feminine trick of always returning to the start-
ing point, and never understanding the force of reasoning
against their prejudices.

His health began to decline under the austerities which
he practised. He persisted in curtailing his natural sleep,
and was accordingly drowsy all day. Instead of letting his
tired mind and body enjoy refreshing rest, he vexed them
with struggles to reduce sleep to a very few hours. Nature
revenged herself. He nodded and dozed in the midst of
conversation and of divine service. In the Lent of 1584,
when his health was already shaken, he condemned
himself to eat nothing but figs, and meditated meals off
lupine in Holy Week; but the Pope, who heard that
his constitution was broken, ordered him not to fast so
rigorously.

All that year, which was his last on earth, though his
health was failing rapidly, he continued his labours, regard-
less of himself, thoughtful only of the welfare of the Church
committed to his charge. He went to Vercelli to assuage
the feuds that raged in the place. His gentle face and
winning earnestness drew the most excited and angry to
counsels of peace. "Often," says Galliardi, an intimate

* — *

144 Lives of the Saints. [Nov 4

friend of the cardinal, "have I reflected how it was that,
without having naturally any eloquence, or anything en-
gaging in his manner, he was able to effect such trans-
formation in the hearts of those who heard him. He spoke
little, with gravity, and in a voice scarcely audible, but his
words always produced their effect."

He made his last retreat at Varallo on the Sacro Monte.
This hill is covered with a series of fifty chapels, containing
groups of figures modelled in terra-cotta, painted and clothed.
They chiefly represent some of the principal events in the
history of Christ in the order of their occurrence. The
groups are seen through peep-holes in front. Some are in-
different as works of art, but others, by Gaudenzio and his
pupils, are of the highest merit. But the great charm of
Varallo and its holy mount is the situation, and the lovely
mountain and valley scenery which it commands. S. Charles
chose a very narrow cell for his apartment, condemned him-
self to bread and water, and a brief repose on hard planks.
He scourged his shoulders till they bled. He visited the
little chapels with a lantern, and remained for hours praying
before them. After a five days' preparation he made his
general confession for the year, but with a heart so broken
with grief that his confessor was fain to mingle his tears with
those of his august penitent. He spent eight hours in the
falling dew, in the cold autumnal night, under the stars, in
an ecstasy of devotion, and the natural result was a violent
feverish attack. He had so exhausted his frame that he had
not strength to rally ; and though very ill and exhausted,
before he left, he persisted once more in making the tour
of the forty-six chapels. On the 28th October he set off to
return to Milan, and reached Arona, his native place, on the
following day. He was so anxious to reach Milan for All
Saints' Day that he would not stay there, but started at ten
o'clock in the evening to go by boat to Canobbio, about the

£ __ — 4,

* *

Nov. 4.] S.Charles Borromeo. 145

middle of the Lago Maggiore. The chill of the air on the water
no doubt hastened his end. He did not reach Canobbio till
six in the morning ; and for part of that time he slept with
the cold dews falling on his frame exhausted with fever. At
Canobbio he disembarked, made his confession, said mass,
then re-embarked, and proceeded, in spite of the weather,
which had become bad, to Ascona, where he had to found
a college. On reaching Ascona, after several hours' row
in rain and wind, instead of taking reasonable precautions
for his health, he hastened to the church and preached to
the people. He heard there that the plague was raging at
Locarno, not far off, across the Maggia. He hastened thither
to consecrate ground in which to bury those who died of it,
but finding that he had forgotten his mitre, which he had
left at Arona, he was forced to abandon his intentions. He
took boat again, and returned to Canobbio. The fever was
at its height when he disembarked, but he refused to occupy
a bed, and lay on some straw. Towards evening he mani-
fested an intention of proceeding by boat to Arona, but his
attendants interfered. He had already spent a night on the
water, and had suffered for it ; to do so again would be to
ensure speedy and certain death. He reluctantly yielded to
their resolution not to proceed, and he remained the night at
Canobbio. Next day was the Vigil of All Saints. He was
so exhausted by his fever that when he said mass he had not
strength enough to rise from his genuflexion without assis-
tance. Yet he persisted in fasting the whole day, though his
health urgently demanded stimulating and supporting food
administered almost hourly. Next day he said his last mass
in the Jesuit college at Arona. The fever was on him so
badly that day that he yielded to it. It being All Saints' Day,
he would not travel, but started on the morrow, and reached
Milan in a litter. There he took to his bed, and died on
Saturday, November 3, at the age of forty-six. A valuable
vol. xin. 10
* ■ *

146

Lives of the Saints.

[Nov. 4.

life sacrificed for want of using reasonable precautions to
preserve it.

His body is preserved in a crystal shrine in a subterranean
chapel under the dome of the cathedral.

His personal appearance is said to have been striking.
He was moderately tall, with large blue eyes, an aquiline
nose, a high, but not broad, forehead, dark chestnut hair,
and a pale complexion.

* *

Nov. 5.] SS. Zacharias and Elizabeth. M7

November 5.

SS. Zacharias and Elizabeth, parents of S. John the Baptist;

1st cent.
SS. Felix and Eusebius, MM. at Terracina.
SS. Galactio and Episteme, MM. at Emessa; a.d. 250
SS. Domninus, Theotimus, Philotheus, and Others, MAj.;

circ. a.d. 303.
S. Nilus the Old, Ab. at Constantinople ; sin cent.
S. Romulus, Ab. at Bourges ; sthcent.
S. Magnus, B. 0/ Milan; a.d. 530.
S. Kenan, B. at Cleder in Brittany ; 6tk cent.
S. Odrada, V. at Mol near Gheel in Belgium.
S. Bertilla, Abss.qfChelles ; circ. a.d. 706.
S. Gerald, B. of Beziers ; a.d. 1123.
S. Jonas, Abp. of Novgorod; a.d. 1471.

SS. ZACHARIAS AND ELIZABETH.

(1ST CENT.)

[Roman Martyrology. In that of the Canons Regular, Zacharias
alone on Nov. 5. Zacharias alone in the Mart, of Usuardus on Nov. 5.
By the Greeks Zacharias on Feb. II and May 16. Elizabeth is not
commemorated by them. Authority : — The narrative in the Gospel of
S. Luke.]

]ACHARIAS was a priest of the course of Abia or

Abijah ; and he was offering incense in the

temple when the angel of the Lord appeared to

him and announced that he should have a son

who was to be named John. When Zacharias asked a sign,

the angel announced that he was Gabriel, and that as a sign

Zacharias should lose his speech. His wife Elizabeth was

of the daughters of Aaron. Both were aged, and could not

expect a child in the order of nature. In course ot time

Elizabeth was aware that she was about to become a mother.

148 Lives of the Saints. [Nov. 5.

and for greater privacy retired into the hill-country, whither
she was soon afterwards followed by her kinswoman, Mary.
Three months after this, and while Mary still remained with
her, Elizabeth was delivered of a son. The birth of John
preceded by six months that of our Lord. On the eighth
day the child of promise was, in conformity with the law of
Moses, brought to the priest for circumcision, and as the
performance of this rite was the accustomed time for naming
a child, the friends of the family proposed to call him
Zacharias after the name of his father. The mother, how-
ever, required to have him called John ; a decision which
Zacharias, still speechless, confirmed by writing on a tablet
" His name is John." The judgment on his want of faith
was then at once removed.

The Protevangelium relates that when Herod sent to slay
the young children at Bethlehem, Elizabeth fled with John
into the hill-country, " and looked for somewhere to hide
him, and there was no place of concealment. And Eliza-
beth groaned in spirit, and said ' Mount of God, receive a
mother with her child.' And suddenly the mountain divided
and received her. And light shone through to them, for
the angel of the Lord was with them, preserving them."

The servants of Herod questioned Zacharias, and when
he would not tell them, they slew him between the porch
and the altar. " And about daybreak Zacharias was slain ;
and the children of Israel knew not that it was so. But at
the hour of greeting the priests went, and the blessing of
Zacharias did not meet them according to custom. And
when he tarried they were all afraid; but one of them
ventured and went in, and perceived congealed blood near
the altar, and a voice was heard saying, ' Zacharias is
murdered, and his blood shall not be wiped out till his
avenger cometh.' And he went out and told the priests,
and then they ventured in and saw what had occurred.

i& — — — *

tfr — *

Nov. 5.] SS. Galactio and Episteme. 149

And the wainscotings of the temple shrieked out, and were
cleft from top to bottom. But they found not his body, only
his blood congealed to stone."

The " Bordeaux Itinerary of the Holy Land," written in
333, mentions the blood of Zacharias between the porch and
the altar, as fresh as if shed only yesterday. The petrified
blood was an object of curiosity shown to early pilgrims,
and mentioned repeatedly in the Mediaeval Itineraries. The
head of Zacharias is shown in the Lateran basilica.

SS. GALACTIO AND EPISTEME, MM.

(A.D. 250.)

[Modern Roman Martyrology, introduced by Baronius from the
Greek Menaeas. Authority : — The Acts in Metaphrastes. These are
a late Greek Romance, a poor continuation of the Clitopho and Leu-
cippe of Achilles Tatius.]

One of the most popular romances of the later Greeks
was that of Clitopho and Leucippe, by Achilles Tatius.
Clitopho, engaged in marriage to his half-sister Caligone,
resided in his father's house in Tyre, whither his cousin Leu-
cippe came to seek refuge from a war which was at that time
raging in her native country, Byzantium. These young re-
latives became mutually enamoured, and Clitopho eloped
with Leucippe, accompanied by a friend, Clinias, to Alex-
andria. The vessel was wrecked, but Clitopho and Leucippe,
adhering with great presence of mind to the same plank,
were driven ashore near Pelusium, in Egypt. At this place
they hired a vessel to carry them to Alexandria, but the boat
was attacked by robbers, and rescued by the Egyptian
regular forces headed by Charm ides. In a short time this
commander became enamoured of Leucippe, as did also
Georgias, one of his officers. Georgias gave her a potion

% . *

150 Lives of the Saints. [Nov. 5

calculated to inspire her with reciprocal passion ; but which,
being too strong, affected her with madness. She was cured,
however, by Chaeras, another person who had fallen in love
with her. Taking Chseras along with them, Clitopho and
Leucippe sailed for Alexandria. But a band of robbers
suborned by Chseras carried off Leucippe. Clitopho pursued
the vessel, but when just coming up with it he saw the
head of a person whom he mistook for Leucippe struck off
by the robbers. Disheartened by this incident, he relin-
quished the pursuit, returned to Alexandria, and married a
wealthy Ephesian widow named Melitta. But on the mar-
riage day he discovered Leucippe among his wife's slaves,
and Melitta's husband, whom she had supposed to be dead,
turning up unexpectedly, the story ends satisfactorily with
the reunion of the lovers.

Achilles Tatius has been much blamed for the immo-
rality of his romance, and it must be acknowledged that
there are particular passages which are extremely excep-
tionable; yet, however offensive some of these may be
considered, the general moral tendency of the story is good.
Tatius punishes his hero and heroine for eloping from
their father's house, and afterwards rewards them for their
long fidelity.

The romance could not fail to remain popular in the
East, even after the East became Christian. Clitopho and
Leucippe became general favourites, and invested with a
sort of real existence, so that Christian novel readers felt
regret that two such charming creatures of fiction should
have remained heathen. Accordingly the romance was pro-
vided with a clumsy continuation. Clitopho and Leucippe
reappear, living still in Phoenicia, but at Emessa instead
of Tyre. They are married now, and the romance of court-
ship is at an end. Leucippe is charming, but Clitopho is
disposed to grumble because she is childless. In the days

* #

.* #

Nov. s] vSkS*. Galactio and Episteme. 151

of Alexander Severus, when persecution against the Christians
was raging, a hermit named Onuphrius came in tatters to
the door of their house asking alms. Leucippe was crying
because her husband had reproached her for her barren
womb, and she paid no attention to the hermit. But when
he persisted in his entreaty for a piece of bread, she rose,
called him in, fed him, and told him her trouble. Onuphrius
seized the opportunity to preach to her the Gospel, and to
assure her that if she would receive baptism, God would
look on her and grant her a son. She gladly prepared for
and underwent the sacrament of regeneration, and when she
felt she was about to become a mother, she revealed the
joyful news to Clitopho, and at the same time explained
to him the mysteries of salvation. Clitopho became a
Christian, and had the gratification of becoming the father
of a boy with a complexion as white as milk ; on this account
he had him baptized by the name of Galactio. The child
was a marvel in every way. His beauty was dazzling. Still
more dazzling was his genius. Whilst still a mere child he
surpassed all his masters in learning. When he had reached
the age of twenty-four, Leucippe died, and his father ad-
vised him to marry Episteme, a maiden of exquisite beauty,
noble birth, and overflowing wealth. Galactio consented,
but with the resolution of becoming a husband only in
name.

Here transpires the purpose of the author of this con-
tinuation of the romance of Tatius. The second part of
Faust was written by Goethe to exhibit his hero finding in
philanthropy that satisfaction which he had sought in vain
in sensual pleasure, as depicted in the first part. The romance
of Clitopho and Leucippe shows earthly love, refined indeed,
but still earthly, triumphant. The second part was written
to counteract the effect produced by the first. Clitopho and
Leucippe are not happy together, human passion had blinded

* 4*

152 Lives of the Saints. [Nov.s.

the eyes of both lovers during courtship, and marriage reveals
to them their mutual defects. Clitopho is querulous and
discontented, Leucippe is barren. The marriage under-
taken from passion does not lead to happiness. Their
son Galactio, painted as being beautiful as his father, seeks
happiness in the conquest of passion, and finds it. The loves
of Galactio and Episteme are held up as the converse to
those of Clitopho and Leucippe.

It is unnecessary to follow the romance writer in his de-
scription of the efforts made by Episteme to seduce Galactio
from his resolution. They fail, and she is converted and
baptized by her husband. Then both embrace the monastic
life, and retire to the deserts of Sinai. Three years after,
they are arrested and brought before a magistrate. Episteme
is ordered to be stripped. At her prayer, fifty-three officers
who are looking on are struck with blindness. Sharp reeds
are thrust under the nails of the martyrs, their fingers, hands,
and feet are cut off in succession; and finally they are
decapitated. It is needless to add that there never were
such martyrs, they had the same sort of existence as Cli-
topho and Leucippe — are phantoms of the imagination.

S. ROMULUS, AB.

(5TH CENT.)

[Gallican Martyrology on Dec. 25. Authority :— The Lections of the
Bourges Breviary.]

S. Romulus, popularly called Saint Romble, was born in
Brittany. Urged by the desire of leading a life of perfec-
tion, he quitted his own country and relations, and came into
Berry. He built a monastery near Chateau-Gordon, called
afterwards Saint-Satur, and now Souligny, which he dedicated

* . . £,

to S. Peter. Every year, during Lent, he lived in a solitary
cell. In 463, Count Giles defeated the Visigoths near
Genabum ; and after the victory took Chateau-Gordon, which
he gave up to plunder. S. Romulus hastened to the Count,
and implored him to withdraw the order and save the wretched
inhabitants from outrage and robbery. At first he could not
prevail, but the Count was persuaded next day to stop the sack
and restrain his soldiers from further violence. S. Romulus
went in pilgrimage to Rome; on his return he found
Cavaillon in flames ; with the sign of the cross he extinguished
the conflagration. He died at an advanced age, and was
buried in a chapel bearing his name at Sancerre. Some ruins
of the building remain. At Souligny is a spring which is
called after him, and believed to be miraculous. No relics
of the saint have been preserved.

S. KENAN, B.
(6th cent.)

[Gallican Martyrology. At Cleder on Oct. 2. Authority : — A Life
in Latin by Maurice, vicar of Cleder, late, founded on popular legend ;
given by Albert Le Grand ; also Lobineau.]

S. Kenan, surnamed Colodoc, or " He who loves to lose
himself," was born, according to one account, in Britain, of
noble parents, Ludun and Mere Tagu ; according to another,
he was the son of Leogaire of Ireland. But apparently there
has been confusion made between two or three of the same
name. Kenan or Kienan, bishop of Duleek, with whom
Le Grand confounds him, lived in the days of Leogaire and
S. Patrick, and died in Ireland in 489. He was a native
of Meath, was of illustrious family, and was baptized by
S. Patrick. He wrote a life of the Apostle of Ireland, and
his festival is observed on November 24.

* -*

* *

154 Lives of the Saints. [Nov. s.

Another Kenan was a native of Connaught, and is said
to have erected a church in the Eugenian sept — Usher thinks
at Tyrone ; Lanigan more probably at Innis-owen. He had
a disciple named Congell, who is probably Coemgal, abbot
of Both-chonais in Innis-owen. This Kenan was also the
master of S. Nathy of Achonry. This was no doubt the
Kenan who crossed into Wales and became a disciple of the
abbot Gildas. It was revealed to him that he should go
forward with a little bell till he reached a spot named
Ros-ynys, and that there the bell would ring of itself, and
there he should rest. He asked Gildas for a bell, but the
abbot had only a little bit of metal. Kenan blessed it, and
the metal multiplied so that he was able to get a good bell
cast from it. He then started on his journey. Having reached
an arm of the sea,1 he threw himself down on the grass to
rest. Then he heard a herdsman shout to his fellow, " Hey !
have you seen my cows anywhere?" " Yes," answered the
other, " I saw them at Ros-ynys." When S. Kenan heard
this he was glad, and descended to the shore, which has since
borne the name of Kestrenn-ke, or the shore of Kenan ; and
there he struck the rock, and water flowed forth to quench
his thirst and that of his disciples. Having crossed the arm
of the sea, he entered a wood, and there his bell began ot
its own accord to tingle. He knew therefore that he was at
the place where he was to rest, the valley of the Fal estuary
in Cornwall. There he built ceils, and began to till the
soil.

In the neighbourhood was the castle of a prince named
Tewdrig, who, when hunting one day, pursued a stag to the
cell of the saint, and because S. Kenan would not tell the
prince where the stag had secreted itself, he carried off seven
of his oxen and a milch cow. Next day seven stags presented

1 Hir-drec'h ; i.e. Hirtracks, the long shore ; this seems to be where is now
S. Kea's parish.

>£, *

Nov. 5.]

S. Kenan. 155

themselves before S. Kenan to draw the plough for him in
place of the seven oxen. The place has since been called
Guestel Guervet, the Field of Stags. Tewdrig, hardened at
this miracle, struck the saint across the face, and knocked
out one of his teeth. He went meekly to wash the blood
from his mouth at a fountain, which long after was regarded
as efficacious for removing toothache. Tewdrig shortly
after, in hunting, fell from his horse and broke his neck.

Not long after, S. Kenan determined to cross the sea and
visit the saints in Brittany. On reaching the port of Langegu,
he sent some of his disciples to entreat a merchant to give
him corn for provision on the journey. " No," said the man,
laughing, " not unless you carry off all my barge-load shall
you have a grain." When the saint embarked, the barge
broke its moorings and floated after him all the way to
Brittany. He came ashore near S. Pol-de-Ldon, at Cleder,
and there he built himself a little monastery, in which he
placed the Book of the Gospels, transcribed by his own hand.
The contest between Modred and Arthur caused Kenan to
recross the sea. He is said to have been present at the fatal
battle of Camelot, and to have consoled Queen Gweniver
after the death of Arthur, and exhorted her to enter a con-
vent. He returned to Cleder, and after having buried his
disciple Kerian in his church, he fell sick and died, the first
Saturday in October.

The monastery was ruined, and the place of his sepulture
forgotten, till a villager of Cleder dreamed that an angel told
him to exhume the bones of the saint at a certain spot. He
sought and recovered the relics. A fragment is preserved
in the cathedral of S. Brieuc. S. Kenan is popularly called
Saint Ke or Saint Quay. S. Kea on the Fal near Truro is
dedicated to this saint.

4* *

156 Lives of the Saints. [Nor. s.

S. BERTILLA, ABSS.

(CIRC. A.D. 706.)

[Roman, Gallican, and Benedictine Martyrologies. Translation of
relics at Chelles on May 26, at Jouarre on June 27. Authority : — A
Life by a nearly contemporary author, given by Mabillon, iii. p. 1 7.]

Bertilla was the daughter of noble parents at Soissons.
At the exhortation of S. Ouen she resolved to devote her-
self body and soul to God. She communicated her intention
to her parents : they raised no objection, and placed her in
the monastery of Jouarre, near Meaux, founded 630, by Ado,
elder brother of S. Ouen, and confided her to the care of the
abbess Theudehild. She became very useful to the superior
and relieved her of much of her work. The story is told that
one day she spoke angrily to one of the sisters. Not long
after the sister fell down in a fit and died. Bertilla did not
know of this, but she heard the bell tolling and the solemn
chanting for the dead, and asked what it meant. When it was
told her that the nun to whom she had spoken so angrily
was about to be buried, she rushed into the choir, and laying
her hand on the dead woman's bosom, said, " Do not depart
till you have forgiven me my intemperate expressions ! " The
deceased opened her eyes and replied, "Why do you call me
back from glory? I bear you no ill-will, but forgive you
heartily ; now suffer me to return." She closed her eyes and
became stiff and dead again.

Queen Bathild founded the abbey of Chelles in 680, and,
at the recommendation of the abbess Theudehild, placed
Bertilla over it. Under her fostering care Chelles became
a celebrated nursery for saints. It was, like Jouarre, a double
monastery of men as well as women. The fame of the great
qualities of Bertilla attracted a crowd of nuns from England.

Nov. 5.]

S. Gerald. 157

Ereswitha, Queen of the East Angles, placed herself under
her rule, and after that Clothair had attained his majority,
S. Bathild herself retired from the government of the king-
dom to the seclusion of the monastary of Chelles. After
having ruled the abbey forty-six years, S. Bertilla was
attacked by a fever and died.

The relics of S. Bertilla are preserved at Saint Andre*, near
where the abbey of Chelles once stood.

S. GERALD, B. OF BEZIERS.
(a.d. 1 123.)

[Gallican Martyrology and that of the Regular Canons. Authority : —
The Lessons in the Office of the Montpellier Breviary.]

Guirald, Guiraud, Gerald, or, as he signed himself, Geraud,
was born at a village anciently called Podium-Salico, near
Bdziers. He was born before the proper time, and was a
little, feeble, hideous creature ; and was regarded with small
affection by his parents, whose love and pride were devoted
to their well-grown and handsome children. The poor boy,
finding little affection at home, turned for it to the home of
the sorrowful, the Church of God, and took refuge in the
monastery of S. Maria de Cassiano, a home of the Regular
Canons. He made great progress in perfection, was gentle,
patient, cheerful, so that he gained the hearts of his com-
panions. He was elected prior, and in ii2r, when Arnold,
bishop of Beziers, was promoted to the archiepiscopal throne
of Narbonne, Gerald was elected in his room. As bishop
he was not elated, but remained the same simple-minded,
patient, modest man that he had been as canon. He spent
all his revenue in relieving human misery ; and died in 1 1 23

* *

1 58 Lives of the Saints. [Nov

on November 5th. He was buried at his own request in the
church of S. Aphrodisia, where his relics are still preserved
with reverence.

S. JONAS, ABP. OF NOVGOROD.

(A.D. 1471.)

[Russian Kalendar. Authority : — A Life by Pachomius Logotheta,
a companion and friend.]

S. Jonas of Novgorod was born in that city, and having
lost his parents whilst very young, was brought up by a widow,
who gave him to a deacon to be instructed in letters. He
is said whilst a child to have met S. Michael of Klopski ; this
old man was of the imperial Russian family, but he had re-
nounced everything, and, concealing his name and rank, had
sought admission into the Klopski monastery in rags. He
lived on almost no food, eating but once a week, and lying
on the bare earth. He conducted himself in the streets as
an idiot, and was generally supposed to be deranged. This
strange man seeing Jonas in the market-place, caught him
in his arms, held him up and said, "John, John! one day
thou shalt be archbishop of this city!" The child's baptismal
name was John, but he assumed that of Jonas when he became
a monk in the Otensk monastery. Thence he was drawn,
on the death of Euthymius II., to fill the vacant see of
Novgorod. He was ordained by John, bishop of Moscow.
As a prelate he was distinguished by his great care for the
poor. He did much towards the erection of churches, and
closed a life of good works in 147 1, on November 5th.

* #

* *

Nov. 6.] •£ Felix. 159

November 6.

S. Felix, M. at Tunis in Africa.

S. Atticus, M. in Phrygia.

S. Melanius, B. of Rennes; a.d. 530. l

S. Leonard, H. at Limoges ; circ. a.d. 559.

S. Efflam, C. at Plestin in Brittany ; tth cent.

S. Sevkrus, B.M. at Barcelona; a d. 633.

S. Protasus, B. pJ Lausanne ; a.d. 650.

S. Winnoc, Ab. at Bergues ; a.d. 717.

S. Leonard de Reresby, C. at Thryberg in Yorkshire ; i^tA cent,

S. FELIX, M.
(date uncertain.)

[Roman Martyrology. Usuardus, Ado, Notker, &c. Authority : —
A Sermon of S. Augustine on the 107th Psalm, preached on the festival
of S. Felix.]

T Tunis, in Africa, S. Felix confessed Christ before

the magistrate. His sentence was deferred till

the morrow. When the jailer came into the prison

to lead him forth, he found him dead, probably of

heart-disease.

S. LEONARD, H.
(about a.d. 559.)

[Roman and Gallican Martyrologies. Not Usuardus. Sarum, York,
and Hereford Kalendars. Anglican Reformed Kalendar. Authority : —
A Life, not by a contemporary, but of what date is uncertain. No
MS. of it exists earlier than the nth cent. It has been printed from a
MS. in the Limoges Library, collated with eight others by the Abbe
Arbellot : "Vie et Miracles de Saint Leonard," Paris, 1863.]

S. Leonard was born of noble Frank parents, in the court
of Clovis. His father was one of the principal officers of

1 Gallican Martyrologies. See Jan. 6, on which day his name occurs in the
Roman Martyrology.

9 *

1 60 Lives of the Saints. lNov, 6i

the army under that prince. Clovis stood sponsor to Leonard
at the font, to show honour to his father. He placed himself
under the instruction and direction of S. Maximinus at Miscy,
afterwards S. Mesmin, near Orleans. Before that he seems
to have been advised by S. Remigius. At Miscy he had his
brother Lief hard for a companion.1 After some years Leonard
and Liefhard left the monastery, Lief hard retired to Meung-
sur-Loir, where he founded a monastery, and Leonard pushed
on towards Limoges, and settled in the forest of Pauvain on
the east of the city, beside the waters of the Vienne.

The king went there occasionally to chase the wild deer
and boars ; on one of these occasions the queen accompanied
him, and was overtaken with the pains of maternity. The
king was in great alarm, but Leonard came to the spot, and
the queen was speedily and satisfactorily delivered of a
healthy child. The king was so pleased at the event that
he gave Leonard as much of the forest as he could ride
round in a night on his ass. Some hollows in the rock,
bearing a fanciful resemblance to the impression of a hoof,
are called to this day " Les pas de l'ane de Saint Leonard."
The Life of S. Leonard does not state who the king was who
made this donation, probably the writer lived so long after that
he did not know. Saussaye assumes him to have been Clovis,
but this cannot be, as Clovis died in 511, when S. Leonard
was a young man. The Limousin formed part of Austrasia
at this period ; and the Austrasian king was Theodebert
(534-548), and the queen was probably his second wife
Misigard, a Lombard princess, by whom he had a daughter,
Bertoara. In gratitude for the nobility of the gift, Leonard
called the monastery he founded on it, Noblac. It soon
became the resort of all who desired a life separate from the
world, and he was the head of a flourishing community which
he ruled till his death.

1 The Life of S. Liefhard does not say that they were brothers.

*•

S. LEONARD OF LIMOGES. After Cahier.
Nov., Part I. p. 160. ] [Nov. 6.

£, — *

Nov.6.j S. Efflam. 161

It is said that he obtained permission from Clovis to release
every prisoner whom he visited. Consequently he is regarded
as the patron of prisoners, and is represented with chains in
his hands. He is also said, but not in his Life, to have been
ordained deacon by Eusebius, bishop of Orleans. Accordingly
he is vested by artists as a deacon.

The church of S. Leonard, where stood the old abbey of
Noblac, contains the skull, an arm, and several other bones
of the Saint.

S. EFFLAM, C.
(6th cent.)

[Gallican Martyrologies. Authorities: — A Life in the Collection of
Albert le Grand, taken from the MS. Legendaries of the parish of
Plestin, from which the office of the Saint in nine lections was drawn up
in 1575. Lobineau gives a life derived from some other MS. which he
does not describe.]

According to the legend, S. Efflam was the son of a British
prince who waged an hereditary war with another prince in
Britain. At length, when both parties were exhausted, it was
agreed to form a lasting peace by marrying Efflam the son
of one to Honora the daughter of the other. Efflam, how-
ever, had resolved to lead a monastic life. Yet his marriage
was necessary for political reasons. Under the circumstances
he reluctantly yielded, married Honora, and as soon as his
bride was asleep, escaped from the house, took boat with some
friends of the same way of thinking, and reached the coast ot
Brittany between Toul Efflam and Loc-mikel, under a great
rock called Querlaz, in the present parish of Plestin, between
Morlaix and Treguier. He found a dilapidated hut of stones
in a sheltered spot, and took up his abode in it. At that
time Hoel I. was prince of Armorica. He was akin to
the great Arthur, who occasionally visited him and hunted

VOL. XIII. 11

* #

162 Lives of the Saints. [Nor.e.

in his preserves. Now there lived in a cave near the rock
Querlaz, a hideous dragon. Arthur heard of it, and went in
quest of the monster. He fought with it for a whole day and
could not overcome it, Efflam and his companions looking
on. Then Efflam asked the king to allow him to do battle
with the dragon, and when consent was given, he made the
sign of the cross, and the monstrous reptile, spouting blood
and venom, plunged off the rock into the waves and perished.
Hoel I., in gratitude to the Saint for having rid the country
of this creature, gave him the land surrounding his cell. This
legend probably represents the efforts of Efflam to destroy
a huge serpent temple of upright stones, like that of Carnac.
Now Honora awoke from her sleep on the morrow of her
marriage and found that her husband had fled. She soon
learned that he had sailed for Brittany. Accordingly, she
got possession of a wicker coracle covered with raw hides,
got in and paddled out to sea. Wind and tide and her feeble
efforts carried her across to the shores of Brittany, and the
retreating tide left her stranded in an oyster-pan belonging
to a young chief, at Coz-Gueaudet, the mouth of the little
river Legue\ There the fisherman of the chief found her.
He was much surprised. She asked him where Efflam was,
and he pointed with his finger in the direction she was to go.
Then he ran off and told his master what a beautiful girl had
been left stranded by the tide in his oyster-pan. The chief
was young and an admirer of the fair sex. He saddled and
sprang on his horse, with spurs on his heels and a long whip
in his hand, and spared neither spurs nor whip in the eager-
ness of his pursuit. But if the horse gallopped fast, Honora
ran faster. She reached the door of Efflam's cell a moment
before the pursuer. As she was lifting the latch, he reached
her, and putting one hand against the wall, extended the
other to clasp her, when the door opened, and she pre-
cipitated herself into the arms of her astonished and ill-

■*

Nov.*] •£ Efflam. 163

satisfied husband. The screams of the chief prevented an
explanation. The husband and wife looked out, and found
the chief seated on the horse, glued by his hand to the wall,
and the steed cropping the grass, and gradually retreating
from under him, like Don Quixote's adventure at the inn.
The prayers of the holy couple released the chief, and he
largely endowed Efflam with lands in gratitude, and promised
not to disturb Honora with his attentions for the future.
Efflam built his wife a cell at a little distance from his own.
After some years, hearing of the virtues of the inhabitants of
Llannenock, she went there, and was received by S. Nen-
nocha with great warmth. She died in that community, and
is regarded as a saint, and is invoked in fevers.

S. Efflam and his community ate nothing on Mondays,
Wednesdays, and Fridays. On the other days an angel
brought them excellent viands from Paradise, and spread
their table for them on the grass.

After some time a priest named Gestin appeared at the
cell door and claimed the hovel. He had built and inhabited
it, but had deserted it when he went on a pilgrimage to
Rome. Efflam offered to remove, but when Gestin saw how
virtuous he was, he declined to reoccupy his old cabin. An
angel appeared and ordered Efflam to remain in possession,
and Gestin to retire to the adjoining forest. The parish is
called after him Plou-Gestin, contracted into Plestin.

After having served God well in his hermitage, Efflam
died, on November 6th, at the close of the sixth century.
He is represented in royal habits, treading on a dragon.
The tomb of S. Efflam, constructed in the fourteenth or
fifteenth century, was opened in 1819, but no traces of the
body were found. All that was discovered was a stone with
an incised hatchet on it, a little copper cross, and some bits
of sea- wrack.

$ . ■ *

1 64 Lives of the Saints. rN<>Y. 6

S. SEVERUS, B.M.
(a.d. 633.)

[Roman and Spanish Martyrologies.]

Severus, bishop of Barcelona, is mentioned in the 6th
Epistle of Sisebut, the Visigoth King in Spain, to Eusebius
of Tarascona. He was put to death by the Arian Goths,
by driving a nail into his temples.

S. WINNOC, AB.
(a.d. 717.)

[Roman, Gallican, Belgian, and Benedictine Martyrologies. At
Bergues-Saint-Winnoc three festivals are held in his honour — Nov. 6,
the day of his death ; Feb. 20, the day of the Exaltation of his relics ;
and Sept. 18, the feast of their Translation. Ferrarius indicates both
Nov. 6 and Sept. 18, and also another festival on 23rd March, probably
owing to the translation of some relics. Authority : — A Life written by
an anonymous author in the 8th cent., retouched and augmented in the
10th or beginning of the nth by another anonymous writer, in Ghes-
quiere, Acta SS. Belgii, t. vi.; and Mabillon, Acta SS. O.S.B. t. Hi.]

S. Winnoc was of royal birth.1 The genealogy preceding
his Life cannot, however, be trusted, as it makes him the son
of Juthael, Prince of Brittany, and brother of S. Judichael.
More probably he was nephew of Judichael. Hoel III. or
Juthael died in 612, and S. Winnoc died in 717, before he
was eighty years old. There was, however, another S.

1 Geraint (Prince of Devon) had a son Cathov, whose son Urbien had a son
Withol, father of Deroch, whose son Riwal invaded Brittany in the reign of Clothair,
and established there a principality. Riwal had a daughter named Deroch, who bore
Riata, the mother of Jonas, who begat Judwal. Judwal begat Juthael, who was the
father of S. Judichael the king, and S. Judoc, S. Winnoc, and others in the reign of
Dagobert. " Genealogia S. Winnoci," ap. Mabillon.

4* — ■ — — -— - — *

Nov., Part I. p. 164.]

S. WINNOC. After Gahier.

[Nov. 6.

Nov. 6.]

S. Winnoc. 165

Winnoc who, as Gregory of Tours informs us,1 lived in the
days of Guntram, king of Orleans and Burgundy, and died ir
prison, about 590. This Winnoc was of British origin, and
may have been the son of Hoel III., whilst S. Winnoc who
died in 717 was son or nephew of Judichael, who succeeded
Hoel. Another Winnoc again is mentioned in the life of
S. Columbanus.

S. Winnoc, whilst yet young, escaped from Brittany with
three companions, Madoc, Ingenoc, and Gadanoc, and went
into Cornwall and the Saxon south of England. He then
crossed the sea to the land of the Morini, and placed him-
self under S. Bertin at Sithieu. He made such progress,
that S. Bertin sent him at the head of a swarm to hive in
another place, and he fixed on Bergues-Saint-Winnoc, in
French Flanders. This soon became a flourishing monastery.
A man of fortune named Heremar having given an estate at
Wormhout to S. Bertin, that abbot bade S. Winnoc take
possession with three monks, and establish there a hospital.
This grew into a monastery, and Winnoc was elected abbot.

The story is told that he often fell into trances, and that
on one occasion he was surprised by an ecstasy whilst en-
gaged in the mill grinding corn in a hand-quern. He re-
mained entranced with extended hands and eyes turned to
heaven, and the quern went on grinding corn without him.
He died and was buried at Wormhout, but his body was
carried in 900 to S. Omer, and thence in 964 to Bergues,
where the relics are still religiously preserved. On Trinity
Sunday the shrine is carried in procession round the town
and dipped in the river Colma, in commemoration of the
miraculous recovery of a drowning boy through the merits
of S. Winnoc.

1 Hist. lib. v. c. 21 ; lib. viii. c 34.

* — *

1 66 Lives of the Saints. [Not.6.

S. LEONARD OF RERESBY, C.

(13TH CENT.)

[Anciently venerated at Tryberg in Yorkshire. Authority: — "The
Memoirs of Sir John Reresby of Thrybergh, Bart., M.P. for York, A.D.
1634-1689."]

Sir John Reresby writes: " A deed dated 1349 is the
first that mentions the altar of S. Leonard, the tutelar saint
of Thrybergh, according to the custom of Roman rites.
Tradition will have him to have been one of the family of
Reresby, and conveys to us a long story concerning him,
the substance of which is this : — That one Leonard de
Reresby, serving his prince in the Holy War, was taken
prisoner by the Saracens, and there detained captive nearly
seven years ; that his wife, according to the law of the land,
was towards being married to another; that being appre-
hensive of this accident, by the power of prayer he was
miraculously delivered, and insensibly conveyed with shackles
and gyves and fetters upon his limbs, and laid upon the East
Hill in Thryberg Field as the bells tolled for his wife's
second marriage, which her first husband's return prevented ;
though he presently died as soon as brought into the church,
where he desired to pay his first visit.

" I shall not undertake either to comment or extenuate
upon the story, either to make it more or less probable.
Only this I must say, superstition gave such credit either to
this or like story, that an ancient cross remains to this day
upon the same East Hill, though defaced in late times,
called S. Leonard's cross ; the church of Thryberg and the
great bell are dedicated to S. Leonard, his picture in chains
and fetters was in the church window till late broken down ;
and as some will have it, his festival observed in the family on

s — *

Nov. e.] $• Leonard of Reresby. 167

Whit-Sunday, and his fetters preserved in the house, till my
great-grandfather, Sir Thomas Reresby's time, when in his
absence they were converted into ploughshares by his wife's
orders."

There are several churches in the neighbourhood dedi-
cated to S. Leonard, as Wortley and Horbury, and it is
remarkable that in the latter, and probably in the former
also, the village feast, which is the old dedication festival,
is observed on the same day as Tryberg — viz., Whit-Sunday.
A somewhat similar story is told of the Lord of Eppe near
Laon. He and his two brothers were taken prisoners by
the Saracens. In his prison he converted a beautiful Ma-
hometan maiden, and for her carved an image of the Blessed
Virgin. They agreed to escape together to Europe. She
and the three brothers having got away with the image, hid
in a wood. Heavy sleep came over them. When they
awoke they were at Eppe again. The girl was baptized by
the Bishop of Laon, Bartholomew de Vir (1113-1151), and
the image became famous as Notre Dame de Liesse.

* $

* *

1 68 Lives of tlie Saints. [Noy.7.

November 7.

S. Prosdochimus, B. of Padua; \st cent.

SS. Hiero, Nicandbr, and Others, MM. at Melitena in Ar-
menia; circ. a.d. 303.

S. Amaranthus, M. at Albi.

S. Achillas, B. of Alexandria ; a.d. 313.

SS- Mei.asippos, Antony, and Carinus, MM. at Ancyra; circ.
a.d. 363.

S. Rufus, B. of Metz; a.d. 400.

S. Herculanus, B.M. of Perugia ; a.d. 549.

S. Florentius, B. of Strassburg; a.d. 675.

S. Willi brokd, Abp. of Utrecht; a.d. 739.

S. Bi.inlivet, B. of Vannes ; 10th cent.

S. Engklbert, B.M. of Cologne; a.d. 1225.

S. PROSDOCHIMUS, B.

(1ST CENT.)

[Roman Martyrology. Authority :— The forged Acts, a composition
of the 12th cent., pretending to be by S. Maximus, his successor in the
see of Padua. See, concerning this infamous forgery, S. Justina, Oct. 7,
PP- I52-3-]

^ROSDOCHIMUS is said to have been a disciple
of S. Peter, and to have been consecrated by
Pius, first Bishop of Padua. The Acts of S. Jus-
tina were forged in the twelfth century, as if
written by Prosdochimus, an eye-witness of what took place.

S. ACHILLAS, B.

(a.d. 313.)

[Roman Martyrology. Usuardus, Ado, &c. By Bede on Nov. 25.
By the Greeks on June 3. Authority : — Eusebius, II. E. lib. vii. c. 32.]

When Theonas was bishop of Alexandria, Achillas, a
priest, was master of the catechetical school. " In his life

* — *

and actions," says Eusebius, "he exhibited a most rare
instance of sound wisdom, and a genuine specimen of
evangelical deportment." Theonas occupied the throne of
S. Mark for nineteen years, and he was succeeded by Peter,
who was also eminent, and who ruled the Church for twelve
years. Peter died in November, 311, and was succeeded by
S. Achillas, who occupied the see half a year, and died in
the June following. He was probably very aged when raised
to the patriarchal chair.

S. HERCULANUS, B.M.

(A.D. 549.)

[Roman Martyrology. Usuardus, Ado, Notker, &c. The Trans-
lation of his Relics on March I. Authority : — S. Gregory, Dialog,
lib. iii. c. 13.]

S. Herculanus was bishop of Perugia when that town
was besieged by Totila, king of the Goths, in 549 ; he pro-
bably animated his people to defend the city with vigour,
for he incurred the vengeance of the king. When the place
was taken, the commander of the army sent to Totila, to
know what was to be done with the bishop. The king re-
turned answer that a strip of his skin was to be cut off him
from his head to his foot, and that then he was to be exe-
cuted. The Gothic commander, however, decapitated the
Saint first on the ramparts, and then cut the thong of skin
as required. The body was buried along with that of a
little child which was found near it, on the spot where he had
fallen. Forty years after, the corpse was dug up, when it
was found that the head was attached to it, as though it had
never been struck off.

From this it is clear either that the bishop never lost his

g, *

* *

170 Lives of the Saints, [Nov.7.

head, or, what is much more probable, that the body found
and now venerated at Perugia, is not that of the bishop.

S. WILLIBRORD, ABP. OF UTRECHT.

(a.d. 739.)

[Roman Martyrology. Usuardus, Ado, &c. York Kalendar. Hra-
banus Maurus on Nov. 6, the day on which he died. Benedictine
Martyrologies. Authorities :— A Life by Alcuin, with homily on the
feast of S. Willibrord, and elegy on S. Wilgis, father of S. Willibrord, by
Alcuin (d. 804),1 published by Mabillon, Acta SS. O.S.B. t. iii. ;
another Life by Theofrid, abbot of Epternach (d. 1090), a rewriting of
the former, only printed in part in Mabillon, Surius, &c. Mention by
Bede, lib. iv. c. 10, 11 ; lib. iii. c 12.]

About the year 690 a Northumbrian of noble birth, named
Ecgbert, left his native land, to study in retirement among the
famous schools of Ireland. Taking up his abode in a mon-
astery in Connaught, he became eminent for his piety and
learning, but was long prostrated by a severe illness. Re-
covering, contrary to all expectations, he made a vow that,
instead of returning to his country, he would devote himself
to the service of the Lord.

The condition of the heathen tribes in Northern Germany
and along the Frisian coast, was at this time a subject of
deep solicitude in many Irish monasteries. Ecgbert was
filled with a desire to proceed thither, and proclaim the
message of salvation. Selecting, therefore, the most zealous
of his brethren, he made every preparation for the voyage.
But on the very eve of his embarkation a storm shattered
the vessel which was to have conveyed him and his com-
panions.

Thus discouraged, Ecgbert was not willing to give up his

' Addressed to Bconrad, Abp. of Sens, abbot of Epternach, who died 796.
j, _ , *

* *

NoT.7.] S. Willibrord. 171

project altogether. A vision bade him remain in Ireland
and " instruct the monasteries of Columba ; " perhaps the
consciousness that his own health was delicate satisfied him
that he was not fit for the work. He therefore began to
look out for other labourers to carry out the task he was
not himself competent to execute. At last his eye rested
on a Northumbrian countryman of his own, named Willi-
brord, whose education, commenced in the monastery of
Ripon, had for twelve years been carried on under his own
direction in Ireland.

Willibrord was the son of Willgis, a man of Saxon birth,
who had left his wife and family and lands and retired to the
dreary flats of Holderness, where he had built an oratory to
S. Andrew, and established himself as a hermit. Willibrord
had been given, when a mere child, by his father to the
abbot of Ripon, so that he had grown up under ecclesiastical
discipline from his cradle.

Yielding to the solicitations of Ecgbert, Willibrord agreed
to select twelve companions, and sail for Friesland to labour
at the conversion of the barbarous people dwelling in that
dreary land of marshes.

The vessel in which he sailed carried him safely to the
Frisian shores, where he was heartily welcomed by Pepin of
Herstal, who had been lately successful in several engage-
ments against Radbod, a powerful native prince, and an
energetic supporter of heathenism.

Beginning his labours in that part of Frisia which Pepin
had wrested from his adversary, Willibrord showed such
aptitude for the work of evangelization, that Pepin insisted
on sending him to Rome to receive episcopal ordination from
Pope Sergius, as well as his apostolic benediction for the work.
Willibrord reluctantly complied, and went to Rome laden
with presents from Pepin to the Pope. Sergius ordained
him in the year 696, under the name of Clemens, and his

172 Lives of the Saints. [Nov 7

seat as archbishop was fixed at Utrecht. According to Bede
this was not his first, but his second journey to the capital
of western Christendom. His first was undertaken almost
immediately after his arrival in Frisia, to obtain relics for
the churches he hoped to found. Furnished with these
valuable commodities, he returned to Frisia, and laboured so
effectually that Pepin sent him to Sergius to be consecrated
archbishop. Alcuin omits the first journey altogether.

Willibrord established himself at Utrecht, and succeeded in
bringing into the net of the Church the population of Frankish
Frisia, and in building several churches and monasteries,
which he filled with brethren who came over to him from
Ireland.

In the following year the archbishop resolved to sail to
Denmark, and plant there the Christian faith. The terror,
however, inspired by Ongund, a Danish viking, rendered his
efforts utterly useless, and he was fain to content himself
with finding thirty boys, whom he resolved to take back
with him to Utrecht, and educate as future missionaries to
Denmark. On his return, a severe storm drove him for
shelter to the shores of Heligoland. The island was then
probably of greater extent than it is now, the sea had not
gnawed away so much of its chalk cliffs as to reduce it to a
mere islet. It was then known as Forsetesland, and was
dedicated to Forseti, son of Baldr and Nana, the god of
judgments. So sacred indeed was it accounted, that it was
deemed unlawful to touch any animal living there, or, except
in reverent silence, to drink of its sacred well. The arch-
bishop, however, having to wait some time for a favourable
wind, killed several of the sacred cattle to provide food for the
crew, and baptized three of his companions at the holy spring.
The natives, horror-struck at his audacity, expected the god
to strike the desecrator with immediate death. Nothing,
however, occurred, and they hastened to complain of the

*T'

Ho*. y.] ■$• Willibrord. 173

outrage to Radbod, who was then in the island. That chief
instantly summoned Willibrord into his presence, and in a
rage ordered that the lot should be cast and one of the party
of the archbishop should be sacrificed to appease the offended
deity. The sentence was carried into execution, but the en-
raged chief did not dare to incur Pepin's resentment by laying
hand on the bishop or any of the clergy. Willibrord spoke
plainly to Radbod : " It is not a god but a demon whom thou
adorest. There is but one God, who made heaven and earth
and sea, and all things therein. He who worships this God
with sincerity shall receive eternal life. I am His servant,
and I testify unto thee this day that thou must abandon these
dumb idols which thy fathers have worshipped, and believe
in God Almighty, and be baptized in the fount of life, and
wash away thy sins. If thou obeyest my words, thou slialt
enjoy eternal life with God and the Saints ; but if thou de-
spisest me and the way of salvation, know assuredly that thou
shalt suffer eternal punishment with the wicked one whom
thou obeyest."

Radbod marvelled at the boldness of the preacher, and
sent him with an honourable escort to Pepin. On his way
back he visited the low island of Walcheren, which maintains
a constant struggle with the sea. He succeeded in establishing
several churches there. Whilst preaching there he found an
idol which the inhabitants revered greatly. Fired with zeal,
and undeterred by the disastrous consequences of his inter-
ference with popular superstition in Heligoland, he threw it
down and chopped it to pieces. The priest coming up was
so filled with fury, that he aimed a blow at S. Willibrord with
his sword and struck him on the head, but with the flat, not
the edge of the blade, so that he was unwounded. Fear of
Pepin prevented the idolaters proceeding to greater ex-
tremities.

S. Willibrord was joined in 720 by S. Boniface, who spent

* *

174 Lives of the Saints. [NoT 7

three years in Friesland, and then went on into Germany.
Bede, writing in 730, says : " Willibrord, surnamed Clement,
is still living, venerable for his old age, having been bishop
thirty-six years, and sighing after the rewards of the heavenly
life, after many conflicts in the heavenly warfare."

Alcuin speaks of his noble appearance, beautiful face, and
the cheerfulness which was manifest in his countenance and
conversation.

On the death of Pepin he was ably supported by his suc-
cessor, the redoubted Charles Martel. He visited unmolested
every part of his diocese, built churches, and founded mon-
asteries for men and women, and gradually spread the know-
ledge of the Gospel among the people, and succeeded in
somewhat softening their barbarous manners. The news of
his success had ere this reached England, and many Anglo-
Saxons left their native land and eagerly associated themselves
in his labours. Thus Adalbert came and settled in the north
of Holland, Werenfrid in the neighbourhood of Elste,
Plechelm, Otger, and Wiro amongst the people of Guelders.
Two brothers named Ewald bore the lamp of truth among
the old Saxons of Westphalia, and there suffered martyrdom.1
Wulfram, bishop of Sens (March 20th), fired with the zeal of
missionary work, came to assist him, and proved of essential
use. He succeeded in baptizing the son of Radbod, and
almost conquered the obstinacy of the pagan king. As
Radbod was about to descend into the regenerating stream,
" Where are my ancestors?" he asked. Wulfram incautiously
replied, " In Hell." " Then," said Radbod withdrawing his
foot from the water, " rather will I be in hell with a race of
heroes than in heaven with a pack of beggars."

The obstinacy of this old chief perplexed Wulfram not a
little. A last effort to overcome his scruples was made when
he lay on his death-bed. But this also was frustrated by an

' See Oct. 3, p. 55.
* *

Nor. 7.] ■£■ Willibrord. 175

incident, too curiously illustrative of the ideas of the times
to be omitted.

" One day," writes the biographer of Wulfram, " while
Radbod was lying sick, the Evil One, who is sometimes
permitted to transform himself into an angel of light, ap-
peared to him, crowned with a golden diadem, studded with
brilliant gems, and arrayed in a robe spangled with gold.
While the chief trembled with astonishment, his visitor asked
him reproachfully, ' Tell me, who has so seduced thee, that
thou wishest to give up the worship of thy gods, and the
religion of thy ancestors ? Be not deceived : continue constant
to the faith thou hast been taught, and thou shalt assuredly
sit down in the golden mansions of bliss, which I have
appointed for thee in the world to come. And now that thou
mayest know the truth of my words, go to-morrow to that
Bishop Wulfram, and ask of him where is that mansion of
eternal splendour which he promises thee if thou wilt receive
the Christian faith, and when he fails to show it thee, then
let two messengers, one of each faith, be sent, and I will lead
the way, and show them the mansion of eternal glory, which
I am about to give thee hereafter.'

"In the morning Radbod did as he was bid, and told
Wulfram of his vision. But the latter was not to be duped.
' This is an illusion of the devil,' said he, ' who wishes all
men to perish, and none to be saved. But be not thou de-
ceived, hasten to the font, believe in Christ, and receive the
remission of thy sins. As for the golden mansions which thy
visitor has promised thee, believe him not, for he it is that
seduceth the whole world ; by his pride he fell from his place
in heaven, and from a beneficent angel became the enemy of
mankind.' Radbod replied that he was willing to be bap-
tized, but he should like first to see the mansion which his
own deity had promised him. Thereupon Wulfram sent the
messengers, his own deacon and a heathen Frisian. They

*- *

* — *

176 Lives of the Saints. [Nov.7.

had not gone far before they met one in human form, who
said to them, ' Make haste, for I am about to show you the
glorious abode which his god has prepared for Prince
Radbod.'

" The messengers followed their guide, and after a long
journey they came to a street paved with different kinds of
marble, at the end of which was a golden house of marvellous
beauty and splendour ; entering it, they beheld a throne of
immense size, and their guide addressing them, said, ' This
is the mansion and glorious palace, which his god has pro-
mised to bestow on Prince Radbod after his death.' The
deacon, astonished at the sight, made the sign of the Cross,
and replied, ' If these things have been made by Almighty
God, they will remain for ever ; but if they be the work of
the devil, they will spedily vanish.' He had no sooner
spoken these words than their guide was instantly changed
into the form of the Prince of Darkness, and the golden
palace into mud, and the messengers found themselves in
the midst of a huge morass, filled with reeds and rushes. A
tedious journey of three days brought them back to Wulfram,
and they recounted to him what had befallen them.'' '

But it was too late. This message could not reach the
ears of the old chief, who lay dead at the time. But the
news of this vision was diligently circulated, and eagerly
believed by all who had suffered in any way by the exactions
of the late king. What was busily circulated and believed
by some, was soon accepted by all, and the Frisians came
in crowds to receive the rite of baptism. The death of
Radbod led to the reduction of the Frisians to subjection
by the strong arm of Charles Martel, and the fear they
entertained of that arm no doubt quickened their convic-
tions. S. Willibrord had baptized Charles, and the great
mayor of the palace always held him in high honour, and
did all that lay in his power to support him.

1 Vit. Wulframmi.
^ *

# — -*

Nor.7#1 S. Willibrord. 177

Some miracles are recorded of S. Willibrord of no remark-
able interest. At a place called Heyligel he found that
there was no good water, and he and his companions were
parched with thirst. He bade a hole be dug in his tent,
and it gradually filled with passably good water, which is
not surprising in a district so low as to be scarce above
the level of the rivers. This fountain still bears the name
of the well of S. Willibrord.

On one of his journeys he turned his horses loose in a
meadow to rest themselves and eat the grass. The owner
of the land objected, and drove the horses out. " Do not
be angry," said Willibrord, " have a drink and let us be
friends," and he offered him his bottle of wine. " I will
neither drink your wine nor accept your friendship," an-
swered the man. " Well then," said S. Willibrord, " if you
will not drink with me, you shall not drink at all." The
man was shortly after attacked with hydrophobia.

He once gave twelve men to drink from one pocket
flasket of wine. They all professed that they had had quite
enough of his wine. We should be more certain that
this was a miracle if we knew what the quality of the
wine was which he offered them. If that from the vine-
yards on the Meuse near Liege, a very small bottle would
prove quite sufficient for a considerable number of wine-
drinkers.

S. Willibrord died on November 7th, 739, and was buried
in the monastery of Echternach, in the district of Luxembourg.
There his body still remains enshrined.

On Tuesday in Whitsuntide at Echternach is witnessed
annually a pilgrimage of a very extraordinary description to
the shrine of S. Willibrord. This is the famous dancing pro-
cession of the Jumping Saints — " Springende Heiligen." It
consists of a long train of pilgrims dancing three paces
forward, and then two back, led by a band which plays a

VOL. XIII. 12

#- *

178 Lives of the Saints. [Noy.7.

traditional air, and the clergy and choir. The procession
starts from the bridge over the Sure. The pilgrims follow
the clergy, and are divided into three groups of children,
adults, and old people. After an hour, the foot of the
ascent to the church is reached, and it takes about an hour
to mount the sixty steps which lead to it, jumping up three,
and then backwards two with a bound. The procession of
dancing cross-bearers, priests, and people then dances into
the church, dances round the altar and shrine of S. Willi-
brord, out at the door, and separates at the crucifix in the
cemetery. This pilgrimage is very popular at the present
day. In 1869 there were 8,000 in the procession of dancers.
M. Bourquet, in his "Guide du Voyageur en Ardenne,"
relates that an old man of eighty, considering himself in-
debted to S. Willibrord for some favour, exhibits his gratitude
by assisting in the jumping procession, and says that he has
taken part in it for forty years. It is believed to be effica-
cious in cases of rheumatism and lumbago. Some of the
less religious members of the community of Echternach
think it would be well if the dancing were severed from the
pilgrimage, and performed in the cabarets in place of the
church.1 Another extraordinary religious pilgrimage takes
place on the same day in another part of Luxembourg, and
is called " the Immovable Pilgrimage." The inhabitants of
seven parishes of Treves and Luxembourg assemble on one
spot ; then, after having remained immovable for seven
minutes, they take thirty steps forward, and then halt again
for seven minutes, and so on, not reaching their destination
much earlier than the dancing procession. But as this has
no relation to S. Willibrord, nothing further need be said of it.
The suburb of Antwerp dedicated to S. Willibrord cele-
brates his festival on the Sunday after the Feast of the

1 See a full account of it in Krier ; " Die Spring-procession in Echternach."
Luxcnib., 1871.

ft *

Noy.7.] S.Engelbert. 179

Nativity of Our Lady (September 8), with processions, " the
grotesque magnificence of which attracts annually an in-
creasing crowd of the curious." '

S. Willibrord is represented as an archbishop, holding the
church of Utrecht in his hand, a barrel of wine which is
said to have filled miraculously to supply his necessities,
the bottle from which he satisfied twelve thirsty men, and
the fountain he discovered, at his feet.

The portable altar of S. Willibrord is preserved in the
church of Our Lady " ad Marty res" at Treves.

S. ENGELBERT, ABP. OF COLOGNE, M.
(a.d. 1225.)

[Roman and German Martyrologies. Authority : — A Life by Coesarius
of Heisterbach (d. 1240), "One of the latest Ecclesiastical Biographies
which still possess historical value. Full of warm sympathy. A work
of old Catholic art." — Potthast. Ed. by Surius, Vit. Sanct. Nov. 7 ;
Bbhmer Fontes, II. pp. 296-329, without the third book, containing
miracles.]

The traveller who has visited Cologne will remember in
the chapel where repose the bones of the Three Kings, a
tomb of the thirteenth century on which reposes a sculptured
figure of an archbishop in full pontificals, a work of rare
artistic merit. The face is of almost angelic beauty ; the
spirituality, nobility, and refinement of the real man breathe
through the lineaments traced in stone. This is the tomb
of S. Engelbert or Engelbrecht I., archbishop of Cologne.

Among all the ecclesiastical princes of his age, Engelbert
of Cologne, Count of Berg, stood pre-eminent for his wis-
dom, virtue, and influence. Every quality that could make

1 Reinsberg-Duringsfeld : ** Traditions et Legend es de la Belgique," Brux. 1870
t. ii. p. 261.

* *

*— *

1 80 Lives of the Saints. [Nov.7.

a prince beloved and respected seemed combined in him
in a lofty degree ; and Fortune appeared also to have
selected him for showering her benefits on his head ; for
political circumstances combined with his natural abilities
to bring him into prominence, and indeed pre-eminence.

When, in 1216,1 Engelbert was elevated to the archi-
episcopal throne of Cologne, the archdiocese had been in-
creased by the annexation of the duchy of Westphalia,
through the fall of Henry the Lion. There was much
organization needed in the newly-acquired territory, and
reformation was required in many parts of the old eccle-
siastical principality. Engelbert ordered and improved,
with such prudence that he became famous for his wisdom
and moderation. His virtue was unimpeachable ; his man-
ner fascinating, through his sweetness of disposition and
earnestness of purpose. Added to this he was tall, pos-
sessed a stately carriage, a noble and beautiful countenance.
His people loved him to adoration, honouring him not only
as their prince but already as a saint. Ladies fell under
the charm of his influence, and offered largely to all good
works he founded. The Countess Mathilda von Wied even
made the archbishop her heir to the county of Wied.

Engelbert rendered himself as useful to the empire as he
was to his principality. He and his warm friend Dietrich,
archbishop of Treves, with whom he was " but one soul,"
were firm supporters of Frederick II., and their voice was
always for peace. Otto of Brunswick met with resolute
opposition from the archbishop of Cologne, and it was to
a great extent due to the determination of Engelbert, and
of the archbishops of Treves and Hamburg, that the claims of
Frederick II. prevailed over those of his rival.

In the Diet of Frankfort, in April, 1220, before Frederick

1 Archbishop Dietrich, also Count of Berg, had been deposed in iaia. The see
remained vacant till 1216.

& *

SHRINE OF THE THREE KINGS AT COLOGNE.

Nov., Parti, p. 180.]

Nor. 7.] S. Engelbert, 181

prepared for his crusade, he had his son Henry elected by
the German princes to be his successor, and Engelbert was
appointed regent of Germany during the absence of the
emperor and the infancy of his son. Engelbert proved
himself worthy of the trust imposed upon him. He held
the reins of government with a firm hand. The German
empire was then in a pitiable condition. Feuds between
the nobles had become general; during the long contest
for the crown, the lawless and law-breakers had been able to
secure protection for themselves by adhering to one party
or the other, so that the whole country was a prey to rapine
and violence. Engelbert maintained peace with determi-
nation. The robber knights were at once proceeded against,
taken, executed, and their castles destroyed. In order to
curb the disorder in north-west Germany, he organized the
Holy Vehme, which, conducting its judgments in secret,
afterwards became such a fearful and dangerous power, but
which then, under the circumstances, was necessary, and
accomplished its purpose. Engelbert occupied the seat of
presiding judge at this dreaded tribunal.

The resolute and energetic conduct of the archbishop in
suppressing disorders, soon produced a marked change. Acts
of violence became less frequent, property became secure,
and the German empire began to manifest signs of growing
prosperity. No doubt the deeply rooted evil was not eradi-
cated, but unquestionably an unwonted tranquillity and well-
being would have ensued, had not the rule of Engelbert been
cut short by a tragical catastrophe.

The firmness which he had exhibited in restraining all who
had lived by pillage, had gained him their implacable hatred.
Amongst these was Count Frederick of Isenburg, a kinsman
of the archbishop. Frederick was protector (Schirmvogt)
of the convent of Essen, and took occasion to plunder the
territory of the nuns and maltreat their farmers.

The abbess appealed to Engelbert, who at once ordered
the count to respect the property of the nunnery. Frederick
of Isenburg, thinking, perhaps, that his relationship would
secure him from punishment, disregarded the orders of the
archbishop, and continued his depredations. Archbishop
Engelbert, to avoid the appearance of partisanship one way
or the other, placed the matter before a diet of Westphalian
bishops at Soest, and the Count of Isenburg was summoned to
appear in person. He did so, and was required to make good
to the nunnery all that he had plundered it of; and the arch-
bishop threatened him with the ban of the empire if he dis-
obeyed. Frederick was exasperated to the last degree. He met
other Westphalian counts at Soest, who had also been hindered
in their course of robbery by the archbishop, and a threatening
conspiracy was formed against him. Engelbert was warned
of this, but as he did not for an instant suppose that they
would dare to proceed to assassination, and not seeing how
they could shake his authority as regent, he gave no heed to
their machinations. Frederick disguised the rage which con-
sumed his heart, and promised to appear before the diet of
Niirnberg, and compose his differences with the convent of
Essen. Then he joined the retinue of the archbishop,
and accompanied him as far as Westhofen, where he excused
himself, and withdrew, on the plea of having to visit his castle
of Nienbriige. Archbishop Engelbert had received the Blessed
Sacrament from the Bishop of Minister before he left Soest,
but was then without suspicion. The departure of the Count
of Isenburg caused him alarm, and he ordered his armed
retainers to remain behind at the bridge over the Rhur to
prevent the passage of the count with an armed force.

Frederick, however, crossed the river at another point during
the night, with some other conspirators and fifty-two men-at-
arms, hastened in advance of the archbishop, and remained
concealed on the Gevelsberg, four miles from Schwelm.

i — ■ *

Nor.7.] S. Engelbert. 183

The archbishop came on with a few clergy, two noble
pages, and two armed retainers, and fell into the ambush.
Frederick of Isenburg and his men suddenly burst out of
the thicket upon him and surrounded his party. Engelbert
could offer no resistance. The clerks fled, the pages and the
retainers were speedily flung from their horses and cudgelled,
and the archbishop was left alone in the hands of his murderers.
His horse was wounded at the outset, but he spurred it forward,
and might have escaped, had not Herbert of Riickenrode, a
bitter enemy, caught the bridle. He flung the archbishop
down ; but Engelbert sprang to his feet, and attempted to
run for his life. Then Frederick of Isenburg bade his men-
at-arms cut him down. The archbishop defended himself
with desperate courage. He was already wounded in the
head, and one hand was cut off; but still he maintained his
defence. . Then a servant of Frederick's cut open his head,
and Riickenrode ran his sword through his body. The other
murderers fell on him and drove their weapons into him,
or hacked at him with their axes. He bled to death from
forty-seven wounds. Riickenrode, not content, would have
smitten off his head, but Frederick cried out, " Let be, we
have done too much already ! " He then violently wrested
the corpse from the murderer who would have mutilated it
further, and fled.

The pages came to themselves. One raised the head of
the dying man and laid it on his own breast, till he breathed
his last. Then they placed the body on a cart that they
obtained from a peasant who was passing by, and brought
it to Schwelm.

The people assembled in crowds, with loud lamentations.
The murder was accomplished on November 7, 1225. The
body was brought to Cologne; and on the 15th November
the chapter elected Henry of Mohlenmark as their new arch-
bishop. He boiled down his predecessor, till the bones

4, : -#

* — — — — *

184 Lives of the Saints. [Nov_ p

were left clean, and then having wired the joints together, he
clothed them in the bloody garments in which Engelbert
had fallen, and went to the diet of Niirnberg in solemn pomp,
taking the skeleton with him. He exposed it before the
assembled electors, and appealed for vengeance on the
murderers.

The ban of the empire was proclaimed on Frederick of
Isenburg and the other conspirators. The new archbishop
had already attacked the castles of Isenburg and levelled
them with the ground. Frederick was given up for a bribe
of two thousand marks, brought to Cologne, broken on the
wheel and quartered. King Henry shed many tears over
one whom he looked upon as his father. The loss of the
good archbishop was a terrible blow to the Emperor
Frederick ; his son from that time was abandoned to the
guidance of wicked counsellors, who led on the unhappy
boy to his ruin.

One of the most shocking matters connected with the
murder was that Dietrich, bishop of Miinster, and Engelbert,
bishop of Osnabriick, the two brothers of Count Frederick
of Isenburg, were in the plot. The archbishop of Cologne
spoke to them at Soest of the conspiracy that he heard was
formed against him, but they succeeded in allaying his sus-
picions ; the bishop of Miinster received his confession, and
gave him the communion, anil then sent him on to his death.
It is remarkable that the bishop of Miinster died within
eight months ; and the bishop of Osnabriick was deposed
within five. The latter, however, recovered his episcopal
throne again in 1239.

£, — *

Nor. &] Quatuor Coronati. 185

November 8.

SS. Claudius, Nicostratus, and Others, MM. at Romt; circ.

a.d. 303.
SS. Quatuor Coronati, MM. at Rome ; a.d. 304.
S. Maurus, B. of Verdun; circ. a.d. 383.
S. Cuby, B. in Cornwall; 6th cent.
S. Sulikn, Ab. at Solder in Brittany ; 6th cent.
S. Dbusdedit, Pope at Rome; a.d. 618.
S. Wn lehad, B. 0/ Bremen ; a.d. 789.
S. Gernad, C. in Meray and Elgin ; circ. a.d. 934.
S. Gregory, Ab. of Einsiedeln in Switzerland ; a.d. 996.
S. Godfrid, B. of Amiens ; a.d. m8.

SS. QUATUOR CORONATI, MM.
(a.d. 304.)

[Roman Martyrology. Usuardus, Bede, Ado, &c. Sarum, York,
Hereford, and Durham Kalendars. Authority : — Mention in the Mar-
tyrologies.]

N the persecution of Diocletian four brothers who
held offices of trust at Rome were taken and
ordered to offer sacrifice before an image of
^Esculapius. As they refused to do so, they were
scourged with leaded whips till they died. Their bodies were
cast to the dogs, but were saved by the Christians and buried
on the Lavican Way. As their names had passed from re-
collection, and only the fact of their martyrdom remained,
Pope Melchiades is said to have ordered them to be com-
memorated as the Quatuor Coronati, the " Four Crowned
Ones." Pope Gregory I. mentions an old church with this
dedication at Rome.

Pope Leo IV., in 841, translated to it their relics from the

g, *

1 86 Lives of the Saints. [Nov. 8.

catacomb on the Lavican Way. Their names are said to
have been revealed in a dream to somebody whose word
commanded sufficient respect to be believed, and under
those names, Severus, Severianus, Carpophorus, and Vic-
torinus, they are mentioned in the Roman martyrology.

S. CUBY, B.
(6th cent.)

[In Wales on Nov. 8.1 Authorities : — A Life of S. Cuby, of 12th
cent., in "Lives of the Cambro-British Saints," p. 183-187, in Latin;
Leland, &c. See a valuable Memoir on S. Cuby by Rev. J. Adams, in
No. 8 of "Journal of Royal Institution of Cornwall, " 1867.]

S. Cubv (Cyby) was a native of Cornwall, born, says his
biographer, between the Tamar and Lynher, which flows into
the Tamar at S. Germans. His father was a chieftain of
ancient lineage, named Selyf or Soloman, son of Geraint,
prince of Devon, according to Achau y Saint, but grandson
of Geraint, according to his biographer. His mother was
Gwen, the daughter of Gynyr of Caer-gawch, and sister of
S. Non, mother of S. David. Bishop Gweslan, or Guistlianus,
was the son of Gynyr, and therefore uncle to both S. Cuby
and S. David. " Tradition tells us that his family had an
ancestral abode at Gerans, called Din Gerein, and that his
father Soloman built a castle in the parish of Veryan, on the
south side of the present road from Veryan to Pendower,
the earthworks of which may still be seen. There we may
suppose that Cuby spent the early years of his life. He was
probably born at the end of the fifth century, when the
superstition of Druidism had to a great extent been up-

1 Rees, in his " Essay on the Welsh Saints," says on November 6 ; but the Life of
S. Cuby says : " Sanctus Kepius . : . cujus festum colitur in octavo die Novem-
bris, scilicit sexto idus Novembris."

£ &

rooted by the labours of Christian teachers. There is
good reason to suppose that Christianity was extensively
embraced in Cornwall upwards of a hundred years before
this time, and that there were many zealous ministers of Christ
living within reach of Cuby's early home. A band of mis-
sionaries from Ireland had in the previous generation settled
in many places along the western coast. S. Gorran, having
left his humble abode at Bodmin, was about this time labouring
on the eastern outskirts of Roseland, where now a parish
church commemorates his name.1 S. Petrock was organizing
a monastic institution on the site of S. Gorran's former
hermitage. S. Mawes, attracted perhaps by the neighbour-
hood of the good king Gerennius (Geraint) and his family,
had built a cell on the western confines of the little kingdom ;
and as he was represented as a schoolmaster 2 on the walls
of a chapel that once stood in the village which now bears
his name, may we not conjecture that he was the instructor
of the youthful Cuby?"3

S. Cuby was seven years old when he began to read ; his
father, though a soldier, was a scholar, and saw that his son
was well instructed. He remained in Cornwall till he was
twenty-seven, and then he is said to have gone on a pilgrim-
age to Jerusalem. It is pretended that he was consecrated
bishop by S. Hilary on his way back. S. Hilary of Aries died
in 449, S. Hilary of Poitiers in 367. We may safely say that he
was consecrated by neither. Among the saints contemporary

1 " In valle ubi S. Guronus (fuit) solitarie in parvo tugurio, quod reliquens tradidit
S. Petroco." — Leland's Coll. i. 75. " He went probably and settled in Gorran parish,
which was therefore denominated from him ; residing, I suppose, at Polgorran, or
Gorran's Pool, a little north of the church." — Whittaker's " Cathedral of Cornwall,"
i. 36.

2 " Scant a quarter of a mile from the Castel, on the same side, upper into the
land is a pratty village or fischar town with a pere, called S. Maws ; and there is a
Chappelle of Hym, and his Chaire of stone a little without, and his Welle. They
called this Sainct there S. Mat, ... he was a bishop in Britain, and painted as
» Schole-Master." — Leland's Itin. iii. 19.

3 Rev. J. Adams, " S. Cuby," p. 3.

^ — *

* . £

1 88 Lives of the Saints. [Nor< ,

with Cuby was Elian, though it is not certain that he was
a bishop. As S. Hilary is called Elian in Welsh, we may
conjecture that Cuby was a disciple of, perhaps received
consecration from, Elian of Wales, and it is easy to see how
this may have misled his Latin biographer. When he re-
turned to his own country, he brought with him ten disciples,
of whom the principal were Maelog, a brother of Gildas ;
Libiau, mentioned in the Liber Llandavensis as a contem-
porary of bishop Berthgwyn ; Peulan, son of Pawl Hen the
instructor of S. David, and an old kinsman, Cyngar. His
journey to Jerusalem is very doubtful. Probably at the age
of twenty-seven he left Cornwall for Wales, there placed
himself under S. Elian, and returned to his native land
bringing with him a number of Welsh disciples. That he
should have picked up these disciples on a pilgrimage to
Jerusalem is not probable. Legend makes S. David go to
visit the sepulchre of the Lord, and to receive consecration at
the hands of the patriarch of Jerusalem. The biographer
probably puzzled about Elian, taking him for S. Hilary, and
knowing that Cuby was absent for some while, and believing
that Cuby's cousin David had gone to Jerusalem, sent his
saint thither also to account for his absence and consecration.
On the return of S. Cuby, the kingdom of his father was
offered him ; he declined it, and went to Edelygion,1 where
a chieftain Etelic was living. His brother Melyan became
prince, and Cuby devoted himself to the sacred work of the
ministry. " The place above all others in Cornwall where we
should expect him under the circumstances to take up his
abode, was Tregony ; for although it is now, to use the words
of Whittaker, ' a mere kind of village, without trade, without
industry, without money,' it was in Cuby's time a town of

1 Ediilogan in Gwent, but the old name of this district was Eithaf dy-lygion.
No such prince as Etelic is known to Welsh historians.

* _ ,j,

importance. It had been, in days still earlier, a Roman
station; and, doubtless, much of Roman enterprise and
civilization still lingered there. The tide, which has long
since receded from it, then flowed far above the town, bring-
ing merchant-vessels to the very base of the castle-hill; and
the main street of the town sloped down to the quay, whence
the mineral treasures of the central mining district were ex-
ported. Tregony was at that time one of the most thriving
and populous towns west of Exeter; and it pre-eminently
claimed the sympathy of Cuby on his return to his native
land." J This identification is inadmissible.

With his ten disciples S. Cuby planted himself, "in a
meadow," near this busy place. Etelic sent a man to see
who had come on his land. The servant returning, said,
"They are monks." Etelic, says the biographer of the
saint, at once went to expel the intruders, but his horse
fell under him and died. Etelic was blinded also. Then,
full of fear, he promised to give lands to the monks, and
S. Cuby, having prayed, revived the dead horse and restored
sight to its rider. Etelic gave S. Cuby two pieces of land,
one where now stands the church of S. Cuby, the other at
Llandaverguir.2 S. Cuby also seems to have been the founder
of a church at Duloe, where there is a holy-well called by his
name, and a lane called Kippiscombe-lane, or the lane in the
combe or glen of Cuby. Bond, in his " History of Looe,"
gives the following account of this well : " The spring flows
into a circular basin or reservoir of granite, or of some stone
like it, two feet four inches at its extreme diameter at top,
and about two feet high. It appears to have been neatly
carved and ornamented on its lower part with the figure of
a griffin, and round the edge with dolphins, now much de-
faced. The water was formerly carried off by a drain or

1 S. Cuby, "Journal of R. Inst, ot Cornwall."

' Landeghe, in Domesday Landighe, now Kea, embracing Truro and Kenwyn.

^ — *

hole at the bottom, like those usually seen in fonts and
piscinas. The basin, which I take to be an old font, was
formerly much respected by the neighbours, who conceived
some great misfortune would befall the person who should
attempt to remove it. A daring fellow, however, says a
story, once went with a team of oxen for the express purpose
of removing it. On his arrival at the spot, one of the oxen
fell down dead, which so alarmed the fellow that he desisted
from the attempt he was about to make. There are several
loose stones scattered round the basin or reservoir, perhaps
the remains of some building which formerly enclosed it, —
a small chapel likely." The font has been removed to a
place of safety at the suggestion of the rector of the parish,
and is now in the safe keeping of the owner of the property,
Mr. Peel, of Trenant. About two miles off from S. Cuby's
well is another ancient well in the parish of Pelynt, dedicated
to S. Non, his aunt, the mother of S. David.

Melyan, brother of S. Cuby, and prince of Cornwall,
was murdered about 524, by Rivold, his sister's husband,
who is also said to have instigated the murder of S. Melor,
the son of Melyan (January 3rd). Rivold entered Cornwall
with a hostile army, and subjugated the country. This
probably was the occasion of S. Cuby deserting Cornwall.
He left behind him a small vari-coloured handbell, " Parvum
digiti sui cimbalum varium ; " then departed first for Wales,
after that for Ireland. He spent four years in the isle of Aran,
in which he built a church. At that time S. Enda shone as
a light in a dark world in Aran, and the barren island became
a gathering place of saints.1 There was Kieran, afterwards
abbot of Clonmacnois ; S. Brendan, famed for his voyage of
exploration in the West ; S. Finnian of Moville, S. Finnian
of Clonard, S. Jarlath of Tuam, S. Kevin of Glendaloch,
S. Carthage of Lismore, S. Nechan, and S. Libeus.

1 For an account of Aran-more see S. Enda, March 31.

Cyngar, son of Arthog, son of Ceredig, kinsman of Cuby,
was "with him, an old man, failing in health. S. Cuby bought
a cow with its calf for him, " because, on account of his old
age, he could not take any other food besides milk." And
Cuby and his disciples cultivated the barren soil.

" It happened that on a certain day, one of the disciples
of S. Cuby, named Maelog, went to the door of Crubthir
Fintan ' to dig the ground. And Crubthir Fintan being
angry, came to forbid him, and said, ' Do not dig the ground
at the door of my residence/ Then S. Cuby and Fintan went
out together to the abbot of the isle of Aran, who was called
Enna (Enda), and he made peace between them. Now it
happened on a certain day, that the calf of Cyngar's cow
came to the cornfield of Crubthir Fintan, and the disciples
of Crubthir Fintan came and took the calf, and tied it to a
great tree. And S. Cuby sent one of his disciples to Crubthir
Fintan, requesting that he might loosen the calf, and he would
not loose it, for as yet Crubthin Fintan persevered in his
anger. And S. Cuby prayed to the Lord that the calf might
come to its mother, for the old man Cyngar was almost dead
for want of milk, for without the calf the cow would not give
any milk. And the Lord heard the prayer of S. Cuby, and
sent the calf to its mother in a wonderful manner, with the
tree to which it had been tied and its roots. Then Crubthir
Fintan prayed to the Lord that he might drive away or destroy
S. Cuby from the isle of Aran, but the Lord loved him, and
an angel of the Lord came to S. Cuby in his sleep, and said
to him, ' Go from this island to the eastern side.' To which
S. Cuby answered, saying, ' May God destroy Crubthir Fintan
from this island.' And the angel said, ' So shall it be.'

1 Fintan, son of Crimthan. Nothing is known of him. Crimthan was the father
of S. Columbia of Tirdaglas. Archdall makes Fintan son of Crimthan, bishop of
Clonfert ; but Lanigan points out that this is a mistake. Eccl. Hist, of Ireland, ii. 231.
Crimthan was King of Hy-kinsellagh ; he favoured S. Patrick, but opposed Fiech.
Columba of Tirdaglas died about 552.

* *

192 Lives of the Saints. [Nov. &

"Then S. Cuby came to the southern side of the region of
Mida,1 and he built there a church, which unto this day is
called the great church of Mochop." Fintan pursued him,
and drove him thence, so Cuby removed across the plain of
Bregh ; 2 Fintan went after him again, and he retired before
him " to the region of Vobyun, and there remained twelve
days. Crubthir Fintan still followed him, and said to him,
' Cuby, go beyond the sea.' Then S. Cuby, being angry,
said to him, 'All thy churches are so much deserted that
there are not three to be found in the island of Ireland where
there is singing at thy altar.'"

S. Cuby, thinking it best to depart, bade his disciples cut
wood and build a boat. And when the boat was made, but
not covered with hide, Fintan said, scornfully, " If ye be the
servants of God, sail away without covering the boat with
hide." Then S. Cuby answered, " God is wonderful in his
saints, the God of Israel himself, the blessed God, will give
virtue and fortitude to his people ; " and he said to his dis-
ciples, " Place the boat upon the sea," and they placed it,
and S. Cuby and his disciples entered the boat without a
skin-covering. A storm rose and they were nearly dashed to
pieces against a rock on the Welsh coast, but providentially
the swell carried them over the reef, and they landed safely
in Anglesea. There S. Cuby is said to have struck the rock
with his staff, and produced a spring of fresh water.

He went to a place called Cyndof, and there remained
some time. He said to one of his disciples, named Caffo,
" Go and bring us some fire." And Caffo went to the house
of a certain smith named Magurn ; and Magurn said, " I will
give you fire only on condition that you will carry it in your
bosom." And Caffo said, "Place the fire in my bosom."

1 Meath.

1 Magh Breagh, the great plain of Meath, including the greater part of the present
counties of Meath and Dublin.

And Magurn placed it, and immediately Caffo returned
with it to his master, unburned, and with his garment
unscorched.

At that time Maelgwn Gwyneddwas prince of North Wales.
One day he chased a goat, and it took refuge in the cell of
S. Cuby, and he would not give it up to the king. Then
Maelgwn said, " If thou wilt not let it go away, I will drive
thee from the land." And the blessed Cuby was forced to
loose the goat, and she ran, with the dog after her, all round
the headland, and came back again to the saint. Then the
king spared the life of the animal, and gave the land to
S. Cuby, and his castle with it. The walls of the castle still
exist, and form the boundary of the churchyard of Caer Gybi
(Cuby).

Welsh tradition has preserved many memorials of the
saint. The place where Cuby and Elian his master met
and held sweet converse together is pointed out. A similar
tradition has been handed down respecting S. Cuby and
Seiriol, another contemporary, who dwelt on a small island
called Priestholm, near Beaumaris. Midway between Caer
Gybi and Seiriol's chapel of Priestholm there are two wells,
which are said to mark the site of their weekly converse, and
are held in great reverence by the peasantry. " What better
memorial could there be of two holy men than these two pure
and unfailing springs, making the wilderness and solitary place
like the garden of the Lord, and symbolizing the blessings of
friendship, as they blend together in their pilgrimage to the
parent sea ? This beautiful tradition is remarkably corro-
borated by another which associates together the names of
these good men, and tells us that they were called ' Seiriol
Wyn a Cybi Felyn/ Seiriol the Fair and Cybi the Brown ;
because in their weekly journeys to and from the well, Cuby
always faced the sun, travelling eastward in the morning and

VOL. XIII. 13

* #

* *

194 Lives of the Saints. [Nov. 8.

westward in the evening ; whereas Seiriol always journeyed
with his back to the sun." l

Three churches bear the name of Cuby in Wales : Llangybi,
in Carnarvonshire, where is a holy well bearing his name,
and a stone rudely hollowed out, called his chair; Llangybi,
in Monmouthshire ; and Caer Gybi at Holyhead ; each
marking a centre of his work.

There is also extant a Welsh poem said to have been
written by Aneurin, who flourished in the early part of the
6th century, entitled " Cuby's Discourse with the saints as
they were going to the island of Bardsey." 2 One stanza is
as follows : —

' ' ' Pray we with fervour, ' he answered,
' Pray we, and shrink not from hardship ;
Indolence ever is bootless ;
Better is labour than ease.' "

Another monument of the saint is found among the
" Sayings of the Wise." It is this : —

" Hast thou heard the saying of Cybi

Of Anglesea, to the son of Gwrgi ?

' There is no misfortune like wickedness.' " s

Cuby's greatest work was the establishment of a monas-
tery at Holyhead, over which he presided in his old age.
It was called in Welsh, Cor Cybi, the Choir of Cuby, and
it continued to flourish till the Reformation.

Cuby is said to have attended the synod of Llanddewi-
Brefi, the date of which is so uncertain ; it was probably
nearer 569 than 519, the date usually assigned it.

"At length a multitude of angels came and took the
most holy soul of Cuby to heaven, to be in the company
of the patriarchs and prophets, in the unity of the martyrs
and confessors, of the virgins and all righteous saints ; in the

1 S. Cuby, by Rev. J. Adams. 2 Myvyrian Archaeology, i. 181.

3 Iolo MSS. 662.

# *

Nov. so S. Sulien. 195

unity of the heavenly Church, where there is day without
night, tranquillity without fear, and joy without end ; where
there are seven eternal things : life without death, youth
without old age, joy without sorrow, peace without discord,
light without darkness, health without sickness, and a king-
dom without change."

S. SULIEN, AB.

(end of 6th cent.)

[The S. Malo Breviary on Nov. 8 ; his death on Oct. i. In the
Leon Breviary on July 29. In Wales on Sept. 1. Authorities : — The
Welsh genealogies and the lessons for his festival in the Leon Breviary.
A Life preserved at S. Suliac, and that by Albert Le Grand.]

S. Sulien, called also Silin, a son of Hywel ab Emys
Llydau, is said to have settled in Bardsey. He founded
the churches of Llansilin and Wrexham in Denbighshire,
and of Eglwy Sulien, Cardiganshire. The chapels of Capel
Silin under Wrexham and Capel Sant Silin, in the parish
of Llanfihangel Ystrad, Cardiganshire, both in ruins, are
called after him. Sulien appears to have been abbot of
Docunni, and, after the death of Cyngen, of Llancarvan.
Cyngen was abbot of Cadmael, at the election of S. Oudoc
to the bishopric of Llandaff, about 566, so that his death
must be put some years later. Sulien appears as witness
to the grant of land made by Meurig ab Tewdrig to S.
Cadoc, and to that of the village of Cradoc, made to S.
Cadoc by Gwengarth. And Sulien was abbot of Llancarvan
during the time that Oudoc, Berthgwyn, and Trychan were
bishops of Llandaff. He had two brothers, Rhystud and
Cristiolus,1 also saints, and is said by the Welsh accounts
to have been a disciple of S. Cadfan.

1 Commemorated on Nov. 3.
* — *

* — . — — *

196 Lives of the Saints. [Nov. 8.

But the account given by the Breton writers is different, so
that we are disposed to think it must refer to another saint
of the same name ; yet if so, it is curious that he should
be unknown to the Welsh. According to the Breton account,
he was the son of Brochwel Ysgythrog, prince of Powys, and
of Arddun Benasgell, sister of Dunawd. Brochwel suc-
ceeded his father Cyngen ap Cadell in the principality of
Powys, and lived till after the time of S. Augustine, when
he commanded the reserve left for the protection of the
monks of Bangor, on the advance of Ethelfrid against the
British army at Chester. Ethelfrid, instead of directing his
attack upon the British army, fell on the monks and mas-
sacred twelve hundred of them.1 Brochwel was defeated
and fled. According to the Welsh genealogies Brochwel
had three children, Tysilio, Cynan Gargwyn, and Llyr;
and no mention is made of Sulien, or Suliau, Maian, Jacob,
and Chanaan, attributed to him by the Breton accounts.
The Breton legend is to this effect : — Suliau, as he is there
called, was persuaded by Guymarch, abbot of Meibot (Mei-
fod in Montgomery),2 to fly his father's court, and embrace
a life of religion. He took occasion of a chase to make
his escape and take refuge with Guymarch (Gwyddfarch) ;
the abbot sent him for security to a cell in the island in
Aber-menew, and after the resentment of his father was
appeased, recalled him. Suliau found the abbot very
anxious to journey to Rome. He tried to dissuade him,
assuring him that his departure would prove disastrous to
the abbey. When Guymarch could not thus be dissuaded,
Suliau took him to the top of a mound, and showed him
thence in panorama all the churches, temples, and other
public buildings of Rome, even the obelisk which Con-
stantius had brought from Heliopolis, and the ruins of the

1 Bede, H. E. ii. 2.

* Gwyddfarch, son of Amalarius, prince of Powell, was abbot of Meifod at the
close of the 8th century.

* — -*

Nor. 8.] S. Deusdedit. 197

Colosseum. The abbot was satisfied, and said nothing
more about his journey. On the death of Guymarch Suliau
was elected in his room. Brochwel died and was succeeded
in the principality of Powys by his son Jacob, who died
leaving no issue by his wife Hajarme. It was decided
therefore that the widow should marry Suliau, and raise up
of the seed royal to reign in Powys. Scared at the prospect,
Suliau fled to his island in Aber-menew, and thence to Aleth,
in Brittany, where he visited S. Malo, who gave him a
monastery where now stands S. Suliac. On the death of his
sister-in-law he was invited to return to Wales, but refused,
and died at S. Suliac.

S. DEUSDEDIT, POPE.

(a.d. 618.)

[Roman Martyrology. Authority : — Anastatius Bibliothecarius.]

Deusdedit succeeded Boniface IV. in 615, and reigned

till November 4, 618. He was the son of a subdeacon,

named Stephen. He forbade marriage between the son of

a man who had stood sponsor to a girl and that girl, on the

ground that spiritual relationship made such a marriage to

be incestuous. He is reported to have cured a leper ot

elephantiasis by a kiss. Nothing more is known of this pope.

He was buried on November 8th.

S. WILLEHAD, B. OF BREMEN.
(a.d. 789.)

[Roman and German Martyrologies. Authority : — A Life written by
his successor S. Anskar, in Mabillon, Acta SS. O.S.B., and letter in
Pertz, Mon. ii. pp. 378-390.]

Willehad, or Wilhead,1 was a native of Northumber-
land, but we have no means of ascertaining with any degree

1 The name is thus spelt in a letter of Alcuin, quoted by Pertz, ii. 379.

* — — *

198 Lives of the Saints. [no*.b.

of accuracy the date of his birth. He was perhaps educated
at York, for we find that he was at a subsequent period
the friend of Alcuin. After he had attained to the priest-
hood, he was induced, by the reports of the progress of the
English missionaries in Germany, to visit Friesland for the
purpose of assisting in the conversion of the idolaters of
that country. With the permission of Alchred, king of
Northumbria (who reigned from 765 to 774), and the bishops,
Willehad quitted his native land, and went direct to Dockum
in Ostergo, the scene of the martyrdom of Boniface, which
was then occupied by a Christian congregation, and there
he established himself for some time, receiving and educating
the children of the Frisian nobles. After a few years he
proceeded east, having by that time acquired the language,
with the intention of carrying the light of the Gospel to
those who had not as yet been visited by missionaries. He
crossed the river Lawers, on the borders of West Friesland,
and entered the district of Groningen. At a place called
Humarcha, supposed to be Hunsingo, near Groningen, or its
hamlet, Marne, in the midst of his preaching, the idolaters
incensed at the freedom with which he spoke of their religion,
rose against him and his companions, and they only escaped
the fate of Boniface by the intervention of the chiefs, who
persuaded the people to have the sacred lot drawn to decide
whether the gods demanded their death or not. The lot
having declared that the missionaries were to be spared,
Willehad proceeded to the district of Drente, where he made
numerous converts ; but the too eager zeal of one of them in
destroying an idol brought the missionaries into trouble. A
man aimed his sword at the breast of Willehad, but the blade
was diverted by his box of relics, which was suspended
round his neck, and did him no harm. He was obliged,
however, to fly with his companions from Friesland, and
take shelter at the court of Charlemagne.

* j£i

# $

Nov.8.] ^. Willehad. 199

Charlemagne had in this year (779) completed the sub-
jection of the Saxons, and he sent Willehad to preach to
the people, on the borders of Friesland and Saxony, in a
district named Wigmodia, in the neighbourhood of Bremen.
There Willehad laboured with success ; he built churches,
ordained priests, and made so many converts, that after two
years hardly an idolater could be found in the whole dis-
trict. But in 782 his progress was stopped by the great
rebellion of Wittekind, who persecuted the Christians during
several years with savage hatred. Willehad fled to the
neighbourhood of Embden, on the sea-coast, and hastily
embarking in a ship which happened to be there, sailed
round Friesland, and escaped to France. Several of his
companions were massacred. Folcard the priest, and
Emming, Benjamin, Artrebanus, Genoald, and his com-
panions fell victims at Bremen and the neighbourhood.
Charles the Great had commissioned his generals, Geil and
Adalgis, to strengthen the army under their command by
an immense levy of Saxon troops in Westphalia, and with
this army to march against the Sclavonians on the other side
of the Elbe and Saal. The Saxons had obeyed the call
with alacrity. They soon outnumbered the Franks. At
Hausberg, between Minden and Rinteln, they suddenly fell
on their companions and slaughtered them. Geil and
Adalgis, and the greater part of the Franks, fell. When
the news of this terrible catastrophe reached Charles he
vowed to wreak a terrible vengeance on the rebels, and to
regain by cruelty and severity the kingdom his mildness
had lost. Crossing the Rhine, he laid waste the country by
fire and sword, and exterminated all who refused to embrace
Christianity. Thousands were driven into the rivers to be
baptized or drowned. On the Eller at Verden 4,500 Saxons
taken in arms were beheaded. Destruction marched in
his van. Desolation, carnage, and flames marked the path

* ■ ■ jj,

* *

200 Lives of the Saints. [Nor.s.

of the conqueror. Undismayed by the danger, the Saxons
rose to a man in defence of their national liberties and
ancient gods. Every deed of cruelty was doubly repaid,
and victory began to waver. At Detmold, Wittekind
headed the enthusiastic patriots against the superior forces
of Charles, and a dreadful battle was fought, in which the
victory remained undecided.

In petty warfare the Saxons proved invincible, and it was
not until they again hazarded a general engagement on the
Hase that Charles's superior tactics prevailed against them.
When at length he was once more securely fixed in the in-
terior of the country, prudence counselled milder measures;
and whilst he still devastated the northern districts, his sub-
jects in the Binnenland were treated with a gentleness which,
seconded by the exhaustion consequent on their numerous
defeats, at length induced a general submission.

During this period of revolt and warfare Willehad absented
himself. He went to the court of Pepin, king of the Lom-
bards, and thence to Rome, where he was received by Pope
Adrian I., who condoled with him on the misfortunes of the
Church in Saxony, and then sent him back to France. He
took up his residence inWillibrord's monastery at Echternach,
where he was joined by as many of his disciples as had
escaped Wittekind's persecution, and where he occupied
himself in reading and writing.

After remaining two years in Echternach Willehad again
visited the court of Charlemagne, who was residing at the
castle of Eresburg, and who gave him as a benefice the cell
of Mont Jutin, in Upper Burgundy. According to Charle-
magne's desire, Willehad now returned to his diocese of
Wigmodia, where he ordained new priests, and restored the
churches that had been destroyed. There was now no more
opposition to Christianity : all opposition had been trampled
out, and the people gave in a surly adhesion to the religion

^__ . #

Nov. 8.] •$"• Gernad. 201

forced on them, and submitted, as a necessity, to receive
baptism. Wittekind and Alboin, finding further resistance
hopeless, in the same year (785) went to Affigny, where their
conqueror then was, and accepted baptism. Wittekind either
gave out, or allowed it to be believed, to cover his humiliation,
that he had been convinced by a miracle. In the church of
Wolmirstadt, into which he went when mass was being said,
he saw the priest lift a shining child above his head, at the
Elevation of the Host. But Wittekind's motive of submitting
to become a Christian in name was rather to escape the loss
of all his honour, authority, and probably of his life also.

In 786 Charlemagne went to Rome, and on his return
thence in the following year, he held the general assembly of
his people at Worms. On this occasion, July 13th, 787,
Willehad was consecrated to the episcopal dignity, and
Charlemagne gave him the whole district of Wigmodia as
his diocese. Two years afterwards the new bishop built a
church, " of wonderful beauty," at Bremen, which he dedi-
cated to S. Peter, on Sunday, November 1st, 789, and which
from that period became the episcopal seat. The ceremony
of dedication was no sooner ended than the bishop, who
had set out to make a visitation of his diocese, was struck
with sudden illness at Blexem, near Bremen, where he died
on the 8th of November, 789, after he had held the bishopric
only two years, three months, and twenty-six days. His body
was carried to Bremen, and buried in the church which he
had built.

S. GERNAD, C.
(about a.d. 934.)

[Adam King and Dempster as Gervad. David Camerarius on Nov. 9.
Authority : — Aberdeen Breviary.]

Gernad, or Garnat, a common Pictish name, is called by

202 Lives of the Saints. [Nov. 8#

the Martyrologists, Gervad. He is said to have been an
Irishman, who came into Moray and associated with himself
some others desirous of following the eremitical life, and
built a cell at Kenedor. During the wars between Scotland
and England, an English soldier asked the saint to pray
that his sins might be forgiven. The battle went against the
English, and the soldier's head was cut off. S. Gernad sent
his disciples to find the body, which was made known by a
white bird settling on it, and a wolf peaceably brought the
head. On another occasion a wolf which had slain one of
the saint's oxen, took its place, and finished the ploughing.
A violent storm diverted a river into another stream, so as
to bring down timber for the construction of his church.
He withdrew to a cave in Elgin, about twelve feet square,
called afterwards Holyman's Head, commanding the sea.
Within the last few years the cave has disappeared, the cliff
having been quarried away. Above the cave was a spring
of water called S. Gerardin's well. Bishop Forbes assigns to
S. Gernad the date of 934, because the facts mentioned in
his legend plainly indicate the invasion of the north by
Athelstan. That monarch, in the reign of S. Constan-
tine III., on the plea of a broken treaty, invaded Scotland by
land and sea. In Stewart's ''Metrical Chronicle of Scotland,"
and in the Martyrology of Dempster, and in Adam King's
Kalendar Gernad is called bishop of Moray. But there is no
evidence to support this. He does not occur in the lists of
the bishops of Moray.

S. GREGORY, AB. OF EINSIEDELN.
(a.d. 996.)

[Benedictine Martyrologies. Authorities : — Mention in the Life of
S- Wolfgang, and in the Annals of Herman the Contracted.]

Gregory, born of noble parents in England, is said by
* *

Nov. 8.] S. Godfrid. 203

Trithemius to have been even of royal birth, brother to
Athelstan; but as the English chronicles knew nothing of
it, it is probable that this is a piece of monkish exaggeration.
At any rate, he was married, and ran away from home and
wife on his wedding night, went to Rome to the monastery
on the Ccelian Mount, came to Einsiedeln in 949, was elected
abbot in 958, received S. Wolfgang when he retired to the
privacy of the monastery of S. Meinrad, and died in 996.
Nothing further of importance is known of him.

S. GODFRID, B. OF AMIENS.

(a.d. in 8.)

[Gallican Martyrologies. Authority :— A Life by Nicolas Gall, monk
of Soissons, a contemporary, in Surius, Vit. SS. Nov. 8 ; a portion in
Bouquet, Recueil, xiv. pp. 174-181.]

Godfrid, in French Godefroi, or Geoffroi, was born at
Moulicourt near Soissons. His father's name was Frodo,
that of his mother was Elizabeth. They were rich and noble,
and had two sons following arms as their profession. About
the 5'ear 1065, Godfrid, abbot of Mont-Saint-Quentin-les-
Peronne, uncle of Ida, Countess of Boulogne, mother of
Godfrey, king of Jerusalem, paid them a visit, and asked
whether they had not a son to give to God. "Alas !" said
they, " we have only two, who are engaged in arms, and we
are advanced in age and expect no more children." The
abbot advised them to vow to God that should they be given
another son, they would dedicate him to the religious life.
Nine months after Elizabeth became the mother of a son,
whom the abbot Godfrid held at the font, and to whom he
gave his own name. At the age of five this child was sent
to his monastery and loved by him as his own son. One
day the child was teasing a pet crane in the monastery

* *

204 Lives of the Saints. [Noy- 8>

cloister, when the spiteful bird pecked at his eyes.1 The
boy recoiled, made the sign of the cross, and providentially
escaped being blinded. He went to Soissons one month of
October, and was at the abbey when the feast of SS. Crispin
and Crispinian was celebrated. Just before mass he went
into the refectory, and found the monks enjoying a hearty
meat breakfast, washed down with wine. They invited him
to table. He indignantly refused to eat before mass, to load
the belly with carnal food before satisfying the soul with
spiritual nutriment. The monks scoffed at him, and forced
him to retire.

He was ordained priest at the age of twenty-five, by
Ratbod II., bishop of Noyon, the ecclesiastical writer.
Soon after, the archbishop of Rheims sent him to the
abbey of Notre-Dame-de-Nogent, which had fallen into dis-
repute, and contained only six monks and two novices, in
the hopes that he would restore discipline, and attract novices.
At the instigation of the archbishop, and of the bishop of
Laon, Enguerrand, Count of Coucy, appointed him to be
their abbot. Philip I. approved, and the abbot and monks
of Mont-Sain t-Quentin were forced to submit. Godfrid went
to the monastery, and found it in confusion: the church
ruined, the cells thatched with wattles and clay to keep out
the rain, the cloister full of nettles and brambles, the lands
alienated, and the monks under no discipline. He re-
built the church, restored the monastic buildings, brought
the monks under restraint, and earned such credit as a dis-
ciplinarian that many entered the abbey, amongst them two
abbots, to have the privilege of living under his austere rule.
After a while Manasses II. of Rheims wished to translate
him to the more important and wealthy abbey of S. Remi,

1 In many mediaeval biographies we hear of cranes or storks pecking at eyes.
I'robably a habit of the bird now not noticed since it has become more scarce, or is
not kept tamed with clipped wing.

* *

* — — *

Nov. so S, Godfrid. 205

but he declined the honour, on the excuse that he would
be transgressing canons of Nicaea and Sardica if he left one
charge for another. He was a strict ruler, kept his monks
on short commons, made them pray with punctuality, and
conduct the offices of the church with solemnity. The letter
of the Rule was carried out with exactitude. The slightest
dereliction from its injunctions was punished, neglect of the
virtues it inculcated met with prompt reprimand. The steward
of the abbey was one day asked the loan of a saddle. He
refused. Godfrid heard of it, was indignant, ordered a bon-
fire to be lighted in the cloister court, and burned the saddle
before the eyes of all the monks assembled to witness the
auto-de-fe and of the man who wanted to borrow it. The
Blessed Vivette, nun of Notre-Dame de Soissons, fell into
the hands of robbers in a wood between Cdrisy and Saint-
Paul. She escaped with her honour, and attributed what
was due perhaps to her age and want of personal attractions
to the merits of Godfrid whom she had invoked.

The Soissonais, afflicted by a long drought, appealed to
the abbot. He prayed, and in course of time rain fell.
These circumstances caused him to be regarded as specially
privileged by Heaven. True, the miracles were not very
numerous nor very striking, but the sanctity and severity of
the life of the abbot were above dispute and notorious. In
1 1 04 he was elected to the see of Amiens, when the aged
Gervin resigned his see. Godfried showed the usual reluc-
tance to receive the honour and burden of the episcopal
office, and only yielded when, according to his own account,
the somewhat apocryphal S. Firminus, first bishop of the see
of Amiens, and martyr, had appeared to him and positively
insisted on having him for successor. Manasses II. of
Rheims consecrated him, assisted by Lambert of Arras and
John of Therouanne. During the ceremony, according to
custom, the book of the Gospels was opened over his head,

x In: >jt

* *

206 Lives of the Saints. [Noy> 8>

aud the words at the head of the page were, " Elisabeth
autem impletum est tempus pariendi et peperit filium"
(Luke i. 57). This was taken to refer to the new bishop,
whose mother, Elizabeth, bore him in her old age, and to
foretell that he would prove another John the Baptist.
These auguries were generally taken at the consecration of
bishops ; sometimes the texts were happy, often irrelevant,
but always gave occasion of discussion and interpretation to
the curious and superstitious.1 He made his entry into
Amiens with somewhat ostentatious humility, walking bare-
foot over a very rough road. As bishop he did not forget
that he was a monk, nor did he lay aside with the cowl the
obligations of the Rule. He was hospitable, generous to the
poor, and strict in his discipline of himself. He neither
indulged in sumptuous food nor costly furniture. A large
salmon was purchased for his dinner. He went into the
kitchen, hoisted the fish on his shoulders, and carried it to
some lepers who had solicited his alms.

Godfrid was determined to put a stop to the marriage of
his clergy, and to their living with their wives after having
embraced the ecclesiastical estate. He refused to speak to,
or to associate with the married clergy at table or in church.
He shut them out of choir as unworthy to pass the screen.
The wife or concubine of a priest, whom Godfrid had driven
from what had been her home, in bitter rage mixed helle-
bore with some aromatic wine, and sent it to the bishop as a
present. He poured out the wine into his goblet, but be-
fore tasting it, he sat with his eyes on the wine, studying
what could have induced this woman, whom he had expelled
her home, to send him a present. Suspecting mischief, he
sopped a crust of bread in the wine, and gave it to a puppy
that was running about the room. The little dog ate it,

1 See an article by me on " Sortes Sacrae," in "Curiosities of Olden Time," Lon-
don, 2nd ed., Grant, 1805.

# -*

and soon after ran to the bishop's bed, coiled itself up on it,
and died. When the servant went to make the bed in the
evening, he saw the dog on it, and took it by the ears. The
little beast did not squeal as he expected, and he found it
was dead. Godfrid threw away the bottle of wine, and
vowed he would deal more sharply in future with the women
who attached themselves to his clergy. Gislbert, his
ceremoniarius, had incurred his wrath on account of his
morals, and the man deserted him just before he consecrated
an oratory to S. Thomas. This was distressing, as Godfrid
was not well acquainted with the ritual of a consecration.
However, assisted by Heaven, which inspired him with
supernatural illumination, he got through the ceremony
without the people present discovering the least ritual
inaccuracy.

He was, no doubt, most self-denying in his food, and
lavish in his charities, but he could not brook trifling in-
terference with his privileges. He insisted tenaciously on
his right to consecrate the altar napkins of the abbey
of S. Vale'ry. This right the abbot and monks disputed.
One would have supposed that the saint who was ready to
abandon the salmon prepared for his dinner to hungry
beggars would have waived his claim to such a trivial pre-
rogative. But not so ; the matter of the napkins became one
of the most important questions agitating his temper and
influencing his career. The case was carried before the
archbishop of Rheims and given against him. He appealed
to Rome. The monks of S. Vale'ry sent an embassy to the
Pope with such liberal bribes that they obtained a confir-
mation of their immunities,1 and orders that the bishop
should refrain from disturbing them. Godfrid immediately
started for Rome with a large retinue. He was surrounded

1 " Monachi Romani veniunt, munera largiuntur, redeunt ad sua lieti et alacres,
omnibus pro voto impetratis a Romano Pontifice."

* Ijj

208 Lives of the Saints. [Nov. 8.

at once by the greedy crew who lived on these appeals,
asking for bribes to support his cause.1 But the bishop was
determined, if possible, to gain his point economically, with-
out spending money on the lawyers, or bribing the cardinals
and those who had the Pope's ear. He argued his case
before his Holiness, but finding it impossible to get a judg-
ment in his favour without paying heavily for it, he cried
out in indignation to the sovereign pontiff, that as he who
had been set by Christ at the head of his Church to rule it
aright afforded him no justice, he would resign his bishopric
and retire into private life. So saying he left Rome, and
went to Ban to venerate the relics of S. Nicolas. There
he was given some of the oil which, it was contrived, should
distil from the bones of the saint.

At this time Paschal II. was Pope. He was in the midst
of his quarrel with Henry V. and wanted the support of the
bishops against the haughty emperor. Henry was in Italy,
marching against Rome. Bishops aggrieved with the Pope
might lend weighty aid to the emperor. Paschal hastily sent
after Godfrid, determined to throw over the insignificant
monks in order to secure the fidelity of the powerful pre-
late. He gave him a brief reversing that already accorded
to the abbot of S. Valery, and dismissed him with every
expression of honour. Godfrid set off, triumphant at heart,
to return to France, and defiantly to invade the abbey, dis-
play his brief, and dedicate the linen of the altar to the
God of love and lowliness of heart. On his way back, the
oil from the tomb of S. Nicolas manifested most strikingly
its miraculous virtues; for the phial was dropped on the
road without breaking, and the flasket having been allowed
to fall into water actually floated. As it was tightly corked,
and probably did not contain many drops, but much air,

1 " Mox advolant causidici, sperant ab illo quoque se accepturos munera lar-
gissima."

* *

% X

Nov. 8.j •£■ Godfrid. 209

the floating of the bottle was not perhaps altogether beyond
nature.

In crossing the Alps, the bishop found a poor woman
nearly frozen to death, and he put some of his own outer
wraps on her ; an act of common humanity which the author
of his Life exalts into one of supernatural charity.

As he approached his diocese, some of those with him
advised him to travel incognito, under an assumed name,
as he had given occasion to many of his flock to dislike him
so cordially that they might combine to prevent his return
to Amiens. He accordingly adopted the name of Herve' ;
but a rude joke having been made and circulated among
some of the elect ladies of Amiens about this change of
name, Godfrid, on his return, inquired into the matter, and
was assured by the woman to whom the jest was traced, that
she had not originated it, but had heard it made by the
Evil One himself, who appeared to her whilst she was sob-
bing and praying for the return of the bishop at the foot of
her crucifix. S. Godfrid was obliged to accept the excuse.
It would have been discourteous to have disbelieved the
explanation ; but he liked being made fun of by ladies as
little as he liked being flouted by monks ; and he inflicted
on himself a severe penance for having rendered himself liable
to ridicule by a change of name.

He was not more inclined to mildness on his return.
The Count of Flanders was spending Christmas at Saint-
Omer, and the bishop of Amiens went thither to meet him,
and say mass before him on that great feast. In honour of
Christmas Day and their presence at the prince's court, the
gentlemen and nobles were dight in their most splendid
dresses, in velvet and silk, with chains of gold, and thus
attired they came up to make their oblations at the altar.
Godfrid indignantly repelled their gifts, and bade them take
off their chains, and dress in sadder garb before they dared
vol. xni. 14
* ^ — ■ ■ *

2 io Lives of the Saints. [Nov. 8.

to approach. Several of them left the church, and changed
or veiled their handsome habits.

At Doullens was a nunnery dedicated to S. Michael, in
which holy virgins emulated on earth the life of the angels
in heaven. One evening at supper the nun who had to hold
the candle whilst the mother superior consumed her food,
accidentally let the candle drop, and the refectory was
buried in darkness. The young sister threw herself on her
knees at the feet of the superior, assured her it was an
accident, and implored her pardon. But the mother was
furious. This sister had made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem,
and was therefore held in some repute. The mother was
jealous of her, and taking occasion of this accident, vented
on her all her spite and rage. In vain did the other sisters
intercede. She cursed her, pulled her hair, beat her with
clenched fists, kicked her to and fro, and finally drove her
into the street, and forbade her ever to enter her doors again.
The poor girl went off to Bishop Godfrid, showed him her
bruises and told her tale. Godfrid sent at once to Doullens
a sharp note, bidding the reverend mother come to him
without delay or equipage of any sort. Scarlet with shame
at having to walk, the mother left the doors of her angelic
home, and made her way on foot to Amiens. There she
cast herself at the feet of the bishop, wept, and uttered pro-
testations of devotion. Godfrid bade her cease her cries,
stand up, and answer him where was the girl she had turned
out of her nunnery. The mother was struck dumb. God-
frid bade her search for her, and not see him or return to
Doullens, till she had found her. After the mother had
hunted all day in vain the bishop sent for her, produced
the nun, severely rebuked the superior, and bade her take
the sister back to Doullens, and control her temper better
for the future.

Pope Paschal II. was in the midst of his strife with the

, . *

Nov. 8.]

.S*. Godfrid. 211

Emperor Henry V. If ever it be unpresumptuous to trace
the retributive justice of God in the destiny of one man, it
may be acknowledged in the humiliation of Pope Paschal II.
by the Emperor Henry V. The Pope, by his continual
sanction, if not by direct advice, had trained the young
emperor in his inordinate ambition and his unscrupulous
avidity for power. He had not rebuked his shameless
perfidy or his revolting cruelty ; he had absolved him from
the great irrepealable obligations of nature and the divine
law. A rebel against his sovereign and his father, he had
met with encouragement in his rebellion, had been stimulated
to revolt by the Head of the Church, who should have re-
strained and rebuked him. If Paschal suffered the result of
his own lessons, if he was driven from his capital, exposed
to personal sufferings so great as to compel him to retract
his own infallible decrees at the dictation of the Emperor, he
had not much right to compassion.

The wretched question of investitures was that which
brought them into conflict. As long as the Church was
unendowed with territory, so long no question of the sort
could have arisen. But in Germany especially the bishops
and great abbots were princes holding large lands, with
power of life and death thereon, levying armies, and in-
triguing against the Emperor. If they constituted part of
the empire, it was requisite that they should recognize that
they were subject to the Emperor, and that they were not
independent sovereigns. Their spiritual office they derived
from God, but their temporal principalities they received
from the emperor. This they were disposed to forget
Nearly half Germany was in the hands of princely ecclesias-
tics, and their disloyalty and rebellion against Henry IV.
had brought him to ruin. Henry V., though he had taken
advantage of this in his revolt against his father, was not
disposed to allow the same forces to operate, or risk the

^ -%

loss of his throne, if he could avoid it. The dispute turned
on the externals of crosier and ring, which were symbols of
investiture of the temporal authority exercised by the pre-
lates, and which the king claimed a right to grant, but which
for a while the Pope refused to concede, and which his pre-
decessors and himself in every council, at Guastalla, at
Troyes, still later at Benevento, and in the Lateran, had
declared to be a sacrilegious usurpation. But when Henry V.
advanced towards Rome at the head of a powerful force
Pope Paschal gave way in all important points, and the
king yielded the empty and unmeaning outward form of
investiture.

The treaty was concluded, February 12 th, 1111, in the
porch of S. Peter's church, it might seem in the actual
presence of the apostles.1 The news caused consternation
among the rigorous upholders of ecclesiastical independence.
In September, 1 1 1 2, the archbishop of Vienne held a council,
which was attended by S. Hugh of Grenoble, S. Godfrid of
Amiens, and other Gallic prelates. The council drew up a
synodal letter to the Pope, to this effect : " We have assembled
at Vienne in accordance with the commands of your Holiness.
There appeared before it deputies of the king with bulled
letters, in which you say that you desire peace and union
with him ; and the king declares that you wrote these to him
after the council held in Rome last Lent. Although we
were surprised, nevertheless we remembered the letters which
we had received of you, touching perseverance in a just
cause. To avoid the ruin of the Church we have pro-
ceeded canonically; and we judge that the investiture of
bishoprics, abbeys, and all ecclesiastical goods received
from lay hands is a heresy. We condemn, by virtue of the
Holy Spirit, the writing or privilege extorted by King Henry
by violence from your Holiness, we declare it null and void.

* The oaths made on both sides in Pertz. Leg. ii. 68.
* *

Nov. 8.]

.S*. God/rid.

213

We excommunicate the king, who . . . has extorted from you
the detestable writing. We anathematize him, and separate
him from the bosom of the Church, till she has received from
him full satisfaction. We represent to your Holiness, with all
convenient respect, that if you confirm our decree and abstain
henceforth from receiving this detestable tyrant, his envoys,
his letters and his presents, and even from speaking to him,
we shall remain, as we ought, your sons and faithful servants.
But if you take another course, which we cannot believe, it
will be you who cast us into disobedience." Notwithstanding
this menace the Pope confirmed the decrees of the Council
of Vienne by a letter dated October 20th.

After the conclusion of the council, Godfrid, disgusted
with the mortifications he met with in his diocese, and the
violence of the nobles, who made light of the excommunica-
tions he flung at them, resolved to desert his charge, and
instead of returning to Amiens, retired to the Grande
Chartreuse.

A council assembled at Bourges next year, and deputies
from Amiens presented themselves before the assembled
bishops to state that their own bishop having deserted them,
they were anxious to have another consecrated in his place.
The bishops rebuked the deputies for their eagerness to get
rid of Godfrid, told them that their lawlessness and dislike
of his discipline had driven him into banishment, and insisted
on their recalling him. The fathers of the council wrote to
Godfrid, requiring his return to the post of duty. He received
the letter with great regret, but could not disobey. He met
the legate Conon in March, n 15, at Rheims, and joined in
reiterating the excommunication of the emperor. The legate
gave S. Godfrid a severe reprimand for deserting his flock,
from selfish desire of repose.

No sooner was he returned to Amiens than he began again
to stir up discontent by his ill-advised severity. It was the

214 L ives °f Mie Saints. [Nov, 8.

beginning of Lent, and he forbade the eating of meat on
the Sundays in that season. Most made light of his com-
mand ; he heard of it, but dissembled his anger till they
came to make their confession before the Easter communion
on Maundy Thursday, and then he denounced them for their
impiety in daring to transgress his orders, and forbade them
communion till Easter Monday. One fellow disguised him-
self as a woman and came to the altar on Maundy Thursday,
and was communicated, but was sick on the floor immediately
after, and, we are told, " this accident filled all minds with
such terror that they submitted without further remon-
strance."

Godfrid launched threats, denunciations, and excommuni-
cations right and left, on all who offended him or public
morals. He forced his clergy to assume at least an appear-
ance of celibacy. Their concubines were driven with con-
tumely out of the parsonages, and their children dispersed.
The general detestation of the bishop by both clergy and
laity grew to such a pass that, his biographer says, there was
scarcely a parish in the whole diocese in which his life was
safe. The people of Amiens especially incurred his wrath
by their open expression of dislike, their jaunty defiance of
his censures. He threw out mysterious hints that if they
did not change and do penance, a sudden and unexpected
punishment would fall on them. But his denunciations and
threats, which had been listened to at one time by all with
curiosity and by some with awe, through incessant repetition
had lost their effect, and were treated with universal indiffe-
rence. But this time the threat was terribly accomplished. In
a mysterious manner the city caught fire at several points and
burned furiously, only the episcopal palace and cathedral of
S. Firmin escaping, along with the quarter of the indigent
who lived on the alms of the bishop.

For two years after this the fear ot the bishop kept his

* #

Nov. 8.]

S. Godfria.

215

troublesome flock quiet, but after that they broke out into
murmurs again, and he greatly desired to escape from the
burden of an office he was not competent to bear with satis-
faction to himself or to those whom he was charged to rule.
He went to Rheims to consult the archbishop, but died on
the way at Soissons, and was buried there.

Tile Touraugeois carrying off the body of B. Martia, See p. 258.

216 Lives of the Saints. [Nov. 9.

November g.

S. Ursinits, 5. of ' Bourges ; circ. a.d. 280.

S. Alexander, M. at Thessalonica ; circ. a.d. 303.

S. Orestes, M. at Tyana in Cappadocia ; circ. a.d. 304.

S. Theodore, M. at Amasea in Pontus / a.d. 306.

The Dedication of the Church of Our Saviour, at Rome;

a.d. 324.
S. Mathurinus, P.C. at Montar^is in France ; 4th cent.
S. John the Dwarf, H. in Egypt; middle of ^th cent.
S. Benignus, Abp. of Armagh; a.d. 468.
S. Vannus, B. of Verdun ; a.d. 525.

SS. Eustolia and Sosipatra, VV. at Constantinople ; 6tk cent.
S. Crucifix at Berytus ; circ. a.d. 765.
S. George, B. of Lodeve; a.d. 880.

S. THEODORE, M.
(a.d. 306.)

[Roman Martyrology. Usuardus, Ado, Bede, Sacramentary of S.
Gregory, Mart, of Jerome, &c. Sarum, York, and Hereford Kalendars.
By the Greeks on Feb. 17, and on the first Saturday in Lent.
Authority : — An Oration of S. Gregory of Nyssa on his festival.]

GREGORY of Nyssa begins the panegyric which

he pronounced upon this martyr on his festival,

at his tomb near Amasea, by gratefully ascribing

to his intercession the preservation of that county

from the inroads of the Scythians, who had laid waste all the

neighbouring provinces. Imploring his patronage, he says :

" As a soldier defend us ; as a martyr speak for us — ask peace !

If we want a stronger intercession, gather together your brother

martyrs, and with them all pray for us. Stir up Peter, Paul,

and John, that they be solicitous for the Churches which they

founded. May no heresies sprout up : may the Christian

commonwealth become, by your and your companions'

% — — *

* *

Nov. 9.] S. Theodore. 217

prayers, a flourishing field." The panegyrist testifies, that by
his intercession devils were expelled, and distempers cured ;
that many resorted to his church, and admired the state-
liness of the buildings, and the actions of the saint painted
on the wall ; approached the tomb, being persuaded that the
touch thereof imparted a blessing ; that they carried away
the dust of the sepulchre as a treasure of great value, and
if any were allowed the happiness to touch the sacred relics,
they respectfully applied them to their eyes, mouth, ears, and
other organs of their senses. "Then," says the same S. Gregory,
" they address themselves to the martyr as if he were present,
and pray and invoke him, who is before God, and obtain
gifts as he pleases." The venerable panegyrist proceeds to
give a short account of the martyr's triumph.

Theodore was a native of Syria or Armenia, young, and
newly enlisted in the Roman army, on which account he was
surnamed Tyro. With his legion he was sent into winter
quarters in Pontus, and was at Amasea when fresh edicts
were published by Maximian Galerius and Maximin for
continuing with the utmost rigour the persecution which had
been raised by Diocletian. The young soldier was seized
and presented to the governor of the province and the tri-
bune of his legion, and was asked by them how he dared to
profess a religion which the emperors punished with death.
He boldly replied, " I know not your gods. Jesus Christ,
the only son of God, is my God. Beat, tear, or burn me ;
and if my words offend you, cut out my tongue : every part
of my body is ready when God calls for it as a sacrifice."
His judges feeling pity for his youth, dismissed him, thinking
he would be persuaded by his companions to think differently,
and unwilling, unless absolutely forced to do so, to proceed
to extremities. Theodore, however, had no wish to be let
off thus easily; and to compel his judges to take further
notice of him he set fire to a temple of Cybele, which stood

i£ 4<

*- — *

218 Lives of the Saints. [Nov. 9.

upon the banks of the river Iris, in the middle of the city ;
and the fabric was reduced to ashes. When he was carried
a second time before the governor and his assistant he was
ready with his confession. They endeavoured to terrify him
with threats of torture, and allure him by promising to make
him the priest of the goddess, if he would offer sacrifice.
His answer was, that such priests were of all idolaters the
most miserable, because the most criminal. The magistrates
reluctantly ordered him to execution. His body was torn
with whips ; and he was hoisted on the rack. Under all
manner of torments the saint maintained his tranquillity and
greatness of soul, and, seemingly insensible to the smart of
his wounds, ceased not to repeat those words of the psalmist.
" I will bless the Lord at all times : His praises shall ever
be in my mouth." When the governor's cruelty was tired,
the martyr was remanded to prison, where, in the night, he
was comforted by God and His holy angels. After a third
examination Theodore was condemned to be burnt alive.
The sentence was executed in the year 306, probably on
the 17th of February, on which day the Greeks and Russians
celebrate his festival, though the Latins keep it on the 9th of
November. The body of this martyr was translated in the
twelfth century to Brindisi, and is there enshrined, except
the head, which is at Cajeta. The ancient church of Venice,
of which he is titular saint, is said to have been built by
Narses. A collegiate church in Rome, which originally was
a temple of Romulus, and several churches in the East, bear
his name.

He is often confounded with S. Theodore of Heraclea
(February 7th). In art he is represented as a soldier with
torch or furnace. Theodore with a dragon is the saint of
Heraclea.

* *

Nov. 9.] S. John the Dwarf. 219

THE DEDICATION OF THE CHURCH
OF OUR SAVIOUR.

(a.d. 324.)

[Roman Martyrology.]

Constantine inherited the Lateran palace from his wife
Faustina. He built a church dedicated to the Saviour
on Monte Ccelio, of some of the materials of the Lateran
palace that stood there. A chapel was used as a baptistery,
and was dedicated to S. John the Baptist, whose image was
placed over the font. The church now goes by the name
of S. John Lateran, and is the mother church of the see of
Rome.

S. JOHN THE DWARF, H.

(5TH CENT.)

[By the Copts on Oct. 1 7, but by the Greeks and Russians on Nov. 9.
Authorities : — Mention by Sulpicius Severus, S. Nilus, in the "Life of
S. Arsenius," and the "Lives of the Fathers of the Desert."]

When the great S. Arsenius presented himself before
the solitaries of Scete, asking to be received among them,
none was thought more suitable to be his master than the
venerable John the Dwarf. Arsenius was brought to his
cell. John sat down to eat with his disciples and the other
monks, leaving Arsenius standing unnoticed. After a while
he pretended to observe the tutor of the emperors, and he
flung a loaf of bread on the floor, and said contemptuously,
" There, take and eat that." Arsenius knelt down and ate
the bread on the ground. " That will do," said John, " the
man is humble. I will receive him as my disciple."

4t — - *

2 20 Lives of the Saints. [Nor. %

Nothing of the early life of John is known. He was a very
little man, and like most little men, was peppery. Indeed,
his temper was his great trial. Whenever he felt angry with
anyone, he took to his heels and ran off to a distance till his
temper had cooled down. If two monks were quarrelling
he would do the same, fearing lest his natural impetuosity
would involve him in the dispute.

When young in the religious life, he said to his elder
brother who lived in the cell with him, " I long to be as an
angel ! I will go and lead the angelic life in the desert."
So he went away into the wastes of rock and sand, and got
very tired of it in a few days, so he came back. It was
night when he reached his brother's cell and knocked at
the door. His brother did not open, but called out to know
who was there. "It is I, John," replied the little man.
" That cannot be," answered the brother ; " he is not a man
like us any more ; he has become an angel." And he left
him outside all night. When morning dawned he went out,
and saw John crouching at his door. " Why, how is this ?
Why did you not come in ? Angels can pass through closed
doors."

So John was humbled. After some time he became a
complete master of his temper, and was a model of gentle-
ness. One day he sat at the door of the church at Scete,
and a number of hermits crowded round him to talk to him,
and listen to his advice. An old hermit passing by was
jealous; and looking scornfully on the little man, said,
" Bah ! courting the eyes and attention like a painted
harlot." " Yes, yes," said John, humbly, " I am too fond of
attracting attention."

" A littJe pitcher full of spite, that is what you are ! " said
the hermit.

" Ah ! friend, there are worse things in the little pitcher
than spite, if you could peep inside," answered John, gently.

* .

£i *

Nov.9<] S.John the Dwarf. 221

He thought much of obedience. A disciple placed
himself under his instruction, and asked what he must do.
" Do ! " said the dwarf, " take my walking stick, plant and
water it." The young man did so, and though he had to
fetch water from a great distance, he watered it daily for
more than two years. The thorn stick took root, put forth
leaves and flowers, and finally was covered with scarlet
berries. John plucked a handful of them, took them to the
church, and said, " See the fruit of holy obedience."

" How do you resist temptations?" he was asked.

"I fight against them."

" But sometimes they are more than one can resist ? "

" If I am sitting under a palm tree, and scorpions and
wasps assail me, I beat them off with a stick and with my
hands. But when they are too numerous for me I escape
up the tree. It is so with my temptations. When I have
no more power myself I take refuge in God."

A young lady of some fortune showed great hospitality
to the hermits when they went to town to sell their baskets
and mats. But after a while she fell into grave moral faults,
and gave up receiving the solitaries. John the Dwarf went
to the town, and knocked at her door. The servants wanted
to drive him away, but he persisted in demanding admission,
and he made his way at last to her room. He seated him-
self beside her, and said, "Thou complainest that Jesus
Christ has abandoned thee. Or hast thou abandoned Him ?"
Then he kept silence. She looked at him and saw that he was
weeping. " My father," said she, starting up, " is there any
place of penitence for such as I am?" " There is," he answered.
" Lead me thither." And they went forth at once together
into the wilderness, and she gave no thought to anything
in her home. She neither gave directions to her servants
what to do with her goods, nor communicated with her rela-
tions about her wealth, giving no thought to anything, save

£f _ ,j,

222 Lives of the Saints. [Nov. 9

how she might obtain pardon for her sin. When night fell
on the desert John made a little mound of sand, and said to
her, " Paesia, lie down here, this is thy pillow. Rest in the
Lord." And he went off some little way and made another
heap of sand, and laid his head thereon, and fell asleep.
And in his dream he saw a golden beam of light fall out of
heaven to where the girl lay, and glorify the sleeping form,
and light with celestial splendour the face and hair. And
up the ray of light he saw flickering golden wings and a
feeble quivering soul ascending and brightening as it went
up, till it blazed as a star of intense brilliancy, and then
passed into the uncreated light. And he heard a voice say,
" The great fervour of the penitence of Paesia has perfected
her penitence in a little while."

And when he woke and went and looked next morning,
the girl lay dead on the desert sand, with the morning sun
falling on her, and the dews sparkling on her hair and eye-
lashes.

We do not know the date of the death of John the Dwarf.
It was some time before S. Poemen and S. Arsenius.

S. BENIGNUS, ABP. OF ARMAGH.
(a.d. 468.)

[Irish Mavtyrologies. Authority: — Mention in the Lives of S. Patrick.]

In 433 S. Patrick was on his way to Tarah, where he
purposed spending Easter. Leaving his boat at the mouth
of the Boyne, he and his companions set out on foot for the
plain of Breg, in which the city of Tarah stood. On their
way, and, as it seems, very soon after getting out of the
boat, they went to the house of a man of rank, named
Seschnen, there to pass the night. They were well received,

* #

*— #

Nov.9.] •$• Crucifix at Berytus. 223

and his host was so heartily disposed to embrace the faith
that S. Patrick baptized him and all his family. A son of
his — whom at his baptism the saint, considering his sweet
disposition, called Benignus — became so attached to Patrick
as to insist on following him. S. Patrick received him
with pleasure, and thenceforth Benignus became one of his
favourite disciples.

In or about the year 442 S. Patrick is said to have
founded a monastery at Druimlias, and to have placed over
it his pupil Benignus, who, it is added, governed it twenty
years. On the death of S. Patrick, about 465, Benignus was
with unanimous consent of the clergy and laity raised to the
see of Armagh. He had been S. Patrick's right-hand man,
and he worthily succeeded him. Parts of Ireland into
which S. Patrick had not penetrated, such as Kerry and
Clare, had heard the Gospel from the lips of Benignus.
There is some difficulty about fixing the date of his death.
The Irish annalists are agreed in fixing as the date the year
468. The " Tripartite Life of S. Patrick" puts it later ; but
the annalists are probably correct. A story is told of his
having resigned his see and gone to Glastonbury, but it is
without foundation. He died at Armagh and was buried
there, after having received the last sacraments from the
hands of Jarlath, who succeeded him.

S. CRUCIFIX AT BERYTUS.
(a.d. 765.)

[Roman Martyrology, inserted by Baronius. Authority : — The Acts
of the second Council of Nicaea.]

During the second council of Nicsea (787), held to re-
establish the veneration of sacred images, every available
passage from the Fathers which could be tortured into

* *

Ijl _*

224 Lives of the Saints. tNov. 9

showing approval of such veneration was produced. Not only
so, but fabulous stories, such as that of Duke Procopius,
which is nothing but a religious romance, were gravely ac-
cepted as evidence that in the 4th century saints and martyrs
worshipped images miraculously sculptured by the finger of
God. A discourse was read, which was attributed to S.
Athanasius, relating how that in the city of Berytus, some
Jews ran a spear into an image of Christ, and that blood
and water flowed from the wound. This blood and water
was collected and proved miraculous, as all the sick persons
who used it recovered health ; whereupon the city was con-
verted and embraced Christianity.1 The assembled bishops
were melted to tears by this absurd tale, which it is needless
to say was not written by S. Athanasius. Fleury very
sensibly observes : " There is great cause for doubting the
truth of the story, which is certainly not by S. Athanasius.
Although there were so many bishops assembled in the
council, there does not appear to have been one endowed
with a critical faculty; for this as well as other false testi-
monies was allowed to pass. This, however, does not im-
pair the force of their decision, for it is sufficiently supported
by genuine documents. But it is a proof of the ignorance
of the times, and of the necessity which rests on men to know
chronology, history, the difference in manners and in style, to
be able to distinguish authentic documents from those which
are apocryphal."2 It is much to be regretted that Baronius
should have introduced the commemoration of this most
apocryphal miracle into the modern Roman martyrology.

1 See Hefele, Die Christus-Bilder, in Wetzer u.Welte : Kirchen Lexicon, ii. p. 520.
* Fleury, H. E. lib. xliv. c. 34.

A CANON AND HIS PATRON SAINTS.

The Canon kneels in adoration ; behind is S. Bernadine of Siena, on the left S. Martin,
and on the right S. Donatian.

From the Painting by Gheeraert David in the National Gallery, formerly the right wing
of the reredos in the Collegiate Church of S. Donatian at Bruges.

Nov. , Part I . p. 224. ]

Nov to] SS. Olympas and Tertius. 225

November 10.

SS. Olympas and Tertius, Disciples of the Apostle Paul; at

cent.
SS. Tryphena and Tryphosa, at Rome ; ist cent.
S. Pkobus, B. of Ravenna ; circ. a.d. 175.
SS. Trypho and Respicius, MM. at Apamea; a.d. 250.
SS. Tiberius, Modesta, and Florentia, MM. at Agde in

Gaul; a.d. 303.
SS. Demetrius, B.M., Anianus, D.M., Eustosa, and Others,

MM. at Antioch.
SS. Milles, Sina, Abrosimus, and Others, MM. in Persia;

a.d. 341.
S. Spatius, M. at Les Andelys in Normandy.
S. Nympha, V. at Rome ; $tk cent.
S. George, B. at Le Puy.
S. Monitor, B. at Orleans.

S. Quintian, B. of Rodez and Clermont ; a.d. 527.
S. Justus, Abp. of Canterbury ; circ. A.D. 627.
S. Lusor, C. at Bourses

S. Werembald, Mk. at Hirsc)\gau; a.d. 952.
S. Andrew Avellino, C. at Naples ; a.d. 1608.

SS. OLYMPAS AND TERTIUS.

(1ST CENT.)

[By the Greeks on this day Erastus, Olympas, Herodion, Sosipater,
Tertius, and Quartus. Erastus is mentioned in the Roman Martyrology
on July 26, Herodion on April 8, Sosipater on June 25, Quartus on
Nov. 3.]

LYMPAS was a Christian at Rome (Rom. xvi.

15), perhaps of the household of Philologus.

Pseudo-Hippolytus and Dorotheus say that he

suffered martyrdom at Rome. The Roman

Martyrology commemorates Olympius, a tribune and martyr

baptized by Pope Stephen, who suffered martyrdom under

Valerian, 257 or 258, and it is possible that this martyr may

vol. xiii. 15

4* ■ *

-*!>

226 Lives of the Saints. lNov. IOi

have been confounded with Olympas, mentioned by S. Paul.
Dorotheus says, however, that he was one of the seventy
disciples, and was decapitated with S. Peter. He is not
mentioned in the passion of S. Peter by the pseudo-Linus,
nor by the pseudo-Abdias, nor in the apocryphal Acts of
SS. Peter and Paul.

Tertius, probably a Roman, was the amanuensis of Paul
in writing the Epistle to the Romans (Rom. xvi. 22). Some
have proposed without reason to identify him with Silas.
Both Hippolytus and Dorotheus reckon him as one of the
seventy, the former says that he became second bishop of
Iconium.

SS. TRYPHENA AND TRYPHOSA.

(1ST CENT.)

[Roman Martyrology. Authority : — Mention in Romans xvi. 12.]

Tryphena and Tryphosa were two Christian women at
Rome enumerated at the conclusion of S. Paul's letter. They
may have been sisters, but were more probably fellow-
deaconesses. We know nothing more of these two sister-
workers of the apostolic time. It is an interesting fact that
the columbaria of " Caesar's household," in the Vigna Codini,
near the Porta San Sebastiano, at Rome, contain the name
of T ryphena.

i|< *J?

Nov. 10.] .S.S". Trypho and Respicius. 227

SS. TRYPHO AND RESPICIUS, MM.
(a.d. 250.)

[Roman Martyrology. By the Greeks on Feb. i. On which day
also some copies of Usuardus. Authority : — The Latin Acts, a trans-
lation from the Greek, in Ruinart. The Greek Acts in Metaphrastes
are worthless, being mixed up with much fabulous matter. Those in
Latin are trustworthy.]

SS. Trypho and Respicius were natives of a village near
Apamea Cibotus in Phrygia, and in ^he Decian persecution
were taken by the irenarch, Fronto, and sent in chains to
Nicaea, where they were presented before the governor,
Aquilinus.

Pompeianus, the chief secretary, said, "There are pre-
sent here, O prefect,1 those from the village of Sansorus,
near Apamea, to be questioned before your most eminent
and august tribunal." Tiberius Gracchus Claudius Aqui-
linus said, " What are your names ? " The saints replied,
" One of us is named Trypho, and the other Respicius."
Aquilinus asked, " What is your fortune ? "

Trypho answered, " There is no fortune among Christians,
but all things occur as Divine Providence directs. But if
you want to know our condition, we are of honourable birth."

Pompeianus said, " Know that the emperor orders those
who will not sacrifice to the gods to be burnt alive."

Respicius answered, " Would that we were worthy to go
through the fire to our Lord Christ. Do to us what you are
required."

Aquilinus said, " Sacrifice to the gods, for I perceive you
have come to full age, and have full powers of intelligence."

S. Trypho replied, " We have a perfect intelligence in

1 He had no right to the title of prefect, being only governor of Bithynia.

228

Lives of the Saints.

[Nov. 10.

our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore we desire to possess a
perfect intelligence for Him, and to finish our agony."

Aquilinus bade them be tortured.1 They at once cast off
their clothes, and offered themselves to the tormentors.
They endured all without a cry, though the executioners
were engaged during three hours upon them. It was winter
time and bitterly cold. Aquilinus was tired of the case, and
was moreover anxious to go out hunting. He ordered the
martyrs to be led out into the open country and exposed to
the biting frost and falling snow. Their wounds were frost-
bitten, the skin of their feet cracked with the cold.

When the governor nad them brought before his tribunal
again it was after the lapse of some time, for he had to visit
several other cities of the province.

He said to them, " You have had now plenty of time for
considering the matter. Hear me, my sons, and do sacrifice."

S. Trypho replied, " The Judge of all the earth, who
formed us, is purifying us." And they added, "You can
obtain from us no other answer than what we made at first.
For our Lord Jesus Christ has bidden us confess Him
before men, lest He should deny us before His Father."

Aquilinus said, " I see discipline and wisdom in you.
Have pity on yourselves and do what I tell you."

S. Respicius answered, " We cannot have pity on ourselves
more surely than by confessing our Lord Jesus Christ, the
true Judge, who will bring every act into judgment."

Aquilinus said, " Bring nails and transfix their feet."

This was done, and they were drawn with wounded feet
through the city, over the snow and sharp ice furrows. When
they were brought back, he asked if they were still obstinate.
When he found that they remained unshaken, he had their

1 We know tliat the rack and fire were used for torture from the "Golden Ass" of
Apuleius ; poor Lucius, for having stabbed the wine-bags, thinking them to be men, it
brought before the magistrates and ordered to the torture.

* *

Nov. 10.] "S^* Trypho and Respicius. 229

sides burned with torches. If we might trust the Acts,
at this moment two angels appeared holding crowns of the
flowers of Paradise in their hands, brighter and more fra-
grant than roses in spring on this dull earth of ours. But
this is probably an interpolation, for it breaks somewhat
violently upon the course of the narrative. The magistrate
continued his examination. He said to the tormentors
" Do your utmost, if they will not yield." And turning to
the confessors he said, " Consider how young you are ; spare
your youth, and leave this folly."

S. Respicius said, "Never shall we bow to stocks and
stones, for we worship the true God. None of your tor-
ments can separate us from His love."

Aquilinus said, " Obey the emperor."

Trypho answered, " We have repeated over and over
again that we fear and worship only the living God who is
in heaven."

Aquilinus said, " Beat them soundly with leaded whips."
But as the martyrs remained constant he bade a sword be
brought, and he gave sentence, saying, " We order these
Phrygian boys, Christians, despisers of the emperor, to be
executed by the sword."

Trypho and Respicius raised their hands to heaven and
said, "Lord Jesus! receive our spirits, and bestow them
in the bosom of the patriarchs." And they bowed their
necks to the sword.

The bodies, nearly entire, are preserved in the church
of the Holy Ghost " in Saxia " at Rome : portions in the
church of S. Trypho at Rome. With them reposes the
body of S. Nympha, who is generally associated with them
by the martyrologists, because her body lies under the same
altar. She, however, was a virgin of Palermo, who fled into
Italy from the Goths in the 5 th century, and died in peace
at Siena, in Tuscany.

*fn ij»

230 Lives of the Saints. [Nov. 10.

SS. MILLES, B.M., ABROSIMUS, P.M., AND
SINA, D.M.

(a d. 341.)

[The Greek Menology published by Sirletus, and the Moscow
Menology of 1850. The Roman Martyrology, along with other Per-
sian martyrs, on April 22. Authority : — The Chaldee Acts, published
by Assemani, Acta SS. MM. Orient. Romae, 1748.]

S. Milles was born in the province of Ras, between the
Tigris and the Parachoatic chain. He was educated at the
court of Persia, and held a post of honour in the army till
his conversion to Christianity, when he withdrew from the
court at Lapeta, and retired to the neighbourhood of Susa.
Not long after he was consecrated bishop of Susa by S. Gadi-
abes, bishop of Lapeta. His labours were not crowned with suc-
cess, and disappointed at his failure he went to visit Jeru-
salem and Alexandria, carrying with him only a book of the
Gospels. In Egypt he stayed with a monk who had a tame
serpent, which he fed daily. Milles could not endure this pet,
with which he regarded it as unfitting for a Christian man to
associate, and he killed it. This probably so exasperated his
host as to oblige him to depart, for he left Egypt almost im-
mediately, and going to Nisibis, made the acquaintance of its
bishop, S. James. After some stay with him he went into
Assyria, bought a quantity of silk, and sent it to S. James for
the use of his Church. He now turned his face towards his
native land. On his way he stayed at Ctesiphon, where he
found the Church much agitated by the conduct of its bishop,
named Papas. A synod assembled at Seleucia to consider
what was to be done with him. S. Milles spoke against
him with great vehemence. "Whence comes it," he asked,

Nov. io.] SS. Milles, Abrosimus, and Sina. 231

" that you despise your colleagues ? Do you forget the
precept of Christ, ' Let him that is greatest amongst you
be as the younger; and he that is chief, as he that doth
serve?"'

Papas replied, " Fool ! do you pretend to teach me ? as
if I did not know my duty ! "

Milles took the Book of the Gospels and laid it on the
table, and addressing himself to Papas, said, " If you are
ashamed to learn your duty of me, who am a mean mortal,
learn it at least from the holy Gospel."

Papas, unable to contain himself, struck the book with his
hand, and said, " Speak then, Gospel, speak !"

Milles took the book, kissed it, and raising his voice, said
to Papas, " The angel of the Lord will punish the insult."
If we may trust the writer of the Acts of S. Milles, Papas
was stricken with palsy. However, he certainly survived
this council twelve years, and sent S. Sadoth to the Council
of Nicaea as his representative. He died in 326.

S. Milles retired into Mesene, and took up his abode with
a hermit. He afterwards returned to his native province.
In 341 the edicts of Sapor against the Christians were issued.
Hormisdas Gaphrizius, governor of the province, arrested him
along with his priest, Abrosimus, and a deacon, Sina ; and he
was sent in chains to Maheldagar, the capital of the district.
They were twice scourged, as they refused to sacrifice to the
sun. One day in October Milles was brought before Hor-
misdas, who, after examining him, stabbed him in the shoulder
with his sword or dagger. Narses, the brother of Hormisdas,
thereupon ran the bishop through the other shoulder, and he
died of the wounds. Abrosimus and Sina were stoned to
death by the soldiers of Hormisdas on the top of two hills
facing each other. Next day, while out hunting, the two
brothers were assassinated, and it was given out that they had
met their death by an accidental discharge of arrows at a

232 Lives of the Saints. [Nov. xo.

stag. The martyrs suffered on November 5th ; the Greeks
commemorate them on the 10th, probably because that
was the day of their burial.

S. JUSTUS, ABP. OF CANTERBURY.

(ABOUT A.D. 627.)

[Roman and Anglican Martyrologies. Authority : — Bede, Hist. Eccl.
lib. i. c. 29 ; lib. ii. c. 3, 5, 6, 8, 18.]

Justus, fourth archbishop of Canterbury, was a Roman by
birth. S. Gregory sent him to England in 601, on hearing
from Augustine of his need of helpers in the work he had
undertaken. Justus was accompanied by Mellitus, Paulinus,
and Reginianus, and they took with them all things neces-
sary for the service of the Church : chalices and vestments
for the altar, ornaments for the churches, vestments for the
priests, books, and relics. They were also bearers of a letter
from Gregory to Augustine, which Bede has preserved.

In 604 S. Augustine ordained Mellitus and Justus, the
former to be bishop of the East Saxons, and the latter to be
bishop of Rochester, where Ethelbert had built a church in
honour of S. Andrew.

In 616, the twenty -first year after the coming of Augustine,
King Ethelbert, his great protector, died ; with his son and
successor, Eadbald, a reaction set in. Eadbald refused to
receive baptism, and he married his stepmother. Not long
after, Sabert, king of the East Saxons, died, and a relapse
into heathenism occurred also in the diocese of Mellitus.
Unable to maintain himself among the East Saxons, Mellitus
came into Kent, to consult with Justus of Rochester and
Laurence of Canterbury, and the three bishops agreed to
desert England, and return to the peaceful enjoyment of

-*b

Nov. 10.] S. Andrew Avellino. 233

their religion and leisure in their own sunny Italy, away from
the cold autumn mists, cheerless winters, and rude manners
of England. Mellitus and Justus left the white shores, but
Laurence hesitated to follow them. An attack of rheumatism,
which he caught by sleeping on the damp floor of his cathe-
dral, prevented him from immediately deserting his charge,
and conscience spoke, and convinced him, by the time he
had recovered the attack, that he ought to remain at his
post. By so doing he succeeded in winning over the king,
who agreed to be baptized, and give up his mother-in-law for a
younger and more attractive bride. Then Laurence sent to
France and recalled Mellitus and Justus. Justus returned
to Rochester. Laurence died in 619, and Mellitus succeeded
him, ruled the church of Canterbury till 629, died, and was
succeeded by Justus, who consecrated Romanus in his room
at Rochester. Bede has preserved a letter of Pope Deusdedit
to Justus, sent him along with the pall as an emblem of the
favour of the Apostolic See. According to the Saxon Chronicle
Justus died in 627 ; Bede does not mention the year. It has,
however, been thought to have occurred later, in 630.

S. ANDREW AVELLINO, C.
(a.d. 1608.)

[Roman and Theatine Martyrologies. Authorities : — The Annals of
the Theatines, and a Life written shortly after his death by the Theatine
Giovani Battisti Castaldo, Naples, 1613.]

Giovanni and Margherita Avellino, a worthy couple at
Castronuovo, in the kingdom of Naples, were given in 15 21,
a son, whom they called Lancelot. After his first studies
were completed, he was sent to Venice to complete a course
in the humanities and in philosophy. He was a handsome

-*v

234 Lives of the Saints. [Nov< to

youth, and it is thought that his good looks laid him open to
assault by female admirers, but his virtue was unshaken. On
his return to Avellino, his nurse, considerably advanced in
age, one would suppose, and with her beauty long ago im-
paired by a burning Italian sun, exhibited the delight and
pride which naturally fills the breast of a nurse when her
charge returns from a long absence, tall, handsome, and
well educated. Her gushing affection and demonstrative
admiration startled Lancelot, who, mistaking the poor old
woman's love for passion, and regarding her advances as
soliciting to evil, took to his heels, and going to the bishop
of Castronuovo, asked him to confer on him sacred orders.
The bishop consented, ordained him, and he went to Naples
to study jurisprudence. He took his doctor's degree, and
was then ordained priest.

He was appointed thereupon to reform a convent at Naples
which had fallen into such a condition of disorder as to cause
general scandal. Indeed, it had come to such a pass, that
it was regarded as a place of ill fame rather than as a con-
vent of virgins. It shows how highly the bishop must have
esteemed and trusted him, to have chosen such a young and
remarkably handsome priest to convert a convent of loose-
living nuns. Lancelot Avellino had a strict guard kept on
the nuns, and forbade the clandestine opening of the wicket
to men. Those who had been accustomed to visit the nuns
were highly incensed at this interference with their liberties
and pleasures; and one night, as Avellino issued from a
church, a man fell upon him, and struck him in the face so
that his nose bled. The affair was exaggerated into a mur-
derous attack with a sword, and the bloody nose into a frightful
wound, but as no scar was visible where the pretended gash
had been made, those who persisted in believing the magni-
fied version of the incident added to it that every trace of
the wound had been made miraculously to disappear. The

Nov. 10.] S. Andrew Avellino. 235

supposed assassin probably meant to do no more than frighten
the reforming priest. The Viceroy of Naples offered to take
the matter up and have it investigated, but as Avellino could
not identify the man who had struck him, and no one else
had seen the fellow, he generously besought the viceroy not
to prosecute the inquiry.

Avellino exercised his functions in court as doctor of juris-
prudence, gaining friends and reputation. But one day, in
order to carry his client's case, he did not scruple to assert
what he knew to be a lie. When he returned home and
opened his Bible, his eye fell on the eleventh verse of the
first chapter of Wisdom, "Os quod mentitur occidit animam"
(The mouth that telleth lies slayeth the soul). He was so
filled with compunction, and so conscious that if he con-
tinued a lawyer his mouth would have to accustom itself
pretty freely to tell lies, that he determined to renounce the
bar for ever. At the same time — being then thirty-five years
old — he entered the Order of Theatines, or Regular Clerks,
and took the name of Andrew, by which he was to be known
to fame. His consecration to God in the Order was made
on the Vigil of the Assumption, 1556. When his novitiate
was ended he asked permission to visit Rome, not that he
might study there the precious relics of antiquity, or admire
the wonders of art, or tread the ground every inch of which
is redolent with historical association, but entirely, solely,
that he might accumulate an overflowing store of indulgences
by visiting all the stations On his return he was made
master of the novices, and he held this office for ten years.
Then he was elected superior of the Theatine house at
Naples. He was sent later to found two new houses, one
at Milan, the other at Piacenza. At the former he made
acquaintance with S. Charles Borromeo ; at the latter he
preached so eloquently that he converted several harlots.
His success in this direction caused some discontent, and

^ 4,

236 Lives of the Saints. [Noy> IO,

complaints were made to the Duke of Parma, who sent for
him. The Duchess of Parma was so pleased with Avellino,
that she constituted him her confessor and director. The
Duke sent him back to Piacenza, and he remained there in
charge of the house he had founded. After a while he was
appointed superior to San Paolo at Naples, one of the largest
monasteries of the Order. There he preached vigorously
against heresy. Lutheran and Calvinistic ideas had infiltrated
even Neapolitan society, and there were not a few disposed
to rebel against Roman obedience. Some dared whisperingly
to scoff at the doctrine of Transubstantiation. Avellino took
the matter up, appealed to the secular arm, and had the
satisfaction of consigning one at least of the offenders to the
flames. He excited the prejudices of the ignorant vulgar to
vehement hostility, and their faith to fervid superstition,
by assuring them that one of the heretics had gone to the
altar to receive communion to escape the secular arm, but
had conveyed the host away in his pocket-handkerchief,
and had found it miraculously dabbled with blood. The
man, as Andrew pretended, had come to him in alarm and
remorse. The name of the offender Andrew declined to
give up, lest he should have to expiate his crime at the
stake. One day he was carrying the Blessed Sacrament to
a dying man. A storm raged, the torches of the acolytes
were blown out, but the gleam of the incessant lightning
flashing on his surplice was taken to be a supernatural
irradiation compensating for the extinction of the torches.

Before he left the superiorship he had the satisfaction of
seeing another house of his Order built in Naples, by the
Princess Salmone, and dedicated to Our Lady of the Angels.
On the day that the first stone was laid a particle of dust, or
a fly, got into the eye of a lady of distinction, and caused
the organ great inconvenience. Avellino got the particle
out of her eye, and from that moment it miraculously became

Nov. ioj S.Andrew Avellino. 237

easier. One day he was on his way to visit Prince Stilianni
on a hired horse. Something startled the animal, and he
shied and threw Avellino on the pavement. The saint's
foot was entangled in the stirrup, and he would have been
infallibly injured had not two bystanders rushed to his
assistance, caught the horse by the head, disengaged Avel-
lino's foot, and remounted him in his saddle. In falling,
Andrew had invoked S. Dominic and S. Thomas Aquinas,
and he was pleased to fancy that the two passers-by in the
street who had rushed to his aid were not simple Neapolitan
contadini, or citizens, but the august saints themselves, who
had precipitated themselves from Paradise to assist him
the moment the horse shied.

At the age of eighty-eight he fell ill, and became delirious.
He thought he saw devils crowding round him, and he
rushed into bed to escape their claws. One red-hot devil,
oxidizing all over in bright sparks, caused him special alarm,
and he shrieked for divine help. As this burning devil was
making at him his guardian angel quietly slipped behind
the demon, caught him with a snap-collar, and drew him
backwards out at the door, howling, smoking, and exhaling
a sulphurous odour. Andrew Avellino died, or at all events
his pulse stopped, on November 10th, 1608. Crowds came
to see him, his hair and beard were cut off and distributed
as relics. The bier on which he was to be carried proved
" miraculously " too short, though a tall man had been
carried to burial on it a few days before. He was placed in
the church and remained unburied for an unusual length of
time. His cheeks did not lose their colour, nor did his
limbs lose their flexibility ; his eyelids were lifted, and his
eyes appeared as bright as when he was alive. Blood and
matter exuded from some sores he had on his head and
loins, and three bottlesful of this precious secretion were
collected. At last he was buried in a vault behind the

238

Lives of the Saints.

[Nov. 10.

altar; and, as we may shrewdly suspect, was buried alive
when he was in a cataleptic fit. His attendants were too
anxious to regard the condition of the body as miraculous
to suppose that it was due to his being, in reality, in a fit,
instead of dead.1 His body was taken up next year, on
December 9th, and in 1624 he was beatified by Pope
Urban VIII. Clement XI. canonized him in 17 12. Sicily
and Naples have elected him as their patron.

1 Another most painful instance of a burial alive occurs in the last October volume
of the Bollandists. The supposed dead man, whilst being carried to burial, made a
supreme effort, and moved his head on the bier in the church. This was greeted with
exclamations of "A miracle I" and acting under this view of the case he was
buried.

^ q*

Nov. no S.Mennas. 239

November 11.

S. Mennas, M. at Cotyaus in Phrygia; a.d. 303.

SS. Valentine, Felician, and Victorinus, MM. at Ravenna ;

a.d. 304.
S. Martin, B. of Tours; a.d. 401.
S. Vekanus, B. oj Vence ; a.d. 475.
S. Bartholomew, Ab. at Grotta Ferrata, near Frascati ; $th

cent.
S. Bertuin, B. at Maloigne, near Liege ; circ. a.d. 650.
S. Theodore oe the Studium, Ab. C. at Constantinople ; a.d.

826.
S. Stephen, K.M. of Servia ; a.d. 1333.
S. Martyrius, Mk. at Zelenski near Novgorod in Russia; a.d„

1603.

S. MENNAS, M.
(a.d. 303.)

[Roman Martyrology. Usuardus, Bede, Ado, &c. Sarum, York,
Durham, and Hereford Kalendars. By the Greeks also. The Nea-
politan Kalendar of the 9th cent. The Menology of Basil. Constan-
tinopolitan Kalendar of the 8th cent., &c. Authority : — The Acts in
Metaphrastes, fairly trustworthy, though very late.]

ENNAS was an Egyptian, but a soldier in the
Roman army. He professed Christianity. He
was at Cotyaeus in Phrygia when the edicts of
persecution in the army were published by Dio-
cletian and Maximian in 298. He abandoned the army
thereupon, and retired into a solitary place with some other
Christians, to escape the rage of the persecutor. There he
remained till the general persecution in 303, when, filled
with enthusiasm, and burning with desire of martyrdom, he
went back to Cotyaeus, and entering the theatre, where the

»{t %?

240 Lives of the Saints. [Nov IX

people were seeing a martyrs' exhibition, he cried at the
top of his voice, " I am found of them that sought me not."1
All eyes were turned on him. Pyrrhus, the president, sent
for him and questioned him, and he said he was a Christian.
Thereupon he was consigned to prison. Next day he was
scourged. When the soil was red with his blood one of
those present urged him to give way. He replied, " Retire,
miserable one ; I have always sacrificed to my God, and to
Him alone will I offer sacrifice. These torments are not
insupportable. Nay, rather I rejoice in them." The judge
then ordered his sides to be torn with iron hooks, and the
wounds to be fretted with horsehair cloth. Finally, wearied
with tormenting him, the judge ordered him to be burned
alive.

Some Christians succeeded in recovering the bones from
among the ashes of the pyre, and they were carried, as he
had requested, to be laid in his native land, at Alexandria
in Egypt. A basilica was erected over his remains as soon
as Constantine gave peace to the Church. Timothy, patri-
arch of Alexandria (380 — 385), relates some of the miracles
wrought by the saint, some grotesque in their marvellous-
ness.

A traveller, intending to visit the church of S. Mennas,
and make an offering at his tomb, lodged for the night in a
tavern. The innkeeper, seeing he had a large portmanteau,
murdered the man in the night, cut him up, packed his
limbs in a sack, and hung up his head to a beam of the
roof, intending to take his money and throw the body into
the water at the earliest opportunity. But S. Mennas rode
up to the inn door, attended by many saints, put the bits of
the man together, restored him to life, gave him his port-
manteau, scolded the taverner, and vanished.

' Isaiah, lxv. 1.

Nov. no S. Martin. 241

S. MARTIN, B. OF TOURS.
(a.d. 401.)

[All Latin Martyrologies. Roman. Usuardus, Ado, &c. Sarum,
York, Hereford, and Durham Kalendars. Anglican Reformed Kalen-
dar. The Translation and Ordination of S. Martin on July 4. Autho-
rities : — (1) A Life by Sulpicius Severus, an admirer of S. Martm.
He died in 410.1 He was the Boswell of the saint. His Life is a
panegyric. A credulous, superstitious man, he has given us, however,
a very valuable biography. (2) Three Letters of Sulpicius Severus
about S. Martin. (3) The second and third books of his "Dialogues."
(4) A metrical Life by S. Paulinus of Nola (d. 431). (5) The " Hist.
Eccl. Francorum " of Gregory of Tours (d. 594). (6) A Life in hexa-
meters by Fortunatus of Poitiers (d. 600), founded entirely on the work
of Sulpicius Severus. (7) A Life by Alcuin (d. 804). (8) "Antiphonse
septem de S. Martino," by Odo of Clugny (d. 942). Among modern
biographers, Dupuis, " Histoire de S.Martin," Paris, 1858.]

This illustrious saint was born at Sabaria, in Pannonia, the
present town of Steinamanger.2 His father and mother were
heathens, but Martin felt an early attraction towards Chris-
tianity, and even towards the monastic life. His father, seeing
this, enrolled him in the army at the age of fifteen. A better
school for the training of the soldier of Christ could hardly
have been found. In the Roman camps the old-fashioned
virtues of faithfulness, straightforwardness, and hardihood
were cultivated, and in them were to be found the best types
of the old Roman character, which, as moralists complained,
were to be found elsewhere no more. If the funds of a coun-
try town had fallen into disorder, or uprightness was needed

1 This Life was written in 392 or 393, after a visit to Tours of some duration, and
before S. Martin was dead. Sulpicius Severus dedicated the book to a priest,
Desiderius of Cominges. He sent the book at once to S. Paulinus of Nola, who
greatly admired it. According to a passage in the " Dialogues," it had an enormous
and rapid sale in Rome, Carthage, and elsewhere.

2 A late tradition has transferred his birthplace to the Holy Mount of S. Martin, in
the district of Gyor in Hungary, where a large monastery was built by S. Stephen ot
Hungary. But it is plain from Sulpicius that he was born at Sabaria.

VOL. XIII. l6

H«-

242

Lives of the Saints.

[Nov. 11.

for a special post, the curator chosen by the Government was
generally an old soldier, who had long been tried and trusted ;
and early Christian history throws, incidentally, a favourable
light upon the moral qualities of the Roman officers. These
qualities were mainly formed by thoroughness of work and
discipline.

Martin spent three years in the army before he was bap-
tized ; he spent them with one servant as his companion in
the tent, sharing with him work and privations. His corps
was in Gaul, at Ambianum, the modern Amiens. One bitter
winter's day, as he was passing the gate of the city, he saw a
poor beggar nearly naked, so utterly ragged were his clothes.
Martin, filled with pity, cut his mantle in two, and gave half
to the beggar. The bystanders jeered, but Martin heeded
them not. Next night, as he slept, he saw Christ Jesus seated
on his throne, surrounded by the hosts of heaven, wearing
the half mantle of Martin over his shoulders. " See ! " he
heard the Saviour say, " this is the mantle which Martin,
yet a catechumen, gave me."

Popular imagination fixed on a certain spot at Amiens as
the scene of the charity of Martin ; a chapel was built there
before the time of Gregory of Tours. It grew to be an abbey,
S. Martin aux Jumeaux, so called from the twin towers of
the neighbouring church of S. Nicolas. King Louis XL, in
1472, gave an endowment to the church of S. Martin at
Tours, for the perpetual support of a poor bedesman, who
should wear as his livery a mantle of two colours, part red,
the other white, in commemoration of the severed mantle of
Martin. Martin was baptized after this dream at Amiens,
when aged eighteen. He remained in the army two years
longer, till 358. In 355 and 356 the Franks and Allemanni
had broken through the frontiers of Gaul and devastated a
portion of the province. Cologne, Worms, Treves, Spires,
Strassburg, Tongern. and other cities, forty-five in all, together

S. MARTIN DIVIDING HIS CLOAK WITH THE BEGGAR.
After a Picture by Rubens in the possession of the King.

Nov., Part I. p. 242.]

[Nov. 11.

Nov. ii.]

S. Martin. 243

with many villages, had been sacked and burnt by the bar-
barians. The legions in Gaul, destitute of pay, provisions, and
arms, and reduced in numbers, could make no head against
the invaders. In 356 Julian was sent into Gaul, with a feeble
retinue of 360 soldiers. At Vienne, where he passed the
winter, he heard that Autun had been attacked, but saved
from falling by the resolute conduct of some veterans who
resumed their arms for the defence of their country. Next
spring Julian marched north to Rheims, and was there pro-
bably joined by the legion in which Martin was tribune. At
the head of an army recruited from Gaul, but still small, the
resolute Julian marched in search of the enemy. The Alle-
manni, familiar with the country, secretly collected their
scattered forces, and seizing the opportunity of a dark and
rainy day, poured with unexpected fury on the rear-guard of
the Romans, destroying two legions. Julian hastened to
revenge this disaster by assailing the barbarians, who, unable
to withstand the disciplined ardour of the Romans, dispersed
among the hills and forests, leaving them a fruitless victory.
Julian advanced to the Rhine, surveyed the ruins of Cologne,
and then, warned of the approach of winter, and aware of
the difficulties of the campaign, retired dispirited to Sens;
his retreat harassed by the audacious Germans, who followed
him under the walls of the city, and surrounded it. But find-
ing themselves unable to break through its ring of walls, after
a siege of thirty days, they retired.

Next year the campaign was carried on with greater vigour.
An army of thirty thousand men crossed the Alps, bridged
the Rhine at Basle, and threatened the Germans in the south,
whilst Julian marched against them from Gaul. But the
southern army under Barbatis retired without effecting any-
thing of consequence, and Julian was left alone to contest
the ground with the barbarian hordes. Julian, at the head
of thirteen thousand men, was camped near Strassburg. The

244 Lives of the Saints, [Nov. u.

Allemanni attacked him, and after a furious and bloody battle,
were routed. He then marched north, and defeated the Franks
on the Meuse. His manoeuvres in 359 met with brilliant
successes, and in 360 he was proclaimed Emperor by the
Gallic legions at Paris. Apparently in 358, in the midst of
the war against the Franks and Allemanni, when Julian was
at Worms, Martin, the young tribune, made the untimely
claim to be released from military duty. Julian was indig-
nant. A battle was imminent, and he scornfully refused the
petition, saying that Martin was a coward and feared the
battle. The young tribune answered, " Put me in the fore-
front of the army, without weapons or armour ; but I will not
draw sword again. I am become the soldier of Christ."

Julian ordered him into irons. The Allemanni asked for
terms of peace, and then Martin was allowed to depart.

It is hardly possible to exonerate Martin from a culpable
preference for his own interests and welfare over those of his
country, in thus deserting the army at a time of great peril.
But the battle of Strassburg may have led him to conclude,
prematurely, that the barbarians were effectually humbled,
and their invasions permanently checked.

On leaving the army, Martin went to Poitiers, and placed
himself under the teaching of S. Hilary. The bishop desired
to confer on him diaconal orders, but the modesty of Martin
was alarmed, and he was with difficulty induced to receive
the inferior office of exorcist, an office which, according to
the statement of a modern biographer of S. Martin, " ex-
poses the bearer to insult from the devil, who attacks him
with outrageous abuse, and even beats him." Not long after,
Martin felt himself impelled by affection for his parents to
revisit them in Pannonia. As he crossed the Alps he was
attacked by robbers, and one threatened him with his sword.
He was plundered of his money and other valuables, and
then dismissed, but not before he had spoken such words of

q* — . -*j«

Nov. „.] S. Martin. 245

grace to the robber who had charge of him, that he con-
verted him. The robber left his lawless trade, and became
a peaceable citizen ; he related the circumstances to Sul-
picius Severus, who has inserted them in his Life of the
saint.

On reaching Sabaria, Martin succeeded in converting his
mother to Christ, but his father persisted in his paganism.
Arianism was at that time prevalent in Illyrium and Pannonia.
Martin protested loudly against the heresy of the bishops,
and was publicly whipped and driven out of Sabaria. He
returned to Italy, and hearing that S. Hilary had been ex-
pelled his see by the Arians, settled at Milan in a solitary
place, where he led an eremitical life. His vehement, defiant
orthodoxy brought him again into trouble, and Auxentius,
the Arian bishop, drove him from his retirement. He then
took refuge in the isle of Gallinaria, now called Isoletta
d'Albenga, opposite Albenga on the Corniche Road. It
was a lovely spot, a tiny white islet set in the deep blue of
the tranquil sea, with the Maritime Alps cutting off the north
winds, fringing the northern horizon with their ragged, barren
peaks.

In this islet Martin nourished himself on roots ; and nearly
poisoned himself by accidentally eating the hellebore, attrac-
tive by its dark green leaves and pale green flowers, growing
in profusion over the limestone slopes. Providentially the
spasms caused by the poison came on so rapidly as to check
him from eating enough to kill him ; but he suffered great
pain, and lay at death's door.

After a while, having learned that S. Hilary was on his
way back to Poitiers, Martin left his sunny isle and followed
him. Hilary was rejoiced to see him again, and gave him a
retreat near Poitiers, where he founded the monastery since
called Liguge'.

Sulpicius Severus tells the following story of what took

*i*

246 Lives of the Saints. [Nov. n.

place in his monastery. "A catechumen joined him, desiring
to form himself in the school of this holy man, and a
few days after he was laid up with languor and a bad fever.
By accident Martin was absent at the time. On the third
day, on his return, he found the man lifeless. Death had
supervened so suddenly that there had not been time for his
baptism.1 His brethren, overwhelmed with grief, surrounded
the corpse, and rendered it their sorrowful duties, weep-
ing and lamenting, as Martin came up. But then the Holy
Spirit inspired him. He made all go forth, and shut in alone
with the body, he laid himself upon it. After having been
in prayer some time, informed by the Spirit of the Lord
of the approach of the miracle, he raised himself a little, and
fixing his eyes on the face of the dead, awaited with con-
fidence the effect of his prayer and of the mercy of the Lord.
Two hours had not elapsed when Martin saw the dead man
recover by degrees the use of his members, and reopen his
eyes. Then Martin uttered a great cry to the Lord, and gave
him thanks. The cry of the blessed man rang through the
cell, and those who were waiting outside the door, on hear-
ing it, burst in. Wonderful sight ! they saw him alive whom
they had left dead." Sulpicius Severus saw and conversed
with this man.

About the year 371 the Church of Tours was deprived of
its pastor, S. Lidorius, and the people resolved on getting
Martin for their bishop. But as it was suspected that
Martin would refuse and escape, should he hear what was
proposed, they had recourse to a stratagem. Ruricius,
citizen of Tours, went to the monastery of Liguge, and
casting himself at the feet of Martin implored him to come
and see his wife, who was ill. Martin unsuspiciously fol-
lowed him. On the road, as he approached Tours, an am-
buscade of the people rushed forth ; some blocked the way,

1 Apparently a fainting fit, caused by exhaustion following the fever.

► 4-

Nov. ii.]

S. Martin. 247

lest he should attempt to return, and others, encircling
him, conducted him in triumph to Tours. The bishops
present to consecrate a successor to S. Lidorius objected.
Martin, they said, was not a suitable person to be a bishop ;
he was dirty, badly clothed, and with his hair rumpled and
uncombed. But the people were bent on having nim as
their pastor, and the bishops were obliged to yield. Amongst
those who objected most strenuously to his consecration was
Defensor, bishop (it is believed) of Angers. During the
ceremony, so great was the crowd, that the lector could not
work his way through the throng to his place to read the
lesson. There was a pause; the clergy waited, and then
one took up a psalter, and opening it at random to read
any passage in place of the lesson, lit on the words of the
psalm : " Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings hast
Thou ordained praise, that Thou mightest still the enemy and
the Defender :" l At these words the people gave a shout,
and the unfortunate bishop Defensor was covered with
confusion.

Martin remained a monk, after having been made a bishop.
He lived for some time in a cell near the church. But
being wearied with the number of visitors who came to him,
he removed to the place where afterwards stood the abbey
of Marmoutier, in a lonely spot on the banks of the Loire,
shut in by sandstone cliffs and forest, and only to be reached
by a narrow path. Martin lodged in a cabin made of
branches ; several of his monks bored out caves in the sand-
stone, and made themselves by this means commodious
dwellings. Martin had eighty disciples. They dressed in
skins, ate only once a day, drank no wine, and had all things
in common.

Not far from Tours, near the monastery, was a tomb of a

1 The old Gallic version of the Psalms before the Vulgate was introduced, which
has "ultorem," not "defensorera."

* 4<

►i*-

248

Lives of the Saints.

[Nov. it.

reputed saint, at which one of the preceding bishops of Tours,
S. Lidorius or S. Gatianus, or perhaps some other bishop
whose name has not come down to us, had raised an altar.
The people held the relics of this saint in high honour, and
flocked to it to obtain the intercession of the martyr, and
the miraculous cure of their infirmities. S. Martin had his
suspicions that this martyr whom the people and his pre-
decessors honoured was not of such a character as deserved
commemoration. He instituted close inquiries, and found
that instead of being a martyr, the man had been a highway
robber, executed on the spot for his crimes. Sulpicius says
that Martin saw the ghost of the robber, who informed him
that he was in hell, and not in heaven as the people supposed.1
Martin found that the country people were greatly addicted
to their old religion, and honoured a huge pine. He insisted
on cutting it down ; and when he found that it would cause
a disturbance, and perhaps bloodshed, he offered to be
bound and sit where the tree would probably fall, if the
heathens would themselves cut down the tree. They con-
sented, hoping to see the enemy of their religion crushed.
But the tree, instead of falling where Martin sat, crashed
down in an opposite direction. His escape from the death
that threatened him was the occasion of the conversion of a
number of peasants. Martin pulled down their temple, and
built a church on the site. Wherever he went, he destroyed
with crowbar and firebrand the ancient temples in which

1 Guibert of Nogent, " De pignoribus Sanctorum," ed. d'Ache'ry, Paris, 1651,
f- 337 sq-> says, that in the beginning of the 12th century all sorts of bones were
reverenced as those of confessors and martyrs ; and that a drunken man who had
tumbled into a well was exalted into a martyr. In a village near Beauvais a youth
of no particular merit was regarded as a saint solely because he had died on Good
Friday, and the monks and abbot of the monastery church where he was buried
encouraged this devotion because it brought them in great gain. In every place,
says Guibert, old women canonize new saints by inventing all sorts of gossiping
stories about them. A priest exhibited a piece of bread with a bite taken out of it as
having been done by the teeth of Christ, and was furious with Guibert because he
would not accept it as real.

J3 £
« 2

JS o

Nov. xx.] S.Martin. 249

the people were wont to worship, and built churches on their
ruins. At Levroux he attempted the destruction of a very
rich and stately temple, but met with so much opposition
that he was obliged to retire and call to his aid some of
the Roman military, and surrounded by their shields and
pikes, he re-entered Levroux and put the torch to the
temple. He tore up the foundations, and pounded to dust
the idols and altars before the eyes of an indignant people,
who regretted at once the fall of a chief ornament of their
city, and a temple in which they and their forefathers had
been wont to worship. In the neighbourhood of Autun, the
heathen peasants fell on him in their rage, brandishing their
weapons. Martin cast aside his cloak, knelt down, and
extended his neck for the sword. But the peasants did
not dare to proceed to extremities, knowing that the Roman
emperor would exact a terrible retribution should they kill
a bishop. The pagans had recourse to equally ineffectual
means of frightening Martin. They disguised themselves
as Jupiter, Minerva, and Mercury, and some damsel with
more enthusiasm for her religion than delicacy, presented
herself before the startled modesty of the bishop in his
cell without disguise of any sort, as Venus rising from the
foam of the sea. Some dressed as wood Duses, very
much like the devils of popular fancy, to terrify him. Mer-
cury was a sharp, shrewd wag, and bothered the saint
greatly, as he admitted to Sulpicius, but Jupiter was a
" stupid sot." Once a man disguised in a black ox-skin
rushed howling into the monastery of Martin with a bloody
cow-horn in his hand ; and Martin was quite persuaded that
he had seen the devil. We can understand how the
mid-winter and spring festivities of the old Gauls, when the
young people disguised themselves in all kinds of fantastic
costumes, led Martin to believe that he was surrounded by
devils and heathen deities. These practical jokes played

250 Lives of the Saints. [Nov. „

on him by his unruly flock so shook his nerves that he was
constantly fancying he saw hobgoblins. Once, when visiting
the mansion of a man of position in Treves, as he entered
the door he declared that he saw a hideous devil lurking
about in the shadows of the pillars. This statement caused
such alarm in the house that one of the slaves was attacked
with violent colic. Martin at once pronounced that the
devil had rushed for refuge from him down the man's throat
into his bowels. The slave was carried forth, to allow the
devil to escape from him outside the house.

Sulpicius Severus gives us a curious insight into the super-
stition which then prevailed, and we must not be at all
surprised if the pagan efforts to frighten or seduce Martin
should have been regarded by him as the work of demons.
He neither examined too curiously the disguised Mercury
nor the undisguised Venus. His fears were appealed to,
and he combated them with faith, not with inquisitive scep-
ticism. In one of the monasteries of Martin governed by
the priest Clarus, a young man named Anatolius also had
visitations, but these were wholly angelic. He announced
to the brethren that he was in direct communication with
angels, and obtained very general credence. Clarus remained
incredulous ; Anatolius threatened him with divine chastise-
ment for his unbelief. He announced that the Lord would
that night furnish him from heaven with a white robe.
Great was the excitement in the monastery. The cell of
Anatolius was suddenly illumined at midnight. Steps and
voices as of several persons were heard, and then Anatolius
came forth with a long white shirt in his hand. Clarus and
the monks examined the vestment with awe and attention.
It was very white and very fine, but it had all the appear-
ance of being the product of earthly looms. At the instiga-
tion of the superior, the monks had recourse to prayer for
the rest of the night When morning came, Clarus said he

ti* *fr

not. it.] S.Martin. 251

would carry the shirt to Martin, to be examined and adjudi-
cated upon by him. Anatolius objected, and snatched at
the garment. Clarus grasped it at the other end ; some of
the monks took the part of Anatolius, and pulled at the
vestment to get it out of the hands of the abbot. Others,
concurring with their superior, tried to drag it from Ana-
tolius ; others adopting a middle course, attempted to with-
draw it from both. A scuffle ensued, in which the shirt was
torn to rags.

About the same time a young man in Spain gave himself
out to be Elias, come to predict the approaching consumma-
tion of all things. He went further ; he said he was Christ.
A bishop named Rufus adored him ; and was deposed from
his see for doing so. At the same time Martin was pre-
dicting the reappearance of Nero, who was not dead, but
hiding among the Parthians. He would subjugate ten kings
and reign in the West, whilst Antichrist would establish his
throne at Jerusalem. Finally Antichrist would kill Nero and
reign supreme over East and West. Antichrist, Martin de-
clared, was already born. Eight years had passed since he
made that announcement, when it was published by Sul-
picius in his " Dialogues." Sulpicius adds, " Judge then how
near at hand is that event which we dread I"

One night the devil appeared to S. Martin crowned with
gold and gems, and in a magnificent vestment sparkling with
jewels. "I am come in judgment," he said. "Adore me."

" Where," asked Martin, " are the marks of the nails ?
Where the piercing of the spear? Where the crown of
thorns ? When I see the marks of the Passion I shall adore
my Lord."

The devil disappeared.

Some of those constantly about Martin saw in his visions
only the dreams of a man prostrated by much fasting, and
liable by the exhaustion produced by excessive austerities to

252 L ives of the Saints. [NoYt „.

become a prey to hallucinations.1 Even his miracles were
called in question by the educated laity, and when Sulpicius
Severus had them discussed in his house, he would only
admit the clergy, as the laity were inveterate in their
scepticism.2

A soldier had embraced the monastic state in a fit of
enthusiasm, and had laid his baldric at the foot of the altar,
and established himself in a cell by himself. Martin shut up
his wife in a convent. But the sudden fervour of the man
cooled down, and he went to Martin to ask for his wife.
Martin refused to restore her. " It is not seemly for a man
who has renounced the world to take a woman to live
with him. On renouncing the world he has ceased to have
a wife. To live with her now would be sinful." The soldier
persisted in demanding his wife. " Only give her back
to me," he entreated ; " I will live as before, but I do
desire to have her to talk to. Let us fight together under
Christ's banner, mutually encouraging one another in the
battle."

Martin answered, " Do women fight in the Roman armies ?
No. It is for men to fight, not women. In what battle
hast thou seen a man fighting with his wife at his side ? "
And he sent the abashed and disappointed soldier back to
his desolate cell.

Martin admired greatly the conduct of a certain virgin
who had closely shut herself in, and refused even to look at
men. So resolved was she on this point that she refused to
receive and show hospitality to the old bishop when he
passed through her property. Martin, we are told, was
filled with transports of joy at her scrupulosity.

" At Chartres, the father of a family presented his young
daughter, aged twelve, to Martin, and asked him to loosen,
by his merits, her tongue, for she was born dumb. Martin,

1 Sulp. Sev. Dialog, iii. c. 29. J Ibid. c. 15, 19.

THE TOURANGEOIS CARRYING OFF THE BODY OF S. MARTIN.

Design for a Window by M. Claudius Lavergne.
Nov., Part I. p. 252.] [Nov. 11.

Nov. ix.]

S. Martin. 253

by deference to the bishops Valentinus 1 and Victricius, who
were then with him, replied that such a cure surpassed his
powers, but not those of the holy bishops at his side. Valen-
tinus and Victricius joined their affectionate intercession to
the supplications of the father, and prayed Martin to heal
the girl. Then Martin, at once humble and merciful, made
the crowd withdraw, and in the presence of the bishops and
of the girl's father alone he prostrated himself, according to
custom, and began to pray. Then he blessed a little oil,
reciting over it an exorcism, and poured it into the mouth of
the girl, whose tongue he held between his fingers ; and the
miracle was wrought. The saint asked the girl the name of
her father ; she replied immediately. The father uttered a
cry of joy, shedding tears, and embracing the knees of
Martin. In the midst of the general satisfaction he declared
that this was the first word he had heard his daughter utter."

Count Avitianus was noted for his barbarity. He came
to Tours with a long chain of miserable captives, and orders
were issued for their torture and execution.

Then the great saint rose to his true level, from fantastic
dreams and doubtful miracle-working to action for the eternal
principles of justice and mercy. The morrow was fixed for
torture and butchery. On hearing it in his retreat at Mar-
moutier he hasted to Tours. It was night when he reached
the town. The count was in bed and asleep ; the palace
was closed, and all was hushed within. Martin threw him-
self on the doorstep, and besieged the house with his cries.
Avitianus, tossing in bed, heard him, and called to his
slaves that Martin was without. The servants waking, having
heard nothing, and believing that their master had been
dreaming, " after the way of servants," says Sulpicius, sarcas-
tically, pretended to go to the door, and assured Avitianus
that there was no one without. Again, however, the cries

1 Of Chartres.

*t 4*

254 Lives of the Saints. ^w K<

of Martin reached the ears of the count, and impatient at
the delay and denials of the slaves, he sprang from bed, and
ran down to the entrance, opened the door, and found the
old bishop with his white hair lying on his doorstep, his
hands stretched forth in supplication. The count was
moved, he raised the aged prelate. " Do not even speak,"
he said, " I know thy request. Every prisoner shall be
spared. I grant them their lives and liberty at thy unspoken
petition."

He rises to even a grander height in his conduct to Ithacius
at Treves. Martin went thither, where was the Emperor
Maximus, and a crowd of bishops assembled to ordain a suc-
cessor to Britto, bishop of Treves, and to consult about the
matter of the Priscillianists (384). After the council of Sara-
gossa in 380, in which Priscillian had been condemned, the
two Priscillian i st bishops, Salvian and Justantius, had made
Priscillian bishop of Avila. Priscillian, a well-born and
eloquent Spaniard, had adopted a strange compound of
various errors originally brought into Spain from Egypt. Its ,
chief elements were : — Pantheism, the essential divinity of
the human soul ; Sabellianism, the Son only a power ;
Docetism, hence a fast was kept on Sunday ; Fatalism ;
Astrology; Pre-existence of souls, — their previous sins
punished by their detention in bodies ; man's body the
devil's work ; marriage condemned ; the resurrection of the
body denied. Idacius, and another prelate named Ithacius,
who is described by Sulpicius as having " nothing of holi-
ness" about him, procured the exile of the heretics. The
Emperor Gratian suffered them to return. Ithacius de-
nounced them to Maximus, who referred the case to a
council at Bordeaux. Priscillian was there permitted to
appeal to Maximus. At the Court of Treves, where Maxi-
mus was an object of abject adulation to a crowd of bishops,
" Martin alone among them all," says his biographer, "pre-

* *

Nov.H.i S.Martin. 255

served the dignity of an apostle." He protested against the
intervention of secular power in ecclesiastical causes, and
against the punishment of the heretic Priscillian and his
associates. The Emperor Maximus had yielded to the im-
portunities of the Spanish bishops, who, themselves scarcely
escaped from the sword of pagan executioners, already
clamoured for the blood of heretics. Martin pursued the
accusers with his reproaches, and the emperor with his
supplications. He insisted that excommunication, pro-
nounced against the heretics by episcopal sentence, was
sufficient, and more than sufficient, to punish them.1 He
believed that he had succeeded, and left Treves only on
receiving the imperial promise that mercy should be
extended to the culprits.

But, after his departure, the unworthy bishops returned to
the charge, and wrested from Maximus the order to execute
Priscillian and his principal disciples, and to send orders into
Spain that a general search for, and massacre of the Priscil-
lianists should be executed. Torture wrung from Priscillian
a confession, probably false, of impure practices ; and on this
ground he, with six others, was beheaded. It was the first
infliction of death for heresy which had stained with blood
the annals of the Church.2

Informed of what had taken place, Martin returned from
Tours to Treves (385), to procure the safety, at least, of the
rest of the sect. He and S. Ambrose, who was also at Treves,
solemnly rejected the communion of persecuting bishops.
A bishop named Theognotus publicly pronounced their ex-
communication.

Martin was at the same time anxious to obtain the pardon

1 Sulp. Sever. Hist. Sacr. lib. ii. in fin. " Satis superque sufficere, ut episcopali
sententia hseretici judicati ecclesiis pellerentur."

'* Priscillian and his two priests, Felicissimus and Armenius, a lady, Euc~rocia,
and others were executed ; Justantius and others were banished, some to the isle of
Clinia, on the coast of Brittany, and the rest to various places in Gaul.

256 Lives of the Saints. [Nov. n.

of some of the followers of the late Emperor Gratian,
threatened with death by Maximus. The emperor flattered
Martin, and endeavoured to persuade him to communicate
with Ithacius and the other bishops who had united in
obtaining the execution of the Priscillianists.

When flattery failed, the emperor issued orders for the
execution on the morrow of the servants of Gratian. It was
night when Martin heard of this barbarous sentence. He
flew to the palace, but could only obtain their lives on con-
dition of communicating next day with the Ithacians, when
the new bishop, Felix, one of their party, would be conse-
crated to the see of Treves. Martin only gave way when
the emperor also solemnly promised to recall the tribunes
sent into Spain to hunt out the Priscillianists, confiscate
their goods, and put them to the sword.

Next day accordingly, reluctantly, and with great doubts
whether he was acting rightly, Martin communicated in the
great church of Treves, formed out of the palace of Helena,
mother of Constantine, with Felix, Ithacius, and the whole
persecuting body. But ever after he reproached himself for
the concession ; and he declared with tears that he felt his
virtue lessened by it. During the sixteen remaining years of
his life he kept back from all the assemblies of bishops, fearful
of meeting men whom he regarded as guilty of a crime of
unheard-of novelty in the annals of the Church. He thus
kept the noble promise which his master, S. Hilary, had
made, when denouncing to the Emperor Constantius the
atrocious cruelties of the Arians against the Catholics :
" If such violence were employed to sustain the true faith,
the wisdom of the bishops should oppose it ; they would
say, God will not have a forced homage. What need has
He of a profession of faith produced by violence? We
must not attempt to deceive Him ; He must be sought with
simplicity, served by charity, honoured and gained by the

►Je

CHURCH OF S. MARTIN AT TOURS, RESTORED.

Nov., Part I. p. 256.]

[Nov. 11.

Nov. xi. S.Martin. 257

honest exercise of our free will."1 And the glorious con-
fessor added, "Woe to the times when the divine faith
stands in need of earthly power ; when the name of Christ,
despoiled of its virtue, is reduced to serve as a pretext and
reproach to ambition ; when the Church threatens her adver-
saries with exile and prison, by means of which she would
force them to believe, she who has been upheld by exiles and
prisoners ; when she leans upon the greatness of her pro-
tectors, she who has been consecrated by the cruelty of her
persecutors."2

Martin, on returning to his diocese, had also to undergo
the envy and enmity of many bishops, and of those priests
of Gaul who had been so soon tainted by Roman luxury, and
who already made themselves remarked by the pomp of their
equipages, their costumes, and their dwellings.3 He had
even to rebuke Brice, his disciple, trained by him in his
monastery, for buying numbers, not only of male slaves, but
of young and beautiful girls ; and keeping a stable of hand-
some horses.

Arrived at the end of his career, eighty years old, and
eager to receive his celestial reward, he yielded to the tears
of his disciples, and consented to ask from God the prolon-
gation of his days. " Lord," said he, " if I am still necessary
to Thy people, I would not draw back from the work." Non
recuso laborem / Noble words, which ought to be the motto
of every Christian.

But God decided that he was ripe for heaven : he died ;
and when his body was carried to the tomb which was to
become the most venerated sanctuary in Gaul, two thousand

' S. Hilarii, Ad Constant, lib. i. c. 6. * Ibid. Cont. Auxent. lib. ii. c. 4.
* " Qui ante pedibus aut asello ire consueverat, spumante equo superbus invehitur.
. . . Inter episcopos saivientes cum fere quotidianis scandalis hinc atque inde
premeretur. . . . non illi ego quemquam audebo raonachorum, certe nee epis-
coponim quempiam comparare. . . . Nee tamen huic crimini miscebo populares
soli ilium clerici, soli nesciunt sacerdotes." — Sulp. Sever. Dialog. 14, 17, 18.
VOL. XIII. 17
* ■ *

ifr. <f

258 Lives of the Saints. [Not. h.

monks formed the funeral train. Sulpicius Severus, his
enthusiastic disciple, had written his life before the old man
died. He completed the record in his letters and dialogues,
and his narrative, which attained an enormous popularity in
the West, diffused everywhere the glory of the saint.

S. Martin died on November 9th, 401, not at Tours, but
at a little town named Candes, situated at the junction of
the rivers Loire and Vienne. The Poitevins and the Tou-
rangeois each conceived they had a claim to the body of
the saintly bishop. The Tourangeois were successful, and
brought the corpse to their own town. Tradition says that
the vessel on which it was embarked floated up stream with-
out sails or oars; that the trees on either side burst into blossom,
the sick recovered their health, and heavenly music was heard
to accompany the boat till it arrived at Tours. The body was
first deposited on the banks of the Loire, guarded by the clergy
and people, and was interred on November nth, in a ceme-
tery just outside the existing town. Eleven years afterwards,
S. Brice, his successor, built a chapel on the tomb, dedicated
to S. Stephen ; because at that time churches were dedicated
to martyrs only. Seventy-two years after the death of S.
Martin, S. Perpetuus, at that time bishop, built a more
spacious church, of which S. Gregory of Tours gives the
description as the richest and most remarkable edifice then
existing ; and on the 4th of July, a.d. 473, the body was
transferred to the new tomb. This is the tomb of which the
masonry appears to be preserved to this day. The bones of
S. Martin, wrapped in white samite, were placed in an ala-
baster vessel, which was enclosed in a shrine of costly metal,
and laid in the tomb. A marble stone lay on the top, which
could be raised, and the shrine lifted out to be borne about
in processions. The basilica built by S. Perpetuus was de-
stroyed by fire, but was rebuilt by Clothair, and became in-
creasingly sacred in the eyes of the Christian world. Kings

* — *

RESTORED TOMB OF S. MARTIN AT TOURS.

CHURCH OF RUMILLY, LES VAUDES.

Nov., Part I. p. 258.]

[Nov. 11.

£l *

Nor. zi.] S. Martin. 259

came thither to ask for health or victory ; queens, that they
might prepare for death. Under the direction of Alcuin a
school was here established which became the cradle of all
the universities of France. The chapter held directly from
the Pope, under the protection of the king. It was rich ; it
possessed the privilege of coining money ; and could send
armed men to battle in defence of its patrimony.

The church suffered from fire again and again, but the
tomb remained uninjured till 1562, when the Calvinists
pillaged the sacred edifice, and scattered the bones of the
saint. An arm-bone and part of the skull were saved, and
placed in the cathedral of Tours.

At the French Revolution the magnificent church, one of
the finest in France, was wantonly ruined, and the apse
pulled down. It remained thus till 1802, when the noble
and vast nave was also destroyed, and only the towers now
attest the glory of the ancient church and the Vandalism of
its destroyers. The name of the prefect who carried out this
act of destruction must be handed down branded with infamy
to the last generation. It was Pomereuil. The final act of
demolition was consequent on a geometrical plan or map
executed by the Commune in 1801, which laid down streets
and measured out houses over the whole site of the basilica.
It was executed without the slightest opposition, and a
crowd of mean-looking houses, strangely contrasting with
the older piles of wood and stone in the vicinity, now en-
cumber the consecrated ground. The Rue S. Martin runs
nearly parallel with the ancient nave, and the Rue Descartes
follows the line of the transept.

Under these circumstances anybody would have thought
that the pilgrimage to the tomb of S. Martin, dear to all the
country-side, was for the future a hopeless desire ; but the
piety of Tours refused to admit the idea. Under the Resto-
ration M. Jacquet-Delahay organized a subscription for the

j, _ — &

* ^— *

260 Lives of the Saints. [Nov.h.

rebuilding of the basilica, but his project was abandoned
on account of what seemed at the time an insuperable ob-
jection. He himself stated that the site of the tomb was
traversed by the public way. Nevertheless the popular de-
votion to S. Martin began to recover life and vigour. Re-
searches were made for such plans as might enable the exact
proportions of the old church to be ascertained, and by
means of the one made in 1802, which was discovered in
the archives of the prefecture, the exact position of the tomb
itself was fixed upon ; and it was proved that, contrary to
the general opinion, the spot was not under the public way,
but covered by one or more small houses.

In 1857 Cardinal Morlot, then archbishop of Tours, suc-
ceeded in purchasing these houses, but did not enter on
actual possession until three years later. On the 2nd of
October, i860, a commission began their excavations in the
cellar, and found, as they expected, part of the old founda-
tions of the choir. The house covered the site of the high
altar, and of a large part of the chapter in the rear, which
had been called " Le Repos de Saint Martin."

But the tomb itself could not be found. It was evidently
beyond the limits of the cellar- wall, in that of the adjoining
house ; and the works were suspended until possession could
be obtained of that also. A small chapel having been
arranged in one of the upper rooms of the first-mentioned
dwelling, on November 12th, the archbishop of Tours cele-
brated mass once more, after a lapse of seventy years from
the destruction of the ancient altar. For the succeeding
seven days masses were celebrated almost without cessation,
and the small chapel and the cellar were constantly full of
people. A large red cross was traced on the wall of the
latter, opposite to where the tomb was supposed to be ; and
a little lamp, hung from the ceiling, was kept burning day
and night. A month later the commission were enabled to

* ~ *

Nov. ii.]

S. Martin. 261

Excavate under the adjoining house, and before evening the
continuation of the foundations of the choir were laid bare,
and, crossed and somewhat injured by a thick wall of modern
date, appeared a small oblong enclosure of stone, something
between a coffin and a box. It showed signs of having once
been arched over, and there was every probability that it was
the sepulchre where the bones of S. Martin had once reposed.
It was now eleven o'clock at night ; hour after hour had
passed in slow and careful search amidst the confused masses
of ancient and modern foundations, and more than thirty
persons were waiting in the outer cellar, communicating with
others by only a hole in the wall. When those within called
out that the ancient sepulchre had been found, a spontaneous
burst of voices gave out the " Magnificat," which was echoed
from cellar to cellar, and forth into the starlit street.

A modern church, in execrable taste, has been erected on
the site.

At Montmorency is an arm-bone of the saint. Some frag-
ments at Liguge ; others at S. Martin's at Liege ; others at
Cologne. A "body at Salzburg. Some oil, brought from
heaven to rub the skin of the saint when sore, was used for
the anointing of King Henry IV. in place of the oil of S.
Remigius at Rheims.

In art S. Martin is usually represented as a young tribune
on horseback, dividing his cloak to give half to a beggar.

262

Lives of the Saints.

[Not. ii.

S. THEODORE OF THE STUDIUM, AB. C.
(a.d. 826.)

[Modern Roman Martyrology on Nov. 12. Inserted by order of
Urban VIII. Greek Menseas and Menologies and Russian Kalendar on
Nov. 11. Authorities : — A Life by Michael, a monk of Constantinople
and a contemporary. Also the letters of S. Theodore ; Theophanes,
Cedrenus, &c]

S.Theodore was born in 759, and embraced the monastic
life when aged twenty-three, under his uncle, S. Plato, at Con-
stantinople. In 795 S. Plato was ill, and supposing he was
about to die, he summoned his monks round him and bade
them elect a successor. With one voice they chose Theo-
dore, and Plato resigned the abbot's office into his hands.
He did not, however, die, but he was glad to be relieved of
a burden which was more than he felt he could bear at his
advanced age. Plato openly testified his disapproval of the
marriage of Constantine VI. with Theodota. Constantine
had married, before he was twenty, a young maiden of
somewhat humble rank, named Mary. In 795 he fell
passionately in love with Theodota, a kinswoman of Plato
and Theodore, who was remarkably beautiful and engaging.
The young emperor sought for excuses to get rid of his wife ;
he pretended that she had attempted his life with poison,
sent for the patriarch Tarasius, exhibited a bowl of muddy
liquid as a proof of her guilt, and insisted on being divorced.
Tarasius replied that the proofs were insufficient, that the
real reason that actuated the emperor was his passion for
Theodota, and threatened him with excommunication should
he persist in his design. The emperor in a rage expelled
him the palace, forced Mary to take the veil, and had her
hair cut in January, 795. In the month of August following

^ *I»

Nor. ii.] S. Theodore of the Studium. 263

he declared Theodota empress, and affianced her to himself.
But as he could not persuade Tarasius to perform the mar-
riage ceremony, he had the nuptial benediction given in the
palace of S. Mamas, on the 4th September following, by
Joseph, the abbot and steward of the church of Constanti-
nople. S. Plato and S. Theodore were the only two who
openly opposed this scandalous union, by separating them-
selves from the communion of the emperor. For the patri-
arch Tarasius did not venture to put his threat in execution,
lest he should drive Constantine to favour the iconoclastic
faction. He was nevertheless subjected to various petty
but irritating insults by the emperor.

Theodore, abbot of the Saccudion monastery, in concert
with his uncle Plato, refused to communicate with the patri-
arch Tarasius, for his half-heartedness in this matter. The
emperor, irritated, threatened Plato with exile, scourging, and
mutilation. Monks were sent to solicit his submission,
letters were written to him, but all in vain. Theodore also
boldly, publicly, excommunicated the emperor, and sent
notice of what he had done to all the monasteries. Con-
stantine disguised his resentment, and sent Theodota, his
new wife, a cousin of the abbot, to persuade him to yield.
Money was offered him. The advantage which would accrue
to his family from being related to the emperor was pointed
out, but without success. The emperor, seeing that Theodota
had gained nothing by her visit, went himself to the Saccu-
dion, under pretext of business; but neither the abbot,
Theodore, nor any of the monks, would meet him at the
gate, or approach to speak with him. Enraged at the insult,
Constantine returned to the palace, and sent Bardanes, cap-
tain of the body-guard, and John, count of the household,
to beat Theodore and such of his monks as had shown most
obstinacy in this matter. They were tied up and lashed till
their blood ran down in streams, and they were then sent

* — *

264 Lives of the Saints. [Nov. n.

into banishment to Thessalonica. They were twelve in all,
the abbot and eleven monks. As the emperor had forbidden
any one receiving them, the monasteries could not open
their gates to lodge them. Plato was brought before the
emperor, but as he withstood him to the face, and declared
that his marriage was illicit, Constantine ordered him to be
imprisoned in a cell, in which he was fed through a hole in
the wall, in the monastery of S. Michael, the abbot of which
was Joseph, who had married Constantine to Theodota.
The emperor sent bishops to Plato to persuade him to con-
sent only by word of mouth, promising if he would yield so
far he should be released. He was assailed by the scoffs of
the monks, and the angry remonstrances of his relatives,
who hoped to gain great advancement through their kins-
woman the empress. But he remained firm, and his conduct
and sufferings, as well as those of his nephew Theodore, had
their effect ; for the bishops of the Chersonese, of the Bos-
phorus, and the isles, declared the emperor excommunicate,
and refused to be persuaded by flattery and bribes. They
were therefore banished, only to spread further the general
rising discontent against the emperor, eagerly fomented by
his ambitious and designing mother.

S. Theodore reached Thessalonica on Saturday, the feast
of the Annunciation, March 25, 797. From thence he wrote
to S. Plato, telling him of all that had taken place since
their separation, and giving him full details of his voyage.
He wrote also to Pope Leo III., and received a reply full of
praises of his firmness and prudence.

In the meantime the crafty Irene had been preparing her
plans. She suddenly seized on the reins of government,
and put out the eyes of her son whilst he slept (August
J8, 797). Theodota she banished to a convent, and forced
the only surviving child of Constantine, Euphrosyne, his
daughter by Mary, to take the veil and the irrevocable vows.

* *

Nov. no S. Theodore of the Studium. 265

Leo, the son of Constantine and Theodota, born shortly
after their marriage, had died.

Irene, ferocious tigress though she was, was strictly, sternly
orthodox, the friend and patron of monks and images. She
at once recalled the exiles. Plato was released from prison,
Tarasius from his equivocal position. Joseph, abbot of
S. Michael's, who had performed the impious marriage, w#s
deposed and banished.

S. Theodore gathered round him again in the Saccudion
his scattered flock ; it was increased by many others who
came to place themselves under his direction. The incur-
sions of the Mussulmans, who carried devastation to the
gates of Constantinople, drove him within the walls of the
capital with all his community. He was honourably received
by the empress and the patriarch, and was lodged in the
monastery of the Studium. This great abbey had been
founded by Studius, a consul and patrician. Constantine
Copronymus had expelled the monks. A few had since re-
established themselves within its empty halls, but they were
not more than a dozen in number. Theodore at the head
of a thousand monks occupied and filled it.

S. Plato, fearing to be summoned to take the government
of this huge community, embraced the life of a recluse, and
took the vows of obedience to his nephew in the presence
of witnesses.

Nicephorus snatched the reins of government from the
hands of Irene in 802, and banished the empress to Lesbos,
where she died in want next year. Nicephorus was crowned
by the obsequious patriarch in the great church of Constan-
tinople on October 31, 802.

The patriarch Tarasius died on February 25, 806, and is
numbered among the saints by Greeks and Romans alike.
After his death Nicephorus consulted the principal bishops
and abbots and the senate about a successor. Amongst

ij, £,

* *

266 Lives of the Saints. [Nov „,

others consulted were S. Plato and S. Theodore. S. Plato
gave his suffrage in writing. He even broke his retreat to
visit in the night a monk who was a kinsman of the emperor,
to give him advice. But his opinion was not followed. We
have the reply of S. Theodore, in which he refuses to name
any person in particular. But he exhorts the emperor to
ctyoose, not only among the bishops and abbots, but even
among the stylites and recluses. The emperor fixed on Ni-
cephorus, who had been secretary to his predecessors, and
was so trained in the school of the court, that the emperor
was satisfied that he would carry obsequiousness into the
patriarchal chair. He was elected with the consent of the
clergy and people, submissive to the will of the despot ; but
Plato and Theodore of the Studium vigorously opposed the
appointment as unseemly. Nicephorus was a layman, and
was it seemly to fill the most important see in the East with
one who had not been proved in the lower orders of the
Church ? Tarasius had been so raised; though a good man, he
had been a servile one. Theodore and Plato did not approve
of the patriarchal throne being used for pensioning off old
servants of the imperial household, bred to sacrifice their
conscience and self-respect to the caprices of their master.

The emperor was so irritated at the opposition that he
carried off Plato and kept him for twenty-four days in prison.
He imprisoned and tortured some monks, and would have
banished them, had it not been represented to him that by
such conduct he would turn the tide of popular feeling against
his favourite. Nicephorus was ordained patriarch on Easter
day, April 12, 806. Plato and Theodore erred in their oppo-
sition to the new patriarch : he was a man in every way
estimable, and admirably calculated to fill the post to which
he had been designated.1

1 It is possible that Theodore expected the patriarchal throne either for himself or
his uncle. His letter hints at himself and Plato, by advising the emperor not to

•i — *

* *

Nov. no S . Theodore of the Studium. 267

He was born about 758. His father Theodore had been
secretary to the emperor Constantine Copronymus, had
been accused of honouring images, had frankly avowed that
he did so, and had been banished. He was recalled from
exile, and tortured, and then banished again, to Nicsea,
where he died. His wife Eudoxia, who had followed him,
educated the young Nicephorus, their son, with great care.
She finally embraced the monastic life, when his education
was complete and he no more needed her guardian influence.
Nicephorus exercised the office of secretary to Constantine
Porphyrogenitus and Irene. He had acted as such in the
Second Council of Nicaea. He was learned ; a rhetorician,
mathematician, and philosopher ; pious, — he had founded a
monastery in a desert spot, and retired to it when relieved
of the stress of his official duties. He was humble, a lover
of prayer and mortification. It was from his monastery that
he was brought to receive the metropolitan throne from the
emperor. His hair was cut off by the hands of Stauracius
the Caesar, the son of the emperor ; he received all orders
by accumulation. During his consecration he held in his
hand a paper which contained a statement of his faith and
devotion to the cause of images, and this he placed in a
receptacle behind the altar, as a witness to his orthodoxy.

In 806, Joseph, abbot of S. Michael's, who had given the
nuptial benediction to Constantine and Theodota, gained
the favour of the Emperor Nicephorus by acting as mediator
between him and Bardanes, the Turk who had assumed the
imperial title. As a return for the favour he had afforded
the emperor, he was recalled, and the patriarch Nicephorus,
thinking that he had been sufficiently punished for what he
had done, allowed him to resume his offices, and his conduct
was sanctioned by a synod of fifteen bishops.

forget looking among the abbots and recluses. Disappointed ambition may have
influenced their opposition.

& *

268 Lives of the Saints. [Nor „

But Theodore of the Studium and Plato were not disposed
to pass the matter over so lightly. Theodore wrote a letter
in his own name and that of his uncle, declaring that they
withdrew from the communion of the patriarch on this
account. The separation did not, however, attract notice for
a couple of years, but the logothete of the Drome, or officer
in charge of public conveyances, having asked Joseph, arch-
bishop of Thessalonica, the brother of Theodore, how it
was that neither he nor the hegumen of the Studium appeared
in the great church at any of the great festivals, the arch-
bishop answered, " We will not communicate with the steward
canonically excommunicated ; we have nothing to say against
the emperors1 and the patriarch." The logothete answered,
with dry severity, " The emperors have no particular need
of your countenance at Thessalonica or anywhere else."

Public attention was now attracted to the fact of the
abstention of Theodore, his brother, and uncle, from the
communion of the patriarch and the steward, and a schism
was at once effected. One party among the inhabitants of
Constantinople sided with the recalcitrants, and refused to
communicate with their bishop, another party held aloof from
the Studium and the family of Theodore.

S. Plato, or rather Theodore, under his name, wrote to
the monk Simeon, kinsman of the emperor, who was a friend,
and sorely distressed at the declaration of Joseph of Thessa-
lonica. In this letter Theodore and Plato declared that the
schism rose about the illicit marriage of Constantine, and
that he who had performed the ceremony was deposed by
Jesus Christ, speaking through two canons of the Church.
The first forbids a priest from assisting at the festivities of a
second marriage.2 The second orders that, after the lapse of
a year, a deposed priest may not appeal for his restoration.3

1 Nicephorus and his son Stauracius, crowned in December, 803.
s Neocaes. can. 7. 3 Afric. can. 70.

V-

Nor. iij S.Theodore of the Studium. 269

The first was not to the point, the second was only binding
on the African Church. "It is now nine years since this
man was deposed. If during the reign of an adulterous
prince we held firm in spite of menace and persecution,
how shall we betray the truth to the peril of our souls under
so pious an emperor as now reigns ? We will suffer death
rather than communicate with the guilty one. Let him re-
main steward, but let not him who has been deposed from
the priesthood celebrate the sacrifice. We have said nothing
hitherto . we have dissembled during two years, since his
restoration, to keep peace. But now, if he be not inter-
dicted, let us at least be left as we were, and as we have
been during ten years. As for those who communicate with
him, bishops, priests, and abbots, even if they number ten
thousand, where is the wonder ? They communicated with
the adulterous prince, and said not a word."

In another letter Theodore says : " Jesus Christ declares
him guilty of adultery who leaves his wife ; and this man,
by presenting the adulterous prince before the altar, dared
to pray before all the people, ' Unite, O Lord, this Thy ser-
vant and this Thy handmaiden, as one flesh, after Thy good
pleasure/ and the rest of the nuptial benediction. And
this man, instead of weeping for his fault through life, and
being held in execration, has publicly resumed his sacerdotal
functions, as though he had done a fine thing. But let him
not be deceived, and think that one thing is allowable to
an emperor which is forbidden to a subject ; for all men
are subject to the law of God."

Theodore wrote also to Theoctistus, master of the cere-
monies, to say that if the steward were deposed, he and
Plato would communicate with the patriarch, but on no
other terms. The conduct of Theodore of the Studium was
reported at Rome in an unfavourable light, and Basil, abbot
of S. Sabas at Rome, wrote him a sharp letter of remon-

* ■ ■ *

270 Lives of the Saints. [Noy.h.

strance. Theodore replied, saying that Basil had been mis-
informed of the circumstances. After some free expressions
of dissatisfaction with the Pope, he adds : " As to what you
observe and others assert, that I have taken this as a pretext
for exhibiting my vexation at not having been appointed
patriarch, I appeal to God, who knows what I have done."

The enemies of Theodore, persuaded that this was an
ebullition of spite, said that even if the steward were de-
posed, Theodore would refuse to communicate with the
patriarch because he had been too lenient. Theodore there-
fore wrote again, saying that he certainly would communi-
cate with the patriarch, were the steward deposed.

There can be little question that Theodore stood out for
the plain, broad principles of Christian morality. The con-
duct of Constantine had found many imitators, and more to
argue that emperors might override the divine law. Such
a doctrine he pronounced a heresy, a doctrine of antichrist.
Those who made light of the adulterous union of the em-
peror he stigmatized as Manichseans. But as there can be
no question that Theodore was right at first, there can be
as little that he was wrong in the violence and obstinacy
with which he promoted the schism. He spared neither
Roman pontiff nor patriarch, bishop, nor abbot, in his
denunciations, because it was generally felt that nine years
of exclusion from office had sufficiently punished the indiscre-
tion of Joseph the steward. The emperor, irritated at the con-
duct of Theodore and Plato, and unwilling to see the Church
torn into factions by their obstinacy, sent a body of troops to
surround the Studium, and the bishops of Nicaea and Chryso-
polis to remonstrate with them. As they remained inflexible, he
had them transferred to the monastery of Agathus, and there
imprisoned. He called a council together in January, 809, to
judge the case. S. Plato, too old to walk, was carried in on
men's shoulders, with his feet chained. The council of

* — ■ *

Nov. ii.]

S. Theodore of the Studium. 271

obsequious prelates declared that the marriage of Constan-
tine and Theodota was made legitimate by the dispensation
of the patriarch, who had allowed the steward to celebrate
it without remonstrance or interference, and it decreed
anathema against those who did not recognize the dispen-
sations of saints.

The emperor announced their excommunication to the
abbot Plato and his nephews, Theodore of the Studium and
Joseph of Thessalonica. They were then imprisoned in
separate cells in the palace of S. Mamas, and after a while
were sent into some of the islands of the archipelago. As
the monks of the Studium were faithful to their abbot, they
were imprisoned or banished. From his prison Theodore
wrote to Pope Leo III. to urge him to assemble a council to
counteract the evil influence of the miserable assembly at
Constantinople which had condemned him.

In 811 Nicephorus was killed in a campaign against the
Bulgarians, and his skull turned into a drinking-cup by their
king. Stauracius, his son, was at once recognized as em-
peror, but as he had been mortally wounded, Michael
Curopalata, surnamed Rhangabe, who had married Procopia^
daughter of Nicephorus, was proclaimed and crowned on
the 2nd October in the great ambone of the church of Con-
stantinople, by the patriarch. Stauracius thereupon had his
hair cut, took the monastic habit, and died on the nth
January following.

The Emperor Michael was orthodox, and jealous for the
welfare of the Church. The schism in Constantinople
afflicted him ; he obtained the expulsion of Joseph from his
stewardship, and the recall of Theodore, his brother, and
Plato. Pope Leo III. approved the measure by letter.
Next year Plato died, at the age of seventy-nine, and was
buried by the patriarch Nicephorus, and his funeral oration
was pronounced by Theodore of the Studium. In 813

* *

272 Lives of the Saints. [Nov.h.

Michael Rhangabc was deposed, and Leo the Armenian was
crowned emperor. As Nicephorus put the crown on his
head, his bristly hair pricked the hands of the patriarch, who
took it as an evil omen. Leo had been asked by him before
his coronation for a written statement of his belief, but the
patriarch had been put off. When Nicephorus renewed the
demand three days after the ceremony, and was again refused,
he could not fail to suspect that there was a motive for the con-
cealment which boded no good. The emperor, brought up
in the army, had imbibed the prejudice against images which
prevailed among the military and had become in the army
a tradition. But before taking any step Leo consulted a
few ecclesiastics of his own persuasion, and in particular
directed one of them, John the Grammarian, to bring
together a collection of declarations from the first fathers of
the Church on the subject in question. Once, while he was
attending Divine service, the words were recited from
Isaiah xi., "To whom then will ye liken God?" &c, upon
which the iconoclasts about him, seizing on the passage,
endeavoured to persuade him that it was a voice from the
Almighty calling upon him to destroy the worship of idols.
In December, 814, he began to make preparations for the
accomplishment of his designs. He sought gradually to
gain over the patriarch, at least so far as that the first step
against images might be taken without resistance on his
part. " The people," said he, " take offence at image-
worship ; they look upon its prevalence as the cause of the
public misfortunes, of the disastrous defeats we have suffered
from infidel nations " — and, so far as the army was concerned,
he may have said the truth. He therefore begged the
patriarch to give his consent that those images which were
placed in inferior situations might be removed. But when
the patriarch, who had good reason to fear that one step in
yielding would soon lead to another, refused to suit his

4* #

* -*

Nov. xi.] S. Theodore of the Studium. 273

conduct to the shifting tone of popular feeling, the emperor
demanded of him an express warrant from Scripture in
favour of images. Such a warrant, the patriarch, of course,
could not produce. The emperor then requested him to
discuss the matter with those of his clergy who disapproved
of images, and to see whether he was able to refute their
arguments. Nicephorus made several attempts to convert
the emperor to another way of thinking, but these attempts
proved ineffectual. Meanwhile the fury of the soldiers, who
were bitterly opposed to images, broke out into open
violence, and wreaked itself on the image of Christ in the
Copper-market before the palace over a portico. Leo the
Isaurian had removed the image, but it had been replaced
by Irene, and was regarded as miraculous. This outbreak
furnished a pretext to the emperor for taking away the
figure again, so as to secure it from the insults of the soldiers.
The patriarch looked upon these circumstances as betoken-
ing the danger that threatened the faith, and he assembled
many bishops and abbots in his palace to consult on steps that
should be taken in common. Leo, on learning this, dreaded
the consequences of such a combination. At daybreak he
sent for the patriarch, and charged him with fomenting
schism, whilst the emperor was labouring for peace. He
informed him that a party by no means small had seceded
from the Church on account of the images, firmly believing
that they had on their side the authority of Scripture. He
therefore demanded, once more, that a conference should be
held between the bishops and theologians of the two parties.
The patriarch then asked to be allowed to introduce into
the emperor's presence several witnesses of the principles
he professed, and being permitted, he introduced S. Theo-
dore, and many other abbots and bishops. Theodore
had confronted two emperors, Constantine and Nicephorus,
and he was not the man to wince before Leo. He boldly

VOL. xiii. 18
* g,

#. *

274 Z«w 0/7/&£ Saints. [Nov tli

entered a protest against the very principle of Byzantine
despotism. He told the emperor that the guidance of
the affairs of State and the prosecution of war belonged to
his duties, but that the care of the Church, the administra-
tion of the sacred services, the maintenance of the faith, did
not belong to his province. S. Paul, in Ephesians iv., had
said that Christ appointed apostles, prophets, and pastors in
his Church, not kings. Said the emperor, " Do not rulers,
then, belong to the Church ?" " When they do not wilfully
exclude themselves from it by favouring heresy, yes." Upon
this the emperor indignantly dismissed them. Still it was by
no means his intention to stand forth as an avowed opponent
of images. He wanted to establish a modus vivendi between
the conflicting parties, to be a mediator, to be neutral,
between them, and to effect, if possible, a compromise, so as
to put a stop to the mutual recriminations, excommunica-
tions, and conflicts which were at once a weakness and
a scandal in the Eastern Church. But the violence of the
image-worshippers and theimpatienceof themilitary gradually
propelled the emperor into the position of a decided partisan.
After he had dismissed the ecclesiastics from the palace, the
monks assembled in a body in the Studium, under the presi-
dency of Theodore, and mutually encouraged one another
to resistance. Leo sent orders that these meetings were
forbidden, and required the monks to sign a promise not to
hold conferences without his permission. Some subscribed ;
others, with Theodore at their head, refused to do so.

Christmas was at hand, and the emperor was unwilling to
disturb this solemn festival with strife ; he therefore took no
further steps. At Christmas, however, he prostrated him-
self on entering the sanctuary to receive the Eucharist, and
as the sanctuary curtains were embroidered with the story
of the Nativity, it was loudly proclaimed that Leo had
adored the picture.

* &

* — *

Nov. ii.] S.Theodore of the Studium. 275

On the feast of the Epiphany he omitted the prostration.
Nicephorus wrote to Theodore to bid him take courage in
the storm that threatened. This brought him into greater
disgrace with the emperor, who forbade him to preach or
celebrate, and finally deposed him from the see. Leo suc-
ceeded in inducing many bishops, even such as had pre-
viously united with the patriarch in defending the images, to
acquiesce in his measures. These bishops were invited to
assemble in a synod at Constantinople for the purpose of
issuing the first ordinances against images. In the room of
Nicephorus, Theodotus Cassiteras was elevated to the patri-
archal chair. He was a layman of noble birth, belonging to
an iconoclastic race, being a descendant of Constantine
Copronymus. The orthodox refused to acknowledge the
deposition of Nicephorus as just, and the ordination of
Theodotus as valid. Theodore of the Studium was the soul
of the party. He declared that the recognition of image-
worship was one of the essentials of the faith, for with it was
closely united true belief in the incarnation of the Word.
The iconoclasts were, indeed, Arians in disguise. They
sought to substitute an ideal Christ for the Man Christ Jesus.
Let Christ remain, they said, for the contemplation of the
soul, as the perfect ideal of humanity, but do not represent
Him as an individual, born, living, and dying on earth. It
is humbling, it is degrading, thus to conceive of Christ, thus
to represent Him. It will be seen, iconoclasm struck at the
root of Christianity, it practically denied the Incarnation.
" That which you consider humbling," said Theodore, " that
is precisely what is exalting and worthy of God. Is it not
the humiliation of self which glorifies the great ? So His
condescension to us redounds to His glory. The Creator
became flesh, and did not disdain to be called what He
appeared. If the contemplation of the spirit had sufficed,
then He need only have manifested Himself spiritually, and

4< 4*

276 Lives of the Saints. [Nov. h.

we should regard as superfluous an appearance in human
flesh. But God forbid ! He, being a man, suffered as a
man ; He ate and drank, and was subject to all affections,
like as we are, sin excepted ; and thus what seems to be a
humiliation, a debasement, redounded rather to the glory of
the Eternal Word." The representations of Christ kept alive
in men's minds the reality of His manhood, showed how the
chasm between God and man had been bridged over. That
is why art is divine. God made man in His image, especially
so the Perfect Man, and man feebly, imperfectly, strives to
copy the lineaments of that Perfect Man, tries to copy the
work of God. On Palm Sunday, 815, Theodore directed his
monks, as a solemn protest, to bear images in procession
round the court of the monastery, chanting hymns in their
praise. This excited the displeasure of the emperor. He
directed that Theodore should be threatened with severe
punishment, but such threats could make no impression on
so dauntless a spirit.

The new patriarch, Theodotus, assembled a council at
Constantinople, which abrogated the decrees of the second
Nicene Council, and banished images from the churches.
This council issued a circular letter, summoning all abbots
to appear and assist in the common deliberations at Con-
stantinople ; but a large number of them declined to comply,
on the ground that they did not recognize this as a regular
assembly.

S. Theodore sent a letter to the synod, setting forth that
according to ecclesiastical canons, they could not put their
hands to anything in the Church without the consent and
the presidency of Nicephorus, the rightful patriarch. As to
the abbots who complied with the invitation, the emperor
endeavoured to bring them over to his own views, first by
friendly words, then by threats. If the latter had no effect,
he caused them to be imprisoned or exiled ; but after a while

* *

X *

Nov. ii.] S.Theodore of the Studium. 277

he recalled them, and promised them security if they would
recognize Theodotus as their legitimate patriarch. It would
seem that the emperor, finding himself unable to force them
to subscribe the decrees against images, sought by winning
them to acknowledge Theodotus, to secure their silence.
Some yielded, others refused. Theodore was most resolute
in his opposition. Unfortunately, with that vehemence of
enthusiasm which characterized all his undertakings, he
rushed in this case, as he had in that of the steward Joseph,
into an extreme position, which was untenable and grotesque.
He declared that he would hold no communion with the
iconoclasts; but not so only, he refused to be in communion
with any one who had been baptized, married, or communi-
cated by one who favoured the destruction of images.

Some of the monks, to escape persecution without giving
up their convictions, had allowed themselves to resort to a
mental reservation. They avowed that they remained in
communion with the Church, meaning thereby the orthodox,
and so overreached their examiners. Theodore raised his
voice against this unmanly, dishonest equivocation. He who
has convictions is bound by his conscience to utter them,
whether they cause him personal inconvenience or not. To
hide them, to have recourse to subterfuge, is to insult the
Spirit of Truth who speaks through the conscience of man.

Theodore was exiled to Merope. There he heard with
distress that many of the abbots had yielded. It was so
important to gain them, that Theodotus had consented to
celebrate in a church, the walls of which were rich with
sacred paintings, and formally to declare before them
" Anathema to those who refuse honour to sacred images."
Satisfied with this, S. Nicetas, abbot of Medicon (see April 3),
and many other abbots received the Eucharist at his hand.

S. Theodore was not inactive, though a prisoner. His
friends contrived to bribe his keepers, or the latter, out of

& — — *

278 Lives of the Saints. [Not.h.

pity or respect for the venerable old man, connived at many
things. Thus he found it in his power to maintain a corre-
spondence with his friends, and by his words, while absent
as a martyr, to accomplish so much the more for the cause
he had at heart. In his cell he employed himself in com-
posing works in defence of images, and these were circulated
throughout the East.

It was impossible that this commerce of letters should
remain concealed from the emperor. He therefore sent a
certain Nicetas, on whom he could rely, to transfer Theo-
dore to a lone spot named Bonitus, and there to guard him
strictly, allowing none to see and converse with him. When
Theodore was informed of this order, he told those who were
to convey him away that they might oblige him to change
his place of imprisonment, but he should consider every
place as his own, for the whole earth was the Lord's, and
they could not compel him to silence. The emperor had
given further orders that he should be scourged. The
old man readily threw off his mantle, and presented his
back to the lash, saying, " This is what I have been long
desiring." But Nicetas, moved by the sight of the emaciated
body of the venerable abbot, bade all the attendants go
forth, and then, throwing a sheepskin over the back of
Theodore, he beat that, so that the blows could be heard
without, and cutting his own arm, he dabbled the thongs
of his scourge in his own blood.

The abbot still found means of writing and despatching
his letters. He had a faithful companion and sharer of
his sufferings in his scholar Nicolas, who forgot his own
afflictions to administer to the wants of his spiritual father.
A nun provided him with the means of subsistence, at the
hazard of her life, and in despite of the insults to which
she exposed herself; and was the means, perhaps, of his
supplying himself with writing materials, and of conveying

Nov. lt.] S. Theodore of the Studium. 279

his letters from his dungeon. He wrote to the Pope, to the
patriarch of Alexandria, to the patriarch of Antioch, to the
abbots of Palestine.

The pious fraud of Nicetas was discovered. No marks of
the scourge had been found on the back of the prisoner. A
base informer named Anastasius hastened to Constantinople
to report against the governor. The emperor had a hundred
strokes given to the old confessor, and shut him up with his
disciple Nicolas in a dark and stinking dungeon. In this
he spent three years, suffering acutely from the cold in
winter and the heat in summer, eaten up by vermin, and
afflicted with hunger; for bread was only given him alter-
nate days, and that was cast into him through a hole. A
man of rank and fortune passing along the road, and look-
ing into the dungeon through the opening, was so horrified
at what he saw, that he bribed the keepers to give Theodore
a sufficiency of food every day. Yet, in spite of the strict-
ness of his guards, Theodore still found means of writing and
despatching letters. In one of these he thus describes his
condition : " After having beaten us with scourges, we two
have been placed in a lofty chamber with the door shut, and
the ladder by which access is got to it removed. Guards
surround it to prevent any one from getting near, and all
who enter the castle are watched. Strict orders are issued
that no one is to give us anything but water and wood. We
live on what is brought us and given us from time to time
by the hole that serves as window. As long as last our
provisions, and what the weekly porter gives us in secret,
we live. When that comes to an end, we shall come to an
end also. God is, notwithstanding, too gracious to us."

In another letter he consoles thirty nuns who had been
driven from their convent and whipped. From him we learn
that a secret police was established for the purpose of hunt-
ing out all the refuges of the orthodox. Hired spies were

* gr

28o

Lives of the Saints.

[Nov. xi.

scattered in every direction, whose business it was to inform
against every man who spoke offensively of the emperor, who
refused to have any fellowship with iconoclasts, every one
who wrote in defence of images, every one who kept repre-
sentations of Christ or the saints in his house, who harboured
a person banished for image-worship, or who ministered to
the necessities of a person imprisoned for that cause : such
were immediately seized, scourged, and banished. Great
pains were taken to have the books used in schools so pre-
pared as to infuse into the minds of children abhorrence of
images. The old ecclesiastical hymns relating to images
were expunged, and new ones introduced of an opposite
tendency.

One of his letters having fallen into the hands of the
emperor, Leo sent orders to the governor of the East that
Theodore should be so severely chastised as to render re-
covery impossible. The officer of the governor asked Theo-
dore if he admitted having written the letter, and when he did
so, the officer first beat Nicolas, his disciple, who had written
it, and then gave Theodore a hundred strokes with the scourge,
and left them exposed to the frosts — it was February — with
cut and bleeding backs. Theodore was long before he
could sleep or swallow, and only recovered through the
tender care of Nicolas, who forced soup down his throat ; in
his love for his master forgetting his own wounds. The
frost had got into the gashes, and Nicolas was obliged to
cut away some mortified flesh. Theodore was attacked
with fever, and was three months hovering between life and
death, and owed his life to the unwearied solicitude of
Nicolas. The emperor, astonished to hear that Theodore
was still alive, sent an officer to search the dungeon, think-
ing that the abbot must be supplied with money by his
friends, and was thus able to obtain the necessary food for
restoring him to health. Nothing, however, was found. Then

■*

Fs*i^.

*. — *

Nov. no S.Theodore of the Studium. 281

he had him transferred to Smyrna, and committed to the
sectarian vigilance and hatred of the archbishop, a zealous
iconoclast. The archbishop placed him in a dark sub-
terranean dungeon, where he languished eighteen months,
but still succeeded in transmitting letters and exhortations
to the orthodox. At last, in 819, the archbishop departed
for Constantinople with the avowed intention of obtaining
permission from the emperor to have either the head or the
tongue of the heroic sufferer cut off.

But on Christmas eve, 820, a conspiracy against the em-
peror was detected. Michael the Stammerer, the old com-
panion in arms of Leo, was at the head of it. Leo arrested
him and condemned him to be suffocated in a furnace on the
following day. The Empress Theophano entreated her hus-
band not to profane the sacred festival by an execution, and the
carrying out of the sentence was deferred. Michael was able to
communicate with his confederates, and to warn them that
unless they delivered him, he would betray them. Alarm for
their own safety overcame their hesitation and scruples. On
Christmas morning, disguised as choristers, they stole into the
royal chapel, and when Leo entered to hear Lauds, fell on him
and slew him before the altar.1 Michael was snatched from
the furnace to occupy a throne. In the tumult and excite-
ment of his elevation, it was forgotten to free him of his
fetters, and with clanking chains beneath his purple he
mounted the throne of Constantine.

The four sons of Leo were mutilated and sent into banish-
ment. The death of Leo prevented the threat of the bishop
of Smyrna from being put into execution. Michael II., a
brutal soldier, released the orthodox because his predecessor
had imprisoned them. The exiles returned, the prison doors

1 The signal for his assassination was the precenting of the hymn, " For the love of
the Lord, they despised the flames," in honour of the Three Children in the furnace.
Leo had a good voice and liked to sing, so he precented this hymn.

»Jc >£

282 L ives of the Saints. p^ sfc

opened, and the emaciated and filthy confessors staggered
forth into the unaccustomed glare of day. For seven years
Theodore had been in chains, from 815 till 821. He wrote
at once to Michael a letter of thanks, exhorting him to unity,
to expel Theodotus, who was disowned by the Pope of Rome,
as by other patriarchs, and to restore the rightful occupant of
the see, Nicephorus. On his way back to Constantinople, he
visited Nicephorus at Chalcedon.

The return of Theodore to Constantinople was an ova-
tion. Those who honoured images and respected his firm-
ness, or pitied his sufferings, crowded to meet him. Some
came soliciting advice. Among them was a hermit, Peter,
whose severity of life had elicited remonstrances from
bishops and abbots. Theodore gave him good advice :
" Do not. cultivate vainglorious asceticism. Eat bread,
drink wine occasionally, wear shoes, especially in winter,
and take meat when you want it."

On reaching Constantinople, Theodore, Nicephorus, and
some bishops went to the emperor, to ask him to restore to
them their churches, and expel the usurpers. Michael
stammeringly replied that this was a matter for them to
settle with their opponents. Theodore then delivered to
him their protest, drawn up by himself, to all appearance.
In this they declared that they could not enter into con-
sultation with heretics, that the truth was fixed, and could
not be altered even by an angel from heaven. The Pope of
Rome had sent a declaration of his opinion in the matter of
controversy, in every way conformable to theirs, and this
they requested him to read and weigh. Michael coldly
received the letter, but took no further notice of it.

He gave them, however, another audience, and listened
to their account of the persecution they had undergone, and
of the indignities which had been offered to sacred images.
" You have spoken well," said the emperor, " but I cannot

* *

*■

Nov. ii.] S. Theodore of the Studium. 283

grant what you want, for till now I have never honoured
any image. I shall remain as I am, and you follow your
own convictions. I shall not interfere with you, but I
cannot allow the public erection of any images in Constanti-
nople."

Theodotus, the intruded patriarch, died ; Nicephorus urged
his own claims to be re-established in the see from which he
had been uncanonically ej ected. Michael replied that he would
certainly reinstate him if he would withdraw his adhesion to
the decrees of the councils held by Tarasius and the more
famous one of Nicaea. As he refused to do so, Antony,
metropolitan of Sylaeum, a determined iconoclast, was ap-
pointed to the patriarchate. Thomas, a comrade in arms of
Leo the Armenian, and Michael the Phrygian, was jealous
of the success of his fellow soldiers, and thought it possible
that he also might enjoy for a season the pleasure and
authority of sovereignty. He therefore rose in revolt, and
pretending to be Constantine, the son of Irene, come to
avenge the death of Leo, he allied himself with the Saracens
and marched against Constantinople. Michael, fearing that
the orthodox might favour his adversary in the hopes of
obtaining better terms for themselves than the cold impar-
tiality he had accorded them, proposed again that they
should come to terms with the iconoclasts on a basis of
mutual concessions. For his own part he was indifferent
whether images were or were not to be venerated, the strife
was raging about a question which, in his eyes, was insignifi-
cant beside the great obligation of Christian charity. But
his appeal met with no response. Each party waited the
success of the arms of Thomas to throw its influence into
the descending scale.

Theodore wrote to Leo, treasurer of the emperor ; he wrote
also to the Empress Theodosia, widow of Leo the Armenian,
and her son Basil, congratulating them on their conversion

* —

284 Lives of the Saints. [Nor. h.

from iconoclasm to respect for sacred images. It was after-
wards fabled that this conversion was wrought by a signal
miracle. Basil had obtained speech in presence of an image
of S. Gregory Nazianzen. As Theodore knew nothing of
this miracle, it existed probably only in the imaginations of
the vulgar.

In November, 826, Theodore of the Studium fell ill. On
hearing this, a number of bishops, abbots, and monks hastened
to see him. As he could not speak loudly, he whispered to
his secretary what he desired to communicate to them.
Recovering somewhat, he was able to walk to the church,
and offer the holy Sacrifice, on Sunday, November 4. He
administered the communion to his monks, and then re-
turning to his bed, gave his final instructions to Naucratius*
his disciple and steward. On the 6th November, the feast
of S. Paul of Constantinople, he went again to church and
celebrated the Divine mysteries. Next night his sickness
increased, and he began from that time to sink. When
unable to speak, he made the sign of the cross. On the
nth November, the feast of S. Menas, he received unction
and the viaticum, candles were lighted, and the commenda-
tory prayers were read. He breathed forth his soul whilst
the brethren were chanting the long n 8th (A. V. 119th)
Psalm round his bed. He died at the age of sixty-seven,
on the peninsula of S. Trypho, as the Studium was in the
hands of an iconoclastic, intruded abbot. Eighteen years
after, his body was translated with pomp to the Studium.

A man of iron resolution, all the efforts of emperors to
break his determination failed. He never gave way when
his conscience spoke, and he never for a moment swerved
in his obedience to its voice. He was inflexible when family
advancement prompted acquiescence in the marriage of
Constantine, and when hunger and vermin were consuming
him in a dungeon deprived of light. His enthusiasm some-

I
* *

Not. no S.Theodore of the Studium. 285

times carried him beyond the bounds which a sober judg-
ment would have dictated, but the cowardice and subser-
viency of the bishops and abbots so exasperated him, a man
who held the highest views of the sacredness of conscience,
that extravagance becomes excusable. He stood out with
calm dignity against the despotism of Byzantine imperialism,
which was bent on ruling the Church as a department of the
State, clipping the faith as it clipped the livery of the
servants, and on ordering the ritual of the sanctuary as it
ordered the ceremonial of the palace.

He protested also against the persecution of heretics. The
growing tendency of ecclesiastical dogmatism was towards
eradicating heresy with the sword of the imperial power. The
unhappy Paulicians were cruelly ill-treated. The Emperor
Nicephorus refused to listen to the cry of the bishops, and
be employed as a tool to persecute them. A minority, at
the head of which was Theodore, considered it an un-
christian procedure to persecute heretics with the sword ;
and declared it contrary to the vocation of priests to be the
occasion of bloodshed, it being their duty to lead the erring
to repentance by gentleness, not to constrain them by
violence. Theodore and this minority endeavoured by
arguments of this kind to avert the execution of cruel orders
of death issued against the Paulicians, by Michael Rhan-
gabe, at the instigation of the patriarch, S. Nicephorus.

To Theophilus, bishop of Ephesus, who had declared that
to kill the Manichaeans was a glorious work, Theodore wrote,
" What sayest thou ? Our Lord has forbidden this in the
Gospel (Matt. xiii. 29), lest in rooting out the tares the
wheat should be gathered up with them. Let both grow
together until the harvest. How, then, canst thou call the
rooting out of the tares a glorious work?" He quotes a fine
passage from S. John Chrysostom in confirmation of his
views, and then goes on to say : " Nor ought we to pray

* *

* , *

286 Lives of the Saints. [Nov.h.

agaimt the teachers of error ; much rather are we bound to
pray for them, as our Lord, when on the cross, prayed for
those who knew not what they did. At this late day men
should no longer appeal to the examples of Phineas and
Elijah ; for it is necessary to distinguish the different stages
of conduct in the Old and in the New Testament ; when
the disciples would have acted in that spirit (against the
Samaritans), Christ expressed His displeasure that they
should depart so far from that meek and gentle Spirit, whose
disciples they ought to have been." Citing the passage in
2 Tim. ii. 25, he remarks : " We ought not to punish, but to
instruct the ignorant. Rulers, indeed, bear not the sword
in vain ; but neither do they bear it to be used against those
against whom our Lord has forbidden it to be used. TJteir
dominion is over the outward man ; and it is incumbent on
them to punish those who are found guilty of crimes against
the outward man. But their power of punishing has no
reference to that which is purely inward ; this belongs ex-
clusively to their province who have the cure of souls, and
these can only threaten spiritual punishments, such, for
example, as exclusion from the fellowship of the Church."

He, like his uncle Plato, was strongly opposed to slavery.
Plato, on retiring from the world, manumitted all his slaves,
and after that, refused to permit any slave to wait on him
in the monastery. Theodore directed his disciple Nicolas
not to employ men, created in the image of God, as slaves,
either in his own service, or in that of the monastery under
his care, or in the labour of the fields.

He was a poet. Dr. Neale says of his compositions :
" His hymns are, in my judgment, very far superior to those
of S. Theophanes, and nearly, if not quite equal to the
works of S. Cosmas. In those (comparatively few) which
he has left for the festivals of saints, he does not appear to
advantage: it is in his Lent canons, in the 'Triodion,' that

not. no S. Stephen of Servia. 287

his great excellency lies. The contrast there presented
between the rigid, unbending, unyielding character of the
man in his outward history, and the fervent gush of peni-
tence and love which his inward life, as revealed by these
compositions, manifests, is very striking ; it forms a remark-
able parallel to the characters of S. Gregory VII., Inno-
cent III., and other holy men of the Western Church, whom
the world, judging from a superficial view of their characters,
has branded with unbending haughtiness, and the merest
formality in religion, while their most secret writings show
them to have been clinging to the cross in an ecstasy of love
and sorrow."1

S. STEPHEN OF SERVIA, K.M.

(a.d. 1333.)

[Sclavonic Menseas. The Menseas published at Venice in 1538, on
Nov. 11 ; Mouravieff's "Lives of the Saints" on Oct. 30. Authorities :
— " The Life and Conversion of S. Stephen," by Gregory Semivlach, in
Glasnik, t. xi. p. 43-75 ; Pejacevic, Hist. Serbiae, p. 252 et seq. and
Mouravieff, op. cit.]

Stephen Desanitz was the bastard son of Stephen
Milutin, king of Servia and Bulgaria. Stephen Urositz had
two sons, Stephen Dragutinetz and Urositz Milutin. When
Dragutinetz came to the throne, in 1275, partly out of com-
punction for having rebelled against his father, partly because
he felt that such a surrender was irresistible, he resigned the
kingdom of Servia proper to his brother, and retired to Mit-
rovitz in Hungary. Milutin mounted the throne under the
name of Stephen Milutin II. He built numbers of churches,
amongst others that of Banja, dedicated it to Stephen the
proto-martyr, enriched it internally with gold, and erected

* Neale, " Hymns of the Eastern Church," 1862, p. 10a.

* — *

288 Lives of the Saints. [Nov „.

therein his own tomb. With the consent of Nicodemus,
archbishop of Servia, he divided Servia into fourteen bishop-
rics. After having reigned forty-six years, he died on
October 29th, 132 1, and was buried in the church he had
built at Banja.

He is numbered among the saints of the Servian Church,
though his moral character was not above reproach, and his
adhesion to the independence of the Eastern Church doubt-
ful. He was guilty of incestuous adultery, and he entered
into communion with Rome. His son was Stephen Desanitz,
by this incestuous union. This son was accused to his
father of conspiring against him: he ordered him to be
arrested, his eyes put out with red-hot irons, and that he
should be sent to Constantinople, a.d. 1317, and placed in
the monastery of Pantocrator. The barbarous sentence was
not, apparently, carried out fully, for after his father's death,
Stephen certainly recovered his sight. Some pretend that
this was a miraculous cure wrought by S. Nicolas, who
appeared to him in vision, but others assert that those
charged with the execution of the deed spared him, and that
he simulated blindness till occasion for dissembling was
removed. On the death of Stephen Milutin, Wladislas and
Constantine, his nephews, attempted to recover the throne
by force of arms. Wladislas defeated Constantine, and had
his brother hacked to pieces. The popular party then sent
to Constantinople, recalled Stephen the Bastard, set him up
as king, and expelled Constantine. He ascended the throne
in 1322. Next year he set up a silver ikon of S. Nicolas at
Bari, with lamps of silver to burn perpetually before it, in
token of gratitude to his patron for having preserved him
from blindness, and released him from the restraint and
monotony of monastic life to the freedom of sovereignty and
the pleasures of conjugal union. He married Bianca,
daughter of Philip, prince of Tarentum, and to obtain

*- : *

* — *

Nov. ir.j S. Stephen of Servia. 289

succour against his enemies, entered into negotiations with
Pope John XXII. about reception along with all his clergy
and people into the Western Church. He built a church in
honour of the Ascension, -at Desan on the Bistritza river.
The kingdom of Stephen then included Bulgaria, Servia,
Albania, Bosnia, Herzegovina, Wallachia, and Moldavia. He
was devoted to prayer, and very charitable to the poor.
He was successful in war. AndronicusIII.was defeated by
him. His son Stephen revolted against him in 1333, and he
was strangled in prison on November nth.

vol. xin. 19

X . *

290 Lives of the Saints. [Nov ia

November 12.

SS. Aurelius and Publius, SB. MM. in Asia.

S. Rufus, B. of Avignon.

S. Evodius, B. of Le Puy; circ. a.d. 400.

S. Nilus, Ad. at Constantinople ; circ. a.d. 450.

S. Rknatus, B. of Sorrento; circ. A.n. 450.

S. Isychius, B. ofVienne; circ. A.D. 494.

S. Isychius II., B. of Vienne; circ. a.d. 565.

S. ^Emilian, P. at Tarazona in Spain; circ. a.d. 574.

S. Leo, or Lien us, P. at Melun ; 6th cent.

S. Mattan, B. in Scotland; dth cent.

S. Martin, Pope, M. at Rome; a.d. 655.

S. Livinus, B.M. at Gltent ; a.d. 657.

SS. Craphahild and Brictius, MM. at Ghent; a.d. 657.

S. Cummian Fada, Ab. of Kilcomin in Ireland; a.d. 662.

S. Cunibert, Abp. of Cologne ; a.d. 663.

S. Paternus, P.M. at Sens ; circ. a.d. 726.

S. Lebuinus, P.C. at Deventer; a.d. 773.

SS. Benedict, John, Matthew, Isaac, and Christianus, Mis.

MM. at Casimir in Poland; a.d. 1004.
S. Josaphat Koncevitch, Abp. M. of Polotsk in Poland; A.n.

1623.

S. NILUS, AB.
(about a.d. 450.)

[Roman Martyrology. Greek Mensea and Menologies. Authorities :
— The writings of S. Nilus himself, Nicephorus, H. E. lib. xiv. c. 54,
and Photius.]

NILUS was a member of a family of rank, pro-
bably of Constantinople ; he was prefect of the
city under Theodosius and his son Arcadius, was
married, and had children. The love of God, or
disgust with the world, impelled him to become a solitary.
He asked his wife's permission, and, when it was reluctantly
accorded, he retired with his son Theodulus to the desert

i- — *

9 *

NoT.za.] S.NUUS. 291

of Sinai. S. Nilus has left us a touching narrative of his
separation from his wife, and departure with his son, of the
life they led in the desert, and of the loss and recovery of
Theodulus. This has already been given in his own words
(see Jan. 14, pp. 202-209). In 404, when S. John Chry-
sostom had been banished from Constantinople to Cucusus,
S. Nilus wrote in remonstrance to Arcadius : " You have,"
he said, " banished John, bishop of Byzantium, the greatest
light of the world, and you have banished him without reason,
giving too ready credence to bishops of little judgment. Do
penance for having deprived the Church of instructions so
pure and holy." In another letter he says : " How can you
expect to see Constantinople delivered from earthquakes and
fire from heaven, whilst so many crimes are committed in it,
such vice reigns unpunished, and after that John, the pillar
of the Church, the light of the truth, the trumpet of Jesus
Christ, has been banished ? How can you expect me to give
my prayers for a city shaken by the wrath of God, when I
am consumed with sorrow, my spirit is agitated, my heart
torn, by the excesses which are committed in Byzantium ?"

He wrote many other letters in defence of the truth or of
justice. He menaced bishops guilty of avarice and crimes
of violence. Laurianus, prefect of Constantinople, had put
in prison some persons who had taken refuge in the church
of S. Plato at Ancyra ; Nilus wrote to him threatening him
with the wrath of God and of the martyr Plato for having
disregarded the privilege of sanctuary which the tomb of the
saint enjoyed.

Gainas the Goth, before whose arms the decaying empire
trembled, wrote to him asking explanations of certain difficult
questions about the Divinity of our Lord. Nilus, understand-
ing that Gainas was an Arian, did not condescend to give
the explanations solicited, because he said that Divine truths
could not profit ears killed and rotted by the venom of

*- = *

*. *

292 Lives of the Saints. [Nov Ia#

heresy. That which is holy is not to be given to dogs, nor
the pearls of Divine mysteries to be cast before swine.

The saint wrote in 430 ; the exact date of his death cannot
be fixed with certainty. Justin the Younger transported his
body to Constantinople (between 565 and 578), and placed
it in the church of SS. Peter and Paul.

S. iEMILIAN, P.C.

(ABOUT A.D. 574.)

[Roman, Spanish, and Benedictine Martyrologies. Usuardus, Ado,
&c. Authority : — A Life by S. Braulis, B. of Saragossa (63 1-5 1), in
Mabillon, Acta SS. O.S.B. t. iii.]

S. ^Emilian, surnamed Cucullatus, from his habit, was of
low birth, and a shepherd. After some time he placed him-
self under the discipline of a hermit, named Felix. When
he had acquired sufficient mastery over himself, he went to
Vergege, a little town of Aragon, then belonging to the dio-
cese of Tarazona, but now to that of Calahorra. Thence
he retreated to the depths of the mountain recesses of Dis-
terce, and practised the monastic life in solitude for forty
years. Didymus, bishop of Tarazona, ordained him priest,
and placed him in charge of the church of Vergege ; but his
profuse charity dissipated the goods of the church, and re-
duced it to such straits, that the clergy complained to the
bishop. ^Emilian was admirable as a solitary, he was im-
practicable as a parish priest. The bishop saw his mistake,
and sent him back to his mountain cell, where he remained
till his death, which took place about the year 574, when he
had reached the advanced age of a hundred. His relics are
preserved in the monastery of S. Milan de la Cogolla, near
Najara. Milan is the corruption of ^Emilian.

& _ — — *

* — - . — — —

Nor. i*.] S.Martin. 293

S. MARTIN, POPE, M.
(a.d. 655.)

[Roman Martyrology. Usuardus, &c. By the Greeks as a confessor
on April n, and as a martyr on November 12. Authorities: — His
Letters, and the " Commemoratio eorum quae .... acta sunt in S.
Martinum," in Mansi, t. x. p. 855.]

Martin, a native of Todi, son of Fabricius, was elected
Pope on the death of Theodore, in 649. It was a time of
controversy. Paul, a Monothelite, was patriarch of Con-
stantinople, occupying the throne of the exiled Pyrrhus.
Pyrrhus was also a Monothelite. He came to Rome when
Theodore was Pope, to claim his interference, and to secure
it, he proclaimed his adhesion to the doctrine of the Two Wills.
But his conscience reproached him for this abandonment of
his convictions for the sake of his interests, and he returned
to Ravenna, and there recanted his acknowledgment of the
two wills. Theodore excommunicated him with a pen dipped
in the consecrated chalice. Theodore at the same time ex-
communicated Paul. Paul revenged himself by suppressing
the religious worship of the papal envoys at court, maltreat-
ing, and even causing to be scourged, some of their attendants.
Constans II., the emperor, sought to put an end to the con-
troversy by publishing a decree, which has received the name
of the Type. It began with the statement of the cause of its
issue : " We have remarked that our orthodox people have
been thrown into great perplexity, because on the subject of
the ceconomy of God, that is, the Incarnation, some profess
that there was but one will, saying that Christ, one and the
same, operated the Divine and the human, while others teach
and profess two wills and two energies. The former support
their opinion by saying that our Lord Jesus Christ is but

* *

% igi

294 Zz'z/£f of the Saints. [Nov. 12.

One Person in two natures, which are neither confounded
nor separated, and that He wills and operates at one and
the selfsame time that which is Divine and that which is
human. The others say, as in one person two natures are
united without division, the difference of these natures is not
effaced, and following the attributes of these natures, one and
the selfsame Christ operates the Divine and the human. . . .
We have thought, with the help of God, that it is our duty to
extinguish the flame of contention, and not to suffer souls
to be thereby imperilled. We therefore forbid our subjects
from this moment to dispute and quarrel whether there be
the one will and one energy, or the two wills and two
energies. Our ordinance is not issued to destroy any teach-
ing of the holy fathers on the subject of the Divine Word,
we wish simply to bring to an end all wrangling over this
question, and that our subjects should conform themselves
to the sacred scriptures and the traditions of the five oecu-
menical councils, and to the teaching and propositions of the
fathers, without curtailing or adding thereto, or twisting them
to a perverse meaning. Let every effort be made to preserve
the doctrine held before the present controversy broke out,
and let neither party blame the other."

To facilitate this peaceful issue, the emperor ordered the
removal of the Ecthesis of Heraclius, formulating the doctrine
of the One Will, from the narthex of the great church at Con-
stantinople, and threatened the factions with divers punish-
ments.

Immediately after the publication of the Type, and pro-
bably before it came to his knowledge, Theodore died.
Martin had been apocrisiarius of the Holy See at Constanti-
nople, before his elevation to the vacant chair of S. Peter,
and was therefore hot and vehement on the controversy which
had raged around him. The Acts of S. Ouen assert that the
emperor at once asked Martin, in a friendly manner, to give

4, *

Nov. ».] S. Martin. 295

his adhesion to the Type, but that the Pope refused it in the
most peremptory manner ; and Martin then asked the king
of the Franks to send learned bishops to Rome to deliberate
with him how best to combat and overthrow the pacific
attempts of the emperor, and rake up the controversial fire
which was consuming the East. The king resolved to send
to Rome Ouen of Rouen, and Eligius of Noyon, but they
were prevented by circumstances from undertaking the
journey.

In October, 649, a council of a hundred and five bishops
assembled in the Lateran at Rome. The bishops were
nearly all from Italy and the adjacent islands. After five
sessions, in which Monothelitism was convicted on the autho-
rity of the fathers of being heretical and antichristian, twenty
canons were framed condemning the heresy and its authors.
But Pope Martin was not content with anathematizing the
erroneous doctrine of the Single Will, with humbling the
rival prelate of Constantinople by excommunication in full
council, with declaring the edict of the deceased emperor
Heraclius, the Ecthesis, absolutely impious ; he denounced
as of equal impiety the Type of the reigning emperor, coun-
selling peace. Its exhortation to sink differences in Chris-
tian charity he scorned as a persuasive to unholy acquies-
cence in heresy; abstention from controversial vehemence
on such doctrines was a wicked suppression of Divine
truth.

Nor was Martin wanting in activity to maintain his bold
position. He published the decrees of the Lateran Council
throughout the West. He appointed a legate in the East to
supersede the Monothelite patriarchs of Antioch and Jeru-
salem. Paul of Thessalonica had agreed to condemn the
doctrine, but hesitated about excommunicating those who
through misunderstanding had accepted the doctrine of the
One Will. Martin poured out on him the vials of his wrath.

^ *

# — — $

296 Lives of the Saints. tNov I3.

Because he thus abstained, Martin condemned him as a con-
centration of all heretical pravity.1 yjle wrote to the faithful
of the patriarchates of Antioch and Jerusalem, to stir them
up against Macedonius and Peter, the bishops of Antioch
and Alexandria, who had accepted the Ecthesis and the
Type^) ^Whilst the Lateran Council was holding its session,
the emperor sent his chamberlain, Olympius, to Italy to
obtain the acceptance of the Type by every means in his
power. On reaching Rome, it is pretended by later writers
— like Anastasius the Librarian — that Olympius endeavoured
to obtain the assassination of the Pope at the moment that
Martin was communicating the chamberlain, but that a
sudden blindness fell on the servant detailed for the murder,
so that he could not see either the Pope, or the communion,
or the kiss of peace. The reason why the would-be mur-
derer saw none of this was that there was no intending
murderer to see them.

Olympius was hastily summoned from Rome to repel an
invasion of Sicily by the Saracens, and died of fatigue in
that island. Another exarch came in his place, Theodorus
Calliopas (June, 653), a man firm and crafty. He marched
to Rome at the head of a body of soldiers, and summoned
the Pope to surrender to the imperial authority. Some delay
took place ; Martin wrote to one of his friends that he was
ready to exult rather than weep in the midst of his difficul -
ties. On June 15, the day when Theodore entered Rome,
he retired with all his clergy into the church of the Saviour,
the Lateran basilica. The Pope sent a deputation to the
exarch to offer him compliments on his arrival, and to excuse

1 " Ut per hoc non solum eos etiam quos anathematizamus, nempe ipsas hxreti-
corum pcrsonas, anathematizare recuses .... sed ut etiam omnem omnium
errorem/Taganorum, Judaeorum, haereticorumN in te confirmes sed etiam omnia
omnium norum dogmata condemnamus, ut cdntraria et inimica veritati, tu vero
omnia una nobiscum voce non anathematizas quae anathematizamus, consequens est,
te horam omnium errorem confirmasse, qui a nobis sive ab ecclesia catholicS anathe-
inatizatur."

& "*

Nov. 13.J

6*. Martin.

297

his presence on the plea of indisposition. The exarch
received the deputation with favour, and when he remarked
that the Pope had not come to meet him, and heard the
reason, or rather the excuse, he dissembled his annoyance at
the discourtesy, and said he would pay the Pope a visit next
day. Martin was well enough on that day, Sunday, to say
mass before a crowd. The exarch, tired with his journey,
deferred his visit till Monday. On that day he sent his
secretary to the Pope to ask why he had filled his house
with stones, arms, and provisions as if for a siege. Martin
denied that he had done so, and bade the secretary visit
every room and convince himself that he had done nothing
of the sort. Martin then made complaints of the false accu-
sations which had been made against him, as of having
offered to give armed support to the " infamous " Olympius.
The Pope had ordered his bed to be strewed before the high
altar in the Lateran. The exarch and his troops entered the
church, the light of the candles flickered on the armour of
the soldiery. (Theodore Calliopas at once announced to the
priests and deacons that he was the bearer of a decree to the
effect that Martin, having seized on the episcopate irregularly
and unlawfully,1 must be conducted to Constantinople, and a
successor appointed in his room. The charge was probably
correct. He had, apparently, attempted to dispense with the
sanction of the emperor on his election, and first among the
Popes had made an effort to shake himself free of the impe-
rial authority which claimed a right to accept or reject the
Pope-Elect.)(Various other charges were trumped up against
him, as that he had sent money to the Saracens, and had
not taught the right faith on the Blessed Virgin Mary. The
people shouted, " Anathema to him who says that Martin
has opposed the faith ; anathema to him who is not faithful
to the faith." The exarch quieted the people by explaining

• " Irregulariter et sine lege." Mart. Epist. ii. ad Theod.

298 Lives of the Saints. [NoT. I2>

that the question was not one of difference in faith, but one
of usurpation of office.

On Tuesday the clergy of Rome visited the Pope. During
the night he was removed to Ostia, and embarked for Con-
stantinople with six or seven servants. After a three months'
voyage they reached the island of Naxos, where Martin was
left a prisoner. The only favour accorded him was that he
might bathe, and lodge in a hostel ; but the guards kept for
themselves the presents which were brought and offered him
by his friends and admirers.

On September 17, 654, Pope Martin reached Constan-
tinople, and was transferred at once to the prison called Pran-
dearia, where he spent ninety-three days. During this time
he wrote his second letter to Theodore, in which he com-
plains that he had been kept forty-eight days without a
bath. His bowels, he said, were out of order, his food was
nasty and insufficient. When he was taken from prison to
be tried he was very weak, and could not stand without
support.

The president asked, " Unhappy one, tell me, what wrong
has the emperor done you?" Martin answered nothing.
^Witnesses were produced, testifying that he had intrigued
with Olympius against the emperor.^ It was no doubt true
that Olympius and Martin had been- on terms of intimacy at
Rome ; how far, in their mutual recriminations against Con-
stans II., Olympius had confided to Martin projects of revolt,
cannot be said. It is not probable that the accusations \
were wholly unfounded. Martin, instead of rebutting them,
tried to force the doctrinal question into the forefront.

(" When the Type was published and sent to Rome " he

began, but was cut short by the prefect, Troilus, who said,
"We are not speaking of doctrine, but of rebellion. You
knew that Olympius was plotting against the emperor, and
instead of arresting him, you kept on terms with him."

£1 *

* *

not. ix] ^ Martin. 299

CMartin exclaimed, " And you did not hinder George and
Valentine from revolting against the emperor. How could
I constrain a man backed by all the military force of Italy ? .)
However, settle my case as quickly as you can, and as you
like."

The president rebuked the interpreter for translating this
defiant speech literally, and then went to the emperor to
report what had taken place. The Pope was taken from the
tribunal, and placed in the great court to be seen by the
people, and that the emperor might see him, he was lifted
upon a platform. A fiscal officer issued from the apartments
of the emperor, and assailed him with the words, " You have
struggled against the emperor, what hope remains for you
now ? You abandoned God, and God has abandoned you."
The pontifical ornaments of the Pope were plucked off, and
he was given into the hands of the prefect of the city, with
the sneering order from Demosthenes, " Let him be cut to
pieces." A chain was attached to his neck, and he was taken
to the praetorium, and shut up in the prison of Diomede.
It was winter, and cold, and his clothes were in rags. Two
good women, the wife and daughter of the jailer, supplied
him with warm clothing. Gregory, the prefect, sent him
meats ; the weary man received them with a sigh. " Let us
hope that you will not die," said the prefect, and ordered his
chains to be removed. Next day the emperor visited the
patriarch Paul, who was dying, to tell him what had been
done. The patriarch was shocked and indignant, and re-
monstrated with the emperor, and entreated him not to use
further violence.

Martin, who hoped for speedy martyrdom, heard with
regret that his life was likely to be spared. On the death of
Paul, Pyrrhus, who had returned from Italy, resumed the
throne of Constantinople. A long examination of Martin
took place on the conduct of Pyrrhus at Rome. For eighty-

* *

*_ #

300 Lives of the Saints. [Nov. lfc

five days Martin languished in prison: he was at length
shipped, March 26, 655, for Cherson in the Tauric Cher-
sonese. There he was kept short of food, and died on
September 16 in the same year. His body was buried at
Cherson, in the church of S. Mary of Blacherna. Two
letters written by him from Cherson still exist, in which he
complains of being neglected by his friends and the Roman
clergy, who had abandoned him, and sent him neither wine
nor corn.

There can be little doubt that the real reason of his im-
prisonment, and the harsh treatment which accelerated his
death, was his opposition to the Type of Constans, and that
most of the charges against him were false or exaggerated.

S. LIVINUS, B.M.
(a.d. 657.)

[Roman and Belgian Martyrologies. Authority : — A Life, fabricated
probably in the nth century, and attributed to S. Boniface. Also an
" Elegia S. Livini .... ad Florbertum abbatem S. Bavonis de im-
minente sibi a Brabantis palma martyrii, " a forgery of the same date.
No MSS. earlier than the nth century of the Life of S. Livinus exist.
The only one of that century is at Ghent, and is probably the original.]

Liafwin, apostle of the Frisians, was perhaps at some time
in Brabant. Liafwin died in 773, and was buried at the port
of Deventer, where his deposition is commemorated on
November 12th.

On the same day, at the port of Ghent, is commemorated
a saint of originally the same name. Liafwin has been
Latinized at Deventer into Lebuinus, and at Ghent into
Livinus. Probably some relics of Liafwin had found their
way to Hauthem, near Ghent, in the 9th or 10th century.
These relics were translated in 1007 to the monastery of S.

£1 1*1

# *

Nor. ».] S. Livinus. 301

Bavo, in Ghent, by the abbot Erembold. Erembold has the
unsavoury credit of the concoction of a saintly patriarch of
Antioch out of a poor old traveller who died in his hospital
in 1012. This old man, Macarius, is now found in the
Roman martyrology on April 10. Erembold, having acquired
the relics of S. Liafwin from Hauthem, probably commis-
sioned one of his monks to fabricate a Life of him, to make
him into a martyr, and to give to his Life the authority of the
name of S. Boniface.

The Life begins : " Boniface, a man that is a sinner, the
servant of the servants of Jesus Christ, to all the Churches
founded in highest felicity on the firm rock, under the
authority of the holy and undivided Trinity." The writer
pretends that he received his information from Foillan,
Helias, and Kilian, disciples of S. Livinus, and took down
their relation of the martyrdom of the apostle of Ghent
" verbatim."

S. Boniface never designates himself " homo peccator."
The title, "servus servorum," was first adopted by S.
Gregory the Great, and afterwards used by bishops, though
never by S. Boniface. Foillan was the brother of S. Fursey,
and died in 655, murdered by robbers in Brabant (see
October 31). Consequently the date of the narration to
Boniface could not have been later than 650. S. Kilian was
martyred at Wurzburg in 689.1 Of Helias nothing is known.
S. Boniface was born in 680, and did not come to Frisia till
716, and did not settle in Germany till 723. He died in 755,
just a hundred years after Foillan, from whose lips he took
down the interesting history of the martyrdom of S. Livinus.

According to the story in the forged Life, Colomagnus
was at the time king of the Scots, and under him was a

1 There was another Kilian sent by S. Faro (d. 672) to Aubigny in Artois ; he is
commemorated on Nov. 13, but nothing in his Life leads one to suppose he was
connected with S. Livinus.

i — — #

302

Lives of the Saints.

[Nov. 1a.

senator named Theagnius, one of his chief nobles, of great
virtue, married to Agalmia, daughter of Ephigenius, king of
Ireland. Colomagnus may be Colman Rimhe, who jointly
with Aidus Slani ascended the Irish throne in 599 and reigned
six years ; or more probably Congall II. of Scotland, for the
author evidently distinguishes between the Scots and the
Irish. Early historians, when they say Scots mean Irish, this
late fabricator means natives of Scotland.

Theagnius is Thegn or Thane, a Saxon title. Ephigenius,
" the illustrious king of the Irish," is Eugenius, imagined to
be the head of the Eogain clan, which fought with the rival
Dalcais in the tenth century. The forger had probably
heard of the Eoghanists claiming alternate presentation with
the Dalcais to the throne of Munster, and therefrom con-
ceived that there must have been a renowned King Eoghan,
and he made him maternal grandfather of his saint. When
Livinus was born a vision appeared to Archbishop Menal-
chus — of what see not stated — informing him of the great-
ness in store for the babe. Livinus is said to have been
baptized by S. Augustine of Canterbury and Menalchus in
concert, and to have been given the name of his uncle
Livinus the "archbishop of the Church of Ireland," who
suffered martyrdom for the faith among the Northumbrians.
As it happens, there was no archbishop of Armagh of that
name, nor is any martyr of a name approaching it known to
have suffered among the Northumbrians.

That S. Augustine should visit Ireland to baptize Livinus,
or that Menalchus and the parents of Livinus should go to
Canterbury to have the child baptized, is either way too
absurd to need consideration. Whilst the baptism was
taking place a column of light shone over the child, and a
hand of fire traced the cross thrice on his brow, whilst a voice
from heaven thundered, " Beloved of God and men, whose
memory shall be blessed."

* *

Nov. xa.] £ Livinus. 303

Whilst still young, Livinus cured two paralytics named
Elymas and Symphronius. He was educated by Benignus,
a Scottish priest There was a Benignus, disciple of
S. Patrick, a Life of whom was written by John of Tynemouth,
but he was archbishop of Armagh, and died in 468.

After having performed many miracles in Ireland, Livinus,
accompanied by his three disciples, Foillan, Helias, and
Kilian, went to S. Augustine at Canterbury, the sea dividing
before them, so that they went over dry-shod. By Augustine
he was ordained priest, and sent back to Ireland, where, on
the death of his uncle Menalchus, he was elevated to the
archiepiscopal throne. Irish historians were wholly unaware
of his existence, naturally enough. " Neither Colgan, Ware,
nor Harris knew anything about him, and the whole is
undoubtedly a fable, which it would be a waste of time to
refute," says Dr. Lanigan.1 His personal appearance is
minutely described. He had a big head, rather bald on the
forehead, the hair brown mixed with grey, broad protruding
ears, lively and cheerful eyes, white shaggy eyebrows, a
white skin, hollow cheeks, a white beard, and " ductile and
graceful fingers." His miracles made him in such request in
Ireland, that he appointed a substitute in the archiepiscopal
see — his archdeacon, Sylvanus — also wholly unknown to
Irish ecclesiastical historians, and crossed the seas to Flan-
ders, with his three disciples, and settled at Ghent in the
monastery founded by S. Amandus. The abbot Floribert
received him cordially. After a while he went on into
Brabant, destroying idols, and preaching the Word. Two
ladies, Berna and Chraphahild, received him into their
house and ministered to him. The son of the latter, named
Ingelbert, was blind. Livinus restored to him his sight. A

1 " Eccl. Hist, of Ireland," ii. p. 471. Lanigan ingeniously suggests that Menal-
chus may be Melanchus, which may be a translation of Dubtach, which means
Black-mound. Dubtach II. died in 548, but was succeeded by David MacGuaire,
and not by Livinus.

& _ — >jl

304 Lives of the Saints. [Nov. 12.

rude, insolent heathen, named Walbert, put a pair of pincers
into the saint's mouth, pulled out' his tongue, and flung it
among the people, but Livinus recovered his tongue, and
went on talking with it to the people. The heathen, undis-
mayed by this miracle, fell on him and cut off his head.
Chraphahild took up his body, carrying also in her arms
her babe, which Livinus had baptized and called Brictius.
The pagans in a rage cleft her skull, and cut the babe in
three pieces. The disciples of Livinus buried the three
martyrs.

The first translation of the relics took place in 842 by
Theodore, bishop of Cambrai, who enshrined them at
Hauthem : Erembold, abbot of S. Bavo at Ghent, trans-
ferred them in 1020 to Ghent, and this is about the date of
the composition of the fabulous story. There can be little
doubt that there never existed a martyr bishop Livinus ;
and that the account of his passion was fabricated to give
importance to some relics, true or false, of Liafwin preserved
at Hauthem.1

S. Livinus is one of the patrons of Ghent.

S. CUMMIAN FADA, AB.
(a.d. 662.)

[Irish Martyrologies. Not to be confounded with Cummian Fionr.,
commemorated in the Scottish Martyrologies on Feb. 24.]

One of the principal abettors of the Roman computation
of Easter and promoters of its adoption by the Southern

• The fabricator has made use of the Life of S. Lebuinus. He has put Floribert
for Gregory of Utrecht, as the person who received him. The lady who favoured
S. Lebuinus was Abachahild, the fabricator has made the lady who received Livinus
Chraphahild. He has taken the fray at Marklo, and transferred it to Esche ; and
has improved on it by making it end in a martyrdom. Lebuinus was only nearly
killed. Livinus was killed outright.

* " *

Nov. 12.]

S. Cummian Fada.

305

Irish was Cummian, author of the celebrated Paschal Epistle
to Segienus, abbot of Hy, and Beccan, a solitary, brother to
Cummian. He seems to have been a Columbian monk,
and was probably educated in the monastery of Durrogh,
which was subject to the rule of the abbot of Iona. But he
had apparently left it and become head of a monastery of
his own founding at Disert-Chuimin, now Kilcummin, or
Kilkomin, in King's County. Segienus and his monks of
Iona were much attached to the Irish method, as having
been observed by S. Columba, and were offended at Cum-
mian advocating the Roman usage. To answer the charges
brought against him, Cummian wrote his epistle. He says
that prior to his having consulted others on the subject, he
had spent a year in examining the question, studying the
various cycles, and the Paschal systems of Jews, Greeks,
Latins, and Egyptians. And very ably did he execute his
task. He did not, however, succeed in convincing the
monks of Iona.

It is not certain that Cummian the author of the Paschal
Epistle is the same as Cummian Fada or the " Long," but
it is probable. Cummian Fada was the son of Fiachna,
king of West Munster, and was born in 592, and died in 662.
Now, as Cummian wrote the Paschal Epistle in 634, if he
were Fada, he would be aged forty-two at the time. Cum-
mian Fcda was renowned for his learning, and the Paschal
Epistle proves the writer to have been a laborious student,
well acquainted with Greek writers.

The only objection against this hypothesis is, that Cum-
mian Fada is said to have been bishop of Clonfert, whereas
Cummian, at the time of writing his Epistle, was only priest
and abbot. But there are reasons which make it doubtful
whether Fada really was bishop.

Cummian wrote also apparently the treatise, " De poeni-
tentiarum mensura," an abridgment of the penitential canons.
vol. xiii. 20

* *

306 Lives of tJie Saints, inov.™.

The Four Masters say he died on December 2. He is
not to be confounded with Cummian or Cumine Fionn, or
the White, who was abbot of Iona, a nephew of Segienus,
and his successor, who wrote the Life of S. Columba, and
died about 668.

S. CUNIBERT, ABP. OF COLOGNE
(about a.d. 663.)

[Roman and German Martyrologies. Ado, Usuardus, Wandelbert.
Authority : — A Life written late, and therefore of little value, by an
unknown hand, in Surius, Vit. SS. Nov. 12.]

Cunibert was born on the banks of the Moselle. He
was at first archdeacon of the church of Treves ; afterwards,
in 623, on the death of Remedius, elected to the bishopric
of Cologne. He assisted at the council of Rheims in 625,
which was attended by forty-one bishops, amongst them
S. Modoatus of Treves, S. Sindulf of Vienne, and S. Donatus
of Besancon. The 25th canon of this council decreed that
" no one should be elected bishop of a city who was not an
inhabitant of that city ; that the election should be made by
the suffrage of all the people, with the consent of the bishops
of the province. If any one was elevated to the episcopate
otherwise he was to be deposed, and those whom he had
ordained were to be suspended from the exercise of their
ministry for three years." Cunibert was the first prelate of
Cologne to exercise the office and fill the rank of arch-
bishop. The title was accorded to him personally for his
virtues, and was not attached to the see, which was then
under that of Mainz.

Sigebert, king of Austrasia, was much under the influence
of S. Cunibert. The saint founded at Cologne an institute
called " The Twelve Weepers," one of the offices of which

4* — — ■ *

* — *

Nov. „.] 6*. Lebuinus. 307

was to watch by the body of the defunct bishop of Cologne
till its funeral. S. Cunibert is said to have discovered the
sepulchre of S. Ursula by seeing a white dove perch on a
stone, but as has been stated in the Life of that mythical
saint, her name is not mentioned in connection with the
circumstances, and the biography of S. Cunibert is too late
to be of any value in giving evidence to the cultus of S.
Ursula as early as the 7th century. He founded a church
outside the walls of Cologne, which he dedicated to S.
Clement. He was afterwards buried in it, and it now bears
his name.

S. LEBUINUS, P.C.

(a.d. 773.)

[Gallican, German, and Belgian Martyrologies.1 The deposition on
Nov. 12, the translation at Deventer on June 25. Authority: — A Life
by Hucbald of S. Amand (918-76), "An important source of history for
the earliest condition of the Saxons, in earlier bibliographical works
wrongly attributed to S. Boniface. A beautiful production." — Potthast.
Pertz, Mon. ii. pp. 361-4. Ecloga et Sermo de S. Lebuino Presb.
auctore S. Radbodo Ep. Trajectensi (d. 917), in Surius, Vit. SS. Nov.
12, Append, vii. p. 839.]

Liafwin, whose name has been Latinized into Lebuinus,
was by birth an Anglo-Saxon. He left his country and his
father's house to carry the light of the Gospel to the Frisians
and Westphalians. He came to Utrecht, where he was
warmly greeted by S. Gregory, whom S. Boniface had left in
charge of that see. This saint sent him with Marchelm, a
disciple of S. Willibrord, to carry the glad tidings of salva-
tion into the country now called Ober-Yssel. S. Lebuinus
was received as an angel of God by a lady named Abacha-
hild.

' Curiously enough, the real Liafwin is not in the Roman Martyroloery, but the
apocryphal Liafwin, " Livinus of Ghent, Abp. M.," is.

i — ■ — *

g — *

308 Lives of the Saints. [Nov> I9

Hearing that there was to be a great gathering of the
Saxons at Marklo on the Weser, Lebuinus arrayed himself
in full canonicals, and with an uplifted cross in one hand
and a volume of the Gospels in the other, he presented him-
self before the assembly, as they were engaged in sacrifice
to their national gods.

" Hearken unto me," he thundered forth ; " and yet not
to me, but to Him that speaketh by me. I declare unto
you the command of Him whom all things serve and obey."

Struck dumb with astonishment, the warriors listened as
he went on, " Hearken, all ye, and know that God is the
Creator of heaven and earth, the sea and all things that are
therein. He is the one only true God. He made us, and
not we ourselves. The images, which ye call gods, and
which, beguiled by the Evil One, ye worship, what are they
but gold, or silver, or brass, or stone, or wood ? They
neither live, nor move, nor feel. They are but the work of
men's hands, and can neither help themselves nor any one
else. God, the only good and righteous Being, whose mercy
and truth remain for ever, moved with pity that ye should
be thus seduced by doctrines of demons, has charged me,
his ambassador, to beseech you to lay aside your present
errors, and to turn with sincere and true faith to Him, by
Whose goodness ye were created, and in Whom we live and
move and have our being. If ye will acknowledge Him, and
repent and be baptized in the name of the Father, and of
the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, and will keep His com-
mandments,, then will He preserve you from all evil, He will
vouchsafe unto you the blessings of peace, and in the world
to come, life everlasting.

" But if ye despise and reject His counsels, and persist in
your present errors, know that ye shall suffer terrible punish-
ment for scorning His most merciful warning. Behold I,
His ambassador, declare unto you the sentence which has

* *

Nov. i2.] $• Lebuinus. 309

gone forth from His mouth, and which cannot change. If
ye do not obey his commands, then will sudden destruction
come upon you. For the King of kings and Lord of lords
hath appointed a brave, prudent, and terrible prince, who is
not afar off but near at hand. He like a swift and roaring
torrent will burst upon you and subdue the ferocity of your
hearts and crush your stiff-necked obstinacy. He will in-
vade your land with a mighty host, and ravage it with fire
and sword, with desolation and destruction. As the avenging
wrath of that God, whom ye have ever provoked, he will
slay some of you with the sword, others he will cause to
waste away in poverty and want, others he will lead into
perpetual captivity. Your wives and children he will sell
into slavery, and the residue of you he will reduce to igno-
minious subjection, that in you may be justly fulfilled what
has been long ago predicted, ' They were made a handful,
and scattered and tormented with the tribulation and anguish
of the wicked.' "

The effect of these words can easily be imagined. The
warriors, who had listened at first with awe- struck reverence,
were seized with ungovernable fury. " Here is that seducer,"
they cried, " that enemy of our sacred rites and of our
country. Away with him from the earth, and let him surfer
the just penalty of his crimes." Thereupon the whole
assembly was in a ferment. Stakes were cut from the ad-
joining thickets, stones were taken up, and Lebuinus would
have atoned for his temerity with his life had it not been
for the intervention of an aged chief named Buto, who, stand-
ing on an eminence, thus addressed the excited throng: —

" Men and heroes all, listen to my words. Many a time
have ambassadors come to us from the Normans, Sclaves,
and Frisians. As is ever our custom, we have listened
attentively to their words, received them peaceably, and
dismissed them to their homes loaded with suitable presents.

*- *

% *

310 Lives of the Saints. [Nov. 12.

But now an ambassador from a powerful deity hath not only
been despised, but struck and stoned, and almost deprived
of life. That the God whose messenger he is hath power
and majesty, is plain from the fact that He has delivered His
servant out of our hands. Be assured, then, that what he
has threatened will surely come to pass, and those judg-
ments he has denounced will be fulfilled by a deity whom
we know and see to be great, powerful, and mighty."

With these words the old chief calmed the storm, and so
Lebuinus escaped.

In the troubles that ensued, the Saxons burnt the oratory
of Lebuinus at Deventer. After they had gone he rebuilt it,
and remained ministering in it till his death, which took
place about the year 773, when he was buried in the church
he had erected. His body, and the book of the Gospels he
had, and which was perhaps written by him, are preserved
at Deventer, in the church that bears his name.

In art he is represented as a priest in chasuble, holding
up cross and book, and treading on a spiked club.

The church of Deventer, besides preserving the body of
its apostle, enjoys the possession of a portion of the shift
of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a fragment of Aaron's rod, an
arm of S. Margaret, a tooth of S. Mary Magdalen, a rib cf
S. Lawrence, and a finger of S. Andrew.

* ■ ; *

E.Io£apli3tArchiep5.Polocen.Rutheiiu5 Ord. SBaiilii.
pre file etunione Romana^itejjjci trucifatus art.iSi3,izJ{eu.

S. JOSAPHAT KONCEVITCH, ABR, M.

Nov., Part I. p. 310.]

TNov. 12.

$ — *,

»ov. i3.] SS. Antoninus, Zebinas, and Others. 3 1 1

November 13.

SS. Valentine, Sola tor, and Victor, MM. at Ravenna ; a.d.

3°3-
S. Mitrius, M. at Aix in France.
SS. Antoninus, Zebinas, Germanus, MM., and Eunathas,

V.M. at Casarea in Palestine; a.d. 308.
SS. Arcadius, Paschasius, and Comp., MM. in Africa; a.d.

437-'
S. Brice, B. 0/ Tours; a.d. 443.
S. Quintilian, B. of Clermont; a.d. 527.
S. Columba, V.M. in Cornwall.
S. Machar, B. in Scotland; end of 6th cent.
S. Devinic, B. in Scotland; end of 6th cent.
S. Maxellend, V.M. at Caudry near Cambrai ; a.d. 670.
S. Kilian, P.C. at Aubigny in Artois; jth cent.
S. Nicolas I., Pope of Rome ; a.d. 867.
S. Malcolm III., K . of the Scots ; a.d. 1093.
S. Homobonus, C. at Cremona ; A.D. 1197.
S. Didacus, C, O.M. at Alcalain Spain; a.d. 1463.
S. Stanislas Kotska, C, S.J. at Rome ; a.d. 1568.

SS. ANTONINUS, ZEBINAS, AND OTHERS, MM.
(a.d. 308.)

[Roman Martyrology. Authority : — Eusebius, Hist. Eccl. lib. viii.
c. 9.]

NTONINUS, a priest, Zebinas, and Germanus,
Christian laymen, were brought before Fermilian,
at Csesarea, in the persecution of Maximinus, and
were executed with the sword on November 13.
On the same day Eunathas, a woman of Scythopolis, a pro-
fessed virgin, was brutally scourged, stripped to her waist,
and beaten in this condition through the streets. She was
then brought back to the magistrate, who condemned her to
be burned alive.

1 Prosper, Chron. ann. 441.

* — ,

312 Lives of the Saints. tNov. 13>

S. BRICE, B. OF TOURS.

(A.D. 443.)

[Roman and Gallican Martyrologies. Usuardus, Ado, Florus, Wan-
delbert, &c. Anglican Reformed Kalendar. York, Hereford, and
Sarum Kalendars. The translation on April 7. Authorities : — Mention
in the Life of S. Martin by Sulpicius Severus, and S. Gregory of Tours,
Hist. lib. x. c. 31.]

S. Brice — Brictius in Latin — was brought up from infancy
in the monastery of S. Martin, near Tours. According to
popular tradition he was the son of the Count of Nevers,
and by order of his father was exposed in his cradle on the
Loire. Martin rescued and adopted him.

Brice did not appreciate the perfection of his master. One
day a sick man came to see Martin, and asked of Brice, then
a deacon, where the saint was. " The fool is yonder," an-
swered the deacon, "staring at the sky like a man distraught."

Afterwards Martin called Brice to him, and said, " So I
am a fool ?'; Brice was confounded. " I have prayed for
you," said S. Martin ; " you will become bishop of Tours, but
your lot will not be a peaceful one."

Brice laughed, and said, " I thought he was out of his mind,
and now I am sure of it."

One day S. Martin rebuked Brice for buying horses and
slaves at a high price, and even providing himself with
beautiful young girls. Brice was furious, and said, " I am
a better Christian than you. I have had an ecclesiastical
education from my youth, and you were bred up amid the
licence of the camp, and now in your old age you indulge in
all sorts of foolish ascetic practices, and are a prey to hallu-
cinations." He repented after a few moments, and returned
and flung himself at the feet of his master, and asked his
pardon.

* *

Nov., Part I. p. 312.]

S. BRICE. After Cahier.

[Nov. 13.

Nov. I*] S.Brice. 313

"Afterwards/' says Sulpicius Severus, who lived at the
time, and knew Brice, " this same Brice was convicted of
great crimes, but the saint (Martin) could not make up his
mind to depose him from the priesthood, lest it should look
as though he were revenging his private wrongs on him.
But he often repeated, ' If Christ endured Judas, why not
I Brice ?' " l

On the death of S. Martin, Brice, probably on account of
his birth and wealth, was elected to succeed him in the see
of Tours.

As bishop he apparently showed little improvement, and
gave great scandal. Lazarus, bishop of Aix, accused him
before several councils, but did not obtain his condemnation.
At last a gross outrage on morals was attributed to him, and
caused his flight. A nun gave birth to a child, and confessed
that she had been seduced by Brice. S. Gregory of Tours
says that when the child was brought to Brice, and he was
accused of being its father, the bishop asked the child — then
a month old — whether this charge were true, as if the infant
were likely to know who was its father. The babe uttered a
sound which was taken to be a " No." But the people were
not convinced, and asked that the babe should say who was
its father, if Brice was not. The bishop declined to carry
the miracle further, and he either ran away from Tours, or
was deposed. A priest named Justinian was elected in his
room. On the death of Justinian, Armentius succeeded him.
Brice resided in Rome till the death of Armentius, and then
ventured back to Tours to reclaim his episcopal throne. He
was allowed to reascend it ; so many years had passed,
that the accusations against him were forgotten or disre-
garded, and he occupied it for seven years. He died, after
having been nominally bishop for forty-seven years, the
greater portion of which time he had spent in exile. In his

1 Sulpi. Sever. Dialog, iii. 29.

* *

314 Lives of the Saints. [Nov<

old age, when the fires of youth had burned themselves out,
he acquired the character of a saint, and when no evidence
was procurable to establish the charge which had been made
against him, it was charitably regarded as a calumny.

S. COLUMBA, V.M.
(date uncertain.)

[Venerated anciently at S. Columb Major and S. Columb Minor in
Cornwall. On Oct. 23 in " A Memorial of British Piety, or a British
Martyrology," by Challoner, London, 1761. At S. Columb on the
Sunday after Nov. 13, which is no doubt the day on which her festival
was anciently observed there.]

Camden says that S. Columba was " a very pious woman
and a martyr," on the authority of an old Life which was
shown him by one Nicolas Roscarrock,1 and Edmund Gibson,
in the third edition of Camden, adds that he had seen this
Life in Latin, translated from the old Cornish.2 In the patent
for the fair at S. Columb's, on the first Thursday after the
13th November, she is called " Sancta Columba, virgo et
martyr," and her feast day is kept on the Sunday after the
fair. Whittaker says she was put to death by a heathen king
of Cornwall, who resided at the time at Trekyning, near S.
Columb.3

The popular tradition is that the church is built on the
scene of her martyrdom.

1 " Britannia," edit. Gough, i. p. 6 ; epist. i. p. gi.

8 " Britannia," ed. 3, i. p. 22.

* "Ancient Cathedral of Cornwall," ii. p. 8g.

* ■ *

* *

Nov. 13.]

S. Machar 315

S. MACHAR, B.

(end of 6th cent.)

[The Kalendar of David Camerarius on this day. In Dempster on
Nov. 12 and Jan. 15. In Adam King's Kalendar on Nov. 12. The
Aberdeen Breviary on the same day. Authority : — The Life in the
Lessons of the Aberdeen Breviary. The Life of S. Columba by Marius
O'Donell. See also Reeve's Adamnan.]

S. Machar, called also Mauricius and Mochumma, was
the son of Fiachna, prince of Ulster, and his wife Finchcemia.
He was baptized by S. Colman, who named him Mocumma.
He early exhibited signs of sanctity, and angels are said to
have sung sweet songs round his cradle, lulling the little
child to sleep and dreams of Paradise. His brother died,
and was placed in the bed of Machar ; the sanctity of the
future bishop restored warmth to the dead flesh of the boy,
and he sat up.

Machar placed himself under S. Columba in Hy, or Iona,
and was sent to convert the inhabitants of the island of
Mull. There he healed seven lepers, and turned to stone a
boar which rushed forth against him.

He was ordained bishop, and sent among the Picts with
twelve companions, and ordered by S. Columba to stop where
a river took the form of a pastoral staff. Having found such
a spot, he built a church, and preached the Word with great
success. It is said that he accompanied S. Columba to
Rome, and that S. Gregory gave him the name of Maurice,
and appointed him to the vacant episcopal throne of Tours.
On reaching Tours with his master, the people they found
were ignorant of where S. Martin lay. S. Columba promised
to find the body if he were given a relic from it. He prayed,
discovered the remains of S. Martin, and carried off the

4f #

316 Lives of the Saints. [Nov> I3_

missal of the saint which lay with the body. Maurice re-
mained at Tours as bishop, and ruled the diocese three years
and a half. Then, after a glorious vision of Christ, S. Columba,
and S. Martin, he died, and was buried at Tours.

This story deserves no credit. S. Columba never went to
Rome or to Tours. S. Gregory the Great was made Pope in
590, and S. Columba died in 597. He was far too old and
infirm to have made such a journey in the last years of his
life. The church of Tours knows nothing of a Bishop
Maurice.

Mochumma, as we learn from O'Donell's Life of S.
Columba, accompanied the abbot from Ireland when
banished by .the Synod of Teilte, in 562. In vain Columba
represented to him that he ought not to abandon his parents
and native soil. "It is thou," answered the young man,
"who art my father, the Church is my mother, and my
country is where I can gather the largest harvest for Christ."
Then, in order to make all resistance impossible, he made a
solemn vow aloud to leave his country and follow Columba.
" I swear to follow thee wherever thou goest, until thou hast
led me to Christ, to whom thou hast consecrated me." It
was thus, says his historian, that he forced himself, rather
than offered himself, as a companion to the great exile, in the
course of his apostolical career among the Picts, and he had
no more active or devoted auxiliary.

There are two parishes in Aberdeen bearing his name, and
Macker's Haugh in Kildrummie. That he was a bishop is
possible, that he preached in Mull and in Aberdeenshire
is probable. Dochonna and Tochannu are forms of his
name.

*— *

Nov. 13.]

•S*. Devinic. 317

S. DEVINIC, B.

(end of 6th cent.)

[Dempster's Scottish Menology, Adam King's Kalendar, and that of
David Camevarius. Aberdeen Breviary.]

The Aberdeen Breviary says : " When the blessed fathers,
Columba and Mauricius (Machar), were preaching in Scot-
land, a very old man named Devinicus also flourished there.
He divided the work of the ministry between himself and
Mauricius, going to the province of Caithness while
Mauricius went to the Picts. S. Mauricius said, ' Now
again we shall be joined. In life celestial we shall unite
for ever and rejoice with Christ. But there is one thing
that I desire, that when death comes, my body may be
brought hither to be buried.' The saint agreed, and Devinic
went to the people of Caithness preaching the Word. At
length Devinic came to die, and told them to take his body
to one of the churches of Mauricius, mindful of his old
engagement. And this was done. The following night S.
Mauricius saw angels descending on the church where the
holy body lay, and said, ' A guest cometh, to whom we must
pay honour ;' but on coming they found not his body, for
they who carried it, wishing to rest, had borne it to a place
called Crostan. There they held vigil, and then brought it
to a place called Banqukory Devynik, where a church was
raised in his honour."

Criech was probably dedicated to this saint, but his name
has suffered corruption into S. Teavneck. At Methlich is
S. Denick's fair, on the second Tuesday in November. S.
Devinick's well is on the opposite side of the Ythan.
Bishop Forbes suggests that S. Devinic may be the saint to
whom Landevedneck, near the Lizard Point, in Cornwall,

X- &

*. *

3 1 8 Lives of the Saints. ^0Vi t

is dedicated. But this can scarcely be. The knowledge of
the apostle of Caithness could not well have reached Corn-
wall and Brittany, in which province is also a church with
the same dedication, Lan Devenach. The saint commemo-
rated in Cornwall and Brittany is probably S. Dyfynog, son
of Medrod ab Cawrdaf ab Caradog, whose church was in
Brecknockshire, and his festival February 13.

S. MAXELLEND, V.M.

(7TH CENT.)
[Gallican Martyrologies. Authority : — A Life written after 1070.]

Maxellend, a maiden of the neighbourhood of Arras,
daughter of Humolin and Ameltrude, persons of rank, devoted
herself early to the religious life. A young noble named
Hard win asked her hand of her parents, and they promised
her in marriage, regardless of the protestations of the maiden.
" If you desire to serve God," they said, "is it not possible
to do so in the state of marriage?" "I have resolved to
dedicate myself to a life of virginity," she answered, " and
nothing shall turn me from my purpose." They disregarded
her protest, and made everything ready for the marriage.
The day came; Hardwin arrived with his relations and
followers, and found a stubborn bride, who would not be
forced to accept him. In vain did her father storm and
threaten, in vain did Hardwin entreat, and then rage with
disappointment. She was inflexible, and the intended bride-
groom was obliged to retire baffled and offended.

Shortly after Humolin and his wife left home to attend a
feast at the house of one of their friends, and took with them
all their servants, leaving Maxellend alone with her nurse.
It was arranged between them and Hardwin that he should

g, £

* — — *

Nov. is.] S. Nicolas I. 319

cany the girl off by force, and it was thought that when
humbled she would no longer refuse to give him her hand.
Accordingly the young man came to the house with a party
of followers, and sought admission. Maxellend hid herself
in a chest, and implored her nurse not to reveal her hiding-
place. Hardwin broke in and ransacked the house. The
box was opened, and the screaming maiden drawn out. She
struggled, fought, wrenched herself away, was caught again,
defended herself with desperation, and so successfully, that
Hardwin, in a fit of ungovernable rage, struck her such a
blow that he killed her. His attendants, aghast at what he had
done, ran away. She was buried first at Caudry. Her relics
were translated by S. Vindician, bishop of Cambrai. Cle-
ment X., in 1 67 1, granted a plenary indulgence in perpetuity
to all members of a confraternity formed under her patron-
age on the day of admission of a member, on every 13th
November, and at the moment of death. The relics of
S. Maxellend are still shown at Caudry.

S. NICOLAS I., POPE.
(a.d. 867.)

[Modern Roman Martyrology, inserted by Baronius. Authorities : —
Life by Anastasius the Librarian and his own Letters.]

Nicolas I., a Roman by birth, was brought up piously
from early childhood by his father, Theodosius. He was
ordained subdeacon by Sergius, and deacon by Leo. On
the death of Pope Benedict, he committed the body to the
tomb with many tears. The bishops and clergy assembled
in the church of S. Dionysius after long consultation elected
him ; Nicolas fled and hid in the Vatican, and was drawn
from his place of concealment, and in spite of his remon-

* " *

320 Lives of the Saints. [Nov. 13#

strances and protests, was raised to the apostolic throne.
The Emperor Louis was then in Rome. It is said that he
was the nominee of the emperor, and not favoured by the
clergy.1 " At least three great events signalized the ponti-
ficate of Nicolas I.," says Dean Milman : "the strife of
Photius with Ignatius for the archiepiscopal throne of Con-
stantinople ; the prohibition of the divorce of king Lothair
from his queen Theutberga; and the humiliation of the
great prelates on the Rhine, the successful assertion of the
papal supremacy, even over Hincmar, archbishop of Rheims.
In the first two of these momentous questions, the contest
about the see of Constantinople, and that of Lothair, king
of Lorraine, with his wife Theutberga, Nicolas took his stand
on the great eternal principles of justice, humanity, and
sound morals. These were no questions of abstruse and
subtle theology, nor the assertion of dubious rights. In
both cases the Pope was the protector of the feeble and the
oppressed, the victims of calumny and of cruelty. The
bishop of Constantinople, unjustly deposed, persecuted,
exiled, treated with the worst inhumanity, implored the
judgment of the head of Western Christendom. A queen,
not only deserted by a weak and cruel husband, but wickedly
and falsely criminated by a council of bishops, obtained a
hearing at the Court of Rome ; her innocence was vindicated,
her accusers punished, the king himself compelled to bow
before the majesty of justice made venerable by religion.
If in both cases the language of Nicolas was haughty and
imperious, it was justified to the ears of men by the goodness
of his cause. The lofty supremacy which he asserted over
the see of Byzantium awoke no jealousy, being exerted in
behalf of a blameless and injured prelate. If he treated the
royal dignity of France with contempt, it had already become
contemptible in the eyes of mankind ; if he annulled by his

1 Prudent. Trecens. ap. Pertz, 1. 142.
* • *

* *

Nor. 13.] S.Nicolas I. 321

own authority the decree of a national council, composed of
the most distinguished prelates of Gaul, that council had
already been condemned by all who had natural sympathies
with justice and with innocence."1 But Nicolas I., if he did
not promulgate, at least accepted and acted upon as authentic
the Forged Decretals. He gave them the weight of papal
sanction, and it was with their aid that he was able to crush
Hincmar, who struggled to maintain the independence of
the Teutonic Church.

These Decretals were a collection of forged letters and
decrees of the twenty earliest popes, from Clement to Mel-
chiades, and together with the genuine decrees of the popes
and councils from Sylvester to Gregory II., were incorpo-
rated thirty-nine false decrees, and the acts of several un-
authentic councils. In this vast repository of judgments the
popes appear as the legislators, guardians, and fathers of the
faith throughout the world. It was composed with the design
of furnishing the popes with a weapon for crushing those
who opposed their most ambitious claims, and a means for
exalting them to the highest pinnacle of power in the Church.
It was a long, continuous, unbroken series of letters, an
accumulated mass of decrees of councils, of which the
archives of Rome could show no vestige, which the most
cursory investigation among them could demonstrate to be
false. Nicolas certainly is guiltless of their fabrication, but
he cannot be cleared of the charge of employing them,
appealing to them as genuine, when he must, or ought to
have known that they were a wicked invention. In his
letters one year he showed no knowledge of their existence,
in those of the following they are triumphantly claimed, and
he thus gave his deliberate sanction to this gross historic
fraud, the true character of which a few hours of study in the
papal archives would have proved.

' " Latin Christianity," book v. c. 4.
VOL. XIII. 21
*

-4*

322 L ives of the Saints. rN0v. I3.

Nicolas died in November, 867, and was buried before
the gates of the basilica of S. Peter. A later writer thus
gives his estimation of his character : " Since the days of
Gregory I. to our time sat no high priest on the throne of
S. Peter to be compared to Nicolas. He tamed tyrants and
kings, and ruled the world like a sovereign ; to holy bishops
and clergy he was mild and gentle ; to the wicked and un-
converted a terror ; so that we may truly say that a new
Elias arose in him." l

S. STANISLAS KOTSKA, C, S.J.

(A.D. 1568.)

[Roman Martyrology on Aug. 15. Beatified by Clement VIII. in
1604; an office in his honour granted to the churches of Poland by
Paul V. This privilege granted to the Society of Jesus by Clement X.,
who fixed his festival for Nov. 13. Canonized by Benedict XIII. in
1727. Authorities :— A Life by P. J. Dorleans, S.J., Paris, 1672;
another by Francis Succhini, S.J., Ingolstast, 1609. "Compendium
Vitae, virtutum necnon actorum, in causa canonisationis B. Stanislai
Kotskae," Romae, 1726. "Vie de S. Stanislas Kostka, composee en
italien, par le P. Cepari, tr. en francais par Calpin," Paris, 1816.
" Philosophia sacra, seu Vita S. Stan. Kotskae, auct. Paulo Zettle,"
Dilingen, 1715. "Vie de S. Stanislas Kotska, SJ. Trad, libre de la
vie italienne de Bartoli : enrichie de nouveaux documents, par le P.
Pouget, S.J.," Toulouse, 1855. " S. Stanislaus, S.J., aetate juvenis,
sanctitate consummatus, nuper inter sanctos relatus, ... a P. Ant.
Franc. Mariani, S.J., italice conscript., et latinum trad.," Munich, 1727.
"Stanislas Kostka, modele de saintete . . . par le P. Pascal di
Mattei, S.J. ; trad, de l'ltalien ; " Paris, 1857.]

Stanislas Kotska, or Kostka, was the son of John Kotsk?
and Margaret Kiska, of Polish noble family. He was born
in 1550 in the castle of Kotskoff, belonging to his father.
At the age of thirteen his father sent him to Vienna with
his elder brother Paul, to study in the Jesuit college.

> Regin. Chron. Pertz, i. 57Q.

Nov. i3.] S. Stanislas Kotska. 323

Paul was a frank, gallant youth, loving active exercise and
healthy amusement ; Stanislas, delicate of constitution, and
of a shrinking disposition, loved solitude, study, and brooding
over his fancies. Paul could not understand a character the
reverse of his own, treated him as a milk-sop, and was dis-
courteous and rough with Stanislas, trying to force him into
company, and to take healthy exercise. He was provoked
by his brother's reticence, his scourging of himself and fasting,
when his health required nourishing food, by his perpetual
gravity, when he himself was disposed to be merry. Stan-
islas fell ill with what appears to have been brain-fever,
and became delirious. In his delirium he thought he saw
a black dog running about the room, and jumping at his
throat. He shrieked, and made the sign of the cross, and
battled with his hands against the imaginary beast. Stanislas
thought he was dying, and as he and his brother lodged
among Lutherans, he fancied that he would be allowed to
die without the Holy Communion. Bilinski, the tutor of the
two boys, afterwards canon of Posla, would not of course
have suffered this ; he saw that Stanislas was not as ill as he
imagined, and deferred sending for the priest. But the
notion having entered his head, vexed his excited, fevered
brain, and gave occasion to his believing that he saw
S. Barbara come to him, accompanied by two angels, and
communicate him. He cried out to his tutor to worship the
Sacred Presence, and Bilinski, with intention of humoring
a sick fancy, knelt down. Afterwards Stanislas thought that
the Blessed Virgin appeared to him, and put the child
Jesus on the bed to play with him. On his recovery he
determined to join the Jesuit Order, but the Provincial at
Vienna, Father Magius, did not dare to receive him. He
then wrote a note stating his intentions, and ran away to go
to Father Canisius, Provincial of North Germany, at Augs-
burg. His brother pursued him, but Stanislas managed to

324 Lives of the Saints. [Nov. 13.

evade him. On his way to Augsburg, he entered a church,
thinking it was Catholic, to receive the Holy Eucharist, but
found to his disappointment and disgust that he was among
Lutherans. He believed, however, that an angel came from
heaven and miraculously communicated him.

The vigorous exercise, the fresh air, dissipated the remains
of the malady which still clung to him, and he arrived in
good condition at Augsburg. Hearing that Father Canisius
was not there, but at Dilingen, he went thither, and pre-
sented himself before him as candidate for the honour of the
novitiate. Canisius, to try his vocation, ordered him to
wait at table on the pensioners of the college, and sweep
out their rooms. He did so without objecting, and with a
great spirit of enthusiasm. Canisius, finding it impossible to
conceal him there, to put him beyond the pursuit of his
parents, sent him to Rome. He made the journey on foot
with two companions, and probably enjoyed thoroughly the
expedition over the Alps, threading the beautiful valleys
between Fiissen and Innsbruck, by Reutte and Nassereit,
and then crossing the Brenner and descending the valley of
the Adige, catching the weird Dolomite peaks on the East,
as he came upon Botzen. On reaching Rome he was
received by S. Francis Borgia, then General of the Order,
and was given the habit on the feast of SS. Simon and Jude
1567, when aged seventeen.

His father was greatly incensed, not only against his son,
but also against the Jesuits, for having smuggled the boy
out of his reach. He wrote an angry letter to Stanislas, and
told him that should he return to Poland, he would have
him ironed and put under ward. Stanislas, in the fervour of
his profession, replied that he was happy where he was, and
had no intention of returning. The trudge on foot from
Vienna to Augsburg, and the further walk over the Alps, had
done wonders for his health, and set him up for a while.

*i* *

Nov. i3j S. Stanislas. Kotska. 325

But he weakened himself again by his fasting, by scourging
his back till the blood flowed, and by denying himself
necessary sleep. The consequence was that his naturally
delicate constitution gave way before he had been a year in
the novitiate. He fell ill on August 9, and died on the
14th August, 1568, at the age of eighteen, after having spent
ten months in his novitiate.

The room which he occupied in S. Andrew's College at
the Quirinal is now transformed into a chapel in his honour.
Where he died is a statue of him in coloured marbles by
Legros, a French sculptor, representing him on his bed. The
head and hands and feet are in white marble, the cassock
in black, and the bed and pillows in yellow marble. The
monument is in bad taste. An authentic portrait of S. Stan-
islas is kept in a room adjoining. His relics are preserved
in the church under an altar, in an urn of lapis-lazuli.

A chapel was built in his honour in Poland, and Cle-
ment VII. granted ten years' and ten Lent indulgences to all
who should visit it. S. Stanislas is represented in art as
miraculously communicated by an angel, bearing a lily, and
vested in cassock and short surplice, or receiving the child
Jesus from the Virgin Mother.

326 Lives of the Saints. [Nov 14>

November 14.

SS. Ci.embntius, Theodotus, and Piiilominus, MM. at Hera-

clea.
S. Serapion, M. at Alexandria; a.d. 249.
S. Venf.randus, M. at Troyes in France.*
S. Hypatius, 11. M. o/Gangra; a.d. 325.
S. Dubricius, Ab/>. of Caerlcon ; circ. a.d. 524.
S. Saens, Ab. o/yumiege; a.d. 689.
S. Laurence, Abp. of Dublin; a.d. 1180.
S. Serapion, M. at Algiers; a.d. 1240.
13. Elizabeth Bona, V. at Rcuttc in Tyrol ; a.d. 1420.

S. SERAPION, M.

(a.d. 249.)

[Roman Martyrology. Usuardus, Ado, &c. Authority :— The Epistle
of Dionysius of Alexandria to Germanus, in Eusebius, Hist. Eccl. vi.
41.]

ERAPION, an inhabitant of Alexandria, was
taken in his house, in the great persecution of
Decius, when Apollonia, Julian, Epimachus, and
others suffered in the same city. After having
been most barbarously tortured, his limbs were broken, and
he was thus flung headlong from his window in an upper
story into the street, where he died.

S. HYPATIUS, B.M.

(A.D. 325.)

[Roman Martyrology. By the Greeks on Nov. 13. Authority : —
The Greek Menology.]

S. Hypatius, bishop of Gangra in Paphlagonia, attended

1 Under Aurelian, say the Acts, but as he did not persecute, probably under
Marcus Aurelius. The narrative of his passion is not trustworthy.

Nov. 14.]

•S. Dubricius. 327

the Council of Nicaea, and on his return was stoned to
death by the Novatians.

S. DUBRICIUS, ABP.
(about a.d. 524.)

[On this day in Wales ; the translation of his body on May 29.
Authority : — A Life by Benedict, monk of Gloucester, written after
1170, in Wharton's " Anglia Sacra." Mention in the Lives of S.
David, S. Illtyt, and S. Gwynllyw.J

Dyfrig, or in Latin Dubricius, was born either on the
banks of the Gwain near Fishguard in Pembrokeshire, or at
Mochros on the Wye in Herefordshire, probably at the
latter. His father's name was Pabiali, son of Brychan, king
of Brecknock, and his mother's name was Eurddyl, daughter
of Peiban, a chief in Wales. He founded a monastery at
Hnllan on the Wye, where he spent seven years, and then
moved to Mochros. Hnllan is Hentland in Erchenfield,
and Mochros is now Moccas in the same district, and not
many miles distant. It is not very clear when he was con-
secrated bishop of Llandaff, but it was certainly after 470.
He was raised to the archbishopric of Caerleon, which he
held along with the bishopric of Llandaff, 490. He was
present at the Synod of Llanddewi-Brefi, according to the
Life of S. David by Rhyddmarch ; that synod was held
before 569, and S. Dubricius was certainly dead then.
Rhyddmarch's account of the synod is purely fabulous, and
is directed to the establishment of the apocryphal supre-
macy of S. David and his see over the entire British Church.
According to him, the synod agreed that he should be arch-
bishop and metropolitan who could preach so as to be heard
of all. Every bishop failed, and then Dubricius and Diniol

328 Lives of the Saints. [Nov. I4_

went in search of David, whose powers of lung were so great
that his voice could be heard distinctly by all.1

He retired to the island of Bardsey in his old age, and
there died. Dugdale and others pretend that he was bishop
of Warwick, and founded a church dedicated to All Saints
where Warwick Castle stands, and an oratory at Guy's Cliff.
There is not a shadow of evidence worth anything to support
this assertion.

S. Dubricius was exhumed and translated in 11 20, by
Bishop Urban of Llandaff.

S. LAURENCE OTOOLE, ABP. OF DUBLIN.
(a.d. 1 180.)

[Roman Martyrology. Canonized by Honorius III. in 1226. Au-
thority : — A Life written by a Canon of Eu shortly after his death, in
Surius, Vit. SS. Nov. 14.]

Lorcan OTuathal, or, as he is generally called, Laurence
O'Toole, was the youngest son of Muriartach (Murtough)
O'Tuathal, prince of Imaly in the present county of Wicklow.
His mother was of the equally great family of the Hy-Brins.
Lorcan remained with his parents till he was about ten years
old, when he was given as a hostage by his father to Dermot
MacMurrough, king of Leinster. He was a brutal prince.
In 1 135, to please one of his followers, he took the abbess
of Kildare from her convent and delivered her over to his
pleasure. The people of Kildare rose to rescue her, but
without success, for a hundred and fifty of them were killed
by Dermot's soldiers. He put out the eyes of Muirkertach,

1 The date of the synod is generally fixed at 519, so as to allow of Dubricius being
present at it. But the only authority for the two synods of Llandewi-Brefi is
Rhyddmarch, and he admits that all records were lost. Some penitential canons
passed at it have, however, been preserved, and come to us from Brittany. See Stubbs
ind Haddan, "Councils and Eccl. Doc." i. p. 116-18.

Nov. i4.] S. Laurence O'Toole. 329

chief of Wicklow, and seventeen other lords. Murtough
O'Toole heard that Dermot was treating his son badly, that
he had sent him to a barren bog, and given him insuffi-
cient food. He seized on twelve of Dermot's soldiers and
threatened to put them to death if his son were not restored
to him. Dermot, alarmed at the menace, transferred Lau-
rence to the care of the bishop of Glendalough. The bishop
kept him twelve days, and then delivered him up to his
father. Murtough took Laurence with him and went to
Glendalough, and asked the bishop to determine, by casting
of lots, which of his sons should be devoted to the ecclesi-
astical estate. Laurence laughed, and asked what was the
use of casting lots when he was willing to become a clerk.
His father gladly permitted him to remain with the bishop
of Glendalough and receive training for the priesthood. He
was then aged twelve. Murtough O'Toole was afterwards
put to death by Dermot.

When Laurence was twenty-five, he was elected abbot of
the monastery of Glendalough. He was profuse in his alms,
and the riches of the abbey were not sufficient to satisfy his
ambition to give, and the readiness of the poor to receive.
After having been abbot four years, the bishop of Glenda-
lough died, and the office was offered to Laurence, who, how-
ever, refused it. Some years later, Gregory, archbishop of
Dublin, died, and then Laurence was forced to accept thearchi-
episcopal see. Laurence devoted himself to the care of his
diocese, and was strict in requiring the church offices to be
regularly and punctually celebrated. He lived a self-
denying life, taking only bread and water on Fridays, and
wearing a hair-shirt next his skin. From thirty to sixty poor
were fed daily by his bounty. Whenever he was able, he
retired to Glendalough, to enjoy the repose of meditation and
prayer.

The cruelties and violence of Dermot MacMurrough, king

330 Lives of the Saints. [Nov. i4.

of Leinster, led to his being driven from the country by a
league of princes and chiefs under Roderic O'Connor, the
head king of Ireland. Dermot fled to Henry II. of England
for assistance. At the commencement of his reign Henry
had obtained from Pope Adrian IV. a bull granting him the
right "to enter the island of Ireland, to subject the people
to obedience of laws, to eradicate the seeds of vice, and also
to make every house pay the annual tribute of one penny to
the blessed Peter." England was ambitious, Rome was im-
pecunious, and the plunder of Ireland was at once to satisfy
English ambition and to replenish the empty coffers of
Rome. Henry was, however, just then much too occupied
with his own affairs to attempt the invasion of Ireland. The
bull had been granted in 1155. It was in n 68 that Dermot
fled from Ireland to Bristol, and invoked the aid of Henry
to recover his kingdom, little conscious of the deed of gift,
whereby his kingdom and those of his enemies had been
made over by the Pope to the crown of England. Henry
received Dermot " into the bosom of his grace and benevo-
lence," and invited his nobles to undertake an expedition to
Ireland to redress the wrongs of Dermot, and enrich them-
selves. For some time Dermot failed in his efforts to obtain
assistance. After some fruitless negotiations with the needy
and lawless adventurers who thronged the port of Bristol,
he applied to Richard Strongbow, Earl of Pembroke. Strong-
bow agreed to assist him on condition that he should receive
the hand of Eva, daughter of Dermot, and should succeed
him on the throne of Leinster. Strongbow was accompanied
by Maurice Fitzgerald and Robert Fitzstephen, sons of Nesta,
mistress of Henry I., and now wife of Gerald, Lord Carew,
governor of Pembroke. We need not follow the history of
the invasion. Strongbow and his bride passed to church
in Waterford over the bleeding bodies of the dying and the
dead, who had been massacred by the savage soldiers the

Nov. i4.] S, Laurence O'Toole. 33 1

day before. Then he marched against Dublin. The in-
habitants commissioned their archbishop, S. Laurence
O'Toole, to make terms with Dermot. While the discussion
was pending, the English broke into the city and com-
menced a merciless butchery of its inhabitants. When the
archbishop returned, he heard cries of misery, and groans of
agony in all quarters, and it was not without difficulty that
he succeeded in arresting their wanton slaughter. Dermot
MacMurrough died at Ferns in 1171, of a painful disorder.
Strongbow at once proclaimed himself king of Leinster, by
right of his wife Eva. All appeared to promise well for the
object of his ambition, when he received a sudden summons
from Henry to return to England. He disregarded the
command, and sending an apology and explanations to the
king, remained in Ireland. S. Laurence, probably not
aware of the papal grant of Ireland, and that he was opposing
the will of the Vicar of Christ, endeavoured to unite the
national chiefs and rally the national army against the in-
vaders. His words appeared to have some effect. Strong-
bow threw himself into Dublin ; but he soon found himself
landlocked by an army, and enclosed at sea by a fleet.
Roderic O'Connor commanded the national forces. S.
Laurence O'Toole was in his camp, and strove to animate
the men by his exhortations and example. The Irish army
contented themselves with a blockade, and the besieged
were soon reduced to extremities from want of food. Strong-
bow offered terms of capitulation through the archbishop.
While these negotiations were in progress, Strongbow
suddenly burst out of Dublin. The Irish army was totally
unprepared for this sortie ; they fled in panic, and Roderic,
who was bathing in the Liffey, escaped with difficulty.

In October, 1171, Henry II. landed in Ireland, with five
hundred knights and four thousand men-at-arms, to take to
himself the kingdom granted him by the Holy See, and reap

332 Lives of the Saints. [Nov. 14.

the result of the victories of the Earl of Pembroke. The
Irish princes, unable to resist him, submitted without a blow,
and took oaths of allegiance.

In 1175, Laurence was at Windsor on affairs concerning
his Church, and witnessed the agreement between Roderic
O'Connor and King Henry. At the same time Henry
exercised the first act of his authority in appointing the
Irish bishops, by naming to the vacant see of Waterford,
one Augustine, an Irishman, whom he sent to the archbishop
of Cashel for consecration. Laurence went on to Canter-
bury, and was there nearly killed by a madman, who ran upon
him with a club and beat him on the head whilst he was
saying mass. Laurence was able to finish mass, though his
head bled, and he was almost stunned. The lunatic would
have been hanged, had not S. Laurence interceded for his
life.

Strongbow died at Dublin, in June, n 76. It was of the
highest political importance that his death should not be
known till some one was present to occupy his place. His
sister, Basilia, accordingly wrote to her husband, Raymond
Le Gros, at Limerick : " Know you, my dear lord, that the
great tooth in my jaw, which was wont to ache so much, is
now fallen out ; wherefore if you have any love or regard
for me, or for yourself, you will not delay to hasten hither
with all speed." Raymond understood her meaning, hasted
to Dublin, and then announced the death of Strongbow.
The dead earl was buried by S. Laurence in the cathedral of
Christ Church at Dublin. In n 79, S. Laurence O'Toole
and five other Irish bishops, were at the third Lateran
Council at Rome. On their way through England they
were obliged to take oaths that they would not act in any
way prejudicial to the king or his kingdom. The Pope
treated S. Laurence with great kindness, and gave him a
bull, in which he confirmed the rights of the see of Dublin,

*v-

Nov. 14.] S. Laurence Oy Toole. 333

and its jurisdiction over the suffragan sees of Glendalough,
Kildare, Ferns, Leighlin, and Ossory. He also appointed
him his legate throughout Ireland.

On his return to Ireland S. Laurence applied himself with
fervour, not only to the care of his diocese and province,
but likewise to the duties of his apostolic legation. He sent
in one year a hundred and forty ecclesiastics convicted of
immorality to Rome, to obtain absolution there, so that
their cases must have been of extreme grossness, as all ordi-
nary crimes could have been absolved by him. These were
scandals of a new kind in Ireland, introduced by the Norman
clergy, who flocked over to receive the good benefices in
Ireland. " Such," says Dr. Lanigan, " were the missionaries,
who, according to the wish of Adrian IV., were to establish
pure religion and sound ecclesiastical discipline in Ireland." 1

S. Laurence continued his unbounded charities, and
during a famine which lasted for three years, gave daily alms
to five hundred poor persons, besides supplying some three
hundred more with clothes and other necessaries.

In 1 1 80 he went to England to settle a dispute between
Roderic O'Connor and Henry II. But Henry refused to
see him. He therefore passed over into Normandy, waiting
an opportunity for smoothing the wrath of the king. He
fell ill almost directly, and died at Eu, crying in Irish,
" O foolish, senseless people ! what are you now to do ? who
will cure your misfortunes ? who will heal you ? "

Relics in the parish church at Eu.

1 "Irish Eccl. Hist." vol. iv. p. 243.

334 Lives of the Saints. ^oy

November 15.

S. Fei.ix, B.M. of Nola in Campania ; circ. a.d. 254.

S. Eugenius, M. at Paris; circ. A.i>. 286.

S. Carneus, M. at Dinan in Brittany.

SS. Gurias, Samonas, and Abibus, MM. at Edessa; a.d. 299.

S. Pavin, Ab. at Le Mans; a.d. 583.

S. Leontius II., B. of Bordeaux ; a.d. 585.

S. Maclovius, B. of Aleth in Brittany; a.d. 627.

S. Desiderius, B. ofCahors; a.d. 654.

S. Peronna, V. at Mortagne in Le Perclie ; a.d. 730.

S. Luperius, B. of Verona; circ. A.D. 800.

S. Leopold IV., Margrave of Austria ; a.d. 1136.

13. Albertus Magnus, AbJ>. of Ratisbon; a.d. 1280.'

S. Gertrude, V.Abss. of Heldelfin Saxony ; a.d. 1334.

SS. GURIAS, SAMONAS, AND ABIBUS, MM.

(a.d. 299.)

[Modern Roman Martyrology. Greek Menrea and Menologies on
the same day. Authority : — An Oration by Arethas, B. of Csesarea in
Cappadocia. Also two Orations by James, B. of Sarug, in Assemani,
Bib. Orient, i. p. 329, and Metaphrastes.]

N the persecution of Diocletian, Antoninus,
governor of Edessa, arrested Gurias and Samo-
nas, two Christians of that city, and thrust them
into prison. On their refusal to sacrifice to the

0
9

gods, he wrote to Diocletian to know what he had better do.
The emperor ordered Musonius, prefect of Antioch, to go to
Edessa, and try the glorious confessors of Jesus Christ.
Musonius accordingly went thither, and Gurias and Samonas
were brought before him. As they refused to burn incense
to Jupiter, he had each suspended by one hand, with a stone

1 Only in the Dominican Martyrology.

Nov. iS.] SS. Gurias, Samonas, and Abibus. 335

attached to the feet. They hung thus without crying out
for several hours. When they fainted, they were cast into
the barathrum of the prison, where the sewers discharged
their foul contents. In this fetid hole, without light or
sufficient food, they were kept during three days. On the
10th of November they were again brought before the
magistrate. They manifested such firmness that the pre-
fect lost his temper, and gave orders that Samonas should
have his knee bent, a strap of iron passed round his thigh
and shin so as to hold the leg bent, and then that the martyr
should be hung up by the foot of the bent leg, and an iron
weight attached to the other. This command seemed so
cruel even to the executioners that they urged Samonas to
escape the infliction of it, by sacrificing to the gods. Gurias
was not thus treated : he was a man of a delicate frame and
constitution, and the sufferings he had already undergone
had almost killed him. After Samonas had endured the
horrible agony some while, Musonius ordered them both to
be decapitated, and this order was immediately executed,
November 10th, about the year 299.

Several years after, under Licinius, Abibus, deacon of
Edessa, finding that Licinius was determined on persecuting
the Christians, and that his officers were seeking him, de-
livered himself up to Theotechnus, one of them. Theo-
technus bade him quietly run away and hide, as he did not
want to be forced to deliver him up ; but Abibus, thirsting
for martyrdom, refused to do so. Theotechnus was obliged
therefore to lead him before Lysanius, the governor, who
ordered him to be burnt alive. When the fire went out, his
mother drew from it his half-consumed body, and buried it
with those of Gurias and Samonas.

3 36 Lives of the Saints. [Nov. 15.

S. MACLOVIUS OR MALO, B.
(a.d. 627,)

[Roman, Benedictine, and Gallican Martyrologies. Sarum, York,
Hereford, and Anglican Reformed Kalendars as S. Machutus. The
Translation at S. Malo on July 11. Authorities: — A Life by Balderic
of Angers (d. 1131), without name of author, in Mabillon, Acta SS.
O.S.B. t. i. Another Life by Sigebert of Gemblours, written between
1076-99, in Surius. Also the old MS. Legendaries of the Churches of
Nantes, Leon, Treguier, and Follgoat, from which Albert Le Grand
compiled the Life in his "Vies des Saints de Bretagne," some of which
are now lost. There is also a fragmentary Life of S. Maclovius in
Boscius, Bibl. Floriac]

S. Malo,1 called variously in Latin S. Maclovius and S.
Machutus, was a native of Wales, the son of Caradog ab
Ynyr Gwent, by Derwela, a sister of Amwn Ddu. S. Samson
of Dol was a son of Amwn Ddu, by Anna, daughter of
Meurig ab Tewdrig; and S. Maglorius, who succeeded S.
Sampson, was son of Umbrafel, a brother of Amwn Ddu.
S. Tathan, another son of Amwn Ddu and Anna, was the
spiritual director of Caradog, the father of S. Malo. The
saint was born at Caer-gwent, in Monmouthshire, when both
his father and mother were advanced in age. He is said to
have been given to S. Brendan, abbot of Llancarvan, at the
age of twelve, but S. Brendan was never abbot of that
monastery; S. Brendan was in Brittany, and founded a
monastic establishment at Aleth, and it was there, doubtless,
that Malo was trained.

Any one who has been at S. Malo knows the extraordinary
rapidity and height to which the tide there mounts. It is a

1 Also in French S. Maclou. In Welsh Maelog ; not, however, to be confounded
with S. Maelog, son of Caw, and disciple of Cattwg.

S. MALO, alias MACHUTUS and MACLOVIUS. After Cahier.
Nov., Part I. p. 336.] [Nov. 15.

tft —

Nov. is.] S. Maclovius. 337

well-known phenomenon connected with the place, and is
occasioned by the configuration of the coast.1

One day S. Malo and some of the boys of the monastery
school were playing on the sands, when Malo, feeling tired,
lay down on a heap of kelp, and fell asleep. The children
returned to school without missing him. The tide rushed
over the sands, and rose roaring up the rocks of Aaron and
Grand Bey. S. Brendan, alarmed at the disappearance of
his pupil, ran out on the rocks and called, but received no
answer. S. Malo was not, however, overwhelmed by the
waves, says the legend ; the sand and kelp on which he lay
rose with the tide, and formed an islet, high and dry above
the waters. Next morning Brendan went down again to the
shore. He saw above the waves the new islet, with Malo
reposing on it. The boy called to his master to pass him over
his breviary, as he wished to recite his offices. Brendan,
full of faith, flung his psalter into the waves, and the tide
carried the book to the feet of the disciple

On reaching years of discretion S. Malo received the habit
from his master. His virtues aroused the jealousy of some
of the other monks. When it was his turn to light the
candles for matins, some of them out of malice extinguished
every lamp in the dormitory and church. Malo went to the
fireplace, and tried to rake out live coals, but they were all
dead. Then he put some cinders in his bosom, and hastened
to the abbot, and, lo ! the warmth of his zeal had kindled
the charcoal, and when he took the pieces from his breast
they were red and glowing.2

1 "The tides rise here higher than at any other point in the Channel, viz. to an
elevation of forty-five to fifty feet above low-water mark."— Murray's Handbook of
France.
J The hymn for his festival mentions these miracles.

" Fluctibus tutus mediis quiescit
Gestat et prunas, nihil inde tesa,
Veste ; hie parent famulo Potentis

Ignis et unda."

VOL. XIII. 2 2
*- 4,

338 Lives of the Saints. tNov. I5

Next day S. Brendan summoned the mischievous and
envious monks before him, but finding them incorrigible, he
determined to abandon them, and taking with him S. Malo,
he left them by ship, and sailed in search of some solitary
islet, in which they might serve God unmolested.1 But an
angel bade them return, and they came back to Aleth, and
Malo became bishop of that see. Aleth was an old city on
the mainland, at the mouth of the Ranee, and the isle of
Aaron, now occupied by the town of S. Malo, was then in-
habited by a hermit named Aaron. Malo converted the
island into a monastery, and filled it with monks.

Many wonderful miracles are told of Malo. He blessed
a marble cup, and it was transformed into crystal. A chief,
who owed him a grudge, tied the baker of his monastery
hand and foot to a stone, and left him on the sands at low
water. The tide rose and covered him, with the exception
of his head, and the water left a chimney between his mouth
and the upper air, by which he was enabled to breathe till
the tide fell. S. Malo made a wolf which had eaten an ass
belonging to an old woman, carry faggots for her on its
back.

However, the perversity of the people, and the opposition
of the chiefs in the neighbourhood, obliged Malo to leave
his see for a while, and he went to Saintes, where he was
well received by the bishop, Leontius,2 who gave him a cell
at Brie, and there he remained till he was recalled to Aleth.

1 According to Sigebert, Malo was born " citra oram Britannici maris," which may
mean that he was born in Brittany, and not in Britain ; and some think his father
was Count of Gien on the Loire (Gianum) ; but from the Welsh accounts it is
clear that he was son of Caradog, brother of Amwn Ddu, and probably born at
Caer-gwent. The biographers make him disciple of S. Brendan at Llancarvan, and
after the voyage carry him back to Llancarvan, and then to Aleth. But as S.
Brendan was abbot of Aleth. and not of Llancarvan, it would seem that Malo on his
return from the voyage settled again at Aleth, and that what is said of his having
been elected in Wales to the bishopric of Caer-gwent is to be omitted.

2 S. Leontius was at the synod of Rennes in 625, and at that of Clichy, the date
of which is doubtful. He probably died in 626.

not..*] & Maclovius. 339

He did not, however, remain long there, but went back to
Saintes, and settled at Archambray with some monks he had
brought with him from Brittany, and there he died. The
relics remained there till the 7th century, when the church
of Aleth, or S. Malo, recovered them in a not very creditable
manner.

A young man was obliged to fly from Brittany to escape
the daggers of his brothers, who sought his estate. He took
refuge at Archambray with the sacristan, who kindly received
and sheltered him. After some years the youth, thinking he
was safe, revisited Brittany, and on going to Aleth, told Bili,
the bishop, where he was lodged, how easily he could get
hold of the body of S. Malo, and carry it off. Bili urged
him to return to Archambray, dissemble his purpose, and
on the first opportunity make off with the relics. The young
man accordingly went back to his host the sacristan, saying
that his life was not yet in security from his brothers, and
the sacristan, as readily as before, offered him hospitality.
The youth waited till the sacristan was obliged to make a
journey, and had left him in charge of the keys, when he
packed up the body of the saint, and ran away with it to
Aleth, after having prepared himself for the theft by confes-
sion and communion. The relics were received with great
pomp by the bishop and clergy and people of Aleth, and
were divided. One portion was given to the monastery of
the isle of Aaron, the other was kept in the cathedral. In
975 they were taken to Paris. They were lost at the Revolu-
tion. The only relic that remains is a shoulder-bone a
S. Maclou-de-Moiselles, near Versailles.

34-0 Lives of the Saints. [Nov. t5.

S. LEOPOLD, C.
(a.d. i 136.)

[Roman Martyrology. Canonized by Pope Innocent VIII. in 1484.
Authority : — Oratio de S. Leopoldi Austria? marchionis, vita et moribus
auctore Jo. Francisco Pacinio, habita, ann. 1484," in Surius and Pez,
Ser. rer. Austr. i. pp. 577-93, with a summary of the canonization and
the bull of Innocent VIII. The " Breve excerptum e chron. Rikardi
canon. Neuenburg, de S. Leopoldo," brought out by Leopoldus Cam-
pilitiensis, is a forgery by the editor.]

Unfortunately there is not sufficient contemporary-
evidence as to the life of S. Leopold for a biographer to be
able to give a full and satisfactory account of it, and though
historians of three hundred years after his death have done
their utmost by the exercise of their imaginations, and by
giving expression to their conjectures under the guise of
historic statements, to cover this deficiency of material, still
such testimony is of no value whatever to the serious his-
torian, though it may profit the religious romancer.

Leopold IV., margrave of Austria, was the son of Leo-
pold III. and his wife Idda, daughter of the emperor
Henry III. His father died in 1096, when he was about
nineteen years old, and ten years after he married Agnes,
daughter of the emperor Henry IV., widow of Frederick of
Saxony, and she became the mother of Conrad, afterwards
emperor, and of Frederick, the father of Barbarossa.1 In 1 127
the pious couple built the Cistercian monastery of Holy Cross,
near Kahlenberg, where Leopold had his court. They also
founded the noble monastery of Neuburg, near Vienna, and
endowed it with princely possessions. They also enriched
the abbey of Molk, and began the building of the beautiful

1 She bore him eighteen children ; his fifth son was the famous chronicler, Otto of
Freisingen.

*F-

Nov. 15.]

6". Leopold. 341

church at Maria-Zell in Styria. The peace of the county
was troubled by an invasion by the Hungarians under
Stephen II. Leopold marched to the defence of his fron-
tiers, and defeated the invaders. A few years later the
Hungarians again attacked Austria, and Leopold again
defeated them, this time with such crushing effect as almost
to destroy the whole army, and to reduce the king to sue
humbly for peace.

When Henry V. died, in 1125, the Bavarians endeavoured
to obtain the imperial crown for Leopold, but failed, and
the Saxons obtained it for Lothair. Perhaps the most
signal testimony to the merits of Leopold and his love of
peace is, that in the stirring times of Henry V., when Ger-
many was convulsed with civil wars, and in the reign of
Lothair, when the empire was in like manner torn by faction,
Leopold is not mentioned by the chroniclers. He took no
part in these disputes, he neither sided with the Pope against
the emperor, nor with Henry V. against the Pope, and he
remained firm in his allegiance to Lothair against the in-
terests of his stepson Conrad.1 He died, the beloved of his
people, on November 15, 1136, and was buried at Kloster-
Neuburg. His skeleton, the head crowned with an arch-
ducal coronet, resting on a red satin pillow, is exhibited
above an altar in the church at Neuburg.

He is represented in margrave's or archduke's apparel,
holding a church.

1 When Henry TV. was excommunicated, and his son Henry incited to take
up arms against him by Paschal II., Leopold took part with the son in his un-
natural rebellion against his father, but he afterwards did penance to expiate what
he felt, in spite of the Papal benediction and sanction, was wrong.

* *

342 Lives of the Saints. ^^ I5>

S. GERTRUDE, V. ABSS.
(a.d. 1334.)

[Roman Martyrology on Nov. 15 and 17. By the Benedictines on
April 12 and Nov. 12. Authorities :— Her book of Divine Revelations,
and Life by Dom. Mige, prefixed to his edition of her work in 1664.]

S. Gertrude was born at Eisleben, in Upper Saxony, in
1264. At the age of five she was placed in the Benedictine
convent of Rodalsdorf, took the veil, and at the age of thirty,
in 1294, was elected abbess. In the following year she went
with some of the sisters to Helpede, and became abbess of
that monastery. In her youth she had learned Latin, and
was well instructed in Holy Scripture, in scholastic and
mystical theology. She became a prey to visions and
ecstasies. In one of these she thought she saw Christ, who
reproached her for studying scholastic theology with such
interest, and she thereupon abandoned the subject and de-
voted herself to the unrestrained enjoyment of her imagina-
tion. The visions began about the time when she was growing
into womanhood, and by being indulged in became a govern-
ing power in her life. When aged twenty she thought that
our Lord assured her in a personal visit that He would re-
veal to her matters hidden from the wise and prudent, and
which she might in vain study the books of the most pro-
found theologians to discover. The reason of her abrupt
departure from Rodalsdorf for Helpede is not known, but it
is probable that the nuns found it quite impossible to get on
under an ecstatic, and made the place too hot for her. Her
sister Mechthild was completely under her influence, and
began to have visions also. Once S. Mechthild saw Christ
seated on His throne with S. Gertrude seated on it beside
Him, contemplating Him with the greatest ardour. As S.
Gertrude also received a nuptial ring from the Saviour, she

Nov. 15.]

S. Gertrude. 343

regarded herself, and was regarded by those who believed in
her, as the chosen Bride of Christ.

Christ was wont also, as she assured her nuns, to bring His
mother to call upon her, and make the acquaintance of her
daughter-in-law. A nun desirous of acquiring the favour of
her abbess, announced to her that she also had seen a vision,
in which Christ had asserted that in the whole world there
was not a will or intention more disinterested than that of
Gertrude, and that He could not find anywhere a heart in
which He dwelt with such profound satisfaction as that of
Gertrude — a communication which could not fail to prove
gratifying to the abbess, and throw her into fresh transports
of hysterical excitement. She published a book of her fancies,
called the " Insinuations of Divine Piety," which has received
the approval of certain theologians more pious than discreet.
She gave spiritual advice, and preached, and wrote letters
and treatises on theology, and drew about her at Helpede
many women who had hysterical constitutions. When she
was dying, one of her most devoted admirers implored S.
Lebuinus to obtain her restoration to health. S. Lebuinus
appeared, and replied that when the king was about to cele-
brate his nuptials with, and crown his queen, it would be an
impertinence for a mere officer of his court to attempt inter-
ference.

The nun who was the depository of all her confidences
declared after her death that she had seen Christ, accom-
panied by the Virgin Mother and S. John, come to receive
His Bride, and that the floor was covered with grovelling
devils in chains ; that the moment Gertrude died her sou'
precipitated itself, like an arrow shot to its mark, into tht
heart of Christ, and was then borne up into celestial glory.
Several other nuns had revelations that a host of souls were
on that day delivered from purgatory so as to form a trium-
phal escort to the bride.

344 Lives of ttie Saints* rNov. *.

November 16.

SS. Rufinus, Mark, Valerius, and Others, MM. in Africa.

SS. Elpidius and Comi-. MM.; circ. a.d. 362.

S. Fidentius, B. of Padua.

S. Eucherius, B. of Lyons ; circ. a.d. 450.

S. Gobrian, B. of Vannes ; A.D. 725.

S. Emilian, //. at S. Eniilion on the Dordognc ; a.d. 767.

S. Othmar, Ab. of S. Gall in Switzerland; Stli cent.

S. Edmund, Abp. of Canterbury ; a.d. 1242.

S. Agnes, V. at Assist ; a.d. 1253.'

B. Paul of the Cross, C. at Rome ; a.d. 1775.

SS. ELPIDIUS AND COMP. MM.
(about a.d. 362.)

[Roman Martyrology. By the Greeks on Nov. 15. Authority :—
Mention in the Menrea.]

ELPIDIUS and his companions, Marcellus and
Eustochius, are commemorated by the Greeks on
November 15, and were introduced by Baronius
into the Roman Martyrology on the 16th. Where
they suffered is not known ; when they suffered is more dis-
tinctly stated — under Julian the Apostate, who made no
martyrs. The fable which passes for a record of their
passion says that Elpidius was a man of senatorial rank.
By order of Julian he and his companions were attached to
the tails of wild horses by their feet, and dragged and dashed
to pieces. Such a martyrdom, if it took place, was certainly
not under Julian.

1 Sister of S. Clara (see Aug. 12).

Nov. x6.] S. Eucherius. 345

S. EUCHERIUS, B. OF LYONS.
(about a.d. 450.)

[Usuardus, Ado, Notker, Wandelbert, Roman Martyrology. Gal-
lican Martyrologies. Authorities : — Mention by Gennadius, Cassian,
S. Mamertus, De Statu Animae, ii. 9, his own writings, Salvian, Epist.
Eucherio, &c]

Eucherius, a native of Gaul, of illustrious parents, and
married, was the greatest light of the Church of Lyons, after
S. Irenseus. He had two sons by his wife, Salonius and
Veranius, who afterwards enjoyed episcopal dignity. Probably
on his wife's death he retired to the isle of Lerins, and was
a monk there till 434, when he was elected bishop of Lyons.

He wrote from Lerins a treatise on Contempt of the
World, addressed to his cousin Valerian, probably the saint
of that name, who afterwards became bishop of Cimella,
assisted at the councils of Orange, Aries and Riez, and died
about a.d. 460. Cassian says that he shone as a bright
star in the world by the perfection of his virtue. S. Mamertus
of Vienne says : " Being young in age, he had nevertheless a
perfect ripeness of spirit. He despised the things of earth,
he desired only heaven ; he was humble in the disposition
of his heart, he was exalted above all by his merit and
talents ; he was full of learning, was eloquent, and surpassed
most of the bishops of his time. He wrote several volumes
on the doctrine of the Faith."

Salvian, writing to the saint, says : " The letters you have
sent me I have read. They are short in words, but abun-
dant in doctrine. They are easy to read, but they are
perfect in the instructions wherewith they are filled. In
short, they are worthy of your talents and of your piety."

In 441 he assisted at the first council of Orange. There

* — 4*

►r

346 Lives of the Saints. [Nov. 16.

was a second Eucherius of Lyons, according to some ac-
counts. Ado in his Martyrology relates that the second was
married, had two daughters, Consortia and Tullia, and retired
into a grotto on his estates by the side of the Durance, and
had himself walled in. His wife brought him his daily
food. The clergy and people of Lyons, having elected him
bishop, broke down the wall to get him out, and then his
wife retired into the cave, and was daily fed by one of her
daughters. This S. Eucherius assisted at the fourth council
of Aries, that of Carpentras, the second of Orange, and the
second of Vaison, and died about 530. But it has been
doubted whether there was a second Eucherius of Lyons.
It is true that a Eucherius signs the acts of some of these
councils — two of the name sign those of Orange in 529, but
in none of the cases are the names of the sees attached.

The first Eucherius wrote a book on the Solitary Life, a
letter to his son Solanus on some of the difficult passages of
Scripture, some homilies, commentaries on Genesis and
Kings, a treatise on Spiritual Understanding to his son
Veranus, &c.

S. GOBRIAN, B. OF VANNES.

(A.D. 725.)

[Gallican Martyrologies. Also on Nov. 3 and 10. Authorities : —
The Breviary of S. Brieuc ; Robert Caenalis, B. of Avranches (1533-60),
" De re Gallica." Lenau or Caenalis probably drew his information from
old legends in MS. now lost. The Lessons for the Feast of S. Gobrian
in the Breviary of Vannes of 1757, are taken from the book of Caenalis.]

Gobrian, born of noble parents in Brittany, received the
tonsure in the abbey of S. Gildas of Rhuys. On receiving
priestly orders he was made canon of Vannes. On the
death of Morvan, bishop of Vannes, after Gobrian had been

not. 16.] S. Emilian. 347

eight years in holy orders, he was elected in his room, and
was consecrated by Genevius II., archbishop of Dol. When
aged eighty-seven he resigned the see to Diles, and retired
to a hermitage on the river Aouste, where he died.

S. EMILIAN, H.

(a.d. 767.)

[Gallican Martyrologies. Authority: — The Bordeaux Breviary.]

S. Emilian, or Immilion, was born at Vannes in Brittany,
of obscure parents, and was put to serve in the house of a
nobleman of Vannes. He was profuse in his charity with
what did not belong to him, giving to the poor his master's
goods. One day, says the legend, he was caught carrying
bread from the house under his clothes. When asked by
his master what he concealed, he answered that it was only
chips of wood. Providence blessed this lie, for when his
cloak was drawn aside, the bread was found converted into
wood. The same story is told of S. Nothburga in Tyrol ;
a more graceful version of it, in which the bread becomes
roses, of S. Elizabeth of Portugal, S. Elizabeth of Hungary,
S. Germaine Cousin, the B. Eelko Liaukaman, and many
others. Emilian was obliged to leave his master's service.
He took refuge in a monastery in the Saintonges. There he
was required to act as cellarer and baker. His virtue excited
the envy of his brethren, and one day when he was baking,
they removed the implements necessary for the oven. The
holy man, undiscomposed, got into the oven and removed the
loaves, without feeling any discomfort. This, like the inci-
dent of the loaves converted into wood, is a stock story told
of a great many saints, and as true of one as of the others.1

1 S. Paul of Verdun, S. Aurea, S. Austreberta, S. William de Celloni, S. Sabas, &c.

348 Lives of the Saints. [Nw.x«.

S. Emilian left this monastery and wandered south to the
banks of the Dordogne. He entered a forest called then
"a Cumbis."1 There he found a grotto in a sandstone
rock and settled in it. Many people were attracted by his
sanctity. He died there in 767.

The cave of S. Emilian still remains. One descends
into it by a flight of steps cut in the sandstone. On reach-
ing it one sees on the left a tank always full of limpid
water; facing the steps is a sort of long niche or locker
scooped out of the rock, about two feet above the floor
— this is the bed of the saint. A little to the right is
a rough stone planted against the side of the grotto, and
this is supposed to be his chair ; near it is a higher stone,
which was his table — at least so says tradition. Above the
grotto stands an exquisite circular chapel, dedicated to the
Holy Trinity, of the 13th century. This chapel is a gem of
early French pointed architecture, and is now used as a
lumber-shed to an adjoining house. A wall pierced by a
coach-door connects this chapel with a huge rock, which
rises in the midst of the town, and forms precipices on two
sides. One abrupt scoop is towards the west, the market-
place is before the southern face of rock, and the street
slopes gradually up to the level of the platform on top of
the rock. This southern face of rock is pierced with rich
flamboyant windows and doors, and the whole mass of rock
is hollowed out into a stately church dedicated to the Three
Kings. This monolithic church is one of the most remark-
able monuments of mediaeval industry and ingenuity in
Europe. It is unique in its way.2

1 A commune of S. Emilion still bears the name of Saint- Laurent-des-Combes ; the
word is Celtic, cw»i, a vale, the Devonshire "combe."

5 See an article by the author, " S. Emilion and its Monolithic Church," in "The
Sacristy," Hodges, 1872, vol. ii. p. 171-5.

>J« -»ll

Nov. 16.] S- Edmund. 349

S. EDMUND, ABP. OF CANTERBURY.
(a.d. 1242.)

[Roman and Gallican Martyrologies. Sarum, York, and Hereford
Kalendars, "The Deposition of S. Edmund." Authorities: — A Life
by Robert Rich, his brother, in Surius.' Another, by Bertrand of
Pontigny, a contemporary, in Martene et Durand., Thes. anecd. iii.
p. 1753-1876. Epistolse varise ad historiam S. Edmundi, ap. Martene,
1. c. p. 1897-1928. A MS. Life from the archives of Pontigny, by an
anonymous writer, published at Auxerre, 1793. A Life by Robert
Bacon, priest at Oxford, Professor of Theology (d. 1248). Mention in
Matthew of Westminster, Matthew Paris, Florence of Worcester, Roger
of Wendover, &c]

Edmund Rich was the son of Edward and Mabel Rich,
of Abingdon, pious persons ; so pious, indeed, was the
father, that he deserted his wife and children to enter the
abbey of Evesham, leaving Mabel Rich the responsibility
and care of bringing up his two sons, Edmund and Robert,
and two or three young daughters. She was also a most
pious woman ; she wore a horsehair shirt and petticoat, and
in addition an iron tunic of chain mail reaching to the calf
of her leg, the inconvenience of which in the exercise of her
domestic duties left nothing to be desired.

When S. Edmund was born, tokens of his future sanctity
were accorded ;2 the midwife confidently affirmed she had
never seen such a paragon of a baby before.

When Edmund was one day walking in the meadows near
Oxford, where he was sent to school, he suddenly saw a
beautiful little boy in front of him, who said, " Edmund, my
dear, how do you do ?" Edmund looked at the child with

1 " Mutato stylo, interdum paraphrasticos descripta." Unfortunately Surius thus
treated nearly all the Lives he printed.

s " Ita mundus e maternis visceribus ejus singulari beneficio prodiit, ut mun-
dissimus panmis cui involutus fuit, nullam prorsus maculam ab eo contraxisse
videbatur." — Vit. ap. Sur.

* *

350 Lives of the Saints. [Nov. 16.

astonishment. " Do you not know me ? I sit by you at
school, and am at your side when you play." Edmund
then suspected he saw the child Jesus, and was satisfied it
was so when told by the boy to write his name on his brow
with his finger every night, and promised that by doing this
he would infallibly be preserved from sudden death.1 Ed-
mund and a companion saw a field, lately dug up, covered
with rooks picking up worms. Edmund went towards them,
made the sign of the cross, and they flew cawing away.
" They are devils," he said, " waiting to carry off the soul of
a sinner. Let us ask in the adjoining village if any one be
dead or dying there." They asked, and found there had
been a death there recently.

Edmund was sent with his brother to finish his studies in
Paris. When they departed, their mother gave them each a
horsehair shirt, and made them promise to wear the garment
at least two or three times a week next to the skin, and to
recite the whole psalter every Sunday and festival before
breakfast.

Whilst at Paris Edmund's virtue was put to a rude test.
The daughter of his host fell in love with him, and made
advances with sufficient want of delicacy to show that she
was a girl with no modesty of mind. She even went so far
as to steal into his room one evening in exceedingly light
costume. Edmund grasped his birch-rod with one hand, her
shoulders with the other, and thrashed her bare back un-
mercifully. The girl danced and wriggled under the lashes,
afraid to scream out, lest her father and mother should find
her there. Edmund did not let her go till her back was
covered with purple wheals.

Whilst Edmund was at Paris his mother fell ill. He was
obliged to return to England to receive her last breath, and

1 Did this happen on April i ? And was some mischievous fellow-pupil making a
fool of him ?

* *

Nov.x6.j S.Edmund. 351

to dispose of his sisters. He took them to a convent. They
were very beautiful, and might get into mischief if not locked
up out of reach of harm ; he did not feel disposed to make
a home for them himself, consequently there was no alterna-
tive but to immure them in a nunnery. The superior to
whom he first applied refused to take them in without a
dowry. It does not appear what means had been left by
the parents for the support of their children, but Edmund
had enough from them to maintain himself and his brother
at the university if the girls could be supported on charity.
The demand of the superior was not unreasonable ; Edmund,
however, wanted the money himself, so he took his sisters to
Catesby Priory, in Northamptonshire, where they were re-
ceived without payment. He thus was enabled to wash his
hands of them, and to return to his studies.1 Though he
had no money to waste on his sisters, he had sufficient for
the erection of a chapel near his abode in Paris, dedicated
to the Blessed Virgin.

He now increased his mortifications. The hair-shirt his
mother had given him proved inadequate to his wants. He
had one made of twisted horsehair with knots in it, and he
bound a cart-rope round his waist so that he could scarcely
bend his body. In Advent and Lent he wore a shirt made
of sheet-lead. He vowed perpetual celibacy, and to make
this renunciation of carnal marriage more solemn, he con-
tracted a spiritual marriage with the Virgin Mary, putting
his ring on the finger of her image, and appropriating to his
finger one from hers.

He took his degree of Master of Arts, and then of Doctor
of Divinity, at Paris. He was ordained priest, and became
a notable preacher. In his study he had a little ivory image

1 "Mirifice exhilaratus Edmundus" — at not having to pay for their support —
" totum curarum pondus, quod a sororibus ei incuberat, in Priorissae manus depo-
suit."

352 Lives of the Saints. [Nov l6#

of the Virgin, with the mysteries of redemption carved round
it — probably one of those ivory triptychs with groups cut on
the doors and on either side of the central figure, such as
still remain in considerable numbers. He used to pray to
this image with great devotion. He seldom ate more than
once a day, and then very sparingly, slept on the bare floor,
or on a footstool, with his head leaning against the bed. For
thirty years he never undressed himself to go to bed. The
friction of the horsehair probably exerted a beneficial effect
on the skin, which otherwise might have suffered for want of
frequent ablutions.

He returned to England in 12 19, and taught Aristotle at
Oxford till 1226. He was offered several ecclesiastical pre-
ferments, but refused them till the more congenial office of
canon and treasurer of Salisbury was offered him, when he
readily accepted it. The income he did not spend on him-
self, still less on his brother or sisters, but bestowed it in
abundant alms on beggars, the needy, and the sick. Gre-
gory IX. was eager to enroll Christendom in another crusade,
under Frederick II., for the recovery of the holy places. He
commissioned Edmund to preach it in England, and em-
powered him to draw payment from each parish in which he
preached. Edmund executed his commission with great
zeal, but performed his ministry free of charge.

A hawker offish and his son at Uxbridge saw a fiery cross
in the sky, whilst jogging along in their fish-cart, and though
some laughed at the story, it helped to kindle enthusiasm in
many for the new crusade.1 Peter Des Roches, bishop of
Winchester, and William Brewer, bishop of Exeter, were
induced to take the cross and leave their dioceses for an
excursion to the East.

William Longsword, Earl of Salisbury, who had not ap-
proached the sacraments for a long time, was greatly moved

1 Roger of Wendover, sub ann. 1227.

S. EDMUND, ABP. CANTERBURY.
From a Drawing by A. Welby Pugin.

Nov., Part I. p. 352."

[Nov. iS.

* — *

Nov.xe.] S.Edmund. 353

by a sermon of S. Edmund, and converted. He did not,
however, live long to show the results of his conversion, for
he was poisoned at a banquet given him by Hubert the
Justiciary, whom he had pardoned for having attempted the
violation of the Countess of Salisbury during the absence of
her husband from England.1

S. Edmund trained many in the way of prayer. In his
little treatise, " Speculum Ecclesiae," he says, very wisely :
" A hundred thousand persons are deceived by multiplying
the number of their prayers. I would rather say five words
devoutly with my heart, than five thousand which my soul
does not relish with love and intelligence. Sing to the Lord
with the understanding, says the Psalmist. What a man re-
peats with his mouth, let that be the expression of the emo-
tions of his soul."

There had been difficulties and contests about the arch-
bishopric of Canterbury. On the death of Stephen Langton
the monks of Canterbury had elected Walter of Hevesham
to the primacy. The king refused his assent, as the father
of Walter had been hanged for robbery, and the archbishop
elect had espoused the party opposed to King John during
the interdict. The suffragan bishops brought graver charges
against him. He had debauched a nun, and was father of
several children by her. Appeal was made to Rome ; the
Pope delayed his sentence for further inquiry. The ambas-
sadors of the king, the bishops of Chester and Rochester, and
John of Newton in vain laboured to obtain the Papal decision.
One argument alone would weigh with the Pope and the
cardinals. At length they engaged to pay for this tardy jus-
tice the tenth of all movable property in the realm of England
and Ireland in order to aid the Pope in his war against the
emperor. Even then the alleged immoralities were not in-
quired into as disqualifications ; the elected primate of Eng-

1 Roger of Wendover.
VOL. XIII. 23

* *

354 Lives of the Saints, [Not.i6.

land was examined by three cardinals on certain minute
points of theology, and as he gave unsatisfactory answers to
the questions, how it was that Rachel, being already dead,
could weep for her children, whether Christ descended into
hell in the flesh or in the spirit, and such like, he was pro-
nounced unworthy of so august a see, and Richard Wethers-
head, chancellor of Lincoln, nominated by the king and the
suffragan bishops, was appointed to the archbishopric by
Papal bull.

Richard speedily quarrelled with the king about Tonbridge
town and castle, which he claimed as belonging to the see of
Canterbury. He made a journey to Rome to support his
claims, and died on his way home, 1231. On this, the monks
of Canterbury elected unanimously Radulph de Neville,
bishop of Chichester, and chancellor to the king, " because
he was very faithful to both king and kingdom, and an un-
shaken pillar of the truth But the Pope, fearing the

zeal of that faithful man, lest he should endeavour to deliver
the kingdom of England, which he loved with a sincere heart,
from the yoke of tribute to the Pope, under which it was
bowed, made them answer that he was a man hasty in word,
and presumptuous, and not deserving of such pre-eminence.
And that the monks might be the more willing to abandon
this candidate, he hardly granted them permission to elect
or demand any other archbishop." ' The monks of Christ-
Church then elected John, their prior, and the king ratified
the appointment (1232); and the bishop elect started for
Rome to obtain the Papal confirmation. Gregory IX., how-
ever, refused him, because "he saw that John was very old
and simple, and not at all calculated for such a dignity ; and
he persuaded him to yield in the spirit of meekness."

The monks of Canterbury, again frustrated, chose John
Blund, an Oxford theologian. The king approved, and he

1 Matthew of Westminster, sub ann. 1231.

not.tC] S.Edmund. 355

also departed for Rome with some monks to procure the
confirmation of his election from the Apostolic See.

The bishop of Winchester wrote in his behalf to the
emperor, Frederick II., to enlist his sympathies for John
Blund. This came to the ears of Pope Gregory, who hated
Frederick. The Pope made the excuse that John Blund
enjoyed two benefices without having sought a dispensation
for so doing, and annulled his election, as he had done those
of Radulph de Neville and Prior John. Then S. Edmund
was elected. He had served Pope Gregory in preaching the
crusade, and Gregory did not anticipate that he would ob-
struct his attempts to exact tribute from the English Church
and people, and to supply his Italian favourites with rich
benefices in England.

Hubert de Burgh, chief justiciary, was a faithful, energetic,
and sagacious minister of the king. He held in check the
turbulent nobility, and by vigorous measures cleared the
land of the banditti who infested it. On the other hand, he
disregarded every right, liberty, and law which impeded his
course. In 1231 Peter des Roches, bishop of Winchester,
a Poitevin, returned from the East, where he had spent five
years, and he speedily succeeded in undermining the in-
fluence of De Burgh with the king. Henry dismissed his
justiciary, and the bishop of Winchester became his coun-
sellor. The administration of Des Roches lasted only two
years. His appointment of Poitevins to the chief places of
the household, and his introduction of foreign garrisons into
the kingdom, gave the greatest offence. The indignant
barons refused to attend the great council ; and, finally, a
small section, under Richard, Earl of Pembroke, took up
arms against the ministers. This party allied themselves
with the Scots and Welsh; ravaged the lands of their
enemies, obtained several successes over the royal troops,
and set Hubert de Burgh at liberty. Peter des Roches took

tj, . g,

% — , *

35^ Lives of the Saints. [Nov. 16.

sanctuary in his cathedral of Winchester with Peter of
Riveaux, the treasurer. S. Edmund, " a man of marvellous
sanctity and mildness, eagerly desiring the peace and honour
of the king and kingdom, exerted himself as much as possible,
going to and fro between the two parties repeatedly, in order
to establish peace between the king and his natural subjects.
And the king, knowing that he was a holy and just man,
greatly inclined his mind to his prayers. At last, by the
agency of money, added to entreaties, the Pontiff obtained
the king's clemency for them." ' At the commencement of
the year 1236 Henry married Eleanor, daughter of Ray-
mund, count of Provence. Her uncle, William, bishop of
Valence, at once became his most trusted counsellor, to the
great displeasure of the English nobility. Henry was an
easy, affectionate, and generally religious man ; fond of the
arts, averse to cruelty and manifest wrong. But he was
weak, extravagant, careless of his word, and easily governed
by his relations and flatterers. Thus he proved an incom-
petent and unpopular ruler. He had commenced his reign
with a strong distrust of the nobility ; he had subsequently
alienated the majority of them by his disregard of the charters,
his frequent rejection of their advice, and, above all, by his
constant employment of foreigners in his councils and service.
As a protection against them, Henry invited the Pope to
send him a legate to reside at his court He could hardly
have adopted a course more likely to give offence.

The legate Gualo, cardinal of S. Marcellus, who had been
sent to England by Honorius III., had occasioned great
bitterness against Rome in the minds of clergy and laity.
The nobles and clergy who had opposed John when he re-
fused to be bound by the Great Charter which he had signed,
and which had been annulled by the Pope on the coronation
of Henry III., were dealt with by the legate Gualo. The

Matthew of Westminster, sub ann. 1237.
^ _____ &

Nov. 16.]

S. Edmund. 357

clergy were made to pay the penalty of forfeiture, or the re-
demption of forfeiture by enormous fines to the Pope and to
his legate. The lower ecclesiastics, even canons, under the
slightest suspicion of rebellion, were dispossessed of their
benefices, and these benefices given to Italian ecclesiastics,
who in most cases enjoyed the revenues without ever coming
near their cures. The only way to elude degradation was by
purchasing the favour of the legate at a vast price. The
bishop of Lincoln, for his restoration to his see, paid 1,000
marks to the Pope, 100 to the legate. In the British
Museum is a transcript of documents in the Papal archives
relating to Great Britain and the See of Rome. It contains
curious revelations of the manner in which English benefices
were appropriated for foreign ecclesiastics. The convent of
Viterbo drew thirty marks annually, a moiety of the living of
Holkham, in Norfolk; fifty marks were paid from the church
of Wingham to the convent of Monte Aureo at Anagni.
Another convent in Anagni appropriated the revenues of a
benefice in the diocese of Winchester.

Pandulf, the Papal legate, took the bishopric of Norwich
Pope Honorius wrote to him to authorize him to provide a
benefice or benefices in Norwich for his own brother, the
archdeacon of Thessalonica. A " consanguineus " of the
Pope was given a church worth having. A secretary of the
Pope was enriched with a canonry of Lincoln. These
foreigners became odious to the whole realm : to the laity
as draining away their wealth without discharging any duties;
still more to the clergy as usurping their benefices. Though
ignorant of the language, they affected superiority of attain-
ments, and made themselves hated on account of their un-
congenial manners, and, if they are not belied, unchecked
vices. They were blood-suckers, drawing out the life, or drones
fattening on the spoil of the land. At length, just at the
close of his pontificate, Pope Honorius made the bold and

358 Lives of the Saints. [No*. 16.

open demand that two prebends in every cathedral and con-
ventual church should be assigned in perpetuity to the
Church of Rome. On this the nobles interfered in the king's
name, inhibiting such an alienation. When the subject was
brought before a synod at Westminster by the archbishop,
the proposal was received with derisive shouts of laughter.

King Henry, finding himself unsupported by his nobles,
privately invited the legate Otho, cardinal deacon of S.
Nicolas, to come to England. When S. Edmund, archbishop
of Canterbury, heard of this, he went to the king and " re-
proached him for acting in the way he did, and especially for
summoning the legate, knowing that it would ere long be the
cause of great loss to the kingdom, and to the prejudice of
his dignity ; but the king rejected the advice. The legate
therefore came in grand pomp and great power, and the
bishops and clerks of distinction went as far as the coast to
meet him ; and some went off to him in boats, receiving him
with acclamations, and offering him costly presents. Even
at Paris, the messengers of several bishops met him, and
offered him cloth of scarlet and valuable cups. For doing
this they deserved general censure, both for the gift and the
manner of giving it ; for by the cloth and its colour it was
made to appear that the office of the legateship and his arrival
were accepted."1

No sooner was Otho in England than he looked around
and ascertained what benefices were vacant, seized, and gave
them to his Italian relatives and followers, " whether de-
serving or undeserving," adds Matthew Paris. He found him-
self opposed by Peter des Roches, bishop of Winchester,
Hubert de Burgh, earl of Kent, and many others ; whilst
Edmund of Canterbury viewed his arrival with distrust and
fear. The legate endeavoured to appease the anger of the
nobles by his courteous speeches, and summoned all the

1 Matthew Paris, sub ana. 1237.

Nov. ,6.] S. Edmund. 359

prelates of England to assemble at S. Paul's, in London, on
the octave of S. Martin's day, to hear the Papal bull autho-
rizing him to promulgate decrees for the reformation of the
English Church. " In the meantime, costly presents were
offered to the legate, palfreys, handsome vessels, soft and
double-wove garments, various skins of wild beasts, money,
meats, and liquors." The bishop of Winchester even sent
him fifty head of cattle, a hundred measures of corn, and
eight casks of wine.

At first the legate acted with caution ; seeing the extreme
unpopularity of the king and the dislike against himself, he
was moderate in his demands, and did not accept all the
presents made him.

The council met at St. Paul's on November 19, 1237. It
opened with a contest between the archbishop of Canter-
bury and the archbishop of York as to which should sit on
the right side of the legate. The cardinal-deacon then read
the canons he promulgated for the reformation of the Eng-
lish Church. He was guarded by two hundred soldiers, lest
the angry people should fall on him. On the second day of
the council, William de Raele (Raleigh), canon of S. Paul's,
appeared on behalf of the king and kingdom to prohibit the
legate from ruling anything derogatory to the king's crown
and dignity ; and throughout the council he stood in the
midst, robed in his canonical hood and surplice, watching
the liberties and rights of the kingdom against the preten-
sions of the legate. The legate having read the Papal bull,
declared that the holding of a "cumulus beneficiorum" was
forbidden — of course without Papal dispensation. There
were plenty of Roman ecclesiastics who held benefices in
England which they never visited, but they held dispensa-
tions from the Pope. Some English clergy had more than
one living, but without paying the heavy fee demanded for
a dispensation. The decree of the legate was hurled against

^ _ *

360 Lives of the Saints. [Nov. 16.

these. Some of the non-resident Italian beneficed clergy
suffered through the patrons appointing Englishmen to their
cures of souls, and the tithe was paid to them, and not to
the absentees. This was also condemned by the legate, and
the intruder was ordered to refund to the absentee all he
had received from the cure. "With regard to the rectors
taking up their residence in churches, it seems to us that we
must consult fact rather than statute law." But those who
presumed, without special dispensations of the Apostolic See,
to hold several dignities, parsonages, and other benefices
connected with the cure of souls, were said to oppose the
statute of a General Council, and to imperil their own salva-
tion. It seems that there were at that time " many of the
clergy " who were married, not openly, but privately, yet
legally before witnesses, and with notarial deeds. Such
priests were to be deposed and ejected from their livings,
and any property acquired after a marriage of this kind, in
whatsoever way obtained, whether by themselves or others,
from their own property, " was on no account to be applied
for the use of the wives and children of such a marriage,"
but to be confiscated for the good of the Church.

This marriage of the clergy was " a disease gaining great
ground;" other priests formed connections without legal
marriage ; such were to be dealt with more lightly, they were
only to be suspended should they refuse to dismiss their
concubines within a month after the publication of the
decree.

In 1239 the excitement of the English nobles and pre-
lates against the king became intense. Richard, duke of
Cornwall, the king's brother, placed himself at the head of
the malcontents. " It was then most confidently hoped that
Earl Richard would release the country from the wretched
slavery with which it was oppressed by the Romans and
the other foreigners ; and all parties, from the old man to

* — — — »i<

Nov. ,&] S.Edmund. 361

the boy, heaped blessings on him. No one adhered to the
king, except only Hubert, earl of Kent."1 The legate
seeing how matters stood, and frightened for himself, sought
Earl Richard and offered him heavy bribes if he would
desert to the side of the king. Richard replied that the
interests of the realm were at stake and that he would not
allow his country to be degraded and ruined. " Our Eng-
lish king," he said, " has fattened all the kindred and rela-
tives of his wife with lands, possessions, and money. More-
over, he has allowed the revenues and ecclesiastical benefices
bestowed by our pious ancestors to be seized on as spoil,
and to be distributed among foreigners, although this country
itself abounds in fitting men to receive them ; and England
becomes, as it were, a vineyard without a wall, in which all
who pass along the road pluck off the grapes."

But Richard was won by promises of lands and money.
He failed in his adhesion to the national party, and the
discontent brooded without breaking out into revolt. In
the same year Edmund had a quarrel with the monks of
Rochester relative to the election of Richard de Wendover
to the vacant see of Rochester. The monks claimed the
right of electing ; this the archbishop disputed. The monks
were obliged to send a deputation, with all the money they
could scrape together, to Rome, to obtain sentence in their
favour. The Pope, who had learned through the legate
that S. Edmund had constantly opposed the exactions and
encroachments of the cardinal-deacon of S. Nicolas, lent a
ready ear to their appeal, and confirmed the election of
Richard of Wendover. Edmund had gone to Rome on this
matter, as well as on a dispute he had with the earl of
Arundel. In both cases he was condemned in the costs,
about a thousand marks. The monks of Rochester returned
triumphant, but " drained of money •" the archbishop also

' Matthew Paris, sub ami. 1238.
% _ — ~ *

£, — *

362 Lives of the Saints. ^m l6i

went home, likewise " drained of money," and disgusted by
his defeat.

In the meantime his great opponent and enemy, the
legate Otho, had been getting into danger at Oxford. The
story is amusingly told by Matthew Paris.

" The legate, having come to Oxford, was entertained in
the house of the canons at Osney, when the scholar-clerks,
before breakfast, sent him an honourable present, in the way
of meat and drink, and after breakfast proceeded to his
place of abode to visit him and salute him. On their
approach, however, a transalpine porter, with unbecoming
raillery, raising his voice after the manner of the Romans,
and holding the door ajar, said, 'What do you want?' To
which the clerks replied, ' We want his lordship the legate,
that we may pay our respects to him.' For they confidently
expected to be received with courtesy for the honour they
had shown him. The door-keeper, however, with taunting
speeches, saucily refused them admittance, and began
haughtily to abuse them. At this, the clerks rushed forward
with impetuosity, and forced their way in, whilst the Roman
attendants, in their endeavours to keep them back, struck
them with fists and sticks. Whilst thus contending, it
happened that a poor Irish chaplain was standing at the
door of the kitchen, earnestly begging, in God's name, that
some food might be given him, as he was a poor and hungry
man. Then the master of the cooks, who was the legate's
brother — put in that office by the legate Otho that no poison
might be given him, as he, the legate, feared — angry at the
importunity of the poor man, dashed in his face the boiling
broth from the caldron, in which fat meat had been boiled.
Seeing this insult to the poor man, one of the clerks, a native
of the Welsh Borders, cried out, ' Shame on us to endure
anything like this !' and drawing his bow, shot an arrow
which pierced the body of the cook (whom the clerks nick-

* *

* — — *

Nov. «6.] S. Edmund. 363

named Nabuzaradan, which means chief of the cooks).1
On the fall of the dead man a cry was raised, and the legate,
struck with fear, fled to the tower of the church, clad in his
canonical hood, and fastened the doors behind him. When
the darkness of the night had put an end to the tumult, he
put off his canonical dress, quickly mounted his best horse,
and fled under the protection of the king's wings. For the
clerks, carried away by rage, continued to seek for the legate
in the most secret hiding-places, crying out, 'Where is that
demoniacal usurer, that plunderer of revenues, the thirster
for money, who perverts the king, subverts the realm, and
enriches foreigners with the spoil taken from us?'"

The city of Oxford was placed under an interdict. Over
thirty clerks were thrown into prison, and it was only with
difficulty that the wrath of the legate was appeased by the
public degrading humiliation of the University. But Oxford
was not the only scene of disturbance. Terrible letters were
distributed by unseen means, and by unknown persons,
addressed to the bishops and chapters, to the abbots and
friars, denouncing the avarice and insolence of the Romans ;
positively inhibiting the payment to them of the revenues of
their churches ; threatening to burn their palaces and barns
over the heads of those who paid. Gregory heard from the
archbishop of this discontent and these threats. He wrote
to S. Edmund, " God is no respecter of persons ; why, then,
should the English object to foreigners enjoying benefices
among them?" The barns of the Italian clergy were
attacked, the corn sold and distributed to the poor. Cenci,
the Pope's collector of Peter's Pence, an Italian enjoying a
canonry of S. Paul's, was carried off by armed men with
their faces hid under vizors : he returned after five weeks'
imprisonment with his bags rifled. Robert Twenge, a York-

' So the mediaeval commentators, generally. But Nebuzaradan is " Captain of
Nebo," the Assyrian Mercury.

* — — *

364 Lives of the Saints. [Nov. 16.

shire knight, claimed the patronage of a church. In defiance
of his rights an Italian had been given it by the archbishop
of York to favour the legate. He appealed to the barons of
England. They, headed by the bishops of Chester and
Winchester, wrote a strong remonstrance to the Pope, and
sent it to Rome by the hands of Robert de Twenge. It
began : " As the ship of our liberty is sinking, which was
won by the blood of our ancestors, through the storms of
hostility breaking over us, we are compelled to awake our
lord, who is sleeping in the ship of Peter, crying unceasingly
and unanimously, Lord save us, or we perish !"

The Pope was obliged to yield before the general discon-
tent, at least in the matter of the presentation to Lutton,
claimed by Robert de Twenge.

On the 31st July, 1239, the archbishop, S. Edmund, and
the other bishops, assembled in London, " to make some
arrangements with the legate about the oppression of the
English Church. But he, not being at all anxious about
this matter, only exacted new procurations from them. The
bishops, after holding council, told him in reply, that the
ever-grasping importunity of the Romans had so often
exhausted the property of the Church, that almost all their
wealth was swallowed up, that they had scarce breathing
time, and could no more endure these exactions, adding
plainly, ' What advantage has as yet been conferred on the
kingdom or the Church by the superstitious domination of
him who is only a partisan of the king, and who oppresses
the Churches with various exactions, from which we now at
last were expecting relief?'"1 The legate, unable to wring
any more money out of the bishops, addressed himself to the
Religious Orders, " and extorted no small sum of money from
them under the name of procurations ; and the council broke
up amidst the murmurs and complaints of the bishops."

The Emperor, Frederick II., also wrote to King Henry,

1 Matthew Paris, sub aim. 1239.
* *

* : *

Nov. ,6.] S. Edmund. 365

urging him to expel the legate from the kingdom, " in which
he had impudently scraped together all the money he could,
and from whencesoever he could, to satisfy the Pope's
avarice and to disturb the imperial dignity." The king
answered that he was the vassal of the Pope, and must there-
fore obey him; "thereby," says Matthew Paris, "bringing
an accusation against himself when seeking to excuse him-
self." He, however, wrote to Gregory IX. to entreat him
not to act with such violence towards the emperor. On
receiving this letter, Gregory was furious, " Of a truth,"
he said, bitterly, " there is not a faithful man to be found in
England."

The sources in England from which money had poured
into the Papal coffers were running dry, and Gregory wanted
more money to prosecute his contest with Frederick. So
low was he reduced, that he was obliged to instruct his
legate Otho to sell dispensations from their vow to those
who had taken the cross to fight for the recovery of the
Lord's Sepulchre. " But," says Matthew Paris, " it seemed
absurd, even to simple-minded men, the divers traps by
which the Roman Court endeavoured to deprive the simple
people of God of their substance, seeking for nothing but
gold and silver. The Pope next proposed to extort the
fifth part of property and revenues of the foreign beneficed
clerks in England, in order to annoy the emperor, who was
surrounded with dangers from his enemies, whom the Pope
supported by the money collected by extortion in England."
The counsellors of King Henry, S. Edmund among them,
went to the king and urged him to resist this intolerable
exhaustion of the land to satisfy the vengeance of the Pope
against the emperor. But Henry answered, " I neither
wish nor dare oppose the Pope in anything." Then, says
Matthew Paris, a most lamentable despair took possession
of the people.1 At length, at a council held at Reading,

' Matthew Paris, sub arm. 1240.
* ■ ' — *

%— . *

366 Lives of the Saints. [Not. a

the legate demanded a fifth of all the revenues of the English
clergy, in the name of the Pope, to assist him in his holy
war against the emperor. The bishops were aghast ; they
replied that they could not answer without a consultation.
Just then Earl Richard arrived at Reading to bid farewell
to the bishops before leaving for the East. The prelates,
with the archbishop, burst into tears, and said to him, "Why,
earl, our only hope, do you desert us, and leave England to
be invaded by these rapacious foreigners?" " Alas !" said
Richard to S. Edmund, " my dear lord and father, if I had
not taken the cross, I should nevertheless fly the land to
avoid seeing the ruin of the land, which it is thought I
might prevent, but which I have not the power to arrest"

After some time S. Edmund consented, most unwillingly,
to allow a fifth of all incomes to be paid to the agents of
the Pope, " and making a virtue of necessity, he paid the
sum of eight hundred marks before they were exacted from
him by force." A crafty agent of the Pope, Pietro Rosso,
travelled about all the monasteries, extorting money ; he
falsely declared that all the bishops, and many of the higher
abbots, had eagerly paid their contributions. But he exacted
from them, as if from the Pope himself, a promise to keep his
assessment secret for a year. The abbots appealed to the
king, who treated them with utter disdain. He offered one
of his castles to the legate and Pietro Rosso, and to im-
prison two of the appellants, the abbots of Bury S. Edmunds
and of Beaulieu. At Northampton the legate and Peter
again assembled the bishops, and demanded the fifth of
all the possessions of the Church. The bishops declared
that they must consult their archdeacons. The clergy re-
fused altogether this new levy ; they would not contribute
to a fund raised to shed Christian blood. The rectors of
Berkshire were more bold; "they would not submit to
contribute to funds raised against an emperor as if he were

# *

Nov. 16] S. Edmund. 367

a heretic ; though excommunicated by the Pope, he had not
been condemned by the judgment of the Church ; the Church
of Rome has its own patrimony, it has no right to tax the
Churches of other nations."

One reason why S. Edmund yielded was that he was then
most anxious to obtain a bull from the Pope to put an end
to a miserable abuse which had wrought much evil in the
Church of England. Henry had not allowed several of the
bishoprics to be filled up at once when they fell vacant, but
had taken to himself the revenues during the voidance of
the sees. S. Edmund desired a decree from the Pope that,
on a vacancy in a cathedral or conventual church, if it were
not filled within six months, the archbishop of the province
should appoint to it. He knew that this was opposed to
the interests of the king, and he had a feeble aspiration to
become a second Thomas a Becket for this cause. After
" the expenditure of a great sum of money,"1 S. Edmund
obtained what he desired from the Pope. But King Henry
complained that it was disadvantageous to him, and by
means of an outlay of a still larger sum of money obtained
from Pope Gregory the cancelling of his brief to the arch-
bishop. On obtaining this, " the king became more
tyrannical than before, and presumptuously brought about
the election of Boniface in opposition to the liberties of the
church of Winchester, and obstructed other elections which
had been duly made and piously solemnized."2

Matthew Paris goes on : "A most iniquitous agreement
was made between the Pope and the Romans, as was re-
ported, namely, that whatever benefices could be given away
in England by the Pope should be distributed amongst the
sons and relatives of the Romans at their pleasure, on con-
dition that they should all rise with one accord against the
emperor, and use all their endeavours to hurl him from the

1 Matthew of Westminster, sub ann 1240. ? Matthew Paris, sub ana. 1240.

£, " #

368 Lives of the Saints. [Not.i6.

imperial throne. Therefore, a few days afterwards, the Pope
sent his sacred warrants to Edmund, archbishop of Can-
terbury, and to the bishops of Lincoln and Salisbury,
ordering them to provide for three hundred Romans in the
first benefices that should fall vacant ; giving them to under-
stand, that they were suspended from giving away benefices
till that number were suitably provided for. At this order
the hearts of all were seized with astonishment, and it was
feared that he who dared to do such things would sink into
the depths of despair. Edmund, archbishop of Canterbury,
who had already submitted to the above-mentioned hateful
exactions, and paid eight hundred marks to the Pope, now
seeing that the English Church was daily trampled on more
and more, despoiled of its possessions, and deprived of its
liberties, became weary of living to see such evils upon
earth. He therefore, after having asked the king's per-
mission, and gained only evasive answers, left the country,
provoked by these various injuries, and sailed to France,
where, with a small retinue, he took up his abode at Pon-
tigny, at which place his predecessor, S. Thomas, had dwelt
in exile, and employed himself in prayer and fasting." Thence
the state of his health obliged him to move to Soissy near
Provins, in Champagne, and there he died, on November
1 6th, 1242, after having been archbishop eight years. He
was a holy and peace-loving man, but not one of firm,
decided character. He was bald, and had a thin beard —
caused, his biographer thinks, by the want of nourishing
diet to which he condemned himself.

He is buried at Pontigny, where his relics attract nume-
rous pilgrims.

* *

Nov. 16] B. Paul of the Cross. 369

B. PAUL OF THE CROSS, C

(a.d. 1775.)

[Roman Martyrology. Beatified in 1853 by Pope Pius IX. Au-
thorities : — A Life written in 1786 by P. Vincent Maria Strambi,
Passionist, afterwards B. of Macerata and Tolentino. Another, by a
Father of the same Order, published in 182 1.]

Paul Francis Daney, called afterwards Paul of the Cross,
belonged to the noble family of Montferrat, in the diocese
of Acqui. He was born on January 3, 1694. From youth
he dreamed of founding a new Order, and in an ecstasy
thought that he had a special vision of the dress which his
Order was to wear exhibited to him by the hands of the
Almighty Himself. He rushed off to John Mercurini Gas-
tinara, bishop of Alessandria, whom he had chosen as his
director, and informed him of the vision. The bishop in all
gravity listened to the story, considered the cut of the dress
according to the pattern displayed in heaven, approved it,
had one made like it, and solemnly invested Paul in it.
Paul at once drew out rules for his new society, and went
to Rome to have them approved, 1721. The approval he
sought was not accorded, and he returned disappointed to
his home. After a while he made another attempt (1727).
He was on this occasion accompanied by his brother. Both
received the order of priesthood in Rome, and permission
was accorded them to retire to Monte Argentaro, near Orbi-
tello, there to practise mortification. After a while they were
joined by other persons desirous of leading a similar life, and
a monastery was erected for them on Monte Argentaro in
1737. After much hesitation, Benedict XIV., by rescript
in 1 741, approved of the foundation, and published a brief
of approbation in 1746. The congregation grew, and Paul

VOL. XIII.

* . -*

37°

Lives of the Saints.

[Not. 16.

was chosen General of the Order, which was called that of
the Passionists. In time he saw twelve houses of his Order
start up in Italy, and a congregation of women founded at
Cornele. In 1775 Pius VI. confirmed this institution. He
died at Rome in 1775.

Ciborium of 3. rJartiu :\\. Tours. Hue p. 2-11.

Printed by Ballantyne, Hanson &> Co.
at Paul's Work, Edinburgh

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