Chapter X: S. Xystus, Pope 489 (12)

On this day is commemorated Gabriel the Archangel, who was sent to announce to the Blessed Mary that she was to become the Mother of God. He is commemorated in the Roman Martyrology, and in those of the Camaldoli, the Trinitarians, the Franciscans, the Carmelites, the Augustinians, the Discalceate Carmelites, and the Servites.

S. ALEXANDER, M. B. OF JERUSALEM.

(A.D. 250.)

[Usuardus, Ado, Notker, some editions of the Martyrology of Bede; Roman Martyrology. By the Greeks on December 12th. In the Breviary of the Knights of S. John of Jerusalem, this festival is observed with nine lections. His life is gathered from the ecclesiastical Hist. of Eusebius.]

Alexander, a Cappadocian bishop, having come to Jerusalem to venerate the holy places, was elected by revelation of God to take the see of Jerusalem in place of Narcissus, who, on account of his extreme old age, was unable to execute the functions of his office. In the persecution of Decius, when Alexander was advanced in years, with white hair, he was conducted to Cæsarea, where he was imprisoned, and died in his dungeon.

S. NARCISSUS, M. B. OF GERONA.

(BEGINNING OF 4TH CENT.)

[Roman Martyrology. Authority:--The "Conversio" of S. Afra, which existed in the ninth century, but of no historical value.]

Narcissus, bishop of Gerona, being driven from his see in the persecution of Diocletian, wandered homeless as far as Augsburg, where finding that the Christians were mightily oppressed, and well nigh exterminated, he and his deacon Felix, not knowing whither to take refuge, received the hospitality offered them by a courtesan named Afra.[62] And they not knowing who and what manner of woman she was that invited them into her house, went in nothing doubting. Then Afra marvelled what manner of men these were, who ate little, and spent their time in prayer. And before they departed, she believed and was baptized, with all her house. Now when nine months had elapsed, Narcissus and his deacon, finding the violence of persecution had abated, returned into Spain, and recommenced their work of converting the heathen. The success of Narcissus so exasperated them that they waylaid him and assassinated him. When king Philip of France took Gerona, his soldiers pillaged the shrine of S. Narcissus, whereupon a swarm of hornets issued from it and stung them. Consequently in art he is represented with hornets issuing from his tomb. Relics at Gerona.

[62] In the Life of S. Afra (Aug. 5th), it will be shown that it is a late mistake to call her a courtesan.

S. CYRIL, PATR. OF JERUSALEM.

(A.D. 389.)

[Roman, Greek, and Syriac Kalendars. Authorities:--Sozomen, Theodoret, and his own writings.]

Cyril succeeded Maximus in the patriarchal see of Jerusalem, about the year 350. The story that Maximus was deposed, and Cyril substituted by Acacius, Bishop of Cæsarea, is inconsistent with probabilities, and with the testimony borne by the second general Council to the canonical regularity of his consecration. The other tale, which Jerome credited, that Cyril obtained the see from Acacius on condition of disclaiming the ordination which Maximus had bestowed, is utterly incredible, and probably sprang from the prejudices of a rigid party which mistrusted Cyril.

The paschal season of 351 was marked at Jerusalem by the luminous appearance of a cross, which appeared in the sky over the city. It produced a great impression, and S. Cyril sent an account of it to Constantius.[63]

[63] The genuineness of this letter, in which he mentions also the finding of the cross, has been doubted. One objection is that it contains the word "consubstantial," which at that period Cyril would hardly have used. But it is by no means improbable that this word was interpolated by copyists, for the purpose of obtaining the authority of Cyril for that term.

Cyril, a man of gentle spirit, eminently a peace-maker, was cast in times of great difficulty. The Arian party was in power, through the favour of the emperor; and a large number of prelates were semi-Arians; not disbelieving in the divine nature of Christ as consubstantial with the Father, but doubting the expedience of stating the doctrine in plain words which could not be misunderstood. All who were timorous, not thoroughly illumined with the Holy Spirit, and wanting in that keenness of theological discrimination which makes doctors of the Church, hesitated and temporised. It was inexpedient to take too harsh an attitude towards these weak brethren, and drive them into the arms of the Arians, and this Cyril felt. Firm in his own faith, deprecating the injudicious fire of some Catholics who were resolved at all costs to produce a rupture between those who walked in the clear light of Catholic certainty, and those who fluttered in the twilight, he laboured with words of conciliation to avert such a catastrophe.

At the end of 357, or the beginning of 358, an important change took place at Jerusalem. For two years Cyril had been forced into opposition to the demands of Acacius. He maintained for Jerusalem, as the mother Church, possessing an "Apostolic throne," and marked out for honour in the Nicene Council,[64] an independence of Cæsarea which Acacius would not grant; and he was also obnoxious to Acacius on theological grounds, as holding the orthodox doctrine.

[64] Canon VII. "Since a custom and old tradition has obtained, that the bishop of Ælia (Jerusalem) should receive honour, let him hold the second place, the metropolitan (of Cæsarea) being secured in his own dignity."

Acacius now summoned a small council of bishops of his own party, which Cyril declined to attend. This was regarded as contumacy; and he was gravely accused of having committed an offence in selling some of the church ornaments to provide food for the famine-stricken poor. Sozomen says that he sold Church treasures and sacred veils. Theodoret mentions a vestment of cloth of gold presented by Constantine to be worn by the bishop when baptizing. Such an accusation does Cyril honour, and ranks him with other illustrious prelates, Ambrose, Augustine, Exuperius, Gregory the Great, Ethelwold of Winchester, who all in like manner sanctioned the principle that the law of love is the highest law of all. It is worth remark that in this case, as in that of S. John Chrysostom, the alliance of a narrow formalism was found, not with orthodoxy, but with heresy.

By the synod convened by Acacius, Cyril was condemned and expelled from Jerusalem. He appealed, with more formality, as it appears, than had been usual in such cases, to "a higher court;" proceeded to Antioch, where he found that the patriarch Leontius was dead, and that no one had been appointed his successor; and ultimately found a welcome at Tarsus, where Silvanus, the bishop, one of the best of the semi-Arians, received him, in disregard of the remonstrances from Acacius. This circumstance brought Cyril, for the next few years, into connection with the semi-Arian party; and he illustrates the fact that it contained men of whom Athanasius could say, in his noble readiness to discern substantial unity under verbal difference, "We do not treat as enemies those who accept everything else that was defined at Nicæa, and scruple only about the word consubstantial; for we do not attack them as raging Arians, nor as men who fight against the fathers, but we discuss the matter with them as brothers with brothers, who mean what we mean, and differ only about the word."

Considerable excitement had been caused in Antioch in 350 by the ordination of Aetius as deacon, by the patriarch Leontius. This man, the most odious of the extreme Arians, had gone through many changes of life, as a vinedresser's slave, a goldsmith, a medical man, a guest and pupil of Arian bishops, and a professor of that disputatious logic in which the heresy was at first embodied. He was the first to affirm openly that the Son was essentially unlike the Father. Leontius intended his diaconate to be a means of propagating Arianism. But Flavian and Diodorus, the pillars of Catholicism in Antioch, had threatened formally to renounce his communion; and he thought it best to depose Aetius. Now Leontius was dead, and his throne was filled by Eudoxius, the intriguing and thoroughly irreligious bishop of Germanicia. He gained his promotion by fraud, and the aid of court eunuchs; and he openly patronized Aetius, whose views he had imbibed. The state of confusion and discord had become intolerable, and a General Council was resolved upon. Consultations were held as to the best place; and Constantius the emperor lent his ear to the mischievous counsel of Acacius and his party, which recommended the breaking the single council into two, in the hopes of being able thereby to "divide and govern." Constantius agreed, and Ancyra and Ariminum were named as the two places. But Ancyra was afterwards thought unsuitable, and it was decided that one portion of the council should meet at Seleucia instead of Ancyra.

The ultra-Arian Valens was governing in the West. Both councils met in 359. Four hundred bishops of the West, including some from Britain, assembled at Ariminum. About eighty were Arians, for the most part of the advanced school.

The Easterns met at Seleucia, and numbered one hundred and sixty; of these the great majority, one hundred and five, were semi-Arians, and of the rest a party were shifty followers of Acacius. Only one small party of Egyptians were loyal to the faith of Nicæa; nevertheless the council of Seleucia restored S. Cyril to his see, annulled his deposition decreed by Acacius, and deposed Acacius himself, and Eudoxius of Antioch.

In the mean time trickery and violence had been at work at Ariminum. A creed approved by the Arian emperor was sent to the bishops, and they were most falsely assured on imperial authority, that the council of Seleucia had accepted it. The bishops' patience began to give way. They shrank from a winter on the shore of the Adriatic; they were utterly weary of so long a sojourn at Ariminum, and their weariness disposed them to concession. Bishop after bishop signed the imperial creed; but about twenty held out, headed by two Gallicans, Phœbadius and Servatius. Taurus, the emperor's officer, appointed to keep order and enforce his object, tried both menaces and tears. At last, by a miserable sophistry, Valens carried his point, and won for Arianism a scandalous victory, whilst it exposed the untruthfulness which characterized the Arian policy.

Acacius had returned to Constantinople with wrath in his heart, resolved to ruin the semi-Arians and Cyril. He persuaded Constantius to allow a council to be summoned to meet at Constantinople next year, January, 360. About fifty bishops were present. Acacius ruled the assembly; Aetius was made a scape-goat by the Acacians for having too boldly given expression to the error which they sought to propagate insidiously. The council then deposed the leading semi-Arians, but not on doctrinal grounds. Cyril of Jerusalem, and Silvanus of Tarsus were deposed, and with the emperor's power to back their decisions, they were driven into banishment. At the same time the unreality of their censure of Aetius was shown by the enthronement of Eudoxius, who was his chief supporter, at Constantinople, on Jan. 27th. On Feb. 15th he dedicated the restored church of the Eternal Wisdom, for the service of which Constantius offered splendid vessels, curtains, altar-cloths, blazing with gold and jewels. In the midst of the ceremonial, Eudoxius began his sermon with these words, "The Father is irreligious, the Son is religious." A commotion followed; the bishop bade the people calm themselves. "Surely the Father worships none, and the Son worships the Father!" A burst of laughter followed this speech, which became a good jest in the society of the capital. This was the man Acacius and his packed council had set up, when they cast down Cyril. Eudoxius was well fitted to hand on the old traditions of Arian profanity.

The emperor Constantius died, Nov. 3rd, 361, and Julian having recalled the exiled bishops, S. Cyril returned to his see.

The unhappy man who was now lord of the empire had been for some ten years a hypocrite in his Christian profession. No sooner was he proclaimed emperor, than he openly professed himself a restorer of the old religion. Then it was that he "washed off the laver" of baptism by a hideous self-immersion in bull's blood,[65] and sought to cleanse his hands from the touch of the bloodless Sacrifice by holding in them the entrails of victims. He set up an image of Fortune in the great church, and while he was sacrificing there, Maris, bishop of Chalcedon, now a blind old man, was led up to him at his own request, and rebuked his impiety. "Will thy Galilæan God cure thy blindness?" asked Julian. "I thank my God," said Maris, "for the blindness which saves me from seeing the face of an apostate."

[65] The Rite of Taurobolia, Prudent. Peristreph. 10.

The last of Julian's attacks upon Christianity was his attempt to rebuild the temple of Jerusalem. He did indeed wish to aid the Jews in their desire of renewing the Levitical sacrifices, and to secure their attachment to his government in spite of its paganism; but his main object was to confound the Gospel by raising up the fabric which it had expressly doomed, and thus reviving the system of which that fabric had been the symbol and centre.

The rapturous hopes of the Jews were expressed in the scene which followed the imperial mandate, when silver spades and mattocks were employed, and earth was carried away from the excavations in the rich dresses of delicate women. The faith of the Christians was expressed by Cyril's denunciations of the predestined failure. Full of confidence he proclaimed that the enterprise, so far from succeeding, would prove to all men the impossibility of resisting the decree of God. Great must have been his faith, for every appearance was against him. The heathen historian, Ammianus Marcellinus, tells us what ensued. After all possible assistance had been given by the authorities, "fearful balls of fire breaking out near the foundations with repeated attacks, scorched the workmen several times, and rendered the place inaccessible; and in this way, after obstinate repulses by the fiery element, the undertaking was brought to a stand." Various details are added by Christian writers, as of an earthquake, a whirlwind, fire from heaven, a luminous cross in the air, and marks of crosses on the garments of the Jews. It is possible that in these particulars there is an element of exaggeration, and that in the fiery eruption itself, natural agencies were employed. But that those agencies should manifest themselves at that particular crisis will appear accidental, as men speak, to those only who do not estimate the exceeding awfulness of the occasion,--the unparalleled historical position of Julian, the mystery of iniquity in his general policy, and the specially anti-Christian malignity of this attempt at a confutation of Christ's words.

"His shafts, not at the Church, but at her Lord addrest," might well be cast back upon himself by a manifestation of "the finger of God," as real and awe-inspiring as any of those natural phenomena, the presence of which under particular circumstances made them a sign of judgment against Pharaoh.

Julian promised, in his vexation, says Orosius, to revenge his failure on S. Cyril on his return from the Persian war. But this return never took place. Cyril was again exiled by the Arian emperor Valens, in 367. He returned in 378, when the emperor Gratian ordered the restoration of the Catholics. He found his diocese rent by schism, corrupted by heresy. Adultery, robbery, and poisoning were general. The council of Antioch in 379, informed of the deplorable condition of the diocese, sent Gregory of Nyssa, already charged with reforming the churches of Arabia, to assist him in pacifying spirits, and repressing immorality; but his labours were without result. In 381, S. Cyril was present at the General Council of Constantinople, and subscribed the condemnation of the semi-Arians and Macedonians. He died in 386, at the age of seventy.

S. FRIGIDIAN OR FINNIAN, B. OF LUCCA.

(A.D. 589.)

[Roman and Irish Martyrologies. At Lucca the feast of his translation is observed on Nov. 19th. Authorities:--Mention in life of S. Enda, March 21st.]

S. Finnian of Moville is mentioned in the life of S. Enda as one of his disciples in Aran, the Isle of Saints. This remarkable man was the son of Ultach, an Irish king, and was baptized without his father's consent. He was first placed under the care of S. Colman of Dromore, who flourished about the year 510. It is expressly mentioned in the life just referred to, that it was from Aran he set out on his pilgrimage to Rome. This was probably his first visit to the apostolic See. Being of an active temperament, he there devoted himself with great ardour for several years to the study of the ecclesiastical and apostolic traditions. He then returned to Ireland, carrying with him a rich store of relics of the saints given him by the pope, and the penitential canons, which in his biographer's time, were still called "The Canons of S. Finnian." He also brought to Ireland the earliest copy of S. Jerome's translations of the Gospels; a treatise of such value in the estimation of his ecclesiastical contemporaries, that the records of this period very frequently refer to them as S. Finnian's Gospels.

In 540, he founded the great monastery of Moville, where S. Columba spent a portion of his youth. After labouring with energy in Ireland, S. Finnian returned to Italy, where, according to the best authorities, he was made bishop of Lucca, in Tuscany, in which Church he is venerated under the name of Frigidian, or Fridian. During the twenty-eight years that he governed the see of Lucca, he built twenty-eight churches; the chief of these he dedicated to the three holy Levites, but it has since borne his name. He is said to have carried a huge stone towards the erection of the church, which none else could lift. It is still preserved in the church as a monument of his strength and zeal. S. Gregory the Great relates a story of his miraculous power. One day the river Arno had overflowed the country, devastating the fields. The saint ran a plough down to the flood, and it recoiled before the share.

The Italian annals give 588 as the year of his death; the annals of Ulster and Tigernach 589.

S. TETRICUS, B. OF LANGRES.

(A.D. 572.)

[Gallican Martyrology. Authority:--S. Gregory of Tours (542) his kinsman.]

S. Tetricus was the son of S. Gregory of Langres, whose life has been given on Jan. 4th. His mother's name was Armentaria. By her S. Gregory had two sons, Tetricus, who succeeded him in the see of Langres, and Gregory, the father of Armentaria, mother of S. Gregory of Tours, the historian, who has recorded all that we know of the life of his great-uncle. This is not much. The choice of the clergy and people fell on Tetricus as a successor to his father, almost unanimously moved thereto by the hopes that he would inherit the virtues of S. Gregory. Nor were these hopes frustrated. Tetricus ruled with prudence, and was a burning and a shining light in his diocese. One Sunday at Dijon, as the prelate was ministering in the Church of S. John, Chramn, the rebel son of king Clothaire, entered it, and besought that he might be allowed to consult the divine Oracles on the future. Three books were accordingly placed on the altar, the Prophets, the Gospel, and the Epistles; and the clergy prayed along with Chramn that the future might be unfolded to him. Then he opened the book of the Prophets, and lighted on the words of Isaiah, v. 4, 5. "What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? Wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes? And now, go to; I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard: I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up: and break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down." Then the book of Epistles was opened at the place, "When they say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape," 1 Thess. v. 3; and the book of the Gospels when interrogated gave the following answer, Matt. vii. 26, 27, "A foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house, and it fell: and great was the fall of it." Chramn went away much dispirited. Shortly after, hearing that his father was marching upon Dijon, he retired into Aquitaine, but being pursued by Clothaire, he fled into Brittany to Count Conovre. Shortly after Clothaire attacked them and defeated them in a battle in which the count fell. He then took his son and shut him up in a cottage with his wife and children, set fire to the place, and burnt them all.

S. EDWARD, K. M.

(A.D. 978.)

[Anglican Martyrologies, also modern Anglican Kalendar. Roman Martyrology. The elevation of his body, June 20th; his translation, Feb. 18th. Authorities:--The Chronicle of John of Brompton, Osbern of Canterbury, William of Malmesbury.]

In the year 975, King Edgar died, and was buried at Glastonbury. He had been twice married. His first wife was the beautiful Ethelfleda, who died shortly after the birth of her son Edward. After her death Edgar married, in 964, Elfrida, daughter of Ordgar, earl of Devonshire, and she became the mother of two sons by him, Edmund, who died young, and Ethelred. As soon as king Edgar was dead, Edward, who was thirteen years old, a good youth, upright in all his dealings, and fearing God, was elected to the crown, much to the discontent of Elfrida, who desired to see her son Ethelred on the throne.

In the year 979, when Edward was aged seventeen, he was murdered. Now, certainly he was not a martyr for the Christian faith, nor for right and truth in any shape; but he was a good youth, and was unjustly and cruelly killed, so people looked on him as a saint, and called him Edward the Martyr. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle greatly laments his death, and says that a worse deed had never been done since the English came into Britain. It does not, however, say who killed him, but only that he was killed at eventide, at Corfe Castle. Henry of Huntingdon says that king Edward was killed by his own people; Florence of Worcester, that he was killed by his own people by order of his step-mother, Elfrida. William of Malmesbury, in one part of his book, says he was killed by earl Elfhere, but this is improbable, as no reason for such an act appears. But in recording his death, Malmesbury attributes the crime to Elfrida, and tells the story thus:--

When Edward was elected, Elfrida hated him, because she wished her own son, Ethelred, to be king, and she ever sought how she might slay Edward. Now, one day the young king was hunting in Dorsetshire, hard by the castle of Corfe, where Elfrida and Ethelred her son dwelt. And the king was weary and thirsty, so he turned away alone from his hunting, and said, "Now will I go to rest myself at Corfe, with my step-mother Elfrida, and my brother Ethelred." So king Edward rode to the gate of the house, and Elfrida came out to meet him, and kissed him. And he said, "Give me to drink, for I am thirsty." And Elfrida commanded, and they brought him a cup, and he drank eagerly. But while he drank, Elfrida made a sign to her servant, and he stabbed the king with a dagger; and when the king felt the wound, he set spurs to his horse, and tried to join his comrades, who were hunting. But he slipped from his horse, and his leg caught in the stirrup, so he was dragged along till he died, and the track of his blood showed whither he had gone. And Elfrida bade that he should be buried in Wareham, but not in holy ground, nor with any royal pomp. But a light from heaven shone over his grave, and wonders were wrought there. But when the child Ethelred heard of his brother's murder, he began to cry and bewail him, for Edward had always been very kind to the little boy. His mother, stung by her conscience, and angry with him for his lamentations, rushed on the child to beat him, and having no stick at hand, she pulled a wax candle out of its socket, and thrashed him with it. But afterwards, when she heard of the mighty works which were done at the grave of king Edward, how the sick were healed, and the lame walked, she resolved to go and see the miracles with her own eyes. But when she mounted her horse to ride, the horse would not stir. So Elfrida's hard heart was shaken, and she became alarmed about her sin that she had committed, and she retired into the convent of Wherwell, that she might repent in ashes the wickedness she had done. The body was afterwards translated to the minster at Shaftesbury (June 20th).

S. Edward is usually drawn with a youthful countenance, having the insignia of royalty, with a cup in one hand and a dagger in the other. Sometimes he has a sceptre instead of the cup; and at other times a falcon, in allusion to his last hunt.

March 19.

S. JOSEPH, _Husband of the B. Virgin Mary, before_ A.D. 30.
SS. QUINTUS, QUINTILLIUS, AND COMP., _MM. at Sorrento_.
S. PANCHARIUS, _M. at Nicomedia, 3rd cent._
S. JOHN, _Ab. at Civita-di-Penne, near Spoleto, 4th cent._
S. LEONTIUS, _B. of Saintes in France, 6th cent._
S. LACTEAN, _Ab. in Ireland_, A.D. 622.
SS. LANDOALD, P.C., AMANTIUS, D., AND ADRIAN, _M. at Wintershoven,
in Belgium, 8th cent._
S. ALEMUND, _M. at Derby_, A.D. 800.

S. JOSEPH.

(BEFORE A.D. 30.)

[Roman Martyrology. His festival was ordered by pope Sixtus IV. to be observed as a double; Gregory XV. recommended its general observance by the faithful, and this recommendation was confirmed by Urban XIII., by bull in 1642.]

All we know for certain concerning S. Joseph, the husband of Mary the mother of God, is derived from the Holy Gospels. To him was confided the most precious treasure ever entrusted to man, the guardianship of Mary and Jesus, of the Mother and the Son of God; whence we may infer the great sanctity and merit of S. Joseph.

He was of the lineage of David, and therefore of royal race, but was poor, and gained his livelihood as a carpenter. According to S. Matthew his father's name was Jacob, according to S. Luke it was Heli, this discrepancy in the accounts is explained by the supposition that one of the genealogies represents the direct line of natural generation, the other the legal descent of royal prerogative. We are expressly told that he was a just man. On perceiving that his virgin wife was with child, he resolved secretly to put her away, for having lived with her in the purest relations, he knew that the child could be none of his; and by secretly divorcing her, he would spare her the scandal which would attach itself to her, for the world would regard her offspring as his son, and he alone would know that this was not the case.

But he was warned by God in a dream to believe in the innocence of his wife, and was told that she was to become the mother of the Son of God. Afterwards, when Herod sought the life of the young child, he took Him and His mother by night and fled with them into Egypt, till hearing that Herod was dead, in obedience to an angelic order, he returned to Palestine; but finding that Archelaus the son of Herod was reigning in Judea, he thought it imprudent to enter his dominions, and therefore settled at Nazareth. He and Mary went once every year to Jerusalem to offer their sacrifice in the temple, in obedience to the requirements of the law, and on one of these occasions Jesus accompanied them. The child Jesus grew up under the care of Joseph, assisting him in his shop. It is believed that Joseph died before our Lord began his ministry; for we hear of him no more.

The girdle of S. Joseph is said to be preserved among the sacred treasures of the church of Joinville, in the diocese of Langres.

S. PANCHARIUS, M.

(3RD CENT.)

[Roman Martyrology and Greek Menæa. Authority:--The account in the Menæa.]

Pancharius, a young Christian, well-favoured, and active, having gained the favour of the emperor Maximian, became his secretary. His mother and sister, hearing this, were filled with anxiety lest his soul should be imperilled. They therefore wrote to him a letter urging him not to be ashamed of Christ, and to remember that it profits a man little to gain the whole world if he lose his own soul. On reading this letter, Pancharius was moved, and lifting up his voice he prayed to God, "Have mercy upon me, Almighty God, and bring not thy servant to confusion in the face of men and angels, but according to thy great mercy, spare me." Some one overheard this prayer, and told the emperor that his favourite was a Nazarene. The emperor sent for him and asked him if this were true. Then the young man confessed that he was. The emperor urged him to renounce his religion. But as Pancharius refused, he ordered him to be scourged, and sent to Nicomedia to be tried and sentenced by the governor. At Nicomedia he was subjected to fresh interrogation, but maintaining his constancy, was condemned to execution by the sword.

S. JOHN, AB. AT CIVITA-DI-PENNE.

(4TH CENT.)

[Usuardus, Ado, Notker, some copies of Bede's Martyrology, and the Roman Martyrology. Authority:--An ancient life published by the Bollandists, but evidently founded on tradition.]

The life of this saint shall be translated from the original, as it deserves, from its quaint simplicity and freshness.

"It fell out in those days that as the blessed John was going forth from Syria, he prayed, saying, 'Lord God of heaven and earth, God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and of our Fathers, who madest heaven and earth with all their adornments, who by a word didst suspend the sea, who didst close the abyss and sign above it gloriously, whose mighty name all things revere, and before the face of whose virtue all things quake; I pray Thee, who art the true light, illumine me hoping in thee, and make my way prosperous before me, in which I go, and let this be to me for a sign that there I should rest, when that person to whom I give my psalter shall not return it to me the self-same day.'

"And it came to pass that he came to Italy, and was near to the metropolitan city (of Spoleto) and had gone about five miles into the Angellan farm, when he met with a certain handmaiden of God, and he gave to her his psalter. And afterwards he asked the handmaid for it again, and she said, 'Servant of God, whither goest thou? Tarry here, and go thy way to-morrow.' And when they had long spoken, she insisted that he should remain there that night; so he remained. And the blessed John remembered his prayer that he had made, and he said in his heart, 'Verily this is what I besought of the Lord; here will I dwell.'

"So when the morning came, having received his psalter again, he went forth no more than four bow-shots. And, behold! an angel of God appeared to him, and went before him, and when they came to the place, the angel said to him, 'Sit down here, servant of the most high God, for the Lord hath commanded thee to dwell here,' and so saying, he led him under a tree and said, 'Here shalt thou have a great congregation, and find rest.' Then S. John, the Confessor of Christ, sat down under the tree.

"Now it was the month of December, and according to the custom of the month, it froze hard, and all the ground was stiff; but the tree under which the blessed John reposed, blossomed as the lily. And at that time hunters went by, and they found him sitting under the tree, and they thought that he was a spy, and they questioned him, saying, 'Whence comest thou?' Then the blessed John told them all, and how he had come to Italy. So they marvelled greatly, for they had never seen a habit like his. But he said to them, 'Do not, my sons, do not harm me, for I have come here in the service of Jesus Christ.'

"Then they observing the tree, that it shone as a lily, knew that the Lord was with him, and they told all things to the bishop of Spoleto. And when bishop John heard this, he was filled with great joy, and he hasted, and went to where the blessed John was praying. And when they saw one another, for joy they wept. And all that were present gave glory to God. Now through the mercy of God many people were collected there, and he built a monastery, and he lived therein all the rest of the days of his life. And he was there forty and four years, and he fell asleep in peace, and was buried with hymns and songs, where he reposes to this day, and there the blind receive their sight, devils are expelled, lepers are cleansed, and the divine offices are there performed to the present day, through the assistance of Jesus Christ, our Lord, who liveth and reigneth, through ages. Amen."

S. LACTEAN, AB. OF CLON-FERT.

(A.D. 622.)

[Irish Martyrologies. Authority:--A fragmentary life published by the Bollandists, based on tradition.]

The legend of this saint comes under the same category as so many of the other Irish legends. It exists only in fragments, and was written several hundreds of years after the death of S. Lactean, from oral tradition. It shall be given without any attempt at sifting truth from fable, as a specimen of these Irish biographies.

An angel appeared to S. Molua (d. about 608), monk of Banchor, in Ireland, when he was wondering who would become his pupil, and announced to him that after the lapse of fifteen years a child would be born, who would become his disciple. And for those fifteen years Molua did not laugh, being instant in expectation. Now there was a man in Munster named Torphur, who had a wife named Senecha, and she was with child. And before the child was born, her breasts filled with milk. An old man, named Mohemath, passed by, and he was blind. Then Senecha struck his eyes with her milk, and his eyes opened, and he saw so plain that the city of Rome, bathed in clear light, was visible instantly to his so long darkened orbs.

Now when Lactean was born, Mohemath was near at hand. And the place was without water. So Mohemath took the finger of the new-born babe, and with it signed a cross on the earth. Then instantly a fountain burst forth, and therein Lactean was baptized. And when Lactean was a month old, he was taken to S. Alpheus, to be rebaptized, but when he saw the child full of the grace of God, he knew that he had already been bathed in the laver of regeneration, and, therefore, he refused to repeat the sacrament. Also there was in that country a grain, which acted on whomsoever ate thereof as an emetic, but the infant Lactean was fed thereon, and was none the worse, for indeed nothing injured him. Now a grievous murrain broke out amongst the cattle of his father, and they died. But there was a white cow with a red face, on whose milk Lactean was nourished, and this cow died. Then the child was carried in his mother's arms to the dead cow, and it recovered, and her milk was distributed amongst the other cows, and they recovered of their disorder.

Now when Lactean was aged fifteen, the angel Muriel, who was commissioned to be his guardian, led him to Banchor, and S. Comgal gave him to be the pupil and companion of S. Molua, who instructed him in letters and the reading of the Divine Scriptures.

Afterwards Lactean went to S. Mochuda, and as he drew nigh, he sent and asked Mochuda for milk. Then Mochuda filled a vessel with pure water, and signed it, and it became milk, but Lactean took it, and signed it again, and it was reconverted into water. Afterwards Lactean founded the abbey of Clonfert, and he died in the odour of sanctity.

It is evident that his name was the occasion of so many milky legends attaching themselves to it.[66]

[66] Baine is the common Irish for milk, but there is a Welsh word, probably adopted from the Latin, Llæth, which means milk.

Colgan has confounded this S. Lactean with another of the same name, a contemporary of S. Senan of Iniscatthy, from whom the church of Lis-lachtin, in Kerry, took its name, and who died about the year 560. The S. Lactean of Clonfert belonged to the house of Corpre Muse, of Muskerry, Cork, and was a friend of S. Mochoemog (Pulcherius), abbot of Achadur (Aghour), in Kilkenny.

SS. LANDOALD, P., AMANTIUS, D., AND ADRIAN, M.

(8TH CENT.)

[Belgian Martyrologies. S. Landoald is venerated especially at Ghent. Also Roman and Gallican Martyrologies. The translation of S. Landoald is commemorated on Dec. 1st, and the elevation on June 13th. The original Acts were lost in 954, and by order of Notker, B. of Liege, new ones were compiled in 981, by one Herdger, abbot of Lobie, who died 1007.]

S. Amandus having resigned the see of Maestricht into the hands of S. Remacle, to resume his first vocation of mission work in the Low Countries, went to Rome to obtain the approval of his design by pope Martin. The pope not only approved of it, but gave him Landoald, a priest of the Roman Church, of Lombard family, to accompany and assist him in his work. S. Amandus was also joined by the deacon Amantius. They left Rome, and after visiting some of the monasteries of France, arrived in the country between the Meuse and the Scheldt, where S. Remacle met S. Amandus, and persuaded him to allow him to keep Landoald with him to assist him in the work of evangelising his diocese. Landoald had a large field for the exercise of his zeal in the diocese of Maestricht, only partially converted to the faith. A rich man named Aper gave him a piece of land at Wintershoven, on the river Herck, to the west of Maestricht, where he built a church, which he dedicated to S. Peter, in 659. Landoald continued his labours under S. Theodard, the successor of S. Remacle, making Wintershoven his head-quarters, and sending from time to time one of his little community to Maestricht to beg. One of his disciples, Adrian by name, was returning from his quest of alms, when he was waylaid by some robbers, and murdered. S. Landoald did not long survive him, and there is reason to believe that he died before S. Lambert succeeded, in the see of Maestricht, to S. Theodard, who was martyred in 668. He was buried in the church of Wintershoven, but his body was taken up in 735, and transported into Maestricht, but from fear of the Normans it was concealed, and taken up again along with the bodies of S. Amantius and S. Adrian, by Euraculus, bishop of Liége, but they were claimed by the monks of S. Bavo, at Ghent, who were proprietors of Wintershoven, and the bodies were translated to Ghent in 980.

S. ALKMUND, M.

(A.D. 800.)

[Anglican Martyrologies. Authorities:--Florence of Worcester, William of Malmesbury, Simeon of Durham, and Thurgot of Durham.]

A great discrepancy exists in the accounts given of this saint. Malmesbury is certainly not to be trusted in his relation, and we must follow the account of Simeon of Durham. Ceolwulf, king of Northumbria, abdicated in 737, and was succeeded by Egbert, who was succeeded in 758 by his brother Osulf, who was killed in 759, leaving a son, named Ethelwald. He was succeeded, not by his son Ethelwald, but by another Ethelwald, surnamed Moll, who was banished in 765, when Alcred, son of Eanwin, a descendant of Ida, came to the throne. He was banished in 774, and the crown rested on the head of Ethelred, son of Ethelwald Moll, who was banished in 779, and succeeded by Ethelwald, son of Osulf. But this Ethelwald was killed in 788, whereupon Osred, son of Alcred, came to the throne. Osred's younger brother was S. Alkmund, the subject of this memoir. But Osred was deposed, in 790, by Ethelred, son of Ethelwald Moll, who had been exiled in 779, and this king put Osred to death in 792; and Alkmund, in 800, was murdered by order of king Eardulf, who came to the throne in 797, after the assassination of Ethelred in 796.

Alkmund had spent some years in banishment among the Picts, and was loved and revered for his spotless innocence and gentleness in a period of crime and violence. Harpsfield, following Radulph Diceto, says Alkmund fell in battle against the West Saxons, which is certainly wrong. He also makes Alkmund the son of Ethelred, which is also a mistake; and Malmesbury calls his father Alfred. The name probably was Alcfred.

S. Alkmund was buried at Lilleshut, in Shropshire, but his body was afterwards translated to Derby, and he is honoured as the patron of that town.

March 20.

S. JOACHIM, _Father of the B. Virgin Mary_.
SS. PHOTINA, JOSEPH, VICTOR, AND COMPANIONS, _MM., 1st cent._
S. ARCHIPPUS, _Companion of S. Paul, 1st cent._
SS. PAUL, CYRIL, AND COMPANIONS, _MM. in Syria_.
SS. ALEXANDRA, CLAUDIA, AND OTHERS, _MM. at Amisa, 4th cent._
S. URBICIUS, _B. of Metz, circ._ A.D. 420.
S. MARTIN, _Archb. of Braga, in Portugal_, A.D. 580.
S. CUTHBERT, _B. of Lindisfarne_, A.D. 687.
S. HERBERT, _P.H. in an island of Derwentwater_, A.D. 687.
S. WULFRAM, _B. of Sens_, A.D. 741.
SS. JOHN, SERGIUS, COSMAS, AND COMPANIONS, _Monks MM. in the Laura of
S. Sabas, near Jerusalem_, A.D. 797.
S. NICETAS, _B.M. at Apollonia, 8th cent._
B. AMBROSE, _O.P. at Sienna_, A.D. 1287.
B. HIPPOLYTUS GALANTINI, _Founder of the Institute of Christian
Brothers, at Florence_, A.D. 1619.

S. JOACHIM.

[Roman Martyrology; by the Greeks on Sept. 9th. The insertion of this name in the Martyrologies is not earlier than the 16th century. The Roman Breviary of 1522, pub. at Venice, contained it with special office, but this was expunged by pope Pius V., and in the Breviary of 1572, neither name nor office are to be found.]

Nothing whatever is known of S. Joachim, except what is related in the Apocryphal Gospels, whence the name is derived. It is probable, however, that the name was traditionally preserved, and adopted by the author of the Apocryphal Gospels.

S. CUTHBERT, B. OF LINDISFARNE.

(A.D. 687.)

[Martyrologies of Bede, Usuardus, Ado, Rabanus Maurus; the Anglican, Scottish, and Irish Martyrologies; the Benedictine and the Roman as well. Authorities:--Bede's Life of S. Cuthbert, another by a monk of Lindisfarne, written in the reign of Egfrid (d. 705). The following life is extracted from Montalembert's "Monks of the West."]

Of the parentage of Cuthbert, nothing for certain is known. The Kelts have claimed him as belonging to them, at least by birth. They made him out to have been the son of an Irish princess, reduced to slavery, like Bridget, the holy patroness of Ireland, but who fell, more miserably, victim to the lust of her savage master. His Celtic origin would seem to be more conclusively proved by his attitude towards S. Wilfrid, the introducer of Roman uniformity into the north of England, than by the tradition of the Anglo-Saxon monks of Durham. His name is certainly Saxon, and not Keltic. But, to tell the truth, nothing is certainly known either of his place of birth, or the rank of his family.

His first appearance in history is as a shepherd in Lauderdale, a valley watered by a river which flows into the Tweed near Melrose. It was then a district annexed to the kingdom of Northumbria, which had just been delivered by the holy king Oswald from the yoke of the Mercians and Britons. As he is soon afterwards to be seen travelling on horseback, lance in hand, and accompanied by a squire, it is not to be supposed that he was of poor extraction. At the same time, it was not the flocks of his father which he kept, as did David in the plains of Bethlehem; it is expressly noted that the flocks confided to his care belonged to a master, or to several masters. His family must have been in the rank of those vassals to whom the great Saxon lords gave the care and superintendence of their flocks upon the vast extent of pastures which, under the name of _folcland_ or common, was left to their use, and where the cowherds and shepherds lived day and night in the open air, as is still done by the shepherds of Hungary.

Popular imagination in the north of England, of which Cuthbert was the hero before, as well as after, the Norman Conquest, had thus full scope in respect to the obscure childhood of its favourite saint, and delighted in weaving stories of his childish sports, representing him as walking on his hands, and turning somersaults with his little companions. A more authentic testimony, that of his contemporary, Bede, informs us that our shepherd boy had not his equal among the children of his age, for activity, dexterity, and boldness in the race and fight. In all sports and athletic exercises he was the first to challenge his companions, with the certainty of being the victor. The description reads like that of a little Anglo-Saxon of our own day--a scholar of Eton or Harrow. At the same time, a precocious piety showed itself in him, even amid the exuberance of youth. One night, as he said his prayers, while keeping the sheep of his master, he saw the sky, which had been very dark, broken by a track of light, upon which a cloud of angels descended from heaven, returning afterwards with a resplendent soul, which they had gone to meet on earth. Next morning he heard that Aidan, the holy bishop of Lindisfarne, the apostle of the district, had died during the night. This vision determined his monastic vocation.

Some time afterwards we find him at the gates of the monastery of Melrose, the great Keltic establishment for novices in Northumbria. He was then only fifteen, yet, nevertheless, he arrived on horseback, lance in hand, attended by a squire, for he had already begun his career in the battle-field, and learned in the face of the enemy the first lessons of abstinence, which he now meant to practise in the cloister. He was received by two great doctors of the Keltic Church,--the abbot Eata, one of the twelve Northumbrians first chosen by Aidan, and the prior Boswell, who conceived a special affection for the new-comer, and undertook the charge of his monastic education. Five centuries later, the copy of the Gospels in which the master and pupil had read daily, was still kissed with veneration in the cathedral of Durham.

The robust and energetic youth very soon showed the rarest aptitude for monastic life, not only for cenobitical exercises, but, above all, for the missionary work, which was the principal occupation of monks in that country and period. He was not content merely to surpass all the other monks in his devotion to the four principal occupations of monastic life--study, prayer, vigil, and manual labour--but speedily applied himself to the work of casting out from the hearts of the surrounding population the last vestiges of pagan superstition. Not a village was so distant, not a mountain side so steep, not a village so poor, that it escaped his zeal. He sometimes passed weeks, and even months, out of his monastery, preaching to and confessing the rustic population of the mountains. The roads were very bad, or rather there were no roads; only now and then was it possible to travel on horseback; sometimes, when his course lay along the coast of the district inhabited by the Picts, he would take the help of a boat. But generally it was on foot that he had to penetrate into the glens and distant valleys, crossing the heaths and vast table-lands, uncultivated and uninhabited, where a few shepherd's huts, like that in which he himself had passed his childhood, and which were in winter abandoned even by the rude inhabitants, were thinly scattered. But neither the intemperance of the seasons, nor hunger, nor thirst, arrested the young and valiant missionary in his apostolic travels, to seek the scattered population, half Celts, and half Anglo-Saxons, who, though already Christian in name and by baptism, retained an obstinate attachment to many of their ancient superstitions, and who were quickly led back by any great calamity, such as one of the great pestilences which were then so frequent, to the use of magic, amulets, and other practices of idolatry. The details which have been preserved of the wonders which often accompanied his wanderings, show that his labours extended over all the hilly district between the two seas--from the Solway to the Forth. They explain to us how the monks administered the consolations and the teaching of religion, before the organization of parishes, ordained by archbishop Theodore, had been everywhere introduced or regulated. As soon as the arrival of one of these apostolic missionaries in a somewhat central locality was known, all the population of the neighbourhood hastened to hear him, endeavouring with fervour and simplicity to put in practice the instruction they received from him. Cuthbert, especially, was received among them with affectionate confidence; his eloquence was so persuasive that it brought the most rebellious to his feet, to hear their sins revealed to them, and to accept the penance which he imposed upon them.

Cuthbert prepared himself for preaching and the administration of the Sacraments, by extraordinary penances and austerities. Stone bathing-places, in which he passed the entire night in prayer, lying in the frozen water, according to a custom common among the Keltic saints, are still shown in several different places. When he was near the sea, he went to the shore, unknown to any one, at night, and plunging into the waves up to his neck, sang his vigils there. As soon as he came out of the water he resumed his prayers on the sand of the beach. On one occasion, one of his disciples, who had followed him secretly in order to discover the aim of this nocturnal expedition, saw two otters come up out of the water, which, while the saint prayed on his knees, lick his frozen feet, and wipe them with their hair, until life and warmth returned to the benumbed members. By one of those strange caprices of human frivolity which disconcert the historian, this insignificant incident is the only recollection which now remains in the memory of the people. S. Cuthbert is known to the peasant of Northumberland and of the Scottish borders only by the legend of those compassionate otters.

He had been some years at Melrose, when the abbot Eata took him along with him to join the community of Keltic monks established by king Alchfrid at Ripon. Cuthbert held the office of steward, and in this office showed the same zeal as in his missions. When travellers arrived through the snow, famished and nearly fainting with cold, he himself washed their feet and warmed them against his bosom, then hastened to the oven to order bread to be made ready, if there was not enough.

Cuthbert returned with his countrymen to Melrose, resumed his life of missionary preaching, and again met his friend and master, the prior Boswell, at whose death, in the great pestilence of 664, Cuthbert was elected abbot in his place. He had been himself attacked by the disease; and all the monks prayed earnestly that his life might be preserved to them. When he knew that the community had spent the night in prayer for him, though he felt no better, he cried to himself, with a double impulse of his habitual energy, "What am I doing in bed? It is impossible that God should shut His ears to such men. Give me my staff and my shoes." And getting up, he immediately began to walk, leaning upon his staff. But this sudden cure left him subject to weakness, which shortened his life.