The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Other Principal Saints, Vol. 7. July
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Title: The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Other Principal Saints, Vol. 7. July
Author: Alban Butler
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LIVES OF THE FATHERS, MARTYRS, AND OTHER PRINCIPAL SAINTS, VOL. 7. JULY ***
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_Only Complete and Unabridged Edition with nearly 100 pages of
Chronological and General Index, Alphabetical and Centenary Table,
etc._
THE
LIVES
OF
THE FATHERS, MARTYRS,
AND OTHER
PRINCIPAL SAINTS;
COMPILED FROM
ORIGINAL MONUMENTS, AND OTHER AUTHENTIC RECORDS;
ILLUSTRATED WITH THE
REMARKS OF JUDICIOUS MODERN CRITICS AND HISTORIANS.
BY THE REV. ALBAN BUTLER.
_With the approbation of
MOST REV. M. A. CORRIGAN, D.D.,
Archbishop of New York._
VOL. VII.
NEW YORK:
P. J. KENEDY,
PUBLISHER TO THE HOLY SEE,
EXCELSIOR CATHOLIC PUBLISHING HOUSE,
5 BARCLAY STREET.
1908
CONTENTS.
JULY.
1.
St. Rumold, Bishop and Martyr
SS. Julius and Aaron, Martyrs
St. Theobald, Confessor
St. Gal, Bishop
Another St. Gal, Bishop
St. Calais, Abbot
St. Leonorus, Bishop
St. Simeon
St. Thierri, Abbot
St. Cybar, Recluse
2.
The Visitation of the Blessed Virgin
SS. Processus and Martinian, Martyrs
St. Otho, Bishop and Confessor
St. Monegondes, Recluse
St. Oudoceus, Bishop
3.
St. Phocas, Martyr
St. Guthagon, Recluse
St. Gunthiern, Abbot
St. Bertran, Bishop
4.
St. Ulric, Bishop and Confessor
St. Odo, Bishop and Confessor
St. Sisoes, Anchoret
St. Bertha, Widow, Abbess
St. Finbar, Abbot in Ireland
St. Bolcan, Abbot in Ireland
5.
St. Peter, Bishop and Confessor
St. Modwena, Virgin in Ireland
St. Edana, Virgin in Ireland
6.
St. Palladius, Bishop and Confessor, Apostle of the Scots
Account of ancient principal Scottish Saints commemorated in
an ancient Scottish Calendar published by Mr. Robert Keith
St. Julian, Anchoret
St. Sexburgh, Abbess
St. Goar, Priest, Confessor
St. Moninna, Virgin in Ireland
7.
St. Pantænus, Father of the Church
St. Willibald, Bishop and Confessor
St. Hedda, Bishop and Confessor
St. Edelburga, Virgin
St. Felix, Bishop and Confessor
St. Benedict XI., Pope and Confessor
8.
St. Elizabeth, Queen of Portugal
St. Procopius, Martyr
SS. Kilian, Bishop, Colman, Priest, and Totnan, Deacon, Martyrs
St. Withburge, Virgin
B. Theobald, Abbot
St. Grimbald, Abbot
9.
St. Ephrem, Doctor of the Church
Appendix on the Writings of St. Ephrem
SS. Martyrs of Gorcum
St. Everildis, Virgin
St. Veronica Giuliani
10.
The Seven Brothers, and St. Felicitas, their mother, Martyrs
SS. Rufina and Secunda, Virgins, Martyrs
11.
St. James, Bishop and Confessor
His Writings
St. Hidulphus, Bishop
St. Pius I., Pope and Martyr
St. Drostan, Abbot in Scotland
12.
St. John Gualbert, Abbot
SS. Nabor and Felix, Martyrs
13.
St. Eugenius, Bishop, &c., Confessors
St. Anacletus, Pope and Martyr
St. Turiaf, Bishop
14.
St. Bonaventure, Cardinal, Bishop, and Doctor of the Church
Life of B. Giles of Assisio
Lives and Writings of Peter Lombard, surnamed Master of the
Sentences, Bishop of Paris, John Duns Scotus, Professor of
Divinity at Oxford, and William Ockham
St. Camillus de Lellis, Confessor
St. Idus, Bishop in Ireland
15.
St. Henry II., Emperor
Some account of the Territories conferred by Pepin, and
confirmed by Charlemagne, on the Holy See
St. Plechelm, Bishop and Confessor
St. Swithin, Bishop and Confessor
16.
St. Eustathius, Patriarch of Antioch, Confessor
Life and Writings of Eusebius, Bishop of Cæsarea
St. Elier, Hermit and Martyr
17.
St. Alexius, Confessor
St. Speratus, &c., Martyrs
Life and Writings of Tertullian
St. Marcellina, Virgin
St. Ennodius, Bishop and Confessor
St. Leo IV., Pope and Confessor
Some Account of the Slander of Pope Joan
St. Turninus, Confessor, of Ireland
18.
St. Symphorosa and her seven Sons, Martyrs
St. Philastrius, Bishop and Confessor
St. Arnoul, Bishop and Confessor
St. Arnoul, Martyr
St. Frederic, Bishop and Martyr
St. Odulph, Confessor
St. Bruno, Bishop and Confessor
19.
St. Vincent of Paul, Confessor
Some Account of Jansenism
St. Arsenius, Anchoret of Sceté
St. Symmachus, Pope and Confessor
St. Macrina, Virgin
20.
St. Joseph Barsabas, Confessor
St. Margaret, Virgin and Martyr
SS. Justa and Rufina, Martyrs
St. Ceslas, Confessor
St. Aurelius, Bishop and Confessor
St. Ulmar, Abbot
St. Jerom Æmiliani, Confessor
21.
St. Praxedes, Virgin
St. Zoticus, Bishop and Martyr
St. Barhadbesciabas, Martyr
St. Victor, Martyr
Life and Writings of Cassian
Lives and Writings of Hugh and Richard, Canon Regulars of
St. Victor
St. Arbogastus, Bishop and Confessor
22.
St. Mary Magdalen
St. Vandrille, Abbot
St. Joseph of Palestine
St. Meneve, Abbot
St. Dabius, Confessor, of Ireland
23.
St. Apollinaris, Bishop and Martyr
St. Liborius, Bishop and Confessor
24.
St. Lupus, Bishop and Confessor
St. Francis Solano, Confessor
SS. Romanus and David, Martyrs
Some Account of the Russians, their Saints, &c.
St. Christina, Virgin and Martyr
SS. Wulfhad and Ruffin, Martyrs
St. Lewine, Virgin and Martyr
St. Declan, Bishop in Ireland
St. Kinga, Virgin
25.
St. James the Great, Apostle
St. Christopher, Martyr
SS. Thea and Valentine, Virgins, and St. Paul, Martyrs
St. Cucufas, Martyr
St. Nissen, Abbot in Ireland
26.
St. Anne, Mother of the Blessed Virgin
St. Germanus, Bishop and Confessor
27.
St. Pantaleon, Martyr
SS. Maximian, Malchus, Martinian, Dionysius, John, Serapion,
and Constantine, Martyrs
St. Congall, Abbot in Ireland
St. Lucian, Confessor in Ireland
28.
SS. Nazarius and Celsus, Martyrs
St. Victor, Pope and Martyr
St. Innocent I., Pope and Confessor
St. Sampson, Bishop and Confessor
29.
St. Martha, Virgin
SS. Simplicius, Faustinus, and Beatrice, Martyrs
St. Felix, Pope and Martyr
St. William, Bishop and Confessor
St. Olaus, King and Martyr
Another St. Olaus, King and Martyr
30.
SS. Abdon and Sennen, Martyrs
St. Julitta, Martyr
31.
St. Ignatius of Loyola, Confessor
St. John Columbini, Confessor
St. Helen, Martyr
JULY 1.
SAINT RUMOLD, B. M.
PATRON OF MECHLIN.[1]
From the Bollandists. Ward, Act. &c. S. Rumoldi, Lov. 1662,
4to. Sellerii Act. S. Rumoldi, An. 1718, &c.
A. D. 775.
St. Rumold renounced the world in his youth and embraced a state
of voluntary poverty, being convinced that whatever exceeds the
calls of nature is a useless load and a perfect burden to him that
bears it. He was the most declared enemy to voluptuousness; and by
frugality, moderation, and a heart pure and disengaged from all
seducing vanities, and desires of what is superfluous, he tasted
the most solid pleasure which virtue gives in freeing a man from
the tyranny of his passions, when he feels them subjected to him,
and finds himself above them. Victorious over himself, by humility,
meekness, and mortification, he reaped in his soul, without any
obstacles from self-love or inordinate attachments, the sweet and
happy fruits of assiduous prayer and contemplation, whereby he
sanctified his studies, in which he made great progress, and at the
same time advanced daily in Christian perfection. He had faithfully
served God many years in his own country, when an ardent zeal for the
divine honor and the salvation of souls induced him to travel into
Lower Germany to preach the faith to the idolaters. He made a journey
first to Rome to receive his mission from the chief pastor, and
with the apostolic blessing went into Brabant, great part of which
country about Mechlin he converted to the faith. He was ordained a
regionary or missionary bishop without any fixed see. He frequently
interrupted his exterior functions to renew his spirit before God in
holy solitude. In his retirement he was slain on the 24th of June in
775, by two sons of Belial, one of whom he had reproved for adultery.
His body was thrown into a river, but being miraculously discovered,
it was honorably interred by his virtuous friend and protector, count
Ado. A great and sumptuous church was built at Mechlin to receive
his precious relics, which is still possessed of that treasure, and
bears the name of this saint. The city of Mechlin keeps his feast a
solemn holiday, and honors him as its patron and apostle. Janning the
Bollandist gives a long history of his miracles. His great church at
Mechlin was raised to the metropolitical dignity by Paul IV. Ware
says that the feast of St. Rumold was celebrated as a double festival
with an office of nine lessons throughout the province of Dublin
before the reformation. It was extended to the whole kingdom of
Ireland in the year 1741.
* * * * *
It was from the spirit of prayer that the saints derived all their
lights and all their strength. This was the source of all the
blessings which heaven through their intercession showered down
on the world, and the means which they employed to communicate an
angelical purity to their souls. “This spirit,” says a father of the
Church,[2] “is nourished by retreat, which in some manner may be
called the parent of purity.” This admirable transformation of our
souls produced by prayer is to be attributed to God’s glory, which by
prayer he makes to shine in the secret of our hearts. In fine, when
all the avenues of our senses are closed against the creature, and
that God dwells with us, and we with God; when freed from the tumult
and distractions of the world we apply all our attention to interior
things and consider ourselves such as we are, we then become capable
of clearly contemplating the kingdom of God, established in us by
that charity and ardent love which consumes all the rust of earthly
affections. For the kingdom of heaven, or rather the Lord of heaven
itself, is within us, as Jesus Christ himself assures us.
SS. JULIUS AND AARON, MM.
These saints were Britons, and seem to have taken, the one a Roman
and the other a Hebrew name at their baptism. They glorified God by
martyrdom at Caerleon upon Usk in Monmouthshire, in the persecution
of Dioclesian, probably about the year 303. St Gildas,[3] St.
Bede,[4] and others, speak of their triumph as having been most
illustrious. Leland and Bale say, SS. Julius and Aaron had travelled
to Rome, and “there applied themselves to the sacred studies.” Bede
adds, “very many others of both sexes, by unheard-of tortures,
attained to the crown of heavenly glory.” Giraldus Cambrensis informs
us, that their bodies were honored at Caerleon in the year 1200, when
he wrote. Each of these martyrs had a titular church in that city;
that of St. Julius, belonged to a nunnery, and that of St. Aaron
to a monastery of canons. See Godwin De Episc. Landav. Geoffrey of
Monmouth, Giraldus Cambrensis, Leland, and Tanner, Bibl. Britan. p. 1.
ST. THEOBALD OR THIBAULT, C.
He was of the family of the counts palatine of Champagne, and son of
count Arnoul. He was born at Provins in Brie in 1017, and was called
Theobald from the most virtuous archbishop of Vienne, who was his
uncle. In his youth he preserved his heart free from the corruption
of the world amidst its vanities; and the more pains others took
to make him conceive a relish for them, the more diligent he was
in fencing his heart against their dangers, the more perfectly he
discovered their emptiness and secret poison. In reading the lives
of the fathers of the desert he was much affected by the admirable
examples of penance, self-denial, holy contemplation, and Christian
perfection, which were set before his eyes as it were in a glass,
and he earnestly desired to imitate them. The lives of St. John the
Baptist, of St. Paul the hermit, St. Antony, and St. Arsenius in
their wildernesses, charmed him, and he sighed after the like sweet
retirement, in which he might without interruption converse with God
by prayer and contemplation. He often resorted to an holy hermit
named Burchard, who lived in a little island in the Seine; and by
making essays he began to inure himself to fasting, watching, long
prayers, and every rigorous practice of penance. He declined all
the advantageous matches and places at court or in the army which
his father could propose to him. His cousin Eudo, count palatine of
Champagne, and count of Chartres and Blois, upon the death of his
uncle Rodolph, the last king of Burgundy, in 1034, laid claim to that
crown as next heir in blood; but the emperor Conrad the Salic seized
upon it by virtue of the testament of the late king.[5] Hereupon
ensued a war, and count Arnoul ordered his son to lead a body of
troops to the succor of his cousin. But the young general represented
so respectfully to his father the obligation of a vow by which he
had bound himself to quit the world, that he at length extorted his
consent.
Soon after the saint and another young nobleman called Walter, his
intimate friend, each taking one servant, went to the abbey of St.
Remigius in Rheims, and thence having sent back their servants
with their baggage, they set out privately; and in the clothes of
two beggars, in exchange for which they had given their own rich
garments, they travelled barefoot into Germany. Finding the forest
of Petingen in Suabia a convenient solitude for their purpose, they
built themselves there two little cells. Having learned from Burchard
that manual labor is a necessary duty of an ascetic or penitential
life, and not being skilled in the manner of working to make mats
or baskets, they often went into the neighboring villages and there
hired themselves by the day to serve the masons, or to work in the
fields, to carry stones and mortar, to load and unload carriages, to
cleanse the stables under the servants of the farmers, or to blow
the bellows and to make fires for the forges. With their wages they
bought coarse brown bread, which was their whole subsistence. Whilst
they worked with their hands, their hearts were secretly employed in
prayer; and at night retiring again into their forest, they watched
long, singing together the divine praises, and continuing in holy
contemplation. Their carriage and the tenderness of their complexion
discovered that they had not been trained up in manual labor, and
the reputation of their sanctity after some time drew the eyes of
men upon them. To shun which they resolved to forsake a place where
they were no longer able to live in humiliation and obscurity. They
performed barefoot a pilgrimage to Compostella, and returned into
Germany.
Passing through Triers, it happened that Theobald there met his
father count Arnoul; but with his tanned face, and in his ragged
clothes, passing for a beggar, he was not known by him. He was
strongly affected, and was scarcely able to stifle the tender
sentiments with which his heart was quite overcome at the sight of
so dear and affectionate a parent. However, he suppressed them;
but to quit the neighborhood where he might be again exposed to
the like trial, he undertook a pilgrimage to Rome. The two fervent
penitents travelled everywhere barefoot; and after they had visited
all the holy places in Italy, they chose for their retirement a
hideous woody place called Salanigo, near Vicenza, where with the
leave of the lord of the manor they built themselves two cells, near
an old ruinous chapel. Prayer and the exercises of penance were
their constant employment, till after two years God called Walter
to himself. Theobald looked upon this loss as a warning that he had
not long to live, and he exerted his whole strength, redoubling his
pace to run with greater vigor as he drew near the end of his race.
He had lived on oat bread and water, with roots and herbs, but at
length he interdicted himself even the use of bread, taking no other
food but herbs and roots. He always wore a rough hair shirt; his
bed was a board, and for the five last years of his life he took
his rest sitting on a wooden seat. The bishop of Vicenza promoted
him to priest’s orders, and several persons put themselves under
his direction. His lineage and quality being discovered, his aged
parents were no sooner informed that their son was alive, and that
the hermit of Salanigo, the reputation of whose sanctity, prophecies,
and miracles filled all Europe, was that very son whose absence
had been to them the cause of so long a mourning; but they set out
with great joy to see him. His frightful desert, his poor cell, his
tattered clothes, and above all his emaciated body, made so strong
impressions upon their hearts at the first sight that they both
cast themselves at his feet, and for a considerable time were only
able to speak to him by their tears. When they were raised from the
ground, and had recovered from their first surprise, faith overcame
in them the sentiments of nature, and converted their sorrow into
joy. The sight of so moving an example extinguished in their hearts
all love of the world, and they both resolved upon the spot to
dedicate themselves to the divine service. The count was obliged
by his affairs to return into Brie, but Gisla, the saint’s mother,
obtained her husband’s consent to finish her course near the cell of
her son. The saint made her a little hut at some distance from his
own, and took great pains to instruct her in the practice of true
perfection. He was shortly after visited with his last sickness;
his body was covered over with blotches and ulcers, and every limb
afflicted with some painful disorder. The servant of God suffered
this distemper with a most edifying patience and joy. A little before
his death he sent for Peter the abbot of Vangadice, of the order of
Camaldoli, from whose hands he had received the religious habit a
year before. To him he recommended his mother and his disciples: and
having received the viaticum he expired in peace on the last day of
June, 1066, being about thirty-three years old, of which he had spent
twelve at Salanigo and three in Suabia, and in his pilgrimages. His
relics were translated to the church dependent on the abbey of St.
Columba, at Sens, and afterward to a chapel near Auxerre called St.
Thibaud aux Bois. He was canonized by Alexander III. and his name is
in great veneration at Sens, Provins, Paris, Auxerre, Langres, Toul,
Triers, Autun, and Beauvais. See his life faithfully written by a
contemporary author.
SAINT GAL, CALLED THE FIRST.
BISHOP OF CLERMONT, IN AUVERGNE.
He was born about the year 489. His father George was of the first
houses of that province, and his mother Leocadia was descended from
the family of Vettius Apagatus, the celebrated Roman, who suffered
at Lyons for the faith of Christ. They both took special care of
the education of their son; and when he arrived at a proper age,
proposed to have him married to the daughter of a respectable
senator. The saint, who had taken a resolution to consecrate himself
to God, withdrew privately from his father’s house to the monastery
of Cournon, near the city of Auvergne, and earnestly prayed to be
admitted there amongst the monks; and having soon after obtained the
consent of his parents, he with joy renounced all worldly vanities to
embrace religious poverty. Here his eminent virtues distinguished him
in a particular manner, and recommended him to Quintianus, bishop of
Auvergne, who promoted him to holy orders.
The bishop dying in 527, St. Gal was appointed to succeed him; and in
this new character his humility, charity, and zeal were conspicuous;
but, above all, his patience in bearing injuries. Being once struck
on the head by a brutal man, he discovered not the least emotion of
anger or resentment, and by this meekness disarmed the savage of his
rage. At another time Evodius, who from a senator became a priest,
having so far forgot himself as to treat him in the most insulting
manner, the saint, without making the least reply, arose meekly from
his seat and went to visit the churches of the city. Evodius was so
touched by this conduct, that he cast himself at the saint’s feet
in the middle of the street and asked his pardon. From this time
they both lived on terms of the most cordial friendship. St. Gal
was favored with the gift of miracles; and died about the year 553.
He is mentioned this day in the Roman Martyrology. See St. Greg. of
Tours, his nephew, Vit. Patr. c. 6. Hist. Franc. l. 4, c. 5; also the
remarks of Mabillon, sec. 1. Bened. Gall. Christ, Nov. t. 2, p. 237,
and Selier the Bollandist, t. 1, Jul. p. 103.
Another St. Gal, called the Second, is honored at Clermont on the
1st of November. He was bishop of that see in 650. See Gall. Christ.
Nova, t. 2, p. 245.
ST. CALAIS, IN LATIN CARILEPHUS.
FIRST ABBOT OF ANILLE IN MAINE.
He was born in Auvergne, of a family equally virtuous and noble.
He was yet a child when they sent him to the monastery of Menat
in the diocess of Clermont, in order to be early principled in
knowledge and piety. Here he became a religious, and practised all
the prescriptions of the rule with the greatest fervor. After some
time he quitted the monastery with St. Avi, and they both retired
to the abbey of Micy near Orleans. The bishop of this city having
destined them for holy orders, they withdrew themselves from the
abbey, and advancing together as far as Perche, led by their fervor
to the austerities of an eremitical life, they separated. St. Calais
was followed by two persons, who by no means would consent to quit
him, and with these he went to Maine, where he perfectly revived the
rigorous discipline of the ancient eastern hermits. But as he was
constantly visited by numbers who sought to live under his direction,
he at length consented to receive them. King Childebert gave him
land whereon to build a monastery, which was first called Anisole or
Anille, from the river on which it was situated,[6] but it is now,
as well as the little town built round it, called after the saint.
The life of the holy founder was not only extraordinary for penance
and prayer, but he excelled in the exact observance of his rules;
insomuch that he constantly refused the visit of queen Ultrogotha
wife of Childebert, because one of the statutes forbade to enter the
monastery. He died in 542, and his name is mentioned this day in the
Roman Martyrology. A portion of his relics is kept in the abbey of
St. Calais, but the greatest part is in the chapel of the castle of
Blois, which also bears his name. See the life of St. Calais, written
by Siviard, fifth abbot of Anille, with the notes of Mabillon, and
the Bollandist, t. 1, Jul. p. 85, and Martenne Ampl. Coll. t. 1,
præf. p. 4, &c.
SAINT LEONORUS, IN FRENCH LUNAIRE, B.
He was of a noble family in Wales, and educated under the care of St.
Iltut; and passing over into that part of France called the province
of Domnone, he founded a monastery between the rivers of Rancé and
Arguenon, on a piece of ground which was given him by Jona, the lord
of the country. His many extraordinary virtues drew the attention of
king Childebert, who very pressingly invited him to Paris, where he
was received by this prince and his royal consort Ultrogotha with
every possible demonstration of the highest respect. At his return he
had the affliction to hear that his protector Jona was stripped of
his possessions, and murdered by Conomor. Happily however he arrived
time enough to shelter that unfortunate nobleman’s son Judual from
the bloody tyrant’s cruelty, and conveyed him safely to England:
whence Judual afterward returned, and recovered his inheritance. The
saint is styled bishop, though he had no fixed see. For it was then
an established custom in Brittany to honor the principal abbots with
the episcopal dignity. The year in which St. Leonorus died is not
known. His body was translated to a parochial church near St. Malo,
which still retains the name of St. Lunaire: here his tomb is shown,
which is empty, his relics being inclosed in a shrine. The feast of
his translation is on the 13th of October, but he is principally
honored in the several diocesses of Brittany on the 1st of July. He
is patron of many churches. See the Breviary of Leon, of the abbey of
St. Meen, &c. also Lobineau, Vies des SS. de Bretagne, p. 91, and the
Martyrology of Usuard.
ST. SIMEON, SURNAMED SALUS.[7]
He was a native of Egypt, and born about the year 522. Having
performed a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, he retired to a desert near
the Red Sea, where he remained twenty-nine years in the constant
practice of a most austere penitential life. Here he was constantly
revolving in mind that we must love humiliations if we would be truly
humble; that at least we should receive those which God sends us with
resignation, and own them exceedingly less than the measure of our
demerits; that it is even sometimes our advantage to seek them; that
human prudence should not always be our guide in this regard; and
that there are circumstances where we ought to follow the impulse
of the Holy Spirit, though not unless we have an assurance of his
inspiration. The servant of God, animated by an ardent desire to be
contemptible among men, quitted the desert, and at Emesus succeeded
to his wish; for by affecting the manners of those who want sense,
he passed for a fool. He was then sixty years old, and lived six or
seven years in that city, when it was destroyed by an earthquake
in 588. His love for humility was not without reward, God having
bestowed on him extraordinary graces, and even honored him with the
gift of miracles. The year of his death is unknown. Although we are
not obliged in every instance to imitate St. Simeon, and that it
would be rash even to attempt it without a special call; yet his
example ought to make us blush, when we consider with what an ill
will we suffer the least thing that hurts our pride. See Evagrius, a
contemporary writer, l. 4, c. 5; the life of the saint by Leontius,
bishop of Napoli in Cyprus; that of St. John the Almoner; and the
Bollandists, t. 1, Jul. p. 129.
SAINT THIERRI, ABBOT OF MONT-D’HOR, NEAR RHEIMS.
He was born in the district of Rheims. His father Marquard was
abandoned to every infamous disorder. An education formed on the best
Christian principles in the house of such a person would more than
probably be blasted by his bad example; but our saint was happily
removed, and educated in learning and piety, under the edifying
example of the holy bishop Remigius.
He married in complaisance to his relations; but easily persuaded his
wife to embrace the virgin state; and becoming himself a monk, he was
made superior of an abbey founded by St. Remigius on Mont-d’Hor, near
Rheims. Some time after he received holy orders, and became famous
by the many extraordinary conversions he wrought through the zeal
and unction wherewith he exhorted sinners to repentance; among these
was his own father, who persevered to his death under the direction
of his son. He succeeded also, in conjunction with St. Remigius,
in converting an infamous house into a nunnery of pious virgins.
According to the most common opinion he died on the 1st of July, 533.
It is said that king Thierri assisted at his funeral, and esteemed
himself honored in being one of his bearers to the grave. His
relics, lest they should be exposed to the impiety of the Normans,
were hidden under ground, but discovered in 976, and are still
preserved in a silver shrine. He is mentioned on this day in the
Roman Martyrology. See Mabillon, Act. t. 1, p. 614. Bulteau, Hist. de
l’Ordre de St. Ben. t. 1, p. 287; Baillet ad l. Jul. and Gal. Christ.
Nov. t. 9, p. 180.
SAINT CYBAR, A RECLUSE AT ANGOULEME.
Eparcus, commonly called Cybar, quitted the world in spite of his
parents, who would hinder him to follow his vocation; and retiring
to the monastery of Sedaciac in Perigord, he there served God some
time under abbot Martin, and soon became known and admired for his
extraordinary virtues and miracles. Wherefore, in dread of the
seduction of vain-glory, he left his monastery to hide himself
in absolute solitude. It was near Angouleme, with the bishop of
Perigueux’s and his abbot’s leave, he shut himself up in a cell. But
his virtues were too striking for concealment, and the bishop of
Angouleme obliged him to accept the priesthood. Cybar was extremely
austere in his food and apparel, especially during Lent. Although a
recluse, he did not refuse to admit disciples; but he would not allow
them manual labor, as, after his own example, he willed they should
be constantly occupied in prayer. When any of them would complain for
want of necessaries, he would tell them with St. Jerom, that “Faith
never feared hunger.” Nor was he deceived in his trust on Providence,
as he always found abundance for himself and his disciples in the
beneficence of the faithful; insomuch that he was even enabled to
redeem a great number of captives. He died the 1st of July, 581,
having lived about forty years in his cell. His relics were kept in
the abbey church of his name until 1568, when they were burnt by the
Huguenots. See Mabillon, Act. t. 1, p. 267; Bulteau, Histoire de
l’Ordre de St. Benoit, t. 1, p. 235; Gallia Chr. Nov. t. 2, p. 978,
979, &c.
JULY II.
THE VISITATION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN.
From the example of Christ, his blessed Mother, and the apostles,
St. Thomas shows[8] that state to be in itself the most perfect which
joins together the functions of Martha and Mary, or of the active
and contemplative life. This is endeavored by those persons who so
employ themselves in the service of their neighbor, as amidst their
external employs or conversation often to raise their minds to God,
feeding always on their heavenly invisible food, as the angel did
in Toby’s company on earth. Who also, by the practice and love of
daily recollection and much solitude, fit themselves to appear in
public; and who by having learned the necessary art of silence in
its proper season, and by loving to speak little among men,[9] study
to be in the first place their own friends, and by reflection and
serious consideration to be thoroughly acquainted with themselves,
and to converse often in heaven.[10] Such will be able to acquit
themselves of external employs without prejudice to their own virtue,
when called to them by duty, justice, or charity. They may avoid
the snares of the world, and sanctify their conversation with men.
Of this the Blessed Virgin is to us a perfect model in the visit
paid to her cousin Elizabeth, as St. Francis of Sales takes notice,
who borrowed from this mystery the name which he gave to his Order
of nuns, who, according to the first plan of their institute, were
devoted to visit and attend on the sick.
The angel Gabriel, in the mystery of the Annunciation, informed the
mother of God, that her cousin Elizabeth had miraculously conceived,
and was then in the sixth month of her pregnancy. The Blessed
Virgin, out of humility, concealed the favor she had received and
the wonderful dignity to which she was raised by the incarnation
of the Son of God in her womb; but in the transport of her holy
joy and gratitude, she would go to congratulate the mother of the
Baptist; with which resolution the Holy Ghost inspired her for his
great designs in favor of her Son’s precursor not yet born. _Mary_
therefore _arose_, saith St. Luke, _and with haste went into the
hilly-country into a city of Juda; and entering into the house of
Zachary saluted Elizabeth_. She made this visit to a saint, because
the company of the servants of God is principally to be sought,
from whose example and very silence the heart will always treasure
up something, and the understanding receive some new light and
improvement in charity. As glowing coals increase their flame by
contact, so is the fire of divine love kindled in a fervent soul by
the words and example of those who truly love God. In this journey
what lessons of humility does the holy Virgin give us! She had been
just saluted mother of God, and exalted above all mere creatures,
even the highest seraphim of heaven; yet far from being elated with
the thoughts of her incomprehensible dignity, she appears but the
more humble by it. She prevents the mother of the Baptist in this
office of charity; the mother of God pays a visit to the mother of
her Son’s servant; the Redeemer of the world goes to his precursor.
What a subject of confusion is this to the pride of the children
of the world! who, not content with the rules of respect which the
law of subordination requires, carry their vanity to an excess of
ceremoniousness contrary even to good manners, and to the freedom of
conversation, which they make an art of constraint and of torture
both to themselves and others; and in which they seek not any duty
of piety or improvement in virtue, but loathsome means of foolish
flattery, the gratification of vanity, or that dissipation of mind
which continually entertains it with trifles and idleness, and is an
enemy to serious consideration and virtue.
When the office of charity called upon Mary, she thought of no
dangers or difficulties in so painful and long a journey of above
fourscore miles from Nazareth in Galilee to Hebron, a sacerdotal
city in the mountainous country on the western side of the tribe of
Juda. The inspired writer takes notice, that she went with haste or
with speed and diligence, to express her eagerness to perform this
good office. Charity knows not what sloth is, but always acts with
fervor. She likewise would hasten her steps out of modesty, not
choosing to appear abroad, but as compelled by necessity or charity;
not travelling out of vanity, idleness, or curiosity, but careful in
her journey to shun the dissipation of the world, according to the
remarks of St. Ambrose. Whence we may also gather with what care she
guarded her eyes, and what was the entertainment of her pious soul
with God upon the road. Being arrived at the house of Zachary, she
entered it, and saluted Elizabeth. What a blessing did the presence
of the God-man bring to this house, the first which he honored in
his humanity with his visit! But Mary is the instrument and means by
which he imparts to it his divine benediction; to show us that she is
a channel through which he delights to communicate to us his graces,
and to encourage us to ask them of him through her intercession.
At the voice of the mother of God, but by the power and grace of
her Divine Son, in her womb, Elizabeth was filled with the Holy
Ghost and the infant in her womb was sanctified; and miraculously
anticipating the use of reason, knew by divine inspiration the
mystery of the incarnation, and who it was that came to visit him.
From this knowledge he conceived so great, so extraordinary a joy as
to leap and exult in the womb.[11] If Abraham and all the ancient
prophets exulted only to foresee in spirit that day when it was at
the distance of so many ages, what wonder the little Baptist felt
so great a joy to see it then present! How eagerly did he desire
to take up his office of precursor, and already to announce to men
their Redeemer that he might be known and adored by all! But how do
we think he adored and reverenced him present in his mother’s womb?
and what were the blessings with which he was favored by him? He was
cleansed from original sin, and filled with sanctifying grace, was
made a prophet, and adored the Messiah before he was yet born.
At the same time Elizabeth was likewise filled with the Holy Ghost;
and by his infused light, she understood the great mystery of the
Incarnation which God had wrought in Mary, whom humility prevented
from disclosing it even to a saint, and an intimate friend. In
raptures of astonishment, Elizabeth pronounced her blessed above all
other women, she being made by God the instrument of his blessing to
the world, and of removing the malediction which through Eve had been
entailed on mankind. But the fruit of her womb she called blessed
in a sense still infinitely higher, he being the immense source of
all graces, by whom only Mary herself was blessed. Elizabeth, then
turning her eyes upon herself, cried out--_Whence is this to me that
the mother of my Lord should come to me?_ She herself had conceived
barren and by a miracle; but Mary, a virgin, and by the Holy Ghost;
she conceived one greater than the prophets, but Mary the eternal
Son of God, himself true God. The Baptist, her son, used the like
exclamation to express his confusion and humility when Christ came to
be baptized by his hands. In the like words and profound sentiments
ought we to receive all the visits of God in his graces, especially
in the holy sacraments. Elizabeth styles Mary, Mother of her Lord,
that is, mother of God; and she foretells that all things would
befall her and her Son which had been spoken by the prophets.
Mary hearing her own praise, sunk the lower in the abyss of her
nothingness, and converting all good gifts to the glory of God, whose
gratuitous mercy had bestowed them, in the transport of her humility,
and melting in an ecstasy of love and gratitude, burst into that
admirable canticle called the _Magnificat_. It is the first record in
the New Testament, and both in the noble sentiments which compose it,
and in the majesty of the style, surpasses all those of the ancient
prophets. It is the most perfect model of thanksgiving and praise for
the incarnation of the Son of God, and the most precious monument of
the profound humility of Mary. In it she glorifies God with all the
powers of her soul for his boundless mercies, and gives to him alone
all the glory. In the spiritual gladness of her heart she adores her
Saviour, who had cast his merciful eyes upon her lowliness. Though
all nations will call her blessed, she declares that nothing is her
due but abjection, and that this mystery is the effect of the pure
power and mercy of God; and that he who had dethroned tyrants, fed
the hungry in the wilderness, and wrought so many wonders in favor of
his people, had now vouchsafed himself to visit them, to live among
them, to die for them, and to fulfil all things which he had promised
by his prophets from the beginning. Mary stayed with her cousin
almost three months; after which she returned to Nazareth.
* * * * *
Whilst with the Church we praise God for the mercies and wonders
which he wrought in this mystery, we ought to apply ourselves to the
imitation of the virtues of which Mary sets us a perfect example.
From her we ought particularly to learn the lessons by which we shall
sanctify our visits and conversation; actions which are to so many
Christians the sources of innumerable dangers and sins. We must shun
not only scurrilous and profane discourse, but whatever is idle,
light, airy, or unprofitable; whilst we unbend our mind, we ought
as much as possible to see that conversation which is conducive
to the improvement of our hearts or understandings, and to the
advancement of virtue and solid useful knowledge. If we suffer our
mind to be puffed up with empty wind, it will become itself such as
is the nourishment upon which it feeds. We should shun the vice of
talkativeness, did we but consult that detestable vanity itself which
betrays us into this folly. For nothing is more tyrannical or more
odious and insupportable in company than to usurp a monopoly of the
discourse. Nothing can more degrade us in the opinion of others than
for us to justle, as it were, for the word; to vent all we have in
our hearts, at least a great deal that we ought to conceal there; and
without understanding ourselves, or taking a review of our meaning
or words, to pour out embryos of half-formed conceptions, and speak
of the most noble subjects in an undress of thoughts. What proofs
of our vanity and folly, what disgraces, what perplexities, what
detractions, and other evils and sins should we avoid, if we were but
sparing and reserved in our words! If we find ourselves to swell with
an itch of talking, big with our own thoughts, and impatient to give
them vent, we must by silence curb this dangerous passion, and learn
to be masters of our words.
SS. PROCESSUS AND MARTINIAN, MARTYRS.
By the preaching and miracles of SS. Peter and Paul at Rome, many
were converted to the faith, and among others several servants
and courtiers of the emperor Nero, of whom St. Paul[12] makes
mention.[13] In the year 64 that tyrant first drew his sword against
the Christians, who were in a very short time become very numerous
and remarkable in Rome. A journey which he made into Greece in 67,
seems to have given a short respite to the Church in Rome. He made a
tour through the chief cities of that country, attended by a great
army of singers, pantomimes, and musicians, carrying instead of arms,
instruments of music, masks, and theatrical dresses. He was declared
conqueror at all the public diversions over Greece, particularly at
the Olympian, Isthmian, Pythian, and Nemæan games, and gained there
one thousand eight hundred various sorts of crowns. Yet Greece saw
its nobility murdered, the estates of its rich men confiscated, and
its temples plundered by this progress of Nero. He returned to Rome
only to make the streets of that great city again to stream with
blood. The apostles SS. Peter and Paul, after a long imprisonment,
were crowned with martyrdom. And soon after them their two faithful
disciples Processus and Martinian gained the same crown. Their acts
tell us that they were the keepers of the Mamertine jail during the
imprisonment of SS. Peter and Paul, by whom they were converted and
baptized. St. Gregory the Great preached his thirty-second homily on
their festival, in a church in which their bodies lay, at which, he
says, the sick recovered their health, those that were possessed by
evil spirits were freed, and those who had forsworn themselves were
tormented by the devils. Their ancient church on the Aurelian road
being fallen to decay, pope Paschal I. translated their relics to St.
Peter’s church on the Vatican hill, as Anastasius informs us. Their
names occur in the ancient Martyrologies. See Tillemont, Hist. Eccl.
t. 1, p. 179, and Hist. des Emp. Crevier, &c.
ST. OTHO, BISHOP OF BAMBERG, CONFESSOR.
He was a native of Swabia, in Germany, and being a clergyman eminent
for piety and learning, was chosen by the emperor Henry IV. to attend
his sister Judith in quality of chaplain when she was married to
Boleslas III. duke of Poland, that state remaining deprived of the
royal dignity[14] from the year 1079 till it was restored in 1295,
in favor of Premislas II. After the death of that princess, Otho
returned, and was made by Henry IV. his chancellor. That prince
caused the seals and crosses of every deceased bishop and great
abbot to be delivered to him, and he sold them to whom he pleased.
This notorious simony and oppression of the Church was zealously
condemned by the pope, in opposition to whom the emperor set up the
antipope Guibert. Otho labored to bring his prince to sentiments
of repentance and submission, and refused to approve his schism or
other crimes. Notwithstanding which, so great was the esteem which
the emperor had for his virtue, that, resolving to make choice at
least of one good bishop, he nominated him bishop of Bamberg in 1103.
The saint, notwithstanding the schism, went to Rome and received
his confirmation together with the pall from pope Paschal II. He
labored to extinguish the schism, and to obviate the mischiefs which
it produced; and for this purpose he displayed his eloquence and
abilities in the diet at Ratisbon in 1104. Henry V. succeeding his
father in 1106, continued to foment the schism; yet inherited the
esteem of his predecessor for our saint, though he always adhered
to the holy see, and was in the highest credit with all the popes
of his time; so strongly does virtue command respect even in its
adversaries, and such is the power of meekness in disarming the
fiercest tyrants. St. Otho joined always with the functions of
his charge the exercises of an interior life, in which he was an
admirable proficient. He made many pious foundations, calling them
inns which we erect on our road to eternity.
Boleslas IV. duke of Poland, son of that Boleslas who had married the
sister of Henry IV. having succeeded his elder brother Ladislas II.
and conquered part of Pomerania, entreated St. Otho to undertake a
mission among the idolaters of that country. The good bishop having
settled his own diocess in good order, and obtained of pope Honorius
II. a commission for that purpose, took with him a considerable
number of zealous priests and catechists, and passed through Poland
into Prussia, and thence into eastern Pomerania. He was met by
Uratislas II. duke of Upper Pomerania, who received the sacrament
of baptism with the greatest part of his people in 1124. St. Otho
returned to Bamberg for Easter the following year, having appointed
priests every where to attend the new converts, and finish the work
he had so happily begun. The towns of Stetin and Julin having again
relapsed into idolatry, St. Otho, with a second blessing of pope
Honorius II. returned into Pomerania in 1128, brought those cities
back to the faith, and through innumerable hardships and dangers
carried the light of the gospel into Noim, and other remote barbarous
provinces. He returned again to the care of his own flock, amidst
which he died the death of the saints on the 30th of June, 1139. He
was buried on the 2d of July, on which day he is commemorated in the
Roman Martyrology. He was canonized by Clement III. in 1189. The
rich shrine which contains his sacred remains is preserved in the
electoral treasury at Hanover. See Thesaurus Reliquiarum Electoris
Brunswico-Luneburgensis, folio, printed at Hanover in 1713. See also
the accurate life of this saint in the latter editions of Surius, and
in Acta Sanctorum, by the Bollandists, t. 1, Julii.
ST. MONEGONDES, A RECLUSE AT TOURS.
She was a native of Chartres, and honorably married. She had two
daughters, who were the objects of her happiness and most ardent
desires in this world till God was pleased, in mercy towards her,
to deprive her of them both by death. Her grief for this loss was
at first excessive, and by it she began to be sensible that her
attachment to them had degenerated into immoderate passion; though
she had not till then perceived the disorder of a fondness which had
much weakened in her breast the love of God, and the disposition
of perfect conformity to his holy will above all things and in all
things. A fear of offending God obliged her to overcome this grief,
and she confessed the divine mercy in the cure of her inordinate
affection which stood in need of so severe a remedy. However,
resolving to bid adieu to this transitory treacherous world, she,
with her husband’s consent, built herself a cell at Chartres, in
which she shut herself up, serving God in great austerity and
assiduous prayer. She had no other furniture than a mat strewed
on the floor on which she took her short repose, and she allowed
herself no other sustenance than coarse oat bread with water which
was brought her by a servant. She afterward removed to Tours, where
she continued the same manner of life in a cell which she built near
St. Martin’s. Many fervent women joining her, this cell grew into a
famous nunnery, which has been since changed into a collegiate church
of secular canons. St. Monegondes lived many years a model of perfect
sanctity, and died in 570. She is named in the Roman Martyrology.
* * * * *
The loss of dear friends is a sensible affliction, under which
something may be allowed to the tenderness of nature. Insensibility
is no part of virtue. The bowels of saints are always tender, and
far from that false apathy of which the stoics boasted. “I condemn
not grief for the death of a friend,” says St. Chrysostom,[15] “but
excess of grief. To mourn is a part of nature; but to mourn with
impatience is to injure your departed friend, to offend God, and
to hurt yourself. If you give thanks to God for his mercies and
benefits, you glorify him, honor the deceased, and procure great
advantages for yourself.” Motives of faith must silence the cries of
nature. “How absurd is it to call heaven much better than this earth,
and yet to mourn for those who depart thither in peace,” says the
same father in another place.[16]
ST. OUDOCEUS.
THIRD BISHOP OF LANDAFF, IN ENGLAND.
This saint, dedicated to God from his infancy by his parents, was
reared in Christian principles under the inspection of his uncle
Saint Theliau, bishop of Landaff; and succeeded him in this see
about the year 580.[17] Mauric, king of Glamorgan, held him in the
highest veneration, and assisted him in all his endeavors to promote
the glory of God; being however excommunicated by the saint for
assassinating a prince called Cynedu, he, by his humble submission
and penance, was at length restored to the communion of the Church.
St. Oudoceus dying about the end of the sixth century, is mentioned
in the English Calendars on the 2d of July. See Usher, Antiquit.
Britan. p. 291; Wharton, Anglia Sacra, t. 2, p. 669; Alford, in
Annal. and Lobineau, Vies des SS. de Bretagne, p. 89.
JULY III.
ST. PHOCAS, GARDENER, M.
From his panegyric, written by St. Asterius, and another by
St. Chrysostom, t. 2, ed. Ben. p. 704, Ruinart, p. 627.
A. D. 303.
St. Phocas dwelt near the gate of Sinope, a city of Pontus, and lived
by cultivating a garden, which yielded him a handsome subsistence,
and wherewith plentifully to relieve the indigent. In his humble
profession he imitated the virtue of the most holy anchorets, and
seemed in part restored to the happy condition of our first parents
in Eden. To prune the garden without labor and toil was their sweet
employment and pleasure. Since their sin, the earth yields not its
fruit but by the sweat of our brow. But still, no labor is more
useful or necessary, or more natural to man, and better adapted
to maintain in him vigor of mind or health of body than that of
tillage; nor does any part of the universe rival the innocent charms
which a garden presents to all our senses, by the fragrancy of its
flowers, by the riches of its produce, and the sweetness and variety
of its fruits; by the melodious concert of its musicians, by the
worlds of wonders which every stem, leaf, and fibre exhibit to the
contemplation of the inquisitive philosopher, and by that beauty and
variegated lustre of colors which clothe the numberless tribes of
its smallest inhabitants, and adorn its shining landscapes, vying
with the brightest splendor of the heavens, and in a single lily
surpassing the dazzling lustre with which Solomon was surrounded
on his throne in the midst of all his glory. And what a field for
contemplation does a garden offer to our view in every part, raising
our souls to God in raptures of love and praise, stimulating us
to fervor, by the fruitfulness with which it repays our labor,
and multiplies the seed it receives; and exciting us to tears of
compunction from our insensibility to God by the barrenness with
which it is changed into a frightful desert, unless subdued by
assiduous toil! Our saint joining prayer with his labor, found in his
garden itself an instructive book, and an inexhausted fund of holy
meditation. His house was opened to all strangers and travellers who
had no lodging in the place; and after having for many years most
liberally bestowed the fruit of his labor on the poor, he was found
worthy also to give his life for Christ. Though his profession was
obscure, he was well known over the whole country by the reputation
of his charity and virtue.
When a cruel persecution, probably that of Dioclesian in 303, was
suddenly raised in the Church, Phocas was immediately impeached as a
Christian, and such was the notoriety of his pretended crime, that
the formality of a trial was superseded by the persecutors, and
executioners were despatched with an order to kill him on the spot
wherever they should find him. Arriving near Sinope, they would not
enter the town, but stopping at his house without knowing it, at his
kind invitation they took up their lodging with him. Being charmed
with his courteous entertainment, they at supper disclosed to him
the errand upon which they were sent, and desired him to inform them
where this Phocas could be most easily met with. The servant of
God, without the least surprise, told them he was well acquainted
with the man, and would give them certain intelligence of him next
morning. After they were retired to bed he dug a grave, prepared
everything for his burial, and spent the night in disposing his soul
for his last hour. When it was day he went to his guests, and told
them Phocas was found, and in their power whenever they pleased to
apprehend him. Glad at this news, they inquired where he was. “He is
here present,” said the martyr,--“I myself am the man.” Struck at his
undaunted resolution, and at the composure of his mind, they stood
a considerable time as if they had been motionless, nor could they
at first think of imbruing their hands in the blood of a person in
whom they discovered so heroic a virtue, and by whom they had been
so courteously entertained. He indirectly encouraged them saying,
that as for himself, he looked upon such a death as the greatest of
favors, and his highest advantage. At length, recovering themselves
from their surprise, they struck off his head. The Christians of
that city, after peace was restored to the Church, built a stately
church which bore his name, and was famous over all the East. In it
were deposited the sacred relics, though some portions of them were
dispersed in other churches.
St. Asterius, bishop of Amasea about the year 400, pronounced the
panegyric of this martyr, on his festival, in a church, probably
near Amasea, which possessed a small part of his remains. In this
discourse[18] he says, “that Phocas from the time of his death was
become a pillar and support of the churches on earth: he draws all
men to his house; the highways are filled with persons resorting from
every country to this place of prayer. The magnificent church which
(at Sinope) is possessed of his body, is the comfort and ease of the
afflicted, the health of the sick, the magazine plentifully supplying
the wants of the poor. If in any other place, as in this, some small
portion of his relics be found, it also becomes admirable, and most
desired by all Christians.” He adds, that the head of St. Phocas was
kept in his beautiful church in Rome, and says, “The Romans honor him
by the concourse of the whole people in the same manner they do Peter
and Paul.” He bears testimony that the sailors in the Euxine, Ægean,
and Adriatic seas, and in the ocean, sing hymns in his honor, and
that the martyr has often succored and preserved them; and that the
portion of gain which they in every voyage set apart for the poor is
called Phocas’s part. He mentions that a certain king of barbarians
had sent his royal diadem set with jewels, and his rich helmet a
present to the church of St. Phocas, praying the martyr to offer it
to the Lord in thanksgiving for the kingdom which his divine majesty
had bestowed upon him. St. Chrysostom received a portion of the
relics of Saint Phocas, not at Antioch, as Baronius thought, and as
Fronto le Duc and Baillet doubt, but at Constantinople as Montfaucon
demonstrates.[19] On that solemn occasion the city kept a great
festival two days, and St. Chrysostom preached two sermons, only one
of which is extant.[20] In this he says, that the emperors left their
palaces to reverence these relics, and strove to share with the rest
in the blessings which they procure men. The emperor Phocas built
afterward another great church at Constantinople in honor of this
martyr, and caused a considerable part of his relics to be translated
thither. The Greeks only style Saint Phocas hiero-martyr or sacred
martyr, which epithet they sometimes give to eminent martyrs who were
not bishops, as Ruinart demonstrates against Baronius.
ST. GUTHAGON, RECLUSE.
He was an Irishman of royal blood, who forsaking the world to labor
in securing eternal happiness, led a penitential, contemplative life
at Oosterk, near Bruges, in Flanders, with B. Gillon, an individual
companion. He was famed for his eminent sanctity, attested by
miracles after his death. His shrine is there held in veneration, and
a chapel built in his honor. He is said to have lived in the eighth
century. Gerard, bishop of Tournay, translated the relics of this
saint on the 3d of July, 1059, in the presence of the abbots of Dun,
Oubenbourg, and Ececkout; and on the 1st of October, 1444, they were
visited by Nicholas, suffragan bishop of Tournay. See Colgan in MSS.
and Molanus, p. 136.
SAINT GUNTHIERN, ABBOT IN BRITTANY.
This saint flourished in the sixth century. He was a prince in
Wales, which he left in his youth, and retired into Armorica to live
a recluse. He stopt at the isle of Groie, which is about a league
from the mouth of the Blavet. Grallon was then lord of the isle, and
was so edified at his conversation, that he bestowed on him, for
founding a monastery, the land between the confluence of the river
Isol and Ellé. For which reason even to this day, the abbey is called
Kemperle, which in the old British language signifies the conflux of
Ellé. One year that a prodigious swarm of insects devoured the corn,
Guerech I., count of Vannes, dreading a famine, deputed three persons
of quality to engage the saint’s prayers to God for turning away
the scourge. Gunthiern sent him water which he had blessed, which
he desired to be sprinkled over the fields, and the insects were
destroyed. The count, in gratitude for this extraordinary blessing,
gave him the land near the river Blavet, which was then called
Vernac; but is now known by the name of Hervegnac or Chervegnac.
The saint, it is thought, died at Kemperle. During the incursions
of the Normans, his body was concealed in the isle of Groie. It was
discovered in the eleventh century, and brought to the monastery
of Kemperle,[21] which now belongs to the Benedictine Order. St.
Gunthiern is patron of this abbey as well as of many other churches
and chapels in Brittany. He is mentioned in ancient calendars on the
29th of June, but the moderns place his feast on the 3d of July. See
Lobineau, Vies des SS. de Bretagne, p. 49.
ST. BERTRAN,[22] BISHOP OF MANS.
He seems to have been born in Poitou, and having dedicated himself
to the service of the Church, he received the tonsure in the city
of Tours. St. Germain, bishop of Paris, invited him to his diocess,
formed him to virtue, and, in token of esteem for his merit, made him
his archdeacon. After the death of Baldegisil, an unworthy prelate,
who sought only to enrich himself by the spoils of his church, St.
Bertran was chosen his successor in the diocess of Mans in 586.
At first he met some opposition from the corrupt manners of his
people, but zealous endeavors to restore them to virtue had soon the
deserved success. By his prudence he saved the state from a war which
threatened it from Waroc and Windimacle, princes of Brittany. He was
called to the court of Gontran, king of Orleans and Burgundy, to
negotiate certain interesting matters regarding the Church. He built,
endowed, and repaired a great number of hospitals and churches. His
will, which he made in 615, is an esteemed piece of church-antiquity.
In it are many considerable legacies to churches and monasteries. But
what is singularly remarkable, we see by it, that the holy bishop
enjoyed on every occasion the favor and protection of Fredegonda.
During the troubles occasioned by the civil wars in France, St.
Bertran was three several times banished from his diocess. This
introduced many disorders among his people, which he happily removed
with the assistance of Clotaire, who after long struggles at length
united to his kingdom those of Burgundy and Austrasia. It is believed
that he died the 30th of June, 623. But he is honored on the 3d of
July, being the day on which his relics were translated. See St.
Gregory of Tours, Hist. l. 8, c. 39, and l. 9, c. 18; and the saint’s
will published with excellent notes by Papebroke, 6 Jun. and Baillet,
under the 3d of July.
JULY IV.
ST. ULRIC, BISHOP OF AUSBURG, CONFESSOR.
From his accurate life, written by Gerard of Ausburg, in
Mabillon, sæc. 2, Ben. &c. See the Bollandists.
A. D. 973.
St. Ulric or Udalric was son of count Hucbald, and of Thietberga,
daughter of Burchard, one of the first dukes of Higher Germany. He
was born in 893, and was educated from seven years of age in the
abbey of St. Gal. Guiborate, a holy virgin who lived a recluse near
that monastery, foretold him that he should one day be a bishop,
and should meet with severe trials, but exhorted him to courage and
constancy under them. So delicate and tender was the complexion
of the young nobleman that all who knew him judged he could never
live long. But regularity and temperance preserved a life, and
strengthened a constitution which excessive tenderness of parents,
care of physicians, and all other arts would probably have the sooner
worn out and destroyed: which cardinal Lugo shows to have often
happened by several instances in austere religious Orders.[23] The
recovery of the young count was looked upon as miraculous. As he
grew up, his sprightly genius, his innocence and sincere piety, and
the sweetness of his temper and manners charmed the good monks; and
he had already made a considerable progress in his studies when his
father removed him to Ausburg, where he placed him under the care
of Adalberon, bishop of that city. The prelate, according to the
custom of those times, made him his chamberlain when he was only
sixteen years old, afterward promoted him to the first orders, and
instituted him to a canonry in his cathedral. The young clergyman
was well apprised of the dangers, and instructed in the duties of
his state, which he set himself with all his strength faithfully to
discharge. Prayer and study filled almost all his time, and the poor
had much the greatest share in his revenues. During a pilgrimage
which he made to Rome, this bishop died, and was succeeded by Hiltin.
After his return he continued his former manner of life, advancing
daily in fervor and devotion, and in the practices of humility and
mortification. He was most scrupulously careful to shun as much
as possible the very shadow of danger, especially with regard to
temptations against purity, and it was his usual saying to others:
“Take away the fuel, and you take away the flame.”
Hilton dying in 924, Henry the Fowler, king of Germany, nominated
our saint, who was then thirty-one years of age, to the bishopric
of Ausburg, and he was consecrated on Holy Innocents’ day. The
Hungarians and Sclavonians had lately pillaged that country, murdered
the holy recluse Saint Guiborate, whom the Germans honor as a martyr,
plundered the city of Ausburg, and burnt the cathedral. The new
bishop, not to lose time, built for the present a small church,
in which he assembled the people, who in their universal distress
stood in extreme need of instruction, comfort, and relief; all which
they found so abundantly in Ulric, that every one thought all the
calamities they had suffered sufficiently repaired by the happiness
they enjoyed in possessing such a pastor. He excused himself from
attending the court, knowing of what importance the presence of a
bishop is to his flock, for which he is to give a severe account to
God. The levying and care of his troops, which in quality of prince
of the empire he was obliged to send to the army, he entrusted to
a nephew, devoting himself entirely to his spiritual functions. He
rose every morning at three o’clock to assist with his canons at
matins and lauds: after which he recited the psalter, litany, and
other prayers. At break of day he said in choir the office for the
dead, and prime, and was present at high mass. After tierce and long
private devotions he said mass. He only left the church after none,
and then went to the hospital, where he comforted the sick, and
every day washed the feet of twelve poor people, giving to each of
them a liberal alms. The rest of the day he employed in instructing,
preaching, visiting the sick, and discharging all the duties of a
vigilant pastor. He took his frugal meal only in the evening before
complin. In this the poor always shared with him, for whom and for
strangers meat was served up, except on fast-days, though he never
touched it himself. He allowed himself very little time for sleep,
lay on straw, and never used any linen. In Lent he redoubled his
austerities and devotions. He made every year the visit of his whole
diocess, and held a synod of his clergy twice a year. Upon the death
of Henry I. Otho I. succeeded in the kingdom of Germany, between
whom and his unnatural son Luitolf, a civil war broke out. St. Ulric
strenuously declared himself against the rebels, who on that account
harassed and plundered his diocess. But Arnold, count palatine, being
slain before the walls of Ratisbon, St. Ulric obtained the king’s
pardon for his son and the rest of the rebels.
The saint had fenced the city of Ausburg with strong walls, and
erected several fortresses to secure the people from the inroads of
barbarians. This was a precaution of the utmost importance; for the
Hungarians made a second incursion, and laid siege to Ausburg. The
good pastor continued in prayer, like Moses on the mountain, for
his people, whom he convened in frequent processions and devotions.
His prayers were heard, and the barbarians, being seized with a
sudden panic fear, raised the siege and fled in great confusion.
They were met and cut to pieces by Otho, who, in 962, was crowned
Emperor by the pope. St. Ulric built his cathedral in a stately
manner, and dedicated it again to God in honor of St. Afra, the
celebrated patroness of Ausburg, in which city she received the crown
of martyrdom in the persecution of Dioclesian. She is commemorated
on the 5th of August. The saint earnestly desired to resign his
bishopric, and retired to the monastery of St. Gal, some time before
his death; but met with too great opposition. He made a second
journey of devotion to Rome, and was received with extraordinary
marks of esteem by the pope, and at Ravenna by the emperor and his
pious empress. Otho I. died in May, 973, and from that time the
saint’s health began sensibly to decline. During his last sickness
he redoubled his fervor. In his agony he caused himself to be laid
on ashes blessed and strewed on the floor in the form of a cross,
in which posture he died amidst the prayers of his clergy, on the
4th of July, 973, being about fourscore years old, and having been
bishop fifty years. He was buried in the church of St. Afra, which at
present bears his name. His sanctity was attested by miracles, and he
was canonized by pope John XV. in 993.
* * * * *
The saints living by faith had recourse to God in all their actions,
and by that means drew down his blessing on their undertakings. It
was the saying of a great man, that persons who expose themselves to
many dangers and sins, often meet with temporal miscarriages,[24]
like the Israelites when they were deceived by the Gabaonites,
because they neglect to commend their enterprises to God by fervent
prayer and to consult his will.
SAINT ODO, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY, C.
He was born in the province of East Angles, of noble Danish parents,
who, about the year 870, had accompanied Inguar and Hubba in their
barbarous expedition, and had acquired a peaceable plentiful
settlement in that part of England. Odo from a child loved the
Christian religion, frequented the churches, and often spoke with
honor of Christ to his parents; for which he was frequently severely
chastised by them, and at length disinherited and turned out of
doors. The young nobleman, rejoicing to see himself naked, and found
worthy to suffer something for God, chose him for his inheritance;
and, fearing lest by sloth he should lose the advantages he had
already gained, resolved to give himself wholly to God, and embrace
an ecclesiastical state. He was enabled to perform his studies by
the liberality of the most noble and virtuous duke Athelm, who seems
to have been son of the ealderman Athelm, who in the reign of king
Ethelwolf, being assisted by the Dorsetshire men, had defeated the
Danes near Portland, in 838. The duke or governor Athelm was one of
the principal noblemen of England in the reign of king Alfred, and
in the Saxon annals, is styled ealderman of Wiltshire. Being a most
religious man, he was much taken with the piety of Odo. In 887 he
made a devout pilgrimage to Rome, and carried thither the alms of
king Alfred and of the West-Saxons, as the Saxon Annals testify. He
had before that time procured Odo to be ordained priest, and made use
of him for his confessarius, as did many others who belonged to the
court. He recited every day the church office with him, as it was
then customary for pious persons among the laity to do. Our saint
accompanied him to Rome in quality of chaplain. On the road, this
nobleman fell sick of a fever which in seven days reduced him almost
to extremity. But Odo, after praying for him, presented him a glass
of wine on which he had made the sign of the cross, bidding him have
an entire confidence in God. Athelm had no sooner drunk the glass,
than he found himself perfectly cured, and able to get on horseback.
Athelm died in 898.
Odo continued to be caressed as much as ever, and was often employed
by the kings Alfred and his son Edward the Elder, who began his reign
in 901. King Alfred had by his wisdom and prowess raised the English
monarchy to the highest pitch of grandeur, and the Danes who, from
the time of the martyrdom of St. Edmund, were possessed of part of
Northumberland, and of the kingdom of the East-Angles, were confined
within those territories, and restrained in the eastern provinces
from making inroads by the famous ditch running from the northern
fens to the river Ouse, and into Suffolk, separating Mercia and the
kingdom of the East-Angles, called at this day, from a town of that
name, Reech-dike, and by the common people Devil’s-dike. This great
ditch, mentioned by the Saxon Annals in the reign of Edward the
Elder, seems made about this time. When the Danes broke the truce,
king Edward entirely subdued them in the country of the East-Angles;
he also defeated the Scots, Cumbrians, and Welch. He built towns
and fortresses in many parts of the kingdom, as Ethelred, earl
of Mercia, and after his death his courageous and virtuous widow
Ethelfleda, daughter to king Alfred, did in the middle counties. But
nothing reflects greater honor on the name of this king, and on his
wise counsellors, than the body or code of laws which he added to
those of his father Alfred,[25] in enacting which the Danish king
of the East-Angles, Guthrun, or rather Guthrun’s successor, Eoric,
concurred. In these laws only pecuniary fines are prescribed for
theft, and most other crimes; for which capital punishments were
not generally instituted before the thirteenth century. Edward the
Elder reigned twenty-four years, and dying in 925 was buried in the
monastery which his father Alfred had founded at Winchester.
Athelstan, his eldest son, reigned fourteen years with great prudence
and valor. His father Edward having extinguished the kingdom of
the Danes among the East-Angles, Athelstan expelled them out of
Northumberland; obliged the Welch to pay him a considerable annual
tribute; and in 938 vanquished also the Scots. For their king,
Constantine, protecting the Danes in Northumberland under their
last king Guthfrith and his son Anlaff, drew on himself the arms of
king Athelstan, who marched with his victorious army to the very
north of Scotland, in 934, as William of Malmesbury relates. In the
same year Constantine invaded England with a great army of Scots,
Danes, and Irish, another Anlaff, king of Dublin and some of the
Western Islands, coming over to his assistance. Athelstan met them at
Brunanburgh, a place at present unknown, near the Humber, and with
his valiant West-Saxons attacking Anlaff, whilst his cousin Turketil,
at the head of the Londoners, fell on the Scots, he gained a most
complete victory, which he ascribed to the intercession of Saint John
of Beverly. Having on the other side driven the Welch out of Exeter
he founded there a noble monastery, which was afterward made the
cathedral when the bishopric was removed from Crediton to that city.
Alfred of Beverly calls Athelstan the first monarch of all England,
though out of modesty he never assumed that title, but left it to
his brother Edred to take. For after the extinction of the Danish
kingdom in Northumberland, and the death of Ethelfleda, countess of
Mercia, there remained no petty sovereign in his dominions, which had
always been the case from Egbert to his time. Athelstan also subdued
the Welch and the Scots, and according to our historians made not
only the former, but likewise the latter tributary, though this the
Scottish writers deny with regard to their country. King Athelstan
was a great lover of peace, piety, and religion: he was devout,
affable to all, learned himself, and a patron of learned men; and
he was as much admired and beloved by his subjects for his humility
and humanity as he was feared by enemies and rebels for his military
skill and invincible courage. He framed many good laws, in which he
inflicted chiefly pecuniary penalties for crimes; for which purpose
he fixed for every offence a value or price according to every one’s
rank and estate. This great king reposed an entire confidence in the
prudence and sanctity of his chaplain, and not content to make use of
his counsels in his most weighty concerns, he carried him with him
in his war, that he might always animate himself to virtue by his
example and holy advice. The kingdom of the West-Saxons was for some
time all comprised under the diocess of Winchester, till in the reign
of king Ina, about the year 705, the see of Shirburne was erected,
and in 905 that of Wilton for Wiltshire, though these two sees were
again united and fixed at Salisbury in 1046. King Athelstan about the
beginning of his reign procured St. Odo to be chosen second bishop of
Wilton, according to Le Neve’s Fasti, though some say of Shirburne.
Nevertheless, the saint was obliged often to attend the king, and
was present at the great battle of Brunanburgh, against the Danes,
Scots, and Irish, in which Athelstan, being attacked by Anlaff, and
almost surrounded by enemies, having also broken or lost his sword,
called aloud for help. St. Odo ran in upon this occasion, and first
discovered to the king a sword hanging by his side, which was thought
to have been sent from heaven, with which, animated by the saint, he
gained one of the most glorious and advantageous victories that ever
was won by the English nation.
Athelstan dying in 941, left the crown to his brother Edmund, at that
time only eighteen years of age. This prince reduced a second time
the Northumbers and Anlaff the Dane, who had again revolted; and
governed by the wise counsels of St. Odo, he enacted many wholesome
laws, especially to prevent family feuds and murders. By one of
these it is ordained that if several thieves combine together, the
eldest shall be hanged, the rest whipped thrice. This seems the
first law by which robbery was punished in England by death. The
king was religious and valiant, and being a judge of men, reposed
an entire confidence in St. Odo, who, in 942, was translated to
the metropolitan see of Canterbury. The saint had consented to his
first promotion with great reluctance. But he opposed the second a
long time with a dread which saints are usually filled with on such
occasions. He alleged first, his unworthiness, secondly, the canons
against translations, and thirdly, that he was no monk. His two
first difficulties were overruled; and as to the third, he at length
consented to receive the Benedictin habit from the hands of the abbot
of Fleuri, now St. Bennet’s on the Loire, a house then famous for
its regularity. The abbot was therefore invited into England for
this purpose, or according to others, St. Odo travelled to Fleuri,
and received the habit from his hands; after which he was installed
archbishop. King Edmund was assassinated by Leof, an outlawed thief,
who had insolently seated himself at the king’s table, in a great
banquet which the king gave on the feast of St. Austin, archbishop of
Canterbury, in 948.
Edmund left two sons very young, Edwy and Edgar, but was succeeded
by his brother Edred, in whose days happened the following miracle,
related by Eadmer in his exact life of our saint; also by William of
Malmesbury, and the Chronicles of the Church of Canterbury, quoted in
Parker’s British Antiquities, and Du Pin.[26] Some of the clergy at
Canterbury being tempted to doubt of the real presence of Christ’s
body in the holy eucharist, St. Odo begged by his prayers that God
would be pleased mercifully to demonstrate to them the truth of this
sacred mystery; and at this petition, whilst he was saying mass in
his cathedral, at the breaking of the host, blood was seen by all the
people distilling from it into the chalice; the saint called up to
the altar those who labored under the temptation before-mentioned,
and others then present, to bear witness to the miracle. Full
of gratitude, they afterward celebrated with their archbishop a
solemn thanksgiving for this wonderful miracle, in which Christ had
manifested himself visible in the flesh to their corporeal eyes. King
Edred died in 955, after a lingering illness, which he sanctified by
the most edifying patience and acts of devotion, having reigned nine
years and a half. He took the title of king of Great Britain, as he
styles himself in a charter which he gave to the abbey of Croyland,
recited by Ingulphus. In another, given to the abbey of Reculver,[27]
he calls himself _Monarch of all England_.
Edwy, the eldest son of king Edmund, succeeded next to the throne,
and was crowned at Kingston by St. Odo. But being a youth abandoned
to excessive lust, after the coronation dinner he left his bishops
and nobles to go to his mistress Ethelgiva, who was his own near
relation. St. Dunstan, then abbot of Glastenbury, reproved him by
order of St. Odo, but was banished by the tyrant, and the monks
turned out of Glastenbury and many other monasteries. St. Odo exerted
his zeal against the adulteress, but the king repaired to Gloucester
when she fled to that city. The enormities of his reign stirred up
the Mercians and Northumbers to take up arms against him, and to
crown his younger brother Edgar. Edwy retained the kingdom of the
West-Saxons till his death, which happened in 959, according to
Florence of Worcester and Laud’s copy of the Saxon annals.
Edgar exceedingly honored St. Odo, recalled St. Dunstan, and advanced
him to the bishopric of Worcester. He reigned about sixteen years in
uninterrupted peace and prosperity, till his death in 975, beloved by
all his subjects, and revered by foreigners. William of Malmesbury
and Florence of Worcester mention his two great fleets, said to have
consisted of three thousand six hundred ships, with which he yearly
scoured the British seas; and he had six or eight petty kings often
to wait on him, namely, Kenneth of the Scots, Malcolm of Cumberland,
Maccus, lord of Man and the Isles, and five princes of Wales, who
all rowed his galley from Chester down the river Dee. These princes
of Wales were the successors of Howel Dha, the wise legislator and
powerful prince of all Wales.[28] King Edgar’s salutary laws are
chiefly to be ascribed to St. Odo and St. Dunstan. This great king,
by the direction of these holy men, set himself earnestly to repair
the damages which the Church and State had received under the tyranny
of his brother.
St. Odo never intermitted the daily instruction of his clergy and
flock, notwithstanding his great age, and strenuously labored to
advance daily in the divine love. He died in 961. His relics, when
his shrine was plundered at the change of religion, seem to have
been deposited under a small tomb which is seen at this day in the
same place where the shrine formerly stood. His name was famous in
our English Martyrologies. For his virtue he was usually styled
whilst living, _Odo se gode_, that is, in the Saxon language, _Odo
the Good_. The Constitutions of St. Odo seem charges delivered by
him to the clergy.[29] The laws of the kings Athelstan, Edmund, and
Edgar, are part laws of the State, part of the Church. They were
enacted in general assemblies or synods, and are for the most part
to be ascribed to St. Odo. See Matthew of Westminster, Florence of
Worcester, and the life of St. Odo, written, not by Osbern the famous
monk of Canterbury, in 1070, as Mabillon conjectured, Sæc. Ben. V.
p. 203, but by Eadmer, the disciple of St. Anselm, in 1121, as Henry
Wharton demonstrates in his Preface, vol. 2, p. 10, Anglia Sacra.
The Life of St. Odo, written by Osbern, and quoted by William of
Malmesbury, seems nowhere to be extant. The History of St. Odo is
compiled by Ericus Pantopidanus in his Gesta Danorum extra Daniam.
Hafniæ. 1740. t. 2, § 2, § 8, p. 157.
ST. SISOES OR SISOY, ANACHORET IN EGYPT.
After the death of St. Antony, St. Sisoes was one of the most shining
lights of the Egyptian deserts. He was an Egyptian by birth. Having
quitted the world from his youth, he retired to the desert of Sceté,
and lived some time under the direction of abbot Hor. The desire of
finding a retreat yet more unfrequented induced him to cross the
Nile and hide himself in the mountain where Saint Antony died some
time before. The memory of that great man’s virtues being still
fresh, wonderfully supported his fervor. He imagined he saw him,
and heard the instructions he was wont to deliver to his disciples;
and he strained every nerve to imitate his most heroic exercises,
the austerity of his penance, the rigor of his silence, the almost
unremitting ardor of his prayer, insomuch that the reputation of his
sanctity became so illustrious as to merit the full confidence of all
the neighboring solitaries. Some even came a great distance to be
guided in the interior ways of perfection; and, in spite of the pains
he took, he was forced to submit his love of silence and retreat
to the greater duty of charity. He often passed two days without
eating, and was so rapt in God that he forgot his food, so that it
was necessary for his disciple Abraham to remind him that it was
time to break his fast. He would sometimes be even surprised at the
notice, and contend that he had already made his meal; so small was
the attention he paid to the wants of his body.[30] His prayer was so
fervent that it often passed into ecstasy. At other times his heart
was so inflamed with divine love, that, scarce able to support its
violence, he only obtained relief from his sighs, which frequently
escaped without his knowledge, and even against his will.[31] It was
a maxim with him, that a solitary ought not to choose the manual
labor which is most pleasing to him.[32] His ordinary work was making
baskets. He was tempted one day as he was selling them, to anger;
instantly he threw the baskets away and ran off. By efforts like
these to command his temper he acquired a meekness which nothing
could disturb. His zeal against vice was without bitterness; and
when his monks fell into faults, far from affecting astonishment
or the language of reproach, he helped them to rise again with a
tenderness truly paternal.[33] When he once recommended patience
and the exact observance of rules, he told the following anecdote:
“Twelve monks, benighted on the road, observed that their guide was
going astray. This, for fear of breaking their rule of silence, they
forbore to notice, thinking within themselves that at daybreak he
would see his mistake and put them in the right road. Accordingly,
the guide discovering his error, with much confusion, was making many
apologies; when the monks being now at liberty to speak, only said,
with the greatest good humor, ‘Friend, we saw very well that you
went out of your road; but we were then bound to silence.’ The man
was struck with astonishment, and very much edified at this answer
expressive of such patience and strictness of observance.”[34]
Some Arians had the impudence to come to his mount, and utter their
heresy before his disciples. The saint, instead of an answer, desired
one of the monks to read St. Athanasius’s treatise against Arianism,
which at once stopped their mouths and confounded them. He then
dismissed them with his usual good temper. St. Sisoes was singularly
devoted to humility; and in all his advices and instructions to
others, held constantly before their eyes this most necessary
virtue. A recluse saying to him one day, “Father, I always place
myself in the presence of God;” he replied, “It would be much more
your advantage to place yourself below every creature, in order to
be securely humble.” Thus, while he never lost sight of the divine
presence, it was ever accompanied with the consciousness of his
own nothingness and misery.[35] “Make yourself little,” said he to
a monk, “renounce all sensual satisfactions, disengage yourself
from the empty cares of the world, and you will find true peace of
mind.”[36] To another, who complained that he had not yet arrived at
the perfection of St. Antony, he said, “Ah! if I had but one only
of that great man’s feelings, I would be all one flame of divine
love.”[37] Notwithstanding his extraordinary mortifications, they
appeared so trifling in his mind, that he called himself a sensual
man, and would have every one else to be of the same opinion.[38]
If charity for strangers sometimes constrained him to anticipate
dinner-hour, at another season, by way of indemnification, he
protracted his fast, as if his body were indebted to so laudable
a condescension.[39] He dreaded praise so much, that in prayer,
as was his custom, with hands lifted up to heaven, when sometimes
he apprehended observation, he would suddenly drop them down. He
was always ready to blame himself, and saw nothing praiseworthy in
others which did not serve him for an occasion to censure his own
lukewarmness.[40] On a visit of three solitaries wanting instruction,
one of them said, “Father, what shall I do to shun hell-fire?” He
made no reply. “And for my part,” added another, “how shall I escape
the gnashing of teeth, and the worm that never dies?” “What also
will become of me,” concluded the third, “for every time I think on
utter darkness I am ready to die with fear?” Then the saint breaking
silence, answered, “I confess that these are subjects which never
employ my thoughts, and as I know that God is merciful, I trust he
will have compassion on me. You are happy,” he added, “and I envy
your virtue. You speak of the torments of hell, and your fears on
this account must be powerful guards against the admission of sin.
Alas! then, it is I should exclaim, What shall become of me? I, who
am so insensible as never even to reflect on the place of torments
destined to punish the wicked after death. Undoubtedly this is the
reason I am guilty of so much sin.” The solitaries retired much
edified with this humble reply.[41] The saint said one time, “I am
now thirty years praying daily that my Lord Jesus may preserve me
from saying an idle word, and yet I am always relapsing.” This could
only be the language which humility dictates; for he was singularly
observant of the times of retirement and silence, and kept his cell
constantly locked to avoid interruption, and always gave his answers
to those who asked his advice in the fewest words.[42] The servant
of God, worn out with sickness and old age, yielded at last to his
disciple Abraham’s advice, and went to reside a while at Clysma,
a town on the border, or at least in the neighborhood of the Red
Sea.[43] Here he received a visit from Ammon, or Amun, abbot of
Raithe, who, observing his affliction for being absent from his
retreat, endeavored to comfort him by representing that his present
ill state of health wanted the remedies which could not be applied in
the desert. “What do you say,” returned the saint, with a countenance
full of grief, “was not the ease of mind I enjoyed there everything
for my comfort?” He was not at ease till he returned to his retreat,
where he finished his holy course. The solitaries of the desert
assisting at his agony, heard him, as Rufinus relates, cry out,
“Behold, abbot Antony, the choir of prophets and the angels come to
take my soul.” At the same time his countenance shone, and being some
time interiorly recollected with God, he cried out anew, “Behold! our
Lord comes for me.” At the instant he expired, his cell was perfumed
with a heavenly odor.[44] He died about the year 429, after a retreat
of at least sixty-two years in St. Antony’s Mount. His feast is
inserted in the Greek Menologies on the 6th of July; and in some
of the Latin Calendars on the 4th of the same month. See Rosweide,
Cotelier, Tillemont, t. 12, p. 453, and the Bollandists ad diem 6
Julii, t. 2, p. 280.
* * * * *
This saint must not be confounded with two other Sisoes, who lived
in the same age. One, surnamed the Theban, lived at Calamon, in
the territory of Arsinoe. Another had his cell at Petra. It is of
Sisoes the Theban that the following passage is related, though some
authors by mistake have ascribed it to St. Sisoes of Sceté. A certain
recluse having received some offence, went to Sisoes to tell him
that he must have revenge. The holy old man conjured him to leave
his revenge to God, to pardon his brother, and forget the injury he
had received. But seeing that his advice had no weight with him,
“At least,” said he, “let us both join in an address to God,” then
standing up, he prayed thus aloud: “Lord, we no longer want your
care of our interests or your protection, since this monk maintains
that we can and ought to be our own avengers.” This extraordinary
petition exceedingly moved the poor recluse, and throwing himself at
the saint’s feet, he begged his pardon, protesting that from that
moment he would forget he had ever been injured.[45] This holy man
loved retirement so much that he delayed not a moment even in the
church after the mass to hasten to his cell. This was not to indulge
self-love or an affected singularity, but to shun the danger of
dissipation, and enjoy in silence and prayer the sweet conversation
of God. For at proper seasons, especially when charity required it,
he was far from being backward in giving himself to the duties of
society. Such was his self-denial that he seldom or ever eat bread.
However, being invited one time by the neighboring solitaries to a
small repast, in condescension, and to show how little he was guided
by self-will, observing that it would be agreeable, “I will eat,”
said he, “bread, or anything you lay before me.”[46] See Bulteau,
Hist. Mon. d’Orient, l. 1, c. 3, n. 7, p. 56. Tillemont, t. 12, and
Pinius, one of the continuators of Bollandus, on the 6th of July.
SAINT BERTHA, WIDOW.
ABBESS OF BLANGY IN ARTOIS.
She was the daughter of count Rigobert and Ursana, related to one
of the kings of Kent in England. In the twentieth year of her age
she was married to Sigefroi, by whom she had five daughters, two of
whom, Gertrude and Deotila, were saints. After her husband’s death,
she put on the veil in the nunnery which she had built at Blangy in
Artois, a little distance from Hesdin. Her daughters Gertrude and
Deotila followed her example. She was persecuted by Roger or Rotgar,
who endeavored to asperse her with king Thierri III. to revenge his
being refused Gertrude in marriage. But this prince, convinced of
the innocence of Bertha, then abbess over her nunnery, gave her a
kind reception, and took her under his protection. On her return to
Blangy, Bertha finished her nunnery, and caused three churches to
be built, one in honor of St. Omer, another she called after St.
Vaast, and the third in honor of St. Martin of Tours. And then, after
establishing a regular observance in her community, she left St.
Deotila abbess in her stead, having shut herself in a cell, to be
employed only in prayer. She died about the year 725. A great part of
her relics are kept at Blangy.[47] See Mabillon, sec. 3, Ben. part.
1, p. 451, Bulteau, Hist. de l’Ordre de St. Benoit, t. 2, l. 4, c.
31, and Baillet on the 4th of July.
ST. FINBAR, ABBOT.
AND FOUNDER OF A FAMOUS MONASTERY IN THE ISLE OF CRIMLEN,
BETWEEN KINSELECH AND DESIES.
See Colgan in MSS. ad 4 Julii. He is not to be confounded with St.
Finbar, the first bishop of Cork, who is honored on the 25th of
September.
ST. BOLCAN, ABBOT.
A Disciple of St. Patrick in Ireland. His relics remain at Kilmore,
_i. e._ Great Cell, where his monastery stood. See Colgan, ib.
JULY V.
ST. PETER OF LUXEMBURG, C.
CARDINAL, BISHOP OF METZ.
From his life, written by John de la Marche, his professor
in laws, the year after his death, with the notes of Pinius
the Bollandist, Julii, t. 1, p. 486. See also the bull
of his beatification in Miræus, and a history of a great
number of miracles wrought by his intercession and relics
in Pinius, ib. His life is compiled by a Celestine monk
from original authentic MSS. kept in the houses of the
Celestines at Avignon, Paris, Nantes, &c., printed at Paris
in 1681.
A. D. 1387.
The most illustrious houses of the dukes and counts of Luxemburg and
St. Pol, not only have held for several centuries the first rank
among the nobility of the Low Countries, but vie with most royal
families in Europe; the former having given five emperors to the
Germans, several kings to Hungary and Bohemia, a queen to France,
and innumerable renowned heroes, whose great actions are famous in
the histories of Europe and the East. But none of their exploits
have reflected so great a lustre on these families as the humility
of our Saint Peter. He was son to Guy of Luxemburg, count of Ligny,
and to Maud, countess of St. Pol; and was born at Ligny, a small town
in Lorrain, in the diocess of Toul, in 1369. He was nearly related
to the emperor Wenceslas, Sigismund, king of Hungary, and Charles
VI., king of France. He lost his pious father at three years of age,
and his most virtuous mother a year after; but his devout aunt, the
countess of Orgieres and countess dowager of St. Pol,[48] took care
of his education, and made a prudent choice of most virtuous persons
whom she placed about him. By the excellent example and precepts of
his masters, and the strong impressions of an early grace, he seemed
formed by nature to perfect virtue. In his tender age the least
sallies of the passions seemed rather prevented than subdued; and his
ardor in the pursuit of virtue so far surpassed the ordinary capacity
of children of his tender age, that it was a matter of astonishment
to all that knew him. His assiduity and fervor in prayer, his secret
self-denials, great abstemiousness, and, above all, his love of
humility in an age when others are usually governed only by the
senses, seemed a miracle of divine grace. He made a private vow of
perpetual chastity before he was seven years of age, and he contrived
by a hundred little artifices that no poor person should ever be
dismissed wherever he was without an alms. At ten years of age he
was sent to Paris, where he studied Latin, philosophy, and the canon
law. In the meantime his eldest brother Valeran, count of St. Pol,
was taken prisoner by the English in a battle in which they defeated
the French and Flemings in Flanders. Upon the news that his brother
was made prisoner and sent to Calais, Peter, in 1381, interrupted
his studies, went over to London, and delivered himself up a hostage
for his brother till his ransom should be paid. The English were
charmed with his extraordinary virtue, and after he had stayed a
year in London, generously gave him his liberty, saying his word was
a sufficient pledge and security for the ransom stipulated. King
Richard II. invited him to his court; but Peter excused himself, and
hastened back to Paris to his studies. His watchings and fasts were
very austere, and he made no visits but such as were indispensable,
or to persons of extraordinary virtue, from whose conversation and
example he might draw great spiritual advantage for the benefit of
his own soul. With this view he often resorted to Philip of Maisiers,
a person eminently endowed with the double spirit of penance and
prayer, who, having been formerly chancellor of the kingdoms of
Jerusalem and Cyprus, led for twenty-five years a retired life in
the convent of the Celestines in Paris, without taking any vows, or
professing that Order. From this devout servant of God our saint
received important instructions and advice, which gave him great
light in the exercises of prayer, and in the paths of interior
spiritual perfection.
In 1383 his brother, the count of St. Pol, obtained for him a canonry
in our Lady’s at Paris; which ecclesiastical preferment was to him a
new motive to increase his fervor in the divine service. His devotion
and assiduity in choir, his charity towards all, his innocence,
his perfect spirit of mortification, and his meekness, edified
exceedingly the whole city; and the modesty with which he endeavored
to conceal his virtues was like a fine transparent veil through which
they shone with redoubled lustre. His humility was most conspicuous,
of which the following instance, among others, is recorded: When a
young clerk refused to carry the cross at a solemn procession, the
new canon took it up, and carried it with so much devotion, that the
whole city was struck with admiration to see him. Peter strove only
to advance in humility and Christian perfection: this was the sole
point which he had in view in all his actions and undertakings; and
he was very far from aspiring to the least ecclesiastical dignity.
But the reputation of his extraordinary sanctity reaching Avignon,
Clement VII., who, in the great schism, was acknowledged by France
for true pope, nominated him archdeacon of Dreux, in the diocess of
Chartres, and soon after, in 1384, bishop of Metz, his great sanctity
and prudence seeming to many a sufficient reason for dispensing with
his want of age. But Peter’s reluctance and remonstrances could only
be overcome by a scruple which was much exaggerated to him, that
by too obstinate a disobedience he would offend God. He made his
public entry at Metz barefoot, and riding on an ass, to imitate the
humility of our Redeemer. He would suffer no other magnificence on
that occasion than the distribution of great arms and largesses among
the poor; nor would he admit any attendants but what might inspire
modesty and piety.
He had no sooner taken possession of his church than with the
suffragan, Bertrand, a Dominican, who was given him for his
assistant, and consecrated bishop of Thessaly, he performed the
visitation of his diocess, in which he everywhere corrected abuses,
and gave astonishing proofs of his zeal, activity, and prudence.
He divided his revenues into three parts, allotting one to his
church, a second to the poor, and reserving a third for himself and
family, though the greatest share of this he added to the portion
of the poor. On fast-days commanded by the Church he took no other
sustenance than bread and water; and he fasted in the same austere
manner all Advent, and all Mondays, Fridays, and Saturdays throughout
the year. When several towns had revolted from him and created for
themselves new magistrates, his brother, the count of St. Pol,
reduced them to their duty by force of arms. The holy bishop was
exceedingly mortified at this accident, and out of his own patrimony
made amends to every one even among the rebels for all losses they
had sustained, which unparalleled charity gained him all their
hearts. Though he was judged, by those who were best acquainted
with his interior, during his whole life never to have stained his
baptismal innocence by any mortal sin, he had so high an idea of
the purity in which a soul ought always to appear in the divine
presence, especially when she approaches the holy mysteries, that
he went every day to confession with extraordinary compunction, and
bewailed the least imperfections with many tears. The very shadow of
the least sloth or failing in any action affrighted him. In the year
1384, Clement VII., soon after he had nominated him bishop, created
him cardinal, under the title of St. George, and in 1386 called him
to Avignon, and obliged him to reside there near his person. Peter
continued all his former austerities in the midst of a court, till
Clement commanded him to mitigate them for the sake of his health,
which seemed to be in a declining condition. His answer was: “Holy
Father, I shall always be an unprofitable servant, but I can at least
obey.” He desired to compensate for what he lost in the practices
of penance by redoubling his alms-deeds. By his excessive charities
his purse was always empty; his table was most frugal, his family
very small, his furniture mean, and his clothes poor, and these he
never changed till they were worn out. It seemed that he could not
increase his alms, yet he found means to do it by distributing his
little furniture and his equipage among the indigent, and selling
for them the episcopal ring which he wore on his finger. Everything
about him breathed an extraordinary spirit of poverty, and published
his affection for the poor. At his death his whole treasure amounted
only to twenty-pence. In all his actions he seemed attentive only to
God; and he fell into raptures sometimes in the street, or whilst he
waited on the pope at court. An ancient picture of the saint is kept
in the collegiate church of our Lady at Autun, in which he is painted
in an ecstasy, and in which are written these words which he was
accustomed frequently to repeat: “Contempt of the world, contempt of
thyself: rejoice in thy own contempt, but despise no other person.”
Ten months after his promotion to the dignity of cardinal, the
saint was seized with a sharp fever, which so much undermined his
constitution that his imperfect recovery was succeeded by a dangerous
slow fever. For his health he was advised to retire to Villeneuve, an
agreeable town situate opposite to Avignon, on the other side of the
Rhone. He was glad by this opportunity to see himself removed from
the noise and hurry of the court. During his last illness he went
to confession twice every day; never passed a day without receiving
the holy communion; and the constant union of his soul with God,
and the tenderness of his devotion, seemed continually to increase
as he drew near his end. His brother Andrew coming to see him, the
saint spoke to him with such energy on the vanity of the world, and
on the advantages of piety, that his words left a deep impression on
his heart during his whole life. This brother afterward taking holy
orders was made bishop of Cambray, and became one of the most holy
prelates of that age. Our saint recommended to him in particular
his sister Jane of Luxemburg, whom he had induced to make a vow of
perpetual chastity, and whose whole life was a perfect pattern of
Christian perfection. Saint Peter sent her by this brother a small
treatise containing certain rules of perfection, which he had drawn
up for her. Finding his strength quite exhausted, he desired and
received the last sacraments; after which he called all his servants,
and as they stood weeping round his bed, he begged their pardon for
not having edified them by his example as he ought to have done.
He then conjured them all to promise to do for his sake one thing
which he was going to ask of them. To this they most readily engaged
themselves. But they were much surprised when he ordered them to
take a discipline which lay under his pillow, and every one to give
him many stripes on his back, in punishment for the faults he had
committed in regard to them, who were, as he said, his brethren in
Christ and his masters. Notwithstanding their extreme unwillingness
they were obliged to comply with his request in order to satisfy
him. After this act of penance and humiliation, he conversed with
God in silent prayer till he gave up his innocent soul into his
hands, on the 2d of July, 1387, being eighteen years old, wanting
eighteen days. Though he had the administration of a diocess, he had
not received priestly orders, but seems to have been deacon, and his
dalmatic is shown at Avignon. He was buried without pomp, according
to his orders, in the church-yard of St. Michael.
On account of many miracles that were wrought both before and after
his interment, the citizens of Avignon built a rich chapel over his
grave. The convent and church of the Celestines have been since
built over that very spot, and in this church is the saint’s body
at present enshrined under a stately mausoleum. The history of the
miracles which have been wrought at his tomb fills whole volumes. A
famous one in 1432, moved the city of Avignon to choose him for its
patron. It is related as follows: A child about twelve years old
fell from a high tower in the palace of Avignon upon a sharp rock,
by which fall his skull was split, his brains dashed out, and his
body terribly bruised. The father of the child, almost distracted at
this accident, ran to the place, and falling on his knees with many
tears, implored the intercession of St. Peter. Then gathering up the
scattered bloody pieces of the child’s skull, he carried them with
the body in a sack, and laid them on the saint’s tomb. The people
and the Celestine monks joined their earnest prayers; and after
some time the child returned to life, and was placed upon the altar
that all might see him thus wonderfully raised from the dead. This
miracle happened on the 5th of July, on which day the festival of
the saint has ever since been celebrated at Avignon. After juridical
informations on his life and miracles, the bull of his beatification
was published by the true pope Clement VII. of the family of Medicis,
in 1527.
St. Peter was a saint from the cradle, because he always strove to
live only for God, and his divine honor. If one spark of that ardent
love of God which inflamed the saints in their actions animated our
breasts, it would give wings to our souls in all we do. We should
devote ourselves every moment to God with our whole strength; and
by our fidelity, and by the purity and fervor of our intention, we
should with the saints make all our actions perfect sacrifices of
our hearts to him. “God considers not how much, but with how ardent
an affection the thing is given,” says St. Cyprian.[49] And, as St.
Ambrose writes,[50] “Thy affection stamps the name and value on thy
action. It is just rated at so much as is the ardor from which it
proceeds. See how just is this judge--He asks thy own soul what value
he is to set on thy work.”
SAINT MODWENA, A NOBLE IRISH VIRGIN.
Having led a religious life several years in her own country, she
came into England in the reign of king Ethelwolf, about the year
840. That pious and great king being acquainted with her sanctity,
committed to her care the education of his daughter Editha, and
founded for her the monastery of Pollesworth, near the forest of
Arden in Warwickshire, which flourished till the dissolution, bearing
usually the name of St. Editha, its patroness and second abbess. St.
Modwena had before established two famous nunneries in Scotland,
one at Stirling, the other in Edinburgh. She made some other pious
foundations in England, but to apply herself more perfectly to
the sanctification of her own soul, she led during seven years in
anachoretical life in an isle in the Trent, which was called Andresey
from the apostle St. Andrew, in whose honor she procured her oratory
to be dedicated. When the great abbey of Burton-upon-Trent was
founded in the year 1004, it was dedicated under the patronage of
the Blessed Virgin and St. Modwena, and was enriched with the relics
of this saint, which were translated thither from Andresey; whence
Leland calls the monastery of Burton Modwenestow. See Pinius the
Bollandist, t. 2, Julij, p. 241. Tanner’s Notitia Mon. &c.
SAINT EDANA, OR EDAENE, IN IRELAND, V.
She is titular saint of the parish of new Tuamia, in the diocess of
Elphin, and another in that of Tuam. A famous holy well bears her
name, much resorted to by the sick. See Colgan, ad 5 Jul.
JULY VI.
SAINT PALLADIUS, B. C.
APOSTLE OF THE SCOTS.[51]
From St. Prosper and other historians, quoted by Usher,
Antiq. Brit. Eccles. c. 16, p. 416, 424; Keith. Cat. Episc.
Scot. p. 233; and the Bollandists 6 Jul. t. 2, Jul. p. 286.
ABOUT THE YEAR 450.
The name of Palladius shows this saint to have been a Roman, and
most authors agree that he was deacon of the church of Rome. At
least St. Prosper in his chronicle informs us, that when Agricola,
a noted Pelagian, had corrupted the churches of Britain with the
insinuation of that pestilential heresy, pope Celestine, at the
instance of Palladius the deacon, in 429, sent thither St. Germanus,
bishop of Auxerre, in quality of his legate, who, having ejected the
heretics, brought back the Britons to the Catholic faith. The concern
of Palladius for these islands stopped not here; for it seems not
to be doubted, but it was the same person of whom St. Prosper again
speaks, when he afterwards says, that in 431 pope Celestine sent
Palladius, the first bishop, to the Scots then believing in Christ.
From the lives of SS. Albeus, Declan, Ibar, and Kiaran Saigir, Usher
shows[52] that these four saints preached separately in different
parts of Ireland, which was their native country before the mission
of St. Patrick. St. Ibar had been converted to the faith in Britain;
the other three had been instructed at Rome, and were directed thence
back into their own country, and according to the histories of their
lives, were all honored with the episcopal character. St. Kiaran
Saigir (who is commemorated on the 5th of March) preceded St. Patrick
in preaching the gospel to the Ossorians, and was seventy-five years
of age on St. Patrick’s arrival in Ireland. Hence it is easy to
understand what is said of St. Palladius, that he was sent bishop to
the Scots believing in Christ: though the number of Christians among
them must have been then very small. St. Prosper, in his book against
the _Author of the conferences_,[53] having commended pope Celestine
for his care in delivering Britain from the Pelagian heresy, adds,
that “he also ordained a bishop for the Scots, and thus, whilst he
endeavored to preserve the Roman island _Catholic_, he likewise
made a barbarous island _Christian_.” Usher observes that this can
be understood only of Ireland; for though part of North-Britain was
never subject to the Romans, and the greatest part of it was then
inhabited by the Picts, yet it never could be called a distinct
island. It is also clear from Tertullian, Eusebius, St. Chrysostom,
and others, that the light of the gospel had penetrated among the
Picts beyond the Roman territories in Britain, near the times of the
apostles. These people, therefore, who had lately begun to receive
some tincture of the faith when our saint undertook his mission, were
doubtless the Scots who were settled in Ireland.
The Irish writers of the lives of St. Patrick say, that Palladius
had preached in Ireland a little before St. Patrick, but that he
was soon banished by the king of Leinster, and returned to North
Britain, where they tell us he had first opened his mission. It
seems not to be doubted but he was sent to the whole nation of the
Scots, several colonies of whom had passed from Ireland into North
Britain, and possessed themselves of part of the country, since
called Scotland.[54] After St. Palladius had left Ireland, he arrived
among the Scots in North Britain, according to St. Prosper, in the
consulate of Bassus and Antiochus, in the year of Christ 431.[55] He
preached there with great zeal, and formed a considerable church.
The Scottish historians tell us, that the faith was planted in North
Britain about the year 200, in the time of king Donald, when Victor
was pope of Rome. But they all acknowledge that Palladius was the
first bishop in that country, and style him their first apostle.[56]
The saint died at Fordun, the capital town of the little county of
Mernis, fifteen miles from Aberdeen to the south, about the year 450.
His relics were preserved with religious respect in the monastery of
Fordun, as Hector Boetius[57] and Camden testify. In the year 1409,
William Scenes, archbishop of St. Andrew’s and primate of Scotland,
enclosed them in a new shrine enriched with gold and precious stones.
His festival is marked on the 6th of July in the Breviary of Aberdeen
and the Scottish Calendars; but in some of the English on the 15th of
December. Scottish writers, and calendars of the middle ages, mention
St. Servanus and St. Ternan as disciples of St. Palladius, and by him
made bishops, the former of Orkney, the latter of the Picts. But from
Usher’s chronology it appears that they both lived later.
* * * * *
It is easy to conceive how painful and laborious the mission of this
saint must have been; but where there is ardent love, labor seems a
pleasure, and either is not felt or is a delight. It is a mark of
sloth and impatience for a man to count his labors, or so much as
to think of pains or sufferings in so glorious an undertaking. St.
Palladius surmounted every obstacle which a fierce nation had opposed
to the establishment of the kingdom of Jesus Christ. Ought not our
hearts to be impressed with the most lively sentiments of love and
gratitude to our merciful God, for having raised up such great and
zealous men, by whose ministry the light of true faith has been
conveyed to us.
ST. JULIAN, ANCHORET.
This saint was carried away captive from some Western country when he
was very young, and sold for a slave in Syria. For some years he much
aggravated the weight of his chains by his impatience under them;
till having the happiness to receive the light of faith he found them
exceedingly lightened by the comfort which religion afforded him. A
right use of his afflictions from that moment contributed much to
the sanctification of his soul. Not long after, he recovered his
liberty by the death of his master, and immediately in the fervor of
his devotion dedicated himself to the service of God in an austere
monastery in Mesopotamia. He frequently resorted to the great St.
Ephrem for advice and instructions in the exercises of virtue; and
that holy man went often to see him, that he might edify himself by
his saintly conversation. This learned doctor of the Syriac church
tells us, that he could not forbear always admiring the sublime
sentiments and spiritual lights with which God favored a man who
appeared in the eyes of the world ignorant and a barbarian. Julian
was of a robust body, inured to labor, but he weakened and emaciated
it by great austerities. He worked with his hands, making sails for
ships; and wept almost continually at the consideration of his past
sins, and of the divine judgments. St. Ephrem tells us that he often
admired to find that in the copies of the holy Bible after Julian had
used them some days, several words were effaced, and others rendered
scarcely legible, though the manuscripts were entire and fair before;
and that the holy man candidly confessed to him when he one day
asked him the reason, that the tears which he shed in reading often
blotted out letters and words. Our saint always looked upon himself
as a criminal, trembling, and expecting every moment the coming of
his judge to call him to an account. It is easy to imagine how remote
such a disposition of mind was from being capable of entertaining
the very thought of amusements. His extreme humility appeared in his
words, dress, and all his actions. He had much to suffer from certain
tepid and slothful monks, but regarded himself as happy to meet with
so favorable opportunities of redeeming his sins, and of exercising
acts of penance, patience, meekness, and charity. Prayer was almost
the uninterrupted employment of his heart. He made in his little cell
a kind of a sepulchre, where he lived retired for greater solitude
whenever his presence was not required at duties of the community. He
assisted at the divine office without ever moving his body, keeping
his whole attention fixed on God, as if he had been standing before
the tribunal of his sovereign judge. Saint Ephrem assures us that God
honored him with the gift of miracles. Sozomen writes[58] that his
life was so austere, that he seemed almost to live without a body.
Thus he spent twenty-five years in his monastery, purifying his soul
by patience, obedience, and the labors of penance. He passed to a
glorious immortality about the year 370. See his life written by his
friend St. Ephrem, Op. t. 3, p. 254, ed. Vatic.
ST. SEXBURGH, ABBESS.
She was daughter of Anna the religious king of the East-Angles, and
his devout queen Hereswide, sister to St. Hilda. A pious education
laid in her the foundation of that eminent sanctity for which she
was most conspicuous during the whole course of her life. She was
given in marriage to Ercombert, king of Kent, a prince of excellent
dispositions, which she contributed exceedingly to improve by her
counsels and example. She had a great share in all his zealous
undertakings for promoting virtue and the happiness of his people,
especially in extirpating the last remains of idolatry in his
dominions, and in enforcing the observance of Lent, and other
precepts of the Church, by wholesome laws. Her virtue commanded the
reverence, and her humility and devotion raised the admiration of
all her subjects; and her goodness and unbounded charity gained her
the love of all, especially the poor. She had a longing desire to
consecrate herself wholly to God in religious retirement, and that
others at least might attend the divine service for her night and
day without impediment, she began in her husband’s lifetime to found
a monastery of holy virgins in the isle of Sheppey, on the coast
of Kent, which she finished after his death in 664, whilst her son
Egbert sat on the throne. Here she assembled seventy-four nuns, but
hearing of the great sanctity of St. Etheldreda at Ely, and being
desirous to live in greater obscurity, and to be more at liberty to
employ all her thoughts on heaven, she left the kingdom of Kent,
and retired to Ely before the year 679, in which she was chosen to
succeed her sister St. Etheldreda, or Audry, in the government of
that house. Sixteen years after she caused the body of that saint to
be taken up, and passed herself to bliss in a good old age, on the
6th of July, toward the end of the seventh century. Her monastery in
Sheppey, called Le Mynstre in Sheppey, was destroyed by the Danes,
but rebuilt in 1130, and consecrated by William, archbishop of
Canterbury, in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Sexburgh; and
it subsisted in the hands of Benedictin nuns till the dissolution of
abbeys. St. Ermenilda, daughter of king Ercombert and St. Sexburgh,
was married to Wulpher, king of Mercia, but after his death retired
to Ely, near her mother and her two aunts St. Audry and St. Withburg,
three daughters of king Anna. St. Wereburgh, daughter of St.
Ermenilda and king Wulpher, was a nun at Hearburgh (which seems to
have been near Stanford or Croyland). Her relics were venerated at
Hearburgh, till in the ninth century they were removed to Leicester.
See the life of St. Sexburgh in Capgrave; also Bede and Narratio de
Sanctis qui in Anglia quiescunt, in Hickes, Diss. Epistol. p. 117.
Thesaur. t. 1, and Monast. Anglic. t. 1, p. 88, et 152. Weever’s
Funeral Monuments, p. 283, and Kalendarium in quo annotantur dies
obitûs Sororum Monasterii de Sheppey. MS. Bibliot. Cotton.
ST. GOAR, PRIEST, C.
Aquitain gave this saint his birth and education; but out of a
desire of serving God entirely unknown to the world, in 519 he
travelled into Germany, and settling in the territory of Triers,
he shut himself in his cell, and arrived at such an eminent degree
of sanctity as to be esteemed the oracle and miracle of the whole
country. He resolutely refused the archbishopric of Triers, and died
in 575. Round his cell arose the town of St. Guver, on the left bank
of the Rhine between Wesel and Boppard. See Brower and Pinius the
Bollandist, t. 2, Julij, p. 328.
ST. MONINNA, VIRGIN.
Of Sliabh-Cuillin, _i. e._ Mount Cullen, where she led a most holy
life in austere penance and heavenly contemplation. She died in 518,
and is much honored in that part of Ireland. See Colgan ad 6 Jul.
JULY VII.
ST. PANTÆNUS.
FATHER OF THE CHURCH.
See St. Jerom, Catal. Clem. Alex. and Eusebius. Also
Ceillier, t. 2, p. 237.
This learned father and apostolic man flourished in the second age.
He was by birth a Sicilian, by profession a stoic philosopher. For
his eloquence he is styled by St. Clement of Alexandria the Sicilian
Bee. His esteem for virtue led him into an acquaintance with the
Christians, and being charmed with the innocence and sanctity of
their conversation he opened his eyes to the truth. He studied the
holy scriptures under the disciples of the apostles, and his thirst
after sacred learning brought him to Alexandria in Egypt, where the
disciples of St. Mark had instituted a celebrated school of the
Christian doctrine. Pantænus sought not to display his talents in
that great mart of literature and commerce; but his great progress
in sacred learning was after some time discovered, and he was drawn
out of that obscurity in which his humility sought to live buried.
Being placed at the head of the Christian school some time before
the year 179, which was the first of Commodus, by his learning and
excellent manner of teaching he raised its reputation above all the
schools of the philosophers, and the lessons which he read, and which
were gathered from the flowers of the prophets and apostles, conveyed
light and knowledge into the minds of all his hearers, as St. Clement
of Alexandria, his eminent scholar, says of him. The Indians who
traded to Alexandria, entreated him to pay their country a visit, in
order to confute their Brachmans. Hereupon he forsook his school, and
was established by Demetrius, who was made bishop of Alexandria in
189, preacher of the gospel to the Eastern nations. Eusebius tells
us that St. Pantænus found some seeds of the faith already sown in
the Indies, and a book of the gospel of St. Matthew in Hebrew, which
St. Bartholomew had carried thither. He brought it back with him to
Alexandria, whither he returned after he had zealously employed some
years in instructing the Indians in the faith. The public school was
at that time governed by St. Clement, but St. Pantænus continued
to teach in private till in the reign of Caracalla, consequently
before the year 216, he closed a noble and excellent life by a happy
death, as Rufinus writes.[59] His name is inserted in all Western
Martyrologies on the 7th of July.
* * * * *
The beauty of the Christian morality, and the sanctity of its
faithful professors, which by their charms converted this true
philosopher, appear nowhere to greater advantage than when they
are compared with the imperfect and often false virtue of the most
famous sages of the heathen world.[60] Into what contradictions and
gross errors did they fall, even about the divinity itself and the
sovereign good! To how many vices did they give the name of virtues!
How many crimes did they canonize! It is true they showed indeed a
zeal for justice, a contempt of riches and pleasures, moderation
in prosperity, patience in adversities, generosity, courage, and
disinterestedness. But these were rather shadows and phantoms than
real virtues, if they sprang from a principle of vanity and pride, or
were infected with the poison of interestedness or any other vitiated
intention, which they often betrayed, nay, sometimes openly avowed,
and made a subject of their vain boasts.
SAINT WILLIBALD, BISHOP OF AICHSTADT, C.
He was son of the holy king St. Richard, and was born about the
year 704 in the kingdom of the West-Saxons, about the place where
Southampton now stands. When he was three years old his life was
despaired of in a violent sickness; but when all natural remedies
proved unsuccessful, his parents carried him and laid him at the
foot of a great cross which was erected in a public place near their
house, according to the custom in Catholic countries to this day.
There they poured forth their prayers with great fervor, and made a
promise to God that in case the child recovered they would consecrate
him to the divine service. God accepted their pious offering, and the
child was immediately restored to his health. St. Richard kept the
child two years longer at home, but only regarded him as a sacred
depositum committed to him by God; and when he was five years old
placed him under the abbot Egbald, and other holy tutors in the
monastery of Waltheim. The young saint, from the first use of his
reason, in all his thoughts and actions seemed to aspire only to
heaven, and his heart seemed full only of God and his holy love. He
left this monastery about the year 721, when he was seventeen years
old, and his brother Winibald nineteen, to accompany his father and
brother in a pilgrimage of devotion to the tombs of the apostles at
Rome, and to the Holy Land. They visited many churches in France on
their road; but St. Richard died at Lucca, where his relics are still
venerated in the church of St. Fridian, and he is commemorated in the
Roman Martyrology on the 7th of February. The two sons went on to
Rome, and there took the monastic habit.
Above two years after this, Winibald having been obliged to return
to England, St. Willibald with two or three young Englishmen set out
to visit the holy places which Christ had sanctified by his sacred
presence on earth. They added most severe mortifications to the
incredible fatigues of their journey, living only on bread and water,
and at land using no other bed than the bare ground. They sailed
first to Cyprus and thence into Syria. At Emesa St. Willibald was
taken by the Saracens for a spy, was loaded with irons, and suffered
much in severe confinement for several months, till certain persons
who were charmed with his wonderful virtue, and moved with compassion
for his disaster, satisfied the caliph of his innocence, and procured
his enlargement. The holy pilgrims expressed their gratitude to
their benefactors, and pursued their journey to the holy places.
They resolved in visiting them to follow our Divine Redeemer in the
course of his mortal life; and therefore they began their devotions
at Nazareth. Our saint passed there some days with his companions in
the continual contemplation of the infinite mercies of God in the
great mystery of the incarnation; and the sight of the place in which
it was wrought drew from his eyes streams of devout tears during
all the time of his stay in that town. From Nazareth he went to
Bethlehem, and thence into Egypt, making no account of the fatigues
and hardships of his journey, and assiduously meditating on what our
Blessed Redeemer had suffered in the same. He returned to Nazareth,
and thence travelled to Cana, Capharnaum, and Jerusalem. In this last
place he made a long stay to satisfy his fervor in adoring Christ in
the places where he wrought so many great mysteries, particularly
on the mountains of Calvary and Olivet, the theatres of his sacred
death and ascension. He likewise visited all the famous monasteries,
lauras, and hermitages in that country, with an ardent desire of
learning and imitating all the most perfect practices of virtue, and
whatever might seem most conducive to the sanctification of his soul.
The tender and lively sentiments of devotion with which his fervent
contemplation on the holy mysteries of our redemption inspired him
at the sight of all those sacred places, filled his devout soul with
heavenly consolations, and made on it strong and lasting impressions.
In his return a severe sickness at Acon exercised his patience and
resignation. After seven years employed in this pilgrimage he arrived
safe with his companions in Italy.
The celebrated monastery of Mount Cassino having been lately repaired
by pope Gregory II. the saint chose that house for his residence,
and his fervent example contributed very much to settle in it the
primitive spirit of its holy institute during the ten years that he
lived there. He was first appointed sacristan, afterward dean or
superior over ten monks, and during the last eight years porter,
which was an office of great trust and importance, and required a
rooted habit of virtue which might suffer no abatement by external
employs and frequent commerce with seculars. It happened that in
738 St. Boniface coming to Rome begged of pope Gregory III. that
Willibald, who was his cousin, might be sent to assist him in his
missions in Germany. The pope desired to see the monk, and was much
delighted with the history of his travels, and edified with his
virtue. In the close of their conversation he acquainted him of
bishop Boniface’s request. Willibald desired to go back at least to
obtain the leave and blessing of his abbot; but the pope told him
his order sufficed, and commanded him to go without more ado into
Germany. The saint replied that he was ready to go wheresoever his
holiness should think fit. Accordingly he set out for Thuringia where
St. Boniface then was, by whom he was ordained priest. His labors in
the country about Aichstadt, in Franconia and Bavaria, were crowned
with incredible success, and he was no less powerful in words than in
works.
In 746 he was consecrated by St. Boniface bishop of Aichstadt.
This dignity gave his humility much to suffer, but it exceedingly
excited his zeal. The cultivation of so rough a vineyard was a
laborious and painful task; but his heroic patience and invincible
meekness overcame all difficulties. His charity was most tender
and compassionate, and he had a singular talent in comforting the
afflicted. He founded a monastery which resembled in discipline
that of Mount Cassino, to which he often retired. But his love of
solitude diminished not his pastoral solicitude for his flock. He was
attentive to all their spiritual necessities, he visited often every
part of his charge, and instructed all his people with indefatigable
zeal and charity. His fasts were most austere, nor did he allow
himself any indulgence in them or in his labors on account of his
great age, till his strength was entirely exhausted. Having labored
almost forty-five years in regulating and sanctifying his diocess, he
died at Aichstadt on the 7th of June, 790, being eighty-seven years
old. He was honored with miracles, and buried in his own cathedral.
Pope Leo VII. canonized him in 938. In 1270 the bishop Hildebrand
built a church in his honor, into which his relics were translated,
and are honorably preserved to this day; but a portion is honored
at Furnes in Flanders. See the three lives of St. Willibald written
by contemporary authors, especially that by a nun of his sister St.
Walburga’s monastery. She gives from the saint’s own relation a
curious and useful description of the Holy Land, as it stood in that
age; which is rendered more curious by the notes of Mabillon, and
those of Basnage in his edition of Canisius’s Lect. Antiquæ. On St.
Willibald, see Solier the Bollandist, t. 2, Julij, p. 485.
ST. HEDDA, B. C.
He was an English Saxon, a monk of the monastery of St. Hilda, and
was made bishop of the West-Saxons in 676. He resided first at
Dorchester near Oxford, but afterward removed his see to Winchester.
King Ceadwal going to Rome to be baptized died there, and was buried
in the church of St. Peter in 688. His kinsman Ina succeeded him in
the throne.[61] In his wise and wholesome laws, the most ancient
extant among those of our English Saxon kings, enacted by him in a
great council of bishops and ealdermen in 693, he declares that in
drawing them up he had been assisted by the counsels of St. Hedda and
St. Erconwald.[62] In these laws theft is ordained to be punished
with cutting off a hand or a foot; robbery on the highway, committed
by a band not under seven in number, with death, unless the criminal
redeem his life according to the estimation of his head. Church dues
are ordered to be paid under a penalty of forty shillings; and if any
master order a servant to do any work on a Sunday, the servant is
made free and the master amerced thirty shillings. St. Hedda governed
his church with great sanctity about thirty years, and departed to
the Lord on the 7th of July, 705. Bede[63] and William of Malmesbury
assure us, that his tomb was illustrated by many miracles. His name
is placed in the Roman Martyrology. See Solier the Bollandist, t. 2,
Julij, p. 482.
ST. EDELBURGA, V.
She was daughter to Anna king of the East Angles, and out of a
desire of attaining to Christian perfection, went into France, and
there consecrated herself to God in the monastery of Faremoutier,
in the forest of Brie, in the government of which she succeeded its
foundress St. Fara. After her death her body remained uncorrupt,
as Bede testifies.[64] She is honored in the Roman, French, and
English Martyrologies on this day.[65] In these latter her niece
St. Earcongota is named with her. She was daughter to Earconbercht
king of Kent, and of St. Sexburga; accompanied St. Edelburga to
Faremoutier, and there taking the veil with her, lived a great
example of all virtues, and was honored after her happy death by many
miracles, as Bede relates. Hereswide, the wife of king Anna, the
mother of many saints, after the death of her husband, retired also
into France, and consecrated herself to God in the famous monastery
of Cale or Chelles, five leagues from Paris, near the marne (founded
by St. Clotilda, but chiefly endowed by St. Bathildes), where she
persevered, advancing daily in holy fervor to her happy death. See
the history of the monastery of Chelles in the sixth tome of the late
history of the diocess of Paris, by Abbé Lebeuf, and Solier on this
day, p. 481, &c.
ST. FELIX, BISHOP OF NANTES, C.
The most illustrious among the bishops of Nantes was saint Felix,
a person of the first rank in Aquitain, some say of Bourges in the
First Aquitain; others more probably think of the Second Aquitain
on the sea-coast and nearer Brittany. In the world he was more
illustrious by his virtue, his eloquence, and learning, than by his
dignities and high birth. The Greek language was as familiar to him
as his own; he was a poet and orator, and seems from Fortunatus’s
expression to have written a panegyric on the queen St. Radegundes
in verse. He had been married when he was called to succeed Evemer,
the holy bishop of Nantes, toward the close of the year 549, in
the 37th year of his age. His zeal for discipline and good order
appeared in the regulations he made for his own diocess, and in the
decrees of the third council of Paris in 557, in the second of Tours
in 566, and the fourth of Paris in 573. His charity to the poor had
no other bounds but those of their necessities, and considering
that the revenues of the Church were the patrimony of the poor, he
reserved to himself only the prudent and troublesome administration
of them for their use. He sold for them and the Church his own
patrimony, and made it his study and earnest endeavor that no one
in his diocess should pass unrelieved in distress. His predecessor
had formed a project of building a cathedral within the walls of the
city of Nantes, which Felix executed in the most magnificent manner.
Fortunatus describes it to have been composed of three naves, of
which the middle was supported by great pillars. A great cupola was
raised in the middle. The church was covered with tin, and within was
only azure, gold, mosaic, paintings, pilasters, foliages, various
figures, and other ornaments. Euphronius archbishop of Tours, and the
bishops of Angers, Mans, Rennes, Poitiers, and Angouleme performed
the dedication; no bishop of the Britons was invited to the ceremony;
for which it appears that their commerce with the French was not
entirely free. The Britons were then possessed of no lands in the
diocess of Nantes except the territory of Croisic, in which was the
palace of Aula Quiriaca or Guerrande, vulgarly Warand, probably so
called from Guerech I. the British count of Vannes, who resided
there. Canao, one of his successors, when Felix was made bishop, had
put to death three of his brothers, and held a fourth named Macliau
in prison. St. Felix by his intercession saved his life, and obtained
his liberty. St. Gregory of Tours complains that bishop Felix had
been prepossessed by false informations against Peter, Gregory’s
brother, and accused him of favoring an unworthy nephew; but in
other places bears testimony to his eminent sanctity, which is much
extolled by Fortunatus and others. Guerech II. count of Vannes,
plundered the diocesses of Rennes and Vannes, and repulsed the troops
which king Chilperic sent against him; but, at the entreaties of St.
Felix, withdrew his forces, and made peace. The holy prelate died on
the 8th of January in 584, the seventieth year of his age, of his
episcopal dignity thirty-three.
He is honored at Nantes, of which he was the sixteenth bishop from
St. Clair, on the 7th of July, the day of the translation of his
relics. See Fortunatus, l. 3, c. 4, 5, 6, 7. St. Gregory of Tours,
l. 5, c. 5. Ceillier, t. 16, p. 562. M. Travers, Histoire abrégée
des Evêques de Nantes, tome 7, part 2, des Mémoires de Littérature
recueillis par P. Desmolets de l’Oratoire. Stilting the Bollandist,
t. 2, Jul. p. 470. Lobineau, Vies des SS. de Bretagne, p. 121.
ST. BENEDICT XI. POPE, C.
His family name was Nicholas Bocasini. He was a native of Treviso,
which city was then an independent commonwealth, but since the year
1336 is subject to that of Venice. He was born in 1240, and studied
first at Treviso, and afterwards at Venice, where, at fourteen years
of age, he took the habit of St. Dominick. He seemed desirous to
set no bounds to his fervor and fidelity in the practice of every
means of improving his soul daily in virtue: and, during fourteen
years, enriched his mind with an uncommon store of sacred learning.
After this term he was appointed professor and preacher at Venice
and Bologna, and with incredible fruit communicated to others
those spiritual riches which he had treasured up in silence and
retirement, being always careful by the same means to preserve and
increase his own stock. He wrote several sermons and comments on the
holy scripture, which are still extant. He was chosen provincial
of Lombardy, and, in 1296, the ninth general of his Order. On that
occasion, by a pathetic circular letter,[66] he exhorted his brethren
to a love of poverty, humility, retirement, prayer, charity, and
obedience. In 1297 he was sent by Boniface VIII. nuncio into France,
to be the mediator of peace between that nation and the English; and
was created cardinal during his residence there in 1298. Nothing
but the strict command of his Holiness could have obliged him to
accept that dignity, which cost him many tears. He was made soon
after bishop of Ostia, and dean of the sacred college; and in 1301
went legate _a latere_ into Hungary, to endeavor to compose the
differences which divided that nation into factions, and had already
laid it waste by a dreadful civil war; in which cardinal Boncasini
succeeded to a miracle. He also abolished in that country several
superstitious practices, and other abuses and scandals. He afterward
exerted his zeal in Austria and at Venice, being successively legate
in both those places.
Boniface VIII. dying on the 11th of October, 1303, the cardinals
entered the conclave on the 21st of the same month, and on the
day following unanimously chose our saint pope. He was seized
with trembling at the news; but being compelled to acquiesce, was
crowned on the following Sunday. He continued his former practices
of humility, mortification, and penance. When his mother came to
his court in rich attire, he refused to see her till she had put on
again her former mean apparel. Rome was at that time torn by civil
divisions, especially by the factions of the Colonnas against the
late pope, but the moderation, meekness, and prudence of our saint
soon restored the whole country to perfect tranquillity. He pardoned
the Colonnas and other rebels, Sciarra Colonna and William of Nogaret
excepted, who remained under the former sentence of proscription.
He pacified Denmark, and other kingdoms of the North, and appeased
the State and Church of France. He reconciled the cities of Venice
and Padua without effusion of blood. He joined his zealous endeavors
with Helena, queen of Servia, in the conversion of her son Orosius.
This good pope died the martyr of peace, to make which reign over
the whole Christian world he seemed only to have lived. Having sat
only eight months and seventeen days, he departed this life at
Perugia, on the 6th of July, in the year of our Lord, 1304, of his
age sixty-three. Some say he died of poison secretly given him by
the contrivance of certain wicked men who were enemies to the public
tranquillity. He was honored by miracles, examined and approved by
the bishop of Perugia, and attested by Platina and other historians.
See Conc. t. 10, also his life collected by Pagi, in his Annals, and
in an express work by the late learned Dominican, F. Peter Thomas
Campana; and Vie de S. Benoit XI. ou Caractère de la Sainteté du B.
Benoit XI. à Toulouse, 1739. See also F. Touron, Hommes Illustres, t.
1, l. 7, p. 655, and Benedict XIV. de Canoniz, t. 4, Append. and in
his new Roman Martyrology on the 7th of July.
JULY VIII.
SAINT ELIZABETH, QUEEN OF PORTUGAL.
From her Authentic Life, written by a Franciscan friar;
Mariana, and other Spanish historians. See Janning the
Bollandist, Julij, t. 2, ad diem 4, p. 169.
A. D. 1336.
St. Elizabeth was daughter of Peter III. king of Arragon, and
grand-daughter of James I. who had been educated under the care of
St. Peter Nolasco, and was surnamed the Saint, and from the taking
of Majorca and Valentia, Expugnator or the Conqueror. Her mother,
Constantia, was daughter of Manfred king of Sicily, and grandchild
to the Emperor Frederic II. Our saint was born in 1271, and received
at the baptismal font by the name of Elizabeth, from her aunt, St.
Elizabeth of Hungary, who had been canonized by Gregory IX. in 1235.
Her birth established a good understanding between her grandfather
James, who was then on the throne, and her father, whose quarrel had
divided the whole kingdom. The former took upon himself the care of
her education, inspired her with an ardor for piety above her age,
though he died in 1276 (having reigned sixty-three years), before she
had completed the sixth year of her age.
Her father succeeded to the crown, and was careful to place most
virtuous persons about his daughter, whose example might be to her
a constant spur to all virtue. The young princess was of a most
sweet and mild disposition, and from her tender years had no relish
for anything but what was conducive to piety and devotion. It was
doing her the most sensible pleasure if any one promised to lead her
to some chapel to say a prayer. At eight years of age she began to
fast on vigils, and to practise great self-denials; nor could she
bear to hear the tenderness of her years and constitution alleged
as a reason that she ought not to fast or macerate her tender body.
Her fervor made her eagerly to desire that she might have a share
in every exercise of virtue which she saw practised by others, and
she had been already taught that the frequent mortification of the
senses, and still more of the will, is to be joined with prayer to
obtain the grace which restrains the passions, and prevents their
revolt. How little is this most important maxim considered by those
parents who excite and fortify the passions of children, by teaching
them a love of vanities, and indulging them in gratifications of
sense! If rigorous fasts suit not their tender age, a submission of
the will, perfect obedience, and humble modesty, are in no time of
life more indispensably to be inculcated; nor is any abstinence more
necessary than that by which children are taught never to drink or
eat out of meals, to bear several little denials in them without
uneasiness, and never eagerly to crave anything. The easy and happy
victory of Elizabeth over herself was owing to this early and perfect
temperance, submissiveness, and sincere humility. Esteeming virtue
her only advantage and delight, she abhorred romances and idle
entertainments, shunned the usual amusements of children, and was an
enemy to all the vanities of the world. She could bear no other songs
than sacred hymns and psalms; and from her childhood said every day
the whole office of the breviary, in which no priest could be more
scrupulously exact. Her tenderness and compassion for the poor made
her, even in that tender age, to be styled their mother.
At twelve years of age she was given in marriage to Dionysius, king
of Portugal. That prince had considered in her, birth, beauty,
riches, and sprightliness of genius, more than virtue; yet he allowed
her an entire liberty in her devotions, and exceedingly esteemed and
admired her extraordinary piety. She found no temptation to pride in
the dazzling splendor of a crown, and could say with Esther, that her
heart never found any delight in the glory, riches, and grandeur with
which she was surrounded. She was sensible that regularity in our
actions is necessary to virtue, this being in itself most agreeable
to God, who shows in all his works how much he is the lover of order;
also a prudent distribution of time fixes the fickleness of the
human mind, hinders frequent omissions of pious exercises, and is a
means to prevent our being ever idle and being governed by humor and
caprice in what we do, by which motives a disguised self-love easily
insinuates itself into our ordinary actions. Our saint therefore
planned for herself a regular distribution of her whole time, and
of her religious exercises, which she never interrupted, unless
extraordinary occasions of duty or charity obliged her to change the
order of her daily practices. She rose very early every morning, and
after a long morning exercise, and a pious meditation, she recited
matins, lauds and prime of the Church office. Then she heard mass,
at which she communicated frequently every week. She said every day
also the little office of our Lady, and that of the dead: and in the
afternoon had other regular devotions after even-song or vespers.
She retired often into her oratory to her pious books, and allotted
certain hours to attend her domestic affairs, public business, or
what she owed to others. All her spare time she employed in pious
reading, or in working for the altar, or the poor, and she made her
ladies of honor do the like. She found no time to spend in vain
sports and recreations, or in idle discourse or entertainments. She
was most abstemious in her diet, mean in her attire, humble, meek,
and affable in conversation, and wholly bent upon the service of
God in all her actions. Admirable was her spirit of compunction,
and of holy prayer; and she poured forth her heart before God with
most feeling sentiments of divine love, and often watered her cheeks
and the very ground with abundant tears of sweet devotion. Frequent
attempts were made to prevail with her to moderate her austerities,
but she always answered that if Christ assures us that his spirit
cannot find place in a life of softness and pleasure, mortification
is nowhere more necessary than on the throne, where the passions
find more dangerous incentives. She fasted three days a week, many
vigils besides those prescribed by the Church; all Advent; a Lent
of devotion, from the feast of St. John Baptist to the feast of the
Assumption; and soon after this she began another Lent, which she
continued to St. Michael’s day. On all Fridays and Saturdays, on the
eves of all festivals of the Blessed Virgin and the apostles, and on
many other days, her fast was on bread and water. She often visited
churches and places of devotion on foot.
Charity to the poor was a distinguishing part of her character.
She gave constant orders to have all pilgrims and poor strangers
provided for with lodging and necessaries. She made it her business
to seek out and secretly relieve persons of good condition who were
reduced to necessity, yet out of shame durst not make known their
wants. She was very liberal in furnishing fortunes to poor young
women, that they might marry according to their condition, and not
be exposed to the danger of losing their virtue. She visited the
sick, served them, and dressed and kissed their most loathsome
sores. She founded in different parts of the kingdom many pious
establishments, particularly an hospital near her own palace at
Coïmbra, a house for penitent women who had been seduced into evil
courses, at Torres-Novas, and an hospital for foundlings, or those
children who, for want of due provision, are exposed to the danger
of perishing by poverty, or the neglect and cruelty of unnatural
parents. She was utterly regardless of her own conveniences, and so
attentive to the poor and afflicted persons of the whole kingdom,
that she seemed almost wholly to belong to them; not that she
neglected any other duties which she owed to her neighbor, for she
made it her principal study to pay to her husband the most dutiful
respect, love, and obedience, and bore his injuries with invincible
meekness and patience. Though king Dionysius was a friend of justice,
and a valiant, bountiful, and compassionate prince, yet he was, in
his youth, a worldly man, and defiled the sanctity of the nuptial
state with abominable lusts. The good queen used all her endeavors
to reclaim him, grieving most sensibly for the offence of God,
and the scandal given to the people; and she never ceased to weep
herself, and to procure the prayers of others for his conversion.
She strove to gain him only by courtesy, and with constant sweetness
and cheerfulness cherished his natural children, and took great care
of their education. By these means she softened the heart of the
king, who, by the succor of a powerful grace, rose out of the filthy
puddle in which he had wallowed for a long time, and kept ever after
the fidelity that was due to his virtuous consort. He instituted the
order of Christ in 1318; founded, with a truly royal magnificence,
the university of Coïmbra, and adorned his kingdom with public
buildings. His extraordinary virtues, particularly his liberality,
justice, and constancy, are highly extolled by the Portuguese,
and after his entire conversion, he was the idol and glory of his
people. A little time before his perfect conversion there happened an
extraordinary accident. The queen had a very pious, faithful page,
whom she employed in the distribution of her secret alms. A wicked
fellow-page envying him on account of this favor, to which his virtue
and services entitled him, treacherously suggested to his majesty
that the queen showed a fondness for that page. The prince, who by
his own sensual heart was easily inclined to judge ill of others,
gave credit to the slander, and resolved to take away the life of
the innocent youth. For this purpose he gave order to a lime-burner,
that if on such a day he sent to him a page with this errand to
inquire, “Whether he had fulfilled the king’s commands?” he should
take him and cast him into the lime-kiln, there to be burnt; for
that death he had justly incurred, and the execution was expedient
for the king’s service. On the day appointed he despatched the page
with this message to the lime-kiln; but the devout youth on the road
passing by a church, heard the bell ring at the elevation at mass,
went in and prayed there devoutly; for it was his pious custom, if
he ever heard the sign given by the bell for the elevation, always
to go thither, and not depart till mass was ended. It happened, on
that occasion, that as the first was not a whole mass, and it was
with him a constant rule to hear mass every day, he stayed in the
church, and heard successively two other masses. In the meantime, the
king, who was impatient to know if his orders had been executed, sent
the informer to the lime-kiln, to inquire whether his commands had
been obeyed; but as soon as he was come to the kiln, and had asked
the question, the man, supposing him to be the messenger meant by
the king’s order, seized him, and threw him into the burning lime,
where he was soon consumed. Thus was the innocent protected by his
devotion, and the slanderer was overtaken by divine justice. The page
who had heard the masses went afterward to the lime-kiln, and having
asked whether his majesty’s commands had been yet executed, brought
him back word that they were. The king was almost out of himself
with surprise when he saw him come back with this message, and being
soon informed of the particulars, he easily discovered the innocence
of the pious youth, adored the divine judgments, and ever after
respected the great virtue and sanctity of his queen.
St. Elizabeth had by the king two children, Alphonsus, who afterward
succeeded his father, and Constantia, who was married to Ferdinand
IV., king of Castille. This son, when grown up, married the infanta
of Castille, and soon after revolting against his own father, put
himself at the head of an army of malecontents. St. Elizabeth had
recourse to weeping, prayer, fasting, and almsdeeds, and exhorted
her son in the strongest terms to return to his duty, conjuring
her husband at the same time to forgive him. Pope John XXII. wrote
to her, commending her religious and prudent conduct; but certain
court flatterers whispering to the king that she was suspected of
favoring her son, he, whom jealousy made credulous, banished her to
the city of Alanquer. The queen received this disgrace with admirable
patience and peace of mind, and made use of the opportunity which
her retirement afforded, to redouble her austerities and devotions.
She never would entertain any correspondence with the malecontents,
nor listen to any suggestions from them. The king himself admired
her goodness, meekness, and humility under her disgrace; and shortly
after called her back to court, and showed her greater love and
respect than ever. In all her troubles she committed herself to the
sweet disposal of divine providence, considering that she was always
under the protection of God, her merciful father.
Being herself of the most sweet and peaceable disposition, she was
always most active and industrious in composing all differences
between neighbors, especially in averting war, with the train of all
the most terrible evils which attend it. She reconciled her husband
and son, when their armies were marching one against the other; and
she reduced all the subjects to duty and obedience. She made peace
between Ferdinand IV., king of Castille, and Alphonsus de la Cerda,
his cousin-german, who disputed the crown: likewise between James
II., king of Arragon, her own brother, and Ferdinand IV., the king
of Castille, her son-in-law. In order to effect this last she took
a journey with her husband into both those kingdoms, and to the
great satisfaction of the Christian world, put a happy period to all
dissensions and debates between those states. After this charitable
work, king Dionysius, having reigned forty-five years, fell sick. St.
Elizabeth gave him most signal testimonies of her love and affection,
scarce ever leaving his chamber during his illness, unless to go to
the church, and taking infinite pains to serve and attend him. But
her main care and solicitude was to secure his eternal happiness, and
to procure that he might depart this life in sentiments of perfect
repentance and piety. For this purpose she gave bountiful alms,
and caused many prayers and masses to be said. During his long and
tedious illness he gave great marks of sincere compunction, and died
at Santaren, on the 6th of January, 1325. As soon as he had expired,
the queen retired into her oratory, commended his soul to God, and
consecrating herself to the divine service, put on the habit of the
third Order of Saint Francis. She attended the funeral procession,
with her husband’s corpse, to Odiveras, where he had chosen his
burying-place in a famous church of Cistercian monks. After a
considerable stay there, she made a pilgrimage to Compostella, and
returning to Odiveras, celebrated there her husband’s anniversary
with great solemnity; after which she retired to a convent of Clares,
which she had begun to rebuild before the death of her husband. She
was desirous to make her religious profession, but was diverted
from that design for some time upon a motive of charity, that she
might continue to support an infinity of poor people by her alms and
protection. She therefore contented herself at first with wearing
the habit of the third Order, living in a house which she built
contiguous to her great nunnery, in which she assembled ninety devout
nuns. She often visited them, and sometimes served them at table,
having for her companion in this practice of charity and humility
her daughter-in-law, Beatrix, the queen then reigning. However, by
authentic historical proofs it is evinced that before her death
she made her religious profession in the aforesaid third Order, as
pope Urban VIII., after mature discussion of those monuments, has
declared.[67]
A war being lighted up between her son Alphonsus IV., surnamed the
brave, king of Portugal, and her grandson, Alphonsus XI., king of
Castille, and armies being set on foot, she was startled at the news,
and resolved to set out to reconcile them, and extinguish the fire
that was kindling. Her servants endeavored to persuade her to defer
her journey, on account of the excessive heats, but she made answer
that she could not better expend her health and her life than by
seeking to prevent the miseries and calamities of a war. The very
news of her journey disposed both parties to peace. She went to
Estremoz, upon the frontiers of Portugal and Castille, where her son
was; but she arrived ill of a violent fever, which she looked upon
as a messenger sent by God to warn her that the time was at hand
wherein he called her to himself. She strongly exhorted her son to
the love of peace and to a holy life; she confessed several times,
received the holy viaticum on her knees at the foot of the altar,
and shortly after extreme unction; from which time she continued in
fervent prayer, often invoking the Blessed Virgin, and repeating
these words: “Mary, mother of grace, mother of mercy, defend us from
the wicked enemy, and receive us at the hour of our death.” She
appeared overflowing with heavenly joy, and with those consolations
of the Holy Ghost which make death so sweet to the saints; and in the
presence of her son, the king, and of her daughter-in-law, she gave
up her happy soul to God on the 4th of July, in the year 1336, of her
age sixty-five. She was buried with royal pomp in the church of her
monastery of poor Clares, at Coïmbra, and honored by miracles. Leo
X. and Paul IV. granted an office on her festival; and in 1612 her
body was taken up and found entire. It is now richly enshrined in
a magnificent chapel, built on purpose. She was canonized by Urban
VIII. in 1625, and the 8th of July appointed for her festival.
* * * * *
The characteristical virtue of St. Elizabeth was a love of peace.
Christ, the prince of peace, declares his spirit to be the spirit of
humility and meekness; consequently the spirit of peace. Variance,
wrath, and strife, are the works of the flesh, of envy, and pride,
which he condemns, and which exclude from the kingdom of heaven.
Bitterness and contention shut out reason, make the soul deaf to the
motives of religion, and open the understanding to nothing but what
is sinful. To find the way of peace we must be meek and patient,
even under the most violent provocations; we must never resent
any wrong, nor return railing for railing, but good for evil; we
must regard passion as the worst of monsters, and must judge it as
unreasonable to hearken to its suggestions as to choose a madman
for our counsellor in matters of concern and difficulty; above all,
we must abhor it not only as a sin, but as leading to a numberless
variety of other grievous sins and spiritual evils. _Blessed are the
peacemakers_, and all who love and cultivate this virtue among men,
_they shall be called the children of God_, whose badge and image
they bear.
ST. PROCOPIUS, M.
He was a native of Jerusalem, but lived at Bethsan, otherwise called
Scythopolis, where he was reader in the church, and also performed
the function of exorcist, and dispossessing demoniacs, and that of
interpreter of the Greek tongue into the Syro-Chaldaic.[68] He was
a divine man, say his acts, and had always lived in the practice of
great austerity and patience, and in perpetual chastity. He took no
other sustenance than bread and water, and usually abstained from
all food for two or three days together. He was well skilled in the
science of the Greeks, but much more in that of the holy scriptures;
the assiduous meditation on which nourished his soul, and seemed also
to give vigor and strength to his emaciated body. He was admirable
in all virtues, particularly in a heavenly meekness and humility.
Dioclesian’s bloody edicts against the Christians reached Palestine
in April, 303, and Procopius was the first person who received the
crown of martyrdom in that country, in the aforesaid persecution.
He was apprehended at Bethsan and led, with several others, bound
to Cæsarea, our city, say the acts, and was hurried straight before
Paulinus, prefect of the province.[69] The judge commanded the martyr
to sacrifice to the gods. The servant of Christ answered he never
could do it; and this he declared with a firmness and resolution
that seemed to wound the heart of the prefect as if it had been
pierced with a dagger. The martyr added, there is no God but one,
who is the author and preserver of the world. The prefect then bade
him sacrifice to the four emperors, namely Dioclesian, Herculius,
Galerius, and Constantius. This the saint again refused to do, and
had scarce returned his answer but the judge passed sentence upon
him, and he was immediately led to execution and beheaded. He is
honored by the Greeks with the title of The Great Martyr. See his
original Chaldaic Acts, published by Steph. Assemani, t. 2, p. 166,
and a less accurate old Latin translation; given by Ruinart, and
by Henry Valois, Not. in Euseb. l. 8. The author of these acts was
Eusebius of Cæsarea, an eye-witness.
SS. KILIAN BISHOP, COLMAN PRIEST, AND TOTNAN DEACON, MM.
Kilian or Kuln was a holy Irish monk, of noble Scottish extraction.
With two zealous companions he travelled to Rome in 686, and obtained
of pope Conon a commission to preach the gospel to the German
idolaters in Franconia; upon which occasion Kilian was invested
with episcopal authority. The missionaries converted and baptized
great numbers at Wurtzburg, and among others Gosbert, the duke of
that name. This prince had taken to wife Geilana, the relict of his
deceased brother; and though he loved her tenderly, being put in mind
by St. Kilian that such a marriage was condemned and void by the law
of the gospel, he promised to dismiss her, saying that we are bound
to love God above father, mother, or wife. Geilana was tormented in
mind beyond measure at this resolution; jealousy and ambition equally
inflamed her breast; and, as the vengeance of a wicked woman has no
bounds, during the absence of the duke in a military expedition, she
sent assassins, who privately murdered the three holy missionaries in
688. The ruffians were themselves pursued by divine vengeance, and
all perished miserably. St. Burchard, who, in the following century,
was placed by St. Boniface in the episcopal see of Wurtzburg,
translated their relics into his cathedral. A portion of those of
St. Kilian, in a rich shrine, was preserved in the treasury of the
elector of Brunswic-Lunenburg in 1713, as appears from the printed
description of that cabinet. See the acts of these martyrs compiled
by Egilward, monk of St. Burchard’s at Wurtzburg, extant imperfect
in the eleventh century, in Surius, t. 4, entire in Canisius, t. 4,
par. 2, p. 628, and t. 3, ed. Basn., p. 174. Also among the Opuscula
of Serrarius, printed at Mentz in 1611, in the collection of the
writers of Wurtzburg published by Ludewig, p. 966, and in Mabillon
and the Bollandists. See also Thesaurus reliquiarum Electoralis
Brunsvico-Luneburgicus. Hanoveræ, 1713, and Solier, t. 2, Julij, p.
600.
ST. WITHBURGE, V.
She was the youngest of the four sisters, all saints, daughters of
Annas the holy king of the East-Angles. In her tender years she
devoted herself to the divine service, and led an austere life in
close solitude for several years at Holkham, an estate of the king
her father, near the sea-coast in Norfolk, where a church, afterward
called Withburgstow, was built. After the death of her father she
changed her dwelling to another estate of the crown called Dereham.
This is at present a considerable market-town in Norfolk, but was
then an obscure retired place. Withburge assembled there many devout
virgins, and laid the foundation of a great church and nunnery, but
did not live to finish the buildings. Her holy death happened on
the 17th of March, 743. Her body was interred in the church-yard of
Dereham, and fifty-five years after, found uncorrupt, and translated
into the church. One hundred and seventy-six years after this, in
974, Brithnoth (the first abbot of Ely, after that house, which had
been destroyed by the Danes, was rebuilt), with the consent of king
Edgar, removed it to Ely, and deposited it near the bodies of her
two sisters. In 1106 the remains of the four saints were translated
into the new church and laid near the high altar. The bodies of SS.
Sexburga and Ermenilda were reduced to dust, except the bones. That
of St. Audry was entire, and that of St. Withburge was not only sound
but also fresh, and the limbs perfectly flexible. Warner, a monk of
Westminster, showed this to all the people, by lifting up and moving
several ways the hands, arms, and feet. Herbert bishop of Thetford,
who in 1094 translated his see to Norwich, and many other persons of
distinction, were eye-witnesses hereof. This is related by Thomas,
monk of Ely, in his history of Ely,[70] which he wrote the year
following, 1107. This author tells us, that in the place where St.
Withburge was first buried, in the church-yard of Dereham, a large
fine spring of most clear water gushes forth.[71] It is to this day
called St. Withburge’s well, was formerly very famous, and is paved,
covered, and inclosed; a stream from it forms another small well
without the church-yard. See her life, and Leland, Collect. vol. iii.
p. 167.
B. THEOBALD, ABBOT.
He was by his virtue the great ornament of the illustrious family
of Montmorency in France. He was born in the castle of Marli. His
father, Bouchard of Montmorency, gave him an education suitable to
his birth, and trained him up to the profession of arms, in which so
many heroes of that family have signalized themselves. But Theobald
manifested from his infancy a strong inclination to a state of
holy retirement, dreading the least shadow of danger which could
threaten his innocence. He spent great part of his time in prayer,
and resorted often to the church of the nunnery called Port-Royal,
which had been founded in 1204 by Matthew of Montmorency, and on
which his father Bouchard had bestowed so many estates that he was
regarded as a second founder. Theobald took the Cistercian habit at
Vaux de Cernay in 1220, and was chosen abbot of that house in 1234.
He lived in the midst of his brethren as the servant of every one,
and surpassed all others in his love of poverty, silence, and holy
prayer. He was highly esteemed by St. Lewis. His happy death happened
in 1247. His shrine in his abbey is visited by a great concourse of
people on the Whitsun-holidays. His solemn festival is there kept on
the 8th, and in some places on the 9th of July, probably the day on
which the first translation of his relics was made. The Bollandists
defer his life to the 8th of December, the day of his death. See Le
Nain, Histoire de Citeaux, t. 9.
SAINT GRIMBALD, NATIVE OF ST. OMER, ABBOT.
He was a monk at St. Bertin’s, and with his abbot entertained king
Alfred in that abbey when that prince was going to Rome. This king,
afterward by the advice of Eldred archbishop of Canterbury, sent
messengers to St. Bertin’s to invite Grimbald over into England,
where he arrived, Hugh being twelfth abbot of that monastery, in
the year 885. Asserius, a monk of Menevia or St. David’s, whom king
Alfred honored with his particular esteem, and who was afterward
bishop of Shireburn, was one of these messengers.
The Oxonian writers tell us that Grimbald was appointed first
professor of divinity at Oxford, when he is said to have founded
that university; and that Asserius, John Erigena, and St. Neot
taught there at the same time. The learned Mr. Hearne says not only
that Grimbald built St. Peter’s church in the East, but also that
the eastern vault of his ancient structure is standing to this day,
of which he gives a plan. Upon the death of Eldred archbishop of
Canterbury, king Alfred pressed Grimbald to accept that dignity; but
was not able to extort his consent, and was obliged to allow him to
retire to the church of Winchester. King Alfred’s son and successor
Edward, in compliance with his father’s will, built the New Minstre
close to the old, in which he placed secular canons, says Tanner,
and appointed St. Grimbald abbot over them; this title being then
given to a superior of secular or regular priests. About sixty years
after, bishop Ethelwolph brought in monks in place of those secular
canons. King Henry I. removed this monastery of New Minstre out of
the walls of the city to the place called Hide, which still continued
sometimes to be called St. Grimbald’s monastery. The body of the
great king Alfred was removed by his son from the Old Minstre, and
that of his queen Alswithe from the nunnery of Nunnaminstre, and
deposited together in the New Minstre, afterward in Hide-Monastery.
Nunnaminstre was founded by king Alfred, or rather by his queen
Alswithe. St. Edburge, a daughter of king Edward, was a nun, and,
according to Leland, abbess there. St. Grimbald in his last sickness,
though extremely feeble, gathered strength when the sacred viaticum
was brought, rose out of bed, and received it prostrate on the
ground. After this he desired to be left alone for three days, which
he spent in close union of his heart with God. On the fourth day the
community was called into his chamber, and amidst their prayers the
saint calmly breathed forth his happy soul on the 8th of July in
the year 903, of his age eighty-three. His body was reposed in this
church, and honored amongst its most precious relics. It was taken up
by St. Elphegus, and exposed in a silver shrine. See his life written
by Goscelin, monk of St. Bertin’s; Capgrave; Leland, Collect. t. 1,
p. 18. John Yperius in Chron. S. Bertini; Molan. in Natal. Sanct.
Belgii; Hearne, Præf. in Lelandi Collect. t. 1, p. 28, t. 2, p. 217,
and Præf. in Thomæ Caii Vindicias Oxon. contra Joan. Caium Cantabrig.
p. 27. Woode Ant. Oxon. t. 1, p. 9.
JULY IX.
ST. EPHREM OF EDESSA, C.
DOCTOR OF THE CHURCH.
From his works in the late Vatican edition; also from St.
Gregory of Nyssa, in his panegyric of St. Ephrem; and
from Palladius, Theodoret, Sozomen, &c. See t. 1, Op. St.
Ephrem, Romæ, An. 1743, or St. Ephrem Syri Opera Omnia
Latine. Venetiis, 1755, 2 tomis.
A. D. 378.
This humble deacon was the most illustrious of all the doctors, who,
by their doctrine and writings, have adorned the Syriac church. He
was born in the territory of Nisibis, a strong city on the banks
of the Tigris, in Mesopotamia. His parents lived in the country,
and earned their bread with the sweat of their brows, but were
ennobled by the blood of martyrs in their family, and had themselves
both confessed Christ before the persecutors under Dioclesian, or
his successors. They consecrated Ephrem to God from his cradle,
like another Samuel, but he was eighteen years old when he was
baptized. Before that time he had committed certain faults which
his enlightened conscience extremely exaggerated to him after his
perfect conversion to God, and he never ceased to bewail, with floods
of tears, his ingratitude towards God, in having ever offended him.
Sozomen[72] says these sins were little sallies of anger, into which
he had sometimes fallen with his playfellows in his childhood. The
saint himself mentions in his confession[73] two crimes (as he styles
them) of this age, which called for his tears during his whole life.
The first was, that in play he had driven a neighbor’s cow among the
mountains, where it happened to be killed by a wild beast; the second
was a doubt which once came into his mind in his childhood, whether
God’s particular providence reached to an immediate superintendency
over all our individual actions. This sin he exceedingly magnifies
in his contrition, though it happened before his baptism, and never
proceeded further than a fluctuating thought from ignorance in
his childhood; and in his Testament he thanks God for having been
always preserved by his mercy since his baptism from any error in
faith. Himself assures us that the divine goodness was pleased in
a wonderful manner to discover to him, after this temptation, the
folly of his error, and the wretched blindness of his soul in having
pretended to fathom the secrets of providence.
Within a month after he had been assaulted by the temptation of the
aforesaid doubt, he happened in travelling through the country to be
benighted, and was forced to take up his quarters with a shepherd who
had lost in the wilderness the flock committed to his charge. The
master of the shepherd suspected him guilty of theft, and pursuing
him, found him and Ephrem together, and cast them both into prison,
upon suspicion that they had stolen his sheep. Ephrem was extremely
afflicted at his misfortune, and in the dungeon found seven other
prisoners, who were all falsely accused or suspected of different
crimes, though really guilty of others. When he had lain seven days
in prison in great anguish of mind, an angel appearing to him in
his sleep told him he was sent to show him the justice and wisdom
of divine providence in governing and directing all human events;
and that this should be manifested to him in the case of those
prisoners who seemed to suffer in his company unjustly. The next day
the judge called the prisoners before him, and put two of them to
the torture, in order to compel them to confess their crimes. While
others were tormented, Ephrem stood by the rack trembling and weeping
for himself, under the apprehension of being every moment put to the
question. The bystanders rallied him for his fears, and said--“Ay,
it is thy turn next; it is to no purpose now to weep: why didst thou
not fear to commit the crime?” However, he was not put on the rack,
but sent back to prison. The other prisoners, though innocent of the
crimes of which they were first arraigned, were all convicted of
other misdemeanors, and each of them received the chastisement due
to his offence. As to Ephrem, the true thief having been discovered,
he was honorably acquitted, after seventy days’ confinement. This
event the saint relates at length in his confession.[74] God was
pleased to give him this sensible proof of the sweetness, justice,
and tender goodness of his holy providence, which we are bound to
adore in resignation and silence; waiting until the curtain shall be
drawn aside, and the whole economy of his loving dispensations to his
elect displayed in its true amiable light, and placed in its full
view before our eyes in the next life. Though, to take a view of the
infinite wisdom, justice, and sanctity which God displayeth in all
the dispensations of his providence, we must take into the prospect
the rewards and punishments of the next world, and all the hidden
springs of this adorable mystery of faith; yet his divine goodness
to excite our confidence in him, was pleased, by this revelation to
his servant, to manifest in this instance his attributes justified in
part, even in this life, of which he hath given us a most illustrious
example with regard to holy Job.
St. Ephrem, from the time of his baptism, which he received soon
after this accident, began to be more deeply penetrated with the
fear of the divine judgment, and he had always present to his mind
the rigorous account he was to give to God of all his actions, the
remembrance of which was to him a source of almost uninterrupted
tears. Hoping more easily to secure his salvation in a state in
which his thoughts would never be diverted from it, soon after he
was baptized he took the monastic habit, and put himself under the
direction of a holy abbot, with whose leave he chose for his abode
a little hermitage in the neighborhood of the monastery. He seemed
to set no bounds to his fervor. He lay on the bare ground, often
fasted whole days without eating, and watched a great part of the
night in prayer. It was a rule observed in all the monasteries of
Mesopotamia and Egypt, that every religious man should perform his
task of manual labor, of which he gave an account to his superior at
the end of every week. The work of these monks was always painful,
that it might be a part of their penance; and it was such as was
compatible with private prayer, and a constant attention of the mind
to God; for they always prayed or meditated at their work; and for
this purpose, the first task which was enjoined a young monk was
to get the psalter by heart. The profits of their labor, above the
little pittance which was necessary for their mean subsistence in
their penitential state, were always given to the poor. St. Ephrem
made sails for ships. Of his poverty he writes thus in his Testament:
“Ephrem hath never possessed purse, staff, or scrip, or any other
temporal estate; my heart hath known no affection for gold or silver,
or any earthly goods.” He was naturally choleric, but so perfectly
did he subdue this passion, that meekness was one of the most
conspicuous virtues in his character, and he was usually styled _The
meek_, or _the peaceable man of God_. He was never known to dispute
or contend with any one; with the most obstinate sinners he used only
tears and entreaties. Once, when he had fasted several days, the
brother who was bringing him a mess of pottage made with a few herbs
for his meal, let fall the pot, and broke it. The saint seeing him
in confusion, said cheerfully,--“As our supper will not come to us,
let us go to it.” And sitting down on the ground by the broken pot,
he picked up his meal as well as he could. Humility made the saint
rejoice in the contempt of himself, and sincerely desire that all men
had such a knowledge and opinion of his baseness and nothingness as
to despise him from their hearts, and to look upon him most unworthy
to hold any rank among creatures. This sincere spirit of profound
humility all his words, actions, and writings breathed in a most
affecting manner.
Honors and commendations served to increase the saint’s humility.
Hearing himself one day praised, he was not able to speak, and
his whole body was covered with a violent sweat, caused by the
inward agony and confusion of his soul at the consideration of the
last day; for he was seized with extreme fear and dread, thinking
that he should be then overwhelmed with shame, when his baseness
and hypocrisy should be proclaimed and made manifest before all
creatures, especially those very persons who here commended him, and
whom he had deceived by his hypocrisy. We may hence easily judge how
much the thought of any elevation or honor affrighted him. When a
certain city sought to choose him bishop, he counterfeited himself
mad.
Compunction of heart is the sister of sincere humility and penance,
and nothing seemed more admirable in our saint than this virtue.
Tears seemed always ready to be called forth in torrents as often
as he raised his heart to God, or remembered the sweetness of his
divine love, the rigor of his judgments, or the spiritual miseries
of our souls. “We cannot call to mind his perpetual tears,” says
St. Gregory of Nyssa, “without melting into tears. To weep seemed
almost as natural to him as it is for other men to breathe. Night
and day his eyes seemed always swimming in tears. No one could meet
him at any time, who did not see them trickling down his cheeks.” He
appeared always drowned in an abyss of compunction. This was always
painted in most striking features on his countenance, the sight of
which was, even in his silence, a moving instruction to all that
beheld him. This spirit of compunction gave a singular energy to all
his words and writings; it never forsakes him, even in panegyrics
or in treating of subjects of spiritual joy. Where he speaks of the
felicity of paradise or the sweetness of divine love in transports
of overflowing hope and joy, he never lost sight of the motives
of compunction, and always returns to his tears. By the continual
remembrance of the last judgment he nourished in his soul this
constant profound spirit of compunction.
St. Gregory of Nyssa writes, that no one can read his discourses on
the last judgment without dissolving into tears, so awful is the
representation, and so strong and lively the image which he paints
of that dreadful day. Almost every object he saw called it afresh
to his mind. The spotless purity of our saint was the fruit of his
sincere humility, and constant watchfulness over himself. He says
that the great St. Antony, out of modesty, would never wash his feet,
or suffer any part of his body, except his face and hands, to be seen
naked by any one.
St. Ephrem spent many years in the desert, collected within himself,
having his mind raised above all earthly things, and living as it
were out of the flesh, and out of the world, to use the expression
of St. Gregory Nazianzen. His zeal drew several severe persecutions
upon him from certain tepid monks, but he found a great support in
the example and advice of St. Julian, whose life he has written. He
lost this comfort by the death of that great servant of God; and
about the same time died in 338 (not 350, as Tillemont mistakes), St.
James, bishop of Nisibis, his spiritual director and patron. Not long
after this, God inspired St. Ephrem to leave his own country, and go
to Edessa, there to venerate the relics of the saints, by which are
probably meant chiefly those of the apostle St. Thomas. He likewise
desired to enjoy the conversation of certain holy anchorets who
inhabited the mountains near that city, which was sometimes reckoned
in Mesopotamia and sometimes in Syria. Under the weak reigns of the
last of the Seleucidæ, kings of Asia, it was erected into a small
kingdom by the princes called Abgars. As the saint was going into
Edessa, a certain courtezan fixed her eyes upon him, which when he
perceived he turned away his face, and said with indignation: “Why
dost thou gaze upon me?” To which she made this smart reply. “Woman
was formed from man; but you ought always to keep your eyes cast down
on the earth, out of which man was framed.” St. Ephrem, whose heart
was always filled with the most profound sentiments of humility,
was much struck and pleased with this reflection, and admired the
providence of God, which sends us admonitions by all sorts of means.
He wrote a book on those words of the courtezan, which the Syrians
anciently esteemed the most useful and the best of all the writings
of this incomparable doctor, but it is now lost. It seems to have
contained maxims of humility.
St. Ephrem lived at Edessa, highly honored by all ranks and orders
of men. Being ordained deacon of that church, he became an apostle
of penance, which he preached with incredible zeal and fruit. He
from time to time returned into his desert, there to renew in his
heart the spirit of compunction and prayer; but always came out of
his wilderness, inflamed with the ardor of a Baptist, to announce
the divine truths to a world buried in spiritual darkness and
insensibility. The saint was educated with great natural talents,
which he had improved by study and contemplation. He was a poet, and
had read something of logic; but had no tincture of the rest of the
Grecian philosophy. This want of the heathenish learning and profane
science was supplied by his good sense and uncommon penetration,
and the diligence with which he cultivated his faculties by more
sublime sacred studies. He learned very accurately the doctrine of
the Catholic faith, was well versed in the holy scriptures, and was
a perfect master of the Syriac tongue, in which he wrote with great
elegance and propriety. He was possessed of an extraordinary faculty
of natural eloquence. Words flowed from him like a torrent, which
yet were too slow for the impetuosity and multitude of thoughts with
which he was overwhelmed in speaking on spiritual subjects. His
conceptions were always clear, his diction pure and agreeable. He
spoke with admirable perspicuity, copiousness, and sententiousness,
in an easy unaffected style; and with so much sweetness, so pathetic
a vehemence, so natural an accent, and so strong emotions of his
own heart, that his words seemed to carry with them an irresistible
power. His writings derive great strength from the genius and natural
bold tropes of the Oriental languages applied by so great a master,
and have a graceful beauty and force which no translation can attain;
though his works are only impetuous effusions of an overflowing
heart, not studied compositions. What recommends them beyond all
other advantages of eloquence, is, they are all the language of
the heart, and a heart penetrated with the most perfect sentiments
of divine love, confidence, compunction, humility, and all other
virtues. They present his ardent, humble, and meek soul such as it
was, and show how ardently he was occupied only on the great truths
of salvation; how much he humbled himself without intermission, under
the almighty hand of God, infinite in sanctity and terrible in his
justice; with what profound awe he trembled in the constant attention
to his adorable presence, and at the remembrance of his dreadful
judgment, and with what fervor he both preached and practised the
most austere penance, laboring continually with all his strength
“to prepare himself a treasure for the last hour,” as he expresses
himself. His words strongly imprint upon the souls of others those
sentiments with which he was penetrated: they carry light and
conviction; they never fail to strike, and pierce to the very bottom
of the soul. Nor is the fire which they kindle in the breast a
passing warmth, but a flame which devours and destroys all earthly
affections, transforms the soul into itself, and continues without
abating, the lasting force of its activity.[75] “Who that is proud,”
says St. Gregory of Nyssa, “would not become the humblest of men by
reading his discourse on humility? Who would not be inflamed with a
divine fire by reading his treatise on charity? Who would not wish to
be chaste in heart and spirit, by reading the praises he has given to
virginity?”
The saint, though most austere to himself, was discreet in the
direction of others, and often repeated this advice, that it is
a dangerous stratagem of the enemy to induce fervent converts to
embrace in the beginning excessive mortifications.[76] Wherefore
it behooves them not to undertake without prudent counsel any
extraordinary practices of penance; but always such in which they
will be able to persevere with constancy and cheerfulness. Who ever
laid on a child a burden of a hundred pounds weight, under which he
is sure to fall?
St. Ephrem brought many idolaters to the faith, and converted great
numbers of Arians, Sabellians, and other heretics. Saint Jerom
commends a book which he wrote against the Macedonians, to prove
the divinity of the Holy Ghost. He established the perfect efficacy
of penance against the Novatians, who, though the boldest and most
insolent of men, seemed like children without strength before this
experienced champion, as St. Gregory of Nyssa assures us. Not less
glorious were his triumphs over the Millenarians, Marcionites,
Manichees, and the disciples of the impious Bardesanes, who denied
the resurrection of the flesh, and had in the foregoing century
spread his errors at Edessa, by songs which the people learned
to sing. St. Ephrem, to minister a proper antidote against this
poison, composed elegant Catholic songs and poems which he taught
the inhabitants both of the city and country with great spiritual
advantage. Apollinaris began openly to broach his heresy a little
before the year 376, denying in Christ a human soul, which he
pretended that the divine person supplied in the humanity: whence
it would have followed that he was not truly man, but only assumed
a human body, not the complete human nature. St. Ephrem was then
very old, but he opposed this new monster with great vigor. Several
heresies he crushed in their birth, and he suffered much from the
fury of the Arians under Constantius, and of the Heathens under
Julian, but in both these persecutions reaped glorious laurels and
trophies.
It was by a divine admonition, as himself assures us,[77] that about
the year 372, he undertook a long journey to pay a visit to Basil.
Being arrived at Cæsarea he went to the great church, where he found
the holy bishop preaching. After the sermon, St. Basil sent for him,
and asked him by an interpreter, if he was not Ephrem the servant of
Christ.[78] “I am that Ephrem,” said he, “who have wandered astray
from the path of heaven.” Then melting into tears, and raising his
voice, he cried out,--“O my father, have pity on a sinful wretch,
and lead me into the narrow path.” St. Basil gave him many rules of
holy life, and after long spiritual conferences dismissed him with
great esteem, having first ordained his companion priest. St. Ephrem
himself never would consent to be promoted to the sacerdotal dignity,
of which he expresses the greatest dread and apprehension, in his
sermon on the priesthood.[79] Being returned to Edessa he retired
to a little solitary cell, where he prepared himself for his last
passage, and composed the latter part of his works. For, not content
to labor for the advantage of one age, or one people, he studied
to promote that of all mankind, and all times to come. The public
distress under a great famine called him again out of his retirement
in order to serve, and procure relief for the poor. He engaged the
rich freely to open their coffers, placed beds for the sick in all
the public porticos, visited them every day, and served them with
his own hands. The public calamity being over, he hastened back to
his solitude, where he shortly after sickened of a fever. He wrote
about that time his seventy-six Paræneses or moving exhortations to
penance, consisting in a great measure of most effective prayers;
several of which are used by the Syrians in their Church office. His
confidence in the precious fruits of the holy sacrament of the altar
raised his hope, and inflamed his love, especially in his passage
to eternity. Thus he expresses himself:[80] “Entering upon so long
and dangerous a journey I have my viaticum, even Thee, O Son of God.
In my extreme spiritual hunger, I will feed on thee, the repairer
of mankind. So it shall be that no fire will dare to approach me;
for it will not be able to bear the sweet saving odor of thy body
and blood.” The circumstances of our saint’s death are edifying and
deserve our notice. For nothing more strongly affects our heart, or
makes on it a more sensible impression, than the behavior and words
of great men in their last moments.
St. Ephrem was always filled with grief, indignation, and confusion
when he perceived others to treat him as a saint, or to express any
regard or esteem for him. In his last sickness he laid this strict
injunction on his disciples and friends:[81] “Sing no funeral hymns
at Ephrem’s burial: suffer no encomiastic oration. Wrap not my
carcase in any costly shroud: erect no monument to my memory. Allow
me only the portion and place of a pilgrim; for I am a pilgrim and
a stranger as all my fathers were on earth.” Seeing that several
persons had prepared rich shrouds for his interment, he was much
afflicted, and he charged all those who had such a design to drop it,
and give the money to the poor, which he in particular obliged a rich
nobleman, who had bought a most sumptuous shroud for that purpose,
to do. St. Ephrem, as long as he was able to speak, continued to
exhort all men to the fervent pursuit of virtue, as his last words
sufficiently show, says St. Gregory of Nyssa, meaning the saint’s
Testament, which is still extant genuine, and the same that was
quoted by St. Gregory, Sozomen, &c. In it he says: “I Ephrem die. Be
it known to you all that I write this Testament to conjure you always
to remember me in your prayers after my decease.”[82] This he often
repeats. He protests that he had always lived in the true faith, to
which he exhorts all most firmly to adhere. Deplor
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