ST. GILDAS THE ALBANIAN, OR THE SCOT, C.[1]

HIS father, who was called Caunus, and was king of certain southern provinces in North Britain, was slain in war by king Arthur. St. Gildas improved temporal afflictions into the greatest spiritual advantages, and, despising a false and treacherous world, aspired with his whole heart to a heavenly kingdom. Having engaged himself in a monastic state, he retired with St. Cado, abbot of Llan-carvan, into certain desert islands, whence they were driven by pirates from the Orcades. Two islands, called Ronech and Ecni, afforded him for some time a happy retreat, which he forsook to preach to sinners the obligation of doing penance, and to invite all men to the happy state of divine love. After discharging this apostolical function for several years, he retired to the southwest part of Britain into the abbey of Glastenbury, where he died and was buried in 512. William of Malmesbury[2] and John Fordun[3] mention his prophecies and miracles. See F. Alford, an. 512. Dom Lobineau, Saints de Bret. p. 72. Dom Morice, Hist. de Bret. t. 1, in the notes.

Footnotes: 1. Mr. Gale has cleared up the dispute about the two Gildases, and demonstrates this to have been a distinct person from the former, which is also proved by Dom Lobineau and Dom Morice. 2. Gul. Malmesb. de Antiq. Glast. 3. Scoti-chron. c. 22.

On this day is commemorated in the Roman Martyrology, ST. SABINIANUS of TROYES in CHAMPAGNE, a martyr of the third century. His festival is kept at Troyes on the 24th. See Bollan. 29th Jan. p. 937. Tillem. Hist. des Emp, t. 3, p. 541.

Also, ST. SULPICIUS, surnamed SEVERUS, Bishop of Bourges in 591. See Greg. Tour. Hist. Franc. l. 6, c. 39. Gall. Christ. and Ben. XIV. Pref. in Mart. Rom.

JANUARY XXX.

ST. BATHILDES, QUEEN OF FRANCE.

From her life written by a contemporary author, and a second life, which is the same with the former, except certain additions of a later date, in Bollandus and Mabillon, sec. 4, Ben. p. 447, and Act. Sanct. Ben. t. 2. See also Dubois, Hist. Eccl. Paris, p. 198, and Chatelain. Notes on the Martyr. 30 Jan. p. 462. See Historia St. Bathildis et Fundationem ejus, among the MS. lives of saints in the abbey of Jumieges, t. 2. Also her MS. life at Bec, &c.

A.D. 680.

ST. BATHILDES, or BALDECHILDE, in French Bauteur, was an English-woman, who was carried over very young into France, and there sold for a slave, at a very low price, to Erkenwald, otherwise called Erchinoald, and, Archimbald, mayor of the palace under King Clovis II. When she grew up he was so much taken with her prudence and virtue, that he committed to her the care of his household. She was no ways puffed up, but seemed {311} the more modest, more submissive to her fellow-slaves, and always ready to serve the meanest of them in the lowest offices. King Clovis II. in 649 took her for his royal consort, with the applause of his princes and whole kingdom: such was the renown of her extraordinary endowments. This unexpected elevation, which would have turned the strongest head of a person addicted to pride, produced no alteration in a heart perfectly grounded to humility and other virtues. She seemed even to become more humble than before, and more tender of the poor. Her present station furnished her with the means of being truly their mother, which she was before in the inclination and disposition of her heart. All other virtues appeared more conspicuous in her, but above the rest an ardent zeal for religion. The king gave her the sanction of his royal authority for the protection of the church, the care of the poor, and the furtherance of all religions undertakings. She bore him three sons, who all successively wore the crown, Clotaire III., Childeric II., and Thierry I. He dying in 655, when the eldest was only five years old, left her regent of the kingdom. She seconded the zeal of St. Owen, St. Eligius, and other holy bishops, and with great pains banished simony out of France, forbade Christians to be made slaves,[1] did all in her power to promote piety, and filled France with hospitals and pious foundations. She restored the monasteries of St. Martin, St. Denys, St. Medard, &c., founded the great abbey of Corbie for a seminary of virtue and sacred learning, and the truly royal nunnery of Chelles,[2] on the Marne, which had been begun by St. Clotildis. As soon as her son Clotaire was of an age to govern, she with great joy shut herself up in this monastery of Chelles, in 665, a happiness which she had long earnestly desired, though it was with great difficulty that she obtained the consent of the princes. She had no sooner taken the veil but she seemed to have forgotten entirely her former dignity, and was only to be distinguished from the rest by her extreme humility, serving them in the lowest offices, and obeying the holy abbess St. Bertilla as the last among the sisters. She prolonged her devotions every day with many tears, and made it her greatest delight {312} to visit and attend the sick, whom she comforted and served with wonderful charity. St. Owen, in his life of St. Eligius, mentions many instances of the great veneration which St. Bathildes bore that holy prelate, and relates that St. Eligius, after his death, in a vision by night, ordered a certain courtier to reprove the queen for wearing jewels and costly apparel in her widowhood, which she did not out of pride, but because she thought it due to her state while she was regent of the kingdom. Upon this admonition, she laid them aside, distributed a great part to the poor, and with the richest of her jewels made a most beautiful and sumptuous cross, which she placed at the head of the tomb of St. Eligius. She was afflicted with long and severe colics and other pains, which she suffered with an admirable resignation and joy. In her agony she recommended to her sisters charity, care of the poor, fervor, and perseverance, and gave up her soul in devout prayer, on the 30th of January, in 680, on which day she is honored in France, but is named on the 26th in the Roman Martyrology.

* * * * *

A Christian, who seriously considers that he is to live here but a moment, and will live eternally in the world to come, must confess that it is a part of wisdom to refer all his actions and views to prepare himself for that everlasting dwelling, which is his true country. Our only and necessary affair is to live for God, to do his will, and to sanctify and save our souls. If we are employed in a multiplicity of exterior business, we must imitate St. Bathildes, when she bore the whole weight of the state. In all we do God and his holy will must be always before our eyes, and to please him must be our only aim and desire. Shunning the anxiety of Martha, and reducing all our desires to this one of doing what God requires of us, we must with her call in Mary to our assistance. In the midst of action, while our hands are at work, our mind and heart ought to be interiorly employed on God, at least virtually, that all our employments may be animated with the spirit of piety: and hours of repose must always be contrived to pass at the feet of Jesus, where in the silence of all creatures we may listen to his sweet voice, refresh in him our wearied souls, and renew our fervor. While we converse with the world, we must tremble at the sight of its snares, and be upon our guard that we never be seduced so far as to be in love with it, or to learn its spirit. To love the world, is to follow its passions; to be proud, covetous, and sensual, as the world is. The height of its miseries and dangers, is that blindness by which none who are infected with its spirit, see their misfortune, or are sensible of their disease. Happy are they who can imitate this holy queen in entirely separating themselves from it!

Footnotes: 1. The Franks, when they established themselves in Gaul, allowed the Roman Gauls to live according to their own laws and customs, and tolerated their use of slaves, but gradually mitigated their servitude. Queen Bathildes alleviated the heaviest conditions, gave great numbers their liberty, and declared all capable of property. The Franks still retained slaves with this condition, attached to certain manors or farms, and bound to certain particular kinds of servitude. The kings of the second race often set great numbers free, and were imitated by other lords. Queen Blanche and Saint Lewis contributed more than any others to ease the condition of vassals, and Louis Hutin abolished slavery in France, declaring all men free who live in that kingdom according to the spirit of Christianity, which teaches us to treat all men as our brethren. See the life of St. Bathildes, and Gratigny, [OE]vres posthumes, an. 1757. Disc. sur la Servitude et son Abolition en France. 2. In the village of Chelles, in Latin Cala, four leagues from Paris, the kings of the first race had a palace. St. Clotildis founded near it a small church under the invocation of St. George, with a small number of cells adjoining for nuns. St. Bathildes so much enlarged this monastery as to be looked upon as the principal foundress. The old church of St. George falling to decay, Saint Bathildes built there the magnificent church of the Holy Cross, in which she was buried. Gisela, sister to the emperor Charlemagne, abbess of this house, rebuilt the great church, which some pretend to be the same that is now standing. At present here are three churches together; the first, which is small, the oldest, and only a choir, is called the church of the Holy Cross, and is used by six monks who assist the nuns; the lowest church is called St. George's, and is a parochial church for the seculars who live within the jurisdiction of the monastery: the great church which serves the nuns is dedicated under the invocation of the Blessed Virgin, and is said to be the same that was built by the abbess Gisela, and much enlarged and enriched by Hegilvich, abbess of this monastery, mother to the empress Judith, whose husband, Louis le Debonnaire, caused the remains of our saint to be translated into this new church, in 833, and from this treasure it is more frequently called the church of St. Bathlides, than our Lady's. Two rich silver shrines are placed over the iron rails of the chancel, in one of which rest the sacred remains of St. Bathildes, in the other those of St. Bertilla, first abbess of Chelles: these rails, which are of admirable workmanship, were the present of an illustrious princess of the house of Bourbon, Mary Adelaide of Orleans, abbess of this house in 1725, who not thinking her sacrifice complete by having renounced the world, after some years abdicated her abbacy, and died in the condition of humble obedience, and of a private religious woman, near the shrines of SS. Bathildes and Bertilla, and those of St. Genesius of Lyons, St. Eligius and Radegondes of Chelles, called also little St. Bathildes. The last-mentioned princess was god-daughter to our saint, and died in her childhood, in this monastery, two or three days before her. See Piganiol's Descr. de Paris, t. 1 and S. Chatelain's notes in martyr. p. 464, and especially Le Boeuf, Hist. du Diocese de Paris, t. 6, p. 32. This author gives (p. 43) the full relation of a miracle approved by John Francis Gondy, archbishop of Paris, mentioned in a few words by Mabillon and Baillet. Six nuns were cured of inveterate distempers, attended with frequent fits of convulsions, by touching the relics of Saint Bathildes, when her shrine was opened on the 13th of July, in 1631.

ST. MARTINA, V.M.

SHE was a noble Roman virgin, who glorified God, suffering many torments and a cruel death for his faith, in the capital city of the world, in the third century. There stood a chapel consecrated to her memory in Rome, which was frequented with great devotion in the time of St. Gregory the Great. Her relics were discovered in a vault, in the ruins of her old church, and translated with great pomp in the year 1634, under the pope Urban VIII., who built a new church in her honor, and composed himself the hymns used in her office in the Roman Breviary. The city of Rome ranks her among its particular patrons. She is mentioned in the Martyrologies of Ado, Usuard, &c. The history of the discovery of her relics was published by Honoratus of Viterbo, an Oratorian. See Bollandus.

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ST. ALDEGONDES, V. ABBESS.

SHE was daughter of Walbert, of the royal blood of France, and born in Hainault about the year 630. She consecrated herself to God by a vow of virginity, when very young, and resisted all solicitations to marriage, serving God in the house of her holy parents, till, in 638, she took the religious veil, and founded and governed a great house of holy virgins at Maubeuge.[1] She was favored with an eminent gift of prayer, and many revelations; but was often tried by violent slanders and persecutions, which she looked upon as the highest favors of the divine mercy, begging of God that she might be found worthy to suffer still more for his sake. His divine providence sent her a lingering and most painful cancer in her breast. The saint bore the torture of her distemper, also the caustics and incisions of the surgeons, not only with patience, but even with joy, and expired in raptures of sweet love, on the 30th of January, in 660, according to Bollandus. Her relics are enshrined in the great church of Maubeuge, where her monastery is now a college of noble virgins canonesses. Her name occurs on this day in the ancient breviary of Autun, and in the martyrologies of Rabanus, Usuard, and Notker: also in the Roman. At St. Omer, where a parish church bears her name, she is called Saint Orgonne. See her life written some time after her death: a second a century later, and a third by Hucbald, a learned monk of St. Armand's, in 900, with the remarks of Mabillon, (Act. Bened. t. 2, p. 937,) and the Bollandists. Consult also Miraeus's Fasti Belgici, and La Vie de St. Aldegonde, par P. Binet, Jesuite, in 12mo. Paris, 1625.

Footnotes: 1. The act of this foundation, published by Miraeus, is spurious, as mention is made therein of persons who were not living at that time: neither could it have been made in the twentieth year of Dagobert, as it contains facts which cannot be reconciled with the history of that prince. See the note of Bollandus, t. 2, p. 1039, and Chatelain, p 461.

ST. BARSIMAEUS, B.M.

CALLED BY THE SYRIANS BARSAUMAS.

HE was the third bishop of Edessa from St. Thaddaeus, one of the seventy-two disciples. St. Barsaumas was crowned with martyrdom, being condemned to die for his zeal in converting great multitudes to the faith, by the president Lysias, in the reign of Trajan, when that prince, having passed the Euphrates, made the conquest of Mesopotamia in 114. St. Barsimaeus is mentioned on the 30th of January in the Roman Martyrology, and in the Greek Maenology.

{314}

JANUARY XXXI.

SAINT PETER NOLASCO, C.

FOUNDER OF THE ORDER OF OUR LADY FOR THE REDEMPTION OF CAPTIVES.

From Chronica Sacri et Militaris Ordinis B.M. de Mercede, per Bern. de Vargas, ej. Ord. 2 vol. in fol. Panormi, 1622, and by John de Latomis in 12mo. in 1621, and especially the Spanish history of the same by Alonso Roman, 2 vol. fol. at Madrid, in 1618, and the life of the saint compiled in Italian by F. Francis Olihano, in 4to. 1668. See also Baillet, and Hist. des Ordres Relig. par Helyot, and Hist de l'Ordre de Notre Dame de la Merci, par les RR. Peres de la Merci, de la Congregation de Paris, fol. printed at Amiens, in 1685.

A.D. 1258.

PETER, of the noble family of Nolasco, in Languedoc, was born in the diocese of St. Papoul, about the year 1189. His parents were very rich, but far more illustrious for their virtue. Peter, while an infant, cried at the sight of a poor man, till something was given him to bestow on the object of his compassion. In his childhood he gave to the poor whatever he received for his own use. He was exceeding comely and beautiful; but innocence and virtue were his greatest ornaments. It was his pious custom to give a very large alms to the first poor man he met every morning, without being asked. He rose at midnight, and assisted at matins in the church, as then the more devout part of the laity used to do, together with all the clergy. At the age of fifteen he lost his father, who left him heir to a great estate: and he remained at home under the government of his pious mother, who brought him up in extraordinary sentiments and practices of virtue. Being solicited to marry, he betook himself to the serious consideration of the vanity of all earthly things; and rising one night full of those thoughts, prostrated himself in fervent prayer, which he continued till morning, most ardently devoting himself to God in the state of celibacy, and dedicating his whole patrimony to the promoting of his divine honor. He followed Simon of Montfort, general of the holy war against the Albigenses, an heretical sect, which had filled Languedoc with great cruelties, and over spread it with universal desolation. That count vanquished them, and in the battle of Muret defeated and killed Peter, king of Aragon, and took his son James prisoner, a child of six years old. The conqueror having the most tender regard and compassion for the prince his prisoner, appointed Peter Nolasco, then twenty-five years old, his tutor, and sent them both together into Spain. Peter, in the midst of the court of the king at Barcelona,[1] where the kings of Aragon resided, led the life of a recluse, practising the austerities of a cloister. He gave no part of his time to amusements, but spent all the moments which the instruction of his pupil left free, in holy prayer, meditation, and pious reading. The Moors at that time were possessed of a considerable part of Spain, and great numbers of Christians groaned under their tyranny in a miserable slavery both there and in Africa. Compassion for the poor had always been the distinguishing virtue of Peter. The sight of so many moving objects in captivity, and the consideration of the spiritual dangers to which their faith and virtue stood exposed under their Mahometan masters, touched his heart to the quick, and he soon spent his whole estate in redeeming as many as he could. Whenever he saw {315} any poor Christian slaves, he used to say: "Behold eternal treasures which never fail." By his discourses he moved others to contribute large alms towards this charity, and at last formed a project for instituting a religious order for a constant supply of men and means whereby to carry on so charitable an undertaking. This design met with great obstacles in the execution, but the Blessed Virgin, the true mother of mercy, appearing to St. Peter, the king, and St. Raymund of Pennafort, in distinct visions the same night, encouraged them to prosecute the holy scheme under the assurance of her patronage and protection. St. Raymund was the spiritual director both of St. Peter and of the king, and a zealous promoter of this charitable work. The king declared himself the protector of the Order, and assigned them a large quarter of his own palace for their abode. All things being settled for laying the foundation of it, on the feast of St. Laurence, in the year 1223, the king and St. Raymund conducted St. Peter to the church and presented him to Berengarius, the bishop of Barcelona, who received his three solemn religious vows, to which the saint added a fourth, to devote his whole substance and his very liberty, if necessary, to the ransoming of slaves; the like vow he required of all his followers. St. Raymund made an edifying discourse on the occasion, and declared from the pulpit, in the presence of this august assembly, that it had pleased Almighty God to reveal to the king, to Peter Nolasco, and to himself, his will for the institution of an Order for the redemption of the faithful, detained in bondage among the infidels. This was received by the people with the greatest acclamations of joy, happy presages of the future success of the holy institute.[2] After this discourse, St. Peter received the new habit (as Mariana and pope Clement VIII. in his bull say) from St. Raymund, who established him first general of this new Order, and drew up for it certain rules and constitutions. Two other gentlemen were professed at the same time with St. Peter. When St. Raymund went to Rome, he obtained from pope Gregory IX., in the year 1225, the confirmation of this Order, and of the rule and constitutions he had drawn up. He wrote an account of this from Rome to St. Peter, informing him how well pleased his Holiness was with the wisdom and piety of the institute. The religious chose a white habit, to put them continually in mind of innocence: they wear a scapular, which is likewise white: but the king would oblige them, for his sake, to bear the royal arms of Aragon, which are interwoven on their habit upon the breast. Their numbers increasing very fast, the saint petitioned the king for another house; who, on this occasion, built for them, in 1232, a magnificent convent at Barcelona.[3]

King James having conquered the kingdom of Valencia, founded in it several rich convents; one was in the city of Valencia, which was taken by the aid of the prayers of St. Peter, when the soldiers had despaired of {316} success, tired out by the obstinacy of the besieged and strength of the place. In thanksgiving for this victory, the king built the rich monastery in the royal palace of Uneza, near the same city, on a spot where an image of our Lady was dug up, which is still preserved in the church of this convent end is famous for pilgrimages. It is called the monastery of our Lady of mercy del Puche.[4] That prince attributed to the prayers of Saint Peter thirty great victories which he obtained over the infidels, and the entire conquest of the two kingdoms of Valencia and Murcia. St. Peter, after his religious profession, renounced all his business at court, and no entreaties of the king could ever after prevail with him to appear there but once, and this was upon a motive of charity to reconcile two powerful noblemen, who by their dissension had divided the whole kingdom, and kindled a civil war. The saint ordained that two members of the Order should be sent together among the infidels, to treat about the ransom of Christian slaves, and they are hence called Ransomers. One of the two first employed in this pious work was our saint; and the kingdom of Valencia was the first place that was blessed with his labors; the second was that of Granada. He not only comforted and ransomed a great number of captives, but by his charity and other rare virtues, was the happy instrument of inducing many of the Mahometans to embrace the faith of Christ. He made several other journeys to the coasts of Spain, besides a voyage to Algiers, where, among other sufferings, he underwent imprisonment for the faith. But the most terrifying dangers could never make him desist from his pious endeavors for the conversion of the infidels, burning with a holy desire of martyrdom. He begged earnestly of his Order to be released from the burden of his generalship: but by his tears could only obtain the grant of a vicar to assist him in the discharge of it. He employed himself in the meanest offices of his convent, and coveted above all things to have the distribution of the daily alms at the gate of the monastery: he at the same time instructed the poor in the knowledge of God and in virtue. St. Louis IX. of France wrote frequently to him, and desired much to see him. The saint waited on him in Languedoc, in the year 1243, and the king, who tenderly embraced him, requested him to accompany him in his expedition to recover the Holy Land. St. Peter earnestly desired it, but was hindered by sickness, with which he was continually afflicted during the last years of his life, the effect of his fatigues and austerities, and he bore it with incomparable patience. In 1249, he resigned the offices of Ransomer and General, which was six or seven years before his death. This happened on Christmas-day, in 1256. In his agony, he tenderly exhorted his religious to perseverance, and concluded with those words of the psalmist: Our Lord hath sent redemption to his people; he hath commanded his covenant forever.[5] He then recommended his soul to God by that charity with which Christ came from heaven to redeem us from the captivity of the devil, and melting into tears of compunction and divine love, he expired, being in the sixty-seventh year of his age. His relics are honored by many miracles. He was canonized by pope Urban VIII. His festival was appointed by Clement VIII. to be kept on the 31st of January.

* * * * *

Charity towards all mankind was a distinguishing feature in the character of the saints. This benevolent virtue so entirely possessed their hearts, that they were constantly disposed to sacrifice even their lives to the relief and assistance of others. Zealously employed in removing their temporal necessities, they labored with redoubled vigor to succor their spiritual wants, {317} by rooting out from their souls the dominion of sin, and substituting in its room the kingdom of God's grace. Ingratitude and ill-treatment, which was the return they frequently met with for their charitable endeavors, were not able to allay their ardent zeal: they considered men on these occasions as patients under the pressure of diseases, more properly the object of compassion than of resentment. They recommended them to God in their private devotions, and earnestly besought his mercy in their favor. This conduct of the saints, extraordinary as it is, ceases to appear surprising when we recollect the powerful arguments our Blessed Saviour made use of to excite us to the love of our neighbor. But how shall we justify our unfeeling hard-heartedness, that seeks every trifling pretence to exempt us from the duty of succoring the unfortunate? Have we forgot that Jesus Christ our Redeemer, who alone hath bestowed on us whatever we possess, hath made charity towards our fellow-creature, but especially towards the needy, an indispensable precept? Do we not know that he bids us consider the suffering poor as members of the same head, heirs of the same promises, as our brethren and his children who represent him on earth? He declares, that whatever we bestow upon them he will esteem it as given to himself; and pledges his sacred word that he will reward our alms with an eternity of bliss. Such motives, says St. Chrysostom, would be sufficient to touch a heart of stone: but there is something still more cogent, continues the same holy father, which is, that the same Jesus Christ, whom we refuse to nourish in the persons of the poor, feeds our souls with his precious body and blood. If such considerations move not our hearts to commiserate and assist the indigent, what share of mercy and relief can we hope for in the hour of need? Oh, incomprehensible blindness! we perhaps prepare for ourselves an eternal abyss, by those very means which, properly applied, would secure as the conquest of a kingdom which will never have an end.[6]

Footnotes: 1. A century before, the counts of Barcelona were become kings of Aragon by a female title, and had joined Catalonia to Aragon, making Barcelona their chief residence and capital. 2. F. Tonron, in the life of St. Raymund, p. 20, quotes an original letter of St. Raymund, which mentions this revelation. The authenticity of this letter cannot be called in question, being proved by F. Bremond, Bullar. Ord. Praed. t. 1, not. in Constit. 36, Greg. X. The same revelation is inserted in the bull of the saint's canonization, in the Histories of Zumel, Vargas, Penia, &c. Benedict XIV. also mentions it, Canoniz. SS. l. 1, c. 41, and proves that it cannot reasonably be contested. 3. This Order consisted at first of some knights, who were dressed like seculars, wearing only a scarf or scapular; and of friars who were in holy orders, and attended the choir. The knights were to guard the coast against the Saracens, but were obliged to choir when not on duty. St. Peter himself was never ordained priest; and the first seven generals or commanders were chosen out of the knights, though the friars were always more numerous. Raymond Albert, in 1317. was the first priest who was raised to that dignity; and the popes Clement V., and John XXII., ordered that the general should be always a priest after which, the knight were incorporated into other military Orders, or were rarely renewed. It is styled, "The royal military religious Order of our Lady of Mercy for the redemption of Captives." It is divided into commanderies, which in Spain are very rich. It has eight provinces in America, three in Spain, and one, the poorest, in the southern part of France, called the province of Guienne. Whereas this Order is not bound to many extraordinary domestic austerities, a reformation, obliging the members to go barefoot, was established among them in the sixteenth century, and approved by pope Clement VIII. It observes the strictest poverty, recollection, solitude, and abstinence, and has two provinces in Spain, and one in Sicily, besides several nunneries. It was erected by F. John Baptist Gonzales, or of the holy sacrament, who died in the year 1{}18, and is said to have been honored with miracles. 4. Podoniensis. 5. Ps. cx. 9. 6. S. Chrys. Hom. in illud: Vidua eligatur, &c. t. 3, p. 397. Ed. Ben.

ST. SERAPION, M.

HE was a zealous Englishman, whom St. Peter Nolasco received into his Order at Barcelona. He made two journeys among the Moors for the ransom of captives, in 1240. The first was to Murcia, in which he purchased the liberty of ninety-eight slaves: the second to Algiers, in which he redeemed eighty-seven, but remained himself a hostage for the full payment of the money. He boldly preached Christ to the Mahometans, and baptized several: for which he was cruelly tortured, scourged, cut and mangled, at length fastened to a cross, and was thereon stabbed and quartered alive in the same year, 1240. Pope Benedict XIII. declared him a martyr, and proved his immemorial veneration in his Order, by a decree in 1728, as Benedict XIV. relates. L. 2, de Canoniz. c. 24, p. 296.

SS. CYRUS AND JOHN, MM.

CYRUS, a physician of Alexandria, who by the opportunities which his profession gave him, had converted many sick persons to the faith; and John, an Arabian, hearing that a lady called Athanasia, and her three daughters, of which the eldest was only fifteen years of age, suffered torments for the name of Christ at Canope in Egypt, went thither to encourage them. They were apprehended themselves, and cruelly beaten: their sides {318} were burnt with torches, and salt and vinegar poured into their wounds in the presence of Athanasia and her daughters, who were also tortured after them. At length the four ladies, and a few days after, Cyrus and John, were beheaded, the two latter on this day. The Syrians, Egyptians, Greeks, and Latins, honor their memory. See their acts[1] by St. Sophronius commended in the seventh general council, and published with remarks by Bollandus.

Footnotes: 1. St. Cyrus is the same as Abba-Cher, mentioned in the Coptic calendar on this day, which is the 8th of their month Mechir. He is called Abbacyrus in the life of St. John the Almoner, written by Leontius, in many ancient Martyrologies, and other monuments of antiquity. Abbacyrus is a Chaldaic word, signifying the Father Cyr. As this saint was an Egyptian, it is probable he was originally called Pa-Cher, or Pa-Cyrus, the Egyptians having been accustomed to prefix the article Pa to the names of men, as we see in Pa-chomis, Pa-phantis, Pa-phantis, &c.

It is said in the acts of our two martyrs, that they were buried at Canopus, twelve furlongs from Alexandria, and that their relics were afterwards translated to Manutha, a village near Canopus, which was celebrated for a great number of miracles wrought there. These relies are now in a church at Rome called Sant' Apassara: this word being corrupted by the Italians from Abbacyrus. Formerly there were many churches in that city dedicated under the invocation of these two holy martyrs. See Chatelain, notes on the Rom. Mart, p. 469, et seq.

ST. MARCELLA, WIDOW.

SHE IS styled by St. Jerom the glory of the Roman ladies. Having lost her husband in the seventh month of her marriage, she rejected the suit of Cerealis the consul, uncle of Gallus Caesar, and resolved to imitate the lives of the ascetics of the East. She abstained from wine and flesh, employed all her time in pious reading, prayer, and visiting the churches of the apostles and martyrs, and never spoke with any man alone. Her example was followed by many virgins of the first quality, who put themselves under her direction, and Rome was in a short time filled with monasteries. We have eleven letters of St. Jerom to her in answer to her religious queries. The Goths under Alaric plundered Rome in 410. St. Marcella was scourged by them for the treasures which she had long before distributed among the poor. All that time she trembled only for her dear spiritual pupil, Principia (not her daughter, as some have reputed her by mistake,) and falling at the feet of the cruel soldiers, she begged, with many tears, that they would offer her no insult. God moved them to compassion. They conducted them both to the church of St. Paul, to which Alaric had granted the right of sanctuary with that of St. Peter. St. Marcella, who survived this but a short time, which she spent in tears, prayers, and thanksgiving, closed her eyes by a happy death, in the arms of St. Principia, about the end of August, in 410, but her name occurs in the Roman Martyrology on the 31st of January. See St. Jerom, Ep. 96, ol. 16, ad Principiam, t. 4, p. 778. Ed. Ben. Baronius ad ann. 410, and Bollandus, t. 2, p. 1105.

ST. MAIDOC, OR MAODHOG,

CALLED ALSO AIDAN AND MOGUE, BISHOP OF FERNS, IN IRELAND.

HE was born in Connaught, a province of Ireland, and seemed from his infancy to be deeply impressed with the fear of God. He passed in his early days into Wales, where he lived for a considerable time under the direction of the holy abbot David. He returned afterwards to his own country, accompanied with several monks of eminent piety, founded a great number of churches and monasteries, and was made bishop of Ferns. He {319} died in 632, according to Usher. His name is celebrated among the Irish saints. It appears from Cambrensis that his festival was observed in Wales in the twelfth century. He was also honored in Scotland.[1] See Colgan, Jan. 31, pp. 208, 223. Chatelain, notes, p. 481.

Footnotes: 1. There is found in the chronicle of Scone, and in the Breviary of Aberdeen, an ancient collect, in which the Divine mercy is implored through his intercession. Chatelain tells us that in Lower Brittany he is called St. De, (contracted from the Latin word Aideus, or Aidanus,) and that the village and church which bear his name, celebrate his festival on the 18th of March, the day perhaps on which they received some portion of his relics.

{320 blank page} {321}

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. II.

NEW YORK: P.J. KENEDY, PUBLISHER TO THE HOLY SEE, EXCELSIOR CATHOLIC PUBLISHING HOUSE, 5 BARCLAY STREET. 1903.

{322 blank page} {323} /* CONTENTS. FEBRUARY.

1. PAGE St. IGNATIUS, Bishop of Antioch, Martyr........ 325 St. Pionius, Priest and Martyr................. 333 St. Bridget, Virgin and Abbess, Patroness of Ireland...................................... 334 St Kinnia, Virgin, of Ireland.................. 334 St. Sigebert, King of Austrasia, Confessor..... 337

2. The Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary.... 337 St. Laurence, Archbishop of Canterbury......... 342

3. St Blaze, Bishop and Martyr.................... 343 St. Anscharius, Archbishop of Hamburgh and Bremen, Confessor............................ 344 St. Wereburge, Virgin and Abbess, in England, Patroness of Chester......................... 345 St. Margaret, Virgin in England................ 348

4. St. Andrew Corsini, Bishop and Confessor....... 349 St. Phileas and Philoromus, Bishop of Thmuis, Martyrs...................................... 351 St. Gilbert, Abbot, Founder of the Gilbertins.. 353 St. Jean, or Joan, of Valois, Queen of France.. 353 St. Isidore of Pelusium, Priest................ 354 St Rembert, Archbishop of Bremen, Confessor.... 355 St. Modan, Abbot in Scotland, Confessor........ 355 St. Joseph of Leonissa, Confessor.............. 356

5. St. Agatha, Virgin and Martyr.................. 357 The Martyrs of Japan........................... 359 Appendix to the Martyrs of China............... 362 SS. Martyrs of Pontus, under Dioclesian........ 366 St. Avitus, Archbishop of Vienne, Confessor.... 366 St. Alice, or Adelaide, Virgin and Abbess...... 366 St. Abraamius, Bishop of Arbela, Martyr........ 367

6. St. Dorothy, Virgin and Martyr................. 367 St. Vedast, Bishop of Arras, Confessor......... 368 St. Amandus, Bishop and Confessor.............. 369 St. Barsanuphius, Anchoret..................... 370

7. St. Romuald, Abbot and Confessor, Founder of the Order of Camaldoli....................... 370 St. Richard, King in England, and Confessor.... 377 St. Theodorus, of Heraclea, Martyr............. 377 St. Tresain, or Tresanus, Priest and Confessor. 378 St. Augulus, Bishop in England, and Martyr..... 379

8. St. John of Matha, Confessor, Founder of the Order of Trinitarians........................ 379 St. Stephen of Grandmont, Abbot................ 382 Appendix to the Life of St. Stephen............ 384 St. Paul, Bishop of Verdun, Confessor.......... 384 St. Cuthman, in England, Confessor............. 385

9. St. Apollonia, Virgin and Martyr............... 388 St. Nicephorus, Martyr......................... 388 St. Theliau, Bishop in England, and Confessor.. 489 St. Ansbert, Archbishop of Rouen in 695, Confessor.................................... 390 St. Attracta, or Tarahata, Virgin, in Ireland.. 390 St. Erhard, Abbot and Confessor, native of Scotland..................................... 390

10. St. Scholastica, Virgin........................ 391 St. Soteris, Virgin and Martyr................. 393 St. William of Maleval, Hermit, and Institutor of the Order of Gulielmites.................. 393 St. Erlulph, Bishop and Martyr, native of Scotland..................................... 305

11. SS. Saturninus, Dativus, and others, Martyrs of Africa....................................... 395 St. Severinus, Abbot of Agaunum................ 397 St. Theodora, Empress.......................... 398

12. St. Benedict of Anian, Abbot................... 398 St. Meletius, Patriarch of Antioch, Confessor.. 401 St. Eulalia, Virgin, of Barcelona, Martyr...... 405 St. Antony Cauleas, Patriarch of Constantinople, Confessor.................... 405

13. St. Catharine de Ricci, Virgin................. 406 St. Licinius, Bishop of Angers, Confessor...... 408 St. Polyeuctus, Martyr......................... 409 St. Gregory II., Pope and Confessor............ 410 St. Martinianus, Hermit at Athens.............. 412 St. Modomnoc, or Dominick, of Ossory, Bishop and Confessor................................ 413 St. Stephen, Abbot............................. 413 B. Roger, Abbot and Confessor.................. 413

14. St. Valentine, Priest and Martyr............... 413 St. Maro, Abbot................................ 414 St. Abraames, Bishop of Carres................. 415 St. Auxentius, Hermit.......................... 415 St. Conran, Bishop of Orkney, Confessor........ 416

15. SS. Faustinus and Jovita, Martyrs.............. 416 St. Sigefride, or Sigfrid, Bishop. Apostle of Sweden....................................... 417

16. St. Onesimus, Disciple of St. Paul............. 418 SS. Elias, Jeremy, Isaias, Samuel, Daniel, and other Holy Martyrs at Caesarea, in Palestine. 419 St. Juliana, Virgin and Martyr................. 420 St. Gregory X., Pope and Confessor............. 420 St. Tanco, or Tatta, Bishop and Martyr, native of Scotland.................................. 422

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17. St. Flavian, Archbishop of Constantinople, Martyr....................................... 422 SS. Theodulus and Julian, Martyrs.............. 425 St. Silvin of Auchy, Bishop and Confessor...... 426 St. Loman, or Luman, Bishop in Ireland, Confessor.................................... 426 St. Fintan, Abbot of Cluian-Ednech, in Ireland. 427

18. St. Simeon, Bishop of Jerusalem, Martyr........ 427 SS. Leo and Paregorius, Martyrs................ 429

19. St. Barbatus, or Barbas, Bishop of Benevento, Confessor.................................... 431

20. SS. Tyrannio, Bishop of Tyre, Zenobius, and other Martyrs in Phoenicia................... 433 St. Sadoth, Bishop of Seleucia and Ctesiphon, with 128 Companions, Martyrs................. 434 St. Eleutherius, Bishop of Tourney, Martyr..... 436 St. Mildred, Virgin and Abbess................. 436 St. Eucherius, Bishop of Orleans, Confessor.... 437 St. Ulrick, Recluse in England................. 438

21. St. Severianus, Bishop of Scythopolis, Martyr.. 439 SS. German, Abbot of Granfel, and Randaut, Martyrs...................................... 440 SS. Daniel, Priest, and Verde, Virgin, Martyrs. 441 B. Pepin of Landen, Mayor of the Palace........ 441

22. The Chair of St. Peter, at Antioch............. 442 St. Margaret of Cortona, Penitent.............. 443 SS. Thalassius and Limneus, Confessors......... 444 St. Baradat, Confessor......................... 444

23. St. Serenas, a Gardener, Martyr................ 445 St. Milburge, Virgin in England................ 447 St. Dositheus, Monk............................ 447 B. Peter Damian, Cardinal, Bishop of Ostia..... 448 St. Boisil, Prior of Melross, Confessor........ 431

24. St. Matthias, Apostle.......................... 453 SS. Montanus, Lucius, Flavian, Julian, Victoricus, Primolus, Rhenus, and Donatian, Martyrs at Carthage.......................... 453 St. Lethard, Bishop of Senlis, Confessor....... 459 B. Robert, of Arbrissel, Priest................ 459 St. Pretextatus, or Prix, Archbishop of Rouen, Martyr....................................... 460 St. Ethelbert, Confessor, First Christian King among the English............................ 462

25. St. Tarasius, Patriarch of Constantinople, Confessor.................................... 463 St. Victorinus, and Six Companions, Martyrs.... 468 St. Walburge, Abbess in England................ 469 St. Caesarius, Physician, Confessor............. 470 St. Alexander, Patriarch of Alexandria, Confessor.................................... 470 St. Porphyrius, Bishop of Gaza, Confessor...... 473 St. Victor, or Vittre, of Arcis in Champagne, Anchoret and Confessor....................... 477

26. St. Leander, Bishop of Seville, Confessor...... 478 SS. Julian, Chronion, and Besas, Martyrs ...... 480 St. Thalilaeus, a Cilician, Recluse in Syria.... 481 St. Galmier, of Lyons.......................... 481 St. Nestor, Bishop and Martyr.................. 481 St. Alnoth, Anchoret and Martyr................ 482

28. Martyrs who died in the Great Pestilence in Alexandria................................... 482 St. Proterius, Patriarch of Alexandria, Martyr. 482 SS. Romanus and Lupicinus, Abbots.............. 484

29. St. Oswald, Bishop of Worcester, and Archbishop of York........................... 484 */ {325}

FEBRUARY I.

ST. IGNATIUS, BISHOP OF ANTIOCH, M.

From his genuine epistles; also from the acts of his martyrdom, St. Chrys. Hom. In St. Ignat. M. t. 3, p. {}{9}2. Ed. Nov. Eusebius. See Tillemont, t. 2, p. 191. Cave, t. 1, p. 100. Dom Ceillier. Dom Marechal Concordance des Peres Grecs et Latins, t. 1, p. 58.

A.D. 107.

ST. IGNATIUS, surnamed Theophorus,[1] a word implying a divine or heavenly person, was a zealous convert and an intimate disciple of St. John the Evangelist, as his acts assure us; also the apostles SS. Peter and Paul, who united their labors in planting the faith at Antioch.[2] It was by their direction that he succeeded Evodius in the government of that important see, as we are told by St. Chrysostom,[3] who represents him as a perfect model of virtue in that station, in which he continued upwards of forty years. During the persecution of Domitian, St. Ignatius defended his flock by prayer, fasting, and daily preaching the word of God. He rejoiced to see peace restored to the church on the death of that emperor, so far as this calm might be beneficial to those committed to his charge: but was apprehensive that he had not attained to the perfect love of Christ, nor the dignity of a true disciple, because he had not as yet been called to seal the truth of his religion with his blood, an honor he somewhat impatiently longed for. The peaceable reign of Nerva lasted only fifteen months. The governors of several provinces renewed the persecution under Trajan his successor: and it appears from Trajan's letter to Pliny the younger, governor of Bithynia, that the Christians were ordered to be put to death, if accused; but it was forbid to make any inquiry after them. That emperor sullied his clemency and bounty, and his other pagan virtues, by incest with his sister, by an excessive vanity, which procured him the surname of Parietmus, (or dauber of every wall with the inscriptions of his name and actions,) and by blind superstition, which rendered him a persecutor of the true followers of virtue, out of a notion of gratitude to his imaginary deities, especially after his victories over the Daci and Scythians in 101 and 105. In the year 106, which was the ninth of his reign, he set out for the East on an expedition {326} against the Parthians, and made his entry into Antioch on the 7th of January, 107, with the pomp of a triumph. His first concern was about the affair of religion and worship of the gods, and for this reason he resolved to compel the Christians either to acknowledge their divinity and sacrifice to them, or suffer death in case of refusal.

Ignatius, as a courageous soldier, being concerned only for his flock, willingly suffered himself to be taken, and carried before Trajan, who thus accosted him: "Who art thou, wicked demon, that durst transgress my commands, and persuade others to perish?" The saint answered: "No one calls Theophorus a wicked demon." Trajan said: "Who is Theophorus?" Ignatius answered: "He who carrieth Christ in his breast." Trajan replied: "And do not we seem to thee to bear the gods in our breasts, whom we have assisting us against our enemies?" Ignatius said: "You err in calling those gods who are no better than devils: for there is only one God, who made heaven and earth, and all things that are in them: and one Jesus Christ his only Son, into whose kingdom I earnestly desire to be admitted." Trajan said: "Do not you mean him that was crucified under Pontius Pilate?" Ignatius answered: "The very same, who by his death has crucified with sin its author, who overcame the malice of the devils, and has enabled those, who bear him in their heart, to trample on them." Trajan said: "Dost thou carry about Christ within thee?" Ignatius replied, "Yes; for it is written: I will dwell and walk in them."[4] Then Trajan dictated the following sentence: "It is our will that Ignatius, who saith that he carrieth the crucified man within himself, be bound and conducted to Rome, to be devoured there by wild beasts, for the entertainment of the people." The holy martyr, hearing this sentence, cried out with joy: "I thank thee, O Lord, for vouchsafing to honor me with this token of perfect love for thee, and to be bound with chains of iron, in imitation of thy apostle Paul, for thy sake." Having said this, and prayed for the church, and recommended it with tears to God, he joyfully put on the chains, and was hurried away by a savage troop of soldiers to be conveyed to Rome. His inflamed desire of laying down his life for Christ, made him embrace his sufferings with great joy.

On his arrival at Seleucia, a sea-port, about sixteen miles from Antioch, he was put on board a ship which was to coast the southern and western parts of Asia Minor. Why this route was pitched upon, consisting of so many windings, preferably to a more direct passage from Seleucia to Rome, is not known; probably to render the terror of his punishment the more extensive, and of the greater force, to deter men from embracing and persevering in the faith: but providence seems to have ordained it for the comfort and edification of many churches. Several Christians of Antioch, taking a shorter way, got to Rome before him, where they waited his arrival. He was accompanied thither from Syria by Reus, Philo, a deacon, and Agathopodus, who seem to have written these acts of his martyrdom. He was guarded night and day, both by sea and land, by ten soldiers, whom he calls ten leopards, on account of their inhumanity and merciless usage who, the kinder he was to them, were the more fierce and cruel to him. This voyage, however, gave him the opportunity of confirming in faith and piety the several churches he saw on his route; giving them the strictest caution against heresies and schism, and recommending to them an inviolable attachment to the tradition of the apostles. St. Chrysostom adds, that he taught them admirably to despise the present life, to love only the good things to come, and never to fear any temporal evils whatever. The faithful {327} flocked from the several churches he came near, to see him, and to render him all the service in their power, hoping to receive benefit from the plenitude of his benediction. The cities of Asia, besides deputing to him their bishops and priests, to express their veneration for him, sent also deputies in their name to bear him company the remainder of his journey; so that he says he had many churches with him. So great was his fervor and desire of suffering, that by the fatigues and length of the voyage, which was a very bad one, he appeared the stronger and more courageous. On their reaching Smyrna, he was suffered to go ashore, which he did with great joy, to salute St. Polycarp, who had been his fellow-disciple under St. John the Evangelist. Their conversation was upon topics suitable to their character, and St. Polycarp felicitated him on his chains and sufferings in so good a cause. At Smyrna he was met by deputies of several churches, who were sent to salute him. Those from Ephesus were Onesimus, the bishop; Burrhus, the deacon; Crocus, Euplus, and Fronto. From Magnesia in Lydia, Damas the bishop, Bassus and Apollo, priests, and Sotio, deacon. From Tralles, also in Lydia, Polybius the bishop. From Smyrna, St. Ignatius wrote four letters: in that to the church of Ephesus, he commends the bishop Onesimus, and the piety and concord of the people, and their zeal against all heresies, and exhorts them to glorify God all manner of ways: to be subject, in unanimity, to their bishop and priests; to assemble, as often as possible, with them in public prayer, by which the power of Satan is weakened: to oppose only meekness to anger, humility to boasting, prayers to curses and reproaches, and to suffer all injuries without murmuring. He says, that because they are spiritual, and perform all they do in a spiritual manner, that all, even their ordinary actions, are spiritualized, because they do all in Jesus Christ. That he ought to have been admonished by them, but his charity would not suffer him to be silent: wherefore he prevents them, by admonishing first, that both might meet in the will of God. He bids them not be solicitous to speak, but to live well, and to edify others by their actions; and recommends himself and his widow-church of Antioch to their prayers. Himself he calls their outcast, yet declares that he is ready to be immolated for their sake, and says they were persons who had found mercy, but he a condemned man: they were strengthening in grace, but he struggling in the midst of dangers. He calls them fellow-travellers in the road to God, which is charity, and says they bore God and Christ in their breasts, and were his temples, embellished with all virtues, and that he exulted exceedingly for the honor of being made worthy to write to them, and rejoice in God with them: for setting a true value on the life to come, they loved nothing but God alone. Speaking of heretics, he says, that he who corrupts the faith for which Christ died, will go into unquenchable fire, and also he who heareth him. It is observed by him, that God concealed from the devil three mysteries: the virginity of Mary, her bringing forth, and the death of the Lord: and he calls the Eucharist the medicine of immortality, the antidote against death, by which we always live in Christ. "Remember me, as I pray that Jesus Christ be mindful of you. Pray for the church of Syria, from whence I am carried in chains to Rome, being the last of the faithful who are there. Farewell in God the Father, and in Jesus Christ, our common hope." The like instructions he repeats with a new and most moving turn of thought, in his letters to the churches of Magnesia, and of the Trallians; inculcates the greatest abhorrence of schism and heresy, and begs their prayers for himself and his church in Syria, of which he is not worthy to be called a member, being the last of them.[5] His {328} fourth letter was written to the Christians of Rome. The saint knew the all-powerful efficacy of the prayers of the saints, and feared lest they should obtain of God his deliverance from death. He therefore besought St. Polycarp and others at Smyrna, to join their prayers with his, that the cruelty of the wild beasts might quickly rid the world of him, that he might be presented before Jesus Christ. With this view he wrote to the faithful at Rome, to beg that they would not endeavor to obtain of God that the beasts might spare him, as they had several other martyrs; which might induce the people to release him, and so disappoint him of his crown.

The ardor of divine love which the saint breathes throughout this letter, is as inflamed as the subject is extraordinary. In it he writes: "I fear your charity, lest it prejudice me: for it is easy for you to do what you please; but it will be difficult for me to attain unto God if you spare me. I shall never have such an opportunity of enjoying God: nor can you, if ye shall now be silent, ever be entitled to the honor of a better work. For if ye be silent in my behalf, I shall be made partaker of God; but if ye love my body, I shall have my course to run again. Therefore, a greater kindness you cannot do me, than to suffer me to be sacrificed unto God, while the altar is now ready; that so becoming a choir in love, in your hymns ye may give thanks to the Father by Jesus Christ, that God has vouchsafed to bring me, the bishop of Syria, from the East unto the West, to pass out of the world unto God, that I may rise again unto him. Ye have never envied any one. Ye have taught others. I desire, therefore, that you will firmly observe that which in your instructions you have prescribed to others. Only pray for me, that God would give me both inward and outward strength, that I may not only say, but do: that I may not only be called a Christian, {329} but be found one: for if I shall be found a Christian, I may then deservedly be called one; and be thought faithful, when I shall no longer appear to the world. Nothing is good that is seen. A Christian is not a work of opinion, but of greatness, when he is hated by the world. I write to the churches, and signify to them all, that I am willing to die for God, unless you hinder me. I beseech you that you show not an unseasonable good-will towards me. Suffer me to be the food of wild beasts, whereby I may attain unto God: I am the wheat of God, and I am to be ground by the teeth of the wild beasts, that I may be found the pure bread of Christ. Rather entice the beasts to my sepulchre, that they may leave nothing of my body, that, being dead, I may not be troublesome to any. Then shall I be a true disciple of Jesus Christ, when the world shall not see so much as my body. Pray to Christ for me, that in this I may become a sacrifice to God. I do not, as Peter and Paul, command you; they were apostles, I am an inconsiderable person: they were free, I am even yet a slave. But if I suffer, I shall then become the freeman of Jesus Christ, and shall arise a freeman in him. Now I am in bonds for him, I learn to have no worldly or vain desires. From Syria even unto Rome, I fight with wild beasts, both by sea and land, both night and day, bound to ten leopards, that is, to a band of soldiers; who are the worse for kind treatment. But I am the more instructed by their injuries; yet am I not thereby justified.[6] I earnestly wish for the wild beasts that are prepared for me, which I heartily desire may soon dispatch me; whom I will entice to devour me entirely and suddenly, and not serve me as they have done some whom they have been afraid to touch; but if they are unwilling to meddle with me, I will even compel them to it.[7] Pardon me this matter, I know what is good for me. Now I begin to be a disciple. So that I have no desire after any thing visible or invisible, that I may attain to Jesus Christ. Let fire, or the cross, or the concourse of wild beasts, let cutting or tearing of the flesh, let breaking of bones and cutting off limbs, let the shattering in pieces of my whole body, and all the wicked torments of the devil come upon me, so I may but attain to Jesus Christ. All the compass of the earth, and the kingdoms of this world, will profit me nothing. It is better for me to die for the sake of Jesus Christ, than to rule unto the ends of the earth. Him I seek who died for us: Him I desire who rose again for us. He is my gain at hand. Pardon me, brethren: be not my hinderance in attaining to life, for Jesus Christ is the life of the faithful; while I desire to belong to God, do not ye yield me back to the world. Suffer me to partake of the pure light. When I shall be there, I shall be a man of God. Permit me to imitate the passion of Christ my God. If any one has him within himself, let him consider what I desire, and let him have compassion on me, as knowing how I am straitened. The prince of this world endeavors to snatch me away, and to change the desire with which I burn of being united to God. Let none of you who are present attempt to succor me. Be rather on my side, that is, on God's. Entertain no desires of the world, having Jesus Christ in your mouths. Let no envy find place in your breasts. Even were I myself to entreat you when present, do not obey me; but rather believe what I now signify to you by letter. Though I am alive at the writing of this, yet my desire is to die. My love is crucified. The fire that is within me does not crave any water; but being alive and springing within, says: Come to the Father. I take no pleasure in the food of corruption, nor in the pleasure of this life. I desire {330} the bread of God, which is the flesh of Jesus Christ, and for drink, his blood, which is incorruptible charity. I desire to live no longer according to men; and this will be, if you are willing. Be, then, willing, that you may be accepted by God. Pray for me that I may possess God. If I shall suffer, ye have loved me: if I shall be rejected, ye have hated me. Remember in your prayers the church of Syria, which now enjoys God for its shepherd instead of me. I am ashamed to be called of their number, for I am not worthy, being the last of them, and an abortive: but through mercy I have obtained that I shall be something, if I enjoy God." The martyr gloried in his sufferings as in the highest honor, and regarded his chains as most precious jewels. His soul was raised above either the love or fear of any thing on earth; and, as St. Chrysostom says, he could lay down his life with as much ease and willingness as another man could put off his clothes. He even wished, every step of his journey, to meet with the wild beasts; and though that death was most shocking and barbarous, and presented the most frightful ideas, sufficient to startle the firmest resolution; yet it was incapable of making the least impression upon his courageous soul. The perfect mortification of his affections appears from his heavenly meekness; and he expressed how perfectly he was dead to himself and the world, living only to God in his heart, by that admirable sentence: "My love is crucified."[8] To signify, as he explains himself afterwards, that his appetites and desires were crucified to the world, and to all the lusts and pleasures of it.

The guards pressed the saint to leave Smyrna, that they might arrive at Rome before the shows were over. He rejoiced exceedingly at their hurry, desiring impatiently to enjoy God by martyrdom. They sailed to Troas, where he was informed that God had restored peace to his church at Antioch: which freed him from the anxiety he had been under, fearing lest there should be some weak ones in his flock. At Troas he wrote three other letters, one to the church of Philadelphia, and a second to the Smyrnaeans, in which he calls the heretics who denied Christ to have assumed true flesh, and the Eucharist to be his flesh, wild beasts in human shape; and forbids all communication with them, only allowing them to be prayed for, that they may be brought to repentance, which is very difficult. His last letter is addressed to St. Polycarp, whom he exhorts to labor for Christ without sparing himself; for the measure of his labor will be that of his reward.[9] The style of the martyr everywhere follows the impulses of a burning charity, rather than the rules of grammar, and his pen is never able to express the sublimity of his thoughts. In every word there is a fire and a beauty not to be paralleled: every thing is full of a deep sense. He everywhere breathes the most profound humility and contempt of himself as an abortive, and the last of men; a great zeal for the church, and abhorrence of schisms: the most ardent love of God and his neighbor, and tenderness for his own flock: begging the prayers of all the churches in its behalf to whom he wrote, and entreating of several that they would send an embassy to his church at Antioch, to comfort and exhort them. The {331} seven epistles of this apostolic father, the same which were quoted by St. Irenaeus, Origen, Eusebius, St. Athanasius, St. Chrysostom, Theodoret, Gildas, &c., are published genuine by Usher, Vossius, Cotelier, &c., and in English by archbishop Wake, in 1710.

St. Ignatius, not being allowed time to write to the other churches of Asia, commissioned St. Polycarp to do it for him. From Troas they sailed to Neapolis in Macedonia, and went thence to Philippi, from which place they crossed Macedonia and Epirus on foot; but took shipping again at Epidamnum in Dalmatia, and sailing by Rhegium and Puteoli, were carried by a strong gale into the Roman port, the great station of the navy near Ostia, at the mouth of the Tiber, sixteen miles from Rome. He would gladly have landed at Puteoli, to have traced St. Paul's steps, by going on foot from that place to Rome, but the wind rendered it impracticable. On landing, the authors of these acts, who were his companions, say they were seized with great grief, seeing they were soon to be separated from their dear master; but he rejoiced to find himself so near the end of his race. The soldiers hastened him on, because the public shows were drawing to an end. The faithful of Rome came out to meet him, rejoicing at the sight of him, but grieving that they were so soon to lose him by a barbarous death. They earnestly wished that he might be released at the request of the people. The martyr knew in spirit their thoughts, and said much more to them than he had done in his letter on the subject of true charity, conjuring them not to obstruct his going to the Lord. Then kneeling with all the brethren, he prayed to the Son of God for the Church, for the ceasing of the persecution, and for perpetual charity and unanimity among the faithful. He arrived at Rome the 20th of December, the last day of the public entertainments, and was presented to the prefect of the city, to whom the emperor's letter was delivered at the same time. He was then hurried by the soldiers into the amphitheatre. The saint hearing the lions roar, cried out: "I am the wheat of the Lord; I must be ground by the teeth of these beasts to be made the pure bread of Christ." Two fierce lions being let out upon him, they instantly devoured him, leaving nothing of his body but the larger bones: thus his prayer was heard. "After having been present at this sorrowful spectacle," say our authors, "which made us shed many tears, we spent the following night in our house in watching and prayer, begging of God to afford us some comfort by certifying us of his glory." They relate, that their prayer was heard, and that several of them in their slumber saw him in great bliss. They are exact in setting down the day of his death, that they might assemble yearly thereon to honor his martyrdom.[10] They add, that his bones were taken up and carried to Antioch, and there laid in a chest as an inestimable treasure. St. Chrysostom says his relics were carried in triumph on the shoulders of all the cities from Rome to Antioch. They were first laid in the cemetery without the Daphnitic gate, but in the reign of Theodosius the younger were translated thence with great pomp to a church in the city, which had been a temple of Fortune, but from this time bore his name, as Evagrius {332} relates.[11] St. Chrysostom exhorts all people to visit them, assuring them they would receive thereby many advantages, spiritual and corporal, which he proves at length.[12] They are now at Rome, in the church of St. Clement, pope, whither they were brought about the time when Antioch fell into the hands of the Saracens in the reign of Heraclius, in 637.[13] The regular canons at Arouaise near Bapaume in Artois, the Benedictin monks at Liesse in Haynault, and some other churches, have obtained each some bone of this glorious martyr.[14] The Greeks keep his feast a holyday on the day of his death, the 20th of December. His martyrdom happened in 107.

* * * * *

The perfect spirit of humility, meekness, patience, charity, and all other Christian virtues, which the seven epistles of St. Ignatius breathe in every part, cannot fail deeply to affect all who attentively read them. Critics confess that they find in them a sublimity, an energy and beauty of thought and expression, which they cannot sufficiently admire. But the Christian is far more astonished at the saint's perfect disengagement of heart from the world, the ardor of his love for God, and the earnestness of his desire of martyrdom. Every period in them is full of profound sense, which must be attentively meditated on before we can discover the divine sentiments of all virtues which are here expressed. Nor can we consider them without being inspired by some degree of the same, and being covered with confusion to find ourselves fall so far short of the humility and fervor of the primitive saints. Let us listen to the instructions which this true disciple of Christ gives in his letter to the Philadelphians, an abstract of his other six epistles being given above. He begins it by a strenuous recommendation of union with their bishop, priests, and deacons; and gives to their bishop (whom he does not name) great praises, especially for his humility and meekness, insomuch that he says his silence was more powerful than the vain discourses of others, and that conversing with an unchangeable serenity of mind, and in the sweetness of the living God, he was utterly a stranger to anger. He charges them to refrain from the pernicious weeds of heresy and schism, which are not planted by the Father, nor kept by Christ. "Whoever belong to God and Jesus Christ, these are with the bishop. If any one follows him who maketh a schism, he obtains not the inheritance of the kingdom of God. He who walks in the simplicity of obedience is not enslaved to his passion. Use one eucharist: for the flesh of the Lord Jesus Christ is one, and the cup is one in the unity of his blood. There is one altar, as there is one bishop, with the college of the priesthood and the deacons, my fellow-servants, that you may do all things according to God. My brethren, my heart is exceedingly dilated in the tender love which I bear you, and exulting beyond bounds, I render you secure and cautious; not I indeed, but Jesus Christ, in whom being bound I fear the more for myself, being yet imperfect. But your prayer with God will make me perfect, that I may obtain the portion which his mercy assigns me." Having cautioned them against adopting Jewish ceremonies, and against divisions and schisms, he mentions one that had lately happened among them, and speaks of a revelation which he had received of it as follows: "When I was among you, I cried out with a loud voice, with the voice of God, saying: Hearken to your bishop, and the priesthood, and the deacons. Some suspected that I said this from a foresight of the division which some afterwards {333} made. But He for whom I am in chains is my witness, that I knew it not from man, but the Spirit declared it, saying: Do ye nothing without your bishop. Keep your body holy as the temple of God. Be lovers of unity; shun all divisions. Be ye imitators of Jesus Christ, as he is of the Father. I therefore did what lay in me, as one framed to maintain union. Where disagreement or anger is found, there God never dwells. But God forgives all penitents." He charges them to send some person of honor from their church to congratulate with his church in Syria upon peace being restored to it, and calls him blessed who should be honored with this commission.

Footnotes: 1. The accent placed on the penultima of [Greek: Theophoros], as the word is written in the saint's acts, denotes it of an active signification, one that carrieth God; but of the passive, carried of God, if placed on the antepenultima. 2. St. Gregory tells us, (l. 4, ep. 37,) that he was a disciple of St. Peter. The apostolic constitutions add, also of St. Paul, (l. 7, c. 46.) We are assured by St. Chrysostom (Hom. in St. Ignat.) and Theodoret, (Dial. 1, p. 33,) that he was made bishop by the direction of the apostles, and by the imposition of their hands. St. Chrysostom says, that St. Peter appointed him bishop to govern the see of Antioch, when he quitted it himself; which seems also to be affirmed by Origen, (in Luc. Hom. 6,) St. Athanasius, (de Syn. p. 922,) F{}dus, &c. Baronius thinks he was left by St. Peter, bishop of the Jewish converts, and became bishop also of the Gentiles in 68: for Eusebius (Hist. l. 3, c. 22, 36.) says, that St. Evodius succeeded St. Peter at Antioch; he adds in his chronicle, in the year 43, that he died in 68, and was succeeded by St. Ignatius. Some think there is a mistake in the chronicle of Eusebius, as to the year of the death of Evodius, and that this happened before the martyrdom of St. Peter, who appointed St. Ignatius his successor. See Cotelier, not. p. 299. Tillem. not. t. 2. p. 619. The Greek Menaea mentions Evodius on the 7th of September. 3. Hom. in St. Ignat. t. 2, p. 592. See also Theodoret. Dial. 1, p. 33. 4. 2 Cor. v. 16. 5. In his letter to the Magnesians, after saluting them, he says, he rejoices exceedingly in their charity and faith, and adds: "Having the honor to bear a name of divine dignity, on account to the chains which I carry, I sing the glow of the churches, and wish them the union of the flesh and spirit of Jesus Christ our perpetual life, of faith, and of charity, than which nothing is more excellent; and what is chiefest, of Jesus and the Father, in whom, bearing with patience the whole power of the prince of this world, and escaping him, we shall possess God." The saint much commends their bishop Damas, and exhorts them to yield him perfect obedience, notwithstanding his youth. Setting death before their eyes as near at hand to every one, he puts them in mind that we must bear the mark of Jesus Christ, (which is charity,) not that of the world. "If we are not ready to die, in imitation of his sufferings, his life is not in us," says he. "I recommend to you that you do all things in the concord of God, the bishop presiding for God, the priests in the place of the college of the apostles, and my dearest deacons, to whom is the ministry of Jesus Christ, who was with the Father before all ages, and has appeared in the end. Therefore, following all the same conduct, respect one another, and let no one consider his neighbor according to the flesh, but ever love each other in Jesus Christ. As the Lord did nothing without the Father, so neither do you say thing without the priests. Meeting together, have one prayer, one mind, one hope in charity, in holy joy. All of you meet as in one church of God, as to one altar, as to one Jesus Christ, who proceeds from one Father, exists in one, and returns to him in Unity." He cautions them against admitting the Jewish ceremonies, and against the errors of the Docetes. Then adds: "I shall enjoy you in all things if I am worthy. For though I am in chains, I am not to be compared to any one of you who enjoy your liberty. I know there is in you no pride; for you have Jesus Christ within you. And when I commend you, I know that you are more confounded, as it is written: The just man is his own accuser." Prov. xviii. 18. He again tenderly exhorts them to concord, and to obedience to their bishop, and commends himself, that he may attain to God and his church, of which he is not worthy to be called one, to their prayers, adding: "I stand much in need of your united prayer and charity in God, that the church in Syria may deserve to be watered by your church."

The epistle to the Trallians he begins thus: "I know that your sentiments are pure, your hearts inseperable in patience and meekness, which is not passing, but as it were natural; as I learn from your bishop Polybius who congratulated with me in my chains in Christ Jesus, in such manner that in him I beheld your whole multitude. Receiving through him your good-will in God, I gloried, finding you to be, as I knew, imitators of God. As you are subject to the bishop as to Christ, you seem not to live according to men, but according to Jesus Christ." He bids them respect the deacons (whom be calls the ministers of the mysteries of Jesus Christ) as the precept of Christ; the priests as the senate of God, and the bishop as representing God. "Without these the very name of a church is not given," says he—"I know many things in God, but I measure myself, lest by glorying I perish. Now I have reason more to fear: nor must I listen to those who speak kindly to me; for they who speak to commend me, scourge me. I desire indeed to suffer: but I know not whether I am worthy. Though I am in chains, and understand heavenly things, the ranks of angels and principalities, things visible and invisible; am I on this account a disciple? for many things are wanting to us that we be not separated from God. I conjure you, not I, but the charity of Jesus Christ, to use Christian food, and to refrain from foreign weed, which is heresy. Heretics join Jesus Christ with what is defiled, giving a deadly poison in a mixture of wine and honey which they who take, drink with pleasure their own death without knowing it. Refrain from such, which you will do if you remain united to God, Jesus Christ, and the bishop, and the precepts of the apostles. He who is within the altar is clean, but he who is without it, that is, without the bishop, priests, and deacons, is not clean." He adds his usual exhortations to union, and begs their prayers for himself and his church, of which he is not worthy to be called one, being the last of them, and yet fighting is danger. "May my spirit sanctify you, not only now, but also when I shall enjoy God." 6. 1 Cor. iv. 4. 7. Not that he would really incite the beasts to dispatch him, without a special inspiration, because that would have been self-murder; but this expresses the courage and desire of his soul. 8. [Greek: Ho hemos eros estanrotai.] 9. See an account of these two last in the life of St. Polycarp. Orsi draws a proof in favor of the supremacy of the see of Rome, from the title which St. Ignatius gives it at the head of his epistle. In directing his other letters, and saluting other churches, he only writes: "To the blessed church which is at Ephesus:" [Greek: Te ese en Epheso] "at Magnesia near the Maeander: at Tralles: at Philadelphia: at Smyrna:" but in that to the Romans he changes his style, and addresses his letter: "To the beloved church which is enlightened, (by the will of Him who ordaineth all things which are according to the charity of Jesus Christ our God,) which presides in the country of the Romans, [Greek: etis prokathetai en topo chores Romaion], worthy of God, most adorned, justly happy, most commended, fitly regulated and governed, most chaste, and presiding in charity, &c." 10. According to the common opinion, St. Ignatius was crowned with martyrdom in the year 107. The Greek copies of a homily of the sixth age, On the False Prophets, among the works of St. Chrysostom, say on the 20th; but Bede, in his Martyrology, on the 17th of December. Antoni Pagi, convinced by the letter of Dr. Loyde, bishop of St. Asaph's, places his martyrdom about the end of the year 116: for John Malalas of Antioch tells us the great earthquake, in which Dion Cassias mentions that Trajan narrowly escaped at Antioch, happened in that journey of Trajan in which he condemned St. Ignatius. Now Trajan marching to the Parthian war, arrived at Antioch on the 8th of January, in 113, the sixteenth year of his reign: and in his return from the East, above two years later, passed again through Antioch in 116, when this earthquake happened. St. Ignatius suffered at Rome towards the end of that year. Le Quien prefers this date, because it best agrees with the chronology of his successors to Theophilus. Orien. Christ. t. 2, p. 700. 11. Evagr. Hist. Eccl. l. 1, c. 16, Ed. Vales. 12. Or. in S. Ignat. t. 2, p. 600. Ed. Nov. 13. See Baron. Annal. ad an. 637, and Not. ad Martyr. Rom. ad 17 Dec. 14. See Henschenius, Feb. t. 1, p. 35.

ST. PIONIUS, M.

HE was priest of Smyrna, a true heir of the spirit of St. Polycarp, an apostolic man, who converted multitudes to the faith. He excelled in eloquence, and in the science of our holy religion. The paleness of his countenance bespoke the austerity of his life. In the persecution of Decius, in 250, on the 23d of February, he was apprehended with Sabina and Asclepiades, while they were celebrating the anniversary festival of St. Polycarp's martyrdom. Pionius, after having fasted the eve with his companions, was forewarned thereof by a vision. On the morning after their solemn prayer, taking the holy bread (probably the eucharist) and water, they were surprised and seized by Polemon, the chief priest, and the guardian of the temple. In prolix interrogatories before him, they resisted all solicitations to sacrifice; professed they were ready to suffer the worst of torments and deaths rather than consent to his impious proposals, and declaring that they worshipped one only God, and that they were of the Catholic church. Asclepiades being asked what God he adored, made answer: "Jesus Christ." At which Polemon said: "Is that another God?" Asclepiades replied: "No; he is the same they have just now confessed." A clear confession of the consubstantiality of God the Son, before the council of Nice. Being all threatened to be burnt alive, Sabina smiled. The pagans said: "Dost thou laugh? thou shalt then be led to the public stews." She answered: "God will be my protector on that occasion." They were cast into prison, and preferred a lower dungeon, that they might be more at liberty to pray when alone. They were carried by force into the temple, and all manner of violence was used to compel them to sacrifice. Pionius tore the impious garlands which were put upon his head, and they resisted with all their might. Their constancy repaired the scandal given by Eudaemon, the bishop of Smyrna, there present, who had impiously apostatized and offered sacrifice. In the answers of St. Pionius to the judges, and in all the circumstances of his martyrdom, we admire the ardent piety and courage of one who had entirely devoted himself to God, and employed his whole life in his service. When Quintilian the proconsul arrived at Smyrna, he caused Pionius to be hung on the rack, and his body to be torn with iron hooks, and afterwards condemned him to be burned alive; he was accordingly nailed to a trunk or post, and a pile heaped round him and set on fire. Metrodorus, a Marcionite priest, underwent the same punishment with him. His acts were written by eye-witnesses, quoted by Eusebius, l. 4, c. 15, and are extant genuine in Ruinart, p. 12. See Tillemont t. 3, p. 397; Bollandus, Feb. t. 1, p. 37.

{334}

ST. BRIDGIT, OR BRIDGET, V.

AND BY CONTRACTION, BRIDE, ABBESS, AND PATRONESS OF IRELAND.

SHE was born at Fochard, in Ulster, soon after Ireland had been blessed with the light of faith. She received the religious veil in her youth, from the hands of St. Mel, nephew and disciple of St. Patrick. She built herself a cell under a large oak, thence called Kill-dara, or cell of the oak; living, as her name implies, the bright shining light of that country by her virtues. Being joined soon after by several of her own sex, they formed themselves into a religious community, which branched out into several other nunneries throughout Ireland; all which acknowledged her for their mother and foundress, as in effect she was of all in that kingdom. But a full account of her virtues has not been transmitted down to us, together with the veneration of her name. Her five modern lives mention little else but wonderful miracles. She flourished in the beginning of the sixth century, and is named in the Martyrology of Bede, and in all others since that age. Several churches in England and Scotland are dedicated to God under her name, as, among others, that of St. Bride in Fleet-street; several also in Germany, and some in France. Her name occurs in most copies of the Martyrology which bears the name of St. Jerom, especially in those of Esternach and Corbie, which are most ancient. She is commemorated in the divine office in most churches of Germany, and in that of Paris, till the year 1607, and in many others in France. One of the Hebrides, or western islands which belong to Scotland, near that of Ila, was called, from a famous monastery built there in her honor, Brigidiani. A church of St. Brigit, in the province of Athol, was reputed famous for miracles, and a portion of her relics was kept with great veneration in a monastery of regular canons at Aburnethi, once capital of the kingdom of the Picts, and a bishopric, as Major mentions.[1] Her body was found with those of SS. Patrick and Columba, in a triple vault in Down-Patrick, in 1185, as Giraldus Cambrensis informs us:[2] they were all three translated to the cathedral of the same city;[3] but their monument was destroyed in the reign of king Henry VIII. The head of St. Bride is now kept in the church of the Jesuits at Lisbon.[4] See Bollandus, Feb. t. 1, p. 99.

Footnotes: 1. Major de Gestis Scotor. l. 2, c. 14. 2. Topogr. Hibern. dist. 3, c. 18. Camden, &c. 3. {Footnote not in text} Camden. 4. Bolland. p. 112 and p. 941, t. 1, Februarii.

ST. KINNIA. V.

HER memory was long sacred in Ireland, and her relics were in veneration at Lowth, in the southern part of Ulster; but we have no other authentic account of her actions, than that she was baptized by St. Patrick, and received the religious veil at his hand. See Jocelin's life of St. Patrick, Colgan, and Bollandus, ad 1 Feb. p. 96.

ST. SIGEBERT II., FRENCH KING OF AUSTRASIA, C.

DAGOBERT I., king of France, led for some time a very dissolute life, but was touched by an extraordinary grace upon the birth of his son Sigebert {335} and from that time entirely converted to God. Bagnetrude, our saint's mother, is only styled the concubine of Dagobert, though he was publicly married to her. The father desiring to have his son baptized by the most holy prelate of his dominions, recalled St. Amand, bishop of Masstricht, whom he had banished for his zeal in reproving his vices, fell at his feet at Clichi, near Paris, to ask his pardon, promised amendment, and by the advice of St. Owen and St. Eligius, then laymen in his court, engaged him to initiate his son in the sacrament of regeneration. The ceremony was performed with great pomp at Orleans, Charibert, king of part of Aquitaine, and brother to Dagobert, being god-father. The young prince's education was intrusted by the father to the blessed Pepin of Landen, mayor of his palace, who being forced by the envy of the nobility to withdraw for some time, carried Sigebert into the dominions of Charibert in Aquitaine, where he enjoyed a considerable estate, the paternal patrimony of his wife, the blessed Itta. Pepin remained there about three years; after which term he was recalled to the court of Dagobert, who declared his son Sigebert, though only three years old, in 633, king of Austrasia, and gave him for his ministers, St. Cunibert, archbishop of Cologne, and duke Adelgise, and committed the administration of the whole kingdom to Pepin, whom he always kept near his own person. Dagobert's second son, Clovis II., was born in the following year, 634, and to him the father allotted for his inheritance all the western part of France, containing all Neustria and part of Burgundy.[1] Austrasia, or Eastern France, (in which sense Austria retains a like name in Germany,) at that time comprised Provence and Switzerland, (dismembered from the ancient kingdom of Burgundy,) the Albigeois, Auvergne, Quercy, the Cevennes, Champagne, Lorraine, Upper Picardy, the archbishopric of Triers, and other states, reaching to the borders of Friesland; Alsace, the Palatinate, Thuringia, Franconia, Bavaria, Suabia, and the country which lay betwixt the Lower Rhine and Old Saxony. Dagobert died in 638, and was buried at the abbey of St. Denys, of which he was the munificent founder. According to the settlement which he had made, he was succeeded in Austrasia by St. Sigebert, and in the rest of France by his youngest son Clovis II. Pepin of Landen, who had been mayor of the palace to the father, discharged the same office to his death under St. Sigebert, and not content to approve himself a faithful minister, and true father to the prince, he formed him from the cradle to all heroic Christian virtues. By his prudence, virtue, and valor, St. Sigebert in his youth was beloved and respected by his subjects, and feared by all his enemies. Pepin dying in 640, the virtuous king appointed his son Grimoald mayor of his palace. He reigned in perfect intelligence with his brother, of which we have few examples among the Merovingian kings whenever the French monarchy was divided. The Thuringians revolting, he reduced them to their duty; and this is the only war in which he was engaged. The love of peace disposed his heart to be a fit temple of the Holy Ghost, whom he invited into his soul by assiduous prayer, and the exercise of all Christian virtues. His patrimony he employed in relieving the necessitous, and in building or endowing monasteries, churches, and hospitals. He founded twelve monasteries, the four principal of which were Cougnon, now a priory, not far from Bouillon; Stavelo and Malmedi, two miles from each other, and St. Martin's, near Metz. St. Remaclus brought from Solignac the rule of St. Columban, which king Sigebert {336} in his charter to Cougnon calls the rule of the ancient fathers. This that holy abbot established first at Cougnon, and afterwards at Malmedi and Stavelo. A life filled with good works, and devoted all to God, can never be called short. God was pleased to call this good king from the miseries of this world to the recompense of his labors on the 1st of February, in the year 656, the eighteenth of his reign, and the twenty-fifth of his age.[2] He was interred in the abbey of St. Martin's, near Metz, which he had built. His body was found incorrupt in 1063, and placed in a monument on the side of the high altar: and in 1170 it was enshrined in a silver case. The monastery of St. Martin's, and all others in the suburbs, were demolished by Francis of Lorraine, duke of Guise, in 1552, when Charles V. laid siege to Metz. The relics of St. Sigebert are now deposited in the collegiate church of our Lady at Nancy. He is honored among the saints in great part of the dominions which he governed, and in the monasteries and churches which he founded. See Fredegarius and his continuator, Sigebert of Gemblours, in his life of this saint, with the learned remarks of Henschenius, p. 40. Also Calmet, Hist. de Lorraine, t. 1, p. 419. Schoepflin, Alsatia Illustrata, Colmariae, an. 1751. Sect. 2, p. 742.

Footnotes: 1. Charibert, though he took the title of king, and resided at Toulouse, held his estates of his brother Dagobert, and by his gift. After Charibert's death, Chilperic, his eldest son, was put to death by Dagobert; but his second son, Boggis, left a numerous posterity, which was only extinguished in Louis d'Armagnac, duke of Nemours, slain at the battle of Cerignole, where he commanded for Louis XII. against Gonzales de Cordova, surnamed The Great Captain, for the Catholic king Ferdinand in 1503, by which the French lost the kingdom of Naples. So long did the family of Clovis II. subsist. See Vaisette, Hist de Languedoc, Henault, Abr. de l'Hist. de France, t. 1, pp. 26, and 818. 2. St. Sigebert left his son Dagobert, about seven years old, under the care of Grimoald, mayor of his palace, who treacherously sent him into Ireland, and placed his own son Childebert on the throne. This usurper reigned seven months, as Schoepflin proves from the express testimony of Chronicon Brevissimum, and from circumstances mentioned by Fredegarius, against the mistake of the authors, l'Art de verifier les Dates, p. 481, who say he only reigned seven days. By an insurrection of the people, Grimoald and his son were deposed, and both perished in prison: but Dagobert not being found, Clovis II. united Austrasia to his other dominions. Dagobert II., by the assistance of St. Wilfrid, afterwards archbishop of York, returned into France eighteen years after the death of his father, and recovered Alsace and some other provinces by the cession either of Childeric II., son of Clovis II., (then monarch of all France,) or of his brother Theodoric III., who succeeded him before the month of April, in 674: for the reign of Dagobert II must be dated from the latter end of 673, with Henault, or from 674, with Schoepflin. The spirit of religion and piety, which he had learned in the school of afflictions, and under the great masters of a spiritual life, who then flourished among the Scots and Irish, was eminently the distinguishing part of his character. As he resided chiefly in Alsace, he filled that country, in the first place, with monuments of his devotion, being so liberal in founding and endowing monasteries and churches, that though his reign was only of six years, Schoepflin assures us that the French church is not more indebted to any reign than to this, at least in those parts, (p. 740.) St. Wilfrid, bishop of York, had exceedingly promoted his return into France; and when that prelate was compelled to leave England Dagobert entertained him with the most cordial affection, and, upon the death of St. Arbogastus, earnestly pressed him to accept of that see. St. Wilfrid declined that dignity, promising, however, to call upon this good king in his return from Rome, where he obtained a sentence of pope Agatho in his favor. But coming but into France, he found his royal friend cut off by a violent death. It is the general persuasion of the French historians, that the impious Ebroin, mayor of the palace to Theodoric III., king of Burgundy and Noustria, was the author of his death, with a view to seize his dominions. Dagobert was murdered by assassins at Stenay upon the Meuse, now the best town in the duchy of Bar in Lorraine. The people, however, chose Pepin and Martin dukes or governors of Austrasia, who defended their liberty against Ebroin. Martin was afterwards assassinated by the contrivance of Ebroin, and Ebroin by Ermenfrid; but Pepin, in 687, defeated Theodoric III. at Testry, took Paris, and the king himself; from which time, under the title of mayor, he enjoyed the supreme power in the French monarchy. The death of St. Dagobert happened in 679, on the 23d of December, on which day he is commemorated in the Martyrology of Ado and others, and honored as a martyr at Stenay, in the diocese of Verdun, ever since the eighth century. The church of Strasburg was much enriched by this prince, as maybe seen in Schoepflin's Alsatia Illustrata. The same author gives an account of some of the monasteries which were founded by this prince in those parts, (c. 11, Sec.254, p. 736,) and shows from his charters that the palace where he chiefly resided was at Isenburg in Alsace. (Sect. 1, c. 10, Sec.146, p. 693.) The year of the death of Dagobert II. is learned from the life of St. Wilfrid, who returned from Rome when St. Agatho sat in St. Peter's chair. See on this holy king the lives of St. Wilfrid and St. Salaberga; also his charters; and, among the moderns, Dan. Schoepflin, professor of history and eloquence at Strasburg, in his Alsatia Illustrata, anno 1751. Sect. 2, c. 1, Sec.3, pp. 740, 743, and Sec.1, c. 10, Sec.146, p. 693, c. 11, Sec.254, p. 736. Also Calmet, Hist. de Lorraine, t. 1, l. 10, n. 16, p. 432. The first edition of this work was given in 1728, in three volumes folio, but the second edition is so much enlarged as to fill six volumes folio. The reign of Dagobert II. escaped most of the French historians; which omission, and a false epoch of the beginning of the reign of Dagobert I., brought incredible confusion into the chronology and history of most of the Merovingian kings, which Adrian Valois, Henschenius, Le Cointe, Pagi, Louguerue and others have taken great pains to clear up.