The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Principal Saints Part 13

Footnotes: 1. St. Gr. Nyss. ep. ad Flav. t. 3, p. 645.

2. St. Gr. Nyss. de Virg. c. 9.

3. St. Basil, in Ps. 34, de Bapt. l. 1, et interr. 237.

4. Id. de perfecta Christi forma.

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SS. JULIAN AND BASILISSA, MM.

ACCORDING to their acts, and the ancient Martyrologies, though engaged in a married state, they by mutual consent lived in perpetual chast.i.ty, sanctified themselves by the most perfect exercises of an ascetic life, and employed their revenues in relieving the poor and the sick; for this purpose they converted their house into a kind of hospital, in which, if we may credit their acts, they sometimes entertained a thousand indigent persons. Basilissa attended those of her s.e.x, in separate lodgings from the men, of whom Julian took care, who from his charity is surnamed the Hospitalarian. Egypt, where they lived, had then begun to abound with examples of persons, who, either in cities or in deserts, devoted themselves to the most perfect exercises of charity, penance, and contemplation. Basilissa, after having stood severe persecutions, died in peace; Julian survived her many years, and received the crown of a glorious martyrdom, together with Celsus a youth, Antony a priest, Anastatius, and Marcianilla the mother of Celsus. They seem to have suffered in the reign of Maximin II., in 313, on the 6th of January; for, in the most ancient lectionary used in the church of Paris, under the first race of the French kings, quoted by Chatelain,[1] and several ancient calendars, their festival is marked on that day, or on the eve.

On account of the concurrence of the Epiphany, it was deferred in different churches to the 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 17, 27, 28, or 29th, of January; 12, 13, 14, 17, 19, 24, or 27th, of February; 20, 21, or 22d of June; or 31st of August. The menology, published by Canisius, places the martyrdom of St. Julian and his companions, at Antinopolis in Egypt; certain ancient MS. copies of the Martyrology, which bear the name of St. Jerom, say more correctly Antinous: by mistaking the abbreviation of this name in some MS. copies, several Latins have read it Antioch;[2] and the Latin acts say these martyrs suffered at Antioch in Egypt: but no town of that name is ever mentioned in that country; though Seleucus, the son of Antiochus, gave it to sixteen cities which he built in Asia, as Appian takes notice. Many churches and hospitals in the east, and especially in the west, bear the name of one or other of these martyrs: at Antioch, in Syria, our St. Julian was t.i.tular saint of a famous church and St. Julian of Anazarbus, of two others. Chatelain[3]

proves from ancient images and other monuments, that four churches at home, and three out of five at Paris, which bear the name of St. Julian, were originally dedicated under the name of St. Julian the hospitalarian and martyr; though some of these latter afterward took either St. Julian bishop of Mans, confessor, or St. Julian of Brioude, martyr, for patron.

The same has happened to some, out of the great number of churches and hospitals in the Low Countries, erected under his invocation; but the hospitalarian and martyr is still retained in the office of the greatest part, especially at Brussels, Antwerp, Tournay, Douay, &c. In the time of St. Gregory the Great, the skull of St. Julian, husband of St.

Basilissa, was brought out of the east into France, and given to queen Brunehault; she gave it to the nunnery which she founded at Etampes; part of it is at present in the {117} monastery of Morigny, near Etampes, and part in the church of the regular canonesses of St.

Basilissa, at Paris.[4]

Footnotes: 1. Notes sur le Martyrol. 6 Jan., p. 106. Mabill. Lit. Gallic. l. 2, pp. 115, 116.

2. The abbreviation _Antio_ for Antinous, found in a MS. copy mentioned by Chatelain, p. 106, was probably mistaken for Antioch, a name better known. Certain circ.u.mstances related from the false acts of these martyrs, by St. Antoninus, gave occasion to the painters in Italy to represent St. Julian as a sportsman with a hawk on his hand; and in France, as a boatsman, in a barge; and the postilions and bargemen keep his feast, as of their princ.i.p.al patron.

3. Notes on Jan. 6, p. 109.

4. See Chatelain, notes on Jan. 6, p. 110, from a MS. at Morigny.

ST. MARCIANA, V.M.

SHE was a native of Rusuccur in Mauritania, and courageously despising all worldly advantages, to secure to herself the possession of the precious jewel of heavenly grace, she was called to the trial in the persecution of Dioclesian, which was continued in Africa under his successors, till the death of Severus, who was declared Caesar in 305, and slain in 309. St. Marciana was beaten with clubs, and her chast.i.ty exposed to the rude attempts of pagan gladiators, in which danger G.o.d miraculously preserved her, and she became the happy instrument of the conversion of one of them to the faith: at length she was torn in pieces by a wild bull and a leopard, in the amphitheatre at Caesarea in Mauritania. She is the same who is commemorated on the 12th of July, in the ancient breviary of Toledo; and in the Roman, and some other Martyrologies, both on the 9th of July, and on the 9th of January. See a beautiful ancient hymn in her praise, in the Mozarabic breviary, and her acts in Bollandus, though their authority is not altogether certain.

Consult Tillemont, t. 5, p. 263. Chatelain, notes on the 9th of January p. 146.

ST. BRITHWALD, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY.

HE was abbot of Glastenbury, but resigning that dignity, came to the little monastery of Riculf, or Riculver, near the isle of Thanet, in Kent, that he might improve himself in the study of the Holy Scriptures, in the neighborhood of St. Theodorus; after whose death he was promoted to the see of Canterbury, in 692, in which he sat thirty-seven years and six months, a living {icon} of perfection to this church. He died in 731. See John of Glastenbury, published by Hearne; William of Malmesbury, in the antiquities of Glastenbury, published by Thomas Gale; and Bede, l. 5, c. 9, and 24.

ST. FELAN, OR FOELAN, ABBOT

HIS name is famous in the ancient Scottish and Irish Calendars. The example and instructions of his pious parents, Feriach and St.

Kentigerna, inspired him from the cradle with the most ardent love of virtue. In his youth, despising the flattering worldly advantages to which high birth and a great fortune ent.i.tled him, he received the monastic habit from a holy abbot named Mundus, and pa.s.sed many years in a cell at some distance from the monastery, not far from St. Andrew's.

He was by compulsion drawn from this close solitude, being chosen abbot.

His sanct.i.ty in this public station shone forth with a bright light.

After some years he resigned this charge, and retired to his uncle Congan, brother to his mother, in a place called Siracht, a mountainous part of Glendarchy, now in Fifes.h.i.+re, where, with the a.s.sistance of seven others, he built a church, near which he served for several years.

G.o.d glorified him by a wonderful gift of miracles; and called him to the reward of his labors on the 9th of January, in the seventh century.

{118} He was buried in Straphilline, and his relics were long preserved there with honor. This account is given us of him in the lessons of the Aberdeen Breviary.[1] The Scottish historians[2] attribute to the intercession of St. Felan a memorable victory obtained by king Robert Bruce, in 1314, over a numerous army of English, at Bannocburn, not far from Sterling, in the reign of Edward II. of England, who narrowly escaped, being obliged to pa.s.s the Tweed in a boat, with only one companion. See Lesley, l. 17; Boetius, l. 14. Chatelain certainly mistakes in confounding this saint with St. Finan, bishop of Lindisfarne.[3]

Footnotes: 1. T. 1, part 2, fol. 28.

2. Hector Boetius, l. 14, &c.

3. St. Felan flourished in the county of Fife, and probably in the monastery of Pettinuime, where his memory was famous, as is testified by the author of MS. memoirs on the Scottish saints, preserved in the college of the Scots at Paris, who declares himself to have been a missionary priest in Scotland to 1609. The county of Fife was famous for the rich and most ancient monasteries of Dumferling, Lindore, St. Andrew's, or Colrosse, or Courose, Pettinuime, Balmure, and Petmoace; and two stately nunneries: Aberdaure and Elcho. All these n.o.ble buildings they levelled to the ground with incredible fury, crying, "Pull down, pull down: the crows' nest must be utterly exterminated, lest they should return and attempt again to renew their settlement." Ib. MS. fol. 7.

ST. ADRIAN, ABBOT AT CANTERBURY

DIVINE Providence conducted this holy man to Britain, in order to make him an instructor of innumerable saints. Adrian was an African by birth, and was abbot of Nerida, not far from Naples, when pope Vitalian, upon the death of St. Deusdedit the archbishop of Canterbury, judged him, for his skill in sacred learning, and experience in the paths of true interior virtue, to be of all others the most proper person to be the doctor of a nation, zealous in the pursuit of virtue, but as yet ignorant in the sciences, and in the canons of the church. The humble servant of G.o.d found means to decline that dignity, by recommending St.

Theodorus as most capable, but refused not to share in the laborious part of the ministry. The pope therefore enjoined him to be the companion, a.s.sistant, and adviser of the apostolic archbishop, which charge Adrian willingly took upon himself. In travelling through France with St. Theodorus, he was stopped by Ebroin, the jealous mayor of the palace, who feared lest the emperor of the East had given these two persons, who were his born subjects, some commission in favor of his pretensions to the western kingdoms. Adrian stayed a long time in France, at Meaux, and in other places, before he was allowed to pursue his journey. St. Theodorus established him abbot of the monastery of SS.

Peter and Paul, afterward called St. Austin, near Canterbury, where he taught the learned languages and the sciences, and princ.i.p.ally the precepts and maxims of our divine religion. He had ill.u.s.trated this island by his heavenly doctrine, and the bright example of his virtues, for the s.p.a.ce of thirty-nine years, when he departed to our Lord on the 9th of January, in the year 710. His tomb was famed for miracles, as we are a.s.sured by Joscelin the Monk, quoted by William of Malmesbury and Capgrave; and his name is inserted in the English calendars. See Bede, l. 4, c. 1, l. 5, c. 21. Malmesb. de Pontif. Angl. and Capgrave.

ST. VANENG, C.

FROM various fragments of ancient histories of his life, the most modern of which was compiled in the twelfth century, it appears that Vaneng was made by Clotaire III. governor of that part of Neustria, or Normandy, which was anciently inhabited by the Caletes, and is called Pais de Caux, {119} at which time he took great pleasure in hunting.

Nevertheless, he was very pious, and particularly devout to St. Eulalia of Barcelona, called in Guienne, St. Aulaire. One night be seemed, in a dream, to hear that holy Virgin and Martyr repeat to him those words of our blessed Redeemer in the gospel, that "it is easier for a camel to pa.s.s through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to be saved." Soon after this he quitted the world, a.s.sisted St. Vandrille in building the churches of SS. Peter and Paul at Fontenelles, and founded in the valley of Fecam[1] a church in honor of the holy Trinity, with a great nunnery adjoining, under the direction of St. Owes and St. Vandrille.

Hildemarca, a very virtuous nun, was called from Bourdeaux, and appointed the first abbess. Under her, three hundred and sixty nuns served G.o.d in this house, and were divided into as many choirs as were sufficient, by succeeding one another, to continue the divine office night and day without interruption. St. Vaneng died about the year 688, and is honored, in the Gallican and Benedictin Martyrologies, on the 9th of January; but at St. Vandrille's, and in other monasteries in Normandy, on the 31st of January. This saint is t.i.tular patron of several churches in Aquitain and Normandy; one near Touars in Poictou has given its name to the village of St. Vaneng. His body is possessed in a rich shrine, in the abbatial church of Our Lady at Ham, in Picardy, belonging to the regular canons of St. Genevieve. See Mabillon, t. 2, p.

972; Bollandus, and chiefly the life of St. Vaneng, judiciously collected and printed at Paris in 1700;[2] also, the breviary of the abbey of Fontenelle, now St. Vandrille's. The abbeys of Fecam, St.

Vandrille, Jumiege, Bec, St. Stephen's at Caen, Cerisy, &c., are now of the reformed congregation of St. Maur, abbot of St. Benignus, at Dijon, whose life Bollandus has given us among the saints, January 1. Fecam, honored by the dukes of Normandy above all their other monasteries, is the richest and most magnificent abbey in Normandy.

Footnotes: 1. The monastery of Fecam was ruined in the invasion of the Normans.

Rollo, who came into France in 876, was baptized, and, after having founded the duchy of Normandy, died in 917. His sepulchral monument is shown in one of the chapels near the door in the cathedral at Rouen. His son William built a palace at Fecam, where his son Richard was born. The church of the Holy Trinity being re-established, this Richard placed in it secular canons; but, on his death-bed, ordered it to be put into the hands of the monks.

This was executed by his successor, the monks being sent by William the most holy abbot.

2. Ferrarius, an Italian servite, Du-Saussaye, Bollandus, and F. Giry, place among the saints of this day, Sithride, or Sedredo, an English virgin, and second abbess of Farmoutiers. Bede tells us (l. 3, c. 8) that she was daughter of St. Hereswide, by a former husband, before she married Annas, king of the East Angles, and that going to the monastery of Brie, (now Farmoutiers,) she was second abbess between St. Fara and St. Aubierge, King Annas's own daughter. But though St.

Aubierge be honored at Farmoutiers in July, with great solemnity, and St. Arthongate in February, the name of Sedredo is not found in the calendar of any church, nor are any of her relics enshrined like the others, unless she be the same with St. Sissetrudis, who in some calendars is named on the 6th, in others on the 7th of May. But St.

Sissetrude is called by Jonas of Bobio, cellerer, not abbess. See Chatelain, &c. 3.

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JANUARY X.

SAINT WILLIAM, CONFESSOR,

ARCHBISHOP OF BOURGES.

From his life written by a faithful acquaintance at Bourges, (abridged by Surius,) and again by Peter, a monk of Chaalis, both soon after his death: collected by Dom le Nain, in his history of the Cistercians, t.

7. See also the notes of Bollandus, with a fragment of a third life, and Gallia Christ. Nov. t. 2. p. 63.

A.D. 1209.

WILLIAM BERRUYER, of the ill.u.s.trious family of the ancient counts of Nevers, was educated by Peter the Hermit, archdeacon of Soissons, his uncle by the mother's side. He learned from his infancy to despise the folly and emptiness of the riches and grandeur of the world, to abhor its pleasures, and to tremble at its dangers. His only delight was in exercises of piety and in his studies, in which he employed his whole time with indefatigable application. He was made canon, first of Soissons, and afterwards of Paris; but he soon took the resolution of abandoning all commerce with the world, and retired into the solitude of Grandmont, where he lived with great regularity in that austere order, till seeing its peace disturbed by a contest which arose between the fathers and lay-brothers, he pa.s.sed into the Cistercian, then in wonderful odor of sanct.i.ty. He took the habit in the abbey of Pontigny, and s.h.i.+ning as a perfect model of monastic perfection, was after some time chosen prior of that house, and afterwards abbot, first of Fountaine-Jean, in the diocese of Sens, (a filiation of Pontigny, founded in 1124, by Peter de Courtenay, son of king Louis the Fat,) and some time after, of Chaalis, near Senlis, a much more numerous monastery, also a filiation of Pontigny, built by Louis the Fat in 1136, a little before his death. St. William always reputed himself the last among his brethren. The universal mortification of his senses and pa.s.sions, laid in him the foundation of an admirable purity of heart, and an extraordinary gift of prayer; in which he received great heavenly lights, and tasted of the sweets which G.o.d has reserved for those to whom he is pleased to communicate himself. The sweetness and cheerfulness of his countenance testified the uninterrupted joy and peace that overflowed his soul, and made virtue appear with the most engaging charms in the midst of austerities.

On the death of Henry de Sully, archbishop of Bourges, the clergy of that church requested his brother Endo, bishop of Paris, to come and a.s.sist them in the election of a pastor. Desirous to choose some abbot of the Cistercian Order, then renowned for holy men, they put on the altar the names of three, written on as many billets. This manner of election by lots would have been superst.i.tious, and a tempting of G.o.d, had it been done relying on a miracle without the warrant of divine inspiration. But it deserved not this censure when all the persons proposed seemed equally worthy and fit, as the choice was only recommended to G.o.d, and left to this issue by following the rules of his ordinary providence, and imploring his light, without rashness, or a neglect of the usual means of scrutiny: prudence might sometimes even recommend such a method, in order to terminate a debate when the candidates seemed equally qualified. G.o.d, in such cases is said sometimes to have miraculously interposed.

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Eudo, accordingly, having written three billets, laid them on the altar, and having made his prayer drew first the name of the abbot William, on whom, at the same time, the majority of the votes of the clergy had made the election fall, the 23d of November, 1200. This news overwhelmed William, with grief. He never would have acquiesced, had he not received a double command in virtue of obedience, from the pope, and from his general the abbot of Citeaux. He left his clear solitude with many tears, and was received at Bourges as one sent by heaven, and soon after was consecrated. In this new dignity his first care was to conform both his exterior and interior to the most perfect rules of sanct.i.ty; being very sensible that a man's first task is to honor G.o.d perfectly in his own soul. He redoubled all his austerities, saying, it was now inc.u.mbent on him to do penance for others, as well as for himself. He always wore a hair-s.h.i.+rt under his religious habit, and never added, nor diminished, any thing in his clothes, either winter or summer. He never ate any flesh-meat, though he had it at his table for strangers. His attention to feed his flock was no less remarkable, especially in a.s.sisting the poor both spiritually and corporally, saying, that he was chiefly sent for them. He was most mild to penitent sinners; but inflexible towards the impenitent, though he refused to have recourse to the civil power against them, the usual remedy of that age. Many such he at last reclaimed by his sweetness and charity. Certain great men, abusing his lenity, usurped the rights of his church; but the saint strenuously defended them even against the king himself, notwithstanding his threats to confiscate his lands. By humility and resolution he overcame several contradictions of his chapter and other clergy. By his zeal he converted many of the Albigenses, contemporary heretics, and was preparing himself for a mission among them, at the time he was seized with his last illness. He would, notwithstanding, preach a farewell sermon to his people, which increased his fever to such a degree that he was obliged to set aside his journey, and take to his bed. Drawing near his end, he received first extreme unction, according to the discipline of that age;[1] then, in order to receive the viatic.u.m, he rose out of bed, fell on his knees melting in tears, and prayed long prostrate with his arms stretched out in the form of a cross. The night following, perceiving his last hour approach, he desired to antic.i.p.ate the nocturns, which are said at midnight; but having made the sign of the cross on his lips and breast, was able to p.r.o.nounce no more than the two first words. Then, according to a sign made by him, he was laid on ashes in the hair-cloth which he always privately wore. In this posture he soon after expired, a little past midnight, on the morning of the 10th of January, in 1209.

His body was interred in his cathedral; and being honored by many miracles, was taken up in 1217; and in the year following he was canonized by pope Honorius III. His relics were kept with great veneration till 1562, when they were burnt, and scattered in the winds by the Huguenots, on occasion of their plundering the cathedral of Bourges, as Baillet and Bollandus mention. A bone of his arm is shown with veneration at Chaalis, whither it had been sent soon after the saint's body was taken up; and a rib is preserved in the church of the college of Navarre, at Paris, on which the canons of St. Bourges bestowed it in 1399.[2] His festival is kept in that church with great, solemnity, and a great concourse of devout persons; St. William being regarded in several parts of France as one of the patrons of the nation, though his name is not mentioned in the Roman Martyrology. The celebrated countess Maud, his niece, out of veneration for his memory, bestowed certain lands in the {122} Nivernois, on the church of Bourges.[3] B. Philip Berruyer, a nephew of St. William, was archbishop of Bourges from the year 1236 to 1260, in which he died in the odor of sanct.i.ty. Nangi ascribes to him many miracles, and other historians bear testimony to his eminent virtue.[4] Dom Martenne has published his edifying original life.[5]

If we look into the lives of all the saints, we shall find that it was by a spirit and gift of prayer that the Holy Ghost formed in their hearts the most perfect sentiments of all virtues. It is this which enlightens the understanding, and infuses a spiritual knowledge, and a heavenly wisdom, which is incomparably more excellent than that in which philosophers pride themselves. The same purifies the affections, sanctifies the soul, adorns it with virtues, and enriches it with every gift of heaven. Christ, who is the eternal wisdom, came down among us on earth to teach us more perfectly this heavenly language, and he alone is our master in it. He vouchsafed also to be our model. In the first moment in which his holy soul began to exist, it exerted all its powers in contemplating and adorning the divine Trinity, and employed his affections in the most ardent acts of praise, love, thanksgiving, oblation, and the like. His whole moral life was an uninterrupted prayer; more freely to apply himself to this exercise, and to set us an example, he often retired into mountains and deserts, and spent whole nights in prayer; and to this employment he consecrated his last breath upon the cross. By him the saints were inspired to conceive an infinite esteem for holy prayer, and such a wonderful a.s.siduity and ardor in this exercise, that many renounced altogether the commerce of men to only that of G.o.d, and his angels; and the rest learned the art of conversing secretly with heaven even amidst their exterior employments, which they only undertook for G.o.d. Holy pastors have always made retirement and a life of prayer their apprentices.h.i.+p or preparation for the ministry, and afterward, amidst its functions were still men of prayer in them, having G.o.d always present to their mind, and setting apart intervals in the day, and a considerable part of the nights, to apply themselves with their whole attention to this exercise, in the silence of all creatures.

Footnotes: 1. See Bellarmin, de Arte moriendi. Iuenin, de Sacram. t. 2, et Hist.

des Sacr. t. 7.

2. See Chatelain. Not. p. 161, Brev. Paris.

3. Gallia Christ. Nov. t. 2, p. 63{?}.

4. Ib. p. 69.

5. Martenne Anecdot. t. 3, p. 1927.