The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Principal Saints Part 56

ROMa.n.u.s at thirty-five years of age left his relations, and spent some time in the monastery of Ainay, (called in Latin Athanacense,) at Lyons, at the great church at the conflux of the Saone and Rhone, which the faithful had built over the ashes of the famous martyrs of that city; for their bodies being burnt by the pagans, their ashes were thrown into the Rhone, but a great part of them was gathered by the Christians, and deposited in this place. Roma.n.u.s, a short time after, took with him the inst.i.tutions and conferences of Ca.s.sian, and retired into the forests of mount Iura, between France and Switzerland, and fixed his abode at a place called Condate, at the conflux of the rivers Bienne and Aliere, where he found a spot of ground fit for culture, and some trees which furnished him with a kind of wild fruit. Here he spent his time in praying, reading, and laboring for his subsistence. Lupicinus, his brother, came to him some time after in company with others, who were followed by several more, drawn by the fame of the virtue and miracles of these two saints. Here they built the monastery of Condate, and, their numbers increasing, that of Leuconne, two miles distant to the north, and, on a rock, a nunnery called La Beaume, (now St. Remain de la Roche,) which no men were allowed ever to enter, and where St. Roma.n.u.s chose his burial-place. The brothers governed the monks jointly and in great harmony, though Lupicinus was more inclined to severity of the two. He usually resided at Leuconne with one hundred and fifty monks.

The brethren at Condate, when they were enriched with many lands, changed their diet, which was only bread made of barley and bran, and pulse dressed often without salt or oil, and brought to table wheat-bread, fish, and variety of dishes. Lupicinus being informed hereof by Roma.n.u.s, came to Condate on the sixth day after this innovation, and corrected the abuse. The abstinence which he prescribed his monks was milder than that practised by the oriental monks, and by those of Lerins, partly because the Gauls were naturally great eaters, and partly because they were employed in very hard manual labor. But they never touched fowls or any flesh-meat, and only were allowed milk and eggs in time of sickness. Lupicinus, for his own part, used no other bed than a chair or a hard board; never touched wine, and would scarce ever suffer a drop either of oil or milk to be poured on his pulse. In summer his subsistence for many years was only hard bread moistened in cold water, so that he could eat it with a spoon. His tunic was made of various skins of beasts sewn together, with a cowl: he used wooden shoes, and wore no stockings unless when he was obliged to go out of the monastery. St. Roma.n.u.s died about the year 460, and is mentioned in the Roman Martyrology on the 28th of February. St. Lupicinus survived him almost twenty years, and is honored in the Roman Martyrology on the 21st of March. He was succeeded in the abbacy of Condate by Minaucius, who, in 480, chose St. Eugendus his coadjutor. See the lives of the two brothers, SS. Roma.n.u.s and Lupicinus, and that of St. Eugendus or Oyend, compile a by a monk of Condate of the same age; St. Gregory of Tours, {in} {485} de Vitis Patr. c. 1. Mabill. Annal. Ben. l. 1, ad an. 510, t.

1, p. 23. Tillemont, t. 16, p. 142. Bulteau, l. 1.

FEBRUARY XXIX.

ST. OSWALD,

BISHOP OF WORCESTER AND ARCHBISHOP OF YORK.

From his life written by Eadmer; also from Florence of Worcester, William of Malmesbury, and, above all, the elegant and accurate author of the history of Ramsey, published by the learned Mr. Gale, p. 385. The life of this saint, written by Fulcard, abbot of Thorney, in 1068, Wharton thinks not extant. Mabillon doubts whether it is not that which we have in Capgrave and Surius. See also Portiforium 8. Oswaldi Archiep.

Eborac. Codex MS. cra.s.sus in 8vo. exarates circa annum 1064, in Bennet College, Cambridge, mentioned by Waneley, Catal. p. 110.

A.D. 992.

ST. OSWALD was nephew to St. Odo, archbishop of Canterbury, and to Oskitell, bishop first of Dorcester, afterwards of York. He was educated by St. Odo, and made dean of Winchester; but pa.s.sing into France, took the monastic habit at Fleury. Being recalled to serve the church, he succeeded St. Dunstan in the see of Worcester about the year 959. He shone as a bright star in this dignity, and established a monastery of monks at Westberry, a village in his diocese. He was employed by duke Aylwin in superintending his foundation of the great monastery of Ramsey, in an island formed by marshes and the river Ouse in Huntingdonshire, in 972. St. Oswald was made archbishop of York in 974, and he dedicated the church of Ramsey under the names of the Blessed Virgin, St. Benedict, and all holy virgins. Nothing of this rich mitred abbey remains standing except an old gate-house, and a neglected statue of the founder, Aylwin, with keys and a ragged staff in his hand to denote his office; for he was cousin to the glorious king Edgar, the valiant general of his armies, and the chief judge and magistrate of the kingdom, with the t.i.tle of alderman of England, and half king, as the historian of Ramsey usually styles him.[1] {486} St. Oswald was almost always occupied in visiting his diocese, preaching without intermission and reforming abuses. He was a great encourager of learning and learned men. St. Dunstan obliged him to retain the see of Worcester with that of York. Whatever intermission his function allowed him he spent it at St.

Mary's, a church and monastery of Benedictins, which he had built at Worcester, where he joined with the monks in their monastic exercises.

This church from that time became the cathedral. The saint, to nourish in his heart the sentiments of humility and charity, had everywhere twelve poor persons at his table, whom he served, and also washed and kissed their feet. After having sat thirty-three years he fell sick at St. Mary's in Worcester, and having received the extreme unction and viatic.u.m, continued in prayer, repeating often, "Glory be to the Father," &c., with which words he expired amidst his monks, on the 29th of February, 992. His body was taken up ten years after and enshrined, by Adulph his successor, and was ill.u.s.trated by miracles. It was afterwards translated to York, on the 15th of October, which day was appointed his princ.i.p.al festival.

St. Oswald made quick progress in the path of perfect virtue, because he studied with the utmost earnestness to deny himself and his own will, listening attentively to that fundamental maxim of the Eternal Truth, which St. Bennet, of whose holy order he became a bright light, repeats with great energy. This holy founder declares in the close of his rule, that, He who desires to give himself up to G.o.d, must trample all earthly things under his feet, renounce every thing that is not G.o.d, and die to all earthly affections, so as to attain to a perfect disengagement and nakedness of heart, that G.o.d may fill and entirely possess it, in order to establish therein the kingdom of his grace and pure love forever. And in his prologue he cries out aloud, that he addresses himself only to him who is firmly resolved in all things to deny his own will, and to hasten with all diligence to arrive at his heavenly kingdom.

Footnotes: 1. The t.i.tles of honor among our Saxon ancestors were, Etheling, prince of the blond: chancellor, a.s.sistant to the king in giving judgments: alderman, or ealderman, (not earldonnan, as Rapin Thoyras writes this word in his first edition,) governor or viceroy. It is derived from the word ald or old, like senator in Latin. Provinces, cities, and sometimes wapentakes, had their alderman to govern them, determine lawsuits, judge criminals, &c. That office gave place to the t.i.tle of earl, which was merely Danish, and introduced by Canute. Sheriffe or she-reeve, was the deputy of the alderman, chosen by him, sat judge in some courts, and saw sentence executed; hence he was called vicecomes. Heartoghan signified, among our Saxon ancestors, generals of armies, or dukes. Hengist, in the Saxon chronicle, is heartogh; such were the dukes appointed by Constantine the Great, to command the forces in the different provinces of the Roman empire. These t.i.tles began to become hereditary with the offices or command annexed under Pepin and Charlemagne, and grew more frequent by the successors of these princes granting many hereditary fiefs to n.o.blemen, to which they annexed t.i.tular dignities. Fiefs were an establishment of the Lombards, from whom the emperors of Germany, and the kings of France, borrowed this custom, and with it the feodal laws, of which no mention is made in the Routun code. t.i.tles began frequently to become merely honorary about the time of Otho I. in Germany.

Reeve among the English Saxons was a steward. The bishop's reeve was a bishop's steward for secular affairs, attending in his court.

Thanes, _i.e._, servants, were officers of the crown whom the king recompensed with lands, sometimes to descend to their posterity, but always to be held of him with some obligation of service, homage, or acknowledgment. There were other lords of lands and va.s.sals, who enjoyed the t.i.tle of thanes, and were distinguished from the king's thanes. The ealdermen and dukes were all king's thanes, and all others who held lands of the king by knight's service in chief, and were immediately great tenants of the king's estates. These were the greater thanes, and were succeeded by the barons, which t.i.tle was brought in by the Normans, and is rarely found before the Conqueror.

Ma.s.s thanes were those who held lands in fee of the church. Middle thanes were such as held very small estates of the king, or parcels of lands of the king's greater thanes. They were called by the Normans vava.s.sors, and their lands vava.s.sories. They who held lands of these, were thanes of the lowest cla.s.s, and did not rank as gentlemen. All thanes disposed of the lands which they held (and which were called Blockland) to their heirs, but with the obligations due to those of whom they were held. Ceorle (whence our word churl) was a countryman or artisan who was a freeman. Those ceorles who held lands in leases were called sockmen, and their land sockland, of which they could not dispose, being barely tenants.

Those ceorles who acquired possession of five hides of land with a large house, court, and bell to call together their servants, were raised to the rank of thanes of the lowest cla.s.s. A hide of land was as much as one plough could till. The villains or slaves in the country were laborers, bound to the service of particular persons; were all capable of possessing money in property, consequently were not strictly slaves in the sense of the Roman law.

Witan or Wites, (_i. e._ wis.e.m.e.n,) were the magistrates and lawyers.

Burghwitten signified the magistrates of cities. Some shires (or counties) are mentioned before king Alfred; and a.s.serius speaks of earls (or counts) of Somerset, and Devonshire, in the reign of Ethelwolph. But Alfred first divided the whole kingdom into shires, the shires into t.i.things, lathes, or wapentacks, the t.i.things into hundreds, and the hundreds into tenths. Each division had a court subordinate to those that were superior, the highest in each shire being the shire-gemot, or folck-mote, which was held twice a year, and in which the bishop or his deputy, and the ealderman, or his viceregent, the sheriff, presided. See Seldon on the t.i.tles of Honor; Speman's Glossary, ad. noviss. Squires on the Government of the English Saxons. Dr. William Howel, in his learned General History, t. 5, p. 273, &c. N.B. The t.i.tles of earls and hersen were first given by Ifwar Widfame, king of Sweden, to two ministers of state in 824; on which see many remarks of Olof Delin, in his excellent new history of Sweden, c. 5, t. {}, p. {}34.

{487}

_Only Complete and Unabridged Edition with nearly 100 pages of Chronological and General Index, Alphabetical and Centenary Table, etc._

THE LIVES THE FATHERS, MARTYRS, AND OTHER PRINc.i.p.aL SAINTS; COMPILED FROM ORIGINAL MONUMENTS, AND OTHER AUTHENTIC RECORDS; ILl.u.s.tRATED 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. III.

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

1903

{488 blank page} {489} CONTENTS

MARCH.

1. PAGE ST. DAVID, Archbishop, Patron of Wales.......... 491 St. Swidbert, or Swibert, the ancient, Bishop and Confessor................................. 493 St. Albinus, Bishop of Angers, Confessor........ 494 St. Monan, Martyr............................... 495

2.

Martyrs under the Lombards...................... 496 St. Ceada, or Chad, Bishop and Confessor........ 497 St. Simplicius, Pope and Confessor.............. 498 St. Marnan, Bishop and Confessor................ 499 St. Charles the Good, Earl of Flanders, Martyr.. 500 St. Joavan, or Joevin, Bishop and Confessor..... 501

3.

St. Cunegundes, Empress......................... 501 SS. Marinus and Asterius, or Astyrius, Martyrs.. 503 SS. Emeterius and Chelidonius, Martyrs.......... 503 St. Winwaloe, or Winwaloc, Abbot................ 504 St. Lamalisse, Confessor........................ 506

4.

St. Casimir, Prince of Poland................... 506 St. Lucius, Pope and Martyr..................... 508 St. Adrian, Bishop of St. Andrew's, Martyr...... 509

5.

SS. Adrian and Eubulus, Martyrs................. 510 St. Kiaran, or Kenerin, Bishop and Confessor.... 511 St. Roger, Confessor............................ 512 St. John Joseph of the Cross.................... 512

6.

St. Chrodegang, Bishop of Metz, Confessor....... 519 B. Coleus, Virgin and Abbess.................... 520 St. Fridolin, Abbot............................. 522 St. Baldrede, Bishop of Glasgow, Confessor...... 522 SS. Kyneburge, Kyneswide, and Tibba............. 522 St. Cadroe. Confessor........................... 523

7.

St Thomas of Aquino, Doctor of the Church and Confessor................................. 523 SS. Perpetua and Felicitas, &c., Martyrs........ 533 St. Paul, Anch.o.r.et.............................. 540

8.

St. John of G.o.d, Confessor...................... 541 Venerable John of Avila, Apostle of Andalusia... 542 St. Felix, Bishop and Confessor................. 547 SS. Apollonius, Philemon, &c., Martyrs.......... 548 St. Julian, Archbishop of Toledo, Confessor..... 548 St. Duthak, Bishop of Ross, in Scotland, Confessor..................................... 549 St. Rosa, of Viterbo, Virgin.................... 549 St. Senan, Bishop and Confessor.. .............. 549 St. Psalmod, or Saumay, Anch.o.r.et................ 550

9.

St. Frances, Widow ............................. 550 Gregory of Nyasa, Bishop and Confessor.......... 552 On the Writings of St. Gregory.................. 553 St. Pacian, Bishop of Barcelona, Confessor...... 557 On the Writings of St. Pacian................... 557 St. Catherine of Bologna, Virgin and Abbess..... 559

10.

SS. The Forty Martyrs of Sebaste................ 560 St. Droctovaeus, Abbot........................... 563 St. Mackessoge, or Kessoge, Confessor........... 564

11.

St. Eulogius of Cordova, Priest and Martyr...... 564 St. Sophronius, Patriarch of Jerusalem, Confessor..................................... 566 St. aengus, Bishop and Confessor................. 567 St. Constantine, Martyr......................... 568

12.

St. Gregory the Great, Pope and Confessor....... 568 On the Life of St. Gregory...................... 580 St. Maximilian, Martyr.......................... 581 St. Paul, Bishop of Leon, Confessor............. 581

13.

St. Nicephorus, Patriarch of Constantinople, Confessor..................................... 582 St. Euphrasia, Virgin........................... 585 St. Theophanes, Abbot and Confessor............. 587 St. Kennocha, Virgin in Scotland................ 588 St. Gerald, Bishop.............................. 588 St. Mochoemoc, in Latin Pulcherius, Abbot....... 588

14.

St. Maud, or Mathildis, Queen of Germany........ 589 SS. Acepsimas, Bishop, Joseph, Priest, and Aithilahas, Deacon, Martyrs................... 591 St. Boniface, Bishop of Ross, Confessor......... 594

15.

St. Abraham, Hermit............................. 594 St. Zachary, Pope and Confessor................. 596

16.

St. Julian, of Cilicia, Martyr.................. 597 St. Finian, surnamed Lobhar, or the Leper....... 598

17.

St. Patrick, Bishop and Confessor, Apostle of Ireland....................................... 599 SS. Martyrs of Alexandria....................... 604 St. Joseph of Arimathea......................... 605 St. Gertrude, Virgin and Abbess of Nivelle ..... 605

18 St. Alexander, Bishop of Jerusalem, Martyr...... 606 St. Cyril, Archbishop of Jerusalem, Confessor... 607