The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Principal Saints Part 76

Footnotes: 1. Some have, by mistake, confounded this place with Ferden, or Werden, beyond the Weser.

2. Voss. de histor. lat. l. 2, c. 3.

ST. BRAULIO, BISHOP OF SARAGOSSA, C.

HE was the great a.s.sistant of St. Isidore of Seville in settling the discipline of the church of Spain, and is one of those holy pastors to whose zeal, learning, and labors it has always professed itself much indebted. He died in 646, in the twentieth year of his episcopacy. He has left us two letters to St. Isidore, an eulogium of that saint, and a catalogue of his works; also a hymn in Iambic verse in honor of St.

Emilian, and the life of that servant of G.o.d, who, after living long a hermit, was called to serve a parish in the diocese of Tarragon, where a famous monastery now bears his name.

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MARCH XXVII.

ST. JOHN OF EGYPT, HERMIT.

From Rufinus, in the second book of the lives of the fathers; and from Pallaudius in his Lausiaca; the last had often seen him. Also St. Jerom, St. Austin, Ca.s.sian, &c. See Tillemont, t. 10, p. 9. See also the Wonders of G.o.d in the Wilderness, p. 160.

A.D. 394.

ST. JOHN was born about the year 305, was of a mean extraction, and brought up to the trade of a carpenter. At twenty-five years of age he forsook the world, and put himself under the guidance and direction of an ancient holy anch.o.r.et with such an extraordinary humility and simplicity as struck the venerable old man with admiration; who inured him to obedience by making him water a dry stick for a whole year as if it were a live plant, and perform several other things as seemingly ridiculous, all which he executed with the utmost fidelity. To the saint's humility and ready obedience, Ca.s.sian[1] attributes the extraordinary gifts he afterwards received from G.o.d. He seems to have lived about twelve years with this old man, till his death, and about four more in different neighboring monasteries.

Being about forty years of age, he retired alone to the top of a rock of very difficult ascent, near Lycopolis.[2] His cell he walled up, leaving only a little window through which he received all necessaries, and spoke to those who visited him what might be for their spiritual comfort and edification. During five days in the week he conversed only with G.o.d: but on Sat.u.r.days and Sundays all but women had free access to him for his instructions and spiritual advice. He never ate till after sunset, and then very sparingly; but never any thing that had been dressed by fire, not so much as bread. In this manner did he live from the fortieth or forty-second to the ninetieth year of his age. For the reception of such as came to him from remote parts, he permitted a kind of hospital to be built near his cell or grotto, where some of his disciples took care of them. He was ill.u.s.trious for miracles, and a wonderful spirit of prophecy, with the power of discovering to those that came to see him, their most secret thoughts and hidden sins. And such was the fame of his predictions, and the l.u.s.tre of his miracles which he wrought on the sick, by sending them some oil which he had blessed, that they drew the admiration of the whole world upon him.

Theodosius the Elder was then emperor, and was attacked by the tyrant Maximus, become formidable by the success of his arms, having slain the emperor Gratian in 383, and dethroned Valentinian in 387. The pious emperor, finding his army much inferior to that of his adversary, caused this servant of G.o.d to be consulted concerning the success of the war against Maximus. Our saint foretold him that he should be victorious almost without blood. The emperor, full of confidence in the prediction, marched into the West, defeated the more numerous armies of Maximus twice in Pannonia; crossed the Alps, took the tyrant in Aquileia, and suffered {665} his soldiers to cut off his head. He returned triumphant to Constantinople, and attributed his victories very much to the prayers of St. John, who also foretold him the events of his other wars, the incursions of barbarians, and all that was to befall his empire. Four years after, in 392, Eugenius, by the a.s.sistance of Arbogastes, who had murdered the emperor Valentinian the Younger, usurped the empire of the West. Theodosius sent Eutropius the Eunuch into Egypt, with instructions to bring St. John with him to Constantinople, if it was possible; but that if he could not prevail with him to undertake the journey, to consult whether it was G.o.d's will that he should march against Eugenius, or wait his arrival in the East. The man of G.o.d excused himself as to his journey to court, but a.s.sured Eutropius that his prince should be victorious, but not without loss and blood: as also that he would die in Italy, and leave the empire of the West to his son; all which happened accordingly. Theodosius marched against Eugenius, and in the first engagement lost ten thousand men, and was almost defeated: but renewing the battle on the next day, the 6th of September, in 394, he gained an entire victory by the miraculous interposition of heaven, as even Claudian, the heathen poet, acknowledges. Theodosius died in the West, on the 17th of January, in 395, leaving his two sons emperors, Arcadius in the East, and Honorius in the West.

This saint restored sight to a senator's wife by some of the oil he had blessed for healing the sick. It being his inviolable custom never to admit any woman to speak to him, this gave occasion to a remarkable incident related by Evagrius, Palladius, and St. Austin in his treatise of Care for the Dead. A certain general officer in the emperor's service visiting the saint, conjured him to permit his wife to speak to him; for she was come to Lycopolis, and had gone through many dangers and difficulties to enjoy that happiness. The holy man answered, that during his stricter enclosure for the last forty years since he had shut himself up in that rock, he had imposed on himself an inviolable rule not to see or converse with women; so he desired to be excused the granting her request. The officer returned to Lycopolis very melancholy.

His wife, who was a person of great virtue, was not to be satisfied. The husband went back to the blessed man, told him that she would die of grief if he refused her request. The saint said to him: "Go to your wife, and tell her that she shall see me tonight, without coming hither or stirring out of her house." This answer he carried to her, and both were very earnest to know in what manner the saint would perform his promise. When she was asleep in the night, the man of G.o.d appeared to her in her dream, and said: "Your great faith, woman, obliged me to come to visit you; but I must admonish you to curb the like desires of seeing G.o.d's servants on earth. Contemplate only their life, and imitate their actions. As for me, why did you desire to see me? Am I a saint, or a prophet like G.o.d's true servants? I am a sinful and weak man. It is therefore only in virtue of your faith that I have had recourse to our Lord, who grants you the cure of the corporal diseases with which you are afflicted. Live always in the fear of G.o.d, apd never forget his benefits." He added several proper instructions for her conduct, any disappeared. The woman awaking, described to her husband the person she had seen in her dream, with all his features, in such a manner as to leave no room to doubt but it was the blessed man that had appeared to her. Whereupon he returned the next day to give him thanks for the satisfaction he had vouchsafed his wife. But the saint on his arrival prevented him, saying: "I have fulfilled your desire, I have seen your wife, and satisfied her in all things she had asked: go in peace." The officer received his benediction, and continued his journey to Seyne.

What the man of G.o.d foretold happened to him, as, {666} among other things, that he should receive particular honors from the emperor.

Besides the authors of the saint's life, St. Austin relates this history which he received from a n.o.bleman of great integrity and credit, who had it from the very persons to whom it happened. St. Austin adds, had he seen St. John, he would have inquired of him, whether he himself really appeared to this woman, or whether it was an angel in his shape, or whether the vision only pa.s.sed in her imagination.[3]

In the year 394, a little before the saint's death, he was visited by Palladius, afterwards bishop of Helenopolis, who is one of the authors of his life. Several anch.o.r.ets of the deserts of Nitria, all strangers, the princ.i.p.al of whom were Evagrius, Albinus, Ammonius, had a great desire to see the saint. Palladius, one of this number, being young, set out first in July, when the flood of the Nile was high. Being arrived at this mountain, he found the door of his porch shut, and that it would not be open till the Sat.u.r.day following. He waited that time in the lodgings of strangers. On Sat.u.r.day, at eight o'clock, Palladius entered the porch, and saw the saint sitting before his window, and giving advice to those who applied to him for it. Having saluted Palladius by an interpreter, he asked him of what country he was, and what was his business, and if he was not of the company or monastery of Evagrius: Palladius owned he was. In the mean time arrived Alypius, governor of the province, in great haste. The saint, on the arrival of Alypius, broke off his discourse with Palladius, who withdrew to make room for the governor to discourse with the saint. Their conversation was very long, and Palladius being, weary, murmured within himself against the venerable old man, as guilty of exception of persons. He was even just going away, when the saint, knowing his secret thoughts, sent Theodorus, his interpreter, to him, saying: "Go, bid that brother not to be impatient: I am going to dismiss the governor, and then will speak to him." Palladius, astonished that his thoughts should be known to him, waited with patience. As soon as Alypius was gone, St. John called Palladius, and said to him: "Why was {sic} you angry, imputing to me in your mind what I was no way guilty of? To you I can speak at any other time, and you have many fathers and brethren to comfort and direct you in the paths of salvation. But this governor being involved in the hurry of temporal affairs, and being come to receive some wholesome advice during the short time his affairs will allow him time to breathe in, how could I give you the preference?" He then told Palladius what pa.s.sed in his heart, and his secret temptations to quit his solitude; for which end the devil represented to him his father's regret for his absence, and that he might induce his brother and sister to embrace a solitary life. The holy man bade him despise such suggestions; for they had both already renounced the world, and his father would yet live seven years.

He foretold him that he should meet with great persecutions and sufferings, and should be a bishop, but with many afflictions: all which came to pa.s.s, though at that time extremely improbable.

The same year, St. Petronius, with six other monks, made a long journey to pay St. John a visit. He asked them if any among them was in holy orders. They said: No. One, however, the youngest in the company, was a deacon, though this was unknown to the rest. The saint, by divine instinct, knew this circ.u.mstance, and that the deacon had concealed his orders out of a false humility, not to seem superior to the others, but their inferior, as he was in age. Therefore, pointing to him, he said: "This man is a deacon." The other denied it, upon the false persuasion that to lie with a view to one's own humiliation was no sin. St. John took him by {667} the hand, and kissing it, said to him: "My son, take care never to deny the grace you have received from G.o.d, lest humility betray you into a lie. We must never lie, under any pretence of good whatever, because no untruth can be from G.o.d." The deacon received this rebuke with great respect. After their prayer together, one of the company begged of the saint to be cured of the tertian ague. He answered: "You desire to be freed from a sickness which is beneficial to you. As nitre cleanses the body, so distempers and other chastis.e.m.e.nts purify the soul." However, he blessed some oil and gave it to him: he vomited plentifully after it, and was from that moment perfectly cured.

They returned to their lodgings, where, by his orders, they were treated with all proper civility, and cordial hospitality. When they went to him again, he received them with joyfulness in his countenance, which evidenced the interior spiritual joy of his soul; he bade them sit down, and asked them whence they came. They said, from Jerusalem. He then made them a long discourse, in which he first endeavored to show his own baseness; after which he explained the means by which pride and vanity are to be banished out of the heart, and all virtues to be acquired. He related to them the examples of many monks, who, by suffering their hearts to be secretly corrupted by vanity, at last fell also into scandalous irregularities; as of one, who, after a most holy and austere life, by this means fell into fornication, and then by despair into all manner of disorders: also of another, who, from vanity, fell into a desire of leaving his solitude; but by a sermon he preached to others, in a monastery on his road, was mercifully converted, and became an eminent penitent. The blessed John thus entertained Petronius and his company for three days, till the hour of None. When they were leaving him, he gave them his blessing, and said: "Go in peace, my children; and know that the news of the victory which the religious prince Theodosius has gained over the tyrant Eugenius, is this day come to Alexandria: but this excellent emperor will soon end his life by a natural death." Some days after their leaving him to return home, they were informed he had departed this life. Having been favored by a foresight of his death, he would see n.o.body for the last three days. At the end of this term he sweetly expired, being on his knees at prayer, towards the close of the year 394, of the beginning of 395. It might probably be on the 17th of October, on which day the Copths, or Egyptian Christians, keep his festival: the Roman and other Latin Martyrologies mark it on the 27th of March.

The solitude which the Holy Ghost recommends, and which the saints embraced, resembled that of Jesus Christ, being founded in the same motive or principle, and having the same exercises and employments, and the same end. Christ was conducted by the Holy Ghost into the desert, and he there spent his time in prayer and fasting. Woe to those whom humor or pa.s.sion leads into solitude, or who consecrate it not to G.o.d by mortification, sighs of penance, and hymns of divine praise. To those who thus sanctify their desert, or cell, it will be an antic.i.p.ated paradise, an abyss of spiritual advantages and comforts, known only to such as have enjoyed them. _The Lord will change the desert into a place of delights, and will make the solitude a paradise and a garden worthy of himself._[4] In it only joy and jubilee shall be seen, nothing shall be heard but thanksgiving and praise. It is the dwelling of a terrestrial seraph, whose sole employment is to labor to know, and correct, all secret disorders of his own soul, to forget the world, and all objects of vanity which could distract or entangle him; to subdue his senses, to purify the faculties of his soul, and entertain in his {668} heart a constant fire of devotion, by occupying it a.s.siduously on G.o.d, Jesus Christ, and heavenly things, and banishing all superfluous desires and thoughts; lastly, to make daily progress in purity of conscience, humility, mortification, recollection, and prayer, and to find all his joy in the most fervent and a.s.siduous adoration, love, and praise of his sovereign Creator and Redeemer.

Footnotes: 1. Coll. b. 4, c. 21, p. 81.

2. A city in the north of Thebais, in Egypt.

3. S. Aug. l. pro cura de mortuis, c. 17, p. 294.

4. Isa. lxiii.

ST. RUPERT, OR ROBERT, C.

BISHOP OF SALTZBOURG.

HE was by birth a Frenchman, and of royal blood; but still more ill.u.s.trious for his learning, and the extraordinary virtues he practised from his youth. He exercised himself is austere fasting, watching, and other mortifications; was a great lover of chast.i.ty and temperance; and so charitable as always to impoverish himself to enrich the poor. His reputation drew persons from remote provinces to receive his advice and instructions. He removed all their doubts and scruples, comforted the afflicted, cured the sick, and healed the disorders of souls. So distinguished a merit raised him to the episcopal see of Worms. But that people, being for the most part idolaters, could not bear the l.u.s.tre of such a sanct.i.ty, which condemned their irregularities and superst.i.tions.

They beat him with rods, loaded him with all manner of outrages, and expelled him the city. But G.o.d prepared for him another harvest.

Theodon, duke of Bavaria, hearing of his reputation and miracles, sent messengers to him, earnestly beseeching him to come and preach the gospel to the Baioarians, or Bavarians. This happened two years after his expulsion from Worms: during which interval he had made a journey to Rome. He was received at Ratisbon by Theodon and his court with all possible distinction, in 697, and found the hearts both of the n.o.bles and people docile to the word of G.o.d. The Christian faith had been planted in that country two hundred years before, by St. Severinus, the apostle of Noric.u.m. After his death, heresies and heathenish superst.i.tions had entirely extinguished the light of the gospel.

Bagintrude, sister of duke Theodon, being a Christian, disposed her brother and the whole country to receive the faith. Rupert, with the help of other zealous priests, whom he had brought with him, instructed, and, after a general fast, baptized, the duke Theodon and the lords and people of the whole country. G.o.d confirmed his preaching by many miracles. He converted also to Christianity the neighboring nations.

After Ratisbon, the capital, the second chief seat of his labors was Laureac.u.m, now called Lorch,[1] where he healed several diseases by prayer, and made many converts. However, it was not Lorch, nor the old Reginum, thence called Regensbourg, now Ratisbon, the capital of all those provinces, that was pitched upon to be the seat of the saint's bishopric, but old Juvavia, then almost in ruins, since rebuilt and called Saltzbourg. The duke Theodon adorned and enriched it with many magnificent donations, which enabled St. Rupert to found there several rich churches and monasteries. After the prince's death, his son Theodebert, or Diotper, inheriting his zeal and piety, augmented considerably the revenues of this church. St. Rupert took a journey into France to procure a new supply of able laborers, and brought back to Saltzbourg twelve holy missionaries, with his niece St. Erentrude, a virgin consecrated to G.o.d, for whom he built a great monastery, called Nunberg, of which {669} she was the first abbess.[2] St. Rupert labored several years in this see, and died happily on Easter-day, which fell that year on the 27th of March, after he had said ma.s.s and preached; on which day the Roman and other Martyrologies mention him. His princ.i.p.al festival is kept with the greatest solemnity in Austria and Bavaria on the 25th of September, the day of one of the translations of his relics, which are kept in the church under his name in Saltzbourg. Mabillon and Bulteau, upon no slight grounds, think this saint to have lived a whole century later than is commonly supposed, and that he founded the church of Saltzbourg about the year 700. See his life, published by Canisius, Henschenius, and Mabillon, with the notes of the last-mentioned editor.

Footnotes: 1. A village on the Danube in the midway between Ratisbon and Vienna, the capital of eastern Bavaria, at present Austria.

2. The bishop of Saltzbourg was, under Charlemagne, made an archbishop and metropolitan of Bavaria, Austria, and its hereditary territories. He is one of the first ecclesiastical princes of the empire, and is elected by the canons of the cathedral, who are all of n.o.ble extraction.

MARCH XXVIII.

PRISCUS, MALCHUS, AND ALEXANDER, MARTYRS.

From Eus. Hist. b. 7, c. 12, p. 262.

A.D. 260.

THESE eminent Christians, Priscus, Malchus, and Alexander, led a retired holy life in the country near Caesarea, in Palestine. During the fury of the persecution under Valerian, they often called to mind the triumphs of the martyrs, and secretly reproached themselves with cowardice, as living like soldiers who pa.s.sed their time in softness and ease, while their brethren and fellow-warriors bore all the heat of the battle. They could not long smother these warm sentiments in their breast; but expressed them to one another. "What," said they, "while the secure gate of heaven is open, shall we shut it against ourselves? Shall we be so faint-hearted as not to suffer for the name of Christ, who died for us?

Our brethren invite us by their example: their blood is a loud voice, which presses us to tread in their steps. Shall we be deaf to a cry calling us to the combat, and to a glorious victory?" Full of this holy ardor, they all, with one mind, repaired to Caesarea, and of their own accord, by a particular instinct of grace, presented themselves before the governor, declaring themselves Christians. While all others were struck with admiration at the sight of their generous courage, the barbarous judge appeared not able to contain his rage. After having tried on them all the tortures which he employed on other martyrs, he condemned them to be exposed to wild beasts. They are honored on this day in the Roman Martyrology.

In consecrating ourselves to the service of G.o.d, and to his pure love, the first and most essential condition is that we do it without reserve, with an earnest desire of attaining to the perfection of our state, and a firm resolution of sparing nothing, and being deterred by no difficulties from pursuing this end with our whole strength; and it must be our chief care constantly to maintain, and always increase this desire in our souls. Upon this condition {670} depends all out spiritual progress. This is more essential in a religious state than the vows themselves; and it is this which makes the difference betwixt the fervent and the lukewarm Christian. Many deceive themselves in this particular, and flatter themselves their resolution of aspiring after perfection, with all their strength, is sincere, whereas it is very imperfect. Of this we can best judge by their earnestness to advance in a spirit of prayer, and in becoming truly spiritual; in crucifying self-love, overcoming their failings, and cutting off all occasions of dissipation, and all impediments of their spiritual advancement.

Mortification and prayer, which are the princ.i.p.al means, present usually the greatest difficulties: but these, as St. Terasa observes, are better than half vanquished and removed by a firm resolution of not being discouraged by any obstacles, but of gathering from them fresh vigor and strength. Patience and fort.i.tude crown in the saints what this fervent resolution began.

ST. SIXTUS III., POPE.

HE was a priest among the Roman clergy in 418, when pope Zozimus condemned the Pelagian heretics. Sixtus was the first, after this sentence, who p.r.o.nounced publicly anathema against them, to stop their slander in Africa that he favored their doctrine, as we are a.s.sured by St. Austin and St. Prosper in his chronicle. The former sent him two congratulatory letters the same year, in which he applauds this testimony of his zeal, and in the first of these letters professes a high esteem of a treatise written by him in defence of the grace of G.o.d against its enemies. It was that calumny of the Pelagian heretics that led Garnier into the mistake that our saint at first favored their errors. But a change of this kind would not have been buried in silence.

After the death of St. Celestine, Sixtus was chosen pope in 432. He wrote to Nestorius to endeavor to reclaim him after his condemnation at Ephesus, in 431: but his heart was hardened, and he stopped his ears against all wholesome admonitions. The pope had the comfort to see a happy reconciliation made, by his endeavors, between the Orientals and St. Cyril: in which he much commended the humility and pacific dispositions of the latter. He says "that he was charged with the care and solicitude of all the churches in the world,[1] and that it is unlawful for any one to abandon the faith of the apostolic Roman church, in which St. Peter teaches in his successors what he received from Christ."[2] When Ba.s.sus, a n.o.bleman of Rome, had been condemned by the emperor, and excommunicated by a synod of bishops for raising a grievous slander against the good pope, the meek servant of Christ visited and a.s.sisted him in person, administered him the viatic.u.m in his last sickness; and buried him with his own hands. Julian of Eclanum or Eculanum, the famous Pelagian, earnestly desiring to recover his see, made great efforts to be admitted to the communion of the church, pretending that he was become a convert, and used several artifices to convince our saint that he really was so: but he was too well acquainted with them to be imposed on. This holy pope died soon after, on the 28th of March, in 440, having sat in the see near eight years. See his letters, Anastasius's Pontifical, with the notes of Bianchini, &c.

Footnotes: 1. Ep. 1, ad Episc. Orient. p. 1236. Ep. decret. t. 1.

2. Ep. 6, and Joan. Antioch. contra Nestor.

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ST. GONTRAN, KING AND CONFESSOR.

HE was son of king Clotaire, and grandson of Clovis I. and St.

Clotildis. Being the second son, while his brothers Charibert reigned at Paris, and Sigebert in Austrasia, residing at Metz, he was crowned king of Orleans and Burgundy in 561, making Challons on the Saone his capital. When compelled to take up arms against his ambitious brothers and the Lombards, he made no other use of his victories under the conduct of a brave general called Mommol, than to give peace to his dominions. He protected his nephews against the practices of the wicked dowager queens, Brunehault of Sigebert, and Fredegonde of Chilperic, the firebrands of France. The putting to death the physicians of the queen, at her request, on her death-bed, and the divorcing his wife Mercatrude, are crimes laid to his charge, in which the barbarous manners of his nation involved him: but these he effaced by tears of repentance. He governed his kingdom, studying rather to promote the temporal happiness of others than his own, a stranger to the pa.s.sions of pride, jealousy, and ambition, and making piety the only rule of his policy. The prosperity of his reign, both in peace and war, condemn those who think that human policy cannot be modelled by the maxims of the gospel, whereas nothing can render a government more flourishing. He always treated the pastors of the church with respect and veneration, regarding them as his fathers, and honoring and consulting them as his masters. He was the protector of the oppressed, and the tender parent of his subjects, whom he treated as his children. He poured out his treasures among them with a holy profusion; especially in the time of a pestilence and famine. He gave the greatest attention to the care of the sick. He fasted, prayed, wept, and offered himself to G.o.d night and day, as a victim ready to be sacrificed on the altar of his justice, to avert his indignation, which he believed he himself had provoked, and drawn down upon his innocent people. He was a severe punisher of crimes in his officers and others, and, by many wholesome regulations, restrained the barbarous licentiousness of his troops, but no man was more ready to forgive offences against his own person. He contented himself with imprisoning a man who, through the instigation of queen Fredegonde, had attempted to stab him, and he spared another a.s.sa.s.sin sent by the same wicked woman, because he had taken shelter in a church. With royal magnificence he built and endowed many churches and monasteries. St.

Gregory of Tours relates many miracles performed by him both before and after his death, to some of which he was an eye-witness. This good king, like another penitent David, having spent his life after his conversion, though on the throne, in the retirement and penance of a recluse, (as St. Hugh of Cluny says of him, exhorting king Philip I. to imitate his example,) died on the 28th of March, in 593, in the sixty-eighth year of his age, having reigned thirty-one and some months. He was buried in the church of St. Marcellus, which he had founded. The Huguenots scattered his ashes in the sixteenth century: only his skull escaped their fury, and is now kept there in a silver case. He is mentioned in the Roman Martyrology. See St. Gregory of Tours, Fredegarius, and Baillet.

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MARCH XXIX.

SS. JONAS, BARACHISIUS, AND THEIR COMPANIONS,

MARTYRS.