Alice Hegan Rice - "Calvary Alley"

J. E. Bygate - "Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Durham"

Thomas Hodgkin - "Theodoric the Goth"

May Sinclair - "Life and Death of Harriett Frean"

Editorial
This article examines the wide range of anonymous and pseudonymous naming practices to be found in West African newspapers between the 1880s and 1930s, and asks about the shape of a West African history of anonymity as compared with recent histories of anonymity in European literature. The article also discusses the ways in which colonial West African uses of anonymity and pseudonyms challenge postcolonial scholarship on agency, subjectivity, resistance, authenticity and identity.

The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Principal Saints

A >> Alban Butler >> The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Principal Saints




SAINT PETER,

DISCIPLE of St. Gregory the Great, and first abbot of St. Austin's, in
Canterbury, then called St. Peter's. Going to France in 608, he was
drowned near the harbor of Ambleteuse, between Calais and Bologne, and
is named in the English and Gallican Martyrologies. See Bede, Hist. l.
1, c. 33.

{101}


JANUARY VII.

ST. LUCIAN, PRIEST AND MARTYR.

From his panegyric by St. Chrysostom, at Antioch, in 387, and pronounced
on his festival, T. 2, p. 524. And also from St. Jerom de script c. 77.
Eusebius, l. 8, c. 12, l. 9, c. 6, and Rufinus. See Tillemont T. 5, p.
474. Pagi, an. 311.

A.D. 312.

ST. LUCIAN, surnamed of Antioch, was born at Samosata, in Syria. He lost
his parents while very young; and being come to the possession of his
estate, which was very considerable, he distributed all among the poor.
He became a great proficient in rhetoric and philosophy, and applied
himself to the study of the holy scriptures under one Macarius at
Edessa. Convinced of the obligation annexed to the character of
priesthood, which was that of devoting himself entirely to the service
of God and the good of his neighbor, he did not content himself with
inculcating the practice of virtue both by word and example; he also
undertook to purge the scriptures, that is, both the Old and New
Testament, from the several faults that had crept into them, either by
reason of the inaccuracy of transcribers, or the malice of heretics.
Some are of opinion, that as to the Old Testament, he only revised it,
by comparing different editions of the Septuagint: others contend, that
he corrected it upon the Hebrew text, being well versed in that
language. Certain, however, it is that St. Lucian's edition of the
scriptures was much esteemed, and was of great use to St. Jerom.[1][2]

{102}

S. Alexander, bishop of Alexandria, says that Lucian remained some years
separated from the catholic communion,[3] at Antioch, under three
successive bishops, namely, Domnus, Timaeus, and Cyril. If it was for too
much favoring Paul of Samosata, condemned at Antioch in the year 269, he
must have been deceived, for want of a sufficient penetration into the
impiety of that dissembling heretic. It is certain, at least, that he
died in the catholic communion; which also appears from a fragment of a
letter written by him to the church of Antioch, and still extant in the
Alexandrian Chronicle. Though a priest of Antioch, we find him at
Nicomedia, in the year 303, when Dioclesian first published his edicts
against the Christians. He there suffered a long imprisonment for the
faith; for the Paschal Chronicle quotes these words from a letter which
he wrote out of his dungeon to Antioch, "All the martyrs salute you. I
inform you that the pope Anthimus (bishop of Nicomedia) has finished his
course by martyrdom." This happened in 303. Yet Eusebius informs us,
that St. Lucian did not arrive himself at the crown of martyrdom till
after the death of St. Peter of Alexandria, in 311, so that he seems to
have continued nine years in prison. At length he was brought before
the governor, or, as the acts intimate, the emperor himself, for the
word[4] which Eusebius uses may imply either. On his trial, he presented
to the judge an excellent apology for the Christian faith. Being
remanded to prison, an order was given that no food should be allowed
him; but, when almost dead with hunger, dainty meats that had been
offered to idols were set before him, which he would not touch. It was
not in itself unlawful to eat of such meats, as St. Paul teaches, except
where it would give scandal to the weak, or when it was exacted as an
action of idolatrous superstition, as was the case here. Being brought a
second time before the tribunal, he would give no other answer to all
the questions put to him, but this: "I am a Christian." He repeated the
same while on the rack, and he finished his glorious course in prison,
either by famine, or, according to St. Chrysostom, by the sword. His
acts relate many of his miracles, with other particulars; as that, when
bound and chained down on his back in prison, he consecrated the divine
mysteries upon his own breast, and communicated the faithful that were
present: this we also read in Philostorgius,[5] the Arian historian. St.
Lucian suffered at Nicomedia, where Maximinus II. resided.

His body was interred at Drepanum, in Bithynia, which, in honor of him,
Constantine the Great soon after made a large city, which he exempted
from all taxes, and honored with the name of Helenopolis, from his
mother. St. Lucian was crowned in 312, on the 7th of January, on which
day his festival was kept at Antioch immediately after his death, as
appears from St. Chrysostom.[6] It is the tradition of the church of
Arles, that the body of St. {103} Lucian was sent out of the East to
Charlemagne, who built a church under his invocation at Arles, in which
his relics are preserved.[7]

* * * * *

The first thing that is necessary in the service of God, is earnestly to
search his holy will, by devoutly reading, listening to, and meditating
on his eternal truths. This will set the divine law in a clear and full
light, and conduct us, by unerring rules, to discover and accomplish
every duty. It will awake and continually increase a necessary
tenderness of conscience, which will add light and life to its
convictions, oblige us to a more careful trial and examination of all
our actions, keep us not only from evil, but from every appearance of
it, render us steadfast and immoveable in every virtuous practice, and
always preserve a quick and nice sense of good and evil. For this
reason, the word of God is called in holy scripture, _Light_, because it
distinguisheth between good and evil, and, like a lamp, manifesteth the
path which we are to choose, and disperseth that mist with which the
subtilty of our enemy and the lusts of our heart have covered it. At the
same time, a daily repetition of contrition and compunction washes off
the stains which we discover in our souls, and strongly incites us, by
the fervor and fruitfulness of our following life, to repair the sloth
and barrenness of the past. Prayer must be made our main assistant in
every step of this spiritual progress. We must pray that God would
enable us to search out and discover our own hearts, and reform whatever
is amiss in them. If we do this sincerely, God will undoubtedly grant
our requests; will lay open to us all our defects and infirmities, and,
showing us how far short we come of the perfection of true holiness of
life, will not suffer any latent corruptions in our affections to
continue undiscovered, nor permit us to forget the stains and ruins
which the sins of our life past have left behind them.

Footnotes:
1. St. Hier. Catal. Vir. illustr. c. 77, Ep. 107, et Praef. in Paralip.
Item Synopsis ap. St. Athan. ad fin.
2. The Greek translation of the Old Testament, commonly called of the
seventy, was made by the Jews living at Alexandria, and used by all
the Hellenist Jews. This version of the Pentateuch appeared about
two hundred and eighty-five years before Christ, according to Dr.
Hody, (_de Bibliorum Textibus, Original. et Versionibus_, p. 570,
&c.) that of the other parts somewhat later, and at different times,
as the style seems to prove. The Jews even of Palestine at first
gloried in this translation, as Philo testifies; but it being
employed by the Christians against them, they began, soon after the
beginning of the second century, to condemn it, alleging that it was
not always conformable to the Hebrew original. This text had then
suffered several alterations by the blunders, and, according to
Kennicott, some few by the wilful malice of transcribers; though
these differences are chiefly ascribed by Origen to alterations of
the Hebrew text, introduced after the version was made. The seventy
being exploded by the Jews, three new versions were set on foot
among them. The first was formed in 129, by Aquila, of Sinope, in
Pontus, whom the emperor Adrian, when he built Jerusalem, under the
name of AElia, appointed overseer of that undertaking. He had been
baptized, but for his conduct being expelled from among the
Christians, became a Jew, and gave his new translation out of hatred
to the Christians. A second was published about the year 175, by
Theodotion, a native of Ephesus, some time a Christian, but a
disciple first of the heretic Tatian, then of Marcion. At length he
fell into Judaism, or at least connected obedience to the Ritual Law
of Moses with a certain belief in Christ. His translation, which
made its appearance in the reign of Commodus, was bolder than that
of Aquila. The third version was formed about the year 200, by
Symmachus, who having been first a Samaritan, afterwards, upon some
disgust turned Jew. In this translation he had a double view of
thwarting both the Jews and Christians. St. Jerom extols the
elegance of his style, but says he walked in the steps of
Theodotion; with the two former translators he substituted [Greek:
neanis] for [Greek: parthenos] in the famous prophecy of Isaiah, (c.
vii. v. 14,) and in that of Jacob, (Gen. xlix. 10,) [Greek: ta
apokeimena autoi] for [Greek: oi apokeitai] Both which
falsifications St. Justin Martyr charges upon Aquila, (Dial. cum
Tryphon. p. 224, 395, 284, ed. Thirlbii.) and St. Irenaeus reproaches
Aquila and Theodotion with the former, (p. 253, ed. Grebe.) Many
additions from these versions, and several various readings daily
creeping into the copies of the seventy, which were transcribed, to
apply a remedy to this danger, Origen compiled his Hexapla, &c., of
which see some account in the appendix to April 21. Before the year
300 three other corrected editions of the old Greek version were
published, the first by Lucian, the second by Hesychius, and the
third by Pamphilus the martyr. The first was made use of in the
churches, from Constantinople to Antioch; that of Hesychius was
received at Alexandria, and in the rest of Egypt; and the third in
the intermediate country of Palestine, as we are informed by St
Jerom, (_Praef. in Paralip. et Praef. in Explic. Daniel_.) The edition
of Lucian came nearest to the [Greek: koine] or common edition of
the seventy, and was the purest as St. Jerom (ep. ad Suniam et
Fretel. T. 2, col. 627,) and Euthymius affirm, and is generally
allowed by modern critics, says Mr. Kennicott, (diss. 2, p. 397.)
The excellent Vatican MS. of the seventy, published (though with
some amendments from other MSS.) by Cardinal Carafa, at the command
of Sixtus V., in 1587, is said in the preface to have been written
before the year 390; but Blanchini (Vindiciae vet. Cod. p. 34)
supposes it somewhat later. It is proved from St. Jerom's letter to
Sunia and Fretela, and several instances, that this Vatican MS.
comes nearest to the [Greek: koine], and to Lucian's edition, as
Grabe, (See Annot. in ep. ad Sun. et Fretel. T. 2, col. 671,)
Blanchini, (Vindiciae, p. 256) and Kennicott (diss. 2, p. 416) take
notice: the old Alexandrian MS. kept in the British Museum at
London, is thought by Grabe to have been written about the year 396;
by Mills and Wetstein, (in their _Prolegom. in Nov. Test. Gr._) about
one hundred years later. It was published by Grabe, though not pure;
for in some places he gives the reading of this MS. in the margin,
and prefers some other in the text. Though none of Origen's Asterics
are retained, it comes nearest to his edition in the Hexapla, as
Grabe, Montfaucon, and Kennicott agree: in some places it is
conformable to Theodotion, or Symmachus, and seems mostly the
Hesychian edition. See Montfaucon, Praelim. in Hexapla; Kennicott,
diss. 2.
3. [Greek: Aposunagwgos emo ne.]
4. [Greek: Arxontos]
5. 2 B. 2, c. 12, 13.
6. The Arians boasted that Arius had received his impious doctrine from
St. Lucian: but he is justified with regard to that calumny by the
silence of Saint Athanasius; the panegyrics of St. Chrysostom and
St. Jerom; the express testimony of the ancient book, On the
Trinity, among the works of St. Athanasius, Dial. 3, tom. 2, p. 179;
his orthodox confession of faith in Sozomen, l. 3, c. 5, p. 502; and
the authority of the church, which from his death has always ranked
him among her illustrious martyrs.
7. Saussaye Mart. Gallic. t. 1, p. 17. Chatelain, p. 114.

ST. CEDD, BISHOP OF LONDON.

HE was brother to St. Chad, bishop of Litchfield, and to St. Celin, and
Cimbert, apostolic priests, who all labored zealously in the conversion
of the English Saxons, their countrymen. St. Cedd long served God in the
monastery of Lindisfarne, founded by St. Aidan, and for his great
sanctity was promoted to the priesthood. Peada, the son of Penda, king
of Mercia, was appointed by his father king of the midland English; by
which name Bede distinguishes the inhabitants of Leicestershire, and
part of Lincolnshire and Derbyshire, from the rest of the Mercians. The
young king, with a great number of noblemen, servants, and soldiers,
went to Atwall, or Walton, the seat of Oswy, king of the Northumbers,
and was there baptized with all his attendants, by Finan, bishop of
Lindisfarne. Four priests, Saint Cedd, Adda, Betta, and Diuma, the last
a Scot, the rest English, were sent to preach the gospel to his people,
the midland English; among whom great multitudes received the word of
life with joy. King Penda himself obstructed not these missionaries in
preaching the faith in other parts of Mercia, but hated and despised
such as embraced the gospel, yet lived not up to it, saying, "Such
wretches deserved the utmost contempt, who would not obey the God in
whom they believed." St. Cedd, after laboring there some time with great
success, was called from this mission to a new harvest. Sigbercht, or
Sigebert, king of the East-Saxons, paying a visit to Oswy, in {104}
Northumberland, was persuaded by that prince to forsake his idols, and
was baptized by bishop Finan. When he was returned to his own kingdom,
he entreated king Oswy to send him some teachers, who might instruct his
people in the faith of Christ. Oswy called St. Cedd out of the province
of the midland English, and sent him with another priest to the nation
of the East-Saxons. When they had travelled over that whole province,
and gathered numerous churches to our Lord, St. Cedd returned to
Lindisfarne, to confer with bishop Finan about certain matters of
importance. That prelate ordained him bishop of the East-Saxons, having
called two other bishops to assist at his consecration. St. Cedd going
back to his province, pursued the work he had begun, built churches, and
ordained priests and deacons. Two monasteries were erected by him in
those parts, which seem afterwards to have been destroyed by the Danes,
and never restored. The first, he founded near a city, called by the
English Saxons, Ythancester, formerly Othona, seated upon the bank of
the river Pante, (now Froshwell,) which town was afterwards swallowed up
by the gradual encroaching of the sea. St. Cedd's other monastery was
built at another city called Tillaburg, now Tilbury, near the river
Thames, and here Camden supposes the saint chiefly to have resided, as
the first English bishops often chose to live in monasteries. But others
generally imagine, that London, then the seat of the king, was the
ordinary place of his residence, as it was of the ancient bishops of
that province, and of all his successors. In a journey which St. Cedd
made to his own country, Edilwald, the son of Oswald, who reigned among
the Deiri, in Yorkshire, finding him to be a wise and holy man, desired
him to accept of some possessions of land to build a monastery, to which
the king might resort to offer his prayers with those who should attend
the divine service without intermission, and where he might be buried
when he died. The king had before with him a brother of our saint,
called Celin, a priest of great piety, who administered the divine word,
and the sacraments, to him and his family. St. Cedd pitched upon a place
amidst craggy and remote mountains, which seemed fitter to be a retreat
for robbers, or a lurking place for wild beasts, than a habitation for
men. Here he resolved first to spend forty days in fasting and prayer,
to consecrate the place to God. For this purpose he retired thither in
the beginning of Lent. He ate only in the evening, except on Sundays,
and his meal consisted of an egg, and a little milk mingled with water,
with a small portion of bread, according to the custom of Lindisfarne,
derived from that of St. Columba, by which it appears that, for want of
legumes so early in the year, milk and eggs were allowed in that
northern climate, which the canons forbade in Lent. Ten days before the
end of Lent, the bishop was called to the king for certain pressing
affairs, so that he was obliged to commission his priest, Cynibil, who
was his brother, to complete it. This monastery being founded in 658,
was called Lestingay. St. Cedd placed in it monks, with a superior from
Lindisfarne; but continued to superintend the same, and afterwards made
several visits thither from London. Our saint excommunicated a certain
nobleman among the East-Saxons, for an incestuous marriage; forbidding
any Christian to enter his house, or eat with him. Notwithstanding this
prohibition, the king went to a banquet at his house. Upon his return,
the holy bishop met him, whom, as soon as the king saw, he began to
tremble, and lighting from his horse, prostrated himself at his feet,
begging pardon for his offence. The bishop touched him with the rod
which he held in his hand, and said, "O king, because thou wouldst not
refrain from the house of that wicked excommunicated person, thou
thyself shalt die in that very house." Accordingly, some time after, the
king was basely murdered, in 661. by this nobleman and another, {105}
both his own kinsmen, who alleged no other reason for their crime, than
that he was too easy in forgiving his enemies. This king was succeeded
by Suidhelm, the son of Sexbald, whom St. Cedd regenerated to Christ by
baptism. In 664, St. Cedd was present at the conference, or synod, of
Streneshalch, in which he forsook the Scottish custom, and agreed to
receive the canonical observance of the time of Easter. Soon after, a
great pestilence breaking out in England, St. Cedd died of it, in his
beloved monastery of Lestingay, in the mountainous part of Yorkshire,
since destroyed by the Danes, so that its exact situation is not known.
He was first buried in the open cemetery, but, not long after, a church
of stone being built in the same monastery, under the invocation of the
Blessed Virgin, the mother of our Lord, his body was removed, and laid
at the right hand of the altar. Thirty of the saint's religious brethren
in Essex, upon the news of his death, came to Lestingay, in the
resolution to live and die where their holy father had ended his life.
They were willingly received by their brethren, but were all carried off
by the same pestilence, except a little boy, who was afterwards found
not to have been then baptized, and being in process of time advanced to
the priesthood, lived to gain many souls to God. St. Cedd died on the
26th of October, but is commemorated in the English Martyrology on the
7th of January. See Bede, Hist. l. 3, c. 21, 22, 23. Wharton Hist.
Episc. Lond. &c.

ST. KENTIGERNA, WIDOW.

SHE is commemorated on the 7th of January, in the Aberdeen Breviary,
from which we learn, that she was of royal blood, daughter of Kelly,
prince of Leinster in Ireland, as Colgan proves from ancient monuments.
She was mother of the holy abbot St. Foelan, or Felan. After the death
of her husband, she left Ireland, and consecrated her to God in a
religious state, and lived in great austerity and humility, and died on
the 7th of January, in the year 728. Adam King informs us that a famous
parish church bears her name at Locloumont, in Inchelroch, a small
island into which she retired some time before her death, that she might
with greater liberty give herself up to heavenly meditation. See Brev.
Aberden. et Colgan ad 7 Jan. p. 23.

ST. ALDRIC, BISHOP OF MANS, C.

THIS saint was born of a noble family, of partly Saxon and partly
Bavarian extraction, about the year 800. At twelve years of age he was
placed by his father in the court of Charlemagne, in the family of Lewis
le Debonnaire, where, by his application to the exercises of devotion,
and to serious studies, and by his eminent virtue, he gained the esteem
of the whole court. But the false lustre of worldly honors had no charms
to one who, from his infancy, had entertained no other desire than that
of consecrating himself to the divine service. About the year 821,
bidding adieu to the court, he retired from Aix-la-chapelle to Metz,
where he entered himself amongst the clergy, in the bishop's seminary,
and received the clerical tonsure. Two years after, he was promoted to
the holy orders of deacon, and, after three years more, to the
priesthood. The emperor Lewis le Debonnaire called him again to court,
and made him his first chaplain and his confessor. In 832, St. Aldric
was chosen bishop of Mans, and consecrated on the 22d of December. The
emperor arrived at Mans three days after, and kept the {106} Christmas
holydays with him. The holy pastor was humble, patient, severe towards
himself, and mild and charitable to all others. He employed both his
patrimony and his whole interest and credit in relieving the poor,
redeeming captives, establishing churches and monasteries, and promoting
piety and religion. In the civil wars which divided the French monarchy,
his fidelity to his prince, and to his successor Charles the Bald, was
inviolable, for which he was for almost a year expelled, by the
factious, from his see; though it is a subject of dispute whether this
happened in the former or in the latter reign. It was a principal part
of his care, to maintain an exact discipline in his clergy; for whose
use he drew up a collection of canons, of councils, and decretals of
popes, called his Capitulars, which seems to have been the most learned
and judicious work of that kind which that age produced, so that the
loss of it is much regretted.[1] Some fragments have reached us of the
excellent regulations which he made for the celebration of the divine
service, in which he orders ten wax candles, and ninety lamps with oil,
to be lighted up in his cathedral on all great festivals.[2] We have
three testaments of this holy prelate extant.[3] The last is an edifying
monument of his sincere piety: in the two first, he bequeaths several
lands and possessions to many churches of his diocese, adding prudent
advice and regulations for maintaining good order, and a spirit of
charity, between the clergy and monks. In 836, he was deputed by the
council of Aix-la-chapelle, with Erchenrad, bishop of Paris, to Pepin,
king of Aquitain, who was then reconciled with the emperor his father;
and that prince was prevailed on by them to cause all the possessions of
churches, which had been seized by those of his party, to be restored.
Our saint assisted at the eighth council of Paris, in 846, and at the
council of Tours, in 849. The two last years of his life he was confined
to his bed by a palsy, during which time he redoubled his fervor and
assiduity in holy prayer, for which he had from his infancy an
extraordinary ardor. He died the 7th of January, 856, having been bishop
almost twenty-four years. He was buried in the church of St. Vincent, to
which, and the monastery to which it belongs, he had been a great
benefactor. His relics are honorably preserved there at this day, and
his festival has been kept at Mans from time immemorial. See his life
published by Baluze, T. 3, Miscell. from an ancient MS. belonging to his
church. The author produces many original public instruments, and seems
to have been contemporary. (See Hist Lit. de la France, T. 5, p. 145.)
Another life, probably compiled by a canon of the cathedral of Mans, in
the time of Robert, successor to Saint Aldric, is given us by Mabillon,
Annal. T. 3, p. 46, 246, 397, &c., but inserts some false pieces. (See
Hist. Lit. ib. p. 148.) The life of St. Aldric, which we find in
Bollandus, is a modern piece composed by John Moreau, canon of Mans.

Footnotes:
1. See Baluze, Capitul. Regnum Fr. T. 2, p. 44.
2. Ibid. p. 143.
3. Ib. p. 63, 70, 72, 80.

SAINT THILLO,

CALLED IN FRANCE THEAU, IN FLANDERS TILLOINE, OR TILMAN, C.

HE was by birth a Saxon, and being made captive, was carried into the
Low Countries, where he was ransomed and baptized by St. Eligius. That
apostolical man sent him to his abbey of Solignac, in Limousin. St.
Thillo was called thence by St. Eligius, ordained priest, and employed
by him some time at Tournay, and in other parts of the Low Countries.
The inhabitants of the country of Isengihen, near Courtray, regard him
as their apostle. Some years after the death of St. Eligius, St. Thillo
returned to Solignac, {107} and lived a recluse near that abbey, in
simplicity, devotion, and austerities, imitating the Antonies and
Macariuses. He died in his solitude, about the year 702, of his age
ninety-four, and was honored with miracles. His name is famous in the
French and Belgic calendars, though it occurs not in the Roman. St.
Owen, in his life of St. Eligius, names Thillo first among the seven
disciples of that saint, who worked with him at his trade of goldsmith,
and imitated him in all his religious exercises, before that holy man
was engaged in the ministry of the church. Many churches in Flanders,
Auvergne, Limousin, and other places, are dedicated to God, under his
invocation. The anonymous life of St. Thillo, in Bollandus, is not
altogether authentic; the history which Mabillon gives of him from the
Breviary of Solignac, is of more authority, (Mab. Saec. 2, Ben. p. 996.)
See also Bulteau, Hist. Ben. T. i. l. 3, c. 16. Molanus in Natal. Sanct.
Belgii, &c.

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