Anna Graetz - "Pearl and Periwinkle"

BY LOUIS GINZBERG - "THE LEGENDS OF THE JEWS VOLUME IV BIBLE TIMES AND CHARACTERS"

Frederick W. Hamilton - "Punctuation"

Daniel G. Brinton - "Aboriginal American Authors"

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




* * * * *

We admire to see a whole family of saints! This prodigy of grace, under
God, was owing to the example, prayers, and exhortations of the elder
St. Macrina, which had this wonderful influence and effect; from her
they learned most heartily and deeply to imbibe the true spirit of
self-denial and humility, which all Christians confess to be the
fundamental maxim of the gospel; but this they generally acknowledge in
speculation only, whereas it is in the heart that this foundation is to
be laid: we must entertain no attachment, says St. Gregory of Nyssa,[2]
to any thing, especially where there is most danger of passion, by some
sensual pleasure annexed; and we must begin by being upon our guard
against sensuality in eating, which is the most ancient enemy, and the
father of vice: we must observe in our whole life the most exact rule of
temperance, never making the pleasure of sense our end, but only the
necessity of the use we make of things, even those in which a pleasure
is taken. In another treatise he says,[3] he who despises the world,
must also renounce himself, so as never to follow his own will, but
purely to seek in all things the will of God; we are his in justice, his
will must be the law and rule of our whole life. This precept of dying
to ourselves, that Christ may live in us, and all our affections and
actions governed by his spirit, is excellently inculcated by St. Basil
the Great.[4]

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.

{116}

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 chastity,
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 sex, 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 titular 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 circumstances 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 principal 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 chastity
exposed to the rude attempts of pagan gladiators, in which danger God
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 entitled him, he received the
monastic habit from a holy abbot named Mundus, and passed 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 sanctity 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 Fifeshire, where, with the assistance of
seven others, he built a church, near which he served for several years.
God 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 pass 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 noble 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 God 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, assistant, 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 principally the
precepts and maxims of our divine religion. He had illustrated this
island by his heavenly doctrine, and the bright example of his virtues,
for the space 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 assured 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
pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to be saved." Soon
after this he quitted the world, assisted 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 God 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 titular 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.

{120}


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 illustrious 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 passed into the Cistercian, then in
wonderful odor of sanctity. He took the habit in the abbey of Pontigny,
and shining 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
passions, 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 God 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
assist 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 superstitious, and a tempting of God,
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 God, 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. God, in such cases is said
sometimes to have miraculously interposed.

{121}

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 sanctity; being
very sensible that a man's first task is to honor God perfectly in his
own soul. He redoubled all his austerities, saying, it was now incumbent
on him to do penance for others, as well as for himself. He always wore
a hair-shirt 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 assisting 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 viaticum, 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 anticipate the nocturns, which are
said at midnight; but having made the sign of the cross on his lips and
breast, was able to pronounce 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
sanctity. 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 assiduity and ardor in this
exercise, that many renounced altogether the commerce of men to only
that of God, and his angels; and the rest learned the art of conversing
secretly with heaven even amidst their exterior employments, which they
only undertook for God. Holy pastors have always made retirement and a
life of prayer their apprenticeship or preparation for the ministry, and
afterward, amidst its functions were still men of prayer in them, having
God 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.

Copyright (c) 2007. topboookz.com. All rights reserved.