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The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Principal Saints

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




Footnotes:
1. See Bellarmin, de Arte moriendi. Iuenin, de Sacram. t. 2, et Hist.
des Sacr. t. 7.
2. See Chatelain. Not. p. 161, Brev. Paris.
3. Gallia Christ. Nov. t. 2, p. 63{?}.
4. Ib. p. 69.
5. Martenne Anecdot. t. 3, p. 1927.

ST. AGATHO, POPE.

AGATHO, a Sicilian by birth, was remarkable for his charity and
benevolence, a profound humility, and an engaging sweetness of temper.
Having been several years treasurer of the church of Rome, he succeeded
Domnus in the pontificate in 679. He presided by his three legates in
the sixth general council, and third of Constantinople, in 680, in the
reign of the pious emperor Constantine Pogonatus, against the
Monothelite heresy, which he confuted in a learned letter to that
emperor, by the tradition of the apostolic church of Rome:
"Acknowledged," says he, "by the whole Catholic church, to be the mother
and mistress of all other churches, and to derive her superior authority
from St. Peter, the prince of the apostles, to whom Christ committed his
whole flock, with a promise that his faith should never fail." This
epistle was approved as a rule of faith by the same council, which
declared, _that Peter spoke by Agatho_. This pope restored St. Wilfrid
to the see of York, and was a great benefactor to the Roman clergy and
to the churches. Anastatius says, that the number of his miracles
procured him the title of Thaumaturgus. He died in 682, having held the
pontificate {123} two years and a half. His feast is kept both by the
Latins and Greeks. See Anastatius published by Bianchini; also Muratori
and Labbe, Conc. t. 6, p. 1109.

* * * * *

The style of this pope's letters is inferior to that both of his
predecessors and successors. The reason he alleges in excusing the
legates whom he sent to Constantinople for their want of eloquence,
because the graces of speech could not be cultivated amidst the
incursions of barbarians, while with much difficulty they earned Thor
daily subsistence by manual labor; "But we preserve," said he, with
simplicity of heart, "the faith, which our fathers have handed down to
us." The bishops, his legates, say the same thing: "Our countries are
harassed by the fury of barbarous nations. We live in the midst of
battles, inroads, and devastations; our lives pass in continual alarms
and anxiety, and we subsist by the labor of our hands."

ST. MARCIAN, PRIEST,

AND TREASURER OF THE CHURCH OF CONSTANTINOPLE, IN THE FIFTH AGE,

WAS born at Constantinople, though of a Roman family related to the
imperial house of the Theodosiuses. From his childhood he served God in
continual watching, fasting, and prayer, in imitation of St. John the
Baptist; and for the relief of the necessitous he gave away immense
occult alms. The time which was not employed in these charities, he
spent in holy retirement and prayer. In the reign of the emperor
Marcian, Anatolius the archbishop, offering violence to the saint's
humility, ordained him priest. In this new state the saint saw himself
under a stricter obligation than before of laboring to attain to the
summit of Christian perfection; and while he made the instruction of the
poor his principal and favorite employment, he redoubled his earnestness
in providing for their corporal necessities, and was careful never to
relax any part of his austerities. The severity of his morals was made a
handle, by those who feared the example of his virtue, as a tacit
censure of their sloth, avarice, and irregularities, to fasten upon him
a suspicion of Novatianism; but his meekness and silence at length
triumphed over the slander. This persecution served more and more to
purify his soul, and exceedingly improve his virtue. This shone forth
with greater lustre than ever, when the cloud was dispersed; and the
patriarch Gennadius, with the great applause of the whole body of the
clergy and people, conferred on him the dignity of treasurer, which was
the second in that church. St. Marcian built or repaired in a stately
manner a great number of churches in Constantinople, confounded the
Arians and other heretics, and was famous for miracles both before and
after his happy death, which happened towards the end of the fifth
century. He is honored both in the Greek Menaea, and Roman Martyrology,
on the 10th of January. See his ancient anonymous life in Surius, and
Bollandus; also Cedrenus, Sozomen, and Theodorus Lector, l. 1. Codinus
Orig. Constant. p. 60. See Tillemont, t. 16, p. 161.

{124}


JANUARY XI.

ST. THEODOSIUS, THE CENOBIARCH.

From his life by Theodorus, bishop of Petra, some time his disciple, in
Surius and Bollandus, and commended by Fleury, Baillet, &c.

A.D. 529.

ST. THEODOSIUS was born at Mogariassus, called in latter ages Marissa,
in Cappadocia, in 423. He imbibed the first tincture of virtue from the
fervent example and pious instructions of his virtuous parents. He was
ordained reader, but some time after being moved by Abraham's example to
quit his country and friends, he resolved to put this motion in
execution. He accordingly set out for Jerusalem, but went purposely out
of his road, to visit the famous St. Simeon Stylites on his pillar, who
foretold him several circumstances of his life, and gave him proper
instructions for his behavior in each. Having satisfied his devotion in
visiting the holy places in Jerusalem, he began to consider in what
manner he should dedicate himself to God in a religious state. The
dangers of living without a guide, made him prefer a monastery to a
hermitage; and he therefore put himself under the direction of a holy
man named Longinus, to whom his virtue soon endeared him in a very
particular manner. A pious lady having built a church under the
invocation of the Blessed Virgin, on the high road to Bethlehem,
Longinus could not well refuse her request, that his pupil should
undertake the charge of it; but Theodosius, who loved only to obey,
could not be induced by any entreaties to consent to this proposal:
absolute commands were necessary to force him to a compliance. Nor did
he govern long; for dreading the poison of vanity from the esteem of
men, he retired into a cave at the top of a neighboring desert mountain,
and employed his time in fasting, watching, prayers, and tears, which
almost continually flowed from his eyes. His food was coarse pulse and
wild herbs: for thirty years he never tasted so much as a morsel of
bread. Many desired to serve God under his direction: he at first
determined only to admit six or seven, but was soon obliged to receive a
greater number, and at length came to a resolution, which charity
extorted from him, never to reject any that presented themselves with
dispositions that seemed sincere. The first lesson which he taught his
monks was, that the continual remembrance of death is the foundation of
religious perfection; to imprint this more deeply in their minds, he
caused a great grave or pit to be dug, which might serve for the common
burial-place of the whole community, that by the presence of this
memorial of death, and by continually meditating on that object, they
might more perfectly learn to die daily. The burial-place being made,
the abbot one day, when he had led his monks to it, said, "The grave is
made, who will first perform the dedication?" Basil, a priest, who was
one of the number, falling on his knees, said to St. Theodosius, "I am
the person, be pleased to give me your blessing." The abbot ordered the
prayers of the church for the dead to be offered up for him, and on the
fortieth day, Basil wonderfully departed to our Lord in peace, without
any apparent sickness. When the holy company of disciples were twelve in
number, it happened that at the great feast of Easter they had nothing
to eat; they had not even bread for the sacrifice: some murmured; the
saint bid them trust {125} in God and he would provide: which was soon
remarkably verified, by the arrival of certain mules loaded with
provisions. The lustre of the sanctity and miracles of St. Theodosius,
drawing great numbers to him who desired to serve God under his
direction, his cave was too little for their reception; therefore,
having consulted heaven by prayer, he, by its particular direction,
built a spacious monastery at a place called Cathismus, not far from
Bethlehem, at a small distance from his cave, and it was soon filled
with holy monks. To this monastery were annexed three infirmaries; one
for the sick, the gift of a pious lady in that neighborhood; the two
others St. Theodosius built himself, one for the aged and feeble, the
other for such as had been punished with the loss of their senses, or by
falling under the power of the devil, for rashly engaging in a religious
state through pride, and without a due dependence on the grace of God to
carry them through it. All succors, spiritual and temporal, were
afforded in these infirmaries, with admirable order, care, and
affection. He erected also several buildings for the reception of
strangers, in which he exercised an unbounded hospitality, entertaining
all that came, for whose use there were one day above a hundred tables
served with provisions: these, when insufficient for the number of
guests, were more than once miraculously multiplied by his prayers. The
monastery itself was like a city of saints in the midst of a desert, and
in it reigned regularity, silence, charity, and peace. There were four
churches belonging to it, one for each of the three several nations of
which his community was chiefly composed, each speaking a different
language; the fourth was for the use of such as were in a state of
penance, which those that recovered from their lunatic or possessed
condition before, mentioned, were put into, and detained till they had
expiated their fault. The nations into which his community was divided,
were the Greeks, which were far the most numerous, and consisted of all
those that came from any provinces of the empire; the Armenians, with
whom were joined the Arabians and Persians; and, thirdly, the Bessi, who
comprehended all the northern nations below Thrace, or all who used the
Runic or Sclavonian tongue. Each nation sung the first part of the mass
to the end of the gospel, in their own church, but after the gospel, all
met in the church of the Greeks, where they celebrated the essential
part of the sacrifice in Greek and communicated all together.[1]

The monks passed a considerable part of the day and night at their
devotions in the church, and at the times not set apart for public
prayer and necessary rest, every one was obliged to apply himself to
some trade, of manual labor, not incompatible with recollection, that
the house might be supplied with conveniences. Sallust, bishop of
Jerusalem, appointed St. Sabas superior general of the hermits, and our
saint of the Cenobites, or religious men living in community throughout
all Palestine, whence he was styled the Cenobiarch. These two great
servants of God lived in strict friendship, and had frequent spiritual
conferences together; they were also united in their zeal and sufferings
for the church.

The emperor Anastasius patronized the Eutychian heresy, and used all
possible means to engage our saint in his party. In 513 he deposed
Elias, patriarch of Jerusalem, as he had banished Flavian II., patriarch
of Antioch, and intruded Severus, an impious heretic, into that see,
commanding the Syrians to obey and hold communion with him. SS.
Theodosius and Sabas maintained boldly the right of Elias, and of John
his successor; whereupon the imperial officers thought it most advisable
to connive at their proceedings, considering the great authority they
had acquired by {126} their sanctity. Soon after, the emperor sent
Theodosius a considerable sum of money, for charitable uses in
appearance, but in reality to engage him in his interest. The saint
accepted of it, and distributed it all among the poor. Anastasius now
persuading himself that he was as good as gained over to his cause, sent
him an heretical profession of faith, in which the divine and human
natures in Christ were confounded into one, and desired him to sign it.
The saint wrote him an answer full of apostolic spirit; in which,
besides solidly confuting the Eutychian error, he added, that he was
ready to lay down his life for the faith of the church. The emperor
admired his courage and the strength of his reasoning, and returning him
a respectful answer, highly commended his generous zeal, made some
apology for his own inconsiderateness, and protested that he only
desired the peace of the church. But it was not long ere he relapsed
into his former impiety and renewed his bloody edicts against the
orthodox, dispatching troops everywhere to have them put in execution.
On the first intelligence of this, Theodosius went over all the deserts
and country of Palestine, exhorting every one to be firm in the faith of
the four general councils. At Jerusalem, having assembled the people
together, he from the pulpit cried out with a loud voice: "If any one
receives not the four general councils as the four gospels, let him be
anathema." So bold an action in a man of his years, inspired with
courage those whom the edicts had terrified. His discourses had a
wonderful effect on the people, and God gave a sanction up his zeal by
miracles: one of these was, that on his going out of the church at
Jerusalem, a woman was healed of a cancer on the spot, by only touching
his garments. The emperor sent an order for his banishment, which was
executed; but dying soon after, Theodosius was recalled by his Catholic
successor, Justin; who, from a common soldier, had gradually ascended
the imperial throne.

Our saint survived his return eleven years, never admitting the least
relaxation in his former austerities. Such was his humility, that seeing
two monks at variance with each other, he threw himself at their
feet, and could not rise till they were perfectly reconciled; and once
having excommunicated one of his subjects for a crime, who
contumaciously pretended to excommunicate him in his turn, the saint
behaved as if he had been really excommunicated, to gain the sinner's
soul by this unprecedented example of submission, which had the desired
effect. During the last year of his life he was afflicted with a painful
distemper, in which he gave proof of an heroic patience, and an entire
submission to the will of God; for being advised by one that was an
eye-witness of his great sufferings, to pray that God would be pleased
to grant him some ease, he would give no ear to it, alleging that such
thoughts were impatience, and would rob him of his crown. Perceiving the
hour of his dissolution at hand, he gave his last exhortation to his
disciples, and foretold many things, which accordingly came to pass
after his death: this happened in the one hundred and fifth year of his
age, and of our Lord 529. Peter, patriarch of Jerusalem, and the whole
country, assisted with the deepest sentiments of respect at the
solemnity of his interment, which was honored by miracles. He was buried
in his first cell, called the cave of the magi, because the wise men,
who came to adore Christ soon after his birth, were said to have lodged
in it. A certain count being on his march against the Persians, begged
the hair shirt which the saint used to wear next his skin, and believed
that he owed the victory which he obtained over them, to the saint's
protection through the pledge of that relic. Both the Roman and Greek
calendars mention his festival on the 11th of January.

{127}

* * * * *

The examples of the Nazarites and Essenes among the Jews, and of many
excellent and holy persons among the Christians through every age,
demonstrate that many are called by God to serve him in a retired
contemplative life; nay, it is the opinion of St. Gregory the Great,
that the world is to some persons so full of ambushes and snares, or
dangerous occasions of sin, that they cannot be saved but by choosing a
safe retreat. Those who from experience are conscious of their own
weakness, and find themselves to be no match for the world, unable to
countermine its policies, and oppose its power, ought to retire as from
the face of too potent an enemy; and prefer a contemplative state to a
busy and active life: not to indulge sloth, or to decline the service of
God and his neighbor, but to consult his own security, and to fly from
dangers of sin and vanity. Yet there are some who find the greatest
dangers in solitude itself; so that it is necessary for every one to
sound his own heart, take a survey of his own forces and abilities, and
consult God, that he may best he able to learn the designs of his
providence with regard to his soul; in doing which, a great purity of
intention is the first requisite. Ease and enjoyment must not be the end
of Christian retirement, but penance, labor, and assiduous
contemplation; without great fervor and constancy in which, close
solitude is the road to perdition. If greater safety, or an unfitness
for a public station, or a life of much business (in which several are
only public nuisances) may be just motives to some for embracing a life
of retirement, the means of more easily attaining to perfect virtue may
be such to many. Nor do true contemplatives bury their talents, or cease
either to be members of the republic of mankind, or to throw in their
mite towards its welfare. From the prayers and thanksgivings which they
daily offer to God for the peace of the world, the preservation of the
church, the conversion of sinners, and the salvation of all men,
doubtless more valuable benefits often accrue to mankind, than from the
alms of the rich, or the labors of the learned. Nor is it to be
imagined, how far and how powerfully their spirit, and the example of
their innocence and perfect virtue, often spread their influence; and
how serviceable persons who lead a holy and sequestered life may be to
the good of the world; nor how great glory redounds to God, by the
perfect purity of heart and charity to which many souls are thus raised.

Footnotes:
1. See Le Brun, Explic. des Ceremonies de la Messe, t. 4, pp. 234-235,
dissert. l. 4, art. 2.

ST. HYGINUS, P. AND M.

HE was placed in the chair of St. Peter after the martyrdom of St.
Telesphorus, in the year 139. Eusebius informs us,[1] that he sat four
years. The church then enjoyed some sort of calm, under the mild reign
of the emperor Antoninus Pius; though several martyrs suffered in his
time by the fury of the populace, or the cruelty of certain magistrates.
The emperor himself never consented to such proceedings; and when
informed of them by the governors of Asia, Athens, Thessalonica, and
Larissea, he wrote to them in favor of the Christians, as is recorded by
St. Justin and Eusebius.[2]

But the devil had recourse to other arts to disturb the peace of God's
church. Cerdo, a wolf in sheep's clothing, in the year 140, came from
Syria to Rome, and began to teach the false principles which Marcion
adopted afterward with more success. He impiously affirmed that there
were two Gods; the one rigorous and severe, the author of the Old
Testament; the other merciful and good, the author of the New, and the
father of Christ, sent by him to redeem man from the tyranny of the
former; and that Christ was not really born of the Virgin Mary, or true
man, but such {128} in shadow only and appearance. Our holy pope, by his
pastoral vigilance detected that monster, and cut him off from the
communion of the church. The heresiarch, imposing upon him by a false
repentance, was again received; but the zealous pastor having discovered
that he secretly preached this old opinions, excommunicated him a second
time.[3]

Another minister of Satan was Valentine, who being a Platonic
philosopher, puffed up with the vain opinion of his learning, and full
of resentment for another's being preferred to him in an election to a
certain bishopric in Egypt, as Tertullian relates,[4] revived the errors
of Simon Magus, and added to them many other absurd fictions, as of
thirty AEones or ages, a kind of inferior deities, with whimsical
histories of their several pedigrees. Having broached these opinions at
Alexandria, he left Egypt for Rome. At first he dissembled his heresies,
but by degrees his extravagant doctrines came to light. Hyginus, being
the mildest of men, endeavored to reclaim him without proceeding to
extremities; so that Valentine was not excommunicated before the first
year of St. Pius his immediate successor.

St. Hyginus did not sit quite four years, dying in 142. We do not find
that he ended his life by martyrdom, yet he is styled a martyr in some
ancient calendars, as well as in the present Roman Martyrology;
undoubtedly on account of the various persecutions which he suffered,
and to which his high station in the church exposed him in those
perilous times. See Tillemont, t. 2, p. 252.

Footnotes:
1. Eus. l. 4, c. 11.
2. Eus. l. 4, c. 30.
3. St. Epiph. hom. 41; Iren. l. 3, c. 4; Euseb. &c.
4. Tertull. l. contra Valent. c. 4.

ST. EGWIN, B.C.

HE was of the royal blood of the Mercian kings, devoted himself to the
divine service in his youth, and succeeded O{}or in the episcopal see of
Worcester, in 692. by his zeal and severity in reproving vice, he
stirred up some of his own flock to persecute him, which gave him an
opportunity of performing a penitential pilgrimage Rome. Some legends
tell us, that setting out he put on his legs iron shackles, and threw
the key into the river Severn, others say the Avon; but found it in the
belly of a fish, some say at Rome, others in his passage from France to
England. After his return, with the assistance of Coenred or Kenred,
king of Mercia, he founded the famous abbey of Evesham, under the
invocation of the Blessed Virgin. After this he undertook a second
journey to Rome, in the company of Coenred, king of the Mercians, and of
Offa, of the East Saxons, who gave up their temporal principalities to
labor with greater earnestness to secure an eternal crown. St. Egwin
died on the 30th of December, in 717, and was buried in the monastery of
Evesham. His body was translated to a more honorable place in 1183,
probably on the 11th of January, on which day many English Martyrologies
mark his festival. See his life in Capgrave, the Annals of Worcester, in
Wharton's Anglia Sacra; Malmesbury, l. 4, de Pontif. Ang. Harpsfield.
Saec. 8, c. 15, 18, and Dr. Thomas in his History the Cathedral of
Worcester. Monast. Anglic. vol. 1, p. 144, and vol. 2, p. 851. Leland's
Collections, vol. 1, pp. 240 and 298; vol. 3, p. 160. Dr. Brown Willis,
History of Abbeys, t. 1, p. 90.

ST. SALVIUS, OR SAUVE, BISHOP OF AMIENS,

FAMOUS for miracles, succeeded Ado in 672, and flourished in the reign
of Theodoric III. His relics rest at Montreuil, in Picardy, in the
Benedictin {129} Abbey which bears his name, whither they were
translated from the cathedral of Amiens, several years after his death,
as is related in his anonymous life, a piece of uncertain authority with
regard to his actions. A relic of this saint was formerly kept with
great veneration in the cathedral of Canterbury, mentioned in the
history of that church, &c. This saint must not be confounded with St.
Salvius of Alby, nor with the martyr of this name in Africa, on whose
festival St. Austin made a sermon. See his anonymous life in Bollandus;
also Baillet. Gall. Christ. Nova, t. 10, p. 1154. This seems the day of
his translation, and the 28th of October that of his death.


JANUARY XII.

ST. ARCADIUS, MARTYR.

From his ancient acts, much esteemed by Baronius, and inserted by
Ruinart in his authentic collection. St. Zeno of Verona made use of them
in his forty-ninth sermon on this martyr. See Tillemont. t. 5 p. 557.

THE time of this saint's martyrdom is not mentioned in his acts; some
place it under Valerian, others under Dioclesian: he seems to have
suffered in some city of Mauritania, probably the capital, Caesarea. The
fury of the tyrants raged violently, and the devil had instigated his
soldiers to wage, like so many wolves, a bloody war against the servants
of Jesus. Upon the least suspicion they broke into houses, made rigorous
searches, and if they found a Christian, they treated him upon the spot
with the greatest cruelty, their impatience not suffering them to wait
the bringing him before a judge. Every day new sacrileges were
committed; the faithful were compelled to assist at superstitious
sacrifices, to lead victims crowned with flowers through the streets, to
burn incense before idols, and to celebrate the enthusiastic feasts of
Bacchus. Arcadius, seeing his city in great confusion, left his estate
and withdrew to a solitary place in the neighboring country, serving
Jesus Christ in watching, prayer, and other exercises of a penitential
life. His flight could not be long a secret; for his not appearing at
the public sacrifices made the governor send soldiers to his house; who
surrounded it, forced open the doors, and finding one of his relations
in it, who said all he could to justify his kinsman's absence; they
seized him, and the governor ordered him to be kept in close custody
till Arcadius should be taken. The martyr, informed of his friend's
danger, and burning with a desire to suffer for Christ, went into the
city, and presenting himself to the judge, said: "If on my account you
detain my innocent relation in chains, release him; I, Arcadius, am come
in person to give an account of myself, and to declare to you, that he
knew not where I was." "I am willing," answered the judge, "to pardon
not only him, but you also, on condition that you will sacrifice to the
gods." Arcadius replied, "How can you propose to me such a thing? Do you
not know the Christians, or do you believe that the fear of death will
ever make me swerve from my duty? Jesus Christ is my life, and death is
my gain. Invent what torments you please; but know that nothing shall
make me a traitor to my God." The governor, in a rage, paused to devise
some unheard-of torment for him. Iron hooks seemed too easy; neither
plummets of lead, nor cudgels could satisfy his fury; the very rack he
thought by much too gentle. At last {130} imagining he had found a
manner of death suitable to his purpose, he said to the ministers of his
cruelty, "Take him, and let him see and desire death, without being able
to obtain it. Cut off his limbs joint by joint, and execute this so
slowly, that the wretch may know what it is to abandon the gods of his
ancestors for an unknown deity." The executioners dragged Arcadius to
the place, where many other victims of Christ had already suffered; a
place dear and sweet to all who sigh after eternal life. Here the martyr
lifts up his eyes to heaven, and implores strength from above; then
stretches out his neck, expecting to have his head cut off; but the
executioner bid him hold out his hand, and joint after joint chopped off
his fingers, arms, and shoulders. Laying the saint afterward on his
back, he in the same barbarous manner cut off his toes, feet, legs, and
thighs. The holy martyr held out his limbs and joints, one after
another, with invincible patience and courage, repeating these words,
"Lord, teach me thy wisdom:" for the tyrants had forgot to cut out his
tongue. After so many martyrdoms, his body lay a mere trunk weltering in
its own blood. The executioners themselves, as well as the multitude,
were moved to tears and admiration at this spectacle, and at such an
heroic patience. But Arcadius, with a joyful countenance, surveying his
scattered limbs all around him, and offering them to God, said, "Happy
members, now dear to me, as you at last truly belong to God, being all
made a sacrifice to him!" Then turning to the people, he said, "You who
have been present at this bloody tragedy, learn that all torments seem
as nothing to one who has an everlasting crown before his eyes. Your
gods are not gods; renounce their worship. He alone for whom I suffer
and die, is the true God. He comforts and upholds me in the condition
you see me. To die for him is to live; to suffer for him is to enjoy the
greatest delights." Discoursing in this manner to those about him, he
expired on the 12th of January, the pagans being struck with
astonishment at such a miracle of patience. The Christians gathered
together his scattered limbs, and laid them in one tomb. The Roman and
other Martyrologies make honorable mention of him on this day.

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