Jessie Graham Flower - "Grace Harlowe's Third Year at Overton College"

Mary Antin - "From Plotzk to Boston"

James Athearn Jones - "Traditions of the North American Indians, Vol. 3 (of 3)"

Baron Trenck - "The Life and Adventures of Baron Trenck Volume 1"

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




{171}

St. Antony performed the visitation of his monks a little before his
death, which he foretold them with his last instructions, but no tears
could move him to die among them. It appears from St. Athanasius, that
the Christians had learned from the pagans their custom of embalming the
bodies of the dead, which abuse, as proceeding from vanity and sometimes
superstition, St. Antony had often condemned: this he would prevent, and
ordered that his body should be buried in the earth, as the patriarchs
were, and privately, on his mountain, by his two disciples Diacarius and
Amathas, who had remained with him the last fifteen years, to serve him
in his remote cell in his old age. He hastened back to that solitude,
and some time after fell sick: he repeated to these two disciples his
orders for their burying his body secretly in that place, adding; "In
the day of the resurrection, I shall receive it incorruptible from the
hand of Christ." He ordered them to give one of his sheep-skins, with a
cloak[28] in which he lay, to the bishop Athanasius, as a public
testimony of his being united in faith and communion with that holy
prelate; to give his other sheep-skin to the bishop Serapion; and to
keep for themselves his sackcloth. He added; "Farewell, my children,
Antony is departing, and will be no longer with you." At these words
they embraced him, and he, stretching out his feet, without any other
sign calmly ceased to breathe. His death happened in the year 355,
probably on the 17th of January, on which the most ancient Martyrologies
name him, and which the Greek empire kept as a holyday soon after his
death. He was one hundred and five years old. From his youth to that
extreme old age, he always maintained the same fervor in his holy
exercises: age to the last never made him change his diet (except in the
use of a little oil) nor his manner of clothing; yet he lived without
sickness, his sight was not impaired, his teeth were only worn, and not
one was lost or loosened. The two disciples interred him according to
his directions. About the year 561, his body[29] was discovered, in the
reign of Justinian, and with great solemnity translated to Alexandria,
thence it was removed to Constantinople, and is now at Vienne in France.
Bollandus gives us an account of many miracles wrought by his
intercession; particularly in what manner the distemper called the
Sacred Fire, since that time St. Antony's Fire, miraculously ceased
through his patronage, when it raged violently in many parts of Europe,
in the eleventh century.

{172}

A most sublime gift of heavenly contemplation and prayer was the fruit
of this great saint's holy retirement. Whole nights seemed to him short
in those exercises, and when the rising sun in the morning seemed to him
too soon to call him from his knees to his manual labor, or other
employments, he would lament that the incomparable sweetness which he
enjoyed, in the more perfect freedom with which his heart was taken up
in heavenly contemplation in the silent watching of the night, should be
interrupted or abated. But the foundation of his most ardent charity,
and that sublime contemplation by which his soul soared in noble and
lofty flights above all earthly things, was laid in the purity and
disengagement of his affections, the contempt of the world, a most
profound humility, and the universal mortification of his senses and of
the powers of his soul. Hence flowed that constant tranquillity and
serenity of his mind, which was the best proof of a perfect mastery of
his passions. St. Athanasius observes of him, that after thirty years
spent in the closest solitude, "he appeared not to others with a sullen
or savage, but with a most obliging sociable air."[30] A heart that is
filled with inward peace, simplicity, goodness, and charity, is a
stranger to a lowering or contracted look. The main point in Christian
mortification is the humiliation of the heart, one of its principal ends
being the subduing of the passions. Hence, true virtue always increases
the sweetness and gentleness of the mind, though this is attended with
an invincible constancy, and an inflexible firmness in every point of
duty. That devotion or self-denial is false or defective which betrays
us into pride or uncharitableness; and whatever makes us sour, morose,
or peevish, makes us certainly worse, and instead of begetting in us a
nearer resemblance of the divine nature, gives us a strong tincture of
the temper of devils.

Footnotes:
1. St. Athanasius commends St. Antony's love of reading, both when he
lived with his father, (p. 795, B.) and afterwards when he lived
alone, (p. 797, C.) which we cannot naturally understand of his
hearing others read, especially when he was alone; therefore, when
St. Athanasius says, (p. 795, A.) that in his childhood he never
applied himself to the study of letters, [Greek: grammata mathein],
fearing the danger of falling into had company at school, he seems
to mean only Greek letters, then the language of all the learned;
for he must have learned at home the Egyptian alphabet. In the same
manner we are to understand Evagrius and others, who relate, that a
certain philosopher expressing his surprise how St. Antony could
employ his time, being deprived of the pleasure of reading, the
saint told him that the universe was his book. (Socr. l. 4, c. 23,
Rosweide, Vit. Patr. l. 6, c. 4, St. Nilus, l. 4, p. 60.)
Nevertheless, St. Austin imagined that St. Antony could read no
alphabet, and learned by heart and meditated on the scriptures only
by hearing them read by others (S. Aug. de Doctr. Chr. pr. p. 3, t.
3.) See Rosweide, Not. in Vit. S. Antonii. Bolland. 17 Jan. p. 119,
Sec.64, Tillem. note 1, p. 666.
2. Matt. xix. 21.
3. An aura was one hundred cubits of land. See Lexicon Constantini.
Fleury, l. 8, p. 418.
4. Ibid. vi. 34.
5. [Greek: Parthenon], as St. Athanasius calls it, t. 2, p. 796, ed.
Ben. He mentions that St. Antony, long after, paid her a visit, when
she was very old, and superior or mistress of many virgins, [Greek:
hathegoumenen allos parthenon], n. 54. p. 837.
6. Orig. lib. 5, p. 264.
7. His first monastery was situated near the confines of Upper and
Middle Egypt: it at first consisted of scattered cells. To visit
some of these brethren, he is mentioned by St. Athanasius (Vit. p.
461) to have crossed the Arsinotic canal, extremely infested with
crocodiles. This is sometimes called his monastery near the river,
and was situated not far from Aphroditopolis, the lower and more
ancient city of that name, in Heptanomis, or Middle Egypt. St.
Athanasius seems to place it in Thebais, or Upper Egypt, because it
was near the borders, and the boundaries of Upper Egypt were
extended much lower by those who divided Egypt only into two parts,
the Upper and the Lower; as Sozomen, l. 2, c. 23, and others,
frequently did. St. Antony, finding this solitude grow too public,
and not bearing the distraction of continual visits, he travelled up
the river to seek a more remote wilderness; but after mounting a
little way, while he sat on the bank waiting to see a boat pass by,
he changed his design, and instead of advancing southward, he went
with certain Saracen merchants to the East, and in three days,
doubtless on a camel, arrived at the great mountain towards the Red
Sea, where he spent the latter years of his life; yet he frequently
visited his first monastery, near Aphroditopolis. St. Hilarion going
from this latter to St. Antony's great monastery on the mountain,
performed that journey in three days, on camels, which a deacon,
named Baisan, let to those who desired to visit St. Antony. This
latter, near which the saint died, always continued a famous
pilgrimage.

Pispir was the monastery of St. Macarius, but is sometimes called
St. Antony's, who often visited it. This was situated on the Nile,
in Thebais, thirty measures or [Greek: semeia] from St. Antony's
mountain, according to Palladius, (Laus. c. 63.) This some
understand of Roman miles, others of Egyptian schaeni of thirty
furlongs each; thirty schaeni are nine hundred stadia, or one hundred
and thirteen miles. Pispir therefore seems not to have been very far
from Aphroditopolis. See Kocher, (comment. In fastos Abyssinorum,)
in the journal of Bern, ad an. 1761, t. 1, p. 160 and 169.

A monastery, of which St. Antony is titular saint, still subsists a
little above the ancient city of Aphroditon on the Nile. It is now
called Der-mar-Antinious-el-Bahr, that is, The monastery of Antony
at the river. See Pocock, p. 70, and the map prefixed to that part
of his travels. Travelling from hence one day's journey up the
river, then turning from the south towards the east, over sandy
deserts, and a chain of high mountains, in which springs of water,
in other parts very rare, are here and there found, and camels
travel for one hundred miles, we arrive at St. Antony's great
monastery, about six or seven hours journey from the Red Sea. See
Pocock, ib. p. 128. Granger, Relation du Voyage, &c., p. 107. Nouv.
Memoires des Missions, t. 5, p. 136. Vanslebius, Nouv. Relat. pp.
299 and 309; and Maillet. Descr. de 'Egypte, p. 320. The Grotto of
St. Paul is shown not very far from this great monastery; yet the
road wing [sic] round the mountains, and a great way about it, seems
to travellers as a great distance from it.
8. St. Athan. Vit. Anton. n. 45, p. 830.
9. P. 814.
10. P. 823, ed. Ben.
11. Rosweide, l. 3, c. 129. Cotelier, &c.
12. S. Nilus, ep. 24. Cotelier, Apoth. Patr. p. 340. Rosweide, Vit.
Patr. l. 3, c. 105, l. 5, c. 7.
13. Cassian, Collat. c. 31.
14. S. Athan. n. 82, p. 857. S. Chrys. Hom. 8, in Matt. S. Hier. ep.
{}6. Sozom. l. 6, c. 5.
15. S. Athan. n. 68, 69, p. 847.
16. Ibid. n. 85. p. 859.
17. Ibid. n. 80, p. 855.
18. N. 77, p. 858.
19. N. 86, p. 860.
20. Bibl. Patr. Colon. t. 4, p. 26. See S. Antonii. M. Epistolae 20. cura
Abr. Eckellens. Paris, 1641. But only the above-mentioned seven
letters can be regarded as genuine, except the discourses preserved
by St. Athanasius in his life.
21. Ep. 2, ad Arsinoitas.
22. Ib.
23. Maij. t. 3, p. 355.
24. That under his name in Abraham Eckellensis is not of so high a
pedigree. A large body of the monks of St. Basil in the East, since
the seventh century, take the name of the Order of St. Antony, but
retain the rule of St. Basil, comprised in his ascetic writings; and
observe the same fasts, and other exercises, with all the other
monks of the East, who are called of the order of St. Basil; which
even the Maronites follow; though Tillemont denies it by mistake.
25. Rosweide, Vit. Patr. l. 5, c. 8. Abr. Eckellens. in Vit. S. Ant. p.
106. Cotel. p. 344. Mart. Coptor.
26. S. Athan. n. 55, p. 858.
27. N. 16 & 43.
28. The Ependytes of St. Antony, mentioned by St. Athanasius, n. 46, p.
831, has much embarrassed the critics: it seems to have been a cloak
of white wool. It is clear, from St. Athanasius, that St. Antony's
inner garment was a hair-cloth, over which he wore a cloak made of
sheep-skin.
29. This translation of his relics to Alexandria, though doubted of by
some Protestants, is incontestably confirmed by Victor of Tunone,
(Chron. p. 11, in Scalig. Thesauro,) who lived then in banishment at
Canope, only twelve miles from Alexandria; also, by St. Isidore of
Seville, in the same age, Bede. Usuard, &c. They were removed to
Constantinople when the Saracens made themselves masters of Egypt,
about the year 635. (pee Bollandus, pp. 162, 1134.) They were
brought to Vienne in Dauphine, by Joselin, a nobleman of that
country, whom the emperor of Constantinople had gratified with that
rich present, about the year 1070. These relics were deposited in
the church of La Motte S. Didier, not far from Vienne, then a
Benedictin priory belonging to the abbey of Mont-Majour near Arles,
but now an independent abbey of regular canons of St. Antony. In
1089, a pestilential erysipelas distemper, called the Sacred Fire,
swept off great numbers in most provinces of France; public prayers
and processions were ordered against this scourge; at length it
pleased God to grant many miraculous cures of this dreadful
distemper, to those who implored his mercy trough the intercession
of St. Antony, especially before his relics; the church in which
they were deposited was resorted to by great numbers of pilgrims,
and his patronage was implored over the whole kingdom against this
disease. A nobleman near Vienne, named Gaston, and his son Girond,
devoted themselves and their estate to found and serve an hospital
near this priory, for the benefit of the poor that were afflicted
with this distemper: seven others joined them in their charitable
attendance on the sick, whence a confraternity of laymen who served
this hospital took its rise, and continued till Boniface VIII.
converted the Benedictin priory into an abbey, which he bestowed on
those hospitaller brothers, and giving them the religious rule of
regular canons of St. Austin, declared the abbot general of this new
order, called Regular Canons of St. Antony. An abbey in Paris, which
belongs to this order, is called Little St. Antony's, by which name
it is distinguished from the great Cistercian nunnery of St. Antony.
The general or abbot of St. Antony's, in Viennois, enjoys a yearly
revenue of about forty thousand livres according to Piganiol, Descr.
de la Fr. t. 4, p. 249, and Dom Beaunier, Rec. Abbayes de Fr. p.
982. The superiors of other houses of this order retain the name of
commanders, and the houses are called commaranderies, as when they
were hospitallers; so that the general is the only abbot. See
Bollandus, Beaunict, F. Longueval, Hist. de l'Eglise de France, l.
22, t. 8, p. 16, and Drouet, in the late edition of Moreri's Hist.
Diction V Antoine, from memoirs communicated by M. Bordet, superior
of the convent of this order at Paris.
30. S. Athan. n. 67, p. 847, & n. 73, p. 850.

SS. SPEUSIPPUS, ELEUSIPPUS, AND MELEUSIPPUS,

MARTYRS.

THEY were three twin brothers, who, with Leonilla their grandmother,
glorified God by an illustrious martyrdom in Cappadocia, probably in the
reign of Marcus Aurelius. The most ancient acts of their martyrdom,
published by Rosweide and Bollandus, place it in that country, and their
relics were brought from the East to Langres in France, while the first
race of French kings filled the throne. A copy of the acts of their
martyrdom, which was sent from Langres by one Varnahair, to St.
Ceraunus, bishop of Paris, in the beginning of the seventh century, by
an evident mistake or falsification, affirms their martyrdom to have
happened at Langres; by which false edition, Ado, and many others, were
led into the same mistake. From certain ancient writings kept at
Langres, mentioned by Gualtherot in his Anastasius of Langres, Chatelain
proves that these relics, with the head of St. Mammes, a martyr, also of
Cappadocia, were given by the emperor Zeno to a nobleman of Langres, who
had served him in his wars. By him this sacred treasure was deposited in
the church of Langres, in the time of the bishop Aprunculus, in 490, to
be a protection against devils. The cathedral of Langres, which bears
the title of Saint Mammes, is possessed of the head of that martyr in a
rich shrine. A brass tomb before the high altar, is said to have
contained the bodies of the three children who were thrown into the
furnace at Babylon, mentioned in the book of Daniel: but Chatelain
thinks it belonged to the three martyrs whose bodies were given by the
emperor Zeno to the count of Langres. The church called of St. {173}
Geome, or Sancti Gemini, that is, the twins, situated two miles from
Langres, belongs to a priory of regular canons, and is famous out of
devotion to those saints, though great part of their relics was
translated by Hariolf, duke of Burgundy, and his brother Erlolf, bishop
of Langres, into Suabia, and remains in the noble collegiate church of
St. Guy, or St. Vitus, at El{}ange. These holy martyrs are secondary
patrons of the diocese of Langres, and titular saints of many churches
in France and Germany. See Chatelain Notes on Jan. 17, p. 313.

ST. SULPICIUS THE PIOUS, B.

ARCHBISHOP OF BOURGES.

THE church of Bourges in France was founded by St. Ursin, who was sent
from Rome to preach the faith in Gaul. St. Gregory of Tours, in his
history, places his mission in the middle of the third century,[1] yet
in his book on the Glory of Confessors,[2] he tells us that he was
ordained by the disciples of the apostles, and governed many years the
church of Bourges, which he had planted. He was interred in a common
burial-place in a field without the city; but his remains were
translated thence by St. Germanus, bishop of Paris, and abbot of St.
Symphorian's,[3] and by Probianus, bishop of Bourges, and deposited in
the church of St. Symphorian, now called St. Ursin's.[4] This saint is
honored in the Roman Martyrology on the 9th of November; at Lisieux, and
some other places, on the 29th of December. Among the most eminent of
his successors, two are called Sulpicius, and both surnamed Pious; the
first, who is sometimes called the Severe, sat from the year 584 to 591,
and his relics are enshrined in the church of St. Ursin.[5] His name was
inserted in the Roman Martyrology by Baronius, on the 29th of January,
and occurs in other more ancient calendars.[6]

Footnotes:
1. S. Gr. Tur. Hist. l. 1, c. 28.
2. L. de Gl. Conf. c. 80.
3. Fortunat. in Vita S. German Paris
4. Gallia Christ. nova, t. 2, p. 4.
5. See St. Greg. Turon. and Gallia Christ. nov. t. 2, p. 15.
6. See Benedict XIV. Litter. Apost. praefix. Martyr. Rom. Sec.46, p. 33.

ST. SULPICIUS II., ARCHBISHOP OF BOURGES,

SURNAMED LE DEBONNAIRE,

IS commemorated on this day in the Roman Martyrology. He was descended
of a noble family in Berry, and educated in learning and piety. His
large patrimony he gave to the church and poor; and being ordained
priest, served king Clothaire II. in quality of almoner and chaplain in
his armies; and on a time when he lay dangerously ill, restored him to
his health by prayer and fasting. In 624 he succeeded St. Austregesilus,
commonly called St. Outrille, in the see of Bourges. He reformed
discipline, converted all the Jews in his diocese, and employed his
whole time in prayer and laborious functions, chiefly in the instruction
of the poor. He died in 644. Among the letters of St. Desiderius of
Cahors, we have one which he sent to our saint with this title, "To the
holy patriarch, Sulpicius;"[1] and several of our saint to him.[2] The
famous monastery which bears his name at Bourges, is said to have been
founded by him under the invocation of the Blessed Virgin; it now
belongs to the congregation of St. Maur, and is enriched with part of
his relics, and with a portion of the blood of St. Stephen, who is the
titular saint of the stately cathedral. A bone of one of the arms {174}
of our saint, is kept in the famous parochial church in Paris, which is
dedicated to God under his invocation. See his ancient life in Bolland.
and Mab. saec. 2, Ben. Gallia Christ. nova, t. 2, p. 18.

Footnotes:
1. Apud Canis. Lect. Ant. t. 5, & Bibl. Patr. t. 8, l. 1, ep. 12.
2. Ib. l. 2.

ST. MILGITHE, V.

THUS Dom Menard writes the name of this saint, who by Capgrave is called
Mildgyda, by Josselin, Milvida, and by Thomas of Ely, in a fragment of
the life of St. Andry, quoted by Mabillon, Milgrida. Wilson testifies
that her feast is mentioned on this day, in an ancient MS. English
Martyrology; though Menard places it on the 26th of February. Her
father, Merowald, was son of Penda, and brother of Peoda, Wulfher, and
Ethelred, kings of Mercia. Her mother, Domneva, was daughter of
Ermenred, who was brother to Erconbert, king of Kent, father of St.
Ercongata, who died a nun at Farmoutier, in France, under the discipline
of St. Aubierge, her aunt. Her brother Meresin died young, in the odor
of sanctity. Her elder sisters, SS. Mildred and Milburge, are very
famous in the English calendars. St. Milgithe imitated their illustrious
example, and contemning the fading pleasures and delights of the world,
retired into the monastery of Estrey, built by Egbert, king of Kent, not
far from Canterbury, and having served God in the heroic practice of all
Christian virtues, died happily about the close of the seventh century.
See Menard in Martyrol. Bened. Wilson's English Martyr. Capgrave and
Bolland. t. 2, p. 176.

ST. NENNIUS, OR NENNIDHIUS, ABBOT.

DESPISING the vanities of the world, though of the race of the monarchs
of Ireland, from his youth he made the science of the cross of Christ
the sole object of his ambition; and to engrave in his heart the lessons
which our divine Redeemer taught by that adorable mystery, was the
centre of all his desires. Having passed many years, first in the school
of St. Fiechus, archbishop of Leinster, and afterwards in the celebrated
monastery of Clonard, in the province of Meath, under its holy founder
St Finian, he retired into the isle of Inis-muighesamb, in the lake of
Erne, in the province of Ulster. Here, in process of time, he became the
director of many souls in the paths of Christian perfection, founded a
great monastery, and, on account of his eminent sanctity, and the number
of illustrious disciples whom he left behind him, is called one of the
twelve apostles of Ireland. He flourished in the sixth century, and has
been honored in Ireland among the saints. F. Colgan was not able to meet
with any acts of his life, though he is mentioned in the lives of
several other Irish saints. A church in the isle of the lake, formed by
the river Erne, is dedicated to God under his invocation.

{175}


JANUARY XVIII.

ST. PETER'S CHAIR AT ROME.

See Phaebeus, de Cathedra in qua S. Petrus Romae sedit, et de antiquitate
et praestantia solemnitatis Cathedrae Romanae. Romae, 1666, 8vo.; also
Chatelain, Notes on the Martyrology, p. 326.

ST. PETER having triumphed over the devil in the East, pursued him to
Rome in the person of Simon Magus. He who had formerly trembled at the
voice of a poor maid, now feared not the very throne of idolatry and
superstition. The capital of the empire of the world, and the centre of
impiety, called for the zeal of the prince of the apostles. God had
established the Roman empire, and extended its dominion beyond that of
any former monarchy, for the more easy propagation of his gospel. Its
metropolis was of the greatest importance for this enterprise. St. Peter
took that province upon himself; and, repairing to Rome, there preached
the faith and established his Episcopal chair, whose _successors_ the
bishops of Rome have been accounted in all ages. That St. Peter founded
that church by his _preaching_, is expressly asserted by Caius,[1] a
priest of Rome under pope Zephyrinus; who relates also that his body was
then on the Vatican-hill, and that of his fellow-laborer, St. Paul, on
the Ostian road. That he and St. Paul planted the faith at Rome, and
were both crowned with martyrdom at the same time, is affirmed by
Dionysius,[2] bishop of Corinth, in the second age. St. Irenaeus,[3] who
lived in the same age, calls the church at Rome "The greatest and most
ancient church, founded by the two glorious apostles, Peter and Paul."
Eusebius, in several places,[4] mentions St. Peter's being at Rome, and
the several important transactions of this apostle in that city. Not to
mention Origen,[5] Hegesippus,[6] Arnobius,[7] St. Ambrose,[8], St.
Austin,[9] St. Jerom,[10] St. Optatus,[11] Orosius,[12] and others on
the same subject.[13] St. Cyprian[14] calls Rome the _chair_ of St.
Peter, (as Theodoret[15] calls it his _throne_,) which the general
councils and ecclesiastical writers, through every age, and on every
occasion, repeat. That St. Peter at least preached in Rome, founded that
church, and died there by martyrdom under Nero, are facts the most
incontestable by the testimony of all writers of different countries,
who lived near that time; persons of unquestionable veracity, and who
could not but be informed of the truth, in a point so interesting, and
of its own nature so public and notorious, as to leave them no
possibility of a mistake. This is also attested by monuments of every
kind; also by the prerogatives, rights, and privileges, which that
church enjoyed from those early ages; in consequence of this title.

It was an ancient custom, as cardinal Baronius[16] and Thomassin[17]
show by many examples, observed by churches, to keep an annual festival
of the {176} consecration of their bishops. The feast of the chair of
St. Peter is found in ancient Martyrologies, as in one under the name of
St. Jerom, at Esternach, copied in the time of St. Willibrord, in 720.
Christians justly celebrate the founding of this mother-church, the
centre of Catholic communion, in thanksgiving to God for his mercies on
his church, and to implore his future blessings.

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