William English Walling - "Socialism As It Is"

Gotthold Ephraim Lessing - "Abhandlungen ueber die Fabel"

Ellis Towne; Sophie May and Ella Farman - "Lill's Travels in Santa Claus Land"

Edited by E. M. (Sir Edward Howard Marsh) - "Georgian Poetry 1913 15"

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




Footnotes:
1. S. Bonav. de Profectu Religios. l. 2, c. 20. p. 604.

ST. JOHN THE ALMONER, C.

PATRIARCH OF ALEXANDRIA.

HE received his surname from his profuse alms-deeds; was nobly
descended, very rich, and a widower, at Amathus in Cyprus, where, having
buried all his children, he employed the whole income of his estate in
the {204} relief of the poor, and was no less remarkable for his great
piety. The reputation of his sanctity raised him to the patriarchal
chair of Alexandria about the year 605, at which time he was upwards of
fifty years of age. On his arrival in that city, he ordered an exact
list to be taken of his Masters. Being asked who these were, his answer
was, "The poor;" namely, on account of their great interest in the court
of heaven in behalf of their benefactors. Their number amounted to seven
thousand five hundred, whom he took under his special protection, and
furnished with all necessaries. He prepared himself, by this action, to
receive the fulness of grace in his consecration. On the same day he
published severe ordinances, but in the most humble terms, conjuring and
commanding all to use just weights and measures, in order to prevent
injustices and oppressions of the poor. He most rigorously forbade all
his officers and servants ever to receive the least presents, which are
no better than bribes, and bias the most impartial. Every Wednesday and
Friday he sat the whole day on a bench before the church, that all might
have free access to him to lay their grievances before him, and make
known their necessities. He composed all differences, comforted the
afflicted, and relieved the distressed. One of his first actions at
Alexandria was to distribute the eighty thousand pieces of gold which he
found in the treasury of his church, among hospitals and monasteries. He
consecrated to the service of the poor the great revenues of his see,
then the first in all the East, both in riches and rank. Besides these,
incredible charities flowed through his hands in continual streams,
which his example excited every one to contribute according to their
abilities. When his stewards complained that he impoverished his church,
his answer was, that God would provide for them. To vindicate his
conduct, and silence their complaints, he recounted to them a vision he
had in his youth, of a beautiful woman, brighter than the sun, with an
olive garland on her head, whom he understood to be Charity, or
compassion for the miserable; who said to him "I am the eldest daughter
of the great King. If you enjoy my favor, I will introduce you to the
great monarch of the universe. No one has so great an interest with him
as myself, who was the occasion of his coming down from heaven to become
man for the redemption of mankind." When the Persians had plundered the
East, and sacked Jerusalem, St. John entertained all that fled from
their swords into Egypt; and sent to Jerusalem, for the use of the poor
there, besides a large sum of money, one thousand sacks of corn, as many
of pulse, one thousand pounds of iron, one thousand loads of fish, one
thousand barrels of wine, and one thousand Egyptian workmen to assist in
rebuilding the churches; adding, in his letter to Modestus, the bishop,
that he wished it had been in his power to have gone in person, and
contributed the labor of his hands towards carrying on that holy work.
He also sent two bishops and an abbot to ransom captives. No number of
necessitous objects, no losses, no straits to which he saw himself often
reduced, discouraged him, or made him lose his confidence in divine
providence, and resources never failed him in the end. When a certain
person, whom he had privately relieved with a most bountiful alms,
expressed his gratitude in the strongest terms, the saint cut him short,
saying, "Brother, I have not yet spilt my blood for you, as Jesus
Christ, my master and my God, commands me." A certain merchant, who had
been thrice ruined by shipwrecks, had as often found relief from the
good patriarch, who the third time gave him a ship belonging to the
church, laden with twenty thousand measures of corn. This vessel was
driven by a storm to the British Islands, and a famine raging there, the
owners sold their cargo to great advantage, {205} and brought back a
considerable value in exchange, one half in money, the other in pewter.

The patriarch lived himself in the greatest austerity and poverty, as to
diet, apparel, and furniture. A person of distinction in the city, being
informed that our saint had but one blanket on his bed, and this a very
sorry one, sent him one of value, begging his acceptance of it, and that
he would make use of it for the sake of the donor. He accepted of it,
and put it to the intended use, but it was only for one night; and this
he passed in great uneasiness, with severe self-reproaches for being so
richly covered, while so many of his masters (his familiar term for the
poor) were so ill accommodated. The next morning he sold it, and gave
the price to the poor. The friend being informed of it, bought it for
thirty-six pieces, and gave it him a second, and a third time; for the
saint always disposed of it in the same way, saying facetiously, "We
shall see who will be tired first." He was well versed in the
scriptures, though a stranger to the pomp of profane eloquence. The
functions of his ministry, prayer, and pious reading, employed his whole
time. He studied with great circumspection to avoid the least idle word,
and never chose to speak about temporal affairs, unless compelled by
necessity, and then only in very few words. If he heard any detract from
the reputation of their neighbor, he was ingenious in turning the
discourse to some other subject, and he forbade them his house, to deter
others from that vice. Hearing that when an emperor was chosen, it was
customary for certain carvers to present to him four or five blocks of
marble, to choose one out of them for his tomb, he caused his grave to
be half dug, and appointed a man to come to him on all occasions of
pomp, and say, "My lord, your tomb is unfinished; be pleased to give
your orders to have it completed, for you know not the hour when death
will seize you." The remembrance of the rigorous account which we are to
give to God, made him often burst into the most pathetic expressions of
holy fear. But humility was his distinguishing virtue, and he always
expressed, both in words and actions, the deepest sentiments of his own
nothingness, sinfulness, miseries, and pride. He often admired how
perfectly the saints saw their own imperfections, and that they were
dust, worms, and unworthy to be ranked among men.

The saint regarded injuries as his greatest gain and happiness. He
always disarmed his enemies of their rancor by meekness, and frequently
fell at the feet of those who insulted him, to beg their pardon.
Nicetas, the governor, had formed a project of a new tax, very
prejudicial to the poor. The patriarch modestly spoke in their defence.
The governor in a passion left him abruptly. St. John sent him this
message towards evening: "The sun is going to set:" putting him in mind
of the advice of the apostle: _Let not the sun go down upon your anger_.
This admonition had its intended effect on the governor, and pierced him
to the quick. He arose, and went to the patriarch, bathed in tears,
asked his pardon, and by way of atonement, promised never more to give
ear to informers and tale-bearers. St. John confirmed him in that
resolution, adding, that he never believed any man whatever against
another, till he himself had examined the party accused; and that he
punished all calumniators and tale-bearers in a manner which might deter
others from so fatal a vice. Having in vain exhorted a certain nobleman
to forgive one with whom he was at variance, he soon after invited him
to his private chapel to assist at his mass, and there desired him to
recite with him the Lord's prayer. The saint stopped at that petition;
_Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those that trespass against
us_. When the nobleman had recited it alone, he conjured him to reflect
on what he had been saying to God at the hour of the tremendous
mysteries, {206} begging to be pardoned in the same manner as he forgave
others. The other, feeling himself struck to the heart, fell at his
feet, and from that moment was sincerely reconciled with his adversary.
The saint often exhorted men against rash judgment, saying,
"Circumstances easily deceive us; magistrates are bound to examine and
judge criminals; but what have private persons to do with others, unless
it be to vindicate them?" He used to relate many examples of persons who
were found innocent and eminent saints, though they had been condemned
by the world upon circumstances; as that of a certain monk, who brought
to that city a Jewess whom he had converted, but was accused as guilty
of lewdness with her, and cruelly scourged; for he said nothing to
justify himself, out of a desire of humiliation and suffering. But his
innocence and sanctity were soon after brought to light. St. John
employed Sophronius and John Moschus in reducing to the faith the
Severians and other heretics. Observing that many amused themselves
without the church, during part of the divine office, which was then of
a very considerable length, he followed them out, and seated himself
among them, saying, "My children, the shepherd must be with his flock."
This action, which covered them with confusion, prevented their being
guilty of that irreverence any more. As he was one day going to church,
he was accosted on the way by a woman who demanded justice against her
son-in-law that had injured her. The woman being ordered by some
standers-by to wait the patriarch's return from church, he overhearing
them, said, "How can I hope that God will hear my prayer, if I put off
the petition of this woman?" Nor did he stir from the place till he had
redressed the grievance complained of.

Nicetas, the governor, persuaded the saint to accompany him to
Constantinople, to pay a visit to the emperor. St. John was admonished
from heaven, while he was on his way, at Rhodes, that his death drew
near, and said to Nicetas, "You invite me to the emperor of the earth;
but the King of heaven calls me to himself." He therefore sailed for
Cyprus, and soon after died happily at Amathus, about the year of our
Lord 619, in the sixty-fourth of his age, and tenth of his patriarchal
dignity. His body was afterwards carried to Constantinople, where it was
kept a long time. The Turkish emperor made a present of it to Matthias,
king of Hungary, which he deposited in his chapel at Buda. In 1530 it
was translated to Tall, near Presbourg; and, in 1632, to the cathedral
itself of Presbourg, where, according to Bollandus, it still remains.
The Greeks honor this saint on the 11th of November, the day of his
death; but the Roman Martyrology on the 23d of January, the day marked
for the translation of his relics. His life, written by his two vicars,
Sophronius and Moschus, is lost; but we have that by Leontius, bishop of
Naplouse in Cyprus, from the relation of the saint's clergy, commended
in the seventh general council. It is published more correct by Rosweide
and Bollandus. We have another life of this saint, conformable to the
former, given us by Metaphrastes. See Le Quien, Oriens Christi, t. 2, p.
446.

ST. EMERENTIA, V.M.

SHE suffered about the year 304, and is named in the Martyrologies under
the name of St. Jerom, Bede, and others. She is said in her acts to have
been stoned to death, while only a catechumen, praying at the tomb of
St. Agnes.

{207}

ST. CLEMENT OF ANCYRA, B.M.

HE suffered under Dioclesian, and is ranked by the Greeks among the
great martyrs. His modern Greek acts say, his lingering martyrdom was
continued by divers torments during twenty-eight years; but are
demonstrated by Baronius and others to be of no authority. Two churches
at Constantinople were dedicated to God under the invocation of St.
Clement of Ancyra; one called of the Palace, the other now in Pera, a
suburb of that city. Several parts of his relics were kept with great
devotion at Constantinople. His skull, which was brought thence to Paris
when Constantinople was taken by the Latins, in the thirteenth century,
was given by queen Anne of Austria to the abbey of Val de Grace. See
Chatelain, p. 386. Le Quien, Oriens Chr. t. 1, p. 457.

ST. AGATHANGELUS,

THE fellow-martyr of St. Clement, bishop of Ancyra. His relics, with
those of St. Clement, lay in a church in the suburbs of Constantinople,
now called Pera; but were brought into the West when that city was taken
by the Latins.

ST. ILDEFONSUS, B.

HE was a learned Benedictin abbot of a monastery called Agaliense, in a
suburb of Toledo, promoted to the archbishopric of that city after the
death of Eugenius, in December, 657, according to F. Flores; sat nine
years and two months, and died on the 23d of January, 667, according to
the same learned author, in the eighteenth year of king Rescisvintho.
His most celebrated work is a book On the spotless virginity of the
Virgin Mary, against Helvidius, Jovinian, and a certain Jew: he breathes
in it the most tender devotion to her, and confidence in her
intercession with her Son. He had a singular devotion to St. Leocadia,
patroness of Toledo. Certain sermons of St. Ildefonsus on the B.
Virgin Mary, and some letters, are published by Flores.[1] Some of his
letters, which were first given us by D'Achery, were reprinted by
cardinal D'Aguirre.[2] In Spanish this saint is called Ildefonso, and by
the common people Alanso, for Alphonsus, which is an abbreviation of
Ildefonsus. See his short life by St. Julian, bishop of Toledo,
twenty-three years after his death. In Mabillon, saec. 2. Fleury, b. 39,
n. 40. That by Cixila is not authentic. See especially the remarks of
the learned F. Flores on these two lives, &c., in his Spana Sagrada, t.
5, tr. 5, c. 3, n. 31, p. 275, and app. 9, ib. p. 522. F. Flores reckons
St. Ildefonsus the thirty-first bishop of Toledo, from St. Eugenius, the
disciple of St. Dionysius of Paris, whom, with the writers of his
country, he counts the first, in the year 112.

Footnotes:
1. F. Flores. Spana Sagrada, t. 5, append. 7, p. 490.
2. Card. D'Aguirre, Conc. Hispan. t. 2, p. 534.

{208}

ST. EUSEBIUS,

AN ABBOT BETWEEN ANTIOCH AND BER[OE]A

HIS example was a perpetual and a most moving sermon, and his very
countenance inspired all who beheld him with the love of virtue. He took
nourishment but once in four days, but would not allow any of his monks
to pass above two days without eating. He prescribed them mortifications
of each sense in particular, but made perpetual prayer his chief rule,
ordering them to implore the divine mercy in their hearts, in whatever
labor their hands were employed. While Ammianus, who had resigned to him
the government of the abbey, was one day reading aloud, out of the
scriptures, for their mutual edification, Eusebius happened to cast his
eye on certain laborers in the field where they sat, so as not to give
due attention to the lecture: to punish himself for this slight fault,
he put on, and wore till his death, for above forty years, a heavy iron
collar about his neck, fastened by a stiff chain to a great iron girdle
about his middle, so that he could only look downwards under his feet:
and he never afterwards stirred out of his cell but by a narrow passage
from his cell to the chapel. His sanctity drew many disciples to him. He
flourished in the fourth century. See Theodoret Philoth. c. 4. Item
Hist. Eccles. l. 4, c. 28.


JANUARY XXIV.

ST. TIMOTHY, B. AND M.

See Tillemont, t. 2, p. 142.

ST. TIMOTHY, the beloved disciple of St. Paul, was of Lycaonia, and
probably of the city Lystra. His father was a Gentile, but his mother
Eunice a Jewess. She, with Lois his grandmother, embraced the Christian
religion, and St. Paul commends their faith. Timothy had made the holy
scriptures his study from his infancy.[1] When St. Paul preached in
Lycaonia, in the year 51, the brethren of Iconium and Lystra gave him so
advantageous a character of the young man, that the apostle, being
deprived of St. Barnaby, took him for the companion of his labors, but
first circumcised him at Lystra. For though the Jewish ceremonies ceased
to be obligatory from the death of Christ, it was still lawful to use
them (but not as of precept and obligation) till about the time of the
destruction of Jerusalem with the temple, that the synagogue might be
buried with honor. Therefore St. Paul refused to circumcise Titus, born
of Gentile parents, to assert the liberty of the gospel, and to condemn
those who erroneously affirmed circumcision to be still of precept in
the New Law. On the other side, he circumcised Timothy, born of a
Jewess, by that condescension to render him the more acceptable to the
Jews, and to make it appear that himself was no enemy to their law. St.
Chrysostom[2] here admires the prudence, steadiness, {209} and charity
of St. Paul; and we may add, the voluntary obedience of the disciple.
St. Austin[3] extols his zeal and disinterestedness in immediately
forsaking his country, his house, and his parents, to follow this
apostle, to share in his poverty and sufferings. After he was
circumcised, St. Paul, by the imposition of hands, committed to him the
ministry of preaching, his rare virtue making ample amends for his want
of age. From that time the apostle regarded him not only as his disciple
and most dear son, but as his brother, and the companion of his
labors.[4] He calls him a man of God,[5] and tells the Philippians, that
he found no one so truly united to him in heart and sentiments, as
Timothy.[6] This esteem of the apostle is a sufficient testimony of the
extraordinary merit of the disciple, whose vocation and entrance into
the ministry was accompanied with prophecies in his behalf.[7]

St. Paul travelled from Lystra over the rest of Asia, sailed into
Macedon, and preached at Philippi, Thessalonica, and Ber[oe]a, in the year
52. Being compelled to quit this last city by the fury of the Jews, he
left Timothy behind him, to confirm the new converts there. On St.
Paul's arrival at Athens he sent for him, but being informed that the
Christians of Thessalonica lay under a very heavy persecution for the
faith, he soon after deputed him to go thither, to comfort and encourage
them under it; and he returned to St. Paul, then at Corinth, to give him
an account of his success in that commission.[8] Upon this the apostle
wrote his first epistle to the Thessalonians. From Corinth St. Paul went
to Jerusalem, and thence to Ephesus, where he spent two years. Here he
formed a resolution of returning into Greece, and sent Timothy and
Erastus before him through Macedon, to apprize the faithful in those
parts of his intention, and to prepare the alms intended to be sent the
Christians of Jerusalem.

Timothy had a particular order to go afterwards to Corinth, to correct
certain abuses, and to revive in the minds of the faithful there the
doctrine which the apostle had taught them; who, writing soon after to
the Corinthians, earnestly recommended this disciple to them.[9] St.
Paul waited in Asia for his return, and then went with him into Macedon
and Achaia. St. Timothy left him at Philippi, but rejoined him at Troas.
The apostle on his return to Palestine was imprisoned, and after two
years custody at Caesarea, was sent to Rome. Timothy seems to have been
with him all or most of this time, and is named by him in the titles of
his epistles to Philemon, and to the Philippians and Thessalonians, in
the years 61 and 62. St. Timothy himself suffered imprisonment for
Christ, and gloriously confessed his name, in the presence of many
witnesses; but was set at liberty.[10] He was ordained bishop by a
prophecy, and a particular order of the Holy Ghost.[11] He received by
this imposition of hands, not only the grace of the sacrament, and the
authority to govern the church, but also the power of miracles, and the
other exterior gifts of the Holy Ghost. St. Paul being returned from
Rome into the East, in the year 64, left St. Timothy at Ephesus, to
govern that church, to oppose false teachers, and to ordain priests,
deacons, and even bishops.[12] For St. Chrysostom[13] and other fathers
observe, that he committed to him the care of all the churches of Asia:
and St. Timothy is always named the first bishop of Ephesus.[14]

St. Paul wrote his first epistle to Timothy from Macedon, in 64; and his
second, in 65, from Rome, while there in chains, to press him to come to
Rome, that he might see him again before he died. It is an effusion of
his heart, full of tenderness towards this his dearest son. In it he
encourages {210} him, endeavors to renew and stir up in his soul that
spirit of intrepidity, and that fire of the Holy Ghost, with which he
was filled at his ordination; gives him instructions concerning the
heretics of that time, and adds a lively description of such as would
afterwards arise.[15]

We learn[16] that St. Timothy drank only water: but his austerities
having prejudiced his health, on account of his weak stomach and
frequent infirmities, St. Paul ordered him to use a little wine. The
fathers observe that he only says a little, even in that necessity,
because the flesh is to be kept weak, that the spirit may be vigorous
and strong. St. Timothy was then young: perhaps about forty. It is not
improbable that he went to Rome to confer with his master. In the year
64 he was made by St. Paul bishop of Ephesus, before St. John arrived
there, who resided also in that city as an apostle, and exercising a
general inspection over all the churches of Asia.[17] St. Timothy is
styled a martyr in the ancient martyrologies.

His acts, in some copies ascribed to the famous Polycrates, bishop of
Ephesus, but which seem to have been written at Ephesus, in the fifth or
sixth age, and abridged by Photius, relate, that under the emperor
Nerva, in the year 97, St. John being still in the isle of Patmos, St.
Timothy was slain with stones and clubs by the heathens, while he was
endeavoring to oppose their idolatrous ceremonies on one of their
festivals called Catagogia, kept on the 22d of January, on which the
idolaters walked in troops, every one carrying in one hand an idol, and
in the other a club. St. Paulinus,[18] Theodorus Lector, and
Philostorgius,[19] inform us, that his relics were with great pomp
translated to Constantinople in the year 356, in the reign of
Constantius. St. Paulinus witnesses, that the least portion of them
wrought many miracles wherever they were distributed. These precious
remains, with those of St. Andrew. and St. Luke, were deposited under
the altar, in the church of the apostles in that city, where the devils,
by their howlings, testified how much they felt their presence, says St.
Jerom;[20] which St. Chrysostom also confirms.[21]

* * * * *

Pious reading was the means by which St. Timothy, encouraged by the
example and exhortations of his virtuous grandmother and mother, imbibed
in his tender years, and nourished during the whole course of his life,
the most fervent spirit of religion and all virtues; and his ardor for
holy reading and meditation is commended by St. Paul, as the proof of
his devotion and earliest desire of advancing in divine charity. When
this saint was wholly taken up in the most laborious and holy functions
of the apostolic ministry, that great apostle strongly recommends to him
always to be assiduous in the same practice,[22] and in all exercises of
devotion. A minister of the gospel who neglects regular exercises of
retirement, especially self-examination, reading, meditation, and
private devotion, forgets his first and most essential duty, the care he
owes to his own soul. Neither can he hope to kindle the fire of charity
in others, if he suffer it to be extinguished {211} in his own breast.
These exercises are also indispensably necessary in a certain degree, in
all states and circumstances of life; nor is it possible for a Christian
otherwise to maintain a spirit of true piety, which ought to animate the
whole body of all his actions, and without which even spiritual
functions want as it were their soul.

Footnotes:
1. 2 Tim. iii. 15.
2. Praef. in 1 Tim.
3. Serm. 177, n. 7.
4. 1 Thess. iii. 2. 1 Cor. iv. 17.
5. 1 Tim. vi. 11.
6. Phil. ii. 20.
7. 1 Tim. i. 18.
8. Acts xviii.
9. 1 Cor. xvi. 10.
10. Heb. xiii. 23.
11. 1 Tim. iv. 14.
12. 1 Tim. {}.
13. Hom. 15, in 1 Tim.
14. Eus. l. 3, c. {} Conc. t. 4, p. 699.
15. 2 Tim. iii. 1, 2.
16. 1 Tim. v. 23.
17. In the Apocalypse, which was written in the year 95, Christ
threatens the bishop of Ephesus, because he was fallen from his
first charity, and exhorts him to do penance and return to his first
works. (Apoc. xi. 4.) Calmet says, that this bishop could be no
other than St. Timothy; Pererius, Cornelieus a Lapide, Grotius,
Alcazar, Bossuet, and other learned men, agree in this point; also
Tillemont, t. 2, p. 147, and Bollandus ad 21 Jan. pp. 563 & 564.
Nicholas a Lyra and Ribera cannot be persuaded that St. Timothy ever
deserved such a censure, unless we understand it only of his flock.
The others say, he might have fallen into some venial remissness in
not reprehending the vices of others with sufficient vigor; which
fault he repaired, upon this admonition, with such earnestness, as
to have given occasion to his martyrdom, in 97. He was succeeded in
the see of Ephesus by John I., who was consecrated by St. John
Evangelist. (See Consitut. Apostol. l. 8, c. 46.) Onesiumus was
third bishop of Ephesus. See Le Quien Oriens. Chris. t. 1, p. 672.
18. Carm. 26.
19. L. 3, c. 2.
20. In Vigilant. c. 2.
21. Hom. 1, ad Pop. Antioch.
22. 1 Tim. iv. 7 and 13.

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