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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




In his homily On the Calends, or First Day of the Year, (t. 1, p. 697,)
he inveighs with great zeal against rioting and revels usual in that
season, and strongly exhorts all to spend that day in works of piety,
and in consecrating the year to God. As builders raise a wall by a ruler
or plummet, that no unevenness may spoil their work, so must we make the
sincere intention of the divine glory our rule in our prayers, fasts,
eating, drinking, buying, selling, silence, and discourse. This must be
our great staff, our arms, our rampart, our immense treasure: wherever
we are, and whatever we say or do, we must bear this motto always
written on our heart: "To the glory of God;" ever glorifying God, not
barely in words, but by all our actions in the sincere affections of our
hearts, that we may receive glory from him who says: "Those who glorify
me, I will crown with glory," (p. 697.)

In seven discourses, On Lazarus and the Rich Man, he shows that a life
of sensuality and pleasures is condemned by Christ; laments that any
Christian should abandon himself to debauchery, and declares he will
never cease to pursue sinners by his exhortations, as Christ did Judas,
to the last moment: if any remain obstinately incorrigible, he shall
esteem it a great happiness if he reclaim but one soul, or even prevent
but one sin; at least that he can never see God offended and remain
silent. (Hom. 1.) He sets off the advantages of afflictions, which are
occasions of all virtue, and even in the reprobate, at least abate the
number of their sins, and the torments of another life. In the seventh
homily, he severely condemns the diversions of the circus, and expresses
the most tender grief that any Christian should so far forget God as to
frequent them. He paternally exhorts all such to repentance; proves
afflictions and the cross to be the portion of the just in this life,
and says, "That they whom God does not visit with tribulations, ought at
least to afflict themselves by the labors of penance, the only path
which can conduct us with Lazarus to God," (p. 736.)

In the second tome, we have the holy doctor's twenty-one sermons to the
people of Antioch, or, On the Statues; the following discourses, to the
number of sixty, in the old editions not being genuine, but patched up
by modern Greeks, chiefly out of several works of this father. The great
sedition happened at Antioch on the 26th of February, 387, just after
the saint had preached the first of the sermons, in which he spoke
against drunkenness and blasphemy, pressing all persons to expel their
company any one who should blaspheme. After the sedition, he was silent,
in the general grief and consternation, for seven days: then made his
second sermon, in which he tells the people that their confusion and
remorse is itself a greater punishment than it was in the power of the
emperor to inflict; he exhorts them to alms-deeds, and to hope in the
mercy of Christ, who, leaving the earth, left us his own flesh, which
yet he carried with him to heaven, and that blood which he spilt for us,
he again imparted to us. After this, what will he refuse to do for our
salvation? The third sermon being made in the beginning of Lent, the
preacher inculcates the obligation of fasting: from his words it is
clear that Christians then abstained from wine and fish no less than
from fowls and all flesh. He insists chiefly on the moral fast of the
will from all sin, and of all the senses by self-denials in each of
them. Detraction he singles out as the most common sin, and exhorts us
to abhor, with the royal prophet, every one who secretly detracts
another; to say to such, "If you have any thing to say to the advantage
of another, I will hear you with pleasure; but if you have only ill to
tell me, this is what I cannot listen to." If detracters were thoroughly
persuaded that by their evil speeches they rendered themselves more
odious than those of whom they speak ill, they would be effectually
cured of this pestilential habit. The saint draws an inference from what
the people then saw before their eyes, and represented to them that if
emperors punish with extreme rigor those who injure their statues, with
what severity will God revenge the injury done by the detracter to his
living image, and that offered by the blasphemer to his own adorable
name. In the fourth homily, he speaks on the usefulness of afflictions,
which withdraw men from many dangers of sin, and make them earnestly
seek God. In the fifth, he continues the same subject, and shows that
they ought not to fear death, if they prepare themselves for it by
sincere penance. Their conversion he would have them begin by correcting
the habit of swearing, which had taken deep root among many of them.
This victory, he says, would be easy if every one who had contracted
such a habit would enjoin himself some penance for every oath which
should escape him, as the loss of a meal. "Hunger and thirst," says the
saint, "will put you in mind always to watch over yourself, and you will
stand in need of no other exhortation." In the sixth, he shows that
death is desirable to a Christian, who, by a penitential life, in
imitation of the holy anchorets, is dead to the world and himself. {261}
In the fourteenth, he describes the dreadful consternation with which
the whole city was filled at the sight of new troops, and of a tribunal
erected; and, to awake sinners to a sincere repentance, he sets before
their eyes the terrors of the last judgment. In the twentieth, he
exhorts them to redouble their fervor in preparing their souls for the
Paschal communion, the nearer that time approached; especially by
forgiving all injuries. In the twenty-first, which was spoken on
Easter-day, after the return of the patriarch, he recites great part of
Flavian's speech, and the emperor's gracious answer, whose clemency he
elegantly extols, with a pathetic exhortation to the people never to
forget the divine mercy. From the mention he makes of Flavian's speech,
(Hom. 3, p. 35,) it appears that our saint had concerted it with him. He
preached every day this Lent; but only these twenty-one have reached us:
and only two catechetical discourses, out of many others which he made
about Easter that year to the catechumens. In the first he censures
those who defer baptism, and explains the names and fruits of that great
sacrament; in the second, he exhorts them always to bear in mind, and to
repeat to themselves, on every occasion, those solemn words, "I renounce
thee, Satan;" and to make it the study of their whole lives to be ever
faithful to this most sacred engagement. He next puts them in mind, that
they ought to pray without intermission, and always to have God before
their eyes, at work, in the shop, abroad, sitting, or whatever else they
were doing.

About the year 392, Diodorus, bishop of Tarsus, formerly St.
Chrysostom's master, happened to preach at Antioch, and in his sermon
highly commended our saint, whom he called John the Baptist, the voice
of the church, and the rod of Moses. The people, by loud acclamations,
testified how agreeable these encomiums of their preacher were to them:
only St. Chrysostom heard them with grief and confusion, and ascribed
them to the fondness of a good master, and the charity of the people.
Afterwards, ascending the pulpit, he said that every word of the
discourse had struck him to the heart, and made him sigh within himself:
for praises sting the conscience no less than sins, when a soul is
conscious to herself how far she is from what is said of her: they only
set before her eyes the last day, in which, to her greater confusion,
all things will appear naked and as they are; for we shall not be judged
by the masks which are put on us by other men. T. 3, F. 747.

In three sermons On the Devil, he shows that the divine mercy has
restored us more by grace in our redemption, than the devil has robbed
us of by the sin of Adam; and that the punishment itself of that sin
served to set forth the excess of the divine mercy and goodness, (Hom.
1, de Diabolo, t. 2, p. 246;) that temptations and the devil's malice
are occasions of great advantage, if we make a good use of them: that
temporal calamities are sent by God: we fall into sin only by our own
malice: the devil has no power against us but by the divine permission,
and all his efforts are weak, unless by our sloth we give him power over
us. He draws a parallel between Adam sinning in paradise by his free
will, and Job victorious by patience on his dunghill under his
sufferings, of which he gives a lively description, showing them to have
been far more grievous than all the calamities under which we so easily
lose our patience and crown.

In nine homilies On Penance, he extols its efficacy, and invites all
sinners to repentance. Hom. 6, p. 316, he vehemently condemns stage
entertainments, which he calls the school of pleasure, the seat of
pestilence, and the furnace of Babylon. Hom. 3, he calls alms the queen
of virtues, and charity and compassion the key of the divine mercy. Hom.
9, p. 347, he presses all to assist assiduously at the divine mysteries,
but with attention, awe, and trembling.

In two homilies On the Treason of Judas, (p. 376,) he recommends
meekness towards persecutors, and the pardon of injuries, by which we
reap from them, without trouble of expense, the most precious of all
advantages, grace and the pardon of our sins. Speaking on the holy
eucharist, he says, that Christ gives us in it the same body which he
delivered to death for us, and that he refused not to present to Judas
the very blood which that traitor sold. (Hom. 1, de proditione Judae, t.
2, p. 383.) He repeats the same thing, (Hom. 2, ib. p. 393.) He
observes, that as God, by his word, (Gen. i. 28,) propagates and
multiplies all things in nature to the end of the world, so it is not
the priest, but Christ, by the words pronounced by the priest, and by
virtue of those which he spoke at his last supper, saying, "This is my
body," who changes the offering (or bread and wine) in every church from
that to this time, and consummates the sacrifice till his coming. (Hom.
1, ib. p. 383.)

In two homilies, On the Cross, and on the Good Thief, preached on Good
Friday, he makes many excellent reflections on the conversion of the
latter, and on the precept of our forgiving injuries, by which we become
true imitators of Christ, and inherit the privileges of his disciples.
The cross he commends as the instrument of Christ's glorious triumph,
and of our happiness.

In a homily On the Resurrection of the Dead, he proves this article to
be the foundation, both of our faith, and of our morals. In that On the
Resurrection of our Lord, he tells his flock, that on that day (which
was the solemnity of Easter) they were no longer obliged to drink only
water, to abstain from the bath, to live on herbs and pulse, and to fast
as in Lent; but that they were bound to shun intemperance: he speaks
against drunkenness, {262} and says the poor have equal reason for joy
and thanksgiving with the rich on that solemnity, the advantages which
it brings consisting in spiritual graces, not in feasting or pomp. In
the first homily, On Whitsunday, he proves, that though the descent of
the Holy Ghost is no longer manifested by miracles, since the faith had
been sufficiently established by them, it was not less real, though made
in an invisible manner in our souls, by his grace and peace. In the
second, on the same feast, he calls Whitsunday the accomplishment of all
the mysteries of our faith; and teaches that the Holy Ghost delayed his
descent, that he might not come upon the apostles in vain, or without
having been long and earnestly desired; and that he manifested his
descent by the emblem of tongues of fire, to represent that he consumes
like fire the thorns of our souls, and that his principal gift is
charity. His seven homilies On St. Paul, are standing proofs of his
singular veneration for that great apostle, and admiration of his divine
virtues. In the third, speaking of that apostle's ardent love of God,
which made ignominies and torments for his sake a triumph, and a subject
of joy and pleasure, he seems to surpass himself, (p. 481.) In the
sixth, he speaks of miracles wrought at the relics of St. Babylas at
Daphne, and says, that the devil trembled at the name of Christ, and
fled whenever it was pronounced. In many other homilies he speaks in
raptures on the admirable virtues of St. Paul, whose spirit he had
imbibed and studied in his writings and example. The miracles of St.
Babylas are the subject of a panegyric, which St. Chrysostom has left us
on that holy martyr, (ib. p. 531.) We have his panegyrics or homilies on
St. Meletius, St. Lucian, SS. Juventinus and Maximin, St. Pelagia, St.
Ignatius, St. Eustathius, St. Romanus, the Maccabees, SS. Bernice,
Prosodoche, and Domnina, St. Drosis, St. Phocas, &c., in which he
frequently and strongly recommends the most devout veneration for their
relics. See that on St. Ignatius, p. 593, &c. In homily 1, On the
Martyrs, (p. 650,) he says that the very sight of their relics more
strongly moves to virtue than the most pathetic sermons, and that their
shrines are more precious than the richest earthly treasures, and that
the advantages which these relics afford, are not diminished by their
division, but multiplied. Some being surprised that in this discourse he
had compared the crime of an unworthy communion to that of the Jews, who
crucified Christ, he made another under this title, That we are not to
preach to please Men; in which he repeats and enforces the same
comparison; but adds a serious exhortation to frequent communion, after
a sincere repentance, and the distinct confession of every sin; "For it
is not enough to say, I am a sinner, but every kind of sin is to be
expressed," (p, 667.) Though some circumstances aggravate a sacrilegious
communion beyond the crime of Judas and that of the crucifiers of
Christ; the last was doubtless, as St. Thomas Aquinas shows, far more
enormous in itself; an injury offered to Christ in his own natural form
differing from an insult which he receives hid under sacramental veils,
though it is hard to imagine that any crime into which a Christian can
fall since the death of Christ, can be more enormous than an unworthy
communion. St. Chrysostom, in his second sermon On the Martyrs, (p.
668,) bids the faithful remain a long time in prayer at their tombs, and
devoutly kiss their shrines, which abound with blessings. In that On the
Martyrs of Egypt, (p. 699,) he calls their relics dispersed in different
places, "the ramparts of the cities," &c. In that On the Earthquake, he
expresses a deep and tender concern for the public calamity, but
rejoices at the spiritual advancement of the people, saying, that this
scourge had wrought such a change in them, that they seemed to be become
angels. Two books On Prayer, bear the name of St. Chrysostom: if they
are not mentioned by the ancients among his works, that most important
subject is treated in them in a manner not unworthy his pen. This book
is made use of in many pious schools as a Greek classic, with another On
the Education of Children, full of excellent maxims, ascribed to our
saint; but unjustly, for it is a compilation, made without much method,
out of several of his sermons and other works.

The first part of the third tome, in the Benedictin edition, presents us
thirty-four elegant sermons of this saint on divers texts of holy
scripture, and on various Christian virtues and duties. Those on
forgiving injuries, humility, alms, prayer, widowhood, and three on
marriage, particularly deserve attention. That On Alms he took occasion
to preach from the extreme miseries under which he saw the beggars
groan, lying abandoned in the streets as he passed through them coming
to the church; whence it is inferred by Tillemont and others, that it
was spoken extempore, or without preparation. He says, that water does
not so easily wash away the spots of our clothes, as alms blot out the
stains of our souls. On Marriage, he proves that state to be holy, and
will not have it dishonored by profane pomps, which no custom can
authorize; as by them God is offended. Christ is to be invited to give
the nuptial blessing in the persons of the priests, and what many throw
away on musicians, would be a grateful sacrifice to God if bestowed on
the poor. Every one ought to be ambitious to set the example of so
wholesome and holy a custom, which others would imitate. What
incomparable advantages does a wife bring to a house, when she enters it
loaded with the blessings of heaven? This is a fortune far beyond all
the riches of the world. In the third discourse, he speaks of the
inviolable precept of mutual tender love which the husband and wife are
bound constantly to bear each other, and of forgetting one another's
faults, as {263} a man in engaging in this state seeks a companion for
life, the saint observes that nothing is busier than for him to make it
an affair of traffic, or a money job. A wife with a moderate fortune
usually brings more complaisance and submission, and blesses a house
with peace, union, and friendship. How many rich men, by marrying great
fortunes, in seeking to increase their estates, have forfeited the
repose of their minds for the rest of their lives. A virtuous wife gives
every succor and comfort to a family, by the virtuous education of her
children, by possessing the heart of her husband, and by furnishing
supplies for every necessity, and comfort in every distress. Virtue was
the only quality and circumstance which Abraham was solicitous about in
the choice which he made of a wife for his son. Among the letters of the
saint, which, with certain scattered homilies, fill up the latter part
of this volume, the seventeen addressed to St. Olympias, both by the
subjects and style, deserve rather the title of treatises than of
epistles.

The fourth tome contains sixty-seven homilies on Genesis, which were
preached at Antioch during Lent, some year later than 386. Photius takes
notice, that in these his style is less correct than in any of his other
writings, and as far beneath his comments on the Acts of the Apostles,
as those fall short of his most eloquent discourses on Isaiah, or on the
epistles of St. Paul. His parentheses are sometimes so long, that he
forgets to wind up his discourse and return to his subject: for speaking
not only with little or no preparation, but without much attention to a
regular method, for the instruction of the peoples, he suffered himself
often to be carried sway with the ardor with which some new important
thought inspired him. Yet the purity of his language, the liveliness of
his images and similes, the perspicuity of his expression, and the
copiousness of his invention, never fall: his thoughts and words flow
everywhere in a beautiful stream, like an impetuous river. He
interweaves excellent moral instructions against vain-glory, detraction,
rash judgment, avarice, and the cold words mine and thine; on prayer,
&c. His encomiums of Abraham and other patriarchs, are set off by
delicate strokes. In the first thirty-two he often explains the
conditions of the Lent fast. In the year 386, during Lent, at which time
the church read the book of Genesis, he explained the beginning thereof
in eight elegant sermons, t. 4, p. 615. In the first, he congratulates
with the people for the great joy and holy eagerness for penance with
which they received the publication of the Lent fast, this being the
most favorable season for obtaining the pardon of sins, and reaping the
most abundant heavenly blessings and graces; a season in which the
heavens are in a particular manner open, through the joint prayers,
fasts, and alms of the whole church. These are usually called sermons on
Genesis, in order to be distinguished from the foregoing homilies, which
were posterior to them in time. Five sermons On Anna, the mother of
Samuel, (t. 4, p. 6{}9,) were preached at Antioch in 387, after the
emperor had granted his gracious pardon for the sedition. The saint
treats in them on fasting, the honor due to martyrs and their relics, on
purity, the education of children, the spiritual advantages of poverty,
and on perpetual earnest prayer, which he recommends to be joined with
every ordinary action, and practised at all times, by persons while they
spun, walked, sat, lay down, &c. Invectives against stage-entertainments
occur both in those, and in the following three discourses On David, in
which he says many excellent things also on patience, and on forgiving
injuries. (T. 4, p. 747.)

The fifth tome presents us with fifty-eight sermons on the Psalms. He
explained the whole Psalter; but the rest of the discourses are lost; a
misfortune much to be regretted, these being ranked among the most
elegant and beautiful of his works. In them notice is taken of several
differences in the Greek translations of Aquila, Symmachus, and
Theodotion; also in the Hebrew text, though written in Greek letters, as
in Origen s Hexapla. The critics find the like supply for restoring
parts of these ancient versions also in the spurious homilies in the
appendix of this volume, compiled by some other ancient Greek preacher.
In this admired work of St. Chrysostom the moral instructions are most
beautiful, on prayer, especially that of the morning, meekness,
compunction, careful self-examination every evening, fasting, humility,
alms, &c. In Pa. 43, p. 146, he thus apostrophizes the rich: "Hear this,
you all who are slack in giving alms: hear this, you who, by hoarding up
your treasures, lose them yourselves: hear me you, who, by perverting
the end of your riches, are no better by them than those who are rich
only in a dream; nay, your condition is fair worse," &c. He says that
the poor, though they seem so weak, have arms more powerful and more
terrible than the greatest magistrates and princes; for the sighs and
groans which they send forth in their distresses, pierce the heavens,
and draw down vengeance without thinking to demand it, upon the rich,
upon cities, upon whole nations. In Ps. 11, p. 120, he will have prayer
to be made effectual by the exercise of all virtues and good works,
especially by a pure love of God, hunger after his justice alone, and
disengagement of the heart from all love of earthly things. In P. 41, p.
190, this prayer by aspirations, which may be borrowed from the psalms,
he recommends to be practised in all places and times. Ib. He insists,
that with David we begin the day by prayer, doing nothing before this
duty to God be complied with: and that with him we consecrate part of
the night to compunction and prayer. In. Ps. 6, he says many excellent
things on the remedies we are bound to employ against concupiscence,
especially assiduous prayer, shunning {264} all occasions which can
prove incentives to this enemy or to our senses, and above all dangerous
company; assiduous meditation on death and hell, &c. Ib. God only
afflicts the just out of the excess of his love for them, and desire to
unite them closely to himself. In Ps. 114, p. 308, as the Jews obtained
not their return from their captivity to Jerusalem but by long and
earnestly desiring it, so only an ardent and pure desire of the heavenly
Jerusalem can raise us thither; and an attachment to earthly goods and
pleasures links us to our slavery, and chains us down too fast for us
ever to rise so high. In Ps. Graduales, p. 328, it was the custom at
Antioch for all the faithful to recite, every morning, the 140th psalm,
which he desires them carefully to understand, so as to penetrate the
riches of the excellent sentiments every word contains, in order to
repeat it with more dilated affections of the heart. In like manner he
mentions that the 62d psalm was recited by all every evening. From his
exposition of Ps. 41, p. 131, it appears that the people answered by
repeating the first verse of every psalm, after every verse, as it was
sung by the clergy.

In the sixth tome occur his excellent discourses on the seven first
chapters of Isaiah: then his four homilies on the fall of king Ozias,
(Isa. vi.,) in which he sets forth the danger of pride, and necessity of
perseverance and constant watchfulness. (T. 6, p. 94.) After several
homilies on certain texts of Jeremy, Daniel, &c., we have his two
elegant discourses On the Obscurity of the Prophets, in which he shows
that the wisdom of Providence is displayed; for too great perspicuity
would not have so well answered the various ends of the Old Law. The
advantages of public prayer are here strongly set forth; and in the
second the saint declaims against detraction, a vice which brings
neither profit nor pleasure, yet is most enormous even in those who only
listen to it. If he who scandalizes one brother is so grievously
punished, what will be the chastisement of him who scandalizes so many?
We are bound to cover, not to proclaim the faults of others; but it is
our duty to endeavor to reclaim and save sinners, according to the
precept of Christ. The very company of detracters ought to be shunned:
to correct, or at least set a mark upon such, he wishes, in order that
they may be known and avoided, they were publicly branded with the name
of flies, because, like these insects, they delight to dwell on filth
and corruption. In the homily On Perfect Charity, he draws a most
amiable portraiture of that virtue in society; and another, in striking
colors, of the day of judgment. It is uncertain by what accident the
imperfect work of St. Matthew was formerly taken by some for a
performance of St. Chrysostom. The mistake is notorious; for the author
declares himself an advocate for Arian ism, (Hom. 19, 22, 28, &c.,) and
for the re-baptization of heretics. (Hom. 13 and 15.) He seems to have
written about the beginning of the seventh century, and to have been a
Latin, (not a Greek,) for he follows closely the Latin text.

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