The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Principal Saints

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

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Felix, bishop of Urgel in Catalonia, in a letter to Elipandus, bishop of
Toledo, who had consulted him on that subject, before the year 783,
pretended to prove that Christ as man is not the natural, but only the
adoptive Son of God: which error he had already advanced in his public
discourses.[1] The rising error was vigorously opposed by Beatus, a
priest and abbot, and his disciple Etherius, who was afterwards bishop
of Osma. Soon after it was condemned by a council at Narbonne, in
788,[2] and by another at Ratisbon, in 792, while Charlemagne kept his
court in that city. Felix revoked his error first in this council at
Ratisbon, and afterwards before pope Leo III. at Rome.[3] Yet after his
return into Spain he continued both by letters and discourses to spread
his heresy; which was therefore again condemned in the great council of
Frankfort, in 794, in which a work of our saint, entitled
Sacro-Syllabus, against the same, was approved, and ordered to be sent
into Spain, to serve for all antidote against the spreading poison.[4]
From this book of St. Paulinus it is clear that Elipandus also returned
to the vomit. Alcuin returning from England, where he had stayed three
years, in 793, wrote a tender moving letter to Felix, exhorting him
sincerely to renounce his error. But the unhappy man, in a long answer,
endeavored to establish his heresy so roundly as to fall into downright
Nestorianism, which indeed is a consequence of his erroneous principle.
For Christ as man cannot be called the adoptive Son of God, unless his
human nature subsist by a distinct person from the divine.[5] By an
order of Charlemagne, Alcuin and St. Paulinus solidly confuted the
writings of these two heresiarchs, the former in seven, our saint in
three books. Alcuin wrote four other books against the pestilential
writings of Elipandus, in which he testifies that Felix was then at
Rome, and converted to the Catholic faith. Elipandus, who was not a
subject of Charlemagne, could not be compelled to appear before the
councils held in his dominions, Toledo being at that time subject to the
Moors. Felix, after his relapse, returned to the faith with his
principal followers in the council of Aix-la-Chapelle, in 797.[6] From
that time he concealed his heresy, but continued in secret to defend it,
and at his {286} death, in 815, left a written profession of his
heresy.[7] Elipandus died in 809.[8]

The zeal of St. Paulinus was not less successful in the conversion of
infidels than in the extinction of this heresy. Burning with zeal for
the salvation of souls, and a vehement desire of laying down his life
for Christ, he preached the gospel to the idolaters, who had remained to
that time obstinately attached to their superstition among the Carantani
in Carinthia and Stiria; in which provinces also St. Severinus the
abbot, who died in 481, and afterwards St. Virgilius, bishop of
Saltzburg, who died in 785, planted several numerous churches. Whence a
contest arising between Arno, St. Virgilius's successor, and Ursus, the
successor of Paulinus, to which see Carinthia ought to be annexed, it
was settled in 811, that the churches which are situated on the south of
the Drave should be subject of the patriarchate of Aquileia, and those
on the north to the archbishopric of Saltzburg.[9] The Avares, a
barbarous nation of Huns, who were settled in part of Pannonia, and were
twice subdued by Charlemagne, received the faith by the preaching of St.
Paulinus, and of certain missionaries sent by the archbishops of
Saltzburg.[10] Henry, a virtuous nobleman, being appointed by
Charlemagne Duke of Friuli, and governor of that country which he had
lately conquered, St. Paulinus wrote for his use an excellent book Of
Exhortation, in which he strongly invites him to aspire with his whole
heart after Christian perfection, and lays down the most important rules
on the practice of compunction and penance: on the remedies against
different vices, especially pride, without which he shows that no sin
ever was, or will be committed, this being the beginning, end, and cause
of all sin:[11] on an earnest desire and study to please God with all
our strength in all our actions:[12] on assiduous prayer and its
essential dispositions: on the holy communion, of the preparation to
which after sin he shows confession and penance to be an essential
part:[13] on shunning bad company, &c. He closes the book with a most
useful prayer; and in the beginning promises his prayers for the
salvation of the good duke. By tears and prayers he ceased not to draw
down the blessings of the divine mercy on the souls committed to his
charge. Alcuin earnestly besought him as often as bathed in tears he
offered the spotless victim to the divine Majesty, to implore the divine
mercy in his behalf.[14] In 802, St. Paulinus assembled a council at
Altino, a city near the Adriatic sea, which had been destroyed by
Attila, and was at that time only a shadow of what it had been, though
famous for a monastery, in which this synod was probably held.[15] It is
long since entirely decayed. St. Paulinus closed a holy life by a happy
death on the 11th of January, in 804, as Madrisius proves.[16] His
festival occurs on this day in the old missal of Aquileia, and in
several German Martyrologies: but it is at present kept at Aquileia,
Friuli, and in some other places, on the 28th of January.[17] See the
life of St. Paulinus of Aquileia, compiled by Nicoletti, {287} with the
notes of Madrisius; and far more accurately by Madrisius himself an
Oratorian of U{}na, who in 1737 published at Venice the works of this
father in folio, illustrated with long notes and dissertations on every
circumstance relating to the history or writings of our saint. See also
Ceillier t. 18, p. 262, and Bollandus ad 11 Januarii.

Footnotes:
1. See Madrisius, Dissert. 4, p. 214.
2. On this council see Baluse, additam. ad. e. 25, l. 6, Petri de
Marca, de Concord. Sacerd. et. Imp.
3. Leo III. in Conc. Rom. 799. Act. 2, et Eginard in Annal. &c.
4. See Madrisius, dissert. 4, p. 219.
5. See Natal. Alex. Saec. 8. diss. 5.
6. Alcuin, l. 1, contra Elipand.
7. Agobard, l. 1, adv. Felicem. n. 1 & 5.
8. From certain false chronicles, Iamayo and Ceillier (in St. Beatus.
t. 18, p. 364,) relate that Ellpandus revoked his error in a council
which he held at Toledo, and died penitent. Madrisius shows this
circumstance to be uncertain, (Diss. 4, in op. S. Paulini, p. 225,)
and Nicolas Antony of Seville, in his Bibl. Hisp. l. 6, c. 2, n. 42,
has proved the monuments upon which it is founded to be of no
authority. Claudius, bishop of Turin, a disciple of Felix of Urgel,
renewed this heresy in Italy, and denied the veneration due to holy
images, and was refuted by Jonas, bishop of Orleans, and others.
9. Sconleben, Annal. Austr. and Madrisius, Vit. S. Paulini, c. 8.
10. Alcuin. ep. 112. F. Inchofer, in Annal. Hungar. Eccl. ad an. 795.
Madrisius, in Vit. St. Paulini, c. 8, p. 31.
11. St. Paulin. l, Exhort. ad Henr. ducem. c. 19, p. 29.
12. C. 24, p. 34.
13. C. 33, p. 29. See 1 Corinth. xi. 28, St. Cypr. ep. 9, 10, 11, and
Tract. de Lapsis.
14. Alcuin, ep. 113, and Poem. 214.
15. See Madrisius, Dissert. 6.
16. Mardis. in Vita St. Paulini, c. 13, p. 37.
17. Besides the polemical and spiritual works of St. Paulinus of
Aquileia, mentioned above, we have several poems of his composition:
the first contains a rule of faith against the Arians, Nestorians,
and Eutychians: the rest are hymns or rhythms on the Chair of St.
Peter, and on several other festivals and saints. Among his letters
the second is most remarkable, in which he complains severely to
Charlemagne that several bishops attending the court neglected to
reside in their dioceses. Against this abuse he quotes the council
of Sardica, which forbade any bishop to be absent from his see above
three weeks. Madrisius, p. 188.

B. CHARLEMAGNE, EMPEROR.

CHARLEMAGNE, or Charles the Great, son of king Pepin, was born in 742,
and crowned king of France in 768; but his youngest brother Carloman
reigned in Austrasia till his death, in 771. Charlemagne vanquished
Hunauld, duke of Aquitaine, and conquered the French Gothia or
Languedoc; subdued Lombardy; conferred on pope Adrian the exarchate of
Ravenna, the duchy of Spoletto, and many other dominions; took Pavia,
(which had been honored with the residence of twenty kings,) and was
crowned king of Lombardy in 774. The emir Abderamene in Spain, having
shaken off the yoke of the caliph of the Saracens, in 736, and
established his kingdom at Cordova, and other emirs in Spain setting up
independency, Charlemagne, in 778, marched as far as the Ebro and
Saragossa, conquered Barcelona, Gironne, and many other places, and
returned triumphant. His cousin Roland, who followed him with the rear
of his army, in his return was set upon in the Pyrenean mountains by a
troop of Gascon robbers, and slain; and is the famous hero of numberless
old French romances and songs. The Saxons having in the king's absence
plundered his dominions upon the Rhine, he flew to the Weser, and
compelled them to make satisfaction. Thence he went to Rome, and had his
infant sons crowned kings, Pepin of Lombardy, and Lewis of Aquitaine.
The great revolt of the Saxons, in 782, called him again on that side.
When they were vanquished, and sued for pardon, he declared he would no
more take their oaths which they had so often broken, unless they became
Christians. Witikind embraced the condition, was baptized with his chief
followers in 785, and being created duke of part of Saxony, remained
ever after faithful in his religion and allegiance. From him are
descended, either directly or by intermarriages, many dukes of Bavaria,
and the, present houses of Saxony, Brandenburg, &c., as may be seen in
the German genealogists. Some other Saxons afterwards revolted, and were
vanquished and punished in 794, 798, &c., so that, through their
repeated treachery and rebellions, this Saxon war continued at intervals
for the space of thirty-three years. Thassillon, duke of Bavaria, for
treasonable practices, was attacked by Charlemagne in 788, vanquished,
and obliged to put on a monk's cowl to save his life: from which time
Bavaria was annexed to Charlemagne's dominions. To punish the Abares for
their inroads, he crossed the Inns into their territories, sacked
Vienna, and marched to the mouth of the Raab, upon the Danube. In 794,
he assisted at the great council of Frankfort, held in his royal palace
there. He restored Leo III. at Rome, quelled the seditions there, and
was crowned by him on Christmas-day, in 800, emperor of Rome and of the
West: in which quality he was afterwards solemnly acknowledged by
Nicephorus, emperor of Constantinople. Thus was the western empire
restored, which had been extinct in Momylus Agustulus in the fifth
century. In 805, Charlemagne quelled and conquered the Sclavonians. The
Danube, {288} the Teisse, and the Oder on the East, and the Ebro and the
ocean on the West, were the boundaries of his vast dominions. France,
Germany, Dacia, Dalmatia, Istria, Italy, and part of Pannonia and Spain,
obeyed his laws. It was then customary for kings not to reside in great
cities, but to pass the summer often in progresses or campaigns, and the
winter at some country palace. King Pepin resided at Herstal, now Jopin,
in the territory of Liege, and sometimes at Quiercy on the Oise:
Charlemagne often at Frankfort or Aix-la-Chapelle, which were country
seats; for those towns were then inconsiderable places: though the
latter had been founded by Serenas Granus in 124, under Adrian. It owes
its greatness to the church built there by Charlemagne.

This prince was not less worthy of our admiration in the quality of a
legislator than in that of a conqueror; and in the midst of his marches
and victories, he gave the utmost attention to the wise government of
his dominions, and to every thing that could promote the happiness of
his people, the exaltation of the church, and the advancement of piety
and every branch of sacred and useful learning.[1] What pains he took
for the reformation of monasteries, and for the sake of uniformity
introducing in them the rule of St. Bennet, appears from his
transactions, and several ecclesiastical assemblies in 789. His zeal for
the devout observance of the rites of the church is expressed in his
book to Alcuin on that subject, and in his encyclical epistle on the
rites of baptism,[2] and in various works which he commissioned Alcuin
and others to compile. For the reformation of manners, especially of the
clergy, he procured many synods to be held, in which decrees were
framed, which are called his Capitula.[3] His Capitulars, divided into
many chapters, are of the same nature. The best edition of these
Capitulars is given by Baluzius, with dissertations, in 1677, two vols.
folio. The Carolin Books are a theological work, (adopted by this
prince, who speaks in the first person,) compiled in four books, against
a falsified copy of the second council of Nice, sent by certain
Iconoclasts from Constantinople, on which see F. Daniel[4] and
Ceillier.[5]

There never was a truly great man, who was not a lover and encourager of
learning, as of the highest improvement of the human mind. Charlemagne,
by most munificent largesses, invited learned men over from foreign
parts, as Alcuin, Peter of Pisa, Paul the deacon, &c., found no greater
pleasure than in conversing with them, instituted an academy in his own
palace, and great schools at Paris, Tours, &c., assisted at literary
disputations, was an excellent historian, and had St. Austin's book, On
the City of God, laid every night under his pillow to read if he awaked.
Yet Eginhard assures us that whatever pains he took, he could never
learn to write, because he was old when he first applied himself to it.
He was skilled in astronomy, arithmetic, music, and every branch of the
mathematics; understood the Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and Syriac, also the
Sclavonian, and several other living languages, so as never to want an
interpreter to converse with ambassadors of neighboring nations. He
meditated assiduously on the scriptures, assisted at the divine office,
even that of midnight, if possible; had good books read to him at table,
and took but one meal a day, which he was obliged to anticipate before
the hour of evening on fasting days, that all his officers and servants
might dine before midnight. He was very abstemious, had a paternal care
of the poor in all his dominions, and honored good men, especially among
the clergy. Charlemagne died January the 28th, in 814, seventy-two years
old, and was buried at Aix-la-Chapelle. The incontinence into {289}
which he fell in his youth, he expiated by sincere repentance, so that
several churches in Germany and France honor him among the saints. In
the university of Paris, the most constant nation of the Germans, (which
was originally called the English nation, in 1250, when the distinction
of nations n the faculty of arts was there established,) take
Charlemagne for their patron, but only keep his festival since the year
1480, which is now common to the other three nations of French, Picards,
and Normans, since 1661.[6]

Footnotes:
1. See Hardion, Hist. Universelle, t. 10.
2. Apud Mabill. Analect. t. 1, p. 21.
3. Conc. t. 6 & 7, ed. Labbe.
4. Hist. de France in Charlem. French edit. in fol.
5. Ceillier, pp. 376 & 400.
6. Pagi (in Breviario Rom. Pontif. t. 3, in Alex. III. p. 82) proves
that suffrages for the soul of Charlemagne were continued at
Aix-la-Chapelle, till the antipope Pascal, at the desire of Frederic
Barbarossa, enshrined his remains in that city, and published a
decree for his canonization. From the time of this enshrining of his
remains, he is honored among the saints in many churches in Germany
and the Low Countries, as Goujet (De Festis propriis Sanctor. l. 1,
c. 5, quaest. 9) and Bollandus (ad 28 Jan. and t. 2, Febr. Schemate
19) show. The tacit approbation of the popes is to be looked upon as
equivalent to a beatification, as Benedict XIV. proves (De Canoniz.
l. 1, c. 9, n. 5, p. 72.) Molanus, (in Natal. SS. Belg.,) Natalis
Alexander. (Hist. Saec. 9 and 10., cap. 7, a. 1,) and many others,
have made the same observation.

ST. GLASTIAN, B.C. IN SCOTLAND.

HE was a native of the county of Fife, and discharged in the same,
during many years, the duties of the episcopal character with which he
was honored. Amidst the desolation which was spread over the whole
country, in the last bloody civil war between the Scots and Picts, in
which the latter were entirely subdued, St. Glastian was the comforter,
spiritual father, and most charitable protector of many thousands of
both nations. He died in 830, at Kinglace in Fifeshire, and was
particularly honored in that country, and in Kyntire. According to the
ancient custom of that country, his name is frequently written
Mac-Glastian, the word Mac signifying son. See the Breviary of Aberdeen;
King in his Calendar, &c.

JANUARY XXIX.

SAINT FRANCIS OF SALES,

BISHOP AND CONFESSOR.

From his writings and authentic lives, chiefly that written by his
nephew, Charles Augustus de Sales: also that by F. Goulu, general of the
Feuillans: that by Henry de Maupas du Tour, bishop of Puy, afterwards of
Evreux: and that by Madame de Bussi-Rabutin, nun of the Visitation See
his life, collected by M. Marsoillier, and done into English by the late
Mr. Crathorne. See also the bull of his canonization, and an excellent
collection of his maxims and private actions, compiled by his intimate
friend and real admirer, M. Peter Caums, bishop of Bellay, in his book,
entitled, L'Espirit de St. Francois de Sales, and in his scarce and
incomparable work under the title. Quel est le meilleur Gouvernement, le
rigoureux ou le dour, printed at Paris without the name of the author,
1636. Though I find not this book in any catalogue of bishop Camus's
works, the conformity of style, and in several places the repetition of
the same expressions which occur in the last-mentioned work, seem to
prove this to be also the production of his pen. See also the excellent
new edition of the letters of St. Francis of Sales, in six volumes,
12mo. 1758.

A.D. 1622.

THE parents of this saint were Francis, count of Sales, and Frances of
Sionas. The countess being with child, offered her fruit to God with the
most fervent prayers, begging he would preserve it from the corruption
of the world, and rather deprive her of the comfort of seeing herself a
mother, than suffer her to give birth to a child who should ever become
his enemy by sin. The saint was born at Sales, three leagues from
Annecy, the seat of that noble family; and his mother was delivered of
him when she was {290} but seven months advanced in her pregnancy.[1]
Hence he was reared with difficulty, and was so weak, that his life,
during his infancy, was often despaired of by physicians. However, he
escaped the danger, and grew robust: he was very beautiful, and the
sweetness of his countenance won the affections of all who saw him: but
the meekness of his temper, the pregnancy of his wit, his modesty,
tractableness, and obedience, were far more valuable qualifications. The
countess could scarce suffer the child out of her sight, lest any
tincture of vice might infect his soul. Her first care was to inspire
him with the most profound respect for the church, and all holy things;
and she had the comfort to observe in him a recollection and devotion at
his prayers far above his age. She read to him the lives of the saints,
adding recollections suited to his capacity; and she took care to have
him with her when she visited the poor, making him the distributer of
her alms, and to do such little offices for them as he was able. He
would set by his own meat for their relief, and when he had nothing left
to bestow on them, would beg for them of all his relations. His horror
of a lie, even in his infancy, made him prefer any disgrace or
chastisement to the telling of the least wilful untruth.

His mother's inclination for a domestic preceptor, to prevent his being
corrupted by wicked youth in colleges, was overruled by her husband's
persuasion of the usefulness of emulation for advancing children in
their studies; hoping his son's virtue and modesty would, under God, be
a sufficient guard of his innocency. He was accordingly sent to
Rocheville, at six years of age, and some time after to Annecy. An
excellent memory, a solid judgment, and a good application, could not
fail of great progress. The young count spent as much of his time as
possible in private studies and lectures of piety, especially that of
the lives of saints; and by his diligence always doubled or trebled his
school tasks. He showed an early inclination for the ecclesiastical
state, and obtained his father's consent, though not without some
reluctance, for his receiving tonsure in the year 1578, and the eleventh
of his age. He was sent afterwards, under the care of a virtuous priest,
his preceptor, to pursue his studies in Paris; his mother having first
instilled into him steady principles of virtue, a love of prayer, and a
dread of sin and its occasions. She often repeated to him those words of
queen Blanche to her son St. Louis, king of France: "I had rather see
you dead, than hear you had committed one mortal sin." On his arrival at
Paris, he entered the Jesuits' schools, and went through his rhetoric
and philosophy with great applause. In pure obedience to his father's
orders, he learned in the academy to ride, dance, and fence, whence he
acquired that easy behavior which he retained ever after. But these
exercises, as matters of amusement, did not hinder his close application
to the study of the Greek and Hebrew languages, and of positive
divinity, for six years, under the famous Genebrard and Maldonatus. But
his principal concern all this time was a regular course of piety, by
which he labored to sanctify himself and all his actions. Pious
meditation, and the study of the holy scripture, were his beloved
entertainments: and he never failed to carry about him that excellent
book, called the Spiritual Combat. He sought the conversation of the
virtuous, particularly of F. Angelus Joyeuse, who, from a duke and
marshal of France, was become a Capuchin friar. The frequent discourses
of this good man on the necessity of mortification, induced the count to
add, to his usual austerities, the wearing of a hair shirt three days in
the week. His chief resort during his stay at Paris, was to some
churches, that especially of Saint Stephen des Grez, as being one of the
most retired. Here, he made {291} a vow of perpetual chastity, putting
himself under the special patronage of the Blessed Virgin. God, to
purify his heart, permitted a thick darkness insensibly to overspread
his mind, and a spiritual dryness and melancholy to overwhelm him. He
seemed, from a perfect tranquillity and peace of mind, to be almost
brought to the brink of despair. Seized with the greatest terrors, he
passed nights and days in tears and lamentations, and suffered more than
can be conceived by those who have not felt the severity of such
interior conflicts. The bitterness of his grief threw him into a deep
jaundice; he could neither eat, drink, nor sleep. His preceptor labored,
but all in vain, to discover the cause of this disorder, and find out a
remedy. At last, Francis, being at prayer in the same church of St.
Stephen, cast his eyes on a picture of our Lady: this awaking his
confidence in her intercession, he prostrated himself on the ground,
and, as unworthy to address the Father of all consolation, begged that
she would be his advocate, and procure him the grace to love God with
his whole heart. That very moment he found himself eased of his grief as
of a heavy weight taken off his heart, and his former peace and
tranquillity restored, which he ever after enjoyed. He was now eighteen
years old, when his father recalled him from Paris, and sent him to
Padua, to study the law, where his master was the celebrated Guy
Pancirola; this was in the year 1554. He chose the learned and pious
Jesuit, Antony Possevin, for his spiritual director; who at the same
time explained to him St. Thomas's Sum, and they read together
Bellarmin's controversies. His nephew, Augustus, gives us his written
rule of life, which he made at Padua: it chiefly shows his perpetual
attention to the presence of God, his care to offer up every action to
him, and implore his aid at the beginning of each. Falling sick, he was
despaired of by the physicians, and he himself expected with joy his
last moment. His preceptor, Deage, who had ever attended him, asked him
with tears, what he had to order about his funeral and other matters.
"Nothing," answered he, cheerfully, "unless it be, that my body be given
to the anatomy theatre to be dissected; for it will be a comfort to me
if I can be of any advantage when dead, having been of none while alive.
Thus I may also prevent some of the disorders and quarrels which happen
between the young physicians and the friends of the dead, whose bodies
they often dig up." However, he recovered; and by his father's orders,
being twenty years of age, commenced doctor in laws, with great applause
and pomp, in presence of forty-eight doctors. After which he travelled
through Italy to see the antiquities, and visit the holy places there.
He went to Rome by Ferrara, and returned by Loretto and Venice. To any
insult offered him on the road he returned only meekness; for which he
met with remarkable blessings from heaven. The sight of the pompous
remains of ancient Rome gave him a feeling contempt of worldly grandeur:
but the tombs of the martyrs drew everywhere tears of devotion from his
eyes. Upon his return his father received him with great joy, at his
castle of Tuille, where he had prepared for him a good library of books.