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Mary Eales - "Mrs. Mary Eales's receipts. (1733)"

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




ST. PIONIUS, M.

HE was priest of Smyrna, a true heir of the spirit of St. Polycarp, an
apostolic man, who converted multitudes to the faith. He excelled in
eloquence, and in the science of our holy religion. The paleness of his
countenance bespoke the austerity of his life. In the persecution of
Decius, in 250, on the 23d of February, he was apprehended with Sabina
and Asclepiades, while they were celebrating the anniversary festival of
St. Polycarp's martyrdom. Pionius, after having fasted the eve with his
companions, was forewarned thereof by a vision. On the morning after
their solemn prayer, taking the holy bread (probably the eucharist) and
water, they were surprised and seized by Polemon, the chief priest, and
the guardian of the temple. In prolix interrogatories before him, they
resisted all solicitations to sacrifice; professed they were ready to
suffer the worst of torments and deaths rather than consent to his
impious proposals, and declaring that they worshipped one only God, and
that they were of the Catholic church. Asclepiades being asked what God
he adored, made answer: "Jesus Christ." At which Polemon said: "Is that
another God?" Asclepiades replied: "No; he is the same they have just
now confessed." A clear confession of the consubstantiality of God the
Son, before the council of Nice. Being all threatened to be burnt alive,
Sabina smiled. The pagans said: "Dost thou laugh? thou shalt then be led
to the public stews." She answered: "God will be my protector on that
occasion." They were cast into prison, and preferred a lower dungeon,
that they might be more at liberty to pray when alone. They were carried
by force into the temple, and all manner of violence was used to compel
them to sacrifice. Pionius tore the impious garlands which were put upon
his head, and they resisted with all their might. Their constancy
repaired the scandal given by Eudaemon, the bishop of Smyrna, there
present, who had impiously apostatized and offered sacrifice. In the
answers of St. Pionius to the judges, and in all the circumstances of
his martyrdom, we admire the ardent piety and courage of one who had
entirely devoted himself to God, and employed his whole life in his
service. When Quintilian the proconsul arrived at Smyrna, he caused
Pionius to be hung on the rack, and his body to be torn with iron hooks,
and afterwards condemned him to be burned alive; he was accordingly
nailed to a trunk or post, and a pile heaped round him and set on fire.
Metrodorus, a Marcionite priest, underwent the same punishment with him.
His acts were written by eye-witnesses, quoted by Eusebius, l. 4, c. 15,
and are extant genuine in Ruinart, p. 12. See Tillemont t. 3, p. 397;
Bollandus, Feb. t. 1, p. 37.

{334}

ST. BRIDGIT, OR BRIDGET, V.

AND BY CONTRACTION, BRIDE, ABBESS, AND PATRONESS OF IRELAND.

SHE was born at Fochard, in Ulster, soon after Ireland had been blessed
with the light of faith. She received the religious veil in her youth,
from the hands of St. Mel, nephew and disciple of St. Patrick. She built
herself a cell under a large oak, thence called Kill-dara, or cell of
the oak; living, as her name implies, the bright shining light of that
country by her virtues. Being joined soon after by several of her own
sex, they formed themselves into a religious community, which branched
out into several other nunneries throughout Ireland; all which
acknowledged her for their mother and foundress, as in effect she was of
all in that kingdom. But a full account of her virtues has not been
transmitted down to us, together with the veneration of her name. Her
five modern lives mention little else but wonderful miracles. She
flourished in the beginning of the sixth century, and is named in the
Martyrology of Bede, and in all others since that age. Several churches
in England and Scotland are dedicated to God under her name, as, among
others, that of St. Bride in Fleet-street; several also in Germany, and
some in France. Her name occurs in most copies of the Martyrology which
bears the name of St. Jerom, especially in those of Esternach and
Corbie, which are most ancient. She is commemorated in the divine office
in most churches of Germany, and in that of Paris, till the year 1607,
and in many others in France. One of the Hebrides, or western islands
which belong to Scotland, near that of Ila, was called, from a famous
monastery built there in her honor, Brigidiani. A church of St. Brigit,
in the province of Athol, was reputed famous for miracles, and a portion
of her relics was kept with great veneration in a monastery of regular
canons at Aburnethi, once capital of the kingdom of the Picts, and a
bishopric, as Major mentions.[1] Her body was found with those of SS.
Patrick and Columba, in a triple vault in Down-Patrick, in 1185, as
Giraldus Cambrensis informs us:[2] they were all three translated to the
cathedral of the same city;[3] but their monument was destroyed in the
reign of king Henry VIII. The head of St. Bride is now kept in the
church of the Jesuits at Lisbon.[4] See Bollandus, Feb. t. 1, p. 99.

Footnotes:
1. Major de Gestis Scotor. l. 2, c. 14.
2. Topogr. Hibern. dist. 3, c. 18. Camden, &c.
3. {Footnote not in text} Camden.
4. Bolland. p. 112 and p. 941, t. 1, Februarii.

ST. KINNIA. V.

HER memory was long sacred in Ireland, and her relics were in veneration
at Lowth, in the southern part of Ulster; but we have no other authentic
account of her actions, than that she was baptized by St. Patrick, and
received the religious veil at his hand. See Jocelin's life of St.
Patrick, Colgan, and Bollandus, ad 1 Feb. p. 96.

ST. SIGEBERT II., FRENCH KING OF AUSTRASIA, C.

DAGOBERT I., king of France, led for some time a very dissolute life,
but was touched by an extraordinary grace upon the birth of his son
Sigebert {335} and from that time entirely converted to God. Bagnetrude,
our saint's mother, is only styled the concubine of Dagobert, though he
was publicly married to her. The father desiring to have his son
baptized by the most holy prelate of his dominions, recalled St. Amand,
bishop of Masstricht, whom he had banished for his zeal in reproving his
vices, fell at his feet at Clichi, near Paris, to ask his pardon,
promised amendment, and by the advice of St. Owen and St. Eligius, then
laymen in his court, engaged him to initiate his son in the sacrament of
regeneration. The ceremony was performed with great pomp at Orleans,
Charibert, king of part of Aquitaine, and brother to Dagobert, being
god-father. The young prince's education was intrusted by the father to
the blessed Pepin of Landen, mayor of his palace, who being forced by
the envy of the nobility to withdraw for some time, carried Sigebert
into the dominions of Charibert in Aquitaine, where he enjoyed a
considerable estate, the paternal patrimony of his wife, the blessed
Itta. Pepin remained there about three years; after which term he was
recalled to the court of Dagobert, who declared his son Sigebert, though
only three years old, in 633, king of Austrasia, and gave him for his
ministers, St. Cunibert, archbishop of Cologne, and duke Adelgise, and
committed the administration of the whole kingdom to Pepin, whom he
always kept near his own person. Dagobert's second son, Clovis II., was
born in the following year, 634, and to him the father allotted for his
inheritance all the western part of France, containing all Neustria and
part of Burgundy.[1] Austrasia, or Eastern France, (in which sense
Austria retains a like name in Germany,) at that time comprised Provence
and Switzerland, (dismembered from the ancient kingdom of Burgundy,) the
Albigeois, Auvergne, Quercy, the Cevennes, Champagne, Lorraine, Upper
Picardy, the archbishopric of Triers, and other states, reaching to the
borders of Friesland; Alsace, the Palatinate, Thuringia, Franconia,
Bavaria, Suabia, and the country which lay betwixt the Lower Rhine and
Old Saxony. Dagobert died in 638, and was buried at the abbey of St.
Denys, of which he was the munificent founder. According to the
settlement which he had made, he was succeeded in Austrasia by St.
Sigebert, and in the rest of France by his youngest son Clovis II. Pepin
of Landen, who had been mayor of the palace to the father, discharged
the same office to his death under St. Sigebert, and not content to
approve himself a faithful minister, and true father to the prince, he
formed him from the cradle to all heroic Christian virtues. By his
prudence, virtue, and valor, St. Sigebert in his youth was beloved and
respected by his subjects, and feared by all his enemies. Pepin dying in
640, the virtuous king appointed his son Grimoald mayor of his palace.
He reigned in perfect intelligence with his brother, of which we have
few examples among the Merovingian kings whenever the French monarchy
was divided. The Thuringians revolting, he reduced them to their duty;
and this is the only war in which he was engaged. The love of peace
disposed his heart to be a fit temple of the Holy Ghost, whom he invited
into his soul by assiduous prayer, and the exercise of all Christian
virtues. His patrimony he employed in relieving the necessitous, and in
building or endowing monasteries, churches, and hospitals. He founded
twelve monasteries, the four principal of which were Cougnon, now a
priory, not far from Bouillon; Stavelo and Malmedi, two miles from each
other, and St. Martin's, near Metz. St. Remaclus brought from Solignac
the rule of St. Columban, which king Sigebert {336} in his charter to
Cougnon calls the rule of the ancient fathers. This that holy abbot
established first at Cougnon, and afterwards at Malmedi and Stavelo. A
life filled with good works, and devoted all to God, can never be called
short. God was pleased to call this good king from the miseries of this
world to the recompense of his labors on the 1st of February, in the
year 656, the eighteenth of his reign, and the twenty-fifth of his
age.[2] He was interred in the abbey of St. Martin's, near Metz, which
he had built. His body was found incorrupt in 1063, and placed in a
monument on the side of the high altar: and in 1170 it was enshrined in
a silver case. The monastery of St. Martin's, and all others in the
suburbs, were demolished by Francis of Lorraine, duke of Guise, in 1552,
when Charles V. laid siege to Metz. The relics of St. Sigebert are now
deposited in the collegiate church of our Lady at Nancy. He is honored
among the saints in great part of the dominions which he governed, and
in the monasteries and churches which he founded. See Fredegarius and
his continuator, Sigebert of Gemblours, in his life of this saint, with
the learned remarks of Henschenius, p. 40. Also Calmet, Hist. de
Lorraine, t. 1, p. 419. Schoepflin, Alsatia Illustrata, Colmariae, an.
1751. Sect. 2, p. 742.

Footnotes:
1. Charibert, though he took the title of king, and resided at
Toulouse, held his estates of his brother Dagobert, and by his gift.
After Charibert's death, Chilperic, his eldest son, was put to death
by Dagobert; but his second son, Boggis, left a numerous posterity,
which was only extinguished in Louis d'Armagnac, duke of Nemours,
slain at the battle of Cerignole, where he commanded for Louis XII.
against Gonzales de Cordova, surnamed The Great Captain, for the
Catholic king Ferdinand in 1503, by which the French lost the
kingdom of Naples. So long did the family of Clovis II. subsist. See
Vaisette, Hist de Languedoc, Henault, Abr. de l'Hist. de France, t.
1, pp. 26, and 818.
2. St. Sigebert left his son Dagobert, about seven years old, under the
care of Grimoald, mayor of his palace, who treacherously sent him
into Ireland, and placed his own son Childebert on the throne. This
usurper reigned seven months, as Schoepflin proves from the express
testimony of Chronicon Brevissimum, and from circumstances mentioned
by Fredegarius, against the mistake of the authors, l'Art de
verifier les Dates, p. 481, who say he only reigned seven days. By
an insurrection of the people, Grimoald and his son were deposed,
and both perished in prison: but Dagobert not being found, Clovis
II. united Austrasia to his other dominions. Dagobert II., by the
assistance of St. Wilfrid, afterwards archbishop of York, returned
into France eighteen years after the death of his father, and
recovered Alsace and some other provinces by the cession either of
Childeric II., son of Clovis II., (then monarch of all France,) or
of his brother Theodoric III., who succeeded him before the month of
April, in 674: for the reign of Dagobert II must be dated from the
latter end of 673, with Henault, or from 674, with Schoepflin. The
spirit of religion and piety, which he had learned in the school of
afflictions, and under the great masters of a spiritual life, who
then flourished among the Scots and Irish, was eminently the
distinguishing part of his character. As he resided chiefly in
Alsace, he filled that country, in the first place, with monuments
of his devotion, being so liberal in founding and endowing
monasteries and churches, that though his reign was only of six
years, Schoepflin assures us that the French church is not more
indebted to any reign than to this, at least in those parts, (p.
740.) St. Wilfrid, bishop of York, had exceedingly promoted his
return into France; and when that prelate was compelled to leave
England Dagobert entertained him with the most cordial affection,
and, upon the death of St. Arbogastus, earnestly pressed him to
accept of that see. St. Wilfrid declined that dignity, promising,
however, to call upon this good king in his return from Rome, where
he obtained a sentence of pope Agatho in his favor. But coming but
into France, he found his royal friend cut off by a violent death.
It is the general persuasion of the French historians, that the
impious Ebroin, mayor of the palace to Theodoric III., king of
Burgundy and Noustria, was the author of his death, with a view to
seize his dominions. Dagobert was murdered by assassins at Stenay
upon the Meuse, now the best town in the duchy of Bar in Lorraine.
The people, however, chose Pepin and Martin dukes or governors of
Austrasia, who defended their liberty against Ebroin. Martin was
afterwards assassinated by the contrivance of Ebroin, and Ebroin by
Ermenfrid; but Pepin, in 687, defeated Theodoric III. at Testry,
took Paris, and the king himself; from which time, under the title
of mayor, he enjoyed the supreme power in the French monarchy. The
death of St. Dagobert happened in 679, on the 23d of December, on
which day he is commemorated in the Martyrology of Ado and others,
and honored as a martyr at Stenay, in the diocese of Verdun, ever
since the eighth century. The church of Strasburg was much enriched
by this prince, as maybe seen in Schoepflin's Alsatia Illustrata.
The same author gives an account of some of the monasteries which
were founded by this prince in those parts, (c. 11, Sec.254, p. 736,)
and shows from his charters that the palace where he chiefly resided
was at Isenburg in Alsace. (Sect. 1, c. 10, Sec.146, p. 693.) The year
of the death of Dagobert II. is learned from the life of St.
Wilfrid, who returned from Rome when St. Agatho sat in St. Peter's
chair. See on this holy king the lives of St. Wilfrid and St.
Salaberga; also his charters; and, among the moderns, Dan.
Schoepflin, professor of history and eloquence at Strasburg, in his
Alsatia Illustrata, anno 1751. Sect. 2, c. 1, Sec.3, pp. 740, 743, and
Sec.1, c. 10, Sec.146, p. 693, c. 11, Sec.254, p. 736. Also Calmet, Hist. de
Lorraine, t. 1, l. 10, n. 16, p. 432. The first edition of this work
was given in 1728, in three volumes folio, but the second edition is
so much enlarged as to fill six volumes folio. The reign of Dagobert
II. escaped most of the French historians; which omission, and a
false epoch of the beginning of the reign of Dagobert I., brought
incredible confusion into the chronology and history of most of the
Merovingian kings, which Adrian Valois, Henschenius, Le Cointe,
Pagi, Louguerue and others have taken great pains to clear up.

{337}

FEBRUARY II.

THE PURIFICATION,

COMMONLY CALLED CANDLEMAS-DAY.

THE law of God, given by Moses to the Jews, to insinuate both to us and
to them, that by the sin of Adam man is conceived and born in sin, and
obnoxious to his wrath, ordained that a woman, after childbirth, should
continue for a certain time in a state which that law calls unclean;
during which she was not to appear in public, nor presume to touch any
thing consecrated to God.[1] This term was of forty days upon the birth
of a son, and the time was double for a daughter: on the expiration of
which, the mother was to bring to the door of the tabernacle, or temple,
a lamb of a year old, and a young pigeon or turtle-dove. The lamb was
for a holocaust, or burnt-offering, in acknowledgment of the sovereignty
of God, and in thanksgiving for her own happy delivery; the pigeon or
turtle-dove was for a sin-offering. These being sacrificed to Almighty
God by the priest, the woman was cleansed of the legal impurity, and
reinstated in her former privileges.

A young pigeon, or turtle-dove, by way of a sin-offering, was required
of all, whether rich or poor: but whereas the charge of a lamb might be
too burdensome on persons of narrow circumstances, in that case, nothing
more was required than two pigeons, or two turtle-doves, one for a
burnt, the other for a sin-offering.[2]

Our Saviour having been conceived by the Holy Ghost, and his blessed
Mother remaining always a spotless virgin, it is most evident from the
terms of the law,[3] that she was, in reality, under no obligation to
it, nor within the intent of it. She was, however, within the letter of
the law, in the eye of the world, who were as yet strangers to her
miraculous conception. And her humility making her perfectly resigned,
and even desirous to conceal her privilege and dignity, she submitted
with great punctuality and exactness to every humbling circumstance
which the law required. Pride indeed proclaims its own advantages, and
seeks honors not its due; but the humble find their delight in obscurity
and abasement, they shun all distinction and esteem, which they clearly
see their own nothingness and baseness to be most unworthy of: they give
all glory to God alone, to whom it is due. Devotion also and zeal to
honor God by every observance prescribed by his law, prompted Mary to
perform this act of religion, though evidently exempt from the precept.
Being poor herself, she made the offering appointed for the poor:
accordingly is this part of the law mentioned by St. Luke,[4] as best
agreeing with the meanness of her worldly condition. But her offering,
however mean in itself, was made with a perfect heart, which is what God
chiefly regards in all that is offered to him. The King of Glory would
appear everywhere in the robes of poverty, to point out to us the
advantages of a suffering and lowly state, and to repress our pride, by
which, though really poor and mean in the eyes of God, we covet to
appear rich, and, though sinners, would be deemed innocents and saints.

A second great mystery is honored this day, regarding more immediately
{338} the person of our Redeemer, viz. his presentation in the
temple.[5] Besides the law which obliged the mother to purify herself,
there was another which ordered that the first-born son should be
offered to God: and in these two laws were included several others, as,
that the child, after its presentation, should be ransomed[6] with a
certain sum of money,[7] and peculiar sacrifices offered on the
occasion.

Mary complies exactly with all these ordinances. She obeys not only in
the essential points of the law, as in presenting herself to be
purified, and in her offering her first-born, but has strict regard to
all the circumstances. She remains forty days at home, she denies
herself all this time the liberty of entering the temple, she partakes
not of things sacred, though the living temple of the God of Israel; and
on the day of her purification, she walks several miles to Jerusalem,
with the world's Redeemer in her arms. She waits for the priest at the
gate of the temple, makes her offerings of thanksgiving and expiation,
presents her divine Son by the hands of the priest to his eternal
Father, with the most profound humility, adoration, and thanks giving.
She then redeems him with five shekels, as the law appoints, and
receives him back again as a depositum in her special care, till the
Father shall again demand him for the full accomplishment of man's
redemption. It is clear that Christ was not comprehended in the law;
"The king's son, to whom the inheritance of the crown belongs, is exempt
from servitude:--much more Christ, who was the Redeemer both of our
souls and bodies, was not subject to any law by which he was to be
himself redeemed," as St. Hilary observes.[8] But he would set an
example of humility, obedience, and devotion: and would renew, in a
solemn and public manner, and in the temple, the oblation of himself to
his Father for the accomplishment of his will, and the redemption of
man, which he had made privately in the first moment of his Incarnation.
With what sentiments did the divine Infant offer himself to his Father
at the same time! the greatest homage of his honor and glory the Father
could receive, and a sacrifice of satisfaction adequate to the injuries
done to the Godhead by our sins, and sufficient to ransom our souls from
everlasting death! With what cheerfulness and charity did he offer
himself to all his torments! to be whipped, crowned with thorns, and
ignominiously put to death for us!

Let every Christian learn hence to offer himself to God with this divine
victim, through which he may be accepted by the Father; let him devote
himself with all his senses and faculties to his service. If sloth, or
any other vice, has made us neglectful of this essential duty, we must
bewail past omissions, and make a solemn and serious consecration of
ourselves this day to the divine majesty with the greater fervor, crying
out with St. Austin, in compunction of heart: "Too late have I known
thee, too late have I begun to love thee, O beauty more ancient than the
world!" But our sacrifice, if we desire it may be accepted, must not be
lame and imperfect. It would be an insult to offer to God, in union with
his Christ, a divided heart, or a heart infected with wilful sin. It
must therefore first be cleansed by tears of sincere compunction: its
affections must be crucified to the world by perfect mortification. Our
offering must be sincere and fervent, without reserve, allowing no
quarter to any of our vicious passions and inclinations, and no division
in any of our affections. It must also be universal; to suffer and to do
all for the divine honor. If we give our hearts to Christ in this
manner, we shall receive him with his graces and {339} benedictions. He
would be presented in the temple by the hands of his mother: let us
accordingly make the offering of our souls through Mary and beg his
graces through the same channel.

The ceremony of this day was closed by a third mystery, the meeting in
the temple of the holy persons, Simeon and Anne, with Jesus and his
parents, from which this festival was anciently called by the Greeks
Hypante, the meeting.[9] Holy Simeon, on that occasion, received into
his arms the object of all his desires and sighs, and praised God in
raptures of devotion for being blessed with the happiness of beholding
the so much longed-for Messias. He foretold to Mary her martyrdom of
sorrow; and that Jesus brought redemption to those who would accept of
it on the terms it was offered them; but a heavy judgment on all
infidels who should obstinately reject it, and on Christians also whose
lives were a contradiction to his holy maxims and example. Mary, hearing
this terrible prediction, did not answer one word, felt no agitation of
mind from the present, no dread for the future; but courageously and
sweetly committed all to God's holy will. Anne also, the prophetess,
who, in her widowhood, served God with great fervor, had the happiness
to acknowledge and adore in this great mystery the world's Redeemer.
Amidst the crowd of priests and people, the Saviour of the world is
known only by Simeon and Anne. Even when he disputed with the doctors,
and when he wrought the most stupendous miracles, the learned, the wise,
and the princes did not know him. Yet here, while a weak, speechless
child, carried in the arms of his poor mother, he is acknowledged and
adored by Simeon and Anne. He could not hide himself from those who
sought him with fervor, humility, and ardent love. Unless we seek him in
these dispositions, he will not manifest himself, nor communicate his
graces to us. Simeon, having beheld his Saviour in the flesh, desired no
longer to see the light of this world, nor any creatures on earth. If we
truly love God, our distance from him must be a continual pain: and we
must sigh after that desired moment which will free us from the danger
of ever losing him by sin, and will put us in possession of Him who is
the joy of the blessed, and the infinite treasure of heaven. Let us
never cease to pray that he purify our hearts from all earthly dross,
and draw them to himself: that he heal, satiate, and inflame our souls,
as he only came upon earth to kindle in all hearts the fire of his love.

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