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The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Principal Saints

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




Footnotes:
1. Lev. xii. 2.
2. Lev. xii. 8.
3. Ibid. 2.
4. Luke ii. 64.
5. {Footnote not in text} Luke ii. 23.
6. Exod. xiii. 13.
7. This, from Levit. xxvii. 6, and Numb. iii. 47, appears to have been
five shekels, each shekel weighing according to Prideaux, (Preface
to Connection of the Old and New Testament, p. xvii.) about three
shillings of our money: so that the five amounted to about fifteen
shillings sterling.
8. S. Hilar. in Matt. c. 17, n. 11, pp. 696, 697.
9. [Greek: Hypante], from [Greek: hupantao], occurro.

_On blessing the candles and the procession._

The procession with lighted tapers on this day is mentioned by pope
Gelasius I., also by St. Ildefonsus, St. Eligius,[1] St. Sophronius,
patriarch of Jerusalem, St. Cyril of Alexandria, &c., in their sermons
on this festival, St. Bernard says:[2] "This holy procession was first
made by the virgin mother, St. Joseph, holy Simeon, and Anne, to be
afterwards performed in all places and by every nation, with the
exultation of the whole earth, to honor this mystery." In his second
sermon on this feast he describes it thus:[3] "They walk two and two,
holding in their hands candles lighted, not from common fire, but from
that which had been first blessed in the church by the priests,[4] and
singing in the ways of the Lord, because great is his glory." He shows
that the concurrence of many in the procession and prayer is a symbol
of our union and charity, and renders our praises {340} the more
honorable and acceptable to God. We _walk_ while we sing to God, to
denote that to stand still in the paths of virtue is to go back. The
lights we bear in our hands represent the divine fire of love with
which our hearts ought to be inflamed, and which we are to offer to
God without any mixture of strange fire, the fire of concupiscence,
envy, ambition, or the love of creatures. We also hold these lights in
our hands to honor Christ, and to acknowledge him as the _true
light_,[5] whom they represent under this character, and who is called
by holy Simeon in this mystery, _a light for the enlightening of the
Gentiles;_[6] for he came to dispel our spiritual darkness. The
candles likewise express that by faith his light shines in our souls:
as also that we are to _prepare his way_ by good works, by which we
are to be _a light to_ men.[7]

Lights are used by the church during the celebration of the divine
mysteries, while the gospel is read, and the sacraments administered,
on a motive of honor and respect. On the same account lamps burned
before the Lord in the tabernacle[8] and temple. Great personages were
anciently received and welcomed with lights, as was king Antiochus by
Jason and others on his entering Jerusalem.[9] Lights are likewise
expressive of joy, and were anciently used on this account in
receiving Roman emperors, and on other public occasions, as at
present. "Throughout all the churches of the East," says St. Jerom,
"when the gospel is to be read, though the sun shines, torches are
used, not to chase away darkness, but for a sign of joy."[10] The
apostolic canons mention incense, and oil for the lamps, then used in
the churches.[11] Many out of devotion burned lamps before the bodies
of saints, as we read in Prudentius,[12] St. Paulinus,[13] &c. The
corporeal creatures, which we use, are the gifts of God: it is
therefore just that we should honor and glorify him by them. Besides,
in our embodied state, they contribute to excite our souls to
devotion; they are to our eyes, what words are to our ears, and by our
organs move the affections of our hearts.[14] Though piety consists in
the fervor of the soul, and is interior and spiritual, yet many
sensible things concur to its aid and improvement; and we may as well
condemn the use of words, which are corporeal, and affect the soul by
the sense of hearing, as the use of suitable approved ceremonies.
Christ made use of sensible signs in the institution of his most
divine sacraments, and in several miraculous cures, &c. The church
always used external rites and ceremonies in the divine worship. These
contribute to the majesty and dignity of religion, which in our
present condition would appear naked, if destitute of all exterior.
The candles are blessed previously to the use of them, because the
church blesses and sanctifies, by prayer, what ever is employed in the
divine service. We are to hold the candles in our hands on this day,
while the gospel is read or sung; also from the elevation to the
communion, in the most fervent spirit of sacrifice, offering ourselves
to God with our divine Redeemer, and desiring to meet in spirit this
blessed company in this mystery; likewise to honor the mother of God
in her purification, and still more so, with the most profound
adoration and gratitude, our divine Saviour in his presentation in our
flesh for us. The same lively sentiments of devotion ought to inflame
our breasts on this occasion, as if we had been present with holy
Simeon and the rest in the temple, while we carry in our hands these
emblems of our spiritual joy and homage, and of the consecration of
ourselves in union with our heavenly victim, through the intercession
of his virgin mother.

Footnotes:
1. Serm. 2.
2. Serm. de Purif. p. 959.
3. Serm. 2, p. 961.
4. According to the ceremonies then in use.
5. John i. 9.
6. Luke ii. 3.
7. Matt. v. 6.
8. Exod. xxviii. 20.
9. 2 Macch. iv. 22.
10. Adv. Vigil. p. 304.
11. Can. 3.
12. Hymn 2.
13. Nat. iii. v. 98.
14. See the pastoral charge of the late Dr. Butler, bishop of Durham.

{341}

_On the Christian rite of churching women after childbirth._

God, in the old law, declared several actions unclean, which, though
innocent and faultless it themselves, had a constant but remote regard
to sin. One of these was childbirth, to denote the impurity of man's
origin by his being conceived and born in sin. For the removal of legal
uncleanness in general, God established certain expiatory rites,
consisting of ablutions and sacrifices, to which all were strictly
obliged who desired to be purified; that is, restored to the privileges
of their brethren, and declared duly qualified members of the synagogue
or Jewish church. It would be superstitious since the death of Christ,
and the publication of the new law, to stand in awe of legal
uncleannesses, or to have recourse to Jewish purifications on account of
any of them, whether after childbirth or in any other cases. It is not,
therefore, with that intention, that Christian mothers come to the
church, as Jewish women did to the tabernacle, in order to be purified
from any uncleanness they contract by childbirth. It is not on any
consideration peculiar to the Jews that this ceremony was established in
the Christian church, but on a motive common to all mankind, the
performing the duty of thanksgiving and prayer. Hence in the canon law,
pope Innocent III. speaks of it as follows: "If women after childbearing
desire immediately to enter the church, they commit no sin by so doing,
nor are they to be hindered. Nevertheless, if they choose to refrain out
of respect for some time, we do not think their devotion ought to be
reprehended."[1]

In some dioceses this term is limited to a certain number of days. Where
this is not regulated by custom, or by any particular statute, the party
may perform this duty as soon as she is able to go abroad. Her first
visit is to be to the church: first, to give God thanks for her safe
delivery: secondly, to implore his blessing on herself and her child. It
ought to be her first visit, to show her readiness to acquit herself of
this duty to God, and to give him the first-fruits of her recovery and
blessing received; as the first-fruits in every thing are most
particularly due to God, and most agreeable to him, and which, in the
old law, he was most jealous in exacting of his people. The
acknowledgment of a benefit received, is the least return we can make
for it: the law of nature dictates the obligation of this tribute; God
strictly requires it, and this is the means to draw down new blessings
on us, the flowing of which is by nothing more effectually obstructed
than by insensibility and ingratitude: wherefore, next to the praise and
love of God, thanksgiving is the principal homage we owe him in the
sacrifice of our hearts, and is a primary act of prayer. The book of
psalms abounds with acts of thanksgiving; the apostle everywhere
recommends and inculcates it in the strongest terms. The primitive
Christians had these words, _Thanks be to God_, always in their mouths,
and used them as their ordinary form of salutation on all occasions, as
St. Austin mentions,[2] who adds, "What better thing can we bear in our
hearts, or pronounce with our tongues, or express with our pens, than,
_Thanks be to God_?" It is the remark of St. Gregory of Nyssa,[3] that
besides past benefits, and promises of other inestimable benefits to
come, we every instant of our lives receive from God fresh favors; and
therefore we ought, if it were possible, every moment to make him a
return of thanks with our whole hearts, and never cease from this duty.
We owe a particular thanksgiving for his more remarkable blessings. A
mother regards her safe delivery, and her happiness is being blessed
with a child, as signal benefits, and therefore she owes a {342}
particular holocaust of thanks for them. This she comes to offer at the
foot of the altar. She comes also to ask the succors of divine grace.
She stands in need of an extraordinary aid from above, both for herself
and her child. For herself, that, by her example, instructions, and
watchfulness, she may fulfil her great obligations as a mother. For her
child, that it may reap the advantage of a virtuous education, may live
to God, and become one day a citizen of the heavenly Jerusalem:
otherwise, what will it avail her to have been a mother, or the child to
have been born? Now prayer is the channel which God has appointed for
the conveyance of his graces to us. The mother, therefore, must be
assiduous in begging daily of the Father of mercies all necessary
succors for these purposes: but this she should make the subject of her
most zealous petitions on the occasion of her first solemn appearance
after childbed before his altar. She should, at the same time, make the
most perfect offering and consecration of her child to the divine
Majesty. Every mother, in imitation of the Blessed Virgin, ought to
perform this triple duty of thanksgiving, petition, and oblation, and
through her hands, who, on the day of her purification, set so perfect a
pattern of this devotion.

Footnotes:
1. Cap. unico de Purif. post partum.
2. Ep. 41. olim 77.
3. Or. 1, de praest. t. 1, p. 715


ST. LAURENCE, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY.

HE was one of those who accompanied St. Austin into this island, about
the year 597, and was his immediate successor in the see of Canterbury,
in 608, in which he sat eleven years. When Eadbald, son and successor to
the holy king Ethelbert, not only refused to follow his father's example
in embracing the faith, but gave into idolatry, and incestuously took to
his bed his father's widow, Laurence having labored hard for his
conversion to no purpose, and despairing of reclaiming him, thought of
nothing but retiring into France, as some others had already done. But
he was severely scourged by St. Peter, in a dream, on the eve of his
intended departure, with reproaches for designing to forsake that flock
for which Christ had laid down his life. This did not only prevent his
going, but had such an effect upon the king, when he was shown the marks
of the stripes he had received on this occasion, that he became a
thorough convert, doing whatever was required of him, both for his own
sanctification, and the propagation of Christianity in his dominions.
St. Laurence did not long survive this happy change, dying in the year
619. He is mentioned in the Roman Martyrology. See Bede, Hist. b. 2, c.
4, 6, 7.[1] Malmesb. l. 1, Pontif. Angl.

Footnotes:
1. From these words of Bede, b. 1, c. 27, Austin sent to Rome Laurence
the priest, and Peter the monk, some modern historians infer that
St. Laurence was no monk, but a secular priest; though this proof is
wreak. See Collier, Dict. Suppl. Henschenius, p. 290. and Le Quien,
Oriens Christ. t. 1, p. 421.

{343}

FEBRUARY III.

ST. BLASE, BISHOP AND MARTYR.

The four modern different Greek acts of this Saint are of small
authority. Bollandus has supplied this deficiency by learned remarks.

A D. 316.

HE was bishop of Sebaste in Armenia, and was crowned with martyrdom in
the persecution of Licinius, in 316, by the command of Agricolaus,
governor of Cappadocia and the lesser Armenia. It is mentioned in the
acts of St. Eustratius, who received the crown of martyrdom in the reign
of Dioclesian, and is honored on the 13th of December, that St. Blase,
the bishop of Sebaste, honorably received his relics, deposited them
with those of St. Orestes, and punctually executed every article of the
last will and testament of St. Eustratius. His festival is kept a
holiday in the Greek church on the 11th of February. He is mentioned in
the ancient Western Martyrologies which bear the name of St. Jerom. Ado
and Usuard, with several more ancient manuscript Martyrologies, quoted
by Chatelain, place his name on the 15th. In the holy wars his relics
were dispersed over the West, and his veneration was propagated by many
miraculous cures, especially of sore throats. He is the principal patron
of the commonwealth of Ragusa.[1] No other reason than the great
devotion of the people to this celebrated martyr of the church, seems to
have given occasion to the wool-combers to choose him the titular patron
of their profession: on which account his festival is still kept by them
with a solemn guild at Norwich. Perhaps also his country might in part
determine them to this choice: for it seems that the first branch, or at
least hint of this manufacture, was borrowed from the remotest known
countries of the East, as was that of silk: or the iron combs, with
which he is said to have been tormented, gave occasion to this choice.

* * * * *

The iron combs, hooks, racks, swords, and scaffolds, which were purpled
with the blood of the martyrs, are eternal proofs of their invincible
courage and constancy in the divine service. But are they not at the
same time subjects of our condemnation and confusion? How weak are our
resolutions! How base our pusillanimity and cowardice in the pursuit of
virtue! We have daily renewed our most sacred baptismal engagements, and
our purposes of faithfully serving God: these we have often repeated at
the feet of God's ministers, and in presence of his holy altars; and we
have often begun our conversation with great fervor. Yet these fair
blossoms were always nipped in the bud: for want of constancy we soon
fell back into our former sloth and disorders, adding to our other
prevarications that of base infidelity. Instead of encountering gibbets
and wild beasts, we were scared at the sight of the least difficulty; or
we had not courage to make the least sacrifice of our passions, or to
repulse the weakest and most contemptible assaults of the world. Its
example, or that dangerous company from which we had not resolution to
separate ourselves, carried us {344} away; and we had not courage to
withstand those very maxims which we ourselves condemn in the moments of
our serious reflections, as contrary to the spirit of the gospel.
Perhaps we often flew back for fear of shadows, and out of apprehensions
frequently imaginary, lest we should forfeit some temporal advantage,
some useful or agreeable friend. Perhaps we were overcome by the
difficulties which arose barely from ourselves, and wanted resolution to
deny our senses, to subdue our passions, to renounce dangerous
occasions, or to enter upon a penitential life. Blinded by self-love,
have we not sheltered our dastardly pusillanimity under the cloak of
pretended necessity, or even virtue?

Footnotes:
1. See Bollandus, Pagi ad an. 316. Chatelain, Notes on the Martyr. p.
507, and Jos. Assemani in Cal. Univ. ad 11 Feb. t. 6, p. 123.

ST. ANSCHARIUS, C.,

ARCHBISHOP OF HAMBURG AND BREMEN.

From his excellent life compiled by St. Rembert, his successor, with the
remarks of Mabillon, Act. Bened t. 4, p. 401, and the preliminary
discourse of Henschenius, p. 391. Adam Bremensis, Hist. Episc. Hamb. and
Olof Dolin, in his new excellent history of Sweden in the reigns of
Listen, Bel, and Bagnar, c. 16.

A.D. 865.

HE was a monk, first of Old Corbie in France, afterwards of Little
Corbie in Saxony. Harold, or Heriold, prince of Denmark, having been
baptized in the court of the emperor Louis Debonnaire, Anscarius
preached the faith with great success, first to the Danes, afterwards to
the Swedes, and lastly in the north of Germany. In 832, he was made
archbishop of Hamburg, and legate of the holy see, by pope Gregory IV.
That city was burnt by an army of Normans, in 845. The saint continued
to support his desolate churches, till, in 849, the see of Bremen
becoming vacant, pope Nicholas united it to that of Hamburg, and
appointed him bishop of both. Denmark and Sweden had relapsed into
idolatry, notwithstanding the labors of many apostolical missionaries
from New Corbie, left there by our saint. His presence soon made the
faith flourish again in Denmark, under the protection of king Horick.
But in Sweden the superstitious king Olas cast lots whether he should be
admitted or no. The saint, grieved to see the cause of God and religion
committed to the cast of a die, recommended the issue to the care of
heaven. The lot proved favorable, and the bishop converted many of the
lower rank, and established many churches there, which he left under
zealous pastors at his return to Bremen. He wore a rough hair shirt,
and, while his health permitted him, contented himself with a small
quantity of bread and water. He never undertook any thing without
recommending it first to God by earnest prayer, and had an extraordinary
talent for preaching. His charity to the poor had no bounds; he washed
their feet, and waited on them at table. He ascribed it to his sins,
that he never met with the glory of martyrdom in all that he had
suffered for the faith. To excite himself to compunction and to the
divine praise, he made a collection of pathetic sentences, some of which
he placed at the end of each psalm; several of which are found in
certain manuscript psalters, as Fleury takes notice. The learned
Fabricius, in his Latin Library of the middle ages, calls them an
illustrious monument of the piety of this holy prelate. St. Anscharius
died at Bremen in the year 865, the sixty-seventh of his age, and
thirty-fourth of his episcopal dignity; and was honored with miracles.
His name occurs in the Martyrologies soon after his death. In the German
language he is called St. Scharies, and his collegiate church of Bremen
Sant-Scharies. That at Hamburg, which bore his name, has been converted
by the Lutherans into an hospital for orphans. His name was rather
Ansgar, as it {345} is written in his own letter, and in a charter of
Louis Debonnaire. In this letter[1] he attributes all the fruits and
glory of the conversion of the Northern nations, to which he preached,
to the zeal of that emperor and of Ebbo, archbishop of Rheims, without
taking the least notice of himself or his own labors. The life of St.
Willehad, first bishop of Bremen, who died in 789 or 791, compiled by
St. Anscharius, is a judicious and elegant work, and the preface a
masterpiece for that age. It is abridged and altered by Surius, but
published entire at Cologne, in 1642; and more correctly by Mabillon;
and again by Fabricius, among the historians of Hamburg, t. 2.

Footnotes:
1. Ap. Bolland. et. Mabill.

ST. WEREBURGE, V. ABBESS.

PATRONESS OF CHESTER.

From Harpsfield, Bede, Brompton, Florence of Worcester, Higden,
Langhorn's Chronicle, Leland's Collections, Powel's History of Wales,
the Saxon Chronicle, Simeon of Durham, and her curious life, written in
old English metre, from the Passionary of the monastery of Chester, by
Henry Bradshaw, a monk of that house, who died in 1521, on whom see
Wood, Athen. Oxon., vol. 1, p. 9, n. 14, and Tanner, Bibl. p. 121. This
scarce history was printed in 1521, by Richard Pynson, printer to king
Henry VIII. See her ancient life, a MS. copy of which Camden sent to F.
Rosweide, published by Henschenius, with notes, p. 386. See also the
summary of the life of St. Wereburge, with an historical account of the
images carved on her shine, (now the episcopal throne,) in the choir of
the cathedral of Chester, by William Cooper, M.D., at Chester 1749.

Seventh Age.

ST. WEREBURGE was daughter of Wulfere, king of Mercia, by St. Ermenilde,
daughter of Ercombert, king of Kent, and St. Sexburge. In her was
centred the royal blood of all the chief Saxon kings; but her glory was
the contempt of a vain world, even from her cradle, on the pure motive
of the love of God. She had three brothers, Wulfade and Rufin, who died
martyrs, and Kenred, who ended his life at Rome in the odor of sanctity.
Her father, Wulfere, resided near Stone, in Staffordshire. His eldest
brother, Peada, had begun to plant the faith in Mercia. Wulfere promised
at his marriage to extirpate the remains of idolatry, and was then a
Christian; but worldly motives made him delay the performance of his
promise. Ermenilde endeavored to soften the fierceness of his temper;
but she found it a far more easy task to dispose the minds of her tender
nursery to be faithful to divine grace; and, under her care, all her
children grew up fruitful plants in the garden of the saints. Wereburge
excelled the rest in fervor and discretion. She was humble, obedient,
and meek; never failed of assisting with her mother at the daily
performance of the whole church office; besides spending many hours on
her knees in private devotion in her closet. She eagerly listened to
every instruction and exhortation of piety. At an age in which youth is
the fondest of recreations, pleasures, and vanities, she was always
grave, reserved, and mortified. She was a stranger to any joy but that
which the purity of her conscience afforded her; and in holy compunction
bewailed before God, without ceasing, her distance from him, and her
other spiritual miseries. She trembled at the thought of the least
danger that could threaten her purity; fasting and prayer were her
delight, by which she endeavored to render her soul acceptable to her
heavenly bridegroom. Her beauty and her extraordinary qualifications,
rendered more conspicuous by the greater lustre of her virtue, drew to
her many suitors for marriage. But a mountain might sooner be moved than
her resolution shaken. The prince of the West-Saxons waited on her with
rich presents; but she refused to accept them or listen to his
proposals, saying she had chosen the Lord Jesus, the Redeemer of
mankind, for the Spouse of her {346} soul, and had devoted herself to
his service in the state of virginity. But her greatest victory was over
the insidious attempts of Werbode, a powerful, wicked knight of her
father's court. The king was greatly indebted to the valor and services
of this knight for his temporal prosperity, and entertained a particular
affection for him. The knight, sensible of this, and being passionately
fond of Wereburge, made use of all his interest with the king to obtain
his consent to marry her, which was granted, on condition he could gain
that of the royal virgin. Queen Ermenilde and her two sons, Wulfade and
Rufin, were grievously afflicted at the news. These two princes were
then upon their conversion to Christianity, and for this purpose
resorted to the cell of St. Chad, bishop of Litchfield, under pretence
of going a hunting; for the saint resided in a hermitage, situate in a
forest. By him they were instructed in the faith, and baptized. Werbode,
finding them an obstacle to his design, contrived their murder, for
which he is said to have moved the father to give an order in a fit of
passion, by showing him the young princes returning from the bishop, and
incensing him against them by slanders: for the king was passionate, and
had been likewise prevailed on by his perfidious minister to countenance
and favor idolatry. Werbode died miserably soon after, and Wulfere no
sooner heard that the murder was perpetrate but, stung with grief and
remorse, he entered into himself, did great penance, and entirely gave
himself up to the advice of his queen and St. Chad. He destroyed all the
idols, converted their temples into churches, founded the abbey of
Peterborough, and the priory of Stone, where the two martyrs were
buried, and exceedingly propagated the worship of the true God, by his
zealous endeavors and example.

Wereburge, seeing this perfect change in the disposition of her father,
was no longer afraid to disclose to him her earnest desire of
consecrating herself to God in a religious state of life. Finding him
averse, and much grieved at the proposal, she pleaded her cause with so
many tears, and urged the necessity of preparing for death in so
pathetic a manner, that her request was granted. Her father even thanked
God with great humility for so great a grace conferred on her, though
not without many tears which such a sacrifice cost him. He conducted her
in great state to Ely, attended by his whole court, and was met at the
gate of the monastery by the royal abbess St. Audry, with her whole
religious family in procession, singing holy hymns to God. Wereburge,
falling on her knees, begged to be admitted in quality of a penitent.
She obtained her request, and Te Deum was sung. She went through the
usual trials with great humility and patience, and with joy exchanged
her rich coronet, purple, silks, and gold, for a poor veil and a coarse
habit, and resigned herself into the hands of her superior, to live only
to Christ. King Wulfere, his three brothers, and Egbright, or Egbert,
king of Kent, and Adulph, king of the East-Angles, together with the
great lords of their respective states, were present at these her solemn
espousals with Christ,[1] and were entertained by Wulfere with a royal
magnificence. The virgin here devoted herself to God with new fervor in
all her actions, and made the exercises of obedience, prayer,
contemplation, humility, and penance, her whole occupation, instead of
that circle of vanities and amusements which employ the slaves of the
world. King Wulfede dying in 675, was buried at Litchfield. Kenred, his
son, being then too young to govern, his brother Ethelred succeeded him.
St. Ermenilde was no sooner at liberty, but she took the religions veil
at Ely, under her mother, St. Sexburge, at whose death she was chosen
third abbess, and honored in England among the saints on the 13th of
February. Her daughter, St. Wereburge, at her {347} uncle king
Ethelred's persuasion, left Ely to charge herself, at his request, with
the superintendency of all the houses of religious women in his kingdom,
that she might establish in them the observance of the most exact
monastic discipline. By his liberality she founded those of Trentham in
Staffordshire, of Hanbury, near Tutbury, in the county of Stafford, (not
in the county of Huntingdon, as some mistake,) and of Wedon, one of the
royal palaces in Northamptonshire. This king also founded the collegiate
church of St. John Baptist, in the suburbs of West-Chester, and gave to
St. Egwin the ground for the great abbey of Evesham; and after having
reigned twenty-nine years, embraced the monastic state in his beloved
monastery of Bardney, upon the river Witham, not far from Lincoln, of
which he was afterwards chosen abbot. He resigned his crown to Kenred,
his nephew, brother to our saint, having been chosen king only on
account of the nonage of that prince. Kenred governed his realm with
great prudence and piety, making it his study, by all the means in his
power, to prevent and root out all manner of vice, and promote the
knowledge and love of God. After a reign of five years, he recommended
his subjects to God, took leave of them, to their inexpressible grief,
left his crown to Coelred, his uncle's son, and, making a pilgrimage to
Rome, there put on the monastic habit in 708, and persevered in great
fervor till his happy death.

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