Various - "The Maya Chronicles"

Hall Caine - "The Christian"

Anonymous - "The Book Of The Thousand Nights And One Night, Volume IV"

Henry Sydnor Harrison - "Captivating Mary Carstairs"

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





FEBRUARY IX.

ST. APOLLONIA, VIRGIN AND MARTYR.

Her acts are of no authority, and falsely place her triumph at Rome,
instead of Alexandria. See Tillemont, t. 3, p. 495. Her authentic
history is in the letter of St. Dionysius, then bishop of Alexandria,
preserved by Eusebius, l. 6, c. 41, 42, p. 236. Ed. Val.

A.D. 249.

ST. DIONYSIUS of Alexandria wrote to Fabius, bishop of Antioch, a
relation of the persecution raised at Alexandria by the heathen populace
of that city, in the last year of the reign of the emperor Philip. A
certain poet of Alexandria, who pretended to foretell things to come,
stirred up this great city against the Christians on the motive of
religion. The first victim of their rage was a venerable old man, named
Metras, or Metrius, whom they would have compelled to utter impious
words against the worship of {387} the true God: which, when he refused
to do, they beat him with staffs, thrust splinters of reeds into his
eyes, and having dragged him into one of the suburbs, stoned him to
death. The next person they seized was a Christian woman, called Quinta,
whom they carried to one of their temples to pay divine worship to the
idol. She loaded the execrable divinity with many reproaches, which so
exasperated the people that they dragged her by the heels upon the
pavement of sharp pebbles, cruelly scourged her, and put her to the same
death. The rioters, by this time, were in the height of their fury.
Alexandria seemed like a city taken by storm. The Christians mads no
opposition, but betook themselves to flight, and beheld the loss of
their goods with joy; for their hearts had no ties on earth. Their
constancy was equal to their disinterestedness; for of all who fell into
their hands, St. Dionysius knew of none that renounced Christ.

The admirable Apollonia, whom old age and the state of virginity
rendered equally venerable, was seized by them. Their repeated blows on
her jaws beat out all her teeth. At last they made a great fire without
the city, and threatened to cast her into it, if she did not utter
certain impious words. She begged a moment's delay, as if it had been to
deliberate on the proposal; but, to convince her persecutors that her
sacrifice was perfectly voluntary, she no sooner found herself at
liberty, than of her own accord she leaped into the flames. They next
exercised their fury on a holy man called Serapion, and tortured him in
his own house with great cruelty. After bruising his limbs, disjointing
and breaking his bones, they threw him headlong from the top of the
house on the pavement, and so completed his martyrdom. A civil war among
the pagan citizens put an end to their fury this year, but the edict of
Decius renewed it in 250. See the rest of the relation on the 27th of
February. An ancient church in Rome, which is frequented with great
devotion, bears the name of St. Apollonia: under whose patronage we meet
with churches and altars in most parts of the Western church.

* * * * *

The last part of our saint's conduct is not proposed to our imitation,
as self-murder is unjustifiable. If any among the Fathers have commended
it, they presumed, with St. Austin, that it was influenced by a
particular direction of the Holy Ghost, or was the effect of a pious
simplicity, founded in motives of holy zeal and charity. For it can
never be lawful for a person by any action wilfully to concur to, or
hasten his own death, though many martyrs out of an ardent charity, and
desire of laying down their lives for God, and being speedily united to
him, anticipated the executioners in completing their sacrifice. Among
the impious, absurd, and false maxims of the Pagan Greeks and Romans,
scarce any thing was more monstrous than the manner in which they
canonized suicide in distress, as a remedy against temporal miseries,
and a point of heroism. To bear infamy and all kind of sufferings with
unshaken constancy and virtue, is true courage and greatness of soul,
and the test and triumph of virtue: and to sink under misfortunes, is
the most unworthy baseness of soul. But what name can we find for the
pusillanimity of those who are not able so much as to look humiliations,
poverty, or affliction in the face? Our life we hold of God, and he who
destroys it injures God, to whom he owes it. He refuses also to his
friends and to the republic of mankind, the comfort and succors which
they are entitled in justice or charity to receive from him. Moreover,
if to murder another is the greatest temporal injustice a man can commit
against a neighbor, life being of all temporal blessings the greatest
and most noble, suicide is a crime so much more enormous, as the charity
which every one owes to himself, especially to his immortal soul, is
stricter, {388} more noble and of a superior order to that which he owes
to his neighbor.

SAINT NICEPHORUS, M.

From his genuine Acts in Ruinart, p. 244. Tillemont, t. 4, p. 16.

THERE dwelt in Antioch a priest called Sapricius, and a layman, named
Nicephorus, who had been linked together for many years by the strictest
friendship. But the enemy of mankind sowing between them the seeds of
discord, this their friendship was succeeded by the most implacable
hatred, and they declined meeting each other in the streets. Thus it
continued a considerable time. At length, Nicephorus, entering into
himself, and reflecting on the grievousness of the sin of hatred,
resolved on seeking a reconciliation. He accordingly deputed some
friends to go to Sapricius to beg his pardon, promising him all
reasonable satisfaction for the injury done him. But the priest refused
to forgive him. Nicephorus sent other friends to him on the same errand,
but though they pressed and entreated him to be reconciled, Sapricius
was inflexible. Nicephorus sent a third time, but to no purpose;
Sapricius having shut his ears not to men only, but to Christ himself,
who commands us to forgive as we ourselves hope to be forgiven.
Nicephorus, finding him deaf to the remonstrances of their common
friends, went in person to his house, and casting himself at his feet,
owned his fault, and begged pardon for Christ's sake; but all in vain.

The persecution suddenly began to rage under Valerian and Gallien in the
year 260. Sapricius was apprehended and brought before the governor, who
asked him his name. "It is Sapricius," answered he. Governor. "Of what
profession are you?" Sapricius. "I am a Christian." Governor. "Are you
of the clergy?" Sapricius. "I have the honor to be a priest." He added:
"We Christians acknowledge one Lord and Master Jesus Christ, who is God;
the only and true God, who created heaven and earth. The gods of nations
are devils." The president, exasperated at his answer, gave orders for
him to be put into an engine, like a screw-press, which the tyrants had
invented to torment the faithful. The excessive pain of this torture did
not shake Sapricius's constancy, and he said to the judges: "My body is
in your power; but my soul you cannot touch. Only my Saviour Jesus
Christ is master of this." The president seeing him so resolute,
pronounced this sentence: "Sapricius, priest of the Christians, who is
ridiculously persuaded that he shall rise again, shall be delivered over
to the executioner of public justice to have his head severed from his
body, because he has contemned the edict of the emperors."

Sapricius seemed to receive the sentence with great cheerfulness, and
was to haste to arrive at the place of execution in hopes of his crown.
Nicephorus ran out to meet him, and casting himself at his feet, said:
"Martyr of Jesus Christ, forgive me my offence." But Sapricius made him
no answer. Nicephorus waited for him in another street which he was to
pass through, and as soon as he saw him coming up, broke through the
crowd, and falling again at his feet, conjured him to pardon the fault
he had committed against him, through frailty rather than design. This
he begged by the glorious confession he had made of the divinity of
Jesus Christ. Sapricius's heart was more and more hardened, and now he
would not so much as look on him. The soldiers laughed at Nicephorus,
saying: "A greater fool than thou was never seen, in being so solicitous
for a man's {389} pardon who is upon the point of being executed." Being
arrived at the place of execution, Nicephorus redoubled his humble
entreaties and supplications: but all in vain; for Sapricius continued
as obstinate as ever, in refusing to forgive. The executioners said to
Sapricius: "Kneel down that we may cut off your head." Sapricius said.
"Upon what account?" They answered: "Because you will not sacrifice to
the gods, nor obey the emperor's orders, for the love of that man that
is called Christ." The unfortunate Sapricius cried out: "Stop, my
friends; do not put me to death: I will do what you desire: I am ready
to sacrifice." Nicephorus, sensibly afflicted at his apostacy, cried
aloud to him: "Brother, what are you doing? renounce not Jesus Christ
our good master. Forfeit not a crown you have already gained by tortures
and sufferings." But Sapricius would give no manner of attention to what
he said. Whereupon, Nicephorus, with tears of bitter anguish for the
fall of Sapricius, said to the executioner: "I am a Christian, and
believe in Jesus Christ, whom this wretch has renounced; behold me here
ready to die in his stead." All present were astonished at such an
unexpected declaration. The officers of justice being under an
uncertainty how to proceed, dispatched a lictor or beadle to the
governor, with this message: "Sapricius promiseth to sacrifice, but here
is another desirous to die for the same Christ, saying: I am a
Christian, and refuse to sacrifice to your gods, and comply with the
edicts of the emperors." The governor, on hearing this, dictated the
following sentence: "If this man persist in refusing to sacrifice to the
immortal gods, let him die by the sword:" which was accordingly put in
execution. Thus Nicephorus received three immortal crowns, namely, of
faith, humility, and charity, triumphs which Sapricius had made himself
unworthy of. The Greek and the Roman Martyrologies mention him on this
day.

SAINT THELIAU, BISHOP AND CONFESSOR.

HE was born in the same province with St. Samson at Eccluis-Guenwa{},
near Monmouth. His sister Anaumed went over to Armorica in 490, and upon
her arrival was married to Budic, king of the Armorican Britons. Before
she left her own country she promised St. Theliau to consecrate her
first child in a particular manner to God. Our saint was educated under
the holy discipline of St. Dubritius, and soon after the year 500, made
a pilgrimage to Jerusalem with his schoolfellows St. David and St.
Paternus. In their return St. David stopped at Dole, with Sampson the
elder, who had been bishop of York, but being expelled by the Saxons,
fled into Armorica and was made bishop of Dole. This prelate and St.
Theliau planted a great avenue, three miles long, from Dole to Cai,
which for several ages was known by their names. The people of Dole,
with the bishop and king Budic, pressed our saint to accept of that
bishopric; but in vain. After his return into the island, St. Dubritius
being removed from the see of Landaff to that of Caerleon, in 495,
Theliau was compelled to succeed him in Landaff, of which church he has
always been esteemed the principal patron. His great learning, piety,
and pastoral zeal, especially in the choice and instruction of his
clergy, have procured him a high reputation which no age can ever
obliterate, says Leland.[1] His authority alone decided whatever
controversies arose in his time. When the yellow plague depopulated
Wales, he exerted his courage and charity with an heroic intrepidity.
Providence preserved his life for the sake of others, and he died {390}
about the year 580, in a happy old age, in solitude, where he had for
some time prepared himself for his passage. The place where he departed
to our Lord was called from him Llan deilo-vaur, that is, the church of
the great Theliau: it was situated on the bank of the river Tovy in
Caermarthenshire. The Landaff register names among the most eminent of
his disciples his nephew St. Oudoceus, who succeeded him in the see of
Landaff, St. Ismael, whom he consecrated bishop, St. Tyfhei, martyr, who
reposeth in Pennalun, &c. See Capgrave, Harpsfield, Wharton,
Brown-Willis, D. Morice, Hist. de Bretagne, t. 1, p. 22, and the notes,
pp. 785 and 819. Bolland. Feb. t. 2, p. 303.

Footnotes:
1. De Script. Brit. c. 30.

ST. ANSBERT, ARCHBISHOP OF ROUEN, C. IN 695.

HE had been chancellor to king Clotaire III., in which station he had
united the mortification and recollection of a monk with the duties of
wedlock, and of a statesman. Quitting the court, he put on the monastic
habit at Fontenelle, under St. Wandregisile, and when that holy
founder's immediate successor, St. Lantbert, was made bishop of Lyons,
Ansbert was appointed abbot of that famous monastery. He was confessor
to king Theodoric III., and with his consent was chosen archbishop of
Rouen, upon the death of St. Owen in 683. By his care, good order,
learning, and piety flourished in his diocese; nevertheless Pepin, mayor
of the palace, banished him, upon a false accusation, to the monastery
of Aumont, upon the Sambre in Hainault, where he died in the year 698.
See Mab. Saec. 2, Ben. and Annal. l. 18.. Rivet, Hist. Litter. t. 4, p.
33, and t. 3, p. 646. Henschenius, Feb. t. 2, p. 342.

ST. ATTRACTA, OR TARAHATA, AN IRISH VIRGIN.

SHE received the veil from St. Patrick, and lived at a place called from
her Kill-Attracta to this day, in Connaught. Her acts in Colgan are of
no authority.

ST. ERHARD, ABBOT, C.

CALLED BY MERSAEUS AND OTHER GERMANS, EBERHARDUS.

HE was a Scotchman by birth, and being well instructed in the
scriptures, went into Germany to preach the gospel, with two brothers.
He taught the sacred sciences at Triers, when St. Hydulphus was bishop
of that city, whom Welser and some others take for a Scot, and one of
our saint's brothers. When St. Hydulphus resigned his bishopric to end
his days in retirement in 753, St. Erhard withdrew to Ratisbon, where he
founded a small monastery, and is said to have been honored with
miracles, both living and after his death, which happened to that city.
He was commemorated on this day in Scotland, but in Germany on the 8th
of January. See Peter Merssaeus, Catal. Archiep. Trevirens. M. Welserus,
l. 5. Rerum B{}iocar, ad ab, 753. Pantaleon, Prosopographiae, part 1.

{391}


FEBRUARY X.

ST. SCHOLASTICA, VIRGIN.

From St. Gregory the Great, Dial. l. 2, c. 33 and 34. About the year
543.

THIS saint was sister to the great St. Benedict. She consecrated herself
to God from her earliest youth, as St. Gregory testifies. Where her
first monastery was situated is not mentioned; but after her brother
removed to Mount Cassino, she chose her retreat at Plombariola, in that
neighborhood, where she founded and governed a nunnery about five miles
distant to the south from St. Benedict's monastery.[1] St. Bertharius,
who was abbot of Cassino three hundred years after, says, that she
instructed in virtue several of her own sex. And whereas St. Gregory
informs us, that St. Benedict governed nuns as well as monks, his sister
must have been their abbess under his rule and direction. She visited
her holy brother once a year, and as she was not allowed to enter his
monastery, he went out with some of his monks to meet her at a house at
some small distance. They spent these visits in the praises of God, and
in conferring together on spiritual matters, St. Gregory relates a
remarkable circumstance of the last of these visits. Scholastica having
passed the day as usual in singing psalms, and pious discourse, they sat
down in the evening to take their refection. After it was over,
Scholastica, perhaps foreknowing it would be their last interview in
this world, or at least desirous of some further spiritual improvement,
was very urgent with her brother to delay his return till the next day,
that they might entertain themselves till morning upon the happiness of
the other life. St. Benedict, unwilling to transgress his rule, told her
he could not pass a night out of his monastery: so desired her not to
insist upon such a breach of monastic discipline. Scholastica, finding
him resolved on going home, laying her hands joined upon the table and
her head upon them, with many tears begged of Almighty God to interpose
in her behalf. Her prayer was scarce ended, when there happened such a
storm of rain, thunder, and lightning, that neither St. Benedict nor any
of his companions could set a foot out of doors. He complained to his
sister, saying: "God forgive you, sister; what have you done?" She
answered: "I asked you a favor, and you refused it me: I asked it of
Almighty God, and he has granted it me." St. Benedict was therefore
obliged to comply with her request, and they spent the night in
conferences on pious subjects, chiefly on the felicity of the blessed,
to which both most ardently aspired, and which she was shortly to enjoy.
The nest morning they parted, and three days after St. Scholastica died
in her solitude. St. Benedict was then alone in contemplation on Mount
Cassino, and lifting up his eyes to heaven, he saw the soul of his
sister ascending thither in the shape of a dove. Filled with joy at her
happy passage, he gave thanks for it to God, and declared her death to
his brethren; some of whom he sent to bring her corpse to his monastery,
where {392} he caused it to be laid in the tomb which he had prepared
for himself. She must have died about the year 543. Her relics are said
to have been translated into France, together with those of St. Bennet,
in the seventh century, according to the relation given by the monk
Adrevald.[2] They are said to have been deposited at Mans, and kept in
the collegiate church of St. Peter in that city in a rich silver
shrine.[3] In 1562 this shrine was preserved from being plundered by the
Huguenots, as is related by Chatelain. Her principal festival at Mans is
kept a holyday on the 11th of July, the day of the translation of her
relics. She was honored in some places with an office of three lessons,
in the time of St. Louis, as appears from a calendar of Longchamp,
written in his reign.

Lewis of Granada, treating on the perfection of the love of God,
mentions the miraculous storm obtained by St. Scholastica, to show with
what excess of goodness God is always ready to hear the petitions and
desires of his servants. This pious soul must have received strong
pledges and most sensible tokens of his love, seeing she depended on
receiving so readily what she asked of him. No child could address
himself with so great confidence to his most tender parent. The love
which God bears us, and his readiness to succor and comfort us, if we
humbly confess and lay before him our wants, infinitely surpasses all
that can be found in creatures. Nor can we be surprised that he so
easily heard the prayer of this holy virgin, since at the command of
Joshua he stopped the heavens, God obeying the voice of man. He hears
the most secret desires of those that fear and love him, and does their
will: if he sometimes seem deaf to their cries, it is to grant their
main desire by doing what is most expedient for them, as St. Austin
frequently observes. The short prayer by which St. Scholastica gained
this remarkable victory over her brother, who was one of the greatest
saints on earth, was doubtless no more than a single act of her pure
desires, which she continually turned towards, and fixed on her beloved.
It was enough for her to cast her eye interiorly upon him with whom she
was closely and inseparably united in mind and affections, to move him
so suddenly to change the course of the elements in order to satisfy her
pious desire. By placing herself, as a docile scholar, continually at
the feet of the Divine Majesty, who filled all the powers of her soul
with the sweetness of his heavenly communications, she learned that
sublime science of perfection in which she became a mistress to so many
other chaste souls by this divine exercise. Her life in her retirement,
to that happy moment which closed her mortal pilgrimage, was a continued
uniform contemplation, by which all her powers were united to, and
transformed into God.

Footnotes:
1. This nunnery underwent the same fate with the abbey of Mount
Cassino, both being burnt to the ground by the Lombards. When
Rachim, king of that nation, having been converted to the Catholic
faith by the exhortations of pope Zachary, re-established that
abbey, and taking the monastic habit, ended his life there, his
queen Tasai and his daughter Ratruda rebuilt and richly endowed the
nunnery of Plombariola, in which they lived with great regularity to
their deaths, as is related by Leo of Ostia in his Chronicle of
Mount Cassino, ad an. 750. It has been since destroyed, so that at
present the land is only a farm belonging to the monastery of Mount
Cassino. See Dom Mege, Vie de St. Benoit, p. 412. Chatelain, Notes,
p. 605. Murarori, Antichita, &c. t. 3. p. 400. Diss. 66, del
Monasteri delle Monache.
2. See Paul the deacon, Hist. Longob. and Dom Mege, Vie de St. Benoit,
p. 48.
3. That the relics of St. Bennet were privately carried off from Mount
Cassino, in 660, soon after the monastery was destroyed, and brought
to Fleury on the Loire by Algiulph the monk, and those of St.
Scholastica, by certain persons of Mans to that city, is maintained
by Mabillon, Menard, and Bosche. But that the relics of both these
saints still remain at Mount Cassino, is strenuously affirmed by
Loretus Angelus de Nuce, and Marchiarelli, the late learned monk of
the Order of Camaldoli: and this assertion Benedict XIV. looks upon
as certain, (de Canoniz. l. 4, part 2, c. 24, t, 4, p. 245.) For
pope Zachary in his bull assures us, that he devoutly honored the
relics of SS. Benedict and Scholastica, at Mount Cassino, in 746.
Leo Ostiensis and Peter the deacon visited them and found them
untouched in 1071, as Alexander II. affirms in the bull he published
when he consecrated the new church there. By careful visitations
made by authority, in 1486 and 1545, the same is proved. Yet Angelus
de Nuce allows some portions of both saints to be at Mans and
Fleury, on the Loire. Against the supposed translation of the whole
shrines of St. Benedict and St. Scholastica into France, see
Muratori, Antichita, &c., dissert. 58, t. 3, p. 244.

{393}

ST. SOTERIS, VIRGIN AND MARTYR.

From St. Ambrose, Exhort. Virginit, c. 12, and l. 3. de Virgin. c. 6
Tillemont, t. 5, p. 259.

FOURTH AGE.

ST. AMBROSE boasts of this saint as the greatest honor of his family.
St. Soteris was descended from a long series of consuls and prefects:
but her greatest glory was her despising, for the sake of Christ, birth,
riches, great beauty, and all that the world prizes as valuable. She
consecrated her virginity to God, and to avoid the dangers her beauty
exposed her to, neglected it entirely, and trampled under her feet all
the vain ornaments that might set it off. Her virtue prepared her to
make a glorious confession of her faith before the persecutors, after
the publication of the cruel edicts of Dioclesian and Maximian against
the Christians. The impious judge commanded her face to be buffeted. She
rejoiced to be treated as her divine Saviour had been, and to have her
face all wounded and disfigured by the merciless blows of the
executioners. The judge ordered her to be tortured many other ways, but
without being able to draw from her one sigh or tear. At length,
overcome by her constancy and patience, he commanded her head to be
struck off. The ancient martyrologies mention her.

ST. WILLIAM OF MALEVAL, H.

AND INSTITUTER OF THE ORDER OF GULIELMITES.

From l'Hist des Ordres Relig., t. 6, p. 155, by F. Helyot.

A.D. 1157

WE know nothing of the birth or quality of this saint: he seems to have
been a Frenchman, and is on this account honored in the new Paris Missal
and Breviary. He is thought to have passed his youth in the army, and to
have given into a licentious manner of living, too common among persons
of that profession. The first accounts we have of him represent him as a
holy penitent, filled with the greatest sentiments of compunction and
fervor, and making a pilgrimage to the tombs of the apostles at Rome.
Here he begged pope Eugenius III. to put him into a course of penance,
who enjoined him a pilgrimage to Jerusalem in the year 1145. In
performing this, with great devotion, the saint spent eight years.
Returning into Tuscany, in 1153, he retired into a desert. He was
prevailed upon to undertake the government of a monastery in the isle of
Lupocavio, in the territory of Pisa, but not being able to bear with the
tepidity and irregularity of his monks, he withdrew, and settled on
Mount Pruno, till, finding disciples there no less indocile to the
severity of his discipline than the former, he was determined to pursue
himself that rigorous plan of life which he had hitherto unsuccessfully
proposed to others. He pitched upon a desolate valley for this purpose,
the very sight of which was sufficient to strike the most resolute with
horror. It was then called the Stable of Rhodes, but since, Maleval; and
is situated in the territory of Sienna, in the diocese of Grosseto. He
entered this frightful solitude in September, 1155, and had no other
lodging than a cave in the ground, till being discovered some months
after, the lord of Buriano built him a cell. During the first four
months, he had no other company than that of wild beasts eating only the
herbs on which they fed. {394} On the feast of the Epiphany, in the
beginning of the year 1156, he was joined by a disciple or companion,
called Albert, who lived with him to his death, which happened thirteen
months after, and who has recorded the last circumstances of his life.
The saint, discoursing with others, always treated himself as the most
infamous of criminals, and deserving the worst of deaths; and that these
were his real sentiments, appeared from that extreme severity which he
exercised upon himself. He lay on the bare ground: though he fed on the
coarsest fare, and drank nothing but water, he was very sparing in the
use of each; saying, sensuality was to be feared even in the most
ordinary food. Prayer, divine contemplation, and manual labor, employed
his whole time. It was at his work that he instructed his disciple in
his maxims of penance and perfection, which he taught him the most
effectually by his own example, though in many respects so much raised
above the common, that it was fitter to be admired than imitated. He had
the gift of miracles, and that of prophecy. Seeing his end draw near, he
received the sacraments from a priest of the neighboring town of
Chatillon, and died on the 10th of February, in 1157, on which day he is
named in the Roman and other martyrologies.

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