The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Principal Saints

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Saint Peter hastened back to his desert of Font-Avellano. Whatever
austerities he prescribed to others he was the first to practise
himself, remitting nothing of them even in his old age. He lived shut up
in his cell as in a prison, fasted every day, except festivals, and
allowed himself no other subsistence than coarse bread, bran, herbs, and
water, and this he never drank fresh, but what he had kept from the day
before. He tortured his body with iron girdles and frequent disciplines,
to render it more obedient to the spirit. He passed the three first days
of every Lent and Advent without taking any kind of nourishment
whatever; and often for forty days together lived only on raw herbs and
fruits, or on pulse steeped in cold water, without touching so much as
bread, or any thing which had passed the fire. A mat spread on the floor
was his bed. He used to make wooden spoons and such like useful mean
things, to exercise himself at certain hours in manual labor. Henry,
archbishop of Ravenna, having been excommunicated for grievous
enormities, St. Peter was sent by Pope Alexander II. in quality of
legate, to adjust the affairs of the church. When he arrived at Ravenna,
in 1072, he found the unfortunate prelate just dead; but brought {452}
the accomplices of his crimes to a sense of their guilt, and imposed on
them a suitable penance. This was his last undertaking for the church,
God being pleased soon after to call him to eternal rest, and to the
crown of his labors. Old age and the fatigues of his journey did not
make him lay aside his accustomed mortifications, by which he
consummated his holocaust. In his return towards Rome, he was stopped by
a fever in the monastery of our Lady without the gates of Faenza, and
died there on the eighth day of his sickness, while the monks were
reciting matins round about him. He passed from that employment which
had been the delight of his heart on earth, to sing the same praises of
God in eternal glory, on the 22d of February, 1072, being fourscore and
three years old. He is honored as patron at Faenza and Font-Avellano, on
the 23d of the same month.

Footnotes:
1. Opusc. 20, c. 7.
2. Ib. 22.
3. Ib. 29, Nat. Alex. Theo Dogm. l. 2, c. 8, reg. 8.
4. Opusc. 12.
5. The works of St. Peter Damien, printed in three volumes, at Lyons,
in 1623, consist of one hundred and fifty-eight letters, fifteen
sermons, five lives of saints, namely, of St. Odilo, abbot of Cluni;
St. Maurus, bishop of Cesene; St. Romuald; St. Ralph, bishop of
Gubio; and St. Dominick Luricatus, and SS. Lucillia and Flora. The
third volume contains sixty small tracts, with several prayers and
hymns.

ST. BOISIL, PRIOR OF MAILROSS, OR MELROSS, C.

THE famous abbey of Mailross, which in later ages embraced the
Cistercian rule, originally followed that of St. Columba. It was
situated upon the river Tweed, in a great forest, and in the seventh
century was comprised in the kingdom of the English Saxons in
Northumberland, which was extended in the eastern part of Scotland as
high as the Frith. Saint Boisil was prior of this house under the holy
abbot Eata, who seem to have been both English youths, trained up in
monastic discipline by St. Aidan. Boisil was, says Bede, a man of
sublime virtues, and endued with a prophetic spirit. His eminent
sanctity determined St. Cuthbert to repair rather to Mailross than to
Lindisfarne in his youth, and he received from this saint the knowledge
of the holy scriptures, and the example of all virtues. St. Boisil had
often in his mouth the holy names of the adorable Trinity, and of our
divine Redeemer Jesus, which he repeated with a wonderful sentiment of
devotion, and often with such an abundance of tears as excited others to
weep with him. He would say, frequently, with the most tender affection,
"How good a Jesus have we!" At the first sight of St. Cuthbert, he said
to the bystanders: "Behold a servant of God." Bede produces the
testimony of St. Cuthbert, who declared that Boisil foretold him the
chief things that afterwards happened to him in the sequel of his life.
Three years beforehand, he foretold the great pestilence of 664, and
that he himself should die of it, but Eata, the abbot, should outlive
it. Boisil, not content continually to instruct and exhort his religious
brethren by word and example, made frequent excursions into the villages
to preach to the poor, and to bring straying souls into the paths of
truth and of life. St. Cuthbert was taken with the pestilential disease:
when St. Boisil saw him recovered, he said to him: "Thou seest, brother,
that God hath delivered thee from this disease, nor shalt thou any more
feel it, nor die at this time: but my death being at hand, neglect not
to learn something of me so long as I shall be able to teach thee, which
will be no more than seven days." "And what," said Cuthbert, "will be
best for me to read, which may be finished in seven days?" "The gospel
of St. John," said he, "which we may in that time read over, and confer
upon as much as shall be necessary." For they only sought therein, says
Bede, the sincerity of faith working through love, and not the treating
of profound questions. Having accomplished this reading in seven days,
the man of God, Boisil, falling ill of the aforesaid disease, came to
his last day, which he passed over in extraordinary jubilation of soul,
out of his earnest desire of being with Christ. In his last moments he
often repeated those words of St. Stephen: "Lord Jesus receive my
spirit!" Thus he {453} entered into the happiness of eternal light, in
the year 664. The instructions which he was accustomed most earnestly to
inculcate to his religious brethren were: "That they would never cease
giving thanks to God for the gift of their religious vocation; that they
would always watch over themselves against self-love, and all attachment
to their own will and private judgment, as against their capital enemy;
that they would converse assiduously with God by interior prayer, and
labor continually to attain to the most perfect purity of heart, this
being the true and short road to the perfection of Christian virtue."
Out of the most ardent and tender love which he bore our divine
Redeemer, and in order daily to enkindle and improve the sane, he was
wonderfully delighted with reading every day a part of the gospel of St.
John, which for this purpose he divided into seven parts or tasks. St.
Cuthbert inherited from him this devotion, and in his tomb was fouled a
Latin copy of St. John's gospel, which was in the possession of the
present earl of Litchfield, and which his lordship gave to Mr. Thomas
Philips, canon of Tongres.

Bede relates[1] as an instance that St. Boisil continued after his death
to interest himself particularly in obtaining for his country and
friends the divine mercy and grace, that he appeared twice to one of his
disciples, giving him a charge to assure St. Egbert, who had been
hindered from going to preach the gospel to the infidels in Germany,
that God commanded him to repair to the monasteries of St. Columba, to
instruct them in the right manner of celebrating Easter. These
monasteries were, that in the island of Colm-Kill, or Iona, (which was
the ordinary burial-place of the kings of Scotland down to Malcolm
III.,) and that of Magis, in the isles of Orkney, built by bishop
Colman. The remains of St. Boisil were translated to Durham, and
deposited near those of his disciple St. Cuthbert, in 1030. Wilson and
other English authors mention St. Boisil on the 7th of August; but in
the Scottish calendars his name occurs on the 23d of February. See Bede,
Hist. l. 4, c. 27, l. 5, c. 10, and in Vita S. Cuthberti, c. 8.

Footnotes:
1. Hist. l. 5, c. 10.

FEBRUARY XXIV.

SAINT MATTHIAS, APOSTLE.

From Acts i. 21. See Tillemont, t. 1, p. 406. Henschenius, p. 434.

ST. CLEMENT of Alexandria[1] assures us, from tradition, that this saint
was one of the seventy-two disciples, which is confirmed by Eusebius[2]
and St. Jerom;[3] and we learn from the Acts[4] of the apostles, that he
was a constant attendant on our Lord, from the time of his baptism by
St. John to his ascension. St. Peter having, in a general assembly of
the faithful held soon after, declared from holy scripture, the
necessity of choosing a twelfth apostle, in the room of Judas; two were
unanimously pitched upon by the assembly, as most worthy of the dignity,
Joseph, called Barsabas, and, on account of his extraordinary piety,
surnamed the Just, and Matthias. After devout prayer to God, that he
would direct them in their choice, they proceeded in {454} it by way of
lot, which falling by the divine direction on Matthias, he was
accordingly associated with the eleven, and ranked among the apostles.
When in deliberations each side appears equally good, or each candidate
of equally approved merit, lots may be sometimes lawfully used;
otherwise, to commit a thing of importance to such a chance, or to
expect a miraculous direction of divine providence in it, would be a
criminal superstition and a tempting of God, except he himself, by an
evident revelation or inspiration, should appoint such a means for the
manifestation of his will, promising his supernatural interposition in
it, which was the case on this extraordinary occasion. The miraculous
dreams or lots, which we read of in the prophets, must no ways authorize
any rash superstitious use of such means in others who have not the like
authority.

* * * * *

We justly admire the virtue of this holy assembly of saints. Here were
no solicitations or intrigues. No one presented himself to the dignity.
Ambition can find no place in a virtuous or humble heart. He who seeks a
dignity either knows himself unqualified, and is on this account guilty
of the most flagrant injustice with regard to the public, by desiring a
charge to which he is no ways equal: or he thinks himself qualified for
it, and this self-conceit and confidence in his own abilities renders
him the most unworthy of all others. Such a disposition deprives a soul
of the divine assistance, without which we can do nothing; for God
withdraws his grace and refuses his blessing where self-sufficiency and
pride have found any footing. It is something of a secret confidence in
ourselves, and a presumption that we deserve the divine succor, which
banishes him from us. This is true even in temporal undertakings; but
much more so in the charge of souls, in which all success is more
particularly the special work of the Holy Ghost, not the fruit of human
industry. These two holy candidates were most worthy of the apostleship,
because perfectly humble, and because they looked upon that dignity with
trembling, though they considered its labors, dangers, and persecutions
with holy joy, and with a burning zeal for the glory of God. No regard
was had to worldly talents, none to flesh and blood. God was consulted
by prayer, because no one is to be assumed to his ministry who is not
called by him, and who does not enter it by the door,[5] and with the
undoubted marks of his vocation. Judas's misfortune filled St. Matthias
with the greater humility and fervor, lest he also should fall. We
Gentiles are called upon the disinherison of the Jews, and are ingrafted
on their stock.[6] We ought therefore to learn to stand always in
watchfulness and fear, or we shall be also cut off ourselves, to give
place to others whom God will call in our room, and even compel to
enter, rather than spare us. The number of his elect depends not on us.
His infinite mercy has invited us without any merit on our side; but if
we are ungrateful, he can complete his heavenly city without us, and
will certainly make our reprobation the most dreadful example of his
justice, to all eternity. The greater the excess of his goodness and
clemency has been towards us, the more dreadful will be the effects of
his vengeance. _Many shall come from the east and the west, and shall
sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of God; but the
sons of the kingdom shall be cast forth_.[7]

St. Matthias received the Holy Ghost with the rest soon after his
election; and after the dispersion of the disciples, applied himself
with zeal to the functions of his apostleship, in converting nations to
the faith. He is recorded by St. Clement of Alexandria,[8] to have been
remarkable for inculcating the necessity of the mortification of the
flesh with regard to all {455} its sensual and irregular desires, an
important lesson he had received from Christ, and which he practised
assiduously on his own flesh. The tradition of the Greeks in their
menologies tells us that St: Matthias planted the faith about Cappadocia
and on the coasts of the Caspian sea, residing chiefly near the port
Issus. He must have undergone great hardships and labors amidst so
savage a people. The same authors add that he received the crown of
martyrdom in Colchis, which they call AEthiopia. The Latins keep his
festival on the 24th of February. Some portions of his relics are shown
in the abbatical church of Triers, and in that of St. Mary Major in
Rome, unless these latter belong to another Matthias, who was one of the
first bishops of Jerusalem: on which see the Bollandists.

As the call of St. Matthias, so is ours purely the work of God, and his
most gratuitous favor and mercy. What thanks, what fidelity and love do
we not owe him for this inestimable grace! When he decreed to call us to
his holy faith, cleanse us from sin, and make us members of his
spiritual kingdom, and heirs of his glory, he saw nothing in us which
could determine him to such a predilection. We were infected with sin,
and could have no title to the least favor, when God said to us, _I have
loved Jacob_: when he distinguished us from so many millions who perish
in the blindness of infidelity and sin, drew us out of the mass of
perdition, and bestowed on us the grace of his adoption, and all the
high privileges that are annexed to this dignity. In what transports of
love and gratitude ought we not, without intermission, to adore his
infinite goodness to us, and beg that we may be always strengthened by
his grace to advance continually in humility and his holy love, lest, by
slackening our pace in his service, we fall from this state of
happiness, forfeit this sublime grace, and perish with Judas. Happy
would the church be, if all converts were careful to maintain themselves
in the same fervor in which they returned to God. But by a neglect to
watch over themselves, and to shun dangers, and by falling into sloth,
they often relapse into a condition much worse than the former.

Footnotes:
1. Strom. l. 4, p. 488.
2. L. 1, c. {1}.
3. In Catal.
4. C. i. 21.
5. Jo. x. 1.
6. Rom. xi. 12.
7. Matt. viii. 11.
8. Strom. l. 3, p. 436.

SS. MONTANUS, LUCIUS, FLAVIAN, JULIAN, VICTORICUS,

PRIMOLUS, RHENUS, AND DONATIAN, MARTYRS AT CARTHAGE.

From their original acts written, the first part by the martyrs
themselves, the rest by an eye-witness. They are published more
correctly by Ruinart than by Surius and Bollandus. See Tillemont, t. 4,
p. 206.

A.D. 259.

THE persecution, raised by Valerian, had raged two years, during which
many had received the crown of martyrdom, and, among others, St.
Cyprian, in September, 258. The proconsul Galerius Maximus, who had
pronounced sentence on that saint, dying himself soon after, the
procurator, Solon, continued the persecution, waiting for the arrival of
a new proconsul from Rome. After some days, a sedition was raised in
Carthage against him, in which many were killed. The tyrannical man,
instead of making search after the guilty, vented his fury upon the
Christians, knowing this would be agreeable to the idolaters.
Accordingly he caused these eight Christians, all disciples of St.
Cyprian, and most of them of the clergy, to be apprehended. As soon as
we were taken, say the authors of the acts, we were given in custody to
the officers of the quarter:[1] when the governor's soldiers told us
that we should be condemned to the flames, we prayed to God with great
fervor to be delivered from that punishment: and he in {456} whose hands
are the hearts of men, was pleased to grant our request. The governor
altered his first intent, and ordered us into a very dark and
incommodious prison, where we found the priest, Victor, and some others:
but we were not dismayed at the filth and darkness of the place, our
faith and joy in the Holy Ghost reconciled us to our sufferings in that
place, though these were such as it is not easy for words to describe;
but the greater our trials, the greater is he who overcomes them in us.
Our brother Rhenus, in the mean time, had a vision, in which he saw
several of the prisoners going out of prison with a lighted lamp
preceding each of them, while others, that had no such lamp, stayed
behind. He discerned us in this vision, and assured us that we were of
the number of those who went forth with lamps. This gave us great joy.
for we understood that the lamp represented Christ, the true light, and
that we were to follow him by martyrdom.

The next day we were sent for by the governor, to be examined. It was a
triumph to us to be conducted as a spectacle through the market-place
and the streets, with our chains rattling. The soldiers, who knew not
where the governor would hear its, dragged us from place to place, till,
at length, he ordered us to be brought into his closet. He put several
questions to us; our answers were modest, but firm: at length we were
remanded to prison; here we prepared ourselves for new conflicts. The
sharpest trial was that which we underwent by hunger and thirst, the
governor having commanded that we should be kept without meat and drink
for several days, insomuch that water was refused us after our work: yet
Flavian, the deacon, added great voluntary austerities to these
hardships, often bestowing on others what little refreshment which was
most sparingly allowed us at the public charge.

God was pleased himself to comfort us in this our extreme misery, by a
vision which he vouchsafed to the priest Victor, who suffered martyrdom
a few days after. "I saw last night," said he to us, "an infant, whose
countenance was of a wonderful brightness, enter the prison. He took us
to all parts to make us go out, but there was no outlet; then he said to
me, 'You have still some concern at your being retained here, but be not
discouraged. I am with you: carry these tidings to your companions, and
let them know that they shall have a more glorious crown.' I asked him
where heaven was; the infant replied, 'Out of the world.' 'Show it me,'
says Victor. The infant answered, 'Where then would be your faith?'
Victor said, 'I cannot retain what you command me: tell me a sign that I
may give them.' He answered, 'Give them the sign of Jacob, that is, his
mystical ladder, reaching to the heavens.'" Soon after this vision,
Victor was put to death. This vision filled us with joy.

God gave us, the night following, another assurance of his mercy by a
vision to our sister Quartillosia, a fellow-prisoner, whose husband and
son had suffered death for Christ three days before, and who followed
them by martyrdom a few days after. "I saw," says she, "my son, who
suffered; he was in the prison sitting on a vessel of water, and said to
me: 'God has seen your sufferings.' Then entered a young man of a
wonderful stature, and he said: 'Be of good courage, God hath remembered
you.'" The martyrs had received no nourishment the preceding day, nor
had they any on the day that followed this vision; but at length Lucian,
then priest, and afterwards bishop of Carthage, surmounting all
obstacles, got food to be carried to them in abundance by the subdeacon,
Herermian, and by Januarius, a catechumen. The acts say they brought the
never-failing food[2] {457} which Tillemont understands of the blessed
eucharist, and the following words still more clearly determine it in
favor of this sense. They go on: We have all one and the same spirit,
which unites and cements us together in prayer, in mutual conversation,
and in all our actions. These are those amiable bands which put the
devil to flight, are most agreeable to God, and obtain of him, by joint
prayer, whatever they ask. These are the ties which link hearts
together, and which make men the children of God. To be heirs of his
kingdom we must be his children, and to be his children we must love one
another. It is impossible for us to attain to the inheritance of his
heavenly glory, unless we keep that union and peace with all our
brethren which our heavenly Father has established among us.
Nevertheless, this union suffered some prejudice in our troop, but the
breach was soon repaired. It happened that Montanus had some words with
Julian, about a person who was not of our communion, and who was got
among us, (probably admitted by Julian.) Montanus on this account
rebuked Julian, and they, for some time afterwards, behaved towards each
other with coldness, which was, as it were, a seed of discord. Heaven
had pity on them both, and, to reunite them, admonished Montanus by a
dream, which he related to us as follows: "It appeared to me that the
centurions were come to us, and that they conducted us through a long
path into a spacious field, where we were met by Cyprian and Lucius.
After this we came into a very luminous place, where our garments became
white, and our flesh became whiter than our garments, and so wonderfully
transparent, that there was nothing in our hearts but what was clearly
exposed to view: but in looking into myself, I could discover some filth
in my own bosom; and, meeting Lucian, I told him what I had seen,
adding, that the filth I had observed within my breast denoted my
coldness towards Julian. Wherefore, brethren, let us love, cherish, and
promote, with all our might, peace and concord. Let us be here unanimous
in imitation of what we shall be hereafter. As we hope to share in the
rewards promised to the just, and to avoid the punishments wherewith the
wicked are threatened: as, in fine, we desire to be and reign with
Christ, let us do those things which will lead us to him and his
heavenly kingdom." Hitherto the martyrs wrote in prison what happened to
them there: the rest was written by those persons who were present, to
whom Flavian, one of the martyrs, had recommended it.

After suffering extreme hunger and thirst, with other hardships, during
an imprisonment of many months, the confessors were brought before the
president, and made a glorious confession. The edict of Valerian
condemned only bishops, priests, and deacons to death. The false friends
of Flavian maintained before the judge that he was no deacon, and,
consequently, was not comprehended within the emperor's decree; upon
which, though he declared himself to be one, he was not then condemned;
but the rest were adjudged to die. They walked cheerfully to the place
of execution, and each of them gave exhortations to the people. Lucius,
who was naturally mild and modest, was a little dejected on account of
his distemper and the inconveniences of the prison; he therefore went
before the rest, accompanied but by a few persons, lest he should be
oppressed by the crowd, and so not have the honor to spill his blood.
Some cried out to him, "Remember us." "Do you also," says he, "remember
me." Julian and Victoricus exhorted a long while the brethren to peace,
and recommended to their care the whole body of the clergy, those
especially who had undergone the hardships of imprisonment. Montanus,
who was endued with great strength, both of body and mind, cried out,
"He that sacrificeth to any God but the true one, shall be utterly
destroyed." This he often repeated. He also checked the pride and wicked
obstinacy of the heretics, telling them {458} that they might discern
the true church by the multitude of its martyrs. Like a true disciple of
Saint Cyprian, and a zealous lover of discipline, he exhorted those that
had fallen not to be over hasty, but fully to accomplish their penance.
He exhorted the virgins to preserve their purity, and to honor the
bishops, and all the bishops to abide to concord. When the executioner
was ready to give the stroke, he prayed aloud to God that Flavian, who
had been reprieved at the people's request, might follow them on the
third day. And, to express his assurance that his prayer was heard, he
rent in pieces the handkerchief with which his eyes were to be covered,
and ordered one half of it to be reserved for Flavian, and desired that
a place might be kept for him where he was to be interred, that they
might not be separated even in the grave. Flavian, seeing his crown
delayed, made it the object of his ardent desires and prayers. And as
his mother stuck close by his side with the constancy of the mother of
the holy Maccabees, and with longing desires to see him glorify God by
his sacrifice, he said to her "You know, mother, how much I have longed
to enjoy the happiness of dying by martyrdom." In one of the two nights
which he survived, he was favored with a vision, in which one said to
him: "Why do you grieve? You have been twice a confessor, and you shall
suffer martyrdom by the sword." On the third day he was ordered to be
brought before the governor. Here it appeared how much he was beloved by
the people, who endeavored by all means to save his life. They cried out
to the judge that he was no deacon; but he affirmed that he was. A
centurion presented a billet which set forth that he was not. The judge
accused him of lying to procure his own death. He answered: "Is that
probable? and not rather that they are guilty of an untruth who say the
contrary?" The people demanded that he might be tortured, in hopes he
would recall his confession on the rack; but the judge condemned him to
be beheaded. The sentence filled him with joy, and he was conducted to
the place of execution, accompanied by a great multitude, and by many
priests. A shower dispersed the infidels, and the martyr was lead into a
house where he had an opportunity of taking his last leave of the
faithful without one profane person being present. He told them that in
a vision he had asked Cyprian whether the stroke of death is painful,
and that the martyr answered: "The body feels no pain when the soul
gives herself entirely to God." At the place of execution he prayed for
the peace of the church and the union of the brethren; and seemed to
foretell Lucian that he should be bishop of Carthage, as he was soon
after. Having done speaking, he bound his eyes with that half of the
handkerchief which Montanus had ordered to be kept for him, and,
kneeling in prayer, received the last stroke. These saints are joined
together on his day in the present Roman and in ancient Martyrologies.