Chapter V (7)

The great majority of the martyrdoms hitherto recorded had been accomplished by fire; but now a different mode of torture was to be pressed into the service. Water was called into requisition; and Father James Caravail, with several lay Christians, was the leader of many heroic confessors who perished from cold. They were left in the first instance, for three hours in freezing water, during which time one of them died; the rest on being carried back to prison and threatened with the martyrdom of fire in case of perseverance, cried out with one voice; "Oh, happy we, to pass through fire and water to the place of our repose!" Instead of the stake, however, the next day they were again placed up to their necks in water; while, the better to attempt them to apostasy, tents, warm baths, and comfortable clothing, were made ready on the banks of the pool, and as near as possible to the spot where their sentence was to be carried into execution. As the day advanced, the water froze more and more; and heavy drifts of snow beating continually upon them, added greatly to their agony. Scarcely able to endure it any longer, one among them sobbed heavily for breath; but Father Paul hearing it, cried out, "Have patience, son, for yet a little while; and these torments will be changed into everlasting repose." At the sound of the father's voice, and his cheering words, the poor victim regained his courage, and soon afterwards happily expired, at the very moment when another reduced to a similar extremity, exclaimed, "Father, my course is nearly finished." "Depart then," replied the latter; "depart in peace to God, and die in his holy grace." Thus one by one they perished in this icy grave; and at length the father, who through the live-long day had cheered his fellow-martyrs to the combat, was left to suffer and to die alone. Night had already closed in heavy and chill around him; and with the exception of his guards and some few faithful Christians, none were there to watch him, for the spectators had all retired to their comfortable homes, and it was not until just midnight, that after fifteen hours of stern endurance, he bowed himself down to the frozen wave, and placidly expired. This martyrdom took place in the year 1624, and shortly afterwards four more religious were burnt at Faco; in June of the same year the provincial of the Jesuits, with eight of the Society, perished in a similar manner; and in the following month Lewis Xanch, a Dominican, was put to death at Omura.

We have mentioned these executions of priests without alluding to the almost weekly massacres which took place among the lay converts, merely to show the virulence and success with which the missionaries were now every where pursued; and when it is remembered that at the commencement of the persecution there were, besides the Jesuits, but a few secular priests and about thirty religious of other orders, in Japan, and that no reinforcement had succeeded in reaching them from without, words will not be needed to point out the deadly nature of the blow which the Xoguno was at last inflicting on the church. Having said thus much, however, upon the fate of the religious, it would be a crying injustice to the rest of the Christians to pass over their sufferings altogether in silence.

The Xoguno having once explicitly declared himself opposed to their religion, the inferior monarchs, as a matter of course, vied with each other in their efforts to uproot it. It was only on an express condition to that effect that Bugendono, the new governor of Nangasaki, had been installed in that office; and taunted continually by his rivals for courtly favour with his little success, he employed himself day and night in the invention of more ingenious barbarities to effect his purpose. The object being rather to produce apostasy than death, every species of torture was made as slow as possible in its execution, and was generally eked out with intervals of rest and refreshment--a thousand times more dangerous to the perseverance of the victim than the sharpest continued agony. Some were placed in deep pits, and there nearly buried alive; while executioners appointed for the purpose, slowly, and with blunt weapons, sawed off sometimes the arms and sometimes the head, salt being thrown on the bleeding wound to sharpen its anguish; physicians were also at hand, whose business it was to prolong the life of the sufferer for as many days as possible, by carefully ascertaining the amount of his physical strength, and administering cordials when it was beginning to fail. Others were hung with their head downwards in a pit, where, with the necessary precaution of occasional bleeding, they were made to exist for a considerable time in all the sufferings of an apoplexy; while others again, by means of a funnel forced far down into their throats, were compelled to swallow enormous quantities of water, which was afterwards forced out of the body by violent pressure. Even the Dutch, themselves more than half the authors of these evils, speak with horror of the deeds which they witnessed at Firando. The nails of the victims were violently wrenched off, holes bored into their legs and arms, great morsels of flesh torn out of their persons by the insertion of hollow reeds which were turned round like a screw, burning brimstone and sulphur forced by long tubes up their noses; and they were, besides, frequently compelled to walk about with executioners holding lighted torches close to their persons. Nor were these cruelties inflicted singly, or upon solitary and more noted delinquents. By tens, by fifties, by hundreds at a time, they were assembled for their trial; one torture rapidly succeeding another, and each new one being so cunningly contrived, that the slightest word of complaint, the most trivial movement of resistance when pain had become almost intolerable, was to be considered as a signal of apostasy, and was greeted by cries of "He is fallen! he is fallen!"--the favourite and most significant words by which the heathen expressed at once the fact of a Christian's recantation, and their own opinion of the weakness through which he had succumbed.

Under circumstances such as these, it is not so wonderful that many failed, as that hundreds and thousands persevered to the end, winning their crown by a long-suffering and patience which, even in the primitive Church, were never surpassed. Men offered themselves willingly to every torture which Eastern ingenuity could devise, or reckless disregard of human life put into execution. Women looked calmly on while their infants perished, and then followed with gladness and joy in the same path to glory. At a city near Omura, a brave Christian plunged his hand into the burning coals, and never withdrew it until commanded to do so by the tyrant who had taunted and dared him to the deed; while at Firando fifty young Christians were made to kneel naked upon living embers, on the express understanding that the most involuntary expression of pain should be considered as apostasy; and having by their unflinching firmness baffled the closest scrutiny of those who watched them, were sent back to die, half roasted as they were, to their several homes. In one place eighteen infants were put to death in the presence of their parents; at another, a child only seven years old, suspected with the rest of his family of the concealment of a priest, lived for as many days in the midst of the torture they inflicted on him, without once flinching or failing in his heroic resolution. To each fresh invention of their cruelty he only answered, probably to avoid being betrayed into imprudent disclosures, "Jesus, Mary! Jesus, Mary! How I long to be in heaven with my God!" Nor could other words be extorted from his lips, even when, in their despair of succeeding, they cut open the little creature's shoulders, and poured boiling lead into the wound; and finally, he and his family were burnt alive, without a single one among them having been induced by weakness to give evidence against the priest.

Opposed to constancy such as this, every ordinary mode of torture must have seemed only useless and unmeaning; but at length another was hit upon, and one so barbarous in its nature, that no tyrant, however cruel or ferocious, who had hitherto ruled in Japan, had ever thought of inflicting it on the most guilty of his subjects.

Between Nangasaki and Sima-bara lies a mountain, bald, bleak, and treeless, whitening beneath the masses of cinders with which it is every where covered, and with a thick and stifling smoke, which can be seen at a distance of several leagues, for ever rising from its summit. The soil that covers its steep ascent is every where soft and spongy, often burning and trembling beneath the footsteps; while so strong is the smell of sulphur which it continually exhales, that it is said no bird can live, or will even attempt to fly within breathing distance of its tainted atmosphere. Deep and unfathomable pools of boiling water lie hidden amid the clefts and fissures which split this gloomy mountain into peaks and precipices of various sizes; but one, deeper and more unfathomable than all the rest, instead of water, is filled with a mixture of sulphur and other volcanic matter, which seethe and bubble and boil within its dark abyss, emitting all the while so horrible a stench as to have gained it the title of the "Mouth of Hell." One drop alone of this fearful fluid is sufficient to produce an ulcer on the human flesh; and when Bugendono thought on the terrible nature of the chastisement he could thus inflict, and upon the fear and superstition with which the Japanese always regarded the sulphurous waters of Unsen, and the mysterious cavern in which they were produced, he felt that he could not have hit upon a more efficient or infallible means for the intimidation of the Christians, and the extirpation of their creed. At the very time when he came to this resolution, there chanced to be dispersed throughout Arima a band of faithful confessors, upon whom all his previously-invented tortures had been tried in vain; and for this reason the governor considered they would prove the fittest objects for his new experiment. Paul Uciborg was the chief, both for courage and virtue, of this troop of victims; and he had already witnessed the massacre of every member of his family, down even to the youngest of his children, who, in company with fifteen other Christians, had been thrown into the sea, after having first suffered every possible cruelty that could barbarously be inflicted upon them.

"Which shall I begin with?" asked the executioner, as he approached the two youngest of Paul's children for the purpose of chopping off their fingers.

"That is your affair, not mine," the old Christian answered bluntly, probably to conceal a softer feeling. "Cut off which, and as many, as you please."

"And oh!" sighed little Ignatius, as, in the very spirit of the brave man his father, he watched his brother's fingers falling joint by joint beneath the knife of the executioner; "how beautiful your hand looks, my brother, thus mutilated for the sake of Jesus Christ, and how I long for my own turn to come!"

The child who made this exclamation was but five years old; yet without shedding a tear, he afterwards endured a similarly protracted amputation, and then silently and unresistingly suffered himself to be cast into the ocean. The father and about twenty of the remaining Christians, who were reserved for a different fate, were, after the massacre of their companions, brought back to shore; although so frightfully crippled, from the mutilations they had already undergone, that one at least of their number was compelled to be carried to his house in a kind of coffin on men's shoulders. The governor had hoped that their ghastly appearance would terrify others from following their example; but he soon found that Jesus was more easily and more eloquently preached by such wounds and such deeds as theirs, than by any words that could be uttered; and in his vexation at the numbers who flocked to them for edification and encouragement, he condemned them, as we have seen, to the boiling sulphurs of Unsen.

As the little company of martyrs approached this terrible chasm, one among them, at the bidding of the executioner, and in the spirit of an Apollonia, rushed forward at once, and flung himself into its depths; but Paul, with a more measured courage, commanded the others to restrain their zeal; while to the heathens who taunted him with cowardice, he contented himself by saying, "that they were not masters of their own lives, which God having given, God alone had a right to take away; and that, in reality, there was more real courage in calmly waiting the approach of death, than in rushing into its arms in such a way as to put an end to all its terrors in a moment." Silenced by this answer, so calm and noble in its genuine Christian courage, the executioners proceeded to their duties; and having tied each of the martyrs by ropes, in order to prevent their falling entirely into the chasm, they lowered them one by one into its seething contents. Some were destroyed at a single plunge; others, by being quickly withdrawn, were reserved for the torment of a second immersion; but old Paul, who suffered last, and who had excited the hatred of the heathens by the courage with which it was believed he had inspired his companions, they managed, with dexterous cruelty, to let down three several times into the abyss before life was altogether extinguished; and each time as he rose to the surface he was heard to exclaim: "Eternal praise be to the ever adorable Sacrament of the Altar!"

After this first trial of its power, the scalding sulphurous waters of Unsen became a favourite mode of torture for the Christians. Men, women, children, and infants were sent hither in crowds. Some expired after a single plunge; others after two or three successive immersions; others, again, and the greater number, were with a more elaborate cruelty sprinkled with the boiling liquor day after day, often for a period of thirty days together, until their bodies were one mass of sores and vermin, and they died from the effects of this universal ulceration.

February 6.

S. BUCOLUS, _B. of Smyrna, circ._ A.D. 100.
S. ANTHOLIAN, _M. at Clermont, circ._ A.D. 255.
SS. DOROTHY, _V. M._, AND THEOPHILUS, _M., at Cæsarea, in Cappadocia,
circ._ A.D. 303.
SS. SYLVAN, _B. M._, LUKE, _D. M._, AND MUCIUS, _Lect. M. at Emesa_,
A.D. 312.
SS. MAEL, MELCHU, MUN, AND RIOCH, _Bishops in Ireland, end of
5th cent._
S. AVENTINE, _Ab. H. at Troyes, circ._ A.D. 538.
S. VEDAST, _B. of Arras, circ._ A.D. 540.
S. AMANDUS, _B. of Maestricht_, A.D. 684.
S. INA, _K. of the West Saxons, about_ A.D. 728.
S. GUARIN, _Card. B. of Preneste_, A.D. 1159.
S. ALDERICK, _Swineherd at Fussenich_, A.D. 1200.
S. BRYNJOLF, _B. of Skara in Sweden_, A.D. 1317.

S. DOROTHY, V. M.

(ABOUT A.D. 303.)

[This Saint, so famous in Western Martyrologies, is unknown to the
Greeks. Her Acts are not to be relied upon.]

This holy martyr was a native of Cæsarea in Cappadocia, and in the persecution of Dioclesian she was brought before the governor Sapricius. After the usual interogatories she was stretched on the _catasta_, an iron bed over a slow fire. Then as laid thereon, the servant of God exclaimed, "Do thy worst, I fear not pain, if only I may see Him, for whose love I am ready to die." Sapricius said, "Who is he whom thou lovest?" Dorothy answered, "Christ, the Son of God." Sapricius asked, "And where is this Christ?" Dorothy replied, "In His omnipotence He is everywhere; in His humanity he is in Heaven, the Paradise to which He invites us: where the woods are ever adorned with fruit, and lilies ever bloom white, and roses ever flower; where the fields are green, the mountains wave with fresh grass, and the springs bubble up eternally."

Then said a lawyer present, named Theophilus, "Thou spouse of Christ, send me from Paradise some of these apples and roses." And Dorothy answered him, "I will."

Now the governor pronounced sentence against her, that she should lose her head. And as she knelt, and the executioner prepared to smite, she asked him to delay the stroke for a moment. Then she prayed, and suddenly there stood by her a beauteous youth, in dazzling raiment, who held in his hands three apples, and three red roses, the like of which earthly garden had never produced. Then Dorothy said, "I pray thee take these to Theophilus, and tell him that they are what I promised him." And at that instant the sword of the executioner fell, and she entered into the joy of her Lord.

Now Theophilus, the advocate, was at home with his companions; and to them he told with great laughter how he had asked the virgin to send him the flowers and fruit of the Paradise to which she hoped to enter. And, all at once, as he spake, the angel stood before him, with grave face, and held out to him the wondrous apples and roses, and said, "Dorothy sends these to thee, as she promised." Then Theophilus believed, and going before the governor, he confessed Christ, and was sentenced to death; and so died, receiving the baptism of blood.

Relics at Arles; where March 28th is observed as the feast of their translation; also at Cologne, in the churches of S. Gereon, S. Severinus, S. Andrew, S. Paul, SS. John and Cordula, &c.; the head at Prague.

In Art, S. Dorothea is easily recognized by the sword she holds, and the apples and roses at her side, or in her hand.

SS. MAEL, MELCHU, MUN, AND RIOCH, BISHOPS.

(END OF 5TH CENTURY.)

[Inserted in the Sarum Martyrology by Richard Wytford from the Irish
Kalendar, in these words: "In Ireland the feast of S. Mel, S.
Melkus, S. Munys, Bishops, and Riockus, Abbot: these four were
brothers, nephews of S. Patrick, by his sister S. Darerca, all
famous for their singular holiness and great miracles." They are
also given by Colgan. Authorities:--Joselyn's Life of S. Patrick;
The Life of S. Bridget, &c.]

These four brothers are said to have been the sons of Darerca, the saintly sister of S. Patrick, and his coadjutors in his apostolic labours in Ireland.[21] S. Mael, or Mel, who was ordained Bishop of Ardagh, in Longford, lived there in a poor cell with his mother's aged sister, Lupita. She watched and prayed till midnight, and then woke her nephew, who continued the watch and prayer till day broke, and she retired to bed. S. Mel died about the year 488, and was buried at Ardagh. S. Melchu was the companion of his brother Mael, in his missionary labours and preaching, and lived with him in the monastery founded by Mael at Ardagh, and was ordained Bishop by his uncle Patrick. S. Mun, or Munis, after having for a long time accompanied S. Patrick, was raised to the episcopate, and founded the Church of Forgney in Longford, in the year 486. S. Rioch, after many labours in the Gospel, with the leave of S. Patrick, retired to the island of Inisbofinde in Lough-ree; and thus devoted the remainder of his days to a contemplative life, in a monastery, which he founded in the island.

S. VEDAST, B. OF ARRAS.

(ABOUT A.D. 540.)

[Roman, Gallican, Belgian, and other Martyrologies. Double feast
with octave at Arras. In the Salisbury Martyrology, he is inserted
on this day under the name of S. Zawster. In many Kalendars, SS.
Vedast and Amandus are commemorated together. Authorities:--A very
ancient life, published from an imperfect copy by Bollandus. Another
life revised or rewritten by Alcuin, (d. 804). Another erroneously
attributed to the Venerable Bede.]

Clovis, King of the Franks, began his reign in 482, on the decease of his father, Childeric. He extended his dominions in every quarter by force of arms, and in the space of thirty years conquered part of Germany, and nearly the whole of Modern France. In the early part of his career, the King of the Franks signalized himself by repelling with success the attacks of Syagius, the Roman general, who had been ordered to advance and check his progress. This impediment in the path of victory removed, the five ensuing years were actively employed by Clovis in the reduction of Soissons and of Rheims; in a successful expedition against the Thuringians and other neighbouring nations, in the course of which he extended his territories from the Seine to the Loire; and lastly in the conquest of the Alemanni, at that time the possessors of Switzerland. The Alemanni attacked the Franks with the fury of men actuated by despair, and were irrevocably defeated on the field of Tolbiac.

The great soul of Clovis had long been agitated by religious doubts--should he cling to the gods of his family, from whom he claimed to be lineally descended, or should he submit to the faith of Christ which his gentle wife, Clothildis, made so attractive to his better nature? His ancestral gods alarmed him. To their anger he attributed the death of his first-born; he hesitated to abandon them for that "new, unarmed God," said he, "who is not of the race of Thor and Odin." He dreaded also his people, of whose consent he wished to be assured. The peril of the field of Tolbiac constrained him to decide. When the scale of success seemed turned against him, he vowed, if he conquered, to adopt the faith of Christ. The victory remained in his hands, and he hastened to fulfil his vow. On his return from the subjugation of the Alemanni, he passed through Toul, and asked for some priest who might instruct him in the Christian religion. S. Vedast was presented to him for this purpose. Whilst he accompanied the king at the passage of the river Aisne, a blind man begging on the bridge besought the servant of God to restore to him his sight. The saint, divinely inspired, prayed, and made the sign of the cross on his eyes, and he immediately recovered it. The miracle confirmed the king in the faith, and moved several of his courtiers to embrace it.

But Clovis was not a man to yield at once. Nicetius of Trèves, writing to the grand-daughter of Clovis says, "You have learnt from your grandmother of happy memory, Clothildis, how she attracted to the faith her lord and husband, and how he, who was a most shrewd man, would not yield, till he had been thoroughly convinced of the truth." Clovis was baptized at Rheims, whither in after times the kings of France went to be crowned. S. Vedast assisted S. Remigius in converting the Franks, and was consecrated by that prelate bishop of Arras, in the year 500. His diocese, together with that of Cambrai, which was also entrusted to his care, had once been the seat of a flourishing Christian community, but the ravages of the Vandals and Alani had eradicated every trace of Christianity, save that here and there was to be seen a ruined church, overgrown with briars, and nettles waving where the altar had stood. Vedast wept over these sad relics, and made earnest supplication to God to enable him faithfully to accomplish his mission, and once more to plant the seed of life in this devastated field.

His own Cathedral Church of Arras he found had become the den of a huge bear, which came shambling towards him, as he knelt weeping over the broken altar stair. The saint started up and drove the wild beast forth, and bade it never again enter to pollute by its presence that holy ground; a type, surely, of that brutality which had invaded and desolated the Church of God in that land, which he had come to exorcise.

He ruled the diocese for forty years, and died on Feb. 6th, in, or near, the year 540. All Martyrologists are agreed as to the day of his death, but historians differ as to the year.

The name of S. Vedast has gone through strange transformation. He is called Vaast, Vaat, Wâst, Wât; and in French, Gaston; in English, Foster, a corruption marked by Foster Lane, (properly S. Vedast's Lane) in the City of London.

Relics at Arras, of which he is patron, and at S. Waast. In Art he appears with a child at his feet, or with a wolf, from whose mouth he saves a goose, a popular tradition being to the effect that he saved the goose belonging to some poor people from the wolf that was running away with it; or, with a bear.

S. AMANDUS, B. OF MAESTRICHT.

(ABOUT A.D. 684.)

[Roman Martyrology, also an ancient addition to the so-called
Martyrology of S. Jerome, which addition is earlier than 741. Bede
(so-called), Notker, Rabanus, German and Belgian Martyrologies, &c.
In the Church of Maestricht, the 6th Feb. is celebrated as the Feast
of S. Amandus and the other Bishops of Maestricht, with a double.
His ordination and translation are celebrated variously on 26th
October, or on 20th, 25th, 27th, and even on the 19th Sept. Various
other days commemorate translations of his relics. Authorities:--An
ancient anonymous life. Another by Bandemand, monk of Elno, about
680; another by Milo, monk of Elno, d. 871; another by Philip
Harveng, d. after 1180; another by Justus, the Archpriest, about
1128.]

This great apostle of Flanders was a native of Herbauges, near Nantes. His father, Serenus and his mother, Amantia, were of noble family, and were wealthy. But Amandus, renouncing all these advantages, left his paternal house, in his youth, and retired into the isle of Oye, near La Rochelle, where he embraced the religious life in a monastery which was there. His father, who looked to his worldly advantage, followed him, and threatened to disinherit him, if he did not quit the habit he had assumed. He replied, "My father, I care not for thy property; all I ask of thee is to suffer me to follow Jesus Christ, who is my true heritage."

This reply did not satisfy his father, and Amandus, to escape his solicitations, fled the island, and visited the tomb of S. Martin at Tours. Kneeling by this shrine, with many tears, he besought God to grant that he might never more return to his native place. Shortly after he received the clerical tonsure. He soon distinguished himself among the clergy of Tours; but the fame of S. Austragisle drew him to Bourges, when this holy bishop, together with S. Sulpicius, then his archdeacon, and afterwards his successor, received him with great joy. They built him a little cell, near the cathedral, in which he lived as a recluse, to die and be buried to the world. There, lying on ashes, clothed in sack-cloth, and eating only barley-bread, and drinking water alone, he spent fifteen years. It was the preparation for his future apostleship.

At the end of these years, Amandus felt an inspiration to visit Rome. It was at the tomb of the great Apostles, that he was to receive his call and mission. One night, as he prayed with fervour before the door of the basilica of S. Peter, because it was locked for the night, the prince of the apostles appeared to him, and ordered him to return instantly to Gaul, and to preach the glad tidings of salvation to the heathen there. Amandus obeyed promptly, and on his return, he preached with such success, that King Clothaire II. ordered him to be consecrated bishop, that he might preach with more authority, but without any particular see, over which he was to exercise jurisdiction.

The new apostle maintained his dignity by his virtues. He knew how to make the poor love him, and the rich respect him. He found means of ransoming young slaves, whom he baptized, instructed in letters, and ordained; sending them through the country to minister the Word of God. S. Amandus chose for his mission Belgic Gaul, especially the territory of Ghent, where idolatry still held its sway. The people there had rejected former missionaries; their savage manners, and inflexible obstinacy seemed insurmountable barriers to the stream of Grace. Amandus visited S. Acharius, bishop of Noyon and Tournai in whose diocese Ghent then was; and besought him to obtained for him letters from King Dagobert, to oblige his idolatrous subjects to listen to Christian instruction. The zeal of the prince seconded that of the missionary, who, in spite of this powerful support, had much to endure; but his patience and sweetness triumphed over every obstacle, and his virtues were more efficacious in persuading the people, than all the orders of the king.

Whilst S. Amandus was at Tournai, he learnt that a Frankish Count, named Dotto, had condemned a robber to death. He hastened to implore pardon for the unhappy man, but was unsuccessful, and the robber was executed. But Amandus ran to the gallows and cut down the man, and bore the body home, laid it on his bed, and passed the night in prayer. Next morning, he summoned his clerks, and bade them bring him water. They supposed this was for the purpose of washing the corpse, before burying it; but, what was their surprise on entering the chamber, to find the man, who had been hung, alive and conversing with their bishop. He still bore the marks of the rope, but they disappeared when Amandus had washed them. Bandemand, who relates this incident, says that he heard it from the mouth of an eye-witness. The fame of this miracle spread through the country, and many of the heathen were so convinced thereby, that they cast away their idols, and submitted their necks to the yoke of Christ's commandments.

After having reaped an abundant harvest in Flanders, Amandus resolved to preach the faith to the heathen races in Germany; and he made a second journey to Rome, to obtain approval of his design. Accordingly, armed with the blessing of the successor of S. Peter, he went to the Sclavonic races, hoping to convert them to the Gospel, or to receive the palm of martyrdom. But finding that the people were neither sufficiently docile to receive the Word, nor ferocious to shed the blood of him who declared it, he quitted these ungrateful people, and returned to Gaul, where he found the opportunity of suffering for the truths he announced, which had been denied him among the barbarians. Dagobert, the king, was guilty of gross licentiousness; he had, at once, three wives, not to mention Gomatrudis whom he had repudiated at Reuilli, nor Ragntrudis, the mother of Sigebert III.; and beside these wives he had numerous concubines. S. Amandus boldly rebuked him for the scandal he caused, and for his audacity in so doing was ordered into exile. He retired to the territory of Charibert, who reigned on the further side of the Loire; but was soon recalled. A son was born to Dagobert, in 630, and the king desired to have the child baptized by some holy bishop, who might draw down on it the benediction of heaven. He remembered the fearless Amandus, who alone had had the courage to reprimand him for his iniquities; showing, thereby, that if princes do not always love those who tell them disagreeable truths, they can sometimes respect them. Amandus obeyed, and came to salute the king at Clichy, near Paris. As soon as Dagobert saw him, he cast himself at his feet, to ask him pardon for what was passed. After which he said: "The Lord has given me a son, though I merited it not. I pray thee, baptize him, and regard him as thy spiritual child." Amandus, at first, refused the honour, but at the entreaty of Ouen and Eligius, two pious laymen of his court, he yielded and baptized the child at Orleans, in the year 630; Charibert, his protector in exile, standing as sponsor at the font. The child was called Sigebert, and is reckoned among the Saints.[22]

In the year 647, Sigebert, who loved him as a father, and was now king of Austrasia, obliged him to accept the bishopric of Maestricht, and thenceforth he exchanged his missionary work over scattered districts for the supervision of a single diocese. But he soon found that this was not his vocation, and that it was easier for him to convert the heathen than to discipline the clergy. He therefore visited Rome, after holding his diocese three years, and obtained the sanction of the Pope to his resignation of it into the hands of S. Remacle, then abbot of Stavelot. Amandus, relieved of the burden of his diocese, visited Gascony, to preach to the Basques who were still heathen, but met with little or no success. He therefore returned to Flanders, where he supervised the many monasteries he had founded. The date of his death is very uncertain; some place it in 661, others in 676, and others in 684.

S. INA, K. C.

(ABOUT A.D. 728.)

[Anglican Martyrology of Wyon, Ferrarius, Menardus, &c. Authorities:
Malmsbury and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.]

Ina, king of Wessex, which consisted of Wiltshire, Hampshire, Gloucestershire, Dorsetshire, and Oxfordshire, was the son of Cerdic, and his wife was Ethelburga. He reigned as much as thirty-eight years; from 688 to 726. He put together the laws of the West Saxons, so as to form a code, and this is the oldest code of West Saxon laws that we have, though there are Kentish laws which are older still. He also divided the kingdom into two bishoprics. Hitherto all Wessex had been under the bishops of Winchester; but now that the kingdom was so much larger, Ina founded another bishopric at Sherborne in Dorsetshire. He also in 704, founded S. Andrew's Church in Wells, which is now a Cathedral. And at Glastonbury Ina did great things. He built the monastery and richly adorned it, he also translated to it the bodies of SS. Indract and his companions.

Ina fought with the Welsh under their King Gerent, and also with the other English kings. He fought against the men of Kent, and made them pay him much gold for his kinsman Mul, whom they had slain. He had also wars in Sussex and East Anglia, and in 714 he fought a great battle with Ceolred, king of the Mercians, in which neither gained the victory, at Wanborough in Wiltshire. Towards the end of his reign, Ina seems to have been troubled by some rebellions among his own people, and also to have been less successful than before in his wars with the Welsh. In 726 he gave up his kingdom and went to Rome and died there. William of Malmesbury relates a curious story about the occasion of this which is deserving of record.[23]

Ina once made a feast to his lords and great men in one of his royal houses; the house was hung with goodly curtains, and the table was spread with vessels of gold and silver, and Ina and his lords ate and drank and were merry. Now on the next day, Ina set forth from that house to go to another that he had, and Ethelburga, his queen, went with him. So men took down the curtains and carried off the goodly vessels and left the house bare and empty. Moreover, Ethelburga, the queen spake to the steward who had care of that house, saying "When the king is gone, fill the house with rubbish, and with the dung of cattle, and lay in the bed where the king slept a sow with her litter of pigs." So the steward did as the queen commanded. And when Ina and the queen had gone forth, about a mile from the house, the queen said to Ina, "Turn back, my lord, to the house whence we have come, for it will be greatly for thy good so to do." So Ina hearkened to the voice of his wife, and turned back to the house. There he found all the curtains and the goodly vessels gone, and the house full of rubbish and defiled with the dung of cattle, and a sow and her pigs lying in the bed where Ina and Ethelburga his queen had slept. So Ethelburga spake to her husband, saying, "Seest thou, O king, how the pomp of this world passeth away? Where are all thy goodly things? How foul is now the house which but yesterday was thy royal abode! Are not all the things of this life as a breath, yea as smoke, and as a wind that passeth away?"

Then the old king entered into himself, and he resolved to lay aside his dignity and rule, and to devote the rest of his days to the custody of his soul. So he and his wife went to Rome to pray at the tomb of the Apostles, and Pope Gregory II. received them gladly; and he died there.

[21] The story is without any foundation in fact. The brothers were probably no relations to S. Patrick. According to the fabulous history of the relatives of S. Patrick, his pretended sister Tigridia had seventeen sons all bishops, priests, or monks, and five daughters all nuns. Some of Darerca's sons are attributed to Tigridia, and some to Liemania. Lupita, another pretended sister is said by some to have remained a consecrated virgin, by others to have been the mother of bishops.

[22] See Feb 1.

[23] It is only found in Malmesbury's English Chronicle, lib. i., c. 2; and is not found in all copies of Malmesbury.

February 7.

S. CHRYSOLIUS, _B. M. in Flanders_, A.D. 302.
SS. ADAUCTUS AND COMPANIONS, _MM. at Antandris, circ._ A.D. 303.
S. AUGULUS, _B. M. in London_.
SS. ONE THOUSAND AND THREE MARTYRS AT NICOMEDIA, _circ._ A.D. 302.
S. MAXIMUS, _B. of Nola_ (_see_ S. FELIX, _Jan. 15_).
S. THEODORE, _M. at Heraclea_, A.D. 319.
S. PARTHENIUS, _B. of Lampsacus, 4th cent._
S. MOSES, _B. of the Saracens in Arabia, end of 5th cent._
SS. MOSES AND SIX MONKS, _MM. in Egypt, 5th cent._
S. JULIANA, _W. at Bologna, circ._ A.D. 435.
S. TRESAN, _P. C. of Mareuil, 6th cent._
S. LAURENCE, _B. of Manfredonia, circ._ A.D. 550.
S. FIDELIS, _B. of Merida, circ._ A.D. 570.
S. MELDAN, _B. at Peronne, end of 6th cent._
S. RICHARD, _C. at Lucca_, A.D. 719.
S. LUKE THE YOUNGER, _C. at Soterio, in Greece, circ._ A.D. 946.
S. ROMUALD, _Ab. Founder of the Order of Camaldoli, circ._ A.D. 1027.

S. CHRYSOLIUS, B. M.

(A.D. 302.)

[Molanus in his additions to Usuardus. Ferrarius in his General
Catalogue of Saints. Authorities:--The Lections in use in the Church
of Comines.]

On this day at Comines, in Flanders, is celebrated the Feast of S. Chrysolius, the patron of the church, who is said to have founded the first sanctuary of the B. Virgin in Flanders. This saint, a native of Armenia, accompanied S. Piatus and S. Quentin in their apostolic mission to France and Belgium. From Tournai he started on a preaching expedition through Flanders, but the pagans cut off his scalp, in derision of his tonsure, at Vrelenghem, and he died at Comines, two leagues distant, on the river Lys. His body was taken up by S. Eligius, and is, to this day, honoured in the collegiate church there, originally erected under the invocation of Our Lady.

S. AUGULUS, B. M.

[Martyrology of S. Jerome, falsely so-called, and others.]

Little or nothing is known of this Saint, but all Martyrologies place him in Britain, and at Augusta, which is probably London. It is questionable if he was a martyr.

S. THEODORE OF HERACLEA, M.

(A.D. 319.)

[Roman Martyrology on this day. By the modern Greeks on Feb. 8th,
but anciently on the 7th. The Acts purport to be written by one
Augarius, a notary; he says, "I, the Scribe Augarius, was present,
and saw these cruel punishments, and hearing also the pain of his
stifled sighs, casting aside my parchments, I threw myself weeping
at his feet." He says also that he wrote this account at the request
of the dying martyr. If this be not a forgery, the original Acts
have been sadly tampered with. To the account of the martyrdom is
prefixed--very probably by a later hand--a story of the fight of S.
Theodore with a dragon, which belongs to the Western version of the
story of S. George. These Acts certainly existed in their present
condition in 550, for they were then translated into Latin.]

S. Theodore of Heraclea, who is not to be confounded with S. Theodore of Amasea, surnamed Tyro, also a warrior martyr, is numbered among the Great Martyrs by the Greek Church.

Theodore of Heraclea was a general of the forces of Licinius, and governor of the country of the Mariandyni, whose capital was Heraclea of Pontus. Here he was sentenced to death by order of the emperor. After having been scourged, and his flesh torn by hooks, and burnt with fire, he was for a short while attached to a cross, and then beheaded.

Relics at S. Saviour's, Venice. S. Theodore is regarded as one of the chief patrons of the Venetian republic. The body of this glorious martyr was brought from Constantinople to Venice by Mark Dandolo, in 1260.

In Art, S. Theodore appears as a warrior in armour, very generally trampling on the dragon. He is to be distinguished from S. George by being represented on foot, whereas S. George usually appears mounted.

S. PARTHENIUS, B. OF LAMPSACUS.

(4TH CENT.)

[Greek Anthology and Menæa. Authority:--A life written by one
Christinus, a contemporary, and native of Lampsacus, and probably a
disciple.]

S. Parthenius, a native of Melitopolis, as a boy, occupied his leisure in fishing. He sold the fish he caught, and gave the proceeds to the poor. He was afterwards ordained Bishop of Lampsacus, and having obtained from Constantine authority to overthrow the heathen temples and idols, he destroyed those in his city. The story is told of him that having ordered an evil spirit to leave a man who for many years had been possessed, the evil spirit asked first to be given an habitation. "I know thee," cried the demon, "thou wilt cast me out, and bid me enter into a swine." "Nay, verily," answered the saint, "I will offer thee a man to dwell in." Then the devil came out of the man, and the Bishop said, "Come now, thou foul spirit, I am the man. Enter into me if thou canst." Then the devil cried out that he could not abide in a tabernacle kept holy to God, and so fled away.

SS. MOSES, AB. AND SIX MONKS, MM.

(5TH CENT.)

[Salisbury Martyrology of Wytford, and all other Western
Martyrologies. This S. Moses is not to be confounded with the S.
Moses, B. among the Arabs, nor with S. Moses the Ethiopian.
Authorities:--The Lives of the Fathers of the Desert and Rufinus.]

This holy abbot ruled a community of monks at Scete, in Egypt. He was once sent for to judge a brother who had been overtaken in a fault; but he would not go. Then he was sent for again, and told that all the brethren awaited him. So he arose and filled a basket with sand, laid it on his back, and went to them. Then they asked, "Oh, Father! what art thou doing?" He answered, "My sons, all my sins are behind my back, following me, and I see them not; and shall I judge, this day, the sins of another man?"

A party of Arabs fell upon him in his cell and killed him, together with six of his monks.

S. TRESAN, P. C.

(6TH CENT.)

[Gallican Martyrology. Authorities:--Mention by Flodoard in his
Hist. Eccl. Remensis, lib. iv. c. 9; and a life from the Lections of
the Avenay Breviary; a life given in Colgan; all late.]

Tresan, with his six brothers and three sisters, left Ireland, their native place, and settled at Mareuil on the river Marne, in France, where Tresan hired himself as swineherd to a nobleman. He was wont to drive the pigs to the door of a little church dedicated to St. Martin, and to stand at the door and listen to the recitation of Matins, and assist at the holy Sacrifice of the Mass. By this means he became gradually so thoroughly acquainted with the divine office, that S. Remigius, hearing of him, and having evidence of his sanctity, ordained him priest. The legend is told of him that one day having celebrated Mass in this little Church of S. Martin, where he had learnt the holy offices, he returned to Mareuil, but being weary, he thrust his staff into the ground, and laid himself down and slept. And when he woke up, behold the staff had taken root and budded. Then he left it there, and it grew to become a great tree.

When he was dying, the Holy Eucharist was brought to him. He rose from his bed, and casting himself down on the ground, exclaimed, "Hail, most blessed hope, and most holy redemption! Hail, true flesh of Christ, to me precious above gold and topaz and all most goodly stones! Hail, most blessed blood of Christ, poured forth to ransom me, a sinner, and wash away my stains! Hail, Jesus Christ, defend me against the ancient enemy, that the prince of darkness secure me not! I pray thee, number me with thine elect." Then he received the holy Viaticum, and sighed, and his soul had fled.

Relics at Pont-aux-Dames, in Brie. In Art he is represented with a budding staff.

S. MELDAN, B.

(END OF 6TH CENTURY.)

Of this Irish saint and bishop, who left his native land and died at Peronne, nothing is known. His acts have been lost. Yet, at one time he must have been famous, for many churches are dedicated to him. He is sometimes called Medan. In the revelations of S. Fursey, reference is made to S. Meldan.

S. RICHARD, C.

(A.D. 719.)

[Roman Martyrology. German Mart., and that of Sarum by Wytford. His
life is to be gathered from the Acts of his sons SS. Willibald and
Wunibald; the life of S. Willibald was written by his cousin, a nun
of Heidenheim.]

This saint was, according to the belief of the people of Lucca, a prince in Wessex; but there is not only no evidence that he was of royal rank, but there is strong contemporary evidence that he was merely a petty noble.

Taking with him his two sons, Willibald and Wunibald, he undertook a pilgrimage to Rome; and sailing from Hamblewich, _i.e._ Southampton, landed in France. He made a brief stay at Rouen, and paid his devotions at all the principal shrines on his way through France. On his arrival at Lucca, in Italy, he was taken ill and died. He was buried in the Church of S. Fridian, there, where his relics are still preserved; and his festival is kept with singular devotion. See further the life of S. Willibald (July 7).

S. ROMUALD, AB. C.

(A.D. 1027.)

[Roman Martyrology. Authority:--a life by S. Peter Damian written
fifteen years after his death.]

S. Romuald, who was destined to be the restorer of the religious life in Italy, came into the world, according to the most credible account, about the year A.D. 907, at a time when the universal lawlessness and corruption of life and manners which had overflowed Europe, had penetrated to the recesses of the cloister, and had filled the monasteries of his native land with unworthy monks, who made the religious profession a mere cloak for vice, or at best as a pretext for an idle self-indulgent life.

He belonged to the noble family of the Onesti, the Ducal race of the state of Ravenna; he is said in his youth to have been much given to sins of the flesh, but nevertheless to have been strongly drawn inwardly towards God. It is said that when in hunting he got separated from his companions in the woods, he would allow his horse to come to a standstill, and overcome by the peaceful beauty of nature, would give way to reflections on the happiness of those to whom it was given to live retired from the world far from the clash of arms, the whirl of pleasure, and the struggles of civil life.

The immediate cause of his forsaking the world was as follows. His father Sergius Onesti, a man of a proud and passionate disposition, and wholly given to worldly things, had a violent quarrel with a relative about the possession of a certain meadow; so resolutely determined was he to press his quarrel to the end, that perceiving Romuald to be but half-hearted in it, and more fearful of blood-guiltiness, than desirous for the victory of his house, he threatened to disinherit him unless he displayed more zeal in the cause. The relation being equally resolved, the dependents on both sides were armed, and a fight ensued; at which Romuald, in spite of his scruples, was obliged to be present. The relation fell by the hand of Sergius himself; and Romuald, horror-stricken at the crime, of which his enforced presence at its perpetration seemed to make him a partaker, fled to the Monastery of S. Apollinaris in Classe, intending there to expiate his guilt by a penance of forty days.

During the performance of this penance he was by some means attracted to the society of a lay-brother in the monastery, and in the intervals of his penitential exercises had many conversations with him. This lay-brother, a truly spiritual man, perceiving in Romuald signs of a vocation to the religious life, strongly urged him to forsake the world altogether and at once. For this, however, Romuald was not yet prepared, and, without absolutely rejecting the advice of his friend, yet resisted, and put him off from day to day. At last one day in the course of a talk upon the visions of the Saints, the lay-brother asked him what he would give for a sight of the blessed martyr Apollinaris, the patron of the monastery. Romuald replied that for such a favour he would consent to forsake the world. That same night watching in prayer in the monastery church, they beheld a supernatural brightness issue from the high altar and fill the whole church. This was the precursor of the appearance of the blessed martyr, who came forth from the midst of the high altar habited in priestly vestments, and with a golden censer in his hand; with this he went round the church and censed each altar in its turn; and having done this, retired as he had come, leaving the church once more in darkness. His friend immediately claimed the fulfilment of the promise. But even a second vision of the martyr failed to overcome his reluctance, and he still held off. But one day praying in the church before this very altar, a sudden access of the love of God came over his soul. In a moment all his fears, all his lingering affection for worldly things vanished; he hastened to the brethren, and humbly besought them to receive him as a novice. This, however, in dread of his father's resentment, they refused to do; Romuald, once resolved, would yield to no difficulties, and betook himself at once to the Archbishop of Ravenna, laid his case before him, and asked for his help. The Archbishop, moved by the earnestness and fervour of the youth, took up his cause, and on his assurances of protection against the violence of Sergius, the brethren consented to receive him; and Romuald entered upon the course from which throughout a long life he was never to swerve, in which his ardour was to know no cooling, and which was to end in peopling many of the solitary places of Italy with refugees from the wickedness and perils of, perhaps, the most troublous time which Europe has ever known.

He passed three years in this monastery in the strictest observance of S. Benedict's rule, in the daily practise of mortification, and incessant prayer. The greater part of the monks, however, were of a different mind. They bitterly resented both Romuald's literal interpretation of the monastic vow, and the rebukes of their laxity and unfaithfulness, which he did not hesitate to address to them; and at length, in their rage, conspired to murder him, by throwing him out of the dormitory window, near which it was his custom to pray in the early morning, while they were yet in their beds, and the door of the oratory was not yet open. Romuald, however, aware of their design, prayed that morning just as usual, and by the mere power of prayer, without other effort of his own, he escaped the threatened danger, and saved the brethren from the guilt which they meditated.