Part 7 (1/2)

3. Ceillier demonstrates, (T. 20, p. 258,) against Basnage, (observ. in vit. Adelaid. T. 3, le t. Canis, p. 71,) that the life of St. Alice the empress is the work of St. Odilo, no less than the life of St.

Mayeul. We have four letters, some poems, and several sermons of this saint in the library of Cluni, (p. 370,) and in that of the Fathers, (T. 17, p. 653.) Two other sermons hear his name in Martenn{} (Anned. T. 5.)

{071}

ST. ALMACHUS, OR TELEMACHUS, M.

WAS a holy solitary of the East, but being excited by the ardors of a pious zeal in his desert, and pierced with grief that the impious diversion of gladiators should cause the d.a.m.nation of so many unhappy souls, and involve whole cities and provinces in sin; he travelled to Rome, resolved, as far as in him lay, to put a stop to this crying evil.

While the gladiators were ma.s.sacring each other in the amphitheatre, he ran in among them; but as a recompense for his kind remonstrance, and entreating them to desist, he was beaten down to the ground, and torn in pieces, on the 1st of January, 404. His zeal had its desired success; for the effusion of his blood effected what till that time many emperors had found impracticable. Constantine, Constantius, Julian, and Theodosius the elder, had, to no purpose, published several edicts against those impious scenes of blood. But Honorius took occasion from the martyrdom of this saint, to enforce their entire abolition. His name occurs in the true martyrology of Bede, in the Roman and others. See Theodoret, Hist. l. 5, c. 62, t. 3, p. 740.[1]

Footnotes: 1. The martyrologies of Bede, Ado, Usuard, &c. mention St. Almachus, M.

put to death at Rome, for boldly opposing the heathenish superst.i.tions on the octave of our Lord's nativity. Ado adds, that he was slain by the gladiators at the command of Alypius, prefect of Rome. A prefect of this name is mentioned in the reign of Theodosius, the father of Honorius. This name, the place, day, and cause seeming to agree, Baronius, (Annot. In Martyr. Rom.) Bolland, and Baillet, doubt not but this martyr is the same with St.

Telemachus, mentioned by Theodoret. Chatelain, canon of the cathedral at Paris, (Notes sur le Martyr. Rom. p. 8,) and Benedict XIV., (in Festo Circ.u.mcis. T. 10, p. 18.) think they ought to be distinguished, and that Almachus suffered long before Telemachus.

Wake, (on Enthusiasm,) Geddes, &c. pretend the name to have been a mistake for Almanachum; but are convicted by Chatelain of several unpardonable blunders, and of being utterly unacquainted with ancient MSS. of this kind, and the manner of writing them. Scaliger and Salmasius tell us that the word Almanach is of Arabic extraction. La Crosse observes, (Bibl. Univ. T. 11,) that it occurs in Porphyry, (apud Eus. Praef. Evang. l. 3, c. 4,) who says that horoscopes are found [Greek: en tois almenichiaxois], where it seems of Egyptian origin. But whatever be the meaning of that term in Porphyry, Du Cange, after the strictest search, a.s.sures us that the barbarous word Almanach is never met with in any MS. Calendars or Ephemerides. Menage (Origine de la Langue Francoise V. Almanach) shows most probably that the word is originally Persian, with the Arabic article prefixed. It seems to have been first used by the Armenians to signify a calendar, ib.

ST. EUGENDUS, IN FRENCH OYEND, A.

AFTER the death of the two brothers, St. Roma.n.u.s and St. Lupicinus, the holy founders of the abbey of Condate, under whose discipline he had been educated from seven years of age, he was first coadjutor to Minausius, their immediate successor, and soon after, upon his demise, abbot of that famous monastery. His life was most austere, his clothes being sackcloth, and the same in summer as in winter. He took only one small refection in the day, which was usually after sunset. He inured himself to cold and all mortifications; and was so dead to himself, as to seem incapable of betraying the least emotion of anger. His countenance was always cheerful; yet he never laughed. By meekness he overcame all injuries, was well skilled in Greek and Latin, and in the holy scriptures, and a great promoter of the sacred studies in his monastery. No importunities could prevail upon him to consent to be ordained priest. In the lives of the first abbots of Condate, of which a MS. copy is preserved in the Jesuit's library in the college of Clermont, at Paris, enriched with MS. notes by F. Chifflet, it is mentioned, that the monastery which was built by St. Roma.n.u.s, of timber, being consumed by fire, St. Eugendus rebuilt it of stone; and also near the oratory, which St. Roma.n.u.s had built, erected a handsome church in honor of SS. Peter, Paul, and Andrew, enriched with precious relics. His prayer was almost continual, and his devotion so tender, that the hearing {072} of a pious word was sufficient visibly to inflame his soil, and to throw him sometimes into raptures even in public, and at table. His ardent sighs to be united with his G.o.d, were most vehement during his last illness. Having called the priest among his brethren, to whom he had enjoined the office of anointing the sick, he caused him to anoint his breast according to the custom, says the author of his life, and he breathed forth his happy soul five days after, about the year 510, and of his age sixty-one.[1] The great abbey of Condate, in Franche-comte, seven leagues from Geneva, on mount Jura, or Mont-jou, received from this saint the name of St. Oyend; till in the thirteenth century it exchanged it for that of St. Claude; who having resigned the bishopric of Besanzon, which see he had governed seven years in great sanct.i.ty, lived fifty-five years abbot of this house, a perfect copy of the virtues of St. Oyend, and died in 581. He is honored on the 6th of June. His body remains entire to this day; and his shrine is the most celebrated place of resort for pilgrims in all France.[2] See the life of St. Oyend by a disciple, in Bollandus and Mabillon. Add the remarks of Rivet. His. Liter. T. 3, p. 60.

Footnotes: 1. The history of the first Abbots of Condate, compiled, according to F. Chifflet, in 1252, mentions translation of the relics of St.

Eugendus, when they were enshrined in the same Church of St. Peter, which had been made with great solemnity, at which this author had a.s.sisted, and of which he testifies that he had already wrote the history here quoted. F. Chifflet regrets the loss of this piece, and adds that the girdle of St. Eugendus, made of white leather, two fingers broad, has been the instrument of miraculous cures, and that in 1601 Petronilla Birod, a Calvinist woman in that neighborhood, was converted to the Catholic faith, with her husband and whole family, having been suddenly freed from imminent danger of death and child-bearing, and safely delivered by the application of this relic.

2. The rich abbey of St. Claude gave rise to a considerable town built about it, which was made an episcopal see by pope Benedict XIV., in 1743: who, secularizing the monastery, converted it into a cathedral. The canons, to gain admittance, must give proof of their n.o.bility for sixteen degrees, eight paternal and as many maternal.

St. Roma.n.u.s was buried at Beaume, St. Lucinius at Leu{}nne, and St.

Oyend at Condate: whence this last place for several ages bore his name.

S. FANCHEA, OR FAINE, V.

HER feast has been kept for time immemorial in the parish church of Rosairthir, in the diocese of Clogher, in Ulster: and at Kilhaine near mount Bregh, on the borders of Meath, where her relics have been in veneration. She seems to have been an abbess, and is thought to have flourished in the sixth century, when many eminent saints flourished in Ireland. Her name was not known to Bollandus or Sir James Ware. See Chatelain.

S. MOCHUA, OR MONCAIN, ABBOT,

OTHERWISE CALLED CLAUNUS.

HAVING served his prince in the army, he renounced the world, and devoted himself to G.o.d in a monastic state, with so much fervor as to become a model of perfection to others. He is said to have founded thirty churches, and one hundred and twenty cells, and pa.s.sed thirty years at one of these churches, which is called from him Teach Mochua, but died at Dayrinis on the 1st of January, in the ninety-ninth year of his age, about the sixth century. See his life in Bollandus, p. 45.

SAINT MOCHUA OF BELLA,

OTHERWISE CALLED CRONAN,

WAS contemporary to S. Congal, and founded the monastery (now a town) named Balla, in Connaught. He departed to our Lord in the fifty-sixth year of his age. See Bollandus, p. 49.

{073}

JANUARY II.

S. MACARIUS OF ALEXANDRIA,

ANCh.o.r.eT.

From Palladius, bishop of Helenopolis, who had been his disciple, c. 20.

Rufin, Socrates, and others in Rosweide, D'Andilly, Cotelier, and Bollandus, p. 85 See Tillemont, t. 8, p. 626. Bulteau, Hist. Mon.

d'Orient, l. 1, c. 9, p. 128.

A.D. 394.

ST. MACARIUS the younger, a citizen of Alexandria, followed the business of a confectioner. Desirous to serve G.o.d with his whole heart, he forsook the world in the flower of his age, and spent upwards of sixty years in the deserts in the exercise of fervent penance and contemplation. He first retired into Thebais, or Upper Egypt, about the year 335.[1] Having learned the maxims, and being versed in the practice of the most perfect virtue, under masters renowned for their sanct.i.ty; still aiming, if possible, at greater perfection, he quitted the Upper Egypt, and came to the Lower, before the year 373. In this part were three deserts almost adjoining to each other; that of Scete, so called from a town of the same name on the borders of Lybia; that of the Cells, contiguous to the former, this name being given to it on account of the mult.i.tude of hermit-cells with which it abounded; and a third, which reached to the western branch of the Nile, called, from a great mountain, the desert of Nitria. St. Macarius had a cell in each of these deserts. When he dwelt in that of Nitria, it was his custom to give advice to strangers, but his chief residence was in that of the Cells.