Part 36 (1/2)

Footnotes: 1. A century before, the counts of Barcelona were become kings of Aragon by a female t.i.tle, and had joined Catalonia to Aragon, making Barcelona their chief residence and capital.

2. F. Tonron, in the life of St. Raymund, p. 20, quotes an original letter of St. Raymund, which mentions this revelation. The authenticity of this letter cannot be called in question, being proved by F. Bremond, Bullar. Ord. Praed. t. 1, not. in Const.i.t. 36, Greg. X. The same revelation is inserted in the bull of the saint's canonization, in the Histories of Zumel, Vargas, Penia, &c. Benedict XIV. also mentions it, Canoniz. SS. l. 1, c. 41, and proves that it cannot reasonably be contested.

3. This Order consisted at first of some knights, who were dressed like seculars, wearing only a scarf or scapular; and of friars who were in holy orders, and attended the choir. The knights were to guard the coast against the Saracens, but were obliged to choir when not on duty. St. Peter himself was never ordained priest; and the first seven generals or commanders were chosen out of the knights, though the friars were always more numerous. Raymond Albert, in 1317. was the first priest who was raised to that dignity; and the popes Clement V., and John XXII., ordered that the general should be always a priest after which, the knight were incorporated into other military Orders, or were rarely renewed. It is styled, ”The royal military religious Order of our Lady of Mercy for the redemption of Captives.” It is divided into commanderies, which in Spain are very rich. It has eight provinces in America, three in Spain, and one, the poorest, in the southern part of France, called the province of Guienne. Whereas this Order is not bound to many extraordinary domestic austerities, a reformation, obliging the members to go barefoot, was established among them in the sixteenth century, and approved by pope Clement VIII. It observes the strictest poverty, recollection, solitude, and abstinence, and has two provinces in Spain, and one in Sicily, besides several nunneries. It was erected by F. John Baptist Gonzales, or of the holy sacrament, who died in the year 1{}18, and is said to have been honored with miracles.

4. Podoniensis.

5. Ps. cx. 9.

6. S. Chrys. Hom. in illud: Vidua eligatur, &c. t. 3, p. 397. Ed. Ben.

ST. SERAPION, M.

HE was a zealous Englishman, whom St. Peter Nolasco received into his Order at Barcelona. He made two journeys among the Moors for the ransom of captives, in 1240. The first was to Murcia, in which he purchased the liberty of ninety-eight slaves: the second to Algiers, in which he redeemed eighty-seven, but remained himself a hostage for the full payment of the money. He boldly preached Christ to the Mahometans, and baptized several: for which he was cruelly tortured, scourged, cut and mangled, at length fastened to a cross, and was thereon stabbed and quartered alive in the same year, 1240. Pope Benedict XIII. declared him a martyr, and proved his immemorial veneration in his Order, by a decree in 1728, as Benedict XIV. relates. L. 2, de Canoniz. c. 24, p. 296.

SS. CYRUS AND JOHN, MM.

CYRUS, a physician of Alexandria, who by the opportunities which his profession gave him, had converted many sick persons to the faith; and John, an Arabian, hearing that a lady called Athanasia, and her three daughters, of which the eldest was only fifteen years of age, suffered torments for the name of Christ at Canope in Egypt, went thither to encourage them. They were apprehended themselves, and cruelly beaten: their sides {318} were burnt with torches, and salt and vinegar poured into their wounds in the presence of Athanasia and her daughters, who were also tortured after them. At length the four ladies, and a few days after, Cyrus and John, were beheaded, the two latter on this day. The Syrians, Egyptians, Greeks, and Latins, honor their memory. See their acts[1] by St. Sophronius commended in the seventh general council, and published with remarks by Bollandus.

Footnotes: 1. St. Cyrus is the same as Abba-Cher, mentioned in the Coptic calendar on this day, which is the 8th of their month Mechir. He is called Abbacyrus in the life of St. John the Almoner, written by Leontius, in many ancient Martyrologies, and other monuments of antiquity.

Abbacyrus is a Chaldaic word, signifying the Father Cyr. As this saint was an Egyptian, it is probable he was originally called Pa-Cher, or Pa-Cyrus, the Egyptians having been accustomed to prefix the article Pa to the names of men, as we see in Pa-chomis, Pa-phantis, Pa-phantis, &c.

It is said in the acts of our two martyrs, that they were buried at Canopus, twelve furlongs from Alexandria, and that their relics were afterwards translated to Manutha, a village near Canopus, which was celebrated for a great number of miracles wrought there. These relies are now in a church at Rome called Sant' Apa.s.sara: this word being corrupted by the Italians from Abbacyrus. Formerly there were many churches in that city dedicated under the invocation of these two holy martyrs. See Chatelain, notes on the Rom. Mart, p. 469, et seq.

ST. MARCELLA, WIDOW.

SHE IS styled by St. Jerom the glory of the Roman ladies. Having lost her husband in the seventh month of her marriage, she rejected the suit of Cerealis the consul, uncle of Gallus Caesar, and resolved to imitate the lives of the ascetics of the East. She abstained from wine and flesh, employed all her time in pious reading, prayer, and visiting the churches of the apostles and martyrs, and never spoke with any man alone. Her example was followed by many virgins of the first quality, who put themselves under her direction, and Rome was in a short time filled with monasteries. We have eleven letters of St. Jerom to her in answer to her religious queries. The Goths under Alaric plundered Rome in 410. St. Marcella was scourged by them for the treasures which she had long before distributed among the poor. All that time she trembled only for her dear spiritual pupil, Principia (not her daughter, as some have reputed her by mistake,) and falling at the feet of the cruel soldiers, she begged, with many tears, that they would offer her no insult. G.o.d moved them to compa.s.sion. They conducted them both to the church of St. Paul, to which Alaric had granted the right of sanctuary with that of St. Peter. St. Marcella, who survived this but a short time, which she spent in tears, prayers, and thanksgiving, closed her eyes by a happy death, in the arms of St. Principia, about the end of August, in 410, but her name occurs in the Roman Martyrology on the 31st of January. See St. Jerom, Ep. 96, ol. 16, ad Principiam, t. 4, p. 778.

Ed. Ben. Baronius ad ann. 410, and Bollandus, t. 2, p. 1105.

ST. MAIDOC, OR MAODHOG,

CALLED ALSO AIDAN AND MOGUE, BISHOP OF FERNS, IN IRELAND.

HE was born in Connaught, a province of Ireland, and seemed from his infancy to be deeply impressed with the fear of G.o.d. He pa.s.sed in his early days into Wales, where he lived for a considerable time under the direction of the holy abbot David. He returned afterwards to his own country, accompanied with several monks of eminent piety, founded a great number of churches and monasteries, and was made bishop of Ferns.

He {319} died in 632, according to Usher. His name is celebrated among the Irish saints. It appears from Cambrensis that his festival was observed in Wales in the twelfth century. He was also honored in Scotland.[1] See Colgan, Jan. 31, pp. 208, 223. Chatelain, notes, p.

481.

Footnotes: 1. There is found in the chronicle of Scone, and in the Breviary of Aberdeen, an ancient collect, in which the Divine mercy is implored through his intercession. Chatelain tells us that in Lower Brittany he is called St. De, (contracted from the Latin word Aideus, or Aida.n.u.s,) and that the village and church which bear his name, celebrate his festival on the 18th of March, the day perhaps on which they received some portion of his relics.

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_Only Complete and Unabridged Edition with nearly 100 pages of Chronological and General Index, Alphabetical and Centenary Table, etc._

THE LIVES OF THE FATHERS, MARTYRS, AND OTHER PRINc.i.p.aL SAINTS; COMPILED FROM ORIGINAL MONUMENTS, AND OTHER AUTHENTIC RECORDS; ILl.u.s.tRATED WITH THE REMARKS OF JUDICIOUS MODERN CRITICS AND HISTORIANS, BY THE REV. ALBAN BUTLER.

_With the approbation of MOST REV. M. A. CORRIGAN, D.D., Archbishop of New York._

VOL. II.

NEW YORK: P.J. KENEDY, PUBLISHER TO THE HOLY SEE, EXCELSIOR CATHOLIC PUBLIs.h.i.+NG HOUSE, 5 BARCLAY STREET.

1903.

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CONTENTS.

FEBRUARY.

1. PAGE St. IGNATIUS, Bishop of Antioch, Martyr........ 325 St. Pionius, Priest and Martyr................. 333 St. Bridget, Virgin and Abbess, Patroness of Ireland...................................... 334 St Kinnia, Virgin, of Ireland.................. 334 St. Sigebert, King of Austrasia, Confessor..... 337