St. Fronto, bishop of Périgueux in Gaul.
St. Minias, martyr, at Florence in Tuscany.
The Holy Forty-six martyrs, and others, at Rome.
The Holy Martyrs, one hundred and twenty-one, at Rome.
St. Theodosius, martyr, at Rome.
St. Lucius, martyr, at Rome.
St. Mark, martyr, at Rome.
St. Peter, martyr, at Rome.
St. Maximus Millenarius, martyr, at Rome.
St. Chrysanthus, martyr, at Rome.
St. Daria, martyr, at Rome.
St. Crispin, martyr, at Soissons in Gaul.
St. Crispinian, martyr, at Soissons in Gaul.
St. Valerinus, martyr.
St. Sabinus, martyr.
St. Valerius, martyr.
St. Chrysaphus, martyr.
St. Saturninus, M., in Africa.
St. Claudian, M., in Africa.
St. Primus, M., in Africa.
St. Flavian, M., in Africa.
St. Zoticus, M., in Africa.
St. Asterius, M., in Africa.
St. Carus, M., in Africa.
St. Saturus, M., in Africa.
St. Gavinus, soldier, martyr, at Porto Torres in Sardinia.
St. Protus, presbyter, martyr, at Porto Torres in Sardinia.
St. Januarius, deacon, martyr, at Porto Torres in Sardinia.
St. Martyrius, martyr, at Constantinople.
St. Marcian, martyr, at Constantinople.
St. Spanus, venerated as a martyr in the territories of Tours and Bourges.
St. Lupus, venerated as a martyr in the territories of Tours and Bourges.
St. Benignus, venerated as a martyr in the territories of Tours and Bourges.
St. Messapius, venerated as a martyr in the territories of Tours and Bourges.
St. Marcellian, venerated as a martyr in the territories of Tours and Bourges.
St. Genitor, venerated as a martyr in the territories of Tours and Bourges.
St. Principinus, venerated as a martyr in the territories of Tours and Bourges.
St. Tridorius, venerated as a martyr in the territories of Tours and Bourges.
St. Celsinus, presbyter and confessor, at Reims in Gaul.
St. Gaudentius, bishop of Brescia in Italy.
St. Boniface, Pope I, at Rome.
St. Canna, confessor, not a bishop, in Wales.
St. Sadwren or Saturninus, confessor, not a bishop, in Wales.
St. Crallo, confessor, not a bishop, in Wales.
St. Elia Geimiad or Hilarius, confessor, not a bishop, in Wales.
St. Hilarus, bishop of Javols, in the diocese of Mende in Gaul.
St. Dulcardus, hermit and confessor, in the territory of Bourges in Gaul.
St. Lasrius or Lasrianus, in Drum-Liag in Ireland.
St. Caideus or Caidocus, confessor, in Ireland.
St. Mernocus, bishop and confessor, patron of Kilmernok in Scotland.
St. Ardovinus or Arduinus, confessor, at Ceprano in the Papal States.
St. Lasrianus, confessor, in Ireland.
St. Rufinian, bishop of Bayeux in Gaul.
St. Lupus, bishop of Bayeux in Gaul.
St. Maurus, monk, in the Jura of Burgundy.
St. Childomara or Childomarca, abbess of Fécamp in Normandy.
St. Guesnoveus, confessor and bishop of Léon in Armorican Brittany.
St. Fructus, confessor, martyr, in the diocese of Segovia in Spain.
St. Valentine, martyr, in the diocese of Segovia in Spain.
St. Engratia, martyr, in the diocese of Segovia in Spain.
St. Nicius, confessor, monk, near Pontecorvo in Italy.
St. Cletus, confessor, at Tivoli in Latium.
Bl. Margaret, martyr, at Roskilde in Denmark.
Bl. Louis of Arnstein, confessor and lay brother of the Premonstratensian Order.
Bl. Albert, confessor, monk at Sassoferrato in Picenum.
Bl. Gerard, confessor, monk at Sassoferrato in Picenum.
Bl. Francis of Calderola, confessor of the Order of Friars Minor, at Colfano in Italy.
The ordination of St. Amandus, bishop of Maastricht, his first translation and the dedication of his basilica are commemorated today in the manuscript Martyrology of the church of St. Lambert of Liège; it is celebrated by others on the following day. Our predecessors treated it when they illustrated the deeds of the most holy man, at 6 February.
At Vaison, the memory of St. Theodosius, bishop, is celebrated today by Cardinal de Noailles in the Paris Martyrology and by Chastelain in the Universal Martyrology. Our Bollandus spoke of him at 14 February, on which he is praised by du Saussay. Our predecessor nonetheless had some doubt about the cult of the blessed man Acta SS., volume II of February, pages 782, 783 and 901.. Nothing is more certain than that his feast is kept on 25 October, as Louis Anselm Boyer in the History of Vaison Hist. de l'égl. cathéd. de Vaison, part 1, page 40. and the brothers Sainte-Marthe Gallia Christiana, volume III, page 1035. are witnesses. Nevertheless Denis de Sainte-Marthe Gallia Christiana nova, volume I, columns 922 and 923. took from him the title of saint; but undeservedly. For in the Order of Vaison for reciting the divine Office for the leap year 1676 his feast is ordered to be kept as of a confessor pontiff, with double rite of the second class. Joseph Francis Gualteri, who obtained the see of Vaison about the beginning of the eighteenth century, found part of the relics of St. Theodosius, wrapped in gold and silk cloth, with an inscription set beside them, under the marble altar which he was having demolished together with the old choir Boyer, Hist. de l'égl. cath. de Vaison, part 1, page 41.. For the rest see our work at 14 February.
The translation of St. Simeon, bishop and confessor, most pious pastor of the church of Metz, is announced in just these words on this day in the Luxeuil auctarium of Usuard. In the monastery of Senones in Lorraine, to which the body of St. Simeon had been brought, a solemn memory of this event was made every year; as Bollandus explained at some length at the day on which the people of Metz venerate their blessed prelate, 16 February.
At Angers, the translation of St. Albinus is remembered on this day in the Bordeaux auctarium of Usuard and in the Benedictine Martyrology of Ménard, who took that memory from the monastic Breviary of St. Aubin of Angers. On this translation, made on 25 October of the year 1070, as also on the other matters of St. Albinus, see our predecessors at the day on which St. Albinus is chiefly venerated, 1 March.
The translation of St. Godeberta, virgin of Noyon, is listed today in the manuscript Florarium, cited here and there in our work: on the affairs of this virgin consult our work at 11 April.
"In England, the translation of St. John of York and confessor," is remembered on this day by Greven in his edition of Usuard and, following him, by Wallasser in the Canisian or German Martyrology. It concerns the most solemn translation of the body of St. John of Beverley, archbishop of York, performed on 25 October of the year 1044, which our Henschenius illustrated together with the Acts of the most blessed man at 7 May.
At Sorico on Lake Como (in Lario), the translation of Bl. Mirus, hermit and confessor, whose body, raised on the last Sunday of the year 1637 from the lowly resting-place in which it had long lain to a nobler tomb, was laid up under the high altar in the church of St. Michael by Lazarus Carafino, bishop of Como, amid great celebration and devotion of the whole region. These things Tatti under this day in the Martyrology of Como. Our predecessors spoke of St. Mirus at 10 May.
The memory of St. Guibert, founder of the monastery of Gembloux, is celebrated on this day in a manuscript Benedictine Calendar, taken almost entirely from Trithemius. Of this very memory and of the deeds of the holy man it has been spoken in our work at 23 May.
"In Italy, of St. Peter, abbot of Perugia, illustrious for the great merits of his life": his memory is celebrated at length on this day by Bucelin in the Benedictine Menology, by Anthony de Heredia in the Lives of the saints of the Order of St. Benedict, and by other men of the same institute. Our predecessors gave his Life at the day on which his feast is kept, 10 July.
The memory and praises of St. Radegund, queen of France, are celebrated today in the Viola Sanctorum, printed in the fifteenth century without place or year; our predecessors treated her at 13 August.
St. Paul, confessor, is celebrated on this day by the Slavonic codex of John Alexander, king of the Bulgarians, which Assemani used here and there. Without doubt there is indicated one of the three patriarchs or bishops of Constantinople whom the Greeks venerate with ecclesiastical honours. The first died a martyr in the fourth century; he is called Paul the Confessor and is venerated by the Easterners on 2 September and 6 November; indeed in the Menaea of the Greeks printed in the year 1843 a brief encomium of his confession and blessed death is woven; by the Latins, however, his memory is kept on the day under which he has been treated in our work, 7 June;
the second is Paul the New or the Younger, who, sitting at Constantinople from the year 641 to 651, favoured the Monothelites and was for that reason condemned by Pope Theodore; but nevertheless he is inscribed among the Greeks in the ecclesiastical Calendars at 2 September;
who is to be carefully distinguished from St. Paul the New, commander of the army and martyr under Constantine Copronymus, who obtained a legitimate cult and a place in our work at 8 July;
another Paul the Younger, who in the eighth century occupied the archiepiscopal see of Constantinople, is inserted in the Greek Calendars on the 20th and 30th of August and was celebrated in our work at 20 August.
The Paul the Confessor, therefore, who is praised in that Slavo-Bulgarian book, is to be held the same as the one who was illustrated in our work at 7 June.
The translation of St. Bartholomew from the island of Lipari to Benevento is recalled on this day in the Vatican auctarium of Usuard and the Barberini auctarium of Bede; and Greven in his edition of Usuard and Wallasser in the German Martyrology follow it up at greater length. Our predecessors spoke of it under the day on which his name occurs in the Roman Martyrology, 24 August.
At Saintes, the translation of the body of St. Bibianus, bishop and confessor, is recorded on this day in several Hieronymian codices, more enlarged than is right, in which his name is here and there entirely corrupted. In Fiorentini's codex of Lucca he is called Jubianus; in Sollerius's Augsburg codex, Urbanus; in his Labbe codex, Julianus; but there is no doubt that he is St. Bibianus, also called Vibianus and Vivianus, bishop of Saintes. His body is said by some to have been translated to Figeac among the Cadurci, by others into the church of St. Vivianus at Rouen. But neither translation is meant; rather the first solemnity, when not long after his death his body was raised from the earth in the basilica built under his patronage. For the rest see his Acts in our work at the day on which he is chiefly venerated, 28 August.
"Of St. Stephen, king, confessor, whose soul flew away to heaven on the eighteenth day before the Kalends of September, and whose feast is listed on the fourth day before the Nones of September." So in the Martyrology of the Calced Carmelites. He has been spoken of in our work under the fourth day before the Nones, or 2 September.
"The feast of the holy martyr Anastasius, who, converting many by the preaching of the Christian faith, was cut down with the sword and rested in the Lord," is announced on this day in the Menology which Cardinal Sirleto collected from the Menaea of the Greeks and Henry Canisius Thesaurus monumentorum, Basnage's edition, volume III, part 1, page 481. edited; and his memory is also celebrated in the Menaea of the Greeks printed at Venice in the year 1843, and similarly in the Slavonic Prologue and other more recent Slavonic books. Our predecessors treated this illustrious martyr of Salona in Dalmatia at 7 September.
At Eporedia, commonly Ivrée, Ivrea in Piedmont, the feast of St. Tegulus, martyr and patron, is announced on this day by Ferrarius in the General Catalogue of the Saints and in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy, by du Saussay in the Gallican Martyrology, by Chastelain in the Universal Martyrology and by the author of the Italian Hagiology; to whom are added the liturgical Calendars of Ivrea, even the more recent ones. He is counted among the martyrs of the Theban legion, or companions of St. Maurice. We have in hand ancient lessons of Ivrea on St. Tegulus; but nothing is contained in them that is not read more accurately in the Acts of St. Maurice. Since the time when V. V. Braun published his dissertation on the martyrdom of the Theban legion Zur Geschichte der Thebaischen Legion, Bonn, 1855., of which we gave an epitome from another's report in the preceding volume Acta SS., volume IX of October, page 156., but which now exists in our museum, it would be worth the trouble to confirm the statements of our predecessors by Braun's excellent discoveries; but since in the many papers which we possess about St. Tegulus there is nothing by which his deeds and cult could be more clearly illustrated, a better occasion is to be awaited; and all the more so, the less certain it is that St. Tegulus was really of the company of St. Maurice. It remains, therefore, that we send the reader to what our predecessors collected about him Ibid., volume VI of September, pages 924 and 925. under the day on which St. Maurice is venerated with his many companions, 22 September.
The festival of St. Demetrius, the most celebrated martyr of Thessalonica, whom not only the Christians but also the Mohammedans venerate under the name of Casin-Giuni (just as they do St. George, whom they call Hydyrlez), is kept by the Hungarians on this day, on which his name is also inscribed in Whitford's English Martyrology, printed in the vernacular at London in the year 1526, and in other sacred Calendars as well. But in far more his memory is inserted at 26 October. Our predecessors spoke of him at the day on which his feast is celebrated in the Roman Martyrology, 8 October.
The translation of St. Gereon, martyr, is remembered in the manuscript Florarium which our predecessors had in their possession. On this saint see our work at 10 October.
"Of St. Edward, confessor, whose memory is recalled on the third day before the Ides of October." So in the Martyrology of the Seraphic Order. See, therefore, in our work at the third day before the Ides, or 13 October.
St. Varus, martyr, and seven companions are praised on this day by the Menology of Basil; and Assemani also found them at this day, as he himself states in the Calendars of the Universal Church, in his Slavonic codex written about the year 1350 for the use of John Alexander, king of the Bulgarians Kalendaria Ecclesiae Universae, volume V, page 206.. And indeed the Greek Menologies of Mazarin and of the Medici also agree. We treated St. Varus and his companions on 19 October.
At Vicogne, in the year of the Lord 1236, the translation of very many bodies of the company of St. Ursula, made by Nicholas of Valenciennes, a monk of the place, is announced on this day by Gelenius in the sacred Calendars which he inserted in his work on the Greatness of Cologne. I spoke of this translation in the Posthumous Glory of St. Ursula and her companions at 21 October.
St. Syra, virgin, venerated at Meaux and Châlons, is announced on this day by Adalbert Müller in his Universal Martyrology, by an error of two days. We spoke of her at 23 October.
St. Octavian, bishop of Como, is praised on the present day by the author of the Italian Hagiology. We spoke of him under the day on which he is truly venerated, 23 October.
Fiorentini found the memory of SS. Claudian, Rogatus, Papirius, Felix and Vitalis, martyrs, partly of Nicomedia in Bithynia, partly of Hierapolis in Phrygia, in the Hieronymian codices of Lucca, of Antwerp or Echternach, and of Corbie. We spoke of them at the day on which they are inscribed in the same codices and in many others, 24 October.
The dedications of the metropolitan church of Toledo and of the major church of Jaén in Spain are remembered on this day, following the diocesan Calendars, by Tamayo in the Spanish Martyrology and by Ferrarius in the General Catalogue of the Saints; similarly the dedication of the church of the holy apostles Peter and Paul at Cluny, celebrated by Pope Innocent II, is remembered by Ménard in the Benedictine Martyrology; and also the dedication of the church of SS. John the Baptist and Vincent, levite and martyr, at Chartres is announced by Greven in his edition of Usuard and by his usual follower Wallasser in the Canisian Martyrology. Into these things we are not accustomed to inquire, but only to indicate in passing, in the Passed Over, those that present themselves of their own accord.
"At Lomazzo, in the parish (plebs) of Fino of the diocese of Como, the translation of St. Epiphanius, martyr, which was performed with the greatest concourse and devotion of the peoples on this day (in the year 1665), when the venerable pledges of the blessed athlete, brought a few years before from the City (from the cemetery of Cyriaca), began to have public veneration." So Aloysius de Tatti in the Martyrology of Como. This kind of martyr, of whom nothing beyond the bare name is put forward, and who is indeed inscribed nowhere in any Martyrology, we judge must be placed here.
At Trier, the translation of St. Sabanus, bishop, had been noted in the manuscript Florarium, which has been adduced here and there in our work. He is without doubt Sabinus, whose feast was announced in the same Florarium under 31 July. As our predecessors confessed that they had found nothing about him at that day, so we too must say that nothing has become known to us, although in the hundred years since then so many excellent books on the ecclesiastical affairs of Trier have come to light.
Germanus of Kill-Gorman in Arthir of Leinster occurs on this day in the Martyrology of Donegal and in that of Marianus Gorman. He seems to be the patron of the parish of Kilgorman in the barony of Gorey, in the county of Wexford, in the province of Leinster. Archdall judges that he was abbot there. I would rather, with Colgan, who mentions him (in the Trias Thaumaturga, page 16), not seem so learned. Whoever wants conjectures, let him consult Colgan.
Duthrucht of Lemchaill or Dutrachta of Lemchoill, Beocus, Conaca, virgin, and Maeluider, also called Moelodarius and Mailodarius, are announced on this day in the Martyrologies of Tallaght, of Donegal and other Irish ones. Colgan spoke of some of them, yet without shedding any light. In the Martyrology of Donegal, more recently edited, it is added: "Dutracht seems to be the same as Durach, daughter of Enna, son of Corbmac, who is of the family of Colla-dà-Chrioch."
St. Silissa, virgin, long celebrated by an annual commemoration in the sacred records of the church of Toulouse, is praised on this day by du Saussay in the supplement to the Gallican Martyrology and, following him, by Arthur du Monstier in the Gynecaeum. I do not doubt that what du Saussay alleges is true, since on past days too saints venerated at Toulouse and almost unknown in the rest of the West have come before us. But otherwise this saint is unknown to us. There is nothing about her in the proper Offices of the saints of the church and diocese of Toulouse which Archbishop Charles de Montchal ordered to be published in the year 1647; nothing in the more recent Calendars; and finally nothing in the Catalogue of the saints, men and women, which, after the death of its author Simon de Peyronnet, parish priest of Notre-Dame du Taur at Toulouse, was published at Toulouse in the year 1706. We are therefore compelled to pass her over.
The memory of St. Prosper, martyr, used to be kept on this day by the fathers of our former Society in the college of Antwerp, into whose church, just as into the church of the professed house of Antwerp, several bodies taken out of the Roman cemeteries had been brought; among which was that of St. Prosper. We have often indicated already why it is enough for us to mention this kind of saints in the Passed Over.
St. Notarius is announced today in the Slavonic Ostromir codex; which name Kopitar changed into Kutarius; how erroneous all these things are is explained in this volume in the Graeco-Slavonic Ecclesiastical Year at the present day.
A commemoration of our holy mother Tabitha of Joppa, who is also called Dorcas, is made today in the Greek manuscript Menologion of Sirmond or of Clermont; and also in the printed Menaea in this manner: Commemoration of St. Tabitha, whom St. Peter raised from the dead. There follows this distich:
Ποῦ σοι, Ταβιθὰ, Πέτρος; εἰ γὰρ ἦν πάλιν, Ἤγειρεν ἄν σε καὶ θανοῦσαν ὡς πάλαι.
Which verses Siberus renders thus:
Where, Tabitha, is Peter? If he were living, He would (I think) still raise up the dead woman.
But since it was the practice of our predecessors not to write commentaries on those men and women who are known from the holy Scriptures unless their cult flourished somewhere in the Latin Church (for the Easterners, in order to load their sacred calendars with famous names, appear to have used excessive facility), and since we know of no place where the feast of Tabitha is kept by the Latins, we are obliged to abstain from this praiseworthy woman (concerning whom, for the rest, the Acts of the Apostles and the commentaries may be read). Her name has already occurred among the Passed Over on the 13th of September.
To Stephen, presbyter of Bayeux, who occurs in the Acts of SS. Rufinianus and Lupus, Chastelain gave a place in his Universal Martyrology; but undeservedly: certainly we find no traces of ecclesiastical cult. For the rest we know nothing about him that is not in those Acts.
At Rome, the deposition of blessed Offa, king of the East Saxons, monk and confessor, is recalled today by Bucelin and by Anthony de Heredia among the saints and venerable men of the Order of St. Benedict whose memory is made today. See his praises in book V, chapter 19, of the Ecclesiastical History of England of the Venerable Bede: for the rest he never seems to have been venerated.
"In the monastery of St. Gall among the Swiss, of Bl. Ratpert, monk, sprung from royal blood and from the race of the old Saxons, who shone with great praise both of sanctity and of learning." So Bucelin at this day and other Benedictine Menologists. The first to write his praises was Ekkehard IV, continuing the Casus S. Galli begun by Ratpert himself, edited most diligently by Ildephonse von Arx in volume II of Pertz's Monumenta Germaniae. John Metzler, like von Arx a monk of St. Gall, who at the end of the sixteenth century produced two books on the Illustrious Men of St. Gall, edited by Pez at the end of part III of volume I of the Anecdota, in book I, chapter 23, summed up the affairs of Ratpert briefly. Dom Rivet in volume V of the Literary History of France followed up the same matters more fully; and Ildephonse von Arx, both at the front of the edition of the Casus S. Galli and in volume I, chapter 3, of the vernacular History of the canton of St. Gall, said as much as was sufficient about this excellent man, who about the middle of the ninth century directed the outer schools of St. Gall. All these are by no means sparing in praising Ratpert; but they abstain from calling him blessed, since he never had ecclesiastical cult.
"At Reims, of St. Hecmarus, bishop, who crowned Louis the Stammerer in the year 878 and is venerated there with great celebrity." So at this day Ghini in the Feasts of the Holy Canons, printed at Venice in the year 1621; and indeed in the margin he indicates that he took these things from the topography of Demochares; and that the man whom he had called Hecmarus is called by others Hincmar and Haymard. In truth the most celebrated Hincmar of Reims is indicated, who crowned Louis the Stammerer at Compiègne in the year 877, and departed this life in the year 882, on the 21st or 23rd of December; but he, although a very great man and for the most part well deserving of religion and of the empire, never obtained ecclesiastical honours. Flodoard summed up his principal deeds, and after him very many others; of whom I would name no others than Marlot, in volume I of the History of the Metropolis of Reims, the writers of Gallia Christiana, volume IX, and Rivet, volume V of the Literary History of Gaul.
Waldpert, monk of St. Gall, is announced on this day by Adalbert Müller in the Universal Martyrology which he recently published in the German tongue, following the list of saints which we ourselves added to the programme on the continuation of the Acta Sanctorum. But how that name was thrust upon us I no longer find; certainly no traces of ecclesiastical cult appear to us. The most pious death of this excellent presbyter was praised by Ekkehard IV among the "syncellites," as he calls them, of SS. Gall and Othmar, in the boyish poems In Pertz, Monumenta Germaniae, volume II, page 57. which he offered to his master Notker as a set task and, when heavier with years, corrected and explained for a while. Metzler also praised him In Pez, Anecdota, volume I, part III, page 570.; but you will seek in vain for indications of public cult.
"In the monastery of Hirsau, the deposition of St. Ruthard, monk, conspicuous for sanctity": so Wion at this day in the Lignum vitae; and Ménard in the Benedictine Martyrology and Ferrarius in the General Catalogue of the Saints have similar things. Chastelain also mentions him in the Universal Martyrology, calling him venerable: a word which with him ordinarily has as much force as the title of blessed with others. I therefore put more effort than usual into finding out whether he was ever honoured with ecclesiastical veneration. I came upon Anthony de Heredia Vidas de sanctos de la religion de San Benito, volume III, page 143. affirming that his Office was celebrated every year in the monastery of Hirsau in the diocese of Würzburg. But there is no doubt that this assertion is erroneous. Trithemius, both in the Chronicle Page 16. and in the Annals of Hirsau Pages 26 and 29., sets out the praises of Ruthard; but in neither place does he relate anything by which he would suggest that this excellent schoolmaster of Hirsau was honoured with public honours. On the contrary, when he has related that he departed this life on 25 October of the year 865, he recites the epitaph which Richbodo, who succeeded him in governing the most flourishing school of Hirsau, composed to his memory in verses of a sort, and in which the wayfarer is asked for prayers for the rest of the dead man:
You who duly pass along this road, wayfarer, I pray,
Stay your step a little while, and read this inscription:
And when you have looked on it, as a suppliant remember him who lies buried,
And say: O loving God, have mercy on Ruthard too.
With full right, therefore, Mabillon omitted his name in the Benedictine Centuries, or Lives of the saints of the Order of St. Benedict; nor did he call him either venerable or blessed in the Annals Annales Bened., volume III, page 120., but simply Ruthard; and Ziegelbauer imitated him Hist. litteraria ordinis S. Benedicti, volume I, pages 228 and 229.. What you may wonder at the more, Bucelin passed him over in the Benedictine Menology; only in its supplement did he find a place, with the praise of holy memory. Dom Rivet Hist. littéraire de France, volume V, pages 317 and 318. called Ruthard neither venerable nor blessed; but he diligently illustrated his religious and literary praises, correcting also some less true assertions of Trithemius. Whoever therefore wants more about this man, whom Trithemius with full right pronounced worthy of eternal memory, since he left behind many monks, most learned hearers in every branch of learning, let him consult Dom Rivet's Literary History of the Gauls.
In the monastery of St. Lambrecht in Upper Styria, the memory of Wolfcher, abbot, who, having laid down the abbatial staff, spent the rest of his life in fasts, vigils and prayers, is praised on this day in the Supplement to Bucelin's Benedictine Menology. He was never publicly venerated.
At Valladolid, in the monastery of St. Benedict, the memory of the venerable father Lawrence de Ayala, a man most illustrious for learning and holiness, who departed this life on 25 October of the year 1631, is celebrated today by Anthony de Heredia in the Lives of the saints of the Order of St. Benedict. He lacks ecclesiastical cult.
The martyrdom of the monks of Setichenbeke of the Cistercian Order, whom we mentioned in the Passed Over at 23 October, is celebrated today in Bucelin's Benedictine Menology and in Henriquez's Cistercian Menology; but, as we noted two days ago, the Church has not yet claimed them.
At Spanheim, the memory of blessed Lutgard, virgin and nun, is recalled at this day by Ménard in the Benedictine Martyrology, where in the Observations he subjoins these words from the Hirsau Chronicle of John Trithemius: "In this same year (1084) Ludgard, a virgin nun, daughter of the late Everhard, knight, of Solernheim, died on the eighth day before the Kalends of November and was buried in the cloister of this monastery. Of whom it was reported that she also often had angelic visions and revelations." Indeed they would have it that she was enclosed in the anchorhold of the monastery of Spanheim. But the church of Spanheim, founded in the year 1047, was not made monastic (on the authority of Trithemius himself) before the year 1101: whence I do not understand how Lutgard could have kept the Benedictine rule there in the anchorhold of a monastery before the year 1084. Then in neither edition of the Hirsau Chronicle that is in our Museum does anything occur about Ludgard at the year 1084. Moreover Mabillon made no mention of her either in the Acta Sanctorum or in the Annals of the Order of St. Benedict; so that Ménard seems to have been led astray by an untimely distraction of mind; whither he also drew Bucelin, Heredia and others who are accustomed to tread in their footsteps.
"In Germany, the feast of forty-six Cistercian monks who, laying down their lives for Christ, merited the crown of martyrdom," is read today in Henriquez's Menology. No traces of ecclesiastical cult appear.
"At Orval, the commemoration of Denis Largentier of pious memory, abbot of Clairvaux, whom God made illustrious in life by excellent virtues, wonderful fervour and zeal for reform, and after death by signs and miracles." So in the Martyrology of Villers in Brabant, which, written in the century just past and used in choir, has this peculiarity, that contrary to the decrees of Urban VIII many names of men who never obtained legitimate cult were inserted in it. See more about that Denis at the present day in Henriquez's Cistercian Menology.
Joan of Toulouse, Carmelite virgin, whom the Carmelite writers extol with many praises, is commemorated on this day by the author of the Carmelite Menology entitled Acies bene ordinata. She lacks ecclesiastical cult.
At Florence, the pious death of Bl. Petra of the Order of Servants of the Blessed Virgin Mary, conspicuous for love of religion and of poverty, who flourished about the year 1388, is marked on this day by Arthur du Monstier in the Sacred Gynecaeum; but I do not find that she was honoured with public cult.
Bl. Robaldus de Albigania, of Milan, who received the habit of the Friars Preachers at Bologna from the hands of St. Dominic, is praised on this day in the Sacred Dominican Diary published in the year 1758. We lack sure testimonies of public cult.
The praises of the Servant of God Marcella de Anselmis, a sister of the Order of Friars Preachers, who in the year 1619 flew away to heaven from the monastery of St. Mary the New at Bologna, are celebrated today by Dominic Mary Marchese in the Sacred Dominican Diary and by Emmanuel de Lima in the Dominican Hagiology. She is neither publicly venerated, nor is there any thought of venerating her publicly.
The praises of the venerable mother Catherine of the Presentation, by nation of Moissac, who about the middle of the seventeenth century filled the very ancient Toulouse monastery of the sisters of St. Dominic with the odour of her virtues, see under this day in the Dominican Hagiology of Emmanuel de Lima, taken from the French Dominican Year.
Of the venerable Fr. Emmanuel de Lambuano, missionary of the Order of St. Dominic in the East Indies;
of the venerable Fr. Sumiquius Seldius, inquisitor and member of the Order of St. Dominic, killed by heretics in Bohemia in the year 1341 out of hatred of the faith;
at Centumcellae or Civitavecchia, of Sister Beata of Orvieto, who fell asleep most piously in the year 1306;
on the island of St. Irene (commonly Santorini) in the Archipelago, of Bl. Anthony de Marchis, who illustrated the Order of St. Dominic and the see of that island with the splendour of his virtues and died in the year 1660;
at Avignon, of Sister Margaret de Castello Renardi, who departed from this life about the year 1600;
in the Dominican province of Poland, in the convent of Lutsk, of the pious Brother Charles Franconius, who went to heaven about the year 1647;
at Avignon, of John Gervase, lay brother of the Order of St. Dominic, who in the year 1629, serving the plague-stricken, fell a victim of charity; and
of the venerable Fr. Thomas Thomasoni, son of the Roman convent of Santa Maria sopra Minerva, bishop of Umbriatico, who on this day in the year 1655 died most holily, not without suspicion of poison having been administered: the blessed memory of these is recalled by Anthony de Lima in the Dominican Hagiology; but none of them obtained ecclesiastical honours.
At Villa Castina in Castile, of Bartholomew Anduxar, who about the year 1600 illustrated the Order of Minors;
at Agrigento in Sicily, of the venerable Servant of God Matthew, lay brother of the Order of Minors, who in the year 1603 departed this life with such a reputation for holiness that the cause of his beatification and canonization was begun; who is to be carefully distinguished from Bl. Matthew of Agrigento, bishop and confessor, who, his cult having been approved by the Sacred Congregation of Rites, is venerated by the Friars Minor on 13 March;
at Milan in Insubria, in the monastery of St. Apollinaris, of Mary Louisa Castella, conspicuous among the Poor Clare virgins about the year 1471; and
at Avignon in Gaul, of Frances de Claramonte, abbess of St. Clare:
their feasts Huber celebrates on this day; but none of them is venerated by the Church.
At Gouda in Holland, of the blessed martyrs John Rixtel and Adrian Lamberts, who were cruelly killed by heretics in the year 1572;
in Belgium, of Bl. Arnold, Friar Minor lay brother, by birth of Amersfoort, surnamed Cnappard, who was killed in the year 1572:
their praises Arthur records besides on this day, with Molanus going before him in the Feasts of the Saints of Belgium; but they lack ecclesiastical cult.
At Diest in Brabant, of six Friars Minor, who were slain by heretics for their constancy in the Catholic religion in the year 1578;
at Mount Sinai, of Bl. Adam, confessor of the Order of Friars Minor, who, burning with desire for martyrdom, spent some time among the Saracens and died about the year 1345;
at Campobasso in Apulia, of Bl. Silvester Guidoni, confessor of the Order of St. Francis, most celebrated for sanctity and very frequent miracles about the middle of the century;
in the kingdom of Michoacán in the West Indies, of Bl. Jerome, confessor of the Order of Minors, who, powerful in word and example, brought many Indians over to the Gospel about the middle of the sixteenth century;
at Rome, of Bl. Catherine, widow, queen of the Bosnians, who, having taken the habit of the tertiaries of the Order of Minors, went to God in the year 1478:
their memory is celebrated today with one voice by Arthur du Monstier in the Franciscan Martyrology and by Huber in the Franciscan Menology, not because they obtained ecclesiastical cult, but because they left to posterity the most sweet odour of their virtues.
Of Michael de la Parra, Minorite lay brother, who illustrated many places of Spain by his virtues and died in the year 1685; and
of Jerome Palantieri, who from a Minorite friar was made bishop of Bitonto and, having departed this life in the year 1619, left behind him an example of such great virtues that by apostolic authority two processes were made by which the way might be paved to his canonization:
the excellent merits of these are set out by Benignus Fremaut in the Spiritual Palm-grove, or Flemish Legend of the Order of St. Francis, a truly excellent book.
"St. Hilwaris in Scotland" is read in the list of saints appended to the little book On the continuation of the Bollandist work; whence it has already passed into the second volume of the German Lexicon of the Saints which the venerable man John Evangelist Stadler, dean and ecclesiastical consultor of Augsburg, put into print in the year 1861. But that name ought to have been omitted: for although those who compiled that catalogue of saints found St. Hilwaris in Scotland in the manuscript collections of our predecessors, he nevertheless occurs in no approved books, but emerged from the troubled waters of Scotland. But what I should most like to be noticed in this place is this: those err, and err gravely, who use that list as an accurate and finished little work. In truth an incredible amount of labour was put into collecting it; but who could persuade himself that it could have come about that, within the space of a few months, infinite names should be brought out of martyrologies and other works of that kind and duly examined? Some judgment indeed was exercised, but a summary one, from a distance rather than at close quarters. Nor was it declared there in advance that anything else had ever been intended.
"At Nicomedia, of the saints Lucian, Martian, Florus, Heraclius, Tutus, Florinus": Greven in his edition of Usuard states that their memory is to be recalled on this day or the following. Of them, namely of SS. Martian, Florus, Heraclius and Titus (for Tutus takes the place of Titus, and Florus and Florinus are one and the same man), it will be spoken at the day to which they really belong, 26 October.
The feast of St. Demetrius, first bishop of Gap in Gaul, is celebrated on today's date in the Universal Martyrology of Chastelain and in the Paris Martyrology of Cardinal de Noailles; and his name is found at the head of the catalogue of the bishops of Gap published in the first volume of Gallia Christiana. But in the Order of Gap for reciting the divine Office for the leap years 1676 and 1832 I find no St. Demetrius under 25 October, but under the following day. In the former he is called bishop and martyr and has a double feast; in the latter he is called by the bare title of martyr and is said to be venerated with simple rite. They believed, that is, that he was none other than the martyr of Thessalonica, who is announced in some Calendars on the same day, and for this slight reason they departed from the most ancient tradition of the people of Gap. But he who not long ago presided over this diocese, and to whom the hagiography of Belley and of Gap owes very much, the illustrious Dom John Irenaeus Depéry, when in the year 1856 he brought back the Roman rites, restored to St. Demetrius his former praise as first bishop of Gap. But we shall say more about these things at 26 October.
St. Rusticus, bishop of Narbonne, is praised today by one or two; he belongs to the day immediately following, or 26 October.
St. Cyrilla, daughter, as they would have it, of Decius, the Roman emperor, is celebrated today by the author of the Carmelite Menology which is named Acies bene instructa. We shall speak of her, following the Roman Martyrology, under 27 October.
St. Nestor, martyr of Thessalonica, is announced on this day in the Slavonic codex which we mentioned in the case of SS. Paul the Confessor and Varus, already passed over, and similarly in the Slavonic codex of Sisatovac, in the Slavonic Menaea and in the Medici Greek Menology. But whether a place is to be given to this Nestor, of whom many things little to be approved are circulated by the Easterners, among the saints, or only in an appendix (as we did on 23 October in the case of St. Macarius), or finally whether he is to be passed over altogether, can be determined in two days' time, since his name is inscribed here and there in the Eastern Calendars under 27 October.
St. Abraham, a monk with his cowl drawn back to his shoulders and in presbyteral dress, is shown on this day in the Graeco-Muscovite Ephemerides which Papebroch had reproduced at the front of May. But in no other Ruthenian or Greek Calendars is the name of Abraham listed on this day. "I therefore judge," says Assemani Kalendaria Ecclesiae Universae, volume V, page 319., "that the Muscovite painter here carelessly thrust in that Abramius whom the Greeks and Russians venerate on 29 October… Nor should you wonder that the Muscovite painter often went astray in the Papebroch Calendars: for in the Capponi tables too … the same Cosmas is put twice." Of St. Abraham with his niece Mary, whose story was once most celebrated among the Latins too, our predecessors treated under the day on which St. Abraham found a place in the Roman Martyrology, 16 March;
but since the Easterners have long celebrated his feast on 29 October, the Russians, after their custom (one also practised by the Latins), have inscribed in their sacred Calendars on this day two other namesakes whom they hold worthy of the fellowship of the heavenly ones, namely the venerable Abraham the Recluse and Abraham the wonder-worker of Rostov; as may be seen in the Calendar prefixed to the Slavonic Bible published at Moscow in three volumes in the year 1839. Hence there will be a fitting place to speak of the Abrahams of the Russians at 29 October.
In the district of Vermandois, the dedication of the church of St. Quentin and the translation of his body are recorded on this day in the Arras and Tournai auctaria of Bede, and also in the Martyrology of Saint-Savin of Lavedan, which du Saussay published at the end of his Gallican Martyrology. But these things belong to the day on which St. Quentin, a most celebrated martyr in Gaul, will have to be praised at length, 31 October.
The memory of St. James, hermit, whom Theodoret praises in chapter XXI of the Philotheus, is celebrated today in the Ambrosian Synaxarion; but in the printed Menaea and the Menologies at the day at which we shall endeavour to illustrate him, 18 November.
The second translation of St. Othmar, abbot and confessor, is praised on this day by Ménard and other Benedictine Martyrologists and Menologists, and also by Chastelain in his Universal Martyrology. Of this solemnity as much as will be sufficient will be said at the day on which that most blessed abbot of the monastery of St. Gall in Alemannia is celebrated in the Roman Martyrology, 16 November.
St. Mercurius, martyr, by whose aid Julian the Apostate is related to have been killed See volume X of October, page 573., and whom the people of Benevento hold in the place of patron, was transferred by our predecessors to this day Acta Sanctorum, volume II of June, page 1012.; but by a manifest error they wrote 25 October in place of 25 November.
The name of St. Diodorus, presbyter, is added in some of Molanus's Usuardine editions to the names of SS. Chrysanthus and Daria. A word will be said about him today in the Acts of these saints and afterwards under the day on which he is inscribed in the Roman Martyrology, 1 December.
Noticed an error, have a suggestion, or want to share a thought? Let me know.