The Lives of the Saints, Volume II (of 16): February

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