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

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.

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.

Soon after, hearing by report of one Marinus, who was leading a hermit life in a desert in the Venetian territory, he resolved to retire from the fruitless struggle with the unfaithful monks, and to place himself under his guidance. He made known his desire to the abbot and the brethren, and craved permission from them to retire from the community, and this was granted with great alacrity. He immediately made his way to the neighbourhood in which Marinus dwelt, found him out, and was accepted by him as his disciple.

Marinus, who was a man of singular simplicity of character, and most rigid in his asceticism, took in hand the training of his neophyte in good earnest. His first task was to teach Romuald to read; for up to the time of his forsaking the world his literary education had been altogether neglected. Master and pupil would go forth together to roam about the wild, and recite the Psalter, sheltering now under one tree, now under another, and sitting always face to face at their work. Romuald, wearied by incessant poring over his book, would sometimes yield to the overwhelming lassitude which came over him, and seek a moment's repose; on which Marinus would strike him smartly on the left side of his head with a roll which he held in his right hand. At last, quite unable to bear the pain, Romuald one day said to him humbly, "Master, if you please, strike me next time on the right side of my head, for I am becoming quite deaf in my left ear," "On which," says the biographer, "Marinus, marvelling at his patience, relaxed the indiscreet severity of his discipline."

Before long they were joined in their solitude by Peter, Duke of Dalmatia, and a comrade of his, who had been moved to embrace the religious life. Romuald who, in time, had mastered the difficulties of the Psalter, kept so far in advance of his companions in devotion, and in the acquisition of every virtue, that they unanimously deferred to him in everything, and even Marinus, his whilom master, now became his scholar, and submitted to his direction in everything. The whole party maintained themselves by bodily labour, cultivating a piece of ground, all the time fasting most rigidly, but, as it would appear, living together in one common dwelling. However, reading one day in the Lives of the Fathers, that certain of the brethren in old time had lived a solitary life, fasting the whole week through, but on Saturdays and Sundays met together and relaxed the rigour of their fast, they at once resolved to adopt this way of life; viz., to live each in his own hut, apart from the rest, in silence and mortification, for five days of the week, and to allow themselves the solace of community life only on the Saturday and Sunday; and thus they lived for the space of fifteen years.

Once, during this time, it is related that Duke Peter came to Romuald with a piteous complaint that he could not subsist on the half-cake,24 which formed the daily allowance of the brethren, and urging that his huge and corpulent frame really required more sustenance. Whereupon Romuald, condescending to the weakness of a brother, and willing to hold out a helping hand to save him from falling, increased his allowance to three-quarters.

Another occurrence tended greatly to increase the reputation of the hermit Saint. A peasant farmer in the neighbourhood, who had often ministered of his subsistence to Romuald and the brethren, was robbed of his only cow by the dependents of a certain Count, a proud and arrogant man. The poor man came to Romuald bewailing his loss with many lamentations. Romuald at once sent a messenger to the Count, beseeching him in all humility to restore his beast to the poor man. The Count turned a deaf ear to the message, sent back a haughty and insolent reply, adding moreover that he expected highly to enjoy the cow's sirloin at dinner that very day. But he had better have yielded to Romuald; for at dinner-time the meal was set before him, he inhaled its rich savour with a greedy joy, and at the first mouthful was choked and died miserably.

Romuald's sojourn in the Venetian territory was brought to an end, by the death of several of his companions. On this he returned to the neighbourhood which he had left years before, and erected a cell for himself, in the marsh of Classe, in the place called "Pons Petri," removing it subsequently to the locality in which afterwards arose the church of the Blessed Martin "in sylva." Here he experienced many and violent temptations of the devil, who plied him sometimes with terrifying visions, sometimes with distressing doubts about the reality of his vocation, and his hope of final salvation. But as a good soldier of Jesus Christ he combated the evil one with the spiritual weapons of prayer and fasting, and meeting him boldly at every turn, repelled all his assaults.

After a while, he removed again to another place, where he built a monastery in honour of Michael the Archangel, which he peopled with monks, he himself still living solitary in his cell. While he was living here, a friend one day sent him a sum of money, about £21 sterling, intending it as a relief to his bodily necessities. He immediately sent off a portion of the money to the brethren of a monastery which had been just burnt down, to help towards the rebuilding, and put the remainder away for some similar purpose. This coming to the ears of the monks at S. Michael's they were so enraged that they came down to his cell in a body, gave him a good beating, and drove him from the neighbourhood with insults and reproaches. Highly delighted with their exploit, they returned to the monastery, and made preparations to celebrate the occasion by a great feast. But their triumph was short; for the ringleader in the attack on Romuald, on his way to obtain some honey to make mead for the carouse, had to cross a bridge which overhung a furious torrent; in the midst of the bridge something tripped him up, he stumbled, and falling headlong into the stream, perished by the just judgment of God; and that very night the rest of the monks were all but buried in the ruins of their dwelling, which fell upon them as they were sleeping heavily after their banquet, and bruises and broken bones convinced them that they had made a bad bargain in revolting against Romuald's severe rule.