1] ST. DAVID was the son of Xantus, prince of Ceretica, now Cardiganshire. He was religiously educated, and after his ordination to the priesthood embraced the ascetic life through the influence of Paulinus, a pupil of St. Germanus of Auxerre. After a long period of retirement in the isle of Vecta (? Wight) he set out, like St. Paul from Arabia, and preached the Gospel in Britain. He founded a monastery in the vale of Ross, which was celebrated for the austerity of its rule. In A.D. 519 he attended a synod of Welsh clergy, which met to condemn the then prevalent heresy of Pelagius. Here he so ably defended the truth that Dubritius, the aged archbishop of Caerleon, constrained him to become his successor: but he removed the see to Menevia, now called St. David's, after him. He is considered to be the patron saint of Wales, and he died about A.D. 544, in his eighty-third year. He is represented preaching on a hill, with a dove on his shoulder. [Sar. Ep. and Gosp.: Ecclus. xliv. 17. 20, 21-23; xlv. 6, 7. 15, 16. St. Matt. xxv. 14-23.] 2] ST. CHAD, together with his three brothers, Cedd, Bishop of London, and the priests, Alin and Cymbel, was trained under St. Aidan at Lindisfarne. He also studied in Ireland, whence he came to preside over a religious house, founded by his brother Cedd, in the Yorkshire wolds. He was consecrated to the see of York A.D. 666, by two British bishops, but soon resigned it in favour of Wilfrid, the two having, in consequence of a misunderstanding, been both consecrated to the same see. In A.D. 670, he was appointed Bishop of Lichfield, where he died of a plague in 673. Lichfield Cathedral, and thirty-one churches in the Midland counties, are dedicated in his honour. [Sar. Ep. and Gosp.: Ecclus. xlv. 1-5. St. Mark xiii. 33-37.] 7] ST. PERPETUA, ST. FELICITAS, and their three companions, suffered in the persecution by Severus about A.D. 203, in Africa. St. Perpetua was the wife of a man of rank, and was herself of good family. At the time of her martyrdom she had an infant at the breast. The "Acts of St. Perpetua" are supposed to have been partly written by herself before her death, and afterwards completed by Tertullian. They contain a very remarkable and detailed account of her sufferings. She was first tossed by a wild cow, which is often represented with her, and then slowly butchered by a timorous or unskilful executioner. The day occurs in a Roman calendar of the year 354, and the names are commemorated in the canon of the Roman Liturgy. [Sar. Ep. and Gosp.: 1 Cor. vii. 25-34. St. Matt. xxv. 1-13.] 12] ST. GREGORY, surnamed the Great, was born at Rome, of noble and wealthy parents, about A.D. 540. His education was of the highest class, and included civil and canon law. At the age of thirty-four he was made chief magistrate of Rome, and was obliged to live in great pomp and state. But all his sympathies were with the religious life, and after the death of his father he founded and endowed six monasteries in Sicily, out of the family estates in that island. He also founded a seventh, dedicated to St. Andrew, in his own house in Rome, in which he himself assumed the Benedictine habit at the age of thirty-five. Here he impaired his constitution by the rigour with which he fasted while he was studying. It is to this period of his life that the well-known story about the British slaves refers. He actually set off on a mission to England, but was recalled by Pope Benedict L., the whole city being in an uproar at his departure. Gregory was soon after this made a Cardinal-Deacon, and took a prominent part in public affairs. He was then chosen Abbot of the Monastery he had founded, and in A.D. 590 was elected Pope, and after having manifested the utmost reluctance was consecrated on the 13th of September. It was during the monastic period of his life that he wrote the celebrated "Morals on the Book of Job." In the fifth year of his Pontificate occurred the controversy regarding the title of Universal Bishop, which he regarded as Antichristian. In July, A.D. 596, he again took up his scheme for the conversion of England, and sent hither St. Augustine with forty companions, to whom, under God, we owe the revival of Christianity in the southern parts of our land. During the rest of his life St. Gregory gave himself much to study, and revised the Divine offices, paying much attention to their ancient music, which from this circumstance has acquired the popular designation of Gregorian. He departed in peace, March 12, A.D. 604, and was buried in St. Peter's. St. Gregory is esteemed as one of the Four Doctors of the Western Church, and is represented with the triple crown as a Pope, and with a book in his hand, and a dove on his shoulder, as a Doctor aided by the Holy Spirit. His festival is kept in the Greek Church on the 11th of March, but its observance in England on the 12th was enjoined on the monasteries as early as A.D. 747, at the Synod of Cloveshooe, and on the kingdom generally at the Council of Oxford, A.D. 1222. [Sar. Ep. and Gosp.: Ecclus. xlvii. 8—11. St. Matt. xxiv. 42-47.] 18] ST. EDWARD THE KING succeeded his father King Edgar, at the age of thirteen, in A.D. 975. He was celebrated for his piety and the amiability of his disposition, which greatly endeared him to his subjects. After a reign of three years and a half, he was treacherously stabbed, while drinking the stirrup-cup, by order of his step-mother Elfrida, her object being to obtain the crown for her own son Ethelred. He had gone out of his way from hunting to pay her a visit, and to see his brother, whom he had always treated with affectionate kindness. He was buried deep in a marsh, after which his body was twice re-interred. [See June 20.] He is usually represented as a youthful king, with a cup in one hand and a dagger or sceptre in the other, and often with a falcon, in allusion to his last hunt. [Sar. Ep. and Gosp.: Ecclus. xxxi. 8-11. St. Luke xiv. 26-33.] 21] ST. BENEDICT, the founder of the great Benedictine order of Monks, was born of a good family resident at Norsia, in the Italian province of Umbria, about A.D. 480. He was educated in the great public schools at Rome, but was there so shocked at the licentiousness prevailing among the Roman youth, that he secretly quitted the city at the age of fifteen, and betook himself to a cavern at Subiaco, where he lived as a hermit for three years. He had before met with Romanus, a monk, who, during his retreat, supplied him with food. It was at this time that, when distracted by temptations, he used to roll himself in the briars, a circumstance familiar to many through its being mentioned in Bishop Taylor's "Holy Living." He gained such influence over the shepherds of the wild region round about, that some were persuaded by him to become monks. After much solicitation he consented to become Abbot of Vicobarro, near Subiaco, where he diligently endeavoured to reform the abuses that he found existing. This rendered him so unpopular with some of the inmates that they attempted to poison him; and, after praying God to forgive them, he returned to his cave. Here he had many disciples, and organized twelve religious houses, each containing a Superior and twelve monks. These were eventually united in the Monastery of St. Scholastica, the most ancient of the order, as is supposed. Having still many enemies, and being a man of peace, he again sought retirement, and repaired to Mount Cassino, where some of the ancient idolatrous rites still prevailed, and where stood an old temple of Apollo and a grove. Here he was the means of converting many to the faith of Christ. He overthrew the temple and cut down the grove, and upon the site founded two oratories. This was the origin of the celebrated Monastery of Mount Cassino, whence proceeded the " Benedictine Rule," and where the present monastic system of Western Europe was definitely organized. Towards the close of Benedict's life, his sister Scholastica came to reside near him, with a small community of religious women; where he used to visit her once a year. He died of a fever caught in visiting the poor. Feeling that his end was drawing near, he ordered his grave to be dug, and, supported by the brethren, contemplated it in silence for some time: and then being carried into the chapel, there expired on the eve of Passion Sunday, A.D. 543. He is represented in various monastic habits, according to circumstances, and often carries an open book with the first words of his Rule:-AVSCVLTA FILI VERBA MAGISTRI. Others of his distinguishing emblems are, the thorn-bush; a wine-cup, or loaf, with a serpent crawling out of it (in allusion to attempts made to poison him); and a broken sieve. [Sar. Ep. and Gosp.: Ecclus. xxxix. 5-9. St. Luke xi. 33-36.] 13 14 St. Leo the Great. St. Hermenegild. SS. Tiburtius, Valerian, and SS. Tibertius, Valerian, and SS. Tiburtius, Valerian, and Maximus. St. Eutychius of Constantinople.! SS. Herodion, Agabus, Rufus, [Asyncritus, Phlegon, and [Hermas. St. Antipas of Pergamus, 15 [Maximus. 16 17 [Maximus. St. Anicetus. St. Crescens. But in matters which involved principle, St. Ambrose did not shrink from his duty. It is well known how he excommunicated the Emperor Theodosius, for a cruel abuse of power during an insurrection at Thessalonica; and how he shut the gates of the church of Milan against him, exhorting him with such effect that he became a true penitent. He is said to have introduced metrical hymns into the Offices of the Church, and, like St. Gregory, to have paid great attention both to the construction of these Offices, and to the music used in them, the "Ambrosian rite having a very distinct character of its own, like the English. He is also reckoned as one of the four great doctors of the Western Church. He died, A.D. 397, on the 4th of April, and his body still lies under the high altar of the basilica dedicated to him at Milan. [Sar. Ep. and Gosp.: Ecclus. xlvii. 8-11. St. Matt. xxiv. 42-47.] 3] ST. RICHARD was Bishop of Chichester about the middle | Saturdays, as they do at Rome; when I am here I do not fast. of the thirteenth century. His parents, Richard and Alice de So likewise you, to whatsoever Church you come, observe the Wiche, resided on an estate near Worcester, to which he was custom of that place, if you mean not either to give or take heir. But from his earliest years he showed a strong inclination offence." for study and devotion, and studied successively at Oxford, Paris, and Bologna. After having held the Professorship of Civil Law at Bologna for a short time, he returned to Oxford, and was made Chancellor of the University, and subsequently of the diocese of Canterbury, under St. Edmund, with whom he went into exile in France. Here he studied for a while in a Dominican convent, and it was not till this period of his life that he was ordained priest. Returning again to England, he served as a parish priest in the diocese of Canterbury, and resumed the office of Chancellor under Archbishop Boniface. The see of Chichester falling vacant, A.D. 1244, one of those disputes between King and Pope, which were then so common, arose about the appointment. The chapter elected one Robert Passelaw, Archdeacon of Chichester; but the Archbishop declined to confirm the election, as being that of an unfit person. He declared the nomination void, and appointed Richard de Wiche to the vacant see. The King then confiscated the revenues, and a strong party of courtiers and others set themselves against the new Bishop. He however appealed to Rome, and got a Papal decision in his favour, which naturally incensed the King all the more. The Bishop however applied himself diligently to the duties of his office, and in his case was fulfilled the text, "When a man's ways please the Lord, He maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him;" for, after two years, the King relented, and restored his lands. In A.D. 1253, he was preaching a crusade in the south of England, and when at Dover consecrated a church there, on Mid-Lent Sunday, in honour of his former patron, St. Edinund of Canterbury. While thus engaged he was seized with his last illness, and departed during the week following. Simon of Tarring, a Sussex gentleman, who had protected him during the displeasure of the King, and other friends, were present with him during his last hours. After lying in state for some days, his body was buried before the altar of St. Edmund, in Chichester Cathedral, and some years afterwards removed to a place of greater honour in the same church. He is represented as a Bishop, usually with a chalice at his feet; in allusion to a tradition that, in his old age, falling with the chalice, its contents were not spilled. [Sar. Ep. and Gosp.: Ecclus. xliv. 17. 20-23, and xlv. 6, 7. 15, 16. St. John xv. 1–7.] 4] ST. AMBROSE is commemorated on this, the day of his death, in accordance with English usage; but in the Latin and Greek Churches his feast is kept on the 7th of December, the day of his ordination. He was born about A.D. 340, in Gaul, where his father held the office of Prætorian Prefect. Paulinus affirms that while he was in his cradle a swarm of bees settled on his lips, and that this, as in the case of Plato, was thought to predict his future eloquence. After the death of his father he was educated at Rome, where he attained to great proficiency in Greek and Civil Law, which led to his appointment to the Governorship of Liguria. He also practised as an advocate, and displayed so much wisdom and judgment in this capacity during a severe contest between the orthodox and the Arians, relative to an appointment to the see of Milan, that he was, although as yet unbaptized, strongly pressed to accept the office himself-the whole multitude taking up the cry, "Ambrose is Bishop "-first uttered, it is said, by a child. He reluctantly consented, and, after baptism, was ordained and consecrated, Dec. 7, A.D. 374. Having made over to the church of Milan all his estates, he devoted himself to his duties. He had constant difficulties in consequence of the prevalence of the Arian and Apollinarian heresies, and wrote many theological works, both controversial and devotional. St. Ambrose is spoken of with the most affectionate reverence by St. Augustine in his Confessions, as having been greatly instrumental in the work of his conversion. The saying, "When I am at Rome, I do as they do at Rome," is attributed to St. Ambrose, who replied to St. Augustine, when be consulted him about the different modes of observing Saturday at Home and Milan: "When I come to Rome I fast on the 19] ST. ALPHEGE was an English saint. He was born of a noble family, about A.D. 954, and while very young retired to a monastery, and afterwards became abbot of a house at Bath. In 984 he was made Bishop of Winchester, and in 1006 trans. lated to Canterbury. In 1011 the Danes broke in upon the city, and imprisoned the Archbishop, offering to set him free for the treasures of the church. He refused to give them up, and after having held out for several months, was stoned, and finally slain with a battle-axe, calling upon God, like St. Stephen, to receive his soul, and, like Christ, for the forgiveness of his murderers. This took place on the site of the present parish church of Greenwich, which is dedicated to him. His body was buried first in the Cathedral of St. Paul in London, but afterwards translated to Canterbury. He is represented as an Archbishop, with stones in his vestment, and sometimes with the battle-axe. [Sar. Ep. and Gosp.: Heb. xiii. 9-16. St. John xv. 1--7.] 23] The history of ST. GEORGE of Cappadocia, the Patron of England, has been from time to time mixed up with that of George, the Arian bishop of Alexandria, and is so obscure that some have doubted his existence. But churches were dedicated to him under the first Christian Emperors, and his office is found in the Sacramentary of St. Gregory. The Greek Church calls him the Great Martyr, and keeps his festival as a holyday of obligation. He was born in Cappadocia in the latter half of the third century, of noble Christian parents, entered the army, and was rapidly advanced by the Emperor Diocletian. He was himself imprisoned, tortured, and beheaded: being, apparently, the same young man who tore down the edicts for persecution, as related by Lactantius and Eusebius. He was first acknowledged as the Patron of England at the Synod of Oxford, A.D. 1220, and has been regarded as the patron of military men, partly on account of his own profession, and partly because of his alleged appearance to Richard Cœur de Lion in his expedition against the Saracens. Hence, no doubt, the old battle-cry, "St. George for England!" Under his name King Edward the Third [A.D. 1330] instituted the Order of the Garter, the most ancient and most noble order of knighthood in Europe. The stalls and insignia of these knights are at St. George's Chapel, Windsor, where special prayers are offered for them in the Daily Service, as well as a special service on "Obit Sunday." St. George is usually represented in conflict with a dragon, in allusion to the legend of his having fought with a dragon to save the daughter of a king, though it may be better understood of the conflict of the Christian soldier with Satan on behalf of the Church. He is represented as a young warrior, fully armed, and bearing a red cross on his shield or on a banner. This is the famous cross of St. George, and is incorporated with that of St. Andrew, the patron saint of Scotland, in the national flag called the “Union Jack." There are more than 162 churches of ancient foundation dedicated to St. George, and his name was retained in the Calendar in the time of Queen Elizabeth, when almost all the other "black-letter" saints had been struck out. [Sar. Ep. and Gosp: St. James i. 2-12. St. John xv. 1-7.] 3] INVENTION OF THE CROSS.-This festival commemorates the finding the Cross on which our Lord suffered, by the Empress Helena, about A.D. 326. At this time the Jews and Pagans together had effaced nearly every trace of the scenes of our Lord's Passion and Resurrection, the Holy Sepulchre had been paved over, and heathen temples built on the spot. It was supposed that the crosses of our Lord and of the two thieves were buried near the place where they suffered, and after a long and difficult search they were found. Macarius, Bishop of Jerusalem, in order to distinguish that of our Lord, suggested that the three crosses should be carried to a sick lady, and after much prayer applied them singly to her. By the touch of one of them the sick lady recovered, as those did to whom were brought handkerchiefs and aprons from St. Paul's body. The Empress, full of joy at the discovery, enclosed the precious relic in a silver shrine, and built on the spot a church in which it might be preserved. She also carried a large piece to Rome, and deposited it in a church which she had built there in honour of the Holy Cross. [See Sept. 14.] This account has not been disproved. [Sar. Ep. and Gosp.: Gal. v. 10-12, and vi. 12-14. St. John iii. 1-15.] 6] ST. JOHN ANTE PORTAM LATINAM.-This festival was instituted in memory of the miraculous deliverance of St. John from death, when he was cast into a cauldron of boiling oil before the Latin Gate of Rome, by order and perhaps in the presence of Domitian. Our Lord had promised that deadly things should not hurt those who believed in Him, and thus His word was fulfilled, as it had been before when St. Paul took up the serpent at Melita; and as it had been by anticipation when the form of the Son of God was seen walking with the three young men in the fiery furnace at Babylon. The Emperor attributed the Apostle's deliverance to the power of magic, and banished him to Patmos, where he received and recorded the Apocalypse. There has been a church at Rome on the spot where the event above mentioned occurred, ever since the time of the first Christian Emperors. The day is kept as a great festival at St. John's College, Cambridge, and at the more recent foundation of St. John's Hurstpierpoint. [Sar. Ep. and Gosp.: Eccl. xv. 1-6. St. John xxi. 19-24.] 19] ST. DUNSTAN.-This Saxon Saint was born about A.D.924, at Glastonbury, of Christian parents holding a high position in society. He was educated in his native town, under a society of Irish monks there resident, and lived for some time with Athelmus, Archbishop of Canterbury, his uncle, who introduced him to the notice of King Athelstan. At court he for a time enjoyed the highest favours, but some who envied him maligned him to the King, and he was banished from the royal presence. He was then urged to take monastic vows by Alphege the Bald, Bishop of Winchester, and after a time became a monk, and was also ordained priest. He served the church at Glastonbury, dwelling in a small cell attached thereto. Here he fasted and prayed, and worked at copying and illumination, and at the fabrication of vestments, censers, and other church furniture. Athelstan was succeeded by his brother Edinund, who recalled Dunstan; but he soon again fell into disgrace at court, and retired to the Benedictine monastery of Fleury in France. After a few years he was recalled, and made Superior of the house at Glastonbury. Here he refounded the church and convent on a larger scale, established a rule based on that of St. Benedict, and became himself the first Abbot on the new foundation, and nineteenth from St. Brithwald. King Edmund after a reign of six years and a half was murdered, and his sons, Edwy and Edgar, being too young for the throne, his brother Edred succeeded him, and followed the advice of St. Dunstan in all things. He dying in 955, was succeeded by Edwy, a profligate youth, whose vices St. Dunstan was obliged to reprove even on the day of his coronation. In revenge he banished the Abbot, persecuted the Monks every where, and devastated all the abbeys that had been spared by the Danes except Glastonbury and Abingdon. After a year's exile in Flanders, Dunstan was recalled by Edgar, who had been placed on the throne instead of Edwy, deposed by the Mercians. This young King made Dunstan his principal counsellor, and in A.D. 957 he was made Bishop of Worcester, and shortly afterwards of London. Edwy still reigned over the southern provinces for three years longer; but on his death Edgar became monarch of all England, and Dunstan was raised to the see of Canterbury, being also appointed Papal legate by Pope John XII. He exerted himself greatly in the restoration of discipline, and in conjunction with Ethelwold, Bishop of Winchester, and Oswald, Archbishop of York, re-established most of the chief monasteries. He exercised a rigid control over the secular clergy, ejecting many who were married, and enforcing celibacy on others. At one time King Edgar having fallen into a scandalous crime, he boldly reproved him, and brought him to repentance. He went about preaching and instructing the people in the churches of his diocese, and would sometimes repair to his old retreat at Glastonbury for solitude and contemplation. His last sickness came upon him at Canterbury, where, after preaching thrice on Ascension Day, A.D. 988, he died on the Saturday following, and was buried in his own cathedral. Some of his bones were said to have been translated to Glastonbury in 1012, but the greater part of them were found under his tomb in 1508. His distinguishing emblems are a pair of pincers and a harp. Six churches in Kent, six in Middlesex, and six elsewhere, are dedicated to him, including the well-known city churches of St. Dunstan near Temple Bar, and St. Dunstan in the East. [Sar. Ep. and Gosp.: Eccl. xliv. 47. 20, 21-23; xlv. 6, 7. 15, 16. St. Matt. xxv. 14-23. During Easter-tide, St. John xv. 1-7.] 26] ST. AUGUSTINE, the first Archbishop of Canterbury, has been called the Apostle of England, from the great work which he accomplished in restoring the Church in the south-east part of the country, after the old Clergy had been entirely rooted out by the Saxons. Nothing is known of his history until the time when he was sent on his mission by Gregory the Great. He was then Prior of St. Andrew's Monastery at Rome. [See March 12.] He landed in Kent A.D. 596, and went through the Isle of Thanet towards Canterbury, by invitation of King Ethelbert. The manner in which St. Augustine and his missionary brethren came towards the heathen King is thus recorded by the Venerable Bede: "He came chanting Litanies, and beseeching the Lord for the everlasting weal, as well of themselves, as of those for whose sake he had come. .... And when they drew near that city, they chanted the Litany with one accord in these words ;-That it may please Thee to turn away the fury of Thy wrath from all Thy people, and chiefly from this city, we sinners beseech Thee to hear us, O Lord.' Then being admitted into the royal presence, they proclaimed their mission before the King: and he, having already some acquaintance with Christianity (through his wife Bertha, and her chaplain, Luidhard, Bishop of Senlis), received them kindly, and bade them welcome to his city." Kent had returned almost entirely to heathenism, and the coming of these missionaries was a great blessing to it. They restored to its proper use the old church of St. Martin, and thus made Christian worship familiar again to the eyes of the people. They converted large numbers of the Saxon conquerors, and eventually the King himself, who afterwards laboured earnestly for the perfect establishment of the Church among his people, during the twenty remaining years of his life. But when the new missionaries extended their work into a wider circle, they came into contact with the ancient Church of England, of which in the conquered part of the island they had found only dormant remains. To men of polished education and exact ritual habits the ancient Church of the land presented features which were distasteful to them: and in their own fervent zeal and high prosperity, they seem to have appreciated at too low a value the energies of a depressed and persecuted Clergy. Augustine endeavoured to enforce a Roman ritual and jurisdiction upon the native Bishops; and this they resisted, claiming to possess independent Episcopal jurisdiction, and to have a ritual as Apostolic in its origin as that of Rome itself. These heart-burnings lasted until long after the death of St. Augustine, which happened A.D. 601; and tended in some degree to mar the good work which he had so well begun. Yet it cannot be doubted that England owes a debt of gratitude to him as a second founder of her Church, and the great see of Canterbury is an enduring monument of his missionary zeal. Dying on May 26th, 604, |