Part 21

Ennodius was made choice of by pope Hormisdas to endeavor the reunion of the Eastern to the Western Church. The emperor Anastasius fomented the division by favoring the Eutychian heresy, by banishing many orthodox prelates, and by protecting schismatical bishops of Constantinople; and in dissembling (the basest character of a prince) he was a second Herod or Tiberius, whose artifices could not leave them even in things where their interest was not concerned. Upon this errand Ennodius made two journeys to Constantinople, the first in the year 515, with Fortunatus, bishop of Catana, and the second in 517, with Peregrinus, bishop of Misenum. The points upon which he was ordered to insist were, that the faith of the council of Chalcedon and the letters of pope Leo against Nestorius, Eutyches, Dioscorus, and their followers, Timothy Elurus and Peter the Fuller, should be received; the anathema, pronounced against Acacius of Constantinople and Peter of Antioch, subscribed; and that the emperor should recall the bishops whom he had banished for adhering to the orthodox faith and communion. The emperor, whose conduct in all he did was equivocal, sent back the legates with a letter, wherein he declared that he condemned Nestorius and Eutyches, and received the council of Chalcedon. Other things he promised to conclude by ambassadors whom he would send to Rome; but his only aim was to gain time, and even whilst Ennodius was at Constantinople he condemned to banishment four bishops of Illyricum for the Catholic cause, namely, Laurence of Lignida, Alcyson of Nicopolis, Gaianus of Naïssum, and Evangelus of Paulitala. He deferred sending his ambassadors till the middle of the next year, and then, instead of bishops as he had promised, sent only two laymen, Theopompus, Comes Domesticorum or captain of his guards, and Severianus, Comes Consistorii or counsellor of state, and their instructions were confined to general protestations of laboring for the peace of the Church. The pope answered that, far from having any need of being entreated on that head, he threw himself at the emperor’s feet to implore his protection for the peace and welfare of God’s Church.

Ennodius’s second legation into the East proved as unsuccessful as the former; for Anastasius rejected the formulary which the pope had drawn up for the union, and endeavored to bribe the legates with money. But finding them proof against all temptations, he caused them to be sent out of his palace through a back door, and put on board a ship with two prefects and several Magisterians,[195] who had orders not to suffer them to enter into any city. Notwithstanding this, the legates found an opportunity of dispersing their protestations in all cities; but the bishops who received them, from the dread they were under of being accused, sent them all to Constantinople. Upon this, Anastasius being very much exasperated, dismissed about two hundred bishops who were already come to a council which was to have been held at Heraclea to compose the distracted state of the Oriental church. Such was the conclusion of the promise this emperor had given of concurring to restore union between the churches. The people and the senate reproached him with the breach of the oath he had made to that purpose; but he impiously said that there was a law which commanded an emperor to forswear himself and to tell a lie in cases of necessity. This confirmed the people in their general suspicion, that he had imbibed the opinions of the Manichees.

St. Ennodius was obliged to put to sea in an old rotten vessel, and all persons were forbidden to suffer him to land in any port of the eastern empire, whereby he was exposed to manifest danger. Nevertheless, he arrived safe in Italy and returned to Pavia. The glory of suffering for the faith, which his zeal and constancy had procured him, far from serving to make him slothful or remiss in the discharge of his pastoral duties, was on the contrary a spur to him in the more earnest pursuit of virtue, lest by sluggishness he should deprive himself of the advantages which he might seem to have begun to attain. He exerted his zeal in the conversion of souls, his liberality in relieving the poor, and in building and adorning churches, and his piety and devotion in composing sacred poems on the Blessed Virgin, St. Cyprian, St. Stephen, St. Dionysius of Milan, St. Ambrose, St. Euphemia, St. Nazarius, St. Martin, &c., on the mysteries of Pentecost and on the Ascension, on a baptistery adorned with the pictures of several martyrs whose relics were deposited in it. He wrote two new forms of blessing the paschal candle, in which the divine protection on the faithful is implored against winds, storms, and all dangers through the malice of our invisible enemies.[196] St. Ennodius died on the 1st of August, 521, being only forty-eight years old. He is styled a great and glorious confessor by the popes Nicholas I. and John VIII., and is honored in the Roman Martyrology on the 17th of July. His works were published by two Jesuits, F. Andrew Scot at Tournay in 1610, and by F. James Sirmond, with notes, at Paris, in 1611, and most completely among the works of F. Sirmond, at Paris in 1696, t. 1. See his works, the letters of pope Hormisdas, the Pontifical and F. Sirmond’s collections. Also Solier the Bollandist, t. 4, Julij, p. 271.

ST. LEO IV. POPE, C.

He was son of a Roman nobleman, had been educated in the monastery of St. Martin without the walls, and was made by Sergius II. priest of the four crowned martyrs. He was chosen pope after the death of Sergius II. in 847, and governed the Church eight years, three months, and some days. The Saracens from Calabria had lately plundered St. Peter’s church on the Vatican, and were still hovering about Rome. Leo made it his first care to repair the ornamental part of this church, especially the Confession or burying-place of St. Peter with the altar which stood upon it. To prevent a second plundering of that holy place, he, with the approbation and liberal contributions of the emperor Lothaire, enclosed it and the whole Vatican hill with a wall, and built there a new _rione_ or quarter of the city, which from him is called Leonina. He rebuilt or repaired the walls of the city, fortified with fifteen towers. Whilst he was putting Rome in a posture of defence, the Saracens marched towards Porto in order to plunder that town. The Neapolitans sent an army to the assistance of the Romans: the pope met these troops at Ostia, gave them his blessing, and all the soldiers received the holy communion at his hands. After the pope’s departure, a bloody battle ensued, and the Saracens were all slain, taken, or dispersed. The good pope considered the sins of the people as the chief source of public disasters; and being inflamed with a holy zeal, he most vigorously exerted his authority for the reformation of manners and of the discipline of the Church. For this purpose he held at Rome a council of sixty-seven bishops; and, among other instances, he deposed and excommunicated Anastasius, cardinal priest of St. Marcellus’s church, because he had neglected to reside in his parish. He received honorably Ethelwolph, king of England, who, in 854, made a pilgrimage to Rome.

Pope Leo directed to all bishops and pastors a Homily on the Pastoral Care, published by Labbe from the Vatican manuscripts, and also extant in the Roman Pontifical. In it all the chief functions of the pastoral charge are regulated, and every duty enforced with no less learning than piety. Among other miracles performed by this holy pope, it is recorded that by the sign of the cross he extinguished a great fire in the city, which threatened the church of the prince of the apostles. He died on the 17th of July, 855, and Bennet III., priest of the church of St. Calixtus, was immediately chosen pope in his room.[197] He, with many tears, begged that so formidable a burden might not be laid on his shoulders, but could not prevail. Anastasius, the deposed priest, set up for pope, and procured the protection of the emperor Louis II.; but the steady unanimity of the people in the election of Bennet III., overcame this opposition, and he was consecrated on the 1st day of September in the same year, 855, as is related by Anastasius, who was then living, and shortly after (before the year 870) Bibliothecarian of the church of Rome, the most learned man and the most shining ornament of that age, as Dr. Cave allows him to have been. See Solier the Bollandist, t. 4, Jul. p. 302.

ST. TURNINUS, C.

Was a holy Irish priest and monk, who, coming with St. Foilan into the Netherlands, labored with unwearied zeal in bringing souls to the perfect practice of Christian virtue. The territory about Antwerp reaped the chief fruit of his apostolic mission. He died there about the close of the eighth century. His relics were translated into the principality of Liege, and are honorably enshrined in a monastery situated on the Sambre. See Colgan MSS. ad 17 Jul.

JULY XVIII.

ST. SYMPHOROSA.

AND HER SEVEN SONS, MARTYRS.

From their genuine Acts in Ruinart, c. 18. Some manuscripts attribute them to the celebrated Julius Africanus, who wrote a chronology from the beginning of the world to the reign of Heliogabalus, now lost, but commended by Eusebius as an exact and finished work. See Ceillier, t. 1, p. 668.

A. D. 120.

Trajan’s persecution in some degree continued during the first year of Adrian’s reign, whence Sulpicius Severus places the fourth general persecution under this emperor. However, he put a stop to it about the year 124, moved probably both by the apologies of Quadratus and Aristides, and by a letter which Serenius Granianus, proconsul of Asia, had written to him in favor of the Christians.[198] Nay, he had Christ in veneration, not as the Saviour of the world, but as a wonder or novelty, and kept his image together with that of Apollonius Tyanæus. This God was pleased to permit, that his afflicted church might enjoy some respite. It was, however, again involved in the disgrace which the Jews (with whom the Pagans at these times in some degree confounded the Christians) drew upon themselves by their rebellion, which gave occasion to the last entire destruction of Jerusalem in 134. Then, as St. Paulinus informs us,[199] Adrian caused a statue of Jupiter to be erected on the place where Christ rose from the dead, and a marble Venus on the place of his crucifixion; and at Bethlehem,[200] a grotto consecrated in honor of Adonis or Thammuz, to whom he also dedicated the cave where Christ was born. This prince, towards the end of his reign, abandoned himself more than ever to acts of cruelty, and being awaked by a fit of superstition, he again drew his sword against the innocent flock of Christ. He built a magnificent country palace at Tibur, now Tivoli, sixteen miles from Rome, upon the most agreeable banks of the river Anio, now called Teverone. Here he placed whatever could be procured most curious out of all the provinces. Having finished the building, he intended to dedicate it by heathenish ceremonies, which he began by offering sacrifices, in order to induce the idols to deliver their oracles. The demons answered: “The widow Symphorosa and her seven sons daily torment us by invoking their God; if they sacrifice, we promise to be favorable to your vows.”

This lady lived with her seven sons upon a plentiful estate which they enjoyed at Tivoli, and she liberally expended her treasures in assisting the poor, especially in relieving the Christians that suffered for the faith. She was widow of St. Getulius or Zoticus, who had been crowned with martyrdom with his brother Amantius. They were both tribunes of legions or colonels in the army, and are honored among the martyrs on the 10th of June. Symphorosa had buried their bodies in her own farm, and sighing to see her sons and herself united with them in immortal bliss, she prepared herself to follow them by the most fervent exercise of all good works.

Adrian, whose superstition was alarmed at this answer of his gods or their priests, ordered her and her sons to be seized, and brought before him. She came with joy in her countenance, praying all the way for herself and her children, that God would grant them the grace to confess his holy name with constancy. The emperor exhorted them at first in mild terms to sacrifice. Symphorosa answered: “My husband, Getulius, and his brother Amantius, being your tribunes, have suffered divers torments for the name of Jesus Christ rather than sacrifice to idols; and they have vanquished your demons by their death, choosing to be beheaded rather than to be overcome. The death they suffered drew upon them ignominy among men, but glory among the angels; and they now enjoy eternal life in heaven.” The emperor changing his voice, said to her in an angry tone: “Either sacrifice to the most powerful gods, with thy sons, or thou thyself shalt be offered up as a sacrifice together with them.” Symphorosa answered: “Your gods cannot receive me as a sacrifice; but if I am burnt for the name of Jesus Christ, my death will increase the torment which your devils endure in their flames. But can I hope for so great a happiness as to be offered with my children a sacrifice to the true and living God?” Adrian said: “Either sacrifice to my gods, or you shall all miserably perish.” Symphorosa said “Do not imagine that fear will make me change; I am desirous to be at rest with my husband, whom you put to death for the name of Jesus Christ.” The emperor then ordered her to be carried to the temple of Hercules, where she was first buffeted on the cheeks, and afterward hung up by the hair of her head. When no torments were able to shake her invincible soul, the emperor gave orders that she should be thrown into the river with a great stone fastened about her neck. Her brother Eugenius, who was one of the chief of the council of Tibur, took up her body, and buried it on the road near that town.

The next day the emperor sent for her seven sons all together, and exhorted them to sacrifice and not imitate the obstinacy of their mother. He added the severest threats, but finding all to be in vain, he ordered seven stakes with engines and pulleys to be planted round the temple of Hercules, and the pious youths to be bound upon them; their limbs were in this posture tortured and stretched in such manner that the bones were disjointed in all parts of their bodies. The young noblemen, far from yielding under the violence of their tortures, were encouraged by each other’s example, and seemed more eager to suffer than the executioners were to torment. At length the emperor commanded them to be put to death, in the same place where they were, different ways. The eldest called Crescens had his throat cut; the second called Julian was stabbed in the breast; Nemesius the third was pierced with a lance in his heart; Primativius received his wound in the belly, Justin in the back, Stacteus on his sides, and Eugenius the youngest died by his body being cleft asunder into two parts across his breast from the head down wards. The emperor came the next day to the temple of Hercules, and gave orders for a deep hole to be dug, and all the bodies of these martyrs to be thrown into it. The place was called by the heathen priest, _The seven Biothanati_; which word signifieth in Greek and in the style of art magic, such as die by a violent death, particularly such as were put to the torture. After this, a stop was put to the persecution for about eighteen months.[201] During which interval of peace the Christians took up the remains of these martyrs, and interred them with honor on the Tiburtin road, in the midway between Tivoli and Rome, where still are seen some remains of a church erected in memory of them in a place called to this day, _The seven Brothers_.[202] Their bodies were translated by a pope called Stephen, into the church of the Holy Angel in the fish-market in Rome, where they were found in the pontificate of Pius IV., with an inscription on a plate, which mentioned this translation.[203]

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St. Symphorosa set not before the eyes of her children the advantages of their riches and birth, or of their father’s honorable employments and great exploits; but those of his piety and the triumph of his martyrdom. She continually entertained them on the glory of heaven, and the happiness of treading in the steps of our Divine Redeemer, by the practice of humility, patience, resignation, and charity, which virtues are best learned in the path of humiliations and sufferings. In these a Christian finds this solid treasure, and his unalterable peace and joy both in life and death. The honors, riches, applause, and pleasures with which the worldly sinner is sometimes surrounded, can never satiate his desires; often they do not even reach his heart, which under this gorgeous show bleeds as it were inwardly, while silent grief, like a worm at the core, preys upon his vitals. Death at least always draws aside the curtain, and shows them to have been no better than mere dreams and shadows which passed in a moment, but have left a cruel sting behind them, which fills the mind with horror, dread, remorse, and despair, and racks the whole soul with confusion, perplexities, and alarms.

ST. PHILASTRIUS, BISHOP OF BRESCIA, C.

We know nothing of this saint’s country, only that he quitted it and the house and inheritance of his ancestors, like Abraham, the more perfectly to disengage himself from the ties of the world. He lived in perfect continency, and often passed whole nights in meditating on the holy scriptures. Being ordained priest he travelled through many provinces to oppose the infidels and heretics, especially the Arians, whose fury was at that time formidable over the whole Church. His zeal and lively faith gave him courage to rejoice with the apostles in suffering for the truth, and to bear in his body the marks of the stripes which he received by a severe scourging which he underwent for Jesus Christ. At Milan he vigorously opposed the endeavors of Auxentius, the impious Arian wolf, who labored to destroy the flock of Christ there; and our saint was its strenuous guardian before St. Ambrose was made bishop of that city. He afterward went to Brescia, and finding the inhabitants of that place savage and barbarous, almost entirely ignorant in spiritual things, yet desirous to learn, he took much pains to instruct them, and had the comfort to see his labors crowned with incredible success. He rooted out the tares of many errors, and cultivated this wild soil with such assiduity that it became fruitful in good works. Being chosen the seventh bishop of this see, he exerted himself in the discharge of all his pastoral functions with such vigor as even to outdo himself; and the authority of his high dignity added the greater weight to his endeavors. He was not equal in learning to the Ambroses and Austins of that age; but what was wanting in that respect was abundantly made up by the example of his life, his spirit of perfect humility and piety, and his unwearied application to every pastoral duty; and he is an instance of what eminent service moderate abilities may be capable of in the Church, when they are joined with an heroic degree of virtue.

To caution his flock against the danger of errors in faith, he wrote his Catalogue of Heresies, in which he does not take that word in its strict sense and according to the theological definition; but sometimes puts in the number of heresies certain opinions which he rejects only as less probable, and which are problematically disputed; as that the witch of Endor evoked the very soul of Samuel.[204] He everywhere breathes an ardent zeal for the Catholic faith. St. Gaudentius extols his profound humility, his meekness, and sweetness towards all men, which was such that it seemed natural to him to repay injuries only with kindness and favors, and he never discovered the least emotions of anger. By his charity and patience he gained the hearts of all men. In all he did he sought no interest but that of Jesus Christ; and sovereignly contemning all earthly things he pursued and valued only those that are eternal. Being most mortified and sparing in his diet and apparel, he seemed to know no other use of money than to employ it in relieving the poor; and he extended his liberality, not only to all that were reduced to beggary, but also to tradesmen and all others, whom he often generously enabled to carry on, or when expedient to enlarge their business. Though he communicated himself with surprising charity and goodness to all sorts of persons of every age, sex, and condition, he seemed always to receive the poor with particular affection. He trained up many pious and eminent disciples, among whom are named St. Gaudentius, and one Benevolus, who in his life was a true imitator of the apostles; and being afterward preferred to an honorable post in the emperor Valentinian’s court, chose rather to lay it down than to promulgate a rescript of the empress Justina in favor of the Arians. St. Austin saw St. Philastrius at Milan with St. Ambrose, in the year 384.[205] He died soon after, and before St. Ambrose, his metropolitan, who after his death placed St. Gaudentius in the see of Brescia. This saint solemnized every year with his people the day on which his master St. Philastrius passed to glory, and always honored it with a panegyric; but of these discourses only the fourteenth is extant. See the life or encomium of St. Philastrius by St. Gaudentius, published by Surius. Also the accurate history of the church of Brescia, entitled Pontificum Brixianorum series commentario historico illustrata, opera J. H. Gradonici. C. R. Brixie, 1755, t. 1.

ST. ARNOUL, BISHOP OF METZ, C.

Among the illustrious saints who adorned the court of king Clotaire the Great, none is more famous than St. Arnoul. He was a Frenchman, born of rich and noble parents; and, having been educated in learning and piety, was called to the court of king Theodebert, in which he held the second place among the great officers of state, being next to Gondulph, mayor of the palace. Though young, he was equally admired for prudence in the council and for valor in the field. By assiduous prayer, fasting, and excessive alms-deeds, he joined the virtues of a perfect Christian with the duties of a courtier. Having married a noble lady called Doda, he had by her two sons, Clodulf and Ansegisus; by the latter the Carlovingian race of kings of France descended from St. Arnoul. Fearing the danger of entangling his soul in many affairs which passed through his hands, he desired to retire to the monastery of Lerins; but being crossed in the execution of his project, passed to the court of king Clotaire. That great monarch, the first year in which he reigned over all France, assented to the unanimous request of the clergy and people of Metz, demanding Arnoul for their bishop. Our saint did all that could be done to change the measures taken, but in vain. He was consecrated bishop in 614, and his wife Doda took the religious veil at Triers. The king obliged Arnoul still to assist at his councils, and to fill the first place at his court. The saint always wore a hair shirt under his garments; he sometimes passed three days without eating, and his usual food was only barley and water. He seemed to regard whatever he possessed as the patrimony of the poor, and his alms seemed to exceed all bounds. His benevolence took in all the objects of charity, but his discretion singled out those more particularly whose greater necessities called more pressingly upon his bounty.