Part 26

He was nobly born at Sylviaco in the territory of Boulogne in Picardy. Renouncing the world in his youth, he entered himself a brother in the abbey of Hautmont in Haynault, where it was his employment to keep the cattle, and to hew wood for the community. He was distinguished for his eminent spirit of prayer, and being compelled by obedience to receive holy orders, was promoted to the priesthood. He after this obtained leave to live alone in a hermitage near mount Cassel, and afterward in 688 founded in a wood upon his father’s estate in Sylviaco in the Boulognois, the abbey of Samer, corruptly so called for St. Ulmar’s, at present of the Congregation of St. Maur. St. Ulmar founded a nunnery at Vileria, now Wiere aux bois, a mile from his own monastery, in which he placed his niece Bertana abbess. Ceadwalla, king of the West-Saxons, passing that way in his journey to Rome to receive baptism, conferred on St. Ulmar a notable largess toward carrying on his foundation. In close retirement in his hermitage near mount Cassel, the saint preserved himself always free from worldly passions by flying from the occasions which chiefly excite them, and by withdrawing from the great scene of earthly business, envy, avarice, and strife. Here shutting out the busy swarm of vain images which besets us in the world, he inured his mind to happy recollection and heavenly contemplation. In this sweet repose he daily advanced in fervor and divine charity till he was called to the joys of his Lord on the 20th of July, 710. He was glorified by miracles, and is named in the Roman and other Martyrologies on the 20th of July. On the 17th of June his relics were conveyed to Boulogne for fear of the plunder of the Normans; and from thence to the abbey of St. Peter’s at Ghent, where they were burnt by the fury of the Calvinists in the sixteenth century. See his life written soon after his death in Mabillon, Act. Bened. t. 3, p. 237; and more full, with new remarks, by Cuper the Bollandist, Jul. t. 5, p. 81.

ST. JEROM ÆMILIANI, C.

FOUNDER OF THE CONGREGATION OF REGULAR CLERGY OF SOMASCHA.

He was born at Venice of a patrician family; and, in the most troublesome times of the republic, served in the troops from his childhood. Whilst he was governor of the new castle in the mountains of Tarviso, he was taken prisoner, cast into a dungeon, and loaded with chains. His sufferings he sanctified by penance and prayer; and being delivered by the miraculous protection of the mother of God, arriving at Tarviso, he hung up his chains before an altar consecrated to God under the invocation of the Blessed Virgin, and, returning to Venice, devoted himself to the exercises of prayer and all virtues. At that time a famine and a contagious distemper having reduced many families to the greatest distress, he laid himself out in relieving all, but was particularly moved with compassion for abandoned orphans. These he gathered in a house which he hired, clothed and fed them at his own expense, and instructed them himself with unwearied zeal in the Christian doctrine and in all virtue. By the advice of St. Cajetan and others, he passed to the continent and erected like hospitals for orphans at Brescia, Bergamo, and other places; and others for the reception of penitent women. At Somascha, on the frontiers of the Venetian dominions, between Bergamo and Milan, he founded a house which he destined for the exercises of those whom he received into his Congregation, and in which he long resided. From this house it took its name; though it was sometimes called St. Mayeul’s, titular of a college at Pavia, which St. Charles Borromeo put under his direction.

The instruction of youth and young clergymen became also an object of his zeal in his foundations, and continues still to be in his institute. The brothers, during the life of the founder, were all laymen, and it was only approved as a pious Congregation. The holy founder died at Somascha on the 8th of February, 1537, of a contagious distemper which he had caught by attending the sick. He was beatified by Benedict XIV.; and canonized by Clement XIII. An office in his honor was appointed for the 20th of July, by a decree of the holy see published in 1769. Three years after his death, in 1540, his Congregation was declared a religious Order by Paul III., and confirmed under the rule of St. Augustine by St. Pius V. in 1571, and again by Sixtus V. in 1586. It has no houses out of Italy and the Catholic Swiss Cantons. It is divided into three provinces, of Lombardy, Venice, and Rome. The general is chosen every three years out of each province in its turn. See his life written in Latin by Aug. Turtura, Milan, 1620, 8vo., and Helyot, Histoire des Ord. Rel. t. 4, c. 33.

JULY XXI.

ST. PRAXEDES, VIRGIN.

She was daughter of Pudens, a Roman senator, and sister to St. Pudentiana, and in the days of pope Pius I. and the emperor Antoninus Pius, edified the church of Rome, by the bright lustre of her virtues. All her great riches she employed in relieving the poor and the necessities of the Church. By the comfort and succors which she afforded the martyrs she endeavored to make herself partaker of their crowns, and she lived in the assiduous exercise of prayer, watching, and fasting. She died in peace and was buried near her sister on the Salarian road. Bede and other martyrologists style her a virgin. An old _title_ or parish church in Rome bearing her name is mentioned in the life of pope Symmachus. It was repaired by Adrian I. and Paschal I., and lastly by St. Charles Borromeo, who took from it his title of cardinal.

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The primitive Christians lived only for heaven, and in every step looked up to God, regardless of all lower pursuits or meaner advantages that could interfere with their great design of knowing and loving him. This constant attention to God awed them in their retirements; this gave life and wings to their devotion, and animated them to fervor in all their actions; this carried them through the greatest difficulties and temptations, and supported them under all troubles and afflictions.

ST. ZOTICUS, M.

BISHOP OF COMANA IN CAPPADOCIA.

He first detected, zealously confuted, and condemned the errors and impostures of the Cataphryges or Montanists with their false prophecies, as Eusebius mentions. To this triumph over heresy and imposture he added the crown of martyrdom, which he received in the persecution of Severus, about the year 204. See Eusebius, b. 5, c. 16, and the ancient martyrologies.

ST. BARHADBESCIABAS, DEACON, M.

In the fifteenth year of the great persecution raised in Persia by king Sapor II., by the command of Sapor Tamsapor governor of Adiabene, Barhadbesciabas, the zealous deacon of the city of Arbela, was apprehended and put on the rack. Whilst he was tormented, the officers continually cried out to him, “Worship water and fire, and eat the blood of beasts, and you shall be immediately set at liberty.” But the blessed deacon Barhadbesciabas showed, by the cheerfulness of his countenance, that the interior joy of his happy soul overcame the torments he felt in his body. He often said to the judge, “Neither you nor your king, nor any manner of torments shall ever be able to separate me from the love of Jesus: Him alone have I served from my infancy to this old age.” The tyrant at length condemned him to be beheaded, and commanded Aghæus, an apostate Christian nobleman, to be his executioner. The holy deacon stood bound waiting with joy for the happy moment which was to associate him to the angels; but Aghæus trembled so as not to be able to give the blow. He struck, however, seven times at the martyr’s neck, and not being able to sever his head from his body, ran his sword into his bowels; of which wound the holy deacon expired soon after. The judge set guards to watch the blessed corpse; but two clerks carried it off in the night, and buried it after the Roman fashion. He suffered on the 20th day of the month of July, in the year 354, of Sapor II. 45. See his genuine Chaldaic acts in Assemani, t. 1, p. 129.

ST. VICTOR OF MARSEILLES, M.

The emperor Maximian, reeking with the blood of the Thebæan legion, and many other martyrs whom he had massacred in different parts of Gaul, arrived at Marseilles, the most numerous and flourishing church in those provinces. The tyrant breathed here nothing but slaughter and fury, and his coming filled the Christians with fear and alarms. In this general consternation, Victor, a Christian officer in the troops, went about in the night time from house to house visiting the faithful, and inspiring them with contempt of a temporal death and the love of eternal life. He was surprised in this action, so worthy a soldier of Jesus Christ, and brought before the prefects Asterius and Eutychius, who exhorted him not to lose the fruit of all his services and the favor of his prince for the worship of a dead man; so they called Jesus Christ. He answered, that he renounced those recompenses if he could not enjoy them without being unfaithful to Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, who vouchsafed to become man for our salvation, but who raised himself from the dead, and reigns with the Father, being God equally with him. The whole court heard him with tumultuous shouts of indignation and rage. However, the prisoner being a person of distinction, the prefects sent him to Maximian himself. The incensed countenance of an emperor did not daunt the champion of Christ; and the tyrant seeing his threats to have no effect upon him, commanded him to be bound hands and feet and dragged through all the streets of the city, exposed to the blows and insults of the populace. Every one of the heathens seemed to think it a crime not to testify their false zeal, by offering some indignity or other to the martyr. Their design was to intimidate the Christians, but the example of the martyr’s resolution served to encourage them.

Victor was brought back bruised and bloody to the tribunal of the prefects, who thinking his resolution must have been weakened by his sufferings, began to blaspheme our holy religion, and pressed him again to adore their gods. But the martyr filled with the Holy Ghost, and encouraged by his presence in his soul, expressed his respect for the emperor and his contempt of their gods, adding, “I despise your deities, and confess Jesus Christ: inflict upon me what torments you please.” The two prefects only disagreed about the choice of the tortures. After a warm contest Eutychius withdrew, and left the prisoner to Asterius, who commanded him to be hoisted on the rack, and most cruelly tortured a long time. The martyr, lifting up his eyes to heaven, asked patience and constancy of God, whose gift he knew it to be. Jesus Christ appeared to him on the rack, holding a cross in his hands, gave him his peace, and told him that he suffered in his servants, and crowned them after their victory. These words dispelled both his pains and his grief; and the tormentors being at last weary, the prefect ordered him to be taken down, and thrown into a dark dungeon. At midnight God visited him by his angels; the prison was filled with a light brighter than that of the sun, and the martyr sung with the angels the praises of God. Three soldiers who guarded the prison, seeing this light, were surprised at the miracle, and casting themselves at the martyr’s feet asked his pardon, and desired baptism. Their names were Alexander, Longinus, and Felician. The martyr instructed them as well as time would permit, sent for priests the same night, and going with them to the sea-side he led them out of the water, that is, was their godfather, and returned with them again to his prison.

The next morning Maximian was informed of the conversion of the guards, and, in a transport of rage, sent officers to bring them all four before him in the middle of the market-place. The mob loaded Victor with injuries, and would fain have compelled him to bring back his converts to the worship of their gods; but he said, “I cannot undo what is well done.” And turning to them he encouraged them saying, “You are still soldiers; behave with courage, God will give you victory. You belong to Jesus Christ, be faithful. An immortal crown is prepared for you.” The three soldiers persevered in the confession of Jesus Christ, and by the emperor’s orders were forthwith beheaded. Victor prayed in the mean time with tears that he might, by being united with them in their happy death, be presented in their glorious company before God; but after having been exposed to the insults of the whole city as an immovable rock lashed with the waves, and been beaten with clubs and scourged with leather thongs, he was carried back to prison, where he continued three days, recommending to God his martyrdom with many tears. After that term the emperor called him again before his tribunal, and having caused a statue of Jupiter, with an altar and incense, to be placed by him, he commanded the martyr to offer incense to the idol. Victor went up to the profane altar, and by a stroke of his foot threw it down. The emperor ordered the foot to be forthwith chopped off; which the saint suffered with great joy, offering to God these first fruits of his body. A few moments after, the emperor condemned him to be put under the grindstone of a handmill, and crushed to death. The executioners turned the wheel, and when part of his body was bruised and crushed, the mill broke down. The saint still breathed a little; but his head was immediately ordered to be cut off. His and the other three bodies were thrown into the sea, but being cast ashore were buried by the Christians in a grotto hewn out of a rock. The author of the acts adds, “They are honored to this day with many miracles, and many benefits are conferred by God and our Lord Jesus Christ on those who ask them through their merits.”

In the fifth century Cassian[241] built a great monastery near the tomb of this saint, which afterward received the rule of St. Bennet, but was afterward secularized by Benedict XIV. The relics of St. Victor remain in that church, the most ancient in all France, full of illustrious monuments of primitive saints. Some part of the relics of St. Victor was conveyed to Paris and laid in a chapel built in his honor, which soon after, in the reign of Louis VI., was enlarged, and the royal monastery of regular canons founded there, which bears the name of this saint, its glorious patron.[242] This institute and abbey were commenced by William of Champeaux, archdeacon of Paris, a man of eminent piety and learning, who having taught for many years rhetoric and theology, with extraordinary reputation, in the cloister of the cathedral, retired to this little chapel of St. Victor, then in the skirts of the town. There with certain fervent clergymen he lived in close solitude, assiduous prayer, and great austerity, allowing no other food to be served in his community but herbs, pulse, and roots, with bread and salt. By the pressing importunities of the bishop of Paris and other persons of distinction, he was obliged to resume his theological lectures, which he seems to have continued at St. Victor’s as F. Gourdan shows. Whence Rollin calls this monastery the cradle of the university of Paris. In favor of this holy institute king Louis VI. founded and built there a magnificent abbey, which still subsists in a most flourishing condition. Gilduin, a most holy man, was appointed first abbot, whilst William of Champeaux taught there, who in 1113 was consecrated bishop of Chalons on the Saone. Dying in 1121, according to his desire he was buried at Clairvaux, by St. Bernard, who had received at his hands the abbatial benediction.[243] See St. Victor’s genuine acts, which are not unworthy the pen of Cassian, to whom some ascribe them; but without grounds. They are published and much commended by Bosquet in the fourth tome of his History of the Church of France, p. 202. See also Tillemont, t. 4, Ceillier, t. 3, p. 366. Fleury, l. 8, n. 20. Rivet, Hist. Littér. t. 2, p. 231, and Cuper the Bollandist, t. 5, Jul. p. 135. F. Gourdan has compiled at length the life of St. Victor, with an account of many miracles wrought through his intercession, and a collection of many devout hymns and prayers in his honor, and other various memorials relating to this saint, in the seventh tome of his MS. history of the eminent men of the royal abbey of St. Victor at Paris. See also Oudin, t. 2. De Script. Eccl., p. 1138.

ST. ARBOGASTUS, BISHOP OF STRASBURG, C.

The Irish challenge this saint as a native of their island. The Scots also lay claim to him, and are supported by Richer’s Chronicle of Sens, written in the thirteenth century, and by the life of St. Florentius, his successor, though his acts say he was of a noble family in Aquitain. Travelling into Alsace he led an anachoretical life in the Sacred Forest (for this is the interpretation of the Teutonic name Heiligesforst), about the year 630. He was often called to the court of king Dagobert II., and by his interest promoted to the episcopal see of Strasburg. His acts relate, that not long after his exaltation he raised to life Dagobert’s son, killed by a fall from a horse; these acts call this prince Sigebert; his name is not recorded by the historians. Many other miracles are ascribed to this saint; who, assisted by the liberality of this king, enriched the Church of Strasburg with several large estates. King Dagobert bestowed on it, for his sake, the manor and town of Rufach, with an extensive country situated on both sides the river Alse or Elle, together with the old royal palace of Isenburg, residing himself at Kirchem near Molsheim. St. Arbogastus also founded, or at least endowed, several monasteries, the principal among which were Surburg and Shutteran: some say also Ebersheimunster; but the chief founder of this last was duke Athico, the father of St. Odilia, by the direction of St. Deodatus, bishop of Nevers. St. Arbogastus died, according to Bosch the Bollandist, in 678, the year before Dagobert offered the bishopric of Strasburg to St. Wilfrid, who was then on his journey to Rome. Upon his declining that dignity, it was conferred on St. Florentius. All writers on St. Arbogastus’s life mention that, in his last will, he ordered his body should be interred on the mountain which was the burial-place of malefactors. His will was complied with; but the church of St. Michael was afterward built upon the spot, and surrounded by a village called Strateburg. Near it was founded the abbey of St. Arbogastus, to which his body was translated with honor by his successor St. Florentius. See the life of St. Arbogastus which seems to have been written in the tenth age, published with remarks by F. Bosch, t. 5, Julij, p. 168.

JULY XXII.

ST. MARY MAGDALEN.

The illustrious penitent woman mentioned by St. Luke,[244] was, by her perfect conversion, an encouraging example and model of penitence to all succeeding ages. She is called the Sinner,[245] to express her pre-eminence in guilt. This epithet seems to imply that she led a lewd and disorderly life. The scandal of her debaucheries had rendered her name infamous throughout the whole city. Naim, Tiberias, or some neighboring place in Galilee, seems to have been the chief theatre of her disorders, at least at the time of her conversion. They took their rise from small beginnings; for no one becomes a great proficient in vice all at once. The fences of virtue are weakened by degrees before they are entirely broken down.

The steps by which young persons, like this sinner, are led into evil courses, are pointed out to us by our Divine Redeemer in the parable of the prodigal son. The source of all his misfortunes is a love of independence and of his own will. He is full of his own wisdom, and of a certain self-sufficiency; is an enemy to advice, the means to find out truth and to discover dangers. All who contradict his passions, or tell him the truth, are odious to him; the counsels of tender parents he calls interested; those of God’s anointed too severe and scrupulous; those of the old and experienced, cowardly and mean-spirited. Young persons, above all others, are in an age in which the devil prepares innumerable snares, the world lays many stratagems, and passions easily eclipse reason; and it behoves them infinitely to be strongly persuaded that their safety consists altogether in most sincere dispositions of humility, obedience, and docility. Tractableness and dutifulness towards superiors is the most essential virtue of that age, next to the obligation of religion, which we owe to God. Those companions, whose discourse and behavior tend to inspire a contempt of parents and other superiors, are of all pests the most dangerous to youth.

The prodigal son, blinded by his passions, thought himself prudent and strong enough to be his own governor and master, and flattered himself that his love of liberty and pleasure was not very criminal or unjust; but from this root all vices have sprouted up, and are not to be restrained by him who opens to them such a door by shaking off the happy yoke of subjection, which is the divine ordinance. Such is the strange disorder of that mischievous passion, that though the prodigal son lived in dignity and plenty, and enjoyed all temporal blessings and all the comforts of life without feeling its troubles or knowing its miseries, yet he was not content. His subjection to a good father was true freedom; he was the object of all his parent’s cares, and he reaped the fruit of all his labors. But so distempered was his soul, that the constraint of this tender guardian’s watchful eye seemed to embitter all his pleasures, and such an obedience appeared to him an insupportable burden and slavery, which therefore he would shake off to have no other law but his own will. This was his capital enemy, though he would not be so persuaded; and by indulging it he fostered a young tiger in his own bosom, which soon grew too strong for him and tore him to pieces. We are astonished at the quick progress which the passions make when once the bridle is let loose. The prodigal youth, seeing himself possessed of that dangerous liberty which he had so passionately desired, full of false joy at the prospect of imaginary happiness, went into a foreign country, to be at a greater distance from all troublesome advisers. His passions being so far yielded to, had no longer any bounds, and he denied his heart nothing of its irregular desires, being no longer master of himself. Unthinking and blinded he soon squandered away his fortune, without keeping any accounts, or knowing how it was spent; he was surprised to find his hands empty, and himself starving, and that he had not yet found those enjoyments which he had promised himself; instead of which he had met with nothing but shadows and miseries. Nevertheless, cleaving still to so treacherous a world, and yet entertaining desperate foolish hopes of finding happiness in it, he went on in the pursuit of his passions; and losing himself daily more and more in the mazes of sin, he was at length reduced to have no other company but that of the most filthy of beasts, and almost to perish with hunger at the heels of the hogs which he was condemned to serve and fatten.