Part 26

In 540, he founded the great monastery of Moville, where S. Columba spent a portion of his youth. After labouring with energy in Ireland, S. Finnian returned to Italy, where, according to the best authorities, he was made bishop of Lucca, in Tuscany, in which Church he is venerated under the name of Frigidian, or Fridian. During the twenty-eight years that he governed the see of Lucca, he built twenty-eight churches; the chief of these he dedicated to the three holy Levites, but it has since borne his name. He is said to have carried a huge stone towards the erection of the church, which none else could lift. It is still preserved in the church as a monument of his strength and zeal. S. Gregory the Great relates a story of his miraculous power. One day the river Arno had overflowed the country, devastating the fields. The saint ran a plough down to the flood, and it recoiled before the share.

The Italian annals give 588 as the year of his death; the annals of Ulster and Tigernach 589.

S. TETRICUS, B. OF LANGRES.

(A.D. 572.)

[Gallican Martyrology. Authority:--S. Gregory of Tours (542) his kinsman.]

S. Tetricus was the son of S. Gregory of Langres, whose life has been given on Jan. 4th. His mother's name was Armentaria. By her S. Gregory had two sons, Tetricus, who succeeded him in the see of Langres, and Gregory, the father of Armentaria, mother of S. Gregory of Tours, the historian, who has recorded all that we know of the life of his great-uncle. This is not much. The choice of the clergy and people fell on Tetricus as a successor to his father, almost unanimously moved thereto by the hopes that he would inherit the virtues of S. Gregory. Nor were these hopes frustrated. Tetricus ruled with prudence, and was a burning and a shining light in his diocese. One Sunday at Dijon, as the prelate was ministering in the Church of S. John, Chramn, the rebel son of king Clothaire, entered it, and besought that he might be allowed to consult the divine Oracles on the future. Three books were accordingly placed on the altar, the Prophets, the Gospel, and the Epistles; and the clergy prayed along with Chramn that the future might be unfolded to him. Then he opened the book of the Prophets, and lighted on the words of Isaiah, v. 4, 5. "What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? Wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes? And now, go to; I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard: I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up: and break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down." Then the book of Epistles was opened at the place, "When they say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape," 1 Thess. v. 3; and the book of the Gospels when interrogated gave the following answer, Matt. vii. 26, 27, "A foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house, and it fell: and great was the fall of it." Chramn went away much dispirited. Shortly after, hearing that his father was marching upon Dijon, he retired into Aquitaine, but being pursued by Clothaire, he fled into Brittany to Count Conovre. Shortly after Clothaire attacked them and defeated them in a battle in which the count fell. He then took his son and shut him up in a cottage with his wife and children, set fire to the place, and burnt them all.

S. EDWARD, K. M.

(A.D. 978.)

[Anglican Martyrologies, also modern Anglican Kalendar. Roman Martyrology. The elevation of his body, June 20th; his translation, Feb. 18th. Authorities:--The Chronicle of John of Brompton, Osbern of Canterbury, William of Malmesbury.]

In the year 975, King Edgar died, and was buried at Glastonbury. He had been twice married. His first wife was the beautiful Ethelfleda, who died shortly after the birth of her son Edward. After her death Edgar married, in 964, Elfrida, daughter of Ordgar, earl of Devonshire, and she became the mother of two sons by him, Edmund, who died young, and Ethelred. As soon as king Edgar was dead, Edward, who was thirteen years old, a good youth, upright in all his dealings, and fearing God, was elected to the crown, much to the discontent of Elfrida, who desired to see her son Ethelred on the throne.

In the year 979, when Edward was aged seventeen, he was murdered. Now, certainly he was not a martyr for the Christian faith, nor for right and truth in any shape; but he was a good youth, and was unjustly and cruelly killed, so people looked on him as a saint, and called him Edward the Martyr. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle greatly laments his death, and says that a worse deed had never been done since the English came into Britain. It does not, however, say who killed him, but only that he was killed at eventide, at Corfe Castle. Henry of Huntingdon says that king Edward was killed by his own people; Florence of Worcester, that he was killed by his own people by order of his step-mother, Elfrida. William of Malmesbury, in one part of his book, says he was killed by earl Elfhere, but this is improbable, as no reason for such an act appears. But in recording his death, Malmesbury attributes the crime to Elfrida, and tells the story thus:--

When Edward was elected, Elfrida hated him, because she wished her own son, Ethelred, to be king, and she ever sought how she might slay Edward. Now, one day the young king was hunting in Dorsetshire, hard by the castle of Corfe, where Elfrida and Ethelred her son dwelt. And the king was weary and thirsty, so he turned away alone from his hunting, and said, "Now will I go to rest myself at Corfe, with my step-mother Elfrida, and my brother Ethelred." So king Edward rode to the gate of the house, and Elfrida came out to meet him, and kissed him. And he said, "Give me to drink, for I am thirsty." And Elfrida commanded, and they brought him a cup, and he drank eagerly. But while he drank, Elfrida made a sign to her servant, and he stabbed the king with a dagger; and when the king felt the wound, he set spurs to his horse, and tried to join his comrades, who were hunting. But he slipped from his horse, and his leg caught in the stirrup, so he was dragged along till he died, and the track of his blood showed whither he had gone. And Elfrida bade that he should be buried in Wareham, but not in holy ground, nor with any royal pomp. But a light from heaven shone over his grave, and wonders were wrought there. But when the child Ethelred heard of his brother's murder, he began to cry and bewail him, for Edward had always been very kind to the little boy. His mother, stung by her conscience, and angry with him for his lamentations, rushed on the child to beat him, and having no stick at hand, she pulled a wax candle out of its socket, and thrashed him with it. But afterwards, when she heard of the mighty works which were done at the grave of king Edward, how the sick were healed, and the lame walked, she resolved to go and see the miracles with her own eyes. But when she mounted her horse to ride, the horse would not stir. So Elfrida's hard heart was shaken, and she became alarmed about her sin that she had committed, and she retired into the convent of Wherwell, that she might repent in ashes the wickedness she had done. The body was afterwards translated to the minster at Shaftesbury (June 20th).

S. Edward is usually drawn with a youthful countenance, having the insignia of royalty, with a cup in one hand and a dagger in the other. Sometimes he has a sceptre instead of the cup; and at other times a falcon, in allusion to his last hunt.

March 19.

S. JOSEPH, _Husband of the B. Virgin Mary, before_ A.D. 30. SS. QUINTUS, QUINTILLIUS, AND COMP., _MM. at Sorrento_. S. PANCHARIUS, _M. at Nicomedia, 3rd cent._ S. JOHN, _Ab. at Civita-di-Penne, near Spoleto, 4th cent._ S. LEONTIUS, _B. of Saintes in France, 6th cent._ S. LACTEAN, _Ab. in Ireland_, A.D. 622. SS. LANDOALD, P.C., AMANTIUS, D., AND ADRIAN, _M. at Wintershoven, in Belgium, 8th cent._ S. ALEMUND, _M. at Derby_, A.D. 800.

S. JOSEPH.

(BEFORE A.D. 30.)

[Roman Martyrology. His festival was ordered by pope Sixtus IV. to be observed as a double; Gregory XV. recommended its general observance by the faithful, and this recommendation was confirmed by Urban XIII., by bull in 1642.]

All we know for certain concerning S. Joseph, the husband of Mary the mother of God, is derived from the Holy Gospels. To him was confided the most precious treasure ever entrusted to man, the guardianship of Mary and Jesus, of the Mother and the Son of God; whence we may infer the great sanctity and merit of S. Joseph.

He was of the lineage of David, and therefore of royal race, but was poor, and gained his livelihood as a carpenter. According to S. Matthew his father's name was Jacob, according to S. Luke it was Heli, this discrepancy in the accounts is explained by the supposition that one of the genealogies represents the direct line of natural generation, the other the legal descent of royal prerogative. We are expressly told that he was a just man. On perceiving that his virgin wife was with child, he resolved secretly to put her away, for having lived with her in the purest relations, he knew that the child could be none of his; and by secretly divorcing her, he would spare her the scandal which would attach itself to her, for the world would regard her offspring as his son, and he alone would know that this was not the case.

But he was warned by God in a dream to believe in the innocence of his wife, and was told that she was to become the mother of the Son of God. Afterwards, when Herod sought the life of the young child, he took Him and His mother by night and fled with them into Egypt, till hearing that Herod was dead, in obedience to an angelic order, he returned to Palestine; but finding that Archelaus the son of Herod was reigning in Judea, he thought it imprudent to enter his dominions, and therefore settled at Nazareth. He and Mary went once every year to Jerusalem to offer their sacrifice in the temple, in obedience to the requirements of the law, and on one of these occasions Jesus accompanied them. The child Jesus grew up under the care of Joseph, assisting him in his shop. It is believed that Joseph died before our Lord began his ministry; for we hear of him no more.

The girdle of S. Joseph is said to be preserved among the sacred treasures of the church of Joinville, in the diocese of Langres.

S. PANCHARIUS, M.

(3RD CENT.)

[Roman Martyrology and Greek Menæa. Authority:--The account in the Menæa.]

Pancharius, a young Christian, well-favoured, and active, having gained the favour of the emperor Maximian, became his secretary. His mother and sister, hearing this, were filled with anxiety lest his soul should be imperilled. They therefore wrote to him a letter urging him not to be ashamed of Christ, and to remember that it profits a man little to gain the whole world if he lose his own soul. On reading this letter, Pancharius was moved, and lifting up his voice he prayed to God, "Have mercy upon me, Almighty God, and bring not thy servant to confusion in the face of men and angels, but according to thy great mercy, spare me." Some one overheard this prayer, and told the emperor that his favourite was a Nazarene. The emperor sent for him and asked him if this were true. Then the young man confessed that he was. The emperor urged him to renounce his religion. But as Pancharius refused, he ordered him to be scourged, and sent to Nicomedia to be tried and sentenced by the governor. At Nicomedia he was subjected to fresh interrogation, but maintaining his constancy, was condemned to execution by the sword.

S. JOHN, AB. AT CIVITA-DI-PENNE.

(4TH CENT.)

[Usuardus, Ado, Notker, some copies of Bede's Martyrology, and the Roman Martyrology. Authority:--An ancient life published by the Bollandists, but evidently founded on tradition.]

The life of this saint shall be translated from the original, as it deserves, from its quaint simplicity and freshness.

"It fell out in those days that as the blessed John was going forth from Syria, he prayed, saying, 'Lord God of heaven and earth, God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and of our Fathers, who madest heaven and earth with all their adornments, who by a word didst suspend the sea, who didst close the abyss and sign above it gloriously, whose mighty name all things revere, and before the face of whose virtue all things quake; I pray Thee, who art the true light, illumine me hoping in thee, and make my way prosperous before me, in which I go, and let this be to me for a sign that there I should rest, when that person to whom I give my psalter shall not return it to me the self-same day.'

"And it came to pass that he came to Italy, and was near to the metropolitan city (of Spoleto) and had gone about five miles into the Angellan farm, when he met with a certain handmaiden of God, and he gave to her his psalter. And afterwards he asked the handmaid for it again, and she said, 'Servant of God, whither goest thou? Tarry here, and go thy way to-morrow.' And when they had long spoken, she insisted that he should remain there that night; so he remained. And the blessed John remembered his prayer that he had made, and he said in his heart, 'Verily this is what I besought of the Lord; here will I dwell.'

"So when the morning came, having received his psalter again, he went forth no more than four bow-shots. And, behold! an angel of God appeared to him, and went before him, and when they came to the place, the angel said to him, 'Sit down here, servant of the most high God, for the Lord hath commanded thee to dwell here,' and so saying, he led him under a tree and said, 'Here shalt thou have a great congregation, and find rest.' Then S. John, the Confessor of Christ, sat down under the tree.

"Now it was the month of December, and according to the custom of the month, it froze hard, and all the ground was stiff; but the tree under which the blessed John reposed, blossomed as the lily. And at that time hunters went by, and they found him sitting under the tree, and they thought that he was a spy, and they questioned him, saying, 'Whence comest thou?' Then the blessed John told them all, and how he had come to Italy. So they marvelled greatly, for they had never seen a habit like his. But he said to them, 'Do not, my sons, do not harm me, for I have come here in the service of Jesus Christ.'

"Then they observing the tree, that it shone as a lily, knew that the Lord was with him, and they told all things to the bishop of Spoleto. And when bishop John heard this, he was filled with great joy, and he hasted, and went to where the blessed John was praying. And when they saw one another, for joy they wept. And all that were present gave glory to God. Now through the mercy of God many people were collected there, and he built a monastery, and he lived therein all the rest of the days of his life. And he was there forty and four years, and he fell asleep in peace, and was buried with hymns and songs, where he reposes to this day, and there the blind receive their sight, devils are expelled, lepers are cleansed, and the divine offices are there performed to the present day, through the assistance of Jesus Christ, our Lord, who liveth and reigneth, through ages. Amen."

S. LACTEAN, AB. OF CLON-FERT.

(A.D. 622.)

[Irish Martyrologies. Authority:--A fragmentary life published by the Bollandists, based on tradition.]

The legend of this saint comes under the same category as so many of the other Irish legends. It exists only in fragments, and was written several hundreds of years after the death of S. Lactean, from oral tradition. It shall be given without any attempt at sifting truth from fable, as a specimen of these Irish biographies.

An angel appeared to S. Molua (d. about 608), monk of Banchor, in Ireland, when he was wondering who would become his pupil, and announced to him that after the lapse of fifteen years a child would be born, who would become his disciple. And for those fifteen years Molua did not laugh, being instant in expectation. Now there was a man in Munster named Torphur, who had a wife named Senecha, and she was with child. And before the child was born, her breasts filled with milk. An old man, named Mohemath, passed by, and he was blind. Then Senecha struck his eyes with her milk, and his eyes opened, and he saw so plain that the city of Rome, bathed in clear light, was visible instantly to his so long darkened orbs.

Now when Lactean was born, Mohemath was near at hand. And the place was without water. So Mohemath took the finger of the new-born babe, and with it signed a cross on the earth. Then instantly a fountain burst forth, and therein Lactean was baptized. And when Lactean was a month old, he was taken to S. Alpheus, to be rebaptized, but when he saw the child full of the grace of God, he knew that he had already been bathed in the laver of regeneration, and, therefore, he refused to repeat the sacrament. Also there was in that country a grain, which acted on whomsoever ate thereof as an emetic, but the infant Lactean was fed thereon, and was none the worse, for indeed nothing injured him. Now a grievous murrain broke out amongst the cattle of his father, and they died. But there was a white cow with a red face, on whose milk Lactean was nourished, and this cow died. Then the child was carried in his mother's arms to the dead cow, and it recovered, and her milk was distributed amongst the other cows, and they recovered of their disorder.

Now when Lactean was aged fifteen, the angel Muriel, who was commissioned to be his guardian, led him to Banchor, and S. Comgal gave him to be the pupil and companion of S. Molua, who instructed him in letters and the reading of the Divine Scriptures.

Afterwards Lactean went to S. Mochuda, and as he drew nigh, he sent and asked Mochuda for milk. Then Mochuda filled a vessel with pure water, and signed it, and it became milk, but Lactean took it, and signed it again, and it was reconverted into water. Afterwards Lactean founded the abbey of Clonfert, and he died in the odour of sanctity.

It is evident that his name was the occasion of so many milky legends attaching themselves to it.[66]

[66] Baine is the common Irish for milk, but there is a Welsh word, probably adopted from the Latin, Llæth, which means milk.

Colgan has confounded this S. Lactean with another of the same name, a contemporary of S. Senan of Iniscatthy, from whom the church of Lis-lachtin, in Kerry, took its name, and who died about the year 560. The S. Lactean of Clonfert belonged to the house of Corpre Muse, of Muskerry, Cork, and was a friend of S. Mochoemog (Pulcherius), abbot of Achadur (Aghour), in Kilkenny.

SS. LANDOALD, P., AMANTIUS, D., AND ADRIAN, M.

(8TH CENT.)

[Belgian Martyrologies. S. Landoald is venerated especially at Ghent. Also Roman and Gallican Martyrologies. The translation of S. Landoald is commemorated on Dec. 1st, and the elevation on June 13th. The original Acts were lost in 954, and by order of Notker, B. of Liege, new ones were compiled in 981, by one Herdger, abbot of Lobie, who died 1007.]

S. Amandus having resigned the see of Maestricht into the hands of S. Remacle, to resume his first vocation of mission work in the Low Countries, went to Rome to obtain the approval of his design by pope Martin. The pope not only approved of it, but gave him Landoald, a priest of the Roman Church, of Lombard family, to accompany and assist him in his work. S. Amandus was also joined by the deacon Amantius. They left Rome, and after visiting some of the monasteries of France, arrived in the country between the Meuse and the Scheldt, where S. Remacle met S. Amandus, and persuaded him to allow him to keep Landoald with him to assist him in the work of evangelising his diocese. Landoald had a large field for the exercise of his zeal in the diocese of Maestricht, only partially converted to the faith. A rich man named Aper gave him a piece of land at Wintershoven, on the river Herck, to the west of Maestricht, where he built a church, which he dedicated to S. Peter, in 659. Landoald continued his labours under S. Theodard, the successor of S. Remacle, making Wintershoven his head-quarters, and sending from time to time one of his little community to Maestricht to beg. One of his disciples, Adrian by name, was returning from his quest of alms, when he was waylaid by some robbers, and murdered. S. Landoald did not long survive him, and there is reason to believe that he died before S. Lambert succeeded, in the see of Maestricht, to S. Theodard, who was martyred in 668. He was buried in the church of Wintershoven, but his body was taken up in 735, and transported into Maestricht, but from fear of the Normans it was concealed, and taken up again along with the bodies of S. Amantius and S. Adrian, by Euraculus, bishop of Liége, but they were claimed by the monks of S. Bavo, at Ghent, who were proprietors of Wintershoven, and the bodies were translated to Ghent in 980.

S. ALKMUND, M.

(A.D. 800.)

[Anglican Martyrologies. Authorities:--Florence of Worcester, William of Malmesbury, Simeon of Durham, and Thurgot of Durham.]

A great discrepancy exists in the accounts given of this saint. Malmesbury is certainly not to be trusted in his relation, and we must follow the account of Simeon of Durham. Ceolwulf, king of Northumbria, abdicated in 737, and was succeeded by Egbert, who was succeeded in 758 by his brother Osulf, who was killed in 759, leaving a son, named Ethelwald. He was succeeded, not by his son Ethelwald, but by another Ethelwald, surnamed Moll, who was banished in 765, when Alcred, son of Eanwin, a descendant of Ida, came to the throne. He was banished in 774, and the crown rested on the head of Ethelred, son of Ethelwald Moll, who was banished in 779, and succeeded by Ethelwald, son of Osulf. But this Ethelwald was killed in 788, whereupon Osred, son of Alcred, came to the throne. Osred's younger brother was S. Alkmund, the subject of this memoir. But Osred was deposed, in 790, by Ethelred, son of Ethelwald Moll, who had been exiled in 779, and this king put Osred to death in 792; and Alkmund, in 800, was murdered by order of king Eardulf, who came to the throne in 797, after the assassination of Ethelred in 796.

Alkmund had spent some years in banishment among the Picts, and was loved and revered for his spotless innocence and gentleness in a period of crime and violence. Harpsfield, following Radulph Diceto, says Alkmund fell in battle against the West Saxons, which is certainly wrong. He also makes Alkmund the son of Ethelred, which is also a mistake; and Malmesbury calls his father Alfred. The name probably was Alcfred.

S. Alkmund was buried at Lilleshut, in Shropshire, but his body was afterwards translated to Derby, and he is honoured as the patron of that town.

March 20.