THE SIXTH DAY OF AUGUST.

THE SAINTS WHO ARE VENERATED ON THE EIGHTH OF THE IDES OF AUGUST.

St. Sixtus II, Pope and Martyr, at Rome.

St. Quartus, Martyr, at Rome.

St. Felicissimus, Martyr, at Rome.

St. Agapitus, Martyr, at Rome.

St. Januarius, Martyr, at Rome.

St. Vincent, Martyr, at Rome.

St. Magnus, Martyr, at Rome.

St. Stephen, Martyr, at Rome.

The Holy 165 Martyrs, at Rome.

St. Justus, Martyr, at Complutum.

St. Pastor, Martyr, at Complutum.

St. Hormisdas, Pope and Confessor, at Rome.

St. James the hermit, at Amida in Mesopotamia.

The Holy 200 Martyrs of Cardeña, near Burgos in Spain.

St. Stapinus, confessor, or Bishop of Carcassonne in Gaul.

St. Gezzelinus or Gitzelinus, not far from Cologne.

St. Chremes, Abbot and confessor, in Sicily.

Blessed Schetzelo, in the territory of Luxembourg in Belgium.

PASSED OVER AND DEFERRED TO OTHER DAYS.

Bida of Louvain, in the Vale of Roses near Mechelen, is wrongly added to Greven on this day in the Charterhouse of Brussels. Treatment of her has been given with sufficient pains on 13 April.

Sts. Cunegund, Mechtund and Wibrand, virgins, found on this day by Bollandus in the book called the Cabinet, belong to the day on which treatment of them has been given, 16 June.

St. Sexburga, queen and widow, Bollandus found wrongly marked on this day. She belongs to the day on which we treated of her, 6 July.

St. Margaret, widow, Bollandus indicated on this day from the book under the title Cabinet: I think the one of San Severino is meant, entered by Baronius on 27 August, but of whom treatment has been given by us on the preceding day, 5 August.

St. Afra, marked by some Hieronymian codices and by Notker, belongs to the preceding day, 5 August.

When Ferrarius marked St. Eusagnius, soldier and martyr, on this day, he meant to say Eusignius; to whom most of what he says applies, but who belongs to the preceding day, on which we treated of him, 5 August.

"On Mount Tabor, the Transfiguration of our Lord Jesus Christ," is announced on this day in the Roman Martyrology and in all the Fasti of the Eastern church. But we have referred the feasts of Christ and of the Mother of God to another work, to be treated by those who come after us.

Alexander, monk, Confessor, is entered in Wilson's English Martyrology at the cloister of Foigny, or Fusniacum, in the bishopric of Laon, and the Life of St. Mechtild his sister is cited; since our predecessors did not dare to ascribe her to the Saints at 12 April, we refer readers to what was said there among the Passed Over. What Ferrarius meant when he placed him in Scotland I shun inquiring: nor do the things which Camerarius records at length on this day seem to deserve any more attention.

Thomas, a monk slain by the French at Dover, or, as he himself says, at Donoria, Capgrave inserted into his English Legend as a martyr, recounting some virtues and miracles; whence Menard too, and from Nicholas Harpsfield, took his material in his Benedictine Martyrology. His deserved eulogies I gladly admit; it only remains that I be informed of a cult ever shown to him.

"In England, the commemoration of very many monks, illustrious for sanctity, who at Scarborough shone with frequent miracles both in life and after death, and were venerated by the people with the greatest devotion." These are the words of the Cistercian Menologium of Chrysostom Henriquez; of them Chalemot is silent, substituting in their place

Achard, monk of Clairvaux, of whose cult, or that of the others, nothing has so far become known to us.

The memory of Acta, bishop of Candida Casa in Galweia or Galloway in Scotland, is known, as far as I know, to no one in the sacred Tables; except in the all too general Catalogue of Ferrarius, supported only by the Scottish Menologium of Dempster, of how much authority both of these are has often been said elsewhere. We seek weightier monuments by which we may be made more certain about his cult.

Bertha of Biburg in Bavaria also comes forth from the same storehouse of Ferrarius, from no other Martyrologies; and he himself was accordingly the first to honour her with the title of Blessed, praised in the Bavarian monuments which he cites, unless perhaps he followed Rader in Bavaria sancta: certainly Arthur ascribed her to his Gynaeceum. That this illustrious Bertha is venerable on very many titles we readily admit, but that she enjoyed the true honours of the Saints we have so far been unable to find.

Avendris or Evendris, bishop and martyr at Cagliari in Sardinia, is recorded on this day by Ferrarius alone in the general Catalogue, citing the Tables of the church of Cagliari, which he had lately received from that city. What our predecessors long ago thought of those Tables you have in volume V of May, from page 219 *. This I certainly dare, nay I am bound, to ask, that more certain monuments of this Avendris be suggested to us, which it has not yet been possible to find in the Sanctuary of Esquirro.

Fulco, bishop of Soissons, is honoured by Ferrarius with the honours of the Saints from I know not what Tables of the church of Soissons; which it is a wonder that Dormay was ignorant of when reviewing the bishops, as also the Sainte-Marthe brothers in Gallia Christiana, and Saussay in the great Gallican Martyrology: in whom not the slightest indication of Fulco's sanctity occurs.

Maurinus likewise, bishop of Auxerre, the same Ferrarius brings forward, whom we have also already passed over elsewhere.

Goderann is honoured only with the title of Venerable in the Benedictine Acta, saeculum VI, part 2, page 315.

Cassian and Masculinus, or Cassanus and Maslininus, are entered variously and on various days in our printed Irish Kalendars. But enough has been said of these among the Passed Over of the preceding day.

Diego de Landa, bishop of Yucatán in the West Indies; Francis, confessor, at Fabriano in the March of Ancona; Jerome of Misuraca, confessor, at Sturni in Calabria; George Quadrus, confessor, in Portugal; Peter of Hope, confessor, in Spain; Frances, abbess, at Belalcázar in the territory of Córdoba: these are entered with the title of Blessed by Arthur in the Franciscan Martyrology, and the last also in the Gynaeceum.

The same, but more modestly, Hueber enters in the Menologium, adding besides

John Puteanus at Louvain in Brabant.

John of Michael at Tornquetum in the West Indies.

John Baptist Blancardi at Turin in Savoy.

Cunegund, duchess of Austria, at Munich in Bavaria.

Arthur adds in the Gynaeceum, besides those whom we have already mentioned, Stephania, matron, at Rome, whom he also honours with the title of Blessed, as also some Anonymous woman in Brabant.

"Of St. Godscalsus, bishop, through whom the Lord deigned to exercise such great powers that he won the hearts of the rebellious no less by miracles than by preaching," is a not sufficiently clear announcement of our Ms. Florarium of the Saints. It indicates, if I am not mistaken, the bishop of Arras of the Premonstratensian Order, about whom, however, Molanus, Miraeus and indeed Raissius himself are deeply silent; so that light would have to be summoned from Saussay, who proclaims him as happy on the following day, 7 August, on which day too he is praised with the title of Blessed by John Chrysostom vander Sterre in the Natales of the Order. We dare to claim him for the Saints neither on this day nor on the following, until we are more certainly informed about his cult.

Joseph, bishop of Jerusalem and confessor, is marked on this day in our Ms. Florarium of the Saints. But before he is placed among the Saints, or on this day above all, other authority is needed, as Papebroch observed in the Chronological History of the Patriarchs of Jerusalem before volume III of May, pages IX and X.

Henry, bishop of Winchester, who ended his life in the year 1171, Ferrarius very liberally marked on 9 January, on the 4th of this month, and also on this day: Bollandus indeed, among the Passed Over on 9 January, in good faith referred him, from the cited Ferrarius and Galesinius, to this day, which we too followed above at the 4th of this month, then not at all doubting that that celebrated Henry had not only deserved but also obtained the true honours of the Saints. Now that the matter has been weighed more attentively, I do not seem able to grant him a place here, because nowhere do any traces occur of any true cult once shown to him, which Whitford would certainly not have neglected in his Martyrology, nor would the Usuard of Utrecht have kept silent, being by no means sparing in recording English Saints. More recent writers invoke Sigebert; but he, although he heaps many praises on Henry, honours him only with the title of venerable. Wion marks him in no other way than with the name of Dom Henry. Nor does our Alford suggest more, frankly confessing that the place of burial was altogether unknown, so that at least no relics at all were ever exposed for veneration. Add that he would have him die not on this day, but on the 8th of this month, according to others the 9th. Whatever, therefore, Galesinius, Wilson and Ferrarius may have written, we do not think it lawful for us to ascribe the title of Saint or Blessed to Henry of Winchester.

John the Teuton, as the fourth master general of the Dominican Fathers, is ascribed with only the title of good memory in the Ms. additions of the Charterhouse of Brussels to Greven. Others, with Marchese, add the title of Blessed at 8 November. More rightly Echard abstains from every title of sanctity in the most recent Bibliotheca of the Saints of the Order, where his death is rightly marked on 4 November 1252.

Hippolyta of St. Mary, called by others "of Jesus," of the family, as they will have it, of Rocaberti, is rightly called a servant of God by Marchese on this day in the Dominican Diarium, with a long eulogy, or rather a Life collected from various sources. She is also marked in the Belgian Annus sanctus and in the German Viridarium, in which latter there follows

Teresa Benucci at Naples in San Domenico Maggiore, to whom, just as to the preceding, the title of Blessed has been prematurely ascribed.

Alan the Breton, general of the Carmelite Fathers, has a place in the Acies bene ordinata of Philip the Visitandine, where he contends that he has been called Blessed from time immemorial, about which we wish to be informed a little more certainly.

So too Philip Ribot, a Spaniard, is said in the same Acies to have always retained the title of sanctity. If sufficient proof is present, he will most certainly be inserted in our Work.

St. Albert the Carmelite is marked by our Ms. Florarium of the Saints on this day; but he is better entered by others on the following day, on which we shall treat of him, 7 August.

St. Hormisdas the Persian, on account of the sameness of name, I think, with the holy Pontiff entered today, is entered on this day by Greven, Molanus and Canisius; but his natal day is 8 August.

"Here, according to some, the memory of blessed Raphael the archangel," are the words of the additions of the Charterhouse of Brussels to Greven, whence they were taken I for my part do not conjecture: this is certain, that among the offices granted to the subjects of the king of Spain his festivity is kept on 24 October.

St. Leonard, abbot, we found marked on this day in the Usuardine codex of Chambéry, as you have it in the Auctaria; since we judge him to be the Aquitanian, disciple of St. Remigius, we have referred him to 6 November.

Bl. Hermann, of the Premonstratensian Order, and first provost of the monastery of Scheda in the duchy of Mark and the diocese of Cologne, not far from Arnsberg, wonderfully converted from Judaism to Christ, is found in our collection which we keep about him: where in the Ms. Life he is stated to have rested in peace in the year MCLXXIII, on the eighth day before the Ides of August. More recent writers of the same Order give the man the title of Blessed; namely John Chrysostom vander Sterre in his Natales, on the day 23 December; Le Paige in the Premonstratensian Bibliotheca, book 2, page 469, where he published a compendium of the Life, in which he affirms that he died on the day 23 December; Waghenare in his St. Norbert, Patriarch of the Premonstratensian Canons, page 150. Since, however, in the instructions sought in the year 1732, in which we write these things, about the cult of Hermann, and sent hither from Scheda, it was signified that no honours of public veneration are paid to him there, we did not judge it lawful for us to weave him in with the other Heavenly ones of our Work, until either sufficient arguments of public cult from time immemorial are supplied, or the authority of the Apostolic See intervenes. If that should happen, his Acts can be illustrated on the day on which we said above that he is noted, 23 December.

Columba, or rather Coluba, a virgin consecrated to God, is said to have been laid to rest on this day, in the consulship of Opilio, a most distinguished man, or in the year of Christ 453, in a very ancient epitaph which in the year 1717, in the little chapel of St. Columba placed on the topmost summit of the very old citadel and mount of Osoppo, in the territory of Friuli, the most illustrious D. Giusto Fontanini, archbishop of Ancyra, uncovered and afterwards illustrated with a learned Commentary, contending that the Columba noted in the epitaph is the same as that St. Columba in whose name the little chapel is dedicated, whose head is exposed there for public veneration and is carried about in procession every year on the second Sunday of the month of July, and who is finally invoked there from time immemorial as Virgin and Martyr. But whether she is the same or different, since no St. Columba is either commemorated in any Fasti on this day, or venerated in that very place (since there St. Columba, the tutelary patroness, has a movable feast, and indeed in the month of July), we think it better, until greater light shines from somewhere, to defer from here what can be said of her to the day on which the most celebrated and most ancient St. Columba, Virgin and Martyr, is venerated among the Senones, 31 December.