St. Perpetua, wife of St. Peter, martyr at Rome.
St. Philologus, disciple of St. Paul.
St. Patrobas, disciple of St. Paul.
St. Nicander, bishop of Myra, martyr at Myra in Lycia.
St. Hermas, presbyter, martyr at Myra in Lycia.
St. Porphyrius, mime, martyr at Caesarea in Cappadocia.
St. Primus, martyr in Africa.
St. Caesarius, martyr in Africa.
St. Gregory, martyr in Africa.
St. Porphyrius, martyr in Africa.
St. Saturus, martyr in Africa.
St. Amantus, martyr in Africa.
St. Publius, martyr in Africa.
St. Secunda, martyr in Africa.
St. Victorina, martyr in Africa.
St. Perpetua, martyr in Africa.
St. Victor, martyr in Africa.
St. Quartus, martyr in Africa.
St. Agricola, martyr at Bologna.
St. Vitalis, martyr at Bologna.
St. Domninus, martyr at Nicaea.
St. Pierius, presbyter of Alexandria.
St. Lusor, confessor in the territory of Bourges.
St. Florus, bishop of Lodève.
St. Amantius, bishop of Rodez
St. Naamatius, deacon of Rodez
St. Proculus, bishop of Autun.
St. Perpetuus, bishop of Maastricht.
St. Modesta, abbess of Trier.
St. Tigernach, abbot in Ireland.
St. Ioannicius, monk in Bithynia.
St. Clarus, hermit and martyr in the Vexin.
St. Birnstan, bishop of Winchester.
St. Gregory, abbot of Burtscheid near Aachen.
St. Emeric, duke, son of St. Stephen king of the Hungarians.
St. Girard, monk of Angers.
Bl. Helena Enselmini, nun at Padua.
Bl. Julian Cesarello, of the Order of Minors, at Valle in Istria.
Bl. Frances of Amboise, duchess of Brittany.
St. Charles Borromeo, archbishop of Milan.
The ecstasy of Abimelech, which, if credit is to be given to an apocryphal little work written in Ethiopic See it in Dillmann, Chrestomathia aethiopica, pp. VIII – X; 1 – 15. and in Greek [Edited by the renowned Ceriani in the Paralipomena of Jeremiah, and lately by J. Rendel Harris, The Rest of the Words of Baruch, cf. Bulletin critique, 1890, pp. 261 – 3, and by A. Vassiliev, Anecdota graeco-byzantina, part 1, pp. 308 – 16.], took place in the time of the Babylonian captivity, is celebrated today in the Synaxarion of the Greeks. The formula of this feast is handed down as follows in Bartholomew of Koutloumousiou Μηναῖον τοῦ Νοεμβρίου. Venice, 1843, pp. 30 – 2.: Τῇ αὐτῇ ἡμέρᾳ διήγησις εἰς τὸν θρῆνον τοῦ προφήτου Ἱερεμίου περὶ τῆς Ἱερουσαλήμ, καὶ εἰς τὴν ἅλωσιν ταύτης, καὶ περὶ τῆς ἐκστάσεως Ἀβιμέλεχ. Since these things belong above all to the class of fables, it is enough to have indicated them here.
The deposition of Amandus, bishop of Rennes, is announced today among the Tournai additions to the martyrology of Pseudo-Bede See Act. SS., March vol. III, p. XXVII. and by Galesini, who calls him Amantius. He will be treated on the 13th day of November. But some compilers of martyrologies seem to have been led to recall the memory both of him and of the other namesakes whom we review below by the likeness of their names to Amantius of Rodez, whose feast is in fact kept on this day.
Saussay appends an elogium of Amantius, bishop of Lodève, to the elogium of St. Florus, whose successor he is feigned to have been. Concerning him the authors of Gallia christiana, vol. VI, col. 527, rightly say: A certain more recent legend invents a St. Amantius, bishop of Lodève, and then afterwards prelate of the Ruteni in the fifth century, against the constant tradition among the Ruteni and the Life of St. Amantius himself.
Amantius, also called Amansius, Amausius, Amasius, Amandus, Amatus, third bishop of Reims [Cf. MG., Scr. vol. XIII, p. 381, and ibid., p. 417 (Flodoard, Hist. Rem. Eccl., I, 5).], is praised today among the saints in the general Catalogue of Ferrari and in the supplement of Saussay. Not even the ancient authors of Reims reckon him among the saints. His memory is noted today in a certain martyrology of St. Gall Cf. L. d'Achery, Spicilegium, vol. III, p. 427; 2nd ed., vol. II, p. 36, note o.; to him also seems to belong what an addition to Usuard has in a certain Brussels codex: At Reims the deposition of St. Gamas, bishop.
Amantius, presbyter of Tifernum, is noted today in the martyrology of Canisius and in the Catalogue of Saints by Peter de Natalibus, book X, chapter 22. He was treated on the 26th day of September, vol. VII, p. 274 – 6.
The translation of Abbot Angilbert is announced on this day in an ancient Usuardine codex of the abbey of Centula. It was treated on the 18th day of February, vol. III, p. 92; but it took place not on the 4th day of November but on the 5th, as Angilbert's own son, namely Nithard, testifies to us in book IV of his Histories, chapter 5.
Greven, in his edition of the Usuardine martyrology, numbers Bishop Annianus among the saints honoured with cult today. On him see at the 17th day of November.
Anso, eighth abbot of Lobbes, who was taken from among the living on the 14th day of November in the year 800 Act. SS. Belgii, vol. VI, p. 321, n. 12., is constantly called saint or blessed by Mabillon Act. SS. O. S. B., saec. III, part I, p. 568, 570.. But with Ghesquière Loc. cit., p. 369, n. 9. one may ask on what ground he does so, since he is not read as entered in any martyrology, nor is it found where he has a cult. Folcuin indeed says in the Deeds of the abbots of Lobbes MG., Scr. vol. IV, p. 59. that Anso was a good and holy man; yet he by no means reports that he was inscribed on the roll of the saints. Indeed, from the continuator of Folcuin's chronicle D'Achery, Spicileg., vol. II, p. 745., who relates that the provost Oibald, among other bodies of the just which he left as they had been found, came upon the body of Abbot Anso of holy memory, it is clear that this was done in secret, and not for veneration. Therefore, although Anso lived and died in great repute for holiness, whether a cult was ever given to him cannot be decided from any indication.
Bartholomew of Pisa, the distinguished author of the little work entitled On the Conformity of the Life of Blessed Francis to the Life of the Lord Jesus Christ our Redeemer, is announced today among the blessed in the new Franciscan martyrology. His name, however, is printed in that style of type in which are printed all those whom the Seraphic Order venerates with no liturgical cult. Moreover he seems to lack all public cult, since in the modern hagiographer of the diocese of Pisa, Giuseppe Sainati [Vite dei santi, beati e servi di Dio nati nella diocesi Pisana. Pisa, 1884, p. 323 – 25.], he is not distinguished even with the title of blessed. He is believed to have departed this life on the 10th day of December of the year 1401. Wadding treats of him in many places, but especially in vol. IX, p. 158 ff., at the year 1399.
The translation of Bassianus, bishop of Lodi, effected by the emperor Frederick on the day before the nones of November, is announced in Ferrari's Catalogue and in Gaetani Vitae sanctorum Siculorum, vol. I, p. 169., and this because, if Ferrari is to be trusted, this translation is inscribed on this day in the tables of the church of Lodi. Whatever is known of this matter has already been indicated in the Acts of St. Bassianus at the 18th day of January, vol. II, p. 221 – 2, nos. 5 – 10. Cf. the continuator of Acerbus Morena in MG., Scr. vol. XVIII, p. 642.
Certain more recent writers commemorate Bertila, abbess of Chelles, today; but she is venerated on the following day, that is, the 5th of November.
The Acts of the innumerable martyrs of Saragossa, who are celebrated today in the Hagenoy addition to Usuard, were treated on the third day of November, vol. I, p. 637 – 50.
Canan, priest, is announced on this day in the martyrology of Donegal, and Gildas follows immediately, whom the compiler of that same martyrology indicates was added by a second hand in the martyrology of Marianus O'Gorman. But in the one surviving copy of Marianus Royal Library of Brussels, mss. n. 5100 – 4. it reads thus: Gildas caid is canon, that is, Gildas is a holy canon; and above the word canon, which is marked by being underlined with a little line, there is written in another hand and in smaller letters the Irish word sacct or saccart, that is, priest. Therefore it seems altogether to be concluded that the mention of Canan the priest crept into the martyrology of Donegal through the inattention of Michael O'Clery, because, namely, he interpreted the common noun canon as the proper name of some saint. But who that Gildas, saint and canon, may be is wholly unknown to us.
SS. Clement, Primus, Cletus (elsewhere Laetus), Theodore, Gaudens, Quiriacus, Innocent, namely the seven sleepers, cousins of St. Martin of Tours, are assigned to this day in Molanus's edition of Usuard. But, as our Cuperus warned at the 28th day of July, vol. VI, p. 375, they are to be treated on the 12th day of November, on which they are said to have died and on which they are recorded in the Brussels Usuard. In Ferrari's general Catalogue of saints these seven holy sleepers are also placed on this day.
Colman, bishop of Cloyne in Munster, is recorded by Châtelain as having died and being venerated on this day. But Châtelain doubtless drew this from the treatise of James Ware On the Prelates of Ireland, or rather from Act. SS., vol. VII Sept., p. 146 D, where Ware's assertion is cited. But, as John O'Donovan rightly noted on the Annals of the Four Masters At the year 600, vol. I, p. 225, note d., Ware plainly erred: for that Colman did not die and is not venerated on the 4th day of November, but on the 24th day of the same month, where he will have to be treated.
St. Copres, an Egyptian monk and abbot, is well known from Rufinus, Hist. monach., chapter 9 P. L., vol. XXI, p. 422., from chapter LIV of the Lausiac History P. G., vol. LXXIII, p. 1164., from the Words of the Elders, book V, no. 24 Ibid., vol. LXXIII, p. 958., from the Apophthegmata Patrum Ibid., vol. LXV, p. 251., and besides through the historians Sozomen VI, 28, P. G., vol. XVII, p. 1371., Cassiodorus Hist. trip., book VIII; P. L., vol. LXIX, p. 1107. and Nicephorus XI, 34; P. G., vol. CXLVI, p. 694.. But I would not venture to affirm that he is the same either as the one of whom our predecessors have already spoken, vol. VI of September, p. 661, or as the one who appears today in the Synaxarion of the Ethiopian church. In Ludolf he is announced: Abba Kefri Ad hist. Aethiop. Comment., p. 397.; in the edition which A. Dillmann prepared Catalog. cod. manuscript. bibl. Bodl. Oxon., part VII, p. 44. one reads: The rest of Copronius, a religious; and the Paris copy of the Synaxarion, marked no. 126 among the Ethiopic codices of the national library, at folio 68v, records the memory of the same Copronius with a brief
summary of his Life Catal. des mss. éthiopiens de la bibl. nat., p. 162.. That summary chiefly concerns the deeds of Copres before he became a monk, which part of the course of his life was lacking in the Greek writers. The Ethiopian synaxarist teaches us that Copres was the son of a pagan prefect, to whom a certain monk named Mercurius, from the monastery of St. Pachomius, foretold that he too would embrace the monastic state. This prophecy was then fulfilled when Copres, sent with an army to destroy the monasteries of Egypt, came near the cenobium of St. Pachomius, and, suddenly converted, asked the superior of that monastery for the monastic habit. Abbot Copres, as is established from the cited passages of the Greek writers, holds no mean place among the monks of Egypt. Yet since neither the Greek church nor the church of the Copts has honoured him with any cult, and his name is not inscribed except in the calendars of the Ethiopians, and above all because what is handed down about him is of uncertain credit, it seemed good to review here what pertains to him.
SS. Dasius, Severianus, Andronas, Theonas, Theodotus, Theodota, who were treated on the 3rd day of November, return to the present day in several heortologies, especially Greek ones. Thus the menaia of Sirmond and also the Mazarine menaia record the memory of the martyrs Dasius, Severianus, Andronas and Theodotus; and in a manuscript codex of the Nani library and in the Greek synaxarion of the Laurentian library at Florence St. Theodota, martyr, is commemorated.
Doranus. I do not know through what inattention it happened that in the previous volume, at the 2nd day of November, in reviewing this saint among those passed over, we said that he is mentioned only in Ferrari Act. SS., vol. I Nov., p. 416 f., since he is announced both in Dempster's Scottish Menology and in Greven's edition of the Usuardine martyrology at that 2nd day, and in Camerarius's calendar at the 4th day. In Camerarius indeed he is called Saint Doravus, bishop; but it cannot be doubted that he is the same as the bishop whom Dempster marked at the 2nd day, saying that his memory is celebrated on that day: Likewise of Doranus, bishop; and Greven: In Ireland, of Doranus, bishop. For the rest, what we wrote of Ferrari Ibid. must also be said of Dempster, Camerarius and Greven, namely that their authority is not so great that we may rely on them alone, until we obtain more certain documents on the history and cult of that bishop, which have so far entirely escaped us.
The natal day of St. Dubricius, bishop of Llandaff, is referred to this day in Wilson's English martyrology, but in other martyrologies to the 14th day of November, on which he died, as is handed down in his Acts. To that day, too, it seems that the commentary on that saint must by all means be deferred by us.
St. Ebregisus, bishop of Maastricht, is honoured with an encomium on this day in the more recent editions of the hagiographical work of Alban Butler, yet for no other reason than that our Ghesquière had coupled his deeds and those of his predecessor Perpetuus in one and the same dissertation in the Acta Sanctorum Belgii. We treated Ebregisus at the 24th day of October, vol. X, p. 818 ff.
SS. Felix and Eusebius are cited on the present day only in the calendar of Essen, a German church of Cologne, of the ninth century Ed. Binterim, 1824, p. 22.. But their true feast day falls on the following day, on which they will also have to be treated.
The natal day of St. Felix, called of Valois, is announced today in the Roman martyrology; his festivity, however, comes to be celebrated on the 20th day of November; and therefore we defer him to that day, for this reason above all, that it has not yet befallen us to dig out from their hiding places those documents by whose help many of the obstacles in which we are now entangled might be thrown down with easy labour. And first, indeed, a long series of authors is adduced by the writers of the 16th and 17th centuries, some of whom are proclaimed contemporaries of Saints John of Matha and Felix, who are recorded to have written about the beginnings of the sacred religious order for the redemption of captives. Yet no one has seen them, so that Nicolás Antonio Antonio, Bibl. vetus Hisp., vol. II, p. 98. did not hesitate to apply this harsh censure to those asserters of the 16th century: Who will dare to blame the neglect of the times or the dishonesty of men? These things are probable when one author is in question, but they cannot be admitted of several. Next, there have not yet been produced either the letter which Innocent III gave to Odo, bishop of Paris, and Absalon, provost of Saint-Victor, that they should inquire into the life of Saints John and Felix, or their reply Cf. P. L., vol. CCXIV, p. 444.. But someone too will perhaps hold suspect the pontifical letters which are said to have been dated on the 15th of May Ibid., p. 215. and the 17th of December Ibid., p. 444. of the year 1198. For the former are concluded with this clause: We also decree that your houses, present and future, may not be changed by the rash presumption of anyone from that state in which you have ordained them by provident deliberation, namely for the redemption of captives or for the observance of your order and institution. But unless you correct the year, why then were Bishop Odo and the provost of Saint-Victor to be questioned, so that through them, as those who knew your desire more perfectly, we, being instructed concerning your intention and the fruit of your intention and the institution of the order and the manner of living, might be able to impart our assent to you more securely and effectively Ibid., vol. CCXVI, p. 507.? Next, it is strange that the pontiff, having omitted the counsel of the sacred college of cardinals, approved the rule and saw fit to add to the rule itself certain things of his own disposition and at John's petition. Moreover, from the documents which survive, John, it seems, first approached the pontiff in the month of May and informed him of his plan, and by the middle of December, after the Paris inquiry, the whole matter was concluded. Matters of this kind were usually handled more slowly in the Roman curia. Likewise other difficulties arise as well, if we compare with the letter given to John on the 15th of May of the year 1198 the letter which the same pontiff gave to the patriarch of Jerusalem in the fourteenth year of his pontificate, on the ides of January Ibid., vol. CCXIV, p. 504.. In this he makes careful mention of the supreme peril of eternal salvation in which captives find themselves; of this he is silent in the letter to John; nor in the letter to the patriarch does he mention the religious order of the most holy Trinity, although he asserts that he has exhorted the brethren of the Temple and of the Hospital, kings and princes, to be concerned with redeeming captives. Finally, this formula operante, used elsewhere also in the affair of the Trinitarians, is foreign to the Acts of Pope Innocent Ibid., p. 480..
Gamas, bishop of Reims. See above, Amantius.
The deposition of Genesius, bishop of Lyon, is announced today in some codices of the martyrology called Bede's. He was spoken of at the 1st day of November, vol. I, p. 352 – 6.
Gildas. See above, Canan.
The memory of Gregory, Arian archbishop of Alexandria, is made on the present day in the glossed Psalter under this formula: Of St. Gregory, hieromartyr. Fr. J. Martinov notes Annus eccl. gr.-slav., p. 269. that this was done contrary to the common usage of the calendars, since they record St. Gregory, archbishop of Alexandria, on the following day, not at all distinguished from today's martyr. Yet neither on the following day shall we treat of this Gregory, who is an intruded patriarch, deposed, as being an Arian, at the council of Sardica, concerning whom our Papebroch discoursed at length in Act. SS., at the 2nd day of May, vol. I. p. 207 – 11.
Haket, who departed this life in the year 1185, who was successively castellan of Bruges, canon and dean of Saint-Donatian, abbot of Ter Doest, and finally presided fifth in order over Ter Duinen, is enrolled among the blessed in the Cistercian menology, perhaps for this reason, that he was given burial beside Bl. Idesbald. Yet certain indications of public cult are wanting. Not a few things are read about the life and illustrious deeds of this venerable man in Van de Putte, Cronica et Cartularium monasterii de Dunis, Bruges, 1864, and L. Van Hollebeke, Lisseweghe, son église et son abbaye, Bruges, 1863.
Henry, a lay brother of the cloister of Himmerod and master in the grange called Hart, we pass over, although some hagiographers of the sacred Cistercian Order pronounce him blessed, because we have found no testimonies of a cult given to him. Caesarius of Heisterbach mentions him [Illustr. mirac. et hist. memorab., book XII, Cologne, 1596, pp. 12, 328, 590, 646, 688.] as a man who, for the merit of his life, deserved to be raised up by heavenly visions.
Henry of Zwiefalten, prior of the cloister of Ochsenhausen, is reviewed among the blessed by some Benedictine martyrologies, but with the omission of indications by which one might arrive at certain knowledge of a cult given to him. Canisius, Thesaurus monumentorum, vol. III, p. 331 – 32, edited the Life of the same venerable man, written briefly not many years after his happy death.
SS. Hermas, Linus and Gaius, who were bishop at Philippopolis in Thrace, supreme pontiff at Rome, and bishop at Ephesus, are venerated today among the Greeks together with SS. Patrobas and Philologus. But in our work these have already been treated on other days, namely St. Hermas at the 9th day of May, St. Linus at the 23rd day of September, and St. Gaius at the 4th day of October. Galesini also commemorates SS. Hermas and Gaius today, but not St. Linus. So also Ferrari.
St. Honoratus is announced at the 4th day of November in Usuard, Lübeck-Cologne edition, in these words: In the territory of Nevers, of St. Honoratus, confessor, and in Greven's edition of the same: In the territory of Nevers. Of Honoratus, confessor. Ferrari took up this formula again in the Catalogue from Maurolico, who has this: And in the territory of Nevers, of blessed Honoratus, confessor. But who that Honoratus may be it has nowhere been granted us to find out: his single trace has perhaps come down to us in the name of a certain place of the region of Nevers, Saint-Honoré; which place was formerly a priory founded in the 12th century G. de Soultrait, Diction. topogr. du départ. de la Nièvre, 1865, p. 166..
The codex of Fulda of the shorter Hieronymian martyrology Anal. Boll., vol. I, p. 44. records the deposition of St. Hubert, bishop of Liège, on this day.
St. Idda of Toggenburg is commemorated today in some martyrologies of the Benedictines. She was treated yesterday; see above pp. 102 – 25.
John, surnamed Acacius, of Constantinople, is said to have died on the 4th day of November, in the version into Latin from the Greek of his abridged Life made by Fr. Jacques Sirmond and preserved in the codex marked no. 8932 of the royal library of Brussels, with this note: From Fr. Gallonio's volume N, which he had from the library of Cardinal Sforza. But it is only an abridgment. In actual fact, a
Fabricius Bibl. gr., vol. X, p. 261., who took this notice from Allatius De Simeonum scriptis, p. 123., we are informed that the same abridgment begins in Greek with these words: Οὗτος ὁ πατὴρ ἡμῶν Ἰωάννης ὡρμᾶτο μὲν ἀπὸ τῆς Κωνσταντίνου, and also that there exists a recension of the same Life which begins: Τοὺς δοξάζοντάς με δοξάσω. In the abridgment already cited it is related that his body was laid in the nearest monastery, which was called Mesopolita; then after many years it was translated to the cenobium of nuns which is named after the Mother of God, where it is religiously preserved and venerated. But of this cult no trace whatever survives in the diptychs, menaia or other liturgical books.
John Baronci, who is also called Barocci, Barotti or Bartoli, who departed this life at Rimini in the year of the Lord 1292 and on the 28th day of June was given burial in the church of the Friars Minor under the title of the Holy Cross, is reviewed today among the blessed in Arturus. But of a cult which popular devotion may have given him no traces survive. Concerning John, who is said to have once been of the household of a certain heretic named Bonville, and to have been converted to the faith about the year 1226 by St. Anthony of Padua, who was then staying at Rimini, cf. Tonini, Della storia civile e sacra Riminese, vol. III, pp. 360 – 363.
John the Teuton, bishop of Bosnia and, after St. Raymond of Peñafort, in the year 1241 Echard, Script. Ord. Praed., vol. I, p. XVI. proclaimed master general of the Order of Preachers in the general chapter of Paris, died on this day in the year of the Lord 1252 Ibid., p. 122. at Strasbourg with such fame of holiness that he is reviewed in the series of the blessed by some hagiographers. Indeed Daniele Farlati, going further, did not hesitate to write this Illyricum sacrum, vol. IV, p. 52.: When therefore in the convent of Strasbourg a diligent inquiry had been instituted both into the life and virtues of John and into all the things laudably done by him for the salvation and example of men, and also into the miracles which by divine power he worked both living and dead, it was found from most weighty witnesses bound by oath that all were true, and so proved that they could not be called into doubt. Accordingly, in the presence and with the approval of the bishop of Metz, the body of the most holy man was taken out of its lowly tomb and translated to a lofty and honourable place. From that time John began to be called by the title of blessed among his own throughout the whole Order of Preachers, especially once pontifical approval was added, and to be held in veneration. But the learned man seems to exceed the limits of truth in asserting these things, since Antoine Touron, the eminent historiographer of the Order of Preachers, in his biography of the venerable man [Histoire des hommes illustres de l'Ordre de saint Dominique, vol. I, p. 95 – 127.] admits that it has not come to his knowledge that any cult was given to John either by the holy See or by any church. Nor does Fr. Antonin Danzas dissent, who in his work on the beginnings of the Order of Preachers nowhere speaks of John as of a man whom they publicly venerate Ibid., p. 123.. And we think that the Rev. Fr. Joseph Marie Ollivier adhered to this opinion, who, having treated of John repeatedly in the years 1884 and 1885, made an end of writing by confessing that the succeeding centuries had abolished every trace of the tomb of so great a man, and that his memory had utterly perished among the people Études sur les temps primitifs de l'Ordre de saint Dominique.. Since these things are so, it must be, as we certainly regret, that the venerable man remain among those passed over. For neither from the fact that he is said to have been raised from the earth in the eighth year after his death is any argument for a certain cult deduced, since it is by no means established whether the brethren of Strasbourg did this moved by the opinion of his holiness, or so that the deceased brethren might be more fittingly buried in the new church begun in the year 1254 and consecrated in the year 1260 by James, bishop of Metz Mon. Germ., Scr., vol. XVII, p. 102.. For determining the time at which John governed the church of Bosnia, for the authors are not of one opinion, it will help to have read through the letter which Pope Gregory IX gave on the 3rd day before the kalends of June of the year 1233 to James, bishop-elect of Palestrina, legate of the apostolic See in the parts of Hungary Theiner, Monumenta historica Hungariae, vol. I, p. 113., in which he charges him to remove the bishop of Bosnia from the administration of the church, and likewise the letter which he sent to John himself on the 12th day before the kalends of October of the year 1235 Ibid., p. 137., that he should not renounce the episcopate, and finally the letter dated on the 31st day of May in the year 1237 Ibid., p. 157., by which we are taught that John, formerly bishop of Bosnia, was sent with Salvus de Salvis, bishop of Perugia, as legate to the duke of the Vlachs and Bulgarians.
St. John of Zedazeni, who is venerated on the 7th day of May, recurs today with two of his companions, namely Stephen and Elias, in the synaxarion of the Iberian Church. On these see Martinov, Ann. eccl. gr.-slav., p. 269.
Ferrari, following Maurolico, attaches the memory of Laurence, bishop of Dublin, to this day in the general Catalogue of saints; Maurolico wrongly feigns that he had earlier been bishop of Rouen. He will rather have to be treated at his natal day, namely the 14th of November.
Châtelain in his corrections commemorates St. Leo I, pope, of whom ours wrote on the 11th day of April, because according to Pagi St. Leo departed from among the living on this day.
Maidulf, founder of the celebrated monastery of Malmesbury and master of St. Aldhelm, inscribed in Wilson's English martyrology at the 18th day of April, and whom Camerarius mentioned at the 28th day of September, our forebears deferred first Act. SS., vol. II April., p. 522 a; and vol. VI May, pp. 77 ff. to the 25th day of May, where St. Aldhelm was to be treated, and then Vol. VII Sept., p. 597. to this 4th day of November, on which he is announced in Dempster and Ferrari. They hoped, namely, that in the meantime documents would be found from which his legitimate ecclesiastical cult might be demonstrated. But that hope deceived both them and us. Therefore on this day too it is permitted to give Maidulf a place only among those passed over. Whoever desires to know what has been preserved of him for the memory of posterity must consult the later edition of the Monasticon Anglicanum Vol. I, p. 253 ff., where these things are diligently collected.
Châtelain reviews today among venerable women St. Matilda, daughter of the emperor Otto II and wife of Ezzo, count palatine of the Rhine. Our Papebroch treated her at the 21st day of May, vol. V, p. 48 ff.
The feast day of St. Melanius, bishop of Rennes, is assigned to this 4th day of November in certain copies of the Proper of Vannes, namely those of the years 1652 and 1660 Ed. in Lobineau, Saints de Bretagne, vol. I, p. XXXV.. In others, however, indeed older ones, for example that of the year 1630, not the 4th day is assigned to this feast but the 6th, which is proper to it. Cf. Act. SS., vol. I Jan., p. 327, no. 2.
The Chambéry additions to Usuard record today St. Nutricius, martyr in the city of Aix: In the city of Aix, of St. Nutricius, martyr. Of him the other codices are silent, as Sollerius notes, nor is anything found in other hagiological fasti.
Odrada, virgin, who was treated above at the 3rd day of November, pp. 57 – 69, is also commemorated today in Greven's edition of the martyrology of Usuard.
The name of Perpetua, virgin, is inscribed on the day before the nones of November in the martyrology of Ado, in that copy which, received from the monastery of Saint Pantaleon, the Carthusian Jacob Mosander published. So our pioneer John Bolland, at the opening of the brief commentary which he left written on St. Perpetua Collectanea Bollandiana in the royal library of Brussels, ms. cod. 8932.. Of this Perpetua, who is said to have been abbess of Remiremont, it pleases us for the present to add nothing to what our forebears noted at the 13th day of September, among those passed over Vol. IV Sept., p. 3.; where this above all is to be observed, that this pious woman, on the testimony of Mabillon, lacked and lacks a cult. It is easy to suspect that she was commemorated on this day for this reason, that on the same day the natal day of another Perpetua, wife of St. Peter the apostle, is kept. If perhaps we learn anything more of her cult, we shall speak of her at the 7th day of November, at St. Gebetrude, whom Perpetua is said to have succeeded in the government of Remiremont.
Bishop Pirmin, of whom above at the 3rd day of November, pp. 1 ff., is also named on this day in the Fulda codex of the martyrology called the short Hieronymian: In the monastery of Gamundias, of Pirmin, bishop Anal. Boll., vol. I, p. 44..
Quilianus, confessor, we find today among the additions to Usuard in the Lübeck-Cologne and Greven editions. He will have to be investigated at the 13th day of November.
Quintianus, bishop of Rodez, as being one who is said to have been the brother of St. Amantius, prelate of the same see, is adorned with a long encomium on this day by Saussay. He will however rather have to be treated at the 13th day of November, on which day his feast is noted in the Roman martyrology.
Quiricus, bishop of Toledo, is celebrated today in the supplement of Bucelin's menology. He will have to be treated at the day to which the Spanish writers attach his death, namely the 20th day of November.
SS. Rasius and Anastasius, martyrs, were formerly venerated at Rome on the 4th day of November by the chapter of the church of Santa Maria ad Martyres, that is, before the rescript given on the 14th day of November 1697, which ordered that feast to be celebrated thenceforth on the 5th. For it runs: From the audience of His Holiness. The same Most Holy One commanded that the feast continue to be celebrated in the recitation of the office and the celebration of the mass from the common of martyrs, as has been done hitherto, but ordered this to be done on the fifth day of November. Accordingly we defer these saints to be treated on the following day. On their translation see Act. SS. May, vol. VII, p. 763.
Ferrari's general Catalogue of the saints who are not in the Roman martyrology cites St. Severus with this formula: At Cagliari in Sardinia, of St. Severus, bishop and martyr; and he professes to have drawn this notice both from the tables of the church of Cagliari lately received from there and from a calendar transmitted to him from there. And in actual fact we read in Antonio Felice Mattei Sardinia sacra, p. 79. that Severus was substituted in the year 530 for Bishop Primasius, who held the see of Cagliari at the beginning of the sixth century, if, as Vitale [In the Annals of Sardinia in Burmann, Thesaurus antiquitatum et Historiarum Italiae, vol. XV. Cf. Machin, Defensio sanctitatis beati Luciferi, etc., cited in Martini, Storia ecclesiastica di Sardegna, vol. I, p. 117.] and Cantelius Metropolitanarum urbium historia civilis et ecclesiastica, p. 484. contend, one must rely on the monuments of the church of Cagliari. Which he himself however denies,
as we shall say below. Bonfant goes further Triumpho de los Santos del reyno de Cerdeña, p. 531, 533., who relates that St. Severus was one of the African monks who landed in Sardinia with St. Fulgentius, and, when Brumasius had died (that is, Primasius, whose name appears under both these forms), was elected archbishop of Cagliari. He governed that church for twenty years, in the time of the emperor Justinian, until at last in the year 530 he was punished with death for the faith of Christ by the Vandals. He was buried with other martyrs under the high altar of the sacred basilica, where, on the testimony of Esquirro Santuario di Cagliari, p. 16, 17., his venerable body was found on the 8th day of November 1614, in a tomb covered with a marble slab, very badly treated by the Saracens, but which nevertheless presented the following series of letters preserved:
This he restored entire, with the letters that had been effaced added, thus: BEATVS MARTYR SEVERVS EPISCOPVS HICIACET VIXIT ANNIS XX. QVIEVIT IN PACE SVB IMPERIO IVSTINIANI AVGVSTI INDICTIONE. [Blessed martyr Severus, bishop, lies here; he lived 20 years. He rested in peace under the rule of Justinian Augustus, in the indiction.]
But Bonfant Op. cit., p. 531., who nevertheless drew from the same book, whose author he wrongly calls Esquivel This man approved the book written by Esquirro., transcribed the same inscription thus: Having filled the lacunae by conjecture, he reads it thus and it: BEATVS MARTYR SEVERVS EPISCOPVS QVI VIXIT ANNIS … PLVS MINVS CHATHEDRA SEDIT ANNIS XX. QVIEVIT SVB IMPERIO IVSTINIANI. [Blessed martyr Severus, bishop, who lived … years, more or less; he sat in the chair 20 years. He rested under the rule of Justinian.]
But all these things are not such as greatly to move a critic of keen discernment. First of all it must be noted that, apart from Ferrari, no hagiological fasti mention St. Severus. Hence the authority of the monuments of the church of Cagliari, to which he himself appealed, must be examined. But the already praised Mattei warns Op. cit., pp. 69, 79. that one should not cling much to these traces of antiquity. Moreover, our Bolland Praefat. to vol. I Febr. chapter V. and Papebroch Act. SS. May, vol. V, p. 50. both warned that whoever investigates the origins of the churches of Sardinia should be most cautious. And indeed, so far are the best authors from favouring St. Severus that, like Mattei and Martini, they are forced to admit that no serious documents defend this tradition about St. Severus. For the rest, only those champion it who are of a worse mark among the learned. For it has already been said more than once that a writer investigating the deeds of St. Severus can trust neither Vitale, Machin, Bonfant, Aleo, nor Esquirro. Of Vitale Perizonius writes [Praefat. to Thes. ant. et histor. Italiae, collected from Graevius, p. 3, ed. Leiden, 1704.] that the sun itself never saw an author of this kind more inept and more foolish. Mattei calls Machin greatly mendacious Op. cit., p. x.. Our Henschen asserts Act. SS. May, vol. III, p. 272. that the credit of Bonfant is held suspect by learned men. Martini contends Storia ecclesiastica di Sardegna, vol. I, p. XI. that one should think better of Aleo, whom he nevertheless does not approve when he accepted St. Severus as bishop of Cagliari Ibid., p. 117.. What Esquirro adduces Santuario de Caller. Martini judges to have been fabricated at that time when everywhere in Sardinia false bodies of saints and martyrs were dug up Op. cit., p. 111.. Of Bonfant, whose book had been expurgated by the Spanish index, Muratori wished that the censors had rather purged the whole book with a single blot Antiq. med. aevi, vol. V, p. 17.. In a word, and this indeed is the gravest prejudice that exists, the history of St. Severus is championed only by those fond of fables, but not at all by writers of more mature judgment and equally solicitous for the glory of their country, which however they wish to be true, and by no means propped up by the empty traditions of the crowd. But is not the epitaph just adduced an irrefutable witness, which, besides Bonfant cited above, Aleo and Esquirro also allege? The learned disquisition of our Papebroch on the Sardinian inscriptions, already cited, whose conclusion shows that among the inscriptions now displayed there are not a few of ambiguous meaning and uncertain credit Loc. cit., p. 57., will surely not invite anyone to accept such testimony. We are confirmed in the same opinion by what Martini thinks, that it by no means suffices for inserting into the list of the prelates of Cagliari the altogether singular discovery in the church of Saint Saturninus of a certain sepulchral chest with an inscription attesting that the bones of Bishop Severus are contained there, when at the same time neither the see to which he belonged nor the name of his country is indicated Op. cit., p. 117..
The dedication of the church of St. Sophia of Kiev is announced today in several Slavonic calendars. On this matter Fr. Martinov is to be consulted in Ann. eccl. gr.-slav., p. 269.
Theodotus, bishop of Laodicea, of whom it was spoken among those passed over on the 2nd day of November, recurs again today in the Hagenoy addition to Usuard, which Sollerius complains has thrown many things into confusion, p. 651
Thomas Lauder, bishop of Dunkeld in Scotland from the year 1452 to the year 1476, died on the 4th of November of the year 1481 [Keith, An historical catalogue of the Scottish Bishops. New ed. M. Russel, 1824, pp. 89, 90.]. and on this day in Dempster's Scottish Menology Forbes, Kalendars of Scottish Saints, p. 217. he is presented with the following formula: At Dunkeld, of blessed Thomas Lavodir, bishop, who was called the father of the poor and the guardian of orphans. This encomium was taken from the proper breviary of the church and from the Scotichronicon of Magnus Macculloch. But these things are certainly not of such authority as to demonstrate an ecclesiastical cult in the proper sense of the word.
Why our forebears announced Vol. VIII of October, p. 7. that the deeds of Tremorus were to be examined on this day is not clear to us. They will rather come to be discussed at the 8th day of November, on which day that saint is venerated by the Bretons.
St. Valentine is commemorated at the 4th day of November in the Augsburg codex of the Hieronymian martyrology only, under this formula: At Passau, of Valentine. Perhaps a confusion was made with St. Valentine of Viterbo, who was treated on the 3rd day of November.
SS. Valentine and Hilary, of whom it was spoken on the 3rd day of November, appear today in the Hagenoy addition to Usuard.
Yves the Breton or the Armorican, of the Order of Preachers, third prior provincial in the Holy Land, is inscribed among the blessed on this day by the author of the work L'Année Dominiquaine (Paris 1670). But this title of blessed seems to indicate nothing except a man to be venerated for holiness of life. What the venerable man did in his life is related by Tresvaux Les Vies des saints de Bretagne, vol. II, p. 445 ff., who, as he himself testifies, borrowed everything from Souèges Année Dominicaine..
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