The Holy Four Crowned Ones, venerated at Rome.
St. Clarus, presbyter, at Primuliacum in Gaul.
St. Matrona, hegumena, at Constantinople.
St. Kebius, bishop in Wales.
St. Tremorus, martyr, in Armorican Brittany.
St. Deusdedit, pope.
St. Barrfinn, Irish.
St. Columbus, Irish.
St. Barrfinn Abdias, Irish.
St. Finchan, Irish.
St. Willehad, bishop of Bremen.
St. Wiomad, bishop of Trier.
St. Gervadius, confessor, in northern Scotland.
St. Moroc, bishop or abbot in Scotland.
St. Euphrosyne, nun, at Constantinople.
St. Godfrey, bishop of Amiens.
A translation of St. Alpinus, bishop of Châlons, is entered on this day in the calendar of a fourteenth-century Châlons legendary [Codex of Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, lat. 802. Cf. Catalogus codicum hagiographicorum Latinorum Parisiensium, vol. III, pp. 716 and 576], and a Mass for the translation of St. Alpinus is read, on the same day as it seems, in a certain missal likewise of the fourteenth century [In the Paris codex, Bibliothèque Nationale, lat. 845, fol. 197. It is read, moreover, after the Mass of the Holy Four Crowned Ones and before the Mass of St. Theodore. Hence, since the codex lacks a calendar, it can be referred either to the 8th day (so we, with codex 802) or to the 9th day (so the Catalogus codicum Latinorum Parisiensium, at the volume cited, p. 717)]. What that translation was we have been unable to discover. For in the many books we have searched, published both on the church of Châlons and on St. Alpinus, we have found no other feast of a translation indicated besides the one which was celebrated on the 2nd day of May, at least from the year 1245, in memory of relics translated to Châlons in the ninth century. Cf. Ch. Rapine, Annales ecclésiastiques du diocèse de Chaalons en Champagne (Paris, 1636), p. 331; Boitel, Histoire de S. Alpin (Châlons, 1853), p. 125 [Each writer affirms that that feast was instituted in the year 1245; which they prove by no argument, and it seems false]. St. Alpinus was treated on the 7th day of September, vol. III, pp. 82 – 91.
The synaxis of the Angels is entered on this day in all the calendars of the Greeks, and sometimes mention is made of Michael alone, as in the Morcelli calendar, but sometimes of all the archangels, or of all the angels, or, as they say, of all the incorporeal substances. Since Morcelli Kalendarium ecclesiae Constantinopolitanae, vol. I (Rome, 1788), p. 218, Stilting Acta Sanctorum, September vol. VIII, p. 6, and Martinov Annus graeco-slavicus, p. 273 have already spoken of this solemnity, we refer the reader to the synaxarium of the Church of Constantinople Synaxarium Ecclesiae Constantinopolitanae, p. 203, and note only this, that the word σύναξις at first designated nothing other than the assembly of the faithful to celebrate the victory of St. Michael. Afterwards, more subtly than truly, the sense seems to have been twisted to the assembly and concord of the angels. — The Coptic church celebrates St. Michael the archangel on the 12th day of the month Athor, which is the eighth of November. This feast was held at Alexandria in the church of Saint Michael in the Caesareum, which is believed, probably though not certainly, to have once been a temple of idols built by Queen Cleopatra. Moreover, the 12th day of the month Athor was sacred to one of the deities that were worshipped in the temple of Saturn. Weighing all this, Basil Bolotov, a man of blessed memory, in his manner more learned than restrained, tried to demonstrate that the feast of St. Michael was instituted at Alexandria in order to obscure either the celebration or the memory of a pagan feast [Mikhailov den'. Počemu sobor sv. arkhistratiga Mikhaila soveršaetsja 8 nojabrja, Khristianskoe Čtenie, 1892, II, 593 – 644]. Why did he not also show at what time this was done! For it is scarcely probable that the feast of St. Michael, which was likewise kept at Constantinople on the 8th day of November, was brought in from Egypt after the middle of the sixth century.
Amarantus. See Primus.
Austremonius, who is commemorated on this day in three auctaria of Usuard: we gave his Acts on the 1st of November.
Caelestis, otherwise Celesinus. See Eusebius.
Cassiodorus. See Senator.
Damian, who in the Corbie codex is listed first among the Nicomedians with Eusebius and the rest D'Achery, Spicilegium, vol. II (Paris, 1723), p. 21, occurs on the following day in this very codex and in most other Hieronymian codices.
Dominic of Florence, of the Castiglione family, who embraced the order of St. Francis and through the whole course of his religious life devoted most diligent labour to the care of the sick, breathed out his soul as holily as he had lived in the convent of Saint Onuphrius near Vasto d'Aimone, in the province of Sant'Angelo, in the year 1470 according to Mark of Lisbon Chronicas de la orden de los Frayles Menores, Tercera parte, book V, chapter 46, in the year 1471 on the testimony of Bzovius Annales ecclesiastici, at the year 1474, no. XXXVI, but in the year 1460 if one may agree with Wadding, the follower of Marianus of Florence Annales Minorum, at the year 1460, no. XXV. In the rest, however, which they relate of the venerable servant of God, they agree entirely. Above all they extol both the portents which followed his death and the immense concourse of the people to his funeral, eager to touch his sacred body and to show him every kind of reverence. But whether this pious eagerness endured they are altogether silent; nor does Arthur du Moustier throw any light, although he adorns Dominic with the title of Blessed and commemorates the day of his death on this day.
Droctoald, bishop of Auxerre, is known only from a very brief mention among the Gesta of the pontiffs of Auxerre, set down by various anonymous writers at different times, the compiler being wholly unknown Cf. Histoire littéraire de la France, vol. XIV, pp. 413 – 14, first published by Philippe Labbe Bibliotheca manuscriptorum, vol. I, p. 411 ff., where these few words are read of him: Bishop Droctoald died on the sixth day before the Ides of November. We could find nothing else memorable about him which we might have inserted into the present work Ibid., p. 419. That was enough, in the judgement of André du Saussay, for him to mark his name on the 8th day of November in the Martyrologium Gallicanum. He was followed by Claude Chastelain in his Universal Martyrology and by the author of the Paris Martyrology published in the year 1727 by order of Cardinal de Noailles. But we have been unable to find any trace of ancient ecclesiastical cult paid to Droctoald [See also on this bishop Mémoires concernant l'histoire d'Auxerre et de son ancien diocèse, by the abbé Lebeuf, ed. Challe and Quantin, vol. I (1848), p. 119].
Egbert (otherwise Ecgbert, Hechbert, Eambercht), archbishop of York in the eighth century, was marked in their Benedictine martyrologies by Hugues Ménard (1626) and Gabriel Bucelin (1656) on the 8th and on the 19th day of November. In the observations on his martyrology, however Published together with the martyrology itself, p. 754, Ménard noted that the one announced on the 8th was the son of the other's sister and his successor in the see of York, who was also called Albert; but that the other, who is venerated on the 19th, was that learned man whom Alcuin had as his master and who left some monuments of his genius Cf. Patrologia Latina, vol. LXXXIX, cols. 377 – 454. But neither that assertion nor any ecclesiastical cult whatever of any Egbert, bishop of York, is proved by any ancient document, whether in Ménard or elsewhere. Unless someone should think it a sufficiently effective argument for demonstrating a cult of this kind that in a certain metrical treatise on the bishops of York, composed, as it seems, at the end of the fourteenth century [James Raine, The Historians of the Church of York (among the Rerum Britannicarum medii aevi scriptores, LXXI), vol. II (1886), p. XXVIII], that master of Alcuin is called Egbertus sanctus At the volume cited, p. 445. But that this cannot rightly be affirmed one of us has recently shown clearly H. Delehaye, Sanctus, in Analecta Bollandiana, vol. XXVIII, p. 145 ff.. Nevertheless Richard Stanton, in his recent Menology of the saints of England, recorded the memory of our Egbert on the 19th day of November, neglecting the one announced by Ménard on the 8th; but in the third Appendix of the supplement to Stanton's work Edition of the year 1892, p. 738 it is also noted that his cult is not sufficiently established.
The names of Eusebius, Caelestis (otherwise Celesinus), Eustasius and Marius are collected in the Hieronymian codices under this designation of place: at Nicomedia. That this day is rightly assigned to Eusebius is established from the Syriac breviary; that he was a Nicomedian you may not improbably gather from the fact that Nicomedia clings to his name as often as it occurs in the Latin codices, not only today but also yesterday and the day before; add that the Nicomedian entries in the Syriac are very many. H. Achelis, with some hesitation, supposed that this Eusebius of ours is the bishop famous in the Arian controversies Die Martyrologien (Berlin, 1900), p. 62, which I would dare neither to deny nor to affirm. That Marius and Eustasius are joined with Eusebius by no right has already been said (above, p. 322). Say the same of Caelestis, whoever he is. Eustasius is already listed in the Hieronymian codices on the previous day (above, p. 322) and also on the eighth day before the Ides of November (p. 128). We have managed to find nothing about him beyond the bare name.
Florentius, bishop of Strasbourg, is commemorated on this day in the Hagenau copy of Usuard. We treated of him on the 7th day, above, pp. 395 – 403.
Francisco Ximénez, a native of Cisneros in the diocese of Palencia, archbishop of Toledo and cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, stood out as an illustrious ornament of the order of St. Francis through the liberal disciplines, through zeal for educating youth and defending religion, through industry in administering the commonwealth, and through the constant exercise of arduous virtues. In the year 1517 he died most piously at Aranda in Spain. This is not the place to taste even with the tips of the lips the praises of so great a man. So brightly did the holiness of his life shine forth that, on the testimony of Father Fortunatus Hueber, "in the Roman curia the solemnities for concluding the process of his beatification have been almost dispatched" Menologium S. Francisci (Munich, 1698), p. 2109. Part of that inquiry is preserved in the Bibliothèque Nationale at Paris Analecta Bollandiana, vol. V, p. 152. But if it should please the divine majesty to bring that cause out of its hiding-places and lead it to a happy end, we too shall glory in illustrating with a worthy commentary the distinguished and laborious life of that most excellent and unblemished genius.
Garsenda, a tertiary of the Order of St. Francis, who breathed out her most pure soul to God at Apt in Gaul about the year 1320, gained some notice from her close intimacy with St. Elzéar of Sabran and his most worthy wife Delphine. For, as is read in the process of canonization of St. Elzéar, she was with the lady Laudina, his mother, for 10 years, and she also stayed with him, and in the service and
hospitality Acta Sanctorum, September vol. VII, p. 560, no. 191, where she had in part brought up this holy youth Ibid., p. 581, no. 23; and mention of her recurs several times in the Life of the venerable man. Since, moreover, Elzéar too bore distinguished testimony to Garsenda's holiness, "whose holy life," as he admonished his wife, "is known to many through virtuous works and miracles, who, as you know, always brought us up from boyhood in holy works and virtuous acts" Ibid., p. 591, no. 41, and since she appeared after her death to both spouses and assured them of her glory, and her body was buried in the church of the Friars Minor of Apt near the tomb of the holy count and the holy countess Ibid., p. 589, no. 55, it came about that Franciscan writers of a later age, for instance Arthur du Moustier in his Martyrology on the 8th day of November, F. Hueber in his Menology, and Elzéar Borely [Les miracles de la grâce victorieuse de la nature, en la vie de sainte Dauphine (Lyon, 1690), p. 44], listed the most pious matron among the blessed of their order. While our predecessors already noticed this, they found no indication of any popular veneration of any kind Acta Sanctorum, at the volume cited, p. 535, no. 42. Nor has it been granted to us to supply their want.
Geoffrey, a native of Auxerre, a disciple especially dear to St. Bernard, abbot of Clairvaux, and for many years his secretary for letters and the companion of his journeys, devoted distinguished labour to composing the acts of his master [BHL 1213 – 1221, 1227 – 1230. On Geoffrey's life and literary output, see Histoire littéraire de la France, vol. XIV, pp. 431 – 51; G. Hüffer, Der hl. Bernard von Clairvaux, I, pp. 27 – 69 and pp. 104 – 152; E. Vacandard, Vie de S. Bernard, abbé de Clairvaux, vol. I, pp. XXIII – XXVI, where the writer set out more vigorously what he had first treated in L'Histoire de S. Bernard. Critique des sources, Revue des questions historiques, vol. XLIII (1888), pp. 337 – 73]. Himself also a distinguished servant of God, he ruled the same monastery as abbot during the years 1162 – 1165, and afterwards, having endured other most heavy labours, he departed from a life most holily spent not long after the year 1188. Ch. Henriquez (Menologium Cisterciense), and Bucelin (Menologium Benedictinum) following in his footsteps, list him among the blessed honoured on this day; but whether the people or the ecclesiastical body ever paid him true cult is altogether hidden from us.
Gregory, third abbot of Einsiedeln, died on the 8th day of November of the year 996. Of his deeds there survive few, but those distinguished, testimonies, especially in the epitaph which his successor Abbot Verendus or Wirunt set over him, in the diplomas of the emperors, in the Annals of Einsiedeln, and in the Life of St. Wolfgang, chapter 10; with which some fables were afterwards mixed, which George of Gengenbach committed to writing in the fourteenth century in the Originale de cappella gloriose Virginis Marie ad Heremitas, chapter 5. All of this, after Mabillon [V(enerable) Gregory, abbot of Einsiedeln, historical elogium, in Acta Sanctorum Ordinis S. Benedicti, saec. V, pp. 841 – 46] and others, was recently diligently collected and narrated by the distinguished Rev. Father Odilo Ringholz, historiographer of Einsiedeln [Geschichte des fürstlichen Benediktinerstiftes U. L. F. von Einsiedeln, vol. I (Einsiedeln, 1904), pp. 44 – 53, 655 – 56]. But although the monks of Einsiedeln have followed the memory of Gregory with the highest reverence, as was fitting, yet that great man was never honoured with any public cult, nor is his feast entered in any martyrologies, calendars, missals, breviaries, or other books of this kind. In the "directory" of the liturgical office of the abbey of Einsiedeln, however, this commemoration alone, certainly not a liturgical one, has been added for many years now on the 7th day of November: "Tomorrow falls the memory of the happy passing of Blessed Gregory, monk and our third abbot."
Hartwig, bishop of Salzburg in Noricum, is announced on this day by Ferrari in the Catalogus generalis, the day on which the holy prelate was ordained bishop. He was treated on the 14th day of June, vol. VI, pp. 127 – 33; cf. p. 130, end of no. 14.
The translation of Hildulf, bishop of Trier as he is called, into Moyenmoutier is announced on this day in the ninth-century psalter of Saint Symeon of Trier Codex 14 of the City Library of Trier: Hildolfi episcopi t., in the martyrology of Toul of the beginning of the fourteenth century [Paris codex, Bibliothèque Nationale 10018. Cf. H. Quentin, Les martyrologes historiques (Paris, 1908), p. 239], in certain interpolated copies of Usuard, and in some more recent martyrologies. On that translation, which took place in the middle of the tenth century, see the 11th of July, vol. III, p. 220, nos. 66 – 68; and on Hidulf himself, ibid., pp. 205 – 38.
Hugh, a monk of Saint Victor near Marseilles, is said [Saussay, Martyrologii Gallicani pars posterior, Supplementum, at the 8th day of November; Bucelin, Menologium benedictinum, p. 766] to have left to the inhabitants of this city about the year 1152 a dear longing for himself, because it fell to him, by divine revelation, to find the lost cross of St. Andrew the apostle, which had been brought from Achaia into Gaul. This cross, the noble pledge of the security of the Marseillais, was even in Saussay's time (1638) exposed to Christian homage, "extended into right angles, not oblique ones, as it is wrongly figured by painters." Without doubt, joined to the public piety toward this treasure, there came forth praise of the venerable man who discovered it; but whether any popular or ecclesiastical cult of St. Hugh the confessor, as Saussay and Bucelin celebrate him, arose from it is expressed by no trace.
John Duns Scotus, called the Subtle Doctor, who is related to have fallen asleep in the Lord on the 8th day of November 1308 at Cologne, aged 33, is extolled to heaven by the members of the whole Franciscan family not only for his eminent learning but also for his unblemished life, faith and piety. Indeed, they have vied with one another in proclaiming that in later centuries he was held to be blessed and that the fame of his holiness and miracles spread through the whole Catholic world. Now it must be carefully noted that whatever is circulated about his acts and burial, apart from the few things recorded by Bartholomew of Pisa [Namely in the work written at the end of the fourteenth century, De conformitate vitae B. Francisci ad vitam Domini Iesu, where this is read of Scotus: He first read the Sentences in England at Oxford, then at the university of Paris, where he became a doctor and was most famous; and the compiler adds that he lies at Cologne, where he died as lector (Analecta Franciscana, vol. IV, pp. 337 and 548), and nothing besides], rests on the authority of writers of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and is therefore to be received with caution [The most ancient of all is the Life of Blessed John Duns Scotus written by Marianus of Florence about the year 1480 (Genoa, 1904), pp. 7 – 12. This seems to us rather an epitome than an original document]. In the Cologne church of the order of St. Francis, where they say Scotus was buried, a funeral monument was erected to him in the year 1513, on which this inscription was placed:
Müller, Biographisches über Iohannes Duns Scotus (Köln, 1881), p. 17. It is also established that his sacred bones were several times elevated in the same church and most honourably examined Ibid., pp. 18 – 23. When, moreover, Pope Clement XI, by a bull given on the 6th day of December 1708, had ordained that the feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary was to be observed throughout the world "like other feasts of precept," and the Subtle Doctor had once most keenly defended that privilege, the ministers general of the various families of the seraphic order left no stone unturned to obtain from ecclesiastical authority a decree concerning the immemorial cult paid to John Scotus [Benignus Fremaut, Den geestelycken Palm-Boom, in elke Maent nieuwe Vruchten gevende, oft Generale Legende van de Levens der Heiligen, Saligen, Dienaers ende Dienarissen Godts, uyt de Dry-vuldige Orden van den H. en Seraphinschen Vader Franciscus, November (Ghendt, 1717), pp. 339 – 42. This farrago, not to be despised, divided into 12 volumes, reprinted in our own time and translated into French with additions, is missing from Sbaralea's repertory and from its most recent edition by Nardecchia]. But the judges delegated by the archbishop of Cologne to settle this cause, "having seen the depositions of the witnesses lawfully brought in, cited and examined, having seen the writings and rights produced, having seen the visitation of the tomb of the aforesaid John Duns Scotus judicially made by us in the church of the Reverend Fathers Minorites of Cologne, having seen the whole process," on the 27th day of September 1707 gave the sentence "that it is not established that an immemorial cult was shown to the often-named John Duns Scotus before the aforesaid decrees (of Urban VIII) at Cologne or in the province of Cologne, nor that it is shown to this day" Müller, work cited, pp. 26 – 27. Nor is it right to draw from the signs of veneration collected by Arthur du Moustier [Martyrologium franciscanum, p. 547, §§10 and 12] anything that savours of a public or liturgical cult of John. But indeed the matter seems to stand otherwise if one looks at the inquiry concluded by Francesco Maria Carafa, bishop of Nola, on the 12th day of April 1710. Its substance was touched on by Benignus Fremaut, O. F. M., who unadvisedly omitted the authors of the assertions Work cited, p. 182. Now no papal confirmation has come to this process, sent to Rome, in two centuries. On the occasion, however, of the jubilee of the centenary of his death, celebrated last year, we learned that the arduous suit is again being conducted before the supreme tribunal. Until, therefore, it has disclosed its mind, it befits us to refrain from examining more closely the grounds of the cult [On these cf. Monumenta cultus immemorabilis, publici et ecclesiastici antiquissimi et extensissimi quibus fulcitur causa servi Dei Ioannis Duns Scoti. Collected and arranged chronologically by Fr. Francesco Maria Paolini, Rome, 1907, 8vo, 55 pp.].
Justus. See Primus.
The sacred body of St. Louis, O. F. M., bishop of Toulouse, who was taken from among the living on the 19th day of August 1297 and received the supreme honours of canonization on the 8th day of April 1317 from John XXII, was translated at Marseilles with solemn pomp on this day in the year 1319, by order of the same supreme pontiff, from the middle of the choir of the church of Saint Francis, where it lay, to the high altar. Since, however, our predecessor who discussed the acts of St. Louis hesitated in doubt about the year in which this translation was effected Acta Sanctorum, August vol. III, p. 799, no. 119, and since Wadding rashly
asserts that the whole affair was carried out by night "to avoid a tumult of the people and the promiscuous multitude of the common folk" Annales Minorum, at the year 1319, no. II, it is useful to bring forward a testimony unknown to our predecessor, that of John of Orta, a contemporary and eyewitness, who wrote the original Life, on which all the other biographers for the most part depend: But in the year of the Lord 1319, on the sixth day before the Ides of November, in the presence of several cardinals sent for this purpose by the supreme pontiff, and of several other prelates, also of the Lord Robert, king of Jerusalem and Sicily, the saint's own brother by the same mother, with his consort, and of the queen of France, the saint's niece, and of many princes and barons and other solemn persons, and of an immense multitude of the people, who had all come together to honour the feast of the translation and to entreat his countenance with gifts, his sacred body was translated and laid with due honour in a precious tomb prepared for his glory in the church of the Friars Minor of Marseilles, in which it had also been buried long before Analecta Bollandiana, vol. IX, p. 340. From this resting-place it was removed in the year 1423, on the 19th day of November, by Alfonso V, king of Aragon and Sicily, who, having taken Marseilles by storm, carried the precious remains away to Valencia in Hispania Tarraconensis Wadding, Annales Minorum, at the year 1423, no. VI. That the feast of the first translation was long celebrated on the 8th day of November is shown by a good many liturgical codices of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries Cf., for example, Catalogus codicum Latinorum Parisiensium, vol. III, p. 716. But the general chapter held at Bruges in Flanders in the year 1484, having decreed that the feast of All Saints was to be kept with an octave, and that this was to be received under the double rite [Chronicle of Fr. Nicholas Glassberger, among the Analecta Franciscana, vol. II, p. 489], moved the office of the Translation of St. Louis to the 10th day of November, namely the first free day. That this usage flourished down to the end of the eighteenth century is clearly established from the menologies [For instance Benignus Fremaut, Den geestelycken Palm-Boom, November, pp. 339 – 42] and printed breviaries of the order of St. Francis. Meanwhile Pope Clement XI ordained that the most sacred memory of Andrew Avellino, enrolled among the saints in the year 1712, was to be venerated by the universal Church on the same 10th day. So it came about that the liturgical feast of the translation of St. Louis, whose commemoration of his heavenly birthday is otherwise solemnly kept on the 19th day of August, being thrust from its place, gradually fell into disuse. For the rest concerning him see Acta Sanctorum, August vol. III, pp. 775 – 822.
Macharius. See Primus.
Magnus closes today's band in the Corbie codex D'Achery, Spicilegium, vol. II, p. 21; from where he was brought here is not clear.
Marius. See Eusebius.
Mention is made on this day of martyrs of the Carmelite order who fell "in the year 1268 on the Black Mountain" next to Antioch by Philip of the Visitation [Acies bene ordinata plurium sanctorum et beatorum utriusque sexus ordinis Carmelitarum, second edition (Valenciennes, 1670)], following Lezana Annales sacri, vol. IV (Rome, 1656), p. 391 and other writers of his Institute, and he adorns them with the title of Saints. But although it is quite probable that some followers of the patriarch Elijah, with members of so many other religious communities, Christian women and children, were slaughtered by the enemy's sword when the town of Antioch was stormed by the sultan Baibars on the 19th day of May 1268 [R. Röhricht, Geschichte des Königreichs Jerusalem (1100 – 1291), (Innsbruck, 1898), pp. 941 – 42], yet nowhere has any sign of public veneration come to light.
The translation of the martyrs Matthew and Gusmaeus (A.D. 1637) is recalled on this day by the church of Gravedona on Lake Como [P. A. de Tattis, Sanctuarium seu martyrologium sanctae Novocomensis ecclesiae (Como, 1675), pp. 199 – 200, 240 – 41]. On these saints and their translation read what was said on the 11th day of September.
Maturinus, confessor of Larchant On whom, Acta Sanctorum, November vol. I, pp. 245 – 59, although he is generally announced in the martyrologies on the 1st day of November, on which he is said to have died Cf. ibid., p. 254 E, yet, because the solemnity of All Saints is celebrated on that day, another day was often designated for keeping the feast of St. Maturinus, for instance the 3rd, 5th, 6th, 8th, and especially the 9th of November [On the 3rd day cf. ibid., p. 258 F, and Catalogus codicum Latinorum Parisiensium, vol. III, p. 714; on the 5th day cf. above, p. 4, and Catalogus codicum Latinorum Parisiensium, at the volume cited, p. 715; on the 6th day cf. Acta Sanctorum, November vol. I, p. 247 E; on the 8th day cf. ibid., p. 247 F, and Catalogus codicum Latinorum Parisiensium, p. 717; on the 9th day cf. Acta Sanctorum, November vol. I, p. 259 A, and Catalogus codicum Latinorum Parisiensium, p. 717. See also E. Thoison, Saint Mathurin (Paris-Orléans, 1889), pp. 106 – 222].
Maurus, bishop of Verdun, is announced on this day in the Roman martyrology and some others Acta Sanctorum, September vol. II, p. 225, no. 18. Whatever could be found about him was diligently collected by our Limpens on the 4th day of September.
Michael the archangel. See the synaxis of the Angels.
There is a singular mention of Modestus, martyr, on the 8th day of November in the Paris Greek codex 1190, fols. 73 – 77 Catalogus codicum Graecorum Parisiensium, p. 91. What is to be discussed concerning this saint is more fittingly referred to the 16th day of December.
The 126 monks of Marmoutier are celebrated on this day as martyrs by the martyrology of the same abbey [A copy of it survives in the Bibliothèque Nationale at Paris, among the collectanea of Dom Étienne Housseau, volume XX. The passage cited is read at fol. 56]: In the district of Tours, the passion of one hundred and twenty-six monks of Marmoutier, who were slaughtered by the infidel Danes in hatred of the faith; which is read in just as many words in Ménard's Benedictine Martyrology and in Saussay's Martyrologium Gallicanum. Since we are taught by no certain testimony that true and legitimate cult was paid to these martyrs, it will be enough for us to have listed them here, especially since it seems altogether likely [I am surprised that this was not even suspected by E. Mabille, Les invasions normandes dans la Loire, in Bibliothèque de l'École des chartes, vol. XXX (1869), p. 174, note 2, and W. Vogel, Die Normannen und das Fränkische Reich (Heidelberg, 1906), p. 142; who thought that in determining the number of the monks the martyrology rather than the treatise of the Pseudo-Odo should be followed] that the single source of this announcement is that spurious treatise, stuffed with very many fables and errors, which has been foisted on Odo, abbot of Cluny, On the return of Blessed Martin from Burgundy (BHL 5653); in which it is affirmed Chapter 3 (Patrologia Latina, vol. CXXXIII, col. 825) that in the year 856 116 monks of Marmoutier (a hundred and twenty less twice two) were struck down by the sword by Danish pirates whom Rollo had sent there. Now this alone is established from historical documents, that in the year 853, more than twenty years before Rollo crossed into Gaul, on the very 8th day of November, the city of Tours was burned with the church and monastery of Saint Martin and the other adjacent places [Annales Bertiniani, at this year (ed. G. Waitz, p. 43). Cf. the diploma of Charles the Bald given on the 22nd day of August in the year 854 (Bouquet, vol. VIII, pp. 536 – 37), Annales Engolismenses, at the year 853 (MG., Scriptores vol. XVI, p. 486); Annales Xantenses, at the year 854 (ibid., vol. II, p. 229)]. I would not deny that monks of Marmoutier were killed; but I ask for a witness weightier than the Pseudo-Odo.
Peter and Paul, who are, unless I am mistaken, the apostles, are commemorated with the band over which Saturninus the presbyter stands at the head in a mosaic work discovered in the basilica at Upenna (Henchir-Chigarnia). Receive the whole inscription [P. Monceaux, Enquête sur l'épigraphie chrétienne d'Afrique, IV, Mémoires présentés par divers savants à l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-lettres, vol. XII (1908), no. 238, 334]: These are the names of the martyrs: Peter, Paul, Saturninus the presbyter, the same Saturninus, Bindemius, Saturninus, Donatus, Saturninus, Gududa, Paula, Clara, Lucilla, Fortun, Iader, Cecilius, Emilius. They suffered on the fourth day before the Nones of August, were deposited on the sixth day before the Ides of November. — Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men. On the fourth day before the Nones of August there is no mention of these martyrs in the calendars; none also on the sixth day before the Ides of November. On the day after tomorrow, indeed, that is the fourth day before the Ides of November, the Hieronymian codices have this: In Africa, of Saturninus, (Donatus), Annibonia and seventeen others (otherwise eighteen). Yet I would not dare to contend that this is the band inscribed in the inscription, since the names of Saturninus and Donatus are most common in the African lists. Moreover, it was not a true deposition, that is, of the bodies of the slain near the place of the passion, that was commemorated on this day at Upenna, but, as it seems, the deposition of relics under the altar.
The praise of Bl. Philip of Todi, lay brother of the order of Minors of the Regular Observance, was woven, using the Mariano-Memorial books On the Commentaries of Marianus cf. above, p. 698, no. 12, by Mark of Lisbon Tercera parte de las Chronicas, book IV, chapters XXX and XXXI, fols. 121v – 23, and, following in his footsteps, by Pietro Ridolfi of Tossignano Historiarum seraphicae religionis libri tres (Venice, 1586), fol. 128, Wadding Annales, at the year 1418, nos. V – IX and Jacobilli Vite de' santi e beati dell'Umbria, vol. III (Foligno, 1661), pp. 19 – 22. Having professed for forty years a most strict life of obedience, humility and patience, he shone with miracles before and after death. He died, moreover, in the convent of Saint Francis of Monte Milone, commonly Castel d'Emilio, near Ancona, in the treasury of whose church a public instrument concerning fifteen approved miracles was long preserved Mark of Lisbon, at the place cited, fol. 123; these Wadding briefly reviewed At the place cited, nos. VII – VIII. Hence it gradually came about that every year, down to this time, on the second Sunday after Easter, people flocked in crowds from all sides to venerate his glorious tomb, an offering being also brought by the municipality for procuring lights. The year and day of his death are taught by the inscription written on the chest in which the relics of the blessed man are laid: The body of Bl. Philip of Todi, of the Order of Minors. He died in this convent on the fifth day before the Ides of October 1481 [Not 1481 but 1418 is the year assigned by Wadding and Jacobilli. Jacobilli also gives the 9th day of November].
The memory of Primus, Macharius, Justus, Amarantus and twenty-eight others (otherwise eighteen), as if African martyrs, is inscribed in the Hieronymian codices. How uncertain these things are we have already said above, p. 324, no. 4. A certain Primus already occurred yesterday (p. 321). Of Macarius, Primus and eight others (otherwise nine) also
the names are recited on the day before the Ides of April, I note in passing.
That a feast of Relics is celebrated on this day in the Carthusian order is reported by the abridged Martyrology of Usuard excerpted from the Matricula of the Charterhouse of Utrecht. But, as J. B. Sollerius already noted, it is not even hinted whose saints these remains are (Martyrologium Usuardi, p. 661).
Rogatus, Prima, Donatus, Julia, Gaudia and Balsamus, of whom there is mention today in the Brussels auctarium of Usuard Sollerius, p. 660, are those of whom we spoke on the 7th day (above, p. 321) and also on the 6th of November (p. 128).
Saturninus. See Peter.
The Acts of the martyrs Senator, Viator and Cassiodorus, whose translation is announced in the Brussels auctarium of Usuard Sollerius, p. 660, were examined on the 14th day of September, and recently also anew H. Delehaye, Saint Cassiodore, in Mélanges Paul Fabre (Paris, 1902), pp. 40 – 50.
Chastelain makes memory on this day of St. Sulinus, abbot in the diocese of Saint-Malo. On him see the 1st of October, vol. I, pp. 196 – 98.
Verdinus of Otranto, whose body was found in the year 1714 in a certain church of the Cistercians of the archdiocese of Cosenza with a silver plate on which these words were read: When the holy city shall shine with the splendour of a star, the sun shall see me again. This is the body of Abbot Verdinus of Otranto, buried on the sixth day before the Ides of November 1259 G. Cozza-Luzi in Rivista storica Calabrese, vol. VIII (1900), p. 43 — him, I say, the writers who have spoken of him commonly call blessed [R. De Cesare, Dal conclave di Leone XIII all'ultimo consistorio (Città di Castello), 1899, p. LIII; L. Maggiulli, Un profeta Salentino del secolo XIII. Ricordi storici (Maglie, 1903), p. 3; Il beato Verdino da Otranto in Rivista storica Salentina, vol. I (1904), pp. 190 – 91]. Until it is established from indubitable monuments that ecclesiastical cult was paid to him, he must be passed over by us.
Viator. See Senator.
The sacred body of Victorinus, martyr, brought from the City, is kept in the church of SS. Cosmas and Damian at Turbigo, in the diocese of Milan P. P. Bosca, Martyrologium Mediolanensis ecclesiae (Milan, 1695), p. 371. Since his feast is kept today, it is natural to conjecture that the inhabitants of this place take him for that Victorinus of whom there will be discussion below in the Acts of the Four Crowned Ones.
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