NOVEMBER XVIII


THE DEDICATION OF THE CHURCHES OF SS. PETER AND PAUL, AT ROME

THE Vatican church, dedicated in honor of St. Peter, is the second patriarchal church at Rome, and in it reposes one half of the precious remains of the bodies of SS. Peter and Paul. The tombs of the great conquerors and lords of the world have been long since destroyed and forgotten: but those of the martyrs are glorious by the veneration which the faithful pay to their memory. Among all the places which the blood of martyrs has rendered illustrious, that part of the Vatican hill which was consecrated with the blood, and enriched with the relics of the prince of the apostles, has always been most venerable. “The sepulchres of those who have served Christ crucified,” says St. Chrysostom,1 “surpass the palaces of kings, not so much in the greatness and beauty of the buildings, (though in this also they go beyond them,) as in another thing of more importance, namely, in the multitude of those who, with devotion and joy, repair to them. For the emperor himself, who is clothed in purple, goes to the sepulchres of the saints, and kisses them; and, humbly prostrate on the ground, beseeches the same saints to pray to God for him; and he who wears a royal crown upon his head, holds it for a great favor of God, that a tent-maker and a fisherman, and these dead, should be his protectors and defenders and this he begs with great earnestness” And St. Austin, or another ancient father:2 “Now at the memory of the fisherman the knees of the emperor are bowed, and the precious stones of the imperial crown shine most where the benefits of the fisherman are most felt.”
The body of St. Peter is said to have been buried immediately after his martyrdom, upon this spot, on the Vatican hill,3 which was then without the walls, and near the suburb inhabited by the Jews. The remains of this apostle were removed hence, into the cemetery of Calixtus, but brought back to the Vatican. Those of St. Paul were deposited on the Ostian Way, where his church now stands. The tombs of the two princes of the apostles, from the beginning, were visited by Christians with extraordinary devotion above those of other martyrs. Caius, the learned and eloquent priest of Rome, in 210, in his dialogue with Proclus, the Montanist,4 speaks thus of them: “I can show you the trophies of the apostles. For, whether you go to the Vatican hill, or to the Ostian road, you will meet with the monuments of them, who by their preaching and miracles founded this church.” The Christians, even in the times of persecution, adorned the tombs of the martyrs, and the oratories which they erected over them, where they frequently prayed. Constantine the Great, after founding the Lateran church, built seven other churches at Rome, and many more in other parts of Italy. The first of these were, the churches of St. Peter on the Vatican hill, (where a temple of Apollo, and another of Ida. mother of the gods,5 before stood,) in honor of the place where the prince of the apostles had suffered martyrdom, and was buried:6 and that of St. Paul, at his tomb on the Ostian road. The yearly revenues which Constantine granted to all these churches, amounted to seventeen thousand seven hundred and seventy golden pence, which is above thirteen thousand pounds sterling, counting the prices, gold for gold; but, as the value of gold and silver was then much higher than at present, the sum in our money at this day would be much greater. These churches had also a yearly income of above one thousand six hundred pounds upon the spices which Egypt and the East furnished. The churches of St. Peter had houses at Antioch, and lands round about that city; at Tarsus, in Cilicia, and at Tyre: also in Egypt, near Alexandria, in the province of Euphrates, and elsewhere. A part of these lands was appointed every year to furnish a certain quantity of spikenard, frankincense, balm, storax, cinnamon, saffron, and other precious drugs for the censers and lamps. Anastasius gives a large account of the rich vessels of gold and silver which Constantine gave for the service of these churches; but perhaps confounded some later presents with those of this emperor.7 These churches were built by Constantine in so stately and magnificent a manner as to vie with the finest structures in the empire, as appears from the description which Eusebius gives us of the church of Tyre; for we find that the rest were erected upon the same model, which was consequently of great antiquity.* St. Peter’s church on the Vatican, being fallen to decay, it was begun to be rebuilt under Julius II., in 1506 and was dedicated by Urban VIII., in 1626, on this day; the same on which the dedication of the old church was celebrated.* The precious remains of many popes, martyrs, and other saints, are deposited partly under the altars of this vast and beautiful church, and partly in a spacious subter raneous church under the other. But the richest treasure of this venerable place consists in the relics of SS. Peter and Paul, which lie in a sumptuous vault beyond the middle of the church towards the upper end, under a magnificent altar, at which only the pope says mass, unless he commissions another to officiate there. This sacred vault is called, The confession of St. Peter, or, The threshold of the Apostles, (Limina Apostolorum,) to which devout persons have flocked, in pilgrimages, from the primitive ages.
Churches are dedicated only to God, though often under the patronage of some saint; that the faithful may be excited to implore, with united suffrages, the intercession of such a saint, and that churches may be distinguished by bearing different titles.8 “Neither do we,” says St. Austin, “erect churches, or appoint priesthoods, sacred rites, and sacrifices to the martyrs; because, not the martyrs, but the God of the martyrs, is our God. Who, among the faithful, ever heard a priest, standing at the altar which is erected over the body of a martyr to the honor and worship of God, say, in praying: We offer up sacrifice to thee, O Peter, or Paul, or Cyprian; when at their memories (or titular altars) it is offered to God, who made them both men and martyrs, and has associated them to his angels in heavenly honor.”9 And again:10 “We build not churches to martyrs as to gods, but memories as to men departed this life, whose souls live with God. Nor do we erect altars to sacrifice on them to the martyrs, but to the God of the martyrs, and our God.” Constantine the Great gave proofs of his piety and religion by the foundation of so many magnificent churches, in which he desired that the name of God should be glorified on earth, to the end of time. Do we show ours by our awful deportment and devotion in holy places, and by our assiduity in frequenting them? God is everywhere present, and is to be honored by the homages of our affections in all places. But in those which are sacred to him, in which our most holy mysteries are performed, and in which his faithful servants unite their suffrages, greater is the glory which redounds to him from them, and he is usually more ready to receive our requests: the prayers of many assembled together being a holy violence to his mercy.


SS. ALPHUS AND ZACHUS; ALSO ROMANUS AND BARULAS, MM.

IN the first year of Dioclesian’s general persecution, and the nineteenth of his reign, upon the approach of the vicennial games for the twentieth year of his reign, the governor of Palestine, who resided at Csarea, obtained the emperor’s pardon for all criminals, (as it was the custom at the quinquennial, decennial, and vicennial games of the emperors,) only the Christians excepted, as worse than murderers. At that very time, Zachus, deacon at Gadara, beyond the Jordan, was apprehended, and presented to the prefect, loaded with chains. By the judge’s order, he was inhumanly scourged, then torn with iron combs, and afterwards thrown into prison, where his feet were stretched to the fourth hole; by which his body was almost rent asunder: yet he lay in this condition very cheerful, praising God night and day. Here he was soon joined by Alphus, his cousin, a man of desires, that is, endowed with an eminent spirit of prayer. He was a native of Eleutheropolis, of a good family, lector and exorcist in the church of Csarea. In the persecution, he boldly encouraged the faithful to constancy, and, being seized, baffled the prefect in his first examination, and was committed to prison. At a second appearance in court, his flesh was torn, first with whips, then with iron hooks: after which, he was cast into the same dungeon with Zachus, and put in like manner in the stocks. In a third examination, they were both condemned to die, and were beheaded together, on the 17th of November. Eusebius gives, in his history of the martyrs of Palestine, an abstract of their Acts which we have entire by the same hand among the Acts of the western martyrs, published in the original Chaldaic by Steph. Evod. Assemani, t. 2, p. 177.
The name of St. Romanus is the most illustrious among these martyrs. Eusebius has joined his history to the former, because, though he suffered at Antioch, he was a native of Palestine. We have also a panegyric of St. Chrysostom on this saint, which he delivered at Antioch, on his festival,1 and another among his works, which seems to be the performance of some other priest at Antioch, who was his contemporary under Flavian. There is also one on this martyr among the homilies, which go under the name of Eusebius Emisenus.2 Romanus was exorcist in a village which was under the jurisdiction of Csarea, in Palestine. When the persecution broke out with great fury, he went about exhorting the faithful to stand firm in the day of battle and made a journey to Antioch on purpose to encourage those who were called to the trial. In the very court of the judge, whom Prudentius calls Asclepiades, Romanus, observing certain Christian prisoners betray symptoms of fear, cried out aloud, bidding them call to mind the joys of heaven, and the eternal torments of hell. That instant violent hands were laid on him, and after he had been scourged, and his body torn with hooks, the judge condemned him to be burned alive. The emperor Dioclesian, (not Galerius, as Ruinart and Tillemont imagined,) coming to Antioch, while the fire was making ready, he thought the punishment too light for such an offender, put a stop to the execution, and ordered the martyr’s tongue to be plucked out by the root. This was punctually executed; yet the martyr spoke as distinctly as ever, exhorting all persons to love and worship the true and only God: nor die be cease to render thanks to the author of miracles. The emperor, to remove him out of the sight of the people, caused him to be sent back to prison, his legs to be stretched in the stocks to the fifth hole, and his body raised up. He had suffered this torture a considerable time, when he finished his martyrdom, being secretly strangled in prison on the 17th of November, the same day on which the former martyrs received their crowns in Palestine; yet the Greeks commemorate them all, and the Latins St. Romanus, on the 18th. Prudentius3 begs, that as he stood ranked among the goats, he might, by the prayers of Romanus, pass to the right hand, and be placed among the sheep. Prudentius mentions St. Barulas, a child, who, at the instigation of St. Romanus, confessed one God, and condemned a multitude of gods; was scourged and beheaded, his mother all the time looking on with joy, and encouraging him to constancy.4 Barulas, or Barallaha, by contraction Barlaha, in Chaldaic signifies Child or Servant of God; whence, in the old Breviary of Toledo, this martyr is called Theodulus, which is a Greek word of the same import, as Joseph Assemani observes.5


ST. ODO, ABBOT OF CLUNI, C.

ABBO, father to this saint, was a nobleman of the first rank. Odo was born at Tours in 879, and was brought up first in the family of Fulk II., count of Anjou, and afterwards in that of William, count of Auvergne, and duke of Aquitaine, who, some years after, founded the abbey of Cluni. From his childhood the saint was much given to prayer, and piety made him regret the time that he threw away in hunting and other amusements and exercises of a court life. At nineteen years of age he received the tonsure, and was instituted to a canonry in St. Martin’s church, at Tours, and from that time bade adieu to Virgil and other profane authors, resolving only to read such books as tended to nourish in his heart compunction, devotion, and divine love. However, he spent four years at Paris in completing a course of theological studies. But, upon his return to Tours, he shut himself up in a cell, determined to have no other employment but prayer and meditation upon the holy scriptures. One day, in reading the rule of St. Bennet, he was confounded within himself to see how much his life fell short of the maxims and rules of perfection which are there laid down, and he determined to embrace a monastic state. The count of Anjou, his patron, refusing to consent, Odo spent almost three years in a cell, with one companion, in the assiduous practice of penance and contemplation. At length, resolving that no impediments should any longer withhold him from consecrating himself to God in a monastic state, he resigned his canonry, and secretly repaired to the monastery of Beaume, in the diocese of Besanon, where the holy abbot, St. Berno, admitted him to the habit, in 909.* He brought nothing with him but his library, which consisted of about a hundred volumes. The great abbey of Cluni was founded in 910, and committed to the care of St. Berno, who was obliged to govern six other monasteries at the same time. Upon his death, in 927, the bishops of that country established St. Odo abbot of three of those monasteries, namely, Cluni, Massay, and Deols. The first he made his residence; and the reputation of his sanctity, and of the regularity and good discipline which he established, drew thither many illustrious and fervent persons, who sincerely desired to serve God. The saint established there the rule of St. Bennet in great purity, and endeavored to carry its observance to the highest perfection. It was his usual saying, that no one can be called a monk who is not a true lover, and strict observer of silence, a condition absolutely necessary for interior solitude and the commerce of a soul with God. Silence and the most perfect practices of humility, obedience, and self-denial, were the chief objects of his reformation. Many distant monasteries received his regulations, and subjected themselves to his jurisdiction, so that the congregation of Cluni became most numerous and flourishing; though the severity which he established in it has been long since mitigated. The saint was employed by popes and princes in several difficult public negotiations, in all which he succeeded with admirable piety, address, and prudence. Out of devotion to St. Martin, he was desirous to die at Tours, and, being seized with his last sickness, hastened thither, and there happily slept in our Lord on the 18th of November, 942. He was buried in the church of St. Julian; but the Huguenots burnt the greatest part of his remains. St. Odo is named in the Roman Martyrology. See the life of St. Odo, written by John, his disciple, extant in the library of Cluni, published by Marrier, and Duchesne: also in Mabillon, with other pieces relating to the history of this saint, Sc. 5, Ben.


ST. HILDA OR HILD, ABBESS

BY despising the world for Christ, this saint became greater, even in the eyes of men, than royalty itself could have made her: but she was truly great only because the applause and veneration of this whole island was to her a most grievous persecution, the dangers of which alarmed her humble soul more than the threats of fire and sword could have done. Hilda was daughter of Hereric, nephew to St. Edwin, king of the Northumbers; and she was baptized by St. Paulinus, together with that prince, when she was but fourteen years old. The grace of this sacrament she always preserved without spot, and, from the moment she became a member of the kingdom of God, the obligations and happiness of this great spiritual dignity took up all her thoughts, and engrossed her whole soul. The better to attend to them alone she left her friends and country, and went into the kingdom of the East Angles, where her cousin, the most religious king Annas, reigned. Her first design was to retire to Chelles, in France, where her sister, St. Hereswide, served God: with her she passed one year, till, upon her death St. Aidan prevailed upon Hilda to return into Northumberland, where he settled her in the small nunnery upon the river Were, founded by the first Northumbrian nun, Heiu. After living there one year, she was made abbess of a numerous monastery at Heortea,* or Heterslie, now Hartlepool, in the bishopric of Durham; and some years after called to found a great double monastery, the one of men, and the other of women, at Streaneshalch, (that is, bay of the Light-house,) afterwards called Prestby, from the number of priests that lived there, and at present Whitby, (or Whitebay,) in Yorkshire.† All her monasteries were destroyed by the Danes, about two hundred and fifty years after her death; only this last was rebuilt in 1067, for Benedic tin monks, and flourished till the suppression of religious houses. St. Hilda, for her sanctity and her wisdom, in conducting souls to God, was most dear to St. Aidan and other holy prelates; and kings and princes frequently repaired to Streaneshalch to consult her in affairs of the greatest difficulty and importance. This holy abbess, who was eminent in all virtues, excelled particularly in prudence, and had a singular talent in reconciling differences, and in maintaining concord, being herself endowed with the spirit of charity, meekness, and peace.
The monastery of men at Streaneshalch, became a nursery of holy and learned prelates; and out of it St. Bosa, St. Hedda, Ostfor, St. John of Beverley, and St. Wilfrid were raised to the episcopal dignity. In this monastery St. Wilfrid confuted Colman and the Scottish monks concerning the due celebration of Easter. The nunnery of St. Hilda was not less famous, Oswy, king of the Northumbers, was the chief benefactor, or founder of this house. He had reigned twelve years, endured many devastations of his dominions from Penda, the cruel Mercian king, and in vain attempted by presents to gain his friendship, when that sworn enemy of the Christian name, who had already murdered five Christian kings, (Annas, Sigebert, Egric, Oswald, and Edwin,) undertook the entire conquest of Northumberland, though in the seventy-eighth year of his age. Oswy, finding himself too weak for human relief, and all his offers and gifts rejected, turned them into vows to implore the divine assistance, and devoted his daughter, then lately born, to perpetual virginity, with certain portions of land for endowing monasteries. His vows produced greater effects than his treaties; for, with a small army, he defeated the Mercians and their allies, though thirty times more in number; and slew Penda himself upon the banks of the Aire, near Seacroft, a village about three miles from Leeds, in Yorkshire, in 655.1 From this victory, the village of Winfield seems to have taken its name; and by it Oswy was raised to the height of power; so that in three years he subdued all Mercia, and the greatest part of the country of the Picts, in the north. According to his promise, he gave his daughter Elfleda, scarce then a year old, to be consecrated to God under the care of St. Hilda, at Heortea, by whom she was removed, two years after, to Streaneshalch. The king gave to this house twelve estates of land for maintaining religious persons, each estate being ten families. Oswy dying in 670, after a reign of twenty-eight years, his widow, Ealflede, who was daughter to the holy king Edwin, retired to this monastery, and there ended her days in the exercises of a religious life. St. Hilda died in 680, being sixty-three years old, of which she had spent thirty-three in a monastic life. A nun at Hakenes, thirteen miles from Whitby, on the strand, saw her soul carried up to bliss by angels. She was succeeded in the government of her monastery by the royal virgin, Elfleda, who, after serving God sixty years, went to his eternal embraces. In the church of St. Peter, besides St. Hilda, and the royal virgin Elfleda, were interred king Oswy, his mother Eanfled, his mother’s father Edwin, and many other great persons. The body of St. Hilda, after the devastation of the monastery by the Danes, Inguar and Hubba, was carried to Glastonbury by Titus, the abbot, who fled thither. In the time of Hugh, earl of Chester, in the reign of the conqueror, William de Percy, ancestor to the Percies, earls of Northumberland, rebuilt the monastery for Benedictin monks, in which state it continued till the suppression of monasteries. See Bede, Hist. l. 3, c. 24, 25; l. 4, c. 23, and Registrum de Whitby, quoted by Burton, in Monasticon Eboracense, t. 1, pp. 68, 69, 88; Leland’s Collectan. t. 2, pp. 141, 150.


BUTLER, A., The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs and Other Principal Saints (New York 1903) IV, 502-509.