July IV

St. Ulric, Bishop of Ausburg, confessor

From his accurate life, written by Gerard of Ausburg, in Mabillon, sæc. 2, Ben. &c. See the Bollandlsts.

a. d. 973.

St. Ulric or Udalric was son of count Hucbald, and of Thietberga, daughter of Burchard, one of the first dukes of Higher Germany. He was born in 893, and was educated from seven years of age in the abbey of St. Gal. Guiborate, a holy virgin who lived a recluse near that monastery, foretold him that he should one day be a bishop, and should meet with severe trials, but exhorted him to courage and constancy under them. So delicate and tender was the complexion of the young nobleman that all who knew him judged he could never live long. But regularity and temperance preserved a life, and strengthened a constitution which excessive tenderness of parents, care of physicians, and all other arts would probably have the sooner worn out and destroyed: which cardinal Lugo shows to have often happened by several instances in austere religious Orders.¹ The recovery of the young count was looked upon as miraculous. As he grew up, his sprightly genius, his innocence and sincere piety, and the sweetness of his temper and manners charmed the good monks; and he had already made a considerable progress in his studies when his father removed him to Ausburg, where he placed him under the care of Adalberon, bishop of that city. The prelate, according to the custom of those times, made him his chamberlain when he was only sixteen years old, afterward promoted him to the first orders, and instituted him to a canonry in his cathedral. The young clergyman was well apprised of the dangers, and instructed in the duties of his state, which he set himself with all his strength faithfully to discharge. Prayer and study filled almost all his time, and the poor had much the greatest share in his revenues. During a pilgrimage which he made to Rome, this bishop died, and was succeeded by Hiltin. After his return he continued his former manner of life, advancing daily in fervor and devotion, and in the practices of humility and mortification. He was most scrupulously careful to shun as much as possible the very shadow of danger, especially with regard to temptations against purity, and it was his usual saying to others: “Take away the fuel, and you take away the flame.”

Hilton dying in 924, Henry the Fowler, king of Germany, nominated our saint, who was then thirty-one years of age, to the bishopric of Ausburg and he was consecrated on Holy Innocents’ day. The Hungarians and Sclavonians had lately pillaged that country, murdered the holy recluse Saint Guiborate, whom the Germans honor as a martyr, plundered the city of Ausburg, and burnt the cathedral. The new bishop, not to lose time, built for the present a small church, in which he assembled the people, who in their universal distress stood in extreme need of instruction, comfort, and relief; all which they found so abundantly in Ulric, that every one thought all the calamities they had suffered sufficiently repaired by the happiness they enjoyed in possessing such a pastor. He excused himself from attending the court, knowing of what importance the presence of a bishop is to his flock, for which he is to give a severe account to God. The levying and care of his troops, which in quality of prince of the empire he was obliged to send to the army, he entrusted to a nephew, devoting himself entirely to his spiritual functions. He rose every morning at three o’clock to assist with his canons at matins and lauds: after which he recited the psalter, litany, and other prayers. At break of day he said in choir the office for the dead, and prime, and was present at high mass. After tierce and long private devotions he said mass. He only left the church after none, and then went to the hospital, where he comforted the sick, and every day washed the feet of twelve poor people, giving to each of them a liberal alms. The rest of the day he employed in instructing, preaching, visiting the sick, and discharging all the duties of a vigilant pastor. He took his frugal meal only in the evening before complin. In this the poor always shared with him, for whom and for strangers meat was served up, except on fast-days, though he never touched it himself. He allowed himself very little time for sleep, lay on straw, and never used any linen. In Lent he redoubled his austerities and devotions. He made every year the visit of his whole diocess, and held a synod of his clergy twice a year. Upon the death of Henry l. Otho I. succeeded in the kingdom of Germany, between whom and his unnatural son Luitolf, a civil war broke out. St. Ulric strenuously declared himself against the rebels, who on that account harassed and plundered his diocess. But Arnold, count palatine, being slain before the walls of Ratisbon, St. Ulric obtained the king’s pardon for his son and the rest of the rebels.

The saint had fenced the city of Ausburg with strong walls, and erected several fortresses to secure the people from the inroads of barbarians. This was a precaution of the utmost importance; for the Hungarians made a second incursion, and laid siege to Ausburg. The good pastor continued in prayer, like Moses on the mountain, for his people, whom he convened in frequent processions and devotions. His prayers were heard, and the barbarians, being seized with a sudden panic fear, raised the siege and fled in great confusion. They were met and cut to pieces by Otho, who, in 962, was crowned Emperor by the pope. St. Ulric built his cathedral in a stately manner, and dedicated it again to God in honor of St. Afra, the celebrated patroness of Ausburg, in which city she received the crown of martyrdom in the persecution of Dioclesian. She is commemorated on the 5th of August. The saint earnestly desired to resign his bishopric, and retired to the monastery of St. Gal, some time before his death; but met with too great opposition. He made a second journey of devotion to Rome, and was received with extraordinary marks of esteem by the pope, and at Ravenna by the emperor and his pious empress. Otho I. died in May, 973, and from that time the saint’s health began sensibly to decline. During his last sickness he redoubled his fervor. In his agony he caused himself to be laid on ashes blessed and strewed on the floor in the form of a cross, in which posture he died amidst the prayers of his clergy, on the 4th of July, 973, being about fourscore years old, and having been bishop fifty years. He was buried in the church of St. Afra, which at present bears his name. His sanctity was attested by miracles, and he was canonized by pope John XV. in 993.

The saints living by faith had recourse to God in all their actions, and by that means drew down his blessing on their undertakings. It was the saying of a great man, that persons who expose themselves to many dangers and sins, often meet with temporal miscarriages,² like the Israelites when they were deceived by the Gabaonites, because they neglect to commend their enterprises to God by fervent prayer and to consult his will.

Saint Odo, Archbishop of Canterbury, C.

He was born in the province of East Angles, of noble Danish parents, who, about the year 870, had accompanied Inguar and Hubba in their barbarous expedition, and had acquired a peaceable plentiful settlement in that part of England. Odo from a child loved the Christian religion, frequented the churches, and often spoke with honor of Christ to his parents; for which he was frequently severely chastised by them, and at length disinherited and turned out of doors. The young nobleman, rejoicing to see himself naked, and found worthy to suffer something for God, chose him for his inheritance; and, fearing lest by sloth he should lose the advantages he had already gained, resolved to give himself wholly to God, and embrace an ecclesiastical state. He was enabled to perform his studies by the liberality of the most noble and virtuous duke Athelm, who seems to have been son of the ealderman Athelm, who in the reign of king Ethelwulf, being assisted by the Dorsetshire men, had defeated the Danes near Portland, in 838. The duke or governor Athelm was one of the principal noblemen of England in the reign of king Alfred, and in the Saxon annals, is styled ealderman of Wiltshire. Being a most religious man, he was much taken with the piety of Odo. In 887 he made a devout pilgrimage to Rome, and carried thither the alms of king Alfred and of the West-Saxons, as the Saxon Annals testify. He had before that time procured Odo to be ordained priest, and made use of him for his confessarius, as did many others who belonged to the court. He recited every day the church office with him, as it was then customary for pious persons among the laity to do. Our saint accompanied him to Rome in quality of chaplain. On the road, this nobleman fell sick of a fever which in seven days reduced him almost to extremity. But Odo, after praying for him, presented him a glass of wine on which he had made the sign of the cross, bidding him have an entire confidence in God. Athelm had no sooner drunk the glass, than he found himself perfectly cured, and able to get on horseback. Athelm died in 898.

Odo continued to be caressed as much as ever, and was often employed by the kings Alfred and his son Edward the Elder, who began his reign in 901. King Alfred had by his wisdom and prowess raised the English monarchy to the highest pitch of grandeur, and the Danes who, from the time of the martyrdom of St. Edmund, were possessed of part of Northumberland, and of the kingdom of the East-Angles, were confined within those territories, and restrained in the eastern provinces from making inroads by the famous ditch running from the northern fens to the river Ouse, and into Suffolk, separating Mercia and the kingdom of the East-Angles, called at this day, from a town of that name, Reech-dike, and by the common people Devil’s dike. This great ditch, mentioned by the Saxon Annals in the reign of Edward the Elder, seems made about this time. When the Danes broke the truce, king Edward entirely subdued them in the country of the East-Angles, he also defeated the Scots, Cumbrians, and Welch. He built towns and fortresses in many parts of the kingdom, as Ethelred, earl of Mercia, and after his death his courageous and virtuous widow Ethelfleda, daughter to king Alfred, did in the middle counties. But nothing reflects greater honor on the name of this king, and on his wise counsellors, than the body or code of laws which he added to those of his father Alfred,¹ in enacting which the Danish king of the East-Angles, Guthrun, or rather Guthrun’s successor, Eoric, concurred. In these laws only pecuniary fines are prescribed for theft, and most other crimes; for which capital punishments were not generally instituted before the thirteenth century. Edward the Elder reigned twenty-four years, and dying in 925 was buried in the monastery which his father Alfred had founded at Winchester.

Athelstan, his eldest son, reigned fourteen years with great prudence and valor. His father Edward having extinguished the kingdom of the Danes among the East-Angles, Athelstan expelled them out of Northumberland; obliged the Welch to pay him a considerable annual tribute; and in 938 vanquished also the Scots. For their king, Constantine, protecting the Danes in Northumberland under their last king Guthfrith and his son Anlaff, drew on himself the arms of king Athelstan, who marched with his victorious army to the very north of Scotland, in 934, as William of Malmesbury relates. In the same year Constantine invaded England with a great army of Scots, Danes, and Irish, another Anlaff, king of Dublin and some of the Western Islands, coming over to his assistance. Athelstan met them at Brunanburgh, a place at present unknown, near the Humber, and with his valiant West-Saxons attacking Anlaff, whilst his cousin Turketil, at the head of the Lon doners, fell on the Scots, he gained a most complete victory, which he ascribed to the intercession of Saint John of Beverly. Having on the other side driven the Welch out of Exeter he founded there a noble monastery, which was afterward made the cathedral when the bishopric was removed from Crediton to that city. Alfred of Beverly calls Athelstan the first monarch of all England, though out of modesty he never assumed that title, but left it to his brother Edred to take. For after the extinction of the Danish kingdom in Northumberland, and the death of Ethelfleda, countess of Mercia, there remained no petty sovereign in his dominions, which had always been the case from Egbert to his time. Athelstan also subdued the Welch and the Scots, and according to our historians made not only the former, but likewise the latter tributary, though this the Scottish writers deny with regard to their country. King Athelstan was a great lover of peace, piety, and religion: he was devout affable to all, learned himself, and a patron of learned men; and he was as much admired and beloved by his subjects for his humility and humanity as he was feared by enemies and rebels for his military skill and invincible courage. He framed many good laws, in which he inflicted chiefly pecuniary penalties for crimes; for which purpose he fixed for every offence a value or price according to every one’s rank and estate. This great king reposed an entire confidence in the prudence and sanctity of his chaplain, and not content to make use of his counsels in his most weighty concerns, he carried him with him in his war, that he might always animate himself to virtue by his example and holy advice. The kingdom of the West-Saxons was for some time all comprised under the diocess of Winchester, till in the reign of king Ina, about the year 705, the see of Shirburne was erected, and in 905 that of Wilton for Wiltshire, though these two sees were again united and fixed at Salisbury in 1046 King Athelstan about the beginning of his reign procured St. Odo to be chosen second bishop of Wilton, according to Le Neve’s Fasti, though some say of Shirburne. Nevertheless, the saint was obliged often to attend the king, and was present at the great battle of Brunanburgh, against the Danes, Scots, and Irish, in which Athelstan, being attacked by Anlaff, and almost surrounded by enemies, having also broken or lost his sword, called aloud for help. St. Odo ran in upon this occasion, and first discovered to the king a sword hanging by his side, which was thought to have been sent from heaven, with which, animated by the saint, he gained one of the most glorious and advantageous victories that ever was won by the English nation.

Athelstan dying in 941, left the crown to his brother Edmund, at that time only eighteen years of age. This prince reduced a second time the Northumbers and Anlaff the Dane, who had again revolted: and governed by the wise counsels of St. Odo, he enacted many wholesome laws, especially to prevent family feuds and murders. By one of these it is ordained that if several thieves combine together, the eldest shall be hanged, the rest whipped thrice. This seems the first law by which robbery was punished in England by death. The king was religious and valiant, and being a judge of men, reposed an entire confidence in St. Odo, who, in 942, was translated to the metropolitan see of Canterbury. The saint had consented to his first promotion with great reluctance. But he opposed the second a long time with a dread which saints are usually filled with on such occasions. He alleged first, his unworthiness, secondly, the canons against translations, and thirdly, that he was no monk. His two first difficulties were overruled; and as to the third, he at length consented to receive the Benedictin habit from the hands of the abbot of Fleuri, now St. Bennet’s on the Loire, a house then famous for its regularity. The abbot was therefore invited into England for this purpose, or according to others, St. Odo travelled to Fleuri, and received the habit from his hands; after which he was installed archbishop. King Edmund was assassinated by Leof, an outlawed thief, who had insolently seated himself at the king’s table, in a great banquet which the king gave on the feast of St. Austin, archbishop of Canterbury, in 948.

Edmund left two sons very young, Edwy and Edgar, but was succeeded by his brother Edred, in whose days happened the following miracle, related by Eadmer in his exact life of our saint; also by William of Malmesbury, and the Chronicles of the Church of Canterbury, quoted in Parker’s British Antiquities, and Du Pin.² Some of the clergy at Canterbury being tempted to doubt of the real presence of Christ’s body in the holy eucharist, St. Odo begged by his prayers that God would be pleased mercifully to demonstrate to them the truth of this sacred mystery; and at this petition, whilst he was saying mass in his cathedral, at the breaking of the host, blood was seen by all the people distilling from it into the chalice; the saint called up to the altar those who labored under the temptation before-mentioned, and others then present, to bear witness to the miracle. Full of gratitude, they afterward celebrated with their archbishop a solemn thanksgiving for this wonderful miracle, in which Christ had manifested himself visible in the flesh to their corporeal eyes. King Edred died in 955, after a lingering illness, which he sanctified by the most edifying patience and acts of devotion, having reigned nine years and a half. He took the title of king of Great Britain, as he styles himself in a charter which he gave to the abbey of Croyland, recited by Ingulphus. In another, given to the abbey of Reculver,³ he calls himself Monarch of all England.

Edwy, the eldest son of king Edmund, succeeded next to the throne, and was crowned at Kingston by St. Odo. But being a youth abandoned to excessive lust, after the coronation dinner he left his bishops and nobles to go to his mistress Ethelgiva, who was his own near relation. St. Dunstan, then abbot of Glastenbury, reproved him by order of St. Odo, but was banished by the tyrant, and the monks turned out of Glastenbury and many other monasteries. St. Odo exerted his zeal against the adulteress, but the king repaired to Gloucester when she fled to that city. The enormities of his reign stirred up the Mercians and Northumbers to take up arms against him, and to crown his younger brother Edgar. Edwy retained the kingdom of the West-Saxons till his death, which happened in 959, according to Florence of Worcester and Laud’s copy of the Saxon annals.

Edgar exceedingly honored St. Odo, recalled St. Dunstan, and advanced him to the bishopric of Worcester. He reigned about sixteen years in uninterrupted peace and prosperity, till his death in 975, beloved by all his subjects, and revered by foreigners. William of Malmesbury and Florence of Worcester mention his two great fleets, said to have consisted of three thousand six hundred ships, with which he yearly scoured the British seas; and he had six or eight petty kings often to wait on him, namely, Kenneth of the Scots, Malcolm of Cumberland, Maccus, lord of Man and the Isles, and five princes of Wales, who all rowed his galley from Chester down the river Dee. These princes of Wales were the successors of Howel Dha, the wise legislator and powerful prince of all Wales.* King Edgar’s salutary laws are chiefly to be ascribed to St. Odo and St. Dunstan. This great king, by the direction of these holy men, set himself earnestly to repair the damages which the Church and State had received under the tyranny of his brother.

St. Odo never intermitted the daily instruction of his clergy and flock, notwithstanding his great age, and strenuously labored to advance daily in the divine love. He died in 961. His relics, when his shrine was plundered at the change of religion, seem to have been deposited under a small tomb which is seen at this day in the same place where the shrine formerly stood. His name was famous in our English Martyrologies. For his virtue he was usually styled whilst living, Odo se gode, that is, in the Saxon language, Odo the Good. The Constitutions of St. Odo seem charges delivered by him to the clergy.⁴ The laws of the kings Athelstan, Edmund, and Edgar, are part laws of the State, part of the Church. They were enacted in general assemblies or synods, and are for the most part to be ascribed to St. Odo. See Matthew of Westminster, Florence of Worcester, and the life of St. Odo, written, not by Osbern the famous monk of Canterbury, in 1070, as Mabillon conjectured, Sæc. Ben. V. p. 203, but by Eadmer, the disciple of St. Anselm, in 1121, as Henry Wharton demonstrates in his Preface, vol. 2, p. 10, Anglia Sacra. The Life of St. Odo, written by Osbern, and quoted by William of Malmesbury, seems nowhere to be extant. The History of St. Odo is compiled by Ericus Pantopidanus in his Gesta Danorum extra Daniam. Hafniæ. 1740. t. 2, § 2, § 8, p. 157.

St. Sisoes or Sisoy, Anachoret in Egypt

After the death of St. Antony, St. Sisoes was one of the most shining lights of the Egyptian deserts. He was an Egyptian by birth. Having quitted the world from his youth, he retired to the desert of Scete, and lived some time under the direction of abbot Hor. The desire of finding a retreat yet more unfrequented induced him to cross the Nile and hide himself in the mountain where Saint Antony died some time before. The memory of that great man’s virtues being still fresh, wonderfully supported his fervor. He imagined he saw him, and heard the instructions he was wont to deliver to his disciples; and he strained every nerve to imitate his most heroic exercises, the austerity of his penance, the rigor of his silence, the almost unremitting ardor of his prayer, insomuch that the reputation of his sanctity became so illustrious as to merit the full confidence of all the neighboring solitaries. Some even came a great distance to be guided in the interior ways of perfection; and, in spite of the pains he took, he was forced to submit his love of silence and retreat to the greater duty of charity. He often passed two days without eating, and was so rapt in God that he forgot his food, so that it was necessary for his disciple Abraham to remind him that it was time to break his fast. He would sometimes be even surprised at the notice, and contend that he had already made his meal; so small was the attention he paid to the wants of his body.¹ His prayer was so fervent that it often passed into ecstasy. At other times his heart was so inflamed with divine love, that, scarce able to support its violence, he only obtained relief from his sighs, which frequently escaped without his knowledge, and even against his will.² It was a maxim with him, that a solitary ought not to choose the manual labor which is most pleasing to him.³ His ordinary work was making baskets. He was tempted one day as he was selling them, to anger; instantly he threw the baskets away and ran off. By efforts like these to command his temper he acquired a meekness which nothing could disturb. His zeal against vice was without bitterness; and when his monks fell into faults, far from affecting astonishment or the language of reproach, he helped them to rise again with a tenderness truly paternal.⁴ When he once recommended patience and the exact observance of rules, he told the following anecdote: “Twelve monks, benighted on the road, observed that their guide was going astray. This, for fear of breaking their rule of silence, they forbore to notice, thinking within themselves that at daybreak he would see his mistake and put them in the right road. Accordingly, the guide discovering his error, with much confusion, was making many apologies; when the monks being now at liberty to speak, only said, with the greatest good humor, ‘Friend, we saw very well that you went out of your road; but we were then bound to silence.’ The man was struck with astonishment, and very much edified at this answer expressive of such patience and strictness of observance.”⁵

Some Arians had the impudence to come to his mount, and utter their heresy before his disciples. The saint, instead of an answer, desired one of the monks to read St. Athanasius’s treatise against Arianism, which at once stopped their mouths and confounded them. He then dismissed them with his usual good temper. St. Sisoes was singularly devoted to humility; and in all his advices and instructions to others, held constantly before their eyes this most necessary virtue. A recluse saying to him one day, “Father, I always place myself in the presence of God;” he replied, “It would be much more your advantage to place yourself below every creature, in order to be securely humble.” Thus, while he never lost sight of the divine presence, it was ever accompanied with the consciousness of his own nothingness and misery.⁶ “Make yourself little,” said he to a monk, “renounce all sensual satisfactions, disengage yourself from the empty cares of the world, and you will find true peace of mind”⁷ To another, who complained that he had not yet arrived at the perfection of St. Antony, he said, “Ah! if I had but one only of that great man’s feelings, I would be all one flame of divine love.”⁸ Notwithstanding his extraordinary mortifications, they appeared so trifling in his mind, that he called himself a sensual man, and would have every one else to be of the same opinion.⁹ If charity for strangers sometimes constrained him to anticipate dinner-hour, at another season, by way of indemnification, he protracted his fast, as if his body were indebted to so laudable a condescension.¹⁰ He dreaded praise so much, that in prayer, as was his custom, with hands lifted up to heaven, when sometimes he apprehended observation, he would suddenly drop them down. He was always ready to blame himself, and saw nothing praiseworthy in others which did not serve him for an occasion to censure his own lukewarmness.¹¹ On a visit of three solitaries wanting instruction, one of them said, “Father, what shall I do to shun hell-fire?” He made no reply. “And for my part,” added another, “how shall I escape the gnashing of teeth, and the worm that never dies?” “What also will become of me,” concluded the third, “for every time I think on utter darkness I am ready to die with fear?” Then the saint breaking silence, answered, “I confess that these are subjects which never employ my thoughts, and as I know that God is merciful, I trust he will have compassion on me. You are happy,” he added, “and I envy your virtue. You speak of the torments of hell, and your fears on this account must be powerful guards against the admission of sin. Alas! then, it is I should exclaim, What shall become of me? I, who am so insensible as never even to reflect on the place of torments destined to punish the wicked after death. Undoubtedly this is the reason I am guilty of so much sin.” The solitaries retired much edified with this humble reply.¹² The saint said one time, “I am now thirty years praying daily that my Lord Jesus may preserve me from saying an idle word, and yet I am always relapsing.” This could only be the language which humility dictates; for he was singularly observant of the times of retirement and silence, and kept his cell constantly locked to avoid interruption, and always gave his answers to those who asked his advice in the fewest words.¹³ The servant of God, worn out with sickness and old age, yielded at last to his disciple Abraham’s advice, and went to reside a while at Clysma, a town on the border, or at least in the neighborhood of the Red Sea.¹⁴ Here he received a visit from Ammon, or Amun, abbot of Raithe, who, observing his affliction for being absent from his retreat, endeavored to comfort him by representing that his present ill state of health wanted the remedies which could not be applied in the desert. “What do you say,” returned the saint, with a countenance full of grief, “was not the ease of mind I enjoyed there everything for my comfort?” He was not at ease till he returned to his retreat, where he finished his holy course. The solitaries of the desert assisting at his agony, heard him, as Rufinus relates, cry out, “Behold, abbot Antony, the choir of prophets and the angels come to take my soul.” At the same time his countenance shone, and being some time interiorly recollected with God, he cried out anew, “Behold! our Lord comes for me.” At the instant he expired, his cell was perfumed with a heavenly odor.¹⁵ He died about the year 429, after a retreat of at least sixty-two years in St. Antony’s Mount. His feast is inserted in the Greek Menologies on the 6th of July; and in some of the Latin Calendars on the 4th of the same month. See Rosweide, Cotelier, Tillemont, t. 12, p. 453, and the Bollandists ad diem 6 Julii, t. 2, p. 280.

This saint must not be confounded with two other Sisoes, who lived in the same age. One, surnamed the Theban, lived at Calamon, in the territory of Arsinoe. Another had his cell at Petra. It is of Sisoes the Theban that the following passage is related, though some authors by mistake have ascribed it to St. Sisoes of Sceté. A certain recluse having received some offence, went to Sisoes to tell him that he must have revenge. The holy old man conjured him to leave his revenge to God, to pardon his brother, and forget the injury he had received. But seeing that his advice had no weight with him, “At least,” said he, “let us both join in an address to God,” then standing up, he prayed thus aloud: “Lord, we no longer wan your care of our interests or your protection, since this monk maintains that we can and ought to be our own avengers.” This extraordinary petition exceedingly moved the poor recluse, and throwing himself at the saint’s feet, he begged his pardon, protesting that from that moment he would forget he had ever been injured.¹⁶ This holy man loved retirement so much that he delayed not a moment even in the church after the mass to hasten to his cell. This was not to indulge self-love or an affected singularity, but to shun the danger of dissipation, and enjoy in silence and prayer the sweet conversation of God. For at proper seasons, especially when charity required it, he was far from being backward in giving himself to the duties of society. Such was his self-denial that he seldom or ever eat bread. However, being invited one time by the neighboring solitaries to a small repast, in condescension, and to show how little he was guided by self-will, observing that it would be agree able, “I will eat,” said he, “bread, or anything you lay before me.”¹⁷ See Bulteau, Hist. Mon. d’Orient, l. 1, c. 3, n. 7, p. 56. Tillemont, t. 12, and Pinius, one of the continuators of Bollandus, on the 6th of July.

Saint Bertha, Widow

abbess of blangy in artois

She was the daughter of count Rigobert and Ursana, related to one of the kings of Kent in England. In the twentieth year of her age she was married to Sigefroi, by whom she had five daughters, two of whom, Gertrude and Deotila, were saints. After her husband’s death, she put on the veil in the nunnery which she had built at Blangy in Artois, a little distance from Hesdin. Her daughters Gertrude and Deotila followed her example. She was persecuted by Roger or Rotgar, who endeavored to asperse her with king Thierri III. to revenge his being refused Gertrude in marriage. But this prince, convinced of the innocence of Bertha, then abbess over her nunnery, gave her a kind reception, and took her under his protection. On her return to Blangy, Bertha finished her nunnery, and caused three churches to he built, one in honor of St. Omer, another she called after St. Vaast, and the third in honor of St. Martin of Tours. And then, after establishing a regular observance in her community, she left St. Deotila abbess in her stead, having shut herself in a cell, to be employed only in prayer. She died about the year 725. A great part of her relics are kept at Blangy.* See Mabillon, sec. 3, Ben. part. 1, p. 451, Bulteau, Hist. de l’Ordre de St. Benoit, t. 2, l. 4, c. 31, and Baillet on the 4th of July.

St. Finbar, Abbot

and founder of a famous monastery in the isle of crimlen, between kinselech and desies

See Colgan in MSS. ad 4 Julii. He is not to be confounded with St. Finbar, the first bishop of Cork, who is honored on the 25th of September.

St. Bolcan, Abbot

A disciple of St. Patrick in Ireland. His relics remain at Kilmore, i. e. Great Cell, where his monastery stood. See Colgan. ib

¹ Lugo in Decal. See Less. l. de Valetud.

² Jos. 9:14.

¹ See these laws in Spelman, Conc. t. 1, and Wilkins. Conc. Brit. t. 1.

² Cent. 10.

³ Extant in Monast. Anglic. App., vol. I.

* The Welch laws of Howel Dha, that is, Howel the Good, are published by Dr. Wotton, in folio, 1735

⁴ See Inett, History of the Church of England, t. 1.

¹ Rosweide, Vit. Patr. l. 5, lib. 4, n. 38.

² Ibid. l. 6, lib. 2, n. 14.

³ Cotelier, Monum. GI. p. 675.

⁴ Cotelier. ib. p. 670. Rosweide, l. 3, p. 103.

⁵ Cotelier ib. p. 672.

⁶ Rosweide, Vit. Patr. l. 5. lib. 15, n. 47.

⁷ Rosweide, Vit. Patr. l. 5. lib. 1, n. 17.

⁸ Rosweide, Vit. Patr. l. 5, lib. 15, n. 44.

⁹ Ibid. n. 46.

¹⁰ Ibid. l. 5, lib. 8, n. 15.

¹¹ Ibid. l. 6, lib. 9, n. 5.

¹² Cotelier, ibid. p. 669.

¹³ Rosweide, Vit. Patr. 1. 5, lib. 4, n. 39, et l. 6, lib. 8, n. 6.

¹⁴ Cotelier, p. 671.

¹⁵ Rufln. ap Rosw. l. 3, n. 162.

¹⁶ Rosweide, Vit. Patr. l. 5, lib. 16, n. 10

¹⁷ Cotelier, t. I, p. 678.

* The monastery of Blangy was founded in 686. Having been destroyed during the incursions of the Normans, it was rebuilt In the eleventh century, and given to the religions of the Order of St. Benedict it is still in being.

 Butler, A. (1903). The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs and Other Principal Saints (Vol. 3, pp. 21–30). New York: P. J. Kenedy.