dion made such use of the advantages which his state afforded him for virtue, as to seem to rival the Maca. riuses in their deserts; and he was honoured with the gift of miracles

Sozomen, who wrote in the beginning of the fifth century, tells us, that a gang of thieves attempting one night to carry off some of his sheep, were stopt by an invisible hand, so that they could neither perpetrate the intended theft, nor make their escape. Spiridion finding them the next morning thus secured, set them at liberty by his prayers, and gave them a ram; but exhorted them seriously to consider the danger of their state, and amend their lives; observing to them, that they had taken a great deal of unnecessary pains, and ran great hazard for what they might have made their own by asking for it. The same historian says, (1) that it was the saint's custom to fast in Lent with his whole family for some days together, without eating any thing: at which time, when he had no bread in his house, a traveller called upon him to rest and refresh himself on the road, according to the rule of hospitality which he practised. Spiridion having nothing else in his house, ordered some salt pork to be boiled, for he saw the traveller was extremely fatigued. Then having prayed some time he asked the divine pardon, that is, prayed that the dispensation which he judged necessary, might be agreeable to God. After this he invited the stranger to eat, who excused himself, saying that he was a Christian (a) Spi.

(1) Sozom. l. 1. c. 11. p. 24. ed. Cantabr. An. 1720.

(a) Calvin and Kemnitius make this fact a mighty subject of triumph, inferring, that the fast of Lent was not then of precept, though an universal practice. But that it was of precept is manifest from antiquity; and even in this history from the traveller's scruple, the mention of his great weariness, ἰδὼν τὸν ζένον μάλα κεκμηκότα, and Spiri dion's asking God pardon cxyyμ dirheas, or the ratification of the dispensation. It is clear that Spiridion, who, as a rigorous faster, but a great lover of charity and hospitality, judged the circumstances with which we are not perfectly acquainted, a sufficient necessity for a dispensation in the ecclesiastical law, which is a point of pru. dence; and Spiridion was doubtless more free than others, or the action would not have been singular, or taken notice of by the his

torian,

ridion told him, that no meats being by their own nature unclean, the rules of fasting admitted a dispensation. St Spiridion was chosen bishop of Tremithus, a city on the sea-coast near Salamis, and continued the same rural exercise which he had before followed, yet so as to attend his pastoral functions with great assiduity and devotion. His diocese was very small, and the inhabitants were poor, but the Christians very regular in their manners; though there remained among them several idolaters. St Spiridion divided his revenue into two parts; the one of which he gave to the poor, the other he reserved for his church and household, and for a loan to lend to such as were in necessity, never being solicitous for the morrow. In the persecution of Maximian Galerius he made a glorious confession of the faith. The Roman martyrology tells us, he was one of those who lost their right-eye, had the sinews of their lefthand cut, and were sent to work in the mines. He was one of the 318 prelates who composed the first general council of Nice, and was there distinguished among the holy confessors who had suffered much for the faith of Christ. About that time died his daughter Irene. A certain person had deposited in her hands a thing of great value, that it might be the more secure. This hé demanded of the bishop after her death; but it was not to be found, no body knowing where it was hid. The person whose loss it was, appeared extremely afflicted. Socrates and Sozomen say, that the good bishop, moved with compassion, went to the place where his daughter was buried, called her by her name, and asked her where she had laid what such a person had left in her hands. They add, that she answered him, giving di

torian. Dispensations from Lent were formerly very rare and difficult. The reason alleged that all things are clean, is of the same purport, shewing the law to be dispensable, it being only a positive precept of the church. For though it be an act of virtue, and sometimes commanded to fast and abstain from certain meats out of mo. tives of holy mortification, and both Jews in the old law, and Chris. tians in the new, always observed solemn fast days, it is superstitious to abstain with the Manichees and some other heretics, upon an er roneous persuasion that certain meats are in themselves unclean, or from the devil: which is all that Spiridion meant.

rections where she had hid it in the ground, that it might be more safe: and that it was found there. Though our holy prelate had very little acquaintance with human sciences, he had made the scriptures his daily meditation, and had learned what veneration is due to the word of God. The bishops of Cyprus being on a certain occasion assembled together, Triphillius, bishop of Ledri in that island (whom St Jerom commends as the most eloquent man of his time), was engaged to preach a sermon and mentioning that passage, Take up thy bed, and walk, he made use of a word to express the sick man's bed, which he thought more elegant and beautiful than that in the original text (b). Spiridion, full of a holy resentment at this false nicety, and attempt to add graces to what was more adorned with simplicity, arose and asked whether the preacher knew better the right term than the evangelist? Our saint defended the cause of St Athanasius in the council of Sardica in 347, and shortly after passed to eternal bliss. The Greeks honour his memory on the 12th, the Latins on the 14th of this month.

Sacred learning is necessary in a minister of the church: but sanctity is not less necessary. Nothing is so eloquent, or so powerfully persuasive as example: A learned man may convince; but to convert souls is chiefly the privilege of those that are pious. There have been few ages in which polite literature has been cultivated with greater ardour than the present wherein we live. How many great orators, how many elegant writers have made their appearance in it? If these were all saints, what a reformation of manners should we see among the people? It is sanctity that possesses the art of softening the heart, and subduing all the powers of the soul. An edifying life proves the preacher sincere, and is alone a sermon which obstinacy itself will find it hard to hold out against it stops the mouth of the enemies of truth and virtue. The life, vigour, and justness of a discourse are the fruit of wit, genius, and study: but unction in words is produced only by the heart. A man Substituting σκίμπος for κράββατος,

Dec. 14. must be animated with the spirit of God to speak pow erfully on divine things: the conversion of hearts is the work of God. A father and a mother are surprised that their instructions seem thrown away upon their children: but let them remember, that if they spoke the language of men and angels, if they have not themselves charity, or true piety, they are only a sounding trumpet. Children in their most tender infancy, observe with incredible penetration and sagacity every word and action of others, especially of those whom they revere and love: in these they naturally discern and read the spirit of all the passions with which such persons are actuated, deeply imbibe the same, learn to think and act from them, and are entirely moulded upon this model. The children of worldly parents will probably differ from them only in this, that their passions, by being strengthened so early, will become with age more blind and headstrong.

ON THE SAME DAY.

SS. NICASIUS, ninth Archbishop of Rheims, and his Companions, MM. In the fifth century an army of Barbarians from Germany ravaging part of Gaul, plundered the city of Rheims (a). Nicasius, the holy bishop, had foretold this calamity to his flock. When he saw the enemy at the gates and in the streets, forgetting himself, and solicitous only for his dear spiritul children, he went from door to door encouraging all to patience and constancy, and awaking in every one's breast

(a) Tillemont thinks these barbarians were Goths, and that the Vandals were Arians before they left their own country in the north of Germany. But how could they there have received christianity so early as in the beginning of the fifth century? How could count Stilico, by birth a Vandal, hope to advance his pagan son Eucherius by the help of the Vandals by opening the Pagan temples and restoring idolatry, for which attempt he and his son were put to death, as Orosius relates, if they were not then idolaters in 407; though in the middle of the same fifth century they were Arians, as appears from Salvian, 1. 7. and king Geneseric in 428? Stilting shews that St Nicasius suffered under the Vandals in 407, of which irruption of the Vandals S. Jerom speaks in his epistle to Ageruchio in 409. See Stilting in his life of S. Viventius the immediate predecessor of S. Ni. casius, on the seventh of September, T. 3, p. 65. and Gall. Christ, nov. T. 9. p. 6.

In

the most heroic sentiments of piety and religion. endeavouring to save the lives of some of his flock, he exposed himself to the swords of the infidels, who after a thousand insults and indignities (which he endured with the meekness and fortitude of a true disciple of a God crucified for us) cut off his head. Florens, his deacon, and Jocond, his lector, were massacred by his side. His sister Eutropia, a virtuous virgin, seeing herself spared in order to be reserved for wicked purposes, boldly cried out to the infidels, that it was her unalterable resolution rather to sacrifice her life, than her faith or her integrity and virtue. Upon which they dispatched her with their cutlasses. St Nicasius and St Eutropia were buried in the church-yard of St Agricola Many miracles rendered their tombs illustrious, and this church was converted into a famous abbey, which bears the name of St Nicasius, and is now a member of the congregation of St Maur. The archbishop Fulco, in 893, translated the body of St Nicasius into the cathedral, which the martyr himself had built, and dedicated to God in honour of the Blessed Virgin Mary. His head is kept in the abbey of St Vedast at Arras. See St Gregory of Tours, and Gall. Chr. nov. T. 9. p. 6. The Acts of St Nicasius in Surius (14 Dec.) were wrote before Hincmar, probably in the seventh century, but are of small importance, as Dom Rivet observes.

DECEMBER

XV.

ST EUSEBIUS, BISHOP OF VERCELLI.

From the fathers and ecclesiastical historians of the fourth century. See Tillemont, Ughelli, T. 4 p. 104. Ceillier, T. 5. p. 440. Orsi, 1 14 Fleury, 1. 13. n. 14. 16. and 41 1. 15. n 30.

A. D. 371.

ST EUSEBIUS was born of a noble family in the isle of

Sardinia, where his father is said to have died in chains for the faith. His mother, whose name was Restituta, being left a widow, carried him and a daughter she