Henschenius, say the same; but the latter shews that some small portions have been translated into Moravia, and are enshrined in the collegiate church at Brune. See the two lives of SS. Cyril and Methodius, published by Henschenius ad diem 9 Martij. See also Kohlius in Historia Codicis sacri Sclavonici, and in his Introductio in Historiam et Rem literariam Slavorum. Alronaviæ, 1729. Also at length Stredowski, in Sacra Moravia Historia, Kulcynzki, Specimen Eccl. Ruthenicæ, 1733.

From St Gregory, Hom. 15. in Evangel. and Dial 1. 4 c. 14.

A. D. 590.

In this saint was exemplified what our divine Re

IN

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deemer has taught us of Lazarus, the poor man full of sores, who lay before the gate of the rich man's house. Servulus was a beggar, and had been afflicted with the palsy from his infancy; so that he was never able to stand, sit upright, lift his hand to his mouth, or turn himself from one side to another. His mother and brother carried him into the porch of St Clement's church at Rome, where he lived on the alms of those that passed by. Whatever he could spare from his own subsistence, he distributed among other needy persons. The sufferings and humiliation of his condition, were a means of which he made the most excellent use for the sanctification of his own soul, by the constant exercise of humility, patience, meekness, resignation, and penance. He used to intreat devout persons to read the holy scriptures, and he heard them with such attention, as to learn them by heart. His time he consecrated by assiduouly singing hymns of praise and thanksgiving to God; and his continual pains were so far from dejecting or distracting him, that they proved a most pressing motive for raising his mind to God with greater ardour. After

several years thus spent, his distemper having seized his

vitals, he perceived his end to draw near. In his last moments he desired the poor and pilgrims, who had of ten shared in his charity, to sing sacred hymns and psalms by him. Whilst he joined his voice with theirs, he on a sudden cried out: "Silence! Do you not hear the sweet melody and praises which resound in the heavens!" Soon after he had spoke those words he expired, and his soul was carried by angels into everlasting bliss, about the year 500. The body of St Servulus was buried in St Clement's church, and honoured with miracles, according to the Roman martyrology.

St Gregory the Great concludes the account he gives of him in a sermon to his people, by observing, that the whole behaviour of this poor sick beggar loudly condemns those who, when blessed with good health and a plentiful fortune, neither do good works, nor suffer the least cross with tolerable patience.

ON THE SAME DAY.

Ten MARTYRS of Crete. Upon the publication of the edict for persecuting the Christians under Decius, by the activity of a barbarous governor in seeing it ri gorously executed, the isle of Crete, now called Candia, soon became one large field of blood. Among the martyrs who there triumphed over the world, the devil, and sin, none were more conspicuous than Theodulus, Saturninus, Euporus, Gelasius, Eunicianus, Zoticus, Cleomenes, Agathopus, Basilides, and Evarestus, commonly called the Ten Martyrs of Crete. The three first were citizens of Gortyna, the metropolis, where they had probably been grounded in the faith by St Cyril, bishop of that city, who was beheaded for the faith in the same persecution, and is honoured in the Roman. martyrology on the 9th of July. The rest were brought from other towns of the same island; Zoticus (called by some Zeticus) from Gnossus, Pontius from Epinium, Agathopus from Panormus, Basilides from Cydonia, and Evarestus from Heracleum. Their zeal had united them in their confession of Christ; they were apprehended, insulted, dragged on the ground, beaten, stoned, covered with phlegm and spittle, and at length presented

to the governor of the island at Gortyna, and the 23d of December was appointed for their trial. As soon as they appeared in court, they were ordered to sacrifice to Jupiter, who was particularly worshipped in Crete, and on that very day their countrymen celebrated a festival in his honour with all manner of pleasures, diversions, and sacrifices. The martyrs answered, they could never offer sacrifice to idols. The president said: "You shall know the power of the great gods. Neither do you shew respect to this illustrious assembly, which adores the great Jupiter, Juno, Rhea, aud the rest." The martyrs replied: "Mention not Jupiter, O president; nor his mother Rhea. We are no strangers to his pedigree, or to the history of his life and actions. We can shew you his grave: he was a native of this island, the tyrant of his country, and a man abandoned to every kind of lust, even with his own sex with these crimes he defiled himself every hour, and made use of spells and inchantments to debauch others. Those who look upon him as a god, must look upon it as a divine thing to imitate his lust and intemperance."

The proconsul, not being able to deny or confute what they alleged, swelled with rage, and the people were ready to tear them to pieces upon the spot, if he had not restrained them, and commanded the martyrs to be in. humanly tormented several ways.. Some of them were hoisted on the rack, and torn with iron nails, so that the ground underneath was covered with great morsels of their flesh others were pierced in their sides, and in almost every other part with sharp stones, reeds and pointed sticks: others were beaten with heavy plummets of lead, with such cruelty that their very bones were in some parts broken, and in others disjointed, and their flesh was bruised and torn. The martyrs endured all with joy, and often repeated, to the outcries of the judge and mob, who pressed them to spare themselves by obeying the prince, and sacrificing to their gods:"We are Christians were a thousand deaths prepared for us, we would receive them with joy." The whole city thronged about them, and many cried out to the judge against them; nor did he cease stirring up the

executioners to exert their whole strength in tormenting them. The saints stood like meek lambs in the midst of so many raging tygers, and only raised their voices to praise God, and declare their constant adherence to his law. The proconsul at length, seeing himself vanquished, condemned them to die by the sword. The soldiers of Christ went forth triumphant to the place of execution without the city, praying to their last breath that God would have mercy on them, and on all mankind, and would deliver their countrymen from the blindness of spiritual ignorance, and bring them to see him in his true light. They were ambitious who should first receive his crown. When their heads were struck. off, and the crouds retired, certain Christians interred their bodies, which were afterwards conveyed to Rome. The fathers who composed the council of Crete in 558, writing to the emperor Leo, say, that through the intercession of these holy martyrs, their island had been till that time preserved from heresy. The Greeks, Latins, and Muscovites commemorate them on this day. See their Acts in Metaphrastes, Surius, and Lipoman, mentioned in Greek by Fabricius, T. 6. p. 520. See also Creta Sacra.

St VICTORIA, V. M. Victoria was a young noble Roman lady, who being a Christian, desired to live to her heavenly spouse alone in a state of virginity. Eugenius, who sought her in marriage, was provoked at meeting with a repulse, and accused her to the judge, by whose order, after many fruitless attempts to extort her consent to marry, or to sacrifice to idols, she was stabbed in the breast by an executioner; of which wound she speedily died, in 250, when the persecution of De cius was hottest at Rome. See her Acts abridged by St Aldhelm, and by Ado.

DECEMBER XXIV.

SS. THRASILLA AND EMILIANA, VV.

From St Gregory the Great, Dial. I. 4. c. 16. and Hom. 38. in Evang.

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T Gregory the Great had three Aunts, who were sisters to his father Gordian the senator, and having by vow consecrated their virginity to God, they practised the exercises of an ascetic or religious life in their father's house. Their names were Thrasilla, who was the eldest, Emiliana, and Gordiana. Thrasilla and Emiliana, renouncing the vanities of the world on the same day, started together in the glorious course to perfection, and were still more united by the fervour of their hearts, and the bands of holy charity, than by blood. They lived in their father's house as retired as in a monastery, far removed from the conversation of men; and exciting one another to virtue by discourse and example, soon made a considerable progress in a spiritual life. They were so disengaged from the world, so careful in mortifying their senses, and maintaining a strict union of their souls with God, that they seemed to have forgot their bodies, and arose above all considerations of earthly things. Gordiana joined them in their vow and holy exercises, but flagged by the way, and loving to converse with the world, by degrees admitted it into her heart, so as to exclude the Almighty. Thrasilla and Emiliana could not see her unhappy change without the deepest concern, and tempering remonstrances with all the sweetness that the most tender affection and charity could inspire, gained so far upon her, that full of confusion she promised amendment. This, however, she executed only by halves, appeared often impatient of silence and retirement, and shewed too little relish for spiritual exercises and conversation, and too much for the world. By this lukewarmness, the good impressions which the zeal of her sisters made in her mind, were always worn out again, and after their death she fell from