tinople, from the monastery of St Arsenius, was made on the 13th of August (c). See the acts of St Maximus, the authentic relations of his interrogatories and sufferings, and other ancient pieces concerning his life, ap. Com befis, T. 1. Oper. S. Maximi.

See the Pontifical published by Anastasius, Rufin, &c. amongst the moderns, Tillemont, T. 7. p. 267. Orsi, T. 4. and 5.

A. D. 335.

ST SYLVESTER, Whom God appointed to govern his holy church in the first years of her temporal prosperity and triumph over her persecuting enemies, was a native of Rome, and son to Rufinus and Justa. According to the general rule with those who are saints from their cradle, he received early and in his infancy the strongest sentiments of christian piety, from the example, instructions, and care of a virtuous mother, who for his education in the sound maxims and practice of religion, and in sacred literature, put him young into the hands of Charitius or Carinus, a priest of an unexceptionable character and great abilities. Being formed under an excellent master, he entered among the clergy of Rome, and was ordained priest by pope Marcellinus, before the peace

(c) We have many works of St Maximus, which the learned F. Combefis caused to be printed at Paris in 1675, 2 vols in folio. They consist of mystic or allegorical commentaries on divers books of the scripture of commentaries on the books attributed to St Denis the Areopagite; of polemic treatises against the Monothelites; an excellent ascetic discourse; spiritual maxims, principally on charity, and some letters. Photius (cod. 192.) wished that St Maximus's style were less harsh, and that he were more delicate in the choice of his expressions. These defects might proceed from transcribers, especially in his dispute with Pyrrhus we may attribute them in some of his works, to the persecutions which at once overwhelmed his mind and body. There are many works of St Maximus, which have never been printed. See Montfaucon, Bibl. Coislin. a pag. 307. ad. pag. 311. item pag, 412.

of the church was disturbed by Dioclesian, and his associate in the empire. His behaviour in those turbulent and dangerous times recommended him to the public esteem, and he saw the triumph of the cross by the victory which Constantine gained over Maxentius within sight of the city of Rome on the 28th of October, 312. Pope Melchiades dying in January, 314, St Sylvester was exalted to the pontificate, and the same year commissioned four legates, two priests and two deacons, to represent him at the great council of the Western church held at Arles in August, in which the schism of the Donatists, which had then subsisted seven years, and the heresy of the Quartodecimans, were condemned, and many important points of discipline regulated in twenty-two canons. These decisions were sent by the council before it broke up, with an honourable letter to pope Sylvester, and were confirmed by him, and published to the whole church (1). The general council of Nice was assembled against Arianism in 325. Socrates, (2) Sozomen (3) and Theodoret (4) say that pope Sylvester was not able to come to it in person on account of his great age, but that he sent his legates. Gelasius of Cyzicus (5) mentions that in it "Osius held the place of the bishop of Rome, together with the Roman priests Vito and Vincentius." These three are named the first in subscriptions of the bishops in the editions of the Acts of that council, (6) and in Socrates, who expressly places them before Alexander patriarch of Alexandria, and Eustathius patriarch of Antioch (a). St Sylvester greatly advanced religion by a punctual discharge of all the duties of his exalted station during the space of twenty-one years, and eleven months; and died on the 31st of December 335. He

(1) See epist. Synodi Arel. ad Sylvest. Pap. Conc. T. 1. p. 1425. (2) Socr. l. I. c. 5. (3) Sozom. 1. 1. c. 6. (4) Theodoret, 1, 1. c. 7. (5) Gelas. Cyz. Hist. Conc. Nicæn. 1. 2. c. Conc. (6) Conc. T. 2. p. 50.

(a) The history of Constantine's donation of Rome is Pagi, Critic. in Annal. Baron. Papebroke, Act. Sanct. ander, Hist. Eccl. Noris, T. 4. Oper. Mamachi, Orig.

2. P. 232. &c.

5. T. 2.

refuted by

Nat. Alex

Christ. T.

was buried in the cemetery of Priscilla. St Gregory, the Great pronounced his ninth homily on the Gospels on his festival, and in a church which was dedicated to God in his memory by pope Symmachus (7). Pope Sergius II. translated his body into this church, and deposited it under the high altar. Mention is made of an altar consecrated to God in his honour at Verona, about the year 500; and his name occurs in the ancient martyrology, called St Jerom's, published by Florentinius, and in those of Bede, Ado, Usuard, &c. Pope Gre gory IX. in 1227, made his festival general in the Latin church; the Greeks keep it on the 10th of January.

After a prodigious effusion of christian blood, almost all the world over, during the space of 300 years, the persecuting kingdoms at length laid down their arms, and submitted to the faith and worship of a God crucified for us. This ought to be to us a subject of thanksgiving. But do our lives express this faith? Does it triumph in our hearts? It is one of its first precepts that in all our actions we make God our beginning and end, and have only his divine honour, and his holy law, in view. All our various employments, all our thoughts and designs, must be referred to, and terminate in this, as all the lines drawn from the circumference of a circle meet in the centre. We ought therefore so to live, that the days, hours, and moments, of the year, may form a crown made up of good works, which we may offer to God. Our forgetfulness of Him, who is our last end, in almost all that we do, calls for a sacrifice of compunc tion in the close of the year: but this cannot be perfect or acceptable to God, unless we sincerely devote our whole hearts and lives to his holy love for the time to come. Let us therefore examine into the sources of former omissions, failures, and transgressions, and take effectual measures for our amendment, and for the perfect regulation of all our affections and actions for the future, or that part of our life which may remain.

(7) Conc. T. 1. p. 1368.

ON THE SAME DAY.

St COLUMBA, V. M. The new Paris Breviary fixes her death either in 258, or in 273. The latter date reduces it to the journey which Aurelian took into Gaul in that year, when he gained a great victory at Chalons. She suffered at Sens. Her relicks were kept in the Benedictin abbey till they were dispersed by the Huguenots, together with those of many other saints kept there, as Baillet observes. St Owen. in his life of St Eligius, mentions a chapel which bore her name at Paris.

St MELANIA the Younger. Melania the Elder was of a most noble Spanish family, though descended of a Roman pedigree, and a relation of St Paulinus of Nola, second to no one in Aquitain and Spain in riches or nobility. Being married young, she was left a widow at twenty-three years of age. Upon the death of her husband, she said to God: "Now, O Lord, I shall be at liberty to devote myself without distraction to thy service." Having put her son Publicola into the hands of good tutors, she embarked with Rufinus for Egypt in 371. And, after spending six months in visiting the monks of those parts, went into Palestine, but so much disguised, that the governor of Jerusalem cast her into jail for visiting certain prisoners, till she made herself known to him, and then he treated her with the greatest respect after some time she built a monastery at Jerusalem, wore a coarse habit, and had no other bed than a rough cloth spread on the floor, without any other cover than a sackcloth. Thus she lived in Palestine twentyseven years, making prayer and the meditation of the holy scriptures her principal employment. Her son Publicola grew up, and becoming most accomplished in the necessary qualifications of mind and body, was married to Albina, by whom he had two children, a son and a daughter, this latter being our saint. She was married at thirteen years of age to Pinian, the son of Severus, who had been prefect of Rome. Her children both died young, and by her moving discourses and entreaties

she gained his consent that they should bind themselves by mutual vows to serve God in perpetual chastity. The elder Melania, at this news, left the East, and returned to Rome, after having been thirty-seven years absent. She was met at Naples by a train of the most illustrious personages of the nobility of Rome, who attended her from thence glittering in rich attire, and sumptuous equipages. The humble Melania travelled at their head, meanly mounted on horseback, and cloathed with coarse and threadbare garments. During her stay in Rome it was her first care to caution Pinian and her grand-daughter against the heresies of that age. She staid in the West four years, during which interval she took a journey into Africa. There she received news of the death of her son Publicola. At her return to Rome she advised Pinian and our saint to give what they possessed to the poor, and to choose some remote retirement. This counsel they readily embraced, and were imitated by Albina. Avita, a niece of Melania, after converting her husband from the errors of idolatry, induced him to join her in a vow of perpetual continency. Their son Asterius, and their daughter Eunomia, followed the same example. All these fervent and illustrious persons went together to pay a visit to St Paulinus at Nola. So many wonderful conversions astonished not only Rome, but all Christendom. The elder Melania had no sooner completed this great work, but she hastened back to her dear solitude. The tumult of Rome made that great city seem to her a place of exile, and a true prison: nor was she able to bear the noise of the world, and the distraction of visits. Rufinus accompanied her as far as Sicily, where he died. Melania arrived at Jerusalem, distributed the residue of her money among the poor, and shut herself up in a monastery; but exchanged this mortal life for a better forty days after, in the year 410, being about sixty-eight years old. Melania the elder seemed some time too warmly engaged with Rufinus in the defence of Origen. The commendations which St Austin, St Paulinus, and others bestow on her, bear evidence to her orthodoxy and her edifying virtue, though her name has never