God of the Christians would avenge the death of the martyr. The proposal was agreed to, and the murderer, who was in a raging fever before, became delirious and shortly after died.

The relics of the martyrs were found in 752 by S. Burkhardt, bishop of Würzburg, and placed by him in the crypt of the great church, which he erected in that city. The feast of the translation is celebrated on Feb. 14th. Such is the story as told by the writers of the 10th or 11th century. It is curious that Hrabanus and Notker, in opposition to this account, attribute the order for murdering Kilian to Gozbert; and it is not improbable that he was privy to the crime.

S. LANDRADA, V. ABSS.

(ABOUT A.D. 690.)

[Belgian Martyrologies. Saussaye in his Gallican Martyrology. But at Munsterbilsen the festival is observed on July the 6th, instead of July 8th. Authority :-A life written by Theodoric, abbot of S. Trond, d. 1107.]

LANDRADA was born at Bilsen, in Limburg, in the diocese of Liége; and was the only daughter of Wandregisl, count Palatine, under Dagobert, king of France, and Pharaildis, daughter of Hermanfrid, mayor of the palace. She was kinswoman of Pepin of Landen, and was brought up with all the care that became her rank. But from an early age she gave little thought to the honours and distinctions of which she was the object, and exhibited such sentiments of humility and devotion, that she was regarded, even as a child, as a model of Christian perfection.

On reaching a marriageable age, several advantageous offers were made to her; and were refused by her, be

cause she had chosen a bridegroom not of this world. In pursuance of her resolution, she kept aloof from all worldly pleasures, and devoted whole days to prayer. She quitted her home, and retired into the depths of the adjoining forest, which at that time extended throughout the neighbourhood of Munsterbilsen.

Landrada walked there bare-foot, constructed a little hut with her own hands, and resided in it. Covered with a coarse habit, she slept on the earth, and ate only bread and drank water. From time to time she was visited and advised by S Lambert, bishop of Liége, and at his injunction, erected in the forest a chapel in honour of the Blessed Virgin, drawing the stones of which it was constructed from the quay with her own hands. Lambert consecrated this chapel in the year 689, and associated with Landrada other virtuous maidens, and thus laid the foundation of the abbey of Munsterbilsen.

S.

Landrada, after having passed the rest of her life in consolidating her new foundation, of which she was the first abbess, died about the year 690.

According to the popular legend, her soul appeared to S. Lambert whilst he slept, and bade him bring her body to a spot which he would find designated by the apparition of a fiery cross. S. Lambert, on awaking, knew that the spot designed by S. Landrada was at Wintershoven. He went immediately to Munsterbilsen, where he found a great crowd assembled to celebrate the obsequies of Landrada. Thereupon he informed them that the Saint had chosen another spot for her grave. All his remonstrances were in vain. The people of Bilsen would not part with their treasure, and Landrada was accordingly buried there. But three days after, S. Lambert ordered that a place should be dug at Wintershoven, and there a marble sarcophagus was dis

covered containing the body of S. Landrada, transported thither, as the people at once supposed, by angelic instrumentality.

The feast of S. Landrada has been observed at Munsterbilsen ever since, three days before the day on which it is celebrated elsewhere. The body of the Saint was translated in 980 from Wintershoven to the church of S. Bavo at Ghent, where an office in honour of the saint is said annually on her feast. In 1624, to the church of Wintershoven were given back some fragments of her body, and other portions have since been separated and given to the church of Munsterbilsen. The convent was destroyed by the Normans in 880, rebuilt and secularized, and made over to noble canonesses who could prove their nobility by eight quarterings on both sides. The abbess took the title of princess, and bore it in spite of protests made by the bishops of Liége. But in 1793, the abbey, which then contained twenty-one canonesses, was suppressed.

[Venerated on this day at Venice.

He is not to be confounded with S. Paul, M. at Constantinople, for the same cause, and about the same time, commemorated in the Roman Martyrology on March 17th. Authority:A Latin life by an anonymous writer of the date 1326. But this is only a translation from a Greek life written apparently in 888, or shortly after. That it is a translation there can be little doubt, for the Latin writer introduced Greek words-as "Manus antartica" for antarsia, tyrannical, in another place leaves a blank for the Greek word which he could not translate, and in another gives an incorrect translation, making nonsense, but which one can at once rectify with a little knowledge of Greek.] THE emperor Constantine Copronymus having resolved to proceed against images in churches, went into the 13

VOL. VII.

church of Blachernæ, a part of Constantinople, where the walls were adorned with painted, or mosaic representations of the whole Gospel story from the Nativity to the descent of the Holy Ghost, and ordered them to be defaced. This so exasperated a zealous Christian layman, named Paul, that he boldly withstood the emperor, and argued the advantage of sacred representations in churches as ways leading to Christ." Constantine answered, "How can one represent the incomprehensible, invisible, inaudible God, who exists not in comprehension, but solely in infinity? How represent the unimaginable by a picture! and the unknown by lines and colours ?" "Only," answered Paul, "because God became Incarnate." The words of Constantine exhibit at once the main principle of the Iconoclastic persecution; it was a struggle of Deism, exalted altered Arianism, against the reality of the Incarnation. The monks, and priests, and laymen who suffered horrible deaths and tortures in defence of their images, may little have understood that in reality they were fighting for a fundamental principle of Christianity. For, in fact, through the pictures, the reality of the Incarnation was assailed. Remove the facts of the

images, efface the pictures, and the great Gospel story would fade out of remembrance into myths of the past, and Christianity dissolve into a theism, with Jesus as its great prophet. Constantine ordered the nose of Paul to be cut off, and the martyr was led away to prison chanting "In the way of Thy testimonies is. my delight; as in all manner of riches. I will speak of thy testimonies even before kings, and will not be ashamed."

After three days he was again brought before the emperor, and ordered to trample on representations of the Saviour and S. Mary. Then Paul, looking on the

ground, spread his hands to heaven and cried, "Far be it from me, Lord Jesus Christ, son of the living God, to profane thine image, or that of thy Mother and thy Saints. For by these we are led, as by a road, to the adoration of Thee !"

Then Constantine ordered lighted pitch and sulphur to be poured over his head. He was led away singing psalms, was afterwards deprived of his eyes, and dragged over the stones of the market-place till he was dead.

His body was secretly buried by the faithful in a monastery, and was exhumed and honourably enshrined. on the cessation of the Iconoclastic persecution, a hundred and twenty-two years later.

In 1326, the body was taken by the Venetians from Constantinople, and placed in the church of S. George the Greater at Venice, where it still remains.

S. SUNNIFA, V.M.

(END OF IOTH CENT.)

[Norwegian Kalendar and Breviaries. Greven in his additions to Menardus, and after him Molanus, Canisius and Ferrarius, the Irish Martyr. ology of Fitz-simon, and the Scottish Menology of Dempster. Authorities: -The monk Oddr (12th cent.), Saga of K. Olaf, the younger Olafs Saga Tryggvasonar, c. 106-8 and 149, and a Latin fragment of the Church Office and Lections for the festival in Langebeck: Sriptores rerum Danicarum, vi. p. 3-4, and 14--22. There is not the smallest foundation for this story, it is only a Scandinavian version of the legend of S. Ursula and the Eleven Thousand Virgins.]

In the days of earl Hako, say the Saga writers, there lived in Ireland a king who had a beautiful daughter named Sunnifa, who was endowed with wealth, beauty, and great Christian piety.

A northern viking, hearing of her charms, became