THE VISITATION OF THE B.V. MARY After DOMENICO GHIRLANDAJO'S Fresco in the TAILPIECE. RELIQUARY, Thirteenth CENTURY, FLEMISH Preserved in the Convent of Dames du Sacré- ROMANESQUE CENSER FROM Lille THE MARTYRS OF GORKUM Facsimile of an Engraving in "Theatrum Cru- ix 164 224 LIVES OF THE SAINTS July 1. S. AARON, the First High Priest, and his sister MIRIAM, B.C. 1453. S. ESTHER, Q. at Shushan, B.C. circ. 470. S. MARTIN, B. of Vienne in Gaul, and cent. SS. JULIUS AND AARON, MM. at Caerleon in Britain, A.D. 304. SS. CASTUS AND SECUNDINUS, BB., MM. in Campania. S. PAMBO, Ab. in the Nitrian Desert, end of 4th cent. S. HILARY, P. of Oise, near Le Mans. S. FLOREGIUS, B. at Estaing, near Rhodez. S. DOMITIAN, Ab. at S. Rembert in the Jura, 4th or 5th cent. S. SERVAN, B. of Orkney, 5th cent. S. THEODORIC, P.H. at Mont d'Or, near Rheims, A.D. 533. S. CARILEFF, P.H. at Aninsole, near Le Mans, circ. A.D. 540. S. GALL, B. of Clermont in Auvergne, A.D. 554. S. EPARCHIUS OR CYBARD, P. Mk. at Angouleme, A.D. 581. S. LEONORE, B.C. in Brittany, 6th cent. S. GOLWEN, B. of S. Pol-de-Leon in Brittany, 6th cent. S. SIMEON SALUS, C. at Emesa in Syria, 6th cent. S. RUMBOLD, B.M. at Mechlin, 8th cent. S. REGINA, Countess of Ostrevandt in Hainault, end of 8th cent. VENERATION OF A MIRACULOUS HOST, in the Church of S. Jean-en-Greve, at Paris. SS. JULIUS AND AARON, MM. " (A.D. 304.) [Roman Martyrology. Not in Sarum or York Kalendars, nor in the martyrology of Bede. Ado is the only one who gives them a day, and that June 22nd, along with S. Alban. Baronius seems to have inserted these names on July 1st, because he found Aaron, the brother of Moses, to be commemorated on that day. Authorities :-Gildas, or rather the author of the De Excidio Britannica," for an account of whom see June 22nd, p. 295. After the pseudo-Gildas, a writer of the 7th cent., is Bede, in his Ecclesiastical History, B. I., c. 7. Geoffrey of Monmouth, whose testimony is only valuable so far as he is a collector of popular legends and ballads, also mentions Julius and Aaron, V., c. 5, and IX,, C. 12.] VOL. VII. ILDAS says that SS. Julius and Aaron, "citizens of Caerleon," suffered shortly after S. Alban. Bede says, "At the same time suffered Aaron and Julius, citizens of Caerleon,1 and many 1 "Cives urbis legonium." I more of both sexes in several places, who, when they had endured sundry torments, and their limbs had been torn after an unheard-of manner, yielded their souls up, to enjoy in the heavenly city a reward for the sufferings which they had passed through." This is a mere paraphrase of the words of the pseudoGildas, "The other holy martyrs were tormented with divers sufferings, and their limbs were racked in such unheard-of ways, that they, without delay, erected trophies of their glorious martyrdom even in the gates of the city Jerusalem." Geoffrey of Monmouth (d. 1154) quotes Gildas also without acknowledgment, "The other two, i.e., Julius and Aaron, after being torn limb from limb, in a manner unheard-of, received the crown of martyrdom, and were elevated up to the gates of the heavenly Jerusalem." He says elsewhere of Caerleon that "it was in Glamorganshire upon the river Usk, near the Severn Sea it was also famous for two churches, whereof one was built in honour of the martyr Julius, and adorned with a choir of virgins, who had devoted themselves wholly to the service of God; but the other, which was founded in memory of S. Aaron, his companion, and maintained a convent of canons, was the third metropolitan church in Britain." It will be seen that all derive their information from Gildas, and it is difficult to conjecture whence he drew his. That two martyrs were commemorated at Caerleon is probable enough, but no trustworthy evidence places their martyrdom in the persecution of Diocletian. This is a mere conjecture, apparently, of the not very scrupulous or exact author who calls himself Gildas. Giraldus Cambrensis bears testimony in his Itinerary to there having been the two churches in Caerleon in his day (d. 1223), dedicated to these saints. SS. CASTUS AND SECUNDINUS, BB., MM. (DATE UNCERTAIN.) [Modern Roman Martyrology, inserted by Baronius. In no Ancient Martyrology are these two names conjoined. Who the Castus is, Baronius inserted in the Martyrology, it is not easy to find out. Castus and Cassius, martyrs in Campania, are venerated on May 22nd, at Sora, but the life of these saints in the Breviary of Capua is an adaptation of the life and acts of SS. Castus and Secundinus in the Breviary of Gaeta. In the Martyrology of S. Jerome (so-called) there are twenty martyrs of the name of Castus, but not one of them in Campania. On May 22nd occur SS. Castus and Emilius, and these saints are again commemorated at Capua on Oct. 6th, on which day probably their bones were translated from Africa at the time of the Vandal invasion, Castus and Emilius having suffered in Africa. Henschenius the Bollandist suspects that the bones of this S. Castus got dispersed among several churches, as those of Sora, Gaeta, and Beneventum, and that a supposition arose that these relics belonged to distinct martyrs of the same name, and then an idea sprang up that they had suffered at Sora, and Gaeta, and Beneventum. The Acts of the Church of Capua, on which Baronius relied so confidently, are spurious. Baronius refers to the life of S. Secundinus, written by Guaipherus. But Guaipherus wrote no life of S. Secundinus, but only an account of the translation of the relics of another saint of this name, bishop of Troja. He quotes also as his authority Gregory, bishop of Terracina, a man of "tenacious memory." But Gregory lived in the 12th cent., and his tenacious memory could not be relied on for events that happened some eight hundred years before he was born. Moreover, the discourse of Gregory of Terracina is on Cassius and Castus, commemorated on May 22nd, and is a mere amplification of the acts of those saints, which in turn are those of SS. Castus and Secundinus with the name, and the locality of the martyrdom accommodated to Sora, and with the addition of various marvels and accumulation of tortures. The Acts of these saints Castus and Secundinus are mere fable, a miserable forgery of the roth century. Salerius the Bollandist says, "Lego hæc omnia, miror et obstupesco, sed verisimilitudinem quæro quæro auctoritatem, quæ saltem passionem (SS. Casti et Cassii etiam SS. Casti et Secundini) credibilem faciat."] ... THE utterly fabulous and untrustworthy Acts, a forgery of a late age, relate that these saints having liberated a demoniac, converted and baptized five hundred people, were arrested by Curvus the præfect, in the city of |