MM. at Cæsarea in Cappadocia.
SS. Paul, Heraclius, Secundola, Januaria, and Luciosa, MM. in the Port of Rome.
S. Simplicius, Pope of Rome, A.D. 483.
S. Joavan, P. at S. Paul de Leon, 6th. cent.
SS. Martyrs, under the Lombards, in Italy, circ. A.D. 579.
S. Ceadda, or Chad, B. of Lichfield, A.D. 672.
S. Willeich, P. at Keiser-werdt, on the Rhine, circ. A.D. 726.
B. Charles the Good, M., Count of Flanders, A.D. 1127.
Nearly all the Latin Martyrologies commemorate these martyrs, without giving their names. Baronius added to the Roman Martyrology, that they suffered under Ulpian the præfect; this was a conjecture of his, for Ulpian was bitterly hostile to the Christians, and it was under him that S. Martina (Jan. 1st) suffered. Alexander himself, only seventeen when he came to the throne, was of mild disposition, and the reins of government were in the hands of his mother Mamæa, who, with the approbation of the senate, chose sixteen of the wisest and most virtuous senators as a council of state, and at the head of this placed the learned Ulpian, a prudent governor, and severe disciplinarian, who could not brook that certain citizens should worship God in any way than that of the established religion, and looked on Christianity as a dangerous political element in the state, which demanded extirpation.
[Roman Martyrology. Authorities: – Evagrius, Hist. Eccl., and his own letters.]
S. Simplicius was born at Tivoli, and succeeded S. Hilary in the papal throne, in 468. He strongly resisted the Emperor Leo, who desired to elevate the patriarch of Constantinople to the second rank in the Church, above the patriarchs of Antioch and Alexandria. He was also engaged in controversy with Acacius of Constantinople concerning the appointment of Peter Mongus to the see of Alexandria. After having governed the Church in most difficult and stormy times, Simplicius died on March 2nd, in the year 483; and was buried in S. Peter's.
[Venerated in Brittany. Authorities: – A Life by Albert Le Grand, and the lections of the Church of S. Paul de Léon. Albert Le Grand wrote his life in 1623, from old MSS. histories and legends preserved at Léon in his time.]
This saint was an Irishman by birth, and nephew of S. Paul de Léon. He studied with his uncle in Britain, and then returned to Ireland, but hearing that S. Paul had gone into Brittany, he departed for that country, and after having passed his noviciate in the monastery of Llanaterenecan, under S. Judulus, he departed to Léon, and received priest's orders from his uncle, who appointed him to the isle of Baz. He is patron of two parishes in the diocese of S. Paul de Léon.
[Roman Martyrology. Authority: – The Dialogues of S. Gregory the Great, lib. iii.]
The Lombards in their ravages of the North of Italy put to death forty husbandmen, who refused to eat meats they had offered to their idols, and about four hundred who refused to pay reverence to the head of a goat, which they regarded with a peculiar veneration.
[Roman, Anglican, Scottish, and Irish Martyrologies. Authorities: – A life is given by Bede, lib. 3, cap. 23, 24, 28; Lib. 4, cap. 2, 3, also in a MS. printed in the Monasticon, and a Metrical Life attributed to Robert of Gloucester.]
S. Chad or Ceadda was, perhaps, the youngest of the four brothers, Cedd, Cynebil, and Celin, all of whom were eminent priests. Our saint has sometimes been confounded with his brother Cedd, bishop among the East Saxons, whose life was related on January 7th. We know neither the date nor the place of his birth. It is certain he was an Angle, and a native of Northumbria, and that he flourished in the 7th century, though Dempster wishes to claim him as a Scottish, and Colgan as an Irish, saint. The date 620 A.D. has been suggested as the probable time of Chad's birth.
Bede tells us that S. Chad was a pupil of Aidan. That bishop required the young men who studied with him to spend much time in reading Holy Writ, and to learn by heart large portions of the Psalter, which they would require in their devotions.
At the death of Aidan, in 651, he went to Ireland, which was then full of men of learning and piety. The ravages of the Teutonic hordes on the continent had driven thither many illustrious foreigners. Then Ireland was fulfilling the mission ascribed to the Celtic race, that of supplying the link between Latin and Teutonic civilization. S. Chad, while in Ireland, made the acquaintance of Egbert, who was afterwards abbot of Iona.
Cedd had, at the request of Ethelwald, King of Deira, established a monastery at Lastingham, in Yorkshire. It stood just on the edge of that wide expanse of moorland which extends thirty miles inland from the coast.
Bishop Cedd returned thither from his diocese of London many years after, at a time when a plague was raging. He caught it, and whilst lying on his death-bed, bequeathed the care of the monastery to his brother, Chad, who was still in Ireland.
S. Chad, on his return, ruled the monastery with great care and prudence, and received all who sought his hospitality with kindness and humility. One day a stranger arrived at the gate, praying to be received into the brotherhood. This was Owini, lately steward of Queen Ethelreda. Tradition relates that as he pursued his toilsome journey from the fens which surrounded the abbey of Ethelreda into Yorkshire, the pilgrim erected crosses by the roadside to guide any burdened souls who might hereafter seek the same haven of rest. While quietly keeping the strict rule of S. Columba at Lastingham, our saint was summoned to the episcopate by King Oswy, of Northumbria.
But we must go back a little in our history. When the decision of the council or parliament, held at Whitby, in 664, was adverse to the Keltic rite, Cedd renounced the customs of Lindisfarne, but Colman, bishop of Lindisfarne, obstinately holding to them, withdrew from Northumbria into Scotland with all those who were willing to follow him. Tuda succeeded him in the pontificate of Northumbria, but died soon after.
"In the meanwhile," says Bede, "King Alchfrid (of Deira) sent Wilfrid the priest to the king of the Gauls, to have him consecrated bishop for himself and his subjects. Now he sent him to be ordained to Agilbert, of whom we said above that he left Britain, and was made bishop of the city of Paris. Wilfrid was consecrated, A.D. 665, by him with great pomp; many bishops coming together for that purpose in a village belonging to the king (Clothair III. of Neustria) called Compiegne. While he was still making some stay abroad, after his ordination, king Oswy, following the example of his son, sent to Kent a holy man of modest character, sufficiently well read in the Scriptures, and diligently carrying out into practice what he had learnt from the Scriptures, to be ordained bishop of the Church at York. Now this was a priest named Ceadda (Chad), brother of the most reverend prelate Cedd, of whom we have made frequent mention, and abbot of the monastery called Lastingham. The king also sent with him his own priest, Eadhed by name, who was afterwards, in the reign of Egfrid, made bishop of the Church of Ripon. But when they arrived in Kent, they found that Archbishop Deusdedit had departed this life, and that no other prelate was as yet appointed in his place. Whereupon they turned aside to the province of the West Saxons, where Wini was bishop, and by him the above-mentioned person was consecrated bishop; two bishops of the British nation, who kept Easter Sunday according to canonical custom from the 14th to the 20th day of the moon, being associated with him; for at that time there was no other bishop in all Britain canonically ordained, except Wini.
"Chad then, being consecrated a bishop, began at once to devote himself to ecclesiastical truth and to chastity; to apply himself to the practice of humility, continence,
