Saints' Days
days set apart by traditional usage or authority of the Church for anniversary celebrations in SAINT SIMON honor of particular saints. They were first instituted in honor of martyrs.
ST. SEBASTIAN, a celebrated Roman martyr; born in Narbonne about 255. According to the anonymous "Acts" by which his history is preserved (supposed to have been written in the 4th century, and by some attributed to St. Ambrose) he was a captain in the prætorian guard prian guard under Diocletian, and used the facilities afforded by his station to propagate the Christian faith. Having refused to abjure his religion, he was tied to a tree, shot with arrows, and left for dead. A Christian woman found him still alive, and cared for him till he was restored; but, having ventured to appear before Diocletian to remonstrate against his cruelty, he was beaten to death with clubs. In the 9th century his relics were distributed throughout Christendom as a remedy against the plague. He died in Rome, Jan. 20, 288.
ST. SERVAN, a seaport of France, department Ille-et-Vilaine, on the E. side of the estuary of the Rance, just above ST. MALO (q. v.), from which it is separated by a creek a mile wide. It has a floating dock, is much frequented as a watering-place, and carries on shipbuilding and its cognate branches, and has a little commerce in fruit, potatoes, barley (exports), coal, and timber (imports).
Close by are the ruins of the cathedral of Aleth (6th to 12th century). Pop. about 12,000.
SAINT SIMON, CLAUDE HENRI, COUNT DE, a French social philosopher, the founder of French socialism; born in Paris, France, in 1760. After completing Paris, France, his education he entered the army, and in 1777 was included in an expedition sent by Louis XVI. to assist the United States in her war with England. After seeing some service under Washington, and traveling through Mexico, he returned to France and was appointed colonel in the French army. He, however, took no interest in his military duties, as he intended to devote his life to the advancement of human civilization. On the breaking out of the Revolution, though he warmly sympathized with the movement, he took no part in the subsequent events, but retired entirely from the army, and bought a considerable quantity of confiscated land, with the view of establishing a large scientific and industrial school; but the scheme was a failure, and St. Simon retired from it after losing a vast sum of money. From this time he devoted himself to what he termed & "physico-political" reformation, for which purpose he entered into the study of all the physical sciences-mathematics, as- ST. STEPHEN tronomy, general physics, and chemistry -and all the general science attainable with respect to organized beings. He next proceeded to make his "experimental education"; he married and continued to pursue his prescribed career, in which good and evil were confounded. This, however, in 1807, came to an end; his fortune was gone, and he was compelled to become a clerk in a government office at a small yearly salary. In 1812, he being then in his 52d year, he considered it time to "establish his theory," and published a number of remarkable works which attracted round him a large number of disciples.
His last efforts were directed toward the foundation of a new religion, which he called the New Christianity, in which society was to be reorganized on this formula: "To each man a vocation according to his capacity, and to each capacity a recompense according to its worth." Before breathing his last he gave final instructions to his chief disciples, among whom were Augustin Thierry and Comte, the future author of the "Positive Philosophy." His most important works were, "Introduction to the Scientific Labors of the Nineteenth Century," "The Reorganization of European Society," and "New Christianity." He died in 1825.
ST. STEPHEN, THE DEACON, called also the "protomartyr," or earliest of the Christian martyrs; one of the seven deacons whose appointment is related in the 6th chapter of the Acts of the Apostles.
The circumstances of his martyrdom are related in the same chapter.
ST. SULPICE, a famous diocesan seminary for priests in Paris, close by the large and wealthy church of St. Sulpice, on the S. side of the Seine, near the Luxembourg.
ST. THOMAS, a volcanic island of Africa belonging to Portugal; in the Gulf of Guinea; 166 miles W. of the mouth of the Gabun river. Its S. extremity almost touches the equator. Measuring 32 miles by 21, it has an area of 360 square miles; pop. about 59,000. Though it rises to the altitude of 7,000 feet, it has the reputation of being very unhealthy. Coffee and cocoa, with some pepper, cinnamon, maize, indigo, etc., are the principal products. Chief town, St. Thomas, on the N. E. coast, the seat of a bishop. The island was discovered in 1470, and colonized in 1493 by the Portuguese, to whom it reverted after a Dutch occupation from 1641 to 1844.
ST. THOMAS, one of the Virgin Islands, W. I., formerly belonging to Denmark, but now territory of the United States; 36 miles E. of Porto Rico; area ST. VINCENT 33 square miles. English is the language of the educated classes. The surface is hilly and the soil poor. The cultivation of vegetables, guinea grass, and a small quantity of cotton employs the scanty rural population. The port, St. Thomas, was formerly a busy emporium for the European trade of the West Indies, the harbor in which the merchant fleets assembled to wait for their convoys, and later the principal port of call in the West Indies. All these advantages have now passed from it. Before the abolition of slavery it was covered with prosperous sugar plantations. The island is often visited by earthquakes, but they are not, as a rule, so destructive as the cyclones.
It was first colonized by the Dutch in 1657. The British held it in 1667-1671, 1801, 1807-1815; and the United States purchased it from Denmark in 1916. Pop. (1917) 10,191.
ST. THOMAS, a city and capital of Elgin co., Ontario, Canada; on Kettle creek, on the Michigan Central, the Canadian Pacific, the Wabash, the Père Marquette, and the Grand Trunk railroads; 75 miles S. W. of Hamilton. Here are numerous churches and hotels, waterworks, gas and electric lights, several branch banks, and a number of daily and weekly newspapers. The city has flax, planing, and flour mills, the Michigan Central railroad shops, and manufactories of car-wheels, carriages, mattresses, brooms, spokes, churns, etc. Pop. about 20,000.
ST. VINCENT, one of the British islands in the West Indies, Windward Group, 105 miles W. of Barbadoes; area, 140 square miles; pop. (1920) 53,210, of whom about 3,000 are whites and Hindu coolies, the rest being negroes and people of mixed blood. The island is traversed from N. to S. by a chain of volcanic mountains, which rise in the volcano called the Souffrière to 3,500 feet. This volcano erupted May 7, 1902, with great violence, causing about 1,600 deaths. The climate is healthy. Sugar, rum, cocoa, spices, and arrowroot are the principal products. The chief town is Kingstown (pop. about 5,000), at the head of a bay on the S. W. coast. The island is ruled by a governor and a nominated legislative council of seven members; previous to 1877 it had a representative government. St. Vincent was discovered by Columbus in 1498, and was then inhabited by Caribs. These people were left in pose session down to 1783, although Charles I. gave the island to the Earl of Carlisle in 1627. In 1797 the Caribs, rebelling with French aid, were transferred to the island of Ruatan in the Bay of Honduras.
J ST. VINCENT ST. VINCENT, CAPE, a promontory forming the S. W. corner of Portugal, off which several important naval battles have taken place. On June 16, 1693, the English Admiral Rooke was here attacked by a superior French fleet, and defeated with the loss of 12 men-of-war and 80 merchantment which were sailing under his convoy; on January 16, 1780, Admiral Rodney destroyed here several Spanish ships of Langara's fleet; on February 14, 1797, the great battle of Cape St. Vincent resulted in the total defeat of the Spaniards and capture of some of their largest ships. This victory frustrated the formidable Spanish-French scheme of invading England. The fourth naval fight off Cape St. Vincent took place between the fleet of Queen Maria of Portugal, commanded by Sir Charles Napier, and that of Dom Miguel, in which a portion of the latter was destroyed and the rest captured, July 5, 1833.
ST. VINCENT, JOHN JERVIS, EARL OF, an English naval officer; born in Meaford Hall, Staffordshire, England, Jan. 9, 1734. Running away to sea as a boy, he rose to be a naval lieutenant in SAKHALIN ST. VITUS' DANCE. See CHOREA.