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A Key to the Calendar: Remigius
We have tea by candlelight, and fires are frequently not only pleasant but necessary. Young men resume their studies, and home again becomes homely. 1. St. Remigius was chosen Archbishop of Rheims when but 22 years of age. The
French king Clovis, a pagan, had married Clotilda, a Christian, and at his wife's request had invoked the aid of the God of Christians in a battle which he won.
He thereupon sought baptism at the hands of St. Remigius, who afterwards performed the ceremony of coronation. On this occasion the holy oil was brought in a cruse, or ampulla, by a dove. This cruse was made use of in
France at the coronation of princes down to that of Charles X., in 1825.
St. Remigius died, at the age of 95, A. D. 535. 6. St. Faith, a remarkably beautiful maiden, was born at Agen, in Aquitaine.
Refusing to sacrifice to Diana, she was forced to undergo the most dreadful torments, being first beaten with twigs, and then half roasted over a slow fire, after which she was beheaded, A. D. 290. 9. St. Denys, the patron saint of France, is usually represented carrying his head in his hand, the tradition being that it was cut off on Montmartre, upon which he took it up and carried it two miles, when, being tired he sat down to rest. Both his body and his head were afterwards enshrined at St. Denis, near Paris, of which city he was bishop at the time of his martyrdom, in 272. St. Denys, or Dionysius, the Areopagite, who was conevrted at Athens, by St. Paul, is named in the calendar: of him little is known, but he is said to have suffered martyrdom in 96. St. Denys of France is supposed to have been intended by the compilers of the English Prayer-Book, and the addition of "Areop," is thought to be an error. 13. Translation of King Edward the Confessor. This king ranks with Alfred as a lawgiver, or rather law collector, the Code Edward being at the time of the Norman conquest what the Code Napoleon has been in later times; it still forms the basis of the English Common Law. He succeeded to the crown in 1042, and received the title of confessor from the Pope, in gratitude for settling Peter's pence. He rebuilt the church at Westminster, and was buried before the high altar, whence his remains were translated by St. Thomas à Becket of Canterbury in 1163 to a rich shrine, and a festival appointed. When Henry III. replaced the minster in 1269 by the present edifice, he re-translated the saint's remains.
Edward was the first royal personage who "touched" for the king's evil;
Queen Anne was the last. 17. St. Etheldreda, "twice a widow and always a virgin," was daughter of Anna,
King of the East Angles. She fled from her second husband first to Coldingham, a priory under the superintendence of St. Ebba, and then to Ely, where she built an abbey, where she was celebrated as St. Audry. A fair was held there annually, and a flimsy kind of lace made in the neighborhood was much in demand. This gave rise to the designation "tawdry." 18. St. Luke, Evangelist, is supposed to be "the beloved physician" mentioned by St. Paul. In other respects Scripture is silent about St. Luke. Tradition, however, says that he was one of the 70; that he preached the Gospel in
Egypt and Greece; that he was an artist and took portraits of the Virgin Mary and of Christ. He lived to the age of 84, and was then hanged upon an olive tree. The only things about St. Luke of which we are tolerably certain, are that he wrote the Gospel which goes by his name, and also the "Acts of the Apostles." 25. St. Crispin, and his brother Crispian, were born at Rome, whence they travelled to France, spreading the Gospel as they went, and like honest men earning their living by their hand-labor-shoemaking. They were enabled to sell shoes at a very low price, as their leather cost nothing; it was supplied by angels direct from heaven. The govenor of Soissons, hearing that they were Christians, had them beheaded. Their bodies were thrown into the sea, but were washed ashore at Romney Marsh, in Kent, England. St. Crispin is the patron of cordwainers, by many of whom he is commemorated every Monday. 28. St. Simon and St. Jude, apostles, are generally represented together-Simon with a saw in his hand, emblematical of the death he underwent, being sawn asunder, and Jude with a carpenter's square, or with a boat. Nothing certain is known of either. Wet weather was commonly expected on this day. NOVEMBER.
November (Lat. novem, nine), is now the eleventh month, instead of the ninth, as before the change of the Roman calendar. 1. All Saints. In this festival the Church honors all the saints not otherwise commemorated, the reason given being, "because we cannot particularly commemorate every one of those saints in whom God's graces have been eminent, for that would be too heavy a burden; and because, in those particular feasts which we do celebrate, we may justly be thought to have omitted some of our duty through infirmity or negligence; therefore Holy Church appoints this day in commemoration of the saints in general." The festival was instituted in 610, when the Pantheon at Rome was consecrated as a Christian church. 2. All Souls is in the calendar of the Church of Rome, but not in that of the English. On this day they commemorate the faithful departed this life, and special prayer is made for those souls which are undergoing in an intermediate state a purgatorial cleansing from sin by means of punishment. Many members of the Church of England hold the doctrine in a modified form. 6. St. Leonard, the patron saint of prisoners, was born at Le Mans, in France, and became a pupil of St. Remigius. According to some he was made Bishop of Limosin; according to others, he would receive no higher dignity than that of deacon. He obtained a favor from the newly-converted king, Clovis, that all the prisoners he saw should be set free; thereupon he visited all the prisons, and as soon as he heard of any prisoner claimed his freedom. Perhaps this general jail delivery may not have proved an unmitigated blessing. 11. St. Martin, Bishop of Tours, is one of the best known of the French saints, from the picture in which he is represented as dividing his cloak with the beggar. He died in 397. St. Martin is more frequently invoked than most people are aware, the vulgar expression, "My eye and Betty Martin," being a corruption of Mihi beate Martini. 13. St. Britius succeeded St. Martin in the bishopric of Tours. He is remarkable for having been cleared by a miracle from a charge of immorality. A child thirty days old, after having been duly admonished, declared in the presence of many witnesses that St. Britius was not his father. Upon this the people charged him with sorcery, and he was driven from his see, but after seven years' absence he regained it. 15. St. Machutus was Bishop of St. Malo, in France. He appears to have led a restless life, and is said to have performed many miracles. 17. St. Hugh, Bishop of Lincoln, also was a Frenchman, but rendered his name famous in England by rebuilding Lincoln Cathedral, A.D. 1200. He died in London, but was taken to Lincoln, and borne to his grave on the shoulders of King John of England and King William of Scotland, assisted by a host of nobles, 3 archbishops, 14 bishops, 100 abbots, and an innumerable company of common people. A story is told of St. Hugh that on his visit to Godstow he saw a hearse in the midst of the choir with lights burning round it, and was informed that it was that of Fair Rosamond, who had obtained of King Henry many favors for the nunnery. Whereupon he ordered her corpse to be removed from a place "much too good for her," and buried in the churchyard. 20. St. Edmund was King of the East Angles, and had the misfortune to be taken a prisoner by the Danes, who used their utmost endeavors to induce him to renounce his religion. Finding their efforts fruitless, they first scourged him, then bound him to a tree and shot at him until his body was completely full of arrows: finally, they struck off his head and threw it into a wood hard by. The Saxons sought for it, but probably would not have discovered it had it not called out, “Here! here!” On reaching the head, they found that it was being guarded by a wolf. His body was buried at St. Edmundsbury, or Bury St. Edmunds, A. D. 870, and in 903 translated to a shrine in the abbey which had been erected there. 22. St. Cecilia's day used to be a popular anniversary in England. Dryden, Pope, and others wrote odes in honor of it. The saint, the patroness of music, is usually represented with a musical instrument of some kind. She was a Roman lady ;
immediately after her marriage she converted her husband, his brother, and a friend, who in consequence were all subsequently put to death in 230. 23. St. Clement, the third Bishop of Rome, was martyred in the year 100 by being cast into the sea with an anchor fastened to him. He is the author of an epistle which in the early ages of the Church was publicly read, and was regarded as almost equal in authority to that of St. Paul. 25. St. Catharine is known by her wheel. She was born in Alexandria, and early in life displayed a passion for polite literature. On her conversion she spared no pains in publishing the truths of Christianity, and openly rebuked the pagans for their idolatry. Naturally this gave much offence, and she was condemned to suffer death by being torn to pieces by wheels having hooked spikes. Tradition says that her would-be torturers were disturbed by a direct interposition from heaven; and, being foiled in this, they were content to behead her outside the city.
St. Andrew, apostle, patron saint of Scotland, was first a disciple of St. John the Baptist, and appears to have been the first to follow Christ; for this reason it is supposed that the place of honor has been given to him in the Anglican Prayer- Book, where he comes first of all those commemorated. But little is known of him, although he is believed to have suffered martyrdom at Patra, in Greece, A.D. 70, by being crucified on a cross in the form of an X. tenth.
DECEMBER.