According to the legendary Acts, Secundus of Aste, count of the palace, was instructed in the faith by S. Calocerus, then a prisoner at Aste, and baptized by SS. Faustinus and Jovitta, at Milan. He was afterwards sent to Tortona, to S. Martian, in his dungeon, to bear to him the Blessed Sacrament, and he was present when this saint suffered for Christ. It was told the governor, Sapricius, that Secundus had buried the body of the martyr; and sending for him, he heard him confess that he was a Christian. He was placed on the rack, and then sent to Aste, where he suffered execution with the sword, together with S. Calocerus, on March 30th.

Patron of Aste, where his relics are preserved.

S. QUIRINUS THE TRIBUNE, M.

(A.D. 130.)

[Usuardus, Ado, Notker, and Roman Martyrology. Authority:—Mention in the Acts of S. Alexander, pope (May 3rd), but these are not altogether trustworthy.]

Quirinus the Tribune was converted and baptized by pope S. Alexander I., and was condemned to have his tongue, hands, and feet cut off. According to the popular legend, which is often represented in art, his tongue was offered to a falcon, but the bird refused to eat it: the Acts say nothing of it. The hands and feet were in like manner cast to dogs, and popular tradition adds that they refused to devour them. Afterwards he was drawn by oxen to the place of final execution, where his head was struck off.

Relics at Neuss, in the archdiocese of Cologne, and anciently in the church of S. Madeleine at Troyes, in France, also in the church of S. Pantaleon, in Cologne, where is a portion of the skull, in that of S. Gereon, and that of the Jesuits in the same city; at Silburg, at Zulpich, at Louvain, Tongres, Florieffe, at Bologna, and in the church of S. Balbina in Rome.

S. REGULUS, B. OF ARLES AND SENLIS.

(4TH CENT.)

[Gallican and Roman Martyrologies. Authority:—Various editions of the life of S. Regulus, the most ancient probably of the 9th cent. The cathedral of Senlis was burnt in that century, and together with it perished all its archives. Those lives extant were written from tradition after this fire. S. Regulus is called in France S. Rieul.]

S. Regulus was a native of Argos. Hearing of the miracles wrought at Ephesus by the Beloved Disciple, S. John the Divine, he went thither, and was converted by him. The Blessed Apostle, admiring his virtue, ordained him, and kept him by him as a dear friend. But persecution soon parted the pupil from his master, for S. John was exiled to Patmos. After a while, Regulus, hearing that S. Dionysius, the Areopagite, was leaving Rome to bear the gospel into lands that knew not Christ, followed him, and S. Denys took with him Rusticus for his deacon, Eleutherius as subdeacon, Regulus, Lucian, Eugenius, and others. Regulus was appointed bishop of Arles, where he found a colony of Christians which had been formed by S. Trophimus. According to the legend, one day, as Regulus was saying Mass, after he had recited in the canon the names of SS. Peter and Paul, he added, without thinking of what he was saying, "also the blessed martyrs, Denys, Rusticus, and Eleutherius," and thereupon saw three doves descend on the altar, with these three names in bloody characters inscribed on their breasts. Knowing that these three blessed apostles must be dead, he went to Paris to gather up their sacred relics, having first confided the care of his church to a bishop named Felicissimus. On arriving, he went to the village of ChÂton, where he met a lady, named Catulla, who had secretly buried the bodies of the martyrs. Regulus celebrated the holy Sacrifice over their grave, and Catulla built a chapel of wood on the spot. This was the chapel which S. Genoveva afterwards rebuilt in stone (vol. i. p. 50). Regulus then left Paris, and took the road to Senlis. Passing through Louvres, six leagues from Paris, he overthrew an idol of Mercury, which he found there, preached to the people, and built a chapel, which was afterwards dedicated to the Blessed Virgin. Regulus then undertook the conversion of the people of Senlis, which he happily effected. Then he betook himself to Beauvais, and the story goes that as the frogs in the marshes disturbed him whilst preaching he forbade them all croaking with the exception of one. He is said to have died in 130, during the reign of Hadrian, after having laboured forty years in different missions. So far the legendary life, which is destitute of respect as history. In all probability two saints have been run into one, a S. Regulus of Arles, the successor of S. Trophimus, and a S. Regulus of Senlis, who lived in the end of the third century, and died in the early part of the fourth, for he is spoken of as a companion of saints who certainly lived at that period.

In art S. Regulus or Rieul is represented with frogs at his side, or releasing captives from their chains.

S. JOHN CLIMACUS, AB.

(A.D. 606.)

[Roman Martyrology and Greek Menologium of the emperor Basil, and MenÆa. Authority:—His Life by Daniel, monk of Raithu, near the Red Sea, a contemporary.]

S. John, abbot of Mount Sinai, is commonly called Climacus, from a book written by him, entitled "Climax, or the Ladder of Perfection." As this treatise shows his erudition, he is also sometimes called Scholasticus, and, as abbot of Mount Sinai, he is also designated as John the Sinaite.

The place of his birth is not known, nor is the exact year of that event, but it was probably in 525. At the age of sixteen he ascended Mount Sinai with the purpose of offering himself to God as a living acceptable sacrifice. At the age of thirty-five he became a solitary at Thola, five miles further in the desert, where, in the complete silence of the barren rocks, he could discipline his tongue, which was rather given to loquacity. He passed forty years in the service of God, and in self-mortification. From Thola he returned every Sabbath to the monastery church to assist at the divine service, and communicate at the sacred mysteries on that day and the following Sunday. Many resorted to the cell of S. John for advice, but, as it was reported, perhaps not without reason, that he made these visits an opportunity for indulging in his weakness of talking excessively, he condemned himself to rigorous silence for a whole twelvemonth.

At the age of seventy-five, in 600, S. John left his hermitage to fill the office of abbot in the monastery of Mount Sinai, and superior-general of all the monks and hermits of the deserts around.

S. Gregory the Great, who then sat in S. Peter's chair, wrote to the holy abbot, commending himself to his prayers, and sent him beds and money for his hospital, for the use of pilgrims to Mount Sinai.

At the request of John, abbot of Raithu, he drew up his "Climax, or Ladder of Perfection," containing, in thirty chapters, rules for attaining the thirty steps of religious perfection. This book contains many curious and instructive anecdotes, illustrative of the monastic life of the period.

S. John was regarded by his monastic contemporaries as a second Moses on Sinai, "for he ascended into the mountain of contemplation, talked with God face to face, and then descended to his fellows in mind and intelligence, bearing the tables of God's Law, his Ladder of Perfection."

Once, when S. John was entertaining six hundred pilgrims, a stranger, habited in linen, after the ancient Jewish fashion, appeared among the attendants, a man of very ancient and reverend mien, and ministered with his own hands to the guests. The feast being over, the stranger vanished, and S. John concluded it must have been Moses who had re-visited Sinai for a brief moment. This is a curious instance of the very widely diffused belief in the Wandering Jew. Hebrew legends are full of similar tales, but the mysterious stranger is with them Elijah; and the Arabs tell of a similar undying man, who appears at intervals, but who is El Khoudir, the friend and instructor of Moses.

When S. John was dying in his hermitage, his spiritual son, George, besought him to suffer him to depart with him. The saint replied, "Thou shalt follow me in a year's time." And so it was, at the end of a twelvemonth the disciple joined his master.

S. ZOSIMUS, B. OF SYRACUSE.

(ABOUT A.D. 660.)

[Commemorated in Greek Menologies on Jan. 21st, save in that of Cardinal Sirlet, which assigns him to this day. Life, in Menologies and in Bollandists, by a contemporary Sicilian who derived his statements from B. Elias or from John the Deacon.]

Our saint's life was calm and almost uneventful; yet it is not without interest or profit to those who love to see the life of Christ reflected in some degree in the unruffled mirror of His saints' lives. His parents owned a farm or small estate near the convent of S. Lucia, in the neighbourhood of Syracuse. Brought up among all the delights of a pastoral life in Sicily, of which Theocritus sings in such inimitable strains, he yet yearned for higher and holier joys. Accordingly, he gladly assented to his parents' wish to dedicate him to S. Lucia; and, about 578, when seven years old, he was offered as a living sacrifice to God in her convent. His chief duty was to watch by the precious shrine of S. Lucia. Some only of her relics could have been preserved there, for after the translation of her body from Syracuse to Rome, it was removed by order of the emperor Otho I. to Metz. Her touching history will be told on the 13th December, the day on which she suffered as a martyr for chastity and Christianity. The little Zosimus doubtless often knelt in prayer for his father and mother in the recess beneath the silver shrine where her relics rested. Still such communion with his parents did not satisfy the natural cravings of his heart, for once when he was ordered by the abbot Faustus to do some disagreeable task out of doors, he ran home to his friends. They brought the truant back to the convent, where he was set to watch the tomb again. That night it seemed to him the hinges of the shrine creaked, and the virgin herself stepped forth, and standing over him seemed to threaten him with punishment. Then he saw another lady of gracious aspect by her side, interceding for him and promising in his name that he would never so offend again; a promise which he gladly ratified with his own lips. The virgin returned to her shrine, and he was left alone in the still dark night watching the lamps which shone in front of her tomb.

Henceforth he approached her shrine with more than his former awe: his visits home were short and less frequent, he only just stayed to greet his parents, and then hurried back to the threshold of the virgin martyr. Prayer, the constant attendance at the shrine, the regular life of the convent, gave calmness and depth to his character. He once again, it is said, witnessed the wrath of the virgin. A lady of rank, suffering from disease, came to the shrine with an unseemly request. The saint moved from her resting-place, and smote the petitioner on the cheek. Zosimus summoned her servants to take up their mistress: they took her up—dead.

After thirty years had been passed by our saint in contemplation, obedience, and cheerful acts of kindness to his brethren, Abbot Faustus died. The brethren could not fix upon a successor. Leaving Zosimus in charge of the shrine and the church, they went in a body to S. John, Bishop of Syracuse. He asked, "Is there no one else beside in your convent?" They said "No." But the bishop rejoined, "Go and see whether there be no one." Then they admitted that there was the doorkeeper of the church, whom all had forgotten. The Bishop sent for him. As Zosimus entered, S. John looking stedfastly at him, and reading his character in his face, said, "Behold him, whom the Lord has chosen." They accepted Zosimus as their Abbot. Then one of the brethren said to him, "Verily of a truth this scripture is fulfilled in thee to-day. 'On whom shall My spirit rest, save on him that is of a humble and contrite spirit, and that trembleth at My word.'"

The same bishop ordained him priest a few days after, to serve the Church of the Blessed Mary ever Virgin. He ruled his monastery for forty years with singular success. His like was never seen before or after in the convent of S. Lucia. He was loved by the good for his gentleness, yet he was never lax in his treatment of the bad.

On the death of the saintly Peter, Bishop of Syracuse, the people elected Zosimus, the clergy, a priest named Venerius to succeed him. The latter was boastful, full of vain glory, ambitious for the post. Zosimus would willingly have declined the burden of the episcopate, but his friends would not let him. An appeal was made to Rome. Pope Theodore, who sat in S. Peter's chair from 641 to 649, chose and consecrated Zosimus Bishop of Syracuse.

As Zosimus landed in the port of Ortygia, the people and clergy flocked to meet him and escort him with all due honour to his cathedral. The once glorious city of Syracuse had then shrunk to a shadow of its former self: it did not extend beyond the limits of the island of Ortygia, yet its people were still wealthy, and its cathedral well supplied with silver plate. When the Saracens sacked it about two hundred years after, the plate of the cathedral alone weighed five thousand pounds of silver, and the entire spoil of the city was estimated at one million pieces of gold (about four hundred thousand pounds sterling). Zosimus taught his people diligently. Two remarks of his are preserved: "Anger differs as much from gentleness as storm from calm." "Death is to the virtuous a rest from trouble and toil, and a loosing of bands: to the wicked it is the beginning of punishment."

His benevolence to the needy was unfailing. He bade his deacon John give two coins to a man, who asked an alms. John replied, "Our purse is empty." "Go and sell thy cloak and give to him that needeth," was the quick reply. It was a new one just bought, so John murmured and hesitated; the bishop took off his own cloak and handed it to him and bade him go and sell it. When he returned from relieving the beggar, he saw a young man lay a heavy purse of gold at the bishop's feet. The bishop rebuked John for having so little faith in God.

The bishop would not suffer any one to wait on him. One day he fell asleep while a priest was reading his psalter near. The flies tormented the sleeping bishop, so the priest drove them away with a fan. Zosimus awoke and said to him, "Never do so again, but sit still and read thy psalter."

He re-built and re-decorated the church of S. Mary, and offered the unbloody sacrifice there in the 82nd year of his age, and the fifth of his episcopate, when it was again opened for Divine Service.

Eupraxius, chamberlain of the Emperor Constans II., who made Syracuse his abode for the last six years of his life, found Zosimus in his last illness lying on a mat and covered with a few rags. He sent him some splendid rugs and coverlets. The saint lay on them for a time, and then bade his attendants make him a bed of straw and sell the rugs and give the price to the poor and the stranger. He died in 656, and was followed to his grave by the people, who mourned over him as a father, for such he had been to them during the thirteen years of his episcopate.

March 30.