Sabine Baring-Gould - The Lives of the Saints, Volume III (of 16) - March

The Blessed Rudesind was the son of a Count Gutierre da Mendenez, in Gallicia. His mother is said to have had a foretoken of the sanctity of the child that was about to be given her, whilst praying in the Church of S. Salvador on Mount Corduba. When the child was born, she desired to have him baptised in the church, but as there was no font there, one had to be brought up the hill in a cart. The cart broke down, says the popular legend, however, the font continued its journey without it. The child grew up to be a good man, and he was appointed to the bishopric of Dumium, a see which has ceased to exist. His kinsman, Sisnand, bishop of Compostella, was a scandal to the Church, "spending all his time in sports, excesses, and vanities, and paying no attention to his duties." Wherefore, at the request of the king, Sancho, and the nobles and people, Rudesind undertook the government of it, and Sancho put Sisnand in prison. During the absence of the king against the Moors, the Normans invaded Gallicia, whereupon the bishop called together an army, marched against them, and drove them back to their ships, and then turned his arms against the Moors, and routed them. On the death of Sancho, Sisnand escaped from prison, attacked Rudesind on Christmas night, whilst engaged with the canons in the sacred offices, and threatened him, sword in hand, unless he resigned the see. Rudesind at once laid aside his office, and retired into a monastery, where he assumed the habit, and after some years was chosen abbot.

SS. Martyrs, under the Emperor Alexander at Rome, circ. A.D. 219.

SS. Jovinus and Basileus, MM. at Rome, circ. A.D. 258.

SS. Ducius, B.M. , Absalom, Largius, Herolus, Primitius, and Januarius, 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.