ST. MARCELLA, WIDOW.
SHE IS styled by St. Jerom the glory of the Roman ladies. Having lost her husband in the seventh month of her marriage, she rejected the suit of Cerealis the consul, uncle of Gallus Cæsar, and resolved to imitate the lives of the ascetics of the East. She abstained from wine and flesh, employed all her time in pious reading, prayer, and visiting the churches of the apostles and martyrs, and never spoke with any man alone. Her example was followed by many virgins of the first quality, who put themselves under her direction, and Rome was in a short time filled with monasteries. We have eleven letters of St. Jerom to her in answer to her religious queries. The Goths under Alaric plundered Rome in 410. St. Marcella was scourged by them for the treasures which she had long before distributed among the poor. All that time she trembled only for her dear spiritual pupil, Principia (not her daughter, as some have reputed her by mistake,) and falling at the feet of the cruel soldiers, she begged, with many tears, that they would offer her no insult. God moved them to compassion. They conducted them both to the church of St. Paul, to which Alaric had granted the right of sanctuary with that of St. Peter. St. Marcella, who survived this but a short time, which she spent in tears, prayers, and thanksgiving, closed her eyes by a happy death, in the arms of St. Principia, about the end of August, in 410, but her name occurs in the Roman Martyrology on the 31st of January. See St. Jerom, Ep. 96, ol. 16, ad Principiam, t. 4, p. 778. Ed. Ben. Baronius ad ann. 410, and Bollandus, t. 2, p. 1105.
ST. MAIDOC, OR MAODHOG,
CALLED ALSO AIDAN AND MOGUE, BISHOP OF FERNS, IN IRELAND.
HE was born in Connaught, a province of Ireland, and seemed from his infancy to be deeply impressed with the fear of God. He passed in his early days into Wales, where he lived for a considerable time under the direction of the holy abbot David. He returned afterwards to his own country, accompanied with several monks of eminent piety, founded a great number of churches and monasteries, and was made bishop of Ferns. He {319} died in 632, according to Usher. His name is celebrated among the Irish saints. It appears from Cambrensis that his festival was observed in Wales in the twelfth century. He was also honored in Scotland.[1] See Colgan, Jan. 31, pp. 208, 223. Chatelain, notes, p. 481.
Footnotes:
1. There is found in the chronicle of Scone, and in the Breviary of
Aberdeen, an ancient collect, in which the Divine mercy is implored
through his intercession. Chatelain tells us that in Lower Brittany
he is called St. De, (contracted from the Latin word Aideus, or
Aidanus,) and that the village and church which bear his name,
celebrate his festival on the 18th of March, the day perhaps on
which they received some portion of his relics.
{320 blank page} {321}
Only Complete and Unabridged Edition with nearly 100 pages of Chronological and General Index, Alphabetical and Centenary Table, etc.
THE
LIVES
OF
THE FATHERS, MARTYRS,
AND OTHER
PRINCIPAL SAINTS;
COMPILED FROM
ORIGINAL MONUMENTS, AND OTHER AUTHENTIC RECORDS;
ILLUSTRATED WITH THE
REMARKS OF JUDICIOUS MODERN CRITICS AND HISTORIANS,
BY THE REV. ALBAN BUTLER.
With the approbation of
MOST REV. M. A. CORRIGAN, D.D.,
Archbishop of New York.