Footnotes:
1. St. Chrys. ep. 36.
2. It is not altogether certain whether this monastery near Apamea, or
another on the Orontes, between Apamea and Emesa, or a third in
Palmyrene, (for each of them bore his name,) possessed his body, or
gave name to the people called Maronites. It seems most probable of
the second, the abbot of which is styled primate of all the
monasteries of the second Syria, in the acts of the second council
of Constantinople, under the patriarch Mennas, in 536, and he
subscribes first a common letter to pope Hormisdas, in 517. The
Maronites were called so from these religious, in the fifth century,
and adhered to the council of Chalcedon against the Eutychians. They
were joined in communion with the Melchites or Loyalists, who
maintained the authority of the council of Chalcedon. The Maronites,
with their patriarch, who live in Syria, towards the seacoast,
especially about mount Libanus, are steady in the communion of the
Catholic church, and profess a strict obedience to the pope, as its
supreme pastor; and such has always been the conduct of that nation,
except during a very short time, that they were inveigled into the
Greek schism; and some fell into Eutychianism, and a greater number
into Nestorianism; they returned to the communion of the Catholic
church under Gregory XIII. and Clement VIII., as Stephen Assemani
proves, (Assemani, Act. Mart. t. 2, p. 410,) against the slander of
Eutychius in his Arabic Annals, which had imposed upon Renaudot. The
Maronites keep the feast of St. Maro on the 9th, the Greeks on the
14th of February. The seminary of the Maronites at Rome, founded by
Gregory XIII. under the direction of the Jesuits, had produced
several great men, who have exceedingly promoted true literature
especially the Oriental; such as Abraham Eckellensis, the three
Assemani, Joseph, Stephen Evodius, and Lewis, known by his Judicious
writings on the ceremonies of the church. The patriarch of the
Maronites, styled of Antioch, resides in the monastery of Canabine,
at the foot of mount Libanus; he is confirmed by the pope, and has
under him five metropolitans, namely, of Tyre, Damascus, Tripolis,
Aleppo, and Niocsia, in Cyprus. See Le Quien. Oriens Christianus. t.
3, p. 46.
ST. ABRAAMES, BISHOP OF CARRES.
HE was a holy solitary, who, going to preach to an idolatrous village on Mount Libanus, overcame the persecutions of the heathens by meekness and patience. When he had narrowly escaped death from their hands, he borrowed money wherewith to satisfy the demands of the collectors of the public taxes, for their failure in which respect they were to be cast into prison; and by this charity he gained them all to Christ. After instructing them for three years, he left them in the care of a holy priest, and returned to his desert. He was some time after ordained bishop of Canes, in Mesopotamia, which country he cleared of idolatry, dissensions, and other vices. He joined the recollection and penance of a monk with the labors of his functions, and died at Constantinople, in 422, having been sent for to court by Theodosius the Younger, and there treated with the greatest honor on account of his sanctity. The emperor kept one of his mean garments, and wore it himself on certain days, out of respect. See Theodoret Philoth. c. 17, t. 3, p. 847.
ST. AUXENTIUS, H.
HE was a holy hermit in Bithynia, in the fifth age. In his youth he was one of the equestrian guards of Theodosius the Younger, but this state of life, which he discharged with the utmost fidelity to his prince, did not hinder him from making the service of God his main concern. All his spare time was spent in solitude and prayer; and he often visited holy hermits, to spend the nights with them in tears and singing the divine praises, prostrate on the ground. The fear of vain-glory moved him to retire to the desert mountain of Oxen, in Bithynia, eight miles from Constantinople. After the council of Chalcedon, where he appeared upon summons by order of the emperor Marcian, against Eutyches, he chose a cell on the mountain of Siope, near Chalcedon, in which he contributed to the sanctification of many who resorted to him for advice; he finished his martyrdom of penance, together {416} with his life, about 470. Sozomen commended exceedingly his sanctity while he was yet living.[1] St. Stephen the Younger caused the church of his monastery to be dedicated to God, under the invocation of our saint; and mount Siope is called to this day mount St. Auxentius. See his life, written from the relation of his disciple Vendimian, with the remarks of Henschenius.
Footnotes: 1. Sozom. l. 7, c. 21.
ST. CONRAN, BISHOP OF ORKNEY, CONFESSOR.
THE isles of Orkney are twenty-six in number, besides the lesser, called Holmes, which are uninhabited, and serve only for pasture. The faith was planted here by St. Palladius, and St. Sylvester, one of his fellow-laborers, who was appointed by him the first pastor of this church, and was honored in it on the 5th of February. In these islands formerly stood a great number of holy monasteries, the chief of which was Kirkwall. This place was the bishop's residence, and is at this day the only remarkable town in these islands. It is situated in the largest of them, which is thirty miles long, called anciently Pomonia, now Mainland. This church is much indebted to St. Conran, who was bishop here in the seventh century, and whose name, for the austerity of his life, zeal, and eminent sanctity, was no less famous in those parts, so long as the Catholic religion flourished there, than those of St. Palladius and of St. Kentigern. The cathedral of Orkney was dedicated under the invocation of St. Magnus, king of Norway. On St. Conran, see bishop Lesley, Hist. Scot. l. 4. Wion, in addit. c. 3. Ligni Vitæ. King, in Calend.