The Septuagint translators, however, must have had a slightly different text before them for they render the last words: “According to the number of God’s angels.” It therefore seems probable that they read in Hebrew benê Elohim instead of benê Yisrael. Of the benê Elohim or “Sons of God” we read in Genesis, chapter vi, verse 2, that they wedded with the “Daughters of Men.” This has been given a poetic form by Thomas Moore in his “Loves of the Angels.” The Book of Job also, in its Prologue in Heaven (i, 6–12), introduces the “Sons of God” among whom appeared Satan, the “Adversary.” Of angel names, as has been noted, there is Biblical warrant only for Gabriel, Michael, and Raphael, the last-mentioned, in the Apocryphal Book of Tobit; to these IV Esdras (not a canonical book) adds Jeremiel and Uriel, names not admitted by the Church.
THE ANGEL RAPHAEL REFUSING THE GIFTS OFFERED BY TOBIT
By Giovanni Biliverti. Pitti Palace, Florence.
There has been preserved for us a most interesting calendar for the city of Rome, written by Furius Dionysius Filocalus in 354 A.D., and containing a series of drawings by his hand showing the symbolical figures of the months of the year. Though the original manuscript is lost, several apparently faithful copies exist, one of which is in the Imperial Library in Vienna. Much of this work deals with matters referring to the Roman calendar, but perhaps its most valuable part is a list of the early Christian saints and martyrs. As this is the earliest list of the kind, of even earlier date than the rest of the work, we give it here unabridged, as a most interesting documentary proof of the veneration in which the saints were held in the fourth, or, we should probably say, in the third century.
ITEM DEPOSITIO MARTIRUM[[494]]
VIII kal. Jan. natus Christum in Betleem Judeæ. mense Januario. XIII kal. Feb. Fabiani in Callisti et Sebastiani in Catacumbas. XII kal. Feb. Agnetis in Nomentana. mense Februario. VIII kal. Martias natale Petri de cathedra. mense Martio. non. Martias. Perpetuæ et Felicitatis, Africæ. mense Maio. XIIII kal. Jun. Partheni et Caloceri in Callisti, Diocletiano VIIII et Maximiano VIII [304]. mense Junio. III kal. Jul. Petri in Catacumbas et Pauli Ostense, Tusco et Basso cons. [258]. mense Julio. VI idus Felicis et Filippi in Priscillæ et in Jordanorum, Martialis Vitalis Alexandri et in Maximi Silani. hunc Silanum martirem Nouati furati sunt. et in Praetextatæ, Januari. III kal. Aug. Abdos et Semnes in Pontiani, quod est ad ursum piliatum. mense Augusto. VIII idus Aug. Xysti in Callisti et in Praetextati Agapiti et Felicissimi. VI idus Aug. Secundi Carpofori Victorini, et Seueriani Albano. et Ostense VII ballisteria Cyriaci Largi Crescentiani Memmiæ Julianetis et Ixmaracdi. IIII idus Aug. Laurenti in Tiburtina. idus Aug. Ypoliti in Tiburtina. et Pontiani in Callisti. XI kal. Septemb. Timotei, Ostense V kal. Sept. Hermetis in Basillæ Salaria uetere. mense Septembre. non. Sept. Aconti, in Porto, et Nonni et Herculani et Taurini. V idus Sept. Gorgoni in Lauicana. III idus Sept. Proti et Jacinti, in Basillæ. XVIII kal. Octob. Cypriani, Africæ. Romæ celebratur in Callisti. X kal. Octob. Basillæ, Salaria uetere, Diocletiano IX et Maximiano VIII consul. (304) mense Octobre. pri. idus Octob. Callisti in via Aurelia. miliario III. mense Nouembre. V idus Nou. Clementis Semproniani Claui Nicostrati in comitatum. III kal. Dec. Saturnini in Trasonis. mense Decembre. idus Decem. Ariston in pontum.
This list, which begins with the great Christian festival of Christmas, enumerates the days on which Roman martyrs died and were buried. The months are given in their order and below their names appears a very brief record, giving the day and place of burial and the name of each of the martyrs. The first entry, for instance, reads: “January 20, interment of Fabianus in the cemetery of Callistus.” The earliest martyrs mentioned are SS. Perpetua and Felicitas who died in 202 A.D.; thus all definite memory of the many martyrs of the first and second centuries seems to have been lost. Even heretics do not appear to have been excluded, for as it is stated that the Novatians carried away the body of Silanus, it seems more than probable that he himself belonged to this heretical sect. As martyrs, all are regarded as equally entitled to the highest veneration, regardless of what they may have passed through on earth. Other communities than the Roman one possessed similar lists, as is clearly indicated by the words of Cyprian, in his thirty-ninth epistle, where he says: “As you remember, we offered the sacrifice for them, just as we celebrated a commemoration of the sufferings of the martyrs and of their anniversary days.”
To many of the saints curative powers are attributed, and these powers are usually specialized so that each of these saints is invoked for aid against a different disease or defect. With very few exceptions it will be found that some circumstance in the history or legend of the saint is the origin of these beliefs. An exception may perhaps be made in the case of the two saints to whom recourse is most frequent at the present day, namely, St. Anthony of Padua (June 13) and St. Anne, the mother of the Virgin Mary (July 26). Relics of the latter saint, preserved in many parts of Europe and also in America, are regarded as endowed with wonderful therapeutic powers. Recently, in New York City, at the church of St. Jean Baptiste, a relic of St. Anne was shown to many thousands of the faithful, and some wonderful cures are said to have been accomplished by its aid. Sceptics will be inclined to attribute such cures to the influence of suggestion, while Catholics will see in them a proof of the power of the saint’s intercession on behalf of those who repose their trust in her. St. Anthony is usually appealed to for success in difficult enterprises, and more particularly for the discovery of lost articles. Here the belief in the successful intervention of the respective saints is more generalized and appears to have grown up independently of any event chronicled in the legends, but these instances are quite exceptional.
An exceedingly beautiful jewelled medallion said to have been given by Pope Paul V, in 1614, to the Archbishop of Lisbon, Don Miguel de Castro, shows in the centre the figures of the Virgin and Child, surrounded by a setting of old Indian, table-cut diamonds. The archbishop donated this to the Church of St. Antonia da Se, sometimes called the “Royal House of St. Antonio,” for this church was built on the site of the house in which dwelt the parents of St. Anthony, Don Martin de Bulhoes and Dona Teresa de Azavedo, and in which the saint was born on February 6, 1195. At his baptism he was given the name Fernando, but later he changed this to Antonio. The great Lisbon earthquake of 1755 completely wrecked this church, but the high altar wherein the medallion had been placed escaped comparatively unharmed, and the jewel was found by some peasants, who later sold it to the family of Machados e Silvas, in whose private chapel it reposed until within a few years.
The shrine of St. Anne de Beaupré may be seen in the Basilica of Beaupré, about 20 miles distant from Quebec. It stands on the site of a small wooden sanctuary erected about the middle of the seventeenth century by some Breton mariners who, when in imminent danger of shipwreck while navigating the St. Lawrence, made a vow to build a chapel to St. Anne, the dearly-loved patron saint of their native province, at the spot where they should first come to land. St. Anne was regarded in French Canada as the patroness of seafarers and hence a large number of those who frequented her shrine were seafaring people. However, even more were attracted by the report of the marvellous cures of all kinds of diseases which were said to have taken place there. Pilgrimages to this shrine continue to be made at the present time; indeed, the number of those who thus testify to their belief in the power of the saint has increased rapidly during the past thirty years. In 1880 the pilgrims numbered 36,000; in 1900 the record showed 135,000, and in 1910 the number had increased to 188,266, a proof that the devotees are more and more convinced that St. Anne’s relics are the sources of great healing virtue.