San Augustine (properly Agustín), born in Numidia, was the son of Santa Mónica. “In his youth he was so devoted to pleasure that his mother feared the destruction of his character,” but he became converted by the preaching of St. Ambrose, and it is thought that the Te Deum was composed in honor of the occasion of his baptism. It is told of him that “while walking on the sea-shore, lost in meditation on his great theme, the Discourse on the Trinity, he saw a little child bringing water and endeavoring to fill a hole which he had dug in the sand. Augustine asked him the motive of his labors. The child said he intended to empty all the water of the sea into this cavity. ‘Impossible!’ exclaimed St. Augustine. ‘Not more impossible,’ answered the child, ‘than for thee, O Augustine, to explain the mystery on which thou art now meditating.’ St. Augustine is the patron of theologians and learned men.”—(Stories of the Saints.)
San Benito (St. Benedict). See page [161].
San Bernabé (St. Barnabas, or Barnaby). This saint was a native of Cyprus, and a cousin of St. Mark. “He labored with Paul at Antioch, and tradition says he preached from the gospel of St. Matthew, written by the Evangelist himself, which he carried always with him, and that it had power to heal the sick when laid upon their bosoms. He was seized by the Jews and cruelly martyred, while preaching in Judea.”—(Stories of the Saints.)
San Bernardino (St. Bernardinus). See page [74].
San Bernardo (St. Bernard). There were two saints of this name, one born in 1190 at Fontaine, and the other in Savoy. The latter, St. Bernard of Menthon, is famous as the founder of the St. Bernard hospitals in the Alps, where “the monks, assisted by their dogs, search out and care for travelers who are lost in the passes of the mountains, where the storms are severe, and the cold intense.”
San Bruno (St. Bruno). See page [232].
San Buenaventura (St. Bonaventure). See page [95].
San Carlos (St. Charles). See page [138].
San Clemente (St. Clement). See page [83].
San Diegito (little St. James).