"But, friend, we have none with us." "That is your affair, not mine," answered the fellow rudely. "Then we must do what we can," said Ansewin, drawing off his cape, and holding out the hood. "Come, host! pour the wine in here." The man stared, and then burst into a roar of laughter. But Ansewin persisted. "Then, fool, I will do so, and waste the liquor, but mind, you pay for it," said he. "Pour boldly," said the bishop-elect, holding the hood distended; and the inn-keeper obeyed. Then two marvels occurred, the hood retained the liquor, and served as a drinking horn to all the company, and the water which had diluted the wine separated from it, and flowed away over the edge.
He ruled his diocese with great prudence, and in time of famine, by his wise regulations and abundant alms, greatly relieved the sufferings of the poor. He was absent from his dear city where he had been born, and which he had ministered to with so much love, when he was stricken with mortal sickness. He was greatly distressed at the prospect of dying out of his diocese, and ordered a horse to be brought that he might ride home. His companions, seeing death in his face, remonstrated; but he persisted in his command, and when his horse was brought to the door, he descended, supported by his friends to it. Then the horse knelt down, and suffered the dying man to mount him without effort. As soon as he was in Camerino, he ordered all his flock to assemble to receive his final blessing, and then gently expired.
Relics at Camerino, in the cathedral, and a portion of the shoulder in the Vatican.
In art he is represented with his hood full of wine.
SS. RUDERICK, P. M., AND SALOMON, M.
(A.D. 857.)
[Roman Martyrology. Authority:—S. Eulogius, (March 11th), himself a martyr in the same persecution, 859, wrote the Acts of all those who suffered at that time, either from his own knowledge, or from the testimony of eye witnesses.]
During the persecution of the Christians under the Moorish occupation of Spain, there was a priest in the village of Cabra, about five-and-twenty miles from Cordova, named Ruderick, who had two brothers, whereof one had renounced Christianity and become a Moslem. One night this apostate brother and the other were quarrelling, and came to blows, when Ruderick rushed between them to separate them, but was so mauled by both, that he fell senseless on the ground. The Mussulman brother then placed him on a litter, and had him carried about the country, walking by his side, and showing him off as a renegade priest. Ruderick was too much bruised and strained to resist for a while, but he bore this with greater anguish than his bodily injuries, and as soon as ever he was sufficiently recovered, he effected his escape. The renegade meeting him some time after in the streets of Cordova, dragged him before the cadi, and denounced him as having professed the Mussulman religion, and then returned to Christianity. Ruderick indignantly denied that he had ever apostatized, but the cadi, believing the accusation, ordered him to be cast into the foulest den of the city prison, reserved for parricides. There he found a Christian, named Salomon, awaiting sentence on a similar charge of having conformed to the established religion for a while, and then returned to the worship of Christ. They were retained in prison for some time, the cadi hoping thus to weary them into apostasy. But the two confessors encouraged each other to stand fast. Being made acquainted with this, the cadi ordered them to be separated, but when this also failed, he sentenced them both to decapitation.
S. KENNOCHA, V.
(ABOUT A.D. 1007.)