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public literature, and became professor of Philosophy and Rhetoric, first at Rome and afterwards at Milan. Here he was thrown in the way of S. Ambrose, who was at that time Bishop of Milan, by whom he was converted and baptized; the Hymn, called Te Deum, which, after the lapse of 1400 years still retains the foremost place among our Church hymns, was composed by S. Ambrose and recited upon this deeply interesting occasion. After diligently studying Theology, in which he was aided by S. Ambrose, with whom he contracted an intimate friendship, he was ordained Priest, and then returned to his native country, where shortly afterwards he was chosen Bishop of Hippo, and would never accept any higher dignity or leave his flock, which he presided over thirty-five years. He died there while the city was besieged by the Vandals, in his seventyseventh year. He was distinguished for his numerous virtues, his zeal, his immense learning and industry; he was one of the most voluminous of the Fathers, and his writings are considered invaluable even to this day. His emblem is generally a heart which he car

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8 AUGUSTINE of Hippo, from an illuminated MS

ries in his hand. Sometimes burning; sometimes transfixed with arrows; occasionally it is seen in the air beside him; this is supposed to refer to either the burning zeal and love displayed in his writings in the cause of the Christian Faith, or the deep earnestness of his repentance, or to a celebrated passage in his Confessions; he is sometimes accompanied by an eagle, either signifying the presence of the Holy Spirit, or as being the Patron of Theologians. But he is most generally represented with a child or Infant Jesus by his side, holding a shell or spoon, and sometimes filling a hole with water from it; this is in allusion to a vision which he himself relates as occurring to him. While he was walking one day on the sea shore meditating on the mystery of the Blessed Trinity, he saw a child filling a hole in the sand with water baled out of the sea in a shell; in answer to an enquiry from the Saint, the child replied, "I wish to empty the sea into this hole;" and as the Saint replied, "Child, it is impossible," he said, "Not more impossible than to comprehend what you are now meditating upon," and immediately vanished.

There are twenty-nine Churches dedicated in this name in England, but the greater part of these probably refer to S. Augustine of Canterbury.

AUGUST 29. S. John the Baptist, beheaded. Durandus says this feast was formerly called Festum Collectionis S. Johannis Baptista, or the Feast of

gathering up S. John the Baptist's relics; and afterwards by corruption, Festum decollationis, the feast of his beheading. (WHEATLY.)

September.

SEPTEMBER 1. S. Giles, Abbot, A.D. 725, called in Latin Ægidius, was by birth an Athenian, of noble extraction, who by his miracles and sanctity, so attracted the notice of his countrymen, that to avoid the honours they paid him he fled into France, where he lived in retirement as a hermit in a cave, and is said to have been nourished with the milk of a hind in the forest, and that the King of France discovered him in hunting, by pursuing the chase of that hind to his hermitage, where it had sought for shelter at his feet. The King afterwards built a monastery on the site of his hermitage, and made him an Abbot. He died in his eightieth year, A.D. 725, and was buried in his own Abbey. Though other versions of the legend say he would not leave his cave, and died there in solitude. S. Giles is esteemed the patron of cripples, from his refusing to be cured of an accidental lameness, that he might be enabled to mortify

himself more completely. S. Giles's Cripple-gate is dedicated to this Saint; and before the Conquest, this neighbourhood was a rendezvous for cripples and beggars, who were accustomed to solicit charity at the entrance of the city. In Oxford, Cambridge, and many other places, a Church at the entrance of the town is also dedicated to this Saint. Every county in England, except Westmoreland and Cumberland has Churches named in his honour, amounting in all to one. hundred and forty-six, and Werrington in Devon is named after SS. Martin and Giles conjointly.

He is usually represented with a crosier, and a hind with its head

or its fore-feet in his lap, www sometimes having its neck

8. GILES,

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pierced with an arrow. from painted glass, Sandringham Church, In Callot's Images, the

Norfolk.

hind is by his side, and an arrow has pierced the Saint in the thigh, and other representations have the arrow in his breast.

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