SEPTEMBER 7. S. Enurchus, Bishop, A.D. 340. Being sent by the Church of Rome into France about redeeming some captives, at the time when the people of Orleans were electing a bishop, a dove alighted twice upon his head, which the people taking for a sign of his great sanctity, chose him bishop. Many miracles are recorded of him, among the rest that in laying the foundation of his Church of Holy Cross, he directed the workmen where to dig, and they found a pot of gold sufficient to pay the expenses of the building. He was Bishop of Orleans more than twenty years.

Emblem, a dove alighting on his head.

SEPTEMBER 8. Nativity of the Virgin Mary. A concert of Angels is said to have been heard in the air to solemnize this day as her birthday. The festival was appointed by Pope Servius about A.D. 695.

In Le Clerc's Almanack the concert of Angels is represented as taking place at her nativity; the Angels are also strewing flowers.

SEPTEMBER 14.

Holy Cross Day. On the + spot where S. Helen found the Holy Cross, (see May 3rd, and account of S. Helen in Part II.,) Constantine reared a magnificent Church or Basilica, which was consecrated on Sept. 13th, 335. The following day being Sunday, the Holy Cross was elevated on high for the veneration of the people. This ceremony, and the miraculous appearance of the

cross to Constantine, gave the first occasion to this festival, which was celebrated under the title of the Exaltation of the Cross, on the 14th of September, both by Greeks and Latins, as early as in the fifth and sixth centuries. The recovery of this Holy Rood from the hands of Cosroes, king of Persia, by the Emperor Heraclius, in the seventh century, was celebrated on the same day. One hundred and six Churches in England are named in honour of this festival, some under the designation of the Holy Rood, and several under the corruption of S. Cross. Two have the joint dedication of S. Mary and Holy Cross, and one SS. Cross and Faith.

In Le Clerc's Almanack on this day a procession of priests bearing the cross, is represented coming out of the gate of the city.

SEPTEMBER 17. S. Lambert, A.D. 709. Was a native, and afterwards Bishop of Maestrecht. After being made Bishop he was forced into exile, and remained so seven years, but was recalled in 677, and governed his see with much energy and piety for a long period after. Two brothers having plundered the Church of Maestrecht, were slain unknown to S. Lambert, by some of his relations, and their kinsmen revenged their death by entering the Bishop's house and murdering all they met, and one of them killed the Bishop, by throwing at him a dart or javelin. Other accounts ascribe his murder to his boldness in reproving the King's grandson for his immoralities.

He is usually represented in full episcopal dress, with a lance or dart in his hand, or at his feet; and as a martyr he sometimes has the palm-branch: in Callot's Images, his murder is represented, two ruffians are piercing him with spears. The Churches of Burnaston, in Yorkshire, and of Stonham Aspal, in Suffolk, are named in his honour.

SEPTEMBER 21. S. Matthew, the Evangelist, c. 90. Was the son of

Alpheus, a Jew, of the tribe of Issachar, and by profession a publican, or gatherer of taxes for the Romans, an office peculiarly odious among the Jews. We have no authentic history of his life after the Ascension, and the legendary accounts of the time, place, and mode of his death, vary very much.

Emblem of S. Matthew.

Gospel to satisfy the

8. Matthew.

He wrote his

converts of Palestine, and went to preach the faith to the heathen nations of Egypt and Ethiopia. S. Paulinus. mentions that he ended his course in Parthia, and Venantius Fortunatus relates that he suffered martyrdom at Nadabar, a city in those parts; while the tradition in the Eastern Church is that

he died in peace. His evangelistic symbol is an angel,

either alone, or standing by him while he is writing his Gospel. He is also represented with a purse or money-box, in allusion to his calling; sometimes with a spear or axe, a carpenter's rule or square. Twenty-five Churches in England are named in his honour.

SEPTEMBER 26. S. Cyprian, Archbishop, A.D. 258. Archbishop of his native city, Carthage. He was regarded as the greatest luminary of the third age. As a Father he is highly esteemed for the piety of his writings, and the purity of the Latin tongue wherein they are written. He was beheaded just outside the city of Carthage, during the persecution of Valerian. The Church of Chaddesley, in Worcestershire, is named after him. He is represented in episcopal robes, with a sword in his hand, and sometimes a book in the other. The S. Cyprian commemorated in the Church of Rome on this day, is S. Cyprian of Antioch, a converted magician. S. Cyprian of Carthage is honoured in that Church on Sept. 16.

SEPTEMBER 29. S. Michael and All Angels. This festival of S. Michael and the Holy Angels, has been kept with great solemnity on the 29th of September, ever since the fifth age, and was certainly celebrated in Apuleia, in 493. It was retained in the Anglican Church at the Reformation, to bring before her members the benefits conferred by the ministry of Angels, and to ex

press thankfulness to God for the same. S. Michael is specially commemorated from being recorded in Scripture as an Angel of great power and dignity, as presiding and watching over the Church of God with a particular vigilance

and application, (Dan. x. 13, and xii. 1,) and triumphing over the Devil P. (Jude 9; Rev. xii. 7.) He is, therefore, peculiarly regarded as the patron Saint of the Church militant. He is said to have appeared to S. Aubert, Bishop of Avranches,

S. Michael.

A.D. 708, and commanded him to erect a Church in his honour, on what is now called Mount S. Michael, in Normandy. The Bishop obeyed, and it becoming a very popular place for pilgrimages, the honour paid to S. Michael in France very much increased. From thence it extended to England at the Conquest, and especially in the counties nearest the French coast, where many Churches, built in imitation of the position of Mount S. Michael, upon lofty eminences, may be found; as S. Michael's Mount, Cornwall; S. Michael's Chapel, near Torquay; the Church of Brent Tor, near Tavistock; and at Abbotsbury, Dorsetshire. The office of weighing

P Wheatly, c. v. sect. 4 and 28.