preached the Gospel in Greece and Egypt. He is said to have professed the art of physic, to have had a taste and genius for painting, and to have left behind him pictures of our Saviour, and the Virgin Mary: some very curious anecdotes are found in the writings of Metaphrastes and other Greeks in support of this 8. Luke opinion, and there are many ancient pictures of the Blessed Virgin still extant which are ascribed to the pencil of S. Luke, one in particular which was placed by Pope Paul V. in the Burghesian Chapel in S. Mary Major. Another picture of her was sent to the Empress Pulcheria, who placed it in the Church of Our Lady, at Constantinople. And an inscription was found under an old picture of the Virgin in the vault of the Church of S. Mary, in via Latina, which runs thus, Una de VII. à Luca depictus. He is considered the patron of the fine arts, and is supposed to have written his Gospel much later than S. Matthew and S. Mark wrote theirs. It does not seem to be absolutely determined whether S. Luke died a martyr, though it is generally believed that he was hung upon an olive-tree. He lived to the age of 84. In the cut of the Golden Legend, S. Luke is sitting before a reading-desk, beneath which appears an ox's head, "because he devised about the presthode of Jesus Christ," the ox or calf being the sign of a victim and a priest. In Callot's Images he is represented painting the Virgin and Child, who are appearing to him in the clouds: behind him is an ox. The ox is the Evangelical symbol by which S. Luke is represented in painted glass, on monumental brasses, &c.; it is generally winged. Seventeen Churches in England are named in his honour, and one in the names of S. Luke and All Saints. OCTOBER 25. S. Crispin, Martyr, A.D. 308. Crispinus and Crispianus were brothers, and were born at Rome, whence they travelled to Soissons, in France, about the year 304, to propagate the Christian religion. Being desirous of rendering themselves independent, they gained a subsistence by shoemaking, and made shoes for the poor at a very low price, and according to the legend angels supplied them with leather. It having been discovered that they were Christians, the governor of the town under Maximian Herculeus ordered them to be beheaded, about the year 308. There is a tradition current in Romney Marsh, that the relics of these holy martyrs were cast into the sea and washed ashore upon that part of the Kentish coast. The shoemakers have chosen them for their tutelar saints. In the Golden Legend, in Callot's Images, and in Le Clerc, they are represented as two men at work in a shoemaker's shop. In the Clog almanacks the emblem is a pair of shoes. K OCTOBER 28. SS. Simon and Jude, Apostles: S. Simon is called the Canaanite, either because he was born in Cana of Galilee, or from the Hebrew word Cana, to be zealous; hence his name of Simon Zelotes, or the Zealot. S. Simon after enduring various troubles and afflictions, with great cheerfulness suffered martyrdom. There is a tra SS Simon and Jude. dition that he came to England and was crucified there by the infidels, though the more generally received account, as illustrated by his peculiar emblem, is that he was sawn asunder. S. Jude is called both by the name of Thaddeus and Lebbæus, he was of our Lord's kindred, vide Matt. xiii. 55. After great success in his apostolic ministry, he was at last put to death for a free and open reproof of the superstitious rites of the Magi; both are also said to have suffered martyrdom together in Persia. In the Runic Calendar, SS. Simon and Jude's day was marked by a ship, on account of their having been fishermen ". In Callot's Images, and in Le Clerc, their supposed martyrdom is represented, one being sawn asunder, the other stabbed while kneeling in prayer. S. Simon has almost invariably a long saw in one hand, but sometimes he has one or two fish. S. Jude has a club, or a boat or ship u Wormii Fasti Danici, lib. ii. c. 9. in allusion to his calling, sometimes a carpenter's square, or a cross, this latter often inverted. These saints have never been extensively honoured in England, there being only two old Churches dedicated in their joint names. There are several instances in modern Churches of their names being honoured separately, as in Liverpool, Manchester, Bethnal Green, West Derby, &c., but this is quite against the medieval custom. November. NOVEMBER 1. of this festival origi- many Martyrs' days, "because we cannot particularly commemorate every one of those saints in whom God's graces have been eminent, for that would be too heavy a burden, and because in these particular Feasts which we do celebrate, we may justly be thought to have omitted some of our duty through infirmity or negligence, therefore Holy Church appoints this day in commemoration of the saints in * Sparrow's Rationale. |