first witness of the New Testament, and was stoned

to death in the year 33. His relics are said to have been discovered through the agency of a dream, four hundred years after his death, and were then translated from Jerusalem to Rome, and deposited in the same tomb with those of S. Laurence. He belongs to the highest class of martyrs, having suffered death both in will and deed; and is represented with a stone in his hand,

and a book, or with stones in his lap. Forty Churches in England are dedicated in his name. Walsingham, Durham, in the names of SS. Mary and Stephen.

CAB.

S STEPHEN, from painted glass. Nettlestead Church. Kent.

DECEMBER 27. S. John the Apostle and Evangelist, and the beloved disciple, was a Galilean, son of Zebedee and Salome, and brother to S. James the Great. He was banished to the island of Patmos, where he wrote his Revelations, and at the death of Domitian he returned to Ephesus, where he ended his days. His Gospel was written here many years after the other three, and seems designed to fill up what they had omitted relative to our Lord's Godhead. The last chapter was added after he had completed it, to controvert the opinion then very current in the

Church, "that that disciple should not die," but should tarry the coming of our Lord.

He out

lived all the Apostles, and was the only one who did not attain the crown of martyrdom in deed as well as in will. He is said to have been a hundred years old at the

down in a grave, commanded them to close it up after his death. As an Apostle he is represented with a chalice, with a dragon or serpent issuing legend of his driving the cup of poison, see May 6. his mantle is powdered all over with chalices, and

S. JOHN THE EVANGELIST, from the Benedictional of S. Ethelwold.

out of it, (alluding to the devil in that form out of a In the engraving we give

he bears the palm-branch, a very unusual attribute of S. John. When represented as an Evangelist he is writing in a book, with an eagle near him. On monumental brasses, painted glass, &c., the eagle alone often symbolizes S. John, because "

as

the eagle flies highest and looks at the sun, so this holy Apostle gazed especially at the great glory of our blessed Lord's Divinity." When represented with the other eleven Apostles, he is in general readily distinguished by his youthful and rather feminine countenance and his long flowing hair, and he seldom has a beard. Very rarely he is represented in accordance with the legend above mentioned, stepping down from an altar into a grave. About two hundred and England are named in his honour; Essex seems to be the only county in which he is not commemorated.

S. JOHN the EVANGELIST from New College Chapel.

forty Churches in

DECEMBER 28. Innocents' Day, or Childermas Day, commemorating the slaughter of the Jewish children by Herod. Wheatly observes of these three festivals following each other, "That as there are three kinds of martyrdom, the first both in will and deed, which is the highest; the second in will but not in deed; the third in deed but not in will; so the Church commemorates these marty rs in the same

order S. Stephen first, who suffered death both in will and deed; S. John the Evangelist next, who suffered martyrdom in will but not in deed, [see May 6;] the holy Innocents last, who suffered in deed but not in will." Though the holy Innocents were not sensible upon what account they suffered, yet it is certain that they suffered for the sake of Christ, since it was upon account of His birth that their lives were taken away. The Churches of Lamarsh, Essex; Adisham, Kent; Foulsham, Norfolk; and Great Barton, Suffolk; are dedicated in honour of this festival. In the usual representations Herod is seated on a throne, two or three persons are standing by, one of whom holds an infant which he is piercing with a sword.

DECEMBER 31. S. Silvester, Bishop of Rome, A.D. 335. He was a native of Rome, and was carefully instructed in the Christian faith by his mother Justina. He succeeded Miltiades in the Papacy, 314, and is accounted the author of several rites and ceremonies of the Roman Church: as of asylums, unctions, palls, corporals, mitres, &c. During the time of his filling the Papal chair, the great Synod of Arles and the Ecumenical Council of Nice were held; he did not appear at either of them in person, but was represented by deputies. In Callot's Images he is represented standing at a font with the papal crown on, baptizing or anointing a person kneeling over it. In Le Clerc he is kneeling, and an Angel appearing

to him bearing a cross. He is generally represented with an ox lying near him, as he is traditionally said to have converted S. Helen, and Constantine the Great, by restoring a dead ox to life, which had been killed by the power of a magician, who was unable to resuscitate it. Many other wonderful legends are also told of him. The Church of Chevelstone, Devon, is the only one named in his honour in England.

NOTE, p. 62.

It is stated here that S. Ambrose is said to have been the author of the "Te Deum," but it is perhaps as well to remark, that there is scarcely any thing but traditional authority for this, most ritualists agreeing that it is of much later date than the time of S. Ambrose; nor, supposing he did compose it, is it certain that it was first used at the baptism of S. Augustine.