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S. Alphege. See Calendar, April 19th, p. 63. S. Alwys. Is commemorated in the village and Church of Lansallos, Cornwall'.

S. Ambrose. See Calendar, April 4th, p. 62.

S. Amphibalus, M., A.D. 303. One of the earliest British saints, and a priest at Caerleon in Monmouthshire, who, being pursued by the officers of Diocletian, took refuge in the house of S. Alban, then a heathen; while secreted there he converted S. Alban to Christianity, and his pursuers having ascertained where he was concealed, demanded him of S. Alban, who gave himself up in his stead, and declaring that he was a Christian was immediately martyred, and thus became the Proto-martyr of England. S. Amphibalus was taken three days after, at Redburn, near S. Alban's, June 25, 303, upon which day he was commemorated, and there followed his pupil in his glorious end. Of several Churches formerly dedicated in his honour, none now bear his name, but it is interesting to know that the first foundation of the noble Cathedral of Winchester was one of them, and that Redburn Church, Herts, was another; the latter originally possessed his relics, from whence they were translated with great solemnity to the Abbey of S. Alban, A.D. 1186. His martyrdom is mentioned as "too barbarous to relate," but the legend is, that he suffered in the same way as S. Erasmus, by

f See Cornish Saints.

having his bowels wound out of his body while alive.

S. Andrew. See Calendar, Nov. 30th, p. 145.
S. Anne. See Calendar, July 26th, p. 94.

S. Antholin. A Church is dedicated in this name in Watling-street, London.

S. Anthony of Egypt, Ab., A.D. 356. Called also "the great" and "the hermit," was an Egyptian by birth, being born at Coma near Heracleopolis, A.D. 251, the son of noble, opulent, and Christian parents; his life written by his friend the great S. Athanasius has come down to us. From an early age (A.D. 270) he practised great austerities and became the first hermit, A.D. 285, living in the woods in close retirement, and eating only roots and grain. Here it is said that the devil appeared to him in seven different shapes tempting him, and the wild boar particularly attached itself to him. The following lines occur under his legend painted on a screen in Carlisle Cathedral,

"Thy liveth he in wildernes XX“ pere and more
“Without ony company but the wylde bowr."

He died Jan. 17th, A.D. 356, at the advanced age of 105, upon which day the Roman Church retains his name in her calendar. He is considered one of the especial patrons of monks and monastic institutions, and is therefore one of the most popular subjects of medieval painters and illuminators. He is generally represented with a crutch having a flat

top like T, clothed as a monk, with a crosier in his left hand, and a bell suspended from the top of his crutch in the other, and usually one or more wild boars at his feet, occasionally with bells round their necks. In some representations he has bells and a book in his left hand, with the Greek tau cross, or the bell and cross alternately on his dress or diapering the back ground, sometimes the devil is standing by his side, either in his own shape, or as a goat, or as a beautiful woman. In Le Clerc's saints he is represented as a hermit in a desert kneeling before a cross, with his flat-topped crutch in his left hand. other representations he is in the same attitude, with a Scourge or flagellum instead of the crutch, and a skull at the foot of the cross. The tau cross is still called in

In

heraldry the cross of S. Anthony. In England there are five Churches named in his honour the two villages

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S. ANTHONY, from an illuminated MS.

of Anthony, in Cornwall, Altham in Kent, Cartmell Fell in Lancashire, and Newton Toney in Wilts.

S. Arila, Arild, or Arilda, V. M., suffered in defence of her purity at Kington near Thornbury,

Gloucestershire. The Church of Oldbury in that county is dedicated in her name, and her body was translated to the Abbey of Gloucester. She was commemorated Oct. 30th.

The Ascension. See Calendar, moveable feasts, p.171. The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin. This high festival of the Church of Rome is commemorated

The Assumption of the Virgin, from a MS, in the Bodleian Library,

August 15th, when, according to the tradition of that Church, the body of the Blessed Virgin is said to

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