Athens, he returned to his native city, and followed the profession of the law, but being influenced by the example and teaching of his sister, S. Macrina, he gave up all worldly pursuits, and resolved upon a life of piety and austerity. With this end in view he travelled for some time into those countries where both the monastic and eremitical life was in vogue, in order to observe their different systems; and on his return home he advised Christians rather to form themselves into colleges or monasteries than live as hermits. He then selected a retired spot, where he lived a strict and austere life, and invited many of his religious friends to join him. His reputation for sanctity and holiness soon surrounded him with numerous disciples, to whom he gave the earliest monastic rules of poverty, chastity, and obedience. Upon the death of Eusebius, Bishop of Cæsarea, A.D. 370, S. Basil was chosen to be his successor, and after diligently and successfully administering the affairs of his diocese, he departed this life January 1st, A.D. 379, aged 51.

He is commemorated in the Church of Rome on the day of his consecration, June 14th. His writings still extant comprise three folio volumes. The only Church in England dedicated in his name is Toller Fratrum, Dorsetshire.

S. Beatrice, or Beatrix, V. M., A.D. 303. A Roman of rank denounced her under the persecution of Diocletian, as being in secret a Christian,

in order that he might succeed to her property, and she was strangled to death. Bethersden, Kent, is the only Church named after her in England. She is represented with a rope in her hand.

S. Benedict. See Calendar, March 21st, p. 54.

S. Benedict, or Bennet Biscop, Ab., A. D. 703, was a nobleman of Northumbria, attached to the court of King Oswy, who, at the age of twenty-five, resolved upon retiring from the world, and devoting his wealth to the service of God. He founded and erected the two celebrated monasteries of S. Peter at Wearmouth, and S. Paul at Jarrow; and in order to make them as magnificent as possible, he made five journeys into France and Italy, to obtain materials and artificers for the adornment of his foundations. William of Malmesbury says he "introduced in England constructors of stone edifices, as well as makers of glass windows, for very rarely before the time of Benedict were buildings of stone seen in Britain, nor did the solar ray cast its light through the transparent glass;" he likewise brought over for his monasteries "books, and manuscripts, and pictures, and also relics of Apostles and martyrs, as were the wonder of the Christians of Northumberland." He presided over these abbeys himself, and was the earliest instructor of the Venerable Bede. He was commemorated in the old English calendar on January 12th. It is uncertain whether any of

h Chronicle, book i. c. 3.

C

the Churches in England dedicated in honour of S. Benedict refer to this saint, or whether they all refer to the celebrated founder of the Benedictine order. We have given this brief sketch of him because we think it not improbable that from his munificence and his English birth, he may lay claim to the dedication of some of the sixteen Churches so named; and few will deny that he is in all respects worthy of such commemoration. A print, by Hollar, represents him in abbatial costume, with his two monasteries in the back-ground.

S. Beza, S. Bega, or S. Bees, V., c. 650. The daughter of a king of Ulster, who, having embraced Christianity, fled from the persecution of her father into England; in her passage across the channel a violent storm coming on, she vowed, if she escaped in safety, to found a convent on the nearest headland, and fulfilled her vow by the foundation of a religious house in Cumberland, "where in great sanctimony of life, and working of miracles, she finally gave up her soule to her heavenly Spouse, and where her bodie was wont to be kept with great reverence:" after her death. The town which grew up round her convent is still called by her name, and its Church dedicated in her honour. She was commemorated on Sept. 6th.

S. Blaize. See Calendar, February 3rd, p. 44.
S. Boniface. See Calendar, June 5th, p. 79.

i English Martyrologe, p. 244.

S. Botolph, Ab., A. D. 655. Born of noble English parents, went into France, and there became a monk, and returning to England, founded a monastery at a place called Icanhoe, by many supposed to be Boston in Lincolnshire, where he passed his life in great sanctity, dying June 17th, 655, the day upon which he was commemorated in the old English calendar. He appears to have been very illustrious from his piety in this kingdom, upwards of fifty Churches being dedicated in his honour; and "among the reste there was a goodly ancient Church and monastery of Blackfriers erected in his honour in Lincolnshire, neere to the sea side, which, in processe of tyme growing to a fayre market towne, was called thereof Botulph's-towne, and now, by the corruption of our language, is vulgarly known by the name of Bostonk."

S. Brandon or S. Brendon, Ab., A.D. 578. Was by birth an Irishman, a disciple of S. Finian, and founder of many monasteries and schools of piety, in England, Wales, and Ireland, there being in his lifetime no less than three thousand members of religious fraternities of his institution to whom he gave excellent rules, said to have been dictated to him by an angel'. He was born A.D. 475, became abbot of Clonfert in Ireland, and went to his rest A.D. 578, in the ninety-third year of his age. His

k English Martyrologe, p. 162.

1 Memorial of Ancient British piety, p. 78.

death was commemorated on May 16th, and his translation on June 14th. The Churches of Brendon in Devonshire, and Brancepeth in Durham, are named in his honour m.

S. Brannock. "Branton (in Devon) anciently Brannockstowe, so called from S. Brannock the King's son of Calabria that lived in this vale, and as appeareth in the book of his commemoration of the place, arrived here in the days of Malgo Coname, King of the Britains, and three hundred years after Christ began to preach His Holy Name in this desolate place, then overspread with brakes and woods. I forbear to speak of his cow, his staff, his oak, his well, and his servant Abel, all of which are lively represented in a glass window of that Church","

S. Breaca, V., c. 550. One of the numerous Irish virgin saints, who, in the sixth and seventh centuries crossed over to Cornwall, and preached the Christian faith and founded Churches there. She is generally represented to have been a disciple of S. Patrick, and was commemorated on June 4th; S. Breock, Lezant, and Lanlivery, all in Cornwall, have Churches dedicated in her name.

m The legend of S. Brandon was a very popu'ar one in the Middle Ages, and still exists in many forms, in prose and verse, and in several languages; his adventures partake a great deal of those of Ulysses, and "Sinbad the Sailor," in the Arabian Nights. An English version in prose and verse has been published by the Percy Society, edited by Thomas Wright, Esq.

n Leland's Itinerary.