July. JULY 2. Visitation of the Virgin Mary. This festival was instituted by Pope Urban VI., in commemoration of the journey which the Virgin Mary took into the mountains of Judea, in order to visit the mother of S. John the Baptist m. JULY 4. Translation of the relics of S. Martin”, from his more humble burial-place to his celebrated cathedral at Tours. The ordination of this holy man is also commemorated on this day. JULY 15. S. Swithun, Bishop of Winchester, translation of, A.D. 971. S. Swithin, in the Saxon, Swithun, received his clerical tonsure and put on the monastic habit, in the monastery at Winchester: he was of noble parentage, and passed his youth in the study of grammar, philosophy, and the Scriptures. S. Swithun was promoted to holy orders by Helmstan, Bishop of Winchester; at whose death, in 852, King Ethelwolf granted him the see. He was Chancellor under Kings Egbert and Ethelwolf, and one of the instructors of Alfred the Great, whom he accompanied when he went to Rome to be confirmed. He presided over the see of Winchester for eleven years with great holiness and humility. It was at his suggestion that King Ethelwolf bestowed on the Church the tithe or tenth part of all the lands of his kingdom. He died on July 2, A.D. 862, and was buried, according to his request, in a humble place outside the Church, where the feet of the passers-by might tread, and the rain of heaven fall. According to the legend the monks afterwards tried to remove his bones to a more honourable tomb, but it rained so incessantly for forty days, that, taking such a visitation as a mark of the saint's displeasure, they were obliged to desist, and allow his remains to continue in their humble resting-place. This is the origin of the popular belief relative to rain on S. Swithun's day. It is not, however, borne out by historic record, for in 971 his relics were translated on this day by S. Athelwold, to a shrine of gold and silver inside the Church. In 1094 they were re-translated to the Cathedral of Winchester, which had just been erected by Bp. Walkelin. Fifty-one Churches are named in his sole honour in England. Yelford, Oxfordshire, in honour of SS. Nicholas and Swithun. Emblem, in the Clog almanacks, a shower of rain. JULY 20. S. Margaret, Virgin and Martyr, A.D. 278. The legend of S. Margaret is probably one of the oldest, as it was one of the most popular, of the Middle Ages. She was the daughter of Theodosius, a pagan priest of Antioch, and when very young, on account of her weakly state, was sent to be brought up in the country, and her nurse being a Christian educated her young charge in the same faith. Olybrius, the Roman governor of the district, being captivated by her beauty, wished to marry her, but Margaret resolutely rejected his offers, and declared herself a Chris S. MARGARET. from medieval embroidery. tian, to the horror of all her relatives. In order to overcome this determination Olybrius submitted her to the most dreadful tortures, but she still continuing inflexible, was thrown into a deep dungeon. Here the devil, in the form of a hideous dragon, appeared to her, and endeavoured to frighten her from her faith, but she advanced against him with a cross she had in her hand, and effectually overcame him. Another phase of the legend is, that the dragon swallowed her up, but directly after she burst out of him unhurt. She still refused to deny her faith, and her constancy under so much suffering having been the means of converting thou sands, she was at once beheaded. She is most frequently represented standing upon a dragon, and piercing it with a long cross. Often in the other hand she holds a book, and frequently a palm branch, and is almost invariably crowned as a martyr. She sometimes is seen rising out of the body of the dragon, part of her robe being visible in its mouth, to shew she had just been swallowed; more rarely she has a dragon chained to her feet. S. Margaret's great popularity in this country is shewn by two hundred and thirty-eight Churches having been named in her sole honour ; three are named conjointly to the Blessed Virgin and S. Margaret, one to SS. Margaret and Stephen, and one to SS. John and Margaret, and one to S. Margaret and All Saints. This may be accounted for in some measure from her being considered the patron Saint against the pains of child-birth, in allusion to her deliverance from the womb of the dragon. It is also possible that some of these dedications may belong to S. Margaret the Queen of Scotland. Certain it is, however, that next to the more popular dedications to Scripture saints, dedications to S. Margaret come third on the list. S. Nicholas numbering about three hundred and eighty, S. Lawrence, two hundred and fifty, then comes S. Margaret, the next being S. George, who has about one hundred and seventy, and S. Martin, about one hundred and sixty-five. JULY 22. S. Mary Magdalene. A.D. 68. This day was retained to the memory of S. Mary Magdalene, in the first book of Common Prayer of King Edward the Sixth, where there are Collect, Epistle and Gospel for the day, the Gospel being from S. Luke vii. 36. to the end of the chapter; the particular service was afterwards discontinued. There are various opinions as to whether the 66 woman who was a sinner," (Luke vii.,) Mary the |