from the custom which formerly prevailed of lighting up the Church or Chapel with candles and lamps, and the processions of persons holding lights in their hands on this day; in remembrance as is supposed of our blessed Saviour being declared this day by Simeon to be "a Light to lighten the Gentiles," as well as being emblematical of the blessings of the light of Christianity.

FEB. 3. S. Blasius, Bishop and Martyr, A.D. 316. He was Bishop of Sebaste, in Armenia, and suffered martyrdom in the persecution of Licinius, by command of Agricolaus, governor of Cappadocia. S. Blaise has been called the patron of the Wool-combers, because, on account of his being tortured with the instrument of their trade, they chose his day for their festival. Three Churches are named after him in England. Milton in Berks, S. Blazey in Cornwall, and Haccombe in Devon; Boxgrove in Sussex is dedicated in honour of S. Mary and S. Blasius, conjointly. Legends:-he hid himself from the persecutions of Licinius in a cave, where birds brought him food, and wild beasts became tame in his presence, and came every morning to receive his benediction and to be cured of their diseases. One of these beasts being pursued, in order to obtain it for the martyrdom of a Christian, it fled to S. Blaize and he was so discovered. A poor woman whose only pig had been destroyed by a wolf, brought the head to the saint who by his prayers restored it.

While he was languishing in a dark dungeon, this

same woman brought him some food and a light, which greatly rejoiced the saint, and he said, "he who burns a taper to my honour every year, I will remember before God." He was cruelly tortured by having his flesh S'BLA torn with the iron combs used by Wool-combers and was afterwards beheaded. His peculiar emblem is one of these iron combs, and he is generally drawn in full episcopal costume. In allu- Cathedral, Oxford. sion to the other legends he is frequently represented as surrounded by wild beasts; or with a swine's head at his feet, often with a taper in his hand in addition to the iron comb, and sometimes birds are bringing him food; occasionally a chorister carries the taper before him. In Callot's Images and in Le Clerc's almanack, he is surrounded by wild beasts, with the text Job v. 23.

From painted glass. Christ Church

FEB. 5. S. Agatha, Virgin and Martyr, A.D. 253. A virgin, honourably born in Sicily, the honour of her birth-place is disputed between the cities of Catanea and Palermo; she suffered martyrdom at Catanea, by order of Quintianus, governor of the

province under the emperor Decius; because she would neither yield to his proposals nor abjure her Christian faith. There are three Churches in England dedicated in her honour. Easby and Gilling, in Yorkshire, and Brightwell in Berkshire. She is represented with her breasts in a dish, because they are related to have been cut off and miraculously restored: sometimes a sword is passed through both breasts; sometimes she carries a pair of pincers, having a nipple between the teeth as in Henry the Seventh's chapel, and Winchester Cathedral.

From painted glass, Winchester Cathedral.

She sometimes carries a book in her left hand, and as a martyr frequently bears a palm branch; more rarely she has a pan of coals by her side in reference to the torture she underwent of being rolled over burning coals. In Le Clerc, her persecutors are represented burning off her breasts with torches.

FEB. 14. S. Valentine, Bishop and Martyr, A.D. 270. He was a Priest of Rome, who assisted the martyrs in the persecution of Claudius the Second.

Being delivered into the custody of one Asterius, he wrought a miracle upon his daughter, whom he restored to sight, by which means he converted the whole family to Christianity, and all of them afterwards suffered for their religion. S. Valentine, after a year's imprisonment at Rome, was beaten with clubs and stones, and afterwards beheaded in the Flaminian way about the year 270, and was early enrolled among the martyrs of the Church. He was a man of most admirable parts, and so famous for his love and charity, that the custom of choosing valentines upon his festival, which is still practised, took its rise from thence.-Wheatley. In Callot's Images he is represented as being beaten to death with stones. Emblem, a true-lover's knot.

FEB. 24. S. Matthias, the Apostle, was one of the seventy-two disciples, and was chosen by lot to be the twelfth Apostle in the room of the traitor Judas. After the Ascension we have no authentic information regarding his acts, but the tradition of the Greeks in their

menologies tells us that S. Matthias, after planting the faith about Cappadocia, and on the coast of the Caspian sea, received the crown of martyrdom in Colchis, which they call Ethiopia, where he was

stoned and afterwards beheaded. The only old dedication in his name is the Church of Thorpeby-Hadiscoe, Norfolk some modern Churches have been recently named after him. In the Clog Almanacks his emblem seems to be a leg, for which we are unable to assign any reason. Generally he carries an axe or halbert, sometimes a spear or lance, occasionally a book and a stone; representations of S. Matthias are rarer than of any of the other Apostles.