SAINT 



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biographies or notices have been given of about 

 17,000 saints in the preceding sixty volumes that 

 is, up to the end of October ; and further, there are 

 added the names of some 3500 for whom biographies 

 were being prepared for the concluding volumes of 

 the work not yet finished. But the authority, 

 however great, which is due to these researches is 

 no more than the authority of learned men. The 

 catalogue which possesses the highest ecclesias- 

 tical authority, and which has the character of a 

 liturgical or church service-book, is that of the 

 Mnrtyrologium Romanum, revised by order of 

 Gregory XIII. in 1586 by Baronius (q.v.), and 

 frequently supplemented since. The breviary pre- 

 scribes that the ' Martyrology ' be read as part of 

 the office of Prime wherever the office is solemnly 

 sung in choir ; and it is the custom, moreover, in 

 religious communities to read the 'Martyrology' 

 for the day publicly in the refectory. The ' Martyr- 

 ology ' is not, as its name might suggest, confined to 

 the commemoration of martyrs only. It comprises 

 the saints of every class to whom the Roman Church 

 gives authentic recognition, and names some 2700 

 in all, including about twenty saints of the Old 

 Testament, arranged as in a calendar according to 

 the days of their celebration ; while the recital for 

 each day terminates with the clause, 'And in 

 other places of very many other holy martyrs, con- 

 fessors, and holy virgins." It is plain that of this 

 multitude only a select few can have festivals 

 assigned to them in the ecclesiastical year, or 

 proper offices in the breviary or missal. 



About two- thirds of every month in the Roman 

 calendar is occupied with special saints' days, 

 though, on some of these, minor saints are com- 

 memorated by a collect or prayer. But the Roman 

 calendar is mwlified or supplemented in a greater 

 or less measure in every national church, every 

 diocese, and every religious order or community. 

 Thus to the Roman breviary in England is added 

 a supplement containing the offices of the English 

 saints who sometimes displace or transfer to another 

 day the saints of the Roman calendar. The fixed 

 al'endar of saints' days in use in various Catholic 

 Countries or communities thus varies consider- 

 ably. At the end of the useful handbook by Canon 

 Husenbeth, entitled The Emblems of Saints, will be 

 found printed in parallel columns for purposes of 

 convenient camparison eight such calendars the 

 Roman calendar, two old English calendars, the 

 Scottish, the French, the Spanish, the German, 

 and the Greek. It should further be noted that 

 the actual calendar of saints' days in use in any 

 given year can never quite correspond with the 

 fixed calendar of this or that diocese or com- 

 munity. The great movable feasts determined 

 by the annually varying date of Easter constantly 

 disturb the order of the calendar, and lead to 

 transferring the observance of a saint's day to some 

 proximate feria or vacant day, and in some cases 

 to extinguishing it altogether. The complicated 

 rules which regulate these changes are based upon 

 the different ranks accorded to the feasts doubles 

 of the first class, doubles of the second class, greater 

 doubles, doubles, semi-doubles, and simples in 

 their relations to one another and to the Sundays 

 and movable feasts which also have their various 

 ranks. 



Thus, to take an example of these variations at 

 random, the 26th of May is the festival of St Philip 

 Neri in the Roman calendar, but in England his 

 place is taken by St Augustine of Canterbury, 

 while St Philip is regularly transferred to the fol- 

 lowing day. On the other hand, in the churches of 

 the Congregation of the Oratory the feast of their 

 founder keeps his own day even in England, and 

 St Augustine is postponed to 6th September. 

 Again, the 26th of May is specially liable to be 



invaded by the occurrence of movable festivals. 

 Thus, in 1877 the English churches had to transfer 

 St Augustine to the 30th of the month, and St 

 Philip ^Neri to the 23d of June. The result is that 

 a special local ' ordo ' is annually printed for the 

 use of the clergy, and the annual Catholic Directory 

 for England gives separately the fixed calendar 

 and the ecclesiastical calendar corresponding to ths 

 clerical ' ordo ' for the year. 



In Christian art representations of the saints are 

 often marked by the nimbus, aureole, or glory 

 (see NIMBUS), and many of the saints are pictured 

 as accompanied by emblems, by which they could 

 readily be recognised. Apart from symbols which 

 only typified the person indicated (as a shepherd 

 for Christ, a gourd or a whale for Jonah), the 

 figure of the saint is given with an added emblem. 

 Thus the four evangelists were symbolised by four 

 rivers, the four rivers of paradise. The adoption of 

 the four living creatures ( Rev. iv. 6 ) for the same 

 purpose does not appear to have taken place till 

 the 5th century ; but soon it became a constant 

 practice to represent St Matthew by or with the 

 man, Mark with the lion, Luke with the ox, John 

 with the eagle. The twelve apostles are depicted 

 as twelve men, twelve sheep, or twelve doves. 

 St Peter, for obvious reasons, is represented with 

 the keys or with a fish ; many of the saints with 

 the instruments by which they were martyred 

 St Paul with a sword ; St Andrew with a Cross 

 (q.v.); St Simon with a saw; St James the Less 

 with a club ; St Matthew with a lance ; St 

 Catharine with a wheel ; St Lawrence with a grid- 

 iron ; others with objects connected with their 

 history or in some other way St George with a 

 dragon ; St Matthew with a purse. St James the 

 Elder is figured as a pilgrim. Many hundreds of 

 such emblems are given in Canon Husenbeth's work 

 already mentioned, together with a list of patron 

 saints of trades, professions, countries, and cities. 

 A martyr who had a special interest in a place was 

 called its patron ( see PATRON ) as early as the 4th 

 century ; the possession of a relic was enough to 

 constitute the saint a patron of its possessors. 

 His being born in a place or having died there \vas 

 a good reason for choosing the patron saint. The 

 angels Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael were chosen 

 patrons of churches as early as the 6th century. 

 Trades and professions had their patrons, and every 

 disease a saint gifted for its cure. The patron 

 saint defended his votary, heard his prayer, helped 

 him in difficulty, and even protected him at the 

 day of judgment from the consequences of his sin. 

 Among well-known patron saints were St George 

 of England, St Andrew of Scotland, St Patrick of 

 Ireland, St David of Wales, St Denis of France, St 

 James of Spain, St Nicholas of Russia, St Stephen 

 of Hungary, St Mark of Venice. There are curi- 

 ous instances, especially in the 15th century, of 

 armorial bearings assigned to certain English and 

 other saints. The Catholic doctrine of invocation 

 of the saints is treated at PRAYER ; at RELICS 

 the honour paid to relics of saints and martyrs is 

 dealt with. See also ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH, 

 and SYMBOL. 



Besides the Acta Sanctorum of the Bollandists, see Mrs 

 Jameson's Sacred and Legendary Art; Alban-Butler, 

 Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and other Saints (12 

 vols., new ed. 1866) ; Baring-Gould, Lives of the Saints 

 (17 vols. 1872-92), the last volume of which treats of 

 the emblems of saints ; Lives of the Enr/liih Saints 

 (1844-45), edited by Cardinal Newman; C. A. Jones, 

 Saintu of the Prayer-book (1885); K. Owen, Sanctorale 

 Calliolicum (1880); R M. Stanton, A Menoloyy of 

 England and Wales (1888), which includes the English 

 martyrs of the 16th and 17th centuries recently beatified 

 by Pope Leo X. ; for Irish saints, O'Hanlan ( 1877 ) and 

 Whitley Stokes (1888); for Scottish, Forbes (1872) and 

 Pinkerton (new ed. 1892) ; for Welsh, Kees (1853). 



