10 



TWELFTH TIDE. 



JAN. 10. St. William of Bourges, conf. a.d, 

 1209. 



St. Agatho P. 



St. Marcian, pr, 



Obs. St. \\illiam's uanie was Berruger; and he was educated 

 by his maternal uncle Peter the hermit of Soissons. He was from 

 early infancy addicted to studious and retired habits, and early in 

 life embraced the monastic order. He was made prior of the Cis- 

 tercian abbey of Pontigny, afterwards abbot of Fontaine Jean in 

 Sens, and lastly archbishop of Bourges. His historians report him to 

 have died in the odour of sanctity early in the morning of the 10th 

 of January, 1209, having received extreme unction the day before, 

 and being stretched out on ashes laid in the form of a cross on the 

 hair shirt that he was used to wear. He was uncle to the celebrated 

 Countess jMaud. This mode of dying on ashes is still preserved in 

 some monasteries. The celebrated Spanish monk called the 

 Trappist died last year just after having prostrated his dechning 

 body on a cross of ashes, a particular account of which will be found 

 in the Catholic Miscellany for 1826. 



Voluntary mortification seems to have been substituted for acci- 

 dental misfortunes by the workers of supererogation, in order as it 

 were to enjoy and reap the advantages of that self possession and 

 conquest over the infirmities of the body of which the consciousness 

 is so delightful, and which reminds us of the lines of Shakespeare : 



Sweet are the uses of adversity. 



Which like the toad ugly and venomous 



Wears yet a precious jewel in his head. 



The celebrated Epistle of Pope Agatho to the Emperor Constan- 

 tine Potromatus against the Monothelite heresy is well known, and 

 was confirmed by the third General Council of the Church. 



Gorse or Furze Ulex Europaeus flowers. 



The yellow Gorse flowers in mild seasons from this time to the 

 end of May, when it is soon succeeded by the purple Heath. In 

 April and May Gorse gives to commons and waste places by the 

 roadsides a fine golden yellow appearance. 



