HILARY TIDE. 15 



JAN. 15. St. Paul, the first hermit, a.d. 342. 

 St. Maurus, abbot. 

 St. Maine, abbot. 

 St. John Calybite the Recluse. 

 St. Isidore of Alexandria, hospitaller. 

 St. Isidore of Scete, hermit. 

 St. Ita or Mida, virgin of Ireland. 



PorsimiB et Postvertce. — Julian Cal. 



Ohs. St. Paul the hermit was a native of Lower Thebais, in 

 ./Egypt, and was skilled in both the ^Egyptian and Greek tongues. 

 He retired into the wilderness, where finding a cave sheltered at 

 its entrance by a palm, and watered by a clear spring, he dwelt 

 there all the rest of his life in eremitical solitude. In this cave the 

 great St. Anthony made him a visit, when both of them were near a 

 century old. St. Paul died at the age of 113, and in the ninetieth 

 of his solitude. It is said that his remains came into possession of 

 the Republic of Venice, and that Lewis the First, King of Hungary, 

 purchased them, and gave them to the Pauline hermits of Buda. 

 What is very remarkable in the lives of hermits and anchorites is 

 this, that though the several individuals took to the solitary life 

 from some particular penchant of their own, there was in all a 

 remarkable conformity of life to certain rules common to all. 



Ivy Hedera Helix. 



Ivy Hedera htlix is accorded today in the Florilegium as dedi- 

 cated to St. Paul the hermit, on account, as it would seem, of its 

 long life, and its attaching itself so often to old churches. The Ivy 

 may well be imagined the covering of a hermit's grotto. This 

 plant, together with the Holly, Bay, and Missletoe, and some other 

 baccated shrubs, constitute ornaments of our Christmas decorations. 

 Elms, Ilices, and other tall trees, have often their trunks covered 

 with Ivy, of which Horace is mindful in his Ode to Neaera : — 



Arctius atque liedera procera astringitur ilex 

 Lentis adhaerens brachiis. Hor. Epod. 



