550 S A I S A I 
to saints were established till A. D. 788, by the second coun¬ 
cil of Nice; and this council was condemned by another held 
at Francfort, A. D. 794; and the invocation of saints was 
likewise condemned by a former council held at Constanti¬ 
nople, A, D. 755, consisting of three hundred and eighty- 
eight bishops. In the seventh century, Gregory expressly 
says, that angels refused to be worshipped since the appear¬ 
ance of Christ. 
In order to convey some idea of the extravagance to 
which veneration for reputed saints hath arrived in the 
Romish church, we shall only mention one instance out of 
many that might be alleged. It is well known that there 
were three altars in the cathedral church of Canterbury ; 
one erected to the honour of Christ, another to the Virgin 
Mary, and a third to St. Thomas a Becket; and the offer¬ 
ings at his shrine amounted to about 1000/., when those to 
the Virgin did not amount to 51., and those to Christ were 
nothing. And Rapin informs us, that in one year, viz. 
A. D. 1420, there were no less than fifty thousand foreigners 
who came in pilgrimage to pay their homage at this tomb. 
The number of saints, allowed as such, in the Romish 
church, is prodigious. Father Papebroche reckons seven¬ 
teen or eighteen hundred to have died on the first of June, 
only. Indeed the crowd of saints, with which their mar- 
tyrologies are stocked, is scandalous, even to the more sober 
of their own communion. Father Mabillon, in an express 
dissertation on the worship of unknown saints, observes, 
that honours are given to saints, who, perhaps, were not 
Christians, and whose very names were never known. 
Hence, being under a necessity of giving them names, they 
are therefore called baptised saints. He adds, that they 
every day beseech saints to intercede for them with God, 
when it is much doubted whether they themselves be in 
heaven. 
Father Papebroche and his associates were a long time 
employed in writing the lives and acts of the saints; they 
ranged them each on the day of the year in which they 
died. For the first six months they published twenty-four 
volumes in folio; and since Papebroche’s death, in 1714, 
his successors have published several more. 
To SAINT, v. a. To number among saints; to reckon 
among saints by a public decree; to canonize. 
Thy place is here; sad sister; come away: 
Once, like thyself, I trembled, wept, and pray’d; 
Love’s victim then, though now a sainted maid. Pope. 
To SAINT, v. n. To act with a show of piety. 
Whether the charmer sinner it, or saint it. 
If folly grows romantick, I must paint it. Pope. 
SAINT ANDREW’S CROSS. SeeAscuRUM. 
SAINT ANTONIO, an island off the western coast of 
Africa, forming the most northerly of the group of the Cape 
de Verd Islands. It is about nine leagues long and four 
broad. Some of its mountains are very lofty, and one of 
them has been said scarcely to yield to the peak of Teneriffe. 
The numerous streams which'descend from them, and water 
the valleys, render the island very fit for various species of 
culture, and it yields plentifully maize, plantains, potatoes, 
melons, oranges, &c. Indigo and cotton are cultivated 
with success, and the woods contain many of those trees, 
which yield the gum dragon. Its animal productions are 
also valuable, particularly cows, wild goats, asses, and hogs. 
The inhabitants are stated at about 2500. They consist 
partly of Portuguese, who are very dark in colour, but are 
said to be a good humoured and sociable race. Four-fifths 
of the inhabitants, however, consist of slaves, brought from 
the neighbouring coast of Africa. The island contains only 
one sea-port, with a road, the ground of which is said to be 
indifferent. It contains about 500 people, and is a very 
good place for obtaining provisions. The north-west point 
is in lat. 17. 10. N., long. 25. 3. W. 
SAINT - AULAIRE (Francis - Joseph de Beaufoil 
Marquis de), a French writer of celebrity, was born at 
Limousin, and bore arms in his youth, but afterwards, 
being easy in his circumstances, he quitted that profession, 
and devoted himself to literary pursuits. He is most known 
as an author by his poetry, which is written in imitation of 
Anacreon. He was admitted a member of the French aca¬ 
demy in the year 1706, and died at Paris, in 1742, at the 
great age of 98. 
SAINT BARNABY’S THISTLE. See Centaurea. 
SAINT CUTHBERT’S BEADS, an English name for 
the trochitas and entrochi, found in great abundance in the 
clay of Yorkshire, and some other counties with us. They 
are truly the remains of parts of the arms of the stedla arbo- 
rescens, or branching star-fish; but have been so far mis¬ 
taken by authors, as to be supposed a sort of rock-plants, 
of the parts of some unknown vegetable petrified. 
SAINT DAVID, the tutelary Saint of Wales. St. Da¬ 
vid’s day is on the 1st of March. For a full account of 
the celebration of this day, as well as for a notice of this 
Saint’s life and actions, see March. 
ST. DENIS, a town of the island of Bourbon, and resi¬ 
dence of the governor. It is built of wood, the streets un¬ 
paved, resembling a road, and full of loose stones. The 
houses are ill provided with furniture, which is very dear. 
The town is divided into the high and low quarters, the for¬ 
mer inhabited by the rich, the latter by the poor. It is the 
only spot on the island where a landing is possible, which 
is effected by a drawbridge projecting more than 80 feet over 
the sea, and fastened by iron chains. Here small vessels 
may unload from Mauritius, through the medium of which 
all the distant trade of Bourbon must be carried on. Lat. 
21. 50. S., long. 55. 20. E. 
SAINT EVREMOND (Charles de Marquetel de Saint 
Denis Seigneur de), a man of letters of temporary celebrity, 
was born of a noblejfamily’near Coutances, in Normandy, in 
1613. He studied the law at Paris, but quitted that pursuit 
to enter into the army, and served as a captain of infantry at 
the siege of Arras, in 1640. By his courage and agreeable 
manners he ingratiated himself with the Prince of Conde, 
who made him a lieutenant of his guards, and he fought 
under him at Friburg and Nordlingen, at the latter of which 
he received a considerable wound. Having, however, 
imprudently exercised his talent for raillery at the expense of 
that prince, he lost his favour, and was deprived of his com¬ 
mission. He afterwards served in Catalonia, where he was 
made Marechal de camp. The friendship of M. Foucquet 
was of service to him in his domestic affairs; but his 
propensity to sarcasm drew upon him the displeasure of 
Cardinal Mazarin, and cost him three months’ imprisonment 
in the Bastille. In the war of the Fronde he attached himself 
to the royal party, and obtained promotion and a pension. 
A letter which he wrote to Marshal Crequi, censuring the 
peace of the Pyrenees, embroiled him with the ministry, and 
an order was issued for committing him again to the Bastille; 
but being apprized of it in time, he took refuge in England. 
He was well received at the gay court of Charles II. and 
passed all the remainder of his life in this country; for the 
solicitations of his friends for his recall were fruitless, till he 
thought it too late to change his abode. The Duchess of 
Mazarin, who had quarrelled with her husband, having 
quitted the court of France and finally settled in England, 
St. Evremond was one of the men of letters who formed a 
circle about her, and she was his particular patroness. He 
passed here a long epicurean kind of life, enjoying the 
pleasures of society, and of the table, to which he was much 
addicted, fond of the company of young people, and 
retaining his vivacity to a very late period. Though by no 
means a rigid moralist, he had the qualities of.a man of 
honour, and was humane and generous. He continued to 
profess the Roman Catholic religion, but in his last illness 
declined the visits of priests. He died in 1703, at the age of 
80, and was interred in Westminster abbey, where a 
monument was erected to his memory. 
Saint Evremond was the author of a variety of works, 
which were much read a century ago. His prose writings 
are political, philosophical, and miscellaneous, and, without 
much 
