he nunnery which she
instituted, of the order of St. Bennet, is now converted into a church
of canonesses. See her life in Surius and Bollandus; also Miraeus, in
Fastis Belgicis, &c.

{367}

ST. ABRAAMIUS, BISHOP OF ARBELA, M.

THIS city, after the fall of Ninive, was long the capital of Adiabene,
in Assyria, and was one bishopric with Hazza, anciently called Adiab.
Arbeta, now called Irbil, was famous for the victory of Alexander; but
received far greater lustre from the martyrdom of St. Abraamius, its
bishop, who sealed his faith with his blood, after having suffered
horrible torments, which were inflicted by order of an arch magian, in
the fifth year of king Sapor's persecution, that is, of Christ 348. See
Sozomen, l. 2, c. 12 and the Greek Menaea and Synaxary.

FEBRUARY VI.

ST. DOROTHY, VIRGIN AND MARTYR.

See S. Aldhelm, Ado, Usuard, &c., in Bollandus, p. 771.

ST. ALDHELM relates from her acts,[1] that Fabritius, the governor of
Caesarea, in Cappadocia, inflicted on her most cruel torments, because
she refused to marry, or to adore idols: that she converted two apostate
women sent to seduce her: and that being condemned to be beheaded, she
converted one Theophilus, by sending him certain fruits and flowers
miraculously obtained of her heavenly spouse. She seems to have suffered
under Dioclesian. Her body is kept in the celebrated church which bears
her name, beyond the Tiber, in Rome. She is mentioned on this day in the
ancient Martyrology under the name of St. Jerom. There was another holy
virgin, whom Rufin calls Dorothy, a rich and noble lady of the city of
Alexandria, who suffered torments and a voluntary banishment, to
preserve her faith and chastity against the brutish lust and tyranny of
the emperor Maximinus, in the year 308, as is recorded by Eusebius[2]
and Rufinus:[3] but many take this latter, whose name is not mentioned
by Eusebius, to be the famous St. Catharine of Alexandria.

* * * * *

The blood of the martyrs flourished in its hundred-fold increase, as St.
Justin has well observed: "We are slain with the sword, but we increase
and multiply: the more we are persecuted and destroyed, the more are
added to our numbers. As a vine, by being pruned and cut close, shoots
forth new suckers, and bears a greater abundance of fruit; so is it with
us."[4] Among other false reflections, the baron of Montesquieu, an
author too much admired by many, writes:[5] "It is h