n, with the remarks of Henschenius.

Footnotes:
1. Sozom. l. 7, c. 21.

ST. CONRAN, BISHOP OF ORKNEY, CONFESSOR.

THE isles of Orkney are twenty-six in number, besides the lesser, called
Holmes, which are uninhabited, and serve only for pasture. The faith was
planted here by St. Palladius, and St. Sylvester, one of his
fellow-laborers, who was appointed by him the first pastor of this
church, and was honored in it on the 5th of February. In these islands
formerly stood a great number of holy monasteries, the chief of which
was Kirkwall. This place was the bishop's residence, and is at this day
the only remarkable town in these islands. It is situated in the largest
of them, which is thirty miles long, called anciently Pomonia, now
Mainland. This church is much indebted to St. Conran, who was bishop
here in the seventh century, and whose name, for the austerity of his
life, zeal, and eminent sanctity, was no less famous in those parts, so
long as the Catholic religion flourished there, than those of St.
Palladius and of St. Kentigern. The cathedral of Orkney was dedicated
under the invocation of St. Magnus, king of Norway. On St. Conran, see
bishop Lesley, Hist. Scot. l. 4. Wion, in addit. c. 3. Ligni Vitae. King,
in Calend.

FEBRUARY XV.

SS. FAUSTINUS AND JOVITA, MM.

A.D. 121.

FAUSTINUS and JOVITA were brothers, nobly born, and zealous professors
of the Christian religion, which they preached without fear in their
city of Brescia, while the bishop of that place lay concealed during the
persecution. The acts of their martyrdom seeming of doubtful authority,
all we can affirm with certainty of them is, that their remarkable zeal
excited the fury of the heathens against them, and procured them a
glorious death for their faith at Brescia, in Lombardy, under the
emperor Adrian. Julian, a heathen lord, apprehended them; and the
emperor himself passing through Brescia, when neither threats nor
torments could shake their constancy, commanded them to be beheaded.
They seem to have suffered about the year 121.[1] The city of Brescia
honors them as its chief patrons, and possesses their relics. A very
ancient church in that city bears their name, and all the martyrologies
mention them.

The spirit of Christ is a spirit of martyrdom, at least of mortification
and penance. It is always the spirit of the cross. The remains of the
old man, of sin and of death, must be extinguished, before one can be
made heavenly by