et's on the Loire, but were lost when the Calvinists plundered that
church. Leon, the ancient city of the Osismians, in which he fixed his
see, takes his name. His festival occurs in the ancient breviary of
Leon, on the 10th of October, perhaps the day of the translation of his
relics. For in the ancient breviary of Nantes, and most others, he is
honored on the 12th of March. See Le Cointe's Annals, the Bollandists on
this day, and Lobineau in the Lives of the Saints of Brittany, from his
acts compiled by a monk of Fleury, about the close of the tenth century.

Footnotes:
1. St. Paul was ordained priest before he left Great Britain, about the
year 530. The little island on the coast of Armorica, where he chose
his first abode in France, was called Medonia, and seems to the
present Molene, situated between the isle of Ushant and the coast.
The first oratory which he built on the continent, very near this
islands seems to be the church called from him Lan-Pol.

MARCH XIII.

ST. NICEPHORUS, C.

PATRIARCH OF CONSTANTINOPLE

From his life by Ignatius, deacon of Constantinople, afterwards bishop
of Nice, a contemporary author; and from the relation of his banishment
by Theophanes. See Fleury, l. 45, 46, 47. Ceillier, t. 18, p. 487.

A.D. 828.

THEODORUS, the father of our saint, was secretary to the emperor
Constantine Copronymus: but when that tyrant declared himself a
persecutor of the Catholic church, the faithful minister, remembering
that we are bound to obey God rather than man, maintained the honor due
to holy images with so much zeal, that he was stripped of his honors,
scourged, tortured, and banished. The young Nicephorus was from his
cradle animated to the practice of virtue by the domestic example of his
father: and in his education, as his desires of improvement were great,
and the instructions he had very good, the progress he made was as
considerable; till, by the maturity of his age, and of his study, he
made his appearance in the world. When Constantine and Irene were placed
on the imperial throne, and restored the Catholic faith, our saint was
quickly introduced to their notice, and by his merits attained a large
share in their favor. He was by them advanced to his father's {583}
dignity, and, by the lustre of his sanctity, was the ornament of the
court, and the support of the state. He distinguished himself by his
zeal against the Iconoclasts, and was secretary to the second c