ly certain ambiguous expressions which occurred in
his book against the Arises, which is now lost, and was compiled
against a work of Asterius the Sophist, surnamed the advocate of the
Arians.
{644}
ST. PAUL, BISHOP OF NARBONNE, C.
ST. GREGORY of Tours informs us,[1] that he was sent with other
preachers from Rome to plant the faith in Gaul. St. Saturninus of
Thoulouse, and St. Dionysius of Paris, were crowned with martyrdom:
but St. Paul of Narbonne, St. Trophimus of Arles, St. Martial of
Limoges, and St. Gatian of Tours, after having founded those churches,
amidst many dangers, departed in peace. Prudentius says,[2] that the
name of Paul had rendered the city of Narbonne illustrious.
Footnotes:
1. Hist. Franc. l. 1, c. 30.
2. Hymn. 4.
ST. LEA. WIDOW.
SHE was a rich Roman lady; after the death of her husband she mortified
her flesh by wearing rough sackcloth, passed whole nights in prayer, and
by humility seemed every one's menial servant. She died in 384, and is
honored on this day in the Roman Martyrology. St. Jerom makes an elegant
comparison between her death and that of Praetextatus, a heathen, who was
that year appointed consul, but snatched away by death at the same time.
See St. Jerom, Ep. 20, (olim 24,) to Marcella, t. 4, p. 51, Ed. Ben.
ST. DEOGRATIAS, BISHOP OF CARTHAGE, C.
GENSERIC, the Arian king of the Vandals, took Carthage in 439, filled
the city with cruelties, and caused Quodvultdeus, the bishop, and many
others, to be put on board an old leaky vessel, who, notwithstanding,
arrived safe at Naples. After a vacancy of fourteen years, in 454, St.
Deogratias was consecrated archbishop. Two years after, Genseric
plundered Rome, and brought innumerable captives from Italy, Sicily,
Sardinia, and Corsica, into Africa, whom the Moors and Vandals shared
among them on the shore, separating without any regard or compassion
weeping wives from their husbands, and children from their parents.
Deogratias sold every thing, even the gold and silver vessels of the
church, to redeem as many as possible; he provided them with lodgings
and beds, and furnished them with all succors, and though in a decrepit
old age, visited those that were sick every day, and often in the night.
Worn out by these fatigues, he died in 457, to the inexpressible grief
of the prisoners, and of his own flock. The ancient calendar of
Carthage, written in the fifth age, commemorates him on the 5th of
January; but the Roman on
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