HE was, for his eminent sanctity, honored with the priesthood while he
lived in the monastery of Rippon. Afterwards he led an eremitical life
in the isle of Farne, where he died in 669, about eleven years after St.
Cuthbert. His body was translated to Lindisfarne, afterwards to Durham.
See Bede in vita S. Cuthberti, n. 68.

Footnotes:
1. Edelwald, or Ethelwald. signifies _noble, potent_.

{651}

MARCH XXIV.

ST. IRENAEUS, BISHOP OF SIRMIUM, M

From the original authentic acts of his trial in Henschenius, Ruinart,
p. 403. Tillemont. t. 4, p. 248. Ceillier, t. 3, p. 497.

A.D. 304.

ST. IRENAEUS, bishop of Sirmium, capital of part of Pannonia, (now
Sirmisch, a village in Hungary, twenty-two leagues from Buda to the
south,) in the persecution of Dioclesian was apprehended and conducted
before Probus, the governor of Pannonia, who said to him: "The divine
laws oblige all men to sacrifice to the gods." Irenaeus answered: "Into
hell fire shall be thrown, whoever shall sacrifice to the gods." PROBUS.
"The edicts of the most clement emperors ordain that all sacrifice to
the gods, or suffer according to law." IRENAEUS. "But the law of my God
commands me rather to suffer all torments than to sacrifice to the
gods." PROBU.. "Either sacrifice, or I will put you to the torture."
IRENAEUS. "You cannot do me a greater pleasure; for by that means you
will make the partake of the sufferings of my Saviour." The proconsul
commanded him to be put on the rack; and while he was tortured, he said
to him: "What do you say now, Irenaeus? Will you sacrifice?" IRENAEUS. "I
sacrifice to my God, by confessing his holy name, and so have I always
sacrificed to him." All Irenaeus's family was in the utmost concern for
him. His mother, his wife, and his children surrounded him. His children
embraced his feet, crying out: "Father, dear father, have pity on
yourself and on us." His wife, dissolved in tears, cast herself about
his neck, and, tenderly embracing him, conjured him to preserve himself
for her, and his innocent children, the pledges of their mutual love.
His mother, with a voice broken with sobs, sent forth lamentable cries
and sighs, which were accompanied with those of their servants,
neighbors, and friends; so that all round the rack on which the martyr
was hanging, nothing was heard but sobs, groans, and lamentations.
Irenaeus resisted all these violent assaults, opposing those words of our
Lord: _If any one renounce me befor