f speech could not be cultivated amidst the
incursions of barbarians, while with much difficulty they earned Thor
daily subsistence by manual labor; "But we preserve," said he, with
simplicity of heart, "the faith, which our fathers have handed down to
us." The bishops, his legates, say the same thing: "Our countries are
harassed by the fury of barbarous nations. We live in the midst of
battles, inroads, and devastations; our lives pass in continual alarms
and anxiety, and we subsist by the labor of our hands."

ST. MARCIAN, PRIEST,

AND TREASURER OF THE CHURCH OF CONSTANTINOPLE, IN THE FIFTH AGE,

WAS born at Constantinople, though of a Roman family related to the
imperial house of the Theodosiuses. From his childhood he served God in
continual watching, fasting, and prayer, in imitation of St. John the
Baptist; and for the relief of the necessitous he gave away immense
occult alms. The time which was not employed in these charities, he
spent in holy retirement and prayer. In the reign of the emperor
Marcian, Anatolius the archbishop, offering violence to the saint's
humility, ordained him priest. In this new state the saint saw himself
under a stricter obligation than before of laboring to attain to the
summit of Christian perfection; and while he made the instruction of the
poor his principal and favorite employment, he redoubled his earnestness
in providing for their corporal necessities, and was careful never to
relax any part of his austerities. The severity of his morals was made a
handle, by those who feared the example of his virtue, as a tacit
censure of their sloth, avarice, and irregularities, to fasten upon him
a suspicion of Novatianism; but his meekness and silence at length
triumphed over the slander. This persecution served more and more to
purify his soul, and exceedingly improve his virtue. This shone forth
with greater lustre than ever, when the cloud was dispersed; and the
patriarch Gennadius, with the great applause of the whole body of the
clergy and people, conferred on him the dignity of treasurer, which was
the second in that church. St. Marcian built or repaired in a stately
manner a great number of churches in Constantinople, confounded the
Arians and other heretics, and was famous for miracles both before and
after his happy death, which happened towards the end of the fifth
century. He is honored both in the Greek Menaea, and Roman Martyrology,
on the 10th of January. See his ancient anon