arious distempers and delivered from dangers by his intercession, to
several of which he was an eye-witness. He testifies that he himself had
frequently experienced the most sensible effects of his patronage, and,
by having recourse to him, had been speedily succored.[8] St. Austin
also has given an account of many miracles performed at his shrine.[9]
It was not formerly allowed to bury any corpse within the walls of
cities. The church of St. Felix, out of the walls of Nola, not being
comprised under this prohibition, many devout Christians sought to be
buried in it, that their faith and devotion might recommend them after
death to the patronage of this holy confessor, upon which head St.
Paulinus consulted St. Austin. The holy doctor answered him by his book,
_On the care for the dead_: in which he shows that the faith and
devotion of such persons would be available to them after death, as the
suffrages and good works of the living in behalf of the faithful
departed are profitable to the latter. See the poems of St. Paulinus on
his life, confirmed by other authentic ancient records, quoted by
Tillemont, t. 4, p. 226, and Ruinart, Acta Sincera, p. 256; Muratori,
Anecd. Lat.

Footnotes:
1. S. Paulin. Carm. 19, 20. Seu Natali, 4.
2. De Cor. hymn 5.
3. Paulin. Carm. 19.
4. _Dives egebo Deo; nam Christum pauper habebo_. Paulin. Carm. 2.
Natali S. Felicia 5.
5. ________________ _Ego munere linguae,
Nudus opum, famulor, de me mea debita solvens
Meque ipsum pro me, vilis licet hostia pendam._ Natal. 6
6. Nat. 1, 2, &c.
7. Nat. 9, 10.
8. St. Paulin. Ep. 28 & 36. Carm. 13, 18, 21, 22, 23, 29, &c.
9. St. August. Ep. 78, olim 137, lib. De cura pro moritus, c. 16.

SS. ISAIAS, SABBAS,

AND thirty-eight other holy solitaries on mount Sinai, martyred by a
troop of Arabians in 273; likewise Paul, the abbot; Moses, who by his
preaching and miracles had converted to the faith the Ishmaelites of
Pharan; Psaes, a prodigy of austerity, and many other hermits in the
desert of Raithe, two days' journey from Sinai, near the Red Sea, were
massacred the same year by the Blemmyans, a savage infidel nation of
Ethiopia. All these anchorets lived on dates, or other fruits, never
tasted bread, worked at making baskets in cells at a considerable
distance from each other, and met on Saturdays, in the evening, in one
common church, where they watched and said the night office, and on the
Sunday received together the hol