unknown, in some desert. Venantius soon died happily at Methone;
and Honoratus, being also sick, was obliged to return with his
conductor. He first led an eremitical life in the mountains, near
Frejus. Two small islands lie in the sea near that coast, one larger, at
a nearer distance from the continent, called Lero, now St. Margaret's;
the other smaller and more remote, two leagues from Antibes, named
Lerins, at present St. Honore, from our saint, where he settled; and
being followed by others, he there founded the famous monastery of
Lerins, about the year 400. Some he appointed to live in community;
others, who seemed more perfect, in separate cells, as anchorets. His
rule was chiefly borrowed from that of St. Pachomius. Nothing can be
more amiable than the description St. Hilary has given of the excellent
virtues of this company of saints, especially of the charity, concord,
humility, compunction, and devotion which reigned among them, under the
conduct of our holy abbot. He was, by compulsion, consecrated archbishop
of Arles in 426, and died, exhausted with austerities and apostolical
labors, in 429. The style of his letters was clear and affecting: they
were penned with an admirable delicacy, elegance, and sweetness, as St.
Hilary assures. The loss of all these precious monuments is much
regretted. His tomb is shown empty under the high altar of the church
which bears his name at Arles; his body having been translated to Lerins
in 1391, where the greatest part remains. See his panegyric by his
disciple, kinsman, and successor, St. Hilary of Arles; one of the most
finished pieces extant in this kind. Dom Rivet, Hist. Lit. t. 2, p. 156.

ST. FURSEY,

SON OF FINTAN, KING OF PART OF IRELAND,

WAS abbot first of a monastery in his own country, in the diocese of
Tuam, near the lake of Orbsen, where now stands the church of
Kill-fursa, says Colgan. Afterwards, travelling with two of his
brothers, St. Foilan and St. Ultan, through England, he founded, by the
liberality of king Sigibert, the abbey of Cnobbersburg, now Burg-castle
in Suffolk. Saint Ultan retired into a desert, and St. Fursey, after
some time, followed him thither, leaving the government of his monastery
to St. Foilan. Being driven thence by the irruptions of king Penda, he
went into France, and, by the munificence of king Clovis II. and
Erconwald, the pious mayor of his palace, built the great monastery of
Latiniac, or Lagny, six leagues from Paris, on the