m his youth he made the science of the cross of Christ
the sole object of his ambition; and to engrave in his heart the lessons
which our divine Redeemer taught by that adorable mystery, was the
centre of all his desires. Having passed many years, first in the school
of St. Fiechus, archbishop of Leinster, and afterwards in the celebrated
monastery of Clonard, in the province of Meath, under its holy founder
St Finian, he retired into the isle of Inis-muighesamb, in the lake of
Erne, in the province of Ulster. Here, in process of time, he became the
director of many souls in the paths of Christian perfection, founded a
great monastery, and, on account of his eminent sanctity, and the number
of illustrious disciples whom he left behind him, is called one of the
twelve apostles of Ireland. He flourished in the sixth century, and has
been honored in Ireland among the saints. F. Colgan was not able to meet
with any acts of his life, though he is mentioned in the lives of
several other Irish saints. A church in the isle of the lake, formed by
the river Erne, is dedicated to God under his invocation.

{175}

JANUARY XVIII.

ST. PETER'S CHAIR AT ROME.

See Phaebeus, de Cathedra in qua S. Petrus Romae sedit, et de antiquitate
et praestantia solemnitatis Cathedrae Romanae. Romae, 1666, 8vo.; also
Chatelain, Notes on the Martyrology, p. 326.

ST. PETER having triumphed over the devil in the East, pursued him to
Rome in the person of Simon Magus. He who had formerly trembled at the
voice of a poor maid, now feared not the very throne of idolatry and
superstition. The capital of the empire of the world, and the centre of
impiety, called for the zeal of the prince of the apostles. God had
established the Roman empire, and extended its dominion beyond that of
any former monarchy, for the more easy propagation of his gospel. Its
metropolis was of the greatest importance for this enterprise. St. Peter
took that province upon himself; and, repairing to Rome, there preached
the faith and established his Episcopal chair, whose _successors_ the
bishops of Rome have been accounted in all ages. That St. Peter founded
that church by his _preaching_, is expressly asserted by Caius,[1] a
priest of Rome under pope Zephyrinus; who relates also that his body was
then on the Vatican-hill, and that of his fellow-laborer, St. Paul, on
the Ostian road. That he and St. Paul planted the faith at Rome, and
were both crowned with martyrdom at the s