es
of the church, in 793. See his life, by Wilfridus Strabo, in Canisius
Antiq. {} &c.

ST. LOMER, OR LAUDOMARUS, ABBOT.

IN his childhood he kept his father's sheep; in which employment he
macerated his body by regular fasts, and spent his time in studies and
prayer, under the direction of a certain holy priest. Being afterwards,
by compulsion, ordained priest, he was made canon and cellerer (some
moderns say provost) of the church of Chartres. After some years he
retired into a neighboring forest: Mabillon thinks at the place where
now stands Bellomer, a monastery of the order of Fontevrald. Many
disciples being assembled near his hermitage, he removed with them into
another desert, where he built the monastery of Corbion, (at present a
priory called Moutier-au-Perche, six leagues from Chartres,) about the
year 575. A wonderful spirit of prayer, and gift of miracles, rendered
his name famous. He died on the 19th of January, in 593, at Chartres, in
the house of the bishop, who had called him thither some time before. In
the incursions of the Normans, his remains were removed from place to
place, till they were lodged at Perly, in Auvergne. His head is now kept
in the priory of Maissac, called St. Laumer's, in Auvergne; the rest of
his relics were removed to Blois, where an abbey was built which bears
his name. Set his anonymous life, written by one who knew him, in
Bollandus and Mabillon; also Chatelain and the Paris Breviary.

{183}

JANUARY XX.

ST. FABIAN, POPE, M.

See Tillemont, t. 3, p. 362.

A.D. 250.

HE succeeded St. Anterus in the pontificate, in the year 236. Eusebius
relates,[1] that in an assembly of the people and clergy, held for the
election of a pastor in his room, a dove, unexpectedly appearing,
settled, to the great surprise of all present, on the head of St.
Fabian; and that this miraculous sign united the votes of the clergy and
people in promoting him, though not thought of before, as being a layman
and a stranger. He governed the church sixteen years, sent St. Dionysius
and other preachers into Gaul, and condemned Privatus, a broacher of a
new heresy in Africa, as appears from St. Cyprian.[2] St. Fabian died a
glorious martyr in the persecution of Decius, in 250, as St. Cyprian and
St. Jerom witness. The former, writing to his successor, St. Cornelius,
calls him an incomparable man; and says, that the glory of his death had
answered the purity and holiness of his life.[3]

*