, a beloved disciple, that he would
follow him out of this world, on the seventh day, which happened
accordingly. Euthymius died on Saturday the 28th day of January, being
ninety-five years old, of which he had spent sixty-eight in the deserts.
Cyril relates his having appeared several times after his death, and the
many miracles that were wrought by his intercession; to several of which
he declares himself an eye-witness. St. Sabas kept his festival
immediately after his death; which is observed both by the Latins and
Greeks. The latter always style him the Great. It appears from his life
that he was ordained priest before he embraced an eremitical state, and
that he founded two monasteries, besides a Laura, which was also
converted into a monastery after his death.

Footnotes:
1. A Laura consisted of cells at a little distance from one another,
and not under the same roof, as a monastery.

ST. FECHIN, ABBOT.

AN ancient hymn on this saint is published by Bollandus. He is honored
with singular devotion at Foure, anciently called Fobhar, a village in
West-Meath, where he governed a monastery with great sanctity; and
happily departed to our Lord in the year 664, being carried off in the
great pestilence which swept off four kings in Ireland; and which scarce
a third part of the inhabitants survived. See his life in Bollandus;
also Giraldus Cambr. Topog. Hibern. dist. 2, c. 52, and Colgan. Giraldus
mentions St. Fechin's mill at Foure, which out of respect it is forbid
for any woman ever to enter. Several churches, and some villages in
Ireland, take their name from this saint.

{188}

JANUARY XXI.

SAINT AGNES, V.M.

The following relation is taken from Prudentius, de Coron. hym. 14, St.
Ambrose, l. 1, de Virgin. & Offic. t. 1, c. 41, and other fathers. Her
acts are as ancient as the seventh century; but not sufficiently
authentic: nor are those given us in Chaldaic by Stephen Assemani of a
better stamp. They contradict St. Ambrose and Prudentius in supposing
that she finished her martyrdom by fire. See Tillemont, t. 5.

A.D. 304, or 305.

ST. JEROM says,[1] that the tongues and pens of all nations are employed
in the praises of this saint, who overcame both the cruelty of the
tyrant and the tenderness of her age, and crowned the glory of chastity
with that of martyrdom. St. Austin observes,[2] that her name signifies
chaste in Greek, and lamb in Latin. She has been always looked upon in
the church as a