[58] S. Eucher, De laude Eremi, p. 342.
[59] So far Montalembert's Monks of the West, Vol. I., Book III.
[60] There is not space to give an account of S. Fursey's
vision, which seems to have been the original of Dante's Divina
Commedia.
January 17.
SS. BRETHREN, SPEUSIPPUS, ELEUSIPPUS, MELEUSIPPUS, AND COMPANIONS,
_MM. in Cappadocia_.
S. GENULPH, _B. in France, 3rd cent._
S. ANTONY THE GREAT, _Ab. in Egypt_, A.D. 356.
S. SABINE, _B. of Piacenza, in Italy, 4th cent._
S. NENN, _Ab. in Ulster, Ireland, 6th cent._
S. SULPICIUS, _B. of Bourges, in France, circ._ A.D. 647.
S. MILDGYTHA, _V. in Kent, circ._ A.D. 730.
S. RICMER, _Ab. at Le Mans, in France, circ._ A.D. 700.
SS. SPEUSIPPUS, ELEUSIPPUS, MELEUSIPPUS, LEONILLA, JONILLA, NEO AND
TURBO, MM.
(DATE UNCERTAIN.)
[Roman Martyrology and Greek Menaea. The relics of these Saints
having been moved to Langres, in France, they are sometimes called
Martyrs of Langres, and are supposed to have suffered there; but
this is a mistake. A copy of the Acts of their martyrdom was sent
from Langres by one Varnahair to S. Ceraunus, Bishop of Paris, in
the beginning of the 7th century. The original Acts are said to
have been written by SS. Neo and Turbo, but they have not come down
to us without manifest corruption and interpolation.]
Speusippus, Eleusippus, and Meleusippus were three sons at a birth of a
believing mother and a heathen father. They were instructed in the
Christian faith by their aunt, Leonilla, and then, in boyish enthusiasm,
they rushed from her knee, where they had been taught, to demolish the
idols in the temples of the city they inhabited. They were taken and
burnt in one pyre, and received the baptism of blood. Jonilla, a woman
standing by, with her little babe in her arms, cried out, "I also am a
Christian, I believe in Christ, my God and my King." Then the judge
ordered her hands to be bound behind her back, and that she should be
hung by her hair. Her husband, horrified at the sentence, implored her
to save her life for his sake and that of the babe; but she answered,
"True, that I gave life to this dear little one, but it is true also
that I owe my life to God, and I cannot set God after my child."
Leonilla, the aunt of the brothers, was executed. Then Neo, who wrote
these Acts, closing his tablets, in which he had inscribed what had
taken place, gave them to his colleague, Turbo, and ran to the image of
Nemesis, and cast it down, and stamped on the marble fragments. And when
the guardians of the temple saw this, they seized him and beat and
stoned him till he yielded up his soul to God. "Turbo also, who wrote
the victories of these confessors, not long afterwards suffered
martyrdom." With these words the Acts close.
These saintly brothers are called in France Les SS. _Jaumes_, that is to
say Gemelli, for Tergemini; sometimes _Geaumes_.