Lent Lily. _Narcissus Pseudonarcissus multiplex._
Dedicated to _St. Colette_.
~March 7.~
_St. Thomas Aquinas_, A. D. 1274. _Sts. Perpetua_ and _Felicitas_, A.
D. 203. _St. Paul_, Anchoret.
_St. Perpetua._
This saint is in the church of England calendar. She was martyred under
the emperor Severus in 205.
_St. Paul_ the Anchoret.
This saint was “a man of profound ignorance.” Butler says he was named
“the simple.” He journeyed eight days into the desert on a visit, and to
become a disciple of St. Antony, who told him he was too old, and bade
him return home, mind his business, and say his prayers; he shut the
door upon him. Paul fasted and prayed before the door till Antony opened
it, and out of compassion made a monk of him. One day after he had
diligently worked at making mats and hurdles, and prayed without
intermission, St. Antony bid him undo his work and do it all over again,
which he did, without asking for a morsel of bread though he had been
seven days without eating; this was to try Paul’s obedience. Another day
when some monks came to Antony for advice, he bid Paul spill a vessel of
honey and gather it up without any dust: this was another trial of his
obedience. At other times he ordered him to draw water a whole day and
pour it out again; to make baskets and pull them to pieces; to sew and
unsew garments and the like: these were other trials of his obedience.
When Antony had thus exercised him he placed him in a cell three miles
from his own, proposed him as a model of obedience to his disciples,
sent sick persons to him, and others possessed with the devil, whom he
could not cure himself, and “under Paul,” Butler says, “they never
failed of a cure.” He died about 330.
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