Lesser Spearwort. _Ranunculus flammula._
Dedicated to _St. Ferdinand_.
[158] Vide a Christmas Carol, by Richard Ryan, in Time’s Telescope for
the present year.
~May 31.~
_St. Petronilla_, 1st Cent. _St. Cantius and Cantianus_, brothers, and
_Cantianilla_, their sister, A. D. 304.
_St. Petronilla._
“Her name,” says Butler, “is the feminine, and diminutive of Peter, and
she is said to have been a daughter of the apostle St. Peter, which
tradition is _confirmed_ by certain writings, quoted by the Manichees,
in the time of St. Austin, which affirm, that St. Peter had a daughter
whom he cured of the palsy; but it seems not certain whether she was
more than the spiritual daughter of that apostle.” Ribadeneira refers to
these Manichæan writings, by which, according to Butler, the “tradition
is _confirmed_,” and unluckily for Butler, he says, that St. Augustine
calls these writings _apocryphal_. Ribadeneira carefully adds though,
that Augustine “doth not therefore reprove it as false.” Yet it is
curious to find this jesuit telling of Augustine, that he teacheth,
“that _without prejudice of charity_ we may chastise the body of our
enemy, the heretic, for the salvation of his soul.” This saying of
Augustine’s is wholly uncalled for by any thing that Ribadeneira says
regarding Petronilla; it is a hot puff of a fiery spirit.
* * * * *