Three-leaved Silphium. _Silphium trifoliatum._
Dedicated to _St. Nunilo_.
[360] Butler.
~October 23.~
_St. Theodoret_, A. D. 362. _St. Romanus_, Abp. of Rouen, A. D. 639.
_St. John Capistran_, A. D. 1456. _St. Ignatius_, Patriarch of
Constantinople, A. D. 878. _St. Severin_, Abp. of Cologne, A. D. 400.
_Another St. Severin._
_St. Severin._
The annals of the saints are confused. St. Severin, Abp. of Cologne, is
famous in the history of the church: by him, his own diocese, and that
of Tongres, “was purged from the venom of the Arian heresy, about the
year 390.” He “knew by revelation the death and glory of St. Martin at
the time of his departure,” and died about 400. So says Butler, who
immediately begins with “_Another St. Severin_ or _Surin_, patron of
Bourdeaux,” said by some “to have come to Bourdeaux from some part of
the east;” and by others, to have been “the same with the foregoing
archbishop of Cologne.” It is difficult to make a distinction when we
find “two single gentlemen rolled into one.” Whether one or two is of
little consequence perhaps: their biographers were miraculists. He of
Cologne led “an angelical life,” according to Butler, who adds, that
“his life wrote by Fortunatus is the best:” the latter biographer
achieved as great marvels with his pen, as his namesake with his
wishing-cap.
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