_THE DISCIPLES AND APOSTLES OF OUR LORD._
DEATHS OF THE APOSTLES.
St. Matthew suffered martyrdom by being slain with a sword at a distant
city of Ethiopia. St. Mark expired at Alexandria, after having been
cruelly dragged through the streets of that city. St. Luke was hanged upon
an olive tree in Greece. St. John was put into a caldron of boiling oil,
but escaped death in a miraculous manner, and was afterwards banished to
Patmos. St. Peter was crucified at Rome with his head downward. St. James
the Great was beheaded at Jerusalem. St. James the Less was thrown from a
lofty pinnacle of the Temple, and then beaten to death with a fuller's
club. St. Philip was hanged against a pillar at Hierapolis, in Phrygia.
St. Bartholomew was flayed alive. St. Andrew was bound to a cross, whence
he preached to his persecutors till he died. St. Thomas was run through
the body with a lance at Coromandel, in the East Indies. St. Jude was shot
to death with arrows. St. Matthias was first stoned and then beheaded. St.
Barnabas of the Gentiles was stoned by the Jews at Salonica. St. Paul,
after various tortures and persecutions, was at length beheaded at Rome by
the Emperor Nero.
THE APOSTLES WHO WERE MARRIED.
Eusebius says that Clement, who lived in the first century, gave a
statement of those Apostles who continued in the married state. Peter and
Philip had children. Philip also gave his daughters in marriage to
husbands. Others say that Philip had four virgin daughters who prophesied.
Paul does not demur in a certain epistle to mention his own wife, whom he
did not take about with him, in order that he might expedite his ministry
the better. It is said that Peter, seeing his own wife led away to
execution, was not displeased, and he called out to her in a comforting
voice, addressing her by name, "Be sure to remember the Lord!"
PARTICULARS AS TO ST. MATTHEW THE APOSTLE.
Levi was the name of Matthew, who was of Jewish extraction, and was born
in Galilee. He was a publican or tax-collector, which was a profession
odious among the Jews, as it reminded them of their slavery to the Romans.
After the Ascension he preached in Judæa and the neighbouring countries
till the dispersion of the Apostles, and a little before the latter date
he wrote his gospel, his object being to satisfy the converts of
Palestine: while Mark wrote his for the Roman converts; Luke, to oppose
the false histories; and John, to oppose the heresies of Cerinthus and
Ebion. Matthew afterwards went as apostle to the East. He lived sparingly,
ate no flesh, and was a vegetarian. He was in the south and east of Asia,
ended in Parthia, and suffered martyrdom at Nadabar. He was said to be
honourably interred at Hierapolis. His relics were brought to the West,
and in 1080 Pope Gregory VII. said these were kept in a church which bore
his name at Salerno. The Apostles each had some mystical animal as an
emblem. John had the eagle; St. Luke had the calf; Mark had the lion; and
Matthew had a man, to denote Christ's human generation. The primitive
Christians always stood up when the Gospel of Matthew was read, and in
many places candles were lighted, though it was day. Thomas Aquinas always
read the gospel on his knees.
PARTICULARS AS TO ST. MARK.
St. Mark was born a Jew, and was said to be converted by the Apostles
after the Resurrection. He became attached to St. Peter, and was called
his disciple. He was sent by St. Peter to found the Church at Aquileia,
and was afterwards appointed Bishop of Alexandria, then considered the
second city of the world after Rome. He was afterwards a martyr there,
having incurred suspicion of being a magician from the miracles he worked.
He was tied and dragged about the streets, and thrown over rocks and
precipices, and died in 68, three years after St. Peter and St. Paul. His
body was afterwards conveyed by stealth to Venice in 815, and was
deposited in a secret place in the Doge's rich chapel of St. Mark, and he
is deemed the patron saint of Venice.
THE HOUSE OF ST. MARK.
Jeremy Taylor says that "the house of John, surnamed Mark (as Alexander
reports in the life of St. Barnabas), was consecrated by many actions of
religion: by our Blessed Saviour's eating the Passover; His institution of
the Holy Eucharist; His farewell sermon; and the Apostles met there in the
octaves of Easter, whither Christ came again, and hallowed it with His
presence; and there, to make up the relative sanctification complete, the
Holy Ghost descended upon their heads in 'the Feast of Pentecost'; and
this was erected into a fair fabric, and is mentioned as a famous church
by St. Jerome and Venerable Bede; in which, as Andrichomius adds, 'St.
Peter preached that sermon which was miraculously prosperous in the
conversion of three thousand; there St. James, brother of our Lord, was
consecrated first Bishop of Jerusalem; St. Stephen and the other were
there ordained deacons; there the Apostles kept their first council and
compiled their Creed.'"
PARTICULARS OF ST. LUKE THE EVANGELIST.
St. Luke was a native of Antioch, was well educated, and studied and
became eminent as a physician. Some think he was converted by St. Paul,
and he attached himself to that apostle. He wrote the gospel in 57, four
years before his final arrival at Rome. He attended St. Paul to Rome in
61. After the martyrdom of St. Paul, he preached in Italy, Gaul, and
Macedonia. It is thought he was crucified at Elæa, in the Peloponnesus, on
an olive tree, at the age of eighty-four. His bones were, by order of the
Emperor Constantine, in 357 removed from Patras, in Achaia, and deposited
in the Church of the Apostles at Constantinople, together with those of
St. Andrew and St. Timothy. Some of his relics went to Brescia, some to
Nola, some to Findi, and some to Mount Athos. The head of St. Luke was
brought to Rome, and laid in the church of the monastery of St. Andrew.
Old manuscripts of the Gospel of Luke represent him as surrounded with
instruments of writing.
PARTICULARS AS TO ST. BARTHOLOMEW.
There have been differences of opinion as to the identity of St.
Bartholomew, some being of opinion that he was the same Nathanael whose
simplicity and guilelessness were commended. He was chosen one of the
Twelve, and was a witness of the Resurrection. He went after the Ascension
as an apostle to the Indies and Persia. He was afterwards in Phrygia, and
Lycaonia, and Great Armenia, in which last place he was crucified. Some
say he was first flayed alive. In 508 the Emperor Anastasius removed his
relics to the city of Duras, in Mesopotamia. Soon after they were
translated to the Isle of Lipari, near Sicily, in 809 to Benevento, and in
983 to Rome, and are deposited under the high altar in the Church of St.
Bartholomew, in the Isle of Tiber. An arm of the apostle's body was sent
to Edward the Confessor by the Bishop of Benevento, and it was put in
Canterbury Cathedral. A fine statue of the apostle is in the cathedral at
Milan, representing him flayed alive. The characteristic quality of St.
Bartholomew was zeal.
PARTICULARS AS TO ST. THOMAS THE APOSTLE.
St. Thomas was a Galilean fisherman, and was made an apostle in 31. He was
rather slow in understanding, but of great simplicity and ardour. He
offered to go to Jerusalem and die with Christ, when the priests and
Pharisees were contriving His death. After the Crucifixion Thomas refused
to believe the report of the Resurrection until he actually saw the prints
of the nails and felt the very wound in Christ's side; and Christ, in His
condescension to this weakness, allowed him to satisfy himself, whereupon
Thomas was prostrated with compunction. After the descent of the Holy
Ghost, Thomas went to preach in Parthia, and laboured in Media, Persia,
and Bactria, as well as India. He is said to have suffered martyrdom at
Meliapor, or St. Thomas's, on this side the Ganges, on the coast of
Coromandel, where his body was discovered pierced with lances. The body
was carried to the city of Edessa, and deposited under the great church
there with veneration. St. Chrysostom said, in 402, that the sepulchres of
only four of the Apostles were then known--namely, Peter, Paul, John, and
Thomas. John III., of Portugal, ordered the body of St. Thomas to be
searched for at Meliapolis, and when digging there in 1523 a deep vault
was discovered, containing the bones of the saint, and part of the lance
with which he was slain, and a vial tinged with his blood. The apostle's
body was put in a chest of porcelain adorned with silver. The Portuguese
built a new town about this church, and called it St. Thomas's.
PARTICULARS AS TO ST. SIMEON.
St. Simeon, son of Cleophas or Alphæus and of Mary, sister of the Virgin,
and cousin-german of Christ, was about nine years older than Christ. He
succeeded his brother St. James the Less as Bishop of Jerusalem in 62. The
Christians having been warned to leave Jerusalem, St. Simeon and they
departed before Vespasian, general of the Romans, entered and burnt the
city. Heresies grew up in the Church before the death of St. Simeon. He
was crucified at the age of 120, having governed the Church at Jerusalem
about forty-three years.
PARTICULARS AS TO ST. TIMOTHY.
St. Timothy was early adopted as disciple by St. Paul, having been in his
youth a great reader of pious books. He was made Bishop of Ephesus before
St. John arrived there. Under the Emperor Nerva, in 97, while St. John was
still in Patmos, Timothy was slain with stones and clubs by the heathen,
owing to his opposing the idolatrous practices then current. His relics
were conveyed to Constantinople in 356, in the reign of Constantius, and
with those of St. Andrew and St. Luke were deposited under the altar in
the Church of the Apostles.
PARTICULARS AS TO ST. BARNABAS.
The Scriptures contain no mention of St. Barnabas after he separated from
St. Paul and sailed for Cyprus. Some say he afterwards went to Milan, and
became the first bishop there. In an apocryphal work of the fifth century,
it is said he suffered martyrdom in Cyprus, being stoned by the Jews, who
hated him on account of his unorthodox views. The apostle was buried in
the island; but four centuries later his relics were removed to
Constantinople, and a church erected and dedicated to him. It is said that
at the discovery of the relics of St. Barnabas there was found lying on
his breast a copy of the Gospel according to St. Matthew, written in the
Hebrew tongue, and as was supposed in St. Barnabas's own hand. The relics
were translated in the seventh century to Milan. Still later, it was said
that the body was taken to Toulouse, where also were the bodies of five
other apostles: James, the son of Zebedee; Philip; James, son of Alphæus;
Simon; and Jude. The head is now exhibited there apart from the body,
which reposes in its own shrine. Another head of St. Barnabas is in Genoa,
another at Naples, another in Bavaria; and legs and bones and jaw are
dispersed in other places. There was extant in the second century an
Epistle of St. Barnabas, but its authenticity has long been discredited.
PARTICULARS AS TO ST. TITUS.
St. Titus was born a Gentile, and seems to have been converted by St.
Paul. He was afterwards ordained by St. Paul to be Bishop of Crete. He
lived to the age of ninety-four, and died in that island. His body was
kept with great veneration in the cathedral of Gortyna, the ancient
metropolis of the island, and six miles from Mount Ida. This city was
destroyed by the Saracens in 823, and the relics could not be discovered.
But the head of the saint was conveyed safely to Venice, and is venerated
in the ducal basilica of St. Mark.
PARTICULARS AS TO ST. PHILIP THE APOSTLE.
St. Philip, who lived at Bethsaida in Galilee, was, when called to his
office, a married man with three daughters, two of whom lived virgins to a
great age. It was Philip to whom Jesus proposed the problem how to feed
the multitude of five thousand in the wilderness. After the Ascension
Philip preached in Phrygia, and was known to Polycarp, and attained a
great age. He was buried at Hierapolis, and his relics, it was believed,
often saved the city. An arm of St. Philip was sent to Florence in 1204:
the body was said to be in the Church of St. Philip and St. James in Rome.
PARTICULARS AS TO ST. ANDREW THE APOSTLE.
St. Andrew the Apostle was a native of Bethsaida, on the banks of Lake
Gennesareth, and brother of Simon Peter. St. Andrew became a disciple of
John the Baptist, and heard John hail Jesus as the Lamb of God. Believing
there was some mysterious significance in this saying, he followed Christ
wistfully, and asked where He dwelt, whereon Christ bade him come and see,
and that night was spent in His company. The result was that Andrew was
the first called of the Apostles; hence called by the Greeks Protoclete.
Andrew could not rest till he had told Peter, and he was also called as a
disciple. Jesus once lodged at the house of the two brothers, and healed
their mother of a fever. Andrew was specially consulted as to the loaves
and fishes available to feed the five thousand. After the Resurrection
Andrew preached in Scythia, also in Greece, where he confounded all the
philosophers. He went also to Muscovy. He was at last crucified at Patræ,
in Achaia, and some say it was on an olive tree. His body was carried from
Patræ to Constantinople in 357, along with those of Luke and Timothy, and
deposited in the Church of the Apostles. Some of his relics were taken to
Milan, Nola, and Brescia; and the French, in 1210, brought some of them to
Amalphi. It is a common opinion that the cross of St. Andrew was in the
form of the letter X, styled a cross decussate; and it is said his cross
was brought from Achaia to the nunnery of Weaune, near Marseilles; then to
the abbey of St. Victor, Marseilles, in 1250, and where it is still shown.
Part of it was taken to Brussels by Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, who
founded the Knights of the Golden Fleece, each of whom wears a St.
Andrew's Cross, or the Cross of Burgundy. An abbot of St. Andrew's,
Scotland, also, in 369, brought certain relics from Patræ, and deposited
them in a monastery, now the site of St. Andrew's, and many foreign
pilgrims long visited that church. The order of knighthood in honour of
St. Andrew was ascribed by the Scots to King Achaius in the eighth
century, and James VII. revived it. The collar is of thistles and rue.
HOW ST. ANDREW BECAME PATRON SAINT OF SCOTLAND.
When Angus MacFergus succeeded in 731 to the throne of the Picts, he had
several enemies to subdue, and carried his forces across the Firth of
Forth to fight the Saxons of Northumbria. A monk, Regulus, at that time
brought the relics of the apostle to Scotland. Previous to a great battle
in Lothian, St. Andrew appeared to King Angus either in a dream or during
the battle with the figure of the St. Andrew's Cross in the air, and told
the king that he (the saint) was defender of his kingdom, and that on the
return of the king to his home he must devote one-tenth part of his
kingdom in honour of St. Andrew. Angus gained a great victory over the
Saxon general, named Athelstane, who fell at the place now called
Athelstaneford. After this date St. Andrew became the patron saint of
Scotland, up to which time, as Bede says, St. Peter had filled that
office. The church at Hexham and the church of St. Andrew's were both
dedicated to St. Andrew, and both possessed relics of the apostle.
JAMES AND JOHN THE APOSTLES.
James and John, the sons of Salome, claimed the two first places in
Christ's kingdom. James was put to death by Herod. As to John, he alone of
the Apostles attended the Crucifixion, and was harassed by the spectacle.
In his old age, when he survived all the other Apostles and governed all
the Churches of Asia, he was arrested at the instance of Domitian, and
then taken prisoner to Rome in 95.
ST. JOHN THE APOSTLE.
St. John the Evangelist and Apostle was the son of Zebedee and Salome, a
Galilean, and younger brother of St. James the Great. John was a disciple
of John the Baptist, and is supposed to have been with Andrew, when the
two left the Baptist to follow Christ. John was the youngest of all the
Apostles, being about twenty-five when called, and he lived seventy years
after the Crucifixion. He lived a bachelor. John went with Peter to the
sepulchre on hearing the news from Mary Magdalene, and he outran Peter and
had the first view. He and Peter returned to their fishing, and he first
recognised Christ walking on the shore. After the meeting of the Apostles,
John preached first in Jerusalem, then went to Parthia. He afterwards took
charge of all the Churches of Asia. In the persecution of 95, John was
apprehended in Asia, and sent to Rome, where he was thrown into a caldron
of boiling oil; but he was not injured. He was afterwards banished by
Domitian to the isle of Patmos, in the Archipelago, and there he wrote the
Revelation. At the death of Domitian in 97, John returned to Ephesus, some
months after the martyrdom of St. Timothy there. He was pressed to take
charge of that Church. John wore a plate of gold on his forehead, as an
ensign of his Christian priesthood. It was to confute the blasphemies of
Ebion and Cerinthus, who denied the divinity of Christ, that John composed
his gospel in 98, at the age of ninety-two. He also wrote the three
epistles. He died in peace at Ephesus at ninety-four, though some ancients
said he never died. He was buried on a mountain outside of Ephesus, and
his dust was said to be famous for the miracles it wrought.
AS TO ST. JOHN'S GRAVE.
St. Augustine mentions and ridicules a tradition that St. John ordered his
own grave to be made, lay down in it, and went to sleep,--still sleeping
there, as is manifest by the heaving of the earth over him as he breathes.
This was the tradition founded on John xxi. 22, 23, where Jesus said to
Peter, "If I will that he [John] tarry till I come, what is that to thee?
Then went this saying abroad among the brethren, that that disciple should
not die." Some afterwards explained this by saying that John died without
pain or change, and immediately rose again in bodily form, and ascended
into heaven to rejoin Christ and the Virgin.
ST. JOHN RECLAIMING A YOUNG ROBBER CHIEF.
It was related by Clement of Alexandria that, when St. John was at
Ephesus, and before he was exiled to Patmos, he had taken under his care a
young man of promising character, and whom he left in charge to a bishop
during his own absence. But the youth took to evil courses, and went to
the forest and headed a band of robbers and assassins. When John, on
returning, asked for the youth and heard this account, he rent his
garments, and wept with a loud voice at the faithless guardianship, and
called for a horse and rode to the forest in search of the youth. When the
latter as captain beheld his old master and instructor, he turned and
would have fled from his presence. But St. John by the most fervent
entreaties prevailed on him to stop and listen to his words. After some
conference, the robber, utterly subdued, burst into tears of penitence,
imploring forgiveness; and while he spoke he hid beneath his robe his
right hand, which had been sullied with so many crimes. But St. John,
falling on his knees before him, seized that blood-polluted hand, and
kissed it and bathed it with his tears, and he remained with his
reconverted brother till he had by prayers and encouraging words and
affectionate exhortations reconciled him with Heaven and with himself. It
was also related that two young men had sold all their possessions to
follow St. John, and afterwards repented. He, perceiving their thoughts,
sent them to gather pebbles and faggots, and on their return changed these
into ingots of gold, and said, "Take back your riches and enjoy them on
earth, since you regret having exchanged them for heaven!"
ST. JOHN AND HIS PARTRIDGE.
There is a tradition relating to St. John, and which is sometimes
represented by the sacred artists--namely, that he had a tame partridge,
of which he was fond, and he used to amuse himself with feeding and
tending it. It is added that a certain huntsman, passing by with his bow
and arrow, was astonished to see the great apostle, so venerable for age
and sanctity, engaged in such an amusement. The apostle, however, answered
him by asking whether he always kept his bow bent. The huntsman replied
that that would be the way to render it useless. The apostle then
rejoined, "If you unbend your bow to prevent its becoming useless, I do
the same, and unbend my mind for the same reason."
ST. JOHN'S LAST DAYS.
The Syrian legend as to the last days of St. John says that the apostle
once fled in fear and indignation out of a bath that had been polluted by
the presence of the heretic Cerinthus. It is also said that at last his
whole sermon consisted in these words: "Little children, love one
another." And when the audience remonstrated at the wearisome iteration,
he declared that in these words the whole substance of Christianity was
found. Many reject the authority of Tertullian, who says that St. John was
taken for trial before Domitian at Rome, and plunged into a boiling
caldron of oil, from which he came forth unhurt.
TRADITIONS OF ST. JOHN'S TALK.
Irenæus, Bishop of Lyons, in 177 had been a pupil of Polycarp, who in his
youth had many conversations with St. John, who died about 100. Irenæus
writes to a friend thus: "I can tell the very place in which the blessed
Polycarp used to sit when he discoursed, and his goings out and his
comings in, and his manner of life, and his personal appearance, and the
discourses which he held before the people, and how he would describe his
intercourse with John and with the rest of those who had seen the Lord,
and how he would relate their words. And whatsoever things he had heard
from them about the Lord, and about His miracles, and about His teaching,
Polycarp, as having received them from eyewitnesses of the life of the
Word, would relate altogether in accordance with the Scriptures. To these
things I used to listen at the time with attention, by God's mercy, which
was bestowed upon me, noting them down, not on paper, but in my heart; and
constantly, by the grace of God, I reflect upon them faithfully." Irenæus
says Polycarp told him the story of St. John and Cerinthus. Polycarp, at
the age of eighty-six, was ordered to be burnt; but it is said that the
fire would not consume his body, which shone like silver, and he was then
despatched with a dagger. The Roman pro-consul had ordered him to forswear
and revile Christ. But the answer was: "Eighty-and-six years have I served
Him, and He hath done me no wrong. How, then, can I speak evil of my King,
who saved me?"
A MIRACLE PERFORMED BY ST. JOHN AFTER DEATH.
A miracle attributed to St. John, and represented by some sacred artists,
related to the Empress Galla Placidia. She was returning from
Constantinople to Ravenna with her two children during a terrible storm.
In her fear and anguish she vowed to St. John that if she landed safely
she would dedicate to his honour a magnificent church. Both events
happened; but still, owing to there being no relic to deposit in her
church, she remained somewhat dissatisfied. John, however, took pity upon
her; for one night, as she prayed earnestly, he appeared to her in a
vision, and when she threw herself at his feet to embrace and kiss them he
disappeared, but left one of his sandals in her hand, and this has been
long preserved. The ancient church at Ravenna of Galla Placidia contained
some mosaics, now vanished, but two bas-reliefs refer to the sandal.
ST. JOHN AND EDWARD THE CONFESSOR.
The English monkish chroniclers have also a legend of St. John and King
Edward the Confessor. One night a pilgrim accosted the Confessor as he was
returning from mass at Westminster, and begged alms for the love of God
and St. John. The king, who was merciful, immediately drew from his finger
a ring, and delivered it privately to the beggar. Twenty-four years later,
two Englishmen, returning from the Holy Land, after being asked questions
about their country by a pilgrim, were entrusted with a message to thank
their king for the ring he had bestowed, when that pilgrim begged of him
many years before, and which he had preserved and now returned; and
further to say this--that "the king shall quit the world and come and
remain with me for ever." The travellers, astounded, asked who the pilgrim
was, and the answer was, "I am John the Evangelist. Go and deliver the
message and ring, and I will pray for your safe arrival." He then
delivered the ring and vanished. The pilgrims praised and thanked God for
this glorious vision, went on their journey, repaired to the king,
delivered the ring and the message, and were received joyfully and
feasted. Then the king prepared himself for his departure from the world.
On the eve of the Nativity next following, being 1066, he died, and the
ring was left to the Abbot of Westminster, to be for ever preserved among
the relics. This legend is represented on the top of the screen of Edward
the Confessor's Chapel in Westminster Abbey, and also was once on one of
the windows in Romford Church.
ST. JAMES THE LESS, APOSTLE.
St. James the Less was so called to distinguish him from the other apostle
James, either from his smaller stature or his youth. He was also known as
James the Just, from his eminent sanctity. He was the son of Alphæus and
of Mary, sister of the Virgin Mary, and was some years older than the
Saviour, his cousin. He had as brother St. Simeon and also Jude. Christ
appeared separately to James and John and Peter after the Resurrection.
The Apostles elected James the Less to be Bishop of Jerusalem, and it was
said he wore a plate of gold on his head as an ensign of authority. He was
unmarried, and never shaved nor cut his hair, and never drank any strong
liquor, never ate flesh, nor wore sandals, and the skin of his knees and
forehead was said to be hardened like a camel's hoof from his frequent
prayers. He wrote his epistle in Greek, some time after Paul's epistles
were written to the Galatians and to the Romans. He was afterwards, in 62,
accused by the Jews of violating the laws, and was sentenced to be stoned
to death; but he was first carried to the battlements, in the hope he
would recant in public, and on his refusing this he was thrown over and
dashed to the ground. He had life enough to rise again on his knees to
pray for pardon for his murderers, and was then despatched with stones by
the mob. His body was buried near the Temple in Jerusalem, and it was said
the city was destroyed for the treatment he received. His relics were
brought to Constantinople about 572.
ST. JAMES THE GREAT, APOSTLE.
St. James, the brother of St. John, son of Zebedee and Salome, was called
the Great, to distinguish him from the other apostle called James the
Less, probably from his small stature. St. James the Great was about ten
years older than Christ, and was many years older than his brother John.
St. James was a Galilean and a fisherman. He and John and Peter were
distinguished by special favours, being admitted to the Transfiguration,
and to the Agony in the Garden. Their mother, Salome, in her pride at
their devotion, once asked if they were not to sit, one at Christ's right
hand and another at His left. After the Ascension James is said to have
left Judæa and visited Spain. He was a bachelor, and very temperate, never
eating fish or flesh, and wearing only a linen cloak. He was the first of
the Apostles who suffered martyrdom, being beheaded at Jerusalem in 43 by
order of Agrippa. His accuser was so struck with James's courage and
constancy that he repented and begged to be executed with James, who
turned round and embraced him, saying, "Peace be with you," and they were
beheaded together. The apostle's body was interred at Jerusalem, but
carried by his disciples to Spain at Compostella, where many miracles were
wrought and pilgrims flocked. His intercession, it was thought, often
protected the Christians against the armies of the Moors.
ST. JAMES THE GREAT IN SPAIN.
The apostle James the Great, after Christ's ascension, as already said,
went to Spain. One day, as he stood on the banks of the Ebro with his
disciples, it is said that the Blessed Virgin appeared to him seated on
the top of a pillar of jasper, and surrounded by a choir of angels; and
the apostle having thrown himself on his face, she commanded him to build
on that spot a chapel for her worship, assuring him that all this province
of Saragossa, though now in the darkness of paganism, would at a future
time be distinguished by devotion to her. He did as the Holy Virgin had
commanded, and this was the origin of a famous church, known as Our Lady
of the Pillar.
ST. JAMES AT COMPOSTELLA.
Another legend relates that a German noble, with his wife and son, made a
pilgrimage to St. James of Compostella, and while lodging at an inn at
Tolosa, where the host had a beautiful daughter, she fell in love with the
youth, but he refused to listen to her. She then, out of revenge, hid her
father's silver cup in the youth's wallet, and next morning, on
discovering the loss, he was pursued, accused before a judge, and
condemned to be hanged. The afflicted parents prayed at the altar of St.
Jago or James, and thirty days after, on returning and seeing their son on
the gibbet, he suddenly spoke to them, and said he had been very
comfortable, for the blessed apostle James had been at his side. The
parents at once hastened to the judge to inform him, and he was sitting at
dinner. On hearing their report, however, he mocked them, and said their
son was as much alive as the fowls in that dish on the table, pointing to
the dish; but he had scarcely uttered the words when the fowls rose up
full feathered in the dish, and the cock began to crow, to the great
admiration of the judge and his officers. Then the judge rose and went to
the gibbet, and released the youth and gave him up to his parents, and the
fowls were placed under the protection of the church, in the precincts of
which they lived, and a long line of progeny after them, as a standing
testimony of the miracle then wrought.
MIRACLES OF ST. JAMES THE GREAT.
When the apostle James the Great had founded the faith in Spain, he
returned to Judæa, and preached and worked miracles for many years. Once a
sorcerer, named Hermogenes, set himself up against the apostle to compete
with him, and sent his pupil Philetus to dispute with James. The pupil, on
returning and confessing his defeat, was bound with spells by Hermogenes,
who dared James to deliver him. James sent his cloak to Philetus's
servant, and this set him free. Hermogenes, being then enraged, caused
both James and Philetus to be bound in fetters by demons and brought to
him. But a company of angels seized on the demons, and punished them until
they went and brought Hermogenes himself bound. On James declining to
punish him, the sorcerer felt he was defeated, and cast his books into the
sea, and became a disciple of James. At James's death his body was
privately carried away for fear of the Jews, and put on board a ship which
was miraculously directed to Spain. During the journey they touched at
Galicia; and Queen Lupa, coming to the shore, found that the body had
become enclosed with wax. She brought some wild bulls, and harnessed them
to the car to tear it asunder; but the bulls were docile as lambs, and
drew the body straight into her palace, whereon she was confounded and
became a Christian, and built a church to receive the body. St. James is
the patron saint of Spain as well as of Galicia; and the church of
Compostella, which is dedicated to him, is a shrine visited by pilgrims
from all quarters. In some of the pictures St. James is represented
sitting on a milk-white horse, encouraging the Spaniards to fight and
defeat the Moors.
ST. JAMES OF COMPOSTELLA AND THE SCALLOP-SHELL.
The following is the origin of the emblem of the scallop-shell at
Compostella. When the body of the saint was being miraculously conveyed in
a ship without sails or oars from Joppa to Galicia, it passed the village
of Bouzas, on the coast of Portugal, on the day that a marriage had been
celebrated there. The bridegroom, along with his friends, was amusing
himself on horseback on the sands, when suddenly his horse grew restless
and plunged into the sea. Thereupon the miraculous ship stopped in its
voyage, and presently the bridegroom emerged, horse and man, close beside
it. The saint's disciples on board informed the astonished rider who it
was who saved him from a watery grave, and explained to him the Christian
religion. He was converted and baptised forthwith. The ship then resumed
its voyage, and the knight went galloping back over the sea to rejoin his
astonished friends. He told what had happened, and they also were
converted, and he baptised his bride with his own hands. It was noticed
that when the knight emerged from the sea, both his dress and the
trappings of his horse were covered with scallop-shells, and the Galicians
ever afterwards took the scallop-shell as the sign of St. James. Those
shells were forbidden by the Pope, under the pain of excommunication, to
be sold to pilgrims at any other place than the city of Santiago.
PORTRAITS OF ST. PETER AND ST. PAUL.
Lord Lindsay, in his "Christian Art," says that St. Peter was generally
represented in ancient art as blessing and St. Paul as preaching,--the
former with white hair and beard, the hair sometimes plaited in three
distinct partitions; the latter with a lofty and partially bald brow and
long, high nose, as characteristic of the man of genius and the thorough
gentleman, as the former is of the warm-hearted, frank, impetuous manly
fisherman. The likenesses may be correct; they were current at least in
the days of Eusebius in the fourth century, who speaks of their portraits
as then of some antiquity. A portrait of St. Paul was said to have come
down by tradition from his own time, and to have existed in the days of
St. Ambrose and St. Chrysostom, a little later in the same century. The
painter Giotto invariably adhered to these traditional types. After his
time the heads of living models were often painted for the imaginary
apostles.
DEATHS OF ST. PETER AND ST. PAUL.
There is some doubt as to the time and place of the death of St. Peter and
St. Paul. The earliest writer, St. Clement, Bishop of Rome, near the end
of the first century, alludes to both as suffering martyrdom nearly at the
same time, but does not state when or where. A later writer, Dionysius,
Bishop of Corinth, who lived in the middle of the second century, says
they died in Italy at the same period, and tradition of a later date
specifies Rome as the place, and that Peter was crucified by Nero in Rome
with his head downwards, and the year was 67 A.D.
ST. PETER AND HIS DAUGHTER PETRONILLA.
Though the precise spot at Rome where St. Peter was crucified or slain is
not settled, the following legend obtained currency. In several churches
at Florence and Rome the legend referred to was to this effect. The
apostle Peter had a daughter named Petronilla, who accompanied him to Rome
from the East. She there fell sick of a grievous infirmity, which deprived
her of the use of her limbs. And it happened that, as the disciples were
at meat with him in his house, one said to him, "Master, how is it that
thou, who healest the infirmities of others, dost not heal thy daughter
Petronilla?" And Peter answered, "It is good for her to remain sick." But
that they might see the power that was in the word of God, he commanded
her to rise and serve them at table, which she at once did. Having done
so, she lay down again, helpless as before. But many years afterwards,
being perfected by long suffering, and praying fervently, she was healed.
Petronilla was wonderfully fair; and Valerius Flaccus, a young Roman noble
who was a heathen, became enamoured of her, and sought her in marriage. As
he was very powerful, she feared to refuse him, but begged him to return
in three days, and promised that he should then marry her. She prayed
earnestly to be delivered from this peril; and when Flaccus returned in
three days, prepared to celebrate the marriage with great pomp, he found
her dead. The company of nobles thereupon carried her to the grave, in
which they laid her, crowned with roses, and Flaccus lamented greatly.
ST. PETER WHEN IN ROME.
When St. Peter went to Rome, it is said that he lodged in the house of a
rich patrician named Perdeus, whose wife and two daughters, Prasceles and
Prudentiana, were converted. And during the first persecution these
daughters devoted themselves to visiting and comforting the martyrs,
braving every danger and suffering, and they escaped by a miracle. St.
Peter was also said to lodge at Rome in the house of Aquila and Priscilla;
and it was there that St. Prisca, a Roman virgin of great beauty, was
baptised. She was afterwards thrown to the lions; but they refused to
touch her, and she was at last beheaded. St. Peter, when in prison at
Rome, was said to have promised to heal Paulina, the sick daughter of the
jailer, named Artemius, if he would believe in the true God. But the
jailer mocked him, and put him in the deepest dungeon, and told him to see
if his God would deliver him from that depth. In the middle of the night
Peter and Marcellinus, in shining garments, entered the chamber of
Artemius as he lay asleep, who, being struck with awe, fell down and
worshipped Christ.
STORY OF THE DEATH OF ST. PETER.
When the day appointed for the execution of St. Peter approached, it is
recorded in the legend that the Christians of Rome urged him to escape. He
resisted their importunities long, but at last got over the wall of the
prison and fled. As, however, he approached the gate of the city, he met
our Blessed Lord bearing His cross, just entering. The astonished apostle
said, "Lord, whither goest Thou?" The answer was, "I go to Rome to be
crucified afresh." At this St. Peter was smitten to the heart, and with
tears returned and delivered himself up to his keepers. The church of
_Domine quo Vadis_ is believed to stand on the very spot of this meeting.
Peter was thereafter scourged and led to the top of the Vatican Mount to
be executed. He entreated that he might not be crucified in the ordinary
way, but might suffer with his head downwards and his feet towards heaven,
affirming that he was unworthy to suffer in the same posture wherein his
Lord had suffered before him. His body was embalmed and buried in the
Vatican. The small church being demolished by Heliogabalus, Peter's body
was removed for a time two miles off, but was brought back before the time
of Constantine, who enlarged and rebuilt the Vatican in honour of St.
Peter. The Emperor is said to have dug the first spadefuls, and to have
carried twelve baskets of rubbish with his own hands, as a beginning, in
honour of the twelve Apostles. The relics of St. Peter are numerous. The
chains are in the church _Ad Vincula_; the wooden chair is in the Vatican.
The sword with which the ear of Malchus was cut off was anciently
preserved at Constantinople, and is shown at Toledo. His cap is at Namur;
part of his cloak is at Prague. The bodies of Peter and Paul are said to
be both in St. Peter's Church at Rome.
THE CHURCHES OF ST. PETER AND ST. PAUL AT ROME.
The body of St. Peter was buried immediately after his martyrdom on the
Vatican Hill; afterwards it was removed to the cemetery of Calixtus, and
brought back to the Vatican. The body of St. Paul was buried on the Ostian
Way, where his church now stands. These tombs were visited from the first
by crowds of pilgrims. Constantine the Great, after founding the Lateran
Church, built seven others at Rome; one of these was the Church of St.
Peter on the Vatican Hill, where he suffered martyrdom. Another was the
Church of St. Paul, at the site of his tomb on the Ostian Road. A revenue
was charged to maintain these churches out of the spices imported from
Egypt and the East, and lands at Tyre and Alexandria and elsewhere were
given as possessions for the same purpose. These churches were built in a
magnificent style, so as to vie with the finest structures in the Empire.
St. Peter's was rebuilt in part in 1506 and 1626. The richest treasure
consists of relics of St. Peter and St. Paul, which lie under a
magnificent altar in a sumptuous vault, called the Confession of St. Peter
on the Threshold of the Apostles. Raphael and Michael Angelo were in
succession the architects. The area of St. Peter's Church is 700 feet long
by 509 feet wide.
WAS ST. PAUL EVER IN GREAT BRITAIN?
It was at one time believed that St. Paul had entered Great Britain as
within his mission, and preached to the natives. But Thackeray, in his
"Researches into the State of Ancient Britain" (1843), comes to a
conclusion in the negative for the following reasons: (1) There is no
mention nor even allusion to it in the New Testament; (2) the statement of
his friend Clemens, Bishop of Rome, to the effect that Paul preached to
the utmost bounds of the West, is far too vague to be available, and seems
only a hyperbolic mode of expressing the magnitude of his labours; (3)
there is no probable allusion to Paul's journey to Britain to be found in
the whole range of literature prior to Theodoret, early in the fifth
century, and even he does not specify Britain; (4) there is no mention of
any such mission to be found in our own historians prior to the Norman
Conquest.
ST. PAUL ON AREOPAGUS, QUOTING A POET.
The fact that St. Paul, when addressing the Athenians on the summit of the
Areopagus or Hill of Mars, quoted a Greek poet for the saying, "Ye are
also his offspring," has led scholars to search for the originals. And the
saying is found in two poets who flourished before the Christian
era--namely, Aratius and Cleanthes. There are two other quotations (Titus
i. 12; 1 Cor. xv. 33), traced to Epimenides and Callimachus. Some have
inferred from these quotations that St. Paul may have been familiar with
the poets of Pagan antiquity. But the researches of scholars tend to show
that the quotations were only common sayings of the period, and the
inferences one way or another as to the Pagan learning of the apostle are
mere speculations. The occasion also on which St. Paul spoke on Areopagus
has been the subject of discussion, as to whether Paul was at the moment
charged with some indictable offence against the sanctity of the gods, or
whether there was some inquisition held by authority in order to include
Jesus as one of the recognised divinities, or whether it was merely an
address at the request of the keen-witted Epicurean and Stoic philosophers
of the time. No certain conclusion can be arrived at on these moot points.
ST. PAUL AND PLAUTILLA.
A legend of the death of St. Paul relates that a certain Roman matron
named Plautilla, one of the converts of St. Peter, placed herself on the
road by which St. Paul passed to his martyrdom, in order to behold him for
the last time; and when she saw him, she wept greatly and besought his
blessing. The apostle then, seeing her faith, turned to her, and begged
that she would give him her veil to bind his eyes when he should be
beheaded, promising to return it to her after his death. The attendants
mocked at such a promise; but Plautilla, with a woman's faith and charity,
taking off her veil, presented it to him. After his martyrdom, St. Paul
appeared to her, and restored the veil stained with his blood. It is also
related that, when he was decapitated, the severed head made three bounds
upon the earth, and wherever it touched the ground a fountain sprang
forth. This legend is sometimes represented in the pictures of the
martyrdom of St. Paul. The church of _San Paolo_ at Rome, where the body
of St. Paul was interred, rich with mosaics, was consumed by fire in 1823.
ST. PAUL AND THE VIPER.
Not far from the old city of Valetta, in the island of Malta, there is a
small church dedicated to St. Paul, and just by the church a miraculous
statue of the saint with a viper on his hand, supposed to be placed on the
very spot on which he was received after his shipwreck on this island, and
where he shook the viper off his hand into the fire without being hurt by
it. At that time the Maltese assure us the saint cursed all the venomous
animals of the island and banished them for ever, just as St. Patrick
banished those of Ireland. Whether this be the cause of it or not, it is
said to be a fact that there are no venomous animals in Malta.
THE HISTORY OF JUDAS ISCARIOT.
The "Apocryphal Gospel," called the "Arabic Gospel of the Infancy," has
the following (chapter xxxv.): "In the same place there dwelt another
woman, whose son was vexed by Satan. He, Judas by name, whenever Satan
seized him, bit all who approached him; and if he found no one near him,
he bit his own hands and other members. Therefore the mother of this
unfortunate youth, hearing the fame of Lady Mary and her Son Jesus, arose
and took with her her son Judas to my Lady Mary. Meanwhile, James and
Joses had taken away the Child Lord Jesus to play with other children; and
after leaving home, they had sat down, and the Lord Jesus with them. Judas
the demoniac came nigh, and sat down at the right of Jesus; and then,
being assaulted by Satan as he was wont to be, he sought to bite the Lord
Jesus, but he could not; yet he struck the right side of Jesus, who for
this cause began to weep. Forthwith Satan went forth out of the boy in
form like a mad dog. Now, this boy who struck Jesus, and from whom Satan
went out in the form of a dog, was Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Him to the
Jews, and that side of Him on which Judas had smote Him the Jews pierced
with a spear" (Matt. x. 4; John xix. 34).