18 to v. 21

18 v. 21 to 19 v. 3

19 v. 3 to v. 27 19 v. 27 to 20 v. 17

20 v. 17

21 to v. 23

21 v. 23 22 to v. 15

22 v. 15 to v. 41 22 v. 41 to 23 v. 13

23 v. 13 24 to v. 29 24 v. 29

25 to v. 31

25 v. 31 26 to v. 31 26 v. 31 to v. 57

26 v. 57 27 to v. 27

27 v. 27 to v. 57 27 v. 57 28

1 to v. 21

1 v. 21

21

22

23

Fast.

24 f

St. Matthias, Ap..

1 Sam. 2 v. 27 to v. 36

25

Exodus

3 v. 13 4 to v. 85 7

2 to v. 23

1st. David, Archbishop, the patron Saint of Wales. According to the accepted traditions he was son of a Welsh prince, founder and abbot of a monastery; thence drawn to take victorious part in the Pelagian controversy, and made Archbishop of Caerleon, whence he removed the see far west to the Menevia (St. David's), possibly in connection with some mission to Ireland. His death is fixed at different dates, from A.D. 541 to 601. (The earliest extant account of him was not written till 500 years after his death, and has many legendary elements in it).

2nd. Chad, Bishop (Ceadda).— By birth a Northumbrian, but brought up in Ireland, and at Lindisfarne under St. Aidan, one of the representatives of the independent refounding of Christianity in the North (after the expulsion of Paulinus, who had been sent to York as missionary bishop from Canterbury in 625) by the Irish ("Scottish") missionaries. Made Bishop of York, in rivalry to the absent Wilfrid (664), he was deposed by Archbishop Theodore in favour of Wilfrid (669); and, after a brief retirement, established as Bishop in the kingdom of Mercia, at Lichfield, where he died in 672. Bede gives a beautiful picture of his simple character and saintly life and death.

66

7th. Perpetua, Martyr.-One of the African martyrs under Severus (A.D. 203). The Acts of St. Perpetua," written in part by herself, have been preserved to us. They are full of vividness and beauty, although showing some touches of the visionary and ascetic tendencies of Montanism.

12th. Gregory the Great, Bishop. -Bishop of Rome (590-604), the real founder of the greatness of the Papacy. Of noble birth, and high rank and education, he became a monk, and continued till the end his love for monastic life and principles. Made Pope

against his will in 590, he rose to the exigencies of the critical time, when the extinction of the Western Empire made him at once Bishop of the Roman Church, Patriarch of the West, and virtual sovereign and representative of Rome itself; and proved himself as a ruler and organizer, a preacher and writer, unquestionably the greatest man of his age. His pontificate was marked by the conversion from Arianism of the Spanish Visigoths and the Lombards; and by the English Church he deserves special commemoration, as having been (through St. Augustine of Canterbury) the true Apostle of Anglo-Saxon Christianity. He was the introducer of the "Gregorian" music, superseding the simpler Ambrosian; and his Sacramentary, following the earlier one of Gelasius, is a great storehouse of the ancient、 Liturgical forms of the Western Church, from which our Collects are largely borrowed.

18th. Edward, King of the West Saxons (A.D.975-978).-The youthful son of King Edgar, murdered, at the age of 16, by order of his step-mother Elfrida, at Corfe Castle, while drinking the stirrup cup, and canonized for his piety and his devotion to the ecclesiastical and monastic

cause.

21st. Benedict (of Nursia) Abbot (A.D. 480-543).-The founder of the great Benedictine order at Monte Cassino, on the site of an old temple of Apollo, and author of the Benedictine rule. Of noble birth, repelled by the licentiousness and utter confusion of his age, he dedicated himself from boyhood to monastic life, and revived monasticism from degeneracy to a lofty and refined ideal, free from excessive austerity, and admitting of high culture and learning. His own character, though not without severity, was full of beauty and holi

ness.

6 v. 14 to v. 30 6 v. 30

7 to v. 24

7 v. 24 to 8 v. 10 8 v. 10 to 9 v. 2 9 v. 2 to v. 30 9 v. 30 10 to v. 32 10 v. 32

11 to v. 27

-11 v. 27 to 12 v. 13

12 v. 13 to v. 35 35 to 13 v. 14 13 v. 14

14 to v. 27 14 v. 27 to v. 53

14 v. 53 15 to v. 42

15 v. 42 & 16 1 to v. 26

1 v. 26 to v. 46

1 v. 46

2 to v. 21

2 v. 21

3 to v. 23 4 to v. 16

4 v. 16

5 to v. 17

1st. Nicomede, Martyr.-Commemorated in the Sacramentary of Gregory. He is said to have been a martyr in the days of Domitian, beaten to death with clubs; but nothing can be said to be really known of him.

5th. Boniface, Bishop (A.D. 600 -755). The "Apostle of Germany," born at Crediton, educated at Exeter, and a monk at Nutshalting near Winchester, highly honoured for learning and ability. Following in the steps of St. Willibrod and other English monks, he resolved to devote himself under the sanction of Gregory 11. to missionary work in Germany, beyond the old Roman frontier among the Saxons; there he felled the sacred oak at Geismar, preaching and baptizing with marvellous success; afterwards he was consecrated to the new see of Mayence, founding monasteries and bishoprics, to organize conquests already won; finally martyred in Frisia on June 5th, 755. He was a man great indeed, alike in holiness of character, missionary enterprise, and power of rule.

17th. St. Alban, Martyr, according to the old tradition, the first martyr of Britain. He is described as a young Roman officer in the days of Diocletian, who sheltered a Christian priest, and was converted by him. Enabling him to escape, and, while yet a catechumen, offering himself boldly as a Christian to martyrdom, he was scourged and beheaded at Verulamium, A.D. 303. There the great Benedictine Abbey of St. Alban's, holding precedence of all others, afterwards arose. The whole tradition is late (in Bede, i. 6. 7); and the Diocletian persecution prevailed but little in Britain (then under the rule of Constantius). But it is difficult to suppose that in it there is no element of historic truth. It is curious that in the old Sarum and modern Roman Calendar St. Alban is commemorated on the 22nd.

20th. Translation of King Edward (see March 18th), commemorates the translation of the body of the murdered young king from a marsh near Corfe Castle, where it was first buried, to Shaftesbury.