deportment of the terrestrial angels who inhabited it, that he obtained of the abbot Richard a certain number of these monks, and built for them a monastery, called New-minster, near Morpeth, in Northumberland, in 1137, of which St Robert was appointed abbot.

The saint in his new dignity thought it his duty not only to walk before his brethren, but to go beyond them all in every religious observance, and all his virtues seemed to receive new vigour, and a new degree of perfection in this eminent station. His affection to holy prayer is not to be expressed. He recommended to God continually those committed to his care, and with many tears poured forth his soul for them night and day. He was favoured with the gift of prophecy and miracles. He founded another monastery at Pipinelle or Rivebelle in Northamptonshire, and lived in the strictest union of holy friendship with St Bernard; also with St Godric an holy hermit in those parts, illiterate as to secular learning, but a most spiritual man. St Robert finished his course by a happy death on the 7th of June 1159. Miracles attested his sanctity to the world. He is named in the Roman martyrology. See Dugdale, Monast. Angl. T. I. p. 743. Le Nain, T. 2. p. 397. the Annals of his Order, and the Bollandists, T. 2. Junii.

Dromore, in

ST COLMAN, Bishop of Dromore, C. the province of Ulster, sixty-three miles from Dublin to the North, derives the succession of its bishops from St Colman, who was descended from the sept of the Arads, and born in 516, according to bishop Usher. He was the first abbot of Muckmore, in the county of Antrim, and afterward chosen first bishop of Dromore; a small see under Armagh, and not far distant from it. Jocelin, in his life of St Patrick, tells us that his eminent virtue was foretold by St Patrick; and his legend ascribes many miracles to him, and the wonderful conversion of a great number of souls to God. The ancient scholiast on the Ængussian martyrology observes, that he was also called Mocholmoc. He died about the year 610, on the 7th of June, on which his principal festival was kept, or, according to some, on the 27th of October, on which he was also commemorated. See Usher, Primord. P:

1126. Colgan in MSS. ad 7 Jun. Ware, p. 257. and Baert the Bollandist, T. 2. Junij. p. 24.

St GODESCHALC, prince of the Western Vandals, and his companions, MM. In the reign of the emperor Henry the Salic, Gneus and Anatrog, who were idolaters, and Uto, the son of Misliwoi, a loose Christian, were princes of the Winuli, Slavi and Vandals, and tributary to the emperor, the fear of whose arms, and those of Knut king of Denmark, and Bernard duke of Saxony, kept these barbarians long in peace. Uto being murdered by a certain Saxon for his cruelty, his son Godeschalc, who had been educated a Christian in the monastery of Lumburg under the care of Godeschale a Gothic bishop, apostatised, and joined the two pagan princes to revenge his father's death upon the Saxons. He long harassed their country till he was taken prisoner by duke Bernard, who detained him a long time in close confinement. When he recovered his liberty, Ratibor, a powerful prince, was possessed of his territories among the Slavi. Godeschalc therefore betook himself to the Danes at the head of a numerous troop of Slavi his partizans. Some time after he was converted to the Christian faith by a certain Saxon, and king Knut employed him in his wars in Norway, and being much pleased with his valiant behaviour, afterward sent him with Sueno, his nephew by his sister Ethride, afterward king, on an expedition into England. His great exploits there were so agreeable to the king of Denmark, that he gave him his daughter in marriage. After the death of Knut and his children, Godeschalc returned from England, subdued the whole country of the Slavi, and compelled part of the Saxons to pay him a yearly tribute, and to acknowledge their subjection.

He reigned after this many years in peace, and is called by Adam of Bremen the most powerful of all the princes who ever arrived at the sovereignty among the Slavi. And as he surpassed all the rest in prudence, power and valour, so did he also, after his conversion, in piety and holy zeal. All the parts of his dominions he filled with churches and priests, and by his zealous

endeavours he brought over to the faith great part of the idolaters among the different nations that were subject to him; as the Wagiri, the Obotridi or Reregi, the Polabingi, the Linoges, the Warnabi, the Chissini, and the Circipani, who inhabited the Northern coast of Germany from the Elbe to Mecklenburg. He likewise found ed many monasteries of both sexes at Lubec, Aldinburg, Lenzin, Razizburg, three in the city of Magdeburg, and others in other places. The archbishop of Hamburg he honoured as his father, and frequently resorted to that city to perform his devotions in that memetropolitical church. Among the missionaries who laboured with the greatest success in executing the holy projects of the king, Helmond names in the first place John, a Scotsman, whom Albert archbishop of Hamburg sent to preach at Mecklenburg. He extended his missions into all the dominions of Godeschalc, and baptised himself many thousands, Godeschalc often interpreted to the people in the Sclavonian tongue_the_sermons and instructions of the priests in the church. Dur ing the reign of the good emperor Henry II., the Slavi, Bohemians and Hungarians lived in peace and in subjection to his empire. But when his son, a child only eight years old, succeeded to his throne, various rebel. lions were raised among these barbarians. Bernard, the duke, who had governed Saxony forty years, died soon after St Henry, and his dominions were divided between his two sons Ordulf and Herman. Ordulf, who took the title of duke of Saxony, fell far short of his father in military skill and valour. Five years after this, the Vandals, or Slavi, who remained obstinately attached to their idolatry, about the present country of Wagrie and the dutchy of Mecklenburgh, revolted, and began their sedition by the murder of Godeschalc, the Machabee of the Christians, whom they slew in the city of Lenzin, on the 7th of June, together with Ebbo a priest, whom they laid upon the altar and stabbed, in 1066. The historians of the Northern nations unanimously agree that the only cause of their death was the hatred which these pagans had conceived of the Christian religion : and the Carthusians of Brussels, in their additions to the

martyrology of Usuard, place them among the martyrs honoured in the church on this day. Upon this autho rity Henschenius, T. 2. Junij. p. 40. doubts not but St Godeschalc and his companions were honoured in several of the northern churches, whose calendars and ecclesiastical monuments and titles were entirely destroyed or lost upon the change of religion, as the Bollandists, in their notes on St Norbert's life, and in other places, and Jos. Assemani on Adalbert of Magdeburg, take notice. On St Godeschale and his companions see Adam Bremensis, 1. 3. c. 21. Kranzius, 1. 2. Wandaliæ, c. 46. Helmold and other northern historians, and from them Henschenius, T. 2. Junij, p. 40.

St MERIADEC, Bishop of Vannes, C. Whilst he liv ed in the world he employed the revenue of a great estate of which he was master, in charitable works, and at length stripped himself.of it principally in favour of the poor. From that time he lived a recluse in a desert place, a mile from the castle of Pontivi in the viscounty of Rohan, in Britany. The viscount himself visited the saint, and had the greatest veneration for his sanctity (a). The canons and people of Vannes, seconded by the bishops of the province, compelled him much against his will to fill the episcopal see of that city. With this dignity his charity to the poor received a great encrease; for he looked upon himself by that sacred character as it were anointed the father and comforter of all the distressed. Under his episcopal ornaments he wore a rough hair shirt, and had no better covering to his bed than sackcloth. The legend and ancient lessons of Treguier place his death in 1302. In the old breviary of Nantes, in that of Vannes, &c. an office is appointed in his honour on the 7th of June. He is titular saint of the chapel of the castle of Pon

(a) This circumstance ascertains the age in which St Meriadec lived. For the title of viscounts of Rohan in Britany was not known before the twelfth century. That derives its chief honour from the marriage of the viscount John II. with Mary, daughter of Francis I. duke of Britany, and his wife Isabel Stuart, daughter of James , king of Scotland, in 1445,

tivi, and of several others in Britany. See Henschenius, T. 2. Junij, p. 36. and Lobineau, Vies des SS. de Bretagne, p. 242.

JUNE VIII.

S. MEDARD, BISHOP OF NOYON, C.

From his life written by Fortunatus bishop of Poitiers, one in verse, another in prose, and from St Gregory of Tours, L. de Glor. Conf. c. 95. and Hist. Franc. See also a life of St Medard, though of less authority, compiled by a monk of St Medard's at Soissons, about the year 892, published by D'Achery, Spicil. T. 8. and the Bollandists, Henschenius and Papebroke, T. 2. Junij, p. 78, and another wrote by Radbod II. bishop of Noyon and Tournay, who died in 1082, ib. p. 87. Cointe, Annal, Franc. Gall. Christ. Nov. T. 9. p. 979.

SIXTH AGE.

ST MEDARD, one of the most illustrious prelates of the church of France, in the sixth century, was born at Salency in Picardy, about the year 457. His father Nectard was a noble Frenchman, who made a figure in the king's court; and his mother Protogia was descended of an ancient Roman family, which was settled in Gaul. She brought to her husband several great estates, and among others that of Salency, situated about a league from Noyon. She was a lady of extraordinary piety, and the saintly education and early virtue of her son, were the fruit of her attention and example, which was seconded by the authority and influence of her husband, whom she had gained to Christ from idolatry. She instilled into Medard, from his infancy, the most tender compassion for the poor. At Salency he one day gave his coat to a blind beggar that was almost naked, and when he was asked what he had done with it, he answered, that the sight of the distress and nakedness of a poor blind man, who was a fellow-member in Christ, had so strongly affected him, that it was not in his power not to give him part of his own clothes. When he was employed in looking after the cattle in his father's grounds, according to the custom of that age in France, even in good families, as among the ancient Hebrews,