Volume 2

A dictionary of Christian antiquities : being a continuation of the 'Dictionary of the Bible' / edited by William Smith and Samuel Cheetham ; illustrated by engravings on wood.

Date:: [between 1890 and 1899?]

Credit: A dictionary of Christian antiquities : being a continuation of the 'Dictionary of the Bible' / edited by William Smith and Samuel Cheetham ; illustrated by engravings on wood. Source: Wellcome Collection.

1002/1016 (page 2054)

$YEAR Perpetua was sustained in prospect of her mar- tyrdom (Rob. i. 68), and for their use as prog- nostics of approaching calamity we may instance those which were vouchsafed to the church in Africa, A.D. 480 circ., to prepare her for her persecution by the Vandals (*6. i. 500 ; Vtct. Vit. ii. 6). Lastly, in the eyes of the monkish and episcopal chroniclers of the dark ages celestial or atmos- pheric phenomena, such as comets, meteors, displays of the aurora borealis, wore the aspect of “ wonders ” (prodigia), especially when coin- cident with or preceding the deaths of saints, e. g. St. Liudger, a.d. 809 (^Acta SS. Ben. saec. iv. pt. i.) or princes, e. g. Theodebald (Greg. Turon. iv. 9) Merovechus (v. 19), Gundobald (vii. 11), or the occurrence of plagues and pesti- lences (iv. 31). Certain concomitants of these phenomena, such as a shower of blood from the clouds besprinkling the garments of men and the interior walls of a house (vi. 14), and the conversion of the water of a pond into blood (viii. 25) do not it is true belong to the same natural order of things. [C. G. C.] X XANTIPPE, Sept. 23, commemorated in Spain with her sister Polyxena, disciples of St. Paul (Basil. Menol.; Menol. Graec. Sirlet.; Mart. Rom.'). [C. H.] XENODOCHIA. Guesthouses for the re- ception of strangers and pilgrims. [Hospitals.] There were four such of ancient foundation in Rome, which, having fallen into decay, were restored by pope Stephen II., a.d. 752-757, and furnished with all things needful both within and without. He also founded a “ xenodochium ” where a hundred poor men were fed daily (Anastas. § 228), and built two without the walls near St. Peter’s, which he attached to the ancient “ diaconiae ” of the Blessed Virgin and St. Silvester {ibid. § 229). Pelagius II., A.D. 557-590, converted his own house into a guesthouse for poor and aged men (ibid. § 112). Belisarius, c. 540, erected a “ xenodochium ” in the Via Lata (ibid. § 102). We find these Roman guesthouses distinguished by different names, probably those of the foundei’s, c.g. “xenodochium Valerii” (§ 274); “xenodochium Firmi,” containing an oratory of the Virgin (§ 385), and adorned with gifts by Leo III. (§ 402); and the “ xenodochium quod appellatur Tucium,” containing an oratory of SS. Cosmas and Damian (§ 408). [Pilgrim- .AGE, § vii. p. 1641.] [E. V.] XENOPHON, monk, “ holy father,” cir. 520, commemorated on Jan. 26 with his sons Arcadius and Joannes (Basil. Menol.; Daniel, Codex Liturg. iv. 251). [C. H.] XEROPHAGIA (^7)po(payia, aridiis victus, dry food). This word, as expressive of the act or habit of living on dry food or a meagre diet, is in common use by ecclesiastical writers, both Greek and Latin, to denote the Christian rule of fasting. Tertullian compares its adoption by Christians for spiritual ends, to its practice by the heathen athletes for earthly victories (de Jejun. cc. i. xvii.). sT]po(l>ay('iv is employed of the Lenten fast in the fiftieth canon of the council of Laodicea, a.d. 390; of the fast in Holy Week by Epiphanius (Compend. Doct. Cath. vol. ii. pp. 295, 296, 361, ed. Paids, 1622), when bread and salt was the only solid food allowed, and water was drunk only in the evening. For the varieties of practice which existed with regard to fasting in the early church, see Socrates, Eccles. Hist. V. 22; Balsamon, Epist. de Jejun. in Cotelerii Eccles. Graec. Mon. tom. ii. p. 498, edit. 1681. [F. E. W.] XYSTUS (Sixtus II.), pope, martyr, com- memorated on Aug. 6 (Mart. Met. Bed.; Mart. Bed., Usuard., Adon., Vet. Rom., Rom.). [C. H.] Y YEAR, THE Ecclesiastical. The object of this article is to supplement that on Calendar [p. 256], by giving a complete account, accord- ing to the principal calendars, of the arrange- ment and designations of the several Sundays of the ecclesiastical year, as, also of the Festivals in the weeks corresponding with them. This Calendar presents an abnormal number of Sundays (57), in order to shew the full aiTangement of these for both an early and late Easter, according to the position of which festival some either of the earlier or of the later Sundays in the Calendar would need to be omitted ; it must be remembered, however, that in different years the correlation of Sundays would vary, inasmuch as those, whose place depends upon that of Easter, may occur more than a month earlier than in our Calendar, while other Sundays, dependent upon fixed festi- vals can only be a few days earlier or later in the year. While care has been taken to exclude festivals of later origin than the 9th century, the alternative names (mostly Latin) of festivals and Sundays, the precise period of the origin of which is uncertain, have generally been included, on account of their common use in early and mediaeval documents; and the Latin introits are also given for the same reason. Besides other obvious abbreviations the following have been used:—D. Dominica dies, Hebd. heb- domada. Sab. Sabbatum, fest. festum, mart, martyr, com. companion. An alphabetical index to the names of the Sundays and festivals is subjoined. The chief authorities used in the compilation of the Calendar are: the ancient Roman (Rom.) and Greek (Gr.) Calendars to be found in Allatius (de Domin. et Hebd. Graecis)', the Am- brosian (Amb.) and Mozarabic (Moz.) Calen- dars; the Sacramentary'bearing the name of Gregory the Great (Greg.); the Armenian (Arm.) and Georgian (Georg.) Calendars; the Gothic (Goth.) Calendars in Migne (Patrology); the Syrian (Syr.) and Nestorian (Nest.) in Etheridge (Syrian Churches) and Assemanus (Bibl. Orient. iii. 2, 380); for the British and Irish (Br.)$