Volume 1

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.

1017/1096 (page 997)

$mains of martyrs. We have already seen this forbidden in the daytime by the council of Illi- beris, about b05, because it tended to distract those who resorted to them for prayer. St. Jerome, as we have also seen, owns and defends the practice, though ascribing it to weak and ignorant persons. VV’^e may cite an instance from the Dialogues of Gregory. A.D. 595. That author relates that St. Peter once appeared to the sacris- tan, not long deceased, of the church dedicated to him at Rome, and in which the saint’s body lay, when he had risen at night “ to trim the lights by the entrance ” (lib. iii. c. 24). Gregory’s sug- gested explanation is, that he did sc in order to shew that he was always cognizant of, and alwa3^s ready to reward “ whatever was done out of reverence for him.” Gi'egory of Tours tells us that two energumens entering a monas- tery at Malliacum (Maille-Lallier), declared that it contained the tomb of St. Solemnis, and said : “ When you have found it, cover it with hang- ings, and burn a light.” Miracles followed the discovery, and we read that one person who had been cured of an ague, “ having prayed and lighted can lies, held them in his hands through- out the night, keeping vigil there” {De Glor. Conf. 21). A lamp gave perpetual light at the tomb of St. Marcellinus of Ivei'dun (ibid. c. 69), and of St. Marcellus of Die in Dauphiny (ibid. 70). The oil in both these instances was sup- posed to be endued with miraculous power. Franco, bishop of Aix, A.D. 566, having been plundered by a powerful neighbour, is said to have addressed St. Merre, bef(j^-e whose tomb he had prostrated himself, in these words : “ Neither light shall be burnt here, nor psalmody sung, most glorious saint, unless thou Hrst avenge thy servants of their enemies, and restore to holy church the things by force taken fronx thee’’ (ibid. 71). X. The next step, naturally, was to treat any supposed relic of the saint, however small, with similar tokens of veneration. In the 5th cen- tury, we read of a man who had been cured of lameness .after praying in a church where relics of St. Stephen and other saints were thought to be preserved, “lighting candles and leaving his statf there ” before he went home (Rvodius, de Jfirac. St. Heph. i. 4; App. vi. 0pp. Aug.). Gregory of Tours having dedicated an oratory, removed thither from a church relics of St. Euphronius and others, “ candles and crosses shining” as they went (De Glor. Conf. 20). In another oratory at Tours were alleged relics of John the Baptist, before which a lamp burnt, the oil of which bubbled mix*aculously. (J/5v/c. i. 15). The bishop of a certain sea-town in the east, hearing that some relics of St. Julian were in a ship that had just arrived, “ moved the people to go in procession to the port with lighted torches ” (i >i'/. ii. 33). During an epi- demic at Rheims in 546, a relic of St. Remigius was carried through the city “ with lighted candles on crosses, and with candlesticks ” (De Glor. Confess. 89). Lights fixed on crosses were an invention of St. Chrysostom, who employed them in those nocturnal processions which he instituted at Constantinople to counteract a simi- lar custom of the Arians (Socrates, Hist. Eccl. vi. 8). XI. Lights before relics were naturally fol- lowed by lights before images, when the latter began to be unduly honoured. There are no in- stances, however, earlier than the 6th centuiy. Some MSS. of Gregory of Tours relate a miracu- lous cure performed with oil from a lamp before the picture of St. Martin in a church at Ravenna (De Mirac. <^t. J/a t. i, 15). This proves, at least, that the practice was known to the writer, while its novelty and partial distribution may be inferred from the fact that Paulus VVarnefridi, tell- ing the same story, says that “ there was an altar in honour of St. Martin, with a window near it, in which a lamp was set to give light ” (De Gest. Longob. ii. 13). In the east, John Moschus, A.D. 630, tells the story of a hermit who, when about to visit any holy place, used to set a candle before the picture of the blessed Virgin, trust- ing to her to keep it burning until he returned (Fratum Spirit, c. civ.). In 71>, Germanus, Patriarch of Constantinople, writing to another bishop, says: “Let it not scandalize some that lights are before the sacred images and sweet perfume.s. For such rites have been devised to their honour. . . . For the visible Rights are a symbol of the gift of immaterial and divine light, and the burning of sweet spices of the pure and perfect inspiration and fulne.ss of the Holy Ghost (Ep. ad I'hoinam, in Labbe, Cone. vii. 313). In 787, the second council of Nicaea gav^e its sanction to the practice already popular by a decree that “ an offering of incense and lights should be made in honour ” of the icons of Christ, of angels, of the blessed Virgin, and other saints (Labbe, u. s. 556). This was one of the practices which even the more moderate of the emperors opposed to image worship en- deavoured to put down (Epet. ]\lich. Balb. ad Ludov. Pium in Decreta de Culta Imag. Gold- ast. p. 619). XII. During the last three centuries of our period, a custom prevailed of offering candles to God, and at length to the saints, with prayer for recovery from sickness, and other benefits. E.g. a girl who had been long ill made a candle of her own height, which she lighted and held burning, “ by the help of which (God pitying her in the name of the holy woman St. Radegund), the cold was expelled before the candle was consumed ” ( Vita 8. Jiad-g. ^ 32 ; Venant. Fortuii. A.D. 587 ; compare the Lifehy Baudon. § 20). Gotselin, the monk who, in the 9th centur)^ wrote a life ot St. Augustine of Canterbury, when relating the cure of a cripple, says, that he had received from a charitable woman “ a light to offer ” to the saint (§ 2, A ta SS. O. B. tom. i.). By the council of Nantes, a.d. 660, all persons were for- bidden “to make a vow or .to carry a candle or any gift when going to pray for their ‘health, except at the church to the Lord their God” (can. 20). The object, it must be explained, was to put down heathen superstitions, not to dis- courage saint-worship. In the life of St. Sabas, ascribed to Cyril of Scythopolis, A.D. 555, there is a story of a silversmith who, having been robbed, “ went immediately to the martyrium of St. Theodore, and for five days supplied (and probably tended, iiroi-naa) the lights of the nave, and remained there night and day weeping at the rails of the bema ” (§ 78, Cotel. Mon. Grace, iii. 355). XIII. Candles were also offered as a token of thankfulness for mercies received. For example, when Justin the Younger, on his accession, went$