Baring-Gould’s sources: Roman and Gallican Martyrologies. Authority A life by a friend, a contemporary, whose name is not known.] S. Anthelm was born of noble parents, in Savoy; his father was Andwin de Chignins, and he devoted his son to the Church from an early age, expecting that hjs rank and talents would advance him to honourable and lucrative offices therein. Anthelm was almost at once made provost of Geneva, and his methodical habits increased the revenues of that church. Whilst executing his charge, Anthelm paid a visit to the Carthusian monastery of Portes, now Cartruses in the Jura, near S. Rambert-de-Joux. The solemn stillness of this Alpine valley, hemmed in between limestone precipices and pines, attracted his attention and awoke a longing in his heart for something better than looking after the accounts and gathering the rents of the church o Geneva. The rule of the order specially attracted him. A sketch by a modern writer of a visit to the Grande Chartreuse will explain the spell thrown on Anthelm. “The Carthusians— or, at least, those among them who are in orders — combine the hermit’s solitary life with the T S. Ant/ielm. 379 common life of monks. They axe hermits in that they pass all their time, with slight exceptions, in the detached houses assigned to them round the cloister, where they work, pray, and even take their scanty meals in absolute solitude. For, to avoid communication with their fellowbeings, their food is conveyed to them through an opening in the wall fitted with a wooden shutter; these tiny mural apertures at the side of every doorway forming a singular feature in Carthusian cloisters. To ensure, moreover, a yet greater measure of solitude, the monks say most of the Church offices privately, each in his own cell. “ But with the life of hermits, the Carthusians unite* to some degree, the more social life of monks. Thus, on Sundays and holy days, they dine in company, the choirbrothers occupying an inner and larger hall, the lay-brothers a lesser apartment, constituting a sort of ante-chamber to the other. On the days they dine together a brief period of relaxation follows, when they enjoy the advantage of each other's society and conversation. It has ever, too, been an established Carthusian custom for the monks to leave their cells once in every week, and to proceed in a body to seek fresh air and exercise among the more retired walks in the vicinity of their convent “Three things chiefly imprinted themselves on my memory. These typical scenes were — first, the vast tomblike cloister, surrounded by its three dozen hermitages, within each of which, though seemingly lifeless, is buried a living hermit; secondly, the dramatic incidents connected with the midnight office; and lastly, the pleasing picture presented by the Carthusians in the act of quitting their normal solitude for the weekly walk peculiar to this order. Let me describe the midnight office as it appeared to the eye of a stranger present at it for the first time. When three-quarters of an hour are yet wanting to mid* [June a 6.

…night, the convent bell tolls slowly and solemnly through the rocky wilderness, to arouse the brotherhood from their early slumber. At this signal they recite privately a series of prescribed prayers preparatory to the public office. As the clock strikes twelve, the belfry again vibrates with the monotonous note of the monastery bell awaking every slumberer alike, be he monk or citizen of the world. Its earliest echoes have scarce died away, before the priory church begins to fill with white-clad Carthusians [a strict order of hermit-monks founded by St. Bruno in 1084], who, with cowl drawn over the head, and each carrying a lighted lantern in his hand, enter their respective stalls, there awaiting in silence the commencement of divine service. Lay brethren occupy the stunted nave, and any visitors present sit in either of two galleries at the western end of the church.

In a spacious, but dimly-lit choir, with stalls on either side, stand the cowled Carthusians — their uniformly white figures brought out into strong relief by the dark tint of the wooden screen, or wainscot, behind them. Their chant is slow and lugubrious, and as the office proceeds, the monks conceal their lanterns beneath the reading-desk, in front of them, or exhibit them to view according, presumably, to whether the portion of matins being sung at the time is read from a book, or recited by rote. This sudden lighting up of the choir, alternating with the no less sudden casting of it into shade — thus rendering the sepulchral forms of the white-robed monks now distinctly visible, and in the next moment throwing them into comparative obscurity — has a singular effect in itself, and yet more so when taken in connection with the place, the hour, and the unearthly-looking beings before one's eyes. It is, indeed, the feeling that those thirty or forty figures, draped in white, from the monkish hood enveloping the head, and partly shrouding the face, down to the ample Anthelm.

skirt of their monastic frock, have but just emerged from the cells encircling the vast and desolate cloister; and the knowledge that, the office ended, these men, beneath whose mortified exterior human hearts still beat, will return to the same dreary solitude; and, moreover, that unless you are fortunate enough to get a glimpse of them during their one weekly walk, you cannot expect to be brought face to face with any tenant of those three dozen claustral hermitages. It is feelings such as these, coupled with the notorious fact that the monks installed in the choir fronting you have bidden adieu to the world for ever, that lie at the root of the impression produced upon most people who have been spectators of the midnight service in a Carthusian house.

“ A more cheerful scene is exhibited to the view of any traveller who has the luck to get a glimpse of the fraternity as they sally forth from the monastery every Monday morning, after a frugal and lonely meal, for their “ spaciment” or pedestrian exercise. Taking up a position in the forenoon, near the convent, on the watch for the brotherhood, he may see a company of perhaps two score hermits habited in white, and with hood covering the head, issue from the monastery, walking in couples, each person carrying a staff to help him mount the steep rocky paths. Far from keeping silence, or marked gravity of countenance and demeanour, no sooner does each successive pair pass under the portal, than with faces turned towards one another, they enter at once into lively conversation, greeting their brethren with smiling looks and friendly words, and maintaining a thread of animated discourse. In ascending the rising ground, they will now cast their eyes downwards to guide their footsteps and plant their staves in the soil, or now glance, with cheerful expression, and not inactive tongue, towards the companion at their side. [Jane at>.

We were a good deal struck by this spectacle, s’mple though it was; for where one might have expected to find demure countenances and measured steps, we saw only gaiety of manner, liveliness of speech, and activity of movement The Carthusians leaving the monastery for their weekly excursion would make an effective subject for a painting in the hands of any one capable of quickly seizing varied expression of countenance, and gifted with artistic skill to transfer it to canvas.”1 Anthelm was returning from the Chartreuse of Portes when he halted at the lower house of the order at the foot of the mountains. There he spent a night, and there he made his resolve to become a Carthusian. He was warmly received by the prior, and was sent at once to the Grande Chartreuse in the Dauphin^ Alps, for his noviciate. Days, months, and years glided away in one unvarying round. When he had been long in the Order, he was made head of the house of Portes, where he had first been awakened to a desire of the religious life. There he was not shut out from all sounds of the turmoil of the world and the conflicts in the Church. Alexander III. and Victor IV. were rival popes. Alexander had been chosen by a majority of the college of cardinals, but Victor was supported by the whole of the Roman clergy, the assent of almost all the senators, and of all the nobles of Rome. Alexander was consecrated by the bishop of Ostia, Victor by the cardinal bishop of Tusculum, and both appealed to the whole Church to acknowledge their rival claims.

The religious orders threw all their weight to support Alexander, and as he received general recognition, Victor was declared anti-pope. Anthelm zealously maintained the claims of Alexander, and was accordingly excommunicated by Victor. The church of Bellay suffered from 1 Algernon Taylor 1 “ Scenes in French Monasteries/' London, 1866. Ant helm.

animosities and intrigues, the result of a contested election to the see vacated by the death of the bishop, Ponce de Thoine (d. 1162). One party chose a youth of noble blood, the other a monk, and an appeal was made to the pope to settle the controversy by his authority. Alexander rejected both the claimants, and ordered a new election to be proceeded with. Anthelm answered the requirements of both parties, — he was a noble by birth, and by choice was a monk. He was elected unanimously, and the pope gladly ratified the appointment But nothing could exceed the dismay and distress of Anthelm when he learned that he was again to be plunged into the whirl of strife, and to be tom from the solitude and tranquil circle of services in the Carthusian church. He refused, struggled, implored with tears that he might be forgotten; but in vain. Pope Alexander stepped in with his authority, and Anthelm was forced to bow his neck to the yoke. Directly on his appointment he began to carry out an active correction of abuses, one of the chief of which he considered to be the marriage of the clergy. He forced the priests in his diocese to put away their wives, and those who stubbornly refused, he deprived of their charges. Nor was he less rigorous towards the laity who offended. Humbert III., duke of Savoy, having infringed the liberties of the see of Bellay [a bishop’s “see” is his diocese, named from his seat (Latin sedes)], by imprisoning a priest of that diocese, accused of some grievous crime; Anthelm sent William, bishop of S. Jean de Maurienne, to liberate the priest forcibly. The duke again arrested the priest, and had him executed.

Anthelm at once fulminated excommunication against him. The duke appealed to the pope, who ordered Anthelm to withdraw the excommunication. The bishop refused. “ He who is justly bound must not be loosed,” said he; “ unless for the wrong due penance has been made. The power to release those who ought not to be released was never given even to S. Peter, far less to his successors.” Alexander, hearing that 8. Anthelm would not listen to remonstrance, himself removed the sentence of excom. m unication. Anthelm was so incensed at this breach of discipline that he resigned his office, and retired to the monastery of Les Portes,1 and could only be induced to return by the urgent entreaties of the pope, and the promises of the duke to make amends for what he had done. Humbert III. delayed making restitution, and Anthelm refused to admit him to be otherwise than excommunicate, till he had made compensation for the wrong done by him to the see of Bellay. Even when Anthelm was ill with fever and dying, and was urged to remove the ban from the duke, he refused. Humbert hearing that the bishop was dying, came himself to visit him, and expressed to him his sincere regret for the execution of the priest Then only did Anthelm relent, and raising his hand over the duke, gave him his benediction. He died shortly after, at the age of seventy-two, and was buried under the great rood at the entrance to the choir. We are told that at the moment when the body was being lowered into the tomb, one of the great lamps before the crucifix, which was only lighted on great festivals, kindled of its own accord.

The relics [the bodily remains of a saint, or objects they used, kept with honor] of S. Anthelm were preserved at the Revolution, and are in the chapel of S. Anthelm, attached to the cathedral of Bellay, whither they were translated on June 30th, 1829. On June 27th, every year, little children are brought into the cathedral, to be blessed by the bishop, with great solemnity, and dedicated to S. Anthelm. 1 M Sed Do minus Papa cum abaohdtj mandans Episcopo, auctoritate Apostoiica comitem absolutism. Motua lgitur an into *ir fort is in Christo, ac moleste fere ns tantam iqjuriam contra indemnltatem Eccleoiastlcam impnnttam pcrtranalre, re I i eta cath-dra cell* dllectam requiem repetivit." June a6.] •S. Dionysius.

The saint is represented in Carthusian habit, the mitre at his feet, above his head a lamp with the Divine Hand pointing to the dame, or perhaps kindling it with a touch. & DIONYSIUS, ABP.

[Russian {Calendar and the Bollandists [Jesuit scholars who since the 1600s have critically studied the lives of the saints].] S. Dionysius, archbishop of Sugdsea, in Bulgaria, probably driven from his see in some commotion or invasion, arrived at Nijni Novgorod, in Russia, and built there a monastery called the Peischericon. He died at Kief£ and was buried in that, the sacred city of Russia, where his name and tomb are held in high honour. Uunc »J.

AuwtT. S. Cpjwcrnb, Disciple of S. Paul, cite. a.d. xoo. SS. Zoilus and Comp., MM. at Cordova, 4 tk cent. S. Anbctus, M. at Ceetarta, in Cappadocia [a region of central Turkey], circ. a.d. 3x0. S. Dbodatus, B. of Nolo, in Italy, a.d. 473* S. Sampson Xbnodoobus, P. at Constantinople, a.d. 530. S. John op Chino n, P.C. in Touraine, 6th cent. SS. Ariald and Hbrlembald, MM. at Milan, a.d. xo66 and 1073. S. Ladislas, K. of Hungary, a.d. 1096.