Johu iii. 30. This interpretation is given by Augustine, Serm. 12 in Nat. Dom. : "In nativitate Christi dies crescit ; in Johannis nativitate decrescit. Profeetum plane facit dies, quum mundi Salvator oritur ; defectum patitur, quum ultimus prophetarum generatur." ^ Festum decollationis S. Johannis B. ^ This Sunday is therefore called by the Greeks the Martyrs' and Saints' Sun- day, f] KvptaKT} T uiv 07:011' iravT (iiv , OT t Siv ay idiv Ka\ /xapr vpwv. We have a homily of Chrysostom on it : 'Ey/cco/xioi' eh rovs ayiovs ndvTa^ roTy eV '6\tfi Tqi Koo-yuw /j.apTvpr]<TavTes, or De martyribus totius orbis. Horn. Ixxiv. Opera, tom. ii. •ZU sqq. * Festum S. Mlchaelis, archangeli. * Rev. xii. '7-9 ; comp. Jude, vs. 9. ^ Comp. Augusti, Archaeologie, i. p. 585. Michael, e. g., in a pestilence in Rome in the seventh century, is said to have appeared as a deliverer on the Tomb of Ha- drian (Moles Hadriani, or Mausoleo di Adriano), so that the place received the name of Angel's Castle (Castello di S. Aiigelo). It lies, as is well knoirn, at the great bridge of the Tiber, and is used as a fortress. § 8G. THE CHKISTIAN CALENDAR. ACTA SANCTORUM. 445 iiltaneouslj with the worship of Maiy and the saints, and churches also were dedicated to angels, and called after their names. Thus Constantine the Great built a church to the archangel Michael on the right bank of the Black Sea, where the angel, according to the legend, appeared to some sbip- uTecked persons and rescued them from death. Justinian I. built as many as six churches to him. Yet the feast of Mi- chael, which some trace back to Pope Gelasius I., a. d, 493, seems not to have become general till after the ninth century. § 86. The Christian Calendar. The Legends of the Saints. The Acta Sanctorum. This is the place for some observations on the origin and character of the Christian calendar with reference to its eccle- siastical elements, the catalogue of saints and their festivals. The Christian calendar, as to its contents, dates from the fourth and later centm*ies ; as to its form, it comes down from classical antiquity, chiefly from the Romans, whose numerous calendars contained, together with astronomical and astrologi- cal notes, tables also of civil and religious festivals and public sports. Two calendars of Christian Eome still extant, one of the year 354, the other of the year 448,' show the transition. The former contains for the first time the Christian week be- ginning with Sunday, together with the week of heathen Kome ; the other contains Christian feast days and holidays, thougli as yet very few, viz., four festivals of Christ and six martyr days. The oldest purely Christian calendar is a Gothic one, which originated probably in Thrace in the fourth cen- tury. The fragment still extant^ contains thirty-eight days for November and the close of October, among which seven days are called by the names of