OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/St. Etheldreda

From volume 5 of the work.
Queen of Northumbria; born (probably) about 630; died at Ely, 23 June, 679. While still very young she was given in marriage by her father, Anna, King of East Anglia, to a certain Tonbert, a subordinate prince, from whom she received as morning gift a tract of land locally known as the Isle of Ely. She never lived in wedlock with Tonbert, however, and for five years after his early death was left to foster her vocation to religion. Her father then arranged for her a marriage of political convenience with Egfrid, son and heir to Oswy, King of Northumbria. From this second bridegroom, who is said to have been only fourteen years of age, she receivedcertain lands at Hexham; through St. Wilfrid of York she gave these lands to found the minster of St. Andrew. St. Wilfrid was her friend and spiritual guide, but it was to him that Egfrid, on succeeding his father, appealed for the enforcement of his marital rights as against Etheldreda's religious vocation. The bishop succeeded at first in persuading Egfrid to consent that Etheldreda should live for some time in peace as a sister of the Coldingham nunnery, founded by her aunt, St. Ebba, in what is now Berwickshire. But at last the imminent danger of being forcibly carried off by the king drove her to wander southwards, with only two women in attendance. They made their way to Etheldreda's own estate of Ely, not, tradition said, without the interposition of miracles, and, on a spot hemmed in by morasses and the waters of the Ouse, the foundation of Ely Minster was begun. This region was Etheldreda's native home, and her royal East Anglian relatives gave her the material means necessary for the execution of her holy design. St. Wilfrid had not yet returned from Rome, where he had obtained extraordinary privileges for her foundation from Benedict II, when she died of a plague which she herself, it is said, had circumstantially foretold. Her body was, throughout many succeeding centuries, an object of devoutveneration in the famous church which grew up on her foundation. (See ANCIENT DIOCESE OF ELY.) One hand of the saint is now venerated in the church of St. Etheldreda, Ely Place, London, which enjoys the distinction of being the first—and at present (1909) the only—pre-Reformation church in Great Britain restored to Catholic worship. Built in the thirteenth century as a private chapel attached to the town residence of the Bishop of Ely, the structure of St. Etheldreda's passed through many vicissitudes during the centuries following its desecration, until, in 1873-74, it was purchased by Father William Lockhart and occupied by the Institute of Charity, of whose English mission Father Lockhart was then superior. Sources
DODD, Church History of England; SCHRÖDL in Kirchenlex., s.v. Edilthryde; BEDE, Hist. Eccl., IV—with the historian's Latin poem in her honor; MABILLON, Acta SS. Ord. Bened.; LOCKHART, S. Etheldreda's and Old London (2nd ed., London, 1890).
E. Macpherson
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/St. Eucherius of Lyons

From volume 5 of the work.
Eucherius, Saint, Bishop of Lyons, theologian, b. in the latter half of the fourth century; d. about 449. On the death of his wife he withdrew to the monastery of Lerins, where his sons, Veranius and Salonius, lived, and soon afterward to the neighboring island of Lerona (now Sainte-Marguerite), where he devoted his time to study and mortification. Desirous of joining the anchorites in the deserts of the East, he consulted John Cassian, who, in reply, sent him some of his "Collations", describing the daily lives of the hermits of the Thebaid. It was at this time that Eucherius wrote his beautiful letter "De laude Eremi" to St. Hilary of Arles (c. 428). Though imitating the virtues of the Egyptian solitaries, he kept in touch with men renowned for learning and piety, e.g. Cassian, St. Hilary of Arles, St. Honoratus, later Bishop of Marseilles, and Valerian, to whom he wrote his "Epistola paraenetica de contemptu mundi". The fame of Eucherius was soon so widespread in southeastern Gaul, that he was chosen Bishop of Lyons. This was probably in 434; it is certain, at least that he attended the First Council of Orange (441) as Metropolitan of Lyons, and that he retained this dignity until his death. In addition to the above-mentioned letters, Eucherius wrote "Formularium spiritualis intelligentiae ad Veranium", and "Institutiones ad Salonium", besides many homilies. His works have been published both separately and among the writings of the Fathers. There is no critical edition but the text is most accessible in Migne, "P.L.", L, 685-894. In the same volume (appendix, 893-1214) is to be found a long series of works attributed to Eucherius, some of doubtful authenticity, others certainly apocryphal.
LEON CLUGNET
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/St. Erconwald

From volume 5 of the work.
Erconwald, Saint, Bishop of London, d. about 690. He belonged to the princely family of the East Anglian Offa, and devoted a considerable portion of his patrimony to founding two monasteries, one for monks at Chertsey, and the other for nuns at Barking in Essex. Over the latter he placed his sister, St. Ethelburga, as abbess. He himself discharged the duties of superior at Chertsey. Erconwald continued his monastic life till the death of Bishop Wini in 675, when he was called to the See of London, at the instance of King Sebbi and Theodore, Archbishop of Canterbury. As monk and bishop he was renowned for holiness of life, and miracles were wrought in attestation of his sanctity. The sick were cured by contact with the litter on which he had been carried; this we have on the testimony of Venerable Bede. He was present in 686 at the reconciliation between Archbishop Theodore and Wilfrith. King Ini in the preface to his laws calls Erconwald "my bishop". During his episcopate he enlarged his church, augmented its revenues, and obtained for it special privileges from the king.
According to an ancient epitaph, Erconwald ruled the Diocese of London for eleven years. He is said to have eventually retired to the convent of his sister at Barking, where he died April 30. He was buried in St. Paul's, and his tomb became renowned for miracles. The citizens of London had a special devotion to him, and they regarded with pride the magnificence of his shrine. During the burning of the cathedral in 1087 it is related that the shrine and its silken coverings remained intact. A solemn translation of St. Erconwald's body took place November 14, 1148, when it was raised above the high altar. The shrine was robbed of its jewels and ornaments in the sixteenth century; and the bones of the saint are said to have been then buried at the east end of the choir. His feast is observed by English Catholics on November 14. Prior to the Reformation, the anniversaries of St. Erconwald's death and translation of his relics were observed at St. Paul's as feasts of the first class, according to an ordinance of Bishop Braybroke in 1386.
COLUMBIA EDMONDS
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/St. Erhard of Ratisbon

From volume 5 of the work.
Erhard of Ratisbon, Saint, bishop of that city in the seventh century, probably identical with an Abbot Erhard of Ebersheimmünster mentioned in a Merovingian diploma of 684. Ancient documents call him also Erard and Herhard. The legendary account of his life offers little that is historically certain. The following, however, seems reliable. Erhard was born in Ireland, then known as "Scotia". Like many of his countrymen he went to the Continent as missionary bishop or chorepiscopus, and coming to the Vosges met there St. Hildulf, said to have been Archbishop of Trier, and who lived there as a hermit (666-671). He is called Erhard's brother, but very likely spiritual relationship was meant. It is said that each of them founded seven monasteries. Thence Erhard went to Ratisbon and founded the nunnery of Niedermünster. By Divine inspiration he was recalled to the Rhineland to baptize St. Odilia, blind from her birth, but who received her eyesight at her baptism. He sent a messenger to her father, Duke Attich, and reconciled him with his disowned daughter. According to another account, St. Odilia was baptized by Hildulf, Erhard acting as her sponsor. The year of his death is not known. He was interred in the still-extant Erhardcrypt at Niedermünster, and miracles were wrought at his grave, that was guarded in the Middle Ages by "Erhardinonnen", a religious community of women who observed there a perpetual round of prayer. Otto II, in 974, made donations of properties in the Danube valley to the convent "where the holy confessor Erhard rests". On October 7, 1052, the remains of the holy bishops Erhard and Wolfgang were raised by Pope St. Leo IX in presence of Emperor Henry III and many bishops, a ceremony which was at that time equivalent to canonization. Ratisbon documents, however, mention only the raising of Wolfgang, not that of Erhard. At the close of the eleventh century, Paul von Bernried, a monk of Fulda, at the suggestion of Abbess Heilika of Niedermünster, wrote a life of Erhard and added a second book containing a number of miracles. The learned canon of Ratisbon, Conrad of Megenberg (d. 1374), furnished a new edition of this work. The church in Niedermünster, now a parish church, still preserves the crosier of the saint, made of black buffalo-horn. A bone of his skull was enclosed in a precious receptacle in 1866 and is placed upon the heads of the faithful on his feast day, January 8 Three ancient Latin lives of the saint are found in the Acta Sanctorum (8 Jan). The beautiful reliquary is reproduced in Jakob, "Die Kunst im Dienste der Kirche" (illust. 16).
Gabriel Meier.
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/St. Ethelwold

From volume 5 of the work.
Ethelwold, Saint, Bishop of Winchester was born there of good parentage in the early years of the tenth century; d. August 1, 984. After a youth spent at the court of King Athelstan, Ethelwold placed himself under Elphege the Bald, Bishop of Winchester, who gave him the tonsure and ordained him priest along with Dunstan. At Glastonbury, where he was dean under Saint Dunstan, he was a mirror of perfection. In 955 he became Abbot of Abingdon; and November 29, 963, was consecrated Bishop of Winchester by Dunstan, with whom and Oswald of Worcester he worked zealously in combating the general corruption occasioned by the Danish inroads. At Winchester, both in the old and in his new minster (see Saint Swithin), he replaced the evil-living seculars with monks and refounded the ancient nunnery. His labors extended to Chertsey, Milton (Dorsetshire), Ely, Peterborough, and Thorney; expelling the unworthy, rebuilding and restoring; to the rebellious "terrible as a lion", to the meek "gentler than a dove". The epithets "father of monks" and "benevolent bishop" summarize Ethelwold's character as reformer and friend of Christ's poor. Though he suffered much from ill-health, his life as scholar, teacher, prelate, and royal counselor was ever austere. He was buried in Winchester cathedral, his body being translated later by Elphege, his successor. Abingdon monastery in the twelfth century had relics of Ethelwold. He is said to have written a treatise on the circle and to have translated the "Regularis Concordia". His feast is kept on August 1.
Not to be confounded with the foregoing are (2) St. Ethelwold, monk of Ripon, anchoret at Lindisfarne, d. about 720; feast kept March 23; and (3) St. Ethelwold, Abbot of Melrose, Bishop of Lindisfarne, d. c. 740; feast kept February 12.
PATRICK RYAN
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/St. Ethelbert (King of Kent)

From volume 5 of the work.
King of Kent; b. 552; d. 24 February, 616; son of Eormenric, through whom he was descended from Hengest. He succeeded his father, in 560, as King of Kent and made an unsuccessful attempt to win from Ceawlin of Wessex the overlordship of Britain. His political importance was doubtless advanced by his marriage with Bertha, daughter of Charibert, King of the Franks (see BERTHA I). A noble disposition to fair dealing is argued by his giving her the old Roman church of St. Martin in his capital of Cantwaraburh (Canterbury) and affording her every opportunity for the exercise of her religion, although he himself had been reared, and remained, a worshipper of Odin. The same natural virtue, combined with a quaint spiritual caution and, on the other hand, a large instinct of hospitality, appears in his message to St. Augustine when, in 597, the Apostle of England landed on the Kentish coast (see AUGUSTINE OF CANTERBURY).
In the interval between Ethelbert's defeat by Ceawlin and the arrival of the Roman missionaries, the death of the Wessex king had left Ethelbert, at least virtually, supreme in southern Britain, and his baptism, which took place on Whitsunday next following the landing of Augustine (2 June, 597) had such an effect in deciding the minds of his wavering countrymen that as many as 10,000 are said to have followed his example within a few months. Thenceforward Ethelbert became the watchful father of the infant Anglo-Saxon Church. He founded the church which in after-ages was to be the primatial cathedral of all England, besides other churches at Rochester and Canterbury. But, although he permitted, and even helped, Augustine to convert a heathen temple into the church of St. Pancras (Canterbury), he never compelled his heathen subjects to accept baptism. Moreover, as the lawgiver who issued their first written laws to the English people (the ninety "Dooms of Ethelbert", A.D. 604) he holds in English history a place thoroughly consistent with his character as the temporal founder of that see which did more than any other for the upbuilding of free and orderly political institutions in Christendom. When St. Mellitus had converted Sæbert, King of the East Saxons, whose capital was London, and it was proposed to make that see the metropolitan, Ethelbert, supported by Augustine, successfully resisted the attempt, and thus fixed for more than nine centuries the individual character of the English church. He left three children, of whom the only son, Eadbald, lived and died a pagan.
STUBBS in Dict. Christ. Biogr., s.v.; HUNT in Dict. Nat. Biogr., s.v.; BEDE, Hist. Eccl., I, II; GREGORY OF TOURS, Historia Francorum, IV, IX; Acta SS.; BUTLER, Lives of the Saints, 24 Feb.
E. Macpherson
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/St. Eugenius of Carthage

From volume 5 of the work.
Eugenius of Carthage, Saint, unanimously elected Bishop of Carthage in 480 to succeed Deogratias (d. 456); d. July 13, 505. The election was deferred owing to the opposition of the Arian Vandal kings and was only permitted by Huneric at the instance of Zeno and Placidia, into whose family the Vandals had married. The bishop's wise government, charity to the poor, austerity of life, and courage under persecution, won the admiration of the Arians. In his uncompromising defense of the Divinity of the Word he was imitated by the members of his flock, many of whom were exiled with him, after he had admitted Vandals into the Catholic Church, contrary to royal edict, and had worsted in argument Arian theologians, whom the king pitted against the Catholics. Both sides claimed the name "Catholic", the Arians calling their opponents "Homoousians". The conference was held some time between 481 and February, 484, and ended by the withdrawal of the chief Arian bishop on the plea that he could not speak Latin. The Arians being enraged, Huneric persecuted the Catholics, exiling forty-six bishops to Corsica, and three hundred and two to the African deserts. Among the latter was Eugenius, who under the custody of a ruffian named Antonius dwelt in the desert of Tripoli. On setting out he wrote a letter of consolation and exhortation to the faithful of Carthage which is still extant in the works of Gregory of Tours (P.L., LVII, 769-71). Gunthamund, who succeeded Huneric allowed Eugenius to return to Carthage and permitted him to reopen the churches. After eight years of peace Thrasamund succeeded to the throne, revived the persecution, arrested Eugenius, and condemned him to death, but commuted the sentence into exile at Vienne, near Albi (Languedoc), where the Arian Alaric was king. Eugenius built here a monastery over the tomb of St. Amaranthus, the martyr, and led a penitential life till his death. He is said to have miraculously cured a man who was blind.
He wrote: "Expositio Fidei Catholicae", demanded of him by Huneric, probably the one submitted by the Catholic bishops at the conference. It proves the consubstantiality of the Word and Divinity of the Holy Ghost. He wrote also an "Apologeticus pro Fide"; "Altercatio cum Arianis", fragments of which are quoted by Victor de Vita; also pleas for the Catholics, addressed to Huneric or his successors. His letter to the faithful of Carthage has been mentioned above.
MARK J. MCNEAL
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/St. Eugendus

From volume 5 of the work.
Eugendus, Saint (Augendus; Fr. Oyand, Oyan), fourth Abbot of Condat (Jura), b. about 449, at Izernore, Ain, Franche-Comté; d. January 1, 510, at Condat. He was instructed in reading and writing by his father, who had become a priest, and at the age of seven was given to Sts. Romanus and Lupicinus to be educated at Condat, in the French Jura. Thenceforth he never left the monastery. He imitated the example of the above-named saints with such zeal that it was difficult to tell which of the two he resembled more. Eugendus acquired much learning, read the Greek and Latin authors, and was well versed in the Scriptures. He led a life of great austerity, but out of humility did not want to be ordained priest. Abbot Minausius made him his coadjutor, and after the former's death (about 496) Eugendus became his successor. He always remained the humble religious that he had been before, a model for his monks by his penitence and piety, which God deigned to acknowledge by miracles. After the monastery, which St. Romanus had built of wood, was destroyed by fire, Eugendus erected another of stone, and improved the community life; thus far the brethren had lived in separate cells after the fashion of the Eastern ascetics. He built a beautiful church in honor of the holy Apostles Peter, Paul, and Andrew, and enriched it with precious relics. The order, which had been founded on the rules of the Oriental monasteries, now took on more of the active character of the Western brethren; the rule of Tarnate is thought to have served as a model. Condat began to flourish as a place of refuge for all those who suffered from the misfortunes and afflictions of those eventful times, a school of virtue and knowledge amid the surrounding darkness, an oasis in the desert. When Eugendus felt his end approaching he had his breast anointed by a priest, took leave of his brethren, and died quietly after five days.
A few years after his death, his successor, St. Viventiolus, erected a church over his tomb, to which numerous pilgrims travelled. A town was founded, which was called, after the saint, Saint-Oyand de Joux, and which retained that name as late as the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, while its former name of Condat passed into oblivion. But when St. Claudius had, in 687, resigned his Diocese of Besancon and had died, in 696, as twelfth abbot, the number of pilgrims who visited his grave was so great that, since the thirteenth century, the name Saint-Claude came more and more into use and has today superseded the other. The feast of St. Eugendus was at first transferred to January 2; in the Dioceses of Besancon and Saint Claude it is now celebrated on January 4.
Acta SS., January I, 49-54; Mon. Ger. Hist. Rer. Merov. III, 154-56, ed. Krusch, who wrongly holds this text of his life as inauthentic; Analecta Bollandiana, XVII, 367; Mabillon, Acta SS., ord. s. Bened., I, 570-76.
Gabriel Meier.
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/O Salutaris Hostia

From volume 11 of the work.
(O Saving Host).
The first line of the penultimate stanza of the hymn, "Verbum supernum prodiens", composed by St. Thomas Aquinas for the Hour of Lauds in the Office of the Feast of Corpus Christi. This stanza and the final stanza, or doxology (Uni trinoque domino), have been selected to form a separate hymn for Benediction of the Most Blessed Sacrament. Usually, and most appropriately, it is begun either when the door of the tabernacle is opened or when the monstrance is being placed on the throne of exposition. In England the singing of the "O Salutaris" is enjoined in the "Ritus servandus", the code of procedure approved by a former synod of the Province of Westminster (see BENEDICTION OF THE BLESSED SACRAMENT). But the use of the hymn, not being prescribed in the rubrics, is not of universal obligation. It is, however, very generally used, although any other appropriate text is permissible, such as the "Adoro Te devote", the "Pange, lingua", the antiphon "O sacrum convivium" etc. While it is not forbidden to sing vernacular hymns at Benediction the "O Salutaris", being a liturgical text, cannot be sung in the vernacular (S.R.C., 27, Feb., 1882, Leavenworth. Cf. "Am. Eccl., Rev.", April, 1895, 341). The hymn is often chosen as a motet for solemn Mass, and may thus be used after the proper Offertory for the day has been sung or recited. An indefensible, but, fortunately, very rare, custom, perhaps inaugurated by Pierre de la Rue, the profound contrapuntal composer of the fifteenth century, was that of replacing the "Benedictus" at Mass by the "O Salutaris". Gounod imitated his example in his first "Mass of the Orpheonistes", but in his second mass of that name gives both the "Benedictus" and the "O Salutaris", as Rossini in his posthumous "Messe Solennelle" and Prince Poniatowski in his "Mass in F". The plain-song melody in the eighth mode is beautiful, and forms the theme of de la Rue's musical tour de force in the Mass of that title. The modern settings have been very numerous, although not always serviceable, inasmuch as many are too theatrical for church use; others are entirely for solo use, and still others probably violate the prescription of the Motu Proprio of 22 November, 1903, requiring that in hymns the traditional form be preserved. There are about twenty-five poetical versions of the hymn in English.
H.T. HENRY
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Nyssa

From volume 11 of the work.
A titular see in Cappadocia Prima, suffragan of Caesarea. It is mentioned by Ptolemy (V, vii, viii), in the "Itinerarium Antonini" in the "Synedemus" of Hierocles (699), and the Greek "Notitiae episcopatuum", but its history and exact location are unknown. It should be sought on the south bank of the Kizil Irmak (ancient Halys), ten miles above Kessik Keupru (Ramsay, "Asia Minor", 287, 305). Texier ("Asie Mineure", Paris, 1862, 588) wrongly identifies it with Nev Sheir. Hamilton (Researches, II, 265) speaks of a modern village called Nirse, or Nissa, but the maps show no place of this name. Le Quien (Oriens Christ., I, 391) names ten bishops of Nyssa. The last qualified as metropolitan in the sixteenth century, is certainly only a titular bishop. To the list may be added Joannicius, who lived in 1370 (Miklosich and Müller, "Acta patriarchatus Constantinopolitani", Vienna, 1860, I, 537). About this time Nyssa must have disappeared; but its name still recalls the memory of the glorious Doctor, St. Gregory.
S. Pétridès.
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Obba

From volume 11 of the work.
Titular see in Byzacena, northern Africa of unknown history, although mentioned by Polybius (XIV, vi, under the name of Abba), and Titus Livius (XXX, vii). Situated on the highway from Carthage to Theveste (Tebessa), seven miles from Lares (Lorbeus) and sixteen from Althiburus (Henshir Medina), it is the modern Ebba. Three bishops are known, Paul, present at the Council of Carthage in 225, probably the Paul mentioned in the Martyrology for 19 January; Felicissimus, A Donatist, present at the conference at Carthage in 411; and Valerianus, at the Council of Constantinople, 553
TOULOTTE, Geog. de l'Afrique chretienne: (Rennes andParis, 1892) 225.
S. Pétridès.