On that day, carried by his brethren, he was laid before the altar of the Virgin Mother, and the monks sang vespers. Now and then their voices failed, through over much sorrow, and then he recited the words of the psalms they in their trouble had omitted. As night crept in at the windows, he grew weaker and fainter. Then the brothers laid sack-cloth and ashes under him, and as he was lifted in the arms of one, brother Bernard, he asked, reviving a little, where he was. The brother answered, "On sack-cloth and ashes." Then he sighed forth, "God be thanked!" and he asked that the little children, and the whole body of the brethren, might be assembled. And when all were gathered around him, he directed his eyes to the Cross, and his lips moved in prayer, and he died thus in prayer, gazing on the sign of his salvation. His body was laid in the nave of the Church of Souvigny, near that of S. Majolus. He is often represented saying mass, with purgatory open beside the altar, and those suffering extending their hands to him, in allusion to his having instituted the commemoration of All Souls. FOOTNOTES: [14] The Hermits, by Rev. C. Kingsley, p. 153, 154. [15] This passage has been quoted by some to show that at this period special vestments were not in general use for the Eucharist, as an argument against their present use. But it by no means appears from the passage quoted that Fulgentius did not wear Eucharistic vestments. It simply says that he wore at Mass the habit he lived and slept in. This is what monks and friars do now; they put the vestment over the habit. JANUARY 2. The Octave of S. Stephen, the First Martyr. SS. FRONTASIUS, AND COMPANIONS, _MM. in Gaul_. SS. MARTYRS, _at Lichfield, circ._ A.D. 304. S. ISIDORE, _B.C., in Egypt, 4th cent._ S. MACARIUS, OF ALEXANDRIA, _Ab._, A.D. 394. S. ASPASIUS, C., _at Melun, France_, A.D. 550. S. MAXIMUS, _Ab. M., in France_, A.D. 614. S. ADALHARDT, _Ab. of Corbie_, A.D. 826. S. SILVESTER, _Monk of Trani, in S. Italy_, A.D. 1185. THE HOLY MARTYRS OF LICHFIELD. (A.D. 304.) [Anglican Martyrologies.] Lichfield derives its name from Lyke-field, the field of dead bodies, because it is traditionally said, that in the persecution of Diocletian, many Christians suffered there for the faith. The arms of Lichfield are a plain strewn with corpses. Nothing certain is known of this event, which is probably altogether apocryphal. S. MACARIUS OF ALEXANDRIA, AB. (A.D. 394.)