ANGELS AND MINISTERS OF GRACE 253
died
and were buried. The months are given in their order and below their
names appears a very brief record, giving the day and place of burial
and the name of each of the martyrs. The first entry, for instance,
reads : ' ' January 20, interment of Fabianus in the cemetery of
Callistus." The earliest martyrs mentioned are SS. Perpetua and
Félicitas who died in 202 a.D. ;
thus all definite memory of the many martyrs of the first and second
centuries seems to have been lost. Even heretics do not appear to have
been excluded, for as it is stated that the Novatians carried away the
body of Silanus, it seems more than probable that he himself belonged
to this heretical sect. As martyrs, all are regarded as equally
entitled to the highest veneration, regardless of what they may have
passed through on earth. Other communities than the Roman one
possessed similar lists, as is clearly indicated by the words of
Cyprian, in his thirty-ninth epistle, where he says: "As you remember,
we offered the sacrifice for them, just as we celebrated a
commemoration of the sufferings of the martyrs and of their anniversary
days."
To
many of the saints curative powers are attributed, and these powers are
usually specialized so that each of these saints isinvoked for aid
against a different disease or defect. "With very few exceptions it
will be found that some circumstance in the history or legend of the
saint is the origin of these beliefs. An exception may perhaps be made
in the case of the two saints to whom recourse is most frequent at the
present day, namely, St. Anthony of Padua (June 13) and St. Anne, the
mother of the Virgin Mary (July 26). Belies of the latter saint,
preserved in many parts of Europe and also in America, are regarded as
endowed with wonderful therapeutic powers. Recently, in New York City,
at the church of St. Jean Baptiste, a relic of St. Anne was shown to
many thousands of the faithful, and
