seventh of February, and styled in the Menology, the glory of Hellas, or Greece; but the history given of him is superficial and unsatisfactory. The learned Combefis in 1648 published extracts of his life from a manuscript in the library of the French king. The holy father and wonder-worker was before so much forgotten, that he is unnoticed by Baronius. A translation of the whole record may be found in the Latin Acts of the Saints. The author was a disciple of St. Luke, is diffuse, and inclines to the marvellous. The following summary will display the wretchedness of Greece after the decline of the Roman empire, and, like a mirror, reflect a portrait of the times to which it refers.

St. Luke junior was so named to distinguish him from another saint, who lived under the same emperors. He was descended of a family which had fled from Ægina, that island being harassed by the Saracens in possession of Crete, and settled first by the mountain of St. John in Phocis; but, pirates infesting the seas and coast, removed to a port called Bathys, where Stephen, the father of Luke, was born, and from thence to a village named Castorium. Luke was seized at an early age with the phrensy of the times, and resolving to be a hermit, retired about the year 908, when he was eighteen years old, to the above mountain, commonly called Johanitza, his mother Euphrosyne consenting with reluctance. He was invested with the divine and apostolical habit, as it was termed, by two aged monks on their way to Rome. In the seventh year of his abode in that solitude, the Bulgarians under Symeon made an irruption into the empire. Euboea and the Peloponnesus were filled with fugitives, and Luke, with

a multitude, passed over to the neighbouring islands. He escaped his pursuers by swimming, and arrived at Corinth, where, as he was illiterate, he went to school. At Patræ was one of the living statues, then not infrequent; a madman standing on a column. To this Stylites did Luke minister for ten years, fishing, getting wood, and dressing victuals; preventing him from starving, and enabling him to preserve his footing on his pedestal.

Peter, who succeeded Symeon, making peace with the Romans in 927, Luke returned to Johanitza. From thence, for greater privacy, he withdrew to Calabium. In 934, some of the Turkish race overrunning the country, he took refuge in an islet named Ampelon; and resided three years on that dry and barren rock, often distressed for food and water, when the winds were rough and the seas impassable. He removed next to the spot which, says the biographer, saw him die, and is now enriched by his sacred relics. The companions of his late danger represented to him, that he was continually disturbed on the islet by boats and passengers. They prevailed on him to leave it, and conducted him to a place delectable indeed, cool and silent, with plenty

2 Many names of places in Greece were corrupted or changed in this century. Crissa, it is likely, is intended by the author, where he mentions τοῦ Χρύσου ἐπαρχίαν-τὰ τοῦ Χρύσου μέρη. Bathys, it is supposed, was opposite to Euboea, and, with Castorium, in Thessaly; Calabium, in Attica; Ampelon, one of the islets of the Saronic gulf. Luke retired finally, it is said, to Zwτnpiov xãpov. The editor of Acta S. S. supposes this name derived from the cures effected by the dead saint, and afterwards contracted into Στήριον ; but the true reading is, Στηρίου χῶρον. Thus in the Lives of the Saints, Luke, we read, γενόμενος αἴτιος σριας (sc. σωτηρίας) φθάνει εἰς τὸν τόπον τοῦ Στηρίου. The place was Stiris.

of limpid water to allay his thirst, or to promote vegetation; and scarcely accessible to man. Luke cleared the wood, planted a variety of herbs and trees, was hourly employed in improving and adorning his garden, and in rendering it a terrestrial paradise. He erected his cell afar off from it, and the fountain, for concealment, among some thickets. Luke was now in high reputation, admired for his austerities, revered for the sanctity of his deportment, and regarded as a prophet. After seven years he called together his friends and neighbours, and taking an affectionate farewell, desired their prayers, for it was uncertain whether they should meet again. He returned to his cell, and lingered some months, when his fever increasing he died, much lamented the people flocking to attend his sick bed, though it was winter, the weather extremely severe, and the ways, after an immense fall of snow, almost impassable.

Luke had directed Gregory, a presbyter, to dig beneath where he lay, and bury him; adding, that God would glorify the spot, and occasion it to be visited by multitudes of the faithful. He obeyed, and depositing the sacred body publicly, as a common treasure, with the usual ceremonies, replaced the brick pavement. After six months, a monk and eunuch named Cosmos, stopping on his passage to Italy, was conducted, as by a divine hand, to the hermitage and cell of Luke, which pleased him so much, that he vowed never to leave it; and seeing his grave neglected, he raised the holy coffin above the ground, and enclosed it in a tomb, encompassed with rails to prevent any from touching it, but those who were disposed to approach with devotion.

The pious care of Cosmas was not unrewarded. Two years after, some of his followers perceived a fragrant oil flowing plentifully from the holy coffin. This incited them to erect cells; to decorate, as well as they were able, the rude church of St. Barbara; and to provide small houses for the accommodation of strangers; believing, it may be presumed, with the editor of the life, that this property, for which several sanctified carcasses have been renowned, was not bestowed by God but as a testimony that the body should prove an invaluable fountain of medicine. Many miraculous cures were performed. The fame of the saint was propagated. His cell was converted into a handsome oratory in the shape of a cross; and numbers repaired to his tomb, as to another Siloe.

CHAP. LXIII.

THE MONASTERY OF ST. LUKE-THE FOUNDER THE CHURCH -THE RELICS OF ST. LUKE-THE TOMBS OF THE EMPEROR ROMANUS AND HIS QUEEN-THE HERMITAGE.

THE monastery of St. Luke is a barbarous edifice, and of an ordinary appearance. Near it, by the road-side, is erected a wooden cross. It is reckoned two hours from the sea, and four west of Lebadea. The apartments or cells are very mean. The number of monks was then an hundred and twenty, most of them absent, keeping flocks or employed in agriculture. We were entertained by the hegumenos, or abbot, who told us that the convent was greatly in debt, and that they suffered much from exactions, besides paying to the amount of an hundred and seventy-five pounds sterling yearly tribute to the

It is

Turks. The air is bad, and water distant. likely they go to the fountain, which supplied the inhabitants of Stiris.

In the church is a copy of Iambic verses in two columns, in an antiquated hand, hung up in a frame, and containing a panegyric on the monastery, written soon after it was built. I copied them from a transcript produced by the abbot, which had a proseexposition in more modern Greek, placed opposite. The author informs us, that Romanus Porphyrogennetus was the founder. This emperor was the son of Constantine Porphyrogennetus, who was descended from Flavius Basilius, a Macedonian, of Armenian origin, and of the race of the Arsacidæ. He was crowned in 945, or about the time when Luke died, by his father, and, at the instigation of his wife, endeavoured to destroy him by poison, but he survived until 960. Romanus died in 963, about two years after the taking of Crete. Theophano was made regent for her sons, and lived several years. A firm attachment to Romanus is recommended in the Iambics. St. Luke was said to have foretold, that Crete would be subdued under an emperor of that name. His biographer observes, that this prophecy had been fulfilled, but, it is remarkable, does not mention the regard shewn by Romanus to his favourite saint.

The monastery of St. Luke is styled by its panegyrist the glory of Hellas, and the queen of all monasteries, on account of its church, which, for magnificence and the grandeur of its proportions, is not equalled perhaps in all Greece. This sumptuous fabric within retains the shape of the oratory, into which the cell of Luke was changed. It has suffered