86 ST. ASGITH injured ber health or her skin ; she was over fifty when, according to Jerome,
- ' with a sound body and a still sounder
soul, she found for herself a monkish coll in the midst of busy Homo." In 884, in one of St. Jerome's letters to St. Mar- cella, he praises St. Asella, and says, '* Do not tell her what I say, for she will be displeased with eulogies of herself, but read the letter to young girls, that they may find in her conduct a rule of perfect piety. Let widows and virgins imitato her. Let wives make much of her, let sinful women fear her, and let bishops look up to her." St. Jerome highly valued Asella's affection for him ; he calls her an ** example of modesty," •* the ornament of virginity," " a flower of the Lord." To her, as ono of the eldest and most honoured of the community of learned and pious women who so valued his instruction, he ad- dressed the farewell letter which he wrote from the ship in the port of Ostia, by which he was leaving Home for tho East in 385. In it he in<£gnantly refutes the calumnies which called him an impostor and a hypocrite, and miscon- strued his friendship with St. Paula and other friends. He bids her salute several of the familiar group by name, and among them '* Albina your mother, and Marcella your sister." Notwithstanding these words, and the fact that sho was undoubtedly on a sisterly footinf; in the house and social circle of Marcella, Tillemont and some other historians and commentators say that this relationship is not to be understood literally, and that it is not known to what family Asella belonged. Palladius, who visited Rome in 405, says that he saw there the excellent Asella — that virgin of Christ who had so holily grown old in a monastery. He calls her the gentlest of women, and says that she took the most loving care of a company and a house, where they re- ceived and instructed new converts. She was then about seventy. B.M. St. Jerome's Letters, Free- mantle's edition, letters 24, 45. Baronius, Annalcs. Tillemont, Hiatoire des Anteura Ecclesiaaiiques, xii. Baillet, Vice des Saints. St. Asgith, OsiTH. St. Askama. See Acrabonia. St. Aspasia, Athanasia (i). St* Aspedia, Dec. 14, M. Mentioned in the Marty rolofjy of St. Jerome, St. Aspida, Feb. 5. tJth century- Belated to St. Avitus, Archbishop of Yienne, who took an important part in the religious and theological contro- versies of his time. His name is in the R.M., Feb. 5, tho day of his death, which occurred in 523, and some of his poems and letters are extant. Aspida is men- tioned in his Life, but her right to the title of Saint is uncertain. AA,SS. Ser FUSCINA. St. Aste, Nov. 20, V. M. in Persia, with a man called Boithazate, and a great many other holy martyrs. Pet in » Diet. Hag. St. Asteria, or Hesteria, Aug. ID, V. M. Patron of Bergamo. Sister of St. Grata of Bergamo, where, in the time of Diocletian and Maximian, they both buried St. Alexander. Grata was put to death. Astoria buried her, and afterwards was herself arrested, tortured^ and beheaded. Sec the legend of Hes- teria. JB.ilf. Biograjia Eccles. St. Astrude, Austkude. St. Astuta, Fob. 28. One of many martyrs at Alexandria. Henscheniu.s, in AA.SS., from Mart, of Bcichman. St. Atalduid, Adfalduid. St Atea, May 2:i, July 5 (Aetha, Alea, Athea, Athy), 0th century, was a cousin and disciple of St. Modwenka. They lived in Ireland, and built a monas- tery on a hill, laboured with their hands for their daily bread, " fall often digging with a mattocke and sowing seeds in the earth," and feeding on raw herbs. They came from Ireland to England with Luge, Brigid, and St. Honan the brother of Modwenna. When they arrived on the Irish shore, thoy found no boat to take them across the sea. They prostrated themselves on the ground and prayed for aid, and lo, the earth on which they lay was severed from the land and floated out to sea : and, directed by an angel, thqy arrived on the coast of England. When Mod- wenna built her monasteries, she left Atoa in charge of PoUesworth while she
