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144 144 B. CANDIDA To their regret, they had no children. At last God told them that they should have a son, who would be one of His great servants. When he was bom they called him Emerios. The Christians in the north of Spain, being oppressed by the Moors, sent to ask help of Charles, king of France. (It is uncertain whether it was Charles Martel or his grandson Charlemagne.) They lost many battles, and their resist- ance ceased. After some years it was revealed to the king that the time had come for him to renew the war against the Moors, and that Emerius, who was then a hermit, was destined to help him. The king accordingly took him for his gnide. During this campaign, Emerius procured bread for hungry Christians and restored to life those who died of famine. The king besieged the dty of Querquens for seven years, and then he resolved to raise the siege and go into Catalonia. As he began to draw off his army, Emerius cried out, '^O king, oome to Querquenssona." He returned and took the city, and it was called Carcassonne. Then he went into Cata- lonia, to a marshy place called Balneoli, infested by a lion, the terror of the people. Emerius caught it by pouring holy water on it. He built a church and monastery on the place, and dedicated them in the name of St. Stephen. The king and army did not want to part with him ; but as he was determined to leave all secular concerns, they made him abbot, to establish the Benedictine rule there. Some time after, Candida having become a widow, went in search of her son, and found him in the island of Fargat Great was the joy of both, but after a few days Emerius realized that the delight of his mother's society was wi)ining his heart back to earth, and as he had decided to give it all to God, he requested her to go and leave him. She said, " Oh, my son, we have had so little happiness and comfort together : let me stay with you and serve God and lead a life of poverty." He said it could not be, but he would send her away only as far as he could throw his stick. She consented, thinking it would be only a few yards ; but he threw it a very long way. She kept her promise and took up her abode in the place he had assigned to her, and there she ended her days. AA,SS. Bucelinus, Men. Ben. B. Candida (14), Blanche, queen of France. St. Canna, Oct. 25. Gth century. Native of Bretagne. Wife, first, of St Sadwrn, also a Breton, and by him mother of St. Crallo. She migrated to Wales with her first husband, and there, secondly, she married Gallgu Bieddog, and was by him mother of St. Elian Geimad. Elian is in Latin Hilarius. Sadwrn was nephew of Canna's great- uncle, St. Germain of Auxcrre. They were related to many Welsh and Armo- rican saints. They give names to several places in Wales. AAJ3S. Eees, Welsh Saints J p. 222, says she founded Llan- ganna, in Glamorgan, and Llangan in Caermarthen. St. Cannera, or Canneria, Jan. 28, V. Gth century. A native of Bentraig, near Bantry Bay. Her kinsman, St. Senan, founded and ruled a small com- munity of monks in Scattery, near the mouth of the Shannon. One of his most important rules was that no woman should enter that island. Cannera, how- ever, was determined to be buried there,, and to receive the last sacrament from the hands of Senan. Guided there by an angel or by a vision, she begged him to allow her to land. He positively refused to let her set foot on the place consecrated to> the use of his commnuity. He told her to go to his mother Comgella (2), who lived near. Cannera said she had taken this long journey on purpose to have a perpetual resting-place in his island; that Christ suffered for both sexes, and opened the gate of heaven to women as well as to men; and that the apostlea suffered women to minister to them, and did not disdain their hospitality or society. After a great deal of argument,, she said she would only ask that in her life she should receive the Holy Com- munion, and in death as much earth on the shore as would cover her. SenaD contended that the sea would wash away her grave. She said it would not. At last he consented. He gave her the holy viaticum, and she immediately died