Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 1.djvu/200

ADYTUM land are termed advowsons in gross. There are in the Church of England more than 13,000 benefices; of these, in or about 1878, private persons held the advowsons of some 7,000, and bishops, of only about 2,324, the remainder being divided among deans and chapters, the universities, and parochial clergy. The ancient duty of protection, or championship, ceased, long since, to attach to the right of presentation. An advowson may apparently be held by a Jew, if he be owner in his own right, and not merely in an official capacity. But no Roman Catholic or alien may exercise the rights of a patron or present to a living in the Church of England. To the king, as patron paramount of all benefices in England, belongs the right of presenting to those benefices to which no other person has a right of presentation.

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Adytum (From '; sc. privative + =enter), a secret chamber or place of retirement in the ancient temples, and esteemed the most sacred spot; the innermost sanctuary or shrine. None but the officiating priests were permitted to enter. From this place the oracles were given. The Holy of Holies, or Sanctum Sanctorum, of the temple of Solomon was of the nature of the pagan adytum; none but the high priest being admitted into it, and he but once a year. Among the Egyptians the secos was the same thing, and is described by Strabo. A well-preserved adytum that has come to our knowledge is in the little temple in Pompeii; it is raised some steps above the level of the temple itself, and is without light. In Christian architecture it sometimes signifies the chancel, or altar end of a church. (See .) 2em

Aedan of Ferns, ('Aedh-og or Mo-Aedh-og). Bishop and patron of Ferns, in Ireland, b. at Inisbrefny, near Templeport, County Cavan, about 550; d. at Ferns, 31 January, 632. When a youth he was a hostage in the hands of Aedh Ainmire, High-King of Ireland. He studied at the great school of Kilmuine, in Wales, under St. David, and returned to Ireland in 580, landing on the coast of Wexford. In thanksgiving for the victory of Dunbolg, County Wicklow, 10 January 598, in which King Aedh was slain, Bran Dubh, King of Leinster, convened a synod at which, having represented the great services rendered to the kingdom of Leinster by St. Aedan, notably the remission of the Boromha tribute, it was agreed that Ferns be made an episcopal see, with Aedan as first bishop. He was also given a nominal supremacy over the other Leinster bishops by the title of Ard-Escop or Chief Bishop. King Bran Dubh was slain in Ferns in 605. St. Aedan, popularly known as Mogue (Mo-Aedh-og = my dear Aedh) founded thirty churches in the County Wexford. The episcopal seat of Ferns is now at Enniscorthy, where there is a beautiful cathedral dedicated to St. Aedan, whose patronal feast is observed 31 January.

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'Ædesius and Frumentius. See

Aedh. King of Leinster, an Irish saint, commemorated by Colgan under date of 4 January; but much obscurity attaches to his lifework. The "Annals of the Four Masters" and the "Annals of Ulster" agree in the account of this monarch, who resigned his crown and eventually became Bishop of Kildare. Under the name of Aidus, a latinized form of Aedh, his name is to be found in several martyrologies. The year of his death was 639, according to the corrected chronology of the "Annals of Ulster." Colgan tells us that he resigned the throne of Leinster in 591 (really, 592), and entered the great monastery of Kildare, where he served God for forty-eight years, becoming successively abbot and bishop. His episcopate was from about 630 to 639. He must not be confounded with Aedh Finn, king of Ossory, known as "Aedh the cleric," who was a contemporary, and resigned the throne of Ossory for a monastic cell. St. Aedh of Leinster is styled Aedh Dubh, from his dark features, whilst Aedh of Ossory was fair, hence the affix finn (fionn=fair). Another St. Aedh is venerated on 3 May.

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Ægidius. See.

Ægidius of Assisi, one of the original companions of St. Francis. He is also known as Blessed Giles, and holds the foremost place among the companions of St. Francis. "The Knight of our Round Table" St. Francis called him. Of his antecedents and early life nothing certain is known. In April, 1209, moved by the example of two leading fellow-Assisians, who became the first followers of St. Francis, he begged permission to join the little band, and on the feast of St. George was invested in a poor habit St. Francis had begged for him. Almost immediately afterwards he set out with St. Francis to preach in the Marches of Ancona. He accompanied the saint to Rome when the first Rule was approved orally by Innocent III, and appears to have then received the clerical toasure. About 1212 Ægidius made a pilgrimage to the tomb of St. James at Compostella, in Spain. Shortly after his return to Assisi he started for Jerusalem, to venerate the Holy Places, visiting on his way home the Italian shrines of St. Michael, at Monte Gargano, and St. Nicholas, at Bari. We next find him in Rome and still later at Tunis. In these journeys Ægidius was ever at pains to procure by manual labour what food and shelter he needed. At Ancona he made reed baskets; at Brindisi he carried water and helped to bury the dead; at Rome he cut wood, trod the wine-press, and gathered nuts; while the guest of a cardinal at Rieti he insisted on sweeping the house and cleaning the knives. A keen observer of men and events, Ægidius acquired in the course of these travels much valuable knowledge and experience, which he turned to good account. For he lost no occasion of preaching to the people. His sermons, if such they can be called, were brief and heartfelt talks, replete with homely wisdom; he never minced his words, but spoke to all with apostolic freedom. After some years of activity Ægiduis was assigned by St. Francis to the hermitage of Fabriano, where he began that life of contemplation and ecstasy which continued with very visible increase until his death. It was in 1262, on the fifty-second anniversary of his reception into the Order of Friars Minor, that Ægidius passed away, already revered as a saint. His immemorial cultus was confirmed by Pius VI, and his feast is celebrated on the twenty-third of April.

Ægidius was a stranger to theological and classical learning, but by constant contemplation of heavenly things, and by the divine love with which he was inflamed, he acquired that fullness of holy wisdom