NYCTAGES

OCLEATINUS

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NYCTAGES, heretics described by IsidoresHispal., as opposing vigils on the ground thatGod made the day for work and the night forsleep. They took up merely the same groundas Vigilantius against Jerome and the subdeaconTimotheus against St. Nilus, cf. Nili Epist. i. 26.(Isidor. Hispal. de Ecdes. Offio. i. 22, in Migne’sPat. Lat. t. 83, col. 759.) [G. T. S.j

NYMPH A, a virgin saint of about the fifthcentury, honoured in Tuscany and at Rome(Peter Natalis, lib. x., c. 42, p. 197 ; Tillem. iii.342, 343, 709). [C. H.]

NYMPHIDIANUS, FLAVIAN US, a

scholasticus of Philadelphia, who renouncedQuartodecimanism at the council of Ephesus(Mansi, iv. 1355, v. 610, vi. 893). [C. HJ

NYMPHODOKA, martyr in Bithynia inthe reign of Maximian, with her sisters Meno-dora and Metrodora (vid. those names in D. C. A.and Tillem. v. 160). [C. H.]

NYNIA, NYNYANE. [Ninian.]

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OAN, princeps, that is, abbat, of Egg in theHebrides, died a.d. 724. (Ann. Ult. \ Reeves,S. Adamn. 307, 382.) [J. G.]

OBINUS (Ouinus), the fourth name in themythical list of the British bishops or arch-bishops of London (Godwin, de Praesulibus, ed.Richardson, p. 170 ; Ussher, Antiq. ed. 1639,p. 67.) The compiler of the list in which thename occurs was Joscelin of Furnes, a monkof the 12th century, of whose life and materialsnothing satisfactory seems to be ascertained ;and the MS. from which Ussher and the otherwriters excerpted it has not been recognised(Hardy, Cat. Mat i. 64; Fabricius, Bibliotk.Lat. s. i?.). [S.]

OCCILIANUS, addressed by Gregory theGreat in a.d. 599, on his appointment astribune of Hydrunlum or Otranto by the exarch,requesting him to redress the wrongs done byhis predecessor Viator to the inhabitants ofGallipoli, by exacting forced services from them,and otherwise oppressing them, about whichSabinus, or Sabinianus, bishop of the place, hadwritten to complain. From another letter itappears that Occilianus had personally visitedGregory (Epp. ix. 99, 100, 102). [F. D.]

OCEANUS, a Roman of noble birth in the4th and 5th centuries, connected by birth withFabiola (q. v.) and the Julian family, and byfriendship with Jerome, Augustine and Pam-machius. Jerome speaks of him as his son ( Ep.lxxvii. 1, ed. Vail, and lxix. 10), but as thespiritual father of Marcellinus, the Romangovernor (Ep. lxxvi. 1, a.d. 411). He was,perhaps, like his friend Pammachius, a senator(comp, their letter among Jerome’s Ixxxiii. withhis expression, Ep. xcvii. 3, Vos Christiani Sena-tus lumina). He probably became known toJerome during his stay in Rome in 383-5. He

was a zealous upholder of orthodoxy and strictdiscipline, and first comes to our knowledge bya public protest which he made against Carterius,a Spanish bishop who, having married beforehis baptism and lost his wife, had, as a Christian,married a second wife. Jerome points out thatthere is no law or principle condemning suchmarriages, and urges him to silence. This wasabout the year 397. Either in that or theprevious year, Oceanus, in company with Fabiola,visited Jerome at Bethlehem, whence they weredriven by the fear of the invasion of the Huns.While there, he appears to have made acquain-tance with Rufinus, who, according to Jerome’sinsinuation ( Adv . JRuf. iii. 4), had an Origenisticdocument placed in Oceanus’s room in Fabiola’shouse, with a view to identify him with thattendency. Rufinus having gone to Rome thesame year (397). and having published shortlyafterwards his edition of the Ilept ’AOceanus and Pammachius watched his actionswith critical eyes, and, on the appearance of thework, wrote to Jerome (Jer. Ep. 83) requestinghim to deny the insinuation of Rufinus that hewas only completing a work begun by Jerome,and to furnish them with a translation ofOrigen’s work as it really was. Oceanus, nodoubt, took part in the subsequent proceedingswhich led to the condemnation of Origenism atRome. On the death of Fabiola, about 399,Jerome wrote to Oceanus his Epitaphium of her(Ep. 77), accompanied by his exposition, whichhad been intended for her, of the 42 resting-places of the Israelites in the desert. At alater time, in 411, Oceanus, who had maintainedhis correspondence with Jerome, and possessedhis books against Rufinus and other of hisworks, interested himself specially in the ques-tions which arose in connexion with the Pelagiancontroversy, on the origin of souls. Jeromewrites to Marcellinus and Anapsychius (Ep. 126)who had consulted him on this subject, referringthem to Oceanus as one thoroughly “ learnedin the law of the Lord ” and capable of instruct-ing them. Oceanus was also in correspondencewith Augustine, who writes to him in the year416 on the two subjects on which he haddiffered from Jerome, the origin of souls, andthe passage in Galatians relating to the reproofof St. Peter by St. Paul at Antioch. Augustinespeaks also of another work of Jerome’s on theresurrection which had been brought by Orosiusto Oceanus, and of letters which he had receivedfrom him. The tenor of his letter indicates hisdeep respect and consideration. Oceanus isplaced by Migne with Pammachius, among theecclesiastical writers (Patrologia, vol. 20); butno writing of his has come down to us exceptthe letter to Jerome (Ep. 83). [W. H. F.]

OCIALDUS, disciple of St. Rieharius,whom c. 645 he succeeded as abbat of Centulaor St. Riquier in Picardy. (Alcuin, Vit. S.Bichar. § 14, in Pat. Lat. ci. 691; Gall. Chr . x.1243.) 1C. H.]

OCLEATINUS, forbidden by Gregory theGreat in a.d. 591, in letters to Severus, bishopof Ficulum, and to the governor and inhabitantsof Ariminum (Epp. 1, 57, 58), on what groundsit is not stated, to be chosen bishop of that city.

[F. D.]