June 30 — Saints Marcellinus, and Erasmus

their glorious confession, vied with one another in obtaining sepulture near these soldiers of Christ whose protection they craved ; Constantino the Great, the vanquisher of Idolatry, deposited at their sacred feet, the remains of his mother, Saint Helena, who had herself become a terror to the demons by her discovering the True Cross. A celebrated inscription was composed in their honour, by Saint Damasus, who in childhood, had learned the details of their martyrdom, from the very executioner himself, afterwards converted ; this inscription hard by their tomb, completed the monuments of that catacomb wherein Christian art had multiplied its richest teachings.

To the memory of Saints Marcellinus and Peter, is joined in the Liturgy of to-day, the name of a holy Bishop and Martyr, formerly well known to the Faithful. If the Acts of his life that have reached us, are not free from all reproach in a critical point of view, the favours obtained by the intercession of this Saint Erasmus or Elmo, wafted his name over the whole of Christendom, as is attested by the numberless forms this name assumed, in various countries of the West during the Middle Ages. He holds a place in the group of Saints styled auxiliatores or Helpers, whose cultus is wide spread in Germany and Italy more particularly. Mariners look upon him as their patron, because of a certain miraculous voyage related in his life ; one of the tortures to which he was subjected during his Martyrdom, has made him be invoked for the cholic. Nor should we forget to mention here, how great a veneration Saint Benedict, the Patriarch of Western Monks, had for Saint Erasmus ; when he quitted the Campagna for his solitude on the banks of the Anio, he marked his principal station between Subiaco and Monte Cassino, by building a church and monastery, at Veroli, under the invocation of this holy

Martyr; another was dedicated by him in Borne likewise, to St. Erasmus.

Let us now read the few lines devoted by the Church to the memory of our three Saints.

Petrels, exorcista, Diocletiano imperatore, Eomse a Sereno judice propter christians fidei conf essionem missus in carcerem, Paulinam Artemii, qui carceri prseerat, filiam a daemone agitatam 1»beravit. Quo facto et parentes puellse cum tota familia et vicino, qui ad rei novitatem concurrerant, Jesu Chri8to conciliates ad Marcellinum presbyterum adduxit, a quo omnes baptizati sunt. Quod ubi rescivit Serenus, Petrum et Marcellinum ad se vocatos asperius objurgat et ad verborum acerbitatem minas ac terrores adjungit, nisi Christorenuntient. Cui cum Marcellinus Christiana libertate responderet, pujjnis contusum et a Petro sejunctum, nudum includit in carcerem stratum vitri fragmentis, sine cibo ac sine lumine. Petrum item constringi imperat arctissimis vinculis. Sed cum utri^ue ex tormentis fides et animus cresceret, constanti confessione et abscisso capite, illustre testimonium Jesu Christo dederunt.

Peter, an Exorcist, was cast into prison at Rome, under the Emperor Diocletian, by the J udge Serenus, because he confessed the Christian faith. He there set free Paulina, the daughter of Artemius, the keeper of the prison, from an . evil spirit which tormented her. Upon this, Artemius and his wife and all their house, with their neighbours who had run together to see the strange thing, would fain be attached unto the service of Jesus Christ. Peter therefore brought them to Marcellinus, the Priest, who baptised them all. When Serenus heard of it. he called Peter and Marcellinus before him, aud sharply rebuked them, adding to his bitter words, threats and terrors, unless they would deny Christ. Marcellinus answered him with Christian boldness, whereupon he caused him to be buffeted, separated him from Peter, and shut him up naked, in a prison strewn with broken glass, without either food or light. Peter also he straitly confined. But when both of them were found but to increase in faith and courage, in their bonds, they were beheaded, unshaken in their testimony, and confessing J esus Christ gloriously, by thejr blood.

Erasmus Bishop was, in Campania, under the empire of Diocletian and Maximian, beaten with clubs and whips loaded with lead, and afterwards plunged into resin, sulphur, melted lead, boiling pitch, wax also and oil. From all this, he came forth whole and sound; which wonder converted many to believe in Christ. He was remanded again to prison, and straitly bound in iron fetters. But from these he was wondrously delivered by an Angel. At last, being taken to Formi, Maximian caused him to be subjected to divers torments, and, in the end, being clad in a coat of red-hot brass, the power of God made him be more than conqueror in all these things also. Afterwards, having converted to the faith and confirmed many therein, he obtained the palm of a glorious martyrdom.

You three holy Martyrs did all confess Jesus Christ, in the midst of the most terrific storm ever raised by the demon against the Church. Though all three in different grades of the hierarchy, you were alike guides of the Christian people, drawing them by thousands, in your train, into the arena of martyrdom, and by still more numerous conversions, filling up the void made in earth's chosen band, by the departure of your victorious companions to heaven. Wherefore, the Church, this day, joins her grateful homage, here below, with the silvery shouts of glad congratulation that ring through the Church triumphant. Be ye propitious, as of yore, in alleviating the

Erasmus, episcopus imperatoribus Diocletiano et Maximiano, in Campania plumbatis et fustibus csesus, resina quoque, sulphure, plumbo liquefacto et ferventipice, cera oleoque perfusus, inde tamen integer et inviolatus evasit. Quo miraculo multi se ad Christi fidem converterunt. Verum is, iterum detrusus in carcerem, constrictus ferreis gravissimisque vinculis, inde ab angelo mirabiliter ereptus est. Deinde Formiis a Maximiano variis affectus suppliers, tunicaque aerea candenti indutus, ilia etiam tormenta divina virtute superavit. Denique, plurimis et in fide confirmatis et ad fidem conversis, insignem martyrii palmam adeptus est.

JIls that overwhelm mankind in this vale of tears. The excess of man's misery, is that he seems to have fortten how to call on suoh powerful protectors, in his or of need. Revive your memory, in our midst, by new benefits to our race.

As thou, 0 Erasmus, wast formerly protected by heaven, do thou now, in thy turn, suocour those who area prey to the tempest-tossed sea. In thy last hour of bitter anguish, thou didst suffer thine executioners to tear thy very bowels ; lend then a kindly aid to suoh as call upon thy name when racked by pains whioh bear some resemblance, though but faint, to what thou didst endure for Christ.

Peter and Marcellinus, linked one to another both in toil and in glory, cast gentle eyes upon us : one glance of yours would make all hell to tremble, — would drive far from us its darksome cohorts. B ut how muoh is your aid needed in society at large, — in (he whole visible world ! The foe you did so mightily thrust backwards into the fiery pit, is once more master. Alas ! have we oome to the time, in whioh again taking up war against the Saints, it shall be granted him to overcome them P 1 Scarce does he even hide himself, now-a-days. Not only does he lead the world by a thousand springs ostensibly put in his hands by Societies formerly Secret ; but he may be seen trying to push his way into gatherings of all sorts, into the very bosom of homes, as a family guest, as a comrade in diversion or in business, with tabletuning and all those processes for divination such as TertulUan denounced in your early day. The expulsion of demons by Christianity had been so absolute that up to more recent times, such fatal practices had fallen into utter oblivion amongst us. If at first, in Christian families, the warning voice of the Pastors

1 Apoc. xiii. 7. 3 Apol. xxiiu of God's Church has prevailed over the incitements of an unhealthy curiosity, still a sect has since been formed, in which Satan is sole guide and oracle. The Spiritists, as they are called, in concert with free-masonry, are preparing the way for the final invasion of the exterior world, by infernal bands. Antichrist, with his usurped power and vain prestige, will be but the common product of political lodges and of this sect wherein the task is proposed of bringing bank, under a new form, the ancient mysteries of paganism. Valiant Soldiers of the Church, make us, we beseeoh you, worthy of our forefathers. If the Christian army must needs decrease in numbers, let faith all the more wax strong therein ; let courage neither lack nor go astray ; may its ranks be seen facing the foe, at that last hour in which the Lord Jesus will slay, with the breath of His Mouth, the man of sin, and plunge once again and for ever, the whole of Satan's orew, down into the lowest depths of the bottomless pit.

1 2Thess. ii. 8.

TIME AFTER PBNTEC08T.

June 3. SAINT CLOTILDE, queen of the franks.

At this Season, in which the Office of the Time is leading us to oonsider the early developments of Holy Churoh, Eternal Wisdom so arranges, now as ever, that the Feasts of the Saints should complete the teachings of the movable Cycle. The Paraclete, who has but just come down upon us, is to fill the whole earth ; 1 the Man-God has sent Him expressly to win over the whole earth and to secure all time, to His Church. Now, it is by subjecting kingdoms to the faith, that He is to form Christ's Empire ; it is by working so that the Church may assimilate all nations to herself, that He gives growth and oontinuanoe to the Bride. See therefore, how at this season wherein He has but just taken possession of the world anew, His co-operators in this His work of conquest, shine out on every side, in the heavens of the holy Liturgy. But the West, more than all the rest, concurs in forming the magnificent oonstellation that is mingling its radiant splendour, with the Pentecostal fires. Indeed, what oould better show the Omnipotence of the Spirit of Christ, than the establishment of this Latin ohristendom, in these distant lands of the WestP

1 Wisd. i. 7.

ST. CLOTILDE.

What Star is this rising to-day in such silvery beauty on the land of the Franks? The city of Lyons, prepared by the blood of martyrs for this her seoond glory, saw this new light make growth in her midst ; across a distance of three centuries, these rays are blended with those of Blandina * like Blandina too, Clotilde is a mother; and the maternity of a slave, giving birth in her spotless virginity to Gaulish Martyrs, had already prepared the birth of the Franks to Christ. Clotilde had not, like Blandina, to shed her blood ; but other pangs cruelly wrung her breast whilst she was yet so young, and served to mature her soul for the grand destinies reserved by God, for the privileged children of sorrow. The violent death of her father, Chilperio, dethroned by a fratricide usurper, the sight of her brothers massacred, and of her mother drowned in the Rhone, her long captivity in the Arian court of the murderer who brought heresy with him, to the throne of the Burgundians, developed in her the same heroism that had upheld Blandina in the amphitheatre, amidst the anguish of her spiritual childbirth, — a heroism that would make this nieoe of Gondebaud, become likewise the mother of a whole nation, to Christ. Let us then unite these two names in one oommon homage, and, prostrate at the Feet of the Eternal Father from Whom descendeth all paternity on earth and in heaven, let us adore these Ways of His, all filled with tenderness and love, in our regard.

God drew th visible universe out of nothingness, solely to manifest his goodness. So, in like manner, has He willed that man, coming from His hands, without power as yet to recognise his Creator, should

• Note of the Translator. The remarks here made on Saint Blandina bear on the feast observed in France or\ June 2nd. See page 71, note. » Eph. iii. 16. ] recognise, at least, a Mother's tender love, the first sensible ray, as it were, of Infinite Love. Irresistible is this ray, sublime in its gentleness, exquisite in it$ purity, giving to the Mother a facility, belonging coaly to her, to complete in the soul of her child, the entire reproduction of the Divine Ideal that is to be impress ed upon him. Now this she does by education. To-e day's feast reveals how yet more sublime, more potent* more extensive, is maternity in the order of grftce, than it is in that of nature. For, when God, coming down amongst us, was pleased to take Flesh of ft Daughter of Adam, maternity was raised in Her to the extreme limit that separates the endowments <rf a. simple creature, from the divine attributes. Thuft rising above the heavens, maternity at the same time embraced the world, bringing all mankind t*Qr gether into close union, without distinction of nation or family, in the one filiation of that Virgin- Mother The new Adam, the perfect model of our rape, an. our first-born, willed to have us for His brethren in all fulness, brethren in Mary as in God, The Mother of God was then proclaimed Mother of nm^ on Calvary ; from the summit of the Gross, the Man- God replaced upon the brow of Mary that diadem <tf Eve, broken by the fall, beside the fatal tree. Constituted sole Mother of the living, by this noble invest titure, our Lady entered once again, into communis cation with the privileges of the Father, our Father who is in Heaven. Not only was she by nature, like Him, Mother of His Son ; but, just as all paternity flows down here below from the Eternal Father, *nd borrows thenoe supereminent dignity; so tpo» all maternity was naught, from that moment, bwt a$ out-flow of Mary's, and that in the truest sense yea, a delegation of her love, and a communication

1 Rom. viiif ? ; Heb. ii. 11-12. * Matth i. 25 ; H«b. i. ft,

3Gen,iii. St. Jqhn, xix. 26-27:

ST. CLOTIW)*. of her august privilege whereby she brings forth men unto God, whose sons they are to be.

Good reason, therefore, have Christian Mothers to glory in their maternity, for in that does their greatness consist ; their dignity has increased to a degree, through Mary, that nature could never have dreamed of. But, at the same time, under the aegis of Mary, not less real is the Maternity of holy Y irgins, not only in God's eyes, but often manifested to their own : the wife too, prepared by a special call from God, and by suffering, is sometimes like Clotilde, endowed with a fecundity of a spiritual order, * thousand times more prolific than that of earth, Happy the fruits of this supernatural Maternity, which under the favour of Mary is fraught with so much greatness ! happy the nations on whom by divine munificence a Mother has been bestowed !

History tells how the founders of Empires have ever had the terrible prerogative of impressing upon nations the distinctive character, disastrous or beneficial, which, through length of ages, continues to be theirs. How often does not that want of ooun* terpoise to the preponderance of power, make itself only too evident, in the impetus given rather to de* stroy than to build up ! And wherefore P Because ancient Empires never had a Mother; for, this noble title cannot be applied to those women who, under the name of heroines, have transmitted their names to posterity, merely inasmuch as they rivalled the ambition and pomp of conquerors. To Christian times was it reserved, to behold introduced into a people's life, this element of Maternity, more salutary, more efficacious in its humble gentleness, than that whioh springs from the talents or vices, from the power or genius of their first princes.

Time was needed to subdue the savage instinots of the warriors of Clovis, and to fit his sword to the Roble destiny that awaited it? in the hai}4 of ft

Charlemagne, or of a St. Louis. With good reason has it been said that the honour of this labour is due to the Bishops and the monks. But to be more accurate and to prove a deeper insight of the ways used by Divine Providence, it were well, perhaps, to pass less lightly over, the woman 8 part, for such indeed there was, in the work of conversion and of education, which made the Frankish nation beoome the eldest son of the Church. Olotilde it was, who led the Franks to the Baptistery of Rheims, and presented to Remigius, the proud Sicambrian transformed, far less by the exhortations of the holy bishop, than by the force of prayer, the prayer of that strong woman elected by God to bear away this rich spoil, from the camp of hell. What manly energy, what devotedness to God, are displayed in every measure taken by this noble daughter of the Burgundians' dethroned king. Whilst held beneath the suspicious eye of the usurper, the murderer of her family, she awaits in the silence of prayer and in the exercise of charity, Heaven's appointed hour. When, at last, the moment oomes, taking counsel of none save the Holy Ghost and her own heart, how nobly does she dart forward to conquer unto Christ her betrothed, though yet a stranger to her, out-doing in valour, in this instance, all the warriors of her escort ! Strength and beauty, were indeed her covering, her adornment on her bridal day ; and the heart of Clovis soon learnt that the conquests reserved to his bride, far out-stripped in importance, the booty he had hitherto seized by force of arms. Clotilde, on the other hand, found her work already prepared on the banks of the Seine. During fifty years Genevieve had been busy, defending Paris against the pagan hordes, and only

1 Prov. xxxi,

8T. CLOTILDB. awaiting the baptism of the king of the Franks, in order to open to him the city gates.

Still, when on that Christmas night, Clotilde gave birth to the eldest son of Holy Church in Mary's name, the great work was far from being oompleted ; this new-born people had yet, by the slow process of a laborious education to be fashioned into the most Christian nation. This chosen one of God and of Our Lady does not fall short of the maternal task. But still what anguish of heart to be endured, what tears yet to be shed over these sons' of hers, whose violenoe, peculiar to the race, seems simply indomitable, and the very exuberance of whose rich nature yields them up to the fury of passions, urging them blindly on, to crimes the most atrooious ! Her grandchildren inveigled from her side and caught in the perfidious trap laid for them by their faithless uncles, are massacred. Fratricidal wars carry devastation over the whole of that territory of ancient Gaul, purged by her from paganism and heresy. Finally, another pang, but one of a more glorious kind, seems given as a compensation for the bitterness of intestine strife. Her cherished daughter, Clotilde the younger, dies worn out by ill usage endured for her faith, at the hand of her Arian husband. Surely all this must have shown clearly enough to the queen of the Franks, that if she was chosen by Heaven to be their mother, she was to have all the pangs, as well as the honour that title involves. Thus does Christ ever deal with his own, when they have earned his confidence. Clotilde well understood this : already a widow and deprived by death of the aid of Genevieve likewise, she had long ago retired to Tours, near to the sepulchre of the Thaumaturgus of the Gauls. There, in the secret of prayer and in the heroism of her childhood's faith, did she continue, aided by Saint J£artin, the preparation of this new people for ity

TIMB AFTER ?BNTBCOST. mighty destinies.

An immense work was this, and one to which no single life-time eould suffice ! But though Clotilde was not to witness the desired transformation accomplished, her life was not to close, until she had pressed to her heart, at Tours, her illustrious daughter-in-law, Eadegonde, and having by this last embrace invested her with her own sublime maternity, she 89nds her to Poitiers, there to continue, at the tomb of St. Hilary, this great work of intercession. Then when at length, Eadegonde herself, having ended her task of suffering and love, must likewise quit this earth, Bathilde will presently come forward, consummating the work, in that remarkable seventh century, the period when " the Frank, at last ready for his mission, " is betrothed to Holy Church, and dubbed a Knight "of God."1

Clotilde, Eadegonde, Bathilde, all three of them, Mothers of France, bear a striking resemblance to one another. All three are prepared, from the early dawn of life, to the devotedness their grand mission would require, by the like trials, captivity, slavery, and massacre or loss of their own relatives: all three, bring to the throne naught but a dauntless love of Christ, the King, and a desire of seeing Him rule the people ; all three, set aside the queenly diadem as soon as may be, in order to be able, prostrate before God in retirement and penitence, to attain more surely the one object of their maternal and royal ambition. Heiresses of Abraham, in very deed, they found in his faith, the fecundity which made them to be mothers of those countless multitudes which the soil, watered by their tears, produced for Heaven. Even in these weakened times of ours, there is still a goodly throng ever passing from the land of the

1 JJist. St. Leger, Introduction. *Bom. iv. 18; Heb. xi. 1J?

Franks to their true home yonder, there to join the happy bands of the combatants of better days. At the si^ht of this ever increasing group of sons joyously pressing round their thrones, the hearts of Clotilde, Badegonde, and Bathilde, overflowing with love, give utterance in one united cry, to this word of the Prophet : Who hath begotten these ? I was barren and brought not forth, led away, and captive : and who hath brought up these ? I was destitute and alone : and these where were they ? Then the Lord answering, saith : As I live, thou shalt be clothed with all these as with an ornament, and as a bride thou shalt put them about thee. For thy deserts, and thy desolate places, and the land of thy destruction shall now be too narrow by reason of the inhabitants. The children of thy barrenness shall still say in thine ear : the place is too strait for me, make me more room to dwell in. And kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and queens thy nurses. And thou shalt know that I am the Lord, for they shall not be confounded that wait for him.

But it is time to listen to the liturgical account of Saint Clotilde's life.

Clotilde, daughter of king Clotildis, Ohilperici regis Chilperic, after the murder of filia, post parentum necem a diorum rege educata, Clodoethnico ab ipso pa- Gundobaldo in conjugem tradita est. Quae cum primogenitum peperisset, eum, magis quam approbaptizari jussit. Cum autem infantis, cui noraen impositum fuerat albis extincti mortem segre ferret Clodo- her uncle Gondebaud, king of Burgundy, who gave her in vrao adhuo marriage to Clovis still a ean. Having brought forth her first-born son, she had him baptised, a thing rather tole- tolerante rated by Clovis than consent- bante ClodovsBo, edto. The child to whom was given the name of Ingomer, chancing to die whilst still Ingomeres, in wearing the white robe of bap-

atruo Gundobaldo Burgun - i Js. xlix. 18 — 23T

TIME AFTER PENTEC08T. vaeus ac baptismo imputaret, graviter Clotildem objurgavit, asserens deos patrios, ob contemptum numinis sui iratos, sibi tilium eripuisse. At ilia : Deo, inquit, omnipotenti Creatori omnium, gratias ago, c[ui me non usquequaque judicavit indignam ut de utero meo genitum regno suo dignaretur adscire.

Alteram filiumregina cum genuisset, hunc quoque baptizari voluit, et appellatus est Olodomeres. Qui cum aegrotare coepisset, affirmante rege fore ut idem ei quod fratre contingeret, matris precibus convaluit. At Regina non cessabat hortari virum, ut abjecta idololatria unum ac trinum Deum coleret. Sed ille superstitioni Francorum adhaesit, donee in expeditione Alamannica, inclinatam cernens suorum aciem, monitorum conjugis memor, auxilio Christi implorato, de hostibus triumphavit. Oui apud Remos lseta uxor occurrens, ubi ordinem rei gestae cognovit, advocavit sanctum Remi- fium, a quo Clodovaeus, dem edoctus, baptizatus est, et chrismate sacro inunctus.

Post mortem Clodovaei, Turonos adiit Clotildis ; ibi- tism, Clovis bitterly complained to Olotilde, attributing the death of his son to the vengeance of the gods of his fathers, irritated at this contempt offered to their divinity. But Olotilde said : "I give thanks to " the Almighty Creator of all "things, that he hath not "judged me unworthy to give " birth to a son whom he hath "deigned to admit to share " his kingdom."

Having brought forth a second son, she wished that he likewise should be baptised, and the name of Olodomir was given to him. The child having fallen ill, the king declared that the fate of the brother was to befal this son also ; but he was contrariwise, cured by his mother's prayers. The Queen continued to exhort her husband to reject idolatry and to adore the One God in three Persons ; Clovis, however, persisted in the superstitions of the Franks, until at length, being on an expedition against the Alamani, and one day seeing his army waver, he remembered the counsels of Olotilde, and implored the help of Christ, who thereupon granted him victory. Olotilde filled with joy came to meet him, as far as Rheims, having learned how all had happened. Saint Remigius, at her request, instructed Clovis in the faith, and baptised him, anointing him likewise with the sacred chrism.

After tlio death of Clovis, Olotilde settled herself at

ST. CLOTILDE.

Tours, where she passed the rest of her life at the tomb of Saint Martin, giving herself up to watching, alms, and other works of piety, exercising her munificence upon churches and monasteries. Clodomir having been killed in the war of Burgundy, she brought up her grandchildren herself, namely Theobald, Gontaire, and Clodoald. At last, full of days, she gave up her soul to God, at Tours, and her body was transferred to Paris, escorted by choirs chanting Psalms. Her sons, the kings Childebert and Clotaire, buried her beside Clovis, in the sanctuary of the Basilica of St. Peter, since called by the name of St. Genevieve.

The glory of miracles illustrating the tomb of this holy queen, at an early date her body was taken up to be honoured, and was placed in a shrine. Whenever the city of Paris suffered any calamity, it was the custom in ancient times, to carry the body in procession, with every demonstration of piety. At the end of the eighteenth Century, the impious having seized upon the government, the relics of saints being likewise profaned all over France, by sacrilegious fury, the bones, nevertheless, of this blessed queen, thanks to the admirable providence of God, were secreted by some pious persons. Peace being, later on, restored to the Church, the holy relics were placed in a new shrine, and de- que ad sepulchrum sancti Martini gumma pietate reliquum vitae exegit : pernox in vigiliis, eleemosynis aliisque piis operibus intenta, munifica erga ecclesias et mona8teria. Clodomeris in bello Burgundico occisi filios, nepotes suos, Theobaldum, Guntarium et Clodoaldum apud se educavit. Tandem plena dierum, Turonis migravit ad Dominum : et Parisios inter psallentium choros translata, sepulta est a filiis Childeberto et Clotario regibus, ad latus Clodovaei, in sacrario basilicae sancti Petri, quae jjostea sanctae Genovefae nomine appellata est.

Ad ejus tumulum coruscantibus miraculis sanctae reginae corpus, jam pridem elevatum, in hierotheca honorifice repositum f uit. Quoties autem urbs regia aliquo discrimine pulsaretur, ex avito more publicis in supplicationibus pio apparatu perf erebatur. Exeunte vero octavo decimo saeculo cum impii sumpsissent principatum, et Sanctorum exuviae undique per Gallias sacrilego furore conculcarentur : ossa beatae reginae, mira Dei providentia, piorum manibus subtracta sunt. Pace tandem Ecclesiae restituta, sacrae reliquiae in nova theca repositae fuerunt, et in ecclesia sanctorum Lupi et JEgidii, urbis Parisiensis, collocatae, ubi nunc hono- rifice coluntur. posited in the Church of Saints

Leu-et-Gilles at Paris, where they are honoured with fervent worship.

Great is thy glory on earth and in heaven. 0 OlotUde, Mother of nations ! Not only hast tnou given to Holy Church that people of France, surnamed the most Christian ; but our own England and Spain also, claim their descent from thee, (in the pedigree of Faith, that is) by Bertha and Ingonda, thy noble grand-daughters. Ingonda, more fortunate than thy daughter Clotilde, succeeded, by the help of Saint Leander of Seville, in bringing back to the true faith, her husband Hermenegilde, and even leading him to the crown of martyrdom. Bertha, queen of our own fair Kent, welcomed Augustine to our Saxon shores, and, through her influence, was our royal Ethelbert brought from the darkness of paganism, even unto baptism and the aureola of sanctity : realising thus that word of the Apostle, that the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the believing wife} Since those early days, in how many other parts of Europe, and on how many other more distant shores, have not the sons of thine own nation, that nation of whioh thou wast mother, propagated that light of faith whioh they reoeived of thee : whether brandishing the sword in defence of the right which belongs to holy Church, the bride of the Man-God, to teach freely and everywhere, the Word of Truth ; or whether, becoming themselves missioners and Apostles, carrying the same to infidel nations, far beyond reach of any possible protection, and at the expense of their sweat and of their blood ? Happy thou, to be first in bringing forth unto Christ, the King, a nation pure from every stain of heresy and vowed to holy Churoh

1 1 Cor. vii. H.

ST. OLOTILDB. from the first moment of her new birth ! Rightly indeed the Church of Sainte-Marie at Rheims, was the one selected, on that Christmas Day of the year 496, for this birth unto God of the Frankish nation ; wherein Our Lady in a proportionate manner, gave thee to share her own Motherhood of our race.

There especially lies our motive of confidence in recurring to thee, 0 Clotilde, in our intercessory prayer this day. Alas ! how many of thy sons are far from being what they should be, having suoh a Mother as thou! But when Our Lady gave thee a share in her own maternal rights, she necessarily, at the same moment, communicated to thee also her own tender compassion, for beguiled children deaf to their Mother's voice. Take pity on these unfortunate sons, led so very far astray, by strange doctrines, The Christian Monarchy founded by thee is no more. Thou didst build it upon the recognised rights of Ood in his Christ and in the Vioar of his Christ. Prinoes with short-sighted views of self-interest, traitors to the mission they had received to maintaiD thy work, imagined they were performing marvels, when they allowed maxims to be spread in thy France, proclaiming the independence of civil power in respect of that of Holy Church ; and now by a just retribution, society has proclaimed its independence in respect of Prinoes ! But at the same time, the infatuated populace has really no other idea but that of being its own sovereign, and intoxicated by this false liberty which it dreams to have acquired, it goes so far as to contemn even the supreme dominion of the Creator himself. The rights of man have usurped the rights of God, as the basis of social compact, a new fangled gospel, that France, now in misled proselytism, is fain to carry over the whole world in place of the true Gospel so loved of yore !

1 Heb. ziii. 9.

In that unhappy oountry poisoned by a lying philosophy, such is the excess of delirium, that many who deplore the apostasy of the mass of the population, and wish to remain themselves Christians, imagine they can do so, whilst at the same time, maintaining the destructive principle of Liberalism, the very essence of revolution. Let Christ have Heaven and Souls, say they, but let man have earth, together with full right of governing it as he thinks best or as suits him best. Whilst they fall on their adoring knees before the Divinity of our Lord Jesus, in the sanctuary of their own conscience, they search the Scriptures and are too blind to see there expressed, how the Man-God is and must be King of the whole earth. In learned theses, they inform us that they have probed the very depths of history, and find therein nothing that can oontradiot their arguments. If indeed they must admit that the government of a Clovis or a Charlemagne, or a Saint Louis, do not correspond in everything to their political axioms, we must, they say, make allowances for those primitive ages : a nation oannot be expected to come in a day, to the perfect age attained at last by the law of progress ! ilas ! have pity, 0 dear Mother of Franoe, on the ravings of these poor sons of thine ! Arouse once more, in that noble land, the faith of the Franks ! Oh ! may the God of Clotilde, the Lord of hosts, the King of nations, show himself once more, leading on thy sons to victory, in the name that won for Clovis the field of Tolbiao : Jesus Christ !

JUNB 4.

SAINT PBANCIS CABACCIOLO,

CONFESSOR.

The good things brought unto this world by the Divine Spirit, oontinue to be revealed in the holy Liturgy. Francis Caraooiolo is given to us, this (lay, as another type of the sublime fecundity produced on earth by Christianity. Now, Faith is the principle of this supernatural fecundity in the Saints, just as it was in Abraham, the Father of all believers; it brings forth unto the Church, isolated members or entire nations alike : from it too prooeed the multitudinous families of Religious Orders, who, in their fidelity in following the divers tracks traced out for them by their founders, are the chief portion of that royal and varied adornment wherewith the Bride is resplendently bedecked, at the right hand of her Divine Spouse. This is the very thought expressed by the Sovereign Pontiff, Pius VII, on the day of the canonisation of our Saint, wishing, as he said, " to right the judgment of such as may, perhaps, have appreciated the religious life at a low rate, aooording to the vain deceits of a worldly point of view, and not according to the just measure of the knowledge of Jesus Christ. " 1

That century of universal ruin, in which the voice of

1 Homil. in Canoniz.

Christ's Vioar was raised addressing the whole world, on this solemn oocasion, resembled, but in still darker hue, the calamitous age of the pretended Reform , in which Francis, like so many ott lers, had proved by his works and by his life the indefeotibility of the Churoh's Holiness. Let us listen once more to the words of the same Pontiff : " The Bride of Christ, the " Church, is now become accustomed to pursue her " pilgrim career, amidst persecutions from men, and " consolations from God. Through the saints raised " up, in all ages, by his almighty hand, God fulfils " his promise ; making her ever to be a city seated " on a mountain, a beacon, the clear light of which " must needs reach the eyes of all who do not, through " prejudice, voluntarily shut their eyes, not to see. " The while her enemies band together, vainly plot- " ting her destruction, saying : when will she die ? when " will her name perish ? crowned with ever increasing " splendour by the new warriors she sends as victors "to heaven, the Churoh remaineth ever glorious, "ever declaring unto all coming generations, the " might of the Lord's strong Arm.

The sixteenth century heard at its birth, the most terrific blasphemy ever uttered against the Bride of the Son of God ; that, whereby sue was named the harlot of Babylon. Yet did she, all spotless Queen, in the very teeth of heresy impotent to produce one real virtue upon earth, prove herself to be the legitimate Bride, by reason of her admirable effloresoenoe in new Orders, sprung from her bosom in but a few years' space, and ready to meet the exigencies of the novel situation, created by Luther's revolt. The return of ancient Orders to their primitive fervour, the establishment of the Sooiety of Jesus, of the Theatines, of the Brothers of Saint John of God, of the

.l Homil. in Canoniz.

ST. FRANCIS CARACCIOLO.

Oratory of St. PhiKp Neri, of the Clerks Regular of St. Jerome Emilian, and those of St. Oamillus de Lellis, — suffioed not to the Divine Spirit. As though on purpose to mark the superabundant fruitfulness of the Bride, He raised up, at the close of the same century, another religious family, the special characteristic of which, was to be the organisation of mortification and oontinual prayer amongst its members, by the incessant use of Christian penance and by the perpetual j adoration of the Most Holy Sacrament. feixtusV. received with joy these new recruits for the great campaign. To distinguish them from all other Orders of Clerks Regular, and as a proof of his specially paternal affection, the illustrious Pontiff, himself a Friar Minor, embodied a title so dear to his own hearty in that which he assigned to these new-comers, calling them, The Minor Clerks Regular. With a like view of approximation to the Seraphic Order, our Saint of to-day, the first General of this Institute, changed his name Asoanius for that of Francis.

It seemed as though Heaven too would weld together the patriarch of Assisi and Franois Caraooiolo, by giving to eaob the same span of life, namely, forty four years. The founder of the Minor Clerks Regular (like his glorious predecessor and patron), was one of those men of whom Holy Scripture says, that having lived a short space they fulfilled a long time} Numerous prodigies revealed, during his life-time, the virtues which his humility would fain have ooncealed. Scarce had his soul left this earth, and his body been interred, than orowds flooked to the tomb, where the constant voice of miracles bore witness to the high favour with God, enjoyed by him whose mortal remains therein reposed. i Wisd. iv. *3.

But solely to the sovereign authority constituted by Jesus Christ in the Churoh, is it reserved to pronounoe authentically upon the sanctity of any, even the most illustrious, of her dead. As long as the judgment of the Supreme Pontiff has formulated nothing, private devotion is quite free to testify gratitude or confidence, in regard to the Departed worthy thereof. But all such demonstrations as, more or less, resemble public cultw, are prohibited by a rigorous and wise law of the Churoh. Unfortunately, certain imprudences, contrary to this law formulated in the celebrated Decrees of Urban VIII, drew down, twenty years after the death of our Saint, all the severity of the Inquisition, upon some of his spiritual ohildren, and retarded by a whole century, the introduction of his cause, to the tribunal of the Sacred Congregation of Rites. It was necessary, that the witnesses of the abuses which had incurred the law, should first disappear from the soene ; but, consequently, the witnesses of the holy life of Francis had likewise disappeared. Being, therefore, obliged to recur to mere auricular testimony, in her pronouncing of judgment on the heroic virtues practised by him, Rome now exacted from ocular witnesses, the proof of four, instead of the usual two, miracles required in a process of Beatification.

It would be out of place here, for us to show how these precautions and delays, which demonstrate the prudence of Holy Churoh in these matters, at last ended in making the sanctity of Francis shine forth all the more strikingly. Let us now turn to the narrative of his life.

Franciscus, dichis antea Ascanius, ex nobili familia Caracciolo in oppido Sanctse Marise de Villa in Aprutio prtus, a primis annis eximjo

Francis, formerly called Ascanius, was of the noble family of Caracciolo. He was born in the town of Santa Maria della Villa in the Abruszi. From bis

ST. FRANCIS CARACCIOLO earliest years, lie showed great marks of piety. When he was a young man, he had a severe illness, and on his recovery determined to serve God and to give himself up to the service of his neighbour. He betook himself to Naples, where he was ordained priest, enrolled himself in a devout confraternity, and gave himself up to contemplation and the saining of souls to God, in which work he showed himself an unwearied comforter to such persons as were condemned to death. It came to pass that those two great servants of God, John Augustine Adorno and Fabriciua Caracciolo, wrote a letter to a certain person, wherein they exhorted him to share in the foundation of a new religious Institute. This letter came, by mistake, to be delivered to Francis Caracciolo. The newness of the idea, and the strange ways of God's Providence took possession of his mind, and he joyfully added himself to their company. They withdrew themselves to the solitude of the Camaldole8e, and there concerted the rules of the new Order. Thence they went to Borne, and obtained the confirmation of their work from Sixtus V, who wished that they should be called Minor Clerks Regular, since they added to the three accustomed vows, a fourth binding themselves not to seek preferment in the Church. Having made his solemn enituit pietatis cultu. Adolescens, graviter aegrotans, statuit sese prorsus Dei, proximique mancipare servitio. Neapolim profectus, sacerdotio initiatus, sacroque adscriptus sodalitio, contemplationi, lucrandisque animabus se totum devovit, ac extremo supplicio damnatis hortatorem se oraebuit assiduum. Contigit autem ut epistolium alteri destinatum, ei per errorem redderetur ; quo a piissimis viris Joanne Augustino Adorno et Fabricio Caracciolo ad novi religiosi instituti fundationem vocabatur. Eei novitate captus et divinae voluntatis demiratus consilia, alacri animo seseillis adjunxit. Conditis autem in Camaldulensium eremo, quo secesserant, novi ordinia legibus, inde Romam simul profecti, confirmationem a Sixto Quinto impetrarunt, qui eosdem Clericos regulares minores appellari voluit, addito ad tria consueta altero de non ambiendis dignitatibus voto.

Solemni emissa professi- one, ob singularem ejus in divum Franoisoum Assisinatem cultum Francisci nomen assumpsit. Adorao biennio post vita functo, ipse toti religioni quamquam mvitus praeficitur : quo in munere virtu turn omnium prseolara prsebuit exempla. Instituti amplificandi studiosissimue, id assiduis orationibus, lacrymis et jugi corporis maceratione, enixe a Ceo postulabat. Quamobrem tertio in Hispaniam se contulit peregrini habitu indutus, victumque ostiatim mendicans. In itinere asperrima queeque perpessus, Omnipotentis auxilium mirum in modum expertus, navim, quam oonscenderat, ab imminenti naufragio orationis prsesidio servavit incolumem. Ut in regnis illis voti compos fieret, plurimum laboravit, sed ejus sanetitatis fama prselucente, amplissimaque Catholicorum regum Philippi Secundi et Philippi Tertai munifioentia, adversariorum conatibus singulari animi fortitudine superatis, plura sui Ordinis domicilia f undavit : quod pari eventu per Italiam prsesutit.

Humilitate adeo excelluit ut, Bomam yeniens, in pauperum hospitio receptus, se feproso 80ciaverit, et ecclesiasticas dignitates a Paulo Quinto sibi oblatas constan- profession, Ascanius Caracciolo, moved by the special love and devotion he had to the holy Francis of Assisi, took the name of Francis. After two years,' John Adorno departed this life, and Francis, against his own will, was made head of the Order : in which office he gave a brilliant example of all virtues. Devoted to the prosperity of the Institute, he earnestly sought the blessing of God upon it, by assiduous prayer, tears, and constant maceration of his body. In this work, he thrice travelled to Spain in the guise of a pilgrim, and begging his bread from door to door. In these journeys he suffered very great hardships, and was wonderfully helped by the Almighty, especially in this instance : the ship in whioh he was, being nigh perishing, he saved it by his prayers from shipwreck, without hurt. He had to toil hard, in these countries to attain his wishes ; but through the noble generosity of the most Catholic Kings Philip II. and Philip HI, he overcame with his fortitude of soul, the opposition of all that withstood him, and founded several houses of his Order, which he eventually did in Italy, likewise.

He so excelled in humility, that when he came to Borne, he betook himself to an almshouse, and there chose to be associated to a leper : moreover he firmly refused all the divers

8T. FRANCIS CARACCIOLO. ecclesiastical dignities offered to him by Paid V. He preserved his virginity unspotted, and when certain shameless women set themselves to attack his chastity, he took the occasion to £ain over their souls to Christ. Towards the most divine Mystery of the Eucharist he was drawn with burning tenderness of love, and would pass almost whole nights without sleep, in adoration of the same. This holy custom he established in his Order, to be kept up therein for ever, as the tessera, or the peculiar mark thereof. He was a zealous propagator of the coitus of the Virgin Mother of God. He was all aflame with the love of his neighbours. He was gifted with prophecy and the discerning of spirits. In the forty- fourth year of his age, whilst he was continuing long at prayer, in the Holy House of Loretto, it was made known to him that the end of his earthly life was at hand. He straightway took his road to the Abruzzi and was there seized with a mortal fever, at the house of the disciples of Saint Philip Neri, in the town of Agnone. He received with great devotion the Sacraments of the Church, and upon the day preceding the Nones of June, in the year sixteen hundred and eight, it being the eve of the Feast of Corpus Christi, he most calmly fell asleep in the Lord. His sacred body was carried to Naples, and there honourably tissime recusaverit. Ulibatam perpetuo servavit virginitatem, effrontesque mu- Beres ejus castimoniae insidiantes Christo lucrifecit. Erga divinissimum Eucharistise mysterium ardenti aestuans amore, noctes Dene integras in ejus adoratione insomnes ducebat : quod pium exercitium, veluti sui Ordinis tesseram, in eo perpetuo servandum constituit. Deiparae Virginis cultum impense fovit. In proximum eximia exarsit caritate. Prophetiae dono et cordium scrutatione ditatus fuit. Quadragesimum quartum aBtatis suae annum agens, dum in sacra Lauretana aede in oratione persisteret, sibi vitae finem imminere cognovit. Aprutium statim deflexit, et in oppido Agnoni apud alumnos sancti Philippi Nerii lethali febri correptus, Sacramentis Ecclesiae devotissime suscepti, pridie Nonas Junii anni millesimi sexcentesimi octavi, in pervigilio festi Corporis Christi, placidissime obdormivit in Domino. Sacrum ejus corpus Neapolim delatum, in ecclesia Sanctae Mariae Majoris, ubi prima sui Ordinis jecerat fundamenta, honorifice con* ditum fuit. Eum postea miraculis clarum Clemens Decimusquartus Pontifex Maximus solemn! ritu inter Beatos, Pius vero Septimus Pontifex Maximus novis f ulgentem signis, anno miltimo Sanctorum albo adsoripsit. distin- buried in the Church of Saint lesimo octingentesimo sep- Mary the Greater, where he had laid the first foundations of his Order. As he became guished for miracles, Pope Clement XIV. enrolled his name, with solemn pomp, amongst those of the Blessed, and Pope Pius VII., in the year eighteen hundred and seven, finding his mighty prodigies continue, added it to the list of Saints.

Well was thy love for the divine Sacrament of the Altar, rewarded, 0 Francis ; thou hadst the glory of being oalled to the banquet of our eternal home, at the very hour when the Churoh on earth waa chanting the praises of the sacred Victim, at the first Vespers of the great festival, that year by year hails this Mystery of mysteries. Thine own feast day occurring, as it ever does, close to this solemnity of Corpus Ohristi, continues still to invite us men, as thou wast wont to do in life, to come and peer in adoration into the depths of this Mystery of Love. The mysterious harmony of the cyole is all disposed by divine Wisdom, seeing that his sweet Providence fixes the season, at which eaoh saint is summoned to receive the crown of bliss ; thus the post of honour earned by thee, is in the sanctuary itself close to the divine Host upon our altars.

The zeal of thy home hath eaten me up : 1 this was thy heart's cry upon earth. These words, less those of David than of the Man-God himself, did indeed fill thine heart to overflowing, so that, after thy death, they were found engraven on the lifeless flesh of thy heart, proving, as it were, what had been the one impetus of its every pulsation and of thy desires. Hence

» Ps. lxviii. 10. * St. John, ii. 17.

ST. FRANCIS OARACCIOLO. resulted the need thou hadst of continual prayer, as well as that ever correlative ardour of thine for penance, the twofold characteristic of thy religious family, and whioh thou wouldst fain have seen in the hearts of all. Prayer and penance ; yes, these two alone fix man in his right position before God. Vouchsafe to preserve this precious deposit amidst thy spiritual sons, 0 Francis ; so that by their zeal in propagating the spirit of their Father, they may make it become the treasure also of the entire world.

TIME AFTER PBNtECOST.

June 5.

ST. BONIFACE, APOSTLE OF GERMANY.

The Son of Man, proclaimed King in the highest heavens, on his triumphant Ascension-Day, leaves to his Bride on earth, the task of making his sovereign dominion recognised here below : this is her glory. Pentecost gives the signal for the Church's work of conquest ; now does she awake, aroused bv the breath of the Holy Ghost ; replenished with tnis Spirit of Love, she is all eagerness, as he is, to be possessed at once of the whole earth. We have already seen the Franks and the Anglo-Saxons, pledging in her hands, their oath of fealty to Christ, to whom is given all power on earth and in heaven.x To-day, ^ve see how Winfrid, realises the fair name of Bonifaoe, or well- sents himself before us, surrounded by the multitudes he has snatohed, at one blow, from paganism and barbarism alike. Thanks to the Apostle of Germany, the hour is nigh, when the Church may constitute in this world, apart the spiritual dominion of souls, an empire more powerful than any that has ever been or is to be.

The Eternal Father draws to his Son, not men only, but nations ; these are on earth, no less his inheritance, than heaven is for all eternity. Now,

1 St. Matth. xxviii. 18. 2 St John, vi. 44.— Ps. ii. 6, 8.

BISHOP AND MARTYR.

Lo ! he pre- the good pleasure that God takes in the Word made Flesh could never be content with merely seeing nations to oome, one here, another there, offering an isolated homage of recognition to his Christ, as their Lord and Master. No ; it was the whole world that was promised as his possession, without distinction of nations, without limits, save the confines of the round orb itself : 1 recognised or not, his power is universal. In the case of many, no doubt, the contempt or the ignorance of this regal claim of the Man-God, is to last on throughout ages ; for revolt, alas ! is always possible and to all. Yet, did it behove the Church to profit, as soon as might be, of her influence over baptised nations, so as to gather them together in one public acknowledgement of the Royalty of Christ, the source of every kingly power. At the Pontiff's side, there seemed to be a fitting place for a mailed chieftain of Christendom, — such an one, that is, as should be but lieutenant of Christ, who alone is Lord of lords and King of kings. Thus would be realised, in all its plenitude, the magnificent principality announced by the Prophets, for the Son of David.

Such an institution was indeed worthy of the name it was to receive, of the Holy Empire : in it we have the final result of our glorious Pentecost, as being the Gonsummation of the testimony rendered by the Holy Ghost to Jesus, both as Pontiff and as King. In a few days, Leo III. the illustrious Pope called by the Holy Spirit to crown this, His divine work, will proclaim, to the joy of the whole world, the establishment of this new empire beneath the sceptresway of the Man-God, in the person of Charlemagne, the representative of the King of kings. This marvellous work was not prepared on a sudden. Vast regions,

1 Ps. ii. 6, 8. 2 Ibid. lxxi. 3 St. John, xv. 26,

TIMK AFTER PENTBC08T. destined to form the very nucleus of this future em* pire, for long centuries knew not so much as the very name of the Lord Jesus ; or, at best, preserved but confused notions of truth, derived from some earlier evangelisation that had been stifled in its birth, by the turmoil of invasions, — a mere mixture of Christian practices and idolatrous superstitions. At length we behold Boniface arise, endued with power from on high, the worthy precursor of Saint Leo HI. Born of those " Angel- faoed" Angles, by whom ancient Britain was transformed into the " Island of Saints," he burns to carry into the heart of Germany, whence his ancestors had sprung, the light which first shone upon them, in the land of their conquest.

Thirty years of monastic life, begun in childhood despite the tears and caresses of a tender father, had braced his soul. Matured by this long period of retreat and silence, filled with divine science, and accompanied by the prayers of his oloistered brethren, he could now in all security set forth, to follow the attraction of a divine call. But first and foremost, Rome beholds him at the feet of the Sovereign Pontiff, submitting his plans and prospects to him who is the only source of all " mission " in the Church. Gregory II, in every way worthy of the great Popes that have borne that name, was at that time, watching with apostolio vigilance over the Christian world. Amidst the rocks and shoals of Lombard astuteness and of the heretical infatuation of Leo the Isaurian, his firm and prudent hand was safely guiding the bark of Peter, towards the glorious sovereignty that awaited the Church, in the coming eighth Century. In the humble monk prostrate at his feet, the immortal Pontiff could not but recognise a potent auxiliary sent to him by heaven ; and so, armed with the

1 Acts, i. 8.

Apostolio benediction, Winfrid, now become Boniface feels the powerful attraction of the Holy Spirit, drawing him irresistibly to conquests, of which ancient Borne had never dreamed.

Beyond the Rhine, farther than Roman legions ever penetrated, the Bride of the Man-God now advances into this barbarous land, along pathways tracked for her by Boniface ; overturning in her victorious march, the last idols of the false gods, civilising and sanctifying those savage hordes, the scourge of the old world. This Anglo-Saxon, a true son of Saint Benedict, gives to his work a stability that will defy the lapse of ages. Everywhere, monasteries arise, rooting themselves to the very soil, for God's sake ; and by force of example and beneficence, fixing around them its various nomad tribes. From the river banks, from the forest depths, instead of cries of war and of vengeance, is wafted the accent of prayer and of praise, to the Most High. Sturm, the beloved disoijjle of Saint Boniface, presides over these pacific colonisations, far superior to those of pagan Rome, planted though they were by her noblest veterans and manned by the best forces of her Empire.

Lo ! another sight : here, where violence has hitherto reigned supreme, in these savage wilds, a novel kind of army is organised, formed of the gentle Brides of Christ. The Spirit of Pentecost, like a mighty wind, has blown over the land of the Angles ; and, even as in the Cenacle, holy women had a share in its influence, consecrated Virgins, obedient to the heavenly impulse, have quitted the land of their birth, yea even the monastery that has sheltered them from childhood. Having for a while administered only, at a distance, to Winfrid's needs, and copied out for him, the sacred books in letters of gold ; they at length oome to join the apostle. Fearlessly have thejr crossed the sea, and guided by their diving

TIME AFTJRR PENTECOST.

Spouse, have come to share the labours undertaken here for his glory. Lioba is at their head ; Lioba whose gentle majesty, whose heavenly aspect uplifts the thought from things terrene ; Lioba, who by her knowledge of the scriptures, of the Fathers, and of the sacred Canons, is equal to any of the most celebrated Doctors. But the Holy Ghost has still more richly gifted the soul of Lioba with humility and Christian heroism. Behold the chosen Mother of the German nation ! Germany's scornful daughters, athirst for blood, who on their wedding-day disdained all other gift save a steed, a buckler, and a lance, are to learn from her the true qualities of the valiant woman. No more shall they be seen, intoxicated with slaughter, leading back to the field of battle, their vanquished husbands ; but the virtues of the wife and of the mother shall replace in them the fury of the camp ; family life is to be founded on the Germanic soil and therewith, the "Fatherland".

This was the thought of Boniface, when he called to his aid Lioba, Walburga, and their companions. Worn out with toil, but still more with the incessant wear and fret of petty jealousies, ( never spared to men of God, on the part of such as would cover their paltry complaints under the cloak of false zeal,) our athlete of Christ was not ashamed to oome to Lioba, his well-beloved daughter, humbly seeking from her, that enlightened counsel and comfort, never denied. Estimating at its true worth, the share she had borne in his work, he was desirous that she should be laid to rest in the same tomb, prepared for him in his Abbey of Fulda.

But not yet was his labour ended, nor the evening of life at hand. The spiritual weal of his numberless converts must be secured, and at their head must

1 Tacit. De mor. Germ. 18.

ST. BONIFACE, AP. OF GBRMAXY. Ill be placed such as the Holy Ghost designated for the government of God's Church. Byjhis means, the ierarchy 'was constituted and developed ; the land was covered with churches ; and, beneath the crosier- 6way of holy bishops chosen by God, these once wandering tribes, now began to live a life of glory to the Most Blessed Trinity, in a country, but yesterday, pagan, and wherein Satan had hoped to perpetuate Ids own domination.

Nor was this our saint's only work in Germany : in certain isolated parts on the confines, the seeds of Arianism and Manicbeeism had been silently taking root, bv means of an intruded clergy, half pagan and half Christian in their rites ; and these would inevitably prove a serioua scandal to his recent oon verts that came within reach of their influence. Even as Christ, turned with a whip of cords, drove the buyers and sellers from the temple, so did Boniface, by vigorous measures, rid the land of these sectarian priests, who, with hands polluted by heathenish sacrifices to the vanquished deities of Valhalla, dared to offer also the spotless victim to the Most High.

The powerful action of Bonifaoe, as the preoursor of the Holy Empire, was not confined to preparing the German race alone, for its share in so high a destiny. His beneficent influenoe was now to be exercised, and at a most critical moment, upon Franoe, the eldest daughter of the Church ; for she was chosen, in the person of her Princes, to be the first to bear the emblem of Christ's universal kingship. The descendants of Clovis had preserved naught of his royal inheritance, save the vain title of a power that had now just passed into the hands of a new family, a more vigorous branch of his stook. Charles Martel, the head of this race, measuring his strength with

1 Acts, xx. 28.

TIME AFTER PBNTEC08T. the Moors had crushed their entire army, near Poitiers : but, in the flush of victory, the hero of the day had well nigh brought the Churoh of France to the brink of ruin, by distributing to his comrades in arms, the episcopal sees and abbeys of the land ! Unless a situation, no less disastrous than would have been the triumph of Abderahman, was to be accepted, these usurped crosiers must at once be wrested from the hands of such strange titularies. To effeot this, as much gentleness as firmness were needed, together with an ascendency belonging only to virtue, if the hero of Poitiers and his noble raoe were to be gained over, to respect the rights of holy Church. This victory, more glorious than had been the defeat of the Moors, was won by Boniface, a veritable triumph of disarmed holiness, as profitable to the vanquished as to the Church herself ! Of this fierce warrior, he was to make the worthy father of a second dynasty, the glory whereof should far surpass the brilliant hopes of the first race of Frankish kings.

Boniface, now Legate of Pope St. Zaohary, as he had formerly been of Gregory III, fixed his episcopal see at Mainz, the better, at one and the same time, to bold fast to Christ, both Germany, the conquest of his earlier apostolate, and France more recently rescued by his labours. Like another Samuel, he himself, with his own hands, consecrated this new regal dynasty, by conferring the sacred unction on Pepin le Bref, son of Charles Martel. This was in the year 752. Another Charles, as yet a child, who was one day to inherit that throne thus firmly fixed, attracted the notice of the aged Saint, and received his benediction ; it was the future Charlemagne. But, to the hand of a Sovereign Pontiff would be reserved the anointing of that royal brow; and a diadein more glorious still than that of a king of the Franks, was one day to rest thereon, exhibiting in his person the head of the new Soman Empire, the lieutenant of Christ, the King of kings.

The personal work of Bonifaoe was now accomplished ; like the old man Simeon, his eyes had seen the object of all his ambition, of all his life-long toil, the salvation prepared by God, for this new Israel. He too bad now no desire left save that of departing in peace to his Lord ; but, could the entering into peace, for such an Apostle, be by other gate than that of martyrdom ? He understands this well : his hour has sounded : the old warrior has chosen his last battle-field. Friesland is still pagan : half a oentury ago, at the opening of his apostolic career, he bad avoided this country, in order to escape the bishopric which Saint Willibrord, at that early date, was anxious to force upon him : but now that she has naught, save death, to offer him, he will enter this land. In a letter of sublime humility, prostrate at the feet of Pope Stephen IH, he remits to the correction of the Apostolic See, the "awkward mistakes," as he terms them, and the many faults of his long life ; 1 to Lullus his dearest son, he leaves the Ohuroh of Mainz ; he recommends to the care of the Frankish king, the several priests scattered all through Germany, the monks and virgins who from distant homes have followed him hither. Then ordering to be placed, amongst the few books which be is taking with him, the winding sheet that is to enwrap his body, he designates the companions chosen by him for the journey, and sets out to win the martyr's palm.

Let us now read the liturgical reoord of this grand life.

1 Epist. lxxviii.

II

Boiiifacms, antea Winfridus Bppellatus, apud Anglos natus est! exeunte sseculo septimo, et ab ipsa infantia mundum aversatus, vitam monasticam in votis habuit. Cum ejus pater animum sseculi illecebri8permutare frustra tentasset, monasterium Ingreditur, etsubbeati Wolphardi diseiplina omnium virtutum ac scientiarum genere imbuitur. Annum agens trigesimum sacerdotio ihsignitur? ac verbi divini prsedicator assiduus, magno anim'arum lucro hoc in munere versatur. Attamen regnum Christi adaugere desiderans, continuo nebat ingehtem multitudinem barbarorum, qui ignorantise tenebris immersi dsemoni famulabantur. Qui quidem animarum zelus cum in dies inextinguibili ardore accresceret, divino Numine per lacrymas et orationes explorato f acultatem a monasterii prseposito obtinuit ad Germanicas oras proficiscendi.

Six Anglia duobus cum sociis navim solvens, Dorestiadium in Frisise oppidum venit. Cum autem bellum grayissimum inter Frisonum jegem Eadbodum, et Caro- Ium Martellum exarsisset, sine fructu Evangeliumpraedicavit; quapropter in Angliam reyerus ad suum redi-

Boniface, formerly called Winfrid, was a native of Anglia, born towards the end of the seventh century. From his very childhood, he turned away from the world and set his heart upon becoming a monk, his father tried in vain to divert him from his wishes by the beguilements of the world, and he entered a monastery, where under blessed Wolphard he was instructed in all virtuous discipline and every kind of knowledge. At the ago of twenty nine years he was ordained Priest, and became an unwearied preacher of the word of God, wherein he had a special gift, which he used with great gain of souls. Nevertheless, his great desire was to spread the kingdom of Christ, and he continually bewailed the vast number of barbarians, who were plunged in the darkness of ignorance and were slaves of the devil. This zealous love of souls increased in him in intensity day by day, till having implored the divine aid by prayers and tears, he at last obtained the permission of the Prior of the monastery, to set forth for Germany.

He sailed from Anglia with two companions and reached the town of Dorestadt in Friesland. A great war then raging between Radbod, king of the Frieslanders and Charles Martel, he preached the Gospel without fruit : for which reason returning to Anglia, he betook himself again to his

8T. BONIFACB, AP. OF GERMANY. former monastery, the government of which against his "will, he was forced to accept. After two years, he obtained the consent of the Bishop of Winchester, to resign his office, and he then went to Rome, that by the Apostolic authority he might be delegated to the mission for the converting of the heathens. When he arrived at the City, he was courteously welcomed by Gregory 3d, who changed his name from Winfrid to Boniface. He departed thence to Germany and preached Christ to the tribes in Thuringia and Saxony. Badbod King of Fries - land who bitterly hated the Christian name, being dead, Boniface went a second time among the Frieslanders, and there, with his companion St. Willibrord, preached the Gospel for three years, with so much fruit, that the idols were hewn down, and countless churches arose to the true God.

Saint Willibrord urged upon him to take the office of Bishop, but he refused, so that he might the more instantly toil for the salvation of the unbelievers. Advancing into Germany, he reclaimed thousands of the Hessians from devilish superstition. Pope Gregory sent for him, to Borne, and after receiving from him a noble profession of his faith, consecrated him a bishop. He again returned to Germany, and thoroughly purged Hesse «nd Thuringia from all remains vit monasterium, cui invitus prseficitur. Post elapsum biennium, ex consensu episcoplVintoniensis munus abdicavit, et Romam profectus est, ut Apostolica auctoritate ad gentilium conversionem delegaretur. Cum ad Urbem pervenisset, a Gregorio Secundo benigne excipitur, pro Winf rido Bonifacius a Pontifice nominatur. In Germaniam directus, Thuringiae Saxoniseque populis Christum annuntiavit. Cum interea Badbodus Frisiae rex ac infestissimus Christiani nominis hostis occubuisset, Bonifacius ad Frisones rediit, ubi sancti Willibrordi socius per triennium tanto cum fructu Evangelium praodicavit, ut destructis idolorum simulacris, innumerea vero Deo Ecclesise excitarentur.

A sancto Willibrordo ad episcopale munus expetitus, illud detrectavit, ut promptius infidelium saluti instaret. In Germaniam profectus plura Hassorum millia adaemonis superstitions avocavit. A Gregorio Pontifice Romam evocatus, post insigpem fidei professionem episcopus consecratur. Exinde ad Germanos redux, Hassiam et Thuringiam ab idololatriae reliquiis penitus expurgavit. Tanta propter merita Bonifacius a Grego- rio Tertio ad dignitatem archiepiscopalem evehitur, et tertio Eomam profectus a Summo Pontdnca Sedis Apostolicae Legatus constituitur : qua insignitus auctoritate, quatuor episcopatus instituit, et varios synodos celebravit, inter quas concilium Leptinense memorabile est apua Belgas in Cameracensi dioecesi celebratum, quo quidem tempore ad fidem in Belgio adaugendam egregie contulit. A Zacharia Papa creatus Moguntinus Archiepiscopus, ipso Pontifice jubente, Pippinum in regem Francorum unxit. Post mortem Sancti Willibrordi Ultra jectensem ecclesiam gubernandam suscepit, primo per Eobanum, deinde per seipsum, dum ab ecclesia Moguntina absolutus, Ultrajecti resedit. Frisonibus ab idololatriam relapsisEvangelium prsedicare rursus aggreditur ; cumque officio pastorale occuparetur, a barbaris et impiis hominibus, juxta Born am fluvium, cum Eobano coepiscopo multisque aliis cruenta caede peremptus, martyrii palma condecoratur. Corpus sancti Bonifacii Moguntiam tran8latum, et, ut ipse vivens petierat, in Fuldensi monasterio, quod exstruxerat, reconditum fuit, ubi multis miraculis inclaruit. Pius autem Nonus Pontifex Maximus, ejus Officium et Missam ad universam Eccle- of idolatry. On account of such great works, Gregory III advanced Boniface to the dignity of an archbishop, and on the occasion of a third journey to Borne, he was invested by the Sovereign Pontiff with the powers of Legate of the Apostolic See. As such, he founded four bishoprics and held divers synods, among which is especially to be remembered that of Lessines held in Belgium, in the diocese of Cambrai, at which time he made his strongest efforts to spread the Faith among the Belgians. By Pope Zachary, he was named Archbishop of Mainz, and by command of the same Pope, he anointed Pepin to be kine of the Franks. After the death of Saint Willibrord, he undertook the government of the Church of Utrecht, at first by the ministry of Eoban, but afterwards by himself, when being released from the care of the Church of Mainz, he established his see at Utrecht. The Frieslanders having again fallen back into idolatry, he once more betook himsell to pieach the Gospel among them, and while he was busied in this duty, he won the palm of martyrdom being slain by some impious barbarians, who attacked him together with his fellow bishop Eoban, and many others, on the river Born. In accordance with the wish expressed by himself during life, the body of Saint Boniface was carried to Mainz and buried in the Monastery of Fulda, of siam extendit. which he had been the founder, and which he has rendered illustrious by numerous miracles. Pope Pius IX. ordered his Office and Mass to be extended to the universal Church. »

Thou wast, 0 great Apostle, the faithful servant of Him who chose thee as the minister of his word and propagator of his kingdom. When the Son of Man quitted earth to receive the delighted homage of the heavenly hosts, in recognition of his kingship over them, he none the less, remained King of this lower world, which he has left but for a little while} He counted on his Church to guard his principality here below. Small indeed was the number of those who recognised him, on the day of his glorious Asoension, as their Master and their Lord. But that faith deposited in these first ohosen souls, was a treasure with which they, like skilful bankers, knew how to work, and how to multiply by apostolio oommeroe. Trans* mitted from generation to generation, up to the day of the Lord's return, this precious capital was to go on yielding, to the absent Lord, more and more accumulated interest. Thus was it with thee, 0 Winfrid, in that age wherein thou didst bring in, to the Ohuroh, that tribute of labours whioh she requires, though in very different proportion, at the bands of each one of her sons. Beyond those of others, thy works appeared well-done and profitable to the common Mother ; in her gratitude forestalling the Spouse himself, she would, even in this world, call thee by that new name, whereby thou art known in heaven.

Indeed, when did riohes such as thou didst bring, come pouring, at once, into the hands of the Bride P

1 St. Luke, xix. 2 Apoc. ii. 17,

When did the Spouse appear to be so fully and truly Head of the whole world, as in the eighth century, in which the Frankish princes, formed by thee to their noble destinies, constituted the temporal sovereignty of the Church, and gloried in being, at the side of the Vicar of the Man-God, the Lieutenants of Christ the King ? To thee, 0 Boniface, is the Holy Empire indebted, for the very possibility of its existenoe. But for thee, France would have perished, debased by a simoniaoal clergy, even before a Charlemagne had appeared ; but for thee, Garmany would have remained a prey of pagan barbarians, enemies of all civilisation and progress. 0 thou that didst rescue both Germans and Franks, receive our grateful homage.

At the sight of thy works, and remembering the great popes and princes of colossal build, whose glory is indeed derived from thee, — our admiration equals our gratitude. But pardon us dear Saint, if the thought of those grand centuries of yore, so far removed, alas, from anything of these our days, should make us mingle sadness over ourselves, with joy over thee. Viewed in the light of thy holy policy^ and its results, 0 glorious precursor of the confederation of Christian nations, how do we not bewail the fatal errors of those princes and statesmen, so renowned in the seventeenth century, and so foolishly admired by a world whose ruin they were hastening. For, by isolating Catholic nations from one another, the ties that bound them to the Vicar of Christ, became loosened : princes, forgetful of their true position as representatives of the divine King, made friends with heresy, in order to assert their independence of Rome, or mutually to lower one another'sjpower. Therefore Christendom is no more. Upon its ruins, like a woful mimiory of the Holy Empire, Protestantism has raised its false Evangelical

ST. BqWFACE AP. OF, GERMANY.

U9

Empire, formed of naught but enoroaohments, and tracing its reoognised origin, to the apostasy of that felon knight, Albert of Brandenburg.

The oomplioities that rendered such a thing possible, have received their ohastisement. Be then God's Justice at last satisfied ! 0 Boniface, cry out with us, unto the God of armies, for Meroy. Raise up in the Church, servants of Christ, powerful in word and work, as thou wast. Save France from anarchy ; and restore to Germany a right appreciation of true greatness, together with the Faith of her ancient days.

June 6. SAINT NORBEKT,

BISHOP AND CONFESSOR.

The helpful influence of the Holy Ghost is more and more multiplied, along the Church's path. It seems as though he would show us to-day, how the divine power of his action is not crippled by lapse of years : for here we have, twelve centuries after his first coming among us, miracles of grace and conversion quite as brilliant as those that marked his glorious desoent upon earth.

Norbert, in whose veins flowed the best blood of emperors and kings, was, from the very breast of his mother, Hedwige, supernaturally invited to a nobility loftier still : yet did he devote, to the unreserved enjoyment of pleasure, three and thirty years of a life that was to number but fifty in all. The Holy Ghost at length hastened to the conquest. There bursts a sudden storm, a thunderbolt falls right in front of the prodigal, throwing him to the ground and making a frightful chasm, between him and the point whither, a moment ago, he was hastening in pursuit of new vanities that needs must fail, as all others had done, to fill the hopeless void in his heart. Then, in the very depths of his soul resounds a voice, such as Saul once heard on his way to Damascus : " Jforbert, whither goest thou ? " Like another Paul

ST. NORBBRT. he replies : " Lord, what wilt thou have me to do P" He is answered : " Depart from evil and do good ; seek after peace and pursue it." Twenty years later, — and Norbert is in heaven, seated amidst pontiffs, upon a glorious throne, and all radiant with that special brilliancy, that distinguishes the Founders of the great Religious Orders, when they have reached the eternal Home.

Deep are the traces left by him on earth, of his few years of penitential life. Germany and France receive his preaching ; Antwerp is delivered from a shameful heresy; Magdeburg is resoued by this her Archbishop, from the irregularities that were sullying the House of God : such are his works ; and though these alone would have sufficed to a long life of holiness, yet they are not the only titles, nor the most brilliant which Norbert has to the Church's gratitude. Before being called, against his will, to the honours of the episoopate, this once gay courtier, made choice of an uninhabitable solitude amidst the forests of the diocese of Laon, wherein to devote himself to prayer and to the maceration of his flesh. The renown of this holy penitent gained rapidly ; and Pr£montr£ soon beheld her swampy marshes invaded by a vast multitude, formed of the fairest names of picked nobility, pressing thither to learn the science of salvation, from the lips of the saintly anchorite. There too, did Our Lady show to him, in vision, the white habit wherewith his disciples were to be clothed ; and Saint Augustine, in like manner, delivered to him his own Rule. Thus was founded the most illustrious branoh of the Order of Canons Regular. They add to the obligation of solemnising the Divine Office, the austerities of an uninterrupted penance ; and devote themselves, moreover, to the service of souls, by preaching and the administration of parishes.

Jn the foregoing century, the epjsoopacy and papacy h$d been raised by the monks, from out thp reach of feudal servitude ; and Norbert was now raised up, to give the needed completion £o their work. Although, on principle, the monastic life excludes no sort of labour useful to the Ch;rch, the monks could not (however numerous they might be) quit their cloisters, in order to undertake charge of souls. Yet, great were the wants of the lambs of the flock, at that time, for many unworthy pastors of secondary order, slaves to simony and immorality, still continued to lead astray the simple laity. The religious life was alone capable of raising the priesthood from such degradation, whether on the pinnacles of the hierarchy or amongst the lowest degrees of sacred Orders. Norbert was the man chosen by God to effect, in part at least, this immense work : and the importance of his mission explains the sublime prodigality wherewith the Holy Ghost multiplied vocations to his standard. The number and rapidity of foundations, permitted succour to be promptly and everywhere afforded. Even into the far East did the light of Pr£montr£ reaoh, almost at its first dawn. In the eighteenth century, notwithstanding the'devastations of the Turks and the ravages of the pretended Reform, the Order, divided into twenty-eight provinoes, still oontained, in nearly each one] of Jits ^houses, as many as from fifty to one hundred and twenty Canons ; and the parishes that continued under their oare, might be counted by thousands.

Nuns, whose holy life and prayers are the ornament and aid of the Church militant, oocupied from the very beginning, the plaoe deservedly their due in this numerous family. In the time of the founder, or soon after his death, there were more than a thousand of them, at Premontre alone. Suoh an inor^

ST. NORBBRT. dible sum gives us an idea of the prodigious propagation of the Order, from its very origin. Norbert moreover extended his charity to persons, who like Thibault Count of Champagne, would gladly have followed him into the desert, but who were retained by God's will in the world ; he thus made a prelude to those pious associations, whioh we shall see Saint Francis and Saint Dominic organising, in the thirteenth century, under the name of " Third Orders."

The Liturgy thus oondenses the life of this great servant of God :

Norbert, born of parents of the highest rank, thoroughly educated in his youth, in worldly knowledge, and then a member of the imperial court, turned his back upon the glory of the world, and chose rather to enlist himself as a soldier of the Church. Being ordained priest, he laid aside all soft and showy raiment, clad himself in a coat of skins, and made the preaching of the word of God the one object of his life. Having renounced the ecclesiastical revenues which he possessed and which were very considerable, he distributed likewise his patrimony among the poor. He ate only once a day and that in the evening, and then his meal was of Lenten fare. His life was of singular austerity, and he was used even in the depth of winter, to go out with bare feet and ragged garments. Hence came that mighty power of his wor4s and deeds ?

Norbertus, nobilissimis parentibus natus, adolescens liberalibus disciplinis eruditus, in ipsa postea imperatoris aula, spretis mundi illecebris, ecclesiastic® militise adscribi voluit. Sacris initiatus, rejectismollibus ac splendidis vestibus, pellicea melote indutus, prsedicatione verbi Dei se totum dedit. Abdicatis ecclesiasticis proventibus satis amplis, et patrimonio in pauperes erogato, semel in die sub vesperam solo cibo quadragesimaliutens, nudisque pedibus et lacera veste sub brumali rigore incedens, mirse austeritatis vitam est aggressus. Potens igitur opere et sermone innumeros hsereticos ad fidem, peccatores ad poenitentiam, dissidentes ad pacem et concordiam revocavit.

Cum Lauduni esset, ab episcopo rogatus ne a sua dioecesi discederet, desertum in ea locum, qui Premonstratus dicebatur, sibi delegit: ibique tredecim sociis aggregatis, Praemonstratensem ordinem instituit, divinitus accepta per visum regula a Sancto Augustino. Cum vero ejus fama sanctitatis in dies magis augeretur, ac plurimi ad eum quotidie discipuli convenirent, idem ordo ab Honorio Secundo aliisque Summis Pontificibus confirmatus, ac pluribus ab eo monasteriis sedificatis, mirifice propagatus est.

Antverpiam accersitus, in ea urbe Tanchelini nefariam haeresim profligavit. Prophetico spiritu et miraculis claruit. Archiepiscopus tandem, licet reluctans, Magdeburgensis creatus, ecclesiasticam disciplinam, prsesertim coelibatum, constanter propugnavit. Rhemis in conciho Innocentium Secundum egregie adjuvit, et Romam cum aliis episcopis profectus, schisma Petri Leonis compressit. Postremo vir Dei, meritis et Spiritu Sancto plenus, Magdeourgi obdormivit in Domino, anno salutis millesimo centesimo whereby he was enabled to turn countless heretics to the faith, sinners to repentance, and enemies to peace and concord.

Being at Laon, the bishop besought him not to leave his diocese, and he therefore made choice of a wilderness, at a place called Premontre, whither he withdrew himself with thirteen disciples, and thus he founded the Order of Premonstratensians, whereof he received the Rule in a holy vision, from Saint Augustine. When, however, the fame of his holy life became every day more and more noised abroad, and great numbers sought to become his disciples, and the Order had been approved by Honorius II. and other Popes, many more monasteries were built by him, and the Institute wonderfully extended.

Being called to Antwerp, he there gave the deathblow to the shameful heresy of Tanchelin. He was remarkable for the spirit of prophecy and for the gift of miracles. He was created, (albeit against his will,) archbishop of Magdeburg, and as such, was a strong upholder of the discipline of the Church, especially as regards celibacy. At a council held at Rheims, he was a great help to Innocent II, and went with other bishops to Rome, where he repressed the schism of Peter de Leon. At last, this man of God full of good works and of

8T. NORBERT. the Holy Ghost, fell asleep in trigesimo quarto, die sexta the Lord, at Magdeburg, in Junii. the year of Salvation eleven hundred and thirty four, on the sixth day of June.

Thou didst indeed know how to redeem the time, as was fitting in those evil days, wherein thou thyself, 0 Norbert, led away by the example of the senseless crowd, hadst for so long frustrated the designs of God's love. Those years, at first refused by thee to the true Master of the world, thou didst at length return unto Him, multiplied a hundredfold, through those countless sons and daughters thou didst train up in sanctity. Even thy personal works, in but twenty years' space, filled the whole earth. Sohism crushed ; heresy confounded to the glory of the Most Holy Sacrament which it had already dared to attack ; the rights of the Churoh, intrepidly defended against worldly princes and unjust retentions ; the priesthood restored to its primative purity ; the Christian life strengthened on its true basis, namely prayer and penance ; such and so many victories achieved in so few years, are due to the generosity which prevented thee from looking back, for one moment, from the day wherein the Holy Ghost touched thy heart. Do thou make all understand that it is never too late to begin to serve God. Were it even, as in thy case, the evening-fall of life, what yet remains of time would quite suffice to make us saints, if we would but generously give that little, fully to Heaven.

Faith and Patienoe were thy cherished virtues ; make them flourish once more, in this sad world of ours, which vaunts itself on doubting of everything, and with gibe and jeer hurries onward to the abyss of hell. Forget not, dear Apostle, now that thou

1 Eph. v. 16. ■ 1 St. Pet. iv. 2. art in heaven, the countries thoti didst formerly evangelise : we implore this of thee, despite their forgetfulness, despite their criminal return to the deceits of the devil.

Holy Pontiff, Magdeburg has lost her ancient faith, and therewith, the precious relics of thy body, which she no longer deserved to possess : Prague is now the favoured spot of thy repose. But, whilst blessing this hospitable oity, pray still for the ungrateful one that has cast aside her double treasure. 0 thou Founder of Pr£montr, smile onoe more on France, who derives from thee one of her fairest glories. Obtain of God, that for the salvation of these calamitous times, thine Order may recover something of its former splendour. Bless, few as they are, those sons and daughters of thine who, despite the ridiculous hostility of the powers that be, seek to shed once more their beneficent influence on France. May our own England benefit also of their return to her midst, and may their fruits be multiplied in every direction. Maintain thine own spirit among them ; may they find in interior peace, the seoret of triumph over Satan and his crew ; may the full magnificenoe of the divine worship solemnly carried out, be ever unto their souls, as the dearly loved mount, whence Moses like, they may declare the Will of the Lord, unto the new Israel, the Ohristain people.

June 8. SAINT WILLIAM.

BISHOP AND CONFESSOR.

At the head of the holy Confessors admitted by the Churoh on the monumental page of her Martyrology for to-day, is inscribed the illustrious name of William : " At York, in England," thus runs the text of the Golden Book of heaven's nobility, " the memory "of Saint William, Archbishop and Confessor, who, " amongst other miracles wrought at his tomb, raised " three dead persons to life, and was inscribed amongst "the Saints by Honorius III." The divine Spirit who adorns the Church with variety in the virtues of her sons, reproduces in them the life of the Divine Spouse, under multiplied aspects. Thus there is no situation in life, that bears not with it, some teaching drawn from the example given by our Lord and his saints, under similiar ciroumstances. However vast be the field of trial for the elect, here below ; however multiplied and unexpected, sometimes, be the limits of endurance, or the circumstances ; herein, as ever, does that wor<^ of Eternal Wisdom ohime in : Nothing is new under the sun, neither is any man able to say : Behold this is new : for it hath already gone before, in the ages that were before us.

Ps. liv. 10. 2 Apoc. xix.8.

TIMK AFTER PENTECOST.

The election of William to the metropolitan see of York, was signalised by the apparition of a miraculous cross, a presage of what his life was to be. Verily the heaviest cross one can have to bear, is that which originates on the part of the servants of God, — from our own brethren, or from our own superiors, in the spiritual order of things : now, this was the very cross that was not to be spared to William. For our instruction, speoially for us who so easily believe that we have gone to the furthest limits of endurance, in point of suffering) God permitted that, after the example of his divine Master, William should drink the chalice to the dregs and should become even to saints, a sign of contradiction and a rock of scandal.

Both to the more numerous portion of the Mock, as well as to the better minded among them, the promotion of the Archbishop elect of York, was indeed a cause of great joy ; but, thereby also, diversely interested views among several, had been crossed. In their simplicity, some of the sheep gave ear to certain perfidious insinuations and whisperings ; they were led to suppose that it would be a good deed, if they strove to break the staff that guided them to wholesome pastures ; and they allowed themselves to be so far worked upon, as to make formal and grave accusations against their Shepherd. Then, at last, most virtuous persons, beguiled by the orafti- cause, and putting at their service, the very zeal wherewith tne hearts of the former were really inflamed for the House of God. After hearing as above, from the lips of Holy Church in the Marfcyrology, her own judgment, glorious as it stands and without appeal, it is not without feelings of wonder ness of the intriguers, were to be their

1 Luke, ii. 34 ; Rom. ix. 33.

8T. WILLIAM. and even of bewilderment, that we read passages such as the following, in letters written at the time.

" To our well beloved Father and Lord, Innocent, " by the grace of God, Sovereign Pontiff, Bernard of " Clairvaux. The archbishop of York hath approached " you ; that man regarding whom we have so often " already, written to your Holiness. A sorry cause " indeed is his ; as we have learned from such " as are worthy of credit, from the sole of his " foot to the top of his head, there is not a sound " place in him. What can this man stripped of all " justice, have to seek at the hancts of the Guardian of " justice ? " 1 Then reoommending the accusers to the Pontiff, the Abbot of Clairvaux fears not to add : " If any one be of God, let him join himself unto " them ! If the barren tree still occupy the ground, " to whom must I attribute the fault, save to him " unto whom the hatchet belongs P 2

The Vicar of Christ, who can look at things from a higher level and oan see more exactly than even saints oan, having taken no step to prevent William's consecration, Saint Bernard pens these words, confidentially, to the abbot of Eievaulx, in Yorkshire : " I have learned what has become of this archbishop, " and my sorrow is extreme. We have laboured all " we could against this common pest, and we have " not obtained the desired measure ; but, for all that, " the fruit of our labour is none the less assured from " Him, who never suffers any good deed to pass un- " rewarded. What men have refused to us, I am " oonfident we shall obtain from the mercy of our " Father who is in heaven, and that we shall yet see " this cursed fig-tree rooted up." 4

Such grave mistakes as these can sometimes be

1 Bern. Epist. 346, al 377. 3 Ibid. 353, al. 379.

8 Ibid. 347, al. 378. * Ibid. 360, al. 380.

X made by saints. Cruel mistakes indeed they are, but very sanqtifying for those saints on whom the blow falls ; and, though veritable persecutions, yet are they not without one sweet consolation for such saints as these, inasmuch as there has been no offence to God on either side.

Innocent II. being dead, Bernard, convinced that the honour of the Church was at stake, repeated his supplioations, more urgently than ever, to Pope Celestine II. and the Roman Court : "The whole world " is aware of the devil's triumph," he exclaimed, and with such fiery zeal, that we somewhat modify the strength of his expression ; " The applause of the un- " circumcised and the tears of the good, resound far

" and wide If such were to be the finale of this ignominious cause, why not have left it in its dark- " some nook P Could not that infamous man, the " horror of England and the abomination of France, " have been made bishop, without Rome also witness- " ing the general infeotion to pervade as far as the very " tombs of the Apostles. . . .Well, be it so : this man " has received saorilegious consecration ; but still more " glorious will it be to precipitate Simon from mid- " air, than to have prevented his mounting thus far. " Otherwise, what will you do with the Faithful, " whose sense of religion makes them suppose that " they cannot with a safe conscience, receive the sac- " raments from this leprous hand P Are they then, " to be forced by Rome, to bend the knee to Baal P " 2

Rome, however was slow in letting herself be convinced; and neither Celestine, nor Lucius II. who suooeeded him, was willing to find in the great services and justifiable ascendency of the Abbot of Clairvaux, a sufficient reason to pronounce a condemnation, the justice of which was far from being proved to their

» Epist. 235. * Ibid. 236.

8T, WILLIAM. eyes. It was only under the pontificate of Eugenius III. his former disciple, that Saint Bernard by new and reiterated instances, at last obtained the deposition of William, and the substitution, to the see of York, of Henry Murdach, a Cistercian and abbot of Fountains ,near Bipon. u All the time that his humiliation lasted," writes John, Prior of Hexham, " "William never let a murmur of complaint escape him ; but with a silent " heart and with his soul at peaoe, knew how to keep " patience. He reolaimed not against his adversaries ; " nay, further still, he would turn aside his ear and " his very thought, from those who judged them " unfavourably. None of those who snared his dis- " grace, showed themselves so continually given up " as he to prayer and labour. " 3

Five years afterwards, Eugenius III. died, as also the abbot of Clairvaux, and Henry Murdach. The canons of York once more elected William and he was re-instated in the plenitude of his metropolitan rights, by Anastasius IV. But God had willed to affirm here below, the justice alone of his cause : thirty days after his triumphal return to York, he died, having only just solemnised the festival of the Holy Trinity for whom he had suffered all.

We here give the few lines wherein the Liturgy records the trials and virtues of Saint William.

Blessed William born of most Beatus Gulielmus claris- noble parents, (to wit, Count simis ortus parentibus, sci-

Hubert being his father, and licet patre Huberto Oomite,

Emma sister of King Stephen et matre Emma Stephani being his mother) was remark- regis sorore, summa virtutis able from earliest youth for laude adolescens floruit, singularly great virtue. Grow- Crescentibus autem meritis

1 Epist. 239. * Ibid. 240, al. 252. * John Hag. Hist, co-aeva. * 1153. 6 8th. July. 6 20th. August. 7 14th. Octob. cum rotate, Eboracensis thesaurisarius effectus est : quo in munere ita se gessit, ut communis egentium pater ab omnibus haberetur. Neque enim ullum, pretiosiorem thesaurum existimabat, quam seipsum opibus spoliare, quo facilius inopia laborantibus subveniret.

Cum autem, defuncto Turstino Archiepiscopo, in ejusdem locum dissentientibus paucis e capitulo esset electus, electioni autem ut minus canonice factae divus Bernardus apud apostolicam Sedem reclamasset, ab Eugenio tertio summo pontifice exauotoratus est. Quae quidem res huic sancto yiro non modo nullam molestiam attulit, sed potius optatissimam humiktatis exercendse, Deoque liberius inserviendi occasionem praebuit.

Sseculi igitur pompas cum fugeret, in solitudinem secessit, ubi nullis exterarum rerum curis distractus, proprise saluti invigilaret. Defunctis autem adversariis archiepiscopus iterum summo omnium consensu eligitur, et ab Anastasio pontifice confirmatur.

Eecepta autem sede, paulo

Sost in morbum incidit, et ierum plenus, et eleemosynis, vigiliis, jejuniis, boms* que operibus Deo charus, ing in merit as he advanced in age, he was made Treasurer of York : in which office he so behaved, as to be held by all, the father of the needv in general. Nor indeed did ne esteem anything a more precious treasure, than to despoil himself of his wealth, that he might more easily minister to the wants of those labouring under poverty.

Turstan the Archbishop being dead, he was elected to succeed him, though some few of the Chapter dissented. But Saint Bernard, pn the ground of this election being faulty according to the sacred Canons, appealed against him to the Apostolic See, and hence he was deposed, by Pope Eugenius the Third. The which thing was in no ways taken as a grievance by this holy man but rather, as offering an excellent occasion of exercising humility and of serving God with greater freedom.

Wherefore fleeing worldly pomps, he withdrew into solitude, where he could attend solely to his own salvation, undistracted by any care of exterior things. But, at last, his adveisaries being dead, he was again with the full consent of all, elected archbishop, and was confirmed by Pope Anastasius.

Having entered upon his see he was shortly afterwards attacked with sickness ; and full of days as well as dear to God by reason of hia alms-

ST. WILLIAM. deeds, vigils, fasts and good ex hao vita migravit sexto works, he passed out of this Idas Junii anno salutis hu- life, on the sixth of the Ides of man® millesimo oentesimo

June, in the year of man's quinquagesimo quarto, salvation, one thousand, one hundred and fifty-four.

0 William, thou didst know how to possess thy soul! Under the assaults of contradiction, thou didst join the aureola of sanctity to the glorious character of a bishop. For well didst thou understand the twofold duty incumbent on thee, from the day thou wast called by the suffrages of an illustrious Church, to defend her here below, under most difficult circumstances ; on the one hand, not to refuse the perilous honour, of upholding to the last, the rights of that noble bride who proffered thee her alliance ; on the other, to show to thy flock, by the example of thy own submission, that even the best of causes can never be dispensed from that absolute obedience owed by sheep, just as much as by lambs, to the supreme Shepherd. He who searcheth the heart and the reins, knew how far the trial could go, without either altering the admirable simplicity of thy faith, or troubling, in consequenoe, the divine calm, wherein lay thy strength. learning to raise thee to the highest degree of glory, nigh to that Altar, yonder in heaven, fain was He to assimilate thee fully, even here below, to the eternal Pontiff, erstwhile misunderstood, denied, and condemned by the very princes of His own people. Thy refuge was in that maxim, from the lips of this divine Head : Learn of me, because I am meek and humble of heart, and ye shall find rest to your souls; and thus, the yoke that would bear down suoh weak shoulders as ours, a burthen, beneath which the strongest of us

1 Jerem. xvii. 10. * St. Matth, xi. 29, well might quail, far from daunting thee, seemed fraught with such sweetness, that thy step became all the lighter for it, and from that hour, thou didst appear not only to walk, but to run like a giant 5 in the way of heroism, wherein saints are formed.

Help us, 0 William, to follow thy steps at least afar off, in the paths of gentleness and energy. Teach us to count for little, all personal injuries. Our Lord indeed probed the delioaoy of thy great soul, when He permitted that to befall thee, whioh to us would have proved a very oore of bitterness, namely, that thy hottest adversaries really should be true saints, who in every measure they undertook against thee, were wishful only for the honour and glory of the divine Master, — thine and theirs alike. The mysterious oil that for so long flowed from thy tomb, was at once a sign of the ineffable meekness which earned for thee that oonstant simplicity of thy soul's glance, and a touching testimony rendered by heaven in favour of thy pontifical unction, the legitimacy of which was so long oontested. God grant that this sweet oil may ooze out once again ! Spread it lovingly on so many wounded souls, whom the injustice of men embitters and drives to desperation ; let it freely flow in thine own Church of York, alien though she now be, to thine exquisite submission to Eome and to her ancient traditions. Oh ! would that Albion might cast aside her winding-sheet, at that blessed tomb of thine, whereat the dead have oft returned to life. In one word, may the whole Churoh reoeive from thee, this day, increase of light and grace, to the honour and praise of the undivided and ever tranquil Trinity, to Whom was paid thy last solemn homage here below.