Chapter the Third. on the Office of Compline, During the Time after Pentecost
This Office, which concludes the day, commences by a warning of the dangers of the night: then immediately follows the public Confession of our sins, as a powerful means of propitiating the divine justice, And obtaining God's help, now that we are going to spend so many hours in the unconscious and therefore dangerous state of sleep, which is also such an image of death.
The Lector, addressing the Priest, says to him :
Jube, Domne, benedicere. Pray, Father, give thy blessing.
The Priest answers :
Noctem quietam et finem May the Almighty Lord perfectum concedat nobis grant us a quiet night and a
Dominus omnipotens. perfect end.
]$. Amen. IJ. Amen.
The Lector then reads these words, from the first Epistle of St. Peter :
Fratres: Sobrii estote, et Brethren, be sober and vigilate: quia adversarius watch; for your adversary vester diaboius, tamquam the devil goes about like a leo rugiens circuit quserens roaring lion, seeking whom he quern devoret : cui resistite may devour : resist him, being fortes in fide. Tu autem, strong in faith. But thou, 0
Domine, miserere nobis. Lord, have mercy on us.
The Choir answers : 1$. Deo gratias. Q. Thanks be to God.
Then, the Priest:
% Our help is in the name jf. Adjutorium nostrum of the Lord. in nomine Domini.
The Choir:
]$, Who hath made heaven 1$. Qui fecit ccelum et and earth. terrain.
Then the Lord s Prayer is recited in secret ; after which the Priest says the Confiteor, and when he has finished, the Choir repeats it.
The Priest, having pronounced the general form of absolution, says :
Jt. Convert us, O God, our Saviour.
]$. And turn away thine anger from us.
JT. Incline unto my aid, O God.
1$. O Lord, make haste to help me. Glory, <fcc. Ant. Have mercy.
Converte nos, Deus, salutaris noster.
1$. Et averte iram tuam a nobis.
*fT. Deus, in adjutorium meum intende.
1$. Domine, ad adjuvandum me festina,
Gloria Patri, <fcc.
Ant. Miserere.
The first Psalm expresses the confidence with which the just man sleeps in peace; but the wicked know not what calm rest is.
PSALM 4.
When I called upon him, the God of my justice heard me: when I was in distress, thou hast enlarged me.
Have mercy on me : and hear my prayer.
O ye sons of men, how long will you be dull of heart t why do you love vanity, and seek after lying t
• Cum invocarem exaudivit me Deus justitisa me«: * in tribulatione dilatasti mihi.
Miserere mei : * et exaiudi orationem meam.
Fiiii hominum, usquequo gravi corde ; * ut quid- diligitis vanitatem, et queritis mendacium ?
Et scitote quoniam mirificavit Dominua sanctum 8uum : * Dominus exaudiet me, cum clamavero ad eum.
Irascimini, et nolite pec- ■care : * quae dicitis in cordibua vestris, in cubilibus vestris compungimiui.
Sacrificate sacrificium justitise, et sperate in Domino :
- multi dicunt : Quis ostendit nobis bona 1
Signatum est super nos lumen vultus tui, Domine :
- dedisti laetitiam in corde meo.
A fructu f rumenti, vini et olei sui : * multiplicati sunt.
In pace in idipsum : * dormiam et requiescam.
Quoniam tu, Domine, singulariter in spe : * constituisti me.
Know ye also that the Lord hath made his Holy One wonderful : the Lord will hear me, when I shall cry unto him.
Be ye angry, and sin not : the things you say in your hearts, be sorry for them upon your beds.
Offer up the sacrifice of justice, and trust in the Lord: many say, Who showeth us good things ?
The Light of thy countenance, O Lord, is signed upon us : thou hast given gladness in my heart.
By the fruit of their corn, their wine, and oil, they are multiplied.
In peace, in the self same I will sleep, and I will rest.
For thou, O Lord, singularly hast settled me in hope.
The Church has introduced here the first sir Verses of the thirtieth Psalm, because they contain the prayer which our Saviour made when dying: Into thy hands, 0 Lord, I commend my spirit I — words so beautifully appropriate in this Office of the close of the day.
PSALM 30.
In te, Domine, speravi, non confundar in seternum : * in just it ia tua libera me.
Inclina ad me aurem tuam : * accelera ut eruas me.
Esto mini in Deum protectorem, et in domum refugii: * ut salvum me facias.
Quoniam fortitudo mea,
In thee, O Lord, have I hoped, let me never be confounded: deliver me in thy justice.
Bow down thine ear to me: make haste to deliver me.
Be thou unto me a God, a protector and a house of refuge, to save me.
For thou art my strength, and my refuge: and for thy Name's sake, thou wilt lead me, and nourish me.
Thou wilt bring me out of this snare, which they have hidden for me: for thou art ' Bay protector.
Into thy hands I commend myspirit: thou hast redeemed me, Lord, the God of truth. et refugium meum es tu : * et propter Nomen tuum deduces me, et enutries me.
Educes me de laqueo hoc. quern absconderunt mihi : * quoniain tu es protector meus.
In manus tuas commendo spiritum meum: * redemisti me, Domine, Deus veritatis.
The third Psalm gives the motives of the just man's confidence, even during the dangers of the night. There is no snare neglected by the demons ; but the good Angels watch over us, with brotherly solicitude. Then, we have God himself speaking, and promising to send us a Saviour. psalm 90.
He that dwelleth in the aid of the Most High, shall abide under the protection of the God of Heaven.
He shall say unto the Lord : Thou art my protector, and my refuge: my God, in him will I trust.
For he hath delivered me from the snare of the hunters: and from the sharp word.
He will overshadow thee with his shoulders : and under his wings thou shalt trust.
His truth shall compass thee with a shield : thou shalt not be afraid of the terror of the night :
Of the arrow that flieth in the day : of the business that walketh about in the dark : of invasion, or of the noonday devil.
A thousand shall fall at thy
Qui habitat in adjutorio Altissimi: * in protectione Dei cceli commorabitur.
Dicet Domino : Susceptor meus es tu, et refugium meum: * Deus meus, sperabo in eum.
Quoniam ipse liberavit me de laqueo venantium : * et a verbo aspero.
Scapulis suis obumbrabit tibi: * et sub pennis ejus sperabis.
Scuto circumdabit te Veritas ejus: * non time bis a timore nocturno :
A sagitta volante in die, a negotio perambulante in tenebris: * ab incursu, et daemonio meridiano.
Cadent a latere tuo mille,
•t decern millia a deztris tuis: * ad te autem non appropinquabit.
Verumtamen oculis tuis eonsiderabis : * et retributionem peccatorum videbis.
Quoniam tu es, Domine, apes mea : * Altisaimura posui8ti refugium tuum.
Non accedet ad te malum: * et flagellum non appropinquabit tabernaculo tuo.
Quoniam Angelis suis mandavit de te : * ut custodiant te in omnibus viis tuis.
In manibus portabunt te: * ne forte offendas ad lapidem pedem tuum.
Super aspidem et basiliscum ambulabis: * et conculcabis leonem et draconem.
Quoniam in me speravit, liberabo eum : * protegam earn, quoniam cognovit Nomen meum.
Clamabit ad me, et ego exaudiam eum : * cum ipso sum in tribulatione, eripiam euin, et glorificabo eum.
Longitudine dierum replebo eum : * et ostendam illi Salutare meum.
The fourth Psalm invites the Sewants of God to persevere,, with fervour, in the prayers they offer during the Night The Faithful should say; this Psalm in a spirit of gratitude to God, for his raising up in the Church, adorers of his holy Name, whose grand vocation is to lift up their hands, day and night, for the safety of Israel. On such prayers, depend the happiness and destinies of the world. side, and ten thousand at thy right hand : but it shall not com* nigh thee.
But thou shalt consider with thine eyes : and shalt see the reward of the wicked.
Because thou hast said: Thou, O Lord, art my hope, Thou hast made the Most High thy refuge.
There shall no evil come unto thee, nor shall the scourge come near thy dwelling.
For he hath given his Angels charge over thee : to keep thee in all thy ways.
In their hands they shall bear thee up : lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.
Thou shalt walk upon the asp and basilisk: and thou shalt trample under foot the lion and the dragon.
God will say of thee: Because he hoped in me, I will deliver him: I will protect him, because he hath Known my name.
He will cry unto me, and I will hear him : I am with him in tribulation, I will deliver him, and I will glorify him.
1 will fill him with length of days: and I will show him my salvation.
PSALM 133.
Behold ! now bless ye the Lord, all ye servants of the Lord.
Who stand in the house of the Lord, in the courts of the house of our God.
In the nights lift up your bands to the holy places, and bless ye the Lord.
Say to Israel: May the Lord, out of Sion, bless thee, he that made heaven and earth.
Ant. Have mercy on me, O Lord, and hear my prayer.
Ecce nunc benedicite Dominum: omnes servi Domini
Qui statis in domo Domini: in atriis domus Dei nostri.
In noctibus extollite manus vestras in sanctat et benedicite Dominum.
Benedicat te Dominus ex Sion : qui fecit ccelum et t err am.
Ant. Miserere mini, Domine, et exaudi orationem meam.
• HYMN *
Before the closing of the light, we beseech thee, Creator of all things ! that, in thy clemency, thou be our protector and our guard.
May the dreams and phantoms of night depart far from us: and do thou repress our enemy, lest our bodies be profaned.
Most merciful Father ! and thou, his Only Begotten Son, co-equal with him ! reigning for ever, with the Holyraraclete ! grant this our prayer.
Amen.
Te lucis ante terminum, Eerum Creator, poscimus, Ut pro tua dementia, Sis praasul et cu&todia.
Procul recedant somnia, Et noctium phantasmata ; Hostemque nostrum cornprime, Ne polluantur corpora.
Prsesta, Pater pnssime, Patrique compar Unice, Cum Spiritu Paraclito Regnans per omne sseculum.
Amen.
- According to the Monastic Rite, as follows: —
Te lucis ante terminum, Rerum Creator, poscimus, Ut solita dementia Sis prasul ad custodiam.
Procul recedant somnia Et noctium phantasmata ;
PKNT. IV.
Hostemque nostrum comprime, Ne polluantur corpora.
Pr«sta, Pater omnipoteng, Per Jesum Christum Dominum, Qui tecum in perpetuum Regnat cum Sancto Spiritu.
Amen.
E
CAPITULUM. (Jeremias xiv.)
Tu autem in nobis es, Domine, et Nomen sanctum tuum invocatum est super nos: ne derelinquas nos, Domine Deus noster.
1$. In manus tuas, Domine: * Commendo spiritum meum. In manus tuas.
Redemisti nos, Domine Deus veritatis.* Commendo.
Gloria. In manus tuas.
<fr. Custodi nos, Domine, ut pupillam oculi.
]$. Sub umbra alarum tuarum protege nos.
But thou art in us, O Lord, and thy holy Name hath been invoked upon us: forsake us not, O Lord our God.
1$. Into thy hand, Lord: * I commend my spirit. Into thy hands. y. Thou hast redeemed us, O Lord God of truth. * I commend.
Glory. Into thy hands.
Preserve us, O Lord, as the apple of thine eye.
Protect us under the shadow of thy wings.
The Canticle of the venerable Simeon, — who, whilst holding the divine Infant in his arms, proclaimed hiua to be the Light of the Gentiles, and then slept the sleep of the just, — is admirably appropriate to the Office of Compline. Holy Church blesses God for having dispelled the darkness of night by the rising of the Sun of Justice; it is for love of him that she toils the whole day through and rests during the night, saying : / sleep, but my heart watcheth.
CANTICLE OF SIMEON. Luke ii.)
Nunc dimittis servum tuum, Domine: secundum verbum tuum in pace.
Quia viderunt oculi mei ; Salutare tuum.
Quod parasti: ante faciem omnium populorum.
Lumen ad revelationem
Now dost thou dismiss thy servant, O Lord, according to thy word, in peace.
Because mine eyes have seen thy Salvation.
Which thou hast prepared : before the face of all peoples.
A light to the revelation of
1 Cantic. v. 2. the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel Glory, <fcc.
Ant. Save us, O Lord, whilst awake, and watch us, as we sleep, that we may watch with Christ and rest in peace.
LET US PRAY.
Visit, we beseech thee, O Lord, this house and family, and drive far from it all snares of the enemy: let thy holy Angels dwell therein, who may keep us in peace, and may thy blessing be always upon us. Through Jesus Christ oar Lord, thy Son, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. 1$. Amen.
The Lord be with you. 1$. And with thy spirit.
Let us bless the Lord. 1$. Thanks be to God. May the almighty and merciful Lord, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, bless and preserve us.
Amen.
Gentium : * et gloriam pie* bis tuae Israel. Gloria.
Ant. Salva nos, Domine, vigilantes : custodi nos dormi entes, ut vigilemus cum Christo, et requiescamus in pace.
OREMUS.
Visita, qusesumus, Domine, habitationem istam, et omnes insidias inimici ab ea longe repelle: Angeli tui sancti habitent in ea, qui nos in pace custodiant; et benedictio tua sit super nos semper. Per Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum Filium tuum, qui tecum vivit et regnat in unitate Spiritus Sancti Deus, per omnia specula sseculorum. 1$. Amep.
*T. Dominus vobiscum.
J$. Et cum spiritu tuo.
W. Benedicamus Domino.
5, Deo gratias.
Benedicat et custodiat nos omnipotens et misericors Dominus, Pater, et Filius, et Spiritus Sane tua.
3$. Amen.
ANTHEM TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN.
Hail, holy Queen, Mother of mercy.
Our Life, our Sweetness, and our Hope, all hail !
To thee we cry, poor banished children of Eve ;
To thee we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping, in this vale of tears.
Turn, then, most gracious
Salve Regina, Mater misericordiae.
Vita, dulcedo, et spes nostra, salve.
Ad te clamamus, exsules filii Evae.
Ad te suspiramus, gementes et flentes in hac lacrymarum vaile.
Eia, ergo, advocata nos- tra, illos tuos misericord es oculos ad nos converte ;
Et Jesum benedictum fructum ventris tui, nobis post hoc exilium ostende ;
O clemens,
O pia,
Q dulcis Virgo Maria.
(T. Ora pro nobis, sancta Dei Genitrbc.
1J. Ut digni efficiamur promissionibus Christi.
0REMU8.
Qmnipotens, sempiterne Deiw, qui gloriosae Virginis Matris Manae corpus et animam, ut dignum Filii tui habitaculum eflici mereretur, Spiritu Sancto co-operante, praeparasti: da ut cujus commemoratione laetamur, ejus pia intercession ab instantibus malis et a morte perpetua liberemur. Per eumdem Christum Dominum nostrum. 1$. Amen.
Divinum auxilium maneat semper nobiscum. B. Amen.
Advocate ! thine eyes of mercy towards us ;
And, after this our exile, show unto us the blessed Fruit of thy womb, Jesus ;
O merciful,
O kind,
O sweet Virgin Mary ! Pray for us, O holy Mother of God,
That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.
LET US PKAY.
O almighty and everlasting God, who, by the co-operation of the Holy Ghost, didst prepare the body and soul of Mary, glorious Virgin and Mother, to become the worthy habitation of thy Son : grant that we may be delivered from present evils and from everlasting death, by Her gracious intercession, in whose commemoration we rejoice. Through the same Christ our Lord. 1$. Amen. ft: May the divine assistance remain always with us.
1$. Amen.*
Then, in secret, Pater, Ave, and Credo.
In the Monastic Rite this response is as follows : —
R7. And with our absent Broth* ren. Amen.
Et cum fratribus nostris absentibus. Amen.
PROPER OF THE SAINTS.
July 8. SAINT ELIZABETH,
QUEEN OF PORTUGAL.
In the footsteps of Margaret of Scotland and of Clotilde of France, a third Queen conies to shed her brightness on the sacred Cycle. Born at the southern extremity of Christendom, where it borders on Mussulman lands, she was destined by the Holy Ghost to seal with peace the victories of Christ, and prepare the way for fresh conquests. The blessed name of Elizabeth, which for half a century had been rejoicing the world with its sweet perfume, was given to her, foretelling that this new-born child, as though attracted by the roses which fell from the mantle of her Thuringian aunt, was to cause these same heavenly flowers to blossom in Iberia.
There is a mysterious heirship among the saints of God. The same' year in which one niece of Elizabeth of Thuringia was born in Spain, another, the Blessed Margaret of Hungary, took her flight to heaven. She had been consecrated to God from her mother's womb, as a pledge for the salvation of her people, in the midst of terrible disasters; and the hopes so early centred in her were not frustrated. A short life of twenty-eight years spent in innocence and prayer, earned for her country the blessings of peace and civilization ; and then Margaret bequeathed to our Saint of to-day the mission of continuing in another land tbe work of her holy predecessors.
The time had come for our Lord to shed a ray of His grace upon Spain. The thirteenth century was closing, leaving the world in a state of dismemberment and ruin. Weary of fighting for Christ, kings dismissed the Church from their councils, and selfishly kept aloof, preferring their own ambitious strifes to the common aspiration of the once great body of Christendom. Such a state of things was disastrous for the entire West ; much more, thenr for that noble country where the Crusade had multiplied kingdoms as so many outposts against the common enemy, the Moors. Unity of views and the sacrifice of all things to the great work of deliverance could alone maintain in the successors of Pelayo the spirit of the grand memories of yore. Unfortunately these princes, though heroes on the battle-field, had not sufficient strength of mind to lay aside their petty quarrels and take up the sacred duty entrusted to them by Providence. In vain did the Roman Pontiff strive to awaken them to the interests of their country and of the Christian name ; these hearts, generous in other respects, were too stifled by miserable passions to heed his voice; and the Mussulman looked on delightedly at these intestine strifes, which retarded his own defeat. Navarre, Castile, Aragon, and Portugal were not only at war with each other; but even within each of these kingdoms, father and son were at enmity, and brother disputed with brother, inch by inch, the heritage of his ancestors.
Who was to restore to Spain the still recent traditions of her Ferdinand III.? Who was to gather again these dissentient wills into one, so as to make them a terror to the Saracen and a glory to Christ? James I. of Aragon, who rivalled St. Ferdinand both in bravery and in conquests, had married Yoland, daughter of Andrew of Hungary; whereupon the cultusof the holy Duchessof Thuringia, whose brother-in-law he had thus become, was introduced beyond the Pyrenees; and the name of Elizabeth, changed in most cases into Isabel, became, as it were, a family jewel with which the Spanish
Erincesses have loved to be adorned. The first to ear it was the daughter of James and Toland, who married Philip III. of France, successor of St. Louis ;
James I., the Saint whom the Church honours to-day, and of whom the old king, with prophetic insight, loved to say, that she would surpass all the women of the race of Aragon.
Inheriting not only the name, but also the virtues of the "dear St. Elizabeth," she would one day deserve to be called " the mother of peace and of her " country." By means of her heroic self-renunciation and all-powerful prayer, she repressed the lamentable quarrels of princes. One day, unable to prevent peace being broken, she cast herself between two contending armies under a very hailstorm of arrows, and so forced the soldiers to lay down their fratricidal arms. Thus she paved the way for the happy event, which she herself was not to have the consolation of seeing : the re-organisation of that great enterprise for the expulsion of the Moors, which was not to close till the following century under the auspices of another Isabel, her worthy descendant, who would add to her name the beautiful title of "the Catholic." Four years after Elizabeth's death, the victory of Salado was gained by the united armies of all Spain the second same over 600,000 infidels, showing how a woman could, under most adverse circumstances, inaugurate a brilliant Crusade, to the immortal fame of her country.
Elisabeth Aragoniae regibus ortam, Christi anno millesimo ducentesimo septuagesimo primo, in praesagium futurae sanctimonies parentes, praeter morem, relicto matris aviaeque nomine, a magna ejus matertera, Thuringiae domina, sancta Elisabeth, in baptismo nominatam voluere. Ubinata est, statim patuit, quam felix regum regnorumque esset futura pacatrix : natalitia enim ejus laetitia perniciosas avi patrisque dissensiones in concordiam convertit. Pater vero crescentis postea filiae admiratus indolem, affirmabat lore, ut una Elisabeth reliquas Aragoniorum regum sanguine creatas feminas virtute longe superaret. Sic coelestem insius vitam in contemnendo corporis ornatu, in f ugiendis voluptatibus, in jejuniis frequentandis, in divinis precibus assidue recitandis, in caritatis operibus exercendis, veneratus, rerum suarura regnique felicitatem unius filiae meritis referebat acceptam. Tandem ubique nota, et a multis principibus exoptata, Dionysio Lusitaniae regi christianis caeremoniis rite est in matrimonium collocata.
Elizabeth, of the royal race of Aragon, was born in the year of our Lord 1271. As a presage of her future sanctity, her parents, contrary to custom, passing over the mother and grandmother, gave her in Baptism the name of her maternal great-aunt, St. Elizabeth, Duchess of Thuringia. No sooner was she born, than it became evident what a blessed peacemaker she was to be between kings and kingdoms ; for the joy of her birth put a happy period to the miserable quarrels of her father and grandfather. As she grew up, her father, admiring the natural abilities of his daughter, was wont to assert that Elizabeth would far outstrip in virtue all the women descended of the royal blood of Aragon ; and so great was his veneration for her heavenly manner of life, her contempt of worldly ornaments, her abhorrence of pleasure, her assiduity in fasting, prayer, and works of charity, that he attributed to her merits alone the prosperity of his kingdom and estate. On account of her wide-spread reputation, her hand was sought by many princes : at length she was, with all the ceremonies of holy Church, united in matrimony with Dionysius, king of Portugal
ST. ELIZABETH, QUI
In the married state she gave herself up to the exercise of virtue and the education of her children, striving, indeed, to please her husband, but still more to please God. For nearly half the year she lived on bread and water alone; and, on one occasion when, in an illness, she had refused to take the wine
Erescribed by the physician, er water was miraculously changed into wine. She instantaneously cured a poor woman of a loathsome ulcer by kissing it. In the depth of winter she changed the money she was going to distribute to the poor into roses, in order to conceal it from the king. She gave sight to a virgin born blind, healed many other persons of grievous distempers by the mere sign of the Cross, and performed a great number of other miracles of a like nature. She built and amply endowed monasteries, hospitals, and churches. She was admirable for her zeal in composing the differences of kings, and unwearied in her efforts to alleviate the public and private miseries of mankind.
After the death of King Dionysiu, Elizabeth, who had been in her youth a model to virgins, and in her married life to wives, became in her solitude a pattern of all virtues to widows. She immediately put on the religious habit of St. Clare, assisted with the greatest fortitude at
Juncta conjugio, non minorem excolendisvirtutibus, quam liberis educandis operam dabat, viro placere studens, sed magis Deo. Mediam fere anni partem solo pane tolerabat et aqua : quae in quodam ipsius morbo divinitus versa est in vinum, cum id a medicis praescriptum bibere recusasset Pauperis feminse ulcus horrendum exosculata, derepente sanavit. Pecunias pauperibus distribuendas, ut regem laterent, hiberno tempore in rosas convertit. Virginem caecam a nativitate llluminavit : multos alios solo crucis signo a gravissimis morbis hberavit: plurima id genus miracula patravit. Monasteria, collegia, et templa non modo exstruxit, sed etiam magnifice dotavit. In regum discordiis componendis admirabilisf uit: in privatis publicisque mortalium sublevandis calamitatibus indefessa.
Defuncto rege Dionysio, sicut virginibus in prima aetate, in matrimonio conjugibus, ita viduis in solitudine fuit omnium virtutum exemplar. Ulico enim religiosis sanctae Claras vestibus induta,regio funeri constanter interfuit, ac paulo post Compostellam proficiscens, multa ex holoserico, argento, auro, gemmisque donaria
Sro regis anima obtulit. Ine reversa domum, quidquid sibi carum aut pretiosum supererat, in sacros ac pios usus con vertit : absolvendoqne suo vere regio Conimbricensi virginum ccenobio, et alendis pauperibus, et protegendis viduis, defendendis pupillis, miseris omnibus juvandis intenta, non gibi, sed Deo, et mortalium omnium commodis vivebat. Beges duos filium et generum pacificatura. Stremotium nobile oppidum veniens, morbo ex itinere contracto, ibidem a Virgine Deipara visitata sanctissime obiit, anno millesimo trecentesimo trigesimo sexto, die quarta Jufii. Post mortem multis miraculis claruit, praesertim suavissimo corporis jam per annosferetrecentos incorrupti odore ; semper etiam reginae sanctae cognomen to Celebris. Tandem anno jubilaei, et nostrae salutis millesimo sexcentesimo vigesimo quinto, totius christiani orbis concursu et applausu, ab Urbano Octavo rite inter Sanctos adscripta est. the king's funeral, and then, proceeding to Compostella, offered there for the repose of his soul a quantity of silk, silver, gold, and precious stones. On her return home she consumed in holy and pious works all she had that was dear and precious to her ; she completed the building of her truly royal monastery of virgins at Coimbra; and, wholly engaged in feeding the poor, protecting widows, sheltering orphans, and assisting the afflicted in every way, she lived not for herself, but for the glory of God and the well-being of men. On her way to the noble town of Estremoz, whither she was going in order to make peace between the two kings, her son and son-in-law, she was seized with illness ; and, in that town, after having been visited by the Blessed Virgin, Mother of God, she died a most holy death, on the 4th day of July, in the year 1336. After death she was glorified by many miracles, especially by the sweet fragrance of her body, which has remained incorrupt for nearly three hundred years ; and she is always distinguished by the name of the "holy queen." At length, in the year of jubilee, of our salvation 1625, with the unanimous applause of the assembled Christian world, she was solemnly enrolled among the Saints by Pope Urban VIII.
O blessed Elizabeth ! we praise God for thy holy works, as the Church this day invites all her sods to do. More valiant than those princes in whose midst thou didst appear as the angel of thy fatherland, thou didst exhibit in thy private life a heroism which could equal theirs, when need was, even on the battle-field. God's grace was the motive-power of thy actions, and His glory their sole end. Often does God gain more glory by abnegations hidden from aU'eye but His, than by great works justly admired by a whole people. It is because the power of His grace shines forth the more ; and it is generally the way of His Providence to cause the most remarkable blessings bestowed on nations, to spring from these hidden sources. How many battles celebrated in history have first been fought and won in the sight of the Blessed Trinity, in some hidden spot of that supernatural world, where the elect are ever at war with hell, nay, struggle at times even with God Himself; how many famous treaties of peace have first been concluded between heaven and earth in the secret of a single soul, as a reward for those giant struggles which men misunderstand and despise! Let the fashion of this world pass away ; and those deep-thinking politicians, who are said to rule the course of events, the proud negotiators and warriors of renown, all, when judged by the light of eternity, will appear for what they are : mere deceptions screening from the sight of men the only names truly worthy of immortality.
Glory then be to thee, through whom the Lord has deigned to lift a corner of the veil that hides from the world the true rulers of its destinies. In the golden book of the elect, thy nobility rests on better titles than those of birth. Daughter and
1 Invitatory. mother of kings, thyself a queen, thou didst rule over a glorious land ; but far more glorious is the family throne in heaven, where thou reignest with the first Elizabeth, with Margaret and with Hedwige, and where others will come to join thee, doing honour to the same noble blood which flowed in thy veins.
Remember, O mother of thy country, that the power given thee on earth is not diminished now that the God of armies has called thee to thy heavenly triumph. True, the land of Iberia, which owes its independence principally to thee, is no longer in the same troubled condition ; but if at the present day there is no fear of the Moors, on the from their noble traditions : lead them back to the right path, that they may attain the glorious destiny marked out for them by Providence. Thy power in heaven is not restrained within the borders of a kingdom ; cast then a look of mercy on the rest of the world : see how nations, recognising no right but might, waste their wealth and their vitality in wholesale bloodshed; has the time come for those terrible wars, which are to be harbingers of the end, and wherein the world will work its own destruction ? O mother of peace! hear how the Church, the mother of nations, implores thee to make full use of thy sublime prerogative; put a stop to these furious strifes ; and make our life on earth a path of peace, leading up to the joys of eternity. other
Portugal have fallen away
1 Collect of the day.
July 10.
THE SEVEN BROTHERS, Martyrs,
AND
SS. RUFINA & SECUNDA, Virgins & Martyrs.
Three times within the next few days will the number seven appear in the holy Liturgy, honouring the Blessed Trinity, and proclaiming the reign of the Holy Spirit with His sevenfold grace. Felicitas, Symphorosa, and the mother of the Machabees, each in turn will lead her seven sons to the feet of Eternal Wisdom. The Church, bereaved of her Apostolic founders, pursues her course undaunted, for the teaching of Peter and Paul is defended by the testimony of martyrdom, and when persecutions have ceased, by that of holy virginity. Moreover, "the "blood of martyrs is the seed of Christians:"1 the heroes who in life were the strength of the Bride, give her fecundity by their death ; and the family of God's children continues to increase.
Great indeed was the faith of Abraham, when he hoped against all hope that he would become the father of nations through that same Isaac whom he was commanded to slay : but did Felicitas show less faith, when she recognised in the immolation of her seven children the triumph of life and the highest blessing that could be bestowed on her motherhood ?
1 Tkrtullian, Apolog. 50.
Honour be to her, and to those who resemble her ! The worldly-wise may scorn them ; but they are like noble rivers transforming the desert into a paradise of God, and fertilizing the soil of the gentile world after the ravages of the first age.
Marcus Aurelius had just ascended the throne, to prove himself during a reign of nineteen years nothing but a second-rate pupil of the sectarian rhetors of the second century, whose narrow views and hatred of Christian simplicity he embraced alike in policy and in philosophy. These men, created by him prefects and proconsuls, raised the most coldblooded persecution the Church has ever known. The scepticism of this imperial philosopher did not exempt him from the general rule that where dogma is rejected, superstition takes its place ; and monarch and people were of one accord in seeking a remedy for public calamities in the rites newly brought from the East, and in the extermination of the Christians. The assertion that the massacres of those days were carried on without the prince's sanction, not only does not excuse him, it is moreover false ; it is now a proven truth that, foremost among the tyrants who destroyed the flower of the human race, stands Marous Aurelius Antoninus, stained more than Domitian or even Nero with the blood of Martyrs.
The seven sons of St. Felicitas were the first victims offered by the prince to satisfy the philosophy of his courtiers, the superstition of the people, and, be it said, his own convictions, unless we would have him to be the most cowardly of men. It was he himself who ordered the prefect Publius to entice to apostasy this noble family whose piety angered the gods ; it was he again who, after hearing the report of the cause, pronounced the sentence, and decreed that it should be executed by several judges in different places, the more publicly to make known the policy of the new reign. The arena opened at the same time in all parts not only of Rome, but of the empire; the personal interference of the sovereign intimated to the hesitating magistrates the line of conduct to pursue if they wished to court the imperial favour. Felicitas soon followed her sons ; J ustin the philosopher found out by experience what was the sincerity of Caesar's love of truth; every class yielded its contingent of victims to the tortures which this would-be wise master of the world deemed necessary for the safety of the empire. At length, that his reign might close as it had begun in blood, a rescript of the so-called mild emperor sanctioned wholesale massacres. Humanity, lowered by the unjust flattery heaped upon this wretched prince even up to our own day, was thus duly rehabilitated by the noble courage of a slave such as Blandina, or of a patrician such as Caecilia.
Never before had the south- wind swept so impetuously through the gardeu of the Spouse, scattering far and wide the perfume of myrrh and spices. Never before had the Church, like an army set in array, appeared, despite her weakness, so invincible as now, when she was sustaining the prolonged assault of Caesarism and false science from without, in league with heresy within. Want of space forbids us to enter into the details of a question which is now beginning to be more carefully studied, yet is far from being thoroughly understood. Under cover of the pretended moderation of the Antonines, hell was ■exerting its most skilful endeavours against Christianity at the very period which opened with the martyrdom of the Seven Brothers. If the Caesars of the third century attacked the Church with a fury and a refinement of cruelty unknown to Marcus Aurelius, it was but as a wild beast taking a fresh spring upon the prey that had well nigh escaped him.
Such being the case, no wonder that the Church has from the very beginning paid especial honour to these seven heroes, the pioneers of that decisive struggle which was to prove her impregnable to all the powers of hell. Was there ever a more sublime scene in that spectacle which the saints have to present to the world ? If there was ever a combat which angels and men could equally applaud, it was surely this of the 10th July 162; when in four different suburbs of the Eternal City, these seven patrician youths, led by their heroic mother, opened the campaign which was to rescue Rome from these upstart Caesars and restore her to her immortal destinies. After their triumph, four cemeteries shared the honour of gathering into their crypts the sacred remains of the martyrs ; and the glorious tombs have in our own day furnished the Christian archaeologist with matter for valuable research and learned writings. As far back as we can ascertain from the most authentic monuments, the 6th of the Ides of July was marked on the calendars of the Roman Church as a day of special solemnity, on account of the four stations where the faithful assembled round the tombs of " the Martyrs." This name, given by excellence to the seven brothers, was preserved to them even in time of peace — an honour by so much the greater as there had been torrents of blood shed under Diocletian. Inscriptions of the fourth century, found even in those cemeteries which never possessed their relics, designate the 11th July as the "day " following the feast of the Martyrs."
The honours of this day whereon the Church sings the praises of true fraternity, are shared by two valiant sisters. A century had passed over the empire, and the Antonines were no more. Valerian, who at first seemed, like them, desirous of obtaining a character for moderation, soon began to follow them along the path of blood. Id order to strike a decisive blow, he issued a decree whereby all the principal ecclesiastics were condemned to death without distinction, and every Christian of rank was bound under the heaviest penalties to abjure his faith. It is to this edict that Rufina and Secunda owed the honour of crossing their palms with those of Sixtus and Lawrence, Cyprian and Hippolytus. They belonged to the noble family of the Turcii Asterii, whose history has been brought to light by modern discovery. According to the prescriptions of Valerian, which condemned Christian women to no more than confiscation and exile, they ought to have escaped death ; but to the crime of fidelity to God they added that of holy virginity, and so the roses of martyrdom were twined into their lily- wreaths. Their sacred relics lie in St. John Lateran's, close to the baptistery of Constantine; and the second Cardinalitial See, that of Porto, couples with this title the name of St Rufina, thus claiming the protection of the blessed martyrs.
Let us read the short account of their martyrdom given us in to-day's Liturgy, beginning with that of the Seven Brothers.
Fratres, filii santse Felicitatis, Romae i n persecutione Marci Aurelii mum blanditiis, deinde ter- Felicitas, roribus tentati, ut Christo deos veneraret sua virtute, et matre hortante, in fidei confessione perseverantes, varie sunt J anuarius plumbatis caesus ; Felix et Philippus fustibus contusi: Silvanus ex altissimo loco prsedejectus est : Alexan-
At Rome, in the persecution Sep tern of Marcus Aurelius Antonin us, c the prefect Publius tried first Anby fair speeches and then by toniniaPublioprsefectoprithreats to compel seven brothers, the sons of St. to renounce Christ and adore renuntiantes, the gods. But, owing both to entur : their own valour and to their mother's words of encouragement, they persevered in their necati confession of faith, and were all put to death in various ways, J anuarius was scourged to death with leaded whips, ceps der, Vitalis, et Martialis capita plectuntur. Mater eorum quarto post mense eamdem martyrii palmam consecuta est: illi sexto Idus Julii epiritum Domino reddiderunt
Eufina et Secunda, sorores virgines Eomanae, rejecto connubio Armentarii et Verini, quibus a parentibus desponsae f uerant, quod Jesu Christo virginitatem vovissent, Valeriano et Gallieno imperatoribu comprehenduntur. Quas cum nec promissis, nec terrore J unius praefectus a proposito posset abducere, Bufinam primum virgis caadi jubet: in quibus verberibus Secunda judicem sic interpellat : Quid est, quod sororem meam honore, me afficis ignominia? Jube ambas simul csedi, quae simul Christum Deum confitemur. Quibus verbis incensus judex imperat utramque detrudi in tenebricosum et foetidum carcerem. Quo loco statim clarissima luce et suavissimo odore completo, in ardente balnei solio includuutur. Et cum inde etiam integrse evasissent, mox saxo ad collum alligato in Tiberim projectae sunt ; unde ab Angelo liberataa, extra Urbem via Aurelia milliario decimo, capite plectuntur. Quarum corpora a PlautOla matrona in ejus praadio sepulta, ac
Felix and Philip were beaten with clubs, Silvanus was thrown headlong from a great height, Alexander, Vitalis, and Martial were beheaded. Their mother also gained the palm of martyrdom four months later. The brothers gave up their souls to our Lord on the 6th of the Ides of July.
Eufina and Secunda were sisters and Roman virgins. Their parents had betrothed them to Armentarius and Verinus, but they refused to marry, saying that they had consecrated tneir virginity to J esus Christ. They were, therefore, apprehended during the reign of the Emperors Valerian and Gallienus. When J unius, the prefect, saw he could not shake their resolution either by promises or by threats, he first ordered Eufina to be beaten with rods. While she was being scourged, Secunda thus addressed the judge : " Why do you treat my sister " thus honourably, but me dis- " honourably ? Order us both " to be scourged, since we both "confess Christ to be God. Enraged by these words, the judge ordered them both to be cast into a dark and foetid dungeon; immediately a bright light and a most sweet odour filled the prison. They were then shut up in a bath, the floor of which was made red-hot ; but from this also they emerged unhurt. Next they were thrown into the Tiber with stones tied to their necks, but an Angel saved them from the water, and they were fin- postea in Urbem translata, ally beheaded ten miles out in Basilica Constantiniana of the city on the Aurelian prope Baptisterium condita
Way. Their bodies were bur- sunt. ied by a matron named Plau- tilla, on her estate, and were afterwards translated into
Home, where they now repose in the Basilica of Constantino near the baptistery.
" Praise the Lord, ye children, praise the Name of u the Lord : who maketh the barren woman to dwell "in a house, the joyful mother of children." Such is the opening chant of this morning's Mass. But say, O blessed ones ! was your admirable mother barren who gave seven martyrs to the earth ? Fecundity according to this world counts for nothing before God ; this is not the fruitfulness intended by that blessing which fell from the lips of the Lord when in the beginning he made man to his own image. " Increase and multiply " was spoken to a holy one, a son of God, bidding him propagate a divine offspring. As the first creation, so was all future birth to be : man, in communicating his own existence to others, was to transmit to them at the same time the life of their Father in heaven ; the natural and the supernatural life were to be as inseparable as a building and its foundation; nature without grace would be but a frame without a picture. All too soon did sin destroy the harmony of the divine plan; nature violently separated from grace could produce only sons of wrath. Yet God was too rich in mercy to abandon the design of his immense love; and having in the first instance created us to be his children, he would now re-create us as such in his Word made Flesh. Reduced to a shadow of what it would have been, the union of Adam and Eve, unable to give birth straightway to sons of God, was dismantled of that glory beside which the sublime privileges, of the Angels would have paled : nevertheless it was still the figure of the great mystery of Christ and the Church. Sterile according to God and doomed to the death she had brought upon her race, it was only by participation in the merits of the second Eve, that the first could be called the mother of the living. Great honour indeed was still to be hers, and she would be able in part to repair her fall, but on condition of yielding to the rights of the Bride of the seeond Adam. Far better than Pharao's daughter rescuing Moses and confiding him to Jochabed, could the Church say to every mother on receiving her babe from the waters: "Take "this child and nurse him for me." And every Christian mother, anxious to correspond to the Church's trust in her and proud of being able to realize God's primitive intentions, might well repeat with regard to this second child-birth, those words uttered by a superhuman love : My little children, of whom I am in labour againy until Christ be formed in you. Shame upon her that would forget the sublime destiny of her child to be a son of God T A far less crime would it be, were she, through negligence or by design, to stifle in him by an education exclusively directed to the senses, that intelligence which distinguishes man from the animals subjected to his power. For the attainment of man's true end, the supernatural life is more necessary than the life of reason ; for a mother to make no account of it, and to suffer the divine germ to perish after being planted in the infant's soul at its new birth from the sacred font, would be to do unto death the frail being that owed its existence to her.
3 Gal ir. 19.
Far otherwise, 0 martyrs, did your illustrious mother understand her mission ! Hence, though her memory is honoured on the day when four months after you she quitted this earth, yet this present feast is the chief monument of her glory. She, more than yourselves, is celebrated in the readings and chants of the Holy Sacrifice and in the lessons of the Night Oflfice. And why is this? Because, says St. Gregory, being already the handmaid of Christ by faith, she has to-day become His mother, according to our Lord's own word, by giving him a new birth in each of her seven sons. After having made such a complete holocaust of you to your heavenly Father, what will her own martyrdom be, but the long-desired close of her widowhood, the happy hour which will reunite her in glory to you who are doubly her sons ? Henceforward, then, on this day which was to her the day of suffering, but not of reward ; when after passing seven times over through tortures and death, she had yet to remain in banishment, it is but just that her children should rise and make over to her, as of right, the honours of the triumph. Henceforth, though still an exile, she is clothed with purple, dyed not twice, but seven times ; the richest daughters of Eve own that she has surpassed them all in the fruitfulness of martyrdom ; her own works praise her in the assembly of the saints. On this day, O sons and mother, and ye two noble sisters who share in their glory, listen to our prayers, protect the Church, and make the whole world heedful of the teaching conveyed by your beautiful example !
July 11. SAINT PIUS L,
POPE AND MARTYR.
A holy Pope of the second century, the first of the nine hitherto graced with the name of Pius, rejoices us to-day with his mild and gentle light Although Christian society was in a precarious condition under the edicts of persecution, which even the best of the pagan emperors never abrogated, our Saint profited by the comparative peace enjoyed by the Church under Antoninus Pius, to strengthen the foundations of the mysterious tower raised by the divine Shepherd to the honour of the Lord God. He ordained by his supreme authority that, notwithstanding the contrary custom observed in certain places, the feast of Easter should be celebrated on a Sunday throughout the entire Church. The importance of this measure and its effects upon the whole Church will be brought before us on the feast of St. Victor, who succeeded Pius at the close of the century.
The ancient legend of St. Pius I., which has lately been altered, made mention of the decree, attributed in the Corpus juris to our Pontiff, concerning those who should carelessly let fall any portion of the Precious Blood of our Lord. The prescriptions are
1 Hermon. Pastor. 2 Cap. Si per negligentiam, 27, Dist. II de Consecratione. jST. PIUS I. such as evince the profound reverence the Pope would have to be shown towards the Mystery of the Altar. The penance enjoined is to be of forty days if the Precious Blood have fallen to the ground ; and wheresoever It fell, It must if possible be taken up with the lips, the dust must be burned, and the ashes thereof thrown into a consecrated place.
Pius, the first of this name, . Pius, hujus nominis pri- a citizen of Aquileia, and son mus, Aquileiensis, Rumni of Rnfinus, was priest of the Alius, ex presbytero sanctse holy Roman Church. During Romans Ecclesiae Summus the reign of Antoninus Pius Pontifex creatus est, Anto- and Marcus Aurelius he was nino Pio et Marco Aurelio chosen Sovereign Pontiff. In imperatoribus augustis. five ordinations which he held Q u i n q u e ordinationibus, in the month of December, he mense decembri, episcopos ordained twelve bishops and duodecim octodecim presby- extant ; in particular that tuta, praesertim ut Resur- which ordains that the Resur- rectio Domini nonnisi die rection of our Lord is always to Dominico celebraretur. Pu- be celebrated on a Sunday. He dentis domum in ecclesiam changed the house of Pudens mutavit, eamque ob prae- into a Church, and because it stautiam supra caeteros surpassed the other titles in titulos, utpote Romani Pon- dignity, inasmuch as the Ro- tificis mansionem, titulo man Pontiffs had made it their Pastoris dicavit, et in qua dwelling-place, he dedicated saepe rem sacram fecit, et it under the title of Pastor, multos ad fidem conversos
Here he often celebrated the baptizavit, ac in fidelium holy Mysteries, baptized many numerum adscripsit. Dum who had been converted to vero boni Pastoris munus the faith, and enrolled them obiret, fuso pro suis ovibus in the ranks of the faithful, et Sum mo Pastore Christo
While he was thus fulfilling sanguine, martyrio corona- the duties of a good shepherd, tus est quinto Idus Julii, ac he shed his blood for his sheep sepultus in Vaticano. and for Christ the Supreme Pastor, being crowned with martyrdom on the 5th of the Ides of July. He was buried in the Vatican. teros creavit. Exstant nonnulla ab eo praeclare insti-
We call to mind, 0 glorious Pontiff, those words written under thine eye, which seem to be a commentary on thy decree concerning the Sacred Mysteries: "We receive not," cried Justin the Philosopher to the world of that second century: " We "receive not as common bread, nor as common drink, "the food which we call the Eucharist; but just as " Jesus Christ our Saviour, being made flesh by the " word of God, had both flesh and blood for our salva- " tion, so have we been taught that the food made " Eucharist by the prayer formed of His own word, is "both the Flesh and the Blood of this Jesus who is made "flesh."1 This doctrine, and the measures it so fully justifies, found, towards the close of the same century, other authentic witnesses who, in their turn, would almost seem to be quoting from the prescriptions attributed to thee. " We are in the greatest distress," said Tertullian, " if the least drop from our chalice, " or the least crumb of our Bread fall to the ground."2 And Origen appealed to the initiated to bear witness to " the care and veneration with which the sacred " gifts were surrounded, for fear the smallest particle " should fall; which, if it happened through negligence, "would be considered a crime."3 And yet in our days heresy, as destitute of knowledge as of faith, pretends that the Church has departed from her ancient traditions by paying exaggerated homage to the divine Sacrament. Obtain for us, 0 Pius, the grace to return to the spirit of our fathers; not indeed with regard to their faith, for that we have kept inviolate ; but as to the veneration and love with which that faith inspired them for the Chalice of Inebriation, that richest treasure of earth. May the Pasch of the Lamb unite, as thou didst desire, in one uniform celebration, all who have the honour to bear the name of Christian !
1 Apolog. I. 66. 8 De Corona, iii. 3 In Er. Homil. xiii.
July 12. SAINT JOHN GUALBERT,
ABBOT. ♦ -
Never, from the day when Simon Magus was baptized at Samaria, had hell seemed so near to conquering the Church, as at the period brought before us by to-day's feast Rejected and anathematised by Peter, the new Simon had said to the princes, as the former had said to the Apostles: "Sell me this power, that upon whomsoever I shall lay hands, he may receive the Holy Ghost." And the princes, ready enough to supplant Peter and fill their coffers at the same time, had taken upon themselves to invest men of their own choice with the government of the churches ; the bishops in their turn had sold to the highest bidders the various orders of the hierarchy ; and sensuality, ever in the wake of covetousness, had filled the sanctuary with defilement.
The tenth century had witnessed the humiliation of the supreme Pontificate itself ; early in the eleventh, simony was rife among the clergy. The work of salvation was going on in the silence of the cloister ; but Peter Damian had not yet come forth from the desert ; nor had Hugh of Cluny, Leo IX., and Hildebrand brought their united efforts to bear upon the evil A single voice was heard to utter the cry of alarm and rouse the people from their lethargy : it was the voice of a monk, who had once been a valiant soldier, and to whom the crucifix had bowed its head in recognition of his generous forgiveness of an enemy. John Gualbert, seeing simony introduced into his own monastery of San Miniato, left it and entered Florence, only to find the pastoral staff in the hands of a hireling. The zeal of God's House was devouring his heart ; and going into the public squares, he denounced the Bishop and his own Abbot, that thus he might at least deliver his own soul.
At the sight of this monk confronting singlehanded the universal corruption, the multitude was for a moment seized with stupefaction ; but soon surprise was turned into rage, and John with difficulty escaped death. From this day his special vocation was determined : the just, who had never despaired, hailed him as the avenger of Israel, and their hope was not to be confounded. But, like all who are chosen for a divine work, he was to spend a long time under the training of the Holy Spirit. The athlete had challenged the powers of this world ; the holy war was declared : one would naturally have expected it to wage without ceasing until the enemy was entirely defeated. And yet, the chosen soldier of Christ hastened into solitude to "amend his life," according to the truly Christian expression used in the foundation-charter of Vallombrosa, The promoters of the disorder, startled at the suddenness of the attack, and then seeing the aggressor as suddenly disappear, would laugh at the false alarm ; but, cost what it might to the once brilliant soldier, he knew how to abide, in humility and submission, the hour of God's good pleasure.
Little by little other souls, disgusted with the state of society, came to join him ; and soon the army of prayer and penance spread throughout Tuscany. It
1 Meliorandce vital gratia : Lit terse donation is Itta: Abbatissce \ Ughelli, III, 299 vd 231.
7T was destined to extend over all Italy, and even to cross the mountains. Settimo, seven miles from Florence, and San Salvi at the gates of the city, were the strongholds whence the holy war was to recommence in 1063. Another simoniac, Peter of Pavia, had purchased the succession to the episcopal see. John, with all his monks, was resolved rather to die than to witness in Silence this new insult offered to the Church of God. His reception this time was to be very different from the former, for the fame of his sanctity and miracles had caused him to be looked upon by the people as an oracle. No sooner was his voice heard once more in Florence, than the whole flock was so stirred, that the unworthy pastor, seeing he could no longer dissemble, cast off his disguise and showed what he really was : a thief who had come only to rob and kill and destroy. By his orders a body of armed men descended upon San Salvi, set fire to the monastery, fell upon the brethren in the midst of the Night-Office, and put them all to the 8 word; each monk continuing to chant till he received the fatal stroke. John Gualbert, hearing at Vallombrosa of the martyrdom of his sons, intoned a canticle of triumph. Florence was seized with horror, and refused to communicate with the assassin bishop. Nevertheless four years had yet to elapse before deliverance could come; and the trials of St. John had scarcely begun.
St. Peter Damian, invested with full authority by the Sovereign Pontiff, had just arrived from the Eternal City. All expected that no quarter would be given to simony by its sworn enemy, and that peace would be restored to the afflicted Church. The very contrary took place. The greatest saints may be mistaken, and so become to one another the cause of sufferings by so much the more bitter as their will, being less subject to caprice than that of other men, remains more firmly set upon the course they have adopted for the interests of God and His Church. Perhaps the great bishop of Ostia did not sufficiently take into consideration the exceptional position in which the Florentines were placed by the notorious simony of Peter of Pavia, and the violent manner in which he put to death, without form of trial, all who dared to withstand him: Starting from the indisputable principle that inferiors have no right to depose their superiors, the legate reprehended the conduct of the monks, and of all who had separated themselves from the bishop. There was but one refuge for them, the Apostolic See, to which they fearlessly appealed ; a proceeding which no one could call uncanonical. But there, says the historian, many who feared for themselyes, rose up against them, declaring that these monks were worthy of death for having dared to attack the prelates of the Church; while Peter Damian severely reproached them before the whole Roman Council. The holy and glorious Pope Alexander II. took the monks under his own protection, and praised the uprightness of their intention. Yet he dared not comply with their request and proceed further, because the greater number of the bishops sided with Peter of Pavia ; the archdeacon Hildebrand alone was entirely in favour of the Abbot of Vallombrosa.
Nevertheless the hour was at hand when God Himself would pronounce the judgment refused them by men. While overwhelmed with threats and treated as lambs amongst wolves, John Gualbert and his sons cried to heaven with the Psalmist : " Arise, O Lord, " and help us; arise, why dost Thou sleep, O Lord ; "arise, O God, and judge our cause." At Florence the storm continued to rage. St. Saviour's at Settimo
1 Vita S. J. Gualb. ap. Baron, ad an. 1063. had become the refuge of such of the clergy as were banished from the town by the persecution ; the holy founder, who was then residing in that monastery, multiplied in their behalf the resources of his charity. At length the situation became so critical, that one day in Lent of the year 1067 the rest of the clergy and the whole population left the simoniac alone in his deserted palace, and fled to Settimo. Neither the length of the road, deep in mud from the rain, nor the rigorous fast observed by all, says the narrative written at that very time to the Sovereign Pontiff by the clergy and people of Florence, could stay the most delicate matrons, women about to become mothers, or even children. Evidently the Holy Ghost was actuating the crowd ; they called for the judgment of God. John Gualbert, under the inspiration of the same Holy Spirit, gave his consent to the trial ; and in testimony of the truth of the accusation brought by him against the Bishop of Florence, Peter, one of his monks, since known as Peter Igoeus, walked slowly before the eyes of the multitude through an immense fire, without receiving the smallest injury. Heaven had spoken : the Bishop was deposed by Rome, and ended his days a happy penitent in that Yery monastery of Settimo.
In 1073, the year in which his friend Hildebrand was raised to the Apostolic See, John was called to God. His influence against simony had reached far beyond Tuscany. The Republic of Florence ordered his feast to be kept as a holiday, and the following words were engraved upon his tomb-stone :
TO JOHN GUALBERT, CITIZEN OF FLORENCE, DELIVERER OF ITALY.
Let us read the notice which the Church conse-
TIME AFTER PEflTECX)ST. crates to bin blessed memory, though with a few differences of detail.
Joannes Gualbertus, Florentise nobili genere ortus, dum patri obsequens rem militarem sequitur, Ugo, unicus ejus f rater, occiditur a consanguineo : quern cum solum et inermem sancto Parasceves die Joannes armis ac militibus stipatus obvium haberet, ubi neuter alterum poterat declinare, ob sanctsB Crucis reverentiam, quam homicida supplex, mortem jam jam subiturus, brachiis signabat, vitam ei clementer indulget Hoste in fratrem recepto, proximum sancti Miniatis templum oraturus ingreditur, ubi adoratam Crucifixi imaginem caput sibi flectere conspicitv Quo mirabili facto permotus J oannes, Deo exinde, etiam invito patre, militare decernit, atque ibidem propriis sibi manibus comam totondit, ac monasticumhabituminduit; adeoque piis ac religiosis virtutibus brevi coruscat, ut multis se perfections specimen ac normam pneberet; ita ut, ejusdem loci Abbate defuncto, communi omnium Toto in superiorem eligeretur. At Dei famulus cupiens subesse potius, quam preesse,ad majora divina voluntate servatus, ad CamaJdulensis eremi incolam Romualdum proficiscitur : a quo coelicum sui instituti
John Gualbert was born at Florence of a noble family. While, in compliance with his father's wishes, he was following the career of arms, it happened that his only brother Hugh was slain by a kinsman. On Good Friday, John, at the head of an armed band, met the murderer alone and unarmed, in a spot where they could not avoid each other. Seeing death imminent, the murderer, with arms outstretched in the form of a cross, begged for mercy, and John, through reverence for the sacred sign, graciously spared him. Having thus changed his enemy into a brother, he went to pray iu the church of San Miniato, which was near at hand ; and as he was adoring the image of Christ crucified, he saw it bend its head towards him. John was deeply touched by this miracle, and determined thenceforward to fight for God alone, even against his father's wish ; so, on the spot he cut off his own hair and put on the monastic habit. Very soon his pious and religious manner of life shed abroad so great a lustre that he became to many a living rule and pattern of perfection. Hence on the death of the Abbot of the place he was unanimously chosen superior. But the servant of God, preferring obedience to superiority, and moreoTer being reserved by the divine Will for greater things, betook himself to Romuald who was then living in the desert of Carnal - doli, and who, inspired by heaven, announced to him the institute he was to form; whereupon he laid the foundations of his Order under the Rule of St Benedict at V»llombrosa.
Soon afterwards many, attracted by the renown of his sanctity, flocked to him from all sides. He received them into his society, and together with them he zealously devoted himself to rooting out heresy and simony, and propagating the Apostolic faith ; on account of which devotedness both he and his disciples suffered innumerable injuries. Thus, his enemies in their eagerness to destroy him and his brethren, suddenly attacked the monastery of San Salvi by night, burned the church, demolished the buildings, and mortally wounded all the monks. The man of God, however, restored them all forthwith to health by a single sign of the Cross. Peter, one of his monks, miraculously walked unhurt through a huge blazing fire, and thus John obtained for himself and his sons the peace they so much desired. From that time forward every stain of simony disappeared from Tuscany; and faith, throughout all Italy, was restored to its former purity. vaticinium accipit : turn fcuum Ordinem sub regula sancti Benedicti apud Umbrosam vallem instituit
Deinde, plurimis ad eum ob ejus sanctitatis f amain undique convolantibus, una cum iis in socios adscitis, ad hasreticam et simoniacam pravitatem exstirpandam, et apo8tolicam fidem propagandam sedulo incumoit, innumera propterea in se et suis incommoda expertus. Nam ut eum ej usque socios adversarii perdant, noctu sancti Salvii ccenobium repente aggrediuntur, templum incendunt, asdes demoliuntur, et monachosomnes lethali vulnere sauciant : quos vir Dei unico cruris signo incolumes protinus reddit ; et Petro ejus monacho per immensum ardentissimumque ignem illaaso mirabiliter transeunte, optatam sibi et suis tranquillitatem obtinet. Inde simoniacam labem ab Etruria expulit, ac in tota Italia fidem pristinae integritati restituit.
Multafunditus erexit monasteria, eademque et alia aedificiis ac regulari observantia instaurata, Sanctis legibus communivit. Ad egenos alendos sacram supellectilem vendidit : ad improbos coercendos elementa sibi f amulari conspexit : ad dsemones comprimendos crucem quasi ensem adhibuit. Demum abstinentiis, vigiliis, jejuniis, orationibus, carnis macerationibus, ac senio confectus,dum infirma valetudine gravaretur, Davidica ilia verba pereiepe repetebat : Sitivit anima mea ad Deum fortem, vivum : quando veniam, et apparebo ante faciem Dei] Jamque morti proximus, convocatos discijpulos ad fraternam concordiam cohortatur, et in breviculo, cui consepeliri voluit, jussit hsec scribi : Ego Joannes credo, et confiteor fidem, quam sancti Apostoli praedicaverunt, et sancti Patres in quatuor conciliis confirmaverunt. Tandem triduano Angelorum obsequio dignatus, septuagesimum octavum annu m agens, apud Passinianum, ubi summa veneratione colitur,migravit ad Dominum, anno salutis millesimo septuagesimo tertio,quartoIdus Julii. Quern Ccelestinus Tertius innumeris miraculis clarum in Sanctorum numerum retulit.
John built many entirely new monasteries, and restored many others both as to their material buildings and as to regular observance, strengthening them all with the bulwark of holy regulations. In order to feed the poor he sold the sacred vessels of the Altar. The elements were obedient to his will when he sought to check evil-doers ; and the sign of the Cross was the sword he used whereby to conquer the devils. At length worn out by abstinence, watchings, fasting, prayer, maceration of the flesh and finally old age, he fell into a grievous malady, during which he repeated unceasingly those words of David: "My "soul hath thirsted after the "strong living God: when " shall I come and appear be- " fore the face of God r When death drew near, calling together his disciples, he exhorted them to preserve fraternal union. Then he caused these words to be written on a paper which he wished should be buried with him : " I, John, " believe and confess the faith ">hich the holy Apostles "preached, and the holy Fa- "there in the four Councils " have confirmed." At length having been honoured during three days with the gracious presence of Angels, in the seventy-eighth year of his age, he departed to the Lord at Passignano, where he is honoured with the highest veneration. He died in the year of salvation 1073 on the 4th of the Ides of July; and having become celebrated by innumerable miracles, was enrolled by Celestine III. in the number of the Saints.
O true disciple of the New Law, who didst know how to spare an enemy for the love of the Holy Cross 1 teach us to practise, as thou didst, the lessons conveyed by the instrument of our salvation, which will then become to us, as to thee, a weapon ever victorious over the powers of hell. Could we look upon the Cross, and then refuse to forgive our brother an injury, when God Himself not only forgets our heinous offences against His Sovereign Majesty, but even died upon the Tree to expiate them ? The mo9t generous pardon a creature can grant is but a feeble shadow of the pardon we daily obtain from our Father in heaven. Still, the Gospel which the Church sings in thy honour, may well teach us that the love of our enemies is the nearest resemblance we can have to our heavenly Father, and the sign that we are truly His children.
Thou hadst, 0 John, this grand trait of resemblance. He who in virtue of His eternal generation is the true Son of God by nature, recognised in thee the mark of nobility which made thee His brother. When He bowed His sacred Head to thee, He saluted in thee the character of a child of God, which thou hadst just so beautifully maintained : a title a thousand times more glorious than those of thy noble ancestry. What a powerful germ was the Holy Ghost planting at that moment in thy heart ! And how richly does God recompense a single generous act! Thy sanctification, the glorious share thou didst take in the Church's victory, the fecundity whereby thou livest still in the Order sprung from thee : all these choice graces for thy own soul and for so many others, hung
PENT. IV. o upon that critical moment. Fate, or the Justice of God, as thy contemporaries would have said, had brought thy enemy within thy power : how wouldst thou treat him ? He was deserving of death ; and in those days every man was his own avenger. Hadst thou then inflicted due punishment upon him, thy reputation would have rather increased than diminished. Thou wouldst have obtained the esteem of thy comrades; but the only glory which is of any worth before God, indeed the only glory which lasts long even in the sight of men, would never have been thine. Who would have known thee at the present day? Who would have felt the admiration and gratitude with which thy very name now inspires the children of the Church ?
The Son of God, seeing that thy dispositions were conformable to those of His Sacred Heart, filled thee with His own jealous love of the holy City for whose redemption He shed His Blood. O thou that wert zealous for the beauty of the Bride, watch over her still ; deliver her from hirelings who would fain receive from men the right of holding the place of the Bridegroom. In our days venality is less to be feared than compromise. Simony would take another form ; there is not so much danger of bribery, as of fawning, paying homage, making advances, entering into implicit contracts ; all which proceedings are as contrary to the holy Canons, as are pecuniary transactions. And after all, is the evil any the less for taking a milder form, if it enables princes to bind the Church again in fetters such as thou didst labour to break? Suffer not, O John Gualbert, such a misfortune, which would be the forerunner of terrible disasters. Continue to support with thy powerful arm the common Mother of men. Save thy fatherland a second time, even in spite of itself. Protect, in these sad times, the Order of which thou art the glory and the father; give it strength to outlive the confiscations and the cruelties it is suffering from that same Italy which once hailed thee as its deliverer. Obtain for Christians of every condition the courage required for the warfare in which all are hound to engage.
On this same day the whole Church unites in the solemn homage which Milan continues to pay, after a lapse of sixteen centuries, to two valiant witnesses of Christ. "Our martyrs Felix and Nabor," says St. Ambrose, " are the grain of mustard-seed mentioned " in the Gospel. They possessed the good odour of " faith, though it did not appear to men ; persecution " arose, they laid down their arms, and bowed their " heads to the sword, and immediately the grace that " was hidden within them was shed abroad even to " the ends of the world ; so that we can now in all "truth say of them: Their sound has gone forth " into all the earth"
Let us honour them and ask their intercession by the prayer which the Church addresses to God in commemoration of their glorious combat.
Grant, we beseech thee, O Lord, that as the festival of thy holy Martyrs, Nabor and Felix, returns for us to celebrate, it may always be accompanied by their intercession. Through our Lord, <fcc.
Praesta, quaesumus Domine : ut, sicut nos sanctorum Martyrum tuorum Naboris et Felicis natalitia celebranda non deserunt, ita jugiter suffragiis comitentur. Per Dominum.
July 13. ST. ANACLETUS,
POPE AND MARTYR.
The name of Anacletus sounds like a lingering echo of the solemnity of June 29th. Linus, Clement, and Cletus, the immediate successors of St. Peter, received from his hands the pontifical consecration ; Anacletus had a less but still inestimable glory of being ordained priest by the Vicar of the Man-God. Whereas the feasts of most of the martyr Pontiffs who came after him are only of simple rite, that of Anacletus is a semi-double, because of his privilege of being the last Pope honoured by the imposition of hands of the Prince of the Apostles. It was also during his pontificate that the Eternal City had the glory of receiving within its walls the beloved disciple, who had come to fulfil his promise and drink of his Master's chalice. " O happy Church," exclaims Tertullian, " into whose "bosom the Apostles poured not only all their teach- " ing, but their very blood ; where Peter imitated his " Lord's Passion by dying on the cross ; where Paul, " like John the Baptist, received his crown by means " of the sword ; whence the Apostle John, after coming " forth safe and sound from the boiling oil, was sent " to the isle of his banishment."1 By the almighty power of the Spirit of Pentecost,
1 De praescript. xxxvi.
ST. ANACLETUS. the progress of the faith in Rome was proportionate to the bountiful graces of our Lord. Little by little the great Babylon, drunk with the blood of the martyrs, was being transformed into the Holy City. This new-born race, so full of promise for the future, could already reckon among its members representatives of every class of society. Beside the boiling cauldron where the Prophet of Patmos did homage to the New Jerusalem by offering within her walls his glorious confession, two consuls, one representing the ancient patrician rank, the other the more modern nobility of the Caesars, Acilius Glabrio, and Flavius Clemens, together fell by the sword of martyrdom. Anacletus adorned the tomb of the Prince of the Apostles, and provided a burial-place for the other pontiffs. Following his example, the distinguished families of Rome opened galleries for subterranean cemeteries, all along the roads leading to the imperial <rity. There rest innumerable soldiers of Christ, victorious by their blood ; and there, too, sleep in peace with the anchor of salvation beside them, the most illustrious names of earth.
Anacletus, an Athenian by birth, governed the Church in the days of the Emperor Trajan. He decreed that a bishop should be consecrated by no fewer than three bishops ; that clerics should be publicly admitted to Holy Orders, by their own bishop ; and that at Mass all should communicate after the Consecration. He adorned the tomb of blessed Peter, and set aside a place for the burial of the Pontiffs. He held two ordinations in the month of December, and made five priests, three deacons, and six
Anacletus Atheniensis, Trajano imperatore, rexit Ecclesiam. Decrevit ut eoiscopus, a tribus episcopis, neque a paucioribus consecraretur, et clerici sacris Ordinibus publice a proprio episcopo initiarentur : et ut in Missa, peracta consecratione, omnes communicarent Beati Petri sepulcrum ornavjt, Pontificumque sepulture locum attribuit. Fecit ordinationes duas mense Decembri,quibus creavit presbyteros quinque diaconos tres, episcopos sex.
Sedit annos novem, menses tres, dies decern. Martyrio coronatus, sepultus est in Vaticano. bishops. Having sat in St. Peters Chair nine years, three months, and ten days, he was crowned with martyrdom and buried on the Vatican.
Glorious Pontiff ! thy memory is so closely linked with that of Peter, that many reckon thee under a somewhat different name, among the three august persons raised by the Prince of the Apostles to the highest rank in the hierarchy. Nevertheless, in distinguishing thee from Cletus, who appeared on the sacred cycle in the month of April, we are justified by the authority of the holy Liturgy which appoints thee a separate feast, and by the constant testimony of Rome itself, which knows better than any the names and the history of its pontiffs. Happy art thou in being thus, as it were, lost sight of among the foundations whereon rest for ever the strength and beauty of the Church ! Give us all a special love for the particular positions assigned to us in the sacred building. Receive the grateful homage of all the living stones who are chosen to form the eternal temple, and who will all lean upon thee for evermore.
8&
July 14. SAINT BONAVENTURE,
CARDINAL AND DOCTOR OF THE CHURCH.
Four months after the Angel of the Schools, the Seraphic Doctor appears in the heavens. Bound by the ties of love when on earth, the two are now united for ever before the Throne of God. Bonaventure's own words will show us how great a right they both had to the heavenly titles bestowed upon them by the admiring gratitude of men.
As there are three hierarchies of Angels in heaven, so on earth there are three classes of the elect. The Seraphim, Cherubim, and Thrones, who form the first hierarchy, represent those who approach nearest to God by contemplation, and who differ among themselves according to the intensity of their love, the plenitude of their science, and the steadfastness of their justice; to the Dominations, Virtues, and Powers, correspond the prelates and princes ; and lastly, the lowest choirs signify the various ranks of the faithful engaged in the active life. This is the triple division of men, which, according to St. Luke, will be made at the last day : Two shall be in the bed, two in the field, two at the mill ; that is to say, in the repose of divine delights, in the field of government, at the mill of this life's toil. As regards the two mentioned in each place, we may remark that in Isaias, the Seraphim, who are more closely united to God than the rest, perform two together their ministry of sacrifice and praise ; for it is with the Angel as with man: the fulness of love, which belongs especially to the Seraphim, cannot be without the fulfilment of the double precept of charity towards God and one's neighbour. Again our Lord sent His disciples two and two before Hi§ face ; and in Genesis we find God sending two Angels where one would have sufficed. It is better therefore, says Ecclesiastes, that two should be together than one ; for they have the advantage of their society.
Such is the teaching of Bonaventure in his book of the Hierarchy, wherein he shows us the secret workings of Eternal Wisdom for the salvation of the world and the sanctification of the elect. It would be impossible to understand aright the history of the thirteenth century, were we to forget the prophetic vision, wherein our Lady was seen presenting to her offended Son His two servants Dominic and Francis, that they might, by their powerful union, bring back to Him the wandering human race. What a spectacle for Angels when, on the morrow of the apparition, the two saints met and embraced: " Thou art my companion, we will run side by side," said the descendant of the Gusmans to the poor man of Assisi ; " let us " keep together, and no man will be able to prevail " against us." These words might well have been the motto of their noble sons, Thomas and Bonaventure, The star which shone over the head of St. Dominic, shed its bright rays on Thomas; the Seraph who imprinted the stigmata in the flesh of St. Francis, touched with his fiery wing the soul of Bonaventure ; yet both, like their incomparable fathers, had but one end in view : to draw men by science and love to that eternal life which consists in knowing the only true God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent.
1 Of. Gen. xix. 1. > 2 Eecles. iv. 9.
3 De Ecclesiastica Hierarchia, pars i„ caps, i., ii.
Both were burning and shining lamps, blending their flames in the heavens, in proportions which no mortal eye could distinguish here below; nevertheless, Eternal Wisdom has willed that the Church on earth should borrow more especially light from Thomas and fire from Bonaventure. Would that we might here show in each of them the workings of Wisdom, the one bond even on earth of their union of thoughts, — that Wisdom, who, ever unchangeable in her adorable unity, never repeats herself in the souls she chooses from among the nations to become the prophets and the friends of God. But to-day we must speak only of Bonaventure.
When quite a child, he was saved by St. Francis from imminent death; whereupon his pious mother offered him by vow to the Saint, promising that he should enter the Order of Friars Minor. Thus, in the likeness of holy poverty, that beloved companion of the Seraphic Patriarch, did Eternal Wisdom prevent our Saint from his very cradle, showing herself first unto him. At the earliest awakening of his faculties he found her seated at the entrance of his soul, awaiting the opening of its gates, which are, he tells us, intelligence and love. Having received a good soul in an undefiled body, he preferred Wisdom before kingdoms and thrones, and esteemed riches nothing in comparison with the august friend, who offered herself to him in the glory of her nobility and beauty. From that first moment, without ever waning, she was his light. Peacefully as a sunbeam glancing through a hitherto closed window, Wisdom filled this dwelling, now become her own, as the bride on the nuptial day takes possession of the bridegroom's house, filling it with joy, in community of goods, and above all of love.
For her contribution to the nuptial banquet, she brought the substantial brightness of heaven ; Bonaventure on his part offered her the lilies of purity, so desired by her as her choicest food. Henceforth the feast in his soul was to be continual; and the light and the perfumes, breaking forth, were shed around, attracting, enlightening, and nourishing all. While still very young, he was, according to custom, sent, after the first years of his religious life, to the celebrated University of Paris, where he soon won all hearts by his angelic manners ; and the great Alexander of Hales, struck with admiration at the union of so nytny qualities, said of him that it seemed as if in him Adam had not sinned. As a lofty mountain whose head is lost in the clouds, and from whose foot run fertilizing waters far and wide, Brother Alexander himself, according to the expression of the Sovereign Pontiff, seemed at that time to contain within himself the living fountain of Paradise, whence the river of science and salvation flowed over the earth. Nevertheless not only would he, the irrefragable Doctor, and the Doctor of doctors, give up his chair in a short time to the new-comer, but he would hereafter derive his greatest glory from being called father and master by that illustrious disciple. Placed in such a position at so early an age, Bonaventure could say of Divine Wisdom, even more truly than of the great master who bad had little to do but admire the prodigious development of his soul : " It " is she that has taught me all things ; she taught me " the knowledge of God and of His works, justice and " virtues, the subtleties of speeches and the solutions " of arguments."3
Such indeed is the object of those Commentaries on the four Books of Sentences, first delivered as lectures from the chair of Paris, where he held the noblest intellects spell-bound by his graceful and
1 Litt. Alexandri iv. : De fontibus paradisi flumen egrediens. 2 Bonavent. in ii. Sent., dist. xxiii., art. 2, qu. 3, ad 7. * Cf. Wisd. vii. and viii.
9a inspired language. This masterpiece, while it is an inexhaustible mine of treasures to the Franciscan family, bears so great testimony to the science of thi» doctor of twenty-seven years of age, that, though so soon called from his chair to the government of a great Order, he was worthy on account of this single work to share with his friend Thomas of Aquin, who was fortunately freer to pursue his studies, the honourable title of prince of Sacred Theology.
The young master already merited his name of Seraphic Doctor, by regarding science as merely & means to love, and declaring that the light which illuminates the mind is barren and useless unless it penetrates to the heart, where alone wisdom rests and feasts. St. Antoninus tells us also, that in him every truth grasped by the intellect, passed through the affections, and thus became prayer and divine praise.* " His aim," says another historian, " was to burn with "love, to kindle himself first at the divine fire, and "afterwards to inflame others. Careless of praise or " renown, anxious only to regulate his life and actions, " he would fain burn and not only shine ; he would be "fire, in order to approach nearer to God by becoming " more like to Him who is fire. Albeit, as fire is not "without light, so was he also at the same time a " shining torch in the House of God ; but his special "claim to our praise is, that all the light at his com- " mand he gathered to feed the flame of divine love."4
The bent of his mind was clearly indicated when, at the beginning of his public teaching, he was called upon to give his decision on the question then dividing the Schools : to some theology was a speculative, to
1 Litt. Sixti iv. Superna coelestis patriae civitas ; Sixti v. Triumphantis Hierusalem ; Leon is xiii. Mterni Pafcris.
2 Exp. in Lib. Sap. viii. 9, 16. •Antonini, Chronic, p. in., tit. xxiv., cap. 8. 4 H. Sidulius, Histor. seraph. others a practical science, according as they were more struck by the theoretical or the moral side of its teaching. Bonaventure, uniting the two opinions in the principle which he considered the one universal law, concluded that " Theology is an affective science, " the knowledge of which proceeds by speculative con- " templation, but aims principally at making us good." For the wisdom of doctrine, he said, must be according to Tier name, something that can be relished by the soul ; and he added, not without that gentle touch of irony which the saints know how to use.: "There is a difference, I suppose, in the impressions " produced by the proposition, Christ died for us, or " the like, and by such as this : the diagonal and the "side of a square cannot be equal to one another"2 The graceful speech and profound science of our saint were enhanced by a beautiful modesty. He would conclude a difficult question thus: "This is "said without prejudice to the opinions of others. If " anyone think otherwise, or better, as he may well do " on this point as on all others, I bear him no ill-will; " but if, in this little work, he find any thing deserving " approval, let him give thanks to God, the Author of "all good. Whatever, in any part, be found false, " doubtful or obscure, let the kind reader forgive the "incompetence of the writer, whose conscience bears " him unimpeachable testimony that he has wished to "say nothing but what is true, clear, and commonly " received." 3 On one occasion, however,Bonaventure s unswerving devotion to the Queen of Virgins modified with a gentle force bis expression of humility: "If "any one," he says, "prefers otherwise, I will not " contend with him, provided he say nothing to the " detriment of the Venerable Virgin, for we must take w* Eccli. vi. 23. 2 Bonavent. Proemium in I Sent., qu. 3.
3 ii. Sent, disk xliv., art. 3, qu. 2, ad 6.
ST. BON A VEN T CJRE.
" the very greatest care, even should it cost us our life, "that do one lessen in any way the honour of our " Lady." 1 Lastly, at the end of the third book of this admirable Exposition of the Sentences, he declares that " charity is worth more than all science. It is " enough, in doubtful questions, to know what the wise " have taught ; disputation is to little purpose. We " talk much, and our words fail us. Infinite thanks- " be to the perfecter of all discourse, our Lord Jesus " Christ, who taking pity on my poverty of knowledge 44 and of genius, has enabled me to complete this u moderate work. I beg of Him that it may procure *' me the merit of obedience, and may be of profit to " my brethren: the twofold purpose for which the task " was undertaken." 2
But the time had come when obedience was to give place to another kind of merit, less pleasing to himself, but not less profitable to the brethren. At thirtyfive years of age, he was elected Minister General. Obliged thus to quit the field of scholastic teaching, he entrusted it to his friend, Thomas of Aquin, who, younger by several years, was to cultivate it longer and more completely than be himself had been suffered. The Church would lose nothing by the change ; for, Eternal Wisdom, who ordereth all things with strength and sweetness, thus disposed that these two incomparable geniuses, completing one another, should give us the fulness of that true science which not only reveals God, but leads to Him.
Give an occasion to the wise man, and wisdom shall be added to him? This sentence was placed by Bonaventure at the head of his treatise on "the " Six Wings of the Seraphim," wherein he sets forth the qualifications necessary for one called to the cure
1 iv. Sent., dist. xxviii., qu. 6, ad 5. 3 Prov. ix. 9.
2 in. Sent., dist. xl., qu. 3, ad 6. of souls; and well did he fulfil it himself in the government of his immense Order, scattered by its missions throughout the whole Church. The treatise itself, which Father Claud Aquaviva held in such high estimation as to oblige the Superiors of the Society of Jesus to use it as a guide, furnishes us with a portrait of our Saint at this period. He had reached the summit of the spiritual life, where the inward peace of the soul is undisturbed by the most violent agitations from without; where the closeness of their union with God produces in the saints a mysterious fecundity, displayed to the world, when God wills, by ■a, multiplicity of perfect works incomprehensible to the profane. Let us listen to Bonaventure's own words: "The Seraphim exercise an influence over " the lower orders, to draw them upwards ; so the love " of the spiritual man tends both to his neighbour and " to God ; to God that he may rest in Him ; to his " neighbour to draw him thither with himself. Not " only then do they burn ; they also give the form of " perfect love, driving away darkness and showing how M to rise by degrees, and to go to God by the highest " paths."1
Such is the secret of that admirable series of opus- 4ula> composed, as he owned to St. Thomas, without the aid of any book but his crucifix, without any preconceived plan, but simply as occasion required, at the request, or to satisfy the needs of the brethren and sisters of his large family, or again when he felt a desire of pouring out his soul. In these works Bonaventure has treated alike of the first elements of asceticism and of the sublimes t subjects of the mystic life, with such fulness, certainty, clearness, and persuasive force, that Sixtus IV. declared the Holy Spirit seemed to speak in him. On reading the Itinerary
J Bonavent. De Eccle. hier., p. n., c. il 2 Litt. Superna coelestis. of the soul to God, which was written on the height of Alvernia, as it were under the immediate influence of the Seraphim, the Chancellor Gerson exclaimed : "This opusculum, or rather this immense work, is "beyond the praise of a mortal mouth."1 And he wished it, together with that wonderful compendium of sacred science, the Breviloquium, to be imposed upon theologians as a necessary manual. " By his " words," says the great Abbot Trithemius in the name of the Benedictine Order, " the author of all these " learned and devout works inflames the will of the " reader no less than he enlightens his mind. Note " the spirit of divine love and Christian devotion in " his writings, and you will easily see that he surpasses " all the doctors of his time in the usefulness of his " works. Many expound doctrine, many preach devo- " tion, few teach the two together ; Bonaventure sur- *' passes both the many and the few, because he trains "to devotion by science, and to science by devotion. "If then you would be both learned and devout, you " must put his teaching in practice."3
But Bonaventure himself will tell us best the proper dispositions for reading him with profit. At the beginning of his Incendium amoris, wherein he teaches the three ways, purgative, illuminative, and unitive, which lead to true wisdom, he says: "I "offer this book not to philosophers, not to the " worldly-wise, not to great theologians perplexed "with endless questions, but to the simple and " ignorant who strive rather to love God than to know " much. It is not by disputing, but by activity, that 44 we learn to love. As to these men full of questions, " superior in every science, but inferior in the love of " Christ, I consider them incapable of understanding
1 Gerson Epist. cuidam Fratri Minori. Lugd. an. 1426. 8 Tract de exam, doctrinarum. 3 Trithem. de Scriptor. eccle.
" the contents of this book ; unless putting away all "vain show of learning, they strive, by humble self- -renunciation, prayer, and meditation, to kindle " within them the divine spark, which, inflaming their "hearts and dispelling all darkness, will lead them " beyond the concerns of time even to the throne of " peace. Indeed by the very fact of their knowing " more, they are better disposed to love, or at least "they would be, if they truly despised themselves " and could rejoice to be despised by others."1
Although these pages are already too long, we cannot resist quoting the last words left us by St. Bonaventure. As the Angel of the School was soon, at Fossa Nova, to close his labours and his life with the explanation of the Canticle of Canticles, so hi& seraphic rival and brother tuned his last notes to these words of the sacred Nuptial Song: "Ki/ng "Solomon has made him a litter of the wood of " Libanu : The pillars thereof he made of silver, " the seat of gold, the going-up of purple"2 " The " seat of gold," added our Saint, " is contemplative " wisdom ; it belongs to those alone who possess the " column of silver, i.e. the virtues which strengthen "the soul; the going-up of purple is the charity " whereby we ascend to the heights and descend ta "the valleys/'8
It is a conclusion worthy of Bonaventure, the close of a sublime but incomplete work, which he had not even time to put together himself. " Alas ! alas ! "alas!" cries out with tears the loving disciple to whom we owe this last treasure, "a higher dignity,, "and then the death of our lord and master prevented " the continuation of this work." And then showing us, in a touching manner, the precautions taken by
1 Inceod. amoris, Prologus. * Cant. iii. 9, 10.
3 Illuminationes Ecclesiae in Hexaemeron, sermo xxiii. the sons lest they should lose anything of their father's conferences: "What I here give," he says, " is what I could snatch by writing rapidly while he " was speaking. Two others took notes at the same *' time, but their papers are scarcely legible; whereas " several of the audience were able to read my copy, " and the master himself and many others made use of " it ; a fact for which I deserve some gratitude. And " now at length, permission and time having been " given to me, I have revised these notes, with the " voice and gestures of the master ever in my ear and " before my eyes; I have arranged them in order, with- " out adding anything to what he said, except the " indication of certain authorities."1
The dignity mentioned by the faithful secretary is that of Cardinal Bishop of Albano. After the death of Clement IV., and the succeeding three years of widowhood for the Church, our Saint, by his influence with the Sacred College, had obtained the election of Gregory X., who now imposed upon him in virtue of obedience the honour of the Cardinalate. Having been entrusted with the work of preparation for the Council of Lyons, convened for the Spring of 1274, Bonaventure had the joy of assisting at the re-union of the Latin and Greek Churches, which he, more than anyone else, had been instrumental in obtaining. But God spared him the bitterness of seeing how short-lived the re-union was to be: a union which would have been the salvation of that East which he loved, and where his name, translated into Eutychius, was still in veneration two centuries later at the time of the Council of Florence. On the 15th of July of that year, 1274, in the midst of the Council, and presided at by the Sovereign Pontiff himself, took place the most solemn funeral the world has ever wit-
1 Illuminat. Eccles., Additiones. PENT. iv. H nessed. " 1 grieve for thee, my brother Jonathan," cried out before that mourning assembly gathered from East and West, the Dominican Cardinal Peter of Tarentaise. After fifty-three years spent in this world, the Seraph had cast off his robe of flesh, and spreading his wings had gone to join Thomas of Aquin, who had by a very short time preceded him to heaven.
There are only two proper lessons consecrated to St. Bonaventure, but the elegant conciseness with which much is said in few words somewhat compensates for their shortness.
Bonaventura, Balneoregii in Etruria natus, cum inf ans incidisset in vitae nericulum, mater ejus vovit, si inde evasisset, se eum Religioni beati Francisci dicaturam. Itaque adolescens in Ordinem Fratrum Minorum adscribi voluit: ubi Alexandra de Ales magistro, ad earn doctrinse perfectionem brevi pervenit, ut septimo post anno libros Sententiarum Parisiis publice summa cum laude sit internretatus : quos etiam praeclans postea commentariis illustravit. Post sex annos sui Ordinis generalis Minister Bomae factus, ea prudentiae ac sanctitatis laude mini8terium gessit, ut in omnium ore et admirations esset.
Bonaventure was born at Bagnorea, in Tuscany. During his childhood his life was once endangered, and his mother vowed that if her son survived she would consecrate him to God in the Order of Blessed Francis. On this account, while still a youth, Bonaventure begged to be admitted* among the Friars Minors. He had for master Alexander Hales, and became in a short time so eminent in learning that at the end of seven years he publicly, in Paris, explained the books of the Sentences, with great applause. Later on he published also excellent commentaries on the same book. After the lapse of six years, he was elected Minister General of his Order, at Rome, and he became the object of universal praise and admiration by the prudence and sanctity he displayed in the fulfilment of this office.
ST. BONA^
He wrote mauy works which, combining the greatest learning with the most ardent piety, at once instruct and move the reader. Urged by the renown of his sanctity and wisdom, Gregory X. made him Cardinal Bishop of Albano. He was, while still living, called a Saint by Blessed Thomas of Aquin, who, finding him one day writing the life of St. Francis, said : " Let us allow " one saint to labour for an- " another." Bonaventure departed this life on the day before the Ides of July, at the Council of Lyons, being fifty-three years of age. He performed many miracles, and was added to the number of the saints by the Sovereign Pontiff, Sixtus IV.
Multa scripsijj in quibus summam erudition em cum pari pietatis ardbf e cJbnjungens, lectorem docendo movet. Q uem Gregorius J)eci» mus, ejus sanctimonias .•eV sapientiae fama commotusv Cardinalem et Episcopum Albanensem creavit. Eumdem adhuc viventem beatus Thomas Aquinas sanctum appellavit. Cum enim vitam sancti Francisci scribentem comperisset: Sinamus, inquit, sanctum pro sancto laborare. Migravit e vita pridie Idus Julii, in Concilio Lugdunensi, quinquaginta tres annos natus, multis editis miraculis. Quern Sixtus Quartus Pontifex Maximus retulit in Sanctorum uumerum.
Thou hast entered, O Bonaventure, into the joy of thy Lord, and what must thy happiness be now, since, as thou thyself didst say : " By how much a " man loves God on earth, by so much does he rejoice "in him in heaven?"1 If the great St. Anselm, from whom thou didst borrow that word, added, that love is proportioned to knowledge, O thou, who wast at the same time a prince of sacred science and the doctor of love, show us how all light, in the order of grace and of nature, is intended to lead us to love. God is hidden in everything ; Christ is the centre of every science; and the fruit of each of them is to build up faith, to honour God, to regulate
1 Bonav. De perfectione vitae, ad Sorores, viii.
2 Anselm. Proslogion, xxvi.
3 Bonav. De reductions artium ad theologiam.
4 Illuminatione Eccl., i. our lifg/jfajct'to lead to divine union by charity, without ^fuch all knowledge is vain. For, as thou didgt say, all the sciences have their fixed and in- .ftJlible rules, which come down to our soul as so in&riy reflections of the eternal law ; and our soul, surrounded and penetrated with such brightness, is led, of her own accord, unless she is blind, to contemplate that eternal light. Wonderful light, reflected from the mountains of our fatherland into the furthermost valleys of our exile ! In the eyes of the Seraphic Father Francis the world was truly noble, so that he called, as thou tellest us, even the lowest creatures by the name of brothers and sisters ; in every beauty he discerned the Sovereign Beauty ; by the traces left in creation by its Author he found his Beloved everywhere, and he made of them a ladder whereby to ascend to him.
Do thou, too, 0 my soul, open thine eyes, bend thine ear, unlock thy lips, and prepare thy heart, that in every creature thou raayest see thy God, hear him, praise him, love him, and honour him, lest the whole universe rise up against thee for not rejoicing in the works of his hands. Then from the world beneath thee, which has but the shadow of God and his presence, inasmuch as he is everywhere, pass on to thyself, his image by nature, reformed in Christ the Bridegroom. From the image rise to the truth of the first Beginning, in unity of Essence and trinity of Persons, that thou mayest attain the repose of that sacred night where both the shadow and the image are forgotten in an all-absorbing love. But first of all thou must know that the mirror of the external world will avail thee little, unless the interior mirror of thy soul be purified and bright, unless thy desire be aided
1 De reduct. artiiim ad theolog. 3 Legenda Sti. Francisci, viii.
2 Itinerarium mentis in Deum, iii. 4 Ihid. ix. by prayer and contemplation in order to kindle love. Know that here, reading without unction, speculation without devotion, labour without piety, knowledge without charity, intelligence without humility, study without grace, are nothing ; and when at length, rising gradually by prayer, holiness of life, and the contemplation of truth, thou shalt have reached the mountain where the God of gods reveals himself, taught by the powerlessness of thy sight here on earth to endure splendours of which nature was too feeble to give thee an indication, let thy blind intelligence remain asleep, pass beyond it in Christ, who is the gate and the way, question no longer the master but the Bridegroom, not man but God, not the light but the all-con<umiug fire; pass from this world with Christ to the Father, who will be shown to thee, and then say with Philip: "It is enough "for us."2
O Seraphic Doctor, lead us by this sublime ascent, of which every line of thy works discloses the secrets, the toils, the beauties, and the dangers. In the pursuit of that Divine Wisdom, which even in its feeblest reflections, no one can behold without ecstasy, guard us against mistaking for an end the satisfaction felt from the scanty rays sent down to us to draw us from the confusion of nothingness even to Itself. If these rays which proceed from the eternal Beauty be withdrawn from their focus and perverted from their object, there will be nothing but delusion, deception, vain knowledge, or false pleasures. Indeed, the more lofty the knowledge and the nearer it approaches to God as the object of speculative theory, the more in a certain sense is error to be feared. If a man in his progress towards true wisdom, which is possessed and relished for its
1 Bonav. Itinerar. mentis in Deum, i. 8 Ibid. viL own sake, is drawn aside by the charms of knowledge, and rests therein, thou, O Bonaventure, hesitatest not to compare such knowledge to a vile deceiver, who would withdraw the affections of the king's son from his noble betrothed to fix them upon herself. Such an insult to an august queen would be equally grievous whether offered by a servant or by a lady of honour. Hence thou didst declare that " the passage from science to wisdom is dangerous, "unless holiness intervene."2 Help us to cross the perilous pass ; let science ever be to us a means of attaining sanctity and acquiring greater love.
Thou hast still, O Bonaventure, the same thoughts in the light of God. Witness the predilection thou hast more than once shown in our time, for those centres, where, in spite of the fever of activity which must needs keep in motion every force of nature, divine contemplation is still appreciated as the better part, as the only end and aim of all knowledge. Deign to continue thy protection of thy devout and grateful clients. Defend, as heretofore, the life and prerogatives of all religious Orders which are now so persecuted. To thy own Franciscan family be still a cause of increase both in numbers and in sanctity ; bless the labours undertaken by it, to the joy of all the world, to bring to light as they deserve thy history and thy works. Bring back the East a third time to unity and life, and that for ever. May the whole Church be warmed by thy rays ; may the divine fire thou didst so effectually nurture, enkindle the earth anew !
1 Illuminationes Eccl., ii. 2 Ibid, xix.
July 15. SAINT HENRY,
EMPEROR.
Henbt of Germany, the second King, but the first Emperor of that name, was the last crowned representative of that branch of the house of Saxony descended from Henry the Fowler, to which God, in the tenth century, entrusted the mission of restoring the work of Charlemagne and Leo III. This noble stock was rendered more glorious by the flowers of sanctity adorning its branches, than for the deep and powerful roots it struck in the German soil by great and long-enduring institutions.
The Holy Spirit, who divideth his gifts according as he will, was then calling to the loftiest destinies that land, which, more than any other, had witnessed the energy of his divine action in the transformation of nations. Won to Christ by St. Boniface and the continuators of his work, the vast country which extends beyond the Rhine and the Danube had become the bulwark of the West, and for many years had been the scene of devastation and ruin. Far from attempting to subjugate to her own rule the formidable tribes that inhabited it, pagan Rome, at the very zenith of her power, had had no higher ambition than to raise a wall of separation between them and the Empire : Christian Rome, more truly Mistress of the world, set up in their very midst the seat of the Holy Roman Empire re-established by her Pontiffs. The new Empire was to defend the rights of the common Mother, to protect Christendom from new inroads of barbarians, to win over to the Gospel or else to crush the successive hordes that would come down on her frontiers — Hungarians, Sclaves, Mongols, Tartars, and Ottomans. Happy had it been for Germany if she had always understood her true glory, if the fidelity of her princes to the Vicar of the Man-God had been equal to their people's faith.
God, on his part, hach not- closed his band. To-day's feast shows us the crowning point of the period of fruitful labour, when the Holy Ghost, having created Germany anew in the waters of the sacred font, would lead her up to the full development of a people's perfect age. The historian, who would know what Providence requires of nations, must study them at such a period of truly creative formation. Indeed, when God creates, whether in the order of nature or of the supernatural vocation of men and societies, he first deposits in his work the principle of that grade of life for which it is destined: it is a precious germ, the development of which, unless thwarted, must lead that being to attain its end; and the knowledge of which, could we observe it before any alteration has taken place, would clearly indicate the divine intention with regard to that being. Now, many times already, since the coming of the Holy Ghost the Sanctifier, we have shown that the principle of life for Christian nations is the holiness of their beginnings : a holiness as manifold as is the Wisdom of God, whose instrument these nations are to be, and as peculiar to each as are their several destinies. This holiness, beginning as it does for the most part from the throne, possesses a social character. The crimes also of princes will but too often bear this same mark, from the very fact of the princes being the repre-
STV HENRY. sentatives of their people before God. Then, too, we have seen, how in the name of Mary, who, through her divine Maternity, is the channel of life to the whole world, a mission has been intrusted to women : the mission of bringing forth to God the families of nations ( families gentium), which are to be the objects of his tenderest love. Whereas the princes, the apparent founders of Empires, stand with their mighty deeds in the foreground of history, it is she, that, by her secret tears and prayers, gives fruitfulness, a loftier aim and stability to their undertakings.
The Holy Ghost multiplies these imitators of the Mother of God ; like Clotilde, Radegond, and Bathildis, giving the Franks to the Church in the midst of troublous times, there arose in another land another three, in honour of the Blessed Trinity : Matilda, Adelaide, and Cunigund superadded to the diadem of Germany the aureola of sanctity. Over the chaos of the tenth century whence Germany was to spring, they shone out like three bright stars, shedding their peaceful light over the Church and the world in that dark night, and thus doing more to suppress anarchy than could even the sword of an Otho. The eleventh century opened : Hildebrand had not yet arisen, and the angels of the sanctuary were weeping over many a desecrated altar, when the royal succession was brought to a beautiful close by a virginal union, as though, weary of producing heroes for the world, it would now bear fruit for heaven alone. Was such a step against the interests of Germany ? No ; for it drew down the mercy of God upon the country, which, in the midst of universal corruption, could offer Him the perfume of such a holocaust.
Let earth and heaven this day unite in celebrating the man who carried out to the full the designs of
: 1Time after Pentecost, Vol. m., St. Clotilde. *Ps. xxi. 28. eternal Wisdom at this period of history. In his single person he discovered all the heroism and sanctity of the illustrious race, whose chief glory it is to have been for a century a worthy preparation for so great a man. Great before men, who knew not whether to admire more his bravery or the energetic activity which made bim seem to be everywhere at once throughout his vast empire, he was ever successful, putting down internal revolts, conquering the Sclaves on his Northern frontier, chastising the insolence of the Greeks in southern Italy, assisting Hungary to rise from barbarism to Christianity, concluding with Robert the Pious a lasting peace between the Empire and the eldest daughter of the Church. But the virgin spouse of the virgin Cunigund was greater still before God, who never had a more faithful lieutenant upon earth. God in His Christ was in Henry's eyes the only King ; the interest of Christ and the Church, the one principle of his administration ; the most perfect service of the Man-God, his highest ambition. He understood how the truest nobility was hidden in the cloister, where chosen souls, fleeing from the universal degradation, were averting the ruin and obtaining the salvation of the world. It was this thought that led him, on the morrow of his imperial coronation, to confide to the famous Abbey of Cluny the golden globe representing the world, which he, as soldier of the Vicar of Christ, was commissioned to defend. It was with the desire of imitating those noble souls, that he threw himself at the feet of the Abbot of Saint Vannes at Verdun, begging admission into his community, and then, constrained by obedience, returned with a heavy heart to resume the burden of government.
The following is the notice, necessarily incomplete, which the Church gives us concerning Saint Henry :
ST. HI
Henry, surnamed the Pious, Duke of Bavaria, became successively King of Germany, and Emperor of the Romans ; but not satisfied with a mere temporal principality, he strove to gain an immortal crown, by paying zealous service to the eternal King. As emperor, he devoted himself earnestly to spreading religion, and rebuilt with great magnificence the Churches which had been destroyed by the infidels, endowing them generously both with money and lands. He built Monasteries and other pious establishments, and increased the income of others ; the bishopric of Bamberg, which he had founded out of his family possessions, he made tributary to St. Peter and the Roman Pontiff. When Benedict VIIL, who had crowned him emperor, was obliged to seek safety in flight,Henry received him and restored him to his See.
Once when he was suffering from a severe illness in the Monastery of Monte Cassino, St Benedict cured him, by a wonderful miracle. He endowed the Roman Church with a most copious grant, undertook in her defence a war against the Greeks, and gained possession of Apulia, which they had held for some time. It was his custom to undertake nothing without prayer, and at times he saw the angel of the Lord, or the holy Martyrs, his patrons,
NRY. 109
Henricus, cognomento Pius, e duce Bavariae rex Germanise, ac postmodum Romanorum imperator, tern - poralis regni non contentus angustiis, pro adipiscenda immortalitatis corona sedulam aeterno Regi exhibuit servitutem. Adepto enim imperio, religiom amplificandae studiose incumbens, ecclesias ab infidelibus destructas magnificentius repara vit, plurimisque largitionibus et prediis locupletavit Monasteria, aliaque loca pia vel ipse aedificavit, vel assignatis redditibus auxit. Episcopatum Bambergensem, haereditariis opibus f undatum, beato Petro, Romanoque Pontifici vectigalem fecit. Benedictum Octavum, a quo imperii coronam acceperat, profugum excepit, suaaque sedi restituit.
In Cassinensi monasterio gravi detentus infirmitate, a Sancto Benedicto, insigni miraculo, sanatus est. Romanam Ecclesiam amplissimo diplomate muneratus, eidem tuendae bellum adversus Graecos suscepit, et Apuliam, diu ab illis possessam, recuperavit. Nihil sine precibus aggredi solitus, Angelum Domini sanctosque Martyres tutelares pro se pugnantes ante aciem interdum vidit. Divina autem protectus ope, barbaras nationes precibus magis quam armis expugnavit. Pannoniam adhuc infidelem, tradita Stephano regi sorore sua in uxorem, eoqua baptizato, ad Christi fidem perduxit. Virginitatem, raro exemplo, matrimonio junxit, sanctamque Cimegundam, conjugem suam, propinauis ejus, morti proximus, ilhbatam restituit.
Denique rebus omnibus, quae ad imperii honorem et utilitatem pertinebant, summa prudentia dispositis, et illustribus per Galliam, Italiam et Germaniam, religiosae munificentiae vestigiis passim relictis, postquam heroicae virtutis suavissimum odorem longe lateque diffuderat, sanctitate quam sceptro clarior, ad regni coalestis praemia, consummatis vitaa laborious, a Domino vocatus est, anno salutis millesimo vigesimo quarto. Cujus corpus in ecclesia beat or um Apostolorum Petri et Pauli Bambergaa conditum fuit; statimque ad ejus tumulum multa miracula, Deo ipsum glorificante, patrata sunt : quibus postea rite probatis, Eugenius Tertius Sanctorum numero ilium adscripsit. fighting for him at the head of his army. Aided thus by the Divine protection, he overcame barbarous nations more by prayer than by arms. Hungary was still pagan ; but Henry having given his sister in marriage to its King Stephen, the latter was baptized, and thus the whole nation was brought to the faith of Christ. He set the rare example of preserving virginity in the married state, and at his death restored his wife, St. Cunigund, a virgin to her family.
He arranged everything relating to the glory or advantage of his empire with the greatest prudence, and left scattered throughout Gaul, Italy, and Germany, traces of his munificence towards religion. The sweet odour of iris heroic virtue spread far and wide, till he was more celebrated for his holiness than for his imperial dignity. At length his life's work was accomplished and he was called by our Lord to the rewards of the heavenly kingdom, in the year of salvation, 1024. His body was buried in the Church of the blessed Apostles Peter and Paul at Bamberg. God wished to glorify his servant, and many miracles were worked at his tomb. These being afterwards proved and certified, Eugenius III. inscribed his name upon the catalogue of the Saints.
ST. HENRY.
III
By me kings reign, by me princes rule. Thou, 0 Henry, didst well understand this language of heaven. In an age of wickedness, thou knewesf where to find counsel and strength. Like Solomon thou didst desire wisdom alone, and like him thou didst experience that with her are riches and glory, glorious riches and justice; but more blessed than David's son, thou didst not suffer thyself to be drawn away from Wisdom herself by those lower gifts, which were rather a test of thy love of God, than an expression of his love for thee. The test, O Henry, was decisive : thou didst walk to the very end in the right path, following up loyally every consequence of our Lord's teaching; not content to mount, with many even of the best, by the gentler slopes, thou didst run with the perfect, following closely the footsteps of adorable Wisdom, in the midst of the paths of judgment?
Who can gainsay what God approves, what Christ counsels, what the Church has canonised in thee and thy noble spouse ? Surely kings are not placed in so pitiable a condition that the call of the Man- God cannot reach them on their thrones ? Christian equality requires that princes should not be less free than their subjects, to have higher ambitions thau those of earth. Thou didst prove to mankind that even for the world, the knowledge of the holy is true prudence.* By claiming the right to aspire to the highest mansions in our Heavenly Father's house (the baptismal birthright of every child of God), thou didst shine like a beacon-light under the darkest sky that ever overspread the Church ; and thou didst rescue souls whom the salt of the earth, having lost its savour and being trodden under foot, could no longer preserve from corruption. It was not for
1 Prov. viii. 15, 16. 2 Ibid. 18. 3 Ibid. 20. 4 Ibid. ix. 10. thee in person to reform the sanctuary ; but as chief servant of Mother Church, thou didst not fear to respect both her ancient laws and recent decrees, which are ever worthy of the Spouse, and holy as the Spirit who in every age dictates them. Thy reign was a period of sunshine before the satanic fury which was all too soon to break as a storm over the Church. While seeking first the Kingdom of God and his justice, thou didst not abandon thy fatherland, nor the nation that had placed thee at its head. To thee, above all others, Germany owes the establishment in her midst of that Empire which was her glory until in our times it fell, never to rise again. Long after thy departure from this earth, thy holy works were of sufficient weight in the scales of Divine justice to over-balance the crimes of a Henry IV. or a Frederick II., which would have compromised for ever the future of Germany. From thy throne in heaven, cast down a look of pity on the extensive domain of the Holy Empire, which owed so much to thee, and which heresy has for ever dismembered. Put to confusion those principles, unknown to Germany in happier days, which would reconstruct, for the benefit of earthly prosperity, the grandeurs of the past without the cement of the ancient faith. Return, O emperor of glorious days ! return and fight for the Church; gather together the remains of Christendom upon the traditional ground of the interests common to all Catholic nations : then will the alliance, which thy able policy concluded, give to the world a security, a peace, a prosperity, which it can never enjoy so long as it remains on such a slippery footing, and exposed to the violence of every hostile agency.
July 16.
Towering over the waves on the shore of the Holy Land, Mount Carmel, together with the short range of the same name, forms a connecting link to two other chains, abounding with glorious memories, namely : the mountains of Galilee on the north, and those of Judea on the south.
"In the day of my love, I brought thee out of "Egypt into the land of Carmel,,, said the Lord to the daughter of Sion, taking the name of Carmel to represent all the blessings of the Promised Land; and when the crimes of the chosen people were about to bring Judaea to ruin, the prophet cried out: " / looked, and behold Carmel was a wilderness : and all its cities were destroyed at the presence of the Lord, and at the presence of the wrath of his indignation.9'2 But from the midst of the Gentile world f} new Sion arose, more loved than the first; eight centuries beforehand Isaias recognised her by the glory of Libanus, and the beauty of Carmel and Saron which were given her. In the sacred Canticle, also, the attendants of the Bride sing to the Spouse concerning his well-beloved, that her head is like Carmel, and her hair like the precious threads of royal purple carefully woven and dyed*
1 Cf. Jerem. ii. 2, 7. 2 Ibid. iv. 26. 3 Cant. vii. 5.
A
There was, in fact, around Cape Carmel an abundant fishery of the little shell-fish which furnished the regal colour. Not far from there, smoothing away the slopes of the noble mountain, flowed the torrent of Cison, that dragged the carcasses of the Chanaanites, when Deborah won her famous victory. Here lies the plain where the Madianites were overthrown, and Sisara felt the power of her that was called the Mother in Israel? Here Gedeon, too, marched against Madian in the name of the Woman terrible as an army set in array? whose sign he had received in the dew-covered fleece. Indeed, this glorious plain of Esdrelon, which stretches away from the foot of Carmel, seems to be surrounded with prophetic indications of her who was destined from the beginning to crush the serpent's head : not far from Esdrelon, a few defiles lead to JBethulia, the city of Judith, type of Mary, who was the true joy of Israel and the honour of her people ; while nestling among the northern hills lies Nazareth, the white city, the flower of Galilee.
When Eternal Wisdom was playing in the world, forming the hills and establishing the mountains, she destined Carmel to be the special inheritance of Eve's victorious Daughter. And when the last thousand years of expectation were opening, and the desire of all nations was developing into the spirit of prophecy, the father of prophets ascended the privileged mount, thence to scan the horizon. The triumphs of David and the glories of Solomon were at an end ; the sceptre of Juda, broken by the schism of the ten tribes, threatened to fall from his hand ; the worship of Baal prevailed in Israel. A long-continued drought, figure of the aridity of men's souls, had parched up
1 Judges v. 21. 2 Ibid. 7. 3 Cant. vi. 3, 9. 4 Judith xv. 10. 6Hieron. Epist. xlvi. I'aulae et Eustoohii ad Marcellam. every spring, and men and beasts were dying beside the empty cisterns, when Elias the Thesbite gathered the people, representing the whole human race, on Mount Carmel, and slew the lying prophets of Baal. Then, as the Scripture relates, prostrating with his face to the earth, he said to his servant: Go up, look towards the sea. And he went up, and looked and said : There is nothing. And again he said to him : Return seven times. And at the seventh time : Behold, a little cloud arose out of the sea like a man's foot.
Blessed cloud ! unlike the bitter waves from which it sprang, it was all sweetness. Docile to the least breath of heaven, it rose light and humble, above the immense heavy ocean ; and, screening the sun, it tempered the heat that was scorching the earth, and restored to the stricken world life and grace and fruitfulness. The promised Messias, the Son of Man, set his impress upon it, showing to the wicked serpent the form of the heel that was to crush him. The prophet, personifying the human race, felt his youth renewed; and while the welcome rain was already refreshing the valleys, he ran before the chariot of the king of Israel. Thus did he traverse the great plaiu of Esdrelon, even to the mysteriouslynamed town of Jezrahel, where, according to Osee, the children of Juda and Israel were again to have but one head, in the great day of Jezrahel (i.e., of the seed of God), when the Lord would seal his eternal nuptials with a new people. Later on, from Sunam, near Jezrahel, the mother, whose son was dead, crossed the same plain of Esdrelon, in the opposite direction, and ascended Mount Carmel, to obtain from Eliseus the resurrection of her child, who was a type of us all. Elias had alreadyjde-
1 3 Reg. xviii. 2 Osee i. 11, and ii. 14-24. 3 4 Reg. iv. 8-37. pent. iv. 1 parted in the chariot of fire, to await the end of the world, when he is to give testimony, together with Henoch, to the son of her that was signified by the cloud ;l and the disciple, clothed with the mantle and the spirit of his father, had taken possession, in the name of the sons of the prophets, of the august mountain honoured by the manifestation of the Queen of prophets. Henceforward Carmel was sacred in the eyes of all who looked beyond this world. Gentiles as well as Jews, philosophers and princes, came here on pilgrimage to adore the true God ; while the chosen souls of the Church of the expectation, many of whom were already wandering in deserts and in mountains, loved to take up their abode in its thousand grottoes ; for the ancient traditions seemed to linger more lovingly in its silent forests, and the perfume of its flowers foretokened the Virgin Mother. The cultus of the Queen of heaven was already established ; and to the family of her devout clients, the ascetics of Carmel, might be applied the words spoken later by God to the pious descendants of Rechab : There shall not be wanting a man of this race, standing before me for ever?
At length figures gave place to the reality; the heavens dropped down their dew, and the Just One came forth from the cloud. When his work was done and he returned to his Father, leaving his blessed Mother in the world, and sending his Holy Spirit to the Church, not the least triumph of that Spirit of love was the making known of Mary to the new-born Christians of Pentecost. " What a happiness," we then remarked, "for those neophytes " who were privileged above the rest in being brought " to the Queen of heaven, the Virgin-Mother of him
1 Apoc. xi. 3, 7. 2 Heb. xi. 38. 3 Jerem. xxxv. 19,
*' who was the hope of Israel ! They saw this second " Eve, they conversed with her, they felt for her that " filial affection wherewith she inspired all the dis- " ciples of Jesus. The Liturgy will speak to us at "another season of these favoured ones."1 The promise is fulfilled to-day. In the lessons of the feast the Church tells us how the disciples of Elias and Eliseus became Christians at the first preaching of the Apostles, and being permitted to hear the sweet words of the Blessed Virgin and enjoy an unspeakable intimacy with her, they felt their veneration for her immensely increased. Returning to the loved mountain, where their less fortunate fathers had lived but in hope, they built, on the very spot where Elias had seen the little cloud rise up out of the sea, an oratory to the purest of virgins ; hence they obtained the name of Brothers of Blessed Mary of Mount Carmel
In the twelfth century, in consequence of the establishment of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, many pilgrims from Europe came to swell the ranks of the solitaries on the holy mountain ; it therefore became expedient to give to their hitherto eremitical life a form more in accordance with the habits of western nations. The legate Aimeric Malafaida, patriarch of Antioch, gathered them into a community under the authority of St. Berthold, who was thus the first to receive the title of Prior General. At the commencement of the next century, Blessed Albert, patriarch of Jerusalem and also Apostolic legate, completed the work of Aimeric by giving a fixed Rule to the Order, which was now, through the influence of princes and knights returned from the Holy Land, beginning to spread into Cyprus, Sicily, and the countries beyond the sea. Soon indeed, the
1 Paschal Time., Vol. III., p. 314. 2 Lessons of 2nd Nocturn.
Christians of the East, being abandoned by God to the just punishment of their sins, the vindictiveness of the conquering Saracens reached such a height in this age of trial for Palestine, that a full assembly held on Mount Carmel under Alanus the Breton, resolved upon a complete migration, leaving only a few friars eager for martyrdom to guard the cradle of the Order. The very year in which this took place (1245), Simon Stock was elected Qeneral in the first Chapter of the West held at Aylesford in England.
Simon owed his election to the successful struggle he had maintained for the recognition of the Order, which certain prelates, alleging the recent decrees of the Council of Lateran, rejected as newly introduced into Europe. Our Lady had then taken the cause of the Friars into her own hands, and had obtained from Honorius III. the decree of confirmation, which originated to-day's feast. This was neither the first nor the last favour bestowed by the sweet Virgin upon the family that had lived so long under the shadow, as it were, of her mysterious cloud, and shrouded like her in humility, with no other bond, no other pretension than the imitation of her hidden works and the contemplation of her glory. She herself had wished them to go forth from the midst of a faithless people ; just as, before the close of that same thirteenth century, she would command her angels to carry into a Catholic land her blessed house of Nazareth. Whether or not the men of those days, or the short-sighted historians of our own time, ever thought of it: the one translation called for the other, just as each completes and explains the other, and each was to be, tor our own Europe, the signal for wonderful favours from heaven.
In the night between the 15th and 16th of July, of the year 1251, the gracious Queen of Carmel con-
OUR LADV OF MOUNT CARMEL. firmed to her sons by a mysterious sign ihe right of citizenship she had obtained for them in their newly adopted countries: as mistress and mother of the entire Religious state she conferred upon them with her queenly hands, the scapular, hitherto the distinctive garb of the greatest and most ancient religious family of the West. On giving St. Simon Stock this badge, ennobled by contact with her sacred fingers, the Mother of God said to him : " Whosoever "shall die in this habit, shall not suffer eternal " flames." But not against hell fire alone was the all-powerful intercession of the Blessed Mother to be felt by those who should wear her scapular. In 1316, when every holy soul was imploring heaven to put a period to that long and disastrous widowhood of the Church, which followed on the death of Clement V., the Queen of Saints appeared to James d'Euse, whom the world was soon to hail as John XXII.; she foretold to him his approaching elevation to the Sovereign Pontificate, and at the same time recommended him to publish the privilege she had obtained from her Divine Son for her children of Carmel, viz., a speedy deliverance from Purgatory. "I, their "Mother, will graciously go down to them on the "Saturday after their death, and all whom I find " in Purgatory I will deliver and will bring to the " mountain of life eternal." These are the words of our Lady herself, quoted by John XXII. in the Bull which he published for the purpose of making known the privilege, and which was called the Sabbatine Bull on account of the day chosen by the glorious benefactress for the exercise of her mercy.
We are aware of the attempts made to nullify the authenticity of these heavenly concessions; but our extremely limited time will not allow us to follow up these worthless struggles in all their endless details. The attack of the chief assailant, the too famous Launoy, was condemned by the Apostolic See ; and after, as well as before, these contradictions, the Roman Pontiffs confirmed, as much as need be, by their supreme authority, the substance and even the letter of the precious promises. The reader may find in special works the enumeration of the many indulgences with which the Popes have, time after time, enriched the Carmelite family, as if earth would vie with heaven in favouring it. The munificence of Mary, the pious gratitude of her sons for the hospitality given them by the West, and lastly, the authority of St. Peter's successors, soon made these spiritual riches accessible to all Christians, by the institution of the Confraternity of the holy Scapular, the members whereof participate in the merits and privileges of the whole Carmelite Order. Who shall tell the graces, often miraculous, obtained through this humble garb? Who could count the faithful now enrolled in the holy militia? When Benedict XIII., in the eighteenth century, extended the feast of the 16th July to the whole Church, he did but give an official sanction to the universality already gained by the cultus of the Queen of Carmel.
The holy Liturgy gives the following account of the history and object of the feast :
Cum sacra Pentecostes When on the holy day of die Apostoli, ccelitus afflati, Pentecost the Apostles, variis Unguis loquerentur, through heavenly inspiration, et invocato augustissimo spoke divers tongues and
Jesu nomine, mira multa worked many miracles by the patrarent : viri plurimi (ut invocation of the most holy tertur), qui vestigiis sancto- name of Jesus, it is said that rum Prophetarum Elise ac many men who were walking
Elisei institerant, et Johan- in the footsteps of the holy
•nis Baptistaa praeconio ad prophets Elias and Eliseus,
Chri8ti adven turn com parati and had been prepared for fuerant, renim veritate per- the coming of Christ by the specta atque probata, Evan- preaching of John the Baptist, gelicam fidem confestim taw and acknowledged the
OUK LADY OF MOUNT CARMEL. truth, and at once embraced amplexati sunt, ac peculiari the faith of the Gospel. These quodam affectu beatissimam new Christians were so happy Virginem (cujus colloquiis aa to be able to enjoy familiar ac familiaritate f eliciter frui intercourse with the Blessed potuere) adeo venerari cce-
Yirgin, and venerated her perunt, ut primi omnium in with so special an affection, eo montis Carmeli loco, ubi that they, before all others, Elias olim ascendentem ne- built a chapel to the purest of bulam, Virginis typo insig-
Virgins on that very spot of nem, conspexerat, eidem
Mount Carmel where Elias purissimae Virgini sacellum of old had seen the cloud, a construxerint. remarkable type of the Virgin ascending.
Many times each day they Ad novum ergo sacellum came together to the new ora- saspe quotidie convenientes, tory, and with pious cere- ritibus piis, precationibus monies, prayers, and praises ac laudibus beatissimam honoured the most Blesse 1 Virginem, velut singularem
Virgin as the special pro tec- Ordinis tutelam colebant. tress of their Order. For this Quamobrem Fratres beats reason, people from all parts Marise de Monte Carmelo lari coaperunt, eumque titulum Summi Pontifices non con- modo confirmarunt, sed et indulgentias peculiares iis, qui eo titulo vel Ordinem, vel Fratres singulos nuncu- Nec vero nomenclaturam tan- Virgo tribuit et tutelam ; verum et insigne sacri pularis, quod beato Simoni praebuit, ut coelesti hac veste Ordo ille sacer dignosceretur, et a malis ingruentibus protegeretur. Ac demum cum olim in Ordo esset ignotus, et ob id apud Honorium Tertium non pauci pro iliius exstinctione instarent, adstitit Honorio noctu piissi- Virgo Maria, planeque ren of the Blessed Mary of Mount Carmel; andtheSovereign Pontiffs not only firmed this title, but also granted special indulgences to whoever called either the whole Order or individual parent, concessere. Brothers by that name. But the most noble Virgin not turn magnificentissima only gave them her name and protection, she also bestowed Seaupon Blessed Simon the Englishman the holy Scapu- Anglico lar as a token, wishing the holy Order to be distinguished by that heavenly garment and to be protected by it from the evils that were assailing it. Europa Moreover, as formerly the Order was unknown inEurope, and on this account many were importuning Honorius 111. for its abolition, the loving Virgin ma ab omnibus appel- iussit, ut institutum et homines benigne complecteretur.
Non in hoc tantum saeculo Ordinem sibi tarn acceptum multis prserogativis beatissima Virgo insignivit; verum et in alio (cum ubique et potentia et misericordia plurimum valeat) filios in Scapularis societatem relatos, qui abstinentiam modicam, precesque paucas eis praescriptas frequentarunt, ac pro sai status ratione castitatem coluerunt, materno plane affectu, dum igne purgatorii expiantur, solari, ac in ccelestem patriam obtentu suo quantocius pie creditur efferre. Tot ergo tantisque beneficiis Ordo cumulatus, solemnem beatissimae Virginis Commemorationem ritu perpetuo ad ejusdem Virginis gloriam quotannis celebrandam instituit.
Mary appeared by night to Honorius and clearly bade him receive both the Order and its members with kindness.
The Blessed Virgin has enriched the Order so dear to her with many privileges, not only in this world, but also in the next (for everywhere she is most powerful and merciful). For it is piously believed that those of her children, who, having been enrolled in the Confraternity of the Scapular, have fulfilled the small abstinence and said the few prayers prescribed, and have opserved chastity as far as their state of life demands, will be consoled by our Lady while they are being purified in the fire of Purgatory, and will through her intercession be taken thence as soon as possible to the heavenly country. The Order, thus laden with so many graces, has ordained that this solemn commemoration of the Blessed Virgin should be yearly observed for ever, to her greater glory.
Queen of Carmel, hear the voice of the Church as she sings to thee on this day. When the world was languishing in ceaseless expectation, thou wert already its hope. Unable as yet to understand thy greatness, it nevertheless, during the reign of types, loved to clothe thee with the noblest symbols. In admiration, and in gratitude for benefits foreseen, it surrounded thee with all the notions of beauty, strength, and grace suggested by the loveliest landscapes, the flowery plains, the wooded heights, the fertile valleys, especially of Carmel, whose very name signifies " the plantation of the Lord." On its summit our fathers, knowing that Wisdom had set her throne in the cloud, hastened by their burning desires the coming of the saving sign 5 there at length was given to their prayers, what the Scripture calls perfect knowledge, and the knowledge of the great paths of the clouds. And when he who maketh his chariot and his dwelling in the obscurity of a cloud had therein shown himself, in a nearer approach, to the practised eye of the father of prophets, then did a chosen band of holy persons gather in the solitudes of the blessed mountain, as heretofore Israel in the desert, to watch the least movements of the mysterious cloud, to receive from it their guidance in the paths of life, and their light in the long night of expectation.
O Mary, who from that hour didst preside over the watches of God's army, without ever failing for a single day: now that the Lord has truly come down through thee, it is no longer the land of Judaea alone, but the whole earth that thou coverest as a cloud, shedding down blessings and abundance. Thine ancient clients, the sons of the prophets, experienced this truth when, the land of promise becoming unfaithful, they were forced to transplant into other climes their customs and traditions; they found that even into our far West, the cloud of Carmel had poured its fertilizing dew, and that nowhere would its protection be wanting to them. This feast, O Mother of our God, is the authentic attestation of their gratitude, increased by the fresh benefits wherewith thy bounty accompanied the new exodus of the remnant of Israel. And we, the sons of ancient Europe, we too have a right to echo the expression of their loving joy ; for since their tents
1 Job xxxvii. 16. have been pitched around the hills where the new Sion is built upon Peter, the cloud has shed all around showers of blessing more precious than ever, driving back into the abyss the flames of hell, and extinguishing the fire of purgatory.
Whilst, then, we join with them in thanksgiving to thee, deign thyself, O Mother of divine grace, to pay our debt of gratitude to them. Protect them ever. Guard them in these unhappy times, when the hypocrisy of modern persecutors has more fatal results than the rage of the Saracens. Preserve the life in the deep roots of the old stock, and rejoice it by the accession of new branches, bearing, like the old ones, flowers and fruits that shall be pleasing to thee, O Mary. Keep up in the hearts of the sons, that spirit of retirement and contemplation which animated their fathers under the shadow of the cloud ; may their sisters too, wheresoever the Holy Spirit has established them, be ever faithful to the traditions of the glorious past ; so that their holy lives may avert the tempest and draw down blessings from the mysterious cloud. May the perfume of penance that breathes from the holy mountain purify the now corrupted atmosphere around ; and may Carmel ever present to the Spouse the type of the beauties he loves to behold in his Bride !
July 17. SAINT ALEXIUS,
CONFESSOR.
Although we are not commanded to follow the Saints to the extremities where their heroic virtue leads them, nevertheless, from their inaccessible heights, they still guide us along the easier paths of the plain. As the eagle upon the orb of day, they fixed their unflinching gaze upon the Sun of Justice; and, irresistibly attracted by his divine splendour, they poised their flight far above the cloudy region where we are glad to screen our feeble eyes. But however varied be the degrees of brightness for them and for us, the light itself is unchangeable, provided that, like them, we draw it from the authentic source. When the weakness of our sight would lead us to mistake false glimmerings for the truth, let us think of these friends of God ; if we have not courage enough to imitate them, where the commandments leave us free to do so or not, let us at least conform our judgments and appreciations to theirs: their view is more trustworthy, because farther reaching ; their sanctity is nothing but the rectitude wherewith they follow up unflinchingly, even to its central focus, the heavenly ray, whereof we can scarcely bear a tempered reflection. Above all, let us not be led so far astray by the will-o'-thewisps of this world of darkness, as to wish to direct, by their false light, the actions of the saints : can the owl judge better of the light than the eagle?
Descending from the pure firmament of the holy Liturgy even to the humblest conditions of Christian life, the light which led Alexius to the highest point of detachment, is thus subdued by the Apostle to the capacity of all : " If any man take a wife, he hath "not einned, nor the virgin whom he marrieth; "nevertheless, such shall have tribulation of the "flesh, which I would fain spare you. This, " therefore, I say, brethren : the time is short ; it " remaineth, therefore, that they also who have " wives, be as if they had none ; and they that weep, "as though they wept not; and they that rejoice, "as if they rejoiced not; and they that buy, as " though they possessed not ; and they that use this "world, as if they used it not: for the fashion of "this world passeth away."1
Yet it passes not too quickly for our Lord to show that His words never pass away. Five centuries after the glorious death of Alexius, the eternal God, to whom distance and time are as nothing, gave him a hundredfold the posterity he had renounced for the love of Him. The monastery on the Aventine, which still bears his name together with that of the martyr Boniface, had become the common patrimony of East and West in the eternal City ; tbe two great monastic families of Basil and Benedict united under the roof of Alexius, and the seed taken from his tomb by the monk-bishop St. Adalbert brought forth the fruit of faith among the noithern nations. The Church gives us the following very short notice of our hero :
Alexius Romanorum no- Alexius was the son of one bilissimu, propter eximium of Rome's noblest families. Jesu Christi amorem prima Through his exceeding love
J Cf. 1 Cor. vii. 28-31.
ST. ALEXIUS. for Jesus Christ, he, by a special inspiration from God, left his wife still a virgin on the first night of his marriage, and undertook a pilgrimage to the most illustrious Churches all over the world. For seventeen years he remained unknown, while performing these pilgrimages, and then his name was revealed at Edessa,' a town of Syria, by an image of the most holy Virgin Mary. He therefore left Syria by sea and sailed to the port of Kome, where he was received as a guest by his own father who took him for a poor stranger. He lived in his father's house, unknown to all, for seventeen years, and then passed to heaven, leaving awritten paper which revealed his name, his family, and the story of his whole life. His death occurred in the Pontificate of Innocent I. nocte nuptiarum peculiari Dei monitu relinquens intactam sponsam, illustrium orbis terrae ecclesiarum peregrinationemsuscepit. Quibus in itineribus cum ignotus septemdecim annos f uisset, aliquando apud Edessam, Syriae urbem, per imaginem sanctissimae Maria? Virginia, ejus nomine divulgate, inde navi discessic. Ad portum Komanum appulsus, a patre suo tamquam alienus pauper hospitio accipitur: apud quern omnibus incognitus, cum decern et septem annos vixisset, relicto scripto sui nominis, sanguinis, ac totius vitae cursu, migravit in coelum, Innocentio Primo Summo Pontifice.
Man of God! such is the name given thee, O Alexius, by heaven; the name whereby thou art known in the East ; and which Rome sanctions by her choice of the Epistle to be read in this day's Mass. The Apostle there applies this beautiful title to his disciple Timothy, while recommending to him the very virtues thou didst practise in so eminent a degree. This sublime designation, which shows us the dignity of heaven within the reach of men, thou didst prefer to the proudest titles earth could bestow. These latter were indeed offered thee, together with all the honours permitted by God to those who are satisfied with merely not
1 1 Tim. vi. 11. offending him ; but thy great soul despised the transitory gifts of the world. In the midst of the splendours of thy marriage-feast, thou didst hear a music which charms the soul from eartb ; that music which, two centuries before, the noble Cecilia, too, had heard in another palace of the queen city. The hidden God, who left the joys of the heavenly Jerusalem and on earth had not where to lay his head, discovered himself to thy pure heart; and being filled with his love, thou hadst also the mind which was in Christ Jems. With the freedom, which yet remained to thee, of choosing between the perfect life, and the consummation of an earthly union, thou didst resolve to be a pilgrim and a stranger on the earth, that thou mightest merit to possess eternal Wisdom in thy heavenly fatherland. O wonderful paths ! 0 unsearchable ways whereby that Wisdom of the Father guides all those who are won by love. The Queen of heaven, as if applauding this spectacle worthy of Angels, revealed to the East the illustrious name thou wouldst fain conceal under the garb of holy poverty. A second flight brought thee back, after seventeen years' absence, to the land of thy birth, and even there thou wert able, by thy valiant faith, to dwell as in a strange land. Under that staircase of thy home, now held in loving veneration, thou wert exposed to the insults of thy own slaves, being but an unknown beggar in the eyes of thy father and mother, an<j of the bride who still mourned for thee. There didst thou spend, without ever betraying thyself, another seventeen years, awaiting thy happy passage to thy true home in heaven. God himself made it an honour to be called thy God, when at the moment of thy precious death a mighty voice resounded through Rome,
1 Philip, ii. 5. 8 Hcb. xi. 13.
ST. ALEXIUS. bidding all seek the " man of God." Remember, O Alexius, what the voice added concerning that man of God: "He shall pray for Rome, and shall be "heard." Pray, then, for the illustrious city of thy birth, which owed to thee its safety under the assault of the barbarians, and which now surrounds thee with far greater honours than it would have done, hadst thou but upheld within its walls the traditions of thy noble ancestors. Hell boasts of having snatched that city from the successors of Peter and of Innocent : pray, and may heaven hear thee once more, against the modern successors of Alaric. Guided by the light of thy sublime actions, may the Christian people rise more and more above the earth ; lead us all safely by the narrow way to the home of our heavenly Father !
Chapter 3 of 20