July 26 — Saints Abdon and Sennen, Martyrs

The decrees of Eternal Wisdom ordained that the West should be honoured before the East with the glory of martyrdom. Yet when the hour had come, Jesus was to have, beyond the Tigris, millions of witnesses by no means inferior to their forerunners, astonishing heaven and earth by new forms of heroism. Impatient of the delay, two noble Persians won their palm on this day by the command of Rome. By shedding their blood they paid tribute for their native land to the eternal City ; and now they protect our Latin Churches, and receive the prayers and praise of the West France received a goodly portion of their sacred relics; and the city of Arles-sur-Tech, in Roussillon, can show to an incredulous generation the sarcophagus, from which flows a mysterious liquor, a symbol of the continual benefits bestowed on us by these holy martyra

Abdon et Sennen Pereaa, During the reign of Deems, Decio imperatore accusati, two Persians, Abdon and quod corpora Christiano- Sennen, were accused of bury- bantur, in suo praedio sepe- bodies of the Christians which lissent, jussu imperatoris had been exposed. By order comprehenduntur, et diis of the Emperor they were jubentur sacrificare. Quod apprehended and commanded rum, quae inhumata proj icie-

SS. ABDON AND SENNEN, MM. to sacrifice to the gods. As they 4 refused to obey, and moreover with the greatest constancy proclaimed Jesus Christ to be God, they were placed in close confinement, and when later, Decius returned to Borne, they were led in chains in his triumphal march. They were dragged to the Roman idols, but to show their hatred of the demons, they spat upon them. Upon this they were exposed to the fury of lions and bears, but the beasts did not dare to touch them ; at length they were put to death by the sword. Their bodies were dragged by the feet before the statue of the Sun. but they were secretly carried away and buried byQuirinus the deacon in his own house. cum facere negligerent, et Jesum Christum Deum constantissime praedicarent : traditos in arctam custodiam, Romam postea rediens Decius vinctos duxit in triumpho. Qui cum in Urbe ad simulacra attracti essent, ea detestati conspuerunt. Quamobrem ursis ac leonibus objecti sunt : quos ferae non audebant attingere. Demum gladiis trucidati, colligatis pedibus tracti sunt ante Solis simulacrum : quorum corpora clam inde asportata, Quirinus diaconus sepelivit in suis asdibus.

Hearken to our earnest prayers, O blessed martyrs ! May the faith at length triumph in that land of Persia whence so many flowers of martyrdom have been culled for heaven. Before the time appointed for the struggle to begin in your native land, ye went to meet death elsewhere, and thus ye gained a new fatherland whereon to bestow your love. Bless us, the fellow-citizens of your choice, and bring us all to the eternal fatherland of all the children of God.

July 31 SAINT IGNATIUS,

CONFESSOR.

Although the cycle of the time after Pentecost has shown us many times already the solicitude of the Holy Spirit for the defence of the Church, yet to-day the teaching shines forth with a new lustre. In the sixteenth century Satan made a formidable attack upon the holy city, by means of a man who, like himself, had fallen from the height of heaven, a man

Irfevented in early years by the choice graces which ead to perfection, yet unable in an evil day to resist the spirit of revolt. As Lucifer aimed at being equal to God, Luther set himself up against the Ticar of God, on the mountain of the covenant ; and soon, falling from abyss to abyss, he drew after him the third part of the stars of the firmament of holy Church. How terrible is that mysterious law whereby the fallen creature, be he man or Angel, is allowed to keep the same ruling power for evil, which he would otherwise have exercised for good. But the designs of Eternal Wisdom are never frustrated : against the misused liberty of the Angel or man, is set up that other merciful law of substitution, by which St. Michael was the first to benefit.

The development of Ignatius' vocation to holiness, followed step by step the defection of Luther. In the Spring of 1521 Luther had just quitted

Worms and was defying the world from the Castle of Wartburg, when Ignatius received at Pampeluna the wound which was the occasion of his leaving the world and retiring to Manresa. Valiant as his noble ancestors, he felt within him from his earliest years the warlike ardour which they had shown on the battle-fields of Spain. But the campaign against the Moors closed at the very time of his birth.* Were his chivalrous instincts to be satisfied with petty political quarrels ? The only true King worthy of his great soul revealed himself to him in the trial which put a stop to his worldly projects: a new warfare was opened out to his ambition ; another crusade was begun ; and in the year 1522, from the mountains of Catalonia to those of Thuringia, was developed that divine strategy of which the Angels alone knew the secret.

In this wonderful campaign it seemed that hell was allowed to take the initiative, while heaven was content to look on, only taking care to make grace abound the more, where iniquity strove to abound. As in the previous year Ignatius received his first call three weeks after Luther had completed his rebellion, so in this year, at three weeks' distance, the rival camps of hell and heaven each chose and equipped its leader. Ten months of diabolical manifestations prepared Satan's lieutenant, in the place of his forced retreat, which he called his Patmos; and on the 5th March the deserter of the altar and of the cloister left Wartburg.

On the 25th of the same month, the glorious night of the Incarnation, the brilliant soldier in the armies of the Catholic kingdom, the descendant of

1 The Diet of Worms which condemned Luther was held in April, and on the 20th May St. Ignatius received the wound Which led to his conversion.

TIME AFTER PENTRCOST. the families of Ognes and Loyola, clad in sackcloth, the uniform of poverty, to indicate his new projects, watched his arms in prayer at Montserrat; then hanging up his trusty sword at Mary's altar, he went forth to make trial of his future combats by a merciless war against himself. In opposition to the already proudly floating standard of the freethinkers, he displayed upon his own this simple device: To the greater glory of God! At Paris, where Calvin was secretly recruiting the future Huguenots, Ignatius, in the name of the God of armies, organized his vanguard, which he destined to cover the march of the Christian army, to lead the way, to bear the brunt, to deal the first blows. On the 15th August, 1534, five months after the rupture of England from the Holy See, these first soldiers sealed at Montmartre the definitive engagement which they were afterwards to solemnly renew at St. Paul's outside the Walls. For Rome was to be the rallying place of the little troop which was soon to increase so wonderfully, and which was, by its special profession, to be ever in readiness, at the least sign from the Head of the Church, to exercise its zeal in whatever part of the world he should think fit, in the defence or propagation of the faith, or for the progress of souls in doctrine and Christian life.

An illustrious speaker of our own day has said : "What strikes us at once in the history of the " Society of Jesus, is that it was matured at its very " first formation. Whosoever knows the first founders " of the Company knows the whole Company, in its "spirit, its aim, its enterprises, its proceedings, its " methods. What a generation was that which gave

JLitt. Pauli III. Regimini nrilitantis Ecclesiae ; Julii III. Exposcit debitum, etc.

2 Cardinal Pie, Homily delivered on the feast of the beatification of B. Pierre le Fevre.

" it birth ! What union of science and activity, "of interior life and military life! One may say "they were universal men, men of a giant race, "compared with whom we are but insects: de " genere giganteo, quibus comparati quasi locustce " videbamur.9'1

All the more touching, then, was the charming simplicity of those first Fathers of the Society, making their way to Borne on foot, fasting and weary, but their hearts overflowing with joy, singing with a low voice the Psalms of David. When it became necessary, on account of the urgency of the times, for the new institute to abandon the great traditions of public

Srayer, it was a sacrifice to several of these souls; [ary could not give way to Martha without a struggle; for so many centuries, the solemn celebration of the Divine Office had been the indispensable duty of every religious family, its primary social debt, and the principal nourishment of the individual holiness of its members.

But new times had come, times of decadence and ruin, calling for an exception as extraordinary as it was grievous to the brave company that was risking its existence amid ceaseless alarms and continual sallies upon hostile territory. Ignatius understood this ; and to the special aim imposed upon him, he sacrificed his personal attraction for the sacred chants ; nevertheless, to the end of his life, the least note of the Psalmody falling on his ears drew tears of ecstasy from his eyes. After his death, the Church, which had never known any interest to outbalance the splendour of worship due to her Spouse, wished to return from a derogation which so deeply wounded the dearest instincts of her bridal heart ; Paul IV.

1 Num. xiii. 34.

2 P. Ribadeneira, Vita Ignatii Loiolse, lib. ii., cap. vii. * J. Rhous, in variia virtutum histofiis, lib. iii., cap. ii. revoked it absolutely, but St. Rus V., after combating it for a long time, was at last obliged to give in. In tbe latter ages so full of snares, the time had come for the Church to organize special armies. But while it became more and more impossible to expect from these worthy troops, continually taken up with outside -combats, the habits of those who dwelt in security, protected by the ancient towers of the holy city, at the same time Ignatius repudiated the strange misconception which would try to reform the Christian people according to this enforced, but abnormal manner of life. The third of the eighteen rules which he gives as the crowning of the Spiritual Exercises, to have in us the true sentiments of the orthodox Chwrch) recommends to the faithful the chants of the Church, the Psalms, and the different Canonical Hours at their appointed times. And at the beginning of this book, which is the treasure of the Society of Jesus, where he mentions the conditions for drawing the greatest fruit from the Exercises, he ordains in his twentieth annotation that he who can do so, should choose for the time of his retreat a dwelling from whence he can easily go to Matins and Vespers as well as to the Holy Sacrifice. What was our Saint here doing, but advising that the Exercises should be practised in the same spirit in which they were composed in that blessed retreat of Manresa, where the daily attendance at solemn Mass and the evening Offices had been to him the source of heavenly delights ?

But it is time to listen to the Church's account of the life of this great servant of God.

Ignatius natione Hispa- Ignatius, by nation a Span- nus, nobili genere, LoyolaB iard^ was born of a noble in Cantabria natus, primo family at Loyola, in Cantabria. catholici regis aulam, aeinde At first, he attended the court militiam secutus est. In of the Catholic king, and later propugnatione Pampelo- on, embraced a military career.

Having been wounded at the siege of Pampeluna, he chanced in his illness to read some pious books, which kindled in his soul a wonderful eagerness to follow in the footsteps of Christ and the Saints. He went to Montserrat, and hung up his arms before the Altar of the Blessed Virgin ; he then watched the whole night in prayer, and thus entered upon his knighthood in the Army of Christ. Next he retired to Manresa, dressed as he was in sackcloth, for he had a short time before given his costly garments to a beggar. Here he stayed for a year, and during that time he lived on bread and water, given to him in aims ; he fasted every day except Sunday, subdued his flesh with a sharp chain and a hair-shirt, slept on the ground, and scourged himself with iron disciplines. God favoured and refreshed him with such wonderful spiritual lights, that afterwards he was wont to say, that even if the sacred Scriptures did not exist, he would be ready to die for the faith, on account of those revelations alone which the Lord had made to him at Manresa. It was at this time, that he, a man without education, composed that admirable book of the Exercises, which has been approved by the judgment of the Apostolic See, and by the benefit reaped from it by all

However, in order to make himself more fit for gaining souls, he determined to pro- nensi accepto vulnere graviter decumbens,. ex fortuita piorum librorum lectione, ad Christi sanctorumque sectanda vestigia mirabiliter exarsit. Ad montem Serratum profectus, ante aram beatae Virginis suspensis armis; noctem excubans, sacrae militiae tyrocinium posuit Inde, ut erat indutus sacco, traditis antea mendico pretiosis vestibus, Manresam secessit : ubi emendicato pane et aqua victitans, exceptisque die bus Dominicis jejunans, aspera catena cihcioque carnem domans, humi Cubans, et ferreis se flagellis cruentans, per annum commoratus est: claris adeo illustrationibus a Deo recreatus, ut postea dicere solitus sit: Si sacrae Litterae non exstarent, se tamen pro fide mori paratum ex iis solum, quae sibi Manresae patefecerat Dominus. Quo tempore homo litterarum plane rudis admirabilem ilium composuit Exercitiorum librum, Sedis Apostolicae judicio et omnium utilitate comprobatum.

Ut vero se ad animarum lucra rite f ormaret, subsidium litterarum, a grammatica inter pueros exorsus, adhibere statnit Cumque nihil interim omitteret de studio alien® salutis, mirum est, quas ubique locorum serumnas ac ludibria devoraverit, asperrima quseque, et vincula et verbera pene ad mortem usque perpessus : quibus tamen longe plura pro Domini sui gloria semper expetebat. Lutetiae Parisiorum adjuncti sibi ex ilia academia variarum nationumsociis novem,quiomnes artium magisteriis et theologiae gradibus insignes erant, ibidem in monte Martyrum prima Ordinis fundamenta jecit: quem postea Romse instituens, ad tria consueta quarto addito de Missionibus voto, Sedi Apostolicae arctiusadstrinxit: et Paulus Tertius primo recepit confirmavitque: mox alii Pontifices ac Tridentina synodus probavere. Ipse autem, misso ad prsedicandum Indis Evangelium sancto Francisco Xaverio, aliisqne in alias mundi plagas ad religionem propagandam disseminatis, ethnicae superstitioni haeresique bellum indixit, eo successu continuatum, ut constans f uerit omnium sensus, etiam Pontificio confirmatus oraculo, Deum sicut alios aliis temporibus, sanctos viros, ita Luthero, ejusdemque temporis haereticis, Ignatium et institutam ab eo Societatem objecisse.

» PENTECOST. cure the advantages of education, and began by studying grammar among children. Meanwhile he relaxed nothing of his zeal for the salvation of others, and it is marvellous what sufferings and insults he patiently endured in every place, undergoing the hardest trials, even imprisonment and stripes almost unto death. But he ever desired to suffer far more for the glory of his Lord. At Paris he was joined by nine companions from that University, men of different nations, who had taken their degrees in Art and Theolgy; and there at Montmartre he laid the first foundations of the Order, which he was later on* to institute at Rome. He added to the three usual vows a fourth concerning the Missions^ thus binding it closely to the Apostolic See. Paul III. first welcomed and approved the Society, as did later other Pontiffs and the Council of Trent. Ignatius sent St. Francis Xavier to preach the Gospel in the Indies, and dispersed others of his children to spread the Christian faith in other parts of the world, thus declaring war against paganism, superstition, and heresy. This war he carried on with such success that it has always been the universal opinion, confirmed by the word of Pontiffs, that God raised up Ignatius and the Society founded by him to oppose Luther and the heretics of his time, as formerly he had raised up other holy men to oppose other heretics.

He made the restoration of piety among Catholics his first care. He increased the beauty of the sacred buildings, the giving of catechetical instructions, the frequentation of sermons and of the Sacraments. He everywhere opened schools for the education of youth in piety and letters. He founded at Rome the German College, refuges for women of evil life, and for young girls who were in danger, nouses for orphans and catechumens of both sexes, and many other pious works. He devoted himself unweariedly to gaining souls to God. Once he was heard saying, that if he were given his choice, he would rather live uncertain of attaining the Beatific Vision, and in the meanwhile devote himself to the service of God and the salvation of his neighbour, than die at once certain of eternal glory. His power over the demons was wonderful. St. Philip Neri and others saw his countenance shining with heavenly light. At length in the sixty-fifth year of his age he passed to the embrace of his Lord, whose greater glory he had ever preached and ever sought in all things. He was celebrated for miracles and for his great services to the Church, and Gregory XV. enrolled him amongst the Saints.

This ia the victory which overcometh the world, our faith. And thou didst prove this truth once

Sed in primis inter catholicos instaurare pietatem curse fuit Templorumnitor, cathechismi traditio, concionum ac sacramentorum frequentia ab ipso incrementum accepere. Ipse apertis ubique locorumad juventutem erudiendam in litteris ac pietate gymnasiis, erectis Romae Germanorum collegio, male nuptarum et periclitantium puellarum coenobiis, utriusque sexus tarn orphanorum quam catechumenorum domibus, aliisque pietatis operibus, indefessus lucrandis Deo animis iustabat ; auditus aliquando dicere, Si optio daretur, malle se beatitudinis incertum vivere, et interim Deo inservire, et proximorum saluti, quamcertumejusdem glorise statim mori. In daemones mirum exercuit imperium. Vultum ejus ccelesti luce radiantem sanctus Philippus Nerius aliique conspexere. Denique aetatis anno sexagesimo quinto ad Domini sui amplexum, cujus majorem gloriam in ore semper habuerat,semper in omnibus qua3sierat,emigravit. Quern Gregorius Decimus quintus, magnis in Ecclesiam meritis et miraculis illustrem, Sanctorum fastis adscripsit.

1 1 St. John v. 4.

PENT. IV. more to tbe *orld, O thou great conqueror of the age in which the Son of God chose thee to raise up again his ensign that had been humbled before the standard of Babel. Against the ever-increasing battalions of the rebels thou didst long stand almost alone, leaving it to the God of armies to choose his own moment for engaging thee against Satan's troops, as he chose his own for withdrawing thee from human warfare. If the world had then been told of thy designs, it would have laughed them to scorn ; yet now, no one can deny that it was a decisive moment in the history of the world when, with as much confidence as the most illustrious general concentrating his forces, thou gavest the word to thy nine companions to proceed three and three to the holy City. What great results were obtained in the fifteen years during which this little troop, recruited by the Holy Ghost, had thee for its first General ! Heresy was trampled out of Italy, confounded at Trent, checked everywhere, paralysed in its very oentre ; immense conquests were made in new worlds, as a compensation for the losses suffered in our West; Sion herself, renewing the beauty of her youth, saw her people and her pastors raised up again, and her sons receiving an education befitting their heavenly destiny ; in a word, all along the line, where he had rashly cried victory, Satan was now howling, overcome once more by the name of Jesus, which makes every knee to bow, in heaven, on earth, and in hell! Hadst thou ever, O Ignatius, gained such glory as this in the armies of earthly kings ?

From the throne thou hast won by so many valiant deeds, watch over the fruits of thy works, and prove thyself always God's soldier. In the midst of the contradictions which are never wanting td them, uphold thy sons in their position of honour and prowess which makes them tbe vanguard of the

Church. May they be faithful to the spirit of their glorious Father, " having unceasingly before their " eyes : first, God ; next, as the way leading to Him, " the form of their institute, consecrating all their " powers to attain this end marked out for them by "God; yet each following the measure of grace "he has received from the Holy Ghost, and the " particular degree of his vocation r"1 Lastly, O head of such a noble lineage, extend thy love to all religious families whose lot in these times of persecution is so closely allied with that of thine own sons; bless, especially, the monastic Order whose ancient branches overshadowed thy first steps in the perfect life, and the birth of that illustrious Society which will be thy everlasting crown in heaven. Have pity on France, on Paris, whose University furnished thee with foundations for the strong, unshaken building raised by thee to the glory of the Most High. May every Christian learn of thee to fight for the Lord, and never to betray his standard ; may all men, under thy guidance, return to God, their beginning and their end.

1 Litt. Apos. prim® Instituti approbationis, Pauli III. Regmrini militantis.

August 1. SAINT PETER'S CHAINS.

Rome, making a god of the man who had subjugated her, consecrated the month of August to Caesar Augustus. When Christ had delivered her, she placed at the head of this same month, as a trophy of her regained liberty, the feast of the chains, wherewith, in order to break hers, Peter the Vicar of Christ had once been bound. O Divine Wisdom, who hast a better claim to reign over this month than had the adopted son of Caesar, thou couldst not have more authentically inaugurated thy empire. Strength and sweetness are the attributes of thy works, and it is in the weakness of thy chosen ones that thou triumphest over the powerful. Thou thyself, in order to give us life, didst swallow death; Simon, son of John, became a captive, to set free the world entrusted to him. First, Herod, and then Nero showed him the cost of the promise he had once received, of binding and loosing on earth as in heaven : he had to share the love of the Supreme Shepherd, even to allowing himself, like him, to be bound with chains for the sake of the flock, and led where he would not.

Glorious chains ! never will ye make Peter's successors tremble any more than Peter himself ; before the Herods and Neros and Caesars of all ages ye will be the guarantee of the liberty of souls. With what veneration have the Christian people honoured you, st. peter's chains. ever since the earliest times ! One may truly say of the present feast that its origin is lost in the darkness of ages. According to ancient monuments, St. Peter himself first consecrated on this date the basilica on the highest of the seven hills, where the citizens of Rome are gathered to-day. The name Title of Evdoxia, by which the venerable Church is often designated, seems to have arisen from certain restorations made on occasion of the events mentioned in the Lessons. As to the sacred chains, which are its treasure, the earliest mention now extant of honour being paid to them occurs in the beginning of the second century. Balbina, daughter of the tribune Quirinus, keeper of the prisons, had been cured by touching the chains of the holy Pope Alexander; she could not cease kissing the hands which had healed her. " Find the chains of blessed " Peter, and kiss them rather than these/' said the Pontiff. Balbina, therefore, having fortunately found the Apostle's chains, lavished her pious veneration upon them, and afterwards gave them to the noble Theodora, sister of Hermea

The irons which had bound the arms of the Doctor of the Gentiles, without being able to bind the word of God, were also after his martyrdom treasured more than jewels and gold. From Antioch, in Syria, St. John Chrysostom, thinking with holy envy of the lands enriched by these trophies of triumphant bondage, cried out in a sublime transport : " What more " magnificent than these chains? Prisoner for Christ "is a more beautiful name than that of Apostle, "Evangelist, or DQctor. To be bound for Christ's " sake is better than to dwell in the heavens ; to sit " upon the twelve thrones is not so great an honour,

1 Martyrolog. Hieronym., Bed., Raban., Notker.

2 Acta S. Alexandri.

" He that loves can understand me ; but who can " better understand these things than the holy choir "of Apostles? As for me, if I were offered my "choice between these chains and the whole of " heaven, I should not hesitate ; for in them is happiness. Would that I were now in those places, " where it is said the chains of these admirable men " are still kept ! If it were given me to be set free " from the care of this Church, and if I had a little " health, I should not hesitate to undertake such a " voyage only to see Paul's chains. If they said to " me : Which wouldst thou prefer, to be the Angel " who delivered Peter or Peter himself in chains ? I " would rather be Peter, because of his chains."1

Though always venerated in the great basilica which enshrines his tomb, St. Paul's chain has never been made, like those of St. Peter, the object of a special feast in the Church. This distinction was due to the pre-eminence of him " who alone received " the keys of the kingdom of heaven to communicate " them to others,"2 and who alone continues, in his successors, to bind and loose with sovereign power throughout the whole world. The collection of letters of St Gregory the Great proves how universally, in the sixth century, was spread the cultus of these holy chains, a few filings of which enclosed in gold or silver keys was the richest present the Sovereign Pontiffs were wont to offer to the principal churches, or to princes whom they wished to hononr. Constantinople, at some period not clearly determined, received a portion of these precious chains; she appointed a feast on the 16th January, honouring on that day the Apostle Peter, as the occupant of the first See, the foundation of the faith, the immovable basis of dogma.

1 Chrys. in Ep. ad Eph., hom. viii. s Menaea.

• Op. Milev. contra Parmeni., vii., iii. st. peter's

The following is the lej Roman Breviary :

During the reign of Theodosius the younger, Eudoxia, his wife, went to Jerusalem to fulfil a vow, and while there she was honoured with many gifts, the greatest of which was an iron chain adorned with gold and precious stones, and said to be that wherewith the Apostle Peter had been bound by Herod. Eudoxia piously venerated this chain, and then sent it to Home to her daughter Eudoxia. The latter took it to the Sovereign Pontiff, who in his turn showed her another chain which had bound the same Apostle, under Nero.

When the Pontiff thus brought together the Roman chain and that which had come from Jerusalem, they joined together in such a manner that they seemed no longer two chains, but a single one, made by one same workman. On account of this miracle the holy chains began to be held in so great honour, that a church at the title of Eudoxia on the Esquiline was dedicated under the name of St. Peter ad vihcula, and the memory of its dedication was celebrated by a feast on the Kalends of August

From that time St. Peter's chains began to receive the honours of this day, instead of a pagan festival which it

CHAINS. 249 3nd of the feast in the

Theodosio j uniore imperante, cum Eudocia ejus uxor Jerosolymam solvendi voti causa venisset, ibi multis est affecta muneribus : pro ceteris insigne donum accepit ferreae catenae, auro gemmis- .que ornatae : quam ulam esse affirmabant, qua Petrus Apostolus ab Herode vinctus fuerat. Eudocia catenam pie venerata, earn postea Romain ad filiam Eudoxiam misit, quae illam Pontifici maximo detulit : isque vicissim illi monstravit alteram catenam: qua, Nerone imperatore, idem Apostolus constrictus fuerat.

Cum igitur Pontifex Romanam catenam cum ea, quae Jerosolymis allata fuerat, contulisset, factum est ut illae inter se sic connecterentur, ut non duae, sed una catena ab eodem artifice confecta esse videretur. Quo miraculo tantus honor sacris illis vinculis haberi ccepit, ut propterea hoc nomine sancti Petri adVincula ecclesia titulo Eudoxiae, dedicata sit in Exquiliis, ej usque memoriae dies festus institutes calendis AugustL

Quo ex tempore honos, qui eo die profanis Gentihum eelebritatibus tribui solitus erat, Petri vinculis haberi coepit: quae tacta had been customary to cele- segros sanabant, et daemo- brate. Contact with them nes ejiciebant. Quo in gen- healed the sick, and put the ere anno salutis humanse demons to flight Thus, in nongentesimo sexagesimo the year of salvation 909, a nono accidit, ut quidam certain count, who was very comes, Othonis imperatoris intimate with the Emperor familiaris, occupatus ab Otho, was taken possession immundo spiritu, seipsum of by an unclean spirit, so dentibus dilaniaret. Quare that he tore bis flesh with his is jussu imperatoris ad Jo- own teeth. By command of annem Pontificera ducitur : the Emperor he was taken to qui, ut sacra catena comitis the Pontiff John, who had no collum attigit, e rum pens sooner touched the count's nefarius spiritus hominem neck with the holy chain than liberum reliquit : ac dein- the wicked spirit was driven cens in Urbe sanctorum vin- away, leaving the man entirely culorum religio propagata free. On this account devo- est tion to the holy chains was spread throughout Rome.

Put thy feet into the fetters of Wisdom, and thy neck into her chains, said the Holy Spirit under the ancient alliance ; . . . and be not grieved with her bands. . . . For in the latter end thou shalt find rest in her, and she shall be turned to thy joy. Then shall her fetters be a strong defence for thee . . . and her bands are a healthful binding. Thou shalt put her on as a robe of glory. Incarnate Wisdom, applying the prophecy to thee, O Prince of Apostles, declared that in testimony of thy love the day would come when thou shouldst suffer constraint and bondage. The trial, O Peter, was a convincing one for Eternal Wisdom, who proportions her requirements to the measure of her own love. But thou, too, didst find her faithful ; in the days of the formidable combat, wherein she wished to show her power in thy weakness, she did not leave thee in oands ; in her arms thou didst sleep so calm a sleep

1 EoclL vi. 25-32.

ST. PETER'S CHAINS. in Herod's prison ; and, going down with thee vnio the pit of Nero, she faithfully kept thee company up to the hour when, subjecting the persecutors to the persecuted, she placed the sceptre in thy hands, and on thy brow the triple crown.

From the throne where thou reignest with the Man-God in heaven, as thou didst follow him on earth in trials and anguish, loosen our bands which, alas! are not glorious ones such as thine: break these fetters of sin which bind us to Satan, these ties of all the passions which prevent us from soaring towards God. The world, more than ever enslaved in the infatuation of its false liberties which make it forget the only true freedom, has more need now of enfranchisement than in the times of pagan Caesars : be once more its deliverer, now that thou art more powerful than ever. May Rome especially, now fallen the lower because precipitated from a greater height, learn again the emancipating power which lurks in thy chains; they have become a rallying standard for her faithful children in these latter trials. Make good the word once uttered by her poets, that "encircled with these chains she will "ever be free."2

The August heavens glitter with the brightest constellations of the sacred cycle. Even in the sixth century, the Second Council of Tours remarked that this month was filled with the feasts of Saints. My delights are to be with the children of men, says Wisdom ; and in the month which echoes with her teachings, she seems to have made it her glory

• Arator. De v. 1070-1076. 8 Toto Augusto . . . festivitates sunt et missae sanctorum. De observatione psallendi. Labbe, V., 857.

1 Archconfraternity of St. Peter's chains, erected 18th Jane, 1867. Act. Apost., L. l, to be surrounded with blessed ones, who, walking with her in the midst of the paths of judgment, have in finding her found life and salvation from the Lord. This noble court is presided over by the Queen of all grace, whose triumph consecrates this month and makes it the delight of that Wisdom of the Father, who, once enthroned in Mary, never quitted her. What a wealth of divine favours do the coming days promise to our souls ! Never were our Father's barns so well filled as at this season, when the earthly as well as the heavenly harvests are ripe.

While the Church on earth inaugurates these days by adorning herself with Peter's chains as with a precious jewel, a constellation of seven stars appears for the third time in the heavens. The seven brothers Machabees preceded the sons of Symphorosa and Felicitas in the blood-stained arena; they followed divine Wisdom even before she had manifested her beauty in the flesh. The sacred cause of which they were the champions, their strength of soul under the tortures, their sublime answers to the executioners, were so evidently the type reproduced by the later Martyrs, that the Fathers of the first centuries with one accord claimed for the Christian Church these heroes of the synagogue, who could have gained such courage from no other source than their faith in the Christ to come. For this reason they alone of all the holy persons of the ancient covenant have found a place on the Christian cycle ; all the Martyrologies and Calendars of East and West attest the universality of their cultus, while its antiquity is such as to rival that of St. Peter's chains in that same basilica of Eudoxia where their precious relics lie.

At the time when in the hope of a better resurrection they refused under cruel torments to redeem st. peter's chains. their lives, other heroes of the same blood, inspired by the same faith, flew to arms and delivered their country from a terrible crisis. Several children of Israel, forgetting the traditions of their nation, had wished it to follow the customs of strange peoples ; and the Lord, in punishment, had allowed Judea to feel the whole weight of a profane rule to which it had guiltily submitted. But when king Antiochus, taking advantage of the treason of a few and the carelessness of the majority, endeavoured by his ordinances to blot out the divine law which alone gives power to man over man, Israel, suddenly awakened, met the- tyrant with the double opposition of revolt and martyrdom. Judas Machabeus in immortal battles reclaimed for God the land of his inheritance, while by the virtue of their generous confession, the seven, brothers also, his rivals in glory, recovered, as the Scripture says, the law out of the hands of the nations, and out of the hands of the kings. Soon afterwards, craving mercy under the hand of God and not finding it, Antiochus died, devoured by worms, just as later on, were to die the first and last persecutors of the Christians, Herod Agrippa and Galerius Maximian.

The Holy Ghost, who would himself hand down to posterity the acts of the Protomartyr of the New Law, did the same with regard to the passion of Stephen's glorious predecessors in the ages of expectation. Indeed it was he who then, as under the law of Love, inspired with both words and courage these valiant brothers, and their still more admirable mother, who, seeing her seven sons one after the other suffering the most horrible tortures, uttered nothing but burning exhortations to die. Surrounded by their mutilated bodies, she mocked

1 1 Mach. ii. 48. the tyrant who, in false pity, wished her to persuade at least the youngest to save his life ; she bent over the last child of her tender love and said to him : My son, have pity upon me, that bore thee nine months in my womb, and gave thee suck three years, and nourished thee, and brought thee up unto this age. I beseech thee, my son, look upon heaven and earth, and all that is in them: and consider that God made them out of nothing and mankind also: so thou shalt not fear this tormentor, but being made a worthy partner with thy brethren, receive death, thai in that mercy I may receive thee again with thy brethren. And the intrepid youth ran in his innocence to the tortures ; and the incomparable mother followed her sons.