The Holy Family


ONE DOLLAN YEALLY

PRICE '1EN CENTS.

A PERIODICAL OF “ THE VATICAN LIBRARY

SERIES
,
DEVOTED TO CHOICE CATHOLIC

READING
,
FOR FAMILIES AND

SCHOOLS.

CONTENTS OF VOL

MARCH
,

1881

r. “ t:ie holy family.”
i r. “how to make our lives sub
lime”—THE EXAMPLE OF THE
SAINTS.—MONTHLY PATRONS.

HI. MONTHLY CALENDAR.
IV. THE SAINTS OF MARCH.
V THE ANNUNCIATION —THE ' AN
GELUS.

VI. HYMNS TO ST. JOSEPH, PATRON
OF THE UNIVERSAL CHURCH AND
PROTECTOR OF THE HOLY FAMILY'
ON EARTH.

VII LENT—ITS FEASTS AND FAST.
VIII NOTES ON CATHOLIC AND ANTI-
CATHOLIC LITERATURE. ETC., ETC.

NEW YORK

THE VATICAH LIBRARY

11 BARCLAY STREET.



What, “ The Vatican Library ” Attempts

The Vatican Library of cheap, amusing, entertaining, and instructive Catholic
literature has been projected to fill a want long felt and widelydeplored.

It will provide for the people a Catholic literature of the highest class, which will
aim at being recreative and instructive, and, what is hardly of less importance, it
will be published at prices which will bring its volumes within the reach of all
classes. Now, for the first time, Catholic books which are sold by others for $3,
$2, and $1 50, and similarly high pric es, will be offered in The Vatican Library
at an average of twenty-five cents. Thus Cardinal Wiseman’s Fabiola, costing else-
where $2, costs in The Vatican Library twenty-Jive cents.

These low prices are offered so that it may be within the power of every one to
obtain Catholic books, and that those who seek entertainment and instruction from
reading need not go elsewhere to dangerous sources.

The Vatican Library will include Reprints of the principal classical Catholic
works, which have hitherto been sold at ridiculously extravagant rates that deterred
purchasers

;
Original. Translations from the masters of Catholic thought in Ger-

man, French, Italian, and Spanish, and Original Works prepared by Catholic
Americans. The first section of the series will be devoted to Catholic fiction. Ac-
cording as popular appreciation of the publishers’ enterprise justifies, other sections
supplying Catholic intellectual wants will be added. These will include standard
works which, while valuable, are not likely to have so large a sale as more popular
books.

The first merit of The Vatican Library will be its aim to deserve the name it
has chosen, and the patronage it seeks, by being from first to last Catholic before
everything. Undertaken to meet what is perhaps the most evident evil of the day,
in obedience to the repeated suggestions of Pio Nono to men of good will and suffi-
cient talent—a suggestion which he has strengthened with multiplied blessings—it
adopts a name which sufficiently indicates its purpose to aid in advancing the faith
a .d strengthening the morals of the people, by supplying meritorious works, and
removing an excuse for indulging in dangerous reading.

While marked by cheapness, The Vatican Library will not seek its profit in
poor workmanship.

Every Catholic family in America will be enabled to possess, at rational prices, a
full library of the best Catholic books in the language. At a rate of less than fiftj
cents a week for one year, the patrons of The Vatican Library can purchase more
than two hundred volumes, which, at the present exorbitant prices, would cost
them from three hundred to six hundred dollars.

The publishers of The Vatican Library have long been accustomed to supply
the highest work at the lowest rate and smallest possible profit. They are sustained
by ample capital to enable them to test the question whether it is the high prices
which in the past prevented popular patronage of Catholic publications, so that in
this generation whole sections of the population have grown up without Catholic
books.

While experience and capital can secure excellent quality and low prices, the
success of this important experiment depends largely on the co-operation of the
clergy and well-disposed laity. The publishers, therefore, appeal to both orders of
the hierarchy, to the religious houses, to the principals of schools, and to the Catho-
lic people for support in this meritorious work.

This support can be given to The Vatican Library :
1. By purchasing for one’s own use even single copies.
2. By purchasing larger quantities for distribution in schools and through con-

gregations.

3. By recommending local book agents and news agents to keep The Vatican
Library for sale, which they can do at a profit.

4. By calling public attention to the enterprise and recommending it to public
patronage.

Every reader of this prospectus who approves of The Vatican Library is re-
quested to write to the publishers, expressing that approval. Address

HICKEY &> CO., Publishers of “The Vatican Library/
11 Barclay Street, New York.



3

the roman calendar.

MAU.CII. 1881.

ATE. DAT. . FEAST.

1 Tuesday St. Gregory II., Pope and Confessor, (from

February 13.)

2 Wednesday Ash Wednesday, the first day of the Lenten
fast.

3 Thursday St. Martina, Virgin and Martyr.

4 Friday The Crown of Thoms of our Lord.

5 Saturday St. Casimir, Confessor (from March 4.)

6 Sunday First Sunday of Lent.

7 Monday St. Thomas of Aquin, Confessor and Doctor.

8 Tuesday St. John of God, Confessor.

9 Wednesday Ember Wednesday, St. Frances of Rome.

10 Thursday The Forty Martyrs of Sebaste.

11 Friday Ember Friday. The Lance and Nails of
our Lord.

12 Saturday Ember Saturday. St. Gregory I., Pope,
Confessor, Doctor.

13 Sunday Second Sunday of Lent.

14 Monday St. Simplicius, Pope, Confessor.

15 Tuesday St. Zachary, Pope, Confessor.

16 Wednesday St. Lucius, Pope, Martyr.

IT Thursday St. Patrick, Bishop and Confessor.

18 Friday Ihe Winding Sheet of our Lord.

19 Saturday St. Joseph, Spouse of the Blessed Virgin

Mary, Patron of the Universal Church.

20 Sunday Third Sunday of Lent.

21 Monday St. Benedict, Abbot, Confessor.

22 Tuesday St. Gabriel, the Archangel (from March 18.)

23 Wednesday Feria.

24 Thursday Feria.

25 Friday ANNUNCIATION OF THE BLESSED
VIRGIN MARY.

26 Saturday The Five Wounds of our Lord.

2T Sunday Fourth Sunday of Lent.

28 Monday St. Xystus HI., Pope and Confessor.

29 Tuesday Feria.

30 Wednesday Feria.

31 Thursday Feria.

Doadcffifect



4 LIVES OF THE SAINTS.

MARCH 1 .

St. David, Bishop.

QT. DAYID, son of Sant, prince of Cardigan and of Non, was born in
^ that country in the fifth century, and from his earliest years gave
himself wholly to the service of God. Pie began his religious life under

St. Paulinus, a disciple of St. Germanus, Bishop of Auxerre, who had been

sent to Britain by Popo St. Celcstine to stop the ravage of the heresy of

Pelagius, at that time abbot, as it is said, of Bangor. On the reappearance
of that heresy, in the beginning of the sixty century, the bishops assembled

at Brevi, and, unable to address the people that came to hear the word of

truth, sent for St. David from his cell to preach to them. The Saint came,

and it is related that as he preached the ground beneath his feet rose and

became a hill, so that he was heard by an innumerable crowd. The heresy

fell under the sw ord of the Spirit, and the Saint was elected Bishop of

Caerleon on the resignation of St. Dubricius
;
but he removed the see to

Menevia, a lone and desert spot, where he might with the monks serve

God away from the noise of the world. He founded twelve monasteries,
and governed his Church according to the canons sanctioned in Borne. At
last, when about eighty years of age, he laid himself down, knowing that

his hour was come. As his agony closed, our Lord stood before him in a
vision, and the Saint cried out, 4 Take me up with Thee,’ and so gave up
his soul on Tuesday, March 1st, 561.

ZEAL FOR THE FAITH.

The faith of Christ is that precious pearl which the wise merchant pur-

chased with all his possessions, and there is no poverty where the riches of

Christ are hid.

4 The soul that journeys in the light and the truths of the Faith is safe

against all error.’

—

St. John of the Cross.

St. David purged the land of heresy, and governed his people in the

wTays of God
;
diligent, laborious, and constant in prayer, as well as in the

observance of regular discipline. At Matins he received the joyful news

that his death was at hand, and the whole country round was moved. Then,

on the following Sunday, he sang the High Mass, preached, and blessed the

people, saying to them, 4 Be joyful, and keep the Faith; on Tuesday I

shall go the way of my fathers.’



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 5

MARCH 2 .

St. Chad, Bishop.

YHIAD was abbot of Lastingham, near Whitby. He was well read in
the Holy Scriptures, and practised what he learnt therein. Contrary

to the canons, he was placed in the see of York during the absence of St.
Wilfred, and it became the duty of St. Theodore, as Primate of England,

to request him to withdraw. Chad declared that he willingly resigned an
office of which he had always deemed himself unworthy, and which obedi-

ence alone had forced him to accept. St. Theodore soon after appointed

him bishop ol the Mercians. He fixed his see at Lichfield, and for two
years and a half spent himself in the care of his flock. Like the apostolic

bishops of the North, Chad lived in humble poverty, making his visitations

on foot. Amidst his unceasing labors he continued to yearn for the peace

of his cloister, and often refreshed his soul by retiring to a monastery, and

meditating on the eternal Sabbath, for which he sighed. Here he repaired

when warned that his end was near
;
and from his beloved cell his soul

winged its flight to heaven, A.D. 673. His shrine in Lichfield Cathedral

was the scene of countless miracles till its desecration by the sacri-

legious reformers. The Saint’s body, however, was providentially saved by

some devout Catholics, and it now reposes under the high altar of the
cathedral of Birmingham.

DESIRE OF HEAVENLY GLORY.

Seven days before St. Chad’s death, a brother in the monastery heard

voices singing most sweetly. He listened, and noticed that the unseen choir
seemed to rest over the cell of the holy bishop. St. Chad soon after this

occurrence summoned the brethren together, and asked for thqir prayers,

since in seven days he would depart. The mysterious chants, were he said,

the voices of angels, who had come to call him to that heavenly reward
which he had so long desired. On the seventh day the holy man died, and
his soul was seen going up to heaven in the company of St. Cedd, his

brother, and that of many angels.

‘ My son, when thou feelest that a desire of everlasting bliss is given
unto thee, and thou covetest to go forth out of the tabernacle of thy mortal

body, that so thou mayest without shadow behold my brightness, open thy
heart, and with all the desires of thy soul embrace this holy inspiration.’

—

Imitation.



6 LIVES OF THE SAINTS.

MARCH 3 .

St. Gilbert, Abbot.

A FTEIt many years of study in England and France, Gilbert was or-
dained priest in 1123, and received from his father, who was lord of

the manor, a rich benefice in Lincolnshire. Save a small sum for his own

use, Gilbert gave his revenues to the poor, and by unwearying care brought

his flock to a state of almost monastic discipline. After awhile he felt

inspired to build a small house beside the church for seven maidens who

wished to dedicate themselves to God. Others followed their example, and

Gilbert soon found himself at the head of a rising community, which he

thought at first of offering to the great Cistercian Order, then spreading in

England. By the advice of St. Bernard, however, he instituted them as a
separate body, and incorporated therewith a community of canons regular.

Such was the origin of the Gilbertines, the only religious Order ever

founded in England. Silence, meditation, and manual labor form the chief

points of the rule, which was approved by Eugenius III. Gilbert’s work

now seemed complete, but his trials were yet to come. Some of his relaxed
subjects shamefully slandered him to his bishop and to the Pope. Gilbert

committed his cause to God, and waited patiently the result. At length his
innocence was declared, and the privileges of his Order confirmed. Before

his death he saw TOO canons and 1,500 nuns following the rule for which

he had suffered so much.

A GOOD CONSCIENCE.

Just when Gilbert’s character was definitely cleared and his Order

established, another charge was brought against him. He was accused of
sending alms to St. Thomas of Canterbury, then in exile. The charge, as

it happened, was false
;
and the judge, who greatly reverenced Gilbert,

offered to release him at once if he would but plead innocent. This, how-

ever, he firmly refused to do, preferring to risk both his own banishment

and the destruction of his Order rather than by denying the charge to

appear for one moment as the adversary of the Church’s champion. At

last, by the king’s order, without having spoken one word in his own de-

fence, he was set free.

i Thou art not more holy for being praised, nor worse for being blamed

;

what thou art, that thou art, nor canst thou be said to be greater than God
seeth thee to be.’

—

Imitation.



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. r

MARCH 4 .

St. Casimir,' King.

^lASLMLR, the second son of Casimir III., King of Poland, was born
^ A.D. 1458. From the custody of a most virtuous mother, Elizabeth of
Austria, he passed to the guardianship of a devoted master, the learned

and pious John Dugloss. Thus animated from his earliest years by pre-

cept and example, his innocence and piety soon ripened into the practice

of heroic virtue. At the age of twenty-five, sick of a lingering illness, he

foretold the hour of his death, and chose to die a virgin rather than take

the life and health which the doctors held out to him in the married state.

In an atmosphere of luxury and magnificence the young prince had fasted,

worn a hair shirt, slept upon the bare earth, prayed by night, and watched

for the opening of the church doors at dawn. He had become so tenderly
devoted to the Passion of our Lord, that at Mass he seemed quite rapt out

of himself, and his charity to the poor and afflicted knew no bounds, llis

love for our Blessed Lady he expressed in a long and beautiful hymn,

familiar to us in our own tongue. The miracles wrought by his body after
death fill a volume. The blind saw, the lame walked, the sick were healed,

a dead girl was raised to life. And once the Saint in glory led his coun-
trymen to battle, and delivered them by a glorious victory from the schis-

matic Hussian host.

DEVOTION TO MARY IMMACULATE.

Let the study of St. Casimir’s life make us increase in devotion to the

most pure Mother of God, a sure means of preserving holy purity.

One hundred and twenty-two years after his death the Saint’s tomb in

the cathedral of Vienna was opened, that the holy body might be trans-

ferred to the rich marble chapel where it now lies. The place was damp,
and the very vault crumbled away in the hands of the workmen

;
yet the

Saint’s body, wrapt in robes of silk, was found whole and incorrupt, and

emitted a sweet fragrance, which filled the church and refreshed all who
were present. Under his head was found his hymn to our Lady, which he
had had buried with him. The following night three young men saw a
brilliant light issuing from the open tomb and streaming through the win-
dows of the chapel.



8 LIVES OF THE SAINTS.

MARCH 5 .

St John Joseph of the Cross.
/

WHILST but a schoolboy, John Joseph urged his companions to hate
" '

sin, sternly rebuked careless livers, and gave to the poor the better

half of his meals. At the age of sixteen he had left Ischia, his birthplace,

and received the habit of St. Francis at Naples, and three years later was

sent by his superiors to erect a new house of the Alcantarines in Piedmont.

In the hope of leading a solitary life he now retired to a hermitage at the

foot of the Apennies; but his superiors soon summoned him thence, in 1678

he was made first novice-master, then superior^ being at the time only twenty-

four years of age. He was a man of strong feelings, a fond and devoted
son, and all the affection of his nature was poured out on his brethren in

religion. His faith, his austerities, and his prayers endowed his charity

with miraculous efficacy. In times of famine he fed the friars withr bread

that multiplied, and herbs that grew at his command. No suffering seemed
too trivial for his wonder-working sympathy ; when a poor sick woman
wished for peaches in the depth of winter they were found on a chestnut

branch which the Saint had planted, and every ill of mind and body was in

turn healed at his word. In 1702 his firmness and charity saved the very

existence of his Order, which was imperilled by internal dissensions. He
worked to his life’s end, and died at the hour he had foretold in 1734.

CHRISTIAN SYMPATHY.

The Saint was not content to relieve others of their cares and sorrows,

but at times took them upon himself. A priest, in great suffering from two
ulcers and with a painful operation in view, begged his prayers, whereupon

St. John Joseph besought God to transfer the malady to himself. He was
at once smitten with the sufferings of the sick man, who was at the same
time freed from his disease. Again, a man plunged in vice made a general
confession to the Saint, who, moved by his contrition, gave him only a light

penance, binding himself to fulfil what still remained due for his crimes.

When begged to spare himself in works of mercy St. John Joseph an-
swered, c I have no infirmity to keep me from work

;
and if I had, ought I

not to give my life in the same cause for which Jesus Christ died V



LIVES OF TILE SAINTS. 9

MARCH 6.

St. Colette, Virgin.

A FTEB a holy childhood, Colette joined a society of devout women
called the Beguines; hut not finding their state sufficiently austere,

she entered the Third Order of St. Francis, and lived in a hut near her

parish church of Corbie in Picardy. Here she had passed four years

of extraordinary penance, when St. Francis, in a vision, bade her under-

take the reform of her Order, then much relaxed. Armed with due
authority she established her reform throughout a large part of Europe,

and, in spite of the most violent opposition, founded seventeen con-

vents of the strict observance. By the same wonderful prudence she
assisted in healing the great schism which then afflicted the Church. The

Fathers in Council at Coustance were in doubt how to deal with the three
claimants to the tiara—John XXIII., Benedict XIII., and Gregory XII.
At this crisis Colette, together with St. Vincent Ferrer, wrote to the Fathers

to depose Benedict XIII., who alone refused his consent to a new election.

This was done, and Martin V. was elected, to the great good of the Church.

Colette equally assisted the Council of Basle by her advice and prayers

;

and when, later, God revealed to her the spirit of revolt that was rising, she
warned the bishops and legates to retire from the Council. She died

March 6th, 1447, in a transport of intercession for sinners and the Church.

PRAYER FOR THE HOLY SEE.

St. Colette never ceased to pray for the Church, while the devils in

turn never ceased to assault her. They swarmed round her as hideous in-

sects, buzzing and stinging her tender skin. They brought into her cell the

decaying corpse of public criminals, and assuming themselves monstrous

forms struck her savage blows
;
or they would appear in the most seductive

guise, and tempt her by many deceits to sin. Yet the virgin of Christ tri-
umphed alike over their threats and allurements, and said she would count

that day the unhappiest of her life in which she suffered nothing for her God.

One of the greatest tests of being a good Catholic is zeal for the Church
and devotion to Christ’s Vicar.

, ‘Peter, therefore, was kept in prison, but prayer was made without ceas-
ing by the Church unto God for him.’—Acts xii. 5.



10 LIVES OL THE SAINTS.

MARCH 7 .

St. Thomas Aquinas.

CT. THOMAS was born of noble parents at Aqnino in Italy, A.D. 1226.
At the age of nineteen he received the Dominican habit at Naples,

where he was studying. Seized by his brothers on his way to Paris, he

suffered a two years’ captivity in their castle of Kocca-Secca
;
but neither

the caresses of his jnother and sisters nor the threats and stratagems of his

brothers could shake him in his vocation. Having at length escaped, he

went to Cologne to study under B. Albert the Great, and after that to

Paris, where he taught for many years philosophy and theology. The
Church has ever venerated his numerous writings as a treasure-house of

sacred doctrine
;
while in naming him the Angelic Doctor she has indicated

that his science is more divine than human. The rarest gifts of intellect

were combined in him with the tenderest piety. Prayer, he said, had

taught him more than study. His singular devotion to the Blessed Sacra-

ment shines forth in the Office and hymns for Corpus Christi, which he

composed. To the words miraculously uttered by a crucifix at Naples,

ell hast thou written concerning Me, Thomas
;
what shall I give the as

a reward?’ he replied, ‘Nought save Thyself, O Lord.’ He died at Fossa-
Nuova, A.D. 1274, on his way to the General Council of Lyons, to which

Pope Gregory X. had summoned him.

CHASTITY.

While St. Thomas was in confinement at Bocca-Secca, his brothers en-

deavored to entrap him into sin, but the attempt only ended in the triumph

of his purity. Snatching from the hearth a burning brand, the Saint drove

from his chamber the wretched creature whom they had there concealed.
Then marking a cross upon the wall, he knelt down to pray, and forthwith,

being rapt in ecstacy, an angel girded him with a cord, in token of the gift

of perpetual chastity which God had given him. The pain caused by the

girdle was so sharp that St. Thomas uttered a piercing cry, which brought

his guards into the room. But he never told this grace to any one save

only to Father Raynald, his confessor, a little while before his death.

Hence originated the Confraternity of the ‘Angelic Warfare,’ for the pres-

ervation of the virtue of chastity.

The knowledge of God is for all, but hidden treasures are reserved for

those who have ever followed the Lamb.



LIVES OF TILE SAINTS. 11

MARCH 8.

St. John of God.

"VTOTH1NG in John’s early life foreshadowed his future sanctity. He
ran away as a boy from his home in Portugal, tended sheep and cattle

in Spain, and served as a soldier against the French, and afterwards against

the Turks. When aoout forty years of age, feeling remorse for his wild
life, he resolved to devote himself to the ransom of the Christian slaves in

Africa, and went thither with the family of an exiled noble, which he main-

tained by his labor. On his return to Spain he sought to do good by sel-
ling holy pictures and books at low prices. At length the hour of grace
struck. At Granada a sermon, by the celebrabted John of Avila, shook his
soul to its depths, and his expressions of self-abhorrence were so extraordi-

nary that he was taken to the asylum as one mad. There he employed

himself in ministering to the sick. He had found his vocation. On leav-
ing he began to collect homeless poor, and to support them by his wTork and

by begging. By degrees help flowed in; the bishop became his patron,
and gave him the name of John of God. When his hospital was on fire
John was seen rushing about uninjured amidst the flames until he had res-

cued all his poor. After ten years spent in the service of the suffering, the

Saint’s life was fitly closed. He plunged into the river Xenil to save a
drowning boy, and died A.I). 1550 of an illness brought on by the attempt,

at the age of fifty-five.

REWARDS OF CHARITY.

One night St. John found in the streets a poor man who seemed near
death, and, as was his wont, he carried him to the hospital, laid him on a bed,

and went to fetch water to wash his feet. When he had washed them, he
knelt to kiss them, and started with awe ; the feet were pierced, and the

print of the nails bright with an unearthly radiance. He raised his eyes to
look, and heard the words : ‘John, to Me thou doest all that thou doest to
the poor in My name

;
I reach forth My hand for the almns thou givest

;

Me dost thou clothe
;
Mine are the feet thou dost wash.’ And then the

gracious vision disappeared, leaving St. John filled at once with confusion

and consolation.

‘When thou shalt pour out thy soul to the hungry, and shalt satisfy the

afihcted soul, then shall thy light rise up in the darkness, and thy darkness

shall be as the noonday.’—Isai. Iviii. 10.



12 LIVES OF THE SAINTS.

MARCH 9 .

St. Frances of Rome.

XPRAFTCES was bom at Rome in 1384. Her parents were of high rank.
They overruled her desire to become a nun, and at twelve years of

age married her to Lorenzo Ponziano, a Roman noble. During the forty
years of their married life they never had a disagreement. While spend-

ing her days in retirement and prayer, she attended promptly to every

household duty, saying, ‘A married woman must leave God at the altar to
find Him in her domestic cares and she once found the verse of a psalm
in which she had been four times thus interrupted completed for her in let-

ters of gold. Her ordinary food was dry bread. Secretly she would ex-

change with beggars good food for their hard crusts ; her drink was water,

and her cup a human skull. During the invasion of Rome, in 1413, Pon-
ziano was banished, his estates confiscated, his house destroyed, and his eldest

son taken as a hostage. Frances saw in these losses only the finger of God,

and blessed His holy name. When peace was restored Ponziano recovered
his estates, and Frances founded the Oblates. After her husband’s death,

barefooted, and with a cord about her neck, she begged admission to the

community, and was soon elected Superioress. She lived always in the

presence of God, and amongst many visions was given the "constant sight of
her angel guardian. She died on the day she had foretold, March 9th,

1440.

REVERENCE FOR OUR GUARDIAN ANGEL.

St. Frances’ angel appeared to her under the form of a lovely child

about eight years of age
;
his eyes were fixed on heaven, his arms rever-

ently crossed on his breast
;
he shed such a brightness around him that the

Saint could read her midnight Office by this light alone. He shielded her
in the hour of temptation, and directed her in every good act. But when

she was betrayed into some defect, he faded from her sight; and when

some light words were spoken before her, he covered his face in shame.

‘Reverence thy guardian angel, nor dare do before him what thou

wouldst not dare before me.’

—

St. Bernard.

‘His angel hath been my keeper, both going hence and abiding there,
and the Lord hath not suffered me, His handmaid, to be defiled.’—Judith
xiii. 20.



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 13

MARCH 10.

The Forty Martyrs of Sebaste.

rpHE Forty Martyrs were soldiers quartered at Sebaste in Armenia,
about the year 320. When the legion was ordered to offer sacrifice

they separated themselves from the rest, and formed a company of martyrs.

After they had been torn by scourges and iron hooks they were chained

together, and led to a lingering death. It was a cruel winter, and they

were condemned to lie naked on the icy surface of a pond in the open air

till they were frozen to death. But they ran undismayed to the place of

their combat, joyfully stripped off their garments, and with one voice be-

sought God to keep their ranks unbroken. ‘Forty,’ they cried, ‘we have

come to combat
;
grant that forty may be crowned.’ There were warm

baths hard by, and a soldier stood on guard, ready at each moment to bring

to the fire any one amongst them who would deny Christ. As he watched,
he saw angels descending with thirty-nine crowns, and while he wondered

at the deficiency in the number, one of the confessors lost heart, renounced

his faith, and crawling to the fire died body and soul, at the spot where he

expected relief. But the soldier on guard was inspired to confess Christ

and take his place, and again the number of forty was complete. They re-

mained steadfast while then* limbs grew stiff and frozen, and died one by

one, till the last of the forty entered heaven.

STRENGTH IN UNION.

Among the Forty there was a young soldier who held out longest
against the cold, and when the officers came to cart away the dead bodies

they found him still breathing. They were moved with pity, and wanted

to leave him alive, in the hope that he would still change his mind. But

his mother stood by, and this valiant woman could not bear to see her son
separated from the band of martyrs. She exhorted him to persevere, and

lifted his frozen body into the cart. He was just able to make a sign of
recognition, and was borne away, to be thrown into the flames with the

dead bodies of his brethren.

All who live the life of grace are one in Christ. But besides this there are
many special ties—of religion, of community life, or at least of aspirations
in prayers, and pious works. Thank God if He has bound you to others by
these spiritual ties

;
remember the character you have to support, and pray

that the bond which unites you may last for eternity.



14 LIVES OF THE SAINTS.

MARCH 11 .

St. Jane of Valois.

"DORN of the blood royal of France, herself a queen, Jane of Valois led
a life remarkable for its humiliations even in the annals of the Saints.

Her father, Louis XI., who had hoped for a son to succeed him, banished

Jane from his palace, and, it is said, even attempted her life. At the age

of five the neglected child offered her whole heart to God, and yearned to

do some special service in honor of His Blessed Mother. At the King’s

wish, though against her own inclination, she was married to the Duke of

Orleans. Towards an indifferent and unworthy husband her conduct was

ever most patient and dutiful. Her prayers and tears saved him from a

traitor’s death, and shortened the captivity which his rebellion had merited.

Still nothing could win a heart which was already given to another. When
her husband ascended the throne as Louis XII., his first act was to repudi-

ate by false representations one who through twenty-two years of cruel

neglect had been his true and loyal wife. At the final sentence of separa-

tion the saintly Queen exclaimed, 4God be praised, who has allowed this that

I may serve Him better than I have heretofore done.’ Betiring to Bour-
ges, she there realized her long-formed desire, by founding the Order of the

Annunciation in honor of the Mother of God. St. Jane died in heroic

sanctity A.D. 1505, and was buried in the royal crown and purple, beneath

which lay the habit of her Order.

DEVOUT RECITATION OF THE ANGELUS.

Under the guidance of St. Francis of Paula, the director of her child-

hood, St. Jane was enabled to overcome the serious obstacles which even

good people raised against the foundation of her new Order. In 1501 the

rule of the Annunciation was finally approved by Alexander VI. The

chief aim of the Institute was to imitate the ten virtues practised by our

Lady in the mystery of the Incarnation, the Superioress being called ‘An-

celle,’ handmaid, in honor of Mary’s humility. St. Jane built and endowed

the first convent of the Order in 1502, where her body lay incorrupt till

burned by the Calvinists in 1562.

6As nothing was made without the Word, so nothing was remade
without Mary the Mother of the Word.’—-St. Damasus.



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 15

MARCH 12.

St. Gregory the Great.

REGORY was a Roman of noble birth, and while still young was
Governor of Rome. But in this splendid position his heart was ill at

ease
;
and on his father’s death he gave his great wealth to the poor, turned

his house on the Coelian Hill into a monastery which now bears his name,
and for some years lived as a perfect monk. The Pope drew him from his

seclusion to make him one of the seven deacons of Rome
;
and he did great

service to the Church for many years as what we now call Nuncio to the
imperial court at Constantinople. On the death of the Pope he was com-
pelled to take the government of the Church, and for fourteen years his

pontificate was a perfect model of ecclesiastical rule. Nothing escaped his

wakeful eye
;
nothing was too great, nothing too small for his all-embrac-

ing care. He healed schisms, revived discipline
;
saved Italy by converting

the wild Arian Lombards who were laying it waste
;
aided in the conver-

sion of the Spanish and French Goths, who were also Arians
;
and kindled

anew in Britain the light of the Faith which the English had put out in

blood. He set in order the Church’s prayers and chant, guided and con-
soled her pastors with innumerable letters, preached incessantly, most effec-

tually by his own example. He died A.D. 601, worn out by austerities
and toils

;
and the Church reckons him one of her four great doctors, and

reveres him as St. Gregory the Great.

While still a monk the Saint was struck with some boys who were ex-
posed for sale in Rome, and heard with sorrow that they were Pagans.

‘And of what race are they V he asked. ‘They are Angles.’ ‘Worthy in-

deed to be angels of God,’ said he
;
‘and of what province V ‘Of Deira,’

was the reply. ‘Truly must we rescue them from the wrath of God. And
what is the name of their king V ‘He is called Ella.’ ‘It is well,’ said

Gregory
;
‘Alleluia must be sung in their land to God.’ He at once got

leave from the Pope, and had set out to convert our forefathers, when the
murmurs of the people led the Pope to recall him. Still the Angles were

not forgotten, and one of the Saint’s first cares as Pope was to send from

his own monastery St. Augustine and other monks to England.

‘In very truth no sacrifice is so pleasing to God as zeal for souls.’

—

St.

Gregory.

ZEAL FOR THE CONVERSION OF ENGLAND.



16 LIVES OF TEE SAINTS.

MARCH 13.

The Martyrs of Japan.

BOUT forty years after St. Francis Xavier’s death a persecution broke
out in Japan, and all Christian rites were forbidden under pain of

death. A confraternity of martyrs was at once formed, the object of which
was to die for Christ. Even the little children joined it. Their constancy

was soon tested. Christians were branded with the cross, or all but buried

alive, while the head and arms were slowly sawn off with blunt weapons.

The least shudder under them anguish was interpreted into apostasy. The

obstinate were put to the most cruel deaths, but the survivors only envied

them. Five noblemen were escorted to the stake by 40,000 Christians with

flowers and lights, singing the Litanies of our Lady as they went. In the

great martyrdom, at which thousands also assisted, the martyre sent up a

flood of melody from the fire, which only died away as one after another

went to sing the new song in heaven. Later on a more awful doom was

invented. The victims were lowered into a sulphurous chasm, called the

‘mouth of hell,’ near which no bird or beast could live. The chief of

these, Paul Wiborg, whose family had been already massacred for the

Faith, was thrice let down ; thrice he cried with a loud voice, ‘Eternal

praise be to the ever-adorable Sacrament of the Altar.’ The third time

he went to his reward.

JOY IN SACRIFICE.

Peter, a Christian child six years old, was awakened early, and told that

he was to be beheaded together with his father. Strong in grace he ex-

pressed his joy at the news, dressed himself in his gayest clothing, and took

the hand of the soldier who was to lead him to death. The headless trunk

of his father first met his view ; calmly kneeling down he prayed beside

the corpse, and, loosening his collar, presented his neck for the stroke.

Moved by this touching scene the executioner threw down his sabre and

fled. None but a brutal slave could be found for the murderous task; with

unskilled and trembling hand he hacked the child to pieces, who at last

died without uttering a single cry.

‘O, how happy should I deem myself, to be permitted to be among these

glorious prisoners of Jesus Christ, whose blessedness it is to die the martyr’s

death !’—Letter of a Japanese Exile.



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. IT

MARCH 14 .

St. Dorothy, Virgin, Martyr.

OT. DOROTHY was a young virgin celebrated at Caesarea, where she
^ lived, for her angelic virtue. Her parents seemed to have been mar-
tyred before her in the Diocletian persecution, and when the Governor

Sapricius came to Caesarea he called her before him, and sent this child of

martyrs to the home where they were waiting for her.

She was stretched upon the rack, and offered marriage if she would

consent to sacrifice, or death if she refused. But she replied, that ‘Christ

was her only spouse, and death her desire.’ She was then placed in charge

of two women who had fallen away Horn the Faith, in the hope that
they might pervert her; but the fire of her own heart rekindled the
flame in theirs, and led them back to Christ. When she was set once more
on the rack, Sapricius himself was amazed at the heavenly look she wore,

and asked her the cause of her joy. ‘Because,’ she said, ‘I have brought

back two souls to Christ, and because I shall soon be in heaven rejoicing

with the angels.’ Her joy grew as she was buffeted in the face, and her

sides burnt with plates of red-hot iron. ‘Blessed be Thou,’ she cried, when

she was sentenced to be beheaded,—‘blessed be Thou, O Thou Lover of
souls, who dost call me to Paradise, and invitest me to Thy nuptial
chamber.’

HEAVENLY DESIRES.

St. Dorothy suffered in the dead of winter, and it is said that on the

road to her passion a lawyer called Theophilus, who had been used to cal-
umniate and persecute the Christians, asked her, in mockery, to send him

‘apples or roses from the garden of her Spouse.’ The Saint promised to
grant his request, and just Defore she died, a little child stood by her side

bearing three apples and three roses. She bade him take them to Theo-

philus, and tell him this was the present which he sought from the garden

of her Spouse. St. Dorothy had gone to heaven, and Theophilus was still

making merry over his challenge to the Saint, when the child entered his
room. He saw that the child was an angel in disguise, and the fruit and
flowers of no earthly growth. He was converted to the Faith, and then
shared in the martyrdom of St. Dorothy.

‘We cannot comprehend or understand, but we can desire and sigh.’

—

St. Augustine.



18 LIVES OF THE SAINTS.

MARCH 15 .

V. Clement-Mary Hofbauer.

A VERITABLE Apostle, a true Saint, and a pillar of the Church.
Thus spoke Pius YII. of the V. Clement-Maiy. He was born in

Moravia A.D. 1751, of poor parents, and was apprenticed by them to a

baker
;

at the term of his engagement he left the world, and lived as a her-

mit till the persecuting laws of Joseph II. drove him from his cell. A call
to the priesthood led him now to Vienna, but the same tyrant closed all the
Church’s seminaries, and Clement went to Rome. He there became a
Redemptorist, and when ordained priest was sent to found his institute at

Warsaw. After twenty-two years of apostolic labors he was expelled from

Poland by the civil power, and his companions dispersed. Clement re-

paired to Vienna, and was appointed rector of the ITrsuline church. In

spite of the iniquitous restrictions of the State, which had robbed the

Church of its due ceremonial, Clement carried out the functions in all their

perfection, and restored the beauty of the house of God. By this means,
and by his fervent preaching, he rekindled the devotion of the people, re-

formed the youth of the city, and [converted numerous hereties. He was
for the fourth time under orders to quit the country, when he caught a ma-

lignant fever, and died March 15th, 1820, before the sentence of exile

could be carried out. His virtues were declared heroic by Pius IX. on

May 14th, 1876.

BOLD DEFENCE OF THE FAITH.

When Hofbauer was studying at the University of Vienna, he one day
heard a professor advance an opinion contrary to the teaching of the Church.

The servant of God indignantly rose from his seat, and saying in a loud
voice, ‘Sir, what you have just said is not Catholic,’ immediately left the

hall. Years afterwards an aged priest came to him and asked him if he re-

membered the incident
;

it was the professor himself, who, though nettled

by the frankness of the rebuke at the time, had afterwards entered into

himself, and renouncing his error, led an edifying life as a prebendary of

the cathedral.

The fearlessness with which the V. Hofbauer resolutely opposed all en-

croachments attempted upon the liberties and doctrines of the Church

should make us courageous in witnessing to her authority and upholding

her rights whenever we hear them impugned.



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 19

MARCH 16.

St Julian, Martyr.

ULIAN was a cleric, born of a noble family in Cilicia, and arrested
there during the persecution of the Church by Diocletian in the third

century. He was scourged and branded, and his flesh torn till the bones
appeared, but in vain. At last the judge fell on a device likely, as he
thought, to wear out the patience of the Saint. For a whole year he led

Julian from one place to another in the province of Cilicia, hoping to

cover him with shame and confusion. But the effect was very different.

All ovrer the country the mere sight of Julian encouraged and sanctified

the Christians. His patient suffering was a lesson better than any words

he had ever spoken, his shame was a triumph in Jesus Christ, and he ‘made

manifest the odor of His knowledge in every place’ (2 Cor. ii. 14).

Nothing was left except the sentence, and here the judge did what he

could. Fie condemned the Saint to a death reserved by the law for parri-

cides, and seldom executed even against them. He had him sewed up in a
sack with vipers and scorpions, and then ordered him to be flung into the

sea. But neither sack, nor vipers, nor sea could keep the martyr’s soul

from winging its flight to heaven, or destroy the cherished memory of his
virtues among the Christians who had seen and known them.

Christ shines in those who make an entire surrender of themselves, and
He makes even then* dead bodies the instruments of His grace. The judge
flung the body of Julian into the sea, but the waves cast it up again and

restored it to the Church. Diseases were cured at his shrine
;
persons pos-

sessed by the devil were brought there, and the devils left them, trembling.

Many others obtained pardon of their sins and spiritual favors by visiting
it. ‘To this day,’ says St. Chrysostom, ‘we retain the body of the Saint,

and find it a treasure of innumerable graces.’

‘For we are the good odor of Christ unto God, in them that are saved
and in them that perish. To the one indeed the odor of death unto death,
but to the other the odor of life unto life.’—2 Cor. ii. 15, 16.

‘The heavens declare God’s glory, not because their voice is heard, but

because the mere sight of them leads man to admire their Creator. So it
is, only in a higher way, with the martyrs.’

—

St. John Chrysostom.

GOOD EXAMPLE.



20 LIVES OF THE SAINTS.

MARCH 17.

St Patrick, Apostle of Ireland.

mOWABDS the close of the fourth century, Patrick, a young Christian
of Homan parentage, was tending sheep as a captive amidst the moun-

tains of Antrim and Down. His time was wholly given to penance and

prayer. The Psalms of David and the most beautiful hymns of the Church

formed his daily petitions
;
while the gift of miracles marked his favor with

God. At the age of twenty-two he was set free, and, warned by a voice
from heaven, dedicated himself to the conversion of the Irish race. After

twenty years of training in the school of St. Martin at Tours, he obtained

full powers from Pope St. Celestine, was consecrated bishop, and sailed for

the Irish coast. The great result of his sixty years’ preaching is known

throughout the world. He found Ireland heathen, and left it Christian.
He encountered the Druids at Tara, and abolished their pagan rites. He
converted the warrior chiefs and princes, and baptised them, with thousands

of their subjects, in the holy wells, which still bear that name. Many
youths and maidens embraced the religious state, and schools, convents, and

churches rose simultaneously throughout the land. In the midst of this

wonderful success St. Patrick’s life was what it had always been, one of

penance and prayer, his humility increasing as he drew near his end. Full

of works and full of years the great missionary died at Sabhull, in the

county of Down, A.D. 492.

ZEAL FOR THE FAITH.

Ireland is the nursery whence Patrick sent forth his missionaries and

teachers. Glastonbury and Lindisfarne, Pipon and Malmesbury, bear tes-

timony to the labors of Irish priests and bishops for the conversion of Eng-

land. Iona is to this day the most venerated spot in Scotland. Columban,

Fiacre, Gall, and many others evangelized the ‘rough places’ of France and
Switzerland. America and Australia, in modern times, owe the Christi-

anity to the faith and zeal of the sons and daughters of St. Patrick.

By the instrumentality of St. Patrick the Faith is now as fresh in Ire-
land, even in this cold nineteenth century, as when it was first planted.

Ask him to obtain for you the special grace of his children, to prefer the
loss of every earthly good to the least compromise in matters of faith.



LIVES OF TILE SAINTS. 21

MARCH 18.

BB. Paul, John, and James, MM.

rrtAICOSAMA, the Emperor of Japan, suspecting that the Franciscan
Fathers, who came to him as ambassadors of Portugal, were preparing

the way for Portuguese conquest, ordered them to be put to death. A
happy error made three Japanese of the Society of Jesus sharers in their

crown. Paul Miki was thirty-three years old, and though not yet a pries t

was one of the most successful preachers of the Christian faith. John, a

youth of nineteen, and James, an old man of sixty-four, were catechists and
novice lay-brothers in the Jesuit house at Meaco. With the other twenty-

three martyrs, their left ear was mutilated, and they were placed on carts,

as a moving pillory, and paraded through the country. At last they sailed
for Nagasaki, where, on a long-backed hill over the city, twenty-six crosses

were reared
;
a dense crowd was gathered all around. On the way up John

and James took their vows of religion. John’s father was awaiting him,

but only to encourage him to die. Then he took liis stand beneath his son,

and saw the double lance-thrust, which dyed him with the blood of Ins

child. Paul preached from his cross to those beneath him, and encouraged

his fellow martyrs with burning words. The venerable old brother James

rejected the signs of honor he received from the crowd, saying, ‘I am but a
sinner.’ With the words. ‘Jesus and Mary,’ he received his death-stroke.

GRATITUDE FOR SPECIAL GRACES.

The Christians of Meaco, knowing that the edict of the Emperor did

not include the Jesuits, tried in vain to bribe the officials to let the three go.

Paul Miki wrote at once to them, Ts that your way of showing your love

to me ? What, did you wish to deprive me of the immense favor which
God has given me ? You ought instead to rejoice, and to praise His infi-
nite goodness for it.’

Japan was full of zealous missionaries, all anxious to give their life for

Him whose name they bore. The bishops and priests and learned were
passed over. God took two simple lay-brothers and an unordained student.

‘He who would keep the grace of God, let him be grateful for grace

when it is given, and patient when it is taken away. Let him pray that

it may be given back to him, and be careful and humble lest he lose it.’
—Imitation.



22 LIVES 01 THE SAINTS.

MARCH 19.

St. Joseph.

QT. JOSEPH was by birth of the royal family of David, but was living
^ in humble obscurity as a carpenter, when God raised him to the high-
est sanctity, and fitted him to be the spouse of His Yirgin-Mother, and fos-
ter father and guardian of the Incarnate Word. Joseph, says the Holy

Scripture, was a just man
;
he was innocent and pure, as became the hus-

band of Mary
;
he was gentle and tender, as one worthy to be named the

father of Jesus; he was prudent and a lover of silence, as became the

master of the holy house
;
above all, he was faithful and obedient to Divine

calls. His conversation was with angels rather than with men. When he
learnt that Mary bore within her womb the Lord of Heaven, he feared to
take her as his wife

;
but an angel bade him fear not, and all doubts van-

ished. When Herod sought the life of the Divine infant, an angel told
Joseph in a dream to fly with the Child and His Mother into Egypt.

Joseph at once arose, and obeyed. When the danger was past, a third time
the angel spoke

;
and at his bidding the faithful Joseph returned to the

peace of Hazareth. Here for long years he lived, uniting with his domes-

tic care and daily toil the continued contemplation of heavenly things until

his work was done
;
and the greatest of God’s Saints breathed his last

breath in the arms of Jesus and Mary.

SANCTIFICATION OF HOME.

The brightest homes must have their cross, and the love of father and

mother be strengthened by afflictions from the hand of God. As Mary be-
came in a special sense our Mother at the foot of the Cross, bringing forth

children in sorrow, so with Joseph. The three days’ loss was to him a re-

newal and consecration of his paternity. The Holy Ghost had infused into-

3ns soul the instincts and feelings of a father, and in his sorrows and regrets

for that loss they were perfected. At this moment Mary could dare to
give her spouse the name of father, and say to her Son at the finding in

the temple, ‘Thy father and I have sought Thee sorrowing.’

St. Joseph, the shadow of the Eternal Father upon earth, the protector

of Jesus in his home at Hazareth, and a lover of all children for the sake
of the Holy Child, should be the chosen guardian and pattern of every true
Christian family.



LIVES OF TEE SAINTS

.

23

4

MARCH 20.

St. Cuthbert, Bishop.

QT. CUTHBERT, the memory of whose holy life and heavenly favors
^ after death drew so many of our ancestors to pray around his sacred
and incorrupt body at Durham, was born A.D. 637. As a child he was
foremost in every boyish game; but being warned of his call to higher

matters, he put away childish things, and found new and sweeter happiness

in prayer. One night, when he was fifteen, he had a vision of angels bear-

ing to heaven the soul of St. Aidan, which so inflamed him that, at once

leaving all, he became a postulant at the abbey of Melrose. After thirty-

four years of fervent religious life, nine of which were spent in eremitical

solitude, he was, much against his own will, made Bishop of Lindisfarne.

He now gave full scope to that love of souls which his long retreat had fos-
tered, emerging from it, like his Divine Master from the desert, to spend

and be spent in their behalf. As he went about doing good, and proclaim-
ing with many a miracle the power of the Gospel, his sunny cheerfulness
and loving sympathy attracted all men, while the peacefulness of his soul

and his hatred of all schism won them to find their rest in God and His
Holy Church. In two short years, feeling death approaching, he betook

himself to his former solitude, where he sweetly slept in Christ, A.D. 687.

PEACE THROUGH THE FAITH.

Some of the Northumbrian Christians were so wedded to a particular
Observance as to the time of Easter, that when their local custom was re-

formed by the Holy See they refused to submit. St. Cuthbert was horri-

fied at this spirit of insubordination, and his dying words were directed

against it. ‘Have no communion,5 said he, ‘with those who err from Catho-
lic unity. I would rather that you took my bones from the tomb, to reside
wherever God may direct you, than that you should consent in any way to
the wickedness of schismatics.

5

In all temptations against faith say to the devil, ‘O wretch, thou hast

left the Church of the Angels, and thou wouldst that I should leave that

of the Saints : begone, Satan
;
I will not dispute to please you. I adhere to

Holy Church, and never will forsake her. 5—St. Francis of Sales.
‘Being justified therefore by faith, let us have peace with God, through

our Lord Jesus Christ. 5—Rom. v. 1.



24 LIVES OF THE SAINTS.

MARCH 21.

St. Benedict, Abbot.

GT. BENEDICT, blessed by grace and in name, was born of a noble
^ Italian family about 480. When a boy he was sent to Borne, and there
placed in the public schools. Scared by the licentiousness of the Homan
youth, he fled to the desert mountains of Subiaco, and was directed by the

Holy Spirit into a cave, deep, craggy, and almost inaccessible. He lived
there for three years, unknown to any one save the holy monk Romans,

who clothed him with the monastic habit and brought him food. But the

fame of his sanctity soon gathered disciples round him, while many parents

confided them children to his care. Amongst others trained by him were

St. Maurus, then twelve years old, and St. Placid, also a child. After he

had built twelve monasteries at Subiaco, he removed to Monte Cassino,

where he founded an abbey, in which he wrote his rule, and lived until

death. By prayer he did all things : wrought miracles, saw visions, and
prophesied. By prayer he mended the broken sieve, brought water from
the rock, replenished the empty barrel of oil, gave alms, cast out evil

spirits, and beheld the whole world collected together in one ray of the

sun. Six days before his death he ordered his grave to be opened, and fell

ill of a fever. On the sixth day he requested to be borne into the chapel,
and having received the Body and Blood of Christ, with hands uplifted,

and leaning on one of his disciples, he calmly expired in prayer on the 21st

March 548.

THE POWER OF PRAYER.

A peasant, whose boy had just died, ran in anguish to St. Benedict, cry-
ing out, ‘Give me back my son !’ The monks joined the poor man in his
entreaties

;
but the Saint replied, ‘Such miracles are not for us to work, but

for the blessed Apostles. Why will you lay upon me a burden which my
weakness cannot bear V Moved at length by compassion he knelt down,
and prostrating himself upon the body of the child, prayed earnestly. Then

rising, he cried out, ‘Behold not, O Lord, my sins, but the faith of this
man, who desireth the life of his son, and restore to the body that soul
which thou hast taken away.’ Hardly had he spoken when the child’s body

began to tremble, and taking it by the hand he restored it alive to its father.

‘Whatsoever good thing thou beginnest to do, first of all beg of God
with earnest prayer to perfect it unto the end.’

—

St. Benedict.



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 25

MARCH 22.

St. Apollonia and the Martyrs of Alexandria.

A T Alexandria in 249 the mob rose in savage fury against the Chris-
tians. Metras, an old man, perished first. His eyes were pierced

with reeds, and he was stoned to death. A woman named Quinta was the
next victim. She was led to a heathen temple and bidden worship. She

replied by cursing the false god again and again, and she too was stoned to

death. After this the houses of the Christians were sacked and plundered.

They took the spoiling of their goods with all joy.

St. Apollonia, an aged virgin, was the most famous among the martyrs..

Her teeth were beaten out ; she was led outside the city ; a huge fire was

kindled, and she was told that she must deny Christ, or else De burnt alive.

She was silent for a while, and then) moved by a special inspiration of the

Holy Ghost, she leapt into the fire and died in its flames. The same cour-

age showed itself the next year, when Deeius became Emperor, and the

persecution grew till it seemed as if the very elect must fall away. There

were indeed many Christians who came pale and trembling to offer the
heathen sacrifices. But the judges themselves were struck with horror at

the multitudes who rushed to martyrdom. Women triumphed, over torture,
till at last the judges were glad to execute them at once, and put an end to

the ignominy of their own defeat.

DESIRE OF MARTYRDOM.

The story of Dioscorus illustrates the courage of the Alexandrian Chris-

tians, and the esteem they had for martyrdom. He was a boy of fifteen.
To the arguments of the judge he returned wise answers : he was proof
against torture. His older companions were executed, but Dioscorus was

spared on account of his tender years
;
yet the Christians could not bear to

think that he had been deprived of the martyr’s crown except to receive it

afterwards more gloriously. ‘Dioscorus,’ writes Dionysius, Bishop of Alex-

andria at this time, ‘remains with us, reserved for some longer and greater

combat.’

‘On us sinners also, trusting in the multitude of Thy mercies, bestow some
part and share with Thy holy Apostles and martyrs.’—Canon of the Mass.

‘For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose

his life for My sake and the Gospel shall save it.’—Mark viii. 35



26 LIVES OF THE SAINTS.

MARCH 23.

St. Turibius, Bishop.

~jp> QRN of a noble Spanish family. Tm*ibius was advanced by Philip II.
to the high judicial post of President of Granada. This office he

discharged for five years with such prudence and virtue, that when the arch-
bishopric of Lima fell vacant he was adjudged to be of all others the best

qualified to evangelize Peru, and remedy the scandals which obstructed the

conversion of the infidels. Obedience and zeal for souls overcame his

repugnance to the dignity, and in 1581, he sailed for his distant diocese.

His jurisdiction extended along a coast-line of four hundred miles, embrac-

ing populous cities and rough mountain districts. The native population

was infamous for its debauchery
;
the Spaniards for their cruelty, avarice,

and fraud. Turibius, on his arrival, began a visitation of the whole country,

which occupied him seven years
;
he traveled, often on foot, over the snows

of the Andes and the scorching sands of the coast to the most remote vil-

lages
;
churches, seminaries, hospitals, sprang up in his steps. Even on his

journeys he said Mass and confessed daily, though he had never lost his bap-

tismal innocence. He organized and reformed the diocese of Peru, estab-
lishing synods, and using his authority to correct abuses among clergy and

laity alike. He was especially zealous in behalf of the Indians, and pro-
tected them from the tyranny of their conquerors. He died March 23d,
1606.

SYMPATHY WITH THE AFFLICTED.

When St. Turibius received the news of his appointment to the episco-
pate he cast himself on the ground, and prayed, with many tears, that God
would deliver him fiipm so heavy a burden

;
it was not till the miserable

condition of the native Indians was represented to him that he agreed to ac-
cept the office, in order to help them in their troubles. Then only at the
call of charity did he consent to take upon himself the unwelcome honor.

His sacrifice was awarded by a most blessed death. He ordered psahns of
praise to be sung round him as he lay in his agony, and with a calm and
holy joy gave back his soul to God.

Ho heart has such a keen sympathy with the afflicted as the Sacred
Heart of Jesus

;
in proportion as our hearts are united to His this sympathy

will increase in them.



LIVES OF TILE SAINTS. 27

MARCH 24.

St. Clare of Rimini.

I^LARE was the daughter of wealthy and noble parents ; she herself was^ twice married, and her life, up to her conversion, was spent in the en
joyment of the riches and pleasures of the world. As she prayed in the

Franciscan church at Rimini our Lady appeared surrounded by angels and

Saints. ‘Of what avail,’ she said, ‘to your first husband, whom you loved
so well, were his honors, his fortune, and his youth, since death has taken

him from you and from them V In a moment Clare saw the folly of her

life, and her resolve was taken. The hair-shirt, the sharp discipline,—these
were to be hers for the future. A small cell, a board to sleep on, bread
and herbs to eat,—for these she was to exchange the comforts and refine-
ments of the world. To these austerities she added an active zeal for good

works
;
she served a community of Poor Clares as a lay-sister

;
she would

rim messages for the poorest ; she offered herself as a slave to ransom a

criminal in the common prison of the town. But as her life drew to a close

she inclined more and more to contemplation. With the companions whom
her example had gathered round her she founded a convent of Beguines,

and there waited for her release. In a vision of the Passion she heard the

words, ‘Arise, My beloved
;
haste and come.’ The end was not far off.

She died February 10th, 1326.

PENANCE FOR VENIAL SIN.

Li the beginning of her conversion St. Clare was often tempted to

return to the softness of her old life
;
but she resisted every impulse of this

kind, however harmless in itself, by constant ejaculatory prayer and self-

imposed penance. One day, having been tempted to some slight act of

self-indulgence in eating, she searched with much trouble for a disgusting

insect, and having found one placed it in her mouth, saying, ‘Eat, glutton

;

eat, then, this dainty dish.’ From that hom* she never suffered another
temptation with regard to food or drink.

We know nothing more of St. Clare than that she lived in the world as
the world lives. How few of us are not conscious of sms more grievous !
And yet compare our penance with hers.

‘Can any sin be called light, since every sin involves some contempt of

God ?’

—

St. Eucherius.



28 LIVES OF THE SAINTS.

MARCH 25.

St. Irenaeus of Sirmium.

TREHHCUS was stni young when he was made Bishop of Sirmium. But
we know that his virtues fitted him for this high office, and in his death

he proved himself detached from all save the service of God, a minister

who had no need to be ashamed. When brought before the President of
Pannonia, during the persecution of Diocletian, he refused to offer sacrifice,

and to the threat of torments he replied, ‘I will bear them with joy, that I

may partake in the Passion of the Lord.’ But another trial awaited him
after his torture. His friends and his relations surrounded him, bewailing

Ills youth, and beseeching him to take pity on himself. To all this Irenaeus
paid no heed. He was hastening on to the prize of his heavenly calling

:

neither the tears of his friends nor imprisonment and fresh torture could

impede him in his course or cool the fervor of his desire to die for Christ.

He hurried on his executioners, and bade the judge pass sentence at
once, and see how Christ would make His servant victorious over death.
As he reached the bridge where he was to be beheaded he stripped off his
clothes, raised his hands to heaven, and prayed Christ to receive His servant,

who suffered for His name and for the people of the Catholic Church.

DETACHMENT.

The judge asked St. Irenaeus if he had any relations. ‘Hone,’ he re-

plied. ‘Who, then,’ said the judge, ‘were those who stood weeping at your
trial?’ The holy martyr explained his meaning. ‘Our Lord Jesus Christ,’

he said, ‘has given us this rule—“He who loves father and mother more
than Me is not worthy of Me.” ’ And so, in the words of the Acts, look-
ing up to God, and fixing his mind on His promise, he despised everything

else, and declared that none was present with him except God.

Christians are bound to love their relations, but it must be in God and
for God, and when our duty to Him is in question we have no right to
condescend to flesh and blood. Our Lord has taught us in the Gospel the

perfect detachment He requires from His disciples. When He called He
expected them to follow. He forbade one of them to go and bury his father,
another to bid his family farewell. Perfection is impossible without de-

tachment.



LIVES OF TIIE SAINTS. 29

MARCH 26.

B. Alexis Faleonieri.

the Feast of the Assumption, 1233, seven Florentine nobles met to-

gether, as their custom was, to recite the Office of the Blessed Virgin-

While they were thus engaged she herself appeared before them, and bade

them forsake the world for a more perfect life. At once, like the Chris-

tians of old, they sold their goods, gave the money to the poor, and changed

their senatorial robes for the simple habit of religious. ‘See, the servants

of the Madonna,’ cried a child at its mothers’ breast as they entered the

city : the name was accepted as a token of the will of Heaven, and from

that time they and their spiritual children have been known as Servites, or

servants of Mary. One of these seven founders was Alexis Faleonieri, the

propagator of the devotion to the Seven Dolours of our Lady. He was
with difficulty prevailed upon to receive ordination, and in religion always

sought out the most humbling offices. To him our Lady presented the

black habit which the Servites wear in honor of the Passion of her Son.

Every day of his life Alexis repeated a hundred Hail Maries to the immacu-

late Mother of God
;
and it was at the end of the hundredth ‘Ave’ that he

expired, on February 17th, 1310, in his 110th year. At the moment of

his death he saw a flock of doves flying round him, and the Infant Jesus

placing a crown of flowers upon his head.

DEVOTION TO THE SEVEN DOLOURS OF OUR BLESSED LADY.

At the time of the foundation of the Servite Order several counterfeit
religious bodies were troubling the Church. Innocent IV. therefore com-

missioned St. Peter Martyr, the Dominican, to investigate its true character.

Our Lady herself undertook the defence of her clients. She appeared to

the Inquisitor in a vision of glory with a wreath of seven lilies upon her

head. These lilies, she explained to Peter, signified the seven founders of

the Servites, whom she had inspired to institute the new Order in honor of
the dolours she had suffered through the Passion of her Son.

‘O, make me truly weep with thee,
Mourning with Him who died for me

;

Let me in grief expire.’—Stabat Mater.

‘And Simeon said to Mary, A sword shall pierce thy own soul a.so, that
out of many hearts thoughts may be revealed.’—Luke ii. 35.



30 LIVES OF THE SAINTS.

. MARCH 27.

St. John of Egypt.

finILL he was twenty-five John worked as a carpenter with his father.x
Then feeling a call from God he left the world, and committed him-

self to a holy solitary in the desert^. His master tried his spirit by many

unreasonable commands, bidding him roll the hard rocks, tend dead trees,

and the like. John obeyed in all things with the simplicity of a child.

After careful training of sixteen years he withdrew to the top of a steep

cliff to think only of God and his soul. There he dwelt fifty years till his

death, never quitting his cell, eating a little fruit once a day, and never see-

ing a woman. St. Augustine tells us of his appearing in a vision to a holy

woman whose sight he had restored, to avoid seeing her face to face.
Devils assailed him continually, but John never ceased his prayer. From

his long communings with God he turned to men with gifts of healing and

prophecy. Twice each week he spoke through a window with those who

came to him, blessing oil for their sick, and predicting tilings to come. A
deacon came to him in disguise, and he reverently kissed his hand. To the

Emperor Theodosius he foretold his future victories and the time of his

death. The three last days of his life John gave wholly to God: on the

third he was found on his knees as if in prayer, but his soul was with the

blessed. He died A.D. 394.

EXAMINATION OF CONSCIENCE.

St. John left first his natural and then his spiritual brethren, and gave

himself up to prayer, to learn the state of his conscience, that he might

purify himself, as God is pure. The more he knew of himself, the more he
distrusted himself. For the last fifty years therefore he never saw women,

and seldom men. The result of this vigilance and purity was threefold : a

holy joy and cheerfulness which consoled all who conversed with him
;
per-

fect obedience to superiors
;
and in return for this, authority over creatures,

whom he had forsaken for the Creator.

The Saints examine themselves by the perfections of God, and do penance.

We judge our conduct by the standard of other men, and rest satisfied with it.
Yet it is by the divine holiness alone that we shall be judged when we die.

‘Be ye holy, because I am holy. For 1 am the Lord your God.’—Levi-
ticus xi. 44.



LIVES OF TILE SAINTS. 31

MARCH 28 .

St. Dositheus, Monk

"TAOSITHEUS was brought up in luxury, and attained high rank in the
imperial army, in the sixth century. He had never been taught any

religion. At Jerusalem he saw a picture of hell, and whilst wondering

what it could mean a bright figure appeared and explained it. Friends,

seeing his life changed, said in joke, ‘If you wish to live thus you should

enter a monastery.’ He asked what a monastery was, and some one took
him to that of St. Seridon. This Saint seeing him in rich military uniform

told St. Dorotheus to question him on various points ; but his only answer

was, ‘I want to save my soul.’ Dorotheas then told him he was too deli-
cate to reach sanctity by penance, but must perfect himself by interior mor-

tification. Dositheus devoted himself with ardor to this study, and became

a model of unhesitating obedience. He thus fulfilled in five short years
the measure of his sanctification, and God sent him a painful and lingering

disease which led him to paradise. On his death bed Dositheus said to St.
Barsanuphius, ‘Bid me die, my father; I can bear no more.’ The Saint
answered, ‘Yet a little patience, my son; the horn* of God’s mercy draws
nigh.’ Afterwards Dositheus said, ‘My father, I can live no longer.’ And
Barsanuphius said, ‘Go in peace, my son, to appear before the Adorable
Trinity, and pray for us.’ And Dositheus by obedience slept in the Lord.

REWARDS OF OBEDIENCE.

After the death of Dositheus his fellow monks murmured among them-

selves, saying, ‘Dositheus fasted but little
;
he did no great penance. Why

does our father Barsanuphius ask his prayers, as though he were already a

Saint in heaven V But a holy solitary arrived, who asked God to show
him the merits of the former religious of that monastery. He saw them
all in vision, and with the venerable aged monks a young novice, equal to

them in glory. From his description the monks recognized Dositheus, and
learned that a short life of heroic obedience is equal before God to many
years of austere but self-chosen penance.

‘The example of blessed Dositheus shows what progress we make by
renouncing our own will. In the world he had lived in luxury, 1 ut by
renouncing his own judgment and embracing perfect obedience, this man
who had never heard the name of God, attained with great rapidity to emi-
nent sanctity.’

—

St. Dorotheus.



32 LIVES OF THE SAINTS.

MARCH 29.

St. Montanus and Companions, MM.

OBOIST after the death of St. Cyprian, about the middle of the third cen-
^ tury, eight Christians fell into the hands of the persecutors at Carthage.
In a letter still extant they tell us that they used the time of their imprison-

ment to fit themselves for heaven by communion in prayer and charity, and

found their loathsome dungeon a paradise of delight. Charity was ever on

their lips and in their actions. Flavian, one of their number, practised it in

such an heroic degree that, when they were all suffering from hunger, he

used to save a portion of his scanty pittance that there might be more for

the rest. But this charity shone brightest in the hour of death. Two of
their number died in prison. The rest were led out to be beheaded, except

Flavian, who was spared for the time, and remained full of grief at this

separation. But his brethren did not forget him. Just before Ins head

was struck off, Montanus, one among them, prayed aloud that Flavian

might join them in three days ; then he tore in two the bandage for hie

eyes, and left one half for him. In three days Flavian was beheaded. He
blessed the Christians who stood by, if they kept the unity of the Church

and the bond of charity. Then he bound his eyes with the other half of

the bandage which Montanus had bequeathed to him, and knelt for the

stroke of the sword.

BROTHERLY LOVE.

We can see from the history of these martyrs how entirely their perse-
verance hung upon the exact observance of charity. One of them had some
difference with another on a matter of prudence. In a vision he seemed to

stand in the white-robed army of the martyrs
;
but when he looked at him-

self he was stained with the black mark of his fault. He awoke, and was
reconciled with his brother.

Love our brethren is the great means of growing in the love of God.

Supernatural charity is not easy. It costs many a sacrifice, but it is worth
them all. It is the way to peace, the way to gain great graces, which will
enable us to conquer our temptations, and to do great things for God.

Martyrdom is the crowning act of the love of God, and the martyr’s crown

was given, as the Acts of the martyrs testify, to those who had been fervent
disciples in the school of charity.



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 33

MARCH 30.

St. John Climaeus.

TOHN made, while still young, such progress in learning that he was
calleded the Scholastic. At the age of sixteen he turned from the

brilliant future which lay before him, and retired to Mt. Sinai, where he

put himself under the direction of a holy monk, Nev&r was novice more

fervent, more unrelaxing in his efforts for self-mastery. After four years

he took the vows, and an aged abbot foretold that he would some day be

one of the greatest lights of the Church. Nineteen years later, on the

death of his director, he withdrew into a deeper solitude, where he studied

the lives and writings of the Saints, and was raised to an unusual height of

contemplation. The fame of his holiness and practical wisdom drew crowds

around him for advice and consolation. For his greater profit he visited

the solitudes of Egypt. At the age of seventy-five he was chosen abbot of
Mt. Sinai, and there ‘he dwelt in the mount of God, and drew from the

rich treasure of his heart priceless riches of doctrine, which he poured forth

with wondrous abundance and benediction.’ He was induced by a brother
abbot to write the rules by which he had guided his life

;
and his book,

called the Climax
,
or Ladder of Perfection, has been prized in all ages for

its wisdom, its clearness, and its unction. At the end of four years he
would no longer endure the honors and distractions of his office, and retired

to Ins solitude, where he died A.D. 605.

CONTINUOUS PROGRESS.

‘Amongst these men,’ St. John writes of the solitaries of the desert, ‘I

saw many whose heads were white witji age, whose faces were as those of
angels, who by their fervor of spirit and converse with God had attained a
simplicity of wisdom and a perfect innocence which had nothing in com-
mon with the decay of reason and the second childishness we often see in
old men of the world. Outwardly they were marked by an exceeding gen-
tleness, a cordial and seemly gaiety of heart

;
nothing studied, nothing put

on
;
inwardly their whole soul was turned towards God, as simple and in-

nocent children turn to a loving father.’

‘Aim at being as absolute in thine own heart as is a king in his king-
dom

;
and be thou as much raised above thyself by the sovereignty of

thy reason over thy passions as thou art cast down beneath God by a hum-
ble and perfect subjection to His supreme power.

—

St. John Climaeus.



34: LIVES OF THE SAINTS.

MARCH 31 .

B. Nicholas of Flue.

1\TICH0LAS, called of Flue from his native village in the Swiss canton of

Unterwalden, was born in 14:17. His childhood was marked by a

zeal for prayer and penance. Returning late from the fields he would turn

to some solitary place to be alone with God ; and he fasted rigorously, in

spite of his parents’ fears, four days a week. At the age of thirty he mar-

ried, and brought up in singular holiness a family of ten children. In this

new state his hunger after prayer did but increase
;
not content with the

day, he would steal out at midnight to pray in a neighboring church

till dawn. As a brave soldier in more than one war, and as counsellor and
judge in his own canton, he ever gave the same wonderful example of holi-
ness. When fifty years old, following the urgent call of God, he left home
and family, and retired to the mountains above Flue. Here God enabled
him to lead an extraordinary life, praying constantly and tasting no food

save the Blessed Sacrament. Examined by superiors, and tried by the

touchstone of obedience, his sanctity and the gift of miracles and prophecy

drew to him all who needed strength, counsel, or consolation. He received
Holy Yiaticum kneeling in spite of extreme pain, and surrounded in his lit-

tle cabin by the wife and children whom he had left for God, and whom he
consoled and strengthened to the last, died in 1487, after twenty years of

hermit life.

THE SANCTIFICATION OF OUR STATE.

When Nicholas was serving in the war against Austria, the Swiss had
resolved to set fire to a dominican convent, which the enemy had strongly

fortified. Filled with holy zeal, Nicholas implored the commander to de-

sist, prophesying, as indeed it came to pass, that the enemy would withdraw

of their own accord, and that the convent would give a glorious example of
virtue in after time. Having prevailed with the chiefs he flew to the spot,

and at the risk of his life snatched the brands from the soldiers’ hands and

put out the rising flames. Thus if we have God’s glory at heart we may
find in every state opportunities of promoting it.

As a young man working in the fields, as father of a family, as a sol-
dier, and as a magistrate, B. Nicholas teaches us that it is possible in the

world, not only to save our souls, but to reach a high degree of prayer and

union with God.



THE OLD MAN’S ANGELUS. 35

THE ANNUMClA TION.

The Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin

Mary, celebrated on March 25, is one of the

most ancient festivals in the Church, honor-

ing at the same time our divine Lord and His

Blessed Mother. It commemorates the hap-

py moment when the angel announced to
Mary that she was to become the Mother of
the Son of God, and also the part wnich this

most pure Virgin bore in the Redemption.

On this day we should pray the Blessed
Mother to obtain for us true contrition, and a
fervent love for her divine Son, who on this
day conferred on her the honor of being His
Mother. Mary, then, is to be venerated above

all the saints in heaven; she it was who ele-
vated the dignity of her sex, and liberated it

from the oppression under which it languish-

ed during the prevalence of the Jewish re-

ligion. The mystery commemorated upon
this holy day is recalled to us three times

during the day by the “Angelus bell.” The
beautiful and appropriate devotion known as
the “Angelus” was introduced by Pope John
XXII., and reminds the Christian that even
amid his temporal affairs he must not forget
what a Saviour’s love has done for him. The
clear, silvery chimes of the bell seem to say:

“Behold, O Christian what the love of a God
has done for a sinful world ! Do then some-
thing in return. Offer Him at least all the
trials and crosses of to-day !” *

*The Sovereign Pontiff, Benedict XHL, by a brief,
Sept, 14, 1724, granted:

A plenary indulgence, once a month, to all the
faithful who, every day, at the sound of the bell, in
the morning, or at noon, or in the evening at sunset,
shall say devoutly on their knees, the Angelus Do rr< ini,
with the Hai' Mary three times, on any day when,
being truly penitent, after confession and communion
they shall pray for peace and union among Christian
princes, for the extirpation of heresy, and for the tri-
umph of holy Mother Church.
An" indulgence op one hundred days, on all the

other days in the year, every time that, with at least
contrite heart and devotion, they shall say these
prayers; and he, moreover declared that these indul-
gences, both plenary and partial, are not suspended in
the Holy Tear.

The Sovereign Pontiff, Benedict XIII., confirmed
these indulgences, April 20 1742, declaring at the same
time, that these prayers should be said standing on
Saturday evening and on Sunday.
The Sovereign Pontiff, Pius VI

,
by a rescript of

the S.Congr. of the Propaganda, March, 18, 1781,
granted that in those places where no bell is rung at
the times stated above, the faithful may gain the in-
dulgences if. at or about the hours specified, they say,
with at least contrite heart and devotion, the Angelus

,

or the Itegina Cceli in the paschal season.

THE OLD MAN’S ANGELUS

A

BY ATTTEJ O’BRIEN.

An old man sits by the cottage door;
The winds are hushed on the sunlit hills;

He tells his rosary softly o’er,
Till sudden music the silence thrills

—

A holy sound which he loves full well.
The clangor sweet of the Angelus Bell.

Raising to heaven his sightless eyes;

He lifts the hat from his long, white hair;
He cannot gaze on the blue bright skies,
But a radiant world to him seems there,
From which the bell’s melodious chime
Breaks on the echoing shores of time.

When first it sung from the old church
tower

The wondrous words which an angel
spoke,

It touched his heart with a mystic power

—

His soul to a wider life awoke;

It grew, like a friendly voice, more dear,
Through the saddening lapse of each,

changing year.

How warm were the hours when life was
young!

His heart by a tender tone was thrilled
;

Swift fell the words from the eager tongue,
The earth with a strange new joy was

fihed.

But the Angelus chiming seemed to say:
“Ah, youth and its love-dreams pass

away.”

Solemn and sweet in the sun-flushed mom,
It woke strong thoughts for the day’s long

tod;

It fell when the heat of day was borne,
A rain from heaven on parched soil.

It checked at even the weary sigh,
And gently whispered that rest was nigh.

He sinned—it smote on his shrinking ears,
Like the wak’ning angel’s trump of doom

;

He grieves—in its silver tone he hears
Celestial promise of joy to come,

In God’s great city, where sin nor pain
Shad ever shadow his heart again.

Padid and worn, on his bed he Hes,
Calm ’neath the angel of death’s bright

wings;

“There’s dght,” he said, “wid the sun soon
rise ?

Maybe I’d sleep when the Angelus rings.”
* An old Irishman car-driver of the late Charles

Bianconi had a great devotion to the Angelus. By, at
least, a curious coi cidence, he lately died while the
Angelus Bell was ringing.



36 ST. JOSEPH,

When the bells rang in the bright’ning
day,

The soul of the old man passed away.

ST. JOSEPH.

St. Joseph’s day, which falls on the 19th

of March, has been observed in the E astern
Church since the ninth century, but in the

Western for only two hundred years. It re-

minds us of the part which this great saint

took in the work of Redemption, for, as the
foster-father of Jesus, as the protector or the
holy family, after the Blessed Virgin, his
was the most glorious part in the work of
salvation. He is therefore next to Mary

?
the

most powerful intercessor at the throne of

God. This great saint is especially venerated

as the patron of the dying, because he was
found worthy to die in the arms of Jesus

and Mary. He has been declared by Pope
Pius IX.

,
the patron of the whole church.

Let us honor him with tender love and devo-
tion, that he may aid us to keep ever in our
hearts the great thought of salvation, and that

we may be blessed with a happy death. In
the first centuries this feast was not observed,

because at that time only the festivals of mar-

tyrs were commemorated. It may also be
that this omission arose from the fear of pro-

ducing some false impression in the minds of
the uneducated: such as the idea that St.

Joseph was the real father of Jesus.

ST. JOSEPH
,
OUR FATHER.

O Father of my Lord! most near and dear
To those whom I would fain hold nearest,

dearest,

My love is growing all too bold, I fear,
So kind and fatherly the face thou wearest.

Yet, great St. Joseph! let me, let me call
thee

Father, and in a father rights instal thee.

For thou wast Father unto Him who said,
And bade us say unto the Same, Our

Father.

!

And e’en as one, whose hour of life is sped,
Will his loved kindred round his pillow

gather;

So did thy Son, our Elder Brother, measure

His failing breath to leave to us his treasure.

He from his dying couch (a hard one!) spake
To John and us: “Behold, behold your

Mother ! ”

Nay, like thy namesake, when we guilty
quake,

OUR FATHER.

“Fear not,” He whispers, “am not I your
Brother ? ”

Thus, Joseph, art thou father to our Brother,
O spouse of Mary! husband of our Mother!
Saint, envied most of all the saints in heaven,
Highest (save One) of all beneath divine,

To thee, in sooth, most blessed lot was
given

—

What heaven has best, on earth was wholly
thine.

Thy head was laid on Jesus’ breast when
dying.

And Mary hung above thee, mutely sighing.

Ah ! by the sadness of that happy hour,
Haste to my aid when my last hour is

come;

Patron of Death! prove then thy sovereign

power

—

Bring me to her—to Him—oh ! bring me
home.

Thy smile and hers will soothe my soul’s mis-
giving,

When He, thy foster-child, shall judge the
dead and living.

M. Russell, S. J.

SONNET TO ST. JOSEPH.

Saints know thee best, oh, hidden, silent
saint!

And would that I could feel a little part
Of that great love Theresa’s kindred heart

Felt for thee, Foster-father ! But the taint,

The chill, is on my soul; and few and faint
The prayers that from this earthly bosom

dart

Up to that heavenly throne whereon thou
art

In glory, not too high to hear my plaint.

Patron of all who work in humble ways!
Pray that from pure earnest motive I
May fill with patient toil the moments

flying;

Patron of happy death-beds! when my days
Have reached their term, be thou, dear

Joseph! nigh,

With Mary and with Jesus, while I’m
dying.

THE JOTS AND SORROWS OF ST.
JOSEPH.

Mighty Joseph, son of David!

High and glorious is thy state

—

Of our Lord the Foster-father,
Mary’s spouse immaculate.

The Almighty’s faithful servant,

Of the Holy Family

Head and father. Oh! I pray thee,
Be a father unto me.



AN EARNEST WORD.
To the Reverend Clergy

,
the Religious Orders

,
and the Catholic

Parents of America

:

In one of the most touching public addresses of our late glorious Pope, Pius IX.,
lamenting the evils of our day. declared that while he could have borne his own
sorrows with courage, “ his heart bled when he saw the little ones of the flock of
Jesus Christ destroyed by the ravening wolves of human society.”

Children of your charge, for whom you have assumed responsibility, are per-
haps among those for whom the heart of the Yicar of Christ bled. Our children, at
least too many of them, are perishing from the t errible poison of bad reading of all
kinds. You are spending your lives in the holy work of Catholic education, and
scarcely have you completed your work when much of it, if not all, is undone by
bad books and papers.

“ What is it that the children of this land are reading, and with what ill-effects ? ”

Everything that they should not, and hardly anything that is good and pure. Some
time since the Government officers seized in one establishment four tons of such
obscene books that even the Post-Office refused to circulate them—and the official
stomach is very string, and its conscience very easy, as to what constitutes ob-
scenity. In his report for 1877 the Government Agent says : “ In no year had there
been so many complaints from seminaries, colleges, etc., of the distribution of
obscene publications. Some of the boys' papers published in this city (New York) are
a blot on civilization. Their effect on lads was pernicious, and it icould be difficult to
make many of these publications more low , disgusting, and nefarious” No wonder
that the heart of Pio Nono bled, and that he blessed those who aid in circulating
antidotes to this vileness.

See what Father Damen, S.J., says on this subject in his “ Missionary's Warn-
ing” (sent free from The Catholic Review Office, New York, for a stamp for
postage).

Catholic teachers and Catholic parents, why allow all your sacrifices to be un-
done ? Undone they will be, if, after teaching your boys and girls how to read, you
do not create in them a lo^e for pure books.

It is true that you have established school and parochial libraries, and have
sought, with more or less success, to create a taste for Catholic reading. What
more could you have done ? Perhaps, in the past, not much more

;
in the future

still more is possible. Besides the parochial library, there ought to be in every
Catholic home thefamily library.

“But this is not possible. Books there are in abundance on the Catholic book-
sellers’ shelves, but who can afford to pay their prices ? ” And, again, another
says : “ Yes, our boys and girls would read Catholic books, and their fathers would
willingly buy them, but how i$ a Catholic father to give his day's work for a book which
is read in a single evening ? ” It is hard to ask it. The Devil surely is doing hi
work on business principles, and makes his poison the plentiest, the cheapest, am
the worst.
“We beg of you to have pity on these little ones, for whose fate the heart -i

Pio Nono and of every Catholic Priest and Nun in this land has bled. We beg of
you to give us cheap and good Catholic books.” From a thousand schools, five
thousand churches, and a million homes this prayer has gone up every hour for a
whole generation.

It was the business of some Catholics to hear this complaint repeated every day
of the week, and at last their duty to examine how could it be answered. “ The
Vatican Library of Cheap, Recreative, and Instructive Catholic Literature 55 "WU£
the solution of the problem after three years of study, waiting for opportunities an <5
for capital to attempt it.

Catholic teacher, Catholic parent, see whether The Vatican Library offers you
any assistance in your work

;
whether it will enable you to create and sustain a

taste for Catholic reading
;
whether it will enable Catholic families to have in their

own homes a little Catholic library of their own.
If it does, your aid is asked for it—your liberal, active, continuous aid.
The projectors cannot sustain this work unaided by the Catholic public, therefore

the co-operation of all sections of the community is needed.
You are requested, therefore, to aid in your section in procuring an immense

sale of these books. Without such a sale they cannot be profitable, and without
some profit there is no hope of developing this good work as its well-wishers hope



E
VERY" reader of The Holy- Family can obtain speci-
mens of the handsome Catholic pictorial and stofy :

paper The Illustrated Catholic American
,
by sending

name, address, and ten cents, to No. 11 Barclay Street,
New York.